@article {747, title = {The distribution of coagulation factors VII and VIII and fibrinogen in adults over 65 years. Results from the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Ann Epidemiol}, volume = {2}, year = {1992}, month = {1992 Jul}, pages = {509-19}, abstract = {

The Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) was designed to examine cardiovascular disease and its risk factors in older adults. We report here the distributions of the coagulation factors fibrinogen, factor VII, and factor VIII in a population-based cohort of men and women 65 years or older. In other studies of middle-aged individuals, these factors were shown to be associated with cardiovascular risk. In the CHS cohort, all three factors were elevated, compared to levels reported in middle-aged individuals, and fibrinogen and factor VIII values were higher in each successive age group; factor VII values, in contrast, declined slightly with age in the CHS cohort. Compared to white subjects, blacks had higher values for fibrinogen and factor VIII and lower values for factor VII. While women had markedly higher values for factor VII and factor VIII than men at all ages in the CHS, mean fibrinogen values were not different between men and women.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Age Factors, Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Factor VII, Factor VIII, Female, Fibrinogen, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Factors}, issn = {1047-2797}, doi = {10.1016/1047-2797(92)90100-5}, author = {Tracy, R P and Bovill, E G and Fried, L P and Heiss, G and Lee, M H and Polak, J F and Psaty, B M and Savage, P J} } @article {841, title = {Orthostatic hypotension in older adults. The Cardiovascular Health Study. CHS Collaborative Research Group.}, journal = {Hypertension}, volume = {19}, year = {1992}, month = {1992 Jun}, pages = {508-19}, abstract = {

The purpose of the present study was to assess the prevalence of orthostatic hypotension and its associations with demographic characteristics, cardiovascular risk factors and symptomatology, prevalent cardiovascular disease, and selected clinical measurements in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a multicenter, observational, longitudinal study enrolling 5,201 men and women aged 65 years and older at initial examination. Blood pressure measurements were obtained with the subjects in a supine position and after they had been standing for 3 minutes. The prevalence of asymptomatic orthostatic hypotension, defined as 20 mm Hg or greater decrease in systolic or 10 mm Hg or greater decrease in diastolic blood pressure, was 16.2\%. This prevalence increased to 18.2\% when the definition also included those in whom the procedure was aborted due to dizziness upon standing. The prevalence was higher at successive ages. Orthostatic hypotension was associated significantly with difficulty walking (odds ratio, 1.23; 95\% confidence interval, 1.02, 1.46), frequent falls (odds ratio, 1.52; confidence interval, 1.04, 2.22), and histories of myocardial infarction (odds ratio, 1.24; confidence interval, 1.02, 1.50) and transient ischemic attacks (odds ratio, 1.68; confidence interval, 1.12, 2.51). History of stroke, angina pectoris, and diabetes mellitus were not associated significantly with orthostatic hypotension. In addition, orthostatic hypotension was associated with isolated systolic hypertension (odds ratio, 1.35; confidence interval, 1.09, 1.68), major electrocardiographic abnormalities (odds ratio, 1.21; confidence interval, 1.03, 1.42), and the presence of carotid artery stenosis based on ultrasonography (odds ratio, 1.67; confidence interval, 1.23, 2.26). Orthostatic hypotension was negatively associated with weight. We conclude that orthostatic hypotension is common in the elderly and increases with advancing age. It is associated with cardiovascular disease, particularly those manifestations measured objectively, such as carotid stenosis. It is associated also with general neurological symptoms, but this link may not be causal. Differences in prevalence of and associations with orthostatic hypotension in the present study compared with others are largely attributed to differences in population characteristics and methodology.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aging, Dementia, Demography, Female, Health Status, Humans, Hypotension, Orthostatic, Male, Multivariate Analysis, Nervous System Diseases, Prevalence, Risk Factors}, issn = {0194-911X}, doi = {10.1161/01.hyp.19.6.508}, author = {Rutan, G H and Hermanson, B and Bild, D E and Kittner, S J and LaBaw, F and Tell, G S} } @proceedings {1526, title = {Respondent Burden in Studies of the Elderly: Experience from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS)}, year = {1992}, month = {1993-01-01}, pages = {135-152}, publisher = {Marion Merrell Dow Inc}, abstract = {ACC Workshop entitled "Inclusion of Elderly Individuals in Clinical Trials" September 15-16, 1992}, keywords = {Health, respondent burden}, author = {Manolio, TA and Hermanson, B and Hill, J and Meyer, M and Cruise, G and Anton-Culver, H} } @article {1442, title = {Age-related trends in cardiovascular morbidity and physical functioning in the elderly: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {41}, year = {1993}, month = {1993 Oct}, pages = {1047-56}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To describe relationships between age and sub-clinical cardiovascular disease, manifest chronic disease, and physical functioning and limitations among persons aged 65 years and older, with emphasis on the "oldest old," those 85 years and older.

DESIGN: Observational population-based study.

SETTING: Four U.S. communities: Forsyth County, North Carolina; Sacramento County, California; Washington County, Maryland; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

PARTICIPANTS: 5,201 men and women aged 65 years and older.

MEASUREMENTS: Demographic data; histories of cardiovascular disease (CVD), chronic lung disease, arthritis, diabetes, and hypertension; measures of subclinical disease including arm and ankle blood pressures, internal carotid wall thickness and stenosis, ejection fraction, left ventricular mass, fractional shortening, and diastolic function, electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy and cardiac injury score, forced expiratory flow and volume; functional status including self-reported physical functioning, hearing and sight limitations and health status, and performance-based measures of function. These variables were examined among men and women in three age groups: 65-74 years, 75-84 years, and 85 + years. Subgroups of participants with and without manifest CVD were also examined.

MAIN RESULTS: In women, the prevalence of CVD and other chronic conditions increased with age, and the highest rates occurred among those 85 years and older. In men, prevalence rates increased between the two younger groups, but the oldest group had lower than expected rates for coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, hypertension, and chronic lung disease. In contrast, there were strong age-related linear trends in most of the subclinical measures of blood pressure, atherosclerosis and pulmonary function and in virtually all measures of functional status in both gender groups across the age range. There was a particularly marked decline in functional status between the two older age groups. While subclinical disease was greater and functional status was poorer among those with manifest CVD, with few exceptions, age-related trends were not significantly different between the two groups.

CONCLUSIONS: Lower than expected prevalence rates of CVD among those aged 85 years and older, particularly among men, in this study of community-dwelling elderly may represent selection bias or a real plateauing in disease prevalence with age. However, subclinical disease appears to increase and functional status to decline across the age range in both men and women regardless of the presence of CVD. The apparent increase in subclinical disease with age indicates potential for CVD prevention after age 65.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Age Distribution, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Female, Humans, Male, Prevalence, Sex Distribution, Socioeconomic Factors}, issn = {0002-8614}, author = {Bild, D E and Fitzpatrick, A and Fried, L P and Wong, N D and Haan, M N and Lyles, M and Bovill, E and Polak, J F and Schulz, R} } @article {1436, title = {Recruitment of adults 65 years and older as participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Ann Epidemiol}, volume = {3}, year = {1993}, month = {1993 Jul}, pages = {358-66}, abstract = {

Few large-scale epidemiologic studies have enrolled older adults; hence, little is known about the feasibility of recruiting this group for long-term population-based studies. In this article we present the recruitment experience of the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a population-based, longitudinal study of cardiovascular diseases in adults 65 years and older. Participants were sampled from the Health Care Financing Administration{\textquoteright}s (HCFA) Medicare eligibility lists in four US communities. Letters were mailed to 11,955 sampled individuals. Persons recruited were required to complete an extensive home interview and then a 4-hour in-clinic examination. Excluded were persons who were expected to be able to complete the baseline examination and who were not expected to return for the 3-year follow-up. Some 3654 participants were recruited from those randomly selected from the Medicare sampling frame. In addition, 1547 other age-eligible persons living in the household with the sampled individuals also participated, yielding a total of 5201 participants. Of those who were contacted, 9.6\% were ineligible and 34.9\% refused participation. Among those eligible, 38.6\% refused and 57.3\% were enrolled (the remaining did not refuse but were not enrolled before the recruitment ended). Data from a subsample indicate that compared to those who were ineligible or who refused, enrolled participants were younger, more highly educated, more likely to be married, and less likely to report limitations in activity. Compared to those who were eligible but refused, enrolled participants were less likely to have high blood pressure and stroke and more likely to have quit smoking and to perceive their health status as very good or excellent.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Epidemiologic Methods, Female, Humans, Male}, issn = {1047-2797}, author = {Tell, G S and Fried, L P and Hermanson, B and Manolio, T A and Newman, A B and Borhani, N O} } @article {1448, title = {Smoking and lung function in elderly men and women. The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {269}, year = {1993}, month = {1993 Jun 02}, pages = {2741-8}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To investigate relationships between cigarette smoking and pulmonary function in elderly men and women.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from a prospective, population-based study of risk factors, preclinical, and overt cardiovascular and pulmonary disease.

SETTING: Defined communities in Forsyth County, North Carolina; Pittsburgh, Pa; Sacramento County, California; and Washington County, Maryland.

POPULATION: A total of 5201 noninstitutionalized men and women 65 years of age and older.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Pulmonary function; means of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity and prevalence of low FEV1 levels.

RESULTS: Prevalence of cigarette smoking was 10\% to 20\% and higher in women than men and in blacks than whites. Forced vital capacity and FEV1 levels were related positively to height and white race and negatively to age and waist girth. Age- and height-adjusted FEV1 means were 23\% and 18\% lower in male and female current smokers, respectively, than in never smokers but not reduced in never smokers currently living with a smoker. Smokers who quit before age 40 years had FEV1 levels similar to never smokers, but FEV1 levels were lower by 7\% and 14\% in smokers who quit at ages 40 to 60 years and older than 60 years, respectively. Lung function was related inversely to pack-years of cigarette use. Prevalence rates of impaired lung function were highest in current smokers and lowest in never smokers. Regression coefficients for the smoking variables were smaller in persons without cardiovascular or respiratory conditions than in the total cohort.

CONCLUSIONS: Cigarette smoking is associated with reduced pulmonary function in elderly men and women. However, smokers who quit, even after age 60 years, have better pulmonary function than continuing smokers.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Anthropometry, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cross-Sectional Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Forced Expiratory Volume, Humans, Lung Diseases, Male, Prevalence, Prospective Studies, Reference Values, Respiratory Function Tests, Risk Factors, Smoking, United States, Vital Capacity}, issn = {0098-7484}, author = {Higgins, M W and Enright, P L and Kronmal, R A and Schenker, M B and Anton-Culver, H and Lyles, M} } @article {1444, title = {Spirometry reference values for women and men 65 to 85 years of age. Cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Am Rev Respir Dis}, volume = {147}, year = {1993}, month = {1993 Jan}, pages = {125-33}, abstract = {

Pulmonary function was assessed by spirometry in 5,201 ambulatory elderly participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study, sampled from four communities. A stringent quality assurance program exceeded American Thoracic Society (ATS) recommendations for spirometry. Less than 6\% of the participants were unable to perform three acceptable spirometry maneuvers. A "healthy" subgroup of 777 women and men 65 to 85 yr of age was identified by excluding smokers and those with lung disease and other factors determined to independently, significantly, and negatively influence the FEV1. Results from black participants were examined separately. Reference equations and normal ranges for FEV1, FVC, and the FEV1/FVC ratio were determined from the healthy group. The results demonstrate differences in predicted values as great as 20\% (0.5 to 1 L) for elderly patients when compared with the spirometry reference equations that are most commonly used in the United States.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Forced Expiratory Volume, Humans, Male, Reference Values, Smoking, Spirometry, Vital Capacity}, issn = {0003-0805}, doi = {10.1164/ajrccm/147.1.125}, author = {Enright, P L and Kronmal, R A and Higgins, M and Schenker, M and Haponik, E F} } @article {1429, title = {Temporal patterns of antihypertensive medication use among elderly patients. The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {270}, year = {1993}, month = {1993 Oct 20}, pages = {1837-41}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the incidence of newly treated hypertension and to describe the patterns of antihypertensive medication use among those aged 65 years and older.

DESIGN: Medicare eligibility lists from four US communities (Forsyth County, North Carolina; Washington County, Maryland; Sacramento County, California; and Pittsburgh, Pa) were used to obtain a representative sample of 5201 community-dwelling elderly for the Cardiovascular Health Study, a prospective cohort study of risk factors for coronary heart disease and stroke. Participants were examined at baseline and again 1 year later. The two examinations included standardized questionnaires, blood pressure measurements, and the assessment of medication use by medication inventory. In this cohort analysis, we excluded 231 subjects (4.4\%) who did not return for follow-up, 69 (1.3\%) who had missing data for medications, and another 495 (9.5\%) who were taking "antihypertensive" medications for an indication other than high blood pressure.

INTERVENTIONS: None.

RESULTS: Among the 4406 participants, 1613 used antihypertensive medications at both visits. Between the two visits, 144 started and 115 stopped antihypertensive therapy. Among nonusers at baseline, the annual incidence of newly treated hypertension was 5.2\% in women and 5.6\% in men. Due to the number of participants who stopped therapy, the overall prevalence of antihypertensive treatment increased only slightly, from 40.7\% to 41.1\% in women and from 37.1\% to 38.2\% in men, during 1 year of follow-up. After adjustment for age, systolic blood pressure, number of antihypertensive drugs, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, the newly treated hypertensives were about half as likely as the previously treated hypertensives to receive diuretics (odds ratio [OR], 0.59; P = .008) or beta-blockers (OR, 0.52; P = .01); and they were about twice as likely to receive calcium channel blockers (OR, 1.88; P < .004) or angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (OR, 2.40; P < .001). A similar pattern of within-person changes over time was apparent among the continuous users.

CONCLUSIONS: Between June 1990 and June 1991, physicians were increasingly prescribing angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and calcium channel blockers in place of diuretics and beta-blockers for the treatment of hypertension in elderly patients, especially for those just starting therapy.

}, keywords = {Adrenergic beta-Antagonists, Aged, Analysis of Variance, Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors, Antihypertensive Agents, Calcium Channel Blockers, Cohort Studies, Diuretics, Drug Utilization, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Hypertension, Linear Models, Logistic Models, Male, Medicare, Practice Patterns, Physicians{\textquoteright}, Recurrence, United States, Vasodilator Agents}, issn = {0098-7484}, author = {Psaty, B M and Savage, P J and Tell, G S and Polak, J F and Hirsch, C H and Gardin, J M and McDonald, R H} } @article {587, title = {Predictors of perceived health status in elderly men and women. The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Aging Health}, volume = {6}, year = {1994}, month = {1994 Nov}, pages = {419-47}, abstract = {

Baseline data on the perceived health status of participants (N = 5,201) in the Cardiovascular Health Study of the Elderly (CHS) are reported. The authors examined the predictive utility of health-related factors representing eight different domains, assessed gender differences in the prediction of perceived health, and tested a hypothesis regarding the role of known clinical conditions versus subclinical disease in predicting perceived health. Multivariate analyses showed that the majority of the explained variance in self-assessed health is accounted for by variables that fall into four general categories. Although gender differences were small, the analysis showed that the relative importance of several predictor variables did vary by gender.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Data Collection, Female, Forecasting, Geriatric Assessment, Health Status, Humans, Male, Multivariate Analysis, Regression Analysis, Self-Assessment, Sex Factors, United States}, issn = {0898-2643}, doi = {10.1177/089826439400600401}, author = {Schulz, R and Mittelmark, M and Kronmal, R and Polak, J F and Hirsch, C H and German, P and Bookwala, J} } @article {1428, title = {Prevalence and correlates of respiratory symptoms and disease in the elderly. Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Chest}, volume = {106}, year = {1994}, month = {1994 Sep}, pages = {827-34}, abstract = {

Spirometry was performed by 5,201 elderly participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study during their baseline examination and a subset of the ATS/DLD-78 respiratory questionnaire was administered by trained interviewers. In never smokers (46 percent of the cohort), the overall prevalence of chronic cough was 9 percent, chronic phlegm was 13 percent, attacks of wheezing with dyspnea were 8 percent, and grade 3 dyspnea on exertion was 10 percent. The prevalence of lung disease in current smokers (12 percent of the cohort) was 8/7 percent (men/women) with chronic bronchitis and 14/5 percent with emphysema. Overall, 6 percent reported asthma (a physician-confirmed history) and 12 percent reported hay fever. Using a logistic regression model, attacks of wheezing with dyspnea were strongly associated with a lower FEV1, coronary heart disease, heart failure, and a large waist size (in participants without a diagnosis of asthma, chronic bronchitis, or emphysema). Undiagnosed airways obstruction was twice as likely in women and those with lower income, and was associated with current and former smoking, pack-years of smoking, and chronic cough. Dyspnea on exertion (DOE) was three times or more likely if a participant reported heart failure, coronary heart disease, or emphysema; and much more likely if their FEV1 or FVC was substantially reduced. Dyspnea on exertion was also positively associated with older age, chronic bronchitis or asthma, a larger waist or hip size, pack-years of smoking, and less education. We conclude that DOE and attacks of wheezing with dyspnea are commonly associated with cardiovascular disease and a low FEV1 in those over 65 years and that airways obstruction frequently remains undiagnosed in the elderly.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, California, Cohort Studies, Female, Humans, Lung Diseases, Male, Maryland, Multivariate Analysis, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Prevalence, Prognosis, Respiratory Tract Diseases, Spirometry, Surveys and Questionnaires}, issn = {0012-3692}, author = {Enright, P L and Kronmal, R A and Higgins, M W and Schenker, M B and Haponik, E F} } @article {1439, title = {Respiratory muscle strength in the elderly. Correlates and reference values. Cardiovascular Health Study Research Group.}, journal = {Am J Respir Crit Care Med}, volume = {149}, year = {1994}, month = {1994 Feb}, pages = {430-8}, abstract = {

Maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP) was assessed in 4,443 ambulatory participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study, 65 yr of age and older, sampled from four communities. Maximal expiratory pressure (MEP) was also measured in 790 participants from a single clinic. Positive predictors of MIP included male sex, FVC, handgrip strength, and higher levels of lean body mass (or low bioelectric resistance). Negative predictors were age, current smoking, self-reported fair to poor general health, and waist size. Both participant and technician learning effects were noted, but there was no independent effect of race, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, or diabetes. A healthy subgroup was identified by excluding current smokers, those with fair to poor general health, or an FEV1 less than 65\% of predicted. Mean values determined from the healthy group were 57/116 cm H2O (MIP/MEP) for women, and 83/174 for men. Lower limits of the normal range (fifth percentiles) were 45 to 60\% of the mean predicted values. The reference equations derived from this group of healthy 65 to 85-yr-olds may be used by pulmonary function laboratories and respiratory therapists who evaluate the respiratory muscle strength of elderly patients.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Body Constitution, Cardiovascular Diseases, Female, Humans, Male, Prospective Studies, Reference Values, Respiratory Function Tests, Respiratory Muscles, Risk Factors, Sex Characteristics, Smoking}, issn = {1073-449X}, doi = {10.1164/ajrccm.149.2.8306041}, author = {Enright, P L and Kronmal, R A and Manolio, T A and Schenker, M B and Hyatt, R E} } @article {1424, title = {Self-reported causes of physical disability in older people: the Cardiovascular Health Study. CHS Collaborative Research Group.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {42}, year = {1994}, month = {1994 Oct}, pages = {1035-44}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To determine the major conditions and symptoms reported to cause difficulty in 17 physical tasks of daily life and the criterion validity of self-report of diseases given as the causes of the difficulty in functioning, in community-dwelling older people.

DESIGN: Cross sectional analyses of data obtained in an observational cohort study.

SETTING: Research clinics in four US communities: Winston-Salem, NC, Hagerstown, MD, Pittsburgh, PA, and Sacramento, CA.

PARTICIPANTS: 5201 community-dwelling people > or = 65 years old.

RESULTS: Arthritis and other musculoskeletal diseases were given as the primary causes of difficulty in performing physical tasks by 49.0\% of the participants reporting difficulty in any task, followed by heart disease (13.7\%), injury (12.0\%), old age (11.7\%), lung disease (6.0\%), and stroke (2.9\%). The self-reports of diseases that caused disability varied by task. Whereas arthritis was given as a cause of difficulty in most of the 17 different tasks, heart and lung disease were more likely to be reported as causing difficulty with activities requiring high aerobic work capacity such as walking one-half mile or doing heavy housework. Stroke was more likely to be reported as causing difficulty with use of the upper extremities and in performing basic activities of daily living. There was a high degree of consistency (91\%) between the diseases and symptoms reported to cause disabilities. The percentage of people who reported a disease as the cause of their difficulty performing a task and had independent confirmation of the diagnosis was 85\% in men and 71\% in women, and varied according to type of disease and the individual{\textquoteright}s cognitive status and health status.

CONCLUSION: These data suggest that age-related chronic diseases are important causes of disability in older people but that the type of disability is dependent on the underlying disease that causes the disability. Also, self-report of the cause of disability appears to be generally accurate but is influenced by gender, health status, and type of disease.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Arthritis, Cardiovascular Diseases, Chronic Disease, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, Disabled Persons, Female, Health Status, Health Surveys, Heart Diseases, Humans, Lung Diseases, Male, Observer Variation, Reproducibility of Results, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, United States}, issn = {0002-8614}, author = {Ettinger, W H and Fried, L P and Harris, T and Shemanski, L and Schulz, R and Robbins, J} } @article {1414, title = {Black-white differences in subclinical cardiovascular disease among older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study. CHS Collaborative Research Group.}, journal = {J Clin Epidemiol}, volume = {48}, year = {1995}, month = {1995 Sep}, pages = {1141-52}, abstract = {

Cardiovascular and all-cause mortality are higher in black than white Americans, but racial differences in clinical and subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) have not been examined in older adults. Clinical and subclinical CVD and its risk factors were compared in 4926 white and 244 black men and women aged 65 years and older. Black participants had lower socioeconomic status and generally higher prevalences of CVD and its risk factors, except for adverse lipid profiles. Common carotid wall thickness was greater in black than white women, and ankle-arm blood pressure ratios were lower in black women and men (p < 0.01). After adjustment for CVD risk factors, common carotid walls were significantly thicker and ankle-arm ratios were lower in blacks than whites of both sexes, while internal carotid walls were significantly thinner in black women. Racial differences in clinical and subclinical CVD in older adults are similar to those reported in younger populations and do not appear to be explained by CVD risk factors.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carotid Arteries, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Geriatric Assessment, Humans, Male, Multivariate Analysis, Prevalence, Regression Analysis, Risk Factors, Sex Factors}, issn = {0895-4356}, author = {Manolio, T A and Burke, G L and Psaty, B M and Newman, A B and Haan, M and Powe, N and Tracy, R P and O{\textquoteright}Leary, D H} } @article {1423, title = {Evidence for inflammation as a cause of hypocholesterolemia in older people.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {43}, year = {1995}, month = {1995 Mar}, pages = {264-6}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Analysis of Variance, C-Reactive Protein, Case-Control Studies, Cholesterol, Female, Fibrinogen, Humans, Hypolipoproteinemias, Inflammation, Interleukin-1, Interleukin-6, Male}, issn = {0002-8614}, author = {Ettinger, W H and Harris, T and Verdery, R B and Tracy, R and Kouba, E} } @article {1416, title = {Fibrinogen and factor VIII, but not factor VII, are associated with measures of subclinical cardiovascular disease in the elderly. Results from The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol}, volume = {15}, year = {1995}, month = {1995 Sep}, pages = {1269-79}, abstract = {

No studies have examined the associations of coagulation factor levels with measures of subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the elderly. The Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) is a prospective, population-based cohort study of CVD in persons older than 65 years. At the baseline examination, we measured fibrinogen, factor VII, and factor VIII levels in 5024 of the 5201 participants of the CHS and examined the associations of these coagulation factors with measures of subclinical CVD in a cross-sectional analysis. Subclinical CVD measures were based on electrocardiography, carotid ultrasonography, echocardiography, and ankle-arm blood pressure measurements (AAI). For analyses, we used the full cohort as well as two mutually exclusive subgroups: those with prevalent clinical CVD at baseline and those without. Fibrinogen and to a lesser extent factor VIII showed positive associations with a variety of subclinical CVD measures. In age-adjusted analyses, fibrinogen and factor VIII were significantly associated with 8 of 10 measures. In multivariate analyses, fibrinogen was significantly associated with carotid artery stenosis, internal (but not common) carotid artery wall thickness, and AAI. Factor VIII was associated with abnormal wall motion and AAI in the full cohort only. Factor VII was not consistently associated with subclinical disease measures. In bivariate analyses that included data from all three groups, there were 5 positive subclinical disease associations and 5 negative associations for factor VII. In multivariate analyses, there were no significant associations between factor VII and subclinical CVD in the full cohort or in either subgroup. We conclude that in these cross-sectional analyses, fibrinogen and to a lesser extent factor VIII are associated with subclinical CVD in the elderly, even in those without symptoms or a history of clinical CVD. Factor VII, however, was not associated with subclinical CVD in the elderly.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carotid Stenosis, Cohort Studies, Factor VII, Factor VIII, Fibrinogen, Humans, Multivariate Analysis, Prospective Studies, Regression Analysis, Risk Factors}, issn = {1079-5642}, author = {Tracy, R P and Bovill, E G and Yanez, D and Psaty, B M and Fried, L P and Heiss, G and Lee, M and Polak, J F and Savage, P J} } @article {1421, title = {Laboratory methods and quality assurance in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Clin Chem}, volume = {41}, year = {1995}, month = {1995 Feb}, pages = {264-70}, abstract = {

The Cardiovascular Health Study is an observational cohort study of risk factors for cardiovascular disease in 5201 participants, ages > or = 65 years. We report the methods and quality-assurance results for blood procurement, processing, shipping, storage, and sample analysis used during the first examination period (May 1989-June 1990). The most frequent difficulty in phlebotomy and processing was the requirement of more than one venipuncture (in 2.6\% of the participants). The CVs for control materials ranged from 0.93\% for glucose to 10.7\% for insulin; most were < 4\%. In addition to standard quality-assurance methods, we applied two other methods: technical error calculation for replicates, and weighted linear regression to assess time trend in results of control materials. After outliers were excluded, technical error values ranged from 1.7 for uric acid to 18.8 for insulin. Factor VII and factor VIII had slight trends over the 12-month analysis period. Results of quality-assurance analyses used to resolve problems were successful, thereby improving the second laboratory examination.

}, keywords = {Aged, Blood Glucose, Blood Specimen Collection, Cardiovascular Diseases, Chemistry, Clinical, Factor VII, Factor VIII, Fibrinogen, Humans, Insulin, Quality Control, Regression Analysis, Triglycerides}, issn = {0009-9147}, author = {Cushman, M and Cornell, E S and Howard, P R and Bovill, E G and Tracy, R P} } @article {1415, title = {Subclinical disease as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {92}, year = {1995}, month = {1995 Aug 15}, pages = {720-6}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The primary aim of the present study was to determine the relation between measures of subclinical cardiovascular disease and the incidence of clinical cardiovascular disease among 5201 adults 65 years of age or older who were participating in the Cardiovascular Health Study.

METHODS AND RESULTS: A new method of classifying subclinical disease at baseline examination in the Cardiovascular Health Study included measures of ankle-brachial blood pressure, carotid artery stenosis and wall thickness, ECG and echocardiographic abnormalities, and positive response to the Rose Angina and Claudication Questionnaire. Participants were followed for an average of 2.39 years (maximum, 3 years). For participants without evidence of clinical cardiovascular disease at baseline, the presence of subclinical disease compared with no subclinical disease was associated with a significant increased risk of incident total coronary heart disease including CHD deaths and nonfatal MI and angina pectoris for both men and women. For individuals with subclinical disease, the increased risk of total coronary heart disease was 2.0 for men and 2.5 for women, and the increased risk of total mortality was 2.9 for men and 1.7 for women. The increased risk changed little after adjustment for other risk factors, including lipoprotein levels, blood pressure, smoking, and diabetes.

CONCLUSIONS: The measurement of subclinical disease provides an approach for identifying high-risk older individuals who may be candidates for more active intervention to prevent clinical disease.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Coronary Disease, Female, Humans, Incidence, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Myocardial Infarction, Odds Ratio, Reference Values, Risk Factors}, issn = {0009-7322}, author = {Kuller, L H and Shemanski, L and Psaty, B M and Borhani, N O and Gardin, J and Haan, M N and O{\textquoteright}Leary, D H and Savage, P J and Tell, G S and Tracy, R} } @article {1418, title = {Temporal patterns of antihypertensive medication use among older adults, 1989 through 1992. An effect of the major clinical trials on clinical practice?}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {273}, year = {1995}, month = {1995 May 10}, pages = {1436-8}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To describe the changing patterns of antihypertensive medication use in the years immediately before and after the publication of the results of three major clinical trials of the treatment of hypertension in older adults.

DESIGN: In this cohort study, adults 65 years or older were examined annually on four occasions between June 1989 and May 1992, and the use of antihypertensive medications was assessed by inventory at each visit. The four visits defined the boundaries of three study periods. For each study period, participants receiving antihypertensive therapy were either continuous users (n = 1667, 1643, and 1605, respectively) or starters (n = 157, 142, 120) of hypertensive therapy. The large clinical trials that convincingly proved the efficacy and safety of low-dose diuretic therapy in older adults were published during the latter parts of period 2 and the early parts of period 3.

RESULTS: Among starters, the proportion initiating therapy on diuretics increased from 35.9\% in period 2 to 47.5\% in period 3, significantly so among women (P = .04). The proportions initiating other drugs displayed no significant trends. Among continuous users, the use of diuretics, beta-blockers, and vasodilators generally decreased over the 3-year period, while the use of calcium channel blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors increased significantly in each of the three periods (P < .05). The decline of 2.7\% in the prevalence of diuretic use in period 1 abated during period 2 (1.8\% decline), and it slowed significantly (P = .03) to almost a complete halt during period 3 (0.2\% decline). The rate of increase in the use of calcium channel blockers slowed significantly (P = .01) between period 1 (+6.7\%) and period 3 (+2.8\%).

CONCLUSIONS: Although other factors such as cost may have been important, the temporal trends in antihypertensive drug therapy coincided in time with and may have reflected in part the influence of the major clinical trials on the patterns of clinical practice.

}, keywords = {Aged, Antihypertensive Agents, Clinical Trials as Topic, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Drug Utilization Review, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Practice Patterns, Physicians{\textquoteright}, United States}, issn = {0098-7484}, author = {Psaty, B M and Koepsell, T D and Yanez, N D and Smith, N L and Manolio, T A and Heckbert, S R and Borhani, N O and Gardin, J M and Gottdiener, J S and Rutan, G H} } @article {1457, title = {Association of fibrinogen and coagulation factors VII and VIII with cardiovascular risk factors in the elderly: the Cardiovascular Health Study. Cardiovascular Health Study Investigators.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, volume = {143}, year = {1996}, month = {1996 Apr 01}, pages = {665-76}, abstract = {

The cross-sectional correlates of three hemostatic factors--fibrinogen, factor VII, and factor VIII--were examined in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a population-based cohort study of 5,201 subjects over age 65 years. Subjects were recruited in 1989-1990 in Forsyth County, North Carolina; Sacramento County, California; Washington County, Maryland; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In multivariate linear regression models, cardiac risk factors significantly associated with fibrinogen were current smoking, race, lipids, and white blood count. In women, alcohol use, obesity, physical activity, and insulin level were also significant, while in men hypertension was correlated. The significant correlates of factor VII were lipids and white blood count in men and estrogen use, alcohol use, race, lipids, insulin level, white blood count, and obesity in women. The independent correlates of factor VIII were insulin, glucose, and race in both sexes; low density lipoprotein cholesterol, white blood count, and diuretic use in men; and alcohol use in women. In multivariate models, factors known to be modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease accounted for more of the population variance of these hemostatic factors in women than in men, especially for factor VII. The hemostatic factors may mediate some effects of risk factors on disease, and this should be considered in longitudinal studies.

}, keywords = {Age Distribution, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Analysis of Variance, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Factor VII, Factor VIII, Female, Fibrinogen, Humans, Linear Models, Logistic Models, Male, Prevalence, Risk Factors, Sex Distribution, United States}, issn = {0002-9262}, author = {Cushman, M and Yanez, D and Psaty, B M and Fried, L P and Heiss, G and Lee, M and Polak, J F and Savage, P J and Tracy, R P} } @article {1468, title = {Hypertension and outcomes research. From clinical trials to clinical epidemiology.}, journal = {Am J Hypertens}, volume = {9}, year = {1996}, month = {1996 Feb}, pages = {178-83}, abstract = {

Outcomes research seeks to identify effective evidence-based methods of providing the best medical care. While randomized clinical trials (RCT) usually provide the clearest answers, they are often not done or not practicable. More than a decade after the introduction of calcium channel blockers and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, clinical trial data about their effect on major disease endpoints in patients with hypertension are still not available. The primary alternatives are the use of randomized trials that include surrogate endpoints, such as level of blood pressure or extent of carotid atherosclerosis, and the use of observational studies that include major disease endpoints. Both approaches, their strengths and limitations, are discussed in detail. The possibility of residual confounding limits the strength of inferences that can be drawn from observational studies. Similarly, the possibility of important drug effects, other than those involving the surrogate endpoint, limits the inferences that can be drawn from randomized trials that rely solely on surrogate outcomes as guides to therapy. In the absence of evidence from large clinical trials that include major disease endpoints, treatment decisions and guidelines need to synthesize the best available information from a variety of sources. Consistency of findings across various study designs, outcomes, and populations is critical to the practice of evidence-based medicine and the effort to maximize the health benefits of antihypertensive therapies.

}, keywords = {Clinical Trials as Topic, Epidemiologic Methods, Evidence-Based Medicine, Humans, Hypertension, Outcome Assessment (Health Care)}, issn = {0895-7061}, author = {Psaty, B M and Siscovick, D S and Weiss, N S and Koepsell, T D and Rosendaal, F R and Lin, D and Heckbert, S R and Wagner, E H and Furberg, C D} } @article {1467, title = {Prevalence and correlates of snoring and observed apneas in 5,201 older adults.}, journal = {Sleep}, volume = {19}, year = {1996}, month = {1996 Sep}, pages = {531-8}, abstract = {

The objectives of this study were to describe the prevalence of snoring, observed apneas, and daytime sleepiness in older men and women, and to describe the relationships of these sleep disturbances to health status and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). A cross-sectional design was employed to study sleep problems, CVD, general health, psychosocial factors, and medication use. The subjects were participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study, which included 5,201 adults, aged 65 and older, who were recruited from a random sample of Medicare enrollees in four U.S. communities. Study measures employed were sleep questions, echocardiography, carotid ultrasound, resting electrocardiogram, cognitive function, cardiopulmonary symptoms and diseases, depression, independent activities of daily living (IADLs), and benzodiazepine use. Thirty-three percent of the men and 19\% of the women reported loud snoring, which was less frequent in those over age 75. Snoring was positively associated with younger age, marital status, and alcohol use in men, and obesity, diabetes, and arthritis in women. Snoring was not associated, however, with cardiovascular risk factors or clinical CVD in men or women. Observed apneas were reported much less frequently (13\% of men and 4\% women) than snoring, and they were associated with alcohol use, chronic bronchitis, and marital status in men. Observed apneas were associated with depression and diabetes in women. In both men and women, daytime sleepiness was associated with poor health, advanced age, and IADL limitations. The conclusions of the study were that loud snoring, observed apneas, and daytime sleepiness are not associated cross-sectionally with hypertension or prevalent CVD in elderly persons.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Age Factors, Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Comorbidity, Female, Humans, Incidence, Lung Diseases, Male, Narcolepsy, Prevalence, Random Allocation, Sex Factors, Sleep Apnea Syndromes, Snoring}, issn = {0161-8105}, author = {Enright, P L and Newman, A B and Wahl, P W and Manolio, T A and Haponik, E F and Boyle, P J} } @article {1456, title = {White blood cell counts in persons aged 65 years or more from the Cardiovascular Health Study. Correlations with baseline clinical and demographic characteristics.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, volume = {143}, year = {1996}, month = {1996 Jun 01}, pages = {1107-15}, abstract = {

A higher white blood cell (WBC) count has been shown to be a risk factor for myocardial infarction and stroke in middle-aged populations. This study evaluated the relation between baseline WBC count and other risk factors, as well as subclinical and prevalent disease, in the Cardiovascular Health Study, an epidemiologic study of coronary heart disease and stroke in 5,201 persons aged 65 years or older. Baseline data were collected over a 12-month period in 1989-1990. WBC counts were statistically significantly higher in people with prevalent and subclinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease than in those who were free of disease. WBC counts correlated (p < 0.01) positively with coagulation factors, measures of glucose metabolism, creatinine, smoking, and triglycerides. In contrast, WBC counts correlated negatively with high density lipoprotein cholesterol, forced expiratory volume, forced vital capacity, and height. The correlations between WBC counts and risk factors were similar in both the entire cohort and the subgroup of persons who had never smoked. The authors conclude that WBC counts in the elderly are associated with prevalent and subclinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, as well as its risk factors.

}, keywords = {Age Distribution, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cerebrovascular Disorders, Female, Humans, Leukocyte Count, Leukocytosis, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Myocardial Infarction, Prevalence, Reference Values, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {0002-9262}, author = {Bovill, E G and Bild, D E and Heiss, G and Kuller, L H and Lee, M H and Rock, R and Wahl, P W} } @article {1491, title = {The association of antihypertensive agents with MRI white matter findings and with Modified Mini-Mental State Examination in older adults.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {45}, year = {1997}, month = {1997 Dec}, pages = {1423-33}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To examine the association of antihypertensive regimen with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) white matter hyperintensity and with cognitive impairment in older adults.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.

SETTING: The Cardiovascular Health study, an observational prospective cohort study of risk factors for coronary heart disease and stroke in men and women 65 years of age and older.

PARTICIPANTS: 1268 men and women with pharmacologically treated hypertension.

MEASUREMENTS: Information on medication use, medical history, and health habits was collected at clinic examinations. Participants completed the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MS) and underwent MRI examination. Without clinical information, study neuroradiologists assigned an overall grade of white matter signal intensity on MRI on a scale from 0 (no findings) to 9 (extensive findings).

RESULTS: Adjusted mean white matter grade was higher for users of calcium channel blockers (2.59, P = .007) and users of loop diuretics (2.60, P = .015) than for users of beta blockers (2.12). The association was present for both dihydropyridine and non-dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers. Adjusted mean 3MS scores were lower for users of calcium channel blockers (89.6, P < .002), especially dihydropyridines, and users of loop diuretics (89.7, P < .006) than for users of beta blockers (92.3). No statistically significant association could be shown for users of other drug regimens, including thiazides and ACE inhibitors.

CONCLUSION: In this study, users of antihypertensive regimens which included calcium channel blockers or loop diuretics had more severe white matter hyperintensity on MRI and worse performance on 3MS than users of beta blockers.

}, keywords = {Adrenergic beta-Antagonists, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Antihypertensive Agents, Brain, Calcium Channel Blockers, Cognition, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diuretics, Female, Geriatric Assessment, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Risk Factors}, issn = {0002-8614}, author = {Heckbert, S R and Longstreth, W T and Psaty, B M and Murros, K E and Smith, N L and Newman, A B and Williamson, J D and Bernick, C and Furberg, C D} } @article {1493, title = {The association of antihypertensive medication with serum creatinine changes in older adults.}, journal = {Am J Hypertens}, volume = {10}, year = {1997}, month = {1997 Dec}, pages = {1368-77}, abstract = {

Many of the potential effects of antihypertensive therapy, including renal function, have been inadequately investigated in clinical trials in older adults. In an observational study, we examined the association between treatment with various classes of antihypertensive agents and 3-year changes in serum creatinine in 1296 older adults with treated hypertension and without prior renal disease (mean age 72.2 years; 60\% female; 30\% diabetic; 42\% with cardiovascular disease (CVD)) from the Cardiovascular Health Study. Baseline antihypertensive medications included thiazides (HCT), beta-adrenergic blockers, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-I), calcium channel blockers (CCB), vasodilators (VAS), HCT + BB, HCT + ACE-I, HCT + CCB, HCT + VAS, loop diuretics (LOOP), and other combinations. Unadjusted results indicated that minimal changes in mean serum creatinine occurred over time for all therapies and only a few changes were statistically significant (HCT: +0.02 mg/dL, ACE-I: +0.04, CCB: +0.04; all P < .05; LOOP: +0.06 mg/dL; P < .001). In multivariate analyses with HCT users as the reference group and adjusting for baseline serum creatinine, age, sex, smoking, diabetes mellitus, CVD, height, weight, common carotid intima-media thickness, and use of allopurinol, phenytoin, cimetidine, and nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, all of the relative changes were small and statistically nonsignificant except for HCT + VAS users (+0.07 mg/dL; P < .05). When users of the same therapy at baseline and follow-up were restricted, only LOOP users had significant albeit small changes in serum creatinine (+0.05 mg/dL; P < .05). Although results from clinical trials are needed to confirm these findings, these observational data suggest no major differences between specific antihypertensive therapies in 3-year serum creatinine changes in older adults without prior renal disease.

}, keywords = {Aged, Antihypertensive Agents, Cohort Studies, Creatinine, Female, Humans, Male}, issn = {0895-7061}, author = {Smith, N L and Psaty, B M and Heckbert, S R and Lemaitre, R N and Kates, D M and Rutan, G H and Bleyer, A} } @article {1487, title = {Carrying the burden of cardiovascular risk in old age: associations of weight and weight change with prevalent cardiovascular disease, risk factors, and health status in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {66}, year = {1997}, month = {1997 Oct}, pages = {837-44}, abstract = {

Measured weight in old age, reported weight at age 50 y, and weight change from age 50 y to old age were studied in association with prevalent cardiovascular disease (CVD), CVD risk factors, and health status in a population of 4954 men and women aged > or = 65 y in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). Heavier weight (i.e., generally weight in the fourth quartile for the cohort) at age 50 y was more closely associated with prevalent CVD than was current weight, with these associations stronger in women than in men. Heavier current weight and heavier weight at age 50 y were associated with cardiovascular risk factors, including higher blood pressure, lower high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, and higher fasting insulin. Heavier weight at both time points was related to mobility problems in both men and women and to lower current physical activity levels; among women, strong associations were also seen with lower education and current income. Remaining within 10\% of reported weight at age 50 y was associated with better health status as measured by reported health, mobility difficulty, number of medications, and prevalent CVD in men. Paradoxically, most cardiovascular risk factors were lowest for weight losers despite an association of weight loss with poorer health. In this cohort of persons aged > or = 65 y, heavier weight was associated with CVD and CVD risk factors, suggesting that prevention of overweight may prove beneficial in improving cardiovascular risk in older persons. Weight stability from age 50 y to old age was associated with better health status than was weight gain or loss.

}, keywords = {Aged, Blood Pressure, Body Constitution, Body Weight, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cholesterol, LDL, Female, Health Status, Humans, Insulin, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Odds Ratio, Prevalence, Risk Factors, Sex Characteristics}, issn = {0002-9165}, doi = {10.1093/ajcn/66.4.837}, author = {Harris, T B and Savage, P J and Tell, G S and Haan, M and Kumanyika, S and Lynch, J C} } @article {1485, title = {Correlates of performance-based measures of muscle function in the elderly: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {52}, year = {1997}, month = {1997 Jul}, pages = {M192-200}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: It is unknown how much age-related changes in muscle performance represent normal aging versus the effects of chronic disease and life style. We examined the correlates of four performance measures-gait speed, timed chair stands (TCS), grip strength, and maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP)-using baseline data from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a population-based study of risk factors for heart disease and stroke in persons > or = age 65.

METHODS: We analyzed data from the 5,201 CHS participants. Variables were arranged into nine categories: Personal Characteristics, Anthropometry, Physical Condition, Reported Functional Status, Subjective Health, Psychological Factors, Symptoms, Cognitive Status, Habits and Lifestyle, and Prevalent Disease. Independent correlates were identified using stepwise linear regression.

RESULTS: The regression models explained 17.7-25.4\% of the observed variability. Although age significantly correlated with each measure, it explained little of the variability (< or = 5.7\%). Anthropometric features plus physical condition explained 14.0-17.4\% of the variability for grip strength and MIP, but 2.8-12.9\% of the variability for gait speed and the log of TCS. Subjective health and psychological factors explained 1.8-9.4\% of the variability in gait speed and the log of TCS, but < or = 1.2\% of the variability in grip strength and MIP. Variables for prevalent disease explained < or = 1.3\% of the variability in each measure.

CONCLUSIONS: After age 64, age explained little of the variability in muscle performance in a large sample of mostly functionally intact, community-dwelling older persons. Complex measures such as gait speed were more associated with subjective factors than were direct measures of strength. Prevalent disease contributed surprisingly little to muscle performance.

}, keywords = {Aging, Anthropometry, Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena, Female, Gait, Hand Strength, Health Status, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Motor Activity, Muscles, Pressure, Regression Analysis, Respiration}, issn = {1079-5006}, author = {Hirsch, C H and Fried, L P and Harris, T and Fitzpatrick, A and Enright, P and Schulz, R} } @article {1486, title = {Does the association of risk factors and atherosclerosis change with age? An analysis of the combined ARIC and CHS cohorts. The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) and Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) investigators.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {28}, year = {1997}, month = {1997 Sep}, pages = {1693-701}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: A decrease in the estimated relative risk of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases associated with known disease risk factors has been observed among elderly cohorts, perhaps suggesting that continued risk factor management in the elderly may not be as efficacious as with younger age groups. In this paper, the differential magnitude of the association of risk factors with atherosclerosis across the age spectrum from 45 years to older than 75 years is presented.

METHODS: Subclinical atherosclerosis as measured by carotid ultrasonography and risk factor prevalence were assessed using similar methods among participants aged 45 to 64 years in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study and among participants 65 years and older in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). Pooling these two cohorts provided data on the relationship of risk factors and atherosclerosis on nearly 19,000 participants over a broad age range. Regression analyses were used to assess the consistency of the magnitude of the association of risk factors with atherosclerosis across the age spectrum separately for black and white participants in cross-sectional analyses.

RESULTS: As expected, each of the risk factors was globally (across all ages) associated with increased atherosclerosis. However, the magnitude of the association did not differ across the age spectrum for hypertension, low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), fibrinogen, or body mass index (BMI). For whites, there was a significantly greater impact of smoking and HDL-C among older age strata but a smaller impact of diabetes. For black women, the impact of HDL-C decreased among the older age strata.

CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that most risk factors continue to be associated with increased atherosclerosis at older ages, possibly suggesting a continued value in investigation of strategies to reduce atherosclerosis by controlling risk factors at older ages.

}, keywords = {African Americans, African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Aging, Arteriosclerosis, Body Mass Index, Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena, Cardiovascular System, Carotid Arteries, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Fibrinogen, Health Status, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Middle Aged, Regression Analysis, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Smoking, Tunica Intima, Tunica Media, Ultrasonography}, issn = {0039-2499}, author = {Howard, G and Manolio, T A and Burke, G L and Wolfson, S K and O{\textquoteright}Leary, D H} } @article {1506, title = {Health effects of caregiving: the caregiver health effects study: an ancillary study of the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Ann Behav Med}, volume = {19}, year = {1997}, month = {1997 Spring}, pages = {110-6}, abstract = {

We propose that two related sources of variability in studies of caregiving health effects contribute to an inconsistent pattern of findings: the sampling strategy used and the definition of what constitutes caregiving. Samples are often recruited through self-referral and are typically comprised of caregivers experiencing considerable distress. In this study, we examine the health effects of caregiving in large population-based samples of spousal caregivers and controls using a wide array of objective and self-report physical and mental health outcome measures. By applying different definitions of caregiving, we show that the magnitude of health effects attributable to caregiving can vary substantially, with the largest negative health effects observed among caregivers who characterize themselves as being strained. From an epidemiological perspective, our data show that approximately 80\% of persons living with a spouse with a disability provide care to their spouse, but only half of care providers report mental or physical strain associated with caregiving.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Aged, Arousal, Cardiovascular Diseases, Caregivers, Cerebrovascular Disorders, Coronary Disease, Cost of Illness, Female, Geriatric Assessment, Health Behavior, Health Status, Humans, Male, Psychophysiologic Disorders, Risk Factors, Spouses, Stress, Psychological}, issn = {0883-6612}, doi = {10.1007/BF02883327}, author = {Schulz, R and Newsom, J and Mittelmark, M and Burton, L and Hirsch, C and Jackson, S} } @article {1481, title = {Knowledge of risk among patients at increased risk for stroke.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {28}, year = {1997}, month = {1997 May}, pages = {916-21}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Patients who recognize their increased risk for stroke are more likely to engage in (and comply with) stroke prevention practices than those who do not. We describe perceived risk of stroke among a nationally diverse sample of patients at increased risk for stroke and determine whether patients{\textquoteright} knowledge of their stroke risk varied according to patients{\textquoteright} demographic and clinical characteristics.

METHODS: Respondents were recruited from the Academic Medical Center Consortium (n = 621, five academic medical centers, inpatients of varying age); the Cardiovascular Health Study (n = 321, population-based sample of persons aged 65+ years); and United HealthCare (n = 319, five health plans, inpatients and outpatients typically younger than 65 years). The primary outcome was awareness of being at risk for stroke.

RESULTS: Only 41\% of respondents were aware of their increased risk for stroke (including less than one half of patients with previous minor stroke). Approximately 74\% of patients who recalled being told of their increased stroke risk by a physician acknowledged this risk in comparison with 28\% of patients who did not recall being informed by a physician. Younger patients, depressed patients, those in poor current health, and those with a history of TIA were most likely to be aware of their stroke risk.

CONCLUSIONS: Over one half of patients at increased risk of stroke are unaware of their risk. Healthcare providers play a crucial role in communicating information about risk, and successful communication encourages adoption of stroke prevention practices. Educational messages should be targeted toward patients least likely to be aware of their risk.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Awareness, Cerebrovascular Disorders, Female, Humans, Knowledge, Male, Middle Aged, Multivariate Analysis, Risk Factors}, issn = {0039-2499}, author = {Samsa, G P and Cohen, S J and Goldstein, L B and Bonito, A J and Duncan, P W and Enarson, C and DeFriese, G H and Horner, R D and Matchar, D B} } @article {1477, title = {Preventive health behaviors among spousal caregivers.}, journal = {Prev Med}, volume = {26}, year = {1997}, month = {1997 Mar-Apr}, pages = {162-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The physical and emotional burden of caring for a functionally impaired spouse may adversely affect the preventive health behavior of the caregiver. This study explores the relationship between caregiving and lifestyle health behaviors and use of preventive services.

METHODS: The Caregiver Health Effects Study identified spousal caregivers among a sample of more than 3,000 married, community-dwelling older persons, from four counties in the United States, who were enrollees in the Cardiovascular Health Study. High-level caregivers were defined as having a spouse with an ADL impairment (n = 212) and moderate-level caregivers, a spouse with one or more IADL impairments (n = 222). For each caregiver, a control, matched for age and gender, was selected (n = 385). Structured interviews were conducted in the home, following enrollment.

RESULTS: Being a high-level caregiver significantly increased the odds of not getting enough rest, not having enough time to exercise, not having time to rest to recuperate from illness, and forgetting to take prescription medications, compared with noncaregivers. These findings did not hold for moderate-level caregivers. The odds were not significantly different for either level of caregiver compared with noncaregivers for missing meals, missing doctor appointments, missing flu shots, and not refilling medications. Larger proportions of caregivers with a strong sense of control had good preventive health behaviors, compared with caregivers with a weak sense of control.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Analysis of Variance, Caregivers, Case-Control Studies, Chi-Square Distribution, Confidence Intervals, Exercise, Female, Health Behavior, Health Status, Health Surveys, Humans, Internal-External Control, Life Style, Logistic Models, Male, Odds Ratio, Preventive Health Services, Self Care, Social Support, Spouses, United States}, issn = {0091-7435}, doi = {10.1006/pmed.1996.0129}, author = {Burton, L C and Newsom, J T and Schulz, R and Hirsch, C H and German, P S} } @article {1473, title = {Sleep disturbance, psychosocial correlates, and cardiovascular disease in 5201 older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {45}, year = {1997}, month = {1997 Jan}, pages = {1-7}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To describe the prevalence of self reported sleep disturbances in older men and women and to describe their relationships with health status and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study of sleep disturbance, CVD, general health, psychosocial factors, physical function, and use of psychotropic medications.

SETTING: Participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study, 5201 adults aged 65 and older recruited from a random sample of noninstitutionalized Medicare enrollees in four US communities.

MEASURES: Self-reported sleep disturbances and standardized questionnaires for cardiopulmonary symptoms and diseases, depression, social support, activities of daily living, physical activity, cognitive function, and current medications, spirometry, ECG, echocardiography, and carotid ultrasound.

RESULTS: Women were twice as likely as men to report difficulty falling asleep (30\% vs 14\%). Daytime sleepiness, difficulty falling asleep, and frequent awakenings increased in prevalence with age. All symptoms were related strongly to depression. Symptoms of daytime sleepiness were also related strongly to poor health and limitations in activities of daily living in men and women. In multivariate analysis, men taking benzodiazepines were likely to report difficulty falling asleep and daytime sleepiness, whereas women taking benzodiazepines reported difficulty falling asleep and waking up too early. After accounting for these factors, the only cardiovascular disease independently associated with sleep disturbances was angina. Men and women with confirmed angina were 1.6 times more likely to report trouble falling asleep. Independent relationships between sleep disturbances and cardiovascular risk factors such as obesity, hypertension, smoking, and diabetes were relatively weak and inconsistent, though smokers were less likely to report frequent awakenings.

CONCLUSIONS: Sleep disturbances are relatively common in older men and women and are associated with poor health, depression, angina, limitations in activities of daily living, and the use of benzodiazepines.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depression, Female, Geriatric Assessment, Health Surveys, Humans, Male, Prevalence, Psychotropic Drugs, Random Allocation, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Sleep Wake Disorders, Social Support, Surveys and Questionnaires, United States}, issn = {0002-8614}, author = {Newman, A B and Enright, P L and Manolio, T A and Haponik, E F and Wahl, P W} } @article {1499, title = {The Sleep Heart Health Study: design, rationale, and methods.}, journal = {Sleep}, volume = {20}, year = {1997}, month = {1997 Dec}, pages = {1077-85}, abstract = {

The Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS) is a prospective cohort study designed to investigate obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and other sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) as risk factors for the development of cardiovascular disease. The study is designed to enroll 6,600 adult participants aged 40 years and older who will undergo a home polysomnogram to assess the presence of OSA and other SDB. Participants in SHHS have been recruited from cohort studies in progress. Therefore, SHHS adds the assessment of OSA to the protocols of these studies and will use already collected data on the principal risk factors for cardiovascular disease as well as follow-up and outcome information pertaining to cardiovascular disease. Parent cohort studies and recruitment targets for these cohorts are the following: Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (1,750 participants), Cardiovascular Health Study (1,350 participants), Framingham Heart Study (1,000 participants), Strong Heart Study (600 participants), New York Hypertension Cohorts (1,000 participants), and Tucson Epidemiologic Study of Airways Obstructive Diseases and the Health and Environment Study (900 participants). As part of the parent study follow-up procedures, participants will be surveyed at periodic intervals for the incidence and recurrence of cardiovascular disease events. The study provides sufficient statistical power for assessing OSA and other SDB as risk factors for major cardiovascular events, including myocardial infarction and stroke.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Arteriosclerosis, Cohort Studies, Coronary Disease, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Polysomnography, Positive-Pressure Respiration, Prospective Studies, Research Design, Sleep Apnea Syndromes}, issn = {0161-8105}, author = {Quan, S F and Howard, B V and Iber, C and Kiley, J P and Nieto, F J and O{\textquoteright}Connor, G T and Rapoport, D M and Redline, S and Robbins, J and Samet, J M and Wahl, P W} } @article {1504, title = {Aspirin use and incident stroke in the cardiovascular health study. CHS Collaborative Research Group.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {29}, year = {1998}, month = {1998 May}, pages = {887-94}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Randomized clinical trials testing aspirin in relatively low-risk, middle-aged people have consistently shown small increases in stroke associated with aspirin use. We analyzed the relationship between the regular use of aspirin and incident ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke among people aged 65 years or older participating in the Cardiovascular Health Study.

METHODS: We conducted a multivariate analysis of incident stroke rates in a prospectively assessed, observational cohort of 5011 elderly people followed for a mean of 4.2 years.

RESULTS: Participants had a mean age of 72 years, and 58\% were women. Twenty-three percent used aspirin frequently, and 17\% used aspirin infrequently at study entry. Frequent aspirin use was associated with an increased rate of ischemic stroke compared with nonusers (relative risk= 1.6; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.2 to 2.2; P=0.001). After adjustment for other stroke risk factors, women who used aspirin frequently or infrequently at study entry had a 1.8-fold (95\% CI, 1.2 to 2.8) and 1.6-fold (95\% CI, 0.9 to 3.0) increased risk of ischemic stroke, respectively (P<0.01, test for trend), compared with nonusers. In men, aspirin use was not statistically significantly associated with stroke risk. Findings were similar when aspirin use in the years before the incident stroke was used in the modeling. Aspirin use at entry was also associated with a 4-fold (95\% CI, 1.6 to 10.0) increase in risk of hemorrhagic stroke for both infrequent and frequent users of aspirin (P=0.003).

CONCLUSIONS: Aspirin use was associated with increased risks of ischemic stroke in women and hemorrhagic stroke overall in this elderly cohort, after adjustment for other stroke predictors. The possibility exists of confounding by reasons for aspirin use rather than cause and effect. Whether regular aspirin use increases stroke risk for elderly people without cardiovascular disease can only be determined by randomized clinical trials.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aspirin, Brain Ischemia, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cerebral Hemorrhage, Cerebrovascular Disorders, Cohort Studies, Cyclooxygenase Inhibitors, Dose-Response Relationship, Drug, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Male, Regression Analysis, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Time Factors}, issn = {0039-2499}, author = {Kronmal, R A and Hart, R G and Manolio, T A and Talbert, R L and Beauchamp, N J and Newman, A} } @article {1502, title = {Body mass index and mortality in nonsmoking older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Am J Public Health}, volume = {88}, year = {1998}, month = {1998 Apr}, pages = {623-9}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: This study assesses the relationship of body mass index to 5-year mortality in a cohort of 4317 nonsmoking men and women aged 65 to 100 years.

METHODS: Logistic regression analyses were conducted to predict mortality as a function of baseline body mass index, adjusting for demographic, clinical, and laboratory covariates.

RESULTS: There was an inverse relationship between body mass index and mortality; death rates were higher for those who weighed the least. Inclusion of covariates had trivial effects on these results. People who had lost 10\% or more of their body weight since age 50 had a relatively high death rate. When that group was excluded, there was no remaining relationship between body mass index and mortality.

CONCLUSIONS: The association between higher body mass index and mortality often found in middle-aged populations was not observed in this large cohort of older adults. Over-weight does not seem to be a risk factor for 5-year mortality in this age group. Rather, the risks associated with significant weight loss should be the primary concern.

}, keywords = {Age Distribution, Aged, Body Mass Index, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cause of Death, Cohort Studies, Female, Humans, Logistic Models, Male, Mortality, Predictive Value of Tests, Risk Factors, Sex Distribution, Smoking, Survival Analysis, United States, Weight Loss}, issn = {0090-0036}, author = {Diehr, P and Bild, D E and Harris, T B and Duxbury, A and Siscovick, D and Rossi, M} } @article {1519, title = {A brain image database for structure/function analysis.}, journal = {AJNR Am J Neuroradiol}, volume = {19}, year = {1998}, month = {1998 Nov-Dec}, pages = {1869-77}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Lesion-deficit-based structure-function analysis has traditionally been empirical and nonquantitative. Our purpose was to establish a new brain image database (BRAID) that allows the statistical correlation of brain functional measures with anatomic lesions revealed by clinical brain images.

METHODS: Data on 303 participants in the MR Feasibility Study of the Cardiovascular Health Study were tested for lesion/deficit correlations. Functional data were derived from a limited neurologic examination performed at the time of the MR examination. Image data included 3D lesion descriptions derived from the MR examinations by hand segmentation. MR images were normalized in-plane using local, linear Talairach normalization. A database was implemented to support spatial data structures and associated geometric and statistical operations. The database stored the segmented lesions, patient functional scores, and several anatomic atlases. Lesion-deficit association was sought by contingency testing (chi2-test) for every possible combination of each neurologic variable and each labeled atlas structure. Significant associations that confirmed accepted lesion-deficit relationships were sought.

RESULTS: Two-hundred thirty-five infarctlike lesions in 117 subjects were viewed collectively after mapping into Talairach cartesian coordinates. Anatomic structures most strongly correlated with neurologic deficits tended to be situated in anatomically appropriate areas. For example, infarctlike lesions associated with visual field defects were correlated with structures in contralateral occipital structures, including the optic radiations and occipital gyri.

CONCLUSION: Known lesion-deficit correlations can be established by a database using a standard coordinate system for representing spatial data and incorporating functional and structural data together with appropriate query mechanisms. Improvements and further applications of this methodology may provide a powerful technique for uncovering new structure-function relationships.

}, keywords = {Brain, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Infarction, Databases as Topic, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Neurologic Examination}, issn = {0195-6108}, author = {Letovsky, S I and Whitehead, S H and Paik, C H and Miller, G A and Gerber, J and Herskovits, E H and Fulton, T K and Bryan, R N} } @article {1512, title = {High body fatness, but not low fat-free mass, predicts disability in older men and women: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {68}, year = {1998}, month = {1998 Sep}, pages = {584-90}, abstract = {

Using data from the Cardiovascular Health Study, we studied the relation between body composition (fat mass and fat-free mass, assessed by bioelectrical impedance) and self-reported, mobility-related disability (difficulty walking or stair climbing) in 2714 women and 2095 men aged 65-100 y. In a cross-sectional analysis at baseline (1989-1990), disability was reported by 26.5\% of the women and 16.9\% of the men. A positive association was observed between fat mass and disability. The odds ratio for disability in the highest quintile of fat mass was 3.04 (95\% CI: 2.18, 4.25) for women and 2.77 (95\% CI: 1.82, 4.23) for men compared with those in the lowest quintile. Low fat-free mass was not associated with a higher prevalence of disability. In a longitudinal analysis among persons not reporting disability at baseline, 20.3\% of the women and 14.8\% of the men reported disability 3 y later. Fat mass at baseline was predictive of disability 3 y later, with odds ratios of 2.83 (95\% CI: 1.80, 4.46) for women and 1.72 (95\% CI: 1.03, 2.85) for men in the highest quintile of fat. The increased risk was not explained by age, physical activity, chronic disease, or other potential confounders. Low fat-free mass was not predictive of disability. The results showed that high body fatness is an independent predictor of mobility-related disability in older men and women. These findings suggest that high body fatness in old age should be avoided to decrease the risk of disability.

}, keywords = {Adipose Tissue, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Body Composition, Cross-Sectional Studies, Disability Evaluation, Female, Geriatric Assessment, Health Surveys, Humans, Male, Obesity, Predictive Value of Tests, Walking}, issn = {0002-9165}, doi = {10.1093/ajcn/68.3.584}, author = {Visser, M and Langlois, J and Guralnik, J M and Cauley, J A and Kronmal, R A and Robbins, J and Williamson, J D and Harris, T B} } @article {1494, title = {Relationship between ApoE, MRI findings, and cognitive function in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {29}, year = {1998}, month = {1998 Feb}, pages = {388-98}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: We determined the relationship between apolipoprotein (Apo)E, MRI, and low cognitive scores.

METHODS: The relationship between age, education, ApoE genotype, MRI examination of the brain, subclinical and clinical cardiovascular disease, and low (<80) score on the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MSE, as modified by Teng and Chui) was evaluated for 3469 black and white participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) in years 5 and 6 of the study. The participants were followed for up to 3 years.

RESULTS: The prevalence of scores <80 in years 5 and 6 of the CHS was 8.2\% for participants without and 20.4\% for those with prior history of stroke. Age, race, and education were important determinants of low 3MSE scores. The prevalence of ApoE-4 (odds ratio [OR], 1.6 [1.1 to 2.1]) was directly related to scores <80, as was high ventricular volume (OR, 1.6 [1.2 to 2.3]), high white matter grade (OR, 1.4 [1.1 to 1.9]), and infarctlike lesions (OR, 1.6 [1.2 to 2.1]) on the MRI in the multivariate analysis. A five-point or greater decline in scores over up to 3 years was more often observed for participants with low 3MSE scores at year 5, at older ages, with lower education, and experiencing incident stroke (OR, 3.6 [1.2 to 10.6]), ApoE-4 genotype (OR, 1.8 [1.4 to 2.3]), and with MRI findings of high ventricular volume (OR, 2.0 [1.5 to 2.7]), and infarctlike lesions (OR, 1.2 [0.9 to 1.5]).

CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that vascular changes on MRI, measures of brain atrophy, ApoE-4, and age, education, and race are associated with low cognitive scores among older individuals. The MRI of the brain provides valuable information related to cognitive tests and decline over time. The potential exists for using MRI measurements to identify high-risk individuals for dementia and to test potential interventions to reduce the risk of dementia.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Apolipoproteins E, Brain, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cerebral Infarction, Cognition, Cognition Disorders, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genotype, Health Status, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Mental Status Schedule, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, United States}, issn = {0039-2499}, author = {Kuller, L H and Shemanski, L and Manolio, T and Haan, M and Fried, L and Bryan, N and Burke, G L and Tracy, R and Bhadelia, R} } @article {1507, title = {Temporal patterns in the medical treatment of congestive heart failure with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors in older adults, 1989 through 1995.}, journal = {Arch Intern Med}, volume = {158}, year = {1998}, month = {1998 May 25}, pages = {1074-80}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Evidence from clinical trials in the past decade has consistently shown that angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors reduce morbidity and mortality in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF). The extent to which clinical practice has adopted ACE inhibitor therapy is unknown.

METHODS: The Cardiovascular Health Study is a prospective observational study of 5201 community-dwelling adults aged 65 years and older. Prevalent CHF cases were identified on study entry (from June 10, 1989, through May 31, 1990) and incident CHF cases were identified throughout 5 years of follow-up. Medication data were collected from annual medication inventories. The percentage of patients with CHF using ACE inhibitors was calculated at each annual examination. Temporal trends in CHF treatment with ACE inhibitors between June 10, 1989, through May 31, 1990, and June 1, 1994, through May 31, 1995, were analyzed.

RESULTS: Use of ACE inhibitors to treat CHF increased slightly over time among prevalent cases at each annual examination: 26\% of prevalent CHF cases were treated in 1989-1990 compared with 36\% of prevalent cases in 1994-1995. This 10\% increase was statistically significant (P<.01). Participants with low ejection fractions were 2 times more likely to be treated with ACE inhibitors than were those with normal ejection fraction and this tendency did not change over time. Among cases newly diagnosed in the year before the 1990-1991 examination, 42\% were using ACE inhibitors; among those newly diagnosed in the year before 1994-1995, 40\% were using ACE inhibitors. This 2\% decrease was not statistically significant (P=.68).

CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that, while the medical management of CHF with ACE inhibitors has increased modestly over time in prevalent cases, these drugs may still be underused, especially among incident cases.

}, keywords = {Aged, Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors, Drug Utilization, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Logistic Models, Male, Stroke Volume, Treatment Outcome, United States}, issn = {0003-9926}, author = {Smith, N L and Psaty, B M and Pitt, B and Garg, R and Gottdiener, J S and Heckbert, S R} } @article {1513, title = {Time trends in the use of cholesterol-lowering agents in older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Arch Intern Med}, volume = {158}, year = {1998}, month = {1998 Sep 14}, pages = {1761-8}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To describe recent temporal patterns of cholesterol-lowering medication use and the characteristics that may have influenced the initiation of cholesterol-lowering therapy among those aged 65 years or older.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A cohort of 5201 adults 65 years or older were examined annually between June 1989 and May 1996. We added 687 African American adults to the cohort in 1992-1993. We measured blood lipid levels at baseline and for the original cohort in the third year of follow-up. We assessed the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs at each visit.

RESULTS: The prevalence of cholesterol-lowering drug use in 1989-1990 was 4.5\% among the men and 5.9\% among the women; these figures increased over the next 6 years to 8.1\% and 10.0\%, respectively, in 1995-1996. There was a 4-fold increase in the use of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors during the 6 years of follow-up, from 1.9\% of all participants in 1989-1990 to 7.5\% in 1995-1996. The use of bile acid sequestrants, nicotinic acid, and probucol declined from initial levels of less than 1\% each. Among the participants who were untreated in 1989-1990, but eligible for cholesterol-lowering therapy after a trial of dietary therapy according to the 1993 guidelines of the National Cholesterol Education Panel, less than 20\% initiated drug therapy in the 6 years of follow-up, even among subjects with a history of coronary heart disease. Among participants untreated at baseline but eligible for either cholesterol-lowering therapy or dietary therapy, initiation of cholesterol-lowering drug therapy was directly associated with total cholesterol levels, hypertension, and a history of coronary heart disease, and was inversely related to age, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, and difficulties with activities of daily living. Other characteristics that form the basis of the 1993 National Cholesterol Education Panel guidelines-diabetes, smoking, family history of premature coronary heart disease, and total number of risk factors-were not associated with the initiation of cholesterol-lowering drug therapy.

CONCLUSIONS: Given the clinical trial evidence for benefit, those aged 65 to 75 years and with prior coronary heart disease appeared undertreated with cholesterol-lowering drug therapy.

}, keywords = {Aged, Anticholesteremic Agents, Cholesterol, LDL, Cohort Studies, Female, Humans, Hypercholesterolemia, Male, Prevalence, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {0003-9926}, author = {Lemaitre, R N and Furberg, C D and Newman, A B and Hulley, S B and Gordon, D J and Gottdiener, J S and McDonald, R H and Psaty, B M} } @article {1522, title = {Analytical and biologic variability in measures of hemostasis, fibrinolysis, and inflammation: assessment and implications for epidemiology.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, volume = {149}, year = {1999}, month = {1999 Feb 01}, pages = {261-7}, abstract = {

An increasing number of cardiovascular epidemiologic studies are measuring non-traditional risk markers of disease, most of which do not have established biovariability characteristics. When biovariability data have been reported, they usually represent a short time period, and, in any case, there is little consensus on how the information should be used. The authors performed a long-term (6-month) repeated measures study on 26 healthy individuals, and, using a nested analysis of variance (ANOVA) approach, report on the analytical (CVA), intraindividual (CVI), and between individual (CVG) variability of 12 procoagulant, fibrinolysis, and inflammation assays, including total cholesterol for comparison. The results suggest acceptable analytical variability (CVA < or = 1/2 CVI) for all assays. However, there was a large range of intraindividual variation as a proportion of total variance (2-78\%), and adjusting for intraindividual and between individual variation in bivariate correlations increased the observed correlation by more than 30 percent for three of these assays. Overall, the assays showed a significant increase in intraindividual variation over 6 months (p < 0.05). While these findings suggest that most of these assays have biovariability characteristics similar to cholesterol, there is variation among assays. Some assays may be better suited to epidemiologic studies, and knowledge of an assay{\textquoteright}s biovariability data may be useful in interpreting simple statistics, and in designing multivariate models.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Analysis of Variance, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cholesterol, Epidemiology, Female, Fibrinolysis, Hemostasis, Humans, Inflammation, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Statistical, Multivariate Analysis, Risk Factors}, issn = {0002-9262}, author = {Sakkinen, P A and Macy, E M and Callas, P W and Cornell, E S and Hayes, T E and Kuller, L H and Tracy, R P} } @article {591, title = {Antidiabetic treatment trends in a cohort of elderly people with diabetes. The cardiovascular health study, 1989-1997.}, journal = {Diabetes Care}, volume = {22}, year = {1999}, month = {1999 May}, pages = {736-42}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: This study characterizes the pharmaceutical treatment of type 2 diabetes from 1989-1990 to 1996-1997 in an elderly cohort.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A total of 5,888 adults aged > or = 65 years were recruited and attended a baseline clinic visit in 1989-1990 (n = 5,201, original cohort) or 1992-1993 (n = 687. African-American [new] cohort) as participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study. Fasting serum glucose (FSG) was measured at baseline. Medication use was ascertained by drug inventory at all annual clinic visits. Diabetes was defined at baseline as insulin or oral hypoglycemic agent (OHA) use or as having an FSG > or = 7.0 mmol/l (126 mg/dl), the current consensus definition of diabetes.

RESULTS: A total of 387 (7\%) original (FSG = 9.8 mmol/l [177 mg/dl]) and 115 (17\%) new (FSG = 10.6 mmol/l [191 mg/dl]) cohort members had pharmacologically treated diabetes at baseline. Among those in the original and in the new cohorts who survived follow-up, respectively, OHA use decreased from 80 to 48\% (P < 0.001) and from 67 to 50\% (P < 0.003) and insulin use increased from 20 to 33\% (P = 0.001) and from 33 to 37\% (P = 0.603). There were 396 (8\%) original (FSG = 8.8 mmol/l [159 mg/dl]) and 45 (7\%) new (FSG = 10.0 mmol/l [181 mg/dl]) cohort members with diabetes untreated at baseline. Among them, respectively, OHA use reached 38 and 30\% and insulin use reached 6 and 16\% in 1996-1997.

CONCLUSIONS: Diabetes was common in this elderly cohort, and > 80\% of treated patients with diabetes at baseline were not achieving fasting glucose goals of < or = 6.7 mmol/l (120 mg/dl). Many untreated at baseline remained untreated after 7 years of follow-up.

}, keywords = {Aged, Blood Glucose, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Drug Therapy, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Hypoglycemic Agents, Insulin, Male, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Time Factors, United States}, issn = {0149-5992}, doi = {10.2337/diacare.22.5.736}, author = {Smith, N L and Heckbert, S R and Bittner, V A and Savage, P J and Barzilay, J I and Dobs, A S and Psaty, B M} } @article {602, title = {Cerebrovascular disease and depression symptoms in the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {30}, year = {1999}, month = {1999 Oct}, pages = {2159-66}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Evidence is mounting linking cerebrovascular disease with depressive symptoms in the elderly. Lesions in both white and gray matter have been associated with depressive symptoms and major depression. We sought to investigate the relationship between depressive symptoms and white and gray matter lesions in subjects participating in the Cardiovascular Health Study.

METHODS: In a sample of 3660 men and women who underwent a standardized interview, physical examination, and MRI scan, we examined the association between number of white and gray matter lesions and white matter grade (a measure of severity) and reported depressive symptoms using a modified version of the Centers for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale. We controlled for a variety of demographic and medical variables as well as functional status and Modified Mini-Mental State Examination score.

RESULTS: The number of small (<3 mm) basal ganglia lesions was significantly associated with reported depressive symptoms, but white matter grade was not. In subsequent logistic regression models, number of basal ganglia lesions remained a significant predictor after controlling for non-MRI variables and severity of white matter lesions.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings extend previous reports that linked cerebrovascular changes to depressive symptoms in clinical populations to a large community-based population. This report provides further evidence of the importance of basal ganglia lesions in geriatric depression.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Aged, Brain, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cerebrovascular Disorders, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depression, Female, Humans, Logistic Models, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Risk Factors}, issn = {0039-2499}, doi = {10.1161/01.str.30.10.2159}, author = {Steffens, D C and Helms, M J and Krishnan, K R and Burke, G L} } @article {589, title = {The reliability of medication inventory methods compared to serum levels of cardiovascular drugs in the elderly.}, journal = {J Clin Epidemiol}, volume = {52}, year = {1999}, month = {1999 Feb}, pages = {143-6}, abstract = {

Medication inventory is more reliable than self-report in assessing prescription drug use in elderly populations. It is not known how strongly medication inventory reflects actual medication use as measured by serum drug levels. In the Cardiovascular Health Study, medication data were collected annually by study interviewers from medication containers brought to the clinic visit. At the fourth clinic visit, venipuncture was performed under 12-hour fasting conditions. Participants were told to take medications as usual. Based on medication inventory results, we randomly selected 55 users and 55 non-users of four cardiovascular drugs: aspirin, propranolol, hydrochlorothiazide, and digoxin. All 110 blood samples for each of the four drugs were analyzed; cut points were based on detectable levels given laboratory limitations. Kappa statistics (K) tested degree of agreement between medication inventory findings and serum detection. Assays were completed on 400 samples (91\%). Agreement for aspirin (n=102) was poor: K=0.16 (95\% CI: 0.0-0.32). Agreement for propranolol (n = 98) was fair: K=0.43 (95\% CI: 0.27-0.59). Agreement for hydrochlorothiazide (n=100) was good: K=0.62 (95\% CI: 0.53-0.91). Agreement for digoxin (n=100) was excellent: K=0.94 (95\% CI: 0.74-1.0). For four all drugs, lack of agreement was confined primarily to participants who reported use but did not have detectable levels. Excluding aspirin users, only one non-user (0.7\%) had drug detected in serum. The medication inventory is a reasonably sensitive and a fairly reliable method for ascertaining non-aspirin cardiovascular drug use in the elderly even though this method may overestimate use as assessed by serum level.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aspirin, Cardiovascular Agents, Digoxin, Humans, Hydrochlorothiazide, Patient Compliance, Propranolol, Reproducibility of Results}, issn = {0895-4356}, doi = {10.1016/s0895-4356(98)00141-3}, author = {Smith, N L and Psaty, B M and Heckbert, S R and Tracy, R P and Cornell, E S} } @article {597, title = {The role of APOE epsilon4 in modulating effects of other risk factors for cognitive decline in elderly persons.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {282}, year = {1999}, month = {1999 Jul 07}, pages = {40-6}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Cognitive decline in elderly persons is often an early predictor of dementia. Subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes mellitus may contribute to substantial decline in cognitive function in the elderly. These risks may be modified by gene-environment interactions between apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype and CVD risk factors or subclinical CVD.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between subclinical CVD and decline in cognitive functioning in the elderly and to examine effect modification by the APOE genotype of the association between subclinical disease and cognitive decline.

DESIGN: The Cardiovascular Health Study, a population-based, prospective cohort study.

SETTING AND POPULATION: A total of 5888 randomly selected Medicare-eligible participants from Sacramento County, California; Forsyth County, North Carolina; Washington County, Maryland; and Pittsburgh, Pa, aged 65 years or older, who were recruited in 1989-1990 (n = 5201) and in 1992-1993 (n = 687) and who were followed up for 7 and 5 years, respectively.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Change over time in scores on the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test as a function of APOE genotype, subclinical CVD, and diabetes mellitus.

RESULTS: Seventy percent of participants had no significant decline on the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination. Systolic blood pressure, the ankle-arm brachial index, atherosclerosis of the internal carotid artery, diabetes mellitus, and several diagnoses of prevalent CVD were significantly associated with declines in scores on the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test. The rate of cognitive decline associated with peripheral vascular disease, atherosclerosis of the common and internal carotid arteries, or diabetes mellitus was increased by the presence of any APOE epsilon4 allele.

CONCLUSIONS: Most healthy elderly people did not experience cognitive decline. Measures of subclinical CVD were modest predictors of cognitive decline. Those with any APOE epsilon4 allele in combination with atherosclerosis, peripheral vascular disease, or diabetes mellitus were at substantially higher risk of cognitive decline than those without the APOE epsilon4 allele or subclinical CVD. High levels of atherosclerosis increased cognitive decline independently of APOE genotype.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aging, Alleles, Apolipoproteins E, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cognition Disorders, Cohort Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Genotype, Humans, Mental Status Schedule, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors}, issn = {0098-7484}, doi = {10.1001/jama.282.1.40}, author = {Haan, M N and Shemanski, L and Jagust, W J and Manolio, T A and Kuller, L} } @article {1521, title = {Stroke risk in an elderly population with atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {J Gen Intern Med}, volume = {14}, year = {1999}, month = {1999 Jan}, pages = {56-9}, abstract = {

Patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF) have an increased risk of stroke, but the absolute rate of stroke varies widely depending on coexistent vascular disease. We assessed the stroke rate and predictive value of two published schemes for stroke risk stratification in a population-derived cohort of 259 elderly people with nonvalvular AF followed for a median of 5.3 years. The rate of ischemic stroke was 2.8\% per year (95\% confidence interval [CI] 1.9, 3.9). Thirty-one percent were predicted to be at low risk, and their stroke rate was 1.7\% per year (95\% CI 0.6, 3.8). Many people with AF in this population-derived cohort had relatively low rates of stroke. Further studies to reliably stratify stroke risk in patients with AF are needed.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Cerebrovascular Disorders, Cohort Studies, Humans, Male, Poisson Distribution, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors}, issn = {0884-8734}, author = {Feinberg, W M and Kronmal, R A and Newman, A B and Kraut, M A and Bovill, E G and Cooper, L and Hart, R G} } @article {622, title = {Depressive symptoms and risks of coronary heart disease and mortality in elderly Americans. Cardiovascular Health Study Collaborative Research Group.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {102}, year = {2000}, month = {2000 Oct 10}, pages = {1773-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Several epidemiological studies have associated depressive symptoms with cardiovascular disease. We investigated whether depressive symptoms constituted a risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) and total mortality among an apparently healthy elderly cohort.

METHODS AND RESULTS: In a prospective cohort of 5888 elderly Americans (>/=65 years) who were enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study, 4493 participants who were free of cardiovascular disease at baseline provided annual information on their depressive status, which was assessed using the Depression Scale of the Center for Epidemiological Studies. These 4493 subjects were followed for 6 years for the development of CHD and mortality. The cumulative mean depression score was assessed for each participant up to the time of event (maximum 6-year follow-up). Using time-dependent, proportional-hazards models, the unadjusted hazard ratio associated with every 5-unit increase in mean depression score for the development of CHD was 1.15 (P:=0.006); the ratio for all-cause mortality was 1.29 (P:<0.0001). In multivariate analyses adjusted for age, race, sex, education, diabetes, hypertension, cigarette smoking, total cholesterol, triglyceride level, congestive heart failure, and physical inactivity, the hazard ratio for CHD was 1.15 (P:=0.006) and that for all-cause mortality was 1.16 (P:=0.006). Among participants with the highest cumulative mean depression scores, the risk of CHD increased by 40\% and risk of death by 60\% compared with those who had the lowest mean scores.

CONCLUSIONS: Among elderly Americans, depressive symptoms constitute an independent risk factor for the development of CHD and total mortality.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cohort Studies, Coronary Disease, Depression, Female, Humans, Male, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/01.cir.102.15.1773}, author = {Ariyo, A A and Haan, M and Tangen, C M and Rutledge, J C and Cushman, M and Dobs, A and Furberg, C D} } @article {617, title = {Estrogen use, APOE, and cognitive decline: evidence of gene-environment interaction.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {54}, year = {2000}, month = {2000 May 23}, pages = {1949-54}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: APOE-epsilon4 increases the risk of cognitive decline, while elderly women who take estrogen may have less risk of cognitive decline. The authors sought to determine whether estrogen use modifies the association between APOE-epsilon4 and cognitive decline.

METHOD: - As part of the Cardiovascular Health Study, 3,393 Medicare-eligible women (> or =65 years) were randomly selected and recruited from Sacramento County, CA; Washington County, MD; Forsyth County, NC; and Pittsburgh, PA. Cognitive testing was administered annually; the authors studied the 2,716 women with cognitive testing on > or =2 visits. They analyzed change in score on the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MS) as a function of estrogen use, APOE genotype, and baseline common and internal carotid artery wall thickening.

RESULTS: A total of 297 (11\%) women were current estrogen users and 336 (12\%) were past estrogen users. Over the 6-year average follow-up, baseline current users declined 1.5 points on the 3MS whereas never users declined 2.7 points (p = 0.023). Compared with epsilon4-negative women, epsilon4-positive women had a greater adjusted hazard ratio of cognitive impairment (3MS < 80), hazard risk [HR] = 1.47; 95\% CI, 1.13 to 1.90. There was an interaction between estrogen use and epsilon4 presence (p = 0.037). Among epsilon4-negative women, current estrogen use reduced the risk of adjusted cognitive impairment compared with never users by almost half (HR = 0.59; 95\% CI, 0.36 to 0.99), whereas, it did not reduce the risk among epsilon4-positive women (current use, HR = 1.33; 95\% CI, 0.74 to 2.42). Compared with never use, current estrogen use was associated with less internal and common carotid wall thickening in epsilon4-negative women but not in epsilon4-positive women (p for interaction < 0.05 for both). Differences remained after adjusting for age, education, race, and stroke.

CONCLUSIONS: Estrogen use was associated with less cognitive decline among epsilon4-negative women but not epsilon4-positive women. Potential mechanisms, including carotid atherosclerosis, by which epsilon4 may interact with estrogen and cognition warrant further investigation.

}, keywords = {Aged, Alzheimer Disease, Apolipoprotein E4, Apolipoproteins E, Carotid Stenosis, Estrogen Replacement Therapy, Female, Genotype, Humans, Mental Status Schedule, Neuropsychological Tests, Risk Factors}, issn = {0028-3878}, doi = {10.1212/wnl.54.10.1949}, author = {Yaffe, K and Haan, M and Byers, A and Tangen, C and Kuller, L} } @article {1528, title = {Neurologic correlates of infarction-like lesion location on magnetic resonance imaging in the cardiovascular health study}, journal = {J. Stroke Cerebrovascular Disease}, volume = {9}, year = {2000}, month = {2000-01-01}, pages = {228}, chapter = {218}, abstract = {Objective: To evaluate and quantify the associations of infarction-like lesion location in the brain with cognitive and physical impairment in an elderly population. Methods: Data from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans for 3647 Cardiovascular Health Study participants were analyzed. Associations between infarction-like lesion location and various neurologic and performance-based measurements were assessed by using regression models. Continuous responses were expressed in percentiles. Models excluding participants with a history of stroke were also examined. Results: Brainstem infarction-like lesions were associated with a severely reduced Mini-Mental State Examination score (difference [d] = 15 percentiles, P < .001), reduced digit-symbol score (d = 12 percentiles, P < .01), increased time to walk 15 feet (d = 15 percentiles, P < .001), and increased odds of a history of dizziness (odds ratio [OR] = 2.5, P <.01). Basal ganglia infarctions were associated with an increased prevalence of visual field deficits (OR = 1.8, P <.001), and cerebellar white matter infarction-like lesions with an increased prevalence of a history of coma (OR = 4.0, P < .01). For those with infarction-like lesions in both the cerebral cortex and brainstem, the degree of sleepiness was substantially elevated (d = 34 percentiles, P < .01). No associations with a history of migraines were detected. After exclusion of those with stroke history, all of these associations persisted. Conclusion: The estimated magnitude and statistical significance of these associations relative to those with no infarction-like lesions provides new information. Further investigation for some of the associations, such as the role of the brainstem in cognitive function and the association of basal ganglia infarction-like lesions with visual field deficits, would be worthwhile.}, keywords = {basal, Brain, Cerebral Cortex, ganglia, Health, history, Infarction, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, methods, Odds Ratio, Population, Prevalence, Stroke}, author = {McClelland, RL and Kronmal, RA and Bryan, RN and Manolio, TA and Herskovits, EH and Kuller, LH and O{\textquoteright}Leary, DH} } @article {620, title = {Rates of sensor loss in unattended home polysomnography: the influence of age, gender, obesity, and sleep-disordered breathing.}, journal = {Sleep}, volume = {23}, year = {2000}, month = {2000 Aug 01}, pages = {682-8}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate study failure and sensor loss in unattended home polysomnography and their relationship to age, gender, obesity, and severity of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB).

DESIGN: A cross-sectional analysis of data gathered prospectively for the Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS).

SETTING: Unattended polysomnography was performed in participants{\textquoteright} homes by the staff of the sites that are involved in SHHS.

PARTICIPANTS: 6,802 individuals who met the inclusion criteria (age >40 years, no history of treatment of sleep apnea, no tracheostomy, no current home oxygen therapy) for SHHS.

RESULTS: A total of 6802 participants had 7151 studies performed. 6161 of 6802 initial studies (90.6\%) were acceptable. Obesity was associated with a decreased likelihood of a successful initial study. After one or more attempts, 6440 participants (94.7\%) had studies that were judged as acceptable. The mean duration of scorable signals for specific channels ranged from 5.7 to 6.8 hours. The magnitudes of the effects of age, gender, BMI, and RDI on specific signal durations were not clinically significant.

CONCLUSION: Unattended home PSG as performed for SHHS was usually successful. Participant characteristics had very weak associations with duration of scorable signal. This study suggests that unattended home PSG, when performed with proper protocols and quality controls, has reasonable success rates and signal quality for the evaluation of SDB in clinical and research settings.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Cross-Sectional Studies, Electroencephalography, Electromyography, Electrooculography, Equipment Failure, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Polysomnography, Prospective Studies, Severity of Illness Index, Sex Factors, Sleep Apnea Syndromes}, issn = {0161-8105}, author = {Kapur, V K and Rapoport, D M and Sanders, M H and Enright, P and Hill, J and Iber, C and Romaniuk, J} } @article {614, title = {Tobacco, hypertension, and vascular disease: risk factors for renal functional decline in an older population.}, journal = {Kidney Int}, volume = {57}, year = {2000}, month = {2000 May}, pages = {2072-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: A decline in renal function with age has been noted in some but not all individuals. The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors associated with a clinically significant increase in serum creatinine (of at least 0.3 mg/dL) in an older nondiabetic population.

METHODS: A retrospective case-control study was performed analyzing data obtained from 4142 nondiabetic participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study Cohort, all at least 65 years of age, who had two measurements of serum creatinine performed at least three years apart. Cases were identified as participants who developed an increase in serum creatinine of at least 0.3 mg/dL, with controls including participants who did not sustain such an increase.

RESULTS: There was an increase in the serum creatinine of at least 0.3 mg/dL in 2.8\% of the population. In a multivariate "best-fit" model adjusted for gender, weight, black race, baseline serum creatinine, and age, the following factors were associated with an increase in serum creatinine: number of cigarettes smoked per day, systolic blood pressure, and maximum internal carotid artery intimal thickness.

CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that three very preventable or treatable conditions-hypertension, smoking, and prevalent vascular disease, which are associated with large and small vessel disease-are highly associated with clinically important changes in renal function in an older population.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Aging, Cohort Studies, Creatinine, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Kidney, Male, Regression Analysis, Retrospective Studies, Risk Factors, Smoking, Vascular Diseases}, issn = {0085-2538}, doi = {10.1046/j.1523-1755.2000.00056.x}, author = {Bleyer, A J and Shemanski, L R and Burke, G L and Hansen, K J and Appel, R G} } @article {657, title = {Area characteristics and individual-level socioeconomic position indicators in three population-based epidemiologic studies.}, journal = {Ann Epidemiol}, volume = {11}, year = {2001}, month = {2001 Aug}, pages = {395-405}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: There is growing interest in incorporating area indicators into epidemiologic analyses. Using data from the 1990 U.S. Census linked to individual-level data from three epidemiologic studies, we investigated how different area indicators are interrelated, how measures for different sized areas compare, and the relation between area and individual-level social position indicators.

METHODS: The interrelations between 13 area indicators of wealth/income, education, occupation, and other socioenvironmental characteristics were investigated using correlation coefficients and factor analyses. The extent to which block-group measures provide information distinct from census tract measures was investigated using intraclass correlation coefficients. Loglinear models were used to investigate associations between area and individual-level indicators.

RESULTS: Correlations between area measures were generally in the 0.5--0.8 range. In factor analyses, six indicators of income/wealth, education, and occupation loaded on one factor in most geographic sites. Correlations between block-group and census tract measures were high (correlation coefficients 0.85--0.96). Most of the variability in block-group indicators was between census tracts (intraclass correlation coefficients 0.72--0.92). Although individual-level and area indicators were associated, there was evidence of important heterogeneity in area of residence within individual-level income or education categories. The strength of the association between individual and area measures was similar in the three studies and in whites and blacks, but blacks were much more likely to live in more disadvantaged areas than whites.

CONCLUSIONS: Area measures of wealth/income, education, and occupation are moderately to highly correlated. Differences between using census tract or block-group measures in contextual investigations are likely to be relatively small. Area and individual-level indicators are far from perfectly correlated and provide complementary information on living circumstances. Differences in the residential environments of blacks and whites may need to be taken into account in interpreting race differences in epidemiologic studies.

}, keywords = {Adult, Black or African American, Cardiovascular Diseases, Demography, Educational Status, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Humans, Income, Linear Models, Occupations, Risk Factors, Social Class, Social Environment, Socioeconomic Factors, Statistics, Nonparametric, United States, White People}, issn = {1047-2797}, doi = {10.1016/s1047-2797(01)00221-6}, author = {Diez-Roux, A V and Kiefe, C I and Jacobs, D R and Haan, M and Jackson, S A and Nieto, F J and Paton, C C and Schulz, R} } @article {656, title = {The association of bone mineral density and depression in an older population.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {49}, year = {2001}, month = {2001 Jun}, pages = {732-6}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between bone mineral density (BMD) and measurements of depression in an older population.

DESIGN: Population-based, cross-sectional study.

SETTING: Study subjects were participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a longitudinal, long-term, follow-up study, at the University of California Davis (Sacramento, California) and the University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) clinical centers.

PARTICIPANTS: A random sample of 1,566 Medicare enrollees age 65 and older enrolled in the CHS.

MEASUREMENTS: Total hip BMD, measured using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), after adjustment for multiple covariates, was compared with depression evaluated with the Center for Epidemiological Studies 10-item Depression Scale (CES-Dm). Risk factors for osteoporosis were compared in depressed and nondepressed participants. Potential correlates were entered into a regression model. Depression scores were compared in normal, osteopenic, and osteoporotic individuals.

RESULTS: Sixteen percent of participants were clinically depressed; 9\% had BMDs in the osteoporotic range. Mean BMD was 40 mg/cm2 lower in those with clinical depression. High CES-Dm scores were associated with lower BMD (P < .001) when adjusted for body mass index (BMI), age, kilocalories of activity, estrogen use, gender, race, smoking and drinking. When stratified by race, this remained true for all Caucasians (P < .01), all African Americans (P < .05), and when stratified by race and gender the association remained only for all Caucasian women (P < .001). In women and Caucasian men there was an increase in depression scores among individuals with osteoporotic-range BMDs.

CONCLUSIONS: A significant association was found between BMD and depressive symptoms after adjustment for osteoporosis risk factors. In Caucasians, depressive symptoms were associated with both osteoporotic and osteopenic levels of BMD. Causality cannot be ascribed, with only one measurement of BMD. We postulate that there may be an unmeasured third factor, such as an endogenous steroid, that is responsible for both low BMD and depression.

}, keywords = {Absorptiometry, Photon, Aged, Analysis of Variance, Black People, Body Mass Index, Bone Density, Bone Diseases, Metabolic, California, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depression, Energy Metabolism, Exercise, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Fractures, Bone, Humans, Linear Models, Male, Osteoporosis, Pennsylvania, Population Surveillance, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Radionuclide Imaging, Risk Factors, Sex Distribution, Single-Blind Method, White People}, issn = {0002-8614}, doi = {10.1046/j.1532-5415.2001.49149.x}, author = {Robbins, J and Hirsch, C and Whitmer, R and Cauley, J and Harris, T} } @article {640, title = {Associations of subclinical cardiovascular disease with frailty.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {56}, year = {2001}, month = {2001 Mar}, pages = {M158-66}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Frail health in old age has been conceptualized as a loss of physiologic reserve associated with loss of lean mass, neuroendocrine dysregulation, and immune dysfunction. Little work has been done to define frailty and describe the underlying pathophysiology.

METHODS: Frailty status was defined in participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a cohort of 5,201 community-dwelling older adults, based on the presence of three out of five clinical criteria. The five criteria included self-reported weight loss, low grip strength, low energy, slow gait speed, and low physical activity. We examined the spectrum of clinical and subclinical cardiovascular disease in those who were frail (3/5 criteria) or of intermediate frailty status (1 or 2/5 criteria), compared to those who were not frail (0/5). We hypothesized that the severity of frailty would be related to a higher prevalence of reported cardiovascular disease (CVD), as well as to a greater extent of CVD, measured by noninvasive testing.

RESULTS: Of 4,735 eligible participants, 2,289 (48\%) were not frail, 299 (6\%) were frail, and 2.147 (45\%) were of intermediate frailty status. Those who were frail were older (77.2 yrs) compared to those who were not frail (71.5 yrs) or intermediate (73.4 yrs) (p < .001). Frailty status was associated with clinical CVD and most strongly with congestive heart failure (odds ratio [OR] = 7.51 (95\% confidence interval [CI] = 4.66-12.12). In those without a history of a CVD event (n = 1.259), frailty was associated with many noninvasive measures of CVD. Those with carotid stenosis >75\% (adjusted OR = 3.41), ankle-arm index <0.8 (adjusted OR = 3.17) or 0.8-0.9 (adjusted OR = 2.01), major electrocardiography (ECG) abnormalities (adjusted OR = 1.58), greater left ventricular (LV) mass by echocardiography (adjusted OR = 1.16), and higher degree of infarct-like lesions in the brain (adjusted OR = 1.71), were more likely to be frail compared to those who were not frail. The overall associations of each of these noninvasive measures of CVD with frailty level were significant (all p < .05).

CONCLUSIONS: Cardiovascular disease was associated with an increased likelihood of frail health. In those with no history of CVD, the extent of underlying cardiovascular disease measured by carotid ultrasound and ankle-arm index, LV hypertrophy by ECG and echocardiography, was related to frailty. Infarct-like lesions in the brain on magnet resonance imaging were related to frailty as well.

}, keywords = {Aged, Ankle, Arm, Black or African American, Blood Pressure, Brain, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carotid Artery Diseases, Cerebral Infarction, Cerebrovascular Disorders, Cohort Studies, Echocardiography, Electrocardiography, Frail Elderly, Health Status, Heart Failure, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, United States, Vascular Diseases}, issn = {1079-5006}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/56.3.m158}, author = {Newman, A B and Gottdiener, J S and McBurnie, M A and Hirsch, C H and Kop, W J and Tracy, R and Walston, J D and Fried, L P} } @article {665, title = {Brachial flow-mediated vasodilator responses in population-based research: methods, reproducibility and effects of age, gender and baseline diameter.}, journal = {J Cardiovasc Risk}, volume = {8}, year = {2001}, month = {2001 Oct}, pages = {319-28}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Brachial artery ultrasound has been proposed as an inexpensive, accurate way to assess cardiovascular risk in populations. However, analysis and interpretation of these data are not uniform.

METHODS: We analysed the relationship between relative and absolute changes in brachial artery diameter in response to flow-mediated dilation and age, gender and baseline diameter among 4,040 ultrasound examinations from subjects aged 14 to 98 years.

RESULTS: Reproducibility studies demonstrated intra- and interreader and intrasubject correlations from 0.67 to 0.84 for repeated measures of per cent change in diameter. Per cent change in diameter after flow stimulus was 3.58 +/- 0.10\% (mean +/- standard deviation). Corresponding values for baseline diameter and absolute change in diameter were 4.43 +/- 0.87 mm and 0.15 +/- 0.01 mm, respectively. Baseline diameter and its variance were inversely related to per cent change in diameter (P< 0.001). In contrast, absolute change in diameter was more uniform throughout the range of baseline diameters. Baseline diameter was directly related, and per cent change in diameter inversely related, to age (P < 0.001 for all three measures). Time to maximum vasodilator response increased with age (P < 0.001). Women (n=2,315) had significantly larger per cent change in diameter than men (n=1,725) (P < 0.001). However, after adjustment for age and baseline diameter, per cent and absolute change were 5\% smaller in women than men (P < 0.05 for both). In multivariate analysis, age was overwhelmingly the most important determinant of absolute change in diameter (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: Automated analysis of brachial flow-mediated vasodilator responses is both feasible and reproducible in large-scale clinical and population-based research.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Blood Circulation, Brachial Artery, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Observer Variation, Population Surveillance, Reproducibility of Results, Sex Factors, Vasodilation, Vasodilator Agents}, issn = {1350-6277}, doi = {10.1177/174182670100800512}, author = {Herrington, D M and Fan, L and Drum, M and Riley, W A and Pusser, B E and Crouse, J R and Burke, G L and McBurnie, M A and Morgan, T M and Espeland, M A} } @article {670, title = {Estrogen replacement and brachial artery flow-mediated vasodilation in older women.}, journal = {Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol}, volume = {21}, year = {2001}, month = {2001 Dec}, pages = {1955-61}, abstract = {

It remains unclear whether estrogen therapy (with or without progestin) improves endothelial function in older postmenopausal women with or at risk for coronary heart disease. To address this issue, we analyzed brachial artery flow-mediated vasodilation in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a longitudinal study of cardiovascular risk factors in subjects over 65 years of age. At the tenth annual Cardiovascular Health Study examination, 1662 women returned for follow-up. Eighteen percent (n=291) were current users of estrogen replacement, most of whom (75.9\%, n=221) took unopposed estrogen. Brachial artery ultrasound examinations measuring vasodilation in response to a flow stimulus (hyperemia) were performed on 1636 women. There were no statistical differences in brachial flow-mediated vasodilator responses between users and nonusers, even after adjustment for potential confounders. Absence of an effect was most notable in women over 80 years old and in those with established cardiovascular disease. However, among women without clinical or subclinical cardiovascular disease or its risk factors, there was a significant association between hormone replacement therapy use and flow-mediated vasodilator responses (P=0.01). Among older postmenopausal women, favorable vascular effects of estrogen may be limited to those who have not yet developed atherosclerotic vascular disease. These data emphasize the importance of ongoing efforts to determine the role of hormone replacement therapy for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Analysis of Variance, Brachial Artery, Cardiovascular Diseases, Drug Therapy, Combination, Estrogen Replacement Therapy, Estrogens, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Progestins, Risk Factors, Ultrasonography, Vasodilation}, issn = {1524-4636}, doi = {10.1161/hq1201.100241}, author = {Herrington, D M and Espeland, M A and Crouse, J R and Robertson, J and Riley, W A and McBurnie, M A and Burke, G L} } @article {639, title = {Frailty in older adults: evidence for a phenotype.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {56}, year = {2001}, month = {2001 Mar}, pages = {M146-56}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Frailty is considered highly prevalent in old age and to confer high risk for falls, disability, hospitalization, and mortality. Frailty has been considered synonymous with disability, comorbidity, and other characteristics, but it is recognized that it may have a biologic basis and be a distinct clinical syndrome. A standardized definition has not yet been established.

METHODS: To develop and operationalize a phenotype of frailty in older adults and assess concurrent and predictive validity, the study used data from the Cardiovascular Health Study. Participants were 5,317 men and women 65 years and older (4,735 from an original cohort recruited in 1989-90 and 582 from an African American cohort recruited in 1992-93). Both cohorts received almost identical baseline evaluations and 7 and 4 years of follow-up, respectively, with annual examinations and surveillance for outcomes including incident disease, hospitalization, falls, disability, and mortality.

RESULTS: Frailty was defined as a clinical syndrome in which three or more of the following criteria were present: unintentional weight loss (10 lbs in past year), self-reported exhaustion, weakness (grip strength), slow walking speed, and low physical activity. The overall prevalence of frailty in this community-dwelling population was 6.9\%; it increased with age and was greater in women than men. Four-year incidence was 7.2\%. Frailty was associated with being African American, having lower education and income, poorer health, and having higher rates of comorbid chronic diseases and disability. There was overlap, but not concordance, in the cooccurrence of frailty, comorbidity, and disability. This frailty phenotype was independently predictive (over 3 years) of incident falls, worsening mobility or ADL disability, hospitalization, and death, with hazard ratios ranging from 1.82 to 4.46, unadjusted, and 1.29-2.24, adjusted for a number of health, disease, and social characteristics predictive of 5-year mortality. Intermediate frailty status, as indicated by the presence of one or two criteria, showed intermediate risk of these outcomes as well as increased risk of becoming frail over 3-4 years of follow-up (odds ratios for incident frailty = 4.51 unadjusted and 2.63 adjusted for covariates, compared to those with no frailty criteria at baseline).

CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a potential standardized definition for frailty in community-dwelling older adults and offers concurrent and predictive validity for the definition. It also finds that there is an intermediate stage identifying those at high risk of frailty. Finally, it provides evidence that frailty is not synonymous with either comorbidity or disability, but comorbidity is an etiologic risk factor for, and disability is an outcome of, frailty. This provides a potential basis for clinical assessment for those who are frail or at risk, and for future research to develop interventions for frailty based on a standardized ascertainment of frailty.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cohort Studies, Disabled Persons, Fatigue, Female, Frail Elderly, Humans, Incidence, Male, Muscle Weakness, Phenotype, Prevalence, Sex Distribution, United States, Weight Loss}, issn = {1079-5006}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/56.3.m146}, author = {Fried, L P and Tangen, C M and Walston, J and Newman, A B and Hirsch, C and Gottdiener, J and Seeman, T and Tracy, R and Kop, W J and Burke, G and McBurnie, M A} } @article {653, title = {Involvement in caregiving and adjustment to death of a spouse: findings from the caregiver health effects study.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {285}, year = {2001}, month = {2001 Jun 27}, pages = {3123-9}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Most deaths in the United States occur among older persons who have 1 or more disabling conditions. As a result, many deaths are preceded by an extended period during which family members provide care to their disabled relative.

OBJECTIVE: To better understand the effect of bereavement on family caregivers by examining predeath vs postdeath changes in self-reported and objective health outcomes among elderly persons providing varying levels of care prior to their spouse{\textquoteright}s death.

DESIGN AND SETTING: Prospective, population-based cohort study conducted in 4 US communities between 1993 and 1998.

PARTICIPANTS: One hundred twenty-nine individuals aged 66 to 96 years whose spouse died during an average 4-year follow-up. Individuals were classified as noncaregivers (n = 40), caregivers who reported no strain (n = 37), or strained caregivers (n = 52).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Changes in depression symptoms (assessed by the 10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression [CES-D] scale), antidepressant medication use, 6 health risk behaviors, and weight among the 3 groups of participants.

RESULTS: Controlling for age, sex, race, education, prevalent cardiovascular disease at baseline, and interval between predeath and postdeath assessments, CES-D scores remained high but did not change among strained caregivers (9.44 vs 9.19; P =.76), while these scores increased for both noncaregivers (4.74 vs 8.25; F(1,116) = 14.33; P<.001) and nonstrained caregivers (4.94 vs 7.13; F(1,116) = 4.35; P =.04). Noncaregivers were significantly more likely to be using nontricyclic antidepressant medications following the death than the nonstrained caregiver group (odds ratio [OR], 12.85; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-162.13; P =.05). The strained caregiver group experienced significant improvement in health risk behaviors following the death of their spouse (1.47 vs 0.66 behaviors; F(1,118) = 20.23; P<.001), while the noncaregiver and nonstrained caregiver groups showed little change (0.27 vs 0.27 [P =.99] and 0.46 vs 0.27 [P =.39] behaviors, respectively). Noncaregivers experienced significant weight loss following the death (149.1 vs 145.3 lb [67.1 vs 65.4 kg]; F(1,101) = 8.12; P =.005), while the strained and nonstrained caregiving groups did not show significant weight change (156.2 vs 155.2 lb [70.3 vs 69.8 kg] [P =.41] and 156.2 vs 154.0 lb [70.3 vs 69.3 kg] [P =.12], respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that the impact of losing one{\textquoteright}s spouse among older persons varies as a function of the caregiving experiences that precede the death. Among individuals who are already strained prior to the death of their spouse, the death itself does not increase their level of distress. Instead, they show reductions in health risk behaviors. Among noncaregivers, losing one{\textquoteright}s spouse results in increased depression and weight loss.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Antidepressive Agents, Bereavement, Caregivers, Death, Depression, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Health Behavior, Humans, Male, Socioeconomic Factors, Spouses, Weight Loss}, issn = {0098-7484}, doi = {10.1001/jama.285.24.3123}, author = {Schulz, R and Beach, S R and Lind, B and Martire, L M and Zdaniuk, B and Hirsch, C and Jackson, S and Burton, L} } @article {661, title = {The relation of markers of inflammation to the development of glucose disorders in the elderly: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Diabetes}, volume = {50}, year = {2001}, month = {2001 Oct}, pages = {2384-9}, abstract = {

Several studies suggest that inflammation plays a role in the pathogenesis of some glucose disorders in adults. We tested this hypothesis in a longitudinal cohort study of older individuals who had normal fasting glucose (FG) values at baseline. We compared the baseline levels of six inflammatory markers in participants who had developed glucose disorders at follow-up with those of participants whose FG remained normal at follow-up. Participants were members of the Cardiovascular Health Study, a prospective study of risk factors for cardiovascular disease in adults > or =65 years. All 5,888 participants had baseline testing, including FG and markers of inflammation: white blood cell and platelet counts and albumin, fibrinogen, C-reactive protein (CRP), and factor VIIIc levels. At 3-4 years of follow-up, 4,481 (84.5\%) of those who were alive had FG levels retested. Participants who developed diabetes (n = 45) had higher median levels of CRP at baseline than those who remained normoglycemic. On multivariate analysis, those with elevated CRP levels (75th percentile [2.86 mg/l] vs. 25th percentile [0.82 mg/l]) were 2.03 times (95\% confidence intervals, 1.44-2.86) more likely to have diabetes on follow-up. Adjustment for confounders and other inflammatory markers did not appreciably change this finding. There was no relationship between the development of diabetes and other markers of inflammation. Inflammation, as measured by CRP levels, is associated with the development of diabetes in the elderly. Understanding the role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of glucose disorders in this age-group may lead to better classification and treatment of glucose disorders among them.

}, keywords = {Aged, Biomarkers, Blood Glucose, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Humans, Hypoglycemia, Inflammation, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Reference Values, Risk Factors}, issn = {0012-1797}, doi = {10.2337/diabetes.50.10.2384}, author = {Barzilay, J I and Abraham, L and Heckbert, S R and Cushman, M and Kuller, L H and Resnick, H E and Tracy, R P} } @article {635, title = {Risk factors for hospitalized gastrointestinal bleeding among older persons. Cardiovascular Health Study Investigators.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {49}, year = {2001}, month = {2001 Feb}, pages = {126-33}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: We sought to estimate the incidence of hospitalization for upper and lower gastrointestinal bleeding among older persons and to identify independent risk factors.

DESIGN: Prospective cohort study.

SETTING: The Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS).

PARTICIPANTS: 5,888 noninstitutionalized men and women age 65 years or older in four U.S. communities enrolled in the CHS.

MEASUREMENTS: Gastrointestinal bleeding events during the period 1989 through 1998 were identified using hospital discharge diagnosis codes and confirmed by medical records review. Risk-factor information was collected in a standardized fashion at study baseline and annually during follow-up.

RESULTS: Among CHS participants (mean baseline age 73.3 years, 42\% male), the incidence of hospitalized gastrointestinal bleeding was 6.8/1,000 person-years. In multivariate analyses, advanced age, male sex, unmarried status, cardiovascular disease, difficulty with daily activities, use of multiple medications, and use of oral anticoagulants were independent risk factors. Compared with nonsmokers, subjects who smoked more than half a pack per day had a multivariate-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 2.14 (95\% confidence interval [CI] = 1.22-3.75) for upper gastrointestinal bleeding and a multivariate-adjusted HR of 0.21 (95\% CI = 0.03-1.54) for lower gastrointestinal bleeding. Aspirin users did not have an elevated risk of upper gastrointestinal bleeding (HR = 0.76, 95\% CI = 0.52-1.11), and users of other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs had a HR of 1.54 (95 \% CI = 0.99-2.36). Low ankle-arm systolic blood pressure index was associated with higher risk of gastrointestinal bleeding among subjects with clinical cardiovascular disease but not among those without clinical cardiovascular disease.

CONCLUSION: This study identifies risk factors for gastrointestinal bleeding, such as disability, that may be amenable to modification. The findings will help clinicians to identify older persons who are at high risk for gastrointestinal bleeding.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Age Distribution, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal, Anticoagulants, Aspirin, Cardiovascular Diseases, Female, Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage, Hospitalization, Humans, Incidence, Male, Multivariate Analysis, Predictive Value of Tests, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Smoking, United States}, issn = {0002-8614}, doi = {10.1046/j.1532-5415.2001.49032.x}, author = {Kaplan, R C and Heckbert, S R and Koepsell, T D and Furberg, C D and Polak, J F and Schoen, R E and Psaty, B M} } @article {683, title = {Weight change in old age and its association with mortality.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {49}, year = {2001}, month = {2001 Oct}, pages = {1309-18}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: Previous studies of weight change and mortality in older adults have relied on self-reported weight loss, have not evaluated weight gain, or have had limited information on health status. Our objective was to determine whether 5\% weight gain or loss in 3 years was predictive of mortality in a large sample of older adults.

DESIGN: Longitudinal observational cohort study.

SETTING: Four U.S. communities.

PARTICIPANTS: Four thousand seven hundred fourteen community-dwelling older adults, age 65 and older.

MEASUREMENTS: Weight gain or loss of 5\% in a 3-year period was examined in relationship to baseline health status and interim health events. Risk for subsequent mortality was estimated in those with weight loss or weight gain compared with the group whose weight was stable.

RESULTS: Weight changes occurred in 34.6\% of women and 27.3\% of men, with weight loss being more frequent than gain. Weight loss was associated with older age, black race, higher weight, lower waist circumference, current smoking, stroke, any hospitalization, death of a spouse, activities of daily living disability, lower grip strength, and slower gait speed. Weight loss but not weight gain of 5\% or more was associated with an increased risk of mortality that persisted after multivariate adjustment (Hazard ratio (HR) = 1.67, 95\% CI = 1.29-2.15) and was similar in those with no serious illness in the period of weight change. Those with weight loss and low baseline weight had the highest crude mortality rate, although the HR for weight loss was similar for all tertiles of baseline weight and for those with or without a special diet, compared with those whose weight was stable.

CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms that even modest decline in body weight is an important and independent marker of risk of mortality in older adults.

}, keywords = {Aged, Analysis of Variance, Body Weight, Chi-Square Distribution, Female, Health Status, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Mortality, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, United States, Weight Gain, Weight Loss}, issn = {0002-8614}, doi = {10.1046/j.1532-5415.2001.49258.x}, author = {Newman, A B and Yanez, D and Harris, T and Duxbury, A and Enright, P L and Fried, L P} } @article {711, title = {Angiotensin II type 1 receptor polymorphisms in the cardiovascular health study: relation to blood pressure, ethnicity, and cardiovascular events.}, journal = {Am J Hypertens}, volume = {15}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 Dec}, pages = {1050-6}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The angiotensin II type 1 receptor A1166C polymorphism has been associated with increased risks of hypertension and myocardial infarction in several small studies. We examined the association between this polymorphism and new-onset hypertension, blood pressure (BP) control, and incident cardiovascular events in a large population-based cohort of older adults.

METHODS: Eight hundred self-identified African Americans and 1,371 randomly selected white participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study were genotyped. The median duration of follow-up was 8.1 years.

RESULTS: The A1166C polymorphism was not associated with new-onset hypertension, with BP control, or with incident cardiovascular events in the overall population. In white participants, the CC genotype was associated with higher baseline systolic BP and pulse pressure, compared to the AC or AA genotype. In whites with treated hypertension at baseline, compared to the AA genotype, the CC genotype was associated with increased risks of incident congestive heart failure (hazard ratio = 2.5, 95\% confidence interval [CI] 1.3-4.9) and incident ischemic stroke (hazard ratio = 2.6, 95\% CI 1.1-6.0). These associations were not observed among white participants without treated hypertension, but the interaction of genotype with treated hypertension on ischemic stroke and heart failure was only marginally significant.

CONCLUSIONS: On the whole, in this large cohort of older adults, the A1166C polymorphism was not associated with BP control or incident cardiovascular events. The subgroup findings in treated hypertensives need to be confirmed in additional studies.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Diseases, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Frequency, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Polymorphism, Genetic, Receptor, Angiotensin, Type 1, Receptors, Angiotensin, United States}, issn = {0895-7061}, doi = {10.1016/s0895-7061(02)03063-7}, author = {Hindorff, Lucia A and Heckbert, Susan R and Tracy, Russell and Tang, Zhonghua and Psaty, Bruce M and Edwards, Karen L and Siscovick, David S and Kronmal, Richard A and Nazar-Stewart, Valle} } @article {689, title = {Calcium channel blocker use and gastrointestinal tract bleeding among older adults.}, journal = {Age Ageing}, volume = {31}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 May}, pages = {217-8}, keywords = {Aged, Antihypertensive Agents, Calcium Channel Blockers, Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage, Geriatric Assessment, Health Services for the Aged, Humans, Hypertension, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors}, issn = {0002-0729}, doi = {10.1093/ageing/31.3.217}, author = {Kaplan, Robert C and Heckbert, Susan R and Koepsell, Thomas D and Rosendaal, Frits R and Furberg, Curt D and Cooper, Lawton S and Psaty, Bruce M} } @article {691, title = {Cardiovascular risk factors and venous thromboembolism incidence: the longitudinal investigation of thromboembolism etiology.}, journal = {Arch Intern Med}, volume = {162}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 May 27}, pages = {1182-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The association between traditional cardiovascular risk factors and risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) has not been extensively examined in prospective studies.

METHODS: To determine whether atherosclerotic risk factors are also associated with increased incidence of VTE, we conducted a prospective study of 19 293 men and women without previous VTE in 6 US communities between 1987 and 1998.

RESULTS: There were 215 validated VTE events (1.45 per 1000 person-years) during a median of 8 years of follow-up. The age-adjusted hazard ratio was 1.4 (95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.1-1.9) for men vs women, 1.6 (95\% CI, 1.2-2.2) for blacks vs whites, and 1.7 (95\% CI, 1.5-2.0) per decade of age. Cigarette smoking, hypertension, dyslipidemia, physical inactivity, and alcohol consumption were not associated with risk of VTE. Age-, race-, and sex-adjusted hazard ratios for body mass index categories (calculated as the weight in kilograms divided by the height in meters squared) of less than 25, 25 to less than 30, 30 to less than 35, 35 to less than 40, and 40 or more were 1.0, 1.5, 2.2, 1.5, and 2.7, respectively (P<.001 for the trend). Diabetes was also associated with an increased risk of VTE (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.5 [95\% CI, 1.0-2.1]).

CONCLUSIONS: Our data showing no relationship of some arterial risk factors with VTE corroborate the view that the etiology of VTE differs from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. In addition, the findings suggest a hypothesis that avoidance of obesity and diabetes or vigilance in prophylaxis in patients with those conditions may prevent some venous thromboses.

}, keywords = {Aged, Arteriosclerosis, Female, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Multivariate Analysis, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Pulmonary Embolism, Risk Factors, United States, Venous Thrombosis}, issn = {0003-9926}, doi = {10.1001/archinte.162.10.1182}, author = {Tsai, Albert W and Cushman, Mary and Rosamond, Wayne D and Heckbert, Susan R and Polak, Joseph F and Folsom, Aaron R} } @article {716, title = {Coagulation factors, inflammation markers, and venous thromboembolism: the longitudinal investigation of thromboembolism etiology (LITE).}, journal = {Am J Med}, volume = {113}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 Dec 01}, pages = {636-42}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: We sought to assess prospectively whether higher levels of blood coagulation factors and inflammation markers are risk factors for venous thromboembolism.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS: In two pooled population-based cohort studies, we measured levels of factor VII, factor VIII, von Willebrand factor, fibrinogen, and C-reactive protein, and white blood cell count, in samples obtained from 19,237 adults with no baseline history of venous thromboembolism, cancer, or warfarin use. The endpoint was validated venous thromboembolism during follow-up (median, 7.8 years).

RESULTS: A total of 159 venous thromboembolism events occurred. Factor VIII and von Willebrand factor were linearly associated with increased risk of venous thromboembolism (P for trend <0.0001). As compared with those in the lowest quartile, the multivariate-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of venous thromboembolism was 2.6 (95\% confidence interval [CI]: 1.6 to 4.3) for factor VIII levels in the highest quartile and 3.8 (95\% CI: 2.0 to 7.2) for the highest fifth percentile. For von Willebrand factor, the hazard ratios in middle-aged subjects were 4.6 (95\% CI: 2.2 to 9.2) for the highest quartile and 7.6 (95\% CI: 3.1 to 18) for the highest fifth percentile. Factor VII levels above the 95th percentile, as compared with the lowest quartile, also conveyed a higher risk of venous thromboembolism (HR = 2.4; 95\% CI: 1.2 to 4.8). In contrast, there was no association of venous thromboembolism with fibrinogen or C-reactive protein levels, or white cell count.

CONCLUSIONS: In this prospective study, elevated factor VIII and von Willebrand factor levels were common, independent, and dose-dependent risk factors for venous thromboembolism, and an elevated factor VII level was a possible risk factor. Venous thromboembolism, unlike arterial disease, was not related to inflammatory markers.

}, keywords = {Aged, Biomarkers, Blood Coagulation Factors, C-Reactive Protein, Cohort Studies, Confidence Intervals, Factor VII, Female, Fibrinogen, Humans, Inflammation Mediators, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Multivariate Analysis, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Sensitivity and Specificity, Thromboembolism, Venous Thrombosis, von Willebrand Factor}, issn = {0002-9343}, doi = {10.1016/s0002-9343(02)01345-1}, author = {Tsai, Albert W and Cushman, Mary and Rosamond, Wayne D and Heckbert, Susan R and Tracy, Russell P and Aleksic, Nena and Folsom, Aaron R} } @article {675, title = {Fasting and 2-hour postchallenge serum glucose measures and risk of incident cardiovascular events in the elderly: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Arch Intern Med}, volume = {162}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 Jan 28}, pages = {209-16}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The contributions of fasting and 2-hour postchallenge glucose level to cardiovascular events remain ill-defined, especially for nondiabetic adults. This study examined the relative predictive power of fasting and 2-hour glucose level on cardiovascular event risk.

METHODS: A total of 4014 community-dwelling adults 65 years or older who participated in the baseline visit of the Cardiovascular Health Study and who were without treated diabetes or previous myocardial infarction or stroke were eligible for analyses. Participants with treated diabetes at baseline were excluded. Incident myocardial infarction or stroke, or coronary death, was the outcome of interest. Age-, sex-, and race-adjusted proportional hazards regression models described individual and joint associations between baseline measures of fasting and 2-hour postchallenge glucose level and event risk.

RESULTS: There were 764 incident cardiovascular events during 8.5 years of follow-up. Fasting glucose level of 115 mg/dL (6.4 mmol/L) or more was associated with an increased cardiovascular risk (hazard ratio [HR], 1.66 [95\% confidence interval (CI), 1.39-1.98]) in adjusted analyses compared with fasting glucose level less than 115 mg/dL. Two-hour glucose level was associated with a linear risk (HR, 1.02 [95\% CI, 1.00-1.04] per 10 mg/dL [0.6 mmol/L]) that included an additional increase in risk for 2-hour glucose level of 154 mg/dL (8.5 mmol/L) or more (HR, 1.29 [95\% CI, 1.04-1.59]) in adjusted analyses. In joint fasting and 2-hour glucose models, only 2-hour glucose level remained predictive of event risk.

CONCLUSIONS: Two-hour glucose level was better than fasting glucose level alone at identifying older adults at increased risk of major incident cardiovascular events.

}, keywords = {Aged, Blood Glucose, Cardiovascular Diseases, Fasting, Female, Glucose Tolerance Test, Humans, Male, Myocardial Infarction, Predictive Value of Tests, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Assessment, Stroke}, issn = {0003-9926}, doi = {10.1001/archinte.162.2.209}, author = {Smith, Nicholas L and Barzilay, Joshua I and Shaffer, Douglas and Savage, Peter J and Heckbert, Susan R and Kuller, Lewis H and Kronmal, Richard A and Resnick, Helaine E and Psaty, Bruce M} } @article {709, title = {Frailty and activation of the inflammation and coagulation systems with and without clinical comorbidities: results from the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Arch Intern Med}, volume = {162}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 Nov 11}, pages = {2333-41}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The biological basis of frailty has been difficult to establish owing to the lack of a standard definition, its complexity, and its frequent coexistence with illness.

OBJECTIVE: To establish the biological correlates of frailty in the presence and absence of concurrent cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus.

METHODS: Participants were 4735 community-dwelling adults 65 years and older. Frail, intermediate, and nonfrail subjects were identified by a validated screening tool and exclusion criteria. Bivariate relationships between frailty level and physiological measures were evaluated by Pearson chi2 tests for categorical variables and analysis of variance F tests for continuous variables. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to evaluate multivariable relationships between frailty status and physiological measures.

RESULTS: Of 4735 Cardiovascular Health Study participants, 299 (6.3\%) were identified as frail, 2147 (45.3\%) as intermediate, and 2289 (48.3\%) as not frail. Frail vs nonfrail participants had increased mean +/- SD levels of C-reactive protein (5.5 +/- 9.8 vs 2.7 +/- 4.0 mg/L), factor VIII (13 790 +/- 4480 vs 11 860 +/- 3460 mg/dL), and, in a smaller subset, D dimer (647 +/- 1033 vs 224 +/- 258 ng/mL) (P< or =.001 for all, chi2 test for trend). These differences persisted when individuals with cardiovascular disease and diabetes were excluded and after adjustment for age, sex, and race.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings support the hypothesis that there is a specific physiological basis to the geriatric syndrome of frailty that is characterized in part by increased inflammation and elevated markers of blood clotting and that these physiological differences persist when those with diabetes and cardiovascular disease are excluded.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Blood Coagulation Disorders, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Diabetes Complications, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Frail Elderly, Geriatric Assessment, Humans, Inflammation, Longitudinal Studies, Male}, issn = {0003-9926}, doi = {10.1001/archinte.162.20.2333}, author = {Walston, Jeremy and McBurnie, Mary Ann and Newman, Anne and Tracy, Russell P and Kop, Willem J and Hirsch, Calvin H and Gottdiener, John and Fried, Linda P} } @article {685, title = {Glucose, blood pressure, and lipid control in older people with and without diabetes mellitus: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {50}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 Mar}, pages = {416-23}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence of cardiovascular risk-factor treatment and control in older adults with normal fasting glucose, impaired fasting glucose, and diabetes mellitus and whether those with diabetes mellitus had better risk factor control than older adults with normal fasting glucose.

DESIGN: Secondary analysis of data from population-based, prospective cohort study of risk factors for cardio-vascular and cerebrovascular disease in older people (Cardiovascular Health Study).

SETTING: Community-based.

PARTICIPANTS: Community-dwelling adults aged 65 and older.

MEASUREMENTS: Fasting plasma glucose, serum cholesterol and its subfractions, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, and body mass index.

RESULTS: There were 579 (18\%) cohort members with diabetes mellitus (77\% receiving antidiabetic medication, 23\% with fasting glucose > or =126 mg/dL and no treatment), 213 (6\%) with impaired fasting glucose, and 2,582 (77\%)with normal fasting glucose. Of diabetic participants, 12\% had recommended fasting glucose levels of less than 110 mg/dL. Of participants with hypertension, a larger proportion of diabetic participants than nondiabetic participants (89\% versus 75\%, P < .01) was treated with antihypertensive agents, but a smaller proportion of diabetic participants had recommended blood pressure levels of 129/85 mmHg or lower than nondiabetic participants had recommended blood pressure levels of 139/89 mmHg or lower (27\% vs 48\%, P < .01). Diabetic dyslipidemic participants were treated less often with lipid-lowering therapy (26\% versus 55\%, P < .01) and achieved recommended low-density lipoprotein goals less often (8\%versus 54\%, P < .01) than nondiabetic dyslipidemic participants.

CONCLUSIONS: Overall, treatment and control of cardiovascular risk factors were suboptimal in this older population, especially among those with diabetes mellitus. Optimizing risk-factor control can improve health outcomes in older adults with and without diabetes mellitus.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Blood Glucose, Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cholesterol, LDL, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diabetes Complications, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Humans, Male, Prevalence, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors}, issn = {0002-8614}, doi = {10.1046/j.1532-5415.2002.50103.x}, author = {Smith, Nicholas L and Savage, Peter J and Heckbert, Susan R and Barzilay, Joshua I and Bittner, Vera A and Kuller, Lewis H and Psaty, Bruce M} } @article {713, title = {In the elderly, interleukin-6 plasma levels and the -174G>C polymorphism are associated with the development of cardiovascular disease.}, journal = {Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol}, volume = {22}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 Dec 01}, pages = {2066-71}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Interleukin (IL)-6-mediated inflammation is involved in cardiovascular disease (CVD). We assessed IL-6 levels and the -174G>C genotype in a case-control study of men and women (average age 73 years) within the Cardiovascular Health Study.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Cases included incident angina, myocardial infarction (MI), and stroke (5-year follow-up), prevalent MI, and MRI-detectable infarcts. A control group and a group free of subclinical CVD were used for comparison. The -174C allele was associated with higher C-reactive protein (11\% higher, P=0.02), fibrinogen (3\% higher, P=0.02), and IL-6 (5\% higher; P=0.16). IL-6 was associated with increased atherosclerosis when the control group was compared with the group free of subclinical CVD. No further association with CVD events was found when case groups were compared with the control group. Compared with its absence, presence of the -174C allele was associated with risk of MRI infarcts (odds ratio 1.5).

CONCLUSIONS: IL-6 levels differentiated those with subclinical CVD from those without. Although the -174C allele was not associated with incident events, associations of the genotype with inflammation and MRI infarcts, combined with the plasma IL-6 results, suggest that IL-6 may chronically predispose an individual to develop atherosclerosis.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Case-Control Studies, Cytosine, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Guanine, Health Surveys, Humans, Inflammation, Interleukin-6, Linear Models, Male, Polymorphism, Genetic, Predictive Value of Tests, Promoter Regions, Genetic}, issn = {1524-4636}, doi = {10.1161/01.atv.0000040224.49362.60}, author = {Jenny, Nancy S and Tracy, Russell P and Ogg, Malcolm S and Luong, Le Ahn and Kuller, Lewis H and Arnold, Alice M and Sharrett, A Richey and Humphries, Steve E} } @article {678, title = {Inflammation and coagulation factors in persons > 65 years of age with symptoms of depression but without evidence of myocardial ischemia.}, journal = {Am J Cardiol}, volume = {89}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 Feb 15}, pages = {419-24}, abstract = {

Depression is associated with increased cardiovascular disease, but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. This study examines associations of depressive symptoms with inflammation and coagulation factors in persons aged > 65 years. Blood samples were obtained from 4,268 subjects free of cardiovascular disease (age 72.4 +/- 5.5 years, 2,623 women). Inflammation markers were C-reactive protein (CRP), white blood cell (WBC) count, total platelet count, and albumin; coagulation factors included factors VIIc and VIIIc and fibrinogen. Depression was assessed with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale, and states of energy depletion with a validated exhaustion index. Statistical adjustments were made for risk factors (age, sex, race, systolic blood pressure, smoking status, diabetes mellitus) and physical measures of frailty (isometric handgrip, timed 15-feet walk test, activity level). Depression was associated with elevated CRP (3.31 +/- 0.10 vs 3.51 +/- 0.21 mg/L), WBC (6.14 +/- 0.03 vs 6.43 +/- 0.11 10(6)/L), fibrinogen (319 +/- 1 vs 326 +/- 3 mg/dl), and factor VIIc (124.6 +/- 0.6\% vs 127.2 +/- 1.3\%; all p <0.05). Exhaustion also was related to elevated inflammation and coagulation markers (p < 0.05). Exhausted men had markedly elevated CRP levels (6.82 +/- 2.10 mg/L) versus nonexhausted men (3.05 +/- 0.16: p = 0.007). After adjustment for control variables, exhaustion remained associated with albumin (p = 0.033), fibrinogen (p = 0.017), CRP (p = 0.066), and WBC (p = 0.060), whereas associations of depressive symptoms with biochemistry measures lost statistical significance. Thus, depression and exhaustion are associated with low-grade inflammation and elevated coagulation factors in persons aged > 65 years.

}, keywords = {Aged, Blood Chemical Analysis, Blood Coagulation Factors, Cardiovascular Diseases, Depression, Female, Humans, Inflammation, Male, Risk Factors}, issn = {0002-9149}, doi = {10.1016/s0002-9149(01)02264-0}, author = {Kop, Willem J and Gottdiener, John S and Tangen, Catherine M and Fried, Linda P and McBurnie, Mary Ann and Walston, Jeremy and Newman, Anne and Hirsch, Calvin and Tracy, Russell P} } @article {700, title = {Prevalence of renovascular disease in the elderly: a population-based study.}, journal = {J Vasc Surg}, volume = {36}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 Sep}, pages = {443-51}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: The purpose of this investigation was to estimate the population-based prevalence of renovascular disease (RVD), defined as > or = 60\% diameter-reducing renal artery stenosis or occlusion, and to define its associations with age, gender, race, and other potential risk factors among participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS).

METHODS: The CHS is a multicenter, longitudinal cohort study of cardiovascular disease risk factors, morbidity, and mortality among free-living adults of more than 65 years of age. As part of an ancillary investigation, participants in the Forsyth County cohort of the CHS were invited to undergo renal duplex sonography (RDS) to define the presence or absence of RVD. RVD was defined as stenosis with a focal renal artery peak systolic velocity exceeding 1.8 m/s in the main renal artery and defined as occlusion when an imaged renal artery lacked a Doppler signal. Demographic and atherosclerotic risk factor data were gathered as part of the baseline CHS examination. Univariable tests of association were performed with chi(2) and Student t tests and logistic regression analysis. Multivariate associations were examined with logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS: Eight hundred seventy CHS participants underwent RDS. Of these examinations, 834 (96\%) were technically adequate to define the presence or absence of RVD. The RDS study cohort had a mean age of 77.2 +/- 4.9 years and consisted of 63\% women and 37\% men. Participant race was 76\% white and 23\% African American. The overall prevalence rate of RVD was 6.8\%. Among the 57 patients with RVD, 50 (88\%) had unilateral disease and seven (12\%) had bilateral disease. Seven cases were seen of renal artery occlusion, including one case with contralateral renal artery stenosis. The mean ages of patients with and without RVD were 78.7 +/- 5.7 years and 77.1 +/- 4.9 years (P =.018). RVD was present in 5.5\% of women and 9.1\% of men (P =.053). RVD was present in 6.9\% of white participants and 6.7\% of African American participants (P =.933). Multivariate analysis revealed increasing participant age (P =.028; odds ratio, 1.34; 95\% CI, 1.03, 1.73), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels of less than 40 mg/dL (P =.003; odds ratio, 2.63; 95\% CI, 1.40, 4.93), and increasing systolic blood pressure (P =.007; odds ratio, 1.44; 95\% CI, 1.10, 1.87) to be significantly and independently associated with the presence of RVD.

CONCLUSION: This investigation provides the first population-based estimate of the prevalence of RVD among free-living, elderly black and white Americans. RVD was present in 6.8\% of the study cohort. RVD showed no association with ethnicity. However, its presence was significantly and independently associated with increasing age, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, and increasing systolic blood pressure.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cohort Studies, Ethnic Groups, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Prevalence, Prospective Studies, Renal Artery, Renal Artery Obstruction, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Ultrasonography, Doppler, Duplex}, issn = {0741-5214}, doi = {10.1067/mva.2002.127351}, author = {Hansen, Kimberley J and Edwards, Matthew S and Craven, Timothy E and Cherr, Gregory S and Jackson, Sharon A and Appel, Richard G and Burke, Gregory L and Dean, Richard H} } @article {710, title = {Prospective study of the G20210A polymorphism in the prothrombin gene, plasma prothrombin concentration, and incidence of venous thromboembolism.}, journal = {Am J Hematol}, volume = {71}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 Dec}, pages = {285-90}, abstract = {

Case-control studies have indicated increased risk of venous thrombosis associated with the prothrombin gene G20210A polymorphism and with elevated plasma prothrombin levels. We sought to confirm these results in a prospective population-based study of 21,690 persons. We measured G20210A and prothrombin antigen on pre-event blood samples of 302 participants who developed venous thromboembolism (VTE) and 626 participants who remained free of VTE. Approximately 4.0\% of cases and 2.4\% of controls carried the G20210A polymorphism, but only one of 137 African Americans did. The odds ratio in whites was 1.87 (95\% CI = 0.85, 4.11)--higher for those who reported a prior history of VTE (OR = 5.44) than those reporting no VTE history (OR = 1.41) and in those with idiopathic VTE (OR = 2.51) than those with secondary VTE (OR = 1.38). There was no association between venous thromboembolism and plasma prothrombin antigen level. We estimated that the G20210A polymorphism may account for approximately 2.5\% of venous thromboembolism events in United States whites.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Age Factors, Aged, Case-Control Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genotype, Humans, Incidence, Middle Aged, Odds Ratio, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prospective Studies, Prothrombin, Recurrence, Research Design, Risk Factors, Thromboembolism, United States}, issn = {0361-8609}, doi = {10.1002/ajh.10229}, author = {Folsom, Aaron R and Cushman, Mary and Tsai, Michael Y and Heckbert, Susan R and Aleksic, Nena} } @article {684, title = {A prospective study of venous thromboembolism in relation to factor V Leiden and related factors.}, journal = {Blood}, volume = {99}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 Apr 15}, pages = {2720-5}, abstract = {

The aim of this study was to examine the occurrence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in relation to factor V-related risk factors. Using a nested case-control design combining 2 population-based prospective studies, we measured factor V Leiden, HR2 haplotype, activated protein C (APC) resistance, and plasma factor V antigen in 335 participants who developed VTE during 8 years of follow-up and 688 controls. The overall odds ratio (OR) of VTE was 3.67 (95\% CI, 2.20-6.12) in participants carrying factor V Leiden compared with noncarriers. APC resistance measured after predilution with factor V-deficient plasma conferred an OR of 2.58 (95\% CI, 1.62-4.10). All 3 participants homozygous for the HR2 haplotype had a VTE, and the OR of VTE for homozygosity was estimated to be 5.5 (95\% CI, 2.45-12.5). Carriers of the HR2 haplotype otherwise were not at increased risk of VTE overall (OR = 1.05; 95\% CI, 0.64-1.72), but double heterozygotes for HR2 and factor V Leiden carried an OR of idiopathic VTE of 16.3 (95\% CI, 1.7-159) compared with noncarriers. Factor V antigen also was not associated with VTE overall, but for participants with the combination of high factor V antigen plus factor V Leiden the OR of idiopathic VTE was 11.5 (95\% CI, 4.2-31.4). In the general population, APC resistance and factor V Leiden were important VTE risk factors; homozygosity for the HR2 haplotype may be a risk factor but was rare; otherwise, HR2 haplotype and factor V antigen were not risk factors except in carriers of factor V Leiden.

}, keywords = {Activated Protein C Resistance, Aged, Cohort Studies, Continental Population Groups, Factor V, Genotype, Haplotypes, Humans, Incidence, Longitudinal Studies, Middle Aged, Odds Ratio, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Thromboembolism, Venous Thrombosis}, issn = {0006-4971}, doi = {10.1182/blood.v99.8.2720}, author = {Folsom, Aaron R and Cushman, Mary and Tsai, Michael Y and Aleksic, Nena and Heckbert, Susan R and Boland, Lori L and Tsai, Albert W and Yanez, N David and Rosamond, Wayne D} } @article {674, title = {The relation of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease to retinopathy in people with diabetes in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Br J Ophthalmol}, volume = {86}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 Jan}, pages = {84-90}, abstract = {

AIMS: To describe the association of retinopathy with atherosclerosis and atherosclerotic risk factors in people with diabetes.

METHODS: 296 of the 558 people classified as having diabetes by the American Diabetes Association criteria, from a population based cohort of adults (ranging in age from 69 to 102 years) living in four United States communities (Allegheny County, Pennsylvania; Forsyth County, North Carolina; Sacramento County, California; and Washington County, Maryland) were studied from 1997 to 1998. Lesions typical of diabetic retinopathy were determined by grading a 45 degrees colour fundus photograph of one eye of each participant, using a modification of the Airlie House classification system.

RESULTS: Retinopathy was present in 20\% of the diabetic cohort, with the lowest prevalence (16\%), in those 80 years of age or older. Retinopathy was detected in 20.3\% of the 296 people with diabetes; 2.7\% of the 296 had signs of proliferative retinopathy and 2.1\% had signs of macular oedema. The prevalence of diabetic retinopathy was higher in black people (35.4\%) than white (16.0\%). Controlling for age, sex, and blood glucose, retinopathy was more frequent in black people than white (odds ratio (OR) 2.26, 95\% confidence interval (CI) 1.01, 5.05), in those with longer duration of diabetes (OR (per 5 years of diabetes) 1.42, 95\% CI 1.18, 1.70), in those with subclinical cardiovascular disease (OR 1.49, 95\% CI 0.51, 4.31), or coronary heart disease or stroke (OR 3.23, 95\% CI 1.09, 9.56) than those without those diseases, in those with higher plasma low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (OR (per 10 mg/dl of LDL cholesterol) 1.12, 95\% CI 1.02, 1.23), and in those with gross proteinuria (OR 4.76, 95\% CI 1.53, 14.86).

CONCLUSION: Data from this population based study suggest a higher prevalence of retinopathy in black people than white people with diabetes and the association of cardiovascular disease, elevated plasma LDL cholesterol, and gross proteinuria with diabetic retinopathy. However, any conclusions or explanations regarding associations described here must be made with caution because only about one half of those with diabetes mellitus were evaluated.

}, keywords = {Age of Onset, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Arteriosclerosis, Black People, Blood Pressure, Cohort Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Diabetic Retinopathy, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Odds Ratio, Prospective Studies, Regression Analysis, Risk Factors, Time Factors, White People}, issn = {0007-1161}, doi = {10.1136/bjo.86.1.84}, author = {Klein, Ronald and Marino, Emily K and Kuller, Lewis H and Polak, Joseph F and Tracy, Russell P and Gottdiener, John S and Burke, Gregory L and Hubbard, Larry D and Boineau, Robin} } @article {688, title = {The relationship between chronically disrupted sleep and healthcare use.}, journal = {Sleep}, volume = {25}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 May 01}, pages = {289-96}, abstract = {

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To determine whether chronic sleep deprivation, sleep disruption, sleepiness, insomnia, and OSA are associated with increased healthcare use in a community-based population.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.

SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: 6440 Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS) participants recruited from ongoing cohort studies.

INTERVENTIONS: N/A.

MEASUREMENTS: Polysomnography results (Apnea Hypopnea Index (AHI), percent of sleep time with oxyhemoglobin saturation below 90\% (CT90), arousal index) as well as data on sleep related symptoms, medication use, and chronic illness. The indirect measure of predicted healthcare utilization was the modified Chronic Disease Score (CDS) calculated from medication data.

RESULTS: After adjustment for age, gender, BMI and study site, subjects in the highest quartiles of AHI, CT90 and Epworth score had CDS that were 6\%-9\% higher than the lowest quartiles. The adjusted mean CDS for subjects with sleep apnea was similar to that for subjects with hypertension, chronic bronchitis or asthma and 18\% greater than the mean CDS for subjects without sleep apnea. Among subjects who did not have significant sleep-disordered breathing, complaints of insomnia, sleepiness, fatigue, and not getting enough sleep were associated with increased CDS.

CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated an association between subjective complaints of daytime sleepiness, inadequate sleep time, insomnia as well as objective measures of severity of SDB, and an indirect measure of healthcare utilization in a community-based sample. Though the percent increases in healthcare utilization observed were modest, the prevalence of these factors in the general population is high, and may therefore be associated with a substantial cost burden to the healthcare system.

}, keywords = {Adult, Chronic Disease, Cohort Studies, Community Health Services, Cross-Sectional Studies, Disorders of Excessive Somnolence, Female, Health Status, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Patient Acceptance of Health Care, Polysomnography, Prevalence, Severity of Illness Index, Sleep Apnea, Obstructive, Sleep Deprivation}, issn = {0161-8105}, author = {Kapur, Vishesh K and Redline, Susan and Nieto, F Javier and Young, Terry B and Newman, Anne B and Henderson, Jeffrey A} } @article {699, title = {Retinal microvascular abnormalities and blood pressure in older people: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Br J Ophthalmol}, volume = {86}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 Sep}, pages = {1007-13}, abstract = {

AIM: To examine the relation between blood pressure and retinal microvascular abnormalities in older people.

METHODS: The Cardiovascular Health Study is a prospective cohort study conducted in four US communities initiated in 1989 to 1990. Blood pressure was measured according to standardised protocols at each examination. During the 1997-8 examination, retinal photographs were taken of 2405 people aged 69-97 years (2056 without diabetes and 349 with diabetes). Signs of focal microvascular abnormalities (focal arteriolar narrowing, arteriovenous nicking, and retinopathy) were evaluated from photographs according to standardised methods. To quantify generalised arteriolar narrowing, the photographs were digitised and diameters of individual arterioles were measured and summarised.

RESULTS: In non-diabetic people, elevated concurrent blood pressure taken at the time of retinal photography was strongly associated with presence of all retinal microvascular lesions. The multivariable adjusted odds ratios, comparing the highest to lowest quintile of concurrent systolic blood pressure, were 4.0 (95\% confidence intervals (CI): 2.4 to 6.9, p test of trend<0.001) for focal arteriolar narrowing, 2.9 (95\% CI: 1.6 to 5.3, p<0.001) for arteriovenous nicking, 2.8 (95\% CI: 1.5 to 5.2, p<0.001) for retinopathy, and 2.1 (95\% CI: 1.4 to 3.1, p<0.001) for generalised arteriolar narrowing. Generalised arteriolar narrowing and possibly arteriovenous nicking were also significantly associated with past blood pressure measured up to 8 years before retinal photography, even after adjustment for concurrent blood pressure. These associations were somewhat weaker in people with diabetes.

CONCLUSIONS: Retinal microvascular abnormalities are related to elevated concurrent blood pressure in older people. Additionally, generalised retinal arteriolar narrowing and possibly arteriovenous nicking are related to previously elevated blood pressure, independent of concurrent blood pressure. These data suggest that retinal microvascular changes reflect severity and duration of hypertension.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Blood Pressure, Cohort Studies, Diabetic Retinopathy, Eye, Female, Humans, Male, Microcirculation, Prospective Studies, Retina, Retinal Diseases}, issn = {0007-1161}, doi = {10.1136/bjo.86.9.1007}, author = {Wong, T Y and Hubbard, L D and Klein, R and Marino, E K and Kronmal, R and Sharrett, A R and Siscovick, D S and Burke, G and Tielsch, J M} } @article {695, title = {Therapy with hydroxymethylglutaryl coenzyme a reductase inhibitors (statins) and associated risk of incident cardiovascular events in older adults: evidence from the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Arch Intern Med}, volume = {162}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 Jun 24}, pages = {1395-400}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Recommendations to treat older adults with hydroxymethylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) for the primary prevention of coronary heart disease events are supported by a single clinical trial restricted to adults 73 years or younger with low levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

METHODS: We investigated the association of statin use with incident cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality during up to 7.3 years{\textquoteright} follow-up of 1250 women and 664 men from the Cardiovascular Health Study. Study participants were 65 years and older and free of cardiovascular disease at baseline. They received drug therapy to lower cholesterol levels at baseline or no treatment with a recommendation for therapy according to the National Cholesterol Education Program guidelines. Use of these drugs was assessed annually. We used proportional-hazards models to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95\% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusted for confounding variables.

RESULTS: We found 382 incident cardiovascular events (159 myocardial infarctions, 159 strokes, and 64 deaths due to coronary heart disease) and 362 total deaths from June 1, 1989, to May 31, 1997. Compared with no use of drugs to lower cholesterol levels, statin use was associated with decreased risk of cardiovascular events (multivariate HR, 0.44; 95\% CI, 0.27-0.71) and all-cause mortality (HR, 0.56; 95\% CI, 0.36-0.88). Similar associations were observed among participants 74 years or older at baseline.

CONCLUSIONS: Use of statins was associated with decreased risk of incident cardiovascular events among elderly adults. These findings lend support to the National Cholesterol Education Program guidelines, which recommend therapy for the lowering of cholesterol levels for older adults with hypercholesterolemia.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cholesterol, LDL, Coronary Disease, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors, Hypercholesterolemia, Hypolipidemic Agents, Incidence, Male, Multivariate Analysis, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {0003-9926}, doi = {10.1001/archinte.162.12.1395}, author = {Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Psaty, Bruce M and Heckbert, Susan R and Kronmal, Richard A and Newman, Anne B and Burke, Gregory L} } @article {708, title = {Time trends in high blood pressure control and the use of antihypertensive medications in older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Arch Intern Med}, volume = {162}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 Nov 11}, pages = {2325-32}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Control of high blood pressure (BP) in older adults is an important part of public health efforts at prevention.

OBJECTIVE: To assess recent time trends in the awareness, treatment, and control of high BP and in the use of medications to treat high BP.

METHODS: In the Cardiovascular Health Study, 5888 adults 65 years and older were recruited from 4 US centers. At baseline, participants underwent an extensive examination that included the measurement of BP, use of medications, and other risk factors. Participants were followed up with annual visits that assessed BP and medication use from baseline in 1989-1990 through the examination in 1998-1999. The primary outcome measures were control of BP to levels lower than than 140/90 mm Hg and the prevalence of use of various classes of antihypertensive medications.

RESULTS: The awareness, treatment, and control of high BP improved during the 1990s. The proportions aware and treated were higher among blacks than whites, though control prevalences were similar. For both groups combined, the control of high BP to lower than 140/90 mm Hg increased from 37\% at baseline to 49\% in 1999. The 51\% whose BP was not controlled generally had isolated mild to moderate elevations in systolic BP. Among treated persons, the improvement in control was achieved in part by a mean increase of 0.2 antihypertensive medications per person over the course of 9 years. Improved control was also achieved by increasing the proportion of the entire Cardiovascular Health Study population that was treated for hypertension, from 34.5\% in 1990 to 51.1\% in 1999. Time trends in antihypertensive drug use were pronounced. Among those without coronary disease, the use of low-dose diuretics and beta-blockers decreased, while the use of newer agents, such as calcium channel blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, and alpha-blockers increased.

CONCLUSIONS: While control of high BP improved in the 1990s, about half the participants with hypertension had uncontrolled BP, primarily mild to moderate elevations in systolic BP. Low-dose diuretics and beta-blockers--the preferred agents since 1993 according to the recommendations of the Joint National Committee on the Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure--remained underused. More widespread use of these agents will be an important intervention to prevent the devastating complications of hypertension, including stroke, myocardial infarction, and heart failure.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Antihypertensive Agents, Awareness, Cohort Studies, Drug Therapy, Female, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Prospective Studies, Time Factors}, issn = {0003-9926}, doi = {10.1001/archinte.162.20.2325}, author = {Psaty, Bruce M and Manolio, Teri A and Smith, Nicholas L and Heckbert, Susan R and Gottdiener, John S and Burke, Gregory L and Weissfeld, Joel and Enright, Paul and Lumley, Thomas and Powe, Neil and Furberg, Curt D} } @article {733, title = {Beta2-adrenergic receptor polymorphisms and risk of incident cardiovascular events in the elderly.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {107}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Apr 22}, pages = {2021-4}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genetic polymorphisms at codons 16 and 27 of the beta2-adrenergic receptor have been associated with altered response to sympathetic stimulation. We examined these polymorphisms in relation to cardiovascular event risk in the Cardiovascular Health Study.

METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 808 black and 4441 white participants (mean age, 73 years) were genotyped for the Arg16Gly and Gln27Glu polymorphisms of the beta2-adrenergic receptor. There were 702 incident coronary events, 438 ischemic strokes, and 1136 combined cardiovascular events during 7 to 10 years of follow-up. Allele frequencies differed by race but not by age or hypertension status. Glu27 carriers had a lower risk of coronary events than Gln27 homozygotes (hazard ratio, 0.82; 95\% CI, 0.70 to 0.95), and there was a suggestion of decreased risk among Gly16 carriers compared with Arg16 homozygotes (hazard ratio, 0.88; 95\% CI, 0.72 to 1.07). There was no association of beta2-adrenergic receptor genotype with ischemic stroke or combined cardiovascular events.

CONCLUSIONS: The Glu27 allele of the beta2-adrenergic receptor was associated with a lower risk of incident coronary events in this elderly population.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Alleles, Brain Ischemia, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Comorbidity, Coronary Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Follow-Up Studies, Gene Frequency, Humans, Incidence, Linkage Disequilibrium, Polymorphism, Genetic, Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-2, Risk Assessment, Stroke, United States}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/01.CIR.0000065231.07729.92}, author = {Heckbert, Susan R and Hindorff, Lucia A and Edwards, Karen L and Psaty, Bruce M and Lumley, Thomas and Siscovick, David S and Tang, Zhonghua and Durda, J Peter and Kronmal, Richard A and Tracy, Russell P} } @article {739, title = {Body composition in the elderly: the influence of nutritional factors and physical activity.}, journal = {J Nutr Health Aging}, volume = {7}, year = {2003}, month = {2003}, pages = {130-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Controversy exists regarding the relative contribution of diet and exercise to body composition. Few studies have examined these associations in the elderly, where changes occur in the body fat to muscle ratio.

OBJECTIVE: The primary objective of this paper is to determine whether energy intake or physical activity are associated with body composition. Secondly, to investigate whether specific macronutrients are associated with fat or lean tissue.

DESIGN: Data (n= 1404) for this cross-sectional analysis were collected from a population-based sub-sample of elderly enrollees in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). Dietary intake and physical activity were assessed by questionnaires. Body composition was measured by Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA). Linear regression models were used to assess the associations of diet and activity with body composition.

RESULTS: Total energy intake was not associated with any of the body composition measures. Higher dietary saturated fat was associated with higher percent body mass as fat and trunk fat in both sexes (p<0.01), and in men other dietary fats were associated with body fat. In women, distance walked was inversely associated with fat masses even after adjustment for pace of walking. In both sexes, faster pace of walking was associated with lower body and fat mass (p<0.01). Lean muscle mass was not associated with physical activity or dietary intakes.

CONCLUSION: Physical activity and dietary fat intake in this the elderly population were more closely associated with body fat mass than was total energy intake.

}, keywords = {Absorptiometry, Photon, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Body Composition, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diet, Dietary Carbohydrates, Dietary Fats, Dietary Proteins, Energy Intake, Exercise, Female, Humans, Male, Walking}, issn = {1279-7707}, author = {Mitchell, D and Haan, M N and Steinberg, F M and Visser, M} } @article {741, title = {C-reactive protein, carotid intima-media thickness, and incidence of ischemic stroke in the elderly: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {108}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Jul 15}, pages = {166-70}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Increased carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) and elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) are both associated with the occurrence of stroke. We investigated whether elevated CRP is a risk factor for ischemic stroke independent of carotid IMT and studied the interaction between CRP and IMT.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied 5417 participants aged 65 years or older without preexisting stroke or chronic atrial fibrillation who were participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study. The hazard ratio of incident ischemic stroke was estimated by Cox proportional hazards regression. During 10.2 years of follow-up, 469 incident ischemic strokes occurred. The adjusted hazard ratios for ischemic stroke in the 2nd to 4th quartiles of baseline CRP, relative to the 1st quartile, were 1.19 (95\% CI 0.92 to 1.53), 1.05 (95\% CI 0.81 to 1.37), and 1.60 (95\% CI 1.23 to 2.08), respectively. With additional adjustment for carotid IMT, there was little confounding. The association of CRP with stroke was significantly different depending on IMT (P<0.02), with no association of CRP with stroke among those in the lowest IMT tertile and a significant association among those with higher levels of IMT.

CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that elevated CRP is a risk factor for ischemic stroke, independent of atherosclerosis severity as measured by carotid IMT. The association of CRP with stroke is more apparent in the presence of a higher carotid IMT. CRP and carotid IMT may each be independent integrals in determining the risk of ischemic stroke.

}, keywords = {Aged, Brain Ischemia, C-Reactive Protein, California, Carotid Arteries, Cohort Studies, Comorbidity, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Maryland, North Carolina, Odds Ratio, Pennsylvania, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Stroke, Tunica Intima, Tunica Media, Ultrasonography}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/01.CIR.0000079160.07364.6A}, author = {Cao, Jie J and Thach, Chau and Manolio, Teri A and Psaty, Bruce M and Kuller, Lewis H and Chaves, Paulo H M and Polak, Joseph F and Sutton-Tyrrell, Kim and Herrington, David M and Price, Thomas R and Cushman, Mary} } @article {727, title = {Diabetes and sleep disturbances: findings from the Sleep Heart Health Study.}, journal = {Diabetes Care}, volume = {26}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Mar}, pages = {702-9}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that diabetes is independently associated with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), and in particular that diabetes is associated with sleep abnormalities of a central, rather than obstructive, nature.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Using baseline data from the Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS), we related diabetes to 1). the respiratory disturbance index (RDI; number of apneas plus hypopneas per h of sleep); 2). obstructive apnea index (OAI; >or=3 apneas/h of sleep associated with obstruction of the upper airway); 3). percent of sleep time < 90\% O(2) saturation; 4). central apnea index (CAI; >or=3 apneas [without respiratory effort]/h sleep); 5). occurrence of a periodic breathing (Cheyne Stokes) pattern; and 6) sleep stages. Initial analyses excluding persons with prevalent cardiovascular disease (CVD) were repeated including these participants.

RESULTS: Of the 5874 participants included in this report, 692 (11.8\%) reported diabetes or were taking oral hypoglycemic medications or insulin and 1002 had prevalent CVD. Among the 4872 persons without CVD, 470 (9.6\%) had diabetes. Diabetic participants had worse CVD risk factor profiles than their nondiabetic counterparts, including higher BMI, waist and neck circumferences, triglycerides, higher prevalence of hypertension, and lower HDL cholesterol (P < 0.001, all). Descriptive analyses indicated differences between diabetic and nondiabetic participants in RDI, sleep stages, sleep time <90\% O(2) saturation, CAI, and periodic breathing (P < 0.05, all). However, multivariable regression analyses that adjusted for age, sex, BMI, race, and neck circumference eliminated these differences for all sleep measures except percent time in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (19.0\% among diabetic vs. 20.1\% among nondiabetic subjects, P < 0.001) and prevalence of periodic breathing (odds ratio [OR] for diabetic subjects versus nondiabetic subjects 1.80, 95\% CI 1.02-3.15). Additionally, adjusted analyses showed diabetes was associated with nonstatistically significant elevations in the odds of an increased central breathing index (OR 1.42, 95\% CI 0.80-2.55). Addition to the analysis of the 1002 persons with prevalent CVD (including 222 people with diabetes) did not materially change these results.

CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that diabetes is associated with periodic breathing, a respiratory abnormality associated with abnormalities in the central control of ventilation. Some sleep disturbances may result from diabetes through the deleterious effects of diabetes on central control of respiration. The high prevalence of SDB in diabetes, although largely explained by obesity and other confounders, suggests the presence of a potentially treatable risk factor for CVD in the diabetic population.

}, keywords = {Aged, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Humans, Logistic Models, Male, Middle Aged, Multivariate Analysis, Prevalence, Risk Factors, Sleep Apnea Syndromes, Sleep Apnea, Obstructive}, issn = {0149-5992}, doi = {10.2337/diacare.26.3.702}, author = {Resnick, Helaine E and Redline, Susan and Shahar, Eyal and Gilpin, Adele and Newman, Anne and Walter, Robert and Ewy, Gordon A and Howard, Barbara V and Punjabi, Naresh M} } @article {718, title = {Early age-related maculopathy in the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Ophthalmology}, volume = {110}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Jan}, pages = {25-33}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To describe the prevalence of early age-related maculopathy (ARM) and its relation to atherosclerosis, lipids, hypertension, and inflammatory factors in a population studied for cardiovascular disease risk factors and outcomes.

DESIGN: Population-based cohort study.

PARTICIPANTS: A biracial population of 2361 adults (ranging from 69-97 years of age; 1998 whites and 363 blacks) living in four US counties (Allegheny County, Pennsylvania; Forsyth County, North Carolina; Sacramento County, California; and Washington County, Maryland) were examined during the interval from 1997 to 1998.

METHODS: Drusen and other lesions typical of ARM were identified by examining a 45 degrees color fundus photograph of one eye of each participant and classified by means of a modification of the Wisconsin Age-Related Maculopathy Grading System.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Early ARM.

RESULTS: Early ARM was present in 15.5\% and late ARM in 1.3\% of the cohort. The overall prevalence of any ARM was lower in blacks (9.1\%) compared with whites (18.2\%). While controlling for age, race, gender, and total calories consumed in the diet, factors associated with ARM were cerebral white matter disease as detected by magnetic resonance imaging (odds ratio [OR], 1.50; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.05, 2.16, P = 0.027), and lower serum total cholesterol (OR, per 10 mg/dl increase 0.95; 95\% CI, 0.91, 0.98, P = 0.02). There were no associations between hypertension, blood pressure, common carotid artery plaque, or any systemic inflammatory factors studied and early ARM.

CONCLUSIONS: This population-based study documents the higher prevalence of ARM in whites compared with blacks. Although an association was found between signs of white matter disease and early ARM, there was no evidence of an association of ARM with either hypertension or inflammatory factors.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Arteriosclerosis, Blood Pressure, C-Reactive Protein, California, Cohort Studies, Diet, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Leukocyte Count, Longitudinal Studies, Macular Degeneration, Male, Mid-Atlantic Region, North Carolina, Prevalence, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Serum Albumin}, issn = {0161-6420}, doi = {10.1016/s0161-6420(02)01565-8}, author = {Klein, Ronald and Klein, Barbara E K and Marino, Emily K and Kuller, Lewis H and Furberg, Curt and Burke, Gregory L and Hubbard, Larry D} } @article {706, title = {Fibrin fragment D-dimer and the risk of future venous thrombosis.}, journal = {Blood}, volume = {101}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Feb 15}, pages = {1243-8}, abstract = {

Plasma D-dimer concentration rises more than 100-fold during acute deep vein thrombosis, but there are no prospective data concerning D-dimer as a risk factor for incident venous thrombosis in a general population. Incident venous thrombosis was ascertained in 2 prospective observational studies, the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study and the Cardiovascular Health Study. Of 21 690 participants enrolled between 1987 and 1993, after 8 years of follow-up, D-dimer was measured using baseline stored plasma of 307 participants who developed venous thrombosis and 616 who did not. Relative to the first quintile of the distribution of D-dimer, the age-adjusted odds ratios for future venous thrombosis for the second to fifth quintiles of D-dimer were 1.6, 2.3, 2.3, and 4.2, respectively (P for trend <.0001). Following added adjustment for sex, race, body mass index, factor V Leiden, prothrombin 20210A, and elevated factor VIII coagulant activity (factor VIII:c), these odds ratios were 1.5, 2.1, 1.9, and 3.0, respectively (P for trend <.0001). Among those with idiopathic thrombosis or secondary thrombosis unrelated to cancer, the adjusted fifth quintile odds ratios were 3.5 and 4.8, respectively. By contrast, D-dimer in the fifth versus first quintile was not related to occurrence of cancer-associated thrombosis (odds ratio, 1.1). Odds ratios for elevated D-dimer were consistently elevated in subgroups defined by age, sex, race, duration of follow-up, and thrombosis type (deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolus). D-dimer is strongly and positively related to the occurrence of future venous thrombosis.

}, keywords = {Aged, Body Mass Index, Cohort Studies, Continental Population Groups, Factor V, Factor VIII, Female, Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Odds Ratio, Prospective Studies, Prothrombin, Risk Factors, Venous Thrombosis}, issn = {0006-4971}, doi = {10.1182/blood-2002-05-1416}, author = {Cushman, Mary and Folsom, Aaron R and Wang, Lu and Aleksic, Nena and Rosamond, Wayne D and Tracy, Russell P and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {740, title = {Hormone replacement therapy and the risk of incident congestive heart failure: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Womens Health (Larchmt)}, volume = {12}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 May}, pages = {341-50}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The development of congestive heart failure (CHF) in older persons is related to a variety of mechanisms. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) affects several of the pathways that may be important in the development of CHF. We hypothesized that HRT would be associated with a decreased risk of incident CHF.

METHODS: Using Cox proportional-hazards regression, we assessed the risk of incident CHF (n = 304) associated with time-dependent past and current use of HRT compared to never use. The Cardiovascular Health Study is a prospective cohort study of community-dwelling adults aged 65 years and older. This analysis included female participants without a history of CHF at baseline (n = 3223).

RESULTS: At baseline, 62\% were never users, 26\% were past users, and 12\% were current users of HRT. Compared with never users, the multivariable relative risk (RR) of CHF was 1.01 (95\% confidence interval [95\% CI] 0.76,1.34) for past users and 1.34 (0.93,1.94) for current users. Results were similar among most treatment and clinical subgroups, except that the association of current HRT with CHF appeared to depend on body mass index (BMI) or osteoporosis status. The RR was 0.82 (0.43,1.60) for normal weight women, 1.65 (0.95,2.88) for overweight women, and 2.22 (1.06,4.67) for obese women (p = 0.01 for interaction). Similarly, the RR was 0.15 (0.04,0.65) for women with osteoporosis and 1.82 (1.25,2.65) for women without osteoporosis (p = 0.001 for interaction).

CONCLUSIONS: Overall, HRT was not associated with the risk of incident CHF, although BMI and osteoporosis appeared to modify the association of HRT with CHF. The risk of CHF was lower in patients with lower BMI or osteoporosis.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Body Mass Index, Cohort Studies, Estrogen Replacement Therapy, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Incidence, Life Style, Middle Aged, Multivariate Analysis, Obesity, Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk, Risk Factors, United States, Women{\textquoteright}s Health}, issn = {1540-9996}, doi = {10.1089/154099903765448853}, author = {Rea, Thomas D and Psaty, Bruce M and Heckbert, Susan R and Cushman, Mary and Meilahn, Elaine and Olson, Jean L and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Smith, Nicholas L and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Chaves, Paulo H M} } @article {758, title = {Inflammation as a risk factor for atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {108}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Dec 16}, pages = {3006-10}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The presence of systemic inflammation determined by elevations in C-reactive protein (CRP) has been associated with persistence of atrial fibrillation (AF). The relationship between CRP and prediction of AF has not been studied in a large population-based cohort.

METHODS AND RESULTS: CRP measurement and cardiovascular assessment were performed at baseline in 5806 subjects enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study. Patients were followed up for a mean of 6.9+/-1.6 (median 7.8) years. AF was identified by self-reported history and ECGs at baseline and by ECGs and hospital discharge diagnoses at follow-up. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to assess CRP as a predictor of baseline and future development of AF. At baseline, 315 subjects (5\%) had AF. Compared with subjects in the first CRP quartile (<0.97 mg/L), subjects in the fourth quartile (>3.41 mg/L) had more AF (7.4\% versus 3.7\%, adjusted OR 1.8, 95\% CI 1.2 to 2.5; P=0.002). Of 5491 subjects without AF at baseline, 897 (16\%) developed AF during follow-up. Baseline CRP predicted higher risk for developing future AF (fourth versus first quartile adjusted hazard ratio 1.31, 95\% CI 1.08 to 1.58; P=0.005). When treated as a continuous variable, elevated CRP predicted increased risk for developing future AF (adjusted hazard ratio for 1-SD increase, 1.24; 95\% CI 1.11 to 1.40; P<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: CRP is not only associated with the presence of AF but may also predict patients at increased risk for future development of AF.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, C-Reactive Protein, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Inflammation, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Risk Factors}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/01.CIR.0000103131.70301.4F}, author = {Aviles, Ronnier J and Martin, David O and Apperson-Hansen, Carolyn and Houghtaling, Penny L and Rautaharju, Pentti and Kronmal, Richard A and Tracy, Russell P and Van Wagoner, David R and Psaty, Bruce M and Lauer, Michael S and Chung, Mina K} } @article {734, title = {The prevalence and risk factors of retinal microvascular abnormalities in older persons: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Ophthalmology}, volume = {110}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Apr}, pages = {658-66}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: To describe the prevalence of retinal microvascular characteristics and their associations with atherosclerosis in elderly, nondiabetic persons.

DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: Population-based, cross-sectional study comprising 2050 men and women aged 69 to 97 years without diabetes, living in four communities.

METHODS: Participants underwent retinal photography and standardized grading of retinal microvascular characteristics, including retinopathy (e.g., microaneurysms, retinal hemorrhages), focal arteriolar narrowing, and arteriovenous nicking. In addition, calibers of retinal arterioles and venules were measured on digitized photographs to obtain an estimate of generalized arteriolar narrowing. Atherosclerosis and its risk factors were obtained from clinical examination and laboratory investigations.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence of retinal microvascular abnormalities and their associations with measures of atherosclerosis.

RESULTS: The prevalence of retinal microvascular abnormalities was 8.3\% for retinopathy, 9.6\% for focal arteriolar narrowing, and 7.7\% for arteriovenous nicking. All retinal lesions were associated with hypertension (odds ratios [OR] were 1.8 for retinopathy, 2.1 for focal arteriolar narrowing, 1.5 for arteriovenous nicking, and 1.7 for generalized arteriolar narrowing). After controlling for age, gender, race, mean arterial blood pressure, and antihypertensive medication use, retinopathy was associated with prevalent coronary heart disease (OR, 1.7), prevalent myocardial infarction (OR, 1.7), prevalent stroke (OR, 2.0), presence of carotid artery plaque (OR, 1.9), and increased intima-media thickness of the common carotid (OR, 2.3; fourth vs. first quartile) and internal carotid (OR, 1.8; fourth vs. first quartile) arteries. In contrast, focal arteriolar narrowing, arteriovenous nicking, and generalized arteriolar narrowing were not associated with any measures of atherosclerosis.

CONCLUSIONS: Retinal microvascular abnormalities are common in older persons without diabetes and are related to hypertension. Retinopathy is associated with prevalent coronary heart disease, stroke, and carotid artery thickening, but focal and generalized arteriolar narrowing and arteriovenous nicking are not related to most measures of atherosclerosis. These data suggest that retinal microvascular abnormalities reflect processes associated with hypertension but distinct from atherosclerosis.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Blood Pressure, Coronary Artery Disease, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Prevalence, Retinal Diseases, Retinal Vessels, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {0161-6420}, doi = {10.1016/S0161-6420(02)01931-0}, author = {Wong, Tien Yin and Klein, Ronald and Sharrett, A Richey and Manolio, Teri A and Hubbard, Larry D and Marino, Emily K and Kuller, Lewis and Burke, Gregory and Tracy, Russell P and Polak, Joseph F and Gottdiener, John S and Siscovick, David S} } @article {744, title = {A prospective analysis of risk factors for white matter disease in the brain stem: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Neuroepidemiology}, volume = {22}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Sep-Oct}, pages = {275-82}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: White matter disease (WMD) in the brain stem may be a predictor of poor clinical outcome, independent of WMD in the periventricular and subcortical areas of the brain. Many cardiovascular risk factors such as older age, hypertension, and smoking have been suggested as risk factors for WMD in the periventricular and subcortical areas of the brain. However, no epidemiologic study has examined the associations between cardiovascular risk factors and WMD in the brain stem.

METHODS: A total of 789 participants, aged 65 years or older, from the Cardiovascular Health Study constituted the present study population. WMD, defined as hyperintensive lesions on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), in the brain stem was measured in 1992/1993 and 1997/1998.

RESULTS: Of the 789 participants, 212 (26.9\%) had WMD in the brain stem in 1997/1998. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, the presence of WMD in the brain stem in 1997/1998 was significantly associated with several variables measured in 1992/1993: an increase by 5 years of age (OR = 1.51, 95\% CI: 1.25-1.83), a 10-pack-years increase in smoking (OR = 1.12, 95\% CI: 1.04-1.21), a 0.1-liter increase in first-second forced expiratory volume (OR = 0.95, 95\% CI: 0.92-0.99), a 1 micromol/l increase in fibrinogen level (OR = 1.13, 95\% CI: 1.03-1.23), and MRI infarction (OR = 2.58, 95\% CI: 1.78-3.74). Excluding those (n = 167) with WMD in the brain stem in 1992/1993, the pattern remained. Hypertension was not associated with WMD in the brain stem.

CONCLUSIONS: Increased age, smoking, lower forced expiratory volume, increased fibrinogen level, and MRI infarction, but not hypertension, may be independent risk factors for WMD in the brain stem in older adults.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Brain Diseases, Brain Infarction, Brain Stem, Cardiovascular Diseases, Female, Fibrinogen, Forced Expiratory Volume, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Prospective Studies, Regression Analysis, Risk Factors, Smoking}, issn = {0251-5350}, doi = {10.1159/000071190}, author = {Ding, Jingzhong and Nieto, F Javier and Beauchamp, Norman J and Longstreth, W T and Manolio, Teri A and Hetmanski, Jacqueline B and Fried, Linda P} } @article {743, title = {Prospective study of fibrinolytic markers and venous thromboembolism.}, journal = {J Clin Epidemiol}, volume = {56}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Jun}, pages = {598-603}, abstract = {

Prior research has conflicted on whether increased levels of plasma fibrinolytic factors may identify patients at risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). We therefore performed a nested case-control study of VTE within two prospective population-based studies. In 308 participants who developed VTE and 640 controls, we measured PAI-1 antigen, tPA/PAI-1 complex, plasmin-alpha 2-antiplasmin (PAP), and the PAI-1 -675 4G/5G promoter polymorphism on pre-event blood samples. There was no overall association between any of these fibrinolytic variables and VTE, after adjustment for age or for multiple VTE risk factors. There was weak evidence for an interaction of PAP with elevated factor VIIIc and elevated D-dimer in augmenting VTE risk. We conclude that, for the most part, these fibrinolytic markers do not identify healthy subjects at risk for VTE.

}, keywords = {Aged, alpha-2-Antiplasmin, Antifibrinolytic Agents, Biomarkers, Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins, Case-Control Studies, Female, Fibrinolysin, Fibrinolysis, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Odds Ratio, Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor 1, Prognosis, Prospective Studies, Protein-Tyrosine Kinases, Risk Factors, Thromboembolism, Venous Thrombosis}, issn = {0895-4356}, doi = {10.1016/s0895-4356(03)00052-0}, author = {Folsom, Aaron R and Cushman, Mary and Heckbert, Susan R and Rosamond, Wayne D and Aleksic, Nena} } @article {742, title = {Prospective study of the A455V polymorphism in the thrombomodulin gene, plasma thrombomodulin, and incidence of venous thromboembolism: the LITE Study.}, journal = {J Thromb Haemost}, volume = {1}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Jan}, pages = {88-94}, abstract = {

Plasma thrombomodulin (soluble TM; sTM) is considered to be a marker of endothelial injury, but a recent report indicated that the relationship of sTM with thrombosis is complex. Venous thromboembolic events were identified in adults in two longitudinal cohort studies, the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study and the Cardiovascular Health Study, totaling 21 690 participants. After 8 years of follow-up, sTM was measured in baseline plasma of 305 participants who developed venous thrombosis and 607 who did not. Thrombomodulin A455V genotype was determined in 302 cases and 626 controls. There was no difference in the prevalence of the three TM genotypes between cases and controls and no difference in age-adjusted mean values of sTM by genotype. There were no associations of age-adjusted sTM or TMA455V genotype with overall venous thromboembolism or with thrombosis in any subtype of venous thromboembolism.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Amino Acid Substitution, Case-Control Studies, Female, Genotype, Humans, Incidence, Male, Polymorphism, Genetic, Prevalence, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Thromboembolism, Thrombomodulin, Venous Thrombosis}, issn = {1538-7933}, doi = {10.1046/j.1538-7836.2003.00029.x}, author = {Aleksic, N and Folsom, A R and Cushman, M and Heckbert, S R and Tsai, M Y and Wu, K K} } @article {736, title = {Recruitment of healthy adults into a study of overnight sleep monitoring in the home: experience of the Sleep Heart Health Study.}, journal = {Sleep Breath}, volume = {7}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Mar}, pages = {13-24}, abstract = {

The Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS) is a prospective cohort study using participants from several ongoing cardiovascular and respiratory disease research projects to investigate the relationship between sleep-disordered breathing and cardiovascular disease. This study design required unusual and different recruiting techniques to meet the study{\textquoteright}s enrollment goal of between 6000 and 6600 participants. Individuals were recruited to undergo an overnight home polysomnogram, completion of several questionnaires, and collection of a small amount of physical examination data. This article describes the methods used to recruit these participants and how these procedures influenced the final participation rate and the representativeness of SHHS to its parent cohorts. Of 30,773 people eligible for recruitment into SHHS, attempts were made to enroll 11,145 (36\%). Of those contacted, 6441 ultimately agreed to participate (58\%). Recruitment rates (38 to 91\%) varied among sites. SHHS participants were slightly younger (63.0 vs. 65.0 years, p < 0.001), had more years of education (14.1 vs. 13.7, p < 0.001), more likely to snore (34\% vs. 23\%, p < 0.001), had higher Epworth sleepiness scores (7.7 vs. 6.5, p < 0.001), slightly higher higher systolic and diastolic blood pressures (127.6/73.9 vs. 127.2/72.1, p < 0.001 for diastolic only), and a slightly higher body mass index (BMI) (28.5 vs. 27.5, p < 0.001). We conclude that it is feasible to recruit existing participants from one large-scale epidemiologic study into another with a high degree of success. However, the characteristics of the new cohort may vary in several respects from their original cohorts and therefore interpretation of study results will have to consider these differences.

}, keywords = {Adult, Body Mass Index, Cardiovascular Diseases, Catchment Area, Health, Circadian Rhythm, Cohort Studies, Disorders of Excessive Somnolence, Health Status, Home Care Services, Humans, Hypertension, Patient Selection, Polysomnography, Prospective Studies, Severity of Illness Index, Sleep Apnea Syndromes, Surveys and Questionnaires, United States}, issn = {1520-9512}, doi = {10.1007/s11325-003-0013-z}, author = {Lind, Bonnie K and Goodwin, James L and Hill, Joel G and Ali, Tauqeer and Redline, Susan and Quan, Stuart F} } @article {737, title = {Relationships between renovascular disease, blood pressure, and renal function in the elderly: a population-based study.}, journal = {Am J Kidney Dis}, volume = {41}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 May}, pages = {990-6}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to examine the associations between renovascular disease (RVD) and cross-sectional measures of blood pressure and renal function among participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS).

METHODS: The CHS is a prospective cohort study of cardiovascular disease among elderly Americans. As part of an ancillary study, participants in the Forsyth County, NC, cohort of the CHS were invited to undergo renal duplex sonography (RDS) to define the presence or absence of RVD (defined as any focal peak systolic velocity > or = 1.8 milliseconds or the absence of a Doppler shifted signal from an imaged artery). Demographic, risk factor, blood pressure, and serum creatinine data were obtained at the time of RDS and from the annual CHS examination.

RESULTS: Eight hundred thirty-four CHS participants (including 525 women [63\%], 309 men [37\%], 194 African Americans [23\%], and 635 Caucasians [76\%]) with a mean age of 77.2 +/- 4.9 years underwent successful RDS. RVD was present in 57 participants (6.8\%). When examined according to the presence or absence of RVD, significant univariate differences were observed in the prevalence of clinical hypertension (72\% versus 50\%; P = 0.001), systolic blood pressure (145 versus 136 mm Hg; P = 0.001), and renal insufficiency (16\% versus 8\%; P = 0.041). Multivariate analyses showed significant and independent associations for the presence of RVD with increasing systolic blood pressure (P = 0.034), clinical hypertension (odds ratio, 2.68; 95\% confidence interval, 1.44 to 4.99; P = 0.002), increasing serum creatinine level, and renal insufficiency (odds ratio, 2.21; 95\% confidence interval, 1.02 to 4.79; P = 0.043). A significant interaction was observed between the presence of RVD and increasing systolic blood pressure in association with increasing serum creatinine levels (P = 0.041).

CONCLUSION: These results suggest important population-based associations between RVD and cross-sectional measures of blood pressure and renal function. Furthermore, the observed relationship between RVD and increasing serum creatinine level was influenced strongly by increasing blood pressure.

}, keywords = {Aged, Blood Pressure, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Kidney, Kidney Diseases, Male, Prospective Studies, Ultrasonography, Doppler, Duplex, Vascular Diseases}, issn = {1523-6838}, doi = {10.1016/s0272-6386(03)00196-3}, author = {Edwards, Matthew S and Hansen, Kimberley J and Craven, Timothy E and Cherr, Gregory S and Bleyer, Anthony J and Burke, Gregory L and Dean, Richard H} } @article {724, title = {Risk factors for dementia in the cardiovascular health cognition study.}, journal = {Neuroepidemiology}, volume = {22}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Jan-Feb}, pages = {13-22}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The Cardiovascular Health Cognition Study has evaluated the determinants of dementia among 3,608 participants that had a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain in 1991 and were followed to 1998-1999.

METHODS: There were 480 incident dementia cases, 330 (69\%) were classified as Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD).

RESULTS: In univariate analysis, low scores on the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MSE) and on the Digit Symbol Substitution Test as well as declines in scores over time prior to the development of dementia were significant predictors of dementia. A high ventricular grade on the MRI (atrophy) as well as high white matter grade, a number of brain infarcts on the MRI were all determinants of dementia. Apolipoprotein E epsilon4 (Apo(E-4)) was also a powerful predictor of dementia. In a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model controlling for race, gender and grade, the hazard ratios for age (1.1), 3MSE score (0.9), ventricular size (1.4), white matter grade (1.8), presence of large infarcts >3 mm (1.3) and Apo(E-4) (2.1) were significant predictors of dementia. The combination of an Apo(E-4) genotype, 3MSE score <90, > or =5 ventricular grade, > or =3 white matter grade at the time of the MRI were associated with a 17-fold increased risk (95\% CI: 8.6-34.9) of dementia as compared to individuals with none of the above attributes.

CONCLUSIONS: Measures of cognition, Apo(E-4) and MRI of the brain are strong predictors of both dementia and of AD.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Apolipoproteins E, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cognition Disorders, Dementia, Female, Genotype, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Odds Ratio, Predictive Value of Tests, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors}, issn = {0251-5350}, doi = {10.1159/000067109}, author = {Kuller, Lewis H and Lopez, Oscar L and Newman, Anne and Beauchamp, Norman J and Burke, Greg and Dulberg, Corinne and Fitzpatrick, Annette and Fried, Linda and Haan, Mary N} } @article {726, title = {Serum homocysteine, thermolabile variant of methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), and venous thromboembolism: Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology (LITE).}, journal = {Am J Hematol}, volume = {72}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Mar}, pages = {192-200}, abstract = {

We sought to examine prospectively the association of serum homocysteine and the methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T gene polymorphism with risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). We studied these relationships in a nested case-control study of 303 VTE cases and 635 matched controls from a population-based cohort of 21,680 adults from six U.S. communities. The highest quintile of serum homocysteine carried a non-statistically significant adjusted odds ratio of 1.55 (95\% CI, 0.93-2.58) compared to the lowest quintile in the overall cohort but a significant association among adults aged 45-64 years (OR = 2.05, 95\% CI, 1.10-3.83) and an inverse association in those > or = 65 years of age. Carriers of the MTHFR C677T polymorphism were not at higher risk for VTE than those with normal genotype (OR = 0.74, 95\% CI = 0.56-0.98). Our prospective data showed, at most, a weak relationship between homocysteine and VTE risk, with associations larger among younger participants. MTHFR C677T was not a risk factor for VTE.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aging, Animals, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Factor V, Female, Genotype, Homocysteine, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (NADPH2), Middle Aged, Odds Ratio, Oxidoreductases Acting on CH-NH Group Donors, Polymorphism, Genetic, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Venous Thrombosis}, issn = {0361-8609}, doi = {10.1002/ajh.10287}, author = {Tsai, Albert W and Cushman, Mary and Tsai, Michael Y and Heckbert, Susan R and Rosamond, Wayne D and Aleksic, Nena and Yanez, N David and Psaty, Bruce M and Folsom, Aaron R} } @article {715, title = {Sleep and sleep-disordered breathing in adults with predominantly mild obstructive airway disease.}, journal = {Am J Respir Crit Care Med}, volume = {167}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Jan 01}, pages = {7-14}, abstract = {

Neither the association between obstructive airways disease (OAD) and sleep apnea-hypopnea (SAH) nor the sleep consequences of each disorder alone and together have been characterized in an adult community setting. Our primary aims were (1) to determine if there is an association between OAD and SAH and (2) identify predictors of oxyhemoglobin desaturation during sleep in persons having OAD with and without SAH. Polysomnography and spirometry results from 5,954 participants in the Sleep Heart Health Study were analyzed. OAD was defined by a FEV1/FVC value less than 70\%. Assessment of SAH prevalence in OAD was performed using thresholds of respiratory disturbance index (RDI) greater than 10 and greater than 15. A total of 1,132 participants had OAD that was predominantly mild (FEV1/FVC 63.81 +/- 6.56\%, mean +/- SD). SAH was not more prevalent in participants with OAD than in those without OAD (22.32 versus 28.86\%, with and without OAD, respectively, at RDI threshold values greater than 10; and 13.97 versus 18.63\%, with and without OAD, respectively, at RDI threshold value greater than 15). In the absence of SAH, the adjusted odds ratio for sleep desaturation (> 5\% total sleep time with saturation < 90\%) was greater than 1.9 when FEV1/FVC was less than 65\%. Participants with both OAD and SAH had greater sleep perturbation and desaturation than those with one disorder. Generally mild OAD alone was associated with minimally altered sleep quality. We conclude that (1) there is no association between generally mild OAD and SAH; (2) exclusive of SAH and after adjusting for demographic factors and awake oxyhemoglobin saturation, an FEV1/FVC value less than 65\% is associated with increased risk of sleep desaturation; (3) desaturation is greater in persons with both OAD and SAH compared with each of these alone; and (4) individuals with generally mild OAD and without SAH in the community have minimally perturbed sleep.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cohort Studies, Female, Forced Expiratory Volume, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Oxyhemoglobins, Polysomnography, Prospective Studies, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive, Sleep, Sleep Apnea, Obstructive, Spirometry, Vital Capacity}, issn = {1073-449X}, doi = {10.1164/rccm.2203046}, author = {Sanders, Mark H and Newman, Anne B and Haggerty, Catherine L and Redline, Susan and Lebowitz, Michael and Samet, Jonathan and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Punjabi, Naresh M and Shahar, Eyal} } @article {757, title = {"Successful aging": effect of subclinical cardiovascular disease.}, journal = {Arch Intern Med}, volume = {163}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Oct 27}, pages = {2315-22}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular diseases are the primary cause of death in older adults. Among those without clinical disease, high levels of subclinical disease are associated with poor survival. The effect of the extent of subclinical cardiovascular disease on the quality of the remaining years has not been defined.

METHODS: In a longitudinal cohort study, 2932 men and women aged 65 years and older were followed up for 8 years to determine the likelihood of maintaining intact health and functioning. Successful aging was defined as remaining free of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and with intact physical and cognitive functioning.

RESULTS: Younger age at study entry and a lower extent of subclinical cardiovascular disease were independently associated with the likelihood of maintaining successful aging. In age-stratified summaries, those with subclinical disease had a trajectory of decline similar to subjects 5 years older without subclinical vascular disease. Regression analyses showed that the decline associated with subclinical disease was equivalent to 6.5 (95\% confidence interval, 6.4-6.6) years of aging for women and 5.6 (95\% confidence interval, 5.4-5.8) years of aging for men. Individual measures of the extent of cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, smoking, and higher C-reactive protein level were also independently predictive of fewer years of successful aging, but none of these factors substantially attenuated the effect of age itself.

CONCLUSIONS: There is a graded relationship between the extent of vascular disease measured noninvasively and the likelihood of maintaining intact health and function. Prevention of subclinical vascular disease may increase the quality and the quantity of years in late life.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Female, Health Status, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Quality of Life, Regression Analysis, Risk Factors}, issn = {0003-9926}, doi = {10.1001/archinte.163.19.2315}, author = {Newman, Anne B and Arnold, Alice M and Naydeck, Barbara L and Fried, Linda P and Burke, Gregory L and Enright, Paul and Gottdiener, John and Hirsch, Calvin and O{\textquoteright}Leary, Daniel and Tracy, Russell} } @article {732, title = {Transitions in spousal caregiving.}, journal = {Gerontologist}, volume = {43}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Apr}, pages = {230-41}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: This study describes transitions over 5 years among community-dwelling elderly spouses into and within caregiving roles and associated health outcomes.

DESIGN AND METHODS: Participants in the Caregiver Health Effects Study (n = 818) were interviewed four times over 5 years with changes in their caregiving status described. Analyses of the effect on health outcomes of transitions were performed on those for whom four observations were available (n = 428).

RESULTS: Only half (49.5\%) of noncaregivers at baseline remained noncaregivers at 5-year follow-up. The remainder experienced one or more transitions, including moving into the caregiving role, their own or their spouse{\textquoteright}s death, or placement of their spouse in a long-term care facility. The trajectory of health outcomes associated with caregiving was generally downward. Those who transitioned to heavy caregiving had more symptoms of depression, and poorer self-reported health and health behaviors.

IMPLICATIONS: Transitions into and within the caregiving role should be monitored for adverse health effects on the caregiver, with interventions tailored to the individual{\textquoteright}s location in the caregiving trajectory.

}, keywords = {Adaptation, Psychological, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Caregivers, Female, Health Behavior, Health Status, Humans, Long-Term Care, Male, Residence Characteristics, Spouses, Stress, Psychological, Time Factors}, issn = {0016-9013}, doi = {10.1093/geront/43.2.230}, author = {Burton, Lynda C and Zdaniuk, Bozena and Schulz, Richard and Jackson, Sharon and Hirsch, Calvin} } @article {774, title = {Assessment of prolonged QT and JT intervals in ventricular conduction defects.}, journal = {Am J Cardiol}, volume = {93}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 Apr 15}, pages = {1017-21}, abstract = {

The JT interval or Bazett{\textquoteright}s QTc - QRS has been advocated for detection of prolonged repolarization in ventricular conduction defects (VCDs). However, the use of neither JT nor QTc - QRS has been validated, and normal limits for rate-adjusted JT have not been established for VCDs or for normal ventricular conduction. Functional relations among RR, JT, and QT intervals were evaluated in 11,739 adult men and women with normal ventricular conduction and in 1,251 subjects with major VCD. The results showed that JT adjustment obtained as QTc - QRS retained a strong residual correlation with ventricular rate (r = 0.54), making its use ill-advised. In contrast, QT adjustment as a linear function of the RR interval for VCD as QT(RR,QRS) = QT - 155 x (60/heart rate - 1) - 0.93 x (QRS - 139) + k, with k = -22 ms for men and -34 ms for women, removed the rate dependence and produced upper 2\% and 5\% normal limits at 460 and 450 ms, respectively, which are identical to those in normal conduction. As an alternative, equally effective linear JT adjustment formulas were derived, including newly required normal standards. Thus, detection of prolonged repolarization in VCD requires the use of the JT interval or a bivariate model for QT with RR and QRS intervals as covariates.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Bundle-Branch Block, Electrocardiography, Female, Heart Ventricles, Humans, Male, Middle Aged}, issn = {0002-9149}, doi = {10.1016/j.amjcard.2003.12.055}, author = {Rautaharju, Pentti M and Zhang, Zhu-Ming and Prineas, Ron and Heiss, Gerardo} } @article {814, title = {Associates of bone mineral density in older African Americans.}, journal = {J Natl Med Assoc}, volume = {96}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 Dec}, pages = {1609-15}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To assess correlates of bone mineral density (BMD) in older African Americans.

PARTICIPANTS: 189 women and 115 men over age 64.

METHODS: Variables investigated: BMD by dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), medications, cardiovascular disease risk factors, demographic, lifestyle factors and functional status. Variables showing univariate correlation with BMD (p < or = 0.1) were entered into sex-stratified linear regression models.

RESULTS: Age range 67-96 (mean 75). The mean BMD (gm/ cm2 +/- standard deviation) is reported for three sites. Total body: 1.03 (+/- 0.12) in women, 1.21 (+/- 0.11) in men. Spine: 1.05 (+/- 0.24) in women, 1.22 (+/- 0.26) in men. Total hip: 0.85 (+/- 0.15) in women, 1.04 (+/- 0.17) in men. Gender was significantly associated with BMD (t-test, p < 0.001). The R2 for tested variables were highly significant only for weight. Age was only significant for total hip in women (p < 0.05). Each kilogram of weight change was associated with a 5.3-6.8 mg/cm2 change in BMD.

CONCLUSIONS: In a population-based cohort of older African Americans, average BMD was significantly greater in men than women. Weight accounted for most of the explained variability (R2) in BMD; age added little to the overall R2. Lower-weight, older African-American men and women are at significantly increased risk for low BMD and, thus, likely to be at greater risk for osteoporotic fracture.

}, keywords = {Aged, Body Weight, Bone Density, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Osteoporosis, Risk Factors}, issn = {0027-9684}, author = {Robbins, John and Hirsch, Calvin and Cauley, Jane} } @article {777, title = {Associations between gender and measures of daytime somnolence in the Sleep Heart Health Study.}, journal = {Sleep}, volume = {27}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 Mar 15}, pages = {305-11}, abstract = {

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship of gender to subjective measures of sleepiness, including the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), in a community-based population.

DESIGN: A cross-sectional study.

SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: Multicenter Sleep Heart Health Study participants (N = 6.440, 52\% women) recruited from ongoing cohort studies.

INTERVENTIONS: N/A.

MEASUREMENTS: Scores from the ESS, Sleep Heart Health Study daytime sleepiness and feeling unrested questions, polysomnography results (respiratory disturbance index at 4\% desaturation), as well as data on difficulty initiating and maintaining sleep, insufficient sleep, sedative use, alcohol use, cardiovascular or respiratory disease, frequent awakening due to leg cramps.

RESULTS: Women reported feeling sleepy as often as men did (odds ratio [OR] = 1.06; confidence interval [CI], 0.86-1.32), but women were less likely to have an ESS score > 10 (adjusted OR = 0.77; CI, 0.66-0.90) and more likely to report feeling unrested (adjusted OR = 1.39; CI, 1.14-1.69) than men. In men, the ESS score was more strongly correlated with reports of feeling unrested or sleepy compared to women.

CONCLUSIONS: Men and women answer questions on sleepiness differently. Findings indicate that using the ESS to detect subjective sleepiness is more likely to identify men with sleepiness. Since the ESS is more strongly related to other subjective measures in men, the ESS may be a more sensitive measure of subjective sleepiness in men than in women.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, Disorders of Excessive Somnolence, Female, Health Status, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Middle Aged, Polysomnography, Severity of Illness Index, Sex Factors}, issn = {0161-8105}, doi = {10.1093/sleep/27.2.305}, author = {Baldwin, Carol M and Kapur, Vishesh K and Holberg, Catharine J and Rosen, Carol and Nieto, F Javier} } @article {765, title = {Associations between renovascular disease and prevalent cardiovascular disease in the elderly: a population-based study.}, journal = {Vasc Endovascular Surg}, volume = {38}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 Jan-Feb}, pages = {25-35}, abstract = {

Atherosclerotic renovascular disease (RVD) is a suspected contributor to the morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular disease (CVD) through its potential effects on blood pressure and excretory renal function as well as through its associations with other forms of CVD. However, population-based data regarding the associations between the presence of RVD and prevalent CVD are lacking. The Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) is a prospective, multicenter cohort study of CVD among elderly Americans. As part of an ancillary study, participants in the Forsyth County, North Carolina, cohort of the CHS were invited to undergo renal duplex sonography (RDS) to establish the presence or absence of RVD (defined as any focal peak systolic velocity >/= 1.8 m/second or the absence of a Doppler-shifted signal from an imaged artery). Demographic, risk factor, and prevalent CVD data were obtained from the CHS coordinating center and matched with ancillary study participants. Eight hundred thirty-four CHS participants (including 525 women [63\%], 309 men [37\%], 194 African-Americans [23\%], and 635 Caucasians [76\%]) with a mean age of 77.2 +/-4.9 years underwent RDS examination. RVD was present in 57 participants (6.8\%). Overall, clinical and/or subclinical manifestations of CVD were present in 603 participants (72.3\%) at the time of RDS. Participants with RVD demonstrated a significantly greater prevalence of angina (p = 0.002), previous myocardial infarction (p < 0.001), >/= 25\% diameter-reducing internal carotid artery stenosis (p = 0.010), increased carotid intimal medial thickness (p = 0.003), and major electrocardiographic abnormalities (p = 0.013). Following adjustment for demographics and cardiovascular risk factors, the presence of RVD demonstrated a significant and independent association with prevalent coronary artery disease but not with prevalent cerebrovascular or lower extremity vascular disease. These results suggest important population-based associations between RVD and both clinical and subclinical manifestations of CVD, especially coronary artery disease.

}, keywords = {Aged, Arteriosclerosis, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Humans, Hypertension, Renovascular, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Multivariate Analysis, Prevalence, Prospective Studies, Renal Artery Obstruction, Ultrasonography, United States}, issn = {1538-5744}, doi = {10.1177/153857440403800103}, author = {Edwards, Matthew S and Hansen, Kimberley J and Craven, Timothy E and Bleyer, Anthony J and Burke, Gregory L and Levy, Pavel J and Dean, Richard H} } @article {793, title = {Deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism in two cohorts: the longitudinal investigation of thromboembolism etiology.}, journal = {Am J Med}, volume = {117}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 Jul 01}, pages = {19-25}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: To determine the incidence of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism in two cohorts representing regions of the United States.

METHODS: The sample comprised 21,680 participants of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study and the Cardiovascular Health Study. Subjects were aged >/=45 years, resided in six communities, and were followed for 7.6 years. All hospitalizations were identified and thromboses were validated by chart review.

RESULTS: The age-standardized incidence of first-time venous thromboembolism was 1.92 per 1000 person-years. Rates were higher in men than women, and increased with age in both sexes. There was no antecedent trauma, surgery, immobilization, or diagnosis of cancer for 48\% (175/366) of events. The 28-day case-fatality rate was 11\% (29/265) after a first venous thromboembolism and 25\% (17/67) for cancer-associated thrombosis. The recurrence rate 2 years after a first venous thromboembolism was 7.7\% per year (95\% confidence interval [CI]: 4.5\% to 10.9\% per year). Cancer was the only factor independently associated with 28-day fatality (relative risk [RR] = 5.2; 95\% CI: 1.4 to 19.9) or recurrent thrombosis (RR = 9.2; 95\% CI: 2.0 to 41.7).

CONCLUSION: The incidence of venous thromboembolism in this cohort of middle- and older-aged subjects was similar to that observed in more geographically homogeneous samples. Half of cases were idiopathic. Short-term mortality and 2-year recurrence rates were appreciable, especially among subjects with cancer. Based on this study we estimate that 187,000 cases of first-time venous thromboembolism are diagnosed yearly in the United States among those aged 45 years or older.

}, keywords = {Aged, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Neoplasms, Population Surveillance, Pulmonary Embolism, Recurrence, Risk Factors, Survival Rate, Venous Thrombosis}, issn = {0002-9343}, doi = {10.1016/j.amjmed.2004.01.018}, author = {Cushman, Mary and Tsai, Albert W and White, Richard H and Heckbert, Susan R and Rosamond, Wayne D and Enright, Paul and Folsom, Aaron R} } @article {796, title = {Mesenteric artery disease in the elderly.}, journal = {J Vasc Surg}, volume = {40}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 Jul}, pages = {45-52}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to estimate the population-based prevalence of mesenteric artery stenosis (MAS) and occlusion among independent elderly Americans.

METHOD: As part of an ancillary investigation to the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), participants in the Forsyth County, NC cohort had visceral duplex sonography of the celiac arteries and superior mesenteric arteries (SMAs). Critical MAS was defined by celiac peak systolic velocity >or=2.0 m/s and/or SMA peak systolic velocity >or=2.7 m/s. Occlusion of either vessel was defined by lack of a Doppler-shifted signal within the imaged artery. Demographic data, blood pressures, and blood lipid levels were collected as part of the baseline CHS examination. Participants{\textquoteright} weights were measured at baseline and before the duplex exam. Univariate tests of association were performed with two-way contingency tables, Student t tests, and Fisher exact tests. Multivariate associations were examined with logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS: A total of 553 CHS participants had visceral duplex sonography technically adequate to define the presence or absence of MAS. The study group had a mean age of 77.2 +/- 4.9 years and comprised 63\% women and 37\% men. Participant race was 76\% white and 23\% African-American. Ninety-seven participants (17.5\%) had MAS. There was no significant difference in age, race, gender, body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol, or low-density lipoproteins for participants with or without MAS. Forward stepwise variable selection found renal artery stenosis (P =.008; odds ratio [OR], 2.85; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.31, 6.21) and high-density lipoprotein >40 (P =.02; OR, 3.03; 95\% CI, 1.17, 7.81) significantly associated with MAS in a multivariate logistic regression model. Eighty-three of the 97 participants with MAS (15.0\% of the cohort) had isolated celiac stenosis. Seven participants (1.3\% of the cohort) had combined celiac and SMA stenosis. Five participants (0.9\% of the cohort) had isolated SMA stenosis. Two participants (0.4\% of the cohort) had celiac occlusion. Considering all participants with MAS, there was no association with weight change. However, SMA stenosis and celiac occlusion demonstrated an independent association with annualized weight loss (P =.028; OR, 1.54; 95\% CI, 1.05, 2.26) and with renal artery stenosis (P =.001; OR, 9.48; 95\% CI, 2.62, 34.47).

CONCLUSION: This investigation provides the first population-based estimate of the prevalence of MAS among independent elderly Americans. MAS existed in 17.5\% of the study cohort. The majority had isolated celiac disease. SMA stenosis and celiac artery occlusion demonstrated a significant and independent association with weight loss and concurrent renal artery disease.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Arteriosclerosis, Celiac Artery, Cohort Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Mesenteric Arteries, Mesenteric Artery, Superior, Mesenteric Vascular Occlusion, Prevalence, Ultrasonography, Doppler, Duplex, Weight Loss}, issn = {0741-5214}, doi = {10.1016/j.jvs.2004.03.022}, author = {Hansen, Kimberley J and Wilson, David B and Craven, Timothy E and Pearce, Jeffrey D and English, William P and Edwards, Matthew S and Ayerdi, Juan and Burke, Gregory L} } @article {809, title = {Neighbourhood environments and mortality in an elderly cohort: results from the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {J Epidemiol Community Health}, volume = {58}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 Nov}, pages = {917-23}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: It has been postulated that neighbourhood conditions are related to the health of the elderly population but longitudinal studies are rare and confounding by individual level variables remains a possibility.

METHODS: Data were obtained from the cardiovascular health study, a population based study of adults aged 65 years and older. Census block groups were used as proxies for neighbourhoods. A summary score was used to characterise the neighbourhood socioeconomic environment. Information on personal socioeconomic indicators, cardiovascular disease prevalence, and cardiovascular risk factors was obtained from the baseline examination. Proportional hazards regression and propensity score matching were used to control for individual level variables.

RESULTS: Over the eight year follow up there were 1346 deaths among the 5074 participants, of which 43\% were attributable to cardiovascular disease. Among white participants, living in the most disadvantaged neighbourhood group was associated with higher rates of cardiovascular death, after adjustment for income, education, and occupation (hazard ratio (HR) 1.5, 95\% confidence intervals (CI) 1.2 to 1.9). No neighbourhood differences were observed for non-cardiovascular deaths. Estimates for black participants were 1.3 (95\% CI 0.7 to 2.3) for cardiovascular deaths and 1.4 (95\% CI 0.8 to 2.4) for non-cardiovascular deaths, but sample size was small. In white participants, associations of neighbourhood characteristics with cardiovascular mortality persisted after adjustment for prevalent baseline disease and cardiovascular risk factors. The use of propensity score matching led to similar results (HR for the lowest compared with the highest neighbourhood score group: 1.6 95\% CI 1.1 to 2.5, controlling for personal socioeconomic indicators).

CONCLUSION: Neighbourhood disadvantage is related to rates of cardiovascular death in elderly white adults.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Income, Male, Poverty Areas, Residence Characteristics, Risk Factors, Socioeconomic Factors, United States}, issn = {0143-005X}, doi = {10.1136/jech.2003.019596}, author = {Diez Roux, Ana V and Borrell, Luisa N and Haan, Mary and Jackson, Sharon A and Schultz, Richard} } @article {763, title = {Plasma total homocysteine levels and cranial magnetic resonance imaging findings in elderly persons: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Arch Neurol}, volume = {61}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 Jan}, pages = {67-72}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: An elevated plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) level is associated with an increased risk of vascular disease. Some studies have shown associations between tHcy level and small-vessel disease of the brain on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

DESIGN: In the Cardiovascular Health Study, 622 elderly participants without a history of transient ischemic attack or stroke had results for tHcy level and cranial MRI. We sought associations between tHcy level and MRI findings of ventricular grade, sulcal grade, white matter grade, and infarcts. We controlled for other factors, including levels of creatinine, folate, and vitamins B(6) and B(12) and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase genotype.

RESULTS: After controlling for age and sex, tHcy level was not associated with the individual MRI findings. Further adjustments for other factors and other blood tests had little effect on these findings. The only significant finding was a linear trend across quintiles of tHcy level and a pattern of MRI findings combining infarcts and high white matter grade. The linear trend remained significant after controlling for other risk factors and atherosclerotic markers (top quintile vs bottom quintile odds ratio, 3.3; 95\% confidence interval, 0.96-11.20; P =.04 for linear trend) but was slightly diminished after further controlling for creatinine, folate, and vitamins B(6) and B(12) (odds ratio, 3.2; 95\% confidence interval, 0.81-13.10; P =.07 for linear trend).

CONCLUSION: We were unable to confirm the results of previous studies with respect to tHcy level and individual MRI findings, although an association was seen for an MRI pattern combining infarcts and high white matter grade.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aging, Brain, Brain Infarction, Female, Homocysteine, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Odds Ratio, Radiography, Risk Factors}, issn = {0003-9942}, doi = {10.1001/archneur.61.1.67}, author = {Longstreth, W T and Katz, Ronit and Olson, Jean and Bernick, Charles and Carr, J Jeffrey and Malinow, M Ren{\'e} and Hess, David L and Cushman, Mary and Schwartz, Stephen M} } @article {806, title = {Racial differences in endothelial function in postmenopausal women.}, journal = {Am Heart J}, volume = {148}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 Oct}, pages = {606-11}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Racial differences in cardiovascular mortality among women remain largely unexplained. Preliminary data suggest that African American and Caucasian differences in endothelial function may parallel differential cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in women. To further study differences in endothelial function between African American and Caucasian women, we analyzed measures of brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) in women enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS).

METHODS AND RESULTS: Brachial artery FMD was measured in the fasting state using established ultrasound techniques in 1330 Caucasian and 297 African American female participants in CHS (mean age 78.4 +/- 4.4 years). General linear models were used to compare FMD between African American and Caucasian women after adjusting for baseline brachial diameter, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, body mass index, waist/hip ratio, age, education, income level; use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, beta-blockers, nitroglycerin, estrogens and lipid-lowering drugs; and presence of clinical or subclinical disease. Adjusted absolute change and percent change in brachial artery diameter was significantly reduced in African American women compared with Caucasian women (P <.0001 and P =.0002, respectively). Similar results were found when the women were stratified by history of CVD (- CVD, P =.02; + CVD, P =.001) and CVD or subclinical vascular disease (- disease, P =.01, + disease, P =.03).

CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort, brachial artery FMD was lower in African American women compared to Caucasian women, and this difference persisted after adjustment by multivariable analysis. The increased CVD risk in African American women may be related to impaired endothelial function. It remains to be determined whether African American women may uniquely benefit by interventions designed to improve endothelial health.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Brachial Artery, Cohort Studies, Endothelium, Vascular, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Humans, Multivariate Analysis, Postmenopause, Risk Factors, Vasodilation}, issn = {1097-6744}, doi = {10.1016/j.ahj.2004.04.032}, author = {Loehr, Laura R and Espeland, Mark A and Sutton-Tyrrell, Kim and Burke, Gregory L and Crouse, John R and Herrington, David M} } @article {794, title = {The relationship of cardiovascular risk factors to microalbuminuria in older adults with or without diabetes mellitus or hypertension: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Am J Kidney Dis}, volume = {44}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 Jul}, pages = {25-34}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Microalbuminuria is a risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD). It occurs most commonly in the settings of diabetes and hypertension. The mechanisms by which it increases CHD risk are uncertain.

METHODS: We examined the cross-sectional association of microalbuminuria with a broad range of CHD risk factors in 3 groups of adults aged 65 years or older with and without microalbuminuria: those with (1) no diabetes or hypertension (n = 1,098), (2) hypertension only (n = 1,450), and (3) diabetes with or without hypertension (n = 465).

RESULTS: Three factors were related to microalbuminuria in all 3 groups: age, elevated systolic blood pressure, and markers of systemic inflammation. In patients with neither diabetes nor hypertension, increasing C-reactive protein levels were associated with microalbuminuria (odds ratio per 1-mg/L increase, 1.46; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.15 to 1.84). Among those with diabetes, an increase in white blood cell (WBC) count was associated with microalbuminuria (odds ratio per 1,000-cell/mL increase, 2.57; 95\% CI, 1.12 to 5.89). Among those with hypertension, an increase in WBC count (odds ratio per 1,000-cell/mL increase, 1.83; 95\% CI, 1.04 to 3.23) and fibrinogen level (odds ratio per 10-mg/dL increase, 1.02; 95\% CI, 1.00 to 1.05) were significantly associated with microalbuminuria. In all 3 groups, prevalent CHD was related to an elevated WBC count. In none of the 3 groups was brachial artery reactivity to ischemia, an in vivo marker of endothelial function, related to microalbuminuria.

CONCLUSION: Microalbuminuria is associated with age, systolic blood pressure, and markers of inflammation. These associations reflect potential mechanisms by which microalbuminuria is related to CHD risk.

}, keywords = {Age Distribution, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Albuminuria, Biomarkers, Brachial Artery, Comorbidity, Coronary Disease, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Inflammation, Logistic Models, Male, Multivariate Analysis, Odds Ratio, Risk Factors, Smoking, Ultrasonography}, issn = {1523-6838}, doi = {10.1053/j.ajkd.2004.03.022}, author = {Barzilay, Joshua I and Peterson, Do and Cushman, Mary and Heckbert, Susan R and Cao, Jie J and Blaum, Caroline and Tracy, Russell P and Klein, Ronald and Herrington, David M} } @article {752, title = {Sleep apnea and markers of vascular endothelial function in a large community sample of older adults.}, journal = {Am J Respir Crit Care Med}, volume = {169}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 Feb 01}, pages = {354-60}, abstract = {

Clinical studies have suggested that sleep apnea is associated with impaired brachial artery flow-mediated dilation, a surrogate of endothelial dysfunction. We examined this question among older participants in the baseline examination of the Sleep Heart Health/Cardiovascular Health Study cohort (n = 1,037, age 68 years or older, 56\% female). Indices of sleep apnea, derived from 12-channel home polysomnography, were the apnea-hypopnea index (average number of apneas/hypopneas per hour) and the hypoxemia index (percentage of time below 90\% O2 saturation). Baseline arterial diameter and percentage of flow-mediated dilation were measured by ultrasound. Sleep apnea measures were associated with baseline diameter and the percentage of flow-mediated dilation, although these associations were weakened after adjustment for other cardiovascular risk factors, particularly body mass index. However, a statistically significant linear association between the hypoxemia index and baseline diameter was observed even after adjustment for body mass index and other confounders (p < 0.01). The associations were stronger among participants who were younger than 80 years and among those who with hypertension. This study adds to the growing body of evidence linking sleep apnea with vascular dysfunction in older subjects. Whether these relationships are entirely independent of obesity is unclear. This association might be one of the mechanisms explaining the relationship between sleep apnea, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Biomarkers, Body Mass Index, Brachial Artery, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Comorbidity, Endothelium, Vascular, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Linear Models, Male, Polysomnography, Prevalence, Probability, Residence Characteristics, Risk Assessment, Sampling Studies, Severity of Illness Index, Sleep Apnea Syndromes, Ultrasonography, Doppler}, issn = {1073-449X}, doi = {10.1164/rccm.200306-756OC}, author = {Nieto, F Javier and Herrington, David M and Redline, Susan and Benjamin, Emelia J and Robbins, John A} } @article {783, title = {Sleep-disordered breathing and white matter disease in the brainstem in older adults.}, journal = {Sleep}, volume = {27}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 May 01}, pages = {474-9}, abstract = {

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To examine whether sleep-disordered breathing is associated with white matter disease in the brainstem.

DESIGN: A population-based longitudinal study.

SETTING: Allegheny County, PA; Sacramento County, CA; and Washington County, MD.

PATIENTS OR PARTICIPANTS: A total of 789 individuals, aged 68 years or older, drawn from the Sleep Heart Health Study.

INTERVENTIONS: N/A.

MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: The participants underwent home polysomnography in 1995-1998 and cerebral magnetic resonance imaging in both 1992-1993 and 1997-1998. The apnea-hypopnea index was not associated with white matter disease in the brainstem, with or without adjusting for age, sex, race, community, body mass index, smoking status, alcohol use, systolic blood pressure, and the use of antihypertensive medication. In contrast, the arousal index (number of arousals per hour of sleep) was inversely associated with brainstem white matter disease (odds ratio = 0.75 for a SD increase in the arousal index, 95\% confidence interval: 0.62, 0.92).

CONCLUSIONS: The frequency of apneas and hypopneas was not associated with brainstem white matter disease in these older adults. A unique relationship with arousal frequency suggests that ischemic changes in the brainstem may be associated with arousals during sleep.

}, keywords = {Aged, Arousal, Brain, Brain Stem, Cerebrovascular Disorders, Electrooculography, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Polysomnography, Population Surveillance, Severity of Illness Index, Sleep Apnea Syndromes, Sleep Stages}, issn = {0161-8105}, doi = {10.1093/sleep/27.3.474}, author = {Ding, Jingzhong and Nieto, F Javier and Beauchamp, Norman J and Harris, Tamara B and Robbins, John A and Hetmanski, Jacqueline B and Fried, Linda P and Redline, Susan} } @article {802, title = {Survival associated with two sets of diagnostic criteria for congestive heart failure.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, volume = {160}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 Oct 01}, pages = {628-35}, abstract = {

Congestive heart failure (CHF) definitions vary across epidemiologic studies. The Framingham Heart Study criteria include CHF signs and symptoms assessed by a physician panel. In the Cardiovascular Health Study, a committee of physicians adjudicated CHF diagnoses, confirmed by signs, symptoms, clinical tests, and/or medical therapy. The authors used data from the Cardiovascular Health Study, a population-based cohort study of 5,888 elderly US adults, to compare CHF incidence and survival patterns following onset of CHF as defined by Framingham and/or Cardiovascular Health Study criteria. They constructed an inception cohort of nonfatal, hospitalized CHF patients. Of 875 participants who had qualifying CHF hospitalizations between 1989 and 2000, 54\% experienced a first CHF event that fulfilled both sets of diagnostic criteria (concordant), 31\% fulfilled only the Framingham criteria (Framingham only), and 15\% fulfilled only the Cardiovascular Health Study criteria (Cardiovascular Health Study only). No significant survival difference was found between the Framingham-only group (hazard ratio = 0.87, 95\% confidence interval: 0.71, 1.07) or the Cardiovascular Health Study-only group (hazard ratio = 0.89, 95\% confidence interval: 0.68, 1.15) and the concordant group (referent). Compared with Cardiovascular Health Study central adjudication, Framingham criteria for CHF identified a larger group of participants with incident CHF, but all-cause mortality rates were similar across these diagnostic classifications.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cohort Studies, Diagnosis, Differential, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Heart Failure, Humans, Incidence, Male, Prognosis, Severity of Illness Index, Survival Analysis}, issn = {0002-9262}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kwh268}, author = {Schellenbaum, Gina D and Rea, Thomas D and Heckbert, Susan R and Smith, Nicholas L and Lumley, Thomas and Roger, Veronique L and Kitzman, Dalane W and Taylor, Herman A and Levy, Daniel and Psaty, Bruce M} } @article {822, title = {Age-dependent associations between sleep-disordered breathing and hypertension: importance of discriminating between systolic/diastolic hypertension and isolated systolic hypertension in the Sleep Heart Health Study.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {111}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Feb 08}, pages = {614-21}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is associated with hypertension in the middle-aged. The association is less clear in older persons. Most middle-aged hypertensives have systolic/diastolic hypertension, whereas isolated systolic hypertension (ISH) is common among persons over 60 years. Mechanistically, only systolic/diastolic hypertension is expected to be associated with SDB, but few studies of SDB and hypertension distinguish systolic/diastolic hypertension from ISH. Prior investigations may have underestimated an association between SDB and systolic/diastolic hypertension in the elderly by categorizing individuals with ISH as simply hypertensive.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted cross-sectional analyses of 6120 participants in the Sleep Heart Health Study, stratified by age: 40 to 59 (n=2477) and > or =60 years. Outcome measures included apnea-hypopnea index (AHI; average number of apneas plus hypopneas per hour of sleep), systolic/diastolic hypertension (> or =140 and > or =90 mm Hg), and ISH (> or =140 and <90 mm Hg). With adjustment for covariates, ISH was not associated with SDB in either age category. In those aged<60 years, AHI was significantly associated with higher odds of systolic/diastolic hypertension (AHI 15 to 29.9, OR=2.38 [95\% CI 1.30 to 4.38]; AHI > or =30, OR=2.24 [95\% CI 1.10 to 4.54]). Among those aged > or =60 years, no adjusted association between AHI and systolic/diastolic hypertension was found.

CONCLUSIONS: SDB is associated with systolic/diastolic hypertension in those aged <60 years. No association was found between SDB and systolic/diastolic hypertension in those aged > or =60 years or between SDB and ISH in either age category. These findings have implications for SDB screening and treatment. Distinguishing between hypertensive subtypes reveals a stronger association between SDB and hypertension for those aged <60 years than previously reported.

}, keywords = {Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Antihypertensive Agents, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diastole, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Factors, Sleep Apnea Syndromes, Sleep Apnea, Central, Systole}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/01.CIR.0000154540.62381.CF}, author = {Haas, Donald C and Foster, Gregory L and Nieto, F Javier and Redline, Susan and Resnick, Helaine E and Robbins, John A and Young, Terry and Pickering, Thomas G} } @article {821, title = {Association between screening for osteoporosis and the incidence of hip fracture.}, journal = {Ann Intern Med}, volume = {142}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Feb 01}, pages = {173-81}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Because direct evidence for the effectiveness of screening is lacking, guidelines disagree on whether people should be screened for osteoporosis.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether population-based screening for osteoporosis in older adults is associated with fewer incident hip fractures than usual medical care.

DESIGN: Nonconcurrent cohort study.

SETTING: Population-based cohort enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) from 4 states (California, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina).

PATIENTS: 3107 adults 65 years of age and older who attended their CHS study visits in 1994-1995.

MEASUREMENTS: 31 participant characteristics (including demographic characteristics, medical histories, medications, and physical examination findings) and incident hip fractures over 6 years of follow-up.

INTERVENTION: Bone density scans (dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry [DEXA] at the hip) for participants in California and Pennsylvania (n = 1422) and usual care for participants in Maryland and North Carolina (n = 1685).

RESULTS: The incidence of hip fractures per 1000 person-years was 4.8 in the screened group and 8.2 in the usual care group. Screening was associated with a statistically significant lower hazard of hip fracture than usual care after adjustment for sex and propensity to be screened (Cox proportional hazard ratio, 0.64 [95\% CI, 0.41 to 0.99]).

LIMITATIONS: The mechanism of the association was unclear. A small unmeasured confounder that decreased the hazard of hip fracture could diminish or erase the observed association.

CONCLUSIONS: Use of hip DEXA scans to screen for osteoporosis in older adults was associated with 36\% fewer incident hip fractures over 6 years compared with usual medical care. Further research is needed to explore the mechanism of this association.

}, keywords = {Absorptiometry, Photon, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cohort Studies, Female, Hip Fractures, Humans, Incidence, Male, Mass Screening, Osteoporosis, Risk Factors, Sensitivity and Specificity}, issn = {1539-3704}, doi = {10.7326/0003-4819-142-3-200502010-00007}, author = {Kern, Lisa M and Powe, Neil R and Levine, Michael A and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Harris, Tamara B and Robbins, John and Fried, Linda P} } @article {856, title = {Association of beta-blocker use with mortality among patients with congestive heart failure in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS).}, journal = {Am Heart J}, volume = {150}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Sep}, pages = {464-70}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: In clinical trials, beta-blocker therapy reduces all-cause mortality among people with congestive heart failure (CHF) characterized by depressed systolic function, but few trials included large numbers of elderly participants. This study assessed the association between beta-blocker therapy and mortality among community-dwelling older adults with CHF.

METHODS: The Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) is a longitudinal, population-based study of adults aged > or = 65 years. Recruitment began in 1989 with follow-up extending through June 2000 or death. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to assess the association between beta-blocker therapy and all-cause mortality among 950 participants who developed new-onset CHF.

RESULTS: beta-Blocker users (n = 157) were more likely than nonusers (n = 793) to have treated hypertension, clinical coronary artery disease, and valvular disease at the time of CHF diagnosis. Death occurred in 67 users and 446 nonusers during a median follow-up of 2.3 years. Compared with nonuse, use of beta-blockers was associated with a multivariable adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 0.74 (95\% CI 0.56-0.98) for all-cause mortality. Among the 520 participants who had left ventricular ejection fraction assessed within 90 days after CHF diagnosis, the risk for all cause mortality associated with beta-blocker use did not differ significantly between those with ejection fraction of < 40\% and those with ejection fraction of > or = 40\% (HR 0.56, 95\% CI 0.27-1.13; HR 0.82, 95\% CI 0.56-1.22, respectively; interaction P = .34).

CONCLUSIONS: This observational study suggests that beta-blocker treatment is associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality among community-dwelling older adults with CHF.

}, keywords = {Adrenergic beta-Antagonists, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Heart Failure, Humans, Male}, issn = {1097-6744}, doi = {10.1016/j.ahj.2004.12.022}, author = {Chan, Jeannie D and Rea, Thomas D and Smith, Nicholas L and Siscovick, David and Heckbert, Susan R and Lumley, Thomas and Chaves, Paulo and Furberg, Curt D and Kuller, Lewis and Psaty, Bruce M} } @article {854, title = {Associations between retinal microvascular abnormalities and declining renal function in the elderly population: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Am J Kidney Dis}, volume = {46}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Aug}, pages = {214-24}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Microvascular abnormalities in the kidney are common histopathologic findings in individuals with chronic kidney disease or renal failure. These abnormalities may represent one manifestation of ongoing systemic microvascular damage. We hypothesized that retinal microvascular abnormalities, when present, would be associated with progressive renal dysfunction in elderly individuals.

METHODS: The Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) is a prospective, multicenter, cohort study initiated in 1989 designed to examine cardiovascular risk factors, morbidity, and mortality in elderly Americans. As part of an ancillary study, CHS participants underwent retinal photography in 1997 and 1998. Retinal microvascular abnormalities were assessed and graded by using standardized measures. Retinal microvascular abnormalities were defined as retinopathy (hard and soft exudates, hemorrhages, or microaneurysms) and/or retinal arteriolar abnormalities (arteriovenous nicking, focal arteriolar narrowing, or lowest quartile arteriole-venule ratio). Associations between these abnormalities and observed 4-year changes in serum creatinine levels and estimated glomerular filtration rates (eGFRs) from study years 5 to 9 (encompassing years 1994 to 2001) were examined by using regression modeling.

RESULTS: A total of 1,394 CHS participants had retinal and serum creatinine data. After adjustments for age, race, sex, weight, diabetes, hypertension, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor use, and proteinuria, participants with retinopathy showed a significant increase in serum creatinine level and decline in eGFR compared with those without retinopathy during the 4-year study period (+0.24 mg/dL [+21 micromol/L] versus -0.21 mg/dL [-19 micromol/L] and -0.48 mL/min/1.73 m2 [-0.01 mL/s/1.73 m2] versus +1.74 mL/min/1.73 m2 [+0.03 mL/s/1.73 m2], respectively). Participants with retinopathy also were significantly more likely to have an observed significant deterioration in renal function, defined as a 0.3-mg/dL (27-micromol/L) increase in serum creatinine level or 20\% or greater decline in eGFR (odds ratio, 3.20; 95\% confidence interval, 1.58 to 6.50; and odds ratio, 2.84; 95\% confidence interval, 1.56 to 5.16, respectively). These associations remained in separate stratified analyses of patients with and without diabetes. The presence of retinal arteriolar abnormalities was not associated with deteriorating renal function.

CONCLUSION: Retinal microvascular abnormalities defined as retinopathy were significantly associated with renal function deterioration. The observed findings were independent of effects of any associated diabetes or hypertension. These findings suggest that systemic microvascular disease may be associated with progressive renal dysfunction in the elderly population.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Antihypertensive Agents, Capillaries, Cohort Studies, Comorbidity, Creatinine, Diabetes Mellitus, Disease Progression, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Hypertension, Kidney, Male, Photography, Prospective Studies, Proteinuria, Retina, Retinal Diseases, Retinal Vessels}, issn = {1523-6838}, doi = {10.1053/j.ajkd.2005.05.005}, author = {Edwards, Matthew S and Wilson, David B and Craven, Timothy E and Stafford, Jeanette and Fried, Linda F and Wong, Tien Y and Klein, Ronald and Burke, Gregory L and Hansen, Kimberley J} } @article {870, title = {Benefits of fatty fish on dementia risk are stronger for those without APOE epsilon4.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {65}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Nov 08}, pages = {1409-14}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To compare associations of lean fish vs fatty fish (tuna or other fish) intake with dementia, Alzheimer disease (AD), and vascular dementia (VaD) and in relation to APOE epsilon4 status in the Cardiovascular Health Cognition Study (CHCS).

METHODS: Fish intake was assessed by food frequency questionnaires. Incident dementia, AD, and VaD were determined through a series of cognitive tests, physician{\textquoteright}s assessment, and committee consensus. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to calculate hazard ratios of dementia, AD, and VaD with lean fried fish, fatty fish, or total fish intake, which were then stratified by the presence of APOE epsilon4.

RESULTS: Although consumption of lean fried fish had no protective effect, consumption of fatty fish more than twice per week was associated with a reduction in risk of dementia by 28\% (95\% CI: 0.51 to 1.02), and AD by 41\% (95\% CI: 0.36 to 0.95) in comparison to those who ate fish less than once per month. Stratification by APOE epsilon4 showed this effect to be selective to those without the epsilon4 allele. Adjustment by education and income attenuated the effect.

CONCLUSION: In the Cardiovascular Health Cognition Study, consumption of fatty fish was associated with a reduced risk of dementia and Alzheimer disease for those without the APOE epsilon4 allele.

}, keywords = {Aged, Alzheimer Disease, Apolipoprotein E4, Apolipoproteins E, Cohort Studies, Dementia, Dietary Fats, Unsaturated, Fatty Acids, Omega-3, Feeding Behavior, Female, Fish Oils, Fish Products, Food, Formulated, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Incidence, Male, Risk Factors, Socioeconomic Factors, Surveys and Questionnaires}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/01.wnl.0000183148.34197.2e}, author = {Huang, T L and Zandi, P P and Tucker, K L and Fitzpatrick, A L and Kuller, L H and Fried, L P and Burke, G L and Carlson, M C} } @article {825, title = {beta(2)-Adrenergic receptor polymorphisms and determinants of cardiovascular risk: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Am J Hypertens}, volume = {18}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Mar}, pages = {392-7}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Common Arg16Gly and Gln27Glu polymorphisms of the beta(2)-adrenergic receptor (beta(2)AR) have been associated with hypertension and coronary disease. This analysis of older adults in the Cardiovascular Health Study examined whether these polymorphisms were associated with blood pressure (BP), subclinical atherosclerosis, and, among treated hypertensive individuals, differences in coronary disease risk according to antihypertensive drug class.

METHODS: Altogether, 5249 participants (4441 white and 808 African American, median follow-up time 10.2 years) were genotyped for both polymorphisms. Ankle-arm index (AAI), carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), and brachial flow-mediated dilation were measured cross-sectionally. All estimates were adjusted for ethnicity.

RESULTS: Relative to Gln27 homozygotes, carrying the Glu27 allele was not associated with new-onset hypertension (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.01, 95\% confidence interval [CI] = 0.87 to 1.16), BP control (odds ratio [OR] = 0.97, 95\% CI = 0.89 to 1.06), AAI (mean difference 0.0042 +/- 0.0052), carotid IMT (mean difference 0.0044 +/- 0.02 mm), or brachial flow-mediated dilation (mean difference in baseline diameter -0.028 +/- 0.036 mm; the most marked of three measures). Among treated hypertensive individuals, coronary disease risk was similar in Glu27 carriers relative to Gln27 homozygotes in subgroups defined by use of beta-blockers (HR = 1.09, 95\% CI = 0.64 to 1.87) or other antihypertensive medications (HR = 1.00, 95\% CI = 0.78 to 1.28). Results were similar for the Arg16Gly polymorphism.

CONCLUSIONS: The association of beta(2)AR genotype with coronary disease previously reported in this older adult population is not likely to be explained by BP levels, subclinical atherosclerosis, or antihypertensive treatment. Other measures of vascular response, gene-gene or gene-environment interactions, or characteristics developing earlier in life may mediate the association between beta(2)AR genotype and coronary disease and merit further research.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Antihypertensive Agents, Arteriosclerosis, Coronary Artery Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genotype, Homozygote, Humans, Hypertension, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Genetic, Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-2, Risk Factors}, issn = {0895-7061}, doi = {10.1016/j.amjhyper.2004.10.014}, author = {Hindorff, Lucia A and Heckbert, Susan R and Psaty, Bruce M and Lumley, Thomas and Siscovick, David S and Herrington, David M and Edwards, Karen L and Tracy, Russell P} } @article {826, title = {Cardiovascular risk factors for retinal vein occlusion and arteriolar emboli: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities \& Cardiovascular Health studies.}, journal = {Ophthalmology}, volume = {112}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Apr}, pages = {540-7}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To examine the associations of retinal vein occlusion and arteriolar emboli with cardiovascular disease.

DESIGN: Population-based cross-sectional study.

PARTICIPANTS: Pooled from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (n = 12,642; mean age, 60 years) and the Cardiovascular Health Study (n = 2824; mean age, 79 years).

METHODS: Retinal vein occlusion and arteriolar emboli were identified from a single nonmydriatic retinal photograph using a standardized protocol. Photographs were also graded for arteriovenous nicking and focal arteriolar narrowing. All participants had a comprehensive systemic evaluation, including standardized carotid ultrasonography.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Retinal vein occlusion and arteriolar emboli.

RESULTS: Prevalences of retinal vein occlusion and arteriolar emboli were 0.3\% (n = 39 cases) and 0.2\% (n = 34 cases), respectively. After adjusting for age, retinal vein occlusion was associated with hypertension (odds ratio [OR], 2.96; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.43-6.14), systolic blood pressure (BP) (OR, 4.12; 95\% CI, 1.40-12.16; highest quartile vs. lowest), diastolic BP (OR, 2.64; 95\% CI, 1.07-6.46; highest quartile vs. lowest), carotid artery plaque (OR, 5.62; 95\% CI, 2.60-12.16), body mass index (OR, 3.88; 95\% CI, 1.23-12.18; highest quartile vs. lowest), plasma fibrinogen (OR, 3.29; 95\% CI, 1.08-10.02; highest quartile vs. lowest), arteriovenous nicking (OR, 4.09; 95\% CI, 2.00-8.36), and focal arteriolar narrowing (OR, 5.17; 95\% CI, 2.59-10.29). After adjusting for age, retinal arteriolar emboli were associated with hypertension (OR, 3.14; 95\% CI, 1.44-6.84), systolic BP (OR, 3.46; 95\% CI, 1.13-10.65; highest quartile vs. lowest), prevalent coronary heart disease (OR, 2.33; 95\% CI, 1.01-5.42), carotid artery plaque (OR, 4.62; 95\% CI, 1.85-11.57), plasma lipoprotein (a) (OR, 3.69; 95\% CI, 1.20-11.41; highest quartile vs. lowest), plasma fibrinogen (OR, 3.09; 95\% CI, 0.98-9.76; highest quartile vs. lowest), and current cigarette smoking (OR, 3.08; 95\% CI, 1.47-6.47). Approximately a quarter of participants with retinal vein occlusion and arteriolar emboli had evidence of carotid artery plaque as defined from ultrasound.

CONCLUSIONS: Retinal vein occlusion and retinal arteriolar emboli are associated with carotid artery disease, hypertension, and other cardiovascular risk factors.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Arterioles, Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carotid Stenosis, Coronary Artery Disease, Cross-Sectional Studies, Embolism, Female, Fibrinogen, Humans, Hypertension, Lipoprotein(a), Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Middle Aged, Retinal Artery, Retinal Vein Occlusion, Risk Factors}, issn = {1549-4713}, doi = {10.1016/j.ophtha.2004.10.039}, author = {Wong, Tien Yin and Larsen, Emily K Marino and Klein, Ronald and Mitchell, Paul and Couper, David J and Klein, Barbara E K and Hubbard, Larry D and Siscovick, David S and Sharrett, A Richey} } @article {842, title = {Common promoter polymorphisms of inflammation and thrombosis genes and longevity in older adults: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Atherosclerosis}, volume = {181}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Jul}, pages = {175-83}, abstract = {

Inflammatory response genes may influence life span or quality at advanced ages. Using data from the population-based cardiovascular health study (CHS) cohort, we examined the associations between promoter polymorphisms of several inflammation and thrombosis genes with longevity. We ascertained genotypes for interleukin (IL)-6 -174 G/C, beta-fibrinogen -455 G/A, plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1 -675 4G/5G, and thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor (TAFI) -438 G/A in 2224 men and women > or = 65 years old at baseline. During 10 years of follow-up, men with the TAFI -438 A/A genotype had decreased mortality due to all causes, and lived, on average, 0.9 more years of life, or 1.1 more years of healthy life, than men with the -438 G allele. The effects of TAFI -438 G/A in women were smaller and not statistically significant. PAI-1 4G/4G genotype appeared to be associated with lower non-cardiovascular mortality in men, but with greater cardiovascular mortality in women. In exploratory analyses, we observed a possible interaction among anti-inflammatory drugs, interleukin-6 -174 C/C genotype, and longevity. These findings suggest that modulators of fibrinolytic activity may have a generalized influence on aging, and merit further investigation in studies of genetic determinants of human longevity.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aging, Carboxypeptidase B2, Cause of Death, Cohort Studies, Female, Genotype, Health Status, Humans, Inflammation, Longevity, Male, Middle Aged, Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor 1, Polymorphism, Genetic, Promoter Regions, Genetic, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Thrombosis}, issn = {0021-9150}, doi = {10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2005.01.028}, author = {Reiner, Alexander P and Diehr, Paula and Browner, Warren S and Humphries, Stephen E and Jenny, Nancy S and Cushman, Mary and Tracy, Russell P and Walston, Jeremy and Lumley, Thomas and Newman, Anne B and Kuller, Lewis H and Psaty, Bruce M} } @article {812, title = {Incidence, manifestations, and predictors of worsening white matter on serial cranial magnetic resonance imaging in the elderly: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {36}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Jan}, pages = {56-61}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans in the elderly commonly show white matter findings that may raise concerns. We sought to document incidence, manifestations, and predictors of worsening white matter grade on serial imaging.

METHODS: The Cardiovascular Health Study is a population-based, longitudinal study of 5888 people aged 65 years and older, of whom 1919 have had extensive initial and follow-up evaluations, including 2 MRI scans separated by 5 years. Scans were read without clinical information in standard side-by-side fashion to determine worsening white matter grade.

RESULTS: Worsening was evident in 538 participants (28\%), mostly (85\%) by 1 grade. Although similar at initial scan, participants with worsening white matter grade, compared with those without, experienced greater decline on modified Mini-Mental State examination and Digit-Symbol Substitution test (both P< or =0.001) after controlling for potential confounding factors, including occurrence of transient ischemic attack or stroke between scans. Independent predictors of worsening white matter grade included cigarette smoking before initial scan and infarct on initial scan. Otherwise, predictors differed according to white matter grade on initial scan. For low initial grade, increased age, increased diastolic blood pressure, increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and decreased low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were associated with increased risk of worsening. For high initial grade, any cardiovascular disease and low ankle-arm index were associated with decreased risk of worsening, whereas use of diuretics and statins were associated with increased risk.

CONCLUSIONS: Worsening white matter grade on serial MRI scans in elderly is common, is associated with cognitive decline, and has complex relations with cardiovascular risk factors.

}, keywords = {Aged, Brain, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cognition Disorders, Female, Humans, Incidence, Leukoaraiosis, Longitudinal Studies, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Risk Factors, Stroke}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/01.STR.0000149625.99732.69}, author = {Longstreth, W T and Arnold, Alice M and Beauchamp, Norman J and Manolio, Teri A and Lefkowitz, David and Jungreis, Charles and Hirsch, Calvin H and O{\textquoteright}Leary, Daniel H and Furberg, Curt D} } @article {865, title = {Kidney function as a predictor of noncardiovascular mortality.}, journal = {J Am Soc Nephrol}, volume = {16}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Dec}, pages = {3728-35}, abstract = {

Chronic kidney disease is associated with a higher risk for cardiovascular mortality, as well as all-cause mortality. Whether chronic kidney disease is a predictor of noncardiovascular mortality is less clear. To further explore the latter, the association of kidney function with total noncardiovascular mortality and cause-specific mortality was assessed in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a community-based cohort of older individuals. Kidney disease was assessed using cystatin C and estimated GFR in 4637 participants in 1992 to 1993. Participants were followed until June 30, 2001. Deaths were adjudicated as cardiovascular or noncardiovascular disease by committee, and an underlying cause of death was assigned. The associations of kidney function with total noncardiovascular mortality and cause-specific mortality were analyzed by proportional hazards regression. Noncardiovascular mortality rates increased with higher cystatin C quartiles (16.8, 17.1, 21.6, and 50.0 per 1000 person-years). The association of cystatin C with noncardiovascular mortality persisted after adjustment for demographic factors; the presence of diabetes, C-reactive protein, hemoglobin, and prevalent cardiovascular disease; and measures of atherosclerosis (hazard ratio 1.69; 95\% confidence interval 1.33 to 2.15, for the fourth quartile versus the first quartile). Results for estimated GFR were similar. The risk for noncardiac deaths attributed to pulmonary disease, infection, cancer, and other causes was similarly associated with cystatin C levels. Kidney function predicts noncardiovascular mortality from multiple causes in the elderly. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms and evaluate interventions to reduce the high mortality rate in chronic kidney disease.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cause of Death, Cohort Studies, Confidence Intervals, Creatinine, Cystatin C, Cystatins, Female, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Kidney Function Tests, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Probability, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Assessment, Severity of Illness Index, Survival Analysis, United States}, issn = {1046-6673}, doi = {10.1681/ASN.2005040384}, author = {Fried, Linda F and Katz, Ronit and Sarnak, Mark J and Shlipak, Michael G and Chaves, Paulo H M and Jenny, Nancy Swords and Stehman-Breen, Catherine and Gillen, Dan and Bleyer, Anthony J and Hirsch, Calvin and Siscovick, David and Newman, Anne B} } @article {817, title = {Population structure, admixture, and aging-related phenotypes in African American adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {76}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Mar}, pages = {463-77}, abstract = {

U.S. populations are genetically admixed, but surprisingly little empirical data exists documenting the impact of such heterogeneity on type I and type II error in genetic-association studies of unrelated individuals. By applying several complementary analytical techniques, we characterize genetic background heterogeneity among 810 self-identified African American subjects sampled as part of a multisite cohort study of cardiovascular disease in older adults. On the basis of the typing of 24 ancestry-informative biallelic single-nucleotide-polymorphism markers, there was evidence of substantial population substructure and admixture. We used an allele-sharing-based clustering algorithm to infer evidence for four genetically distinct subpopulations. Using multivariable regression models, we demonstrate the complex interplay of genetic and socioeconomic factors on quantitative phenotypes related to cardiovascular disease and aging. Blood glucose level correlated with individual African ancestry, whereas body mass index was associated more strongly with genetic similarity. Blood pressure, HDL cholesterol level, C-reactive protein level, and carotid wall thickness were not associated with genetic background. Blood pressure and HDL cholesterol level varied by geographic site, whereas C-reactive protein level differed by occupation. Both ancestry and genetic similarity predicted the number and quality of years lived during follow-up, but socioeconomic factors largely accounted for these associations. When the 24 genetic markers were tested individually, there were an excess number of marker-trait associations, most of which were attenuated by adjustment for genetic ancestry. We conclude that the genetic demography underlying older individuals who self identify as African American is complex, and that controlling for both genetic admixture and socioeconomic characteristics will be required in assessing genetic associations with chronic-disease-related traits in African Americans. Complementary methods that identify discrete subgroups on the basis of genetic similarity may help to further characterize the complex biodemographic structure of human populations.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Aging, Algorithms, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetics, Population, Genotype, Humans, Male, Models, Genetic, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Risk Factors, Socioeconomic Factors}, issn = {0002-9297}, doi = {10.1086/428654}, author = {Reiner, Alexander P and Ziv, Elad and Lind, Denise L and Nievergelt, Caroline M and Schork, Nicholas J and Cummings, Steven R and Phong, Angie and Burchard, Esteban Gonz{\'a}lez and Harris, Tamara B and Psaty, Bruce M and Kwok, Pui-Yan} } @article {864, title = {A prospective study of anemia status, hemoglobin concentration, and mortality in an elderly cohort: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Arch Intern Med}, volume = {165}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Oct 24}, pages = {2214-20}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Anemia is viewed as a negative prognostic factor in the elderly population; its independent impact on survival is unclear.

METHODS: Baseline hemoglobin quintiles and anemia, as defined by the World Health Organization criteria, were assessed in relation to mortality in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a prospective cohort study with 11.2 years of follow-up of 5888 community-dwelling men and women 65 years or older, enrolled in 1989-1990 or 1992-1993 in 4 US communities.

RESULTS: A total of 1205 participants were in the lowest hemoglobin quintile (<13.7 g/dL for men; <12.6 g/dL for women), and 498 (8.5\%) were anemic (<13 g/dL for men; <12 g/dL for women). A reverse J-shaped relationship with mortality was observed; age-, sex-, and race-adjusted hazard ratios (95\% confidence interval [CI]) in the first and fifth quintiles, compared with the fourth quintile, were 1.42 (95\% CI, 1.25-1.62) and 1.24 (95\% CI, 1.09-1.42). After multivariate adjustment, these hazard ratios were 1.33 (95\% CI, 1.15-1.54) and 1.17 (95\% CI, 1.01-1.36). The demographic- and fully-adjusted hazard ratios of anemia for mortality were 1.57 (95\% CI, 1.38-1.78) and 1.38 (95\% CI, 1.19-1.54). Adjustment for causes and consequences of anemia (renal function, inflammation, or frailty) did not reduce associations.

CONCLUSIONS: Lower and higher hemoglobin concentrations and anemia by World Health Organization criteria were independently associated with increased mortality. The World Health Organization criteria did not identify risk as well as a lower hemoglobin value. Additional study is needed on the clinically valid definition for and causes of anemia in the elderly and on the increased mortality at the extremes of hemoglobin concentrations.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Anemia, California, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Health Status, Hemoglobins, Humans, Male, Maryland, Multivariate Analysis, North Carolina, Observation, Pennsylvania, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Severity of Illness Index, Survival Rate}, issn = {0003-9926}, doi = {10.1001/archinte.165.19.2214}, author = {Zakai, Neil A and Katz, Ronit and Hirsch, Calvin and Shlipak, Michael G and Chaves, Paulo H M and Newman, Anne B and Cushman, Mary} } @article {836, title = {Renal duplex parameters, blood pressure, and renal function in elderly people.}, journal = {Am J Kidney Dis}, volume = {45}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 May}, pages = {842-50}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Changes in renal artery and renal parenchyma perfusion are believed to correlate with severity of hypertension and worsened renal function, but population-based studies of these associations are not available. This study examines relationships between parameters derived from renal duplex sonography (RDS), blood pressure (BP), and excretory renal function in a population-based cohort of elderly Americans.

METHODS: Through an ancillary study to the Cardiovascular Health Study, 758 participants (37\% men; mean age, 77 years) underwent RDS in which flow velocities and frequency shifts were determined from spectral analysis of Doppler-shifted signals obtained from the renal artery and parenchyma. Associations of these duplex parameters with BP and inverse serum creatinine were examined by using multivariate regression techniques.

RESULTS: Main renal artery peak systolic flow velocity (PSV) showed independent associations with BP, with an SD increase in PSV (0.53 m/s) associated with a 3.3-mm Hg increase in systolic BP (SBP) and a 2.4-mm Hg decrease in diastolic BP (DBP). An SD decrease in end-diastolic frequency shift (EDF; 131 kHz) was associated with a 6.0-mm Hg increase in SBP, a 4.2-mm Hg decrease in DBP, and a significant 3.7\% decrease in inverse serum creatinine.

CONCLUSION: Increases in renal artery PSV and decreases in parenchymal EDF are associated with increased SBP and decreased DBP. Moreover, decreased parenchymal EDF showed significant associations with impaired excretory renal function. These results suggest that renal duplex parameters are associated with renal parenchymal changes caused by hypertension and progressive renal dysfunction in elderly people.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Aging, Arteriosclerosis, Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Creatinine, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diastole, Disease Progression, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Renovascular, Kidney, Kidney Diseases, Kidney Function Tests, Male, Renal Artery, Renal Artery Obstruction, Renal Circulation, Risk Factors, Sampling Studies, Systole, Ultrasonography, Doppler, Duplex, United States}, issn = {1523-6838}, doi = {10.1053/j.ajkd.2005.01.028}, author = {Pearce, Jeffrey D and Edwards, Matthew S and Craven, Timothy E and English, William P and Mondi, Matthew M and Reavis, Scott W and Hansen, Kimberley J} } @article {819, title = {Renovascular disease and the risk of adverse coronary events in the elderly: a prospective, population-based study.}, journal = {Arch Intern Med}, volume = {165}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Jan 24}, pages = {207-13}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Renovascular disease is a cause of secondary hypertension and renal insufficiency and is suspected to contribute to morbidity and mortality of coronary heart disease. This investigation prospectively examined associations between renovascular disease and adverse coronary events among a population-based sample of elderly Americans.

METHODS: The Cardiovascular Health Study is a prospective, multicenter cohort study of cardiovascular disease risk factors, morbidity, and mortality among Americans older than 65 years. Renal duplex sonography was performed on 870 individuals between January 1995 and February 1997. Renovascular disease was defined as any focal peak systolic velocity of 1.8 m/s or greater (renal artery stenosis) or the absence of a Doppler-shifted signal from an imaged artery (renal artery occlusion). Adverse coronary events were defined as hospitalized angina, fatal or nonfatal myocardial infarction, and coronary revascularization.

RESULTS: During a mean follow-up of 14 months, 68 participants experienced incident or recurrent adverse coronary events. The presence of renovascular disease demonstrated a significant relationship with adverse coronary events (hazard ratio, 1.96; 95\% confidence interval, 1.00-3.83; P = .05) that remained after controlling for the effects of coexisting atherosclerotic risk factors and prevalent cardiovascular disease. The relationship between renovascular disease and adverse coronary events was not dependent on the effects of increased blood pressure.

CONCLUSIONS: The presence of renovascular disease was associated with an increase in the risk of adverse coronary events in this sample. The increment in risk was not dependent on the effects of associated atherosclerotic risk factors, other prevalent cardiovascular disease, or increased blood pressure.

}, keywords = {Age Distribution, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Analysis of Variance, Cohort Studies, Comorbidity, Coronary Disease, Female, Geriatric Assessment, Heart Function Tests, Humans, Hypertension, Renovascular, Incidence, Kidney Function Tests, Male, Multivariate Analysis, Probability, Prognosis, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Severity of Illness Index, Sex Distribution, Survival Rate, Ultrasonography, Doppler, United States}, issn = {0003-9926}, doi = {10.1001/archinte.165.2.207}, author = {Edwards, Matthew S and Craven, Timothy E and Burke, Gregory L and Dean, Richard H and Hansen, Kimberley J} } @article {859, title = {Sometimes higher heart rate variability is not better heart rate variability: results of graphical and nonlinear analyses.}, journal = {J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol}, volume = {16}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Sep}, pages = {954-9}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence and effect on traditional heart rate variability (HRV) indices of abnormal HRV patterns in the elderly.

METHODS: Hourly Poincar{\'e} plots and plots of spectral HRV from normal-to-normal interbeat intervals and hourly nonlinear HRV values were examined in a subset of 290 consecutive participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study. Only subjects in normal sinus rhythm with > or = 18 hours of usable data were included. Eligible subjects were 71 +/- 5 years. During 7 years of follow-up, 21.7\% had died. Hours were scored as normal (0), borderline (0.5), or abnormal (1) from a combination of plot appearance and HRV. Summed scores were normalized to 100\% to create an abnormality score (ABN). Short-term HRV versus each 5th percentile of ABN was plotted and a cutpoint for markedly increased HRV identified. The t-tests compared HRV for subjects above and below this cutpoint. Cox regression evaluated the association of ABN and mortality.

RESULTS: Of 5,815 eligible hourly plots, 64.4\% were normal, 14.5\% borderline, and 21.1\% abnormal. HR, SDNN, SDNNIDX, ln VLF and LF power, and power law slope did not differ by the cutpoint for increased short-term HRV, while SDANN and ln ULF power were significantly lower for those above the cutpoint. However, many HRV indices including LF/HF ratio and normalized LF and HF power were significantly different between groups (P < 0.001). Increased ABN was significantly associated with mortality (P = 0.019). Despite similar values for many HRV indices, being in the group above the cutpoint was significantly associated with mortality (P = 0.04).

CONCLUSIONS: Abnormal HR patterns that elevate many HRV indices are prevalent among the elderly and associated with higher risk of mortality. Consideration of abnormal HRV may improve HRV-based risk stratification.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Algorithms, Arrhythmia, Sinus, Cohort Studies, Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted, Electrocardiography, Female, Heart Rate, Humans, Male, Models, Cardiovascular, Nonlinear Dynamics, Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted, Prevalence, Proportional Hazards Models, Reproducibility of Results, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Sensitivity and Specificity, United States}, issn = {1045-3873}, doi = {10.1111/j.1540-8167.2005.40788.x}, author = {Stein, Phyllis K and Domitrovich, Peter P and Hui, Nelson and Rautaharju, Pentti and Gottdiener, John} } @article {846, title = {Statin use and the risk of incident dementia: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Arch Neurol}, volume = {62}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Jul}, pages = {1047-51}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Statins (3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors) reduce cardiovascular risk through mechanisms that might affect the development of dementia.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether statin use is associated with a lower risk of dementia compared with never use of lipid-lowering agents (LLAs).

DESIGN: Cohort study of community-dwelling adults 65 years and older. The analysis included 2798 participants free of dementia at baseline.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Using Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, we estimated the risk of incident all-cause and type-specific dementia associated with time-dependent statin therapy compared with never use of LLAs. The primary analyses incorporated a 1-year lag between exposure and outcome. Secondary analyses included the final year of exposure and modeled statin use as current use vs nonuse to simulate a case-control approach.

RESULTS: Compared with never use of LLAs, ever use of statins was not associated with the risk of all-cause dementia (multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.08; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 0.77-1.52), Alzheimer disease alone (HR, 1.21; 95\% CI, 0.76-1.91), mixed Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia (HR, 0.87; 95\% CI, 0.44-1.72), or vascular dementia alone (HR, 1.36; 95\% CI, 0.61-3.06). In contrast, in secondary analyses, current use of statins compared with nonuse of LLAs was associated with HRs of 0.69 (95\% CI, 0.46-1.02) for all-cause dementia and 0.56 (95\% CI, 0.35-0.92) for any Alzheimer disease.

CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort study, statin therapy was not associated with a decreased risk of dementia. Methodological differences may explain why results of this cohort investigation differ from those of prior case-control studies. Additional investigation is needed to determine whether and for whom statin use may affect dementia risk.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Dementia, Female, Humans, Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors, Hyperlipidemias, Male}, issn = {0003-9942}, doi = {10.1001/archneur.62.7.1047}, author = {Rea, Thomas D and Breitner, John C and Psaty, Bruce M and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Lopez, Oscar L and Newman, Anne B and Hazzard, William R and Zandi, Peter P and Burke, Gregory L and Lyketsos, Constantine G and Bernick, Charles and Kuller, Lewis H} } @article {860, title = {Vascular events, mortality, and preventive therapy following ischemic stroke in the elderly.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {65}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Sep 27}, pages = {835-42}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The authors studied mortality, vascular events, and preventive therapies following ischemic stroke among adults aged > or =65 years.

METHODS: The authors identified 546 subjects with first ischemic stroke during 1989 to 2001 among Cardiovascular Health Study participants. Deaths, recurrent strokes, and coronary heart disease (CHD) events were identified over 3.2 years (median) follow-up.

RESULTS: During the first year of follow-up, rates were 105.4/1,000 for recurrent stroke and 59.3/1,000 for CHD. After the first year, the stroke rate was 52.0/1,000 and the CHD rate was 46.5/1,000. Cardioembolic strokes had the highest mortality (185.4/1,000) and recurrence rates (86.6/1,000). Lacunar strokes had the lowest mortality (119.3/1,000) and recurrence rates (43.0/1,000). Age and male sex predicted death and CHD, but not recurrence. Outcomes did not differ by race. Following stroke, 47.8\% used aspirin and 13.5\% used other antiplatelet agents; 52.6\% of patients with atrial fibrillation used warfarin; 31.3\% of hyperlipidemic subjects, 57.0\% of diabetic patients, and 81.5\% of hypertensive patients were drug-treated; and 40.0\% of hypertensive patients had blood pressure (BP) <140/90 mm Hg. Older subjects were less likely to use lipid-lowering therapy, women were less likely to have BP <140/90 mm Hg, and low-income subjects were less likely to use diabetes medications.

CONCLUSIONS: Recurrent strokes were nearly twice as frequent as coronary heart disease (CHD) events during the first year after initial stroke, but stroke and CHD rates were similar after the first year. Preventive drug therapies were underused, which may reflect clinical uncertainty due to the lack of clinical trials among the elderly. Utilization was lower among the oldest patients, women, and low-income individuals.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Anticoagulants, Antihypertensive Agents, Brain Ischemia, Cohort Studies, Comorbidity, Coronary Artery Disease, Drug Utilization, Female, Humans, Hyperlipidemias, Hypertension, Hypolipidemic Agents, Male, Mortality, Prospective Studies, Recurrence, Sex Factors, Stroke, Treatment Outcome}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/01.wnl.0000176058.09848.bb}, author = {Kaplan, R C and Tirschwell, D L and Longstreth, W T and Manolio, T A and Heckbert, S R and Lefkowitz, D and El-Saed, A and Psaty, B M} } @article {868, title = {Weight loss, muscle strength, and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors in older adults with congestive heart failure or hypertension.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {53}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Nov}, pages = {1996-2000}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor use may be associated with weight maintenance and sustained muscle strength (measured by grip strength) in older adults.

DESIGN: Data from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a community-based prospective cohort study of 5,888 older adults, were used.

SETTING: Subjects were recruited from four U.S. sites beginning in 1989; this analysis included data through 2001.

PARTICIPANTS: CHS participants with congestive heart failure (CHF) or treated hypertension.

MEASUREMENTS: The exposure, current ACE inhibitor use, was ascertained by medication inventory at annual clinic visits; the outcomes were weight change and grip-strength change during the following year. Multivariate linear regression was used, accounting for correlations between observations on the same participant over time.

RESULTS: The average annual weight change was -0.38 kg in 2,834 participants (14,443 person-years) with treated hypertension and -0.62 kg in 342 participants (980 person-years) with CHF. ACE inhibitor use was associated with less annual weight loss after adjustment for potential confounders: a difference of 0.17 kg (95\% confidence interval (CI)=0.05-0.29) in those with treated hypertension and 0.29 kg (95\% CI=-0.25-0.83) in those with CHF. There was no evidence of association between ACE inhibitor use and grip-strength change.

CONCLUSION: ACE inhibitor use may be associated with weight maintenance, but not maintenance of muscle strength, in older adults with treated hypertension.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors, Female, Hand Strength, Heart Failure, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Multivariate Analysis, Outcome Assessment, Health Care, Prospective Studies, Statistics as Topic, United States, Weight Loss}, issn = {0002-8614}, doi = {10.1111/j.1532-5415.2005.53568.x}, author = {Schellenbaum, Gina D and Smith, Nicholas L and Heckbert, Susan R and Lumley, Thomas and Rea, Thomas D and Furberg, Curt D and Lyles, Mary F and Psaty, Bruce M} } @article {905, title = {The association of alcohol consumption and incident heart failure: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {48}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Jul 18}, pages = {305-11}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: We investigated the association between alcohol consumption and incident congestive heart failure (CHF) both overall and after adjusting for incident myocardial infarction (MI).

BACKGROUND: Moderate alcohol consumption has been associated with lower risk of CHF and MI.

METHODS: The Cardiovascular Health study, a prospective cohort study of cardiovascular disease risk factors and outcomes, followed 5,888 subjects > or =65 years old for 7 to 10 years. Cox models were used to estimate the adjusted risk of CHF by reported alcohol consumption.

RESULTS: There were 5,595 subjects at baseline at risk for incident CHF with alcohol data and 1,056 events during follow-up. Compared with abstainers, the adjusted risk of CHF was lower among subjects who reported consuming 1 to 6 drinks per week (hazard ratio [HR] 0.82, 95\% confidence interval [CI] 0.67 to 1.00, p = 0.05) and 7 to 13 drinks per week (HR 0.66, 95\% CI 0.47 to 0.91, p = 0.01). Time-dependent adjustment for incident MI altered only slightly the association between moderate alcohol consumption and CHF (for 1 to 6 drinks per week, HR 0.84, 95\% CI 0.65 to 1.04; for 7 to 13 drinks per week, HR 0.69, 95\% CI 0.49 to 0.99). Baseline former drinkers had a higher risk of CHF than abstainers (HR 1.51, p < 0.01), but those who quit during the study did not have a higher risk (HR 0.83, 95\% CI 0.66 to 1.03).

CONCLUSIONS: Moderate alcohol use is associated with a lower risk of incident CHF among older adults, even after accounting for incident MI and other factors.

}, keywords = {Aged, Alcohol Drinking, Chi-Square Distribution, Comorbidity, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Life Style, Male, Multicenter Studies as Topic, Myocardial Infarction, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, Smoking}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2006.02.066}, author = {Bryson, Chris L and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Mittleman, Murray A and Fried, Linda P and Hirsch, Calvin H and Kitzman, Dalane W and Siscovick, David S} } @article {892, title = {The association of markers of inflammation with weight change in older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Int J Obes (Lond)}, volume = {30}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Sep}, pages = {1362-7}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Elevated levels of inflammation factors often precede weight loss and may be causally related to it. Newer studies suggest that elevated levels of inflammation factors also precede weight gain. In this study, we examined whether inflammation factors are elevated in individuals, age >or=65 years, who lost or gained >5\% weight over a 3 year follow-up period compared to those with stable weight.

SUBJECTS: In total, 3254 participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study whose weight was stable; 661 who gained >5\% weight; and 842 who lost >5\% weight.

MEASUREMENTS: C-reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen, factor VIIIc, white blood cell (WBC) and platelet counts, and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels.

RESULTS: As compared to participants whose weight was stable, those who lost >5\% weight had higher baseline CRP concentration (1.05 (95\% CI, 1.02, 1.08) per interquartile increase) and WBC count (1.10 (1.01, 1.19) per interquartile increase) on adjusted analyses. Those who gained >5\% weight had higher baseline CRP (1.05 (1.01, 1.08)), fibrinogen (1.13 (1.01, 1.27)), and factor VIIIc (1.15 (1.03, 1.30)).

CONCLUSIONS: Inflammation factors are associated with weight gain and weight loss in older individuals. These findings suggest that subclinical inflammation, or unknown factors associated with subclinical inflammation, contribute to weight change.

}, keywords = {Aged, Biomarkers, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Factor VIII, Female, Fibrinogen, Humans, Inflammation, Interleukin-6, Leukocyte Count, Male, Platelet Count, Weight Gain, Weight Loss}, issn = {0307-0565}, doi = {10.1038/sj.ijo.0803306}, author = {Barzilay, J I and Forsberg, C and Heckbert, S R and Cushman, M and Newman, A B} } @article {932, title = {Association of polymorphisms in the CRP gene with circulating C-reactive protein levels and cardiovascular events.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {296}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Dec 13}, pages = {2703-11}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: C-reactive protein (CRP) is an inflammation protein that may play a role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether polymorphisms in the CRP gene are associated with plasma CRP, carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), and CVD events.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: In the prospective, population-based Cardiovascular Health Study, 4 tag single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (1919A/T, 2667G/C, 3872G/A, 5237A/G) were genotyped in 3941 white (European American) participants and 5 tag SNPs (addition of 790A/T) were genotyped in 700 black (African American) participants, aged 65 years or older, all of whom were without myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke before study entry. Median follow-up was 13 years (1989-2003).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Baseline CIMT; occurrence of MI, stroke, and CVD mortality during follow-up.

RESULTS: In white participants, 461 incident MIs, 491 incident strokes, and 490 CVD-related deaths occurred; in black participants, 67 incident MIs, 78 incident strokes, and 75 CVD-related deaths occurred. The 1919T and 790T alleles were associated with higher CRP levels in white and black participants, respectively. The 3872A allele was associated with lower CRP levels in both populations, and the 2667C allele was associated with lower CRP levels in white participants only. There was no association between CIMT and any CRP gene polymorphism in either population. In white participants, the 1919T allele was associated with increased risk of stroke for TT vs AA (hazard ratio [HR], 1.40; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.06-1.87) and for CVD mortality (HR, 1.40; 95\% CI, 1.10-1.90). In black participants, homozygosity for the 790T allele was associated with a 4-fold increased risk of MI compared with homozygosity for the 790A allele (95\% CI, 1.58-10.53). The minor alleles of the 2 SNPs associated with lower plasma CRP concentration in white participants (2667C and 3872A) were associated with decreased risk of CVD mortality.

CONCLUSIONS: Genetic variation in the CRP gene is associated with plasma CRP levels and CVD risk in older adults.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carotid Arteries, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genotype, Humans, Male, Myocardial Infarction, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk, Stroke, Tunica Intima}, issn = {1538-3598}, doi = {10.1001/jama.296.22.2703}, author = {Lange, Leslie A and Carlson, Christopher S and Hindorff, Lucia A and Lange, Ethan M and Walston, Jeremy and Durda, J Peter and Cushman, Mary and Bis, Joshua C and Zeng, Donglin and Lin, Danyu and Kuller, Lewis H and Nickerson, Deborah A and Psaty, Bruce M and Tracy, Russell P and Reiner, Alexander P} } @article {877, title = {The association of race with frailty: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Ann Epidemiol}, volume = {16}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Jul}, pages = {545-53}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: Frailty, which has been conceptualized as a state of decreased physiologic reserve contributing to functional decline, has a prevalence among older African Americans that is twice that in older whites. This study assesses the independent contribution of race to frailty.

METHODS: We evaluated 786 African-American and 4491 white participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). Frailty is defined as meeting three or more of five criteria derived from CHS measures: lowest quintile for grip strength, self-reported exhaustion, unintentional weight loss of 10 lbs or greater in 1 year, slowest quintile for gait speed, and lowest quintile for physical activity. Controlling for age, sex, comorbidity, socioeconomic factors, and race, multinomial logistic regression estimated the odds ratio (OR) of prefrail (one or two criteria) to not frail and frail to not frail.

RESULTS: Among African Americans, 8.7\% of men and 15.0\% of women were frail compared with 4.6\% and 6.8\% of white men and women, respectively. In adjusted models, nonobese African Americans had a fourfold greater odds of frailty compared with whites. The increased OR of frailty associated with African-American race was less pronounced among those who were obese or disabled.

CONCLUSION: African-American race is associated independently with frailty.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Asthenia, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Frail Elderly, Health Status, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Motor Activity, Odds Ratio, United States, Weight Loss}, issn = {1047-2797}, doi = {10.1016/j.annepidem.2005.10.003}, author = {Hirsch, Calvin and Anderson, Melissa L and Newman, Anne and Kop, Willem and Jackson, Sharon and Gottdiener, John and Tracy, Russell and Fried, Linda P} } @article {893, title = {Beta2-adrenergic receptor genetic variants and risk of sudden cardiac death.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {113}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Apr 18}, pages = {1842-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Sympathetic activation influences the risk of ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death (SCD), mediated in part by the beta2-adrenergic receptor (B2AR). We investigated whether variation in the B2AR gene is associated with SCD risk.

METHODS AND RESULTS: In this study, 4441 white and 808 black Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) participants were followed up prospectively for SCD and genotyped for B2AR Gly16Arg and Gln27Glu polymorphisms. The study was replicated in 155 case and 144 control white subjects in a population-based case-control study of SCD, the Cardiac Arrest Blood Study (CABS). In CHS, Gly16 and Gln27 allele frequencies were 62.4\% and 57.1\% among white and 50.1\% and 81.4\% among black participants. Over a median follow-up of 11.1 years, 156 and 39 SCD events occurred in white and black participants, respectively. The Gln27Glu variant was associated with SCD risk (P=0.008 for general model). SCD risk was higher in Gln27 homozygous participants than in Glu27 carriers (ethnicity-adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.56; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.17 to 2.09; P=0.003). The increased risk did not differ significantly between white (HR, 1.62; 95\% CI, 1.18 to 2.23) and black (HR, 1.23; 95\% CI, 0.61 to 2.48) participants, although the confidence interval was wide in blacks. In the CABS replication study, Gln27 homozygous participants similarly had higher SCD risk than Glu27 carriers (odds ratio, 1.64; 95\% CI, 1.02 to 2.63; P=0.040). Gly16Arg was not associated with SCD risk in either study.

CONCLUSIONS: Gln27 homozygous individuals have an increased risk of SCD in 2 study populations. Our findings suggest that B2AR plays a role in SCD in humans. Study of genetic variation within the B2AR gene may help identify those at increased SCD risk.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Case-Control Studies, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Glutamine, Haplotypes, Homozygote, Humans, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-2, Reproducibility of Results}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.105.582833}, author = {Sotoodehnia, Nona and Siscovick, David S and Vatta, Matteo and Psaty, Bruce M and Tracy, Russell P and Towbin, Jeffrey A and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Rea, Thomas D and Durda, J Peter and Chang, Joel M and Lumley, Thomas S and Kuller, Lewis H and Burke, Gregory L and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {917, title = {Blood pressure level and outcomes in adults aged 65 and older with prior ischemic stroke.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {54}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Sep}, pages = {1309-16}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between blood pressure (BP) levels and long-term stroke outcomes in elderly stroke survivors.

DESIGN: Observational study.

SETTING: The Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) of 5,888 community-dwelling adults.

PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred fifty-four adults aged 65 and older (mean age 78.6) who sustained a nonfatal first ischemic stroke.

MEASUREMENTS: BP levels assessed at prestroke and poststroke CHS visits were examined as predictors of stroke recurrence, coronary heart disease (CHD), combined vascular events (CVEs), and mortality.

RESULTS: Higher poststroke BP level, assessed 261.6 days (mean) after stroke, was associated with higher risk of stroke recurrence over 5.4 years (mean) of follow-up. The multivariate-adjusted hazard ratio for stroke recurrence was 1.42 (95\% confidence interval (CI) = 1.03-1.99) per standard deviation (SD) of systolic BP (P = .04) and 1.39 (95\% CI = 1.01-1.91) per SD of diastolic BP (P = .04). Mortality was significantly greater in patients with low or high poststroke BP than in those with intermediate BP. Poststroke BP was not associated with risk of CHD or CVE, although further analyses suggested that high systolic BP predicted CHD and CVE in younger but not older subjects. Prestroke BP did not predict poststroke outcomes.

CONCLUSION: In this observational study of adults aged 65 and older assessed approximately 8 months after stroke, low BP was associated with favorable risk of recurrent stroke, although high and low poststroke BP levels were associated with greater mortality. Long-term antihypertensive trials in older stroke survivors would increase knowledge about the benefits of lowering BP in this population.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Blood Pressure, Brain Ischemia, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Male, Outcome Assessment, Health Care, Prospective Studies, Recurrence, Stroke, Survival Rate}, issn = {0002-8614}, doi = {10.1111/j.1532-5415.2006.00838.x}, author = {Kaplan, Robert C and Tirschwell, David L and Longstreth, W T and Manolio, Teri A and Heckbert, Susan R and LeValley, Aaron J and Lefkowitz, David and El-Saed, Aiman and Psaty, Bruce M} } @article {924, title = {Clinical course of mesenteric artery stenosis in elderly americans.}, journal = {Arch Intern Med}, volume = {166}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Oct 23}, pages = {2095-100}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: To examine prospectively the relationship between stenosis or occlusion of the celiac and superior mesenteric arteries and symptoms of chronic intestinal ischemia in free-living elderly patients in the United States.

METHODS: As part of an ancillary study to the Cardiovascular Health Study, participants in the Forsyth County (North Carolina) cohort underwent visceral duplex ultrasonography of the celiac and superior mesenteric arteries. Critical mesenteric artery stenosis (MAS) or occlusion was defined by Doppler flow ultrasound-derived criteria. Clinical outcomes were assessed at annual follow-up examinations and review of death certificates. Multivariate associations between the presence of MAS and all-cause mortality and adverse cardiovascular events were analyzed. Participants with MAS were contacted to determine the presence of symptoms consistent with chronic intestinal ischemia.

RESULTS: Of 553 participants who underwent visceral duplex ultrasonography, 97 (17.5\%) had disease of the celiac or superior mesenteric artery. At a mean follow-up of 6(1/2) years, 20 participants with MAS (20.6\%) and 93 without MAS (20.4\%) had died (relative risk, 1.01; 95\% confidence interval, 0.66-1.55). No deaths were attributed to intestinal infarction. No association existed between the presence of MAS and prevalent cardiovascular disease, all-cause mortality, or adverse cardiovascular events. A questionnaire was completed by 71\% of the surviving participants with MAS. No participant reported symptoms or weight loss consistent with chronic intestinal ischemia.

CONCLUSIONS: Mesenteric artery stenosis was a common finding in free-living elderly patients. At long-term follow-up, the presence of asymptomatic MAS was not associated with death or adverse cardiovascular events. Participants with asymptomatic MAS by duplex ultrasonographic criteria did not experience intestinal infarction or develop chronic intestinal ischemia.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cohort Studies, Comorbidity, Female, Humans, Male, Mesenteric Arteries, Mesenteric Vascular Occlusion, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Radiography, Risk Factors, Surveys and Questionnaires, Ultrasonography}, issn = {0003-9926}, doi = {10.1001/archinte.166.19.2095}, author = {Wilson, David B and Mostafavi, Kian and Craven, Timothy E and Ayerdi, Juan and Edwards, Matthew S and Hansen, Kimberley J} } @article {844, title = {Congestive heart failure incidence and prognosis: case identification using central adjudication versus hospital discharge diagnoses.}, journal = {Ann Epidemiol}, volume = {16}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Feb}, pages = {115-22}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: We compared hospitalized congestive heart failure (CHF) incidence and prognosis estimates using hospital discharge diagnoses or central adjudication.

METHODS: We used the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a population-based cohort study of 5888 elderly adults. A physician committee adjudicated potential CHF events, confirmed by signs, symptoms, clinical tests, and/or medical therapy. A CHF discharge diagnosis included any of these ICD-9 codes in any position: 428, 425, 398.91, 402.01, 402.11, 402.91, and 997.1. We constructed an inception cohort of 1209 hospitalized, nonfatal, incident CHF cases, identified by discharge diagnosis, adjudication, or both.

RESULTS: Incidence rates for hospitalized CHF were 24.6 per 1000 person-years using discharge diagnoses and 17.1 per 1000 person-years using central adjudication. Compared to the group identified as having CHF by both methods, the group with only a discharge diagnosis (hazard ratio=0.77, 95\% confidence interval=0.65-0.91) and the group with central adjudication only (hazard ratio=0.72, 95\% confidence interval=0.55-0.94) had lower mortality rates.

CONCLUSIONS: In the elderly, studies using only discharge diagnoses, as compared to central adjudication, may estimate higher rates of incident hospitalized CHF. Mortality following CHF onset may be similar for these methods and higher if both methods are used together.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cohort Studies, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Incidence, Male, Patient Discharge, Prognosis}, issn = {1047-2797}, doi = {10.1016/j.annepidem.2005.02.012}, author = {Schellenbaum, Gina D and Heckbert, Susan R and Smith, Nicholas L and Rea, Thomas D and Lumley, Thomas and Kitzman, Dalane W and Roger, Veronique L and Taylor, Herman A and Psaty, Bruce M} } @article {888, title = {A cross-sectional study of vitamin C and cognitive function in older adults: the differential effects of gender.}, journal = {J Nutr Health Aging}, volume = {10}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Jan-Feb}, pages = {37-44}, abstract = {

Previous studies have suggested that vitamin C status may be associated with cognitive function in community-dwelling populations. However, this has not been consistent across all studies due to methodological differences. This cross-sectional study assessed the association between vitamin C and cognitive function in 544 community-dwelling older adults aged 65 or older who participated in both the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and the CLUE II study in 1989. Three percent of the subjects had low plasma vitamin C concentrations (< 40 mg/dL) and 15\% had low total vitamin C intake (< 60 mg/day). Most participants (96.7 percent) had normal cognitive function. In the unadjusted analyses, the highest fifth of plasma vitamin C concentration was associated with better Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST) scores and marginally associated with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) compared to the lowest fifth. Total vitamin C intake, measured by Block{\textquoteright}s food frequency questionnaire, was generally associated with higher MMSE scores, though it was not significant. Adjusting for numerous factors did not substantially change results. In a stratified analysis by gender, higher plasma concentrations or intake were associated with higher MMSE scores for men but not for women. These mixed results do not provide strong evidence of an association between vitamin C concentrations or intake and cognitive function.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aging, Ascorbic Acid, Cognition, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diet, Female, Health Surveys, Humans, Male, Mental Status Schedule, Nutrition Surveys, Nutritional Requirements, Sex Factors, Surveys and Questionnaires}, issn = {1279-7707}, author = {Sato, R and Helzlsouer, K J and Comstock, G W and Hoffman, S C and Norkus, E P and Fried, L P} } @article {908, title = {Kidney function predicts the rate of bone loss in older individuals: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {61}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Jul}, pages = {743-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Results of cross-sectional analyses of the association of kidney function with bone mineral density (BMD) have been conflicting. We examined the association of cystatin-C, a new marker of kidney function that is unrelated to lean mass, with initial and follow-up BMD, in an ancillary study of the Cardiovascular Health Study, a population-based cohort of individuals > or = 65 years old.

METHODS: Two years after measurement of cystatin-C and other covariates, the first BMD was measured in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Davis, California, by using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. Follow-up BMD was measured in Pittsburgh 4 years later. Associations of cystatin-C with initial BMD and the change in BMD (\%/y) at the hip were examined with linear regression. Analyses were conducted separately for men and women.

RESULTS: In 1519 participants who had cystatin-C and initial BMD assessed, 614 had follow-up BMD. The percent annual change in BMD at the total hip by cystatin-C quartiles was -0.24, -0.13, -0.40, and -0.66\%/y (first to fourth quartile) in women and -0.02, -0.30, -0.18, and -0.94\%/y in men. After adjusting for potential confounders, cystatin-C was marginally associated with initial BMD in men but not women. Cystatin-C was associated with bone loss in men; after adjustment for weight loss, cystatin-C was not associated with bone loss in women.

CONCLUSION: Kidney dysfunction, as assessed by cystatin-C, is associated with a more rapid loss of BMD at the hip, especially in men. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and to determine whether this loss leads to an elevated risk of fracture.

}, keywords = {Absorptiometry, Photon, Aged, Bone Density, Creatinine, Cystatin C, Cystatins, Female, Hip, Humans, Kidney Diseases, Kidney Function Tests, Linear Models, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Osteoporosis, Predictive Value of Tests}, issn = {1079-5006}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/61.7.743}, author = {Fried, Linda F and Shlipak, Michael G and Stehman-Breen, Catherine and Mittalhenkle, Anuja and Seliger, Stephen and Sarnak, Mark and Robbins, John and Siscovick, David and Harris, Tamara B and Newman, Anne B and Cauley, Jane A} } @article {898, title = {The prevalence of the 65-kilodalton isoform of glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibodies by glucose tolerance status in elderly patients from the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {J Clin Endocrinol Metab}, volume = {91}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Aug}, pages = {2871-7}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Autoantibodies (AA) to glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD65), a determinant of risk for autoimmune diabetes, have been found in up to 10\% of patients with type 2 diabetes. In older adults, this marker may also serve as a determinant of risk for autoimmune diabetes and enhance diabetes classification.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between GAD65AA and glucose tolerance status, current diabetes treatment, and clinical measures in older adults.

DESIGN: GAD65AA were measured at baseline in 3318 participants from the Cardiovascular Health Study, a cohort study of 5888 individuals 65 or older.

SETTING: The population-based cohort was recruited from four U.S. sites.

PATIENTS: Patients included all Cardiovascular Health Study participants with known diabetes, newly diagnosed diabetes, impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, and a sample of normal glucose-tolerant participants.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: GAD65AA, body mass index, fasting glucose and insulin levels, blood pressure, lipid levels, and diabetes treatment at baseline were measured.

RESULTS: The prevalence of GAD65AA increased with decreasing glucose tolerance in both Blacks (n = 560) and Whites (n = 2730), being more pronounced in known diabetic individuals. GAD65AA were found in 2.3, 5.8, 7.8, and 8.3\% of diabetic participants, reporting use of no diabetes medication, oral hypoglycemic agents, insulin only, and both oral hypoglycemic agents and insulin, respectively (P = 0.02, linear trend). Among diabetic participants, GAD65AA positivity was associated with diabetes treatment, higher fasting glucose, and lower body mass index.

CONCLUSIONS: Even among older individuals with diabetes, GAD65AA may be a useful marker in identifying a subgroup of autoimmune diabetes, serve as a marker of insulin requirement, and remain stable over years.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aging, Autoantibodies, Blood Glucose, Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Fasting, Female, Glucose Intolerance, Glutamate Decarboxylase, Humans, Insulin, Isoenzymes, Lipids, Logistic Models, Male, Nutrition Surveys}, issn = {0021-972X}, doi = {10.1210/jc.2005-2667}, author = {Barinas-Mitchell, Emma and Kuller, Lewis H and Pietropaolo, Susan and Zhang, Ying-Jian and Henderson, Tyona and Pietropaolo, Massimo} } @article {919, title = {Progression of atherosclerotic renovascular disease: A prospective population-based study.}, journal = {J Vasc Surg}, volume = {44}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Nov}, pages = {955-62; discussion 962-3}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Previous reports from select hypertensive patients suggest that atherosclerotic renovascular disease (RVD) is rapidly progressive and associated with a decline in kidney size and kidney function. This prospective, population-based study estimates the incidence of new RVD and progression of established RVD among elderly, free-living participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS).

METHOD: The CHS is a multicenter, longitudinal cohort study of cardiovascular risk factors, morbidity, and mortality among men and women aged >65 years old. From 1995 through 1996, 834 participants underwent renal duplex sonography (RDS) to define the presence or absence of significant RVD. Between 2002 and 2005, a second RDS study was performed in 119 participants (mean study interval, 8.0 +/- 0.8 years). Significant RVD was defined as hemodynamically significant stenosis (renal artery peak systolic velocity [RA-PSV] exceeding 1.8 m/s) or renal artery occlusion. Prevalent RVD was significant RVD at the first RDS, and incident disease was defined as new significant RVD at the second RDS. Significant change of RVD was defined as a change in RA-PSV of greater than two times the standard deviation of expected change over time, regardless of hemodynamic significance or progression to renal artery occlusion.

RESULTS: The second RDS study cohort included 119 CHS participants with 235 kidneys (35\% men; mean age, 82.8 +/- 3.4). On follow-up, no prevalent RVD (n = 13 kidneys; 6.0\%) progressed to occlusion. Twenty-nine kidneys without RVD at the first RDS demonstrated significant change in PSV at the second RDS; including nine kidneys with new significant RVD (8 new stenoses; 1 new occlusion). Controlling for within-subject correlation, the overall estimated change in RVD among all 235 kidneys was 14.0\% (95\% confidence interval [CI], 9.2\% to 21.4\%), with progression to significant RVD in 4.0\% (95\% CI, 1.9\% to 8.2\%). Longitudinal increase in diastolic blood pressure and decrease in renal length were significantly associated with progression to new (ie, incident) significant RVD but not prevalent RVD.

CONCLUSIONS: This is the first prospective, population-based estimate of incident RVD and progression of prevalent RVD among free-living elderly Americans. In contrast to previous reports among select hypertensive patients, CHS participants with a low rate of clinical hypertension demonstrated a significant change of RVD in only 14.0\% of kidneys on follow-up of 8 years (annualized rate, 1.3\% per year). Progression to significant RVD was observed in only 4.0\% (annualized rate, 0.5\% per year), and no prevalent RVD progressed to occlusion.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atherosclerosis, Blood Flow Velocity, Blood Pressure, Disease Progression, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Male, North Carolina, Population Surveillance, Prognosis, Prospective Studies, Renal Artery Obstruction, Severity of Illness Index, Time Factors, Ultrasonography, Doppler, Duplex}, issn = {0741-5214}, doi = {10.1016/j.jvs.2006.07.031}, author = {Pearce, Jeffrey D and Craven, Brandon L and Craven, Timothy E and Piercy, K Todd and Stafford, Jeanette M and Edwards, Matthew S and Hansen, Kimberley J} } @article {926, title = {Sleep apnea in patients on conventional thrice-weekly hemodialysis: comparison with matched controls from the Sleep Heart Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Soc Nephrol}, volume = {17}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Dec}, pages = {3503-9}, abstract = {

Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) has been noted commonly in hemodialysis (HD) patients, but it is not known whether this is related directly to the treatment of kidney failure with HD or to the higher prevalence of obesity and older age. Forty-six HD patients were compared with 137 participants from the Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS) who were matched for age, gender, body mass index (BMI), and race. Home unattended polysomnography was performed and scored using similar protocols. The study sample was 62.7 +/- 10.1 yr, was predominantly male (72\%) and white (63\%), and had an average BMI of 28 +/- 5.3 kg/m(2). The HD sample had a higher systolic BP (137 versus 121 mmHg; P < 0.01) and a higher prevalence of diabetes (33 versus 9\%; P < 0.01) and cardiovascular disease (33 versus 13\%; P < 0.01) compared with the SHHS sample. The HD group had significantly less sleep time (320 versus 379 min; P < 0.0001) but similar sleep efficiency. HD patients had a higher frequency of arousals per hour (25.1 versus 17.1; P < 0.0001) and apnea-hypopneas per hour (27.2 versus 15.2; P < 0.0001) and greater percentage of the total sleep time below an oxygen saturation of 90\% (7.2 versus 1.8; P < 0.0001). HD patients were more likely to have severe SDB (>30 respiratory events per hour) compared with the SHHS sample (odds ratio 4.07; 95\% confidence interval 1.83 to 9.07). There was a strong association of HD with severe SDB and nocturnal hypoxemia independent of age, BMI, and the higher prevalence of chronic disease. The potential mechanisms for the higher likelihood of SDB in the HD population must be identified to provide specific prevention and therapy.

}, keywords = {Blood Pressure, Body Mass Index, Cardiovascular Diseases, Case-Control Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Humans, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Male, Middle Aged, Prevalence, Renal Dialysis, Severity of Illness Index, Sleep Apnea Syndromes}, issn = {1046-6673}, doi = {10.1681/ASN.2006060659}, author = {Unruh, Mark L and Sanders, Mark H and Redline, Susan and Piraino, Beth M and Umans, Jason G and Hammond, Terese C and Sharief, Imran and Punjabi, Naresh M and Newman, Anne B} } @article {916, title = {Subclinical atherosclerosis and the risk of future venous thrombosis in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Thromb Haemost}, volume = {4}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Sep}, pages = {1903-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Recent reports have suggested an association of atherosclerosis with risk of venous thrombosis.

OBJECTIVE: To confirm whether subclinical atherosclerosis is a risk factor for venous thrombosis (VT) among men and women age 65 and older.

METHODS: Participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study (n = 4,108) without baseline clinical cardiovascular disease, anticoagulant use or previous VT were followed for a median of 11.7 years after non-invasive assessment of subclinical atherosclerosis using carotid ultrasound (intima-media thickness and presence of plaques), ankle-brachial blood pressure index and electrocardiogram. Each event was classified as idiopathic or secondary. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate the relative risk of overall and idiopathic VT for individuals with and without baseline subclinical atherosclerosis.

RESULTS: There were 133 first time VT events. No subclinical atherosclerosis measures were associated with increased risk of overall or idiopathic VT. The adjusted relative risks of overall and idiopathic VT for presence of any type of subclinical disease were 0.60 (95\% confidence interval 0.39-0.91) and 0.32 (0.18-0.59), respectively. Most of this association was explained by an inverse association of high-risk carotid plaques (prevalent in 54\% of those at risk) with VT.

CONCLUSION: Non-invasively measured subclinical atherosclerosis was not associated with increased risk of overall or idiopathic VT in this observational study. Carotid plaques and arterial events during follow up were inversely associated, a finding that requires further study.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atherosclerosis, Carotid Artery Thrombosis, Cohort Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, Ultrasonography, Venous Thrombosis}, issn = {1538-7933}, doi = {10.1111/j.1538-7836.2006.02096.x}, author = {van der Hagen, P B and Folsom, A R and Jenny, N S and Heckbert, S R and O{\textquoteright}Meara, E S and Reich, L M and Rosendaal, F R and Cushman, M} } @article {956, title = {ABO blood group, other risk factors and incidence of venous thromboembolism: the Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology (LITE).}, journal = {J Thromb Haemost}, volume = {5}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Jul}, pages = {1455-61}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Numerous case-control studies have reported higher prevalence of non-O blood type among venous thromboembolism (VTE) patients than controls, but potential mechanisms or effect modifiers for the association are not fully established.

PATIENTS/METHODS: Using a nested case-control design combining the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities and the Cardiovascular Health Study cohort, ABO blood type and other VTE risk factors were measured on pre-event blood samples of 492 participants who subsequently developed VTE and 1008 participants who remained free of VTE.

RESULTS: A total of 64.4\% of cases and 52.5\% of controls had non-O blood type. Among controls, mean values of factor VIIIc (FVIIIc) and von Willebrand factor among the non-O blood type group were higher than among the O group. Compared with O blood type, the age-adjusted odds ratio (OR) of VTE for non-O blood type was 1.64 (95\% CI, 1.32-2.05) and was similar for the two parent studies and race groups. Further adjustment for sex, race, body mass index, diabetes mellitus and FVIIIc reduced the OR: 1.31 (95\% CI, 1.02-1.68). Factor V Leiden (FV Leiden) appeared to modify the non-O blood type association with VTE in a supra-additive fashion, with an age-, sex- and race-adjusted OR of 6.77 (95\% CI, 3.65-12.6) for having both risk factors.

CONCLUSIONS: Non-O blood type was independently associated with risk of VTE, and added to the risk associated with FV Leiden.

}, keywords = {ABO Blood-Group System, Aged, Case-Control Studies, Diabetes Complications, Factor V, Factor VIII, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Factors, Thromboembolism, Venous Thrombosis, von Willebrand Factor}, issn = {1538-7933}, doi = {10.1111/j.1538-7836.2007.02579.x}, author = {Ohira, T and Cushman, M and Tsai, M Y and Zhang, Y and Heckbert, S R and Zakai, N A and Rosamond, W D and Folsom, A R} } @article {935, title = {Apolipoprotein e gene and age-related maculopathy in older individuals: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Arch Ophthalmol}, volume = {125}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Jan}, pages = {68-73}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene and age-related maculopathy (ARM) in an older population.

METHODS: Two thousand one hundred seventy persons 65 years and older sampled from 4 US communities had ARM signs assessed from retinal photographs using a modified Wisconsin Age-Related Maculopathy Grading System. DNA extracted from blood samples was analyzed for common APOE alleles.

RESULTS: After controlling for age, sex, cigarette smoking, and other factors, white participants carrying the epsilon2 allele had an increased risk of late ARM (odds ratio, 2.53 [95\% confidence interval, 1.08-5.90]) while carriers of the epsilon4 allele had a lower risk of late ARM (odds ratio, 0.69 [95\% confidence interval, 0.19-2.50]). There were too few late ARM cases in African American individuals for analysis.

CONCLUSION: APOE polymorphism is associated with late ARM in older white persons 65 years and older. Consistent with previous studies, the APOE epsilon2 allele is associated with a significant increased risk of late ARM development, whereas the epsilon4 allele may confer some protection.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alleles, Apolipoprotein E2, Apolipoprotein E3, Apolipoprotein E4, Cardiovascular Diseases, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genotype, Humans, Macular Degeneration, Male, Odds Ratio, Polymorphism, Genetic, Risk Factors}, issn = {0003-9950}, doi = {10.1001/archopht.125.1.68}, author = {Tikellis, Gabriella and Sun, Cong and Gorin, Michael B and Klein, Ronald and Klein, Barbara E K and Larsen, Emily K Marino and Siscovick, David S and Hubbard, Larry D and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {958, title = {The association of alpha-fibrinogen Thr312Ala polymorphism and venous thromboembolism in the LITE study.}, journal = {Thromb Res}, volume = {121}, year = {2007}, month = {2007}, pages = {1-7}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: The alpha-fibrinogen Thr312Ala variant has been shown to influence clot structure through increased factor XIII cross-linking and formation of thicker fibrin fibers. However, the effect of this common variant on risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) is unclear. This paper reports the association between the Thr312Ala variant and VTE in the LITE study.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: 506 cases and 1014 controls frequency matched on age, sex, race, and study were drawn from two prospective studies and included in the analysis. Logistic regression was used to examine the association between Thr312Ala and VTE.

RESULTS: In a logistic regression model minimally adjusted for the matching variables, the Thr312Ala TA and AA genotypes were associated with a significantly higher risk of VTE than the TT genotype (TA OR and 95\% confidence interval 1.27 [1.01-1.60], AA OR 1.49 [1.00-2.22]). Associations were similar in analyses of PE and DVT considered separately and across racial and study subgroups. The association between alpha-fibrinogen Thr312Ala and VTE was modified by both BMI and the FXIII Val34Leu variant; the combination of elevated BMI or FXIII Val34Leu with alpha-fibrinogen Thr312Ala conveyed lower odds of VTE than would be expected by an additive or multiplicative model of individual risk factors.

CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that alpha-fibrinogen Thr312Ala is involved in the pathogenesis of VTE and that its action may be modified by other VTE risk factors.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Case-Control Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Fibrinogen, Genotype, Humans, Logistic Models, Male, Middle Aged, Mutation, Missense, Polymorphism, Genetic, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {0049-3848}, doi = {10.1016/j.thromres.2007.02.008}, author = {Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Cushman, Mary and Tsai, Michael Y and Zhang, Yan and Heckbert, Susan R and Rosamond, Wayne D and Folsom, Aaron R} } @article {967, title = {Association of carotid artery intima-media thickness, plaques, and C-reactive protein with future cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {116}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Jul 03}, pages = {32-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Carotid atherosclerosis, measured as carotid intima-media thickness or as characteristics of plaques, has been linked to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and to C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. We investigated the relationship between carotid atherosclerosis and CRP and their joint roles in CVD prediction.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Of 5888 participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study, an observational study of adults aged > or = 65 years, 5020 without baseline CVD were included in the analysis. They were followed up for as long as 12 years for CVD incidence and all-cause mortality after baseline ultrasound and CRP measurement. When CRP was elevated (> 3 mg/L) among those with detectable atherosclerosis on ultrasound, there was a 72\% (95\% CI, 1.46 to 2.01) increased risk for CVD death and a 52\% (95\% CI, 1.37 to 1.68) increased risk for all-cause mortality. Elevated CRP in the absence of atherosclerosis did not increase CVD or all-cause mortality risk. The proportion of excess risk attributable to the interaction of high CRP and atherosclerosis was 54\% for CVD death and 79\% for all-cause mortality. Addition of CRP or carotid atherosclerosis to conventional risk factors modestly increased in the ability to predict CVD, as measured by the c statistic.

CONCLUSIONS: In older adults, elevated CRP was associated with increased risk for CVD and all-cause mortality only in those with detectable atherosclerosis based on carotid ultrasound. Despite the significant associations of CRP and carotid atherosclerosis with CVD, these measures modestly improve the prediction of CVD outcomes after one accounts for the conventional risk factors.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Biomarkers, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carotid Artery Diseases, Cohort Studies, Comorbidity, Diabetes Mellitus, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Hyperlipidemias, Hypertension, Incidence, Inflammation, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Male, Mass Screening, Mortality, Myocardial Infarction, Obesity, Predictive Value of Tests, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, ROC Curve, Smoking, Stroke, Survival Analysis, Tunica Intima, Tunica Media, Ultrasonography, United States}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.106.645606}, author = {Cao, Jie J and Arnold, Alice M and Manolio, Teri A and Polak, Joseph F and Psaty, Bruce M and Hirsch, Calvin H and Kuller, Lewis H and Cushman, Mary} } @article {933, title = {Association of kidney function with incident hip fracture in older adults.}, journal = {J Am Soc Nephrol}, volume = {18}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Jan}, pages = {282-6}, abstract = {

Kidney dysfunction is associated with bone loss, and patients with ESRD have an increased risk for hip fracture. However, the association of mild to moderate kidney disease with hip fracture has not been studied previously. The association of kidney function with incident hip fracture was examined among participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a community-based cohort of older individuals. The primary measure of kidney function was serum cystatin C, a measure that does not depend on lean mass. Hip fractures were identified using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes for hospitalizations. A total of 4699 individuals had cystatin C measured in 1992 to 1993 and did not have a hip fracture before cystatin C measurement. The association of kidney function with hip fracture was analyzed with Cox proportional hazards models. Analyses were conducted separately for men and women. After a mean follow-up of 7.1 yr, 195 incident hip fractures occurred in women and 79 occurred in men. Higher cystatin C levels were associated with a higher risk for fracture in women (hazard ratio [HR] 1.26; 95\% confidence interval [CI] 1.14 to 1.38 per SD) and in men (HR 1.27; 95\% CI 1.11 to 1.46). After multivariable adjustment, higher cystatin C levels were significantly associated with hip fracture in women (HR 1.16; 95\% CI 1.01, 1.33) but not in men (HR 1.14; 95\% CI 0.86 to 1.52), although the magnitude of the association was similar. Kidney dysfunction, as assessed by cystatin C, is associated with an increased risk for hip fracture. Further studies are needed to evaluate potential mediators of this relationship and to assess whether interventions can decrease this risk.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cystatin C, Cystatins, Female, Hip Fractures, Humans, Kidney, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Osteoporosis, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Sex Factors}, issn = {1046-6673}, doi = {10.1681/ASN.2006050546}, author = {Fried, Linda F and Biggs, Mary Louise and Shlipak, Michael G and Seliger, Stephen and Kestenbaum, Bryan and Stehman-Breen, Catherine and Sarnak, Mark and Siscovick, David and Harris, Tamara and Cauley, Jane and Newman, Anne B and Robbins, John} } @article {962, title = {Brachial flow-mediated dilation predicts incident cardiovascular events in older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {115}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 May 08}, pages = {2390-7}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The relationship between impaired brachial flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and subsequent clinical cardiovascular events is not well established, especially in older adults whose FMD is often diminished. We assessed the hypothesis that FMD predicts incident cardiovascular events in a population-based cohort of older adults.

METHODS AND RESULTS: FMD was measured at the 1997 to 1998 Cardiovascular Health Study clinic visit in 2792 adults aged 72 to 98 years (82.7\% white, 58.6\% women) recruited at 4 clinic sites in the United States. Log-rank test and Cox proportional hazard models were used to examine the association between FMD and adjudicated cardiovascular events. A total of 674 subjects (24.1\%) had an adjudicated event over the 5-year follow-up period. Event-free survival rates for cardiovascular events were significantly higher in subjects with FMD greater than the sex-specific medians than in subjects with FMD less than or equal to the sex-specific medians (78.3\% versus 73.6\%, log-rank P=0.006). FMD remained a significant predictor of cardiovascular events after adjustment for age, gender, diabetes mellitus, cigarette smoking, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, baseline cardiovascular disease status, and total cholesterol (hazard ratio, 0.91 [95\% CI, 0.83 to 0.99], P=0.02 per unit SD of FMD) but added only approximately 1\% to the prognostic accuracy of the best Cox model. Brachial artery diameter was also predictive of CV events in the adjusted Cox proportional hazard model (hazard ratio, 1.12 [95\% CI, 1.02 to 1.28], P=0.025) and also added approximately 1\% to the accuracy of our best Cox model.

CONCLUSIONS: FMD is a predictor of future cardiovascular events but adds very little to the prognostic accuracy of traditional cardiovascular risk scores/factors in older adults. FMD and brachial artery diameter may have similar predictive values for cardiovascular events in older adults.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atherosclerosis, Biomarkers, Brachial Artery, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Disease-Free Survival, Endothelium, Vascular, Female, Hemorheology, Humans, Hyperemia, Male, Predictive Value of Tests, Prognosis, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Reproducibility of Results, Risk Factors, Stress, Mechanical, Tourniquets, Ultrasonography, United States, Vasodilation}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.106.678276}, author = {Yeboah, Joseph and Crouse, John R and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Burke, Gregory L and Herrington, David M} } @article {943, title = {Collaborative meta-analysis of individual participant data from observational studies of Lp-PLA2 and cardiovascular diseases.}, journal = {Eur J Cardiovasc Prev Rehabil}, volume = {14}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Feb}, pages = {3-11}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: A large number of observational epidemiological studies have reported generally positive associations between circulating mass and activity levels of lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) and the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Few studies have been large enough to provide reliable estimates in different circumstances, such as in different subgroups (e.g., by age group, sex, or smoking status) or at different Lp-PLA2 levels. Moreover, most published studies have related disease risk only to baseline values of Lp-PLA2 markers (which can lead to substantial underestimation of any risk relationships because of within-person variability over time) and have used different approaches to adjustment for possible confounding factors.

OBJECTIVES: By combination of data from individual participants from all relevant observational studies in a systematic {\textquoteright}meta-analysis{\textquoteright}, with correction for regression dilution (using available data on serial measurements of Lp-PLA2), the Lp-PLA2 Studies Collaboration will aim to characterize more precisely than has previously been possible the strength and shape of the age and sex-specific associations of plasma Lp-PLA2 with coronary heart disease (and, where data are sufficient, with other vascular diseases, such as ischaemic stroke). It will also help to determine to what extent such associations are independent of possible confounding factors and to explore potential sources of heterogeneity among studies, such as those related to assay methods and study design. It is anticipated that the present collaboration will serve as a framework to investigate related questions on Lp-PLA2 and cardiovascular outcomes.

METHODS: A central database is being established containing data on circulating Lp-PLA2 values, sex and other potential confounding factors, age at baseline Lp-PLA2 measurement, age at event or at last follow-up, major vascular morbidity and cause-specific mortality. Information about any repeat measurements of Lp-PLA2 and potential confounding factors has been sought to allow adjustment for possible confounding and correction for regression dilution. The analyses will involve age-specific regression models. Synthesis of the available observational studies of Lp-PLA2 will yield information on a total of about 15 000 cardiovascular disease endpoints.

}, keywords = {1-Alkyl-2-acetylglycerophosphocholine Esterase, Cardiovascular Diseases, Humans, Phospholipases A2}, issn = {1741-8267}, doi = {10.1097/01.hjr.0000239464.18509.f1}, author = {Ballantyne, C and Cushman, M and Psaty, B and Furberg, C and Khaw, K T and Sandhu, M and Oldgren, J and Rossi, G P and Maiolino, G and Cesari, M and Lenzini, L and James, S K and Rimm, E and Collins, R and Anderson, J and Koenig, W and Brenner, H and Rothenbacher, D and Berglund, G and Persson, M and Berger, P and Brilakis, E and McConnell, J P and Koenig, W and Sacco, R and Elkind, M and Talmud, P and Rimm, E and Cannon, C P and Packard, C and Barrett-Connor, E and Hofman, A and Kardys, I and Witteman, J C M and Criqui, M and Corsetti, J P and Rainwater, D L and Moss, A J and Robins, S and Bloomfield, H and Collins, D and Packard, C and Wassertheil-Smoller, S and Ridker, P and Ballantyne, C and Cannon, C P and Cushman, M and Danesh, J and Gu, D and Hofman, A and Nelson, J J and Thompson, S and Zalewski, A and Zariffa, N and Di Angelantonio, E and Kaptoge, S and Thompson, A and Thompson, S and Walker, M and Watson, S and Wood, A} } @article {969, title = {Costs of the metabolic syndrome in elderly individuals: findings from the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Diabetes Care}, volume = {30}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Oct}, pages = {2553-8}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: The cardiovascular consequences of the metabolic syndrome and its component risk factors have been documented in elderly individuals. Little is known about how the metabolic syndrome and its individual components translate into long-term medical costs.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We used log-linear regression models to assess the independent contributions of the metabolic syndrome and its individual components to 10-year medical costs among 3,789 individuals aged > or = 65 years in the Cardiovascular Health Study.

RESULTS: As defined by the National Cholesterol Education Program Third Adult Treatment Panel report, the metabolic syndrome was present in 47\% of the sample. Total costs to Medicare were 20\% higher among participants with the metabolic syndrome ($40,873 vs. $33,010; P < 0.001). Controlling for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and other covariates, we found that abdominal obesity, low HDL cholesterol, and elevated blood pressure were associated with 15\% (95\% CI 4.3-26.7), 16\% (1.7-31.8), and 20\% (10.1-31.7) higher costs, respectively. When added to the model, the metabolic syndrome composite variable did not contribute significantly (P = 0.32).

CONCLUSIONS: Abdominal obesity, low HDL cholesterol, and hypertension but not the metabolic syndrome per se are important predictors of long-term costs in the Medicare population.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cholesterol, HDL, Continental Population Groups, Cost of Illness, Diabetic Angiopathies, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Interviews as Topic, Male, Medicare, Metabolic Syndrome, Multivariate Analysis, Obesity, Patient Education as Topic, Prospective Studies, Regression Analysis, United States}, issn = {1935-5548}, doi = {10.2337/dc07-0460}, author = {Curtis, Lesley H and Hammill, Bradley G and Bethel, M Angelyn and Anstrom, Kevin J and Gottdiener, John S and Schulman, Kevin A} } @article {928, title = {Determinants of serum total and free testosterone levels in women over the age of 65 years.}, journal = {J Clin Endocrinol Metab}, volume = {92}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Feb}, pages = {509-16}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Little is known about testosterone (T) levels and their determinants in women of late postmenopausal age.

OBJECTIVE: We describe levels of total and free T and selected factors that influence these levels in a random sample of older women.

DESIGN: Levels of serum total T and free T by microdialysis were measured using ultrasensitive assays in 347 community-dwelling women aged 65-98 yr enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study. Cross-sectional analyses were performed to define factors associated with total and free T levels.

RESULTS: In adjusted models: 1) total T levels declined with age until 80, whereas free T levels did not vary by age; 2) women with bilateral oophorectomy had 23\% lower total T and 16\% lower free T levels than those with at least one intact ovary; 3) oral estrogen users had total and free T levels that were 47\% lower than never users; 4) obese women had 47\% higher total T and 20\% higher free T levels, and overweight women had 24\% higher total T and 14\% higher free T levels, than normal weight women; and 5) free T levels were 51\% higher in black women. Corticosteroid users had 75\% lower total T and 43\% lower free T levels than nonusers.

CONCLUSIONS: Bilateral oophorectomy, estrogen use, corticosteroid use, and low body mass index are independent risk factors for lower T levels in women aged 65 yr and over. Although highly prevalent in women of this age, the physiological significance of low T levels in late postmenopausal women requires further investigation.

}, keywords = {Age Distribution, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Body Mass Index, Cross-Sectional Studies, Estrogen Replacement Therapy, Female, Humans, Hypogonadism, Multivariate Analysis, Nonlinear Dynamics, Obesity, Ovariectomy, Ovary, Postmenopause, Predictive Value of Tests, Prevalence, Risk Factors, Testosterone}, issn = {0021-972X}, doi = {10.1210/jc.2006-1399}, author = {Cappola, Anne R and Ratcliffe, Sarah J and Bhasin, Shalender and Blackman, Marc R and Cauley, Jane and Robbins, John and Zmuda, Joseph M and Harris, Tamara and Fried, Linda P} } @article {984, title = {The Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration: analysis of individual data on lipid, inflammatory and other markers in over 1.1 million participants in 104 prospective studies of cardiovascular diseases.}, journal = {Eur J Epidemiol}, volume = {22}, year = {2007}, month = {2007}, pages = {839-69}, abstract = {

Many long-term prospective studies have reported on associations of cardiovascular diseases with circulating lipid markers and/or inflammatory markers. Studies have not, however, generally been designed to provide reliable estimates under different circumstances and to correct for within-person variability. The Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration has established a central database on over 1.1 million participants from 104 prospective population-based studies, in which subsets have information on lipid and inflammatory markers, other characteristics, as well as major cardiovascular morbidity and cause-specific mortality. Information on repeat measurements on relevant characteristics has been collected in approximately 340,000 participants to enable estimation of and correction for within-person variability. Re-analysis of individual data will yield up to approximately 69,000 incident fatal or nonfatal first ever major cardiovascular outcomes recorded during about 11.7 million person years at risk. The primary analyses will involve age-specific regression models in people without known baseline cardiovascular disease in relation to fatal or nonfatal first ever coronary heart disease outcomes. This initiative will characterize more precisely and in greater detail than has previously been possible the shape and strength of the age- and sex-specific associations of several lipid and inflammatory markers with incident coronary heart disease outcomes (and, secondarily, with other incident cardiovascular outcomes) under a wide range of circumstances. It will, therefore, help to determine to what extent such associations are independent from possible confounding factors and to what extent such markers (separately and in combination) provide incremental predictive value.

}, keywords = {Albumins, Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Databases, Factual, Far East, Humans, Inflammation, Leukocyte Count, Lipids, Lipoproteins, HDL, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Triglycerides}, issn = {0393-2990}, doi = {10.1007/s10654-007-9165-7}, author = {Danesh, J and Erqou, S and Walker, M and Thompson, S G and Tipping, R and Ford, C and Pressel, S and Walldius, G and Jungner, I and Folsom, A R and Chambless, L E and Knuiman, M and Whincup, P H and Wannamethee, S G and Morris, R W and Willeit, J and Kiechl, S and Santer, P and Mayr, A and Wald, N and Ebrahim, S and Lawlor, D A and Yarnell, J W G and Gallacher, J and Casiglia, E and Tikhonoff, V and Nietert, P J and Sutherland, S E and Bachman, D L and Keil, J E and Cushman, M and Psaty, B M and Tracy, R P and Tybjaerg-Hansen, A and Nordestgaard, B G and Frikke-Schmidt, R and Giampaoli, S and Palmieri, L and Panico, S and Vanuzzo, D and Pilotto, L and Simons, L and McCallum, J and Friedlander, Y and Fowkes, F G R and Lee, A J and Smith, F B and Taylor, J and Guralnik, J and Phillips, C and Wallace, R and Blazer, D and Khaw, K T and Jansson, J H and Donfrancesco, C and Salomaa, V and Harald, K and Jousilahti, P and Vartiainen, E and Woodward, M and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, R B and Wolf, P A and Vasan, R S and Pencina, M J and Bladbjerg, E M and Jorgensen, T and Moller, L and Jespersen, J and Dankner, R and Chetrit, A and Lubin, F and Rosengren, A and Wilhelmsen, L and Lappas, G and Eriksson, H and Bjorkelund, C and Cremer, P and Nagel, D and Tilvis, R and Strandberg, T and Rodriguez, B and Bouter, L M and Heine, R J and Dekker, J M and Nijpels, G and Stehouwer, C D A and Rimm, E and Pai, J and Sato, S and Iso, H and Kitamura, A and Noda, H and Goldbourt, U and Salomaa, V and Salonen, J T and Nyyss{\"o}nen, K and Tuomainen, T-P and Deeg, D and Poppelaars, J L and Meade, T and Cooper, J and Hedblad, B and Berglund, G and Engstrom, G and D{\"o}ring, A and Koenig, W and Meisinger, C and Mraz, W and Kuller, L and Selmer, R and Tverdal, A and Nystad, W and Gillum, R and Mussolino, M and Hankinson, S and Manson, J and De Stavola, B and Knottenbelt, C and Cooper, J A and Bauer, K A and Rosenberg, R D and Sato, S and Naito, Y and Holme, I and Nakagawa, H and Miura, H and Ducimetiere, P and Jouven, X and Crespo, C and Garcia-Palmieri, M and Amouyel, P and Arveiler, D and Evans, A and Ferrieres, J and Schulte, H and Assmann, G and Shepherd, J and Packard, C and Sattar, N and Cantin, B and Lamarche, B and Despr{\'e}s, J-P and Dagenais, G R and Barrett-Connor, E and Wingard, D and Bettencourt, R and Gudnason, V and Aspelund, T and Sigurdsson, G and Thorsson, B and Trevisan, M and Witteman, J and Kardys, I and Breteler, M and Hofman, A and Tunstall-Pedoe, H and Tavendale, R and Lowe, G D O and Ben-Shlomo, Y and Howard, B V and Zhang, Y and Best, L and Umans, J and Onat, A and Meade, T W and Njolstad, I and Mathiesen, E and Lochen, M L and Wilsgaard, T and Gaziano, J M and Stampfer, M and Ridker, P and Ulmer, H and Diem, G and Concin, H and Rodeghiero, F and Tosetto, A and Brunner, E and Shipley, M and Buring, J and Cobbe, S M and Ford, I and Robertson, M and He, Y and Ibanez, A M and Feskens, E J M and Kromhout, D and Collins, R and Di Angelantonio, E and Kaptoge, S and Lewington, S and Orfei, L and Pennells, L and Perry, P and Ray, K and Sarwar, N and Scherman, M and Thompson, A and Watson, S and Wensley, F and White, I R and Wood, A M} } @article {948, title = {Ethnic-specific prevalence of peripheral arterial disease in the United States.}, journal = {Am J Prev Med}, volume = {32}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Apr}, pages = {328-33}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Individuals diagnosed with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) are at increased risk for future functional limitations as well as cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to estimate the age-, gender-, and ethnic-specific burden of PAD in the United States for the year 2000.

METHODS: Data were collected from seven community-based studies that assessed subjects for the presence of PAD using the ankle-brachial index (ABI). Using standardized weighting criteria, age-, gender-, and ethnic-specific prevalence rates were computed and then multiplied by the corresponding 2000 Census population totals to estimate the burden of PAD in the United States for that year. Evidence-based adjustments for studies which did not consider possible subclavian stenosis, prior revascularization for PAD, or both were employed.

RESULTS: In 2000, it is conservatively estimated that at least 6.8 million (5.8\%) individuals aged 40 years or older had PAD based on an ABI of less than 0.9 or previous revascularization for PAD, and that that there are an additional 1.7 million Americans with PAD but "normal" ABIs. Including this group gives a total of 8.5 million (7.2\%) individuals with PAD.

CONCLUSIONS: Roughly one in 16 individuals residing in the United States in 2000 who were aged 40 years and older had PAD. Clinicians are encouraged to screen for the presence of PAD using the ABI.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Databases as Topic, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Peripheral Vascular Diseases, United States}, issn = {0749-3797}, doi = {10.1016/j.amepre.2006.12.010}, author = {Allison, Matthew A and Ho, Elena and Denenberg, Julie O and Langer, Robert D and Newman, Anne B and Fabsitz, Richard R and Criqui, Michael H} } @article {973, title = {Factor VII coagulant activity, factor VII -670A/C and -402G/A polymorphisms, and risk of venous thromboembolism.}, journal = {J Thromb Haemost}, volume = {5}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Aug}, pages = {1674-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Most epidemiological studies have found no association between levels of factor (F) VII:C and venous thromboembolism (VTE). Our Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology (LITE) had, in contrast, reported an independent, increased risk of VTE after 7.8 years of follow-up for those with high baseline levels of FVII:C.

OBJECTIVE: To confirm whether FVII:C is associated with VTE after 12.6 years of follow-up and to examine whether two FVII gene polymorphisms (-670A/C and -402G/A) are related to VTE occurrence.

METHODS: In 19 091 LITE participants with no prior history of VTE or cancer, we measured FVII:C at baseline and identified 404 new VTEs. We also performed a nested case-control study to relate the polymorphisms to VTE (n = 490 without exclusion for cancer or prior VTE).

RESULTS: FVII:C was not independently associated with VTE occurrence after extended follow-up. Multivariable-adjusted rate ratios for VTE were 1.00, 1.00, 0.94, 1.00, and 1.38 (P-trend = 0.48) for the <25th, 25th-49th, 50th-74th, 75th-94th, and >or=95th percentiles of FVII:C, respectively. The -670C and -402A alleles were in high linkage disequilibrium, and both were associated with greater FVII:C levels. However, neither polymorphism was associated with VTE occurrence.

CONCLUSION: After extended follow-up, LITE offers little evidence that a greater FVII level is a risk factor for VTE.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Antigens, Coagulants, Factor VII, Female, Genotype, Humans, Male, Polymorphism, Genetic, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Thromboembolism, Venous Thrombosis}, issn = {1538-7933}, doi = {10.1111/j.1538-7836.2007.02620.x}, author = {Folsom, A R and Cushman, M and Heckbert, S R and Ohira, T and Rasmussen-Torvik, L and Tsai, M Y} } @article {942, title = {Frailty and risk of venous thromboembolism in older adults.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {62}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Jan}, pages = {79-82}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Frailty is a common risk factor for morbidity and mortality in elderly persons. Recent evidence links frailty to activation of coagulation and inflammatory pathways. We aimed to determine whether frailty in community-dwelling older adults is a risk factor for venous thromboembolism (VTE).

METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study in four U.S. communities involving 4859 participants 65 years old and older. At baseline, in 1989-1993, we assessed frailty based on weight loss, grip strength, feelings of exhaustion, walk time, and physical activity. Incident VTE (deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolus) through 2002 was identified by review of hospital records.

RESULTS: Fifty-two percent of the sample was classified as having intermediate or definite frailty. After adjustment for age, race, sex, body mass index, and diabetes, the relative risk of total VTE (n = 150) for people who were frail compared with no frailty was 1.31 (95\% confidence interval [CI], 0.93-1.84). The comparably adjusted relative risk for idiopathic VTE (n = 58) was 1.79 (95\% CI, 1.02-3.13).

CONCLUSIONS: The incidence rates of idiopathic VTE was higher in community-dwelling older adults with baseline frailty compared with no frailty. Further studies of the clotting process in frailty may allow the development of an improved strategy to determine VTE risk in this vulnerable subset of older adults.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Frail Elderly, Humans, Male, Morbidity, Motor Activity, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Thromboembolism, United States, Venous Thrombosis}, issn = {1079-5006}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/62.1.79}, author = {Folsom, Aaron R and Boland, Lori L and Cushman, Mary and Heckbert, Susan R and Rosamond, Wayne D and Walston, Jeremy D} } @article {936, title = {Inflammation biomarkers and near-term death in older men.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, volume = {165}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Mar 15}, pages = {684-95}, abstract = {

Associations of C-reactive protein (CRP) and fibrinogen with death may weaken over time. Combining both markers may improve prediction of death in older adults. In 5,828 Cardiovascular Health Study participants (United States, 1989-2000), 383 deaths (183 cardiovascular disease (CVD)) in years 1-3 (early) and 914 deaths (396 CVD) in years 4-8 (late) occurred. For men, when comparing highest to lowest quartiles, hazard ratios for early death were 4.1 (95\% confidence interval (CI): 2.7, 6.3) for CRP and 4.1 (95\% CI: 2.7, 6.4) for fibrinogen in models adjusted for CVD risk. For early CVD death, hazard ratios were 4.3 (95\% CI: 2.2, 8.4) and 3.4 (95\% CI: 1.8, 6.3), respectively. When comparing men in the highest quartiles of both biomarkers with those in the lowest, hazard ratios were 9.6 (95\% CI: 4.3, 21.1) for early death and 13.5 (95\% CI: 3.2, 56.5) for early CVD death. Associations were weaker for late deaths. For women, CRP (hazard ratio = 2.3, 95\% CI: 1.4, 3.9), but not fibrinogen (hazard ratio = 1.3, 95\% CI: 0.8, 2.2), was associated with early death. Results were similar for CVD death. Neither was associated with late deaths. CRP and fibrinogen were more strongly associated with death in older men than women and more strongly associated with early than late death. Combining both markers may identify older men at greatest risk of near-term death.

}, keywords = {Age Distribution, Aged, Biomarkers, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Diabetes Complications, Epidemiologic Studies, Female, Fibrinogen, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Hypercholesterolemia, Hypertension, Inflammation, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Population Surveillance, Predictive Value of Tests, Prognosis, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, Sex Distribution, Smoking, Time Factors, United States}, issn = {0002-9262}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kwk057}, author = {Jenny, Nancy Swords and Yanez, N David and Psaty, Bruce M and Kuller, Lewis H and Hirsch, Calvin H and Tracy, Russell P} } @article {955, title = {Insulin resistance and inflammation as precursors of frailty: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Arch Intern Med}, volume = {167}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Apr 09}, pages = {635-41}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Our research group has previously shown that the geriatric syndrome of frailty is associated with features of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) on cross-sectional analysis.

METHODS: To test whether MetS and its physiologic determinants-insulin resistance as measured by homeostasis model assessment score (IR-HOMA), increased inflammation and coagulation factor levels, and elevated blood pressure-are associated with incident frailty, we studied a subcohort of participants from the Cardiovascular Health Study observed from 1989/1990 through 1998/1999: 3141 community-dwelling adults, aged 69 to 74 years, without frailty and illnesses that increase inflammation markers or mimic frailty. The association of baseline MetS, IR-HOMA, levels of inflammation and coagulation factors, and systolic blood pressure (SBP) with time to onset of frailty was adjusted for demographic and psychosocial factors and incident events. Our main outcome measure was incident frailty.

RESULTS: Metabolic syndrome was not significantly associated with incident frailty (hazard ratio, 1.16 (95\% confidence interval [CI], 0.85-1.57). On the other hand, IR-HOMA and C-reactive protein levels were associated with incident frailty: for every standard deviation increment the hazard ratio for frailty was 1.15 (95\% CI, 1.02-1.31) and 1.16 (95\% CI, 1.02-1.32), respectively. The white blood cell count and factor VIIIc levels had a borderline association. Elevated systolic blood pressure had no association. Similar trends were found for incident prefrailty, a condition that precedes frailty.

CONCLUSIONS: Two physiologic components of MetS- IR-HOMA and inflammation-are associated with incident frailty. Based on these results, IR-HOMA can be considered part of a larger process that leads to generalized decline.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Frail Elderly, Geriatrics, Humans, Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Male, Metabolic Syndrome, Prospective Studies}, issn = {0003-9926}, doi = {10.1001/archinte.167.7.635}, author = {Barzilay, Joshua I and Blaum, Caroline and Moore, Tisha and Xue, Qian Li and Hirsch, Calvin H and Walston, Jeremy D and Fried, Linda P} } @article {952, title = {The relationship of heart rate and heart rate variability to non-diabetic fasting glucose levels and the metabolic syndrome: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Diabet Med}, volume = {24}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Aug}, pages = {855-63}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Increased heart rate (HR) and diminished heart rate variability (HRV) are signs of early cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy. We tested the hypotheses that increased HR and diminished HRV are present in people: (i) with increased fasting glucose (FG) levels not in the range of diabetes mellitus (DM), and (ii) in people with the metabolic syndrome (MetS) independent of elevated FG levels.

METHODS: HR and HRV were determined in 1267 adults (mean age 72 years) who had Holter monitoring and FG measures: 536 had normal FG levels (NORM, FG 4.5-5.5 mmol/l), 363 had mildly impaired FG (IFG-1, FG 5.6-6.0 mmol/l), 182 had significantly impaired FG (IFG-2, FG 6.1-6.9 mmol/l) and 178 had DM (FG > 6.9 mmol/l or use of glucose-lowering agents/insulin). HR and HRV in NORM/IFG-1 was further compared by the number of components of the MetS and compared by the presence or absence of MetS in IFG-2/DM.

RESULTS: HRV indices were more impaired in IFG-2 and DM than in NORM or IFG-1. There were few differences in HRV indices between NORM and IFG-1 or between IFG-2 and DM. In NORM/IFG-1 participants, having > or = 2 components of the MetS was associated with a greater decrease in HRV compared with having no or one components. In IFG-2/DM participants, MetS was associated with decreased HRV compared with no MetS.

CONCLUSIONS: Increased HR and diminished HRV occur in the non-diabetic FG range. Diminished HRV is associated with the MetS, independent of FG levels. Both these results suggest that factors associated with increasing non-diabetic FG levels and the MetS play a role in the onset of cardiac autonomic impairment.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Blood Glucose, Fasting, Female, Glucose Intolerance, Heart Rate, Humans, Male, Metabolic Syndrome, Risk Factors}, issn = {0742-3071}, doi = {10.1111/j.1464-5491.2007.02163.x}, author = {Stein, P K and Barzilay, J I and Domitrovich, P P and Chaves, P M and Gottdiener, J S and Heckbert, S R and Kronmal, R A} } @article {963, title = {Socioeconomic position and incident mobility impairment in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {BMC Geriatr}, volume = {7}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 May 10}, pages = {11}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: We investigated if personal socioeconomic position (SEP) factors and neighborhood characteristics were associated with incident mobility impairment in the elderly.

METHODS: We used data from the Cardiovascular Health Study, a longitudinal, population-based examination of coronary heart disease and stroke among persons aged 65 and older in the United States.

RESULTS: Among 3,684 persons without baseline mobility impairment, lower baseline SEP was associated with increased risk of incident mobility disability during the 10-year follow-up period, although the strengths of these associations varied by socioeconomic indicator and race/sex group.

CONCLUSION: Among independent-living elderly, SEP affected development of mobility impairment into later life. Particular effort should be made to prevent or delay its onset among the elderly with low income, education, and/or who live in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Coronary Disease, Disabled Persons, Education, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Mobility Limitation, Residence Characteristics, Social Class, Stroke, United States}, issn = {1471-2318}, doi = {10.1186/1471-2318-7-11}, author = {Nordstrom, Cheryl K and Diez Roux, Ana V and Schulz, Richard and Haan, Mary N and Jackson, Sharon A and Balfour, Jennifer L} } @article {1039, title = {Ankle brachial index combined with Framingham Risk Score to predict cardiovascular events and mortality: a meta-analysis.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {300}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Jul 09}, pages = {197-208}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Prediction models to identify healthy individuals at high risk of cardiovascular disease have limited accuracy. A low ankle brachial index (ABI) is an indicator of atherosclerosis and has the potential to improve prediction.

OBJECTIVE: To determine if the ABI provides information on the risk of cardiovascular events and mortality independently of the Framingham risk score (FRS) and can improve risk prediction.

DATA SOURCES: Relevant studies were identified. A search of MEDLINE (1950 to February 2008) and EMBASE (1980 to February 2008) was conducted using common text words for the term ankle brachial index combined with text words and Medical Subject Headings to capture prospective cohort designs. Review of reference lists and conference proceedings, and correspondence with experts was conducted to identify additional published and unpublished studies.

STUDY SELECTION: Studies were included if participants were derived from a general population, ABI was measured at baseline, and individuals were followed up to detect total and cardiovascular mortality.

DATA EXTRACTION: Prespecified data on individuals in each selected study were extracted into a combined data set and an individual participant data meta-analysis was conducted on individuals who had no previous history of coronary heart disease.

RESULTS: Sixteen population cohort studies fulfilling the inclusion criteria were included. During 480,325 person-years of follow-up of 24,955 men and 23,339 women, the risk of death by ABI had a reverse J-shaped distribution with a normal (low risk) ABI of 1.11 to 1.40. The 10-year cardiovascular mortality in men with a low ABI (< or = 0.90) was 18.7\% (95\% confidence interval [CI], 13.3\%-24.1\%) and with normal ABI (1.11-1.40) was 4.4\% (95\% CI, 3.2\%-5.7\%) (hazard ratio [HR], 4.2; 95\% CI, 3.3-5.4). Corresponding mortalities in women were 12.6\% (95\% CI, 6.2\%-19.0\%) and 4.1\% (95\% CI, 2.2\%-6.1\%) (HR, 3.5; 95\% CI, 2.4-5.1). The HRs remained elevated after adjusting for FRS (2.9 [95\% CI, 2.3-3.7] for men vs 3.0 [95\% CI, 2.0-4.4] for women). A low ABI (< or = 0.90) was associated with approximately twice the 10-year total mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and major coronary event rate compared with the overall rate in each FRS category. Inclusion of the ABI in cardiovascular risk stratification using the FRS would result in reclassification of the risk category and modification of treatment recommendations in approximately 19\% of men and 36\% of women.

CONCLUSION: Measurement of the ABI may improve the accuracy of cardiovascular risk prediction beyond the FRS.

}, keywords = {Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Ankle, Atherosclerosis, Blood Pressure, Brachial Artery, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Confidence Intervals, Female, Global Health, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Odds Ratio, Predictive Value of Tests, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Severity of Illness Index}, issn = {1538-3598}, doi = {10.1001/jama.300.2.197}, author = {Fowkes, F G R and Murray, G D and Butcher, I and Heald, C L and Lee, R J and Chambless, L E and Folsom, A R and Hirsch, A T and Dramaix, M and deBacker, G and Wautrecht, J-C and Kornitzer, M and Newman, A B and Cushman, M and Sutton-Tyrrell, K and Fowkes, F G R and Lee, A J and Price, J F and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, R B and Murabito, J M and Norman, P E and Jamrozik, K and Curb, J D and Masaki, K H and Rodr{\'\i}guez, B L and Dekker, J M and Bouter, L M and Heine, R J and Nijpels, G and Stehouwer, C D A and Ferrucci, L and McDermott, M M and Stoffers, H E and Hooi, J D and Knottnerus, J A and Ogren, M and Hedblad, B and Witteman, J C and Breteler, M M B and Hunink, M G M and Hofman, A and Criqui, M H and Langer, R D and Fronek, A and Hiatt, W R and Hamman, R and Resnick, H E and Guralnik, J and McDermott, M M} } @article {976, title = {Association between brachial artery reactivity and cardiovascular disease status in an elderly cohort: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Atherosclerosis}, volume = {197}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Apr}, pages = {768-76}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The association of brachial flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) status is unclear especially in older adults whose FMD is greatly diminished. We assessed the association of FMD and the presence or absence of subclinical and clinical CVD in a population based cohort of older adults.

METHODS AND RESULTS: FMD was measured in 2971 adults aged 72-98 years (mean age 78.6 years) who participated in the Cardiovascular Health Study. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to examine the association between FMD and CVD status (clinical, subclinical and free of CVD). Out of 2791 with complete data, 82.7\% were Caucasians and 59\% females. Seven hundred and forty-three were classified as having clinical CVD, 607 as subclinical CVD and 1441 as neither clinical CVD nor subclinical CVD (CVD free). FMD was higher in the CVD free group compared with either the clinical (3.13+/-0.05\% vs 2.93+/-0.07\%, p=0.025) or the subclinical CVD group (3.13+/-0.05\% vs 2.95+/-0.08\%, p=0.05) after adjusting for covariates. There was no significant difference between the FMD of subjects with clinical and subclinical CVD (2.93+/-0.07\% vs 2.95+/-0.08\%, p=0.84). Similar but inverted associations were observed between height adjusted brachial artery diameter (BAD) and CVD status. However, FMD and BAD had poor diagnostic accuracies for identifying older adults with subclinical CVD.

CONCLUSION: Among older adults, those with either clinical or subclinical CVD have lower FMD than CVD free subjects. BAD showed similar but inverted associations with CVD status in this cohort. FMD and BAD had poor diagnostic accuracies for identifying older adults with subclinical CVD.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Biomarkers, Brachial Artery, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Female, Hemorheology, Humans, Male, Peripheral Vascular Diseases, ROC Curve, Ultrasonography, Vasodilation}, issn = {1879-1484}, doi = {10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2007.07.013}, author = {Yeboah, Joseph and Sutton-Tyrrell, Kim and McBurnie, Mary Ann and Burke, Gregory L and Herrington, David M and Crouse, John R} } @article {1049, title = {Association between lower digit symbol substitution test score and slower gait and greater risk of mortality and of developing incident disability in well-functioning older adults.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {56}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Sep}, pages = {1618-25}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether, in well-functioning older adults, a lower score on the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST) and slower gait are associated with greater risk of mortality and of developing incident disability independent of other risk factors, including brain structural abnormalities (white matter hyperintensities, brain infarcts, ventricular enlargement) and whether the combination of varying levels of DSST score and gait speed are associated with a greater risk of mortality and disability than low DSST or slow gait alone.

DESIGN: Observational cohort study.

SETTING: Community.

PARTICIPANTS: Three thousand one hundred fifty-six (43\% men, 29\% black, mean age 70.4) participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), free from stroke and physical disability and with a modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MS) score of 80 or higher.

MEASUREMENTS: Total mortality and incident disability (self-report of any difficulty performing one or more of the six activities of daily living) ascertained over a median follow-up time of 8.4 years.

RESULTS: By the end of follow-up, 704 participants had died and 1,096 had incident disability. In Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for age, sex, race, education, cardiovascular disease, and brain magnetic resonance imaging abnormalities, lower DSST score and slower gait remained significantly associated with greater risk of mortality and of incident disability. Mortality rates were higher in those who had both low DSST score (<27 points) and slow gait (speed <1.0 m/s) than in those who had only low DSST score, only slow gait, or neither (rates per 1,000 person years (p-y): 61.2, 42.8, 20.8, and 16.3, respectively). A similar risk gradient was observed for incident disability (82.0, 57.9, 47.9, and 36.0/1,000 p-y, respectively).

CONCLUSION: In well-functioning older adults, low DSST score and slow gait, alone or in combination, could be risk factors for mortality and for developing disability, independent of other risk factors, including measures of brain integrity.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Analysis of Variance, Atrophy, Brain, Brain Diseases, Cause of Death, Cohort Studies, Disability Evaluation, Discrimination Learning, Female, Gait, Humans, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Mobility Limitation, Neuropsychological Tests, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Psychometrics, Psychomotor Performance, Risk Factors}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/j.1532-5415.2008.01856.x}, author = {Rosano, Caterina and Newman, Anne B and Katz, Ronit and Hirsch, Calvin H and Kuller, Lewis H} } @article {1019, title = {Associations between common fibrinogen gene polymorphisms and cardiovascular disease in older adults. The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Thromb Haemost}, volume = {99}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Feb}, pages = {388-95}, abstract = {

Elevated plasma fibrinogen is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), but associations between fibrinogen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and disease risk are inconsistent. We investigated whether common (> or = 5\% minor allele frequency) variation in the fibrinogen genes (FGA, FGB, FGG) is associated with fibrinogen concentration, carotid artery intima-medial thickness (IMT) and risk of incident myocardial infarction (MI), ischemic stroke and CVD mortality in European- (EA) and African-descent (AA) adults (> or = 65 years) from the Cardiovascular Health Study. TagSNPs were genotyped in 3,969 EA and 719 AA free of MI or stroke at baseline. Race-specific models included multiple testing correction and adjustment for sex, age and site. Among EA, minor alleles of FGA3807, FGB1437 and FGG902 were associated with higher fibrinogen levels; whereas FGA251, FGA2224, FGA6534 and FGG10034 were associated with lower levels, p<0.004 for each. Strongest associations were seen for FGB1437; each additional copy of the minor allele was associated with 13 mg/dl (95\%CI: 9-16) higher fibrinogen level. Similar trends in AA were not significant. Fibrinogen haplotypes were not significantly associated with internal or common carotid IMT. No associations with MI or CVD mortality were seen in EA, though FGB1038 and FGG902 were significantly associated with increased and decreased risk of stroke in men, respectively, as were related haplotypes. FGB1038 was also associated with CVD mortality in AA, HR = 1.9 (95\%CI: 1.3-2.7). In conclusion, while fibrinogen genetic variation was strongly associated with fibrinogen levels, there was less evidence of association with the more complex outcomes of IMT and CVD events.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Age Factors, Aged, Brain Ischemia, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carotid Artery Diseases, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Fibrinogen, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Haplotypes, Humans, Male, Myocardial Infarction, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Population Surveillance, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Reproducibility of Results, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Stroke, United States}, issn = {0340-6245}, doi = {10.1160/TH07-08-0523}, author = {Carty, Cara L and Cushman, Mary and Jones, Daniel and Lange, Leslie A and Hindorff, Lucia A and Rice, Kenneth and Jenny, Nancy S and Durda, J Peter and Walston, Jeremy and Carlson, Christopher S and Nickerson, Debbie and Tracy, Russell P and Reiner, Alex P} } @article {1001, title = {Chronic kidney disease increases risk for venous thromboembolism.}, journal = {J Am Soc Nephrol}, volume = {19}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Jan}, pages = {135-40}, abstract = {

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality, but its association with incident venous thromboembolism (VTE) in non-dialysis-dependent patients has not been evaluated in a community-based population. With the use of data from the Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology (LITE) study, 19,073 middle-aged and elderly adults were categorized on the basis of estimated GFR, and cystatin C (available in 4734 participants) was divided into quintiles. During a mean follow-up time of 11.8 yr, 413 participants developed VTE. Compared with participants with normal kidney function, relative risk for VTE was 1.28 (95\% confidence interval [CI] 1.02 to 1.59) for those with mildly decreased kidney function and 2.09 (95\% CI 1.47 to 2.96) for those with stage 3/4 CKD, when adjusted for age, gender, race, and center. After additional adjustment for cardiovascular disease risk factors, an increased risk for VTE was still observed in participants with stage 3/4 CKD, with a multivariable adjusted relative risk of 1.71 (95\% CI 1.18 to 2.49). There was no significant association between cystatin C and VTE. In conclusion, middle-aged and elderly patients with CKD (stages 3 through 4) are at increased risk for incident VTE, suggesting that VTE prophylaxis may be particularly important in this population.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Body Mass Index, Diabetic Nephropathies, Factor VIII, Female, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Hypertension, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Factors, Thromboembolism, Venous Thrombosis}, issn = {1533-3450}, doi = {10.1681/ASN.2007030308}, author = {Wattanakit, Keattiyoat and Cushman, Mary and Stehman-Breen, Catherine and Heckbert, Susan R and Folsom, Aaron R} } @article {986, title = {Common variants in the CRP gene in relation to longevity and cause-specific mortality in older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Atherosclerosis}, volume = {197}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Apr}, pages = {922-30}, abstract = {

Common polymorphisms in the CRP gene are associated with plasma CRP levels in population-based studies, but associations with age-related events are uncertain. A previous study of CRP haplotypes in older adults was broadened to include longevity and cause-specific mortality (all-cause, noncardiovascular (non-CV), and cardiovascular (CV)). Common haplotypes were inferred from four tagSNPs in 4512 whites and five tagSNPs in 812 blacks from the Cardiovascular Health Study, a longitudinal cohort of adults over age 65. Exploratory analyses addressed early versus late mortality. CRP haplotypes were not associated with all-cause mortality or longevity overall in either population, but associations with all-cause mortality differed during early and late periods. In blacks, the haplotype tagged by 3872A (rs1205) was associated with increased risk of non-CV mortality, relative to other haplotypes (adjusted hazard ratio for each additional copy: 1.42, 95\% CI: 1.07, 1.87). Relative to other haplotypes, this haplotype was associated with decreased risk of early but not decreased risk of late CV mortality in blacks; among whites, a haplotype tagged by 2667C (rs1800947) gave similar but nonsignificant findings. If confirmed, CRP genetic variants may be weakly associated with CV and non-CV mortality in older adults, particularly in self-identified blacks.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cause of Death, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Haplotypes, Humans, Linear Models, Longevity, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proportional Hazards Models, United States}, issn = {1879-1484}, doi = {10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2007.08.012}, author = {Hindorff, Lucia A and Rice, Kenneth M and Lange, Leslie A and Diehr, Paula and Halder, Indrani and Walston, Jeremy and Kwok, Pui and Ziv, Elad and Nievergelt, Caroline and Cummings, Steven R and Newman, Anne B and Tracy, Russell P and Psaty, Bruce M and Reiner, Alexander P} } @article {1040, title = {High-density lipoprotein cholesterol and venous thromboembolism in the Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology (LITE).}, journal = {Blood}, volume = {112}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Oct 01}, pages = {2675-80}, abstract = {

We determined prospectively the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in relation to baseline high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) in 19 049 participants of the Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology (LITE), which was composed of 14 490 participants of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study and 4559 participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). In addition, we determined the risk of VTE in relation to baseline subfractions of HDL (HDL(2) and HDL(3)) and apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) in 14 488 participants of the ARIC study. Age-adjusted incidence rates of VTE by HDL-c quartile ranged from 1.64 to 1.91 per 1000 person-years in men and 1.40 to 1.94 per 1000 person-years in women; however, there was no apparent trend of VTE incidence across HDL-c quartiles for either sex. The multivariate adjusted hazard ratios of VTE by HDL-c quartiles (with quartile 4 as the reference) were nonsignificant for both sexes and ranged between 0.91 and 0.99 for men and 0.78 and 1.22 for women. Results did not differ in separate evaluations of idiopathic and secondary VTE. In the ARIC study, there was no trend of VTE hazard ratios across quartiles of HDL(2), HDL(3), or apoA-I. Low HDL-c does not appear to be an important VTE risk factor.

}, keywords = {Aged, Apolipoprotein A-I, Cholesterol, HDL, Female, Humans, Incidence, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Proportional Hazards Models, United States, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1528-0020}, doi = {10.1182/blood-2008-05-157412}, author = {Chamberlain, Alanna M and Folsom, Aaron R and Heckbert, Susan R and Rosamond, Wayne D and Cushman, Mary} } @article {1008, title = {Higher levels of inflammation factors and greater insulin resistance are independently associated with higher heart rate and lower heart rate variability in normoglycemic older individuals: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {56}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Feb}, pages = {315-21}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To explore the relationship between (1) insulin resistance and inflammation factors with (2) higher heart rate (HR) and lower heart rate variability (HRV) in normoglycemic older adults.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional population-based study.

PARTICIPANTS: Five hundred forty-five adults aged 65 and older with normoglycemia (fasting glucose <100 mg/dL) who participated in the Cardiovascular Health Study.

MEASUREMENTS: Serum levels of three inflammation proteins (C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and fibrinogen); insulin resistance, quantified according to the homeostasis assessment model (HOMA-IR); HR; and four representative measures of HRV (the standard deviation of normal beat to beat intervals (SDNN), the root mean square of successive differences (rMSSD), very low frequency power (VLF), and the low- to high-frequency power ratio (LF/HF)) derived from 24-hour Holter recordings.

RESULTS: High CRP and IL-6 levels were associated with higher HR and lower SDNN and VLF after adjustment for multiple covariates, including HOMA-IR and clinical cardiovascular disease. High IL-6 was also associated with lower LF/HF. Significant univariate inverse relationships between HOMA-IR and HR and HRV were also found, but the strengths of these relationships were attenuated after adjustment for inflammation factors.

CONCLUSION: Increased levels of inflammation markers and HOMA-IR are associated with higher HR and lower HRV. These findings suggest that inflammation may contribute to the pathogenesis of cardiovascular autonomic decline in older adults.

}, keywords = {Aged, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cross-Sectional Studies, Electrocardiography, Ambulatory, Female, Fibrinogen, Heart Rate, Humans, Inflammation Mediators, Insulin Resistance, Interleukin-6, Male, Risk Factors}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/j.1532-5415.2007.01564.x}, author = {Stein, Phyllis K and Barzilay, Joshua I and Chaves, Paulo H M and Traber, Jennifer and Domitrovich, Peter P and Heckbert, Susan R and Gottdiener, John S} } @article {1055, title = {Insulin-like growth factors, their binding proteins, and prostate cancer risk: analysis of individual patient data from 12 prospective studies.}, journal = {Ann Intern Med}, volume = {149}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Oct 07}, pages = {461-71, W83-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Some, but not all, published results have shown an association between circulating blood levels of some insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) and their binding proteins (IGFBPs) and the subsequent risk for prostate cancer.

PURPOSE: To assess the association between levels of IGFs and IGFBPs and the subsequent risk for prostate cancer.

DATA SOURCES: Studies identified in PubMed, Web of Science, and CancerLit.

STUDY SELECTION: The principal investigators of all studies that published data on circulating concentrations of sex steroids, IGFs, or IGFBPs and prostate cancer risk using prospectively collected blood samples were invited to collaborate.

DATA EXTRACTION: Investigators provided individual participant data on circulating concentrations of IGF-I, IGF-II, IGFBP-II, and IGFBP-III and participant characteristics to a central data set in Oxford, United Kingdom.

DATA SYNTHESIS: The study included data on 3700 men with prostate cancer and 5200 control participants. On average, case patients were 61.5 years of age at blood collection and received a diagnosis of prostate cancer 5 years after blood collection. The greater the serum IGF-I concentration, the greater the subsequent risk for prostate cancer (odds ratio [OR] in the highest vs. lowest quintile, 1.38 [95\% CI, 1.19 to 1.60]; P < 0.001 for trend). Neither IGF-II nor IGFBP-II concentrations were associated with prostate cancer risk, but statistical power was limited. Insulin-like growth factor I and IGFBP-III were correlated (r = 0.58), and although IGFBP-III concentration seemed to be associated with prostate cancer risk, this was secondary to its association with IGF-I levels. Insulin-like growth factor I concentrations seemed to be more positively associated with low-grade than high-grade disease; otherwise, the association between IGFs and IGFBPs and prostate cancer risk had no statistically significant heterogeneity related to stage or grade of disease, time between blood collection and diagnosis, age and year of diagnosis, prostate-specific antigen level at recruitment, body mass index, smoking, or alcohol intake.

LIMITATIONS: Insulin-like growth factor concentrations were measured in only 1 sample for each participant, and the laboratory methods to measure IGFs differed in each study. Not all patients had disease stage or grade information, and the diagnosis of prostate cancer may differ among the studies.

CONCLUSION: High circulating IGF-I concentrations are associated with a moderately increased risk for prostate cancer.

}, keywords = {Aged, Humans, Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 2, Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 3, Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Proteins, Insulin-Like Growth Factor I, Insulin-Like Growth Factor II, Male, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, Prostatic Neoplasms, Risk Factors, Somatomedins}, issn = {1539-3704}, doi = {10.7326/0003-4819-149-7-200810070-00006}, author = {Roddam, Andrew W and Allen, Naomi E and Appleby, Paul and Key, Timothy J and Ferrucci, Luigi and Carter, H Ballentine and Metter, E Jeffrey and Chen, Chu and Weiss, Noel S and Fitzpatrick, Annette and Hsing, Ann W and Lacey, James V and Helzlsouer, Kathy and Rinaldi, Sabina and Riboli, Elio and Kaaks, Rudolf and Janssen, Joop A M J L and Wildhagen, Mark F and Schr{\"o}der, Fritz H and Platz, Elizabeth A and Pollak, Michael and Giovannucci, Edward and Schaefer, Catherine and Quesenberry, Charles P and Vogelman, Joseph H and Severi, Gianluca and English, Dallas R and Giles, Graham G and Stattin, P{\"a}r and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Johansson, Mattias and Chan, June M and Gann, Peter and Oliver, Steven E and Holly, Jeff M and Donovan, Jenny and Meyer, Fran{\c c}ois and Bairati, Isabelle and Galan, Pilar} } @article {1029, title = {Item response theory facilitated cocalibrating cognitive tests and reduced bias in estimated rates of decline.}, journal = {J Clin Epidemiol}, volume = {61}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Oct}, pages = {1018-27.e9}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To cocalibrate the Mini-Mental State Examination, the Modified Mini-Mental State, the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument, and the Community Screening Instrument for Dementia using item response theory (IRT) to compare screening cut points used to identify cases of dementia from different studies, to compare measurement properties of the tests, and to explore the implications of these measurement properties on longitudinal studies of cognitive functioning over time.

STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: We used cross-sectional data from three large (n>1000) community-based studies of cognitive functioning in the elderly. We used IRT to cocalibrate the scales and performed simulations of longitudinal studies.

RESULTS: Screening cut points varied quite widely across studies. The four tests have curvilinear scaling and varied levels of measurement precision, with more measurement error at higher levels of cognitive functioning. In longitudinal simulations, IRT scores always performed better than standard scoring, whereas a strategy to account for varying measurement precision had mixed results.

CONCLUSION: Cocalibration allows direct comparison of cognitive functioning in studies using any of these four tests. Standard scoring appears to be a poor choice for analysis of longitudinal cognitive testing data. More research is needed into the implications of varying levels of measurement precision.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cognition Disorders, Dementia, Disease Progression, Epidemiologic Methods, Female, Humans, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Psychometrics}, issn = {1878-5921}, doi = {10.1016/j.jclinepi.2007.11.011}, author = {Crane, Paul K and Narasimhalu, Kaavya and Gibbons, Laura E and Mungas, Dan M and Haneuse, Sebastien and Larson, Eric B and Kuller, Lewis and Hall, Kathleen and van Belle, Gerald} } @article {1031, title = {Knee height and arm span: a reflection of early life environment and risk of dementia.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {70}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 May 06}, pages = {1818-26}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To determine if anthropometric measures, as markers of early life environment, are associated with risk of dementia, Alzheimer disease (AD), and vascular dementia (VaD).

METHODS: A total of 2,798 subjects were followed as part of the Cardiovascular Health Cognition Study for an average of 5.4 years; 480 developed dementia. Knee height was measured 3 years prior to and arm span 4 years after the study{\textquoteright}s baseline. Cox proportional hazard models were used to examine their association with subsequent risk of dementia, AD, and VaD.

RESULTS: Among women, greater knee height and arm span were associated with lower risks of dementia (knee height: HR per 1-inch increase 0.84; 95\% CI 0.74-0.96; arm span: HR per 1-inch increase 0.93; 95\% CI 0.88-0.98) and AD (knee height: HR per 1-inch increase 0.78; 95\% CI 0.65-0.93; arm span: HR per 1-inch increase 0.90; 95\% CI 0.85-0.96). Women in the lowest quartile of arm span had approximately 1.5 times greater risk of dementia (HR 1.45; 95\% CI 1.03-2.05) and AD (HR 1.70; 95\% CI 1.10-2.62) than other women. Among men, only arm span was associated with lower risks of dementia (HR per 1-inch increase 0.94; 95\% CI 0.89-1.00) and AD (HR per 1-inch increase 0.92; 95\% CI 0.84-1.00). For each gender, knee height was not associated with VaD, while arm span was associated with a nonsignificant lower risk of VaD.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings with knee height and arm span are consistent with previous reports and suggest early life environment may play an important role in the determination of future dementia risk.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Anthropometry, Arm, Body Height, Brain, Child, Child, Preschool, Dementia, Environment, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Knee, Male, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Sex Characteristics, Skeleton}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/01.wnl.0000311444.20490.98}, author = {Huang, T L and Carlson, M C and Fitzpatrick, A L and Kuller, L H and Fried, L P and Zandi, P P} } @article {1023, title = {Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 and risk of venous thrombosis in older adults.}, journal = {Am J Hematol}, volume = {83}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Jul}, pages = {524-7}, abstract = {

Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) is an enzyme involved in inflammation and platelet function. Inherited deficiency and elevated levels are associated with atherosclerosis. Given potential common etiologies of atherosclerosis and venous thrombosis (VT), we hypothesized that low and high Lp-PLA2 would be associated with VT risk. Lp-PLA(2) mass and activity were measured in baseline samples of Cardiovascular Health Study participants (5,888 men and women age > or =65), excluding 354 reporting pre-baseline VT. The study endpoint was VT unrelated to cancer after 11.6 years follow-up. Hazard ratios were estimated using Cox proportional hazard models, adjusting for age, race, sex, and body-mass index. With 129 cases of VT, there was no association of Lp-PLA2 activity with risk. Adjusted hazard ratios were 1.19 (CI 0.62, 2.29) and 0.87 (CI 0.43, 1.76) for the lowest and highest decile, respectively, compared to the 10-25th percentile. Corresponding hazard ratios for Lp-PLA2 mass were 1.63 (CI 0.79, 3.34) and 1.33 (CI 0.61, 2.87). Results were robust to several definitions of low or high Lp-PLA2. While the association of Lp-PLA(2) levels with arterial disease events implies a role for this enzyme in atherogenesis, our findings suggest that it is not prothrombotic.

}, keywords = {1-Alkyl-2-acetylglycerophosphocholine Esterase, Aged, Female, Humans, Male, Risk Factors, Venous Thrombosis}, issn = {1096-8652}, doi = {10.1002/ajh.21182}, author = {Olson, Nels and O{\textquoteright}Meara, Ellen S and Jenny, Nancy S and Folsom, Aaron R and Bovill, Edwin G and Furberg, Curt D and Heckbert, Susan R and Psaty, Bruce M and Cushman, Mary} } @article {1044, title = {Metabolic syndrome, endothelial dysfunction, and risk of cardiovascular events: the Northern Manhattan Study (NOMAS).}, journal = {Am Heart J}, volume = {156}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Aug}, pages = {405-10}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) predisposes to cardiovascular disease. Endothelial dysfunction is thought to be an important factor in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. We tested the hypothesis that both MetS and endothelial dysfunction are vascular risk factors and provide additive prognostic values in predicting cardiovascular events in a multiethnic community sample.

METHODS: The study population consisted of 819 subjects (467 female, mean age 66.5 +/- 8.8 years, 66\% Hispanic) enrolled in the NOMAS. Metabolic syndrome was defined using the revised Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. Brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) was measured using high-resolution ultrasound. Endothelial dysfunction was defined as FMD <8.44\% (lower 3 quartiles). Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the effect of MetS and endothelial dysfunction on risk of cardiovascular events.

RESULTS: During 81 +/- 21 months of follow-up, events occurred in 84 subjects. Metabolic syndrome was independently associated with cardiovascular events in a multivariate model, including cardiovascular risk factors (adjusted hazard ratio 2.08, 95\% CI 1.27-3.40). Subjects with both MetS and endothelial dysfunction were at higher risk for cardiovascular events than those with either one of them alone (adjusted hazard ratio 2.60, 95\% CI 1.14-5.92).

CONCLUSIONS: Metabolic syndrome is associated with incident cardiovascular events. Combined use of MetS and FMD identifies those who are at higher risk of cardiovascular events. Metabolic syndrome and noninvasive FMD testing can be used concurrently for cardiovascular risk prediction.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Brachial Artery, Endothelium, Vascular, Female, Humans, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Male, Metabolic Syndrome, Middle Aged, Prognosis, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Stroke, Vascular Diseases}, issn = {1097-6744}, doi = {10.1016/j.ahj.2008.02.022}, author = {Suzuki, Takeki and Hirata, Kumiko and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Jin, Zhezhen and Rundek, Tanja and Miyake, Yumiko and Boden-Albala, Bernadette and Di Tullio, Marco R and Sacco, Ralph and Homma, Shunichi} } @article {999, title = {Pancreatic beta-cell function as a predictor of cardiovascular outcomes and costs: findings from the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Curr Med Res Opin}, volume = {24}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Jan}, pages = {41-50}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To explore relationships between beta-cell function and incident cardiovascular events, death, and medical costs among elderly individuals.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: In a prospective, population-based cohort of 4555 elderly individuals, we examined the effect of beta-cell function on incident cardiovascular events and mortality. We also examined costs for 3715 of these individuals. We used the computer-based homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) to calculate indices of beta-cell function (HOMA-\%B) and insulin sensitivity (HOMA-\%S) using baseline fasting glucose and insulin levels. All subjects were followed from 1992/1993 for 6 years or until death.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Discrete-time survival model of the effects of beta-cell function on incident cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality; and semiparametric estimators for calculations of mean 6-year costs.

RESULTS: Controlling for HOMA-\%S, a 20\% decrease in HOMA-\%B was associated with increased odds of incident cardiovascular events (odds ratio [OR], 1.09; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.05-1.14) and death (OR, 1.10; 95\% CI, 1.07-1.14). The relationships persisted after controlling for clinical and sociodemographic confounders. A 20\% decrease in HOMA-\%B was also associated with increased costs (cost ratio, 1.03; 95\% CI, 1.01-1.05). The significant association did not persist after controlling for confounders.

LIMITATIONS: The sample comprises relatively healthy elderly individuals and is based on data from 1992 through 1999, which may not reflect current experience. The measure of beta-cell function is an estimate generated from single measures of glucose and insulin.

CONCLUSIONS: Beta-cell function as measured by HOMA-\%B is a significant predictor of incident cardiovascular events and mortality but not of costs, controlling for HOMA-\%S and sociodemographic and clinical confounders.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Coronary Disease, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Health Care Costs, Heart Failure, Humans, Insulin-Secreting Cells, Male, Myocardial Infarction, Outcome Assessment, Health Care, Prognosis, Prospective Studies, Stroke}, issn = {1473-4877}, doi = {10.1185/030079908x253573}, author = {Curtis, Lesley H and Hammill, Bradley G and Bethel, M Angelyn and Anstrom, Kevin J and Liao, Lawrence and Gottdiener, John S and Schulman, Kevin A} } @article {1037, title = {A physiologic index of comorbidity: relationship to mortality and disability.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {63}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Jun}, pages = {603-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: In older adults, there is often substantial undiagnosed chronic disease detectable on noninvasive testing, not accounted for by most comorbidity indices. We developed a simple physiologic index of comorbidity by scoring five noninvasive tests across the full range of values. We examined the predictive validity of this index for mortality and disability.

METHODS: There were 2928 (mean age 74.5 years, 60\% women, 85\% white, and 15\% black) participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study (1992-1993) who had carotid ultrasound, pulmonary function testing, brain magnetic resonance scan, serum cystatin-C, and fasting glucose. These were combined into a single physiologic index of comorbid chronic disease on a scale of 0-10. Cox proportional hazard models were used to predict mortality, mobility limitation, and activities of daily living (ADL) difficulty after a maximum of 9 years.

RESULTS: The range of the physiologic index was quite broad, with very few individuals having total scores of either 0 or 10. Those with an index of 7-10 had a hazard ratio of 3.80 (95\% confidence interval, 2.82-5.13) for mortality compared to those with scores of 0-2, after adjustment for demographics, behavioral risk factors, and clinically diagnosed conditions. Associations with mobility limitation and ADL difficulty were also significant. The index explained about 40\% of the age effect on mortality risk.

CONCLUSION: Older adults with low levels of markers of chronic disease are rather rare but have remarkably good health outcomes. The ability of such an index to distinguish usual from low risk might provide an opportunity to better understand optimal health in old age.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Aged, Comorbidity, Disabled Persons, Female, Health Status, Humans, Male, Mobility Limitation, Mortality, Predictive Value of Tests, Proportional Hazards Models}, issn = {1079-5006}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/63.6.603}, author = {Newman, Anne B and Boudreau, Robert M and Naydeck, Barbara L and Fried, Linda F and Harris, Tamara B} } @article {980, title = {Relationship between brachial flow-mediated dilation and carotid intima-media thickness in an elderly cohort: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Atherosclerosis}, volume = {197}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Apr}, pages = {840-5}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between brachial flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) in a large multi-ethnic elderly cohort.

BACKGROUND: Brachial flow-mediated dilation (FMD) is a physiologic measure and carotid IMT is an anatomic structural measure of subclinical atherosclerosis. Both brachial FMD and carotid IMT have been associated with cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular events. The relationship between brachial FMD and carotid IMT is less clear especially in older adults.

METHODS: Brachial FMD, carotid IMT and traditional cardiovascular risk factors were measured in 2338 adults, age 72-98 years who were participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study. The relationship between FMD and IMT was assessed both unadjusted and also after adjusting for age, gender and race/ethnicity, BMI, HDL, LDL, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, serum creatinine, current smoking, diabetes mellitus, hormone therapy and prior CVD.

RESULTS: Both brachial FMD and carotid IMT correlated significantly with age, HDL levels, waist/hip ratio, serum cholesterol and number of CV risk factors. Brachial FMD was not associated with CCA IMT in this elderly cohort (Pearson partial correlation coefficient=-0.0252, p=0.222). In the adjusted linear regression model with CCA IMT as the dependent variable, brachial FMD was also not associated with CCA IMT (beta coefficient=-0.006, p=0.470).

CONCLUSION: Brachial FMD and CCA IMT are not related in population-based older adults. Brachial FMD and CCA IMT may be distinct and independent stages in the complex atherosclerotic process.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Brachial Artery, Carotid Arteries, Carotid Artery Diseases, Cohort Studies, Female, Hemorheology, Humans, Male, Tunica Intima, Tunica Media, Ultrasonography, Vasodilation}, issn = {1879-1484}, doi = {10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2007.07.032}, author = {Yeboah, Joseph and Burke, Gregory L and Crouse, John R and Herrington, David M} } @article {1007, title = {The relationship between exercise and risk of venous thrombosis in elderly people.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {56}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Mar}, pages = {517-22}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To study whether exercise is associated with the risk of venous thrombosis in elderly people.

DESIGN: Observational study with a median follow-up of 11.6 years.

SETTING: The Cardiovascular Health Study in four U.S. communities.

PARTICIPANTS: People aged 65 and older without prior venous thrombosis (deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism).

MEASUREMENTS: Self-reported exercise was measured two or three times during follow-up and was defined as expending more than 500 kcal/wk on exercise, including walking for exercise. Venous thrombosis cases were verified using medical record review.

RESULTS: Of 5,534 participants, 171 developed a first venous thrombosis. Self-reported exercise at baseline was not related to the risk of venous thrombosis after adjustment for sex, age, race, self-reported health, and body mass index (adjusted hazard ratio (HR(adj))=1.16, 95\% confidence interval (CI)=0.84-1.61), although with exercise modeled as a time-varying exposure, overall results were in the direction of greater risk of venous thrombosis (HR(adj)=1.38, 95\% CI=0.99-1.91). For mild-intensity exercise, such as walking, there was a nonsignificant finding in the direction of benefit (HR(adj)=0.75, 95\% CI=0.49-1.16), but strenuous exercise, such as jogging, was associated with greater risk of venous thrombosis (HR(adj)=1.75, 95\% CI=1.08-2.83) than no exercise at all.

CONCLUSION: In elderly people, strenuous exercise was associated with a higher risk of venous thrombosis than no exercise at all. Future studies are needed to explain this unexpected higher risk.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Energy Metabolism, Exercise, Female, Humans, Male, Prevalence, Risk Factors, United States, Venous Thrombosis}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/j.1532-5415.2007.01588.x}, author = {van Stralen, Karlijn J and Doggen, Carine J M and Lumley, Thomas and Cushman, Mary and Folsom, Aaron R and Psaty, Bruce M and Siscovick, David and Rosendaal, Frits R and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {1134, title = {Association between elevated fibrosis markers and heart failure in the elderly: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Circ Heart Fail}, volume = {2}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Jul}, pages = {303-10}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Myocardial fibrosis reflects excess collagen deposition in the extracellular left ventricular matrix, which has been associated with heart failure (HF). No studies have addressed the relation between fibrosis biomarkers and HF in the elderly.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Serum fibrosis markers were measured in 880 participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study (mean age 77+/-6 years, 48\% women). Participants with systolic HF (n=131, left ventricular ejection fraction <55\%) and those with diastolic HF (n=179, left ventricular ejection fraction > or =55\%) were compared with controls (280 with cardiovascular risk factors, and 279 healthy individuals) using a nested case-control design. Fibrosis markers included carboxyl-terminal peptide of procollagen type I, carboxyl-terminal telopeptide of collagen type I, and amino-terminal peptide of procollagen type III. Echocardiography was used to document systolic and diastolic function parameters. Analysis of variance and logistic regression analysis (per tertile odds ratios [OR]), adjusted by age, gender, race, hypertension, atrial fibrillation, coronary heart disease, baseline serum glucose, serum cystatin C, serum creatinine, C-reactive protein, any angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, spironolactone or any diuretic, NT-proBNP, and total bone mineral density were performed. Systolic HF was associated with significantly elevated carboxyl-terminal telopeptide of collagen type I (OR=2.6; 95\% CI=1.2 to 5.7) and amino-terminal peptide of procollagen type III (OR=3.3; 95\% CI=1.6 to 5.8), when adjusting for covariates. Associations of diastolic HF were significant for carboxyl-terminal telopeptide of collagen type I (OR=3.9; 95\% CI=1.9 to 8.3) and amino-terminal peptide of procollagen type III (OR=2.7; 95\% CI=1.4 to 5.4). HF was not associated with elevated carboxyl-terminal peptide of procollagen type I (P>0.10), and fibrosis markers did not significantly differ between HF with diastolic versus those with systolic dysfunction (P>0.10) whereas NT-proBNP mean values were higher in systolic heart failure than in diastolic heart failure (P<0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS: Fibrosis markers are significantly elevated in elderly individuals with diastolic or systolic HF. These associations remained significant when adjusting for covariates relevant to the aging process.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Fibrosis, Heart Failure, Humans, Male, Myocardium, Ultrasonography}, issn = {1941-3297}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.108.828343}, author = {Barasch, Eddy and Gottdiener, John S and Aurigemma, Gerard and Kitzman, Dalane W and Han, Jing and Kop, Willem J and Tracy, Russell P} } @article {1104, title = {Association of common genetic variation in the insulin/IGF1 signaling pathway with human longevity.}, journal = {Aging Cell}, volume = {8}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Aug}, pages = {460-72}, abstract = {

The insulin/IGF1 signaling pathways affect lifespan in several model organisms, including worms, flies and mice. To investigate whether common genetic variation in this pathway influences lifespan in humans, we genotyped 291 common variants in 30 genes encoding proteins in the insulin/IGF1 signaling pathway in a cohort of elderly Caucasian women selected from the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF). The cohort included 293 long-lived cases (lifespan > or = 92 years (y), mean +/- standard deviation (SD) = 95.3 +/- 2.2y) and 603 average-lifespan controls (lifespan < or = 79y, mean = 75.7 +/- 2.6y). Variants were selected for genotyping using a haplotype-tagging approach. We found a modest excess of variants nominally associated with longevity. Nominally significant variants were then replicated in two additional Caucasian cohorts including both males and females: the Cardiovascular Health Study and Ashkenazi Jewish Centenarians. An intronic single nucleotide polymorphism in AKT1, rs3803304, was significantly associated with lifespan in a meta-analysis across the three cohorts (OR = 0.78 95\%CI = 0.68-0.89, adjusted P = 0.043); two intronic single nucleotide polymorphisms in FOXO3A demonstrated a significant lifespan association among women only (rs1935949, OR = 1.35, 95\%CI = 1.15-1.57, adjusted P = 0.0093). These results demonstrate that common variants in several genes in the insulin/IGF1 pathway are associated with human lifespan.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Forkhead Box Protein O3, Forkhead Transcription Factors, Genome, Human, Genotype, Humans, Insulin, Insulin-Like Growth Factor I, Longevity, Male, Osteoporosis, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt, Signal Transduction}, issn = {1474-9726}, doi = {10.1111/j.1474-9726.2009.00493.x}, author = {Pawlikowska, Ludmila and Hu, Donglei and Huntsman, Scott and Sung, Andrew and Chu, Catherine and Chen, Justin and Joyner, Alexander H and Schork, Nicholas J and Hsueh, Wen-Chi and Reiner, Alexander P and Psaty, Bruce M and Atzmon, Gil and Barzilai, Nir and Cummings, Steven R and Browner, Warren S and Kwok, Pui-Yan and Ziv, Elad} } @article {1126, title = {Association of genetic variation in serum amyloid-A with cardiovascular disease and interactions with IL6, IL1RN, IL1beta and TNF genes in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Atheroscler Thromb}, volume = {16}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Aug}, pages = {419-30}, abstract = {

AIM: Since inflammation is an important contributor to atherosclerosis, gene variants mediating inflammation are of interest. We investigated gene variants in acute phase serum amyloid-A (SAA), a sensitive indicator of inflammatory activity, and their associations with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and HDL cholesterol. Interaction of the SAA genes with genetic variants of their regulators, IL-1, IL-6 and TNF-alpha in influencing CVD was also explored.

METHODS: SNPs characterizing common variation in the SAA1 and SAA2 genes were genotyped in European-(EA) and African-American (AA) participants (n=3969 and n=719) of the Cardiovascular Health Study. Using linear and Cox proportional hazards regression, we assessed associations of SNPs with baseline carotid artery intima-media thickness (cIMT) and risk of incident myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, total CVD events or mortality during 14 years of follow-up.

RESULTS: No associations between SAA SNPs and outcomes were observed in EA, with the exception of total CVD events; each rs4638289 minor allele was associated with an increased risk in obese individuals, HR=1.2 (95\%CI: 0.981.4; p=0.086) and decreased risk among non-obese, HR=0.9 (95\%CI: 0.80.99; p=0.026). In AA, we observed modest associations between SAA SNPs and cIMT, potentially modified by HDL. SAA SNPs were also associated with lower HDL in EA and AA. Suggestive gene-gene interaction findings for cIMT in AA and CVD mortality in EA were not significant in subsequent model selection tests.

CONCLUSION: Associations of SAA SNPs with cIMT, HDL and total CVD events were identified, unadjusted for multiple testing. These findings should be regarded as hypothesis-generating until confirmed by other studies.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cholesterol, HDL, Cytokines, Female, Gene Regulatory Networks, Humans, Inflammation Mediators, Interleukin 1 Receptor Antagonist Protein, Interleukin-1beta, Interleukin-6, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proportional Hazards Models, Serum Amyloid A Protein, Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha, Tunica Intima}, issn = {1880-3873}, author = {Carty, Cara L and Heagerty, Patrick and Heckbert, Susan R and Enquobahrie, Daniel A and Jarvik, Gail P and Davis, Scott and Tracy, Russell P and Reiner, Alexander P} } @article {1153, title = {Association of novel genetic Loci with circulating fibrinogen levels: a genome-wide association study in 6 population-based cohorts.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {2}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Apr}, pages = {125-33}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Fibrinogen is both central to blood coagulation and an acute-phase reactant. We aimed to identify common variants influencing circulation fibrinogen levels.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted a genome-wide association analysis on 6 population-based studies, the Rotterdam Study, the Framingham Heart Study, the Cardiovascular Health Study, the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, the Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Disease/KORA Augsburg Study, and the British 1958 Birth Cohort Study, including 22 096 participants of European ancestry. Four loci were marked by 1 or more single-nucleotide polymorphisms that demonstrated genome-wide significance (P<5.0 x 10(-8)). These included a single-nucleotide polymorphism located in the fibrinogen beta chain (FGB) gene and 3 single-nucleotide polymorphisms representing newly identified loci. The high-signal single-nucleotide polymorphisms were rs1800789 in exon 7 of FGB (P=1.8 x 10(-30)), rs2522056 downstream from the interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF1) gene (P=1.3 x 10(-15)), rs511154 within intron 1 of the propionyl coenzyme A carboxylase (PCCB) gene (P=5.9 x 10(-10)), and rs1539019 on the NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 isoforms (NLRP3) gene (P=1.04 x 10(-8)).

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight biological pathways that may be important in regulation of inflammation underlying cardiovascular disease.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Fibrinogen, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Pedigree, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Young Adult}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.108.825224}, author = {Dehghan, Abbas and Yang, Qiong and Peters, Annette and Basu, Saonli and Bis, Joshua C and Rudnicka, Alicja R and Kavousi, Maryam and Chen, Ming-Huei and Baumert, Jens and Lowe, Gordon D O and McKnight, Barbara and Tang, Weihong and de Maat, Moniek and Larson, Martin G and Eyhermendy, Susana and McArdle, Wendy L and Lumley, Thomas and Pankow, James S and Hofman, Albert and Massaro, Joseph M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Kolz, Melanie and Taylor, Kent D and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Kathiresan, Sekar and Illig, Thomas and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Volcik, Kelly A and Johnson, Andrew D and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Tofler, Geoffrey H and Gieger, Christian and Psaty, Bruce M and Couper, David J and Boerwinkle, Eric and Koenig, Wolfgang and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Strachan, David P and Smith, Nicholas L and Folsom, Aaron R} } @article {1115, title = {Coagulation factors IX through XIII and the risk of future venous thrombosis: the Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology.}, journal = {Blood}, volume = {114}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Oct 01}, pages = {2878-83}, abstract = {

Higher levels of procoagulant factors and factor XII deficiency may be risk factors for first venous thromboembolism (VTE). We studied associations of coagulation factors IX through XIII with risk of future VTE in 2 general population samples. Using a nested case-control study combining the 21 860 participants of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study and the Cardiovascular Health Study, we determined antigenic levels of these coagulation factors in primarily pre-event blood samples from 462 participants who subsequently developed VTE and 1047 participants who remained free of VTE. Only elevated levels of factors IX and XI were associated with increased risk of VTE after adjustment for age, sex, race, and study. For factor IX, the odds ratio (OR) was 1.4 (95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.0-2.0) comparing the top to bottom quintile. The OR for factor XI was higher: 2.0 (95\% CI, 1.4-2.9). With further adjustment for body mass index and diabetes, only elevated factor XI remained associated with VTE risk: OR 1.8 (95\% CI, 1.3-2.7). Associations were similar by study and whether the thrombosis was idiopathic or secondary. Factor XII deficiency was not related to VTE risk. Among these procoagulant factors, only elevated factor XI was a risk factor for VTE.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Case-Control Studies, Factor IX, Factor X, Factor XI, Factor XII, Factor XIII, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Odds Ratio, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1528-0020}, doi = {10.1182/blood-2009-05-219915}, author = {Cushman, Mary and O{\textquoteright}Meara, Ellen S and Folsom, Aaron R and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {1152, title = {Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium: Design of prospective meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies from 5 cohorts.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {2}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Feb}, pages = {73-80}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The primary aim of genome-wide association studies is to identify novel genetic loci associated with interindividual variation in the levels of risk factors, the degree of subclinical disease, or the risk of clinical disease. The requirement for large sample sizes and the importance of replication have served as powerful incentives for scientific collaboration. Methods- The Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium was formed to facilitate genome-wide association studies meta-analyses and replication opportunities among multiple large population-based cohort studies, which collect data in a standardized fashion and represent the preferred method for estimating disease incidence. The design of the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium includes 5 prospective cohort studies from the United States and Europe: the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study, the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, the Cardiovascular Health Study, the Framingham Heart Study, and the Rotterdam Study. With genome-wide data on a total of about 38 000 individuals, these cohort studies have a large number of health-related phenotypes measured in similar ways. For each harmonized trait, within-cohort genome-wide association study analyses are combined by meta-analysis. A prospective meta-analysis of data from all 5 cohorts, with a properly selected level of genome-wide statistical significance, is a powerful approach to finding genuine phenotypic associations with novel genetic loci.

CONCLUSIONS: The Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium and collaborating non-member studies or consortia provide an excellent framework for the identification of the genetic determinants of risk factors, subclinical-disease measures, and clinical events.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aging, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Heart Diseases, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Research Design, Risk Factors}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.108.829747}, author = {Psaty, Bruce M and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Folsom, Aaron R and Rotter, Jerome I and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Harris, Tamara B and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Boerwinkle, Eric} } @article {1087, title = {Common variants at ten loci influence QT interval duration in the QTGEN Study.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {41}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Apr}, pages = {399-406}, abstract = {

QT interval duration, reflecting myocardial repolarization on the electrocardiogram, is a heritable risk factor for sudden cardiac death and drug-induced arrhythmias. We conducted a meta-analysis of three genome-wide association studies in 13,685 individuals of European ancestry from the Framingham Heart Study, the Rotterdam Study and the Cardiovascular Health Study, as part of the QTGEN consortium. We observed associations at P < 5 x 10(-8) with variants in NOS1AP, KCNQ1, KCNE1, KCNH2 and SCN5A, known to be involved in myocardial repolarization and mendelian long-QT syndromes. Associations were found at five newly identified loci, including 16q21 near NDRG4 and GINS3, 6q22 near PLN, 1p36 near RNF207, 16p13 near LITAF and 17q12 near LIG3 and RFFL. Collectively, the 14 independent variants at these 10 loci explain 5.4-6.5\% of the variation in QT interval. These results, together with an accompanying paper, offer insights into myocardial repolarization and suggest candidate genes that could predispose to sudden cardiac death and drug-induced arrhythmias.

}, keywords = {Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Adult, Aged, Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Chromosome Mapping, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, Electroencephalography, ERG1 Potassium Channel, Ether-A-Go-Go Potassium Channels, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome, Human, Humans, KCNQ1 Potassium Channel, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Muscle Proteins, NAV1.5 Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Potassium Channels, Voltage-Gated, Risk Factors, Sodium Channels}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.364}, author = {Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Rice, Kenneth M and de Bakker, Paul I W and Yin, Xiaoyan and Estrada, Karol and Bis, Joshua C and Marciante, Kristin and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Noseworthy, Peter A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Smith, Nicholas L and Rotter, Jerome I and Kors, Jan A and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Hofman, Albert and Heckbert, Susan R and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Psaty, Bruce M and Lumley, Thomas and Larson, Martin G and Stricker, Bruno H Ch} } @article {1113, title = {External validity of the cardiovascular health study: a comparison with the Medicare population.}, journal = {Med Care}, volume = {47}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Aug}, pages = {916-23}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a population-based prospective cohort study, has been used to identify major risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease and stroke in the elderly.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the external validity of the CHS.

RESEARCH DESIGN: Comparison of the CHS cohort to a national cohort of Medicare beneficiaries and to Medicare beneficiaries residing in the CHS geographic regions.

SUBJECTS: CHS participants and a 5\% sample of Medicare beneficiaries.

MEASURES: Demographic and administrative characteristics, comorbid conditions, resource use, and mortality.

RESULTS: Compared with both Medicare cohorts, the CHS cohort was older and included more men and African American participants. CHS participants were more likely to be enrolled in Medicare managed care than beneficiaries in the national Medicare cohort. Compared with the Medicare cohorts, mortality in the CHS was more than 40\% lower at 1 year, approximately 25\% lower at 5 years, and approximately 15\% lower at 10 years. There were minimal differences in comorbid conditions and health care resource use.

CONCLUSION: The CHS cohort is comparable with the Medicare population, particularly with regard to comorbid conditions and resource use, but had lower mortality. The difference in mortality may reflect the CHS recruitment strategy or volunteer bias. These findings suggest it may not be appropriate to project absolute rates of disease and outcomes based on CHS data to the entire Medicare population. However, there is no reason to expect that the relative risks associated with physiologic processes identified by CHS data would differ for nonparticipants.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Comorbidity, Female, Humans, Male, Medicare, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Reproducibility of Results, Socioeconomic Factors, United States}, issn = {1537-1948}, doi = {10.1097/MLR.0b013e318197b104}, author = {DiMartino, Lisa D and Hammill, Bradley G and Curtis, Lesley H and Gottdiener, John S and Manolio, Teri A and Powe, Neil R and Schulman, Kevin A} } @article {1108, title = {Genetic variants associated with cardiac structure and function: a meta-analysis and replication of genome-wide association data.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {302}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Jul 08}, pages = {168-78}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Echocardiographic measures of left ventricular (LV) structure and function are heritable phenotypes of cardiovascular disease.

OBJECTIVE: To identify common genetic variants associated with cardiac structure and function by conducting a meta-analysis of genome-wide association data in 5 population-based cohort studies (stage 1) with replication (stage 2) in 2 other community-based samples.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Within each of 5 community-based cohorts comprising the EchoGen consortium (stage 1; n = 12 612 individuals of European ancestry; 55\% women, aged 26-95 years; examinations between 1978-2008), we estimated the association between approximately 2.5 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; imputed to the HapMap CEU panel) and echocardiographic traits. In stage 2, SNPs significantly associated with traits in stage 1 were tested for association in 2 other cohorts (n = 4094 people of European ancestry). Using a prespecified P value threshold of 5 x 10(-7) to indicate genome-wide significance, we performed an inverse variance-weighted fixed-effects meta-analysis of genome-wide association data from each cohort.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Echocardiographic traits: LV mass, internal dimensions, wall thickness, systolic dysfunction, aortic root, and left atrial size.

RESULTS: In stage 1, 16 genetic loci were associated with 5 echocardiographic traits: 1 each with LV internal dimensions and systolic dysfunction, 3 each with LV mass and wall thickness, and 8 with aortic root size. In stage 2, 5 loci replicated (6q22 locus associated with LV diastolic dimensions, explaining <1\% of trait variance; 5q23, 12p12, 12q14, and 17p13 associated with aortic root size, explaining 1\%-3\% of trait variance).

CONCLUSIONS: We identified 5 genetic loci harboring common variants that were associated with variation in LV diastolic dimensions and aortic root size, but such findings explained a very small proportion of variance. Further studies are required to replicate these findings, identify the causal variants at or near these loci, characterize their functional significance, and determine whether they are related to overt cardiovascular disease.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aorta, Cardiovascular Diseases, Echocardiography, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Heart Atria, Heart Ventricles, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Organ Size, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Ventricular Dysfunction, Left, Ventricular Function, Left}, issn = {1538-3598}, doi = {10.1001/jama.2009.978-a}, author = {Vasan, Ramachandran S and Glazer, Nicole L and Felix, Janine F and Lieb, Wolfgang and Wild, Philipp S and Felix, Stephan B and Watzinger, Norbert and Larson, Martin G and Smith, Nicholas L and Dehghan, Abbas and Grosshennig, Anika and Schillert, Arne and Teumer, Alexander and Schmidt, Reinhold and Kathiresan, Sekar and Lumley, Thomas and Aulchenko, Yurii S and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Zeller, Tanja and Homuth, Georg and Struchalin, Maksim and Aragam, Jayashri and Bis, Joshua C and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Erdmann, Jeanette and Schnabel, Renate B and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Zweiker, Robert and Lind, Lars and Rodeheffer, Richard J and Greiser, Karin Halina and Levy, Daniel and Haritunians, Talin and Deckers, Jaap W and Stritzke, Jan and Lackner, Karl J and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Ingelsson, Erik and Kullo, Iftikhar and Haerting, Johannes and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Heckbert, Susan R and Stricker, Bruno H and Ziegler, Andreas and Reffelmann, Thorsten and Redfield, Margaret M and Werdan, Karl and Mitchell, Gary F and Rice, Kenneth and Arnett, Donna K and Hofman, Albert and Gottdiener, John S and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Meitinger, Thomas and Blettner, Maria and Friedrich, Nele and Wang, Thomas J and Psaty, Bruce M and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Wichmann, H-Erich and Munzel, Thomas F and Kroemer, Heyo K and Benjamin, Emelia J and Rotter, Jerome I and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Schunkert, Heribert and Schmidt, Helena and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Blankenberg, Stefan} } @article {1092, title = {Genomewide association studies of stroke.}, journal = {N Engl J Med}, volume = {360}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Apr 23}, pages = {1718-28}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The genes underlying the risk of stroke in the general population remain undetermined.

METHODS: We carried out an analysis of genomewide association data generated from four large cohorts composing the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium, including 19,602 white persons (mean [+/-SD] age, 63+/-8 years) in whom 1544 incident strokes (1164 ischemic strokes) developed over an average follow-up of 11 years. We tested the markers most strongly associated with stroke in a replication cohort of 2430 black persons with 215 incident strokes (191 ischemic strokes), another cohort of 574 black persons with 85 incident strokes (68 ischemic strokes), and 652 Dutch persons with ischemic stroke and 3613 unaffected persons.

RESULTS: Two intergenic single-nucleotide polymorphisms on chromosome 12p13 and within 11 kb of the gene NINJ2 were associated with stroke (P<5x10(-8)). NINJ2 encodes an adhesion molecule expressed in glia and shows increased expression after nerve injury. Direct genotyping showed that rs12425791 was associated with an increased risk of total (i.e., all types) and ischemic stroke, with hazard ratios of 1.30 (95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.19 to 1.42) and 1.33 (95\% CI, 1.21 to 1.47), respectively, yielding population attributable risks of 11\% and 12\% in the discovery cohorts. Corresponding hazard ratios were 1.35 (95\% CI, 1.01 to 1.79; P=0.04) and 1.42 (95\% CI, 1.06 to 1.91; P=0.02) in the large cohort of black persons and 1.17 (95\% CI, 1.01 to 1.37; P=0.03) and 1.19 (95\% CI, 1.01 to 1.41; P=0.04) in the Dutch sample; the results of an underpowered analysis of the smaller black cohort were nonsignificant.

CONCLUSIONS: A genetic locus on chromosome 12p13 is associated with an increased risk of stroke.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 12, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Markers, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, Stroke}, issn = {1533-4406}, doi = {10.1056/NEJMoa0900094}, author = {Ikram, M Arfan and Seshadri, Sudha and Bis, Joshua C and Fornage, Myriam and DeStefano, Anita L and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Debette, Stephanie and Lumley, Thomas and Folsom, Aaron R and van den Herik, Evita G and Bos, Michiel J and Beiser, Alexa and Cushman, Mary and Launer, Lenore J and Shahar, Eyal and Struchalin, Maksim and Du, Yangchun and Glazer, Nicole L and Rosamond, Wayne D and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Kelly-Hayes, Margaret and Lopez, Oscar L and Coresh, Josef and Hofman, Albert and DeCarli, Charles and Heckbert, Susan R and Koudstaal, Peter J and Yang, Qiong and Smith, Nicholas L and Kase, Carlos S and Rice, Kenneth and Haritunians, Talin and Roks, Gerwin and de Kort, Paul L M and Taylor, Kent D and de Lau, Lonneke M and Oostra, Ben A and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rotter, Jerome I and Boerwinkle, Eric and Psaty, Bruce M and Mosley, Thomas H and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Breteler, Monique M B and Longstreth, W T and Wolf, Philip A} } @article {1098, title = {Genome-wide association study of blood pressure and hypertension.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {41}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Jun}, pages = {677-87}, abstract = {

Blood pressure is a major cardiovascular disease risk factor. To date, few variants associated with interindividual blood pressure variation have been identified and replicated. Here we report results of a genome-wide association study of systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure and hypertension in the CHARGE Consortium (n = 29,136), identifying 13 SNPs for SBP, 20 for DBP and 10 for hypertension at P < 4 {\texttimes} 10(-7). The top ten loci for SBP and DBP were incorporated into a risk score; mean BP and prevalence of hypertension increased in relation to the number of risk alleles carried. When ten CHARGE SNPs for each trait were included in a joint meta-analysis with the Global BPgen Consortium (n = 34,433), four CHARGE loci attained genome-wide significance (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) for SBP (ATP2B1, CYP17A1, PLEKHA7, SH2B3), six for DBP (ATP2B1, CACNB2, CSK-ULK3, SH2B3, TBX3-TBX5, ULK4) and one for hypertension (ATP2B1). Identifying genes associated with blood pressure advances our understanding of blood pressure regulation and highlights potential drug targets for the prevention or treatment of hypertension.

}, keywords = {Blood Pressure, Cell Line, Chromosome Mapping, Chromosomes, Human, Diastole, Gene Expression Regulation, Genetic Association Studies, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Liver, Lymphocytes, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Odds Ratio, Phenotype, Prevalence, Risk Assessment, Systole}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.384}, author = {Levy, Daniel and Ehret, Georg B and Rice, Kenneth and Verwoert, Germaine C and Launer, Lenore J and Dehghan, Abbas and Glazer, Nicole L and Morrison, Alanna C and Johnson, Andrew D and Aspelund, Thor and Aulchenko, Yurii and Lumley, Thomas and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Guo, Xiuqing and Arking, Dan E and Mitchell, Gary F and Mattace-Raso, Francesco U S and Smith, Albert V and Taylor, Kent and Scharpf, Robert B and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Bis, Joshua and Harris, Tamara B and Ganesh, Santhi K and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Hofman, Albert and Rotter, Jerome I and Coresh, Josef and Benjamin, Emelia J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Heiss, Gerardo and Fox, Caroline S and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Wang, Thomas J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Larson, Martin G and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Psaty, Bruce M and van Duijn, Cornelia M} } @article {1070, title = {Hypertension genes and retinal vascular calibre: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Hum Hypertens}, volume = {23}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Sep}, pages = {578-84}, abstract = {

We examined the associations of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in three candidate hypertension genes, alpha-adducin (ADD1/G460W), beta2-adrenergic receptor (ADRB2/Arg16Gly and Gln27Glu) and G-protein beta3 subunit (GNB3/C825T), with retinal arteriolar calibre (an intermediate marker of chronic hypertension) and venular calibre. Data in 1842 participants (1554 whites and 288 African Americans) aged 69-96 years from the Cardiovascular Health Study with genotype and retinal vascular calibre data were included. A computer-assisted method was used to measure retinal vascular calibre. We analysed four SNPs and multilocus interaction for three genes. All SNPs were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in whites and African Americans. The study had sufficient power to detect 0.5\% of the total variance of retinal vascular calibre contributed by each SNP in the total population, except for the GNB3 gene variant. No significant associations between these SNPs in the genes studied and mean retinal arteriolar and venular calibre were found in single-gene or multilocus analysis (for example, age-, gender-, race-adjusted mean retinal arteriolar calibre was similar between participants who were ADD1/460W homozygotes and ADD1/G allele carriers, 166.2 vs 167.7 microm). In conclusion, this study found no evidence of an association of SNPs in candidate hypertension genes studied here with retinal vascular calibre.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Arterioles, Calmodulin-Binding Proteins, European Continental Ancestry Group, Heterotrimeric GTP-Binding Proteins, Humans, Hypertension, Longitudinal Studies, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-2, Retinal Vessels}, issn = {1476-5527}, doi = {10.1038/jhh.2008.168}, author = {Sun, C and Wang, J J and Islam, F M and Heckbert, S R and Klein, R and Siscovick, D S and Klein, B E K and Wong, T Y} } @article {1167, title = {Joint modeling of self-rated health and changes in physical functioning.}, journal = {J Am Stat Assoc}, volume = {104}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Sep 01}, pages = {912}, abstract = {

Self-rated health is an important indicator of future morbidity and mortality. Past research has indicated that self-rated health is related to both levels of and changes in physical functioning. However, no previous study has jointly modeled longitudinal functional status and self-rated health trajectories. We propose a joint model for self-rated health and physical functioning that describes the relationship between perceptions of health and the rate of change of physical functioning or disability. Our joint model uses a non-homogeneous Markov process for discrete physical functioning states and connects this to a logistic regression model for "healthy" versus "unhealthy" self-rated health through parameters of the physical functioning model. We use simulation studies to establish finite sample properties of our estimators and show that this model is robust to misspecification of the functional form of the relationship between self-rated health and rate of change of physical functioning. We also show that our joint model performs better than an empirical model based on observed changes in functional status. We apply our joint model to data from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a large, multi-center, longitudinal study of older adults. Our analysis indicates that self-rated health is associated both with level of functioning as indicated by difficulty with activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and the risk of increasing difficulty with ADLs and IADLs.

}, issn = {0162-1459}, doi = {10.1198/jasa.2009.ap08423}, author = {Hubbard, Rebecca A and Inoue, Lurdes Y T and Diehr, Paula} } @article {1080, title = {Lack of association of soluble endothelial protein C receptor and PROCR 6936A/G polymorphism with the risk of venous thromboembolism in a prospective study.}, journal = {Br J Haematol}, volume = {145}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Apr}, pages = {221-6}, abstract = {

Prior case-control studies reported that levels of the soluble form of the endothelial protein C receptor (sEPCR) were strongly controlled by the PROCR 6963A/G polymorphism and higher levels were a risk factor for venous thromboembolism (VTE). We sought to prospectively examine the association of sEPCR and the 6963A/G polymorphism with the incidence of VTE. The Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology (LITE) pooled data from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study on men and women aged > or =45 years. A nested case-control study of 458 incident VTE and 1038 controls was performed. sEPCR levels were distributed trimodally according to 6963A/G polymorphism. Adjusting for age, sex and race, there was no overall association between sEPCR level and VTE: odds ratio (OR) [95\% confidence interval] for highest versus lowest quartile = 1.17[0.86-1.59]. However, higher sEPCR was associated with VTE in non-whites (OR = 1.84[1.05-3.22]) and women (OR = 1.51[1.01-2.26]). The 6963A/G polymorphism was not associated with VTE risk (OR = 0.93[0.70-1.25]). In conclusion, sEPCR levels and the PROCR 6963A/G polymorphism were not associated overall with increased risk of VTE.

}, keywords = {Antigens, CD, Case-Control Studies, Endothelial Protein C Receptor, Female, Genotype, Humans, Logistic Models, Male, Middle Aged, Odds Ratio, Polymorphism, Genetic, Prospective Studies, Receptors, Cell Surface, Risk, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1365-2141}, doi = {10.1111/j.1365-2141.2009.07612.x}, author = {Yamagishi, Kazumasa and Cushman, Mary and Heckbert, Susan R and Tsai, Michael Y and Folsom, Aaron R} } @article {1136, title = {Left atrial volume and geometry in healthy aging: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Imaging}, volume = {2}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Jul}, pages = {282-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The left atrium is a validated marker of clinical and subclinical cardiovascular disease. Left atrial enlargement is often seen among older individuals; however, there are few population-based data regarding normal left atrial size among older persons, especially from those who are healthy, and from women. Furthermore, because the left atrium is a 3D structure, the commonly used parasternal long-axis diastolic diameter often underdiagnoses left atrial enlargement.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We evaluated left atrial size in 230 healthy participants (mean age, 76+/-5 years) free of prevalent cardiac disease, rhythm abnormality, hypertension, and diabetes selected from the Cardiovascular Health Study, a prospective community-based study of risk factors for cardiovascular disease in 5888 elderly participants. In addition to the standard long-axis measurement, we obtained left atrial superoinferior and lateral diameters and used these dimensions to estimate left atrial volume. These measurements were used to generate reference ranges for determining left atrial enlargement in older men and women, based on the 95\% percentiles of the left atrial dimensions in healthy participants, both unadjusted, and after adjustment for age, height, and weight. In healthy elderly subjects, indices of left atrial size do not correlate with age or height but with weight and other measures of body build.

CONCLUSIONS: These data provide normative reference values for left atrial size in healthy older women and men. The results should be useful for refining diagnostic criteria for left atrial dilation in the older population and may be relevant for cardiovascular risk stratification.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Atrial Function, Left, Body Size, Body Surface Area, Echocardiography, Three-Dimensional, Female, Heart Atria, Humans, Linear Models, Male, Models, Biological, Organ Size, Population Surveillance, Prospective Studies, Reference Values, Sex Factors, United States}, issn = {1942-0080}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCIMAGING.108.826602}, author = {Aurigemma, Gerard P and Gottdiener, John S and Arnold, Alice M and Chinali, Marcello and Hill, Jeffrey C and Kitzman, Dalane} } @article {1073, title = {Metabolic syndrome and risk of venous thromboembolism: Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology.}, journal = {J Thromb Haemost}, volume = {7}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 May}, pages = {746-51}, abstract = {

SUMMARY BACKGROUND: In a recent case-control study, the odds of metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) among deep vein thrombosis cases were almost twice those among controls. We tested the hypothesis that the incidence of non-cancer-related venous thromboembolism (VTE) is higher among adults with MetSyn and further, that associations are stronger for idiopathic than secondary VTE.

METHODS: A total of 20 374 middle-aged and elderly adults were followed for over 12 years for incident VTE in the Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology (LITE). All hospitalizations were identified and VTEs validated by chart review. Baseline MetSyn was defined using ATP III guidelines, including >or=3 of the following components: abdominal obesity, elevated blood pressure, low HDL-cholesterol, high triglycerides and high glucose. Because sex modified the relation between MetSyn and VTE (p(interaction) = 0.001), proportional hazards regression analyses were stratified by sex to assess the associations of MetSyn and its components with risk of incident non-cancer-related VTE, adjusting for potential confounders.

RESULTS: Incident VTE (n = 358) included 196 idiopathic events. Baseline MetSyn was associated with risk of total VTE (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.84, 95\% CI = 1.30, 2.59) and idiopathic VTE (HR = 1.59, 95\% CI = 1.02, 2.47) among men, but not women. The association was largely attributable to abdominal obesity (HR of VTE = 2.10, 95\% CI = 1.51, 2.93, in men; HR of VTE = 1.70, 95\% CI = 1.24, 2.34, in women), with no additional contribution by the other MetSyn components.

CONCLUSION: Although abdominal obesity was associated with increased risk of VTE in both men and women, MetSyn and its other components do not seem important in VTE etiology.

}, keywords = {Blood Coagulation Factors, Blood Glucose, Blood Pressure, Body Mass Index, Cohort Studies, Female, Fibrinogen, Humans, Lipids, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Metabolic Syndrome, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1538-7836}, doi = {10.1111/j.1538-7836.2009.03295.x}, author = {Steffen, L M and Cushman, M and Peacock, J M and Heckbert, S R and Jacobs, D R and Rosamond, W D and Folsom, A R} } @article {1099, title = {Multiple loci associated with indices of renal function and chronic kidney disease.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {41}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Jun}, pages = {712-7}, abstract = {

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has a heritable component and is an important global public health problem because of its high prevalence and morbidity. We conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to identify susceptibility loci for glomerular filtration rate, estimated by serum creatinine (eGFRcrea) and cystatin C (eGFRcys), and CKD (eGFRcrea < 60 ml/min/1.73 m(2)) in European-ancestry participants of four population-based cohorts (ARIC, CHS, FHS, RS; n = 19,877; 2,388 CKD cases), and tested for replication in 21,466 participants (1,932 CKD cases). We identified significant SNP associations (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) with CKD at the UMOD locus, with eGFRcrea at UMOD, SHROOM3 and GATM-SPATA5L1, and with eGFRcys at CST and STC1. UMOD encodes the most common protein in human urine, Tamm-Horsfall protein, and rare mutations in UMOD cause mendelian forms of kidney disease. Our findings provide new insights into CKD pathogenesis and underscore the importance of common genetic variants influencing renal function and disease.

}, keywords = {Chromosome Mapping, Cohort Studies, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Kidney, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Mucoproteins, Netherlands, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prevalence, Uromodulin}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.377}, author = {K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Glazer, Nicole L and Dehghan, Abbas and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Katz, Ronit and Li, Man and Yang, Qiong and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Launer, Lenore J and Harris, Tamara B and Smith, Albert V and Arking, Dan E and Astor, Brad C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Ehret, Georg B and Ruczinski, Ingo and Scharpf, Robert B and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and de Boer, Ian H and Haritunians, Talin and Lumley, Thomas and Sarnak, Mark and Siscovick, David and Benjamin, Emelia J and Levy, Daniel and Upadhyay, Ashish and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Hofman, Albert and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Chasman, Daniel I and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Ridker, Paul M and Kao, W H Linda and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Coresh, Josef and Shlipak, Michael G and Fox, Caroline S} } @article {1141, title = {Multiple loci influence erythrocyte phenotypes in the CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {41}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Nov}, pages = {1191-8}, abstract = {

Measurements of erythrocytes within the blood are important clinical traits and can indicate various hematological disorders. We report here genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for six erythrocyte traits, including hemoglobin concentration (Hb), hematocrit (Hct), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and red blood cell count (RBC). We performed an initial GWAS in cohorts of the CHARGE Consortium totaling 24,167 individuals of European ancestry and replication in additional independent cohorts of the HaemGen Consortium totaling 9,456 individuals. We identified 23 loci significantly associated with these traits in a meta-analysis of the discovery and replication cohorts (combined P values ranging from 5 x 10(-8) to 7 x 10(-86)). Our findings include loci previously associated with these traits (HBS1L-MYB, HFE, TMPRSS6, TFR2, SPTA1) as well as new associations (EPO, TFRC, SH2B3 and 15 other loci). This study has identified new determinants of erythrocyte traits, offering insight into common variants underlying variation in erythrocyte measures.

}, keywords = {Blood Pressure, Cell Line, Cohort Studies, Endothelial Cells, Erythrocytes, Gene Expression, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.466}, author = {Ganesh, Santhi K and Zakai, Neil A and van Rooij, Frank J A and Soranzo, Nicole and Smith, Albert V and Nalls, Michael A and Chen, Ming-Huei and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Glazer, Nicole L and Dehghan, Abbas and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Aspelund, Thor and Yang, Qiong and Tanaka, Toshiko and Jaffe, Andrew and Bis, Joshua C M and Verwoert, Germaine C and Teumer, Alexander and Fox, Caroline S and Guralnik, Jack M and Ehret, Georg B and Rice, Kenneth and Felix, Janine F and Rendon, Augusto and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Levy, Daniel and Patel, Kushang V and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rotter, Jerome I and Hofman, Albert and Sambrook, Jennifer G and Hernandez, Dena G and Zheng, Gang and Bandinelli, Stefania and Singleton, Andrew B and Coresh, Josef and Lumley, Thomas and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vangils, Janine M and Launer, Lenore J and Cupples, L Adrienne and Oostra, Ben A and Zwaginga, Jaap-Jan and Ouwehand, Willem H and Thein, Swee-Lay and Meisinger, Christa and Deloukas, Panos and Nauck, Matthias and Spector, Tim D and Gieger, Christian and Gudnason, Vilmundur and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Psaty, Bruce M and Ferrucci, Luigi and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Greinacher, Andreas and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Furth, Susan and Cushman, Mary and Harris, Tamara B and Lin, Jing-Ping} } @article {1107, title = {NRXN3 is a novel locus for waist circumference: a genome-wide association study from the CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {5}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Jun}, pages = {e1000539}, abstract = {

Central abdominal fat is a strong risk factor for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. To identify common variants influencing central abdominal fat, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association analysis for waist circumference (WC). In total, three loci reached genome-wide significance. In stage 1, 31,373 individuals of Caucasian descent from eight cohort studies confirmed the role of FTO and MC4R and identified one novel locus associated with WC in the neurexin 3 gene [NRXN3 (rs10146997, p = 6.4x10(-7))]. The association with NRXN3 was confirmed in stage 2 by combining stage 1 results with those from 38,641 participants in the GIANT consortium (p = 0.009 in GIANT only, p = 5.3x10(-8) for combined analysis, n = 70,014). Mean WC increase per copy of the G allele was 0.0498 z-score units (0.65 cm). This SNP was also associated with body mass index (BMI) [p = 7.4x10(-6), 0.024 z-score units (0.10 kg/m(2)) per copy of the G allele] and the risk of obesity (odds ratio 1.13, 95\% CI 1.07-1.19; p = 3.2x10(-5) per copy of the G allele). The NRXN3 gene has been previously implicated in addiction and reward behavior, lending further evidence that common forms of obesity may be a central nervous system-mediated disorder. Our findings establish that common variants in NRXN3 are associated with WC, BMI, and obesity.

}, keywords = {Aged, Body Mass Index, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Waist Circumference}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1000539}, author = {Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Zillikens, M Carola and Monda, Keri L and Johansson, Asa and Harris, Tamara B and Fu, Mao and Haritunians, Talin and Feitosa, Mary F and Aspelund, Thor and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Garcia, Melissa and Launer, Lenore J and Smith, Albert V and Mitchell, Braxton D and McArdle, Patrick F and Shuldiner, Alan R and Bielinski, Suzette J and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brancati, Fred and Demerath, Ellen W and Pankow, James S and Arnold, Alice M and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Glazer, Nicole L and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Amin, Najaf and Campbell, Harry and Gyllensten, Ulf and Pattaro, Cristian and Pramstaller, Peter P and Rudan, Igor and Struchalin, Maksim and Vitart, Veronique and Gao, Xiaoyi and Kraja, Aldi and Province, Michael A and Zhang, Qunyuan and Atwood, Larry D and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Jaquish, Cashell E and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Vasan, Ramachandran S and White, Charles C and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Estrada, Karol and Hofman, Albert and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Oostra, Ben A and Kaplan, Robert C and Gudnason, Vilmundur and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Borecki, Ingrid B and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Fox, Caroline S and North, Kari E} } @article {1138, title = {N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide is a major predictor of the development of atrial fibrillation: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {120}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Nov 03}, pages = {1768-74}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common cardiac rhythm abnormality, is associated with significant morbidity, mortality, and healthcare expenditures. Elevated B-type natriuretic peptide levels have been associated with the risk of heart failure, AF, and mortality.

METHODS AND RESULTS: The relation between N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and AF was studied in 5445 Cardiovascular Health Study participants with the use of relative risk regression for predicting prevalent AF and Cox proportional hazards for predicting incident AF. NT-proBNP levels were strongly associated with prevalent AF, with an unadjusted prevalence ratio of 128 for the highest quintile (95\% confidence interval, 17.9 to 913.3; P<0.001) and adjusted prevalence ratio of 147 for the highest quintile (95\% confidence interval, 20.4 to 1064.3; P<0.001) compared with the lowest. After a median follow-up of 10 years (maximum of 16 years), there were 1126 cases of incident AF (a rate of 2.2 per 100 person-years). NT-proBNP was highly predictive of incident AF, with an unadjusted hazard ratio of 5.2 (95\% confidence interval, 4.3 to 6.4; P<0.001) for the development of AF for the highest quintile compared with the lowest; for the same contrast, NT-proBNP remained the strongest predictor of incident AF after adjustment for an extensive number of covariates, including age, sex, medication use, blood pressure, echocardiographic parameters, diabetes mellitus, and heart failure, with an adjusted hazard ratio of 4.0 (95\% confidence interval, 3.2 to 5.0; P<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: In a community-based population of older adults, NT-proBNP was a remarkable predictor of incident AF, independent of any other previously described risk factor.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atrial Fibrillation, Female, Humans, Immunoassay, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Natriuretic Peptide, Brain, Peptide Fragments, Predictive Value of Tests, Prevalence, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.873265}, author = {Patton, Kristen K and Ellinor, Patrick T and Heckbert, Susan R and Christenson, Robert H and DeFilippi, Christopher and Gottdiener, John S and Kronmal, Richard A} } @article {1119, title = {Peak thrombin generation and subsequent venous thromboembolism: the Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology (LITE) study.}, journal = {J Thromb Haemost}, volume = {7}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Oct}, pages = {1639-48}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Thrombin is an enzyme that is essential for the acceleration of the coagulation cascade and the conversion of fibrinogen to clottable fibrin.

OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the relationship of basal peak thrombin generation with the risk of future venous thromboembolism (VTE), and determined whether associations were independent of other coagulation markers.

METHODS: The Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology (LITE) study investigated VTE in two prospective population-based cohorts: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study and the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). Peak thrombin generation was measured on stored plasma in a nested case-control sample (434 cases and 1004 controls). Logistic regression was used to estimate the relationship of peak thrombin generation with VTE, adjusted for age, sex, race, center, and body mass index. Mediation was evaluated by additionally adjusting for factor VIII and D-dimer.

RESULTS: Relative to the first quartile of peak thrombin generation, the odds ratio (OR) of VTE for those above the median was 1.74 [95\% confidence interval (CI) 1.28-2.37]. The association was modestly attenuated by adjustment for FVIII and D-dimer (OR 1.47, 95\% CI 1.05-2.05). Associations appeared to be stronger for idiopathic than for secondary VTE. Elevated peak thrombin generation more than added to the VTE risk associated with FV Leiden or low activated partial thromboplastin time.

CONCLUSIONS: In this prospective study of two independent cohorts, elevated basal peak thrombin generation was associated with subsequent risk of VTE, independently of established VTE risk factors.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Biomarkers, Blood Coagulation Factors, Case-Control Studies, Ethnic Groups, Factor VIII, Female, Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Partial Thromboplastin Time, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Thrombin, United States, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1538-7836}, doi = {10.1111/j.1538-7836.2009.03561.x}, author = {Lutsey, P L and Folsom, A R and Heckbert, S R and Cushman, M} } @article {1068, title = {Platelet count and the risk for thrombosis and death in the elderly.}, journal = {J Thromb Haemost}, volume = {7}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Mar}, pages = {399-405}, abstract = {

AIM: Our aim was to examine the association between platelet count and the incidence of myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, hemorrhagic stroke, venous thrombosis, and mortality.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Platelet count was measured at baseline in 1989-1990 and at 3 years follow-up, or at baseline (for a newly recruited group) in 1992-1993 in 5766 community-dwelling individuals aged 65 years and older (mean age at baseline, 73 years). During 12-15 years of follow-up, there were 821 incident myocardial infarctions, 807 ischemic strokes, 161 hemorrhagic strokes, 159 venous thrombotic events, and 3413 participants died. Platelet count was not associated with the occurrence of myocardial infarction, ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke, venous thrombosis, or cardiovascular mortality. Non-cardiovascular mortality was higher among both participants with low and with high platelet count. Adjusted non-cardiovascular mortality rates for platelet counts below 100, 100-199, 300-399, and above 400 x 10(9) L(-1) relative to the reference mortality rate in participants with platelet count values between 200 and 299 x 10(9) L(-1) were 1.89 (1.21-2.96), 1.08 (0.98-1.20), 1.20 (1.06-1.37), and 1.47 (1.14-1.90), respectively.

CONCLUSION: Platelet counts were not associated with vascular outcomes but low and high platelet counts were associated with non-cardiovascular mortality, including cancer mortality.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cause of Death, Cerebral Hemorrhage, Female, Humans, Male, Myocardial Infarction, Platelet Count, Risk, Stroke, Survival Analysis, Thrombosis, Venous Thrombosis}, issn = {1538-7836}, doi = {10.1111/j.1538-7836.2008.03267.x}, author = {van der Bom, J G and Heckbert, S R and Lumley, T and Holmes, C E and Cushman, M and Folsom, A R and Rosendaal, F R and Psaty, B M} } @article {1121, title = {Replication of findings on the association of genetic variation in 24 hemostasis genes and risk of incident venous thrombosis.}, journal = {J Thromb Haemost}, volume = {7}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Oct}, pages = {1743-6}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Haplotypes, Hemostasis, Humans, Incidence, Male, Menopause, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Reproducibility of Results, Risk, Thrombophilia, Venous Thrombosis, Young Adult}, issn = {1538-7836}, doi = {10.1111/j.1538-7836.2009.03567.x}, author = {Smith, N L and Wiggins, K L and Reiner, A P and Lange, L A and Cushman, M and Heckbert, S R and Lumley, T and Rice, K M and Folsom, A R and Psaty, B M} } @article {1102, title = {Spousal suffering and partner{\textquoteright}s depression and cardiovascular disease: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Am J Geriatr Psychiatry}, volume = {17}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Mar}, pages = {246-54}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of suffering in a spouse on prevalent and incident psychiatric (depression) and physical morbidity (cardiovascular disease [CVD]) in their partner, controlling for known risk factors for depression and CVD.

DESIGN: Descriptive longitudinal study.

PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1,330 older married couples enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a large epidemiologic study of the elderly.

MEASUREMENTS: Predictor variables were physical, psychological, and existential/spiritual indicators of suffering. Primary outcomes were prevalent and incident depression and CVD.

RESULTS: Controlling for known risk factors for depression, the authors found a dose-response relationship between suffering in a spouse and concurrent depression in their partner as well as a relationship between suffering and the partner{\textquoteright}s future risk for depression. With respect to CVD, and controlling for subclinical CVD at baseline, husbands whose wives reported high levels of suffering also had higher rates of prevalent CVD, but there were no significant associations between wives suffering and husbands incident CVD. There were no associations between husbands{\textquoteright} suffering and wives{\textquoteright} prevalent or incident CVD.

CONCLUSION: Exposure to spousal suffering is an independent and unique source of distress in married couples that contributes to psychiatric and physical morbidity. More attention should be paid to the interpersonal effects of suffering in married couples and to its role in contributing to morbidity.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Caregivers, Depression, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Logistic Models, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Prevalence, Risk Factors, Socioeconomic Factors, Spouses, Stress, Psychological, Surveys and Questionnaires}, issn = {1545-7214}, doi = {10.1097/JGP.0b013e318198775b}, author = {Schulz, Richard and Beach, Scott R and Hebert, Randy S and Martire, Lynn M and Monin, Joan K and Tompkins, Connie A and Albert, Steven M} } @article {1079, title = {Systematically missing confounders in individual participant data meta-analysis of observational cohort studies.}, journal = {Stat Med}, volume = {28}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Apr 15}, pages = {1218-37}, abstract = {

One difficulty in performing meta-analyses of observational cohort studies is that the availability of confounders may vary between cohorts, so that some cohorts provide fully adjusted analyses while others only provide partially adjusted analyses. Commonly, analyses of the association between an exposure and disease either are restricted to cohorts with full confounder information, or use all cohorts but do not fully adjust for confounding. We propose using a bivariate random-effects meta-analysis model to use information from all available cohorts while still adjusting for all the potential confounders. Our method uses both the fully adjusted and the partially adjusted estimated effects in the cohorts with full confounder information, together with an estimate of their within-cohort correlation. The method is applied to estimate the association between fibrinogen level and coronary heart disease incidence using data from 154,012 participants in 31 cohorts

}, keywords = {Cohort Studies, Computer Simulation, Coronary Disease, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Female, Fibrinogen, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Models, Statistical}, issn = {0277-6715}, doi = {10.1002/sim.3540}, author = {Jackson, Dan and White, Ian and Kostis, J B and Wilson, A C and Folsom, A R and Wu, K and Chambless, L and Benderly, M and Goldbourt, U and Willeit, J and Kiechl, S and Yarnell, J W G and Sweetnam, P M and Elwood, P C and Cushman, M and Psaty, B M and Tracy, R P and Tybjaerg-Hansen, A and Haverkate, F and de Maat, M P M and Thompson, S G and Fowkes, F G R and Lee, A J and Smith, F B and Salomaa, V and Harald, K and Rasi, V and Vahtera, E and Jousilahti, P and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, R and Kannel, W B and Wilson, P W F and Tofler, G and Levy, D and Marchioli, R and Valagussa, F and Rosengren, A and Wilhelmsen, L and Lappas, G and Eriksson, H and Cremer, P and Nagel, D and Curb, J D and Rodriguez, B and Yano, K and Salonen, J T and Nyyss{\"o}nen, K and Tuomainen, T-P and Hedblad, B and Engstrom, G and Berglund, G and Loewel, H and Koenig, W and Hense, H W and Meade, T W and Cooper, J A and De Stavola, B and Knottenbelt, C and Miller, G J and Cooper, J A and Bauer, K A and Rosenberg, R D and Sato, S and Kitamura, A and Naito, Y and Iso, H and Salomaa, V and Harald, K and Rasi, V and Vahtera, E and Jousilahti, P and Palosuo, T and Ducimetiere, P and Amouyel, P and Arveiler, D and Evans, A E and Ferrieres, J and Juhan-Vague, I and Bingham, A and Schulte, H and Assmann, G and Cantin, B and Lamarche, B and Despr{\'e}s, J-P and Dagenais, G R and Tunstall-Pedoe, H and Lowe, G D O and Woodward, M and Ben-Shlomo, Y and Davey Smith, G and Palmieri, V and Yeh, J L and Meade, T W and Rudnicka, A and Brennan, P and Knottenbelt, C and Cooper, J A and Ridker, P and Rodeghiero, F and Tosetto, A and Shepherd, J and Lowe, G D O and Ford, I and Robertson, M and Brunner, E and Shipley, M and Feskens, E J M and Di Angelantonio, E and Kaptoge, S and Lewington, S and Lowe, G D O and Sarwar, N and Thompson, S G and Walker, M and Watson, S and White, I R and Wood, A M and Danesh, J} } @article {1124, title = {Total and cause-specific mortality in the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {64}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Dec}, pages = {1251-61}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Few cohort studies have adequate numbers of carefully reviewed deaths to allow an analysis of unique and shared risk factors for cause-specific mortality. Shared risk factors could be targeted for prevention of premature death and the study of longevity.

METHODS: A total of 5,888 community-dwelling persons aged 65 years or older living in four communities in the United States participated in the Cardiovascular Health Study cohort. Participants were initially recruited from 1989 to 1990; an additional 687 black participants were recruited in 1992-1993. The average length of follow-up was 16 years. Total and cause-specific mortality, including cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, dementia, pulmonary disease, infection, and other cause, were examined as outcomes. Variables previously associated with total mortality were examined for each cause of death using Cox proportional hazard models.

RESULTS: Multiple risk factors were related to total mortality. When examining specific causes, many factors were related to cardiovascular death, whereas fewer were related to other causes. For most causes, risk factors were specific for that cause. For example, apolipoprotein E epsilon4 was strongly associated for dementia death and forced vital capacity with pulmonary death. Age, male sex, markers of inflammation, and cognitive function were related to multiple causes of death.

CONCLUSIONS: In these older adults, associations of risk factors with a given cause of death were related to specific deficits in that same organ system. Inflammation may represent a common pathway to all causes of death.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cause of Death, Chronic Disease, Cohort Studies, Female, Geriatric Assessment, Health Surveys, Humans, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Male, Probability, Proportional Hazards Models, Retrospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Severity of Illness Index, Sex Factors, Survival Analysis, United States}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glp127}, author = {Newman, Anne B and Sachs, Michael C and Arnold, Alice M and Fried, Linda P and Kronmal, Richard and Cushman, Mary and Psaty, Bruce M and Harris, Tamara B and Robbins, John A and Burke, Gregory L and Kuller, Lewis H and Lumley, Thomas} } @article {1096, title = {Usefulness of myeloperoxidase levels in healthy elderly subjects to predict risk of developing heart failure.}, journal = {Am J Cardiol}, volume = {103}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 May 01}, pages = {1269-74}, abstract = {

Increased systemic myeloperoxidase (MPO) has been associated with both the presence and severity of heart failure (HF). This study tested the hypothesis that increased systemic MPO in apparently healthy elderly subjects may predict increased risk of developing HF. Systemic MPO was measured in all available samples from the 1992 to 1993 visit of the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). After excluding subjects without available blood samples or with a history of prevalent HF, myocardial infarction (MI), or stroke, 3,733 subjects were included. A total of 569 subjects developed incident HF during 7.2 +/- 2.3 years of follow-up. Patients in the highest MPO quartile (>432 pmol/L) showed higher risk of developing incident HF after adjusting for MI, age, gender, systolic blood pressure, smoking, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, diabetes mellitus, and any subclinical cardiovascular disease (hazard ratio 1.34, 95\% confidence interval 1.06 to 1.72, p = 0.013). However, the relation was more apparent after censoring subjects with incident MI before incident HF, even when adjusted for C-reactive protein and cystatin C (hazard ratio 1.46, 95\% confidence interval 1.08 to 1.97, p = 0.02). Interestingly, stratified analyses showed that the relation between increased MPO and HF risk was stronger in subjects without traditional cardiovascular risk factors (}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Biomarkers, Disease Progression, Female, Geriatric Assessment, Heart Failure, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Peroxidase, Predictive Value of Tests, Probability, Prognosis, Risk Assessment, Sensitivity and Specificity, Severity of Illness Index, Sex Factors}, issn = {1879-1913}, doi = {10.1016/j.amjcard.2009.01.026}, author = {Tang, W H Wilson and Katz, Ronit and Brennan, Marie-Luise and Aviles, Ronnier J and Tracy, Russell P and Psaty, Bruce M and Hazen, Stanley L} } @article {1097, title = {Using telephone and informant assessments to estimate missing Modified Mini-Mental State Exam scores and rates of cognitive decline. The cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Neuroepidemiology}, volume = {33}, year = {2009}, month = {2009}, pages = {55-65}, abstract = {

AIM: To estimate an equivalent to the Modified Mini-Mental State Exam (3MSE), and to compare changes in the 3MSE with and without the estimated scores.

METHODS: Comparability study on a subset of 405 participants, aged >or=70 years, from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a longitudinal study in 4 United States communities. The 3MSE, the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS) and the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE) were administered within 30 days of one another. Regression models were developed to predict the 3MSE score from the TICS and/or IQCODE, and the predicted values were used to estimate missing 3MSE scores in longitudinal follow-up of 4,274 CHS participants.

RESULTS: The TICS explained 67\% of the variability in 3MSE scores, with a correlation of 0.82 between predicted and observed scores. The IQCODE alone was not a good estimate of 3MSE score, but improved the model fit when added to the TICS model. Using estimated 3MSE scores classified more participants with low cognition, and rates of decline were greater than when only the observed 3MSE scores were considered.

CONCLUSIONS: 3MSE scores can be reliably estimated from the TICS, with or without the IQCODE. Incorporating these estimates captured more cognitive decline in older adults.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cognition Disorders, Female, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Predictive Value of Tests, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Regression Analysis, Risk Factors, ROC Curve, United States}, issn = {1423-0208}, doi = {10.1159/000215830}, author = {Arnold, Alice M and Newman, Anne B and Dermond, Norma and Haan, Mary and Fitzpatrick, Annette} } @article {1114, title = {Variants in ZFHX3 are associated with atrial fibrillation in individuals of European ancestry.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {41}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Aug}, pages = {879-81}, abstract = {

We conducted meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies for atrial fibrillation (AF) in participants from five community-based cohorts. Meta-analyses of 896 prevalent (15,768 referents) and 2,517 incident (21,337 referents) AF cases identified a new locus for AF (ZFHX3, rs2106261, risk ratio RR = 1.19; P = 2.3 x 10(-7)). We replicated this association in an independent cohort from the German AF Network (odds ratio = 1.44; P = 1.6 x 10(-11); combined RR = 1.25; combined P = 1.8 x 10(-15)).

}, keywords = {Atrial Fibrillation, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 16, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Homeodomain Proteins, Humans, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Mutation, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Reproducibility of Results}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.416}, author = {Benjamin, Emelia J and Rice, Kenneth M and Arking, Dan E and Pfeufer, Arne and van Noord, Charlotte and Smith, Albert V and Schnabel, Renate B and Bis, Joshua C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Sinner, Moritz F and Dehghan, Abbas and Lubitz, Steven A and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, Ralph B and Lumley, Thomas and Ehret, Georg B and Heeringa, Jan and Aspelund, Thor and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Larson, Martin G and Marciante, Kristin D and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Wang, Thomas J and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Levy, Daniel and Psaty, Bruce M and Li, Man and Chamberlain, Alanna M and Hofman, Albert and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Harris, Tamara B and Rotter, Jerome I and Kao, W H Linda and Agarwal, Sunil K and Stricker, Bruno H Ch and Wang, Ke and Launer, Lenore J and Smith, Nicholas L and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wolf, Philip A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Meitinger, Thomas and Mueller, Martina and Perz, Siegfried and Steinbeck, Gerhard and Wichmann, H-Erich and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Heckbert, Susan R and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Alonso, Alvaro and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Ellinor, Patrick T and Witteman, Jacqueline C M} } @article {1109, title = {Admixture mapping of ankle-arm index: identification of a candidate locus associated with peripheral arterial disease.}, journal = {J Med Genet}, volume = {47}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Jan}, pages = {1-7}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, and has a higher prevalence in African Americans than Caucasians. Ankle-arm index (AAI) is the ratio of systolic blood pressure in the leg to that in the arm, and, when low, is a marker of PAD.

METHODS: The authors used an admixture mapping approach to search for genetic loci associated with low AAI. Using data from 1040 African American participants in the observational, population based Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study who were genotyped at 1322 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are informative for African versus European ancestry and span the entire genome, we estimated genetic ancestry in each chromosomal region and then tested the association between AAI and genetic ancestry at each locus.

RESULTS: The authors found a region of chromosome 11 that reaches its peak between 80 and 82 Mb associated with low AAI (p<0.001 for rs12289502 and rs9665943, both within this region). 753 African American participants in the observational, population based Cardiovascular Health Study were genotyped at rs9665943 to test the reproducibility of this association, and this association was also statistically significant (odds ratio (OR) for homozygous African genotype 1.59, 95\% confidence interval (CI) 1.12 to 2.27). Another candidate SNP (rs1042602) in the same genomic region was tested in both populations, and was also found to be significantly associated with low AAI in both populations (OR for homozygous African genotype 1.89, 95\% CI 1.29 to 2.76).

CONCLUSION: This study identifies a novel region of chromosome 11 representing an area with a potential candidate gene associated with PAD in African Americans.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Ankle Brachial Index, Chromosome Mapping, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 11, Female, Genetic Loci, Genotype, Humans, Male, Odds Ratio, Peripheral Vascular Diseases, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1468-6244}, doi = {10.1136/jmg.2008.064808}, author = {Scherer, M L and Nalls, M A and Pawlikowska, L and Ziv, E and Mitchell, G and Huntsman, S and Hu, D and Sutton-Tyrrell, K and Lakatta, E G and Hsueh, W-C and Newman, A B and Tandon, A and Kim, L and Kwok, P-Y and Sung, A and Li, R and Psaty, B and Reiner, A P and Harris, T} } @article {1128, title = {Age and cystatin C in healthy adults: a collaborative study.}, journal = {Nephrol Dial Transplant}, volume = {25}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Feb}, pages = {463-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Kidney function declines with age, but a substantial portion of this decline has been attributed to the higher prevalence of risk factors for kidney disease at older ages. The effect of age on kidney function has not been well described in a healthy population across a wide age spectrum.

METHODS: The authors pooled individual-level cross-sectional data from 18 253 persons aged 28-100 years in four studies: the Cardiovascular Health Study; the Health, Aging and Body Composition Study; the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and the Prevention of Renal and Vascular End-Stage Disease cohort. Kidney function was measured by cystatin C. Clinical risk factors for kidney disease included diabetes, hypertension, obesity, smoking, coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, peripheral arterial disease and heart failure.

RESULTS: Across the age range, there was a strong, non-linear association of age with cystatin C concentration. This association was substantial, even among participants free of clinical risk factors for kidney disease; mean cystatin C levels were 46\% higher in participants 80 and older compared with those <40 years (1.06 versus 0.72 mg/L, P < 0.001). Participants with one or more risk factors had higher cystatin C concentrations for a given age, and the age association was slightly stronger (P < 0.001 for age and risk factor interaction).

CONCLUSIONS: There is a strong, non-linear association of age with kidney function, even in healthy individuals. An important area for research will be to investigate the mechanisms that lead to deterioration of kidney function in apparently healthy persons.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cross-Sectional Studies, Cystatin C, Humans, Kidney, Middle Aged, Reference Values}, issn = {1460-2385}, doi = {10.1093/ndt/gfp474}, author = {Odden, Michelle C and Tager, Ira B and Gansevoort, Ron T and Bakker, Stephan J L and Katz, Ronit and Fried, Linda F and Newman, Anne B and Canada, Robert B and Harris, Tamara and Sarnak, Mark J and Siscovick, David and Shlipak, Michael G} } @article {1228, title = {Albuminuria and the risk of incident stroke and stroke types in older adults.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {75}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Oct 12}, pages = {1343-50}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The kidney biomarker that best reflects risk of stroke is unknown. We sought to evaluate the association of stroke with 3 kidney biomarkers: albuminuria, cystatin C, and glomerular filtration rate.

METHODS: These 3 biomarkers were determined in 3,287 participants without history of stroke from the Cardiovascular Health Study, a longitudinal cohort study of men and women age 65 years and older from 4 US communities. The biomarkers were albuminuria ascertained using urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) from morning spot urine, creatinine-based estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and cystatin C. Outcomes were incident stroke (any, ischemic, or hemorrhagic) during follow-up between 1996 and 2006.

RESULTS: A total of 390 participants had an incident stroke: 81\% ischemic, 12\% hemorrhagic, and 7\% unclassified. In adjusted Cox regression models, UACR was more strongly related to any stroke, ischemic stroke, and hemorrhagic stroke than eGFR and cystatin C. The hazard ratio (HR) of any stroke comparing the top to bottom quintile of UACR was 2.10 (95\% confidence interval [CI] 1.47-3.00), while HR for eGFR was 1.29 (95\% CI 0.91-1.84) and for cystatin C was 1.22 (95\% CI 0.85-1.74). When considering clinically relevant categories, elevated UACR was associated with increased hazard of any stroke and ischemic stroke regardless of eGFR or cystatin C categories.

CONCLUSIONS: UACR was the kidney biomarker most strongly associated with risk of incident stroke. Results in this elderly cohort may not be applicable to younger populations. These findings suggest that measures of glomerular filtration and permeability have differential effects on stroke risk.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Albuminuria, Community Health Services, Confidence Intervals, Female, Geriatric Assessment, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Incidence, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Proportional Hazards Models, Retrospective Studies, Risk Factors, Stroke}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0b013e3181f73638}, author = {Aguilar, M I and O{\textquoteright}Meara, E S and Seliger, S and Longstreth, W T and Hart, R G and Pergola, P E and Shlipak, M G and Katz, R and Sarnak, M J and Rifkin, D E} } @article {1237, title = {Association analyses of 249,796 individuals reveal 18 new loci associated with body mass index.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {42}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Nov}, pages = {937-48}, abstract = {

Obesity is globally prevalent and highly heritable, but its underlying genetic factors remain largely elusive. To identify genetic loci for obesity susceptibility, we examined associations between body mass index and \~{} 2.8 million SNPs in up to 123,865 individuals with targeted follow up of 42 SNPs in up to 125,931 additional individuals. We confirmed 14 known obesity susceptibility loci and identified 18 new loci associated with body mass index (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}$$^{8}$), one of which includes a copy number variant near GPRC5B. Some loci (at MC4R, POMC, SH2B1 and BDNF) map near key hypothalamic regulators of energy balance, and one of these loci is near GIPR, an incretin receptor. Furthermore, genes in other newly associated loci may provide new insights into human body weight regulation.

}, keywords = {Body Height, Body Mass Index, Body Size, Body Weight, Chromosome Mapping, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.686}, author = {Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Willer, Cristen J and Berndt, Sonja I and Monda, Keri L and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Jackson, Anne U and Lango Allen, Hana and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Randall, Joshua C and Vedantam, Sailaja and Winkler, Thomas W and Qi, Lu and Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie and Heid, Iris M and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Stringham, Heather M and Weedon, Michael N and Wheeler, Eleanor and Wood, Andrew R and Ferreira, Teresa and Weyant, Robert J and Segr{\`e}, Ayellet V and Estrada, Karol and Liang, Liming and Nemesh, James and Park, Ju-Hyun and Gustafsson, Stefan and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Yang, Jian and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Feitosa, Mary F and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Mangino, Massimo and Raychaudhuri, Soumya and Scherag, Andre and Smith, Albert Vernon and Welch, Ryan and Zhao, Jing Hua and Aben, Katja K and Absher, Devin M and Amin, Najaf and Dixon, Anna L and Fisher, Eva and Glazer, Nicole L and Goddard, Michael E and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Hoesel, Volker and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Johansson, Asa and Johnson, Toby and Ketkar, Shamika and Lamina, Claudia and Li, Shengxu and Moffatt, Miriam F and Myers, Richard H and Narisu, Narisu and Perry, John R B and Peters, Marjolein J and Preuss, Michael and Ripatti, Samuli and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Sandholt, Camilla and Scott, Laura J and Timpson, Nicholas J and Tyrer, Jonathan P and van Wingerden, Sophie and Watanabe, Richard M and White, Charles C and Wiklund, Fredrik and Barlassina, Christina and Chasman, Daniel I and Cooper, Matthew N and Jansson, John-Olov and Lawrence, Robert W and Pellikka, Niina and Prokopenko, Inga and Shi, Jianxin and Thiering, Elisabeth and Alavere, Helene and Alibrandi, Maria T S and Almgren, Peter and Arnold, Alice M and Aspelund, Thor and Atwood, Larry D and Balkau, Beverley and Balmforth, Anthony J and Bennett, Amanda J and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Bergman, Richard N and Bergmann, Sven and Biebermann, Heike and Blakemore, Alexandra I F and Boes, Tanja and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bornstein, Stefan R and Brown, Morris J and Buchanan, Thomas A and Busonero, Fabio and Campbell, Harry and Cappuccio, Francesco P and Cavalcanti-Proen{\c c}a, Christine and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chen, Chih-Mei and Chines, Peter S and Clarke, Robert and Coin, Lachlan and Connell, John and Day, Ian N M and den Heijer, Martin and Duan, Jubao and Ebrahim, Shah and Elliott, Paul and Elosua, Roberto and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Erdos, Michael R and Eriksson, Johan G and Facheris, Maurizio F and Felix, Stephan B and Fischer-Posovszky, Pamela and Folsom, Aaron R and Friedrich, Nele and Freimer, Nelson B and Fu, Mao and Gaget, Stefan and Gejman, Pablo V and Geus, Eco J C and Gieger, Christian and Gjesing, Anette P and Goel, Anuj and Goyette, Philippe and Grallert, Harald and Gr{\"a}ssler, J{\"u}rgen and Greenawalt, Danielle M and Groves, Christopher J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Guiducci, Candace and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hassanali, Neelam and Hall, Alistair S and Havulinna, Aki S and Hayward, Caroline and Heath, Andrew C and Hengstenberg, Christian and Hicks, Andrew A and Hinney, Anke and Hofman, Albert and Homuth, Georg and Hui, Jennie and Igl, Wilmar and Iribarren, Carlos and Isomaa, Bo and Jacobs, Kevin B and Jarick, Ivonne and Jewell, Elizabeth and John, Ulrich and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jula, Antti and Kaakinen, Marika and Kajantie, Eero and Kaplan, Lee M and Kathiresan, Sekar and Kettunen, Johannes and Kinnunen, Leena and Knowles, Joshua W and Kolcic, Ivana and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Koskinen, Seppo and Kovacs, Peter and Kuusisto, Johanna and Kraft, Peter and Kval{\o}y, Kirsti and Laitinen, Jaana and Lantieri, Olivier and Lanzani, Chiara and Launer, Lenore J and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lettre, Guillaume and Liu, Jianjun and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Lorentzon, Mattias and Luben, Robert N and Ludwig, Barbara and Manunta, Paolo and Marek, Diana and Marre, Michel and Martin, Nicholas G and McArdle, Wendy L and McCarthy, Anne and McKnight, Barbara and Meitinger, Thomas and Melander, Olle and Meyre, David and Midthjell, Kristian and Montgomery, Grant W and Morken, Mario A and Morris, Andrew P and Mulic, Rosanda and Ngwa, Julius S and Nelis, Mari and Neville, Matt J and Nyholt, Dale R and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and O{\textquoteright}Rahilly, Stephen and Ong, Ken K and Oostra, Ben and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Parker, Alex N and Perola, Markus and Pichler, Irene and Pietil{\"a}inen, Kirsi H and Platou, Carl G P and Polasek, Ozren and Pouta, Anneli and Rafelt, Suzanne and Raitakari, Olli and Rayner, Nigel W and Ridderstr{\r a}le, Martin and Rief, Winfried and Ruokonen, Aimo and Robertson, Neil R and Rzehak, Peter and Salomaa, Veikko and Sanders, Alan R and Sandhu, Manjinder S and Sanna, Serena and Saramies, Jouko and Savolainen, Markku J and Scherag, Susann and Schipf, Sabine and Schreiber, Stefan and Schunkert, Heribert and Silander, Kaisa and Sinisalo, Juha and Siscovick, David S and Smit, Jan H and Soranzo, Nicole and Sovio, Ulla and Stephens, Jonathan and Surakka, Ida and Swift, Amy J and Tammesoo, Mari-Liis and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Teder-Laving, Maris and Teslovich, Tanya M and Thompson, John R and Thomson, Brian and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and van Meurs, Joyce B J and van Ommen, Gert-Jan and Vatin, Vincent and Viikari, Jorma and Visvikis-Siest, Sophie and Vitart, Veronique and Vogel, Carla I G and Voight, Benjamin F and Waite, Lindsay L and Wallaschofski, Henri and Walters, G Bragi and Widen, Elisabeth and Wiegand, Susanna and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Witte, Daniel R and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Xu, Jianfeng and Zhang, Qunyuan and Zgaga, Lina and Ziegler, Andreas and Zitting, Paavo and Beilby, John P and Farooqi, I Sadaf and Hebebrand, Johannes and Huikuri, Heikki V and James, Alan L and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Levinson, Douglas F and Macciardi, Fabio and Nieminen, Markku S and Ohlsson, Claes and Palmer, Lyle J and Ridker, Paul M and Stumvoll, Michael and Beckmann, Jacques S and Boeing, Heiner and Boerwinkle, Eric and Boomsma, Dorret I and Caulfield, Mark J and Chanock, Stephen J and Collins, Francis S and Cupples, L Adrienne and Smith, George Davey and Erdmann, Jeanette and Froguel, Philippe and Gr{\"o}nberg, Henrik and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hall, Per and Hansen, Torben and Harris, Tamara B and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hayes, Richard B and Heinrich, Joachim and Hu, Frank B and Hveem, Kristian and Illig, Thomas and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Kaprio, Jaakko and Karpe, Fredrik and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Krude, Heiko and Laakso, Markku and Lawlor, Debbie A and Metspalu, Andres and Munroe, Patricia B and Ouwehand, Willem H and Pedersen, Oluf and Penninx, Brenda W and Peters, Annette and Pramstaller, Peter P and Quertermous, Thomas and Reinehr, Thomas and Rissanen, Aila and Rudan, Igor and Samani, Nilesh J and Schwarz, Peter E H and Shuldiner, Alan R and Spector, Timothy D and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uda, Manuela and Uitterlinden, Andre and Valle, Timo T and Wabitsch, Martin and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Wareham, Nicholas J and Watkins, Hugh and Wilson, James F and Wright, Alan F and Zillikens, M Carola and Chatterjee, Nilanjan and McCarroll, Steven A and Purcell, Shaun and Schadt, Eric E and Visscher, Peter M and Assimes, Themistocles L and Borecki, Ingrid B and Deloukas, Panos and Fox, Caroline S and Groop, Leif C and Haritunians, Talin and Hunter, David J and Kaplan, Robert C and Mohlke, Karen L and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Peltonen, Leena and Schlessinger, David and Strachan, David P and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Wichmann, H-Erich and Frayling, Timothy M and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Boehnke, Michael and Stefansson, Kari and North, Kari E and McCarthy, Mark I and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Ingelsson, Erik and Loos, Ruth J F} } @article {1197, title = {Association of genome-wide variation with the risk of incident heart failure in adults of European and African ancestry: a prospective meta-analysis from the cohorts for heart and aging research in genomic epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {3}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Jun}, pages = {256-66}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Although genetic factors contribute to the onset of heart failure (HF), no large-scale genome-wide investigation of HF risk has been published to date. We have investigated the association of 2,478,304 single-nucleotide polymorphisms with incident HF by meta-analyzing data from 4 community-based prospective cohorts: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, the Cardiovascular Health Study, the Framingham Heart Study, and the Rotterdam Study.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Eligible participants for these analyses were of European or African ancestry and free of clinical HF at baseline. Each study independently conducted genome-wide scans and imputed data to the approximately 2.5 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms in HapMap. Within each study, Cox proportional hazards regression models provided age- and sex-adjusted estimates of the association between each variant and time to incident HF. Fixed-effect meta-analyses combined results for each single-nucleotide polymorphism from the 4 cohorts to produce an overall association estimate and P value. A genome-wide significance P value threshold was set a priori at 5.0x10(-7). During a mean follow-up of 11.5 years, 2526 incident HF events (12\%) occurred in 20 926 European-ancestry participants. The meta-analysis identified a genome-wide significant locus at chromosomal position 15q22 (1.4x10(-8)), which was 58.8 kb from USP3. Among 2895 African-ancestry participants, 466 incident HF events (16\%) occurred during a mean follow-up of 13.7 years. One genome-wide significant locus was identified at 12q14 (6.7x10(-8)), which was 6.3 kb from LRIG3.

CONCLUSIONS: We identified 2 loci that were associated with incident HF and exceeded genome-wide significance. The findings merit replication in other community-based settings of incident HF.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cohort Studies, Endopeptidases, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heart Failure, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk, Ubiquitin-Specific Proteases}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.109.895763}, author = {Smith, Nicholas L and Felix, Janine F and Morrison, Alanna C and Demissie, Serkalem and Glazer, Nicole L and Loehr, Laura R and Cupples, L Adrienne and Dehghan, Abbas and Lumley, Thomas and Rosamond, Wayne D and Lieb, Wolfgang and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Bis, Joshua C and Folsom, Aaron R and Benjamin, Emelia and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Haritunians, Talin and Couper, David and Murabito, Joanne and Wang, Ying A and Stricker, Bruno H and Gottdiener, John S and Chang, Patricia P and Wang, Thomas J and Rice, Kenneth M and Hofman, Albert and Heckbert, Susan R and Fox, Ervin R and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rotter, Jerome I and Willerson, James T and Levy, Daniel and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Psaty, Bruce M and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Vasan, Ramachandran S} } @article {1163, title = {Associations between renal duplex parameters and adverse cardiovascular events in the elderly: a prospective cohort study.}, journal = {Am J Kidney Dis}, volume = {55}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Feb}, pages = {281-90}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Atherosclerotic renovascular disease is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. This study examines associations between Doppler-derived parameters from the renal artery and renal parenchyma and all-cause mortality and fatal and nonfatal CVD events in a cohort of elderly Americans.

STUDY DESIGN: Cohort study.

SETTING: A subset of participants from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). Through an ancillary study, 870 (70\% recruitment) Forsyth County, NC, CHS participants consented to undergo renal duplex sonography to define the prevalence of renovascular disease in the elderly, resulting in 726 (36\% men; mean age, 77 years) technically adequate complete studies included in this investigation.

PREDICTOR: Renal duplex sonography-derived Doppler signals from the main renal arteries and renal parenchyma. Spectral analysis from Doppler-shifted frequencies and angle of insonation were used to estimate renal artery peak systolic and end diastolic velocity (both in meters per second). Color Doppler was used to identify the corticomedullary junction. Using a 3-mm Doppler sample, the parenchymal peak systolic and end diastolic frequency shift (both in kilohertz) were obtained. Resistive index was calculated as (1 - [end diastolic frequency shift/peak systolic frequency shift]) using Doppler samples from the hilar arteries of the left or right kidney with the higher main renal artery peak systolic velocity.

OUTCOMES \& MEASUREMENTS: Proportional hazard regression analysis was used to determine associations between renal duplex sonography-derived Doppler signals and CVD events and all-cause mortality adjusted for accepted cardiovascular risk factors. Index CVD outcomes were defined as coronary events (angina, myocardial infarction, and coronary artery bypass grafting/percutaneous coronary intervention), cerebrovascular events (stroke or transient ischemic attack), and any CVD event (angina, congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction, stroke, transient ischemic attack, and coronary artery bypass grafting [CABG]/percutaneous transluminal coronary intervention [PTCI]).

RESULTS: During follow-up, 221 deaths (31\%), 229 CVD events (32\%), 122 coronary events (17\%), and 92 cerebrovascular events (13\%) were observed. Renal duplex sonography-derived Doppler signals from the renal parenchyma were associated independently with all-cause mortality and CVD outcomes. In particular, increased parenchymal end diastolic frequency shift was associated significantly with any CVD event (HR, 0.73; 95\% CI, 0.62-0.87; P < 0.001). Marginally significant associations were observed between increases in parenchymal end diastolic frequency shift and decreased risk of death (HR, 0.86; 95\% CI, 0.73-1.00; P = 0.06) and decreased risk of cerebrovascular events (HR, 0.78; 95\% CI, 0.61-1.01; P = 0.06). Parenchymal end diastolic frequency shift was not significantly predictive of coronary events (HR, 0.84; 95\% CI, 0.67-1.06; P = 0.1).

LIMITATIONS: CHS participants showed a "healthy cohort" effect that may underestimate the rate of CVD events in the general population.

CONCLUSION: Renal duplex sonographic Doppler signals from the renal parenchyma showed significant associations with subsequent CVD events after controlling for other significant risk factors. In particular, a standard deviation increase in parenchymal end diastolic frequency shift was associated with 27\% risk reduction in any CVD event.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Female, Humans, Kidney Diseases, Male, Renal Artery, Risk Factors, Ultrasonography, Doppler, Duplex}, issn = {1523-6838}, doi = {10.1053/j.ajkd.2009.10.044}, author = {Pearce, Jeffrey D and Craven, Timothy E and Edwards, Matthew S and Corriere, Matthew A and Crutchley, Teresa A and Fleming, Shawn H and Hansen, Kimberley J} } @article {1171, title = {Bayesian methods for meta-analysis of causal relationships estimated using genetic instrumental variables.}, journal = {Stat Med}, volume = {29}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 May 30}, pages = {1298-311}, abstract = {

Genetic markers can be used as instrumental variables, in an analogous way to randomization in a clinical trial, to estimate the causal relationship between a phenotype and an outcome variable. Our purpose is to extend the existing methods for such Mendelian randomization studies to the context of multiple genetic markers measured in multiple studies, based on the analysis of individual participant data. First, for a single genetic marker in one study, we show that the usual ratio of coefficients approach can be reformulated as a regression with heterogeneous error in the explanatory variable. This can be implemented using a Bayesian approach, which is next extended to include multiple genetic markers. We then propose a hierarchical model for undertaking a meta-analysis of multiple studies, in which it is not necessary that the same genetic markers are measured in each study. This provides an overall estimate of the causal relationship between the phenotype and the outcome, and an assessment of its heterogeneity across studies. As an example, we estimate the causal relationship of blood concentrations of C-reactive protein on fibrinogen levels using data from 11 studies. These methods provide a flexible framework for efficient estimation of causal relationships derived from multiple studies. Issues discussed include weak instrument bias, analysis of binary outcome data such as disease risk, missing genetic data, and the use of haplotypes.

}, keywords = {Bayes Theorem, Biostatistics, C-Reactive Protein, Fibrinogen, Genetic Markers, Humans, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Models, Statistical, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1097-0258}, doi = {10.1002/sim.3843}, author = {Burgess, Stephen and Thompson, Simon G and Burgess, S and Thompson, S G and Andrews, G and Samani, N J and Hall, A and Whincup, P and Morris, R and Lawlor, D A and Davey Smith, G and Timpson, N and Ebrahim, S and Ben-Shlomo, Y and Davey Smith, G and Timpson, N and Brown, M and Ricketts, S and Sandhu, M and Reiner, A and Psaty, B and Lange, L and Cushman, M and Hung, J and Thompson, P and Beilby, J and Warrington, N and Palmer, L J and Nordestgaard, B G and Tybjaerg-Hansen, A and Zacho, J and Wu, C and Lowe, G and Tzoulaki, I and Kumari, M and Sandhu, M and Yamamoto, J F and Chiodini, B and Franzosi, M and Hankey, G J and Jamrozik, K and Palmer, L and Rimm, E and Pai, J and Psaty, B and Heckbert, S and Bis, J and Anand, S and Engert, J and Collins, R and Clarke, R and Melander, O and Berglund, G and Ladenvall, P and Johansson, L and Jansson, J-H and Hallmans, G and Hingorani, A and Humphries, S and Rimm, E and Manson, J and Pai, J and Watkins, H and Clarke, R and Hopewell, J and Saleheen, D and Frossard, R and Danesh, J and Sattar, N and Robertson, M and Shepherd, J and Schaefer, E and Hofman, A and Witteman, J C M and Kardys, I and Ben-Shlomo, Y and Davey Smith, G and Timpson, N and de Faire, U and Bennet, A and Sattar, N and Ford, I and Packard, C and Kumari, M and Manson, J and Lawlor, Debbie A and Davey Smith, George and Anand, S and Collins, R and Casas, J P and Danesh, J and Davey Smith, G and Franzosi, M and Hingorani, A and Lawlor, D A and Manson, J and Nordestgaard, B G and Samani, N J and Sandhu, M and Smeeth, L and Wensley, F and Anand, S and Bowden, J and Burgess, S and Casas, J P and Di Angelantonio, E and Engert, J and Gao, P and Shah, T and Smeeth, L and Thompson, S G and Verzilli, C and Walker, M and Whittaker, J and Hingorani, A and Danesh, J} } @article {1221, title = {Biological, clinical and population relevance of 95 loci for blood lipids.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {466}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Aug 05}, pages = {707-13}, abstract = {

Plasma concentrations of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides are among the most important risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD) and are targets for therapeutic intervention. We screened the genome for common variants associated with plasma lipids in >100,000 individuals of European ancestry. Here we report 95 significantly associated loci (P < 5 x 10(-8)), with 59 showing genome-wide significant association with lipid traits for the first time. The newly reported associations include single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) near known lipid regulators (for example, CYP7A1, NPC1L1 and SCARB1) as well as in scores of loci not previously implicated in lipoprotein metabolism. The 95 loci contribute not only to normal variation in lipid traits but also to extreme lipid phenotypes and have an impact on lipid traits in three non-European populations (East Asians, South Asians and African Americans). Our results identify several novel loci associated with plasma lipids that are also associated with CAD. Finally, we validated three of the novel genes-GALNT2, PPP1R3B and TTC39B-with experiments in mouse models. Taken together, our findings provide the foundation to develop a broader biological understanding of lipoprotein metabolism and to identify new therapeutic opportunities for the prevention of CAD.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Animals, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Coronary Artery Disease, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Lipid Metabolism, Lipids, Liver, Male, Mice, N-Acetylgalactosaminyltransferases, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Protein Phosphatase 1, Reproducibility of Results, Triglycerides}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature09270}, author = {Teslovich, Tanya M and Musunuru, Kiran and Smith, Albert V and Edmondson, Andrew C and Stylianou, Ioannis M and Koseki, Masahiro and Pirruccello, James P and Ripatti, Samuli and Chasman, Daniel I and Willer, Cristen J and Johansen, Christopher T and Fouchier, Sigrid W and Isaacs, Aaron and Peloso, Gina M and Barbalic, Maja and Ricketts, Sally L and Bis, Joshua C and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Feitosa, Mary F and Chambers, John and Orho-Melander, Marju and Melander, Olle and Johnson, Toby and Li, Xiaohui and Guo, Xiuqing and Li, Mingyao and Shin Cho, Yoon and Jin Go, Min and Jin Kim, Young and Lee, Jong-Young and Park, Taesung and Kim, Kyunga and Sim, Xueling and Twee-Hee Ong, Rick and Croteau-Chonka, Damien C and Lange, Leslie A and Smith, Joshua D and Song, Kijoung and Hua Zhao, Jing and Yuan, Xin and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lamina, Claudia and Ziegler, Andreas and Zhang, Weihua and Zee, Robert Y L and Wright, Alan F and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Wilson, James F and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wichmann, H-Erich and Whitfield, John B and Waterworth, Dawn M and Wareham, Nicholas J and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Vollenweider, Peter and Voight, Benjamin F and Vitart, Veronique and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Uda, Manuela and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Thompson, John R and Tanaka, Toshiko and Surakka, Ida and Stringham, Heather M and Spector, Tim D and Soranzo, Nicole and Smit, Johannes H and Sinisalo, Juha and Silander, Kaisa and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Scuteri, Angelo and Scott, James and Schlessinger, David and Sanna, Serena and Salomaa, Veikko and Saharinen, Juha and Sabatti, Chiara and Ruokonen, Aimo and Rudan, Igor and Rose, Lynda M and Roberts, Robert and Rieder, Mark and Psaty, Bruce M and Pramstaller, Peter P and Pichler, Irene and Perola, Markus and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pattaro, Cristian and Parker, Alex N and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Oostra, Ben A and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Nieminen, Markku S and Nickerson, Deborah A and Montgomery, Grant W and Meitinger, Thomas and McPherson, Ruth and McCarthy, Mark I and McArdle, Wendy and Masson, David and Martin, Nicholas G and Marroni, Fabio and Mangino, Massimo and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Lucas, Gavin and Luben, Robert and Loos, Ruth J F and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Lettre, Guillaume and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lakatta, Edward G and Laaksonen, Reijo and Kyvik, Kirsten O and Kronenberg, Florian and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kaplan, Lee M and Johansson, Asa and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Janssens, A Cecile J W and Ingelsson, Erik and Igl, Wilmar and Kees Hovingh, G and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Hofman, Albert and Hicks, Andrew A and Hengstenberg, Christian and Heid, Iris M and Hayward, Caroline and Havulinna, Aki S and Hastie, Nicholas D and Harris, Tamara B and Haritunians, Talin and Hall, Alistair S and Gyllensten, Ulf and Guiducci, Candace and Groop, Leif C and Gonzalez, Elena and Gieger, Christian and Freimer, Nelson B and Ferrucci, Luigi and Erdmann, Jeanette and Elliott, Paul and Ejebe, Kenechi G and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Dominiczak, Anna F and Demissie, Serkalem and Deloukas, Panagiotis and de Geus, Eco J C and de Faire, Ulf and Crawford, Gabriel and Collins, Francis S and Chen, Yii-der I and Caulfield, Mark J and Campbell, Harry and Burtt, Noel P and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Boomsma, Dorret I and Boekholdt, S Matthijs and Bergman, Richard N and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Bandinelli, Stefania and Ballantyne, Christie M and Assimes, Themistocles L and Quertermous, Thomas and Altshuler, David and Seielstad, Mark and Wong, Tien Y and Tai, E-Shyong and Feranil, Alan B and Kuzawa, Christopher W and Adair, Linda S and Taylor, Herman A and Borecki, Ingrid B and Gabriel, Stacey B and Wilson, James G and Holm, Hilma and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Krauss, Ronald M and Mohlke, Karen L and Ordovas, Jose M and Munroe, Patricia B and Kooner, Jaspal S and Tall, Alan R and Hegele, Robert A and Kastelein, John J P and Schadt, Eric E and Rotter, Jerome I and Boerwinkle, Eric and Strachan, David P and Mooser, Vincent and Stefansson, Kari and Reilly, Muredach P and Samani, Nilesh J and Schunkert, Heribert and Cupples, L Adrienne and Sandhu, Manjinder S and Ridker, Paul M and Rader, Daniel J and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Peltonen, Leena and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Boehnke, Michael and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {1120, title = {Brain structure and obesity.}, journal = {Hum Brain Mapp}, volume = {31}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Mar}, pages = {353-64}, abstract = {

Obesity is associated with increased risk for cardiovascular health problems including diabetes, hypertension, and stroke. These cardiovascular afflictions increase risk for cognitive decline and dementia, but it is unknown whether these factors, specifically obesity and Type II diabetes, are associated with specific patterns of brain atrophy. We used tensor-based morphometry (TBM) to examine gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) volume differences in 94 elderly subjects who remained cognitively normal for at least 5 years after their scan. Bivariate analyses with corrections for multiple comparisons strongly linked body mass index (BMI), fasting plasma insulin (FPI) levels, and Type II Diabetes Mellitus (DM2) with atrophy in frontal, temporal, and subcortical brain regions. A multiple regression model, also correcting for multiple comparisons, revealed that BMI was still negatively correlated with brain atrophy (FDR <5\%), while DM2 and FPI were no longer associated with any volume differences. In an Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) model controlling for age, gender, and race, obese subjects with a high BMI (BMI > 30) showed atrophy in the frontal lobes, anterior cingulate gyrus, hippocampus, and thalamus compared with individuals with a normal BMI (18.5-25). Overweight subjects (BMI: 25-30) had atrophy in the basal ganglia and corona radiata of the WM. Overall brain volume did not differ between overweight and obese persons. Higher BMI was associated with lower brain volumes in overweight and obese elderly subjects. Obesity is therefore associated with detectable brain volume deficits in cognitively normal elderly subjects.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Analysis of Variance, Body Mass Index, Brain, Continental Population Groups, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Fasting, Female, Humans, Insulin, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Nerve Fibers, Myelinated, Nerve Fibers, Unmyelinated, Obesity, Organ Size, Regression Analysis, Sex Factors}, issn = {1097-0193}, doi = {10.1002/hbm.20870}, author = {Raji, Cyrus A and Ho, April J and Parikshak, Neelroop N and Becker, James T and Lopez, Oscar L and Kuller, Lewis H and Hua, Xue and Leow, Alex D and Toga, Arthur W and Thompson, Paul M} } @article {1188, title = {Candidate gene association resource (CARe): design, methods, and proof of concept.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {3}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Jun}, pages = {267-75}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute{\textquoteright}s Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe), a planned cross-cohort analysis of genetic variation in cardiovascular, pulmonary, hematologic, and sleep-related traits, comprises >40,000 participants representing 4 ethnic groups in 9 community-based cohorts. The goals of CARe include the discovery of new variants associated with traits using a candidate gene approach and the discovery of new variants using the genome-wide association mapping approach specifically in African Americans.

METHODS AND RESULTS: CARe has assembled DNA samples for >40,000 individuals self-identified as European American, African American, Hispanic, or Chinese American, with accompanying data on hundreds of phenotypes that have been standardized and deposited in the CARe Phenotype Database. All participants were genotyped for 7 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) selected based on prior association evidence. We performed association analyses relating each of these SNPs to lipid traits, stratified by sex and ethnicity, and adjusted for age and age squared. In at least 2 of the ethnic groups, SNPs near CETP, LIPC, and LPL strongly replicated for association with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations, PCSK9 with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, and LPL and APOA5 with serum triglycerides. Notably, some SNPs showed varying effect sizes and significance of association in different ethnic groups.

CONCLUSIONS: The CARe Pilot Study validates the operational framework for phenotype collection, SNP genotyping, and analytic pipeline of the CARe project and validates the planned candidate gene study of approximately 2000 biological candidate loci in all participants and genome-wide association study in approximately 8000 African American participants. CARe will serve as a valuable resource for the scientific community.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Cohort Studies, Databases, Genetic, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Association Studies, Genotype, Humans, Phenotype, Pilot Projects, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Research Design, Triglycerides}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.109.882696}, author = {Musunuru, Kiran and Lettre, Guillaume and Young, Taylor and Farlow, Deborah N and Pirruccello, James P and Ejebe, Kenechi G and Keating, Brendan J and Yang, Qiong and Chen, Ming-Huei and Lapchyk, Nina and Crenshaw, Andrew and Ziaugra, Liuda and Rachupka, Anthony and Benjamin, Emelia J and Cupples, L Adrienne and Fornage, Myriam and Fox, Ervin R and Heckbert, Susan R and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Nizzari, Marcia M and Paltoo, Dina N and Papanicolaou, George J and Patel, Sanjay R and Psaty, Bruce M and Rader, Daniel J and Redline, Susan and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Herman A and Tracy, Russell P and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wilson, James G and Kathiresan, Sekar and Fabsitz, Richard R and Boerwinkle, Eric and Gabriel, Stacey B} } @article {1214, title = {Change in circulating adiponectin in advanced old age: determinants and impact on physical function and mortality. The Cardiovascular Health Study All Stars Study.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {65}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Nov}, pages = {1208-14}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Cross-sectional studies show that adiponectin is higher in older than in younger adults but long-term change in adiponectin, its determinants, and its relationship to functional decline or survival in the elderly population have not been evaluated.

METHODS: We investigated predictors of longitudinal change in adiponectin, and the association of this adipokine or its antecedent change with physical deterioration and all-cause mortality in 988 participants in a population-based study who completed examinations in 1996-1997 and 2005-2006, had serial adiponectin measurements and underwent follow-up through June 2009.

RESULTS: Adiponectin level rose significantly during follow-up, but the increase was smaller in blacks, was associated with declining weight or fasting glucose and, in men, lower albumin, and was affected by medications. Adiponectin was independently associated with greater physical decline, but the relationship for adiponectin change was driven by concomitant weight decrease. Both adiponectin and its change independently predicted mortality, even after adjustment for weight change. The association for adiponectin and mortality was observed in whites but not in blacks and only for levels in the upper range (hazard ratio = 1.85, 95\% confidence interval = 1.36-2.52 per SD >= 20 mg/L), whereas that for adiponectin change was linear throughout in both racial groups (hazard ratio = 1.30, 95\% confidence interval = 1.10-1.52 per SD).

CONCLUSIONS: Adiponectin levels increase over time in long-lived adults and are associated with greater physical disability and mortality. Such increases may occur in response to age-related homeostatic dysregulation. Additional investigation is required to define the underlying mechanisms and whether this represents a marker or causal factor for mortality in this age group.

}, keywords = {Adiponectin, Age Factors, Aged, Aging, Analysis of Variance, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cause of Death, Chi-Square Distribution, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Health Status, Humans, Linear Models, Male, Physical Fitness, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Time Factors, United States}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glq122}, author = {Kizer, Jorge R and Arnold, Alice M and Strotmeyer, Elsa S and Ives, Diane G and Cushman, Mary and Ding, Jingzhong and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Chaves, Paulo H M and Hirsch, Calvin H and Newman, Anne B} } @article {1238, title = {Circulating palmitoleic acid and risk of metabolic abnormalities and new-onset diabetes.}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {92}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Dec}, pages = {1350-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Animal experiments suggest that circulating palmitoleic acid (cis-16:1n-7) from adipocyte de novo fatty acid synthesis may directly regulate insulin resistance and metabolic dysregulation.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the independent determinants of circulating palmitoleate in free-living humans and whether palmitoleate is related to lower metabolic risk and the incidence of diabetes.

DESIGN: In a prospective cohort of 3630 US men and women in the Cardiovascular Health Study, plasma phospholipid fatty acids, anthropometric variables, blood lipids, inflammatory markers, and glucose and insulin concentrations were measured between 1992 and 2006 by using standardized methods. Independent determinants of plasma phospholipid palmitoleate and relations of palmitoleate with metabolic risk factors were investigated by using multivariable-adjusted linear regression. Relations with incident diabetes (296 incident cases) were investigated by using Cox proportional hazards.

RESULTS: The mean ({\textpm} SD) palmitoleate value was 0.49 {\textpm} 0.20\% (range: 0.11-2.55\%) of total fatty acids. Greater body mass index, carbohydrate intake, protein intake, and alcohol use were each independent lifestyle correlates of higher palmitoleate concentrations. In multivariable analyses that adjusted for these factors and other potential confounders, higher palmitoleate concentrations were independently associated with lower LDL cholesterol (P < 0.001), higher HDL cholesterol (P < 0.001), lower total:HDL-cholesterol ratio (P = 0.04), and lower fibrinogen (P < 0.001). However, palmitoleate was also associated with higher triglycerides (P < 0.001) and (in men only) with greater insulin resistance (P < 0.001). Palmitoleate was not significantly associated with incident diabetes.

CONCLUSIONS: Adiposity (energy imbalance), carbohydrate consumption, and alcohol use-even within typical ranges-are associated with higher circulating palmitoleate concentrations. Circulating palmitoleate is robustly associated with multiple metabolic risk factors but in mixed directions, perhaps related to divergent lifestyle determinants or endogenous sources (liver, adipose tissue) of fatty acid synthesis.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alcohol Drinking, Body Mass Index, Cholesterol, Cholesterol, HDL, Diabetes Mellitus, Diet, Dietary Carbohydrates, Fatty Acids, Monounsaturated, Female, Fibrinogen, Humans, Insulin Resistance, Life Style, Lipids, Male, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Triglycerides}, issn = {1938-3207}, doi = {10.3945/ajcn.110.003970}, author = {Mozaffarian, Dariush and Cao, Haiming and King, Irena B and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Song, Xiaoling and Siscovick, David S and Hotamisligil, G{\"o}khan S} } @article {1204, title = {Common genetic determinants of vitamin D insufficiency: a genome-wide association study.}, journal = {Lancet}, volume = {376}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Jul 17}, pages = {180-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D is crucial for maintenance of musculoskeletal health, and might also have a role in extraskeletal tissues. Determinants of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations include sun exposure and diet, but high heritability suggests that genetic factors could also play a part. We aimed to identify common genetic variants affecting vitamin D concentrations and risk of insufficiency.

METHODS: We undertook a genome-wide association study of 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations in 33 996 individuals of European descent from 15 cohorts. Five epidemiological cohorts were designated as discovery cohorts (n=16 125), five as in-silico replication cohorts (n=9367), and five as de-novo replication cohorts (n=8504). 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay, chemiluminescent assay, ELISA, or mass spectrometry. Vitamin D insufficiency was defined as concentrations lower than 75 nmol/L or 50 nmol/L. We combined results of genome-wide analyses across cohorts using Z-score-weighted meta-analysis. Genotype scores were constructed for confirmed variants.

FINDINGS: Variants at three loci reached genome-wide significance in discovery cohorts for association with 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations, and were confirmed in replication cohorts: 4p12 (overall p=1.9x10(-109) for rs2282679, in GC); 11q12 (p=2.1x10(-27) for rs12785878, near DHCR7); and 11p15 (p=3.3x10(-20) for rs10741657, near CYP2R1). Variants at an additional locus (20q13, CYP24A1) were genome-wide significant in the pooled sample (p=6.0x10(-10) for rs6013897). Participants with a genotype score (combining the three confirmed variants) in the highest quartile were at increased risk of having 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations lower than 75 nmol/L (OR 2.47, 95\% CI 2.20-2.78, p=2.3x10(-48)) or lower than 50 nmol/L (1.92, 1.70-2.16, p=1.0x10(-26)) compared with those in the lowest quartile.

INTERPRETATION: Variants near genes involved in cholesterol synthesis, hydroxylation, and vitamin D transport affect vitamin D status. Genetic variation at these loci identifies individuals who have substantially raised risk of vitamin D insufficiency.

FUNDING: Full funding sources listed at end of paper (see Acknowledgments).

}, keywords = {Canada, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 11, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 4, Cohort Studies, Dietary Supplements, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heterozygote, Homozygote, Humans, Immunoassay, International Cooperation, Linkage Disequilibrium, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Seasons, United States, Vitamin D, Vitamin D Deficiency}, issn = {1474-547X}, doi = {10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60588-0}, author = {Wang, Thomas J and Zhang, Feng and Richards, J Brent and Kestenbaum, Bryan and van Meurs, Joyce B and Berry, Diane and Kiel, Douglas P and Streeten, Elizabeth A and Ohlsson, Claes and Koller, Daniel L and Peltonen, Leena and Cooper, Jason D and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Houston, Denise K and Glazer, Nicole L and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Peacock, Munro and Shi, Julia and Rivadeneira, Fernando and McCarthy, Mark I and Anneli, Pouta and de Boer, Ian H and Mangino, Massimo and Kato, Bernet and Smyth, Deborah J and Booth, Sarah L and Jacques, Paul F and Burke, Greg L and Goodarzi, Mark and Cheung, Ching-Lung and Wolf, Myles and Rice, Kenneth and Goltzman, David and Hidiroglou, Nick and Ladouceur, Martin and Wareham, Nicholas J and Hocking, Lynne J and Hart, Deborah and Arden, Nigel K and Cooper, Cyrus and Malik, Suneil and Fraser, William D and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Zhai, Guangju and Macdonald, Helen M and Forouhi, Nita G and Loos, Ruth J F and Reid, David M and Hakim, Alan and Dennison, Elaine and Liu, Yongmei and Power, Chris and Stevens, Helen E and Jaana, Laitinen and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Soranzo, Nicole and Bojunga, J{\"o}rg and Psaty, Bruce M and Lorentzon, Mattias and Foroud, Tatiana and Harris, Tamara B and Hofman, Albert and Jansson, John-Olov and Cauley, Jane A and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Gibson, Quince and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Karasik, David and Siscovick, David S and Econs, Michael J and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Florez, Jose C and Todd, John A and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and Spector, Timothy D} } @article {1206, title = {Common genetic variants associate with serum phosphorus concentration.}, journal = {J Am Soc Nephrol}, volume = {21}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Jul}, pages = {1223-32}, abstract = {

Phosphorus is an essential mineral that maintains cellular energy and mineralizes the skeleton. Because complex actions of ion transporters and regulatory hormones regulate serum phosphorus concentrations, genetic variation may determine interindividual variation in phosphorus metabolism. Here, we report a comprehensive genome-wide association study of serum phosphorus concentration. We evaluated 16,264 participants of European ancestry from the Cardiovascular Heath Study, Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, Framingham Offspring Study, and the Rotterdam Study. We excluded participants with an estimated GFR <45 ml/min per 1.73 m(2) to focus on phosphorus metabolism under normal conditions. We imputed genotypes to approximately 2.5 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the HapMap and combined study-specific findings using meta-analysis. We tested top polymorphisms from discovery cohorts in a 5444-person replication sample. Polymorphisms in seven loci with minor allele frequencies 0.08 to 0.49 associate with serum phosphorus concentration (P = 3.5 x 10(-16) to 3.6 x 10(-7)). Three loci were near genes encoding the kidney-specific type IIa sodium phosphate co-transporter (SLC34A1), the calcium-sensing receptor (CASR), and fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23), proteins that contribute to phosphorus metabolism. We also identified genes encoding phosphatases, kinases, and phosphodiesterases that have yet-undetermined roles in phosphorus homeostasis. In the replication sample, five of seven top polymorphisms associate with serum phosphorous concentrations (P < 0.05 for each). In conclusion, common genetic variants associate with serum phosphorus in the general population. Further study of the loci identified in this study may help elucidate mechanisms of phosphorus regulation.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Fibroblast Growth Factors, Gene Frequency, Genetic Loci, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Kidney, Male, Middle Aged, Phosphorus, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, Calcium-Sensing, Sex Factors, Sodium-Phosphate Cotransporter Proteins, Type IIa}, issn = {1533-3450}, doi = {10.1681/ASN.2009111104}, author = {Kestenbaum, Bryan and Glazer, Nicole L and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Felix, Janine F and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Liu, Yongmei and Lohman, Kurt and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Hausman, Dorothy B and Petersen, Ann-Kristin and Gieger, Christian and Ried, Janina S and Meitinger, Thomas and Strom, Tim M and Wichmann, H Erich and Campbell, Harry and Hayward, Caroline and Rudan, Igor and de Boer, Ian H and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Kenneth M and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Li, Man and Arking, Dan E and Boerwinkle, Eric and Coresh, Josef and Yang, Qiong and Levy, Daniel and van Rooij, Frank J A and Dehghan, Abbas and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hofman, Albert and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Shlipak, Michael G and Kao, W H Linda and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Siscovick, David S and Fox, Caroline S} } @article {1244, title = {Common variants in 22 loci are associated with QRS duration and cardiac ventricular conduction.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {42}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Dec}, pages = {1068-76}, abstract = {

The QRS interval, from the beginning of the Q wave to the end of the S wave on an electrocardiogram, reflects ventricular depolarization and conduction time and is a risk factor for mortality, sudden death and heart failure. We performed a genome-wide association meta-analysis in 40,407 individuals of European descent from 14 studies, with further genotyping in 7,170 additional Europeans, and we identified 22 loci associated with QRS duration (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). These loci map in or near genes in pathways with established roles in ventricular conduction such as sodium channels, transcription factors and calcium-handling proteins, but also point to previously unidentified biologic processes, such as kinase inhibitors and genes related to tumorigenesis. We demonstrate that SCN10A, a candidate gene at the most significantly associated locus in this study, is expressed in the mouse ventricular conduction system, and treatment with a selective SCN10A blocker prolongs QRS duration. These findings extend our current knowledge of ventricular depolarization and conduction.

}, keywords = {Animals, Animals, Newborn, Chromosomes, Human, Computational Biology, Electrocardiography, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heart Conduction System, Humans, Mice, Mice, Transgenic, Models, Animal, Myocytes, Cardiac, NAV1.8 Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sodium Channels}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.716}, author = {Sotoodehnia, Nona and Isaacs, Aaron and de Bakker, Paul I W and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Nolte, Ilja M and van der Harst, Pim and M{\"u}ller, Martina and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Alonso, Alvaro and Hicks, Andrew A and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Hayward, Caroline and Smith, Albert Vernon and Polasek, Ozren and Giovannone, Steven and Fu, Jingyuan and Magnani, Jared W and Marciante, Kristin D and Pfeufer, Arne and Gharib, Sina A and Teumer, Alexander and Li, Man and Bis, Joshua C and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Aspelund, Thor and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Johnson, Toby and Rice, Kenneth and Sie, Mark P S and Wang, Ying A and Klopp, Norman and Fuchsberger, Christian and Wild, Sarah H and Mateo Leach, Irene and Estrada, Karol and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wright, Alan F and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Qu, Jiaxiang and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Sinner, Moritz F and Kors, Jan A and Petersmann, Astrid and Harris, Tamara B and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Munroe, Patricia B and Psaty, Bruce M and Oostra, Ben A and Cupples, L Adrienne and Perz, Siegfried and de Boer, Rudolf A and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Spector, Timothy D and Liu, Fang-Yu and Boerwinkle, Eric and Dominiczak, Anna F and Rotter, Jerome I and van Herpen, G{\'e} and Levy, Daniel and Wichmann, H-Erich and van Gilst, Wiek H and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Kroemer, Heyo K and Kao, W H Linda and Heckbert, Susan R and Meitinger, Thomas and Hofman, Albert and Campbell, Harry and Folsom, Aaron R and van Veldhuisen, Dirk J and Schwienbacher, Christine and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Volpato, Claudia Beu and Caulfield, Mark J and Connell, John M and Launer, Lenore and Lu, Xiaowen and Franke, Lude and Fehrmann, Rudolf S N and te Meerman, Gerard and Groen, Harry J M and Weersma, Rinse K and van den Berg, Leonard H and Wijmenga, Cisca and Ophoff, Roel A and Navis, Gerjan and Rudan, Igor and Snieder, Harold and Wilson, James F and Pramstaller, Peter P and Siscovick, David S and Wang, Thomas J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Felix, Stephan B and Fishman, Glenn I and Jamshidi, Yalda and Stricker, Bruno H Ch and Samani, Nilesh J and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Arking, Dan E} } @article {1170, title = {Common variants in KCNN3 are associated with lone atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {42}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Mar}, pages = {240-4}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia. Previous studies have identified several genetic loci associated with typical AF. We sought to identify common genetic variants underlying lone AF. This condition affects a subset of individuals without overt heart disease and with an increased heritability of AF. We report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies conducted using 1,335 individuals with lone AF (cases) and 12,844 unaffected individuals (referents). Cases were obtained from the German AF Network, Heart and Vascular Health Study, the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, the Cleveland Clinic and Massachusetts General Hospital. We identified an association on chromosome 1q21 to lone AF (rs13376333, adjusted odds ratio = 1.56; P = 6.3 x 10(-12)), and we replicated this association in two independent cohorts with lone AF (overall combined odds ratio = 1.52, 95\% CI 1.40-1.64; P = 1.83 x 10(-21)). rs13376333 is intronic to KCNN3, which encodes a potassium channel protein involved in atrial repolarization.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Introns, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Small-Conductance Calcium-Activated Potassium Channels, Young Adult}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.537}, author = {Ellinor, Patrick T and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Glazer, Nicole L and Pfeufer, Arne and Alonso, Alvaro and Chung, Mina K and Sinner, Moritz F and de Bakker, Paul I W and Mueller, Martina and Lubitz, Steven A and Fox, Ervin and Darbar, Dawood and Smith, Nicholas L and Smith, Jonathan D and Schnabel, Renate B and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Rice, Kenneth M and Van Wagoner, David R and Beckmann, Britt-M and van Noord, Charlotte and Wang, Ke and Ehret, Georg B and Rotter, Jerome I and Hazen, Stanley L and Steinbeck, Gerhard and Smith, Albert V and Launer, Lenore J and Harris, Tamara B and Makino, Seiko and Nelis, Mari and Milan, David J and Perz, Siegfried and Esko, T{\~o}nu and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Moebus, Susanne and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Li, Man and M{\"o}hlenkamp, Stefan and Wang, Thomas J and Kao, W H Linda and Vasan, Ramachandran S and N{\"o}then, Markus M and MacRae, Calum A and Stricker, Bruno H Ch and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Levy, Daniel and Boerwinkle, Eric and Metspalu, Andres and Topol, Eric J and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Psaty, Bruce M and Roden, Dan M and Meitinger, Thomas and Wichmann, H-Erich and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Barnard, John and Arking, Dan E and Benjamin, Emelia J and Heckbert, Susan R and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan} } @article {1224, title = {Common variants in the calcium-sensing receptor gene are associated with total serum calcium levels.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {19}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Nov 01}, pages = {4296-303}, abstract = {

Serum calcium levels are tightly regulated. We performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in population-based studies participating in the CHARGE Consortium to uncover common genetic variations associated with total serum calcium levels. GWAS of serum calcium concentrations was performed in 20 611 individuals of European ancestry for \~{}2.5 million genotyped and imputed single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The SNP with the lowest P-value was rs17251221 (P = 2.4 * 10(-22), minor allele frequency 14\%) in the calcium-sensing receptor gene (CASR). This lead SNP was associated with higher serum calcium levels [0.06 mg/dl (0.015 mmol/l) per copy of the minor G allele] and accounted for 0.54\% of the variance in serum calcium concentrations. The identification of variation in CASR that influences serum calcium concentration confirms the results of earlier candidate gene studies. The G allele of rs17251221 was also associated with higher serum magnesium levels (P = 1.2 * 10(-3)), lower serum phosphate levels (P = 2.8 * 10(-7)) and lower bone mineral density at the lumbar spine (P = 0.038), but not the femoral neck. No additional genomic loci contained SNPs associated at genome-wide significance (P < 5 * 10(-8)). These associations resemble clinical characteristics of patients with familial hypocalciuric hypercalcemia, an autosomal-dominant disease arising from rare inactivating mutations in the CASR gene. We conclude that common genetic variation in the CASR gene is associated with similar but milder features in the general population.

}, keywords = {Adult, Calcium, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, Calcium-Sensing}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddq342}, author = {O{\textquoteright}Seaghdha, Conall M and Yang, Qiong and Glazer, Nicole L and Leak, Tennille S and Dehghan, Abbas and Smith, Albert V and Kao, W H Linda and Lohman, Kurt and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Johnson, Andrew D and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Brown, Edward M and Siscovick, David S and Harris, Tamara B and Psaty, Bruce M and Coresh, Josef and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Liu, Yong Mei and Kestenbaum, Bryan R and Fox, Caroline S and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna} } @article {1240, title = {Differential white blood cell count and type 2 diabetes: systematic review and meta-analysis of cross-sectional and prospective studies.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {5}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Oct 18}, pages = {e13405}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Biological evidence suggests that inflammation might induce type 2 diabetes (T2D), and epidemiological studies have shown an association between higher white blood cell count (WBC) and T2D. However, the association has not been systematically investigated.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Studies were identified through computer-based and manual searches. Previously unreported studies were sought through correspondence. 20 studies were identified (8,647 T2D cases and 85,040 non-cases). Estimates of the association of WBC with T2D were combined using random effects meta-analysis; sources of heterogeneity as well as presence of publication bias were explored.

RESULTS: The combined relative risk (RR) comparing the top to bottom tertile of the WBC count was 1.61 (95\% CI: 1.45; 1.79, p = 1.5*10(-18)). Substantial heterogeneity was present (I(2) = 83\%). For granulocytes the RR was 1.38 (95\% CI: 1.17; 1.64, p = 1.5*10(-4)), for lymphocytes 1.26 (95\% CI: 1.02; 1.56, p = 0.029), and for monocytes 0.93 (95\% CI: 0.68; 1.28, p = 0.67) comparing top to bottom tertile. In cross-sectional studies, RR was 1.74 (95\% CI: 1.49; 2.02, p = 7.7*10(-13)), while in cohort studies it was 1.48 (95\% CI: 1.22; 1.79, p = 7.7*10(-5)). We assessed the impact of confounding in EPIC-Norfolk study and found that the age and sex adjusted HR of 2.19 (95\% CI: 1.74; 2.75) was attenuated to 1.82 (95\% CI: 1.45; 2.29) after further accounting for smoking, T2D family history, physical activity, education, BMI and waist circumference.

CONCLUSIONS: A raised WBC is associated with higher risk of T2D. The presence of publication bias and failure to control for all potential confounders in all studies means the observed association is likely an overestimate.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Female, Humans, Leukocyte Count, Male, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0013405}, author = {Gkrania-Klotsas, Effrossyni and Ye, Zheng and Cooper, Andrew J and Sharp, Stephen J and Luben, Robert and Biggs, Mary L and Chen, Liang-Kung and Gokulakrishnan, Kuppan and Hanefeld, Markolf and Ingelsson, Erik and Lai, Wen-An and Lin, Shih-Yi and Lind, Lars and Lohsoonthorn, Vitool and Mohan, Viswanathan and Muscari, Antonio and Nilsson, Goran and Ohrvik, John and Chao Qiang, Jiang and Jenny, Nancy Swords and Tamakoshi, Koji and Temelkova-Kurktschiev, Theodora and Wang, Ya-Yu and Yajnik, Chittaranjan Sakerlal and Zoli, Marco and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Forouhi, Nita G and Wareham, Nicholas J and Langenberg, Claudia} } @article {1248, title = {European ancestry as a risk factor for atrial fibrillation in African Americans.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {122}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Nov 16}, pages = {2009-15}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Despite a higher burden of standard atrial fibrillation (AF) risk factors, African Americans have a lower risk of AF than whites. It is unknown whether the higher risk is due to genetic or environmental factors. Because African Americans have varying degrees of European ancestry, we sought to test the hypothesis that European ancestry is an independent risk factor for AF.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied whites (n=4543) and African Americans (n=822) in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and whites (n=10 902) and African Americans (n=3517) in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study (n=3517). Percent European ancestry in African Americans was estimated with 1747 ancestry informative markers from the Illumina custom ITMAT-Broad-CARe array. Among African Americans without baseline AF, 120 of 804 CHS participants and 181 of 3517 ARIC participants developed incident AF. A meta-analysis from the 2 studies revealed that every 10\% increase in European ancestry increased the risk of AF by 13\% (hazard ratio, 1.13; 95\% confidence interval, 1.03 to 1.23; P=0.007). After adjustment for potential confounders, European ancestry remained a predictor of incident AF in each cohort alone, with a combined estimated hazard ratio for each 10\% increase in European ancestry of 1.17 (95\% confidence interval, 1.07 to 1.29; P=0.001). A second analysis using 3192 ancestry informative markers from a genome-wide Affymetrix 6.0 array in ARIC African Americans yielded similar results.

CONCLUSIONS: European ancestry predicted risk of incident AF. Our study suggests that investigating genetic variants contributing to differential AF risk in individuals of African versus European ancestry will be informative.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Factors}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.958306}, author = {Marcus, Gregory M and Alonso, Alvaro and Peralta, Carmen A and Lettre, Guillaume and Vittinghoff, Eric and Lubitz, Steven A and Fox, Ervin R and Levitzky, Yamini S and Mehra, Reena and Kerr, Kathleen F and Deo, Rajat and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Akylbekova, Meggie and Ellinor, Patrick T and Paltoo, Dina N and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Benjamin, Emelia J and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {1243, title = {Four novel Loci (19q13, 6q24, 12q24, and 5q14) influence the microcirculation in vivo.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {6}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Oct 28}, pages = {e1001184}, abstract = {

There is increasing evidence that the microcirculation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. Changes in retinal vascular caliber reflect early microvascular disease and predict incident cardiovascular events. We performed a genome-wide association study to identify genetic variants associated with retinal vascular caliber. We analyzed data from four population-based discovery cohorts with 15,358 unrelated Caucasian individuals, who are members of the Cohort for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium, and replicated findings in four independent Caucasian cohorts (n  =  6,652). All participants had retinal photography and retinal arteriolar and venular caliber measured from computer software. In the discovery cohorts, 179 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) spread across five loci were significantly associated (p<5.0{\texttimes}10(-8)) with retinal venular caliber, but none showed association with arteriolar caliber. Collectively, these five loci explain 1.0\%-3.2\% of the variation in retinal venular caliber. Four out of these five loci were confirmed in independent replication samples. In the combined analyses, the top SNPs at each locus were: rs2287921 (19q13; p  =  1.61{\texttimes}10(-25), within the RASIP1 locus), rs225717 (6q24; p = 1.25{\texttimes}10(-16), adjacent to the VTA1 and NMBR loci), rs10774625 (12q24; p  =  2.15{\texttimes}10(-13), in the region of ATXN2,SH2B3 and PTPN11 loci), and rs17421627 (5q14; p = 7.32{\texttimes}10(-16), adjacent to the MEF2C locus). In two independent samples, locus 12q24 was also associated with coronary heart disease and hypertension. Our population-based genome-wide association study demonstrates four novel loci associated with retinal venular caliber, an endophenotype of the microcirculation associated with clinical cardiovascular disease. These data provide further insights into the contribution and biological mechanisms of microcirculatory changes that underlie cardiovascular disease.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Child, Child, Preschool, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 12, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 19, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 5, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 6, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Microcirculation, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Retinal Vessels, Young Adult}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1001184}, author = {Ikram, M Kamran and Sim, Xueling and Xueling, Sim and Jensen, Richard A and Cotch, Mary Frances and Hewitt, Alex W and Ikram, M Arfan and Wang, Jie Jin and Klein, Ronald and Klein, Barbara E K and Breteler, Monique M B and Cheung, Ning and Liew, Gerald and Mitchell, Paul and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Hofman, Albert and de Jong, Paulus T V M and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Kao, Linda and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Smith, Albert Vernon and Glazer, Nicole L and Lumley, Thomas and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and Jonasson, Fridbert and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Aspelund, Thor and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Taylor, Kent D and Li, Xiaohui and Iyengar, Sudha K and Xi, Quansheng and Sivakumaran, Theru A and Mackey, David A and Macgregor, Stuart and Martin, Nicholas G and Young, Terri L and Bis, Josh C and Wiggins, Kerri L and Heckbert, Susan R and Hammond, Christopher J and Andrew, Toby and Fahy, Samantha and Attia, John and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Scott, Rodney J and Islam, F M Amirul and Rotter, Jerome I and McAuley, Annie K and Boerwinkle, Eric and Tai, E Shyong and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Siscovick, David S and Vingerling, Johannes R and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {1209, title = {Fucosyltransferase 2 (FUT2) non-secretor status is associated with Crohn{\textquoteright}s disease.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {19}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Sep 01}, pages = {3468-76}, abstract = {

Genetic variation in both innate and adaptive immune systems is associated with Crohn{\textquoteright}s disease (CD) susceptibility, but much of the heritability to CD remains unknown. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 896 CD cases and 3204 healthy controls all of Caucasian origin as defined by multidimensional scaling. We found supportive evidence for 21 out of 40 CD loci identified in a recent CD GWAS meta-analysis, including two loci which had only nominally achieved replication (rs4807569, 19p13; rs991804, CCL2/CCL7). In addition, we identified associations with genes involved in tight junctions/epithelial integrity (ASHL, ARPC1A), innate immunity (EXOC2), dendritic cell biology [CADM1 (IGSF4)], macrophage development (MMD2), TGF-beta signaling (MAP3K7IP1) and FUT2 (a physiological trait that regulates gastrointestinal mucosal expression of blood group A and B antigens) (rs602662, P=3.4x10(-5)). Twenty percent of Caucasians are {\textquoteright}non-secretors{\textquoteright} who do not express ABO antigens in saliva as a result of the FUT2 W134X allele. We demonstrated replication in an independent cohort of 1174 CD cases and 357 controls between the four primary FUT2 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and CD (rs602662, combined P-value 4.90x10(-8)) and also association with FUT2 W143X (P=2.6x10(-5)). Further evidence of the relevance of this locus to CD pathogenesis was demonstrated by the association of the original four SNPs and CD in the recently published CD GWAS meta-analysis (rs602662, P=0.001). These findings strongly implicate this locus in CD susceptibility and highlight the role of the mucus layer in the development of CD.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Child, Child, Preschool, Cohort Studies, Crohn Disease, Female, Fucosyltransferases, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Young Adult}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddq248}, author = {McGovern, Dermot P B and Jones, Michelle R and Taylor, Kent D and Marciante, Kristin and Yan, Xiaofei and Dubinsky, Marla and Ippoliti, Andy and Vasiliauskas, Eric and Berel, Dror and Derkowski, Carrie and Dutridge, Deb and Fleshner, Phil and Shih, David Q and Melmed, Gil and Mengesha, Emebet and King, Lily and Pressman, Sheila and Haritunians, Talin and Guo, Xiuqing and Targan, Stephan R and Rotter, Jerome I} } @article {1218, title = {Genetic ancestry in lung-function predictions.}, journal = {N Engl J Med}, volume = {363}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Jul 22}, pages = {321-30}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Self-identified race or ethnic group is used to determine normal reference standards in the prediction of pulmonary function. We conducted a study to determine whether the genetically determined percentage of African ancestry is associated with lung function and whether its use could improve predictions of lung function among persons who identified themselves as African American.

METHODS: We assessed the ancestry of 777 participants self-identified as African American in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study and evaluated the relation between pulmonary function and ancestry by means of linear regression. We performed similar analyses of data for two independent cohorts of subjects identifying themselves as African American: 813 participants in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition (HABC) study and 579 participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). We compared the fit of two types of models to lung-function measurements: models based on the covariates used in standard prediction equations and models incorporating ancestry. We also evaluated the effect of the ancestry-based models on the classification of disease severity in two asthma-study populations.

RESULTS: African ancestry was inversely related to forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV(1)) and forced vital capacity in the CARDIA cohort. These relations were also seen in the HABC and CHS cohorts. In predicting lung function, the ancestry-based model fit the data better than standard models. Ancestry-based models resulted in the reclassification of asthma severity (based on the percentage of the predicted FEV(1)) in 4 to 5\% of participants.

CONCLUSIONS: Current predictive equations, which rely on self-identified race alone, may misestimate lung function among subjects who identify themselves as African American. Incorporating ancestry into normative equations may improve lung-function estimates and more accurately categorize disease severity. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health and others.)

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Forced Expiratory Volume, Genetic Markers, Genotype, Humans, Linear Models, Male, Middle Aged, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Reference Values, Respiratory Function Tests, Vital Capacity, Young Adult}, issn = {1533-4406}, doi = {10.1056/NEJMoa0907897}, author = {Kumar, Rajesh and Seibold, Max A and Aldrich, Melinda C and Williams, L Keoki and Reiner, Alex P and Colangelo, Laura and Galanter, Joshua and Gignoux, Christopher and Hu, Donglei and Sen, Saunak and Choudhry, Shweta and Peterson, Edward L and Rodriguez-Santana, Jose and Rodriguez-Cintron, William and Nalls, Michael A and Leak, Tennille S and O{\textquoteright}Meara, Ellen and Meibohm, Bernd and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Li, Rongling and Harris, Tamara B and Nickerson, Deborah A and Fornage, Myriam and Enright, Paul and Ziv, Elad and Smith, Lewis J and Liu, Kiang and Burchard, Esteban Gonz{\'a}lez} } @article {1229, title = {Genetic predictors of medically refractory ulcerative colitis.}, journal = {Inflamm Bowel Dis}, volume = {16}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Nov}, pages = {1830-40}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Acute severe ulcerative colitis (UC) remains a significant clinical challenge and the ability to predict, at an early stage, those individuals at risk of colectomy for medically refractory UC (MR-UC) would be a major clinical advance. The aim of this study was to use a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in a well-characterized cohort of UC patients to identify genetic variation that contributes to MR-UC.

METHODS: A GWAS comparing 324 MR-UC patients with 537 non-MR-UC patients was analyzed using logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards methods. In addition, the MR-UC patients were compared with 2601 healthy controls.

RESULTS: MR-UC was associated with more extensive disease (P = 2.7 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) and a positive family history of UC (P = 0.004). A risk score based on the combination of 46 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with MR-UC explained 48\% of the variance for colectomy risk in our cohort. Risk scores divided into quarters showed the risk of colectomy to be 0\%, 17\%, 74\%, and 100\% in the four groups. Comparison of the MR-UC subjects with healthy controls confirmed the contribution of the major histocompatibility complex to severe UC (peak association: rs17207986, P = 1.4 {\texttimes} 10(-16)) and provided genome-wide suggestive association at the TNFSF15 (TL1A) locus (peak association: rs11554257, P = 1.4 {\texttimes} 10(-6)).

CONCLUSIONS: A SNP-based risk scoring system, identified here by GWAS analyses, may provide a useful adjunct to clinical parameters for predicting the natural history of UC. Furthermore, discovery of genetic processes underlying disease severity may help to identify pathways for novel therapeutic intervention in severe UC.

}, keywords = {Acute Disease, Adolescent, Adult, Cohort Studies, Colectomy, Colitis, Ulcerative, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Major Histocompatibility Complex, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Severity of Illness Index, Tumor Necrosis Factor Ligand Superfamily Member 15, Young Adult}, issn = {1536-4844}, doi = {10.1002/ibd.21293}, author = {Haritunians, Talin and Taylor, Kent D and Targan, Stephan R and Dubinsky, Marla and Ippoliti, Andrew and Kwon, Soonil and Guo, Xiuqing and Melmed, Gil Y and Berel, Dror and Mengesha, Emebet and Psaty, Bruce M and Glazer, Nicole L and Vasiliauskas, Eric A and Rotter, Jerome I and Fleshner, Phillip R and McGovern, Dermot P B} } @article {1199, title = {Genome-wide analysis of genetic loci associated with Alzheimer disease.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {303}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 May 12}, pages = {1832-40}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have recently identified CLU, PICALM, and CR1 as novel genes for late-onset Alzheimer disease (AD).

OBJECTIVES: To identify and strengthen additional loci associated with AD and confirm these in an independent sample and to examine the contribution of recently identified genes to AD risk prediction in a 3-stage analysis of new and previously published GWAS on more than 35,000 persons (8371 AD cases).

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: In stage 1, we identified strong genetic associations (P < 10(-3)) in a sample of 3006 AD cases and 14,642 controls by combining new data from the population-based Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium (1367 AD cases [973 incident]) with previously reported results from the Translational Genomics Research Institute and the Mayo AD GWAS. We identified 2708 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with P < 10(-3). In stage 2, we pooled results for these SNPs with the European AD Initiative (2032 cases and 5328 controls) to identify 38 SNPs (10 loci) with P < 10(-5). In stage 3, we combined data for these 10 loci with data from the Genetic and Environmental Risk in AD consortium (3333 cases and 6995 controls) to identify 4 SNPs with P < 1.7x10(-8). These 4 SNPs were replicated in an independent Spanish sample (1140 AD cases and 1209 controls). Genome-wide association analyses were completed in 2007-2008 and the meta-analyses and replication in 2009.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Presence of Alzheimer disease.

RESULTS: Two loci were identified to have genome-wide significance for the first time: rs744373 near BIN1 (odds ratio [OR],1.13; 95\% confidence interval [CI],1.06-1.21 per copy of the minor allele; P = 1.59x10(-11)) and rs597668 near EXOC3L2/BLOC1S3/MARK4 (OR, 1.18; 95\% CI, 1.07-1.29; P = 6.45x10(-9)). Associations of these 2 loci plus the previously identified loci CLU and PICALM with AD were confirmed in the Spanish sample (P < .05). However, although CLU and PICALM were confirmed to be associated with AD in this independent sample, they did not improve the ability of a model that included age, sex, and APOE to predict incident AD (improvement in area under the receiver operating characteristic curve from 0.847 to 0.849 in the Rotterdam Study and 0.702 to 0.705 in the Cardiovascular Health Study).

CONCLUSIONS: Two genetic loci for AD were found for the first time to reach genome-wide statistical significance. These findings were replicated in an independent population. Two recently reported associations were also confirmed. These loci did not improve AD risk prediction. While not clinically useful, they may implicate biological pathways useful for future research.

}, keywords = {Age of Onset, Aged, Alzheimer Disease, Case-Control Studies, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Odds Ratio, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1538-3598}, doi = {10.1001/jama.2010.574}, author = {Seshadri, Sudha and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Ikram, M Arfan and DeStefano, Anita L and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Boada, Merce and Bis, Joshua C and Smith, Albert V and Carassquillo, Minerva M and Lambert, Jean Charles and Harold, Denise and Schrijvers, Elisabeth M C and Ramirez-Lorca, Reposo and Debette, Stephanie and Longstreth, W T and Janssens, A Cecile J W and Pankratz, V Shane and Dartigues, Jean Fran{\c c}ois and Hollingworth, Paul and Aspelund, Thor and Hernandez, Isabel and Beiser, Alexa and Kuller, Lewis H and Koudstaal, Peter J and Dickson, Dennis W and Tzourio, Christophe and Abraham, Richard and Antunez, Carmen and Du, Yangchun and Rotter, Jerome I and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Harris, Tamara B and Petersen, Ronald C and Berr, Claudine and Owen, Michael J and Lopez-Arrieta, Jesus and Varadarajan, Badri N and Becker, James T and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Nalls, Michael A and Graff-Radford, Neill R and Campion, Dominique and Auerbach, Sanford and Rice, Kenneth and Hofman, Albert and Jonsson, Palmi V and Schmidt, Helena and Lathrop, Mark and Mosley, Thomas H and Au, Rhoda and Psaty, Bruce M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Farrer, Lindsay A and Lumley, Thomas and Ruiz, Agustin and Williams, Julie and Amouyel, Philippe and Younkin, Steve G and Wolf, Philip A and Launer, Lenore J and Lopez, Oscar L and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Breteler, Monique M B} } @article {1217, title = {Genome-wide association analysis identifies multiple loci related to resting heart rate.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {19}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Oct 01}, pages = {3885-94}, abstract = {

Higher resting heart rate is associated with increased cardiovascular disease and mortality risk. Though heritable factors play a substantial role in population variation, little is known about specific genetic determinants. This knowledge can impact clinical care by identifying novel factors that influence pathologic heart rate states, modulate heart rate through cardiac structure and function or by improving our understanding of the physiology of heart rate regulation. To identify common genetic variants associated with heart rate, we performed a meta-analysis of 15 genome-wide association studies (GWAS), including 38,991 subjects of European ancestry, estimating the association between age-, sex- and body mass-adjusted RR interval (inverse heart rate) and approximately 2.5 million markers. Results with P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8) were considered genome-wide significant. We constructed regression models with multiple markers to assess whether results at less stringent thresholds were likely to be truly associated with RR interval. We identified six novel associations with resting heart rate at six loci: 6q22 near GJA1; 14q12 near MYH7; 12p12 near SOX5, c12orf67, BCAT1, LRMP and CASC1; 6q22 near SLC35F1, PLN and c6orf204; 7q22 near SLC12A9 and UfSp1; and 11q12 near FADS1. Associations at 6q22 400 kb away from GJA1, at 14q12 MYH6 and at 1q32 near CD34 identified in previously published GWAS were confirmed. In aggregate, these variants explain approximately 0.7\% of RR interval variance. A multivariant regression model including 20 variants with P < 10(-5) increased the explained variance to 1.6\%, suggesting that some loci falling short of genome-wide significance are likely truly associated. Future research is warranted to elucidate underlying mechanisms that may impact clinical care.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Base Pairing, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heart Rate, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Rest}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddq303}, author = {Eijgelsheim, Mark and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Sotoodehnia, Nona and de Bakker, Paul I W and M{\"u}ller, Martina and Morrison, Alanna C and Smith, Albert V and Isaacs, Aaron and Sanna, Serena and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Navarro, Pau and Fuchsberger, Christian and Nolte, Ilja M and de Geus, Eco J C and Estrada, Karol and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Bis, Joshua C and R{\"u}ckert, Ina-Maria and Alonso, Alvaro and Launer, Lenore J and Hottenga, Jouke Jan and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Noseworthy, Peter A and Rice, Kenneth M and Perz, Siegfried and Arking, Dan E and Spector, Tim D and Kors, Jan A and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Tarasov, Kirill V and Homuth, Georg and Wild, Sarah H and Marroni, Fabio and Gieger, Christian and Licht, Carmilla M and Prineas, Ronald J and Hofman, Albert and Rotter, Jerome I and Hicks, Andrew A and Ernst, Florian and Najjar, Samer S and Wright, Alan F and Peters, Annette and Fox, Ervin R and Oostra, Ben A and Kroemer, Heyo K and Couper, David and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Campbell, Harry and Meitinger, Thomas and Uda, Manuela and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Psaty, Bruce M and Wichmann, H-Erich and Harris, Tamara B and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Siscovick, David S and Jamshidi, Yalda and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Folsom, Aaron R and Larson, Martin G and Wilson, James F and Penninx, Brenda W and Snieder, Harold and Pramstaller, Peter P and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Lakatta, Edward G and Felix, Stephan B and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Pfeufer, Arne and Heckbert, Susan R and Stricker, Bruno H Ch and Boerwinkle, Eric and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} } @article {1174, title = {Genome-wide association identifies multiple ulcerative colitis susceptibility loci.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {42}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Apr}, pages = {332-7}, abstract = {

Ulcerative colitis is a chronic, relapsing inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract with a complex genetic and environmental etiology. In an effort to identify genetic variation underlying ulcerative colitis risk, we present two distinct genome-wide association studies of ulcerative colitis and their joint analysis with a previously published scan, comprising, in aggregate, 2,693 individuals with ulcerative colitis and 6,791 control subjects. Fifty-nine SNPs from 14 independent loci attained an association significance of P < 10(-5). Seven of these loci exceeded genome-wide significance (P < 5 x 10(-8)). After testing an independent cohort of 2,009 cases of ulcerative colitis and 1,580 controls, we identified 13 loci that were significantly associated with ulcerative colitis (P < 5 x 10(-8)), including the immunoglobulin receptor gene FCGR2A, 5p15, 2p16 and ORMDL3 (orosomucoid1-like 3). We confirmed association with 14 previously identified ulcerative colitis susceptibility loci, and an analysis of acknowledged Crohn{\textquoteright}s disease loci showed that roughly half of the known Crohn{\textquoteright}s disease associations are shared with ulcerative colitis. These data implicate approximately 30 loci in ulcerative colitis, thereby providing insight into disease pathogenesis.

}, keywords = {Colitis, Ulcerative, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Membrane Proteins, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, IgG}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.549}, author = {McGovern, Dermot P B and Gardet, Agn{\`e}s and T{\"o}rkvist, Leif and Goyette, Philippe and Essers, Jonah and Taylor, Kent D and Neale, Benjamin M and Ong, Rick T H and Lagac{\'e}, Caroline and Li, Chun and Green, Todd and Stevens, Christine R and Beauchamp, Claudine and Fleshner, Phillip R and Carlson, Marie and D{\textquoteright}Amato, Mauro and Halfvarson, Jonas and Hibberd, Martin L and L{\"o}rdal, Mikael and Padyukov, Leonid and Andriulli, Angelo and Colombo, Elisabetta and Latiano, Anna and Palmieri, Orazio and Bernard, Edmond-Jean and Deslandres, Colette and Hommes, Daan W and de Jong, Dirk J and Stokkers, Pieter C and Weersma, Rinse K and Sharma, Yashoda and Silverberg, Mark S and Cho, Judy H and Wu, Jing and Roeder, Kathryn and Brant, Steven R and Schumm, L Phillip and Duerr, Richard H and Dubinsky, Marla C and Glazer, Nicole L and Haritunians, Talin and Ippoliti, Andy and Melmed, Gil Y and Siscovick, David S and Vasiliauskas, Eric A and Targan, Stephan R and Annese, Vito and Wijmenga, Cisca and Pettersson, Sven and Rotter, Jerome I and Xavier, Ramnik J and Daly, Mark J and Rioux, John D and Seielstad, Mark} } @article {1192, title = {Genome-wide association identifies OBFC1 as a locus involved in human leukocyte telomere biology.}, journal = {Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A}, volume = {107}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 May 18}, pages = {9293-8}, abstract = {

Telomeres are engaged in a host of cellular functions, and their length is regulated by multiple genes. Telomere shortening, in the course of somatic cell replication, ultimately leads to replicative senescence. In humans, rare mutations in genes that regulate telomere length have been identified in monogenic diseases such as dyskeratosis congenita and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which are associated with shortened leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and increased risk for aplastic anemia. Shortened LTL is observed in a host of aging-related complex genetic diseases and is associated with diminished survival in the elderly. We report results of a genome-wide association study of LTL in a consortium of four observational studies (n = 3,417 participants with LTL and genome-wide genotyping). SNPs in the regions of the oligonucleotide/oligosaccharide-binding folds containing one gene (OBFC1; rs4387287; P = 3.9 x 10(-9)) and chemokine (C-X-C motif) receptor 4 gene (CXCR4; rs4452212; P = 2.9 x 10(-8)) were associated with LTL at a genome-wide significance level (P < 5 x 10(-8)). We attempted replication of the top SNPs at these loci through de novo genotyping of 1,893 additional individuals and in silico lookup in another observational study (n = 2,876), and we confirmed the association findings for OBFC1 but not CXCR4. In addition, we confirmed the telomerase RNA component (TERC) as a gene associated with LTL (P = 1.1 x 10(-5)). The identification of OBFC1 through genome-wide association as a locus for interindividual variation in LTL in the general population advances the understanding of telomere biology in humans and may provide insights into aging-related disorders linked to altered LTL dynamics.

}, keywords = {Cohort Studies, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Leukocytes, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, CXCR4, Telomere, Telomere-Binding Proteins}, issn = {1091-6490}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.0911494107}, author = {Levy, Daniel and Neuhausen, Susan L and Hunt, Steven C and Kimura, Masayuki and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Chen, Wei and Bis, Joshua C and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Smith, Erin and Johnson, Andrew D and Gardner, Jeffrey P and Srinivasan, Sathanur R and Schork, Nicholas and Rotter, Jerome I and Herbig, Utz and Psaty, Bruce M and Sastrasinh, Malinee and Murray, Sarah S and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Province, Michael A and Glazer, Nicole L and Lu, Xiaobin and Cao, Xiaojian and Kronmal, Richard and Mangino, Massimo and Soranzo, Nicole and Spector, Tim D and Berenson, Gerald S and Aviv, Abraham} } @article {1156, title = {Genome-wide association studies of MRI-defined brain infarcts: meta-analysis from the CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {41}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Feb}, pages = {210-7}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Previous studies examining genetic associations with MRI-defined brain infarct have yielded inconsistent findings. We investigated genetic variation underlying covert MRI infarct in persons without histories of transient ischemic attack or stroke. We performed meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of white participants in 6 studies comprising the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium.

METHODS: Using 2.2 million genotyped and imputed single nucleotide polymorphisms, each study performed cross-sectional genome-wide association analysis of MRI infarct using age- and sex-adjusted logistic regression models. Study-specific findings were combined in an inverse-variance-weighted meta-analysis, including 9401 participants with mean age 69.7 (19.4\% of whom had >or=1 MRI infarct).

RESULTS: The most significant association was found with rs2208454 (minor allele frequency, 20\%), located in intron 3 of MACRO domain containing 2 gene and in the downstream region of fibronectin leucine-rich transmembrane protein 3 gene. Each copy of the minor allele was associated with lower risk of MRI infarcts (odds ratio, 0.76; 95\% confidence interval, 0.68-0.84; P=4.64x10(-7)). Highly suggestive associations (P<1.0x10(-5)) were also found for 22 other single nucleotide polymorphisms in linkage disequilibrium (r(2)>0.64) with rs2208454. The association with rs2208454 did not replicate in independent samples of 1822 white and 644 black participants, although 4 single nucleotide polymorphisms within 200 kb from rs2208454 were associated with MRI infarcts in the black population sample.

CONCLUSIONS: This first community-based, genome-wide association study on covert MRI infarcts uncovered novel associations. Although replication of the association with top single nucleotide polymorphisms failed, possibly because of insufficient power, results in the black population sample are encouraging, and further efforts at replication are needed.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Brain, Brain Infarction, Cohort Studies, DNA Mutational Analysis, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Markers, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Testing, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prospective Studies}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.109.569194}, author = {Debette, Stephanie and Bis, Joshua C and Fornage, Myriam and Schmidt, Helena and Ikram, M Arfan and Sigurdsson, Sigurdur and Heiss, Gerardo and Struchalin, Maksim and Smith, Albert V and van der Lugt, Aad and DeCarli, Charles and Lumley, Thomas and Knopman, David S and Enzinger, Christian and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Koudstaal, Peter J and DeStefano, Anita L and Psaty, Bruce M and Dufouil, Carole and Catellier, Diane J and Fazekas, Franz and Aspelund, Thor and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Beiser, Alexa and Rotter, Jerome I and Tzourio, Christophe and Shibata, Dean K and Tscherner, Maria and Harris, Tamara B and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Atwood, Larry D and Rice, Kenneth and Gottesman, Rebecca F and van Buchem, Mark A and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Kelly-Hayes, Margaret and Cushman, Mary and Zhu, Yicheng and Boerwinkle, Eric and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hofman, Albert and Romero, Jose R and Lopez, Oscar and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Au, Rhoda and Heckbert, Susan R and Wolf, Philip A and Mosley, Thomas H and Seshadri, Sudha and Breteler, Monique M B and Schmidt, Reinhold and Launer, Lenore J and Longstreth, W T} } @article {1223, title = {Genome-wide association studies of serum magnesium, potassium, and sodium concentrations identify six Loci influencing serum magnesium levels.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {6}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Aug 05}, abstract = {

Magnesium, potassium, and sodium, cations commonly measured in serum, are involved in many physiological processes including energy metabolism, nerve and muscle function, signal transduction, and fluid and blood pressure regulation. To evaluate the contribution of common genetic variation to normal physiologic variation in serum concentrations of these cations, we conducted genome-wide association studies of serum magnesium, potassium, and sodium concentrations using approximately 2.5 million genotyped and imputed common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 15,366 participants of European descent from the international CHARGE Consortium. Study-specific results were combined using fixed-effects inverse-variance weighted meta-analysis. SNPs demonstrating genome-wide significant (p<5 x 10(-8)) or suggestive associations (p<4 x 10(-7)) were evaluated for replication in an additional 8,463 subjects of European descent. The association of common variants at six genomic regions (in or near MUC1, ATP2B1, DCDC5, TRPM6, SHROOM3, and MDS1) with serum magnesium levels was genome-wide significant when meta-analyzed with the replication dataset. All initially significant SNPs from the CHARGE Consortium showed nominal association with clinically defined hypomagnesemia, two showed association with kidney function, two with bone mineral density, and one of these also associated with fasting glucose levels. Common variants in CNNM2, a magnesium transporter studied only in model systems to date, as well as in CNNM3 and CNNM4, were also associated with magnesium concentrations in this study. We observed no associations with serum sodium or potassium levels exceeding p<4 x 10(-7). Follow-up studies of newly implicated genomic loci may provide additional insights into the regulation and homeostasis of human serum magnesium levels.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Magnesium, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Potassium, Sodium}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1001045}, author = {Meyer, Tamra E and Verwoert, Germaine C and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Glazer, Nicole L and Smith, Albert V and van Rooij, Frank J A and Ehret, Georg B and Boerwinkle, Eric and Felix, Janine F and Leak, Tennille S and Harris, Tamara B and Yang, Qiong and Dehghan, Abbas and Aspelund, Thor and Katz, Ronit and Homuth, Georg and Kocher, Thomas and Rettig, Rainer and Ried, Janina S and Gieger, Christian and Prucha, Hanna and Pfeufer, Arne and Meitinger, Thomas and Coresh, Josef and Hofman, Albert and Sarnak, Mark J and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Psaty, Bruce M and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Kao, W H Linda and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Siscovick, David S and Fox, Caroline S and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna} } @article {1182, title = {Genome-wide association study identifies GPC5 as a novel genetic locus protective against sudden cardiac arrest.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {5}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Mar 25}, pages = {e9879}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Existing studies indicate a significant genetic component for sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) provide an unbiased approach for identification of novel genes. We performed a GWAS to identify genetic determinants of SCA.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We used a case-control design within the ongoing Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study (Oregon-SUDS). Cases (n = 424) were SCAs with coronary artery disease (CAD) among residents of Portland, OR (2002-07, population approximately 1,000,000) and controls (n = 226) were residents with CAD, but no history of SCA. All subjects were of White-European ancestry and GWAS was performed using Affymetrix 500K/5.0 and 6.0 arrays. High signal markers were genotyped in SCA cases (n = 521) identified from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC) and the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) (combined n = 19,611). No SNPs reached genome-wide significance (p<5x10(-8)). SNPs at 6 loci were prioritized for follow-up primarily based on significance of p<10(-4) and proximity to a known gene (CSMD2, GPR37L1, LIN9, B4GALNT3, GPC5, and ZNF592). The minor allele of GPC5 (GLYPICAN 5, rs3864180) was associated with a lower risk of SCA in Oregon-SUDS, an effect that was also observed in ARIC/CHS whites (p<0.05) and blacks (p<0.04). In a combined Cox proportional hazards model analysis that adjusted for race, the minor allele exhibited a hazard ratio of 0.85 (95\% CI 0.74 to 0.98; p<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: A novel genetic locus for SCA, GPC5, was identified from Oregon-SUDS and successfully validated in the ARIC and CHS cohorts. Three other members of the Glypican family have been previously implicated in human disease, including cardiac conditions. The mechanism of this specific association requires further study.

}, keywords = {Aged, Alleles, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, Ethnic Groups, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glypicans, Heart Diseases, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Genetic, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Oregon, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0009879}, author = {Arking, Dan E and Reinier, Kyndaron and Post, Wendy and Jui, Jonathan and Hilton, Gina and O{\textquoteright}Connor, Ashley and Prineas, Ronald J and Boerwinkle, Eric and Psaty, Bruce M and Tomaselli, Gordon F and Rea, Thomas and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Siscovick, David S and Burke, Gregory L and Marb{\'a}n, Eduardo and Spooner, Peter M and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Chugh, Sumeet S} } @article {1159, title = {Genome-wide association study of PR interval.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {42}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Feb}, pages = {153-9}, abstract = {

The electrocardiographic PR interval (or PQ interval) reflects atrial and atrioventricular nodal conduction, disturbances of which increase risk of atrial fibrillation. We report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for PR interval from seven population-based European studies in the CHARGE Consortium: AGES, ARIC, CHS, FHS, KORA, Rotterdam Study, and SardiNIA (N = 28,517). We identified nine loci associated with PR interval at P < 5 x 10(-8). At the 3p22.2 locus, we observed two independent associations in voltage-gated sodium channel genes, SCN10A and SCN5A. Six of the loci were near cardiac developmental genes, including CAV1-CAV2, NKX2-5 (CSX1), SOX5, WNT11, MEIS1, and TBX5-TBX3, providing pathophysiologically interesting candidate genes. Five of the loci, SCN5A, SCN10A, NKX2-5, CAV1-CAV2, and SOX5, were also associated with atrial fibrillation (N = 5,741 cases, P < 0.0056). This suggests a role for common variation in ion channel and developmental genes in atrial and atrioventricular conduction as well as in susceptibility to atrial fibrillation.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Cohort Studies, Electrocardiography, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heart Conduction System, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.517}, author = {Pfeufer, Arne and van Noord, Charlotte and Marciante, Kristin D and Arking, Dan E and Larson, Martin G and Smith, Albert Vernon and Tarasov, Kirill V and M{\"u}ller, Martina and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Sinner, Moritz F and Verwoert, Germaine C and Li, Man and Kao, W H Linda and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Coresh, Josef and Bis, Joshua C and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Kenneth and Rotter, Jerome I and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Hofman, Albert and Kors, Jan A and Stricker, Bruno H C and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Beckmann, Britt M and Sauter, Wiebke and Gieger, Christian and Lubitz, Steven A and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Wang, Thomas J and Magnani, Jared W and Schnabel, Renate B and Chung, Mina K and Barnard, John and Smith, Jonathan D and Van Wagoner, David R and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Aspelund, Thor and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Najjar, Samer S and Lakatta, Edward and Schlessinger, David and Uda, Manuela and Abecasis, Goncalo R and M{\"u}ller-Myhsok, Bertram and Ehret, Georg B and Boerwinkle, Eric and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Perz, Siegfried and Wichmann, H-Erich and Meitinger, Thomas and Levy, Daniel and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Ellinor, Patrick T and Sanna, Serena and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Alonso, Alvaro and Benjamin, Emelia J and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {1249, title = {Genome-wide meta-analysis increases to 71 the number of confirmed Crohn{\textquoteright}s disease susceptibility loci.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {42}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Dec}, pages = {1118-25}, abstract = {

We undertook a meta-analysis of six Crohn{\textquoteright}s disease genome-wide association studies (GWAS) comprising 6,333 affected individuals (cases) and 15,056 controls and followed up the top association signals in 15,694 cases, 14,026 controls and 414 parent-offspring trios. We identified 30 new susceptibility loci meeting genome-wide significance (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}$$^{8}$). A series of in silico analyses highlighted particular genes within these loci and, together with manual curation, implicated functionally interesting candidate genes including SMAD3, ERAP2, IL10, IL2RA, TYK2, FUT2, DNMT3A, DENND1B, BACH2 and TAGAP. Combined with previously confirmed loci, these results identify 71 distinct loci with genome-wide significant evidence for association with Crohn{\textquoteright}s disease.

}, keywords = {Computational Biology, Crohn Disease, Genetic Linkage, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Reproducibility of Results}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.717}, author = {Franke, Andre and McGovern, Dermot P B and Barrett, Jeffrey C and Wang, Kai and Radford-Smith, Graham L and Ahmad, Tariq and Lees, Charlie W and Balschun, Tobias and Lee, James and Roberts, Rebecca and Anderson, Carl A and Bis, Joshua C and Bumpstead, Suzanne and Ellinghaus, David and Festen, Eleonora M and Georges, Michel and Green, Todd and Haritunians, Talin and Jostins, Luke and Latiano, Anna and Mathew, Christopher G and Montgomery, Grant W and Prescott, Natalie J and Raychaudhuri, Soumya and Rotter, Jerome I and Schumm, Philip and Sharma, Yashoda and Simms, Lisa A and Taylor, Kent D and Whiteman, David and Wijmenga, Cisca and Baldassano, Robert N and Barclay, Murray and Bayless, Theodore M and Brand, Stephan and B{\"u}ning, Carsten and Cohen, Albert and Colombel, Jean-Frederick and Cottone, Mario and Stronati, Laura and Denson, Ted and De Vos, Martine and D{\textquoteright}Inca, Renata and Dubinsky, Marla and Edwards, Cathryn and Florin, Tim and Franchimont, Denis and Gearry, Richard and Glas, J{\"u}rgen and Van Gossum, Andre and Guthery, Stephen L and Halfvarson, Jonas and Verspaget, Hein W and Hugot, Jean-Pierre and Karban, Amir and Laukens, Debby and Lawrance, Ian and Lemann, Marc and Levine, Arie and Libioulle, Cecile and Louis, Edouard and Mowat, Craig and Newman, William and Pan{\'e}s, Juli{\'a}n and Phillips, Anne and Proctor, Deborah D and Regueiro, Miguel and Russell, Richard and Rutgeerts, Paul and Sanderson, Jeremy and Sans, Miquel and Seibold, Frank and Steinhart, A Hillary and Stokkers, Pieter C F and T{\"o}rkvist, Leif and Kullak-Ublick, Gerd and Wilson, David and Walters, Thomas and Targan, Stephan R and Brant, Steven R and Rioux, John D and D{\textquoteright}Amato, Mauro and Weersma, Rinse K and Kugathasan, Subra and Griffiths, Anne M and Mansfield, John C and Vermeire, Severine and Duerr, Richard H and Silverberg, Mark S and Satsangi, Jack and Schreiber, Stefan and Cho, Judy H and Annese, Vito and Hakonarson, Hakon and Daly, Mark J and Parkes, Miles} } @article {1187, title = {Genomic variation associated with mortality among adults of European and African ancestry with heart failure: the cohorts for heart and aging research in genomic epidemiology consortium.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {3}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Jun}, pages = {248-55}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Prognosis and survival are significant concerns for individuals with heart failure (HF). To better understand the pathophysiology of HF prognosis, the association between 2,366,858 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and all-cause mortality was evaluated among individuals with incident HF from 4 community-based prospective cohorts: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, the Cardiovascular Health Study, the Framingham Heart Study, and the Rotterdam Study.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Participants were 2526 individuals of European ancestry and 466 individuals of African ancestry who experienced an incident HF event during follow-up in the respective cohorts. Within each study, the association between genetic variants and time to mortality among individuals with HF was assessed by Cox proportional hazards models that included adjustment for sex and age at the time of the HF event. Prospective fixed-effect meta-analyses were conducted for the 4 study populations of European ancestry (N=1645 deaths) and for the 2 populations of African ancestry (N=281 deaths). Genome-wide significance was set at P=5.0x10(-7). Meta-analytic findings among individuals of European ancestry revealed 1 genome-wide significant locus on chromosome 3p22 in an intron of CKLF-like MARVEL transmembrane domain containing 7 (CMTM7, P=3.2x10(-7)). Eight additional loci in individuals of European ancestry and 4 loci in individuals of African ancestry were identified by high-signal SNPs (P<1.0x10(-5)) but did not meet genome-wide significance.

CONCLUSIONS: This study identified a novel locus associated with all-cause mortality among individuals of European ancestry with HF. This finding warrants additional investigation, including replication, in other studies of HF.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Chemokines, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Heart Failure, Humans, Introns, Male, MARVEL Domain-Containing Proteins, Membrane Proteins, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.109.895995}, author = {Morrison, Alanna C and Felix, Janine F and Cupples, L Adrienne and Glazer, Nicole L and Loehr, Laura R and Dehghan, Abbas and Demissie, Serkalem and Bis, Joshua C and Rosamond, Wayne D and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Wang, Ying A and Haritunians, Talin and Folsom, Aaron R and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Benjamin, Emelia J and Lumley, Thomas and Couper, David and Stricker, Bruno H and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Rice, Kenneth M and Chang, Patricia P and Hofman, Albert and Levy, Daniel and Rotter, Jerome I and Fox, Ervin R and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wang, Thomas J and Psaty, Bruce M and Willerson, James T and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Smith, Nicholas L} } @article {1201, title = {Health benefits of increased walking for sedentary, generally healthy older adults: using longitudinal data to approximate an intervention trial.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {65}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Sep}, pages = {982-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Older adults are often advised to walk more, but randomized trials have not conclusively established the benefits of walking in this age group. Typical analyses based on observational data may have biased results. Here, we propose a "limited-bias," more interpretable estimate of the health benefits to sedentary healthy older adults of walking more, using longitudinal data from the Cardiovascular Health Study.

METHODS: The number of city blocks walked per week, collected annually, was classified as sedentary (<7 blocks per week), somewhat active, or active (>or=28). Analysis was restricted to persons sedentary and healthy in the first 2 years. In Year 3, some became more active (the treatment groups). Self-rated health at Year 5 (follow-up) was regressed on walking at Year 3, with additional covariates from Year 2, when all were sedentary.

RESULTS: At follow-up, 83.5\% of those active at baseline had excellent, very good, or good self-rated health, as compared with 63.9\% of the sedentary, an apparent benefit of 19.6 percentage points. After covariate adjustment, the limited-bias estimate of the benefit was 11.2 percentage points (95\% confidence interval 3.7-18.6). Ten different outcome measures showed a benefit, ranging from 5 to 11 percentage points. Estimates from other study designs were smaller, less interpretable, and potentially more biased.

CONCLUSIONS: In longitudinal studies where walking and health are ascertained at every wave, limited-bias estimates can provide better estimates of the benefits of walking. A surprisingly small increase in walking was associated with meaningful health benefits.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Female, Health Status, Health Surveys, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Regression Analysis, Sedentary Lifestyle, Walking}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glq070}, author = {Diehr, Paula and Hirsch, Calvin} } @article {1234, title = {Hundreds of variants clustered in genomic loci and biological pathways affect human height.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {467}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Oct 14}, pages = {832-8}, abstract = {

Most common human traits and diseases have a polygenic pattern of inheritance: DNA sequence variants at many genetic loci influence the phenotype. Genome-wide association (GWA) studies have identified more than 600 variants associated with human traits, but these typically explain small fractions of phenotypic variation, raising questions about the use of further studies. Here, using 183,727 individuals, we show that hundreds of genetic variants, in at least 180 loci, influence adult height, a highly heritable and classic polygenic trait. The large number of loci reveals patterns with important implications for genetic studies of common human diseases and traits. First, the 180 loci are not random, but instead are enriched for genes that are connected in biological pathways (P = 0.016) and that underlie skeletal growth defects (P < 0.001). Second, the likely causal gene is often located near the most strongly associated variant: in 13 of 21 loci containing a known skeletal growth gene, that gene was closest to the associated variant. Third, at least 19 loci have multiple independently associated variants, suggesting that allelic heterogeneity is a frequent feature of polygenic traits, that comprehensive explorations of already-discovered loci should discover additional variants and that an appreciable fraction of associated loci may have been identified. Fourth, associated variants are enriched for likely functional effects on genes, being over-represented among variants that alter amino-acid structure of proteins and expression levels of nearby genes. Our data explain approximately 10\% of the phenotypic variation in height, and we estimate that unidentified common variants of similar effect sizes would increase this figure to approximately 16\% of phenotypic variation (approximately 20\% of heritable variation). Although additional approaches are needed to dissect the genetic architecture of polygenic human traits fully, our findings indicate that GWA studies can identify large numbers of loci that implicate biologically relevant genes and pathways.

}, keywords = {Body Height, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 3, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Metabolic Networks and Pathways, Multifactorial Inheritance, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature09410}, author = {Lango Allen, Hana and Estrada, Karol and Lettre, Guillaume and Berndt, Sonja I and Weedon, Michael N and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Willer, Cristen J and Jackson, Anne U and Vedantam, Sailaja and Raychaudhuri, Soumya and Ferreira, Teresa and Wood, Andrew R and Weyant, Robert J and Segr{\`e}, Ayellet V and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Wheeler, Eleanor and Soranzo, Nicole and Park, Ju-Hyun and Yang, Jian and Gudbjartsson, Daniel and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Randall, Joshua C and Qi, Lu and Vernon Smith, Albert and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Pastinen, Tomi and Liang, Liming and Heid, Iris M and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Winkler, Thomas W and Goddard, Michael E and Sin Lo, Ken and Palmer, Cameron and Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Johansson, Asa and Zillikens, M Carola and Feitosa, Mary F and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Johnson, Toby and Ketkar, Shamika and Kraft, Peter and Mangino, Massimo and Prokopenko, Inga and Absher, Devin and Albrecht, Eva and Ernst, Florian and Glazer, Nicole L and Hayward, Caroline and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Jacobs, Kevin B and Knowles, Joshua W and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Monda, Keri L and Polasek, Ozren and Preuss, Michael and Rayner, Nigel W and Robertson, Neil R and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Tyrer, Jonathan P and Voight, Benjamin F and Wiklund, Fredrik and Xu, Jianfeng and Zhao, Jing Hua and Nyholt, Dale R and Pellikka, Niina and Perola, Markus and Perry, John R B and Surakka, Ida and Tammesoo, Mari-Liis and Altmaier, Elizabeth L and Amin, Najaf and Aspelund, Thor and Bhangale, Tushar and Boucher, Gabrielle and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Constance and Coin, Lachlan and Cooper, Matthew N and Dixon, Anna L and Gibson, Quince and Grundberg, Elin and Hao, Ke and Juhani Junttila, M and Kaplan, Lee M and Kettunen, Johannes and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Kwan, Tony and Lawrence, Robert W and Levinson, Douglas F and Lorentzon, Mattias and McKnight, Barbara and Morris, Andrew P and M{\"u}ller, Martina and Suh Ngwa, Julius and Purcell, Shaun and Rafelt, Suzanne and Salem, Rany M and Salvi, Erika and Sanna, Serena and Shi, Jianxin and Sovio, Ulla and Thompson, John R and Turchin, Michael C and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Verlaan, Dominique J and Vitart, Veronique and White, Charles C and Ziegler, Andreas and Almgren, Peter and Balmforth, Anthony J and Campbell, Harry and Citterio, Lorena and De Grandi, Alessandro and Dominiczak, Anna and Duan, Jubao and Elliott, Paul and Elosua, Roberto and Eriksson, Johan G and Freimer, Nelson B and Geus, Eco J C and Glorioso, Nicola and Haiqing, Shen and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Havulinna, Aki S and Hicks, Andrew A and Hui, Jennie and Igl, Wilmar and Illig, Thomas and Jula, Antti and Kajantie, Eero and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Koiranen, Markku and Kolcic, Ivana and Koskinen, Seppo and Kovacs, Peter and Laitinen, Jaana and Liu, Jianjun and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Marusic, Ana and Maschio, Andrea and Meitinger, Thomas and Mulas, Antonella and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Parker, Alex N and Peden, John F and Petersmann, Astrid and Pichler, Irene and Pietil{\"a}inen, Kirsi H and Pouta, Anneli and Ridderstr{\r a}le, Martin and Rotter, Jerome I and Sambrook, Jennifer G and Sanders, Alan R and Schmidt, Carsten Oliver and Sinisalo, Juha and Smit, Jan H and Stringham, Heather M and Bragi Walters, G and Widen, Elisabeth and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Zagato, Laura and Zgaga, Lina and Zitting, Paavo and Alavere, Helene and Farrall, Martin and McArdle, Wendy L and Nelis, Mari and Peters, Marjolein J and Ripatti, Samuli and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Aben, Katja K and Ardlie, Kristin G and Beckmann, Jacques S and Beilby, John P and Bergman, Richard N and Bergmann, Sven and Collins, Francis S and Cusi, Daniele and den Heijer, Martin and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Gejman, Pablo V and Hall, Alistair S and Hamsten, Anders and Huikuri, Heikki V and Iribarren, Carlos and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kathiresan, Sekar and Kiemeney, Lambertus and Kocher, Thomas and Launer, Lenore J and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Melander, Olle and Mosley, Tom H and Musk, Arthur W and Nieminen, Markku S and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Ohlsson, Claes and Oostra, Ben and Palmer, Lyle J and Raitakari, Olli and Ridker, Paul M and Rioux, John D and Rissanen, Aila and Rivolta, Carlo and Schunkert, Heribert and Shuldiner, Alan R and Siscovick, David S and Stumvoll, Michael and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and van Ommen, Gert-Jan and Viikari, Jorma and Heath, Andrew C and Martin, Nicholas G and Montgomery, Grant W and Province, Michael A and Kayser, Manfred and Arnold, Alice M and Atwood, Larry D and Boerwinkle, Eric and Chanock, Stephen J and Deloukas, Panos and Gieger, Christian and Gr{\"o}nberg, Henrik and Hall, Per and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hengstenberg, Christian and Hoffman, Wolfgang and Lathrop, G Mark and Salomaa, Veikko and Schreiber, Stefan and Uda, Manuela and Waterworth, Dawn and Wright, Alan F and Assimes, Themistocles L and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Hofman, Albert and Mohlke, Karen L and Boomsma, Dorret I and Caulfield, Mark J and Cupples, L Adrienne and Erdmann, Jeanette and Fox, Caroline S and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gyllensten, Ulf and Harris, Tamara B and Hayes, Richard B and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Mooser, Vincent and Munroe, Patricia B and Ouwehand, Willem H and Penninx, Brenda W and Pramstaller, Peter P and Quertermous, Thomas and Rudan, Igor and Samani, Nilesh J and Spector, Timothy D and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Watkins, Hugh and Wilson, James F and Groop, Leif C and Haritunians, Talin and Hu, Frank B and Kaplan, Robert C and Metspalu, Andres and North, Kari E and Schlessinger, David and Wareham, Nicholas J and Hunter, David J and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Strachan, David P and Wichmann, H-Erich and Borecki, Ingrid B and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Schadt, Eric E and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Peltonen, Leena and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Visscher, Peter M and Chatterjee, Nilanjan and Loos, Ruth J F and Boehnke, Michael and McCarthy, Mark I and Ingelsson, Erik and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Stefansson, Kari and Frayling, Timothy M and Hirschhorn, Joel N} } @article {1226, title = {Independent susceptibility markers for atrial fibrillation on chromosome 4q25.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {122}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Sep 07}, pages = {976-84}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genetic variants on chromosome 4q25 are associated with atrial fibrillation (AF). We sought to determine whether there is more than 1 susceptibility signal at this locus.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Thirty-four haplotype-tagging single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at the 4q25 locus were genotyped in 790 case and 1177 control subjects from Massachusetts General Hospital and tested for association with AF. We replicated SNPs associated with AF after adjustment for the most significantly associated SNP in 5066 case and 30 661 referent subjects from the German Competence Network for Atrial Fibrillation, Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities Study, Cleveland Clinic Lone AF Study, Cardiovascular Health Study, and Rotterdam Study. All subjects were of European ancestry. A multimarker risk score composed of SNPs that tagged distinct AF susceptibility signals was constructed and tested for association with AF, and all results were subjected to meta-analysis. The previously reported SNP, rs2200733, was most significantly associated with AF (minor allele odds ratio 1.80, 95\% confidence interval 1.50 to 2.15, P=1.2 x 10(-20)) in the discovery sample. Adjustment for rs2200733 genotype revealed 2 additional susceptibility signals marked by rs17570669 and rs3853445. A graded risk of AF was observed with an increasing number of AF risk alleles at SNPs that tagged these 3 susceptibility signals.

CONCLUSIONS: We identified 2 novel AF susceptibility signals on chromosome 4q25. Consideration of multiple susceptibility signals at chromosome 4q25 identifies individuals with an increased risk of AF and may localize regulatory elements at the locus with biological relevance in the pathogenesis of AF.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atrial Fibrillation, Chromosome Mapping, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 4, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Markers, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Haplotypes, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.886440}, author = {Lubitz, Steven A and Sinner, Moritz F and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Makino, Seiko and Pfeufer, Arne and Rahman, Rosanna and Veltman, Caroline E and Barnard, John and Bis, Joshua C and Danik, Stephan P and Sonni, Akshata and Shea, Marisa A and Del Monte, Federica and Perz, Siegfried and M{\"u}ller, Martina and Peters, Annette and Greenberg, Steven M and Furie, Karen L and van Noord, Charlotte and Boerwinkle, Eric and Stricker, Bruno H C and Witteman, Jacqueline and Smith, Jonathan D and Chung, Mina K and Heckbert, Susan R and Benjamin, Emelia J and Rosand, Jonathan and Arking, Dan E and Alonso, Alvaro and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {1158, title = {Interaction between fibrinogen and IL-6 genetic variants and associations with cardiovascular disease risk in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Ann Hum Genet}, volume = {74}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Jan}, pages = {1-10}, abstract = {

The inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a main regulator of fibrinogen synthesis, though its interaction with fibrinogen genes (FGA, FGB, FGG) and subsequent impact on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk is not well-studied. We investigated joint associations of fibrinogen and IL6 tagSNPs with fibrinogen concentrations, carotid intima-media thickness, and myocardial infarction or ischemic stroke in 3900 European-American Cardiovascular Health Study participants. To identify combinations of genetic main effects and interactions associated with outcomes, we used logic regression. We also evaluated whether the relationship between fibrinogen SNPs and fibrinogen level varied by IL-6 level using linear regression models with multiplicative interaction terms. Combinations of fibrinogen and IL6 SNPs were significantly associated with fibrinogen level (p < 0.005), but not with other outcomes. Fibrinogen levels were higher in individuals having FGB1437 (rs1800790) and lacking FGA6534 (rs6050) minor alleles; these SNPs interacted with IL6 rs1800796 to influence fibrinogen level. Marginally significant (p= 0.03) interactions between IL-6 level and FGA and FGG promoter SNPs associated with fibrinogen levels were detected. We identified potential gene-gene interactions influencing fibrinogen levels. Although IL-6 responsive binding sites are present in fibrinogen gene promoter regions, we did not find strong evidence of interaction between fibrinogen SNPs and IL6 SNPs or levels influencing CVD.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carotid Arteries, Female, Fibrinogen, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Humans, Interleukin-6, Male, Models, Biological, Myocardial Infarction, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk, Stroke}, issn = {1469-1809}, doi = {10.1111/j.1469-1809.2009.00551.x}, author = {Carty, Cara L and Heagerty, Patrick and Heckbert, Susan R and Jarvik, Gail P and Lange, Leslie A and Cushman, Mary and Tracy, Russell P and Reiner, Alexander P} } @article {1222, title = {Interactions of dietary whole-grain intake with fasting glucose- and insulin-related genetic loci in individuals of European descent: a meta-analysis of 14 cohort studies.}, journal = {Diabetes Care}, volume = {33}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Dec}, pages = {2684-91}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Whole-grain foods are touted for multiple health benefits, including enhancing insulin sensitivity and reducing type 2 diabetes risk. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with fasting glucose and insulin concentrations in individuals free of diabetes. We tested the hypothesis that whole-grain food intake and genetic variation interact to influence concentrations of fasting glucose and insulin.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Via meta-analysis of data from 14 cohorts comprising \~{} 48,000 participants of European descent, we studied interactions of whole-grain intake with loci previously associated in GWAS with fasting glucose (16 loci) and/or insulin (2 loci) concentrations. For tests of interaction, we considered a P value <0.0028 (0.05 of 18 tests) as statistically significant.

RESULTS: Greater whole-grain food intake was associated with lower fasting glucose and insulin concentrations independent of demographics, other dietary and lifestyle factors, and BMI (β [95\% CI] per 1-serving-greater whole-grain intake: -0.009 mmol/l glucose [-0.013 to -0.005], P < 0.0001 and -0.011 pmol/l [ln] insulin [-0.015 to -0.007], P = 0.0003). No interactions met our multiple testing-adjusted statistical significance threshold. The strongest SNP interaction with whole-grain intake was rs780094 (GCKR) for fasting insulin (P = 0.006), where greater whole-grain intake was associated with a smaller reduction in fasting insulin concentrations in those with the insulin-raising allele.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results support the favorable association of whole-grain intake with fasting glucose and insulin and suggest a potential interaction between variation in GCKR and whole-grain intake in influencing fasting insulin concentrations.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Blood Glucose, Edible Grain, European Continental Ancestry Group, Fasting, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Insulin, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1935-5548}, doi = {10.2337/dc10-1150}, author = {Nettleton, Jennifer A and McKeown, Nicola M and Kanoni, Stavroula and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Hivert, Marie-France and Ngwa, Julius and van Rooij, Frank J A and Sonestedt, Emily and Wojczynski, Mary K and Ye, Zheng and Tanaka, Tosh and Garcia, Melissa and Anderson, Jennifer S and Follis, Jack L and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Mukamal, Kenneth and Papoutsakis, Constantina and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Zillikens, M Carola and Bandinelli, Stefania and Bennett, Amanda J and Borecki, Ingrid B and Feitosa, Mary F and Ferrucci, Luigi and Forouhi, Nita G and Groves, Christopher J and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Harris, Tamara and Hofman, Albert and Houston, Denise K and Hu, Frank B and Johansson, Ingegerd and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore and Liu, Yongmei and Loos, Ruth J and Nalls, Michael and Orho-Melander, Marju and Renstrom, Frida and Rice, Kenneth and Riserus, Ulf and Rolandsson, Olov and Rotter, Jerome I and Saylor, Georgia and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Sjogren, Per and Smith, Albert and Steingr{\'\i}msd{\'o}ttir, Laufey and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wareham, Nicholas J and Prokopenko, Inga and Pankow, James S and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Florez, Jose C and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Dedoussis, George V and Ordovas, Jose M and Ingelsson, Erik and Cupples, L Adrienne and Siscovick, David S and Franks, Paul W and Meigs, James B} } @article {1169, title = {Large-scale genomic studies reveal central role of ABO in sP-selectin and sICAM-1 levels.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {19}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 May 01}, pages = {1863-72}, abstract = {

P-selectin and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) participate in inflammatory processes by promoting adhesion of leukocytes to vascular wall endothelium. Their soluble levels have been associated with adverse cardiovascular events. To identify loci affecting soluble levels of P-selectin (sP-selectin) and ICAM-1 (sICAM-1), we performed a genome-wide association study in a sample of 4115 (sP-selectin) and 9813 (sICAM-1) individuals of European ancestry as a part of The Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genome Epidemiology consortium. The most significant SNP association for sP-selectin was within the SELP gene (rs6136, P = 4.05 x 10(-61)) and for sICAM-1 levels within the ICAM-1 gene (rs3093030, P = 3.53 x 10(-23)). Both sP-selectin and sICAM-1 were associated with ABO gene variants (rs579459, P = 1.86 x 10(-41) and rs649129, P = 1.22 x 10(-15), respectively) and in both cases the observed associations could be accounted for by the A1 allele of the ABO blood group. The absence of an association between ABO blood group and platelet-bound P-selectin levels in an independent subsample (N = 1088) from the ARIC study, suggests that the ABO blood group may influence cleavage of the P-selectin protein from the cell surface or clearance from the circulation, rather than its production and cellular presentation. These results provide new insights into adhesion molecule biology.

}, keywords = {ABO Blood-Group System, Blood Platelets, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, European Continental Ancestry Group, Fluorescence, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1, P-Selectin}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddq061}, author = {Barbalic, Maja and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Dehghan, Abbas and Bis, Joshua C and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Schnabel, Renate B and Nambi, Vijay and Bretler, Monique and Smith, Nicholas L and Peters, Annette and Lu, Chen and Tracy, Russell P and Aleksic, Nena and Heeriga, Jan and Keaney, John F and Rice, Kenneth and Lip, Gregory Y H and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Glazer, Nicole L and Larson, Martin G and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Yamamoto, Jennifer and Durda, Peter and Haritunians, Talin and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Hofman, Albert and Koenig, Wolfgang and Jenny, Nancy S and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Ballantyne, Christie and Benjamin, Emelia J} } @article {583, title = {Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A(2) and risk of coronary disease, stroke, and mortality: collaborative analysis of 32 prospective studies.}, journal = {Lancet}, volume = {375}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 May 01}, pages = {1536-44}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A(2) (Lp-PLA(2)), an inflammatory enzyme expressed in atherosclerotic plaques, is a therapeutic target being assessed in trials of vascular disease prevention. We investigated associations of circulating Lp-PLA(2) mass and activity with risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and mortality under different circumstances.

METHODS: With use of individual records from 79 036 participants in 32 prospective studies (yielding 17 722 incident fatal or non-fatal outcomes during 474 976 person-years at risk), we did a meta-analysis of within-study regressions to calculate risk ratios (RRs) per 1 SD higher value of Lp-PLA(2) or other risk factor. The primary outcome was coronary heart disease.

FINDINGS: Lp-PLA(2) activity and mass were associated with each other (r=0.51, 95\% CI 0.47-0.56) and proatherogenic lipids. We noted roughly log-linear associations of Lp-PLA(2) activity and mass with risk of coronary heart disease and vascular death. RRs, adjusted for conventional risk factors, were: 1.10 (95\% CI 1.05-1.16) with Lp-PLA(2) activity and 1.11 (1.07-1.16) with Lp-PLA(2) mass for coronary heart disease; 1.08 (0.97-1.20) and 1.14 (1.02-1.27) for ischaemic stroke; 1.16 (1.09-1.24) and 1.13 (1.05-1.22) for vascular mortality; and 1.10 (1.04-1.17) and 1.10 (1.03-1.18) for non-vascular mortality, respectively. RRs with Lp-PLA(2) did not differ significantly in people with and without initial stable vascular disease, apart from for vascular death with Lp-PLA(2) mass. Adjusted RRs for coronary heart disease were 1.10 (1.02-1.18) with non-HDL cholesterol and 1.10 (1.00-1.21) with systolic blood pressure.

INTERPRETATION: Lp-PLA(2) activity and mass each show continuous associations with risk of coronary heart disease, similar in magnitude to that with non-HDL cholesterol or systolic blood pressure in this population. Associations of Lp-PLA(2) mass and activity are not exclusive to vascular outcomes, and the vascular associations depend at least partly on lipids.

FUNDING: UK Medical Research Council, GlaxoSmithKline, and British Heart Foundation.

}, keywords = {1-Alkyl-2-acetylglycerophosphocholine Esterase, Blood Pressure, Coronary Disease, Female, Humans, Linear Models, Lipids, Male, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Stroke, Systole}, issn = {1474-547X}, doi = {10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60319-4}, author = {Thompson, Alexander and Gao, Pei and Orfei, Lia and Watson, Sarah and Di Angelantonio, Emanuele and Kaptoge, Stephen and Ballantyne, Christie and Cannon, Christopher P and Criqui, Michael and Cushman, Mary and Hofman, Albert and Packard, Chris and Thompson, Simon G and Collins, Rory and Danesh, John} } @article {1185, title = {Long-term retention of older adults in the Cardiovascular Health Study: implications for studies of the oldest old.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {58}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Apr}, pages = {696-701}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To describe retention according to age and visit type (clinic, home, telephone) and to determine characteristics associated with visit types for a longitudinal epidemiological study in older adults.

DESIGN: Longitudinal cohort study.

SETTING: Four U.S. clinical sites.

PARTICIPANTS: Five thousand eight hundred eighty-eight Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) participants aged 65 to 100 at 1989/90 or 1992/93 enrollment (58.6\% female; 15.7\% black). CHS participants were contacted every 6 months, with annual assessments through 1999 and in 2005/06 for the All Stars Study visit of the CHS cohort (aged 77-102; 66.5\% female; 16.6\% black).

MEASUREMENTS: All annual contacts through 1999 (n=43,772) and for the 2005/06 visit (n=1,942).

RESULTS: CHS had 43,772 total participant contacts from 1989 to 1999: 34,582 clinic visits (79.0\%), 2,238 refusals (5.1\%), 4,401 telephone visits (10.1\%), 1,811 home visits (4.1\%), and 740 other types (1.7\%). In 2005/06, the All Stars participants of the CHS cohort had 36.6\% clinic, 22.3\% home, and 41.1\% telephone visits. Compared with participants aged 65 to 69, odds ratios of not attending a CHS clinic visit were 1.82 (95\% confidence interval (CI)=1.54-2.13), 2.94 (95\% CI=2.45-3.57), 4.55 (95\% CI=3.70-5.56), and 9.09 (95\% CI=7.69-11.11) for those aged 70 to 74, 75 to 79, 80 to 84, and 85 and older, respectively, in sex-adjusted regression. In multivariable regression, participants with a 2005/06 clinic visit were younger, more likely to be male and in good health, and had had better cognitive and physical function 7 years earlier than participants with other visit types. Participants with home, telephone, and missing visits were similar on characteristics measured 7 years earlier.

CONCLUSION: Offering home, telephone, and proxy visits are essential to optimizing follow-up of aging cohorts. Home visits increased in-person retention from 36.5\% to 58.8\% and diversified the cohort with respect to age, health, and physical functioning.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Ambulatory Care Facilities, Analysis of Variance, Cardiovascular Diseases, Chi-Square Distribution, Epidemiologic Studies, Female, Geriatric Assessment, House Calls, Humans, Logistic Models, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Multivariate Analysis, Patient Dropouts, Patient Selection, Research Subjects, Telephone, United States}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/j.1532-5415.2010.02770.x}, author = {Strotmeyer, Elsa S and Arnold, Alice M and Boudreau, Robert M and Ives, Diane G and Cushman, Mary and Robbins, John A and Harris, Tamara B and Newman, Anne B} } @article {1150, title = {Meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies identify multiple loci associated with pulmonary function.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {42}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Jan}, pages = {45-52}, abstract = {

Spirometric measures of lung function are heritable traits that reflect respiratory health and predict morbidity and mortality. We meta-analyzed genome-wide association studies for two clinically important lung-function measures: forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV(1)) and its ratio to forced vital capacity (FEV(1)/FVC), an indicator of airflow obstruction. This meta-analysis included 20,890 participants of European ancestry from four CHARGE Consortium studies: Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities, Cardiovascular Health Study, Framingham Heart Study and Rotterdam Study. We identified eight loci associated with FEV(1)/FVC (HHIP, GPR126, ADAM19, AGER-PPT2, FAM13A, PTCH1, PID1 and HTR4) and one locus associated with FEV(1) (INTS12-GSTCD-NPNT) at or near genome-wide significance (P < 5 x 10(-8)) in the CHARGE Consortium dataset. Our findings may offer insights into pulmonary function and pathogenesis of chronic lung disease.

}, keywords = {Databases, Genetic, Female, Forced Expiratory Volume, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lung, Lung Diseases, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Spirometry, Vital Capacity}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.500}, author = {Hancock, Dana B and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Wilk, Jemma B and Gharib, Sina A and Loehr, Laura R and Marciante, Kristin D and Franceschini, Nora and van Durme, Yannick M T A and Chen, Ting-Hsu and Barr, R Graham and Schabath, Matthew B and Couper, David J and Brusselle, Guy G and Psaty, Bruce M and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Rotter, Jerome I and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hofman, Albert and Punjabi, Naresh M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Morrison, Alanna C and Enright, Paul L and North, Kari E and Heckbert, Susan R and Lumley, Thomas and Stricker, Bruno H C and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and London, Stephanie J} } @article {1236, title = {Meta-analysis identifies 13 new loci associated with waist-hip ratio and reveals sexual dimorphism in the genetic basis of fat distribution.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {42}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Nov}, pages = {949-60}, abstract = {

Waist-hip ratio (WHR) is a measure of body fat distribution and a predictor of metabolic consequences independent of overall adiposity. WHR is heritable, but few genetic variants influencing this trait have been identified. We conducted a meta-analysis of 32 genome-wide association studies for WHR adjusted for body mass index (comprising up to 77,167 participants), following up 16 loci in an additional 29 studies (comprising up to 113,636 subjects). We identified 13 new loci in or near RSPO3, VEGFA, TBX15-WARS2, NFE2L3, GRB14, DNM3-PIGC, ITPR2-SSPN, LY86, HOXC13, ADAMTS9, ZNRF3-KREMEN1, NISCH-STAB1 and CPEB4 (P = 1.9 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}$$^{9}$ to P = 1.8 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}$$^{4}$$^{0}$) and the known signal at LYPLAL1. Seven of these loci exhibited marked sexual dimorphism, all with a stronger effect on WHR in women than men (P for sex difference = 1.9 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}${\textthreesuperior} to P = 1.2 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}${\textonesuperior}{\textthreesuperior}). These findings provide evidence for multiple loci that modulate body fat distribution independent of overall adiposity and reveal strong gene-by-sex interactions.

}, keywords = {Adipose Tissue, Age Factors, Chromosome Mapping, Female, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sex Characteristics, Waist-Hip Ratio}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.685}, author = {Heid, Iris M and Jackson, Anne U and Randall, Joshua C and Winkler, Thomas W and Qi, Lu and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Zillikens, M Carola and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie and White, Charles C and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and Harris, Tamara B and Berndt, Sonja I and Ingelsson, Erik and Willer, Cristen J and Weedon, Michael N and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Vedantam, Sailaja and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Li, Shengxu and Monda, Keri L and Dixon, Anna L and Holmes, Christopher C and Kaplan, Lee M and Liang, Liming and Min, Josine L and Moffatt, Miriam F and Molony, Cliona and Nicholson, George and Schadt, Eric E and Zondervan, Krina T and Feitosa, Mary F and Ferreira, Teresa and Lango Allen, Hana and Weyant, Robert J and Wheeler, Eleanor and Wood, Andrew R and Estrada, Karol and Goddard, Michael E and Lettre, Guillaume and Mangino, Massimo and Nyholt, Dale R and Purcell, Shaun and Smith, Albert Vernon and Visscher, Peter M and Yang, Jian and McCarroll, Steven A and Nemesh, James and Voight, Benjamin F and Absher, Devin and Amin, Najaf and Aspelund, Thor and Coin, Lachlan and Glazer, Nicole L and Hayward, Caroline and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Johansson, Asa and Johnson, Toby and Kaakinen, Marika and Kapur, Karen and Ketkar, Shamika and Knowles, Joshua W and Kraft, Peter and Kraja, Aldi T and Lamina, Claudia and Leitzmann, Michael F and McKnight, Barbara and Morris, Andrew P and Ong, Ken K and Perry, John R B and Peters, Marjolein J and Polasek, Ozren and Prokopenko, Inga and Rayner, Nigel W and Ripatti, Samuli and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Robertson, Neil R and Sanna, Serena and Sovio, Ulla and Surakka, Ida and Teumer, Alexander and van Wingerden, Sophie and Vitart, Veronique and Zhao, Jing Hua and Cavalcanti-Proen{\c c}a, Christine and Chines, Peter S and Fisher, Eva and Kulzer, Jennifer R and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Narisu, Narisu and Sandholt, Camilla and Scott, Laura J and Silander, Kaisa and Stark, Klaus and Tammesoo, Mari-Liis and Teslovich, Tanya M and Timpson, Nicholas John and Watanabe, Richard M and Welch, Ryan and Chasman, Daniel I and Cooper, Matthew N and Jansson, John-Olov and Kettunen, Johannes and Lawrence, Robert W and Pellikka, Niina and Perola, Markus and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Alavere, Helene and Almgren, Peter and Atwood, Larry D and Bennett, Amanda J and Biffar, Reiner and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bornstein, Stefan R and Buchanan, Thomas A and Campbell, Harry and Day, Ian N M and Dei, Mariano and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Elliott, Paul and Erdos, Michael R and Eriksson, Johan G and Freimer, Nelson B and Fu, Mao and Gaget, Stefan and Geus, Eco J C and Gjesing, Anette P and Grallert, Harald and Gr{\"a}ssler, J{\"u}rgen and Groves, Christopher J and Guiducci, Candace and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hassanali, Neelam and Havulinna, Aki S and Herzig, Karl-Heinz and Hicks, Andrew A and Hui, Jennie and Igl, Wilmar and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jula, Antti and Kajantie, Eero and Kinnunen, Leena and Kolcic, Ivana and Koskinen, Seppo and Kovacs, Peter and Kroemer, Heyo K and Krzelj, Vjekoslav and Kuusisto, Johanna and Kvaloy, Kirsti and Laitinen, Jaana and Lantieri, Olivier and Lathrop, G Mark and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Luben, Robert N and Ludwig, Barbara and McArdle, Wendy L and McCarthy, Anne and Morken, Mario A and Nelis, Mari and Neville, Matt J and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Parker, Alex N and Peden, John F and Pichler, Irene and Pietil{\"a}inen, Kirsi H and Platou, Carl G P and Pouta, Anneli and Ridderstr{\r a}le, Martin and Samani, Nilesh J and Saramies, Jouko and Sinisalo, Juha and Smit, Jan H and Strawbridge, Rona J and Stringham, Heather M and Swift, Amy J and Teder-Laving, Maris and Thomson, Brian and Usala, Gianluca and van Meurs, Joyce B J and van Ommen, Gert-Jan and Vatin, Vincent and Volpato, Claudia B and Wallaschofski, Henri and Walters, G Bragi and Widen, Elisabeth and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Witte, Daniel R and Zgaga, Lina and Zitting, Paavo and Beilby, John P and James, Alan L and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Nieminen, Markku S and Ohlsson, Claes and Palmer, Lyle J and Raitakari, Olli and Ridker, Paul M and Stumvoll, Michael and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Viikari, Jorma and Balkau, Beverley and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Bergman, Richard N and Boeing, Heiner and Smith, George Davey and Ebrahim, Shah and Froguel, Philippe and Hansen, Torben and Hengstenberg, Christian and Hveem, Kristian and Isomaa, Bo and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Karpe, Fredrik and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Laakso, Markku and Lawlor, Debbie A and Marre, Michel and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Midthjell, Kristian and Pedersen, Oluf and Salomaa, Veikko and Schwarz, Peter E H and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Valle, Timo T and Wareham, Nicholas J and Arnold, Alice M and Beckmann, Jacques S and Bergmann, Sven and Boerwinkle, Eric and Boomsma, Dorret I and Caulfield, Mark J and Collins, Francis S and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hamsten, Anders and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hofman, Albert and Hu, Frank B and Illig, Thomas and Iribarren, Carlos and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Kao, W H Linda and Kaprio, Jaakko and Launer, Lenore J and Munroe, Patricia B and Oostra, Ben and Penninx, Brenda W and Pramstaller, Peter P and Psaty, Bruce M and Quertermous, Thomas and Rissanen, Aila and Rudan, Igor and Shuldiner, Alan R and Soranzo, Nicole and Spector, Timothy D and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and Uda, Manuela and Uitterlinden, Andre and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Vollenweider, Peter and Wilson, James F and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Wright, Alan F and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Boehnke, Michael and Borecki, Ingrid B and Deloukas, Panos and Frayling, Timothy M and Groop, Leif C and Haritunians, Talin and Hunter, David J and Kaplan, Robert C and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Peltonen, Leena and Schlessinger, David and Strachan, David P and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Assimes, Themistocles L and Wichmann, H-Erich and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Stefansson, Kari and Cupples, L Adrienne and Loos, Ruth J F and Barroso, In{\^e}s and McCarthy, Mark I and Fox, Caroline S and Mohlke, Karen L and Lindgren, Cecilia M} } @article {1179, title = {A meta-analysis of four genome-wide association studies of survival to age 90 years or older: the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {65}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 May}, pages = {478-87}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) may yield insights into longevity.

METHODS: We performed a meta-analysis of GWAS in Caucasians from four prospective cohort studies: the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study, the Cardiovascular Health Study, the Framingham Heart Study, and the Rotterdam Study participating in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium. Longevity was defined as survival to age 90 years or older (n = 1,836); the comparison group comprised cohort members who died between the ages of 55 and 80 years (n = 1,955). In a second discovery stage, additional genotyping was conducted in the Leiden Longevity Study cohort and the Danish 1905 cohort.

RESULTS: There were 273 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associations with p < .0001, but none reached the prespecified significance level of 5 x 10(-8). Of the most significant SNPs, 24 were independent signals, and 16 of these SNPs were successfully genotyped in the second discovery stage, with one association for rs9664222, reaching 6.77 x 10(-7) for the combined meta-analysis of CHARGE and the stage 2 cohorts. The SNP lies in a region near MINPP1 (chromosome 10), a well-conserved gene involved in regulation of cellular proliferation. The minor allele was associated with lower odds of survival past age 90 (odds ratio = 0.82). Associations of interest in a homologue of the longevity assurance gene (LASS3) and PAPPA2 were not strengthened in the second stage.

CONCLUSION: Survival studies of larger size or more extreme or specific phenotypes may support or refine these initial findings.

}, keywords = {Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alleles, Cohort Studies, Confidence Intervals, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Longevity, Male, Middle Aged, Odds Ratio, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glq028}, author = {Newman, Anne B and Walter, Stefan and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Garcia, Melissa E and Slagboom, P Eline and Christensen, Kaare and Arnold, Alice M and Aspelund, Thor and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Benjamin, Emelia J and Christiansen, Lene and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, Ralph B and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Franceschini, Nora and Glazer, Nicole L and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hofman, Albert and Kaplan, Robert and Karasik, David and Kelly-Hayes, Margaret and Kiel, Douglas P and Launer, Lenore J and Marciante, Kristin D and Massaro, Joseph M and Miljkovic, Iva and Nalls, Michael A and Hernandez, Dena and Psaty, Bruce M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rotter, Jerome and Seshadri, Sudha and Smith, Albert V and Taylor, Kent D and Tiemeier, Henning and Uh, Hae-Won and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaupel, James W and Walston, Jeremy and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Harris, Tamara B and Lumley, Thomas and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Murabito, Joanne M} } @article {1235, title = {Multiple genetic loci influence serum urate levels and their relationship with gout and cardiovascular disease risk factors.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {3}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Dec}, pages = {523-30}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Elevated serum urate levels can lead to gout and are associated with cardiovascular risk factors. We performed a genome-wide association study to search for genetic susceptibility loci for serum urate and gout and investigated the causal nature of the associations of serum urate with gout and selected cardiovascular risk factors and coronary heart disease (CHD).

METHODS AND RESULTS: Meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were performed in 5 population-based cohorts of the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genome Epidemiology consortium for serum urate and gout in 28 283 white participants. The effect of the most significant single-nucleotide polymorphism at all genome-wide significant loci on serum urate was added to create a genetic urate score. Findings were replicated in the Women{\textquoteright}s Genome Health Study (n=22 054). Single-nucleotide polymorphisms at 8 genetic loci achieved genome-wide significance with serum urate levels (P=4{\texttimes}10(-8) to 2{\texttimes}10(-242) in SLC22A11, GCKR, R3HDM2-INHBC region, RREB1, PDZK1, SLC2A9, ABCG2, and SLC17A1). Only 2 loci (SLC2A9, ABCG2) showed genome-wide significant association with gout. The genetic urate score was strongly associated with serum urate and gout (odds ratio, 12.4 per 100 μmol/L; P=3{\texttimes}10(-39)) but not with blood pressure, glucose, estimated glomerular filtration rate, chronic kidney disease, or CHD. The lack of association between the genetic score and the latter phenotypes also was observed in the Women{\textquoteright}s Genome Health Study.

CONCLUSIONS: The genetic urate score analysis suggested a causal relationship between serum urate and gout but did not provide evidence for one between serum urate and cardiovascular risk factors and CHD.

}, keywords = {Cardiovascular Diseases, Coronary Disease, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Gout, Humans, Male, Risk Factors, Uric Acid}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.109.934455}, author = {Yang, Qiong and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Dehghan, Abbas and Smith, Albert V and Glazer, Nicole L and Chen, Ming-Huei and Chasman, Daniel I and Aspelund, Thor and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore and Nalls, Michael and Hernandez, Dena and Arking, Dan E and Boerwinkle, Eric and Grove, Megan L and Li, Man and Linda Kao, W H and Chonchol, Michel and Haritunians, Talin and Li, Guo and Lumley, Thomas and Psaty, Bruce M and Shlipak, Michael and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Larson, Martin G and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Upadhyay, Ashish and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Hofman, Albert and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Stricker, Bruno and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Parker, Alex N and Ridker, Paul M and Siscovick, David S and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Fox, Caroline S and Coresh, Josef} } @article {1160, title = {New genetic loci implicated in fasting glucose homeostasis and their impact on type 2 diabetes risk.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {42}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Feb}, pages = {105-16}, abstract = {

Levels of circulating glucose are tightly regulated. To identify new loci influencing glycemic traits, we performed meta-analyses of 21 genome-wide association studies informative for fasting glucose, fasting insulin and indices of beta-cell function (HOMA-B) and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) in up to 46,186 nondiabetic participants. Follow-up of 25 loci in up to 76,558 additional subjects identified 16 loci associated with fasting glucose and HOMA-B and two loci associated with fasting insulin and HOMA-IR. These include nine loci newly associated with fasting glucose (in or near ADCY5, MADD, ADRA2A, CRY2, FADS1, GLIS3, SLC2A2, PROX1 and C2CD4B) and one influencing fasting insulin and HOMA-IR (near IGF1). We also demonstrated association of ADCY5, PROX1, GCK, GCKR and DGKB-TMEM195 with type 2 diabetes. Within these loci, likely biological candidate genes influence signal transduction, cell proliferation, development, glucose-sensing and circadian regulation. Our results demonstrate that genetic studies of glycemic traits can identify type 2 diabetes risk loci, as well as loci containing gene variants that are associated with a modest elevation in glucose levels but are not associated with overt diabetes.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Alleles, Blood Glucose, Child, Databases, Genetic, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, DNA Copy Number Variations, Fasting, Gene Expression Regulation, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Homeostasis, Humans, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Quantitative Trait, Heritable, Reproducibility of Results}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.520}, author = {Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Langenberg, Claudia and Prokopenko, Inga and Saxena, Richa and Soranzo, Nicole and Jackson, Anne U and Wheeler, Eleanor and Glazer, Nicole L and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and Gloyn, Anna L and Lindgren, Cecilia M and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Morris, Andrew P and Randall, Joshua and Johnson, Toby and Elliott, Paul and Rybin, Denis and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Henneman, Peter and Grallert, Harald and Dehghan, Abbas and Hottenga, Jouke Jan and Franklin, Christopher S and Navarro, Pau and Song, Kijoung and Goel, Anuj and Perry, John R B and Egan, Josephine M and Lajunen, Taina and Grarup, Niels and Spars{\o}, Thomas and Doney, Alex and Voight, Benjamin F and Stringham, Heather M and Li, Man and Kanoni, Stavroula and Shrader, Peter and Cavalcanti-Proen{\c c}a, Christine and Kumari, Meena and Qi, Lu and Timpson, Nicholas J and Gieger, Christian and Zabena, Carina and Rocheleau, Ghislain and Ingelsson, Erik and An, Ping and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Elliott, Amanda and McCarroll, Steven A and Payne, Felicity and Roccasecca, Rosa Maria and Pattou, Fran{\c c}ois and Sethupathy, Praveen and Ardlie, Kristin and Ariyurek, Yavuz and Balkau, Beverley and Barter, Philip and Beilby, John P and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Benediktsson, Rafn and Bennett, Amanda J and Bergmann, Sven and Bochud, Murielle and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bonnefond, Am{\'e}lie and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Borch-Johnsen, Knut and B{\"o}ttcher, Yvonne and Brunner, Eric and Bumpstead, Suzannah J and Charpentier, Guillaume and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chines, Peter and Clarke, Robert and Coin, Lachlan J M and Cooper, Matthew N and Cornelis, Marilyn and Crawford, Gabe and Crisponi, Laura and Day, Ian N M and de Geus, Eco J C and Delplanque, Jerome and Dina, Christian and Erdos, Michael R and Fedson, Annette C and Fischer-Rosinsky, Antje and Forouhi, Nita G and Fox, Caroline S and Frants, Rune and Franzosi, Maria Grazia and Galan, Pilar and Goodarzi, Mark O and Graessler, J{\"u}rgen and Groves, Christopher J and Grundy, Scott and Gwilliam, Rhian and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hadjadj, Samy and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Hammond, Naomi and Han, Xijing and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hassanali, Neelam and Hayward, Caroline and Heath, Simon C and Hercberg, Serge and Herder, Christian and Hicks, Andrew A and Hillman, David R and Hingorani, Aroon D and Hofman, Albert and Hui, Jennie and Hung, Joe and Isomaa, Bo and Johnson, Paul R V and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Jula, Antti and Kaakinen, Marika and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kesaniemi, Y Antero and Kivimaki, Mika and Knight, Beatrice and Koskinen, Seppo and Kovacs, Peter and Kyvik, Kirsten Ohm and Lathrop, G Mark and Lawlor, Debbie A and Le Bacquer, Olivier and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Li, Yun and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Mahley, Robert and Mangino, Massimo and Manning, Alisa K and Mart{\'\i}nez-Larrad, Mar{\'\i}a Teresa and McAteer, Jarred B and McCulloch, Laura J and McPherson, Ruth and Meisinger, Christa and Melzer, David and Meyre, David and Mitchell, Braxton D and Morken, Mario A and Mukherjee, Sutapa and Naitza, Silvia and Narisu, Narisu and Neville, Matthew J and Oostra, Ben A and Orr{\`u}, Marco and Pakyz, Ruth and Palmer, Colin N A and Paolisso, Giuseppe and Pattaro, Cristian and Pearson, Daniel and Peden, John F and Pedersen, Nancy L and Perola, Markus and Pfeiffer, Andreas F H and Pichler, Irene and Polasek, Ozren and Posthuma, Danielle and Potter, Simon C and Pouta, Anneli and Province, Michael A and Psaty, Bruce M and Rathmann, Wolfgang and Rayner, Nigel W and Rice, Kenneth and Ripatti, Samuli and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Roden, Michael and Rolandsson, Olov and Sandbaek, Annelli and Sandhu, Manjinder and Sanna, Serena and Sayer, Avan Aihie and Scheet, Paul and Scott, Laura J and Seedorf, Udo and Sharp, Stephen J and Shields, Beverley and Sigurethsson, Gunnar and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Silveira, Angela and Simpson, Laila and Singleton, Andrew and Smith, Nicholas L and Sovio, Ulla and Swift, Amy and Syddall, Holly and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and Tanaka, Toshiko and Thorand, Barbara and Tichet, Jean and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Dijk, Ko Willems and van Hoek, Mandy and Varma, Dhiraj and Visvikis-Siest, Sophie and Vitart, Veronique and Vogelzangs, Nicole and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Wagner, Peter J and Walley, Andrew and Walters, G Bragi and Ward, Kim L and Watkins, Hugh and Weedon, Michael N and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Witteman, Jaqueline C M and Yarnell, John W G and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Zelenika, Diana and Zethelius, Bj{\"o}rn and Zhai, Guangju and Zhao, Jing Hua and Zillikens, M Carola and Borecki, Ingrid B and Loos, Ruth J F and Meneton, Pierre and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Nathan, David M and Williams, Gordon H and Hattersley, Andrew T and Silander, Kaisa and Salomaa, Veikko and Smith, George Davey and Bornstein, Stefan R and Schwarz, Peter and Spranger, Joachim and Karpe, Fredrik and Shuldiner, Alan R and Cooper, Cyrus and Dedoussis, George V and Serrano-R{\'\i}os, Manuel and Morris, Andrew D and Lind, Lars and Palmer, Lyle J and Hu, Frank B and Franks, Paul W and Ebrahim, Shah and Marmot, Michael and Kao, W H Linda and Pankow, James S and Sampson, Michael J and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Hansen, Torben and Pedersen, Oluf and Pramstaller, Peter Paul and Wichmann, H Erich and Illig, Thomas and Rudan, Igor and Wright, Alan F and Stumvoll, Michael and Campbell, Harry and Wilson, James F and Bergman, Richard N and Buchanan, Thomas A and Collins, Francis S and Mohlke, Karen L and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Valle, Timo T and Altshuler, David and Rotter, Jerome I and Siscovick, David S and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Boomsma, Dorret I and Deloukas, Panos and Spector, Timothy D and Frayling, Timothy M and Ferrucci, Luigi and Kong, Augustine and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Stefansson, Kari and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Cao, Antonio and Scuteri, Angelo and Schlessinger, David and Uda, Manuela and Ruokonen, Aimo and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Waterworth, Dawn M and Vollenweider, Peter and Peltonen, Leena and Mooser, Vincent and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Wareham, Nicholas J and Sladek, Robert and Froguel, Philippe and Watanabe, Richard M and Meigs, James B and Groop, Leif and Boehnke, Michael and McCarthy, Mark I and Florez, Jose C and Barroso, In{\^e}s} } @article {1183, title = {New loci associated with kidney function and chronic kidney disease.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {42}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 May}, pages = {376-84}, abstract = {

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a significant public health problem, and recent genetic studies have identified common CKD susceptibility variants. The CKDGen consortium performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association data in 67,093 individuals of European ancestry from 20 predominantly population-based studies in order to identify new susceptibility loci for reduced renal function as estimated by serum creatinine (eGFRcrea), serum cystatin c (eGFRcys) and CKD (eGFRcrea < 60 ml/min/1.73 m(2); n = 5,807 individuals with CKD (cases)). Follow-up of the 23 new genome-wide-significant loci (P < 5 x 10(-8)) in 22,982 replication samples identified 13 new loci affecting renal function and CKD (in or near LASS2, GCKR, ALMS1, TFDP2, DAB2, SLC34A1, VEGFA, PRKAG2, PIP5K1B, ATXN2, DACH1, UBE2Q2 and SLC7A9) and 7 loci suspected to affect creatinine production and secretion (CPS1, SLC22A2, TMEM60, WDR37, SLC6A13, WDR72 and BCAS3). These results further our understanding of the biologic mechanisms of kidney function by identifying loci that potentially influence nephrogenesis, podocyte function, angiogenesis, solute transport and metabolic functions of the kidney.

}, keywords = {Cohort Studies, Creatinine, Cystatin C, Diet, Europe, Genetic Markers, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Kidney, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Models, Genetic, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.568}, author = {K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Pattaro, Cristian and B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and Fuchsberger, Christian and Olden, Matthias and Glazer, Nicole L and Parsa, Afshin and Gao, Xiaoyi and Yang, Qiong and Smith, Albert V and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Li, Man and Schmidt, Helena and Tanaka, Toshiko and Isaacs, Aaron and Ketkar, Shamika and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Johnson, Andrew D and Dehghan, Abbas and Teumer, Alexander and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Atkinson, Elizabeth J and Zeller, Tanja and Lohman, Kurt and Cornelis, Marilyn C and Probst-Hensch, Nicole M and Kronenberg, Florian and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Hayward, Caroline and Aspelund, Thor and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Launer, Lenore J and Harris, Tamara B and Rampersaud, Evadnie and Mitchell, Braxton D and Arking, Dan E and Boerwinkle, Eric and Struchalin, Maksim and Cavalieri, Margherita and Singleton, Andrew and Giallauria, Francesco and Metter, Jeffrey and de Boer, Ian H and Haritunians, Talin and Lumley, Thomas and Siscovick, David and Psaty, Bruce M and Zillikens, M Carola and Oostra, Ben A and Feitosa, Mary and Province, Michael and de Andrade, Mariza and Turner, Stephen T and Schillert, Arne and Ziegler, Andreas and Wild, Philipp S and Schnabel, Renate B and Wilde, Sandra and Munzel, Thomas F and Leak, Tennille S and Illig, Thomas and Klopp, Norman and Meisinger, Christa and Wichmann, H-Erich and Koenig, Wolfgang and Zgaga, Lina and Zemunik, Tatijana and Kolcic, Ivana and Minelli, Cosetta and Hu, Frank B and Johansson, Asa and Igl, Wilmar and Zaboli, Ghazal and Wild, Sarah H and Wright, Alan F and Campbell, Harry and Ellinghaus, David and Schreiber, Stefan and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Felix, Janine F and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hofman, Albert and Imboden, Medea and Nitsch, Dorothea and Brandst{\"a}tter, Anita and Kollerits, Barbara and Kedenko, Lyudmyla and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Stumvoll, Michael and Kovacs, Peter and Boban, Mladen and Campbell, Susan and Endlich, Karlhans and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Kroemer, Heyo K and Nauck, Matthias and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Polasek, Ozren and Vitart, Veronique and Badola, Sunita and Parker, Alexander N and Ridker, Paul M and Kardia, Sharon L R and Blankenberg, Stefan and Liu, Yongmei and Curhan, Gary C and Franke, Andre and Rochat, Thierry and Paulweber, Bernhard and Prokopenko, Inga and Wang, Wei and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Shuldiner, Alan R and Coresh, Josef and Schmidt, Reinhold and Ferrucci, Luigi and Shlipak, Michael G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Borecki, Ingrid and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernhard K and Rudan, Igor and Gyllensten, Ulf and Wilson, James F and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Pramstaller, Peter P and Rettig, Rainer and Hastie, Nick and Chasman, Daniel I and Kao, W H and Heid, Iris M and Fox, Caroline S} } @article {1176, title = {Novel associations of multiple genetic loci with plasma levels of factor VII, factor VIII, and von Willebrand factor: The CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genome Epidemiology) Consortium.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {121}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Mar 30}, pages = {1382-92}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Plasma levels of coagulation factors VII (FVII), VIII (FVIII), and von Willebrand factor (vWF) influence risk of hemorrhage and thrombosis. We conducted genome-wide association studies to identify new loci associated with plasma levels.

METHODS AND RESULTS: The setting of the study included 5 community-based studies for discovery comprising 23 608 European-ancestry participants: Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities Study, Cardiovascular Health Study, British 1958 Birth Cohort, Framingham Heart Study, and Rotterdam Study. All subjects had genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) scans and at least 1 phenotype measured: FVII activity/antigen, FVIII activity, and vWF antigen. Each study used its genotype data to impute to HapMap SNPs and independently conducted association analyses of hemostasis measures using an additive genetic model. Study findings were combined by meta-analysis. Replication was conducted in 7604 participants not in the discovery cohort. For FVII, 305 SNPs exceeded the genome-wide significance threshold of 5.0x10(-8) and comprised 5 loci on 5 chromosomes: 2p23 (smallest P value 6.2x10(-24)), 4q25 (3.6x10(-12)), 11q12 (2.0x10(-10)), 13q34 (9.0x10(-259)), and 20q11.2 (5.7x10(-37)). Loci were within or near genes, including 4 new candidate genes and F7 (13q34). For vWF, 400 SNPs exceeded the threshold and marked 8 loci on 6 chromosomes: 6q24 (1.2x10(-22)), 8p21 (1.3x10(-16)), 9q34 (<5.0x10(-324)), 12p13 (1.7x10(-32)), 12q23 (7.3x10(-10)), 12q24.3 (3.8x10(-11)), 14q32 (2.3x10(-10)), and 19p13.2 (1.3x10(-9)). All loci were within genes, including 6 new candidate genes, as well as ABO (9q34) and VWF (12p13). For FVIII, 5 loci were identified and overlapped vWF findings. Nine of the 10 new findings were replicated.

CONCLUSIONS: New genetic associations were discovered outside previously known biological pathways and may point to novel prevention and treatment targets of hemostasis disorders.

}, keywords = {Adult, Factor VII, Factor VIII, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hemostasis, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Thrombosis, von Willebrand Factor}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.869156}, author = {Smith, Nicholas L and Chen, Ming-Huei and Dehghan, Abbas and Strachan, David P and Basu, Saonli and Soranzo, Nicole and Hayward, Caroline and Rudan, Igor and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Bis, Joshua C and de Maat, Moniek P M and Rumley, Ann and Kong, Xiaoxiao and Yang, Qiong and Williams, Frances M K and Vitart, Veronique and Campbell, Harry and M{\"a}larstig, Anders and Wiggins, Kerri L and van Duijn, Cornelia M and McArdle, Wendy L and Pankow, James S and Johnson, Andrew D and Silveira, Angela and McKnight, Barbara and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Aleksic, Nena and Meigs, James B and Peters, Annette and Koenig, Wolfgang and Cushman, Mary and Kathiresan, Sekar and Rotter, Jerome I and Bovill, Edwin G and Hofman, Albert and Boerwinkle, Eric and Tofler, Geoffrey H and Peden, John F and Psaty, Bruce M and Leebeek, Frank and Folsom, Aaron R and Larson, Martin G and Spector, Timothy D and Wright, Alan F and Wilson, James F and Hamsten, Anders and Lumley, Thomas and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Tang, Weihong and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} } @article {1208, title = {Obesity is linked with lower brain volume in 700 AD and MCI patients.}, journal = {Neurobiol Aging}, volume = {31}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Aug}, pages = {1326-39}, abstract = {

Obesity is associated with lower brain volumes in cognitively normal elderly subjects, but no study has yet investigated the effects of obesity on brain structure in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD). To determine if higher body mass index (BMI) is associated with brain volume deficits in cognitively impaired elderly subjects, we analyzed brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of 700 MCI or AD patients from 2 different cohorts: the Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) and the Cardiovascular Health Study-Cognition Study (CHS-CS). Tensor-based morphometry (TBM) was used to create 3-dimensional maps of regional tissue excess or deficits in subjects with MCI (ADNI, n = 399; CHS-CS, n = 77) and AD (ADNI, n = 188; CHS, n = 36). In both AD and MCI groups, higher body mass index was associated with brain volume deficits in frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes; the atrophic pattern was consistent in both ADNI and CHS populations. Cardiovascular risk factors, especially obesity, should be considered as influencing brain structure in those already afflicted by cognitive impairment and dementia.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Atrophy, Body Mass Index, Brain, Cognition Disorders, Cohort Studies, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Obesity, Organ Size, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors}, issn = {1558-1497}, doi = {10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2010.04.006}, author = {Ho, April J and Raji, Cyrus A and Becker, James T and Lopez, Oscar L and Kuller, Lewis H and Hua, Xue and Lee, Suh and Hibar, Derrek and Dinov, Ivo D and Stein, Jason L and Jack, Clifford R and Weiner, Michael W and Toga, Arthur W and Thompson, Paul M} } @article {1219, title = {Physical activity and years of healthy life in older adults: results from the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {J Aging Phys Act}, volume = {18}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Jul}, pages = {313-34}, abstract = {

Little is known about how many years of life and disability-free years seniors can gain through exercise. Using data from the Cardiovascular Health Study, the authors estimated the extra years of life and self-reported healthy life (over 11 years) and years without impairment in activities of daily living (over 6 years) associated with quintiles of physical activity (PA) in older adults from different age groups. They estimated PA from the Minnesota Leisure Time Activities Questionnaire. Multivariable linear regression adjusted for health-related covariates. The relative gains in survival and years of healthy life (YHL) generally were proportionate to the amount of PA, greater among those 75+, and higher in men. Compared with being sedentary, the most active men 75+ had 1.49 more YHL (95\% CI: 0.79, 2.19), and the most active women 75+ had 1.06 more YHL (95\% CI: 0.44, 1.68). Seniors over age 74 experience the largest relative gains in survival and healthy life from physical activity.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Exercise, Female, Health Behavior, Health Status, Humans, Leisure Activities, Life Style, Male, Quality-Adjusted Life Years, Sex Factors}, issn = {1063-8652}, author = {Hirsch, Calvin H and Diehr, Paula and Newman, Anne B and Gerrior, Shirley A and Pratt, Charlotte and Lebowitz, Michael D and Jackson, Sharon A} } @article {1239, title = {Physical activity predicts gray matter volume in late adulthood: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {75}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Oct 19}, pages = {1415-22}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: Physical activity (PA) has been hypothesized to spare gray matter volume in late adulthood, but longitudinal data testing an association has been lacking. Here we tested whether PA would be associated with greater gray matter volume after a 9-year follow-up, a threshold could be identified for the amount of walking necessary to spare gray matter volume, and greater gray matter volume associated with PA would be associated with a reduced risk for cognitive impairment 13 years after the PA evaluation.

METHODS: In 299 adults (mean age 78 years) from the Cardiovascular Health Cognition Study, we examined the association between gray matter volume, PA, and cognitive impairment. Physical activity was quantified as the number of blocks walked over 1 week. High-resolution brain scans were acquired 9 years after the PA assessment on cognitively normal adults. White matter hyperintensities, ventricular grade, and other health variables at baseline were used as covariates. Clinical adjudication for cognitive impairment occurred 13 years after baseline.

RESULTS: Walking amounts ranged from 0 to 300 blocks (mean 56.3; SD 69.7). Greater PA predicted greater volumes of frontal, occipital, entorhinal, and hippocampal regions 9 years later. Walking 72 blocks was necessary to detect increased gray matter volume but walking more than 72 blocks did not spare additional volume. Greater gray matter volume with PA reduced the risk for cognitive impairment 2-fold.

CONCLUSION: Greater amounts of walking are associated with greater gray matter volume, which is in turn associated with a reduced risk of cognitive impairment.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Brain, Brain Mapping, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cognition Disorders, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Mental Status Schedule, Motor Activity, Neuropsychological Tests, Odds Ratio, Predictive Value of Tests, Surveys and Questionnaires}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0b013e3181f88359}, author = {Erickson, K I and Raji, C A and Lopez, O L and Becker, J T and Rosano, C and Newman, A B and Gach, H M and Thompson, P M and Ho, A J and Kuller, L H} } @article {1195, title = {Prevalence of asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis in the general population: an individual participant data meta-analysis.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {41}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Jun}, pages = {1294-7}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: In the discussion on the cost-effectiveness of screening, precise estimates of severe asymptomatic carotid stenosis are vital. Accordingly, we assessed the prevalence of moderate and severe asymptomatic carotid stenosis by age and sex using pooled cohort data.

METHODS: We performed an individual participant data meta-analysis (23 706 participants) of 4 population-based studies (Malm{\"o} Diet and Cancer Study, Troms{\o}, Carotid Atherosclerosis Progression Study, and Cardiovascular Health Study). Outcomes of interest were asymptomatic moderate (> or =50\%) and severe carotid stenosis (> or =70\%).

RESULTS: Prevalence of moderate asymptomatic carotid stenosis ranged from 0.2\% (95\% CI, 0.0\% to 0.4\%) in men aged <50 years to 7.5\% (5.2\% to 10.5\%) in men aged > or =80 years. For women, this prevalence increased from 0\% (0\% to 0.2\%) to 5.0\% (3.1\% to 7.5\%). Prevalence of severe asymptomatic carotid stenosis ranged from 0.1\% (0.0\% to 0.3\%) in men aged <50 years to 3.1\% (1.7\% to 5.3\%) in men aged > or =80. For women, this prevalence increased from 0\% (0.0\% to 0.2\%) to 0.9\% (0.3\% to 2.4\%).

CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of severe asymptomatic carotid stenosis in the general population ranges from 0\% to 3.1\%, which is useful information in the discussion on the cost-effectiveness of screening.

}, keywords = {Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Carotid Stenosis, Female, Humans, Male, Mass Screening, Middle Aged, Prevalence, Severity of Illness Index, Sex Factors}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.110.581058}, author = {de Weerd, Marjolein and Greving, Jacoba P and Hedblad, Bo and Lorenz, Matthias W and Mathiesen, Ellisiv B and O{\textquoteright}Leary, Daniel H and Rosvall, Maria and Sitzer, Matthias and Buskens, Erik and Bots, Michiel L} } @article {1175, title = {Reproductive history, hormone replacement, and incidence of venous thromboembolism: the Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology.}, journal = {Br J Haematol}, volume = {149}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 May}, pages = {606-12}, abstract = {

Numerous studies have established that hormone replacement therapy increases the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), but an association of endogenous oestrogen exposure with the incidence of VTE is not fully established. Using a prospective design combining the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities and the Cardiovascular Health Study cohort, we studied the 12-year risk of VTE in relation to hormone replacement therapy use, age at menopause, parity number, and type of menopause in 8236 post-menopausal women. There were no significant associations of age at menopause, parity number, or type of menopause with incidence of VTE. Women currently using hormone replacement had a 1.6-times higher multivariate-adjusted rate ratio (RR) of VTE compared with those without hormone use in the time-dependent model (RR=1.60, 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.06-2.36; Population attributable fraction=6.7\%, 95\%CI, 1.0-10.3). When we excluded women with 1-year or more duration of hormone therapy at baseline, the association was stronger (RR=2.02, 95\%CI, 1.31-3.12). The multivariate-adjusted RRs of VTE for current users tended to be higher in those with idiopathic VTE (RR=2.40, 95\%CI, 1.40-4.12) than those with secondary VTE (RR=1.08, 95\%CI, 0.63-1.85). Hormone replacement therapy is associated with increased risk of VTE, but reproductive history markers of endogenous oestrogen exposure were not associated with VTE.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Epidemiologic Methods, Estrogen Replacement Therapy, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Parity, Pregnancy, Reproductive History, United States, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1365-2141}, doi = {10.1111/j.1365-2141.2010.08128.x}, author = {Ohira, Tetsuya and Folsom, Aaron R and Cushman, Mary and White, Richard H and Hannan, Peter J and Rosamond, Wayne D and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {1157, title = {Secondhand smoke, vascular disease, and dementia incidence: findings from the cardiovascular health cognition study.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, volume = {171}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Feb 01}, pages = {292-302}, abstract = {

Recent studies have found that smoking is associated with an increased risk of dementia, but the effects of secondhand smoke (SHS) on dementia risk are not known to have previously been studied. The authors used Cox proportional hazards marginal structural models to examine the association between self-reported lifetime household SHS exposure and risk of incident dementia over 6 years among 970 US participants in the Cardiovascular Health Cognition Study (performed from 1991 to 1999) who were never smokers and were free of clinical cardiovascular disease (CVD), dementia, and mild cognitive impairment at baseline. In addition, because prior studies have found that SHS is associated with increased risk of CVD and that CVD is associated with increased risk of dementia, the authors tested for interactions between SHS and measures of clinical and subclinical CVD on dementia risk. Moderate (16-25 years) and high (>25 years) SHS exposure levels were not independently associated with dementia risk; however, subjects with >25 years of SHS exposure and >25\% carotid artery stenosis had a 3-fold increase (hazard ratio = 3.00, 95\% confidence interval: 1.03, 9.72) in dementia risk compared with subjects with no/low (0-15 years) SHS exposure and < or =25\% carotid artery stenosis. High lifetime SHS exposure may increase the risk of dementia in elderly with undiagnosed CVD.

}, keywords = {Aged, Dementia, Female, Humans, Incidence, Male, Risk Factors, Tobacco Smoke Pollution, Vascular Diseases}, issn = {1476-6256}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kwp376}, author = {Barnes, Deborah E and Haight, Thaddeus J and Mehta, Kala M and Carlson, Michelle C and Kuller, Lewis H and Tager, Ira B} } @article {1184, title = {Serum albumin and risk of venous thromboembolism.}, journal = {Thromb Haemost}, volume = {104}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Jul}, pages = {100-4}, abstract = {

The incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) is increased in patients with albuminuria. However, whether a low serum albumin concentration is associated with increased risk of VTE has been a matter of controversy. We determined the association of serum albumin with VTE incidence in two large, prospective, population-based cohorts: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study (n = 15,300) and the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) (n = 5,400). Validated VTE occurrence (n = 462 in ARIC and n = 174 in CHS) was ascertained during follow-up. In both studies, after adjustment for age, sex, race, use of hormone replacement therapy, estimated glomerular filtration rate, history of cancer, and diabetes, serum albumin tended to be associated inversely with VTE. The adjusted hazard ratio per standard deviation lower albumin was 1.18 (95\% confidence interval [CI] = 1.08, 1.31) in ARIC and 1.10 (95\% CI = 0.94, 1.29) in CHS. The hazard ratio for albumin below (vs. above) the fifth percentile was 1.28 (95\% CI = 0.90, 1.84) in ARIC and 1.80 (95\% CI = 1.11, 2.93) in CHS. In conclusion, low serum albumin was a modest marker of increased VTE risk. The observed association likely does not reflect cause and effect, but rather that low serum albumin reflects a hyperinflammatory or hypercoagulable state. Whether this association has clinical relevance warrants further study.

}, keywords = {Aged, Biomarkers, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Factors, Serum Albumin, United States, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {2567-689X}, doi = {10.1160/TH09-12-0856}, author = {Folsom, Aaron R and Lutsey, Pamela L and Heckbert, Susan R and Cushman, Mary} } @article {1257, title = {Trans-palmitoleic acid, metabolic risk factors, and new-onset diabetes in U.S. adults: a cohort study.}, journal = {Ann Intern Med}, volume = {153}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Dec 21}, pages = {790-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Palmitoleic acid (cis-16:1n-7), which is produced by endogenous fat synthesis, has been linked to both beneficial and deleterious metabolic effects, potentially confounded by diverse determinants and tissue sources of endogenous production. Trans-palmitoleate (trans-16:1n-7) represents a distinctly exogenous source of 16:1n-7, unconfounded by endogenous synthesis or its determinants, that may be uniquely informative.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether circulating trans-palmitoleate is independently related to lower metabolic risk and incident type 2 diabetes.

DESIGN: Prospective cohort study from 1992 to 2006.

SETTING: Four U.S. communities.

PATIENTS: 3736 adults in the Cardiovascular Health Study.

MEASUREMENTS: Anthropometric characteristics and levels of plasma phospholipid fatty acids, blood lipids, inflammatory markers, and glucose-insulin measured at baseline in 1992 and dietary habits measured 3 years earlier. Multivariate-adjusted models were used to investigate how demographic, clinical, and lifestyle factors independently related to plasma phospholipid trans-palmitoleate; how trans-palmitoleate related to major metabolic risk factors; and how trans-palmitoleate related to new-onset diabetes (304 incident cases). Findings were validated for metabolic risk factors in an independent cohort of 327 women.

RESULTS: In multivariate analyses, whole-fat dairy consumption was most strongly associated with higher trans-palmitoleate levels. Higher trans-palmitoleate levels were associated with slightly lower adiposity and, independently, with higher high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels (1.9\% across quintiles; P = 0.040), lower triglyceride levels (-19.0\%; P < 0.001), a lower total cholesterol-HDL cholesterol ratio (-4.7\%; P < 0.001), lower C-reactive protein levels (-13.8\%; P = 0.05), and lower insulin resistance (-16.7\%, P < 0.001). Trans-palmitoleate was also associated with a substantially lower incidence of diabetes, with multivariate hazard ratios of 0.41 (95\% CI, 0.27 to 0.64) and 0.38 (CI, 0.24 to 0.62) in quintiles 4 and 5 versus quintile 1 (P for trend < 0.001). Findings were independent of estimated dairy consumption or other fatty acid dairy biomarkers. Protective associations with metabolic risk factors were confirmed in the validation cohort.

LIMITATION: Results could be affected by measurement error or residual confounding.

CONCLUSION: Circulating trans-palmitoleate is associated with lower insulin resistance, presence of atherogenic dyslipidemia, and incident diabetes. Our findings may explain previously observed metabolic benefits of dairy consumption and support the need for detailed further experimental and clinical investigation.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.

}, keywords = {Adiposity, Aged, C-Reactive Protein, Cholesterol, Cholesterol, HDL, Dairy Products, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Fatty Acids, Monounsaturated, Feeding Behavior, Female, Humans, Incidence, Insulin Resistance, Male, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Triglycerides, United States}, issn = {1539-3704}, doi = {10.7326/0003-4819-153-12-201012210-00005}, author = {Mozaffarian, Dariush and Cao, Haiming and King, Irena B and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Song, Xiaoling and Siscovick, David S and Hotamisligil, G{\"o}khan S} } @article {1198, title = {Triglyceride-mediated pathways and coronary disease: collaborative analysis of 101 studies.}, journal = {Lancet}, volume = {375}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 May 08}, pages = {1634-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Whether triglyceride-mediated pathways are causally relevant to coronary heart disease is uncertain. We studied a genetic variant that regulates triglyceride concentration to help judge likelihood of causality.

METHODS: We assessed the -1131T>C (rs662799) promoter polymorphism of the apolipoprotein A5 (APOA5) gene in relation to triglyceride concentration, several other risk factors, and risk of coronary heart disease. We compared disease risk for genetically-raised triglyceride concentration (20,842 patients with coronary heart disease, 35,206 controls) with that recorded for equivalent differences in circulating triglyceride concentration in prospective studies (302 430 participants with no history of cardiovascular disease; 12,785 incident cases of coronary heart disease during 2.79 million person-years at risk). We analysed -1131T>C in 1795 people without a history of cardiovascular disease who had information about lipoprotein concentration and diameter obtained by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

FINDINGS: The minor allele frequency of -1131T>C was 8\% (95\% CI 7-9). -1131T>C was not significantly associated with several non-lipid risk factors or LDL cholesterol, and it was modestly associated with lower HDL cholesterol (mean difference per C allele 3.5\% [95\% CI 2.6-4.6]; 0.053 mmol/L [0.039-0.068]), lower apolipoprotein AI (1.3\% [0.3-2.3]; 0.023 g/L [0.005-0.041]), and higher apolipoprotein B (3.2\% [1.3-5.1]; 0.027 g/L [0.011-0.043]). By contrast, for every C allele inherited, mean triglyceride concentration was 16.0\% (95\% CI 12.9-18.7), or 0.25 mmol/L (0.20-0.29), higher (p=4.4x10(-24)). The odds ratio for coronary heart disease was 1.18 (95\% CI 1.11-1.26; p=2.6x10(-7)) per C allele, which was concordant with the hazard ratio of 1.10 (95\% CI 1.08-1.12) per 16\% higher triglyceride concentration recorded in prospective studies. -1131T>C was significantly associated with higher VLDL particle concentration (mean difference per C allele 12.2 nmol/L [95\% CI 7.7-16.7]; p=9.3x10(-8)) and smaller HDL particle size (0.14 nm [0.08-0.20]; p=7.0x10(-5)), factors that could mediate the effects of triglyceride.

INTERPRETATION: These data are consistent with a causal association between triglyceride-mediated pathways and coronary heart disease.

FUNDING: British Heart Foundation, UK Medical Research Council, Novartis.

}, keywords = {Apolipoprotein A-V, Apolipoproteins, Apolipoproteins A, Coronary Disease, Gene Frequency, Genotype, Humans, Lipids, Lipoproteins, HDL, Lipoproteins, LDL, Lipoproteins, VLDL, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Particle Size, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Promoter Regions, Genetic, Risk Factors, Triglycerides}, issn = {1474-547X}, doi = {10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60545-4}, author = {Sarwar, Nadeem and Sandhu, Manjinder S and Ricketts, Sally L and Butterworth, Adam S and Di Angelantonio, Emanuele and Boekholdt, S Matthijs and Ouwehand, Willem and Watkins, Hugh and Samani, Nilesh J and Saleheen, Danish and Lawlor, Debbie and Reilly, Muredach P and Hingorani, Aroon D and Talmud, Philippa J and Danesh, John} } @article {1247, title = {Validation of an atrial fibrillation risk algorithm in whites and African Americans.}, journal = {Arch Intern Med}, volume = {170}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Nov 22}, pages = {1909-17}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: We sought to validate a recently published risk algorithm for incident atrial fibrillation (AF) in independent cohorts and other racial groups.

METHODS: We evaluated the performance of a Framingham Heart Study (FHS)-derived risk algorithm modified for 5-year incidence of AF in the FHS (n = 4764 participants) and 2 geographically and racially diverse cohorts in the age range 45 to 95 years: AGES (the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study) (n = 4238) and CHS (the Cardiovascular Health Study) (n = 5410, of whom 874 [16.2\%] were African Americans). The risk algorithm included age, sex, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, electrocardiographic PR interval, hypertension treatment, and heart failure.

RESULTS: We found 1359 incident AF events in 100 074 person-years of follow-up. Unadjusted 5-year event rates differed by cohort (AGES, 12.8 cases/1000 person-years; CHS whites, 22.7 cases/1000 person-years; and FHS, 4.5 cases/1000 person-years) and by race (CHS African Americans, 18.4 cases/1000 person-years). The strongest risk factors in all samples were age and heart failure. The relative risks for incident AF associated with risk factors were comparable across cohorts and race groups. After recalibration for baseline incidence and risk factor distribution, the Framingham algorithm, reported in C statistic, performed reasonably well in all samples: AGES, 0.67 (95\% confidence interval [CI], 0.64-0.71); CHS whites, 0.68 (95\% CI, 0.66-0.70); and CHS African Americans, 0.66 (95\% CI, 0.61-0.71). Risk factors combined in the algorithm explained between 47.0\% (AGES) and 63.6\% (FHS) of the population-attributable risk.

CONCLUSIONS: Risk of incident AF in community-dwelling whites and African Americans can be assessed reliably by routinely available and potentially modifiable clinical variables. Seven risk factors accounted for up to 64\% of risk.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Algorithms, Atrial Fibrillation, Blood Pressure, Body Mass Index, Cohort Studies, Electrocardiography, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Heart Failure, Humans, Hypertension, Incidence, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Male, Middle Aged, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Systole, United States}, issn = {1538-3679}, doi = {10.1001/archinternmed.2010.434}, author = {Schnabel, Renate B and Aspelund, Thor and Li, Guo and Sullivan, Lisa M and Suchy-Dicey, Astrid and Harris, Tamara B and Pencina, Michael J and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, Ralph B and Levy, Daniel and Kannel, William B and Wang, Thomas J and Kronmal, Richard A and Wolf, Philip A and Burke, Gregory L and Launer, Lenore J and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Psaty, Bruce M and Benjamin, Emelia J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {1194, title = {Validation of the health ABC heart failure model for incident heart failure risk prediction: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Circ Heart Fail}, volume = {3}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Jul}, pages = {495-502}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The recently developed and internally validated Health ABC HF model uses 9 routinely available clinical variables to determine incident heart failure risk. In this study, we sought to externally validate the Health ABC HF model.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Observed 5-year incidence of heart failure, defined as first hospitalization for new-onset heart failure, was compared with 5-year risk estimates derived from the Health ABC HF model among participants without heart failure at baseline in the Cardiovascular Health Study. During follow-up, 400 of 5335 (7.5\%) participants developed heart failure over 5 years versus 364 (6.8\%) predicted by the Health ABC HF model (predicted-to-observed ratio, 0.90). Observed versus predicted 5-year heart failure probabilities were 3.2\% versus 2.8\%, 9.0\% versus 7.0\%, 15.9\% versus 13.7\%, and 24.6\% versus 30.8\% for the <5\%, 5\% to 10\%, 10\% to 20\%, and >20\% 5-year risk categories, respectively. The Hosmer-Lemeshow chi(2) was 14.72 (degrees of freedom, 10; P=0.14), and the C index was 0.74 (95\% CI, 0.72 to 0.76). Calibration and discrimination demonstrated adequate performance across sex and race overall; however, risk was underestimated in white men, especially in the 5\% to 10\% risk category. Model performance was optimal when participants with normal left ventricular function at baseline were assessed separately. Performance was consistent across age groups. Analyses with death as a competing risk yielded similar results.

CONCLUSIONS: The Health ABC HF model adequately predicted 5-year heart failure risk in a large community-based study, providing support for the external validity of the model. This tool may be used to identify individuals to whom to target heart failure prevention efforts.

}, keywords = {Age Distribution, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cause of Death, Cohort Studies, Confidence Intervals, Disease Progression, Echocardiography, Doppler, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Incidence, Male, Models, Statistical, Predictive Value of Tests, Prognosis, Severity of Illness Index, Sex Distribution, Survival Analysis, United States}, issn = {1941-3297}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.109.904300}, author = {Kalogeropoulos, Andreas and Psaty, Bruce M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Georgiopoulou, Vasiliki and Smith, Andrew L and Smith, Nicholas L and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Wilson, Peter W F and Newman, Anne B and Harris, Tamara B and Butler, Javed} } @article {1336, title = {Association of eGFR-Related Loci Identified by GWAS with Incident CKD and ESRD.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep}, pages = {e1002292}, abstract = {

Family studies suggest a genetic component to the etiology of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end stage renal disease (ESRD). Previously, we identified 16 loci for eGFR in genome-wide association studies, but the associations of these single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for incident CKD or ESRD are unknown. We thus investigated the association of these loci with incident CKD in 26,308 individuals of European ancestry free of CKD at baseline drawn from eight population-based cohorts followed for a median of 7.2 years (including 2,122 incident CKD cases defined as eGFR <60ml/min/1.73m(2) at follow-up) and with ESRD in four case-control studies in subjects of European ancestry (3,775 cases, 4,577 controls). SNPs at 11 of the 16 loci (UMOD, PRKAG2, ANXA9, DAB2, SHROOM3, DACH1, STC1, SLC34A1, ALMS1/NAT8, UBE2Q2, and GCKR) were associated with incident CKD; p-values ranged from p = 4.1e-9 in UMOD to p = 0.03 in GCKR. After adjusting for baseline eGFR, six of these loci remained significantly associated with incident CKD (UMOD, PRKAG2, ANXA9, DAB2, DACH1, and STC1). SNPs in UMOD (OR = 0.92, p = 0.04) and GCKR (OR = 0.93, p = 0.03) were nominally associated with ESRD. In summary, the majority of eGFR-related loci are either associated or show a strong trend towards association with incident CKD, but have modest associations with ESRD in individuals of European descent. Additional work is required to characterize the association of genetic determinants of CKD and ESRD at different stages of disease progression.

}, keywords = {Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Adult, Aged, Chronic Disease, Creatinine, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Genetic Association Studies, Humans, Kidney Diseases, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor, Uromodulin}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002292}, author = {B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and Gorski, Mathias and Li, Man and Hoffmann, Michael M and Huang, Chunmei and Yang, Qiong and Teumer, Alexander and Krane, Vera and O{\textquoteright}Seaghdha, Conall M and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Wichmann, H-Erich and Haak, Thomas and Boes, Eva and Coassin, Stefan and Coresh, Josef and Kollerits, Barbara and Haun, Margot and Paulweber, Bernhard and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Li, Guo and Shlipak, Michael G and Powe, Neil and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Dehghan, Abbas and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andre and Hofman, Albert and Beckmann, Jacques S and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernhard K and Witteman, Jacqueline and Bochud, Murielle and Siscovick, David and Rettig, Rainer and Kronenberg, Florian and Wanner, Christoph and Thadhani, Ravi I and Heid, Iris M and Fox, Caroline S and Kao, W H} } @article {1347, title = {Association of genetic variants and incident coronary heart disease in multiethnic cohorts: the PAGE study.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {4}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Dec}, pages = {661-72}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies identified several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) associated with prevalent coronary heart disease (CHD), but less is known of associations with incident CHD. The association of 13 published CHD SNPs was examined in 5 ancestry groups of 4 large US prospective cohorts.

METHODS AND RESULTS: The analyses included incident coronary events over an average 9.1 to 15.7 follow-up person-years in up to 26 617 white individuals (6626 events), 8018 black individuals (914 events), 1903 Hispanic individuals (113 events), 3669 American Indian individuals (595 events), and 885 Asian/Pacific Islander individuals (66 events). We used Cox proportional hazards models (with additive mode of inheritance) adjusted for age, sex, and ancestry (as needed). Nine loci were statistically associated with incident CHD events in white participants: 9p21 (rs10757278; P=4.7 {\texttimes} 10(-41)), 16q23.1 (rs2549513; P=0.0004), 6p24.1 (rs499818; P=0.0002), 2q36.3 (rs2943634; P=6.7 {\texttimes} 10(-6)), MTHFD1L (rs6922269, P=5.1 {\texttimes} 10(-10)), APOE (rs429358; P=2.7{\texttimes}10(-18)), ZNF627 (rs4804611; P=5.0 {\texttimes} 10(-8)), CXCL12 (rs501120; P=1.4 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) and LPL (rs268; P=2.7 {\texttimes} 10(-17)). The 9p21 region showed significant between-study heterogeneity, with larger effects in individuals age 55 years or younger and in women. Inclusion of coronary revascularization procedures among the incident CHD events introduced heterogeneity. The SNPs were not associated with CHD in black participants, and associations varied in other US minorities.

CONCLUSIONS: Prospective analyses of white participants replicated several reported cross-sectional CHD-SNP associations.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Continental Population Groups, Coronary Disease, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prospective Studies}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.111.960096}, author = {Franceschini, Nora and Carty, Cara and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Reiner, Alex P and Garrett, Tiana and Lin, Yi and V{\"o}ckler, Jens-S and Hindorff, Lucia A and Cole, Shelley A and Boerwinkle, Eric and Lin, Dan-Yu and Bookman, Ebony and Best, Lyle G and Bella, Jonathan N and Eaton, Charles and Greenland, Philip and Jenny, Nancy and North, Kari E and Taverna, Darin and Young, Alicia M and Deelman, Ewa and Kooperberg, Charles and Psaty, Bruce and Heiss, Gerardo} } @article {1273, title = {Association of genetic variation with systolic and diastolic blood pressure among African Americans: the Candidate Gene Association Resource study.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {20}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jun 01}, pages = {2273-84}, abstract = {

The prevalence of hypertension in African Americans (AAs) is higher than in other US groups; yet, few have performed genome-wide association studies (GWASs) in AA. Among people of European descent, GWASs have identified genetic variants at 13 loci that are associated with blood pressure. It is unknown if these variants confer susceptibility in people of African ancestry. Here, we examined genome-wide and candidate gene associations with systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) using the Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) consortium consisting of 8591 AAs. Genotypes included genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data utilizing the Affymetrix 6.0 array with imputation to 2.5 million HapMap SNPs and candidate gene SNP data utilizing a 50K cardiovascular gene-centric array (ITMAT-Broad-CARe [IBC] array). For Affymetrix data, the strongest signal for DBP was rs10474346 (P= 3.6 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) located near GPR98 and ARRDC3. For SBP, the strongest signal was rs2258119 in C21orf91 (P= 4.7 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). The top IBC association for SBP was rs2012318 (P= 6.4 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) near SLC25A42 and for DBP was rs2523586 (P= 1.3 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) near HLA-B. None of the top variants replicated in additional AA (n = 11 882) or European-American (n = 69 899) cohorts. We replicated previously reported European-American blood pressure SNPs in our AA samples (SH2B3, P= 0.009; TBX3-TBX5, P= 0.03; and CSK-ULK3, P= 0.0004). These genetic loci represent the best evidence of genetic influences on SBP and DBP in AAs to date. More broadly, this work supports that notion that blood pressure among AAs is a trait with genetic underpinnings but also with significant complexity.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Blood Pressure, Cohort Studies, Diastole, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Systole}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddr092}, author = {Fox, Ervin R and Young, J Hunter and Li, Yali and Dreisbach, Albert W and Keating, Brendan J and Musani, Solomon K and Liu, Kiang and Morrison, Alanna C and Ganesh, Santhi and Kutlar, Abdullah and Ramachandran, Vasan S and Polak, Josef F and Fabsitz, Richard R and Dries, Daniel L and Farlow, Deborah N and Redline, Susan and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Hirschorn, Joel N and Sun, Yan V and Wyatt, Sharon B and Penman, Alan D and Palmas, Walter and Rotter, Jerome I and Townsend, Raymond R and Doumatey, Ayo P and Tayo, Bamidele O and Mosley, Thomas H and Lyon, Helen N and Kang, Sun J and Rotimi, Charles N and Cooper, Richard S and Franceschini, Nora and Curb, J David and Martin, Lisa W and Eaton, Charles B and Kardia, Sharon L R and Taylor, Herman A and Caulfield, Mark J and Ehret, Georg B and Johnson, Toby and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Levy, Daniel} } @article {1562, title = {Association of genomic loci from a cardiovascular gene SNP array with fibrinogen levels in European Americans and African-Americans from six cohort studies: the Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe).}, journal = {Blood}, volume = {117}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jan 06}, pages = {268-75}, abstract = {

Several common genomic loci, involving various immunity- and metabolism-related genes, have been associated with plasma fibrinogen in European Americans (EAs). The genetic determinants of fibrinogen in African Americans (AAs) are poorly characterized. Using a vascular gene-centric array in 23,634 EA and 6657 AA participants from 6 studies comprising the Candidate Gene Association Resource project, we examined the association of 47,539 common and lower frequency variants with fibrinogen concentration. We identified a rare Pro265Leu variant in FGB (rs6054) associated with lower fibrinogen. Common fibrinogen gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (FGB rs1800787 and FGG rs2066861) significantly associated with fibrinogen in EAs were prevalent in AAs and showed consistent associations. Several fibrinogen locus single nucleotide polymorphism associated with lower fibrinogen were exclusive to AAs; these include a newly reported association with FGA rs10050257. For IL6R, IL1RN, and NLRP3 inflammatory gene loci, associations with fibrinogen were concordant between EAs and AAs, but not at other loci (CPS1, PCCB, and SCL22A5-IRF1). The association of FGG rs2066861 with fibrinogen differed according to assay type used to measure fibrinogen. Further characterization of common and lower-frequency genetic variants that contribute to interpopulation differences in fibrinogen phenotype may help refine our understanding of the contribution of hemostasis and inflammation to atherothrombotic risk.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Fibrinogen, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Haplotypes, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1528-0020}, doi = {10.1182/blood-2010-06-289546}, author = {Wassel, Christina L and Lange, Leslie A and Keating, Brendan J and Taylor, Kira C and Johnson, Andrew D and Palmer, Cameron and Ho, Lindsey A and Smith, Nicholas L and Lange, Ethan M and Li, Yun and Yang, Qiong and Delaney, Joseph A and Tang, Weihong and Tofler, Geoffrey and Redline, Susan and Taylor, Herman A and Wilson, James G and Tracy, Russell P and Jacobs, David R and Folsom, Aaron R and Green, David and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Reiner, Alexander P} } @article {1279, title = {Association of HSP70 and its co-chaperones with Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.}, journal = {J Alzheimers Dis}, volume = {25}, year = {2011}, month = {2011}, pages = {93-102}, abstract = {

The heat shock protein (HSP) 70 family has been implicated in the pathology of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD). In this study, we examined common genetic variations in the 80 genes encoding HSP70 and its co-chaperones. We conducted a study in a series of 462 patients and 5238 unaffected participants derived from the Rotterdam Study, a population-based study including 7983 persons aged 55 years and older. We genotyped a total of 12,053 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) using the HumanHap550K Genotyping BeadChip from Illumina. Replication was performed in two independent cohort studies, the Framingham Heart study (FHS; n = 806) and Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS; n = 2150). When adjusting for multiple testing, we found a small but consistent, though not significant effect of rs12118313 located 32 kb from PFDN2, with an OR of 1.19 (p-value from meta-analysis = 0.003). However this SNP was in the intron of another gene, suggesting it is unlikely this SNP reflects the effect of PFDN2. In a formal pathway analysis we found nominally significant evidence for an association of BAG, DNAJA and prefoldin with AD. These findings corroborate with those of a study of 2032 AD patients and 5328 controls, in which several members of the prefoldin family showed evidence for association to AD. Our study did not reveal evidence for a genetic variant if the HSP70 family with a major effect on AD. However, our findings of the single SNP analysis and pathway analysis suggest that multiple genetic variants in prefoldin are associated with AD.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Cohort Studies, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Variation, HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins, Humans, Middle Aged, Molecular Chaperones, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1875-8908}, doi = {10.3233/JAD-2011-101560}, author = {Broer, Linda and Ikram, Mohammad Arfan and Schuur, Maaike and DeStefano, Anita L and Bis, Joshua C and Liu, Fan and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Beiser, Alexa S and Longstreth, William T and Hofman, Albert and Aulchenko, Yurii and Seshadri, Sudha and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Oostra, Ben A and Breteler, Monique M B and van Duijn, Cornelia M} } @article {1340, title = {Association of polymorphisms in the hepatocyte growth factor gene promoter with keratoconus.}, journal = {Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci}, volume = {52}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Oct 31}, pages = {8514-9}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: Keratoconus is a progressive disorder of the cornea that can lead to severe visual impairment or blindness. Although several genomic regions have been linked to rare familial forms of keratoconus, no genes have yet been definitively identified for common forms of the disease.

METHODS: Two genome-wide association scans were undertaken in parallel. The first used pooled DNA from an Australian cohort, followed by typing of top-ranked single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in individual DNA samples. The second was conducted in individually genotyped patients, and controls from the USA. Tag SNPs around the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) gene were typed in three additional replication cohorts. Serum levels of HGF protein in normal individuals were assessed with ELISA and correlated with genotype.

RESULTS: The only SNP observed to be associated in both the pooled discovery and primary replication cohort was rs1014091, located upstream of the HGF gene. The nearby SNP rs3735520 was found to be associated in the individually typed discovery cohort (P = 6.1 {\texttimes} 10(-7)). Genotyping of tag SNPs around HGF revealed association at rs3735520 and rs17501108/rs1014091 in four of the five cohorts. Meta-analysis of all five datasets together yielded suggestive P values for rs3735520 (P = 9.9 {\texttimes} 10(-7)) and rs17501108 (P = 9.9 {\texttimes} 10(-5)). In addition, SNP rs3735520 was found to be associated with serum HGF level in normal individuals (P = 0.036).

CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, these results implicate genetic variation at the HGF locus with keratoconus susceptibility.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 7, Corneal Topography, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Hepatocyte Growth Factor, Humans, Keratoconus, Middle Aged, Nucleic Acid Hybridization, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Promoter Regions, Genetic, Sequence Tagged Sites}, issn = {1552-5783}, doi = {10.1167/iovs.11-8261}, author = {Burdon, Kathryn P and Macgregor, Stuart and Bykhovskaya, Yelena and Javadiyan, Sharhbanou and Li, Xiaohui and Laurie, Kate J and Muszynska, Dorota and Lindsay, Richard and Lechner, Judith and Haritunians, Talin and Henders, Anjali K and Dash, Durga and Siscovick, David and Anand, Seema and Aldave, Anthony and Coster, Douglas J and Szczotka-Flynn, Loretta and Mills, Richard A and Iyengar, Sudha K and Taylor, Kent D and Phillips, Tony and Montgomery, Grant W and Rotter, Jerome I and Hewitt, Alex W and Sharma, Shiwani and Rabinowitz, Yaron S and Willoughby, Colin and Craig, Jamie E} } @article {1274, title = {A bivariate genome-wide approach to metabolic syndrome: STAMPEED consortium.}, journal = {Diabetes}, volume = {60}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Apr}, pages = {1329-39}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is defined as concomitant disorders of lipid and glucose metabolism, central obesity, and high blood pressure, with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This study tests whether common genetic variants with pleiotropic effects account for some of the correlated architecture among five metabolic phenotypes that define MetS. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Seven studies of the STAMPEED consortium, comprising 22,161 participants of European ancestry, underwent genome-wide association analyses of metabolic traits using a panel of \~{}2.5 million imputed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Phenotypes were defined by the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) criteria for MetS in pairwise combinations. Individuals exceeding the NCEP thresholds for both traits of a pair were considered affected. RESULTS Twenty-nine common variants were associated with MetS or a pair of traits. Variants in the genes LPL, CETP, APOA5 (and its cluster), GCKR (and its cluster), LIPC, TRIB1, LOC100128354/MTNR1B, ABCB11, and LOC100129150 were further tested for their association with individual qualitative and quantitative traits. None of the 16 top SNPs (one per gene) associated simultaneously with more than two individual traits. Of them 11 variants showed nominal associations with MetS per se. The effects of 16 top SNPs on the quantitative traits were relatively small, together explaining from \~{}9\% of the variance in triglycerides, 5.8\% of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, 3.6\% of fasting glucose, and 1.4\% of systolic blood pressure. CONCLUSIONS Qualitative and quantitative pleiotropic tests on pairs of traits indicate that a small portion of the covariation in these traits can be explained by the reported common genetic variants.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Metabolic Syndrome, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1939-327X}, doi = {10.2337/db10-1011}, author = {Kraja, Aldi T and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Pankow, James S and Goodarzi, Mark O and Assimes, Themistocles L and Kullo, Iftikhar J and Sovio, Ulla and Mathias, Rasika A and Sun, Yan V and Franceschini, Nora and Absher, Devin and Li, Guo and Zhang, Qunyuan and Feitosa, Mary F and Glazer, Nicole L and Haritunians, Talin and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Knowles, Joshua W and North, Kari E and Iribarren, Carlos and Kral, Brian and Yanek, Lisa and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and McCarthy, Mark I and Jaquish, Cashell and Couper, David J and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Psaty, Bruce M and Becker, Lewis C and Province, Michael A and Boerwinkle, Eric and Quertermous, Thomas and Palotie, Leena and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Becker, Diane M and Kardia, Sharon L R and Rotter, Jerome I and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Borecki, Ingrid B} } @article {1567, title = {Candidate gene association study for diabetic retinopathy in persons with type 2 diabetes: the Candidate gene Association Resource (CARe).}, journal = {Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci}, volume = {52}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep 29}, pages = {7593-602}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: To investigate whether variants in cardiovascular candidate genes, some of which have been previously associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D), diabetic retinopathy (DR), and diabetic nephropathy (DN), are associated with DR in the Candidate gene Association Resource (CARe).

METHODS: Persons with T2D who were enrolled in the study (n = 2691) had fundus photography and genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 2000 candidate genes. Two case definitions were investigated: Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) grades >= 14 and >= 30. The χ{\texttwosuperior} analyses for each CARe cohort were combined by Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel (CMH) pooling of odds ratios (ORs) and corrected for multiple hypothesis testing. Logistic regression was performed with adjustment for other DR risk factors. Results from replication in independent cohorts were analyzed with CMH meta-analysis methods.

RESULTS: Among 39 genes previously associated with DR, DN, or T2D, three SNPs in P-selectin (SELP) were associated with DR. The strongest association was to rs6128 (OR = 0.43, P = 0.0001, after Bonferroni correction). These associations remained significant after adjustment for DR risk factors. Among other genes examined, several variants were associated with DR with significant P values, including rs6856425 tagging α-l-iduronidase (IDUA) (P = 2.1 {\texttimes} 10(-5), after Bonferroni correction). However, replication in independent cohorts did not reveal study-wide significant effects. The P values after replication were 0.55 and 0.10 for rs6128 and rs6856425, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: Genes associated with DN, T2D, and vascular diseases do not appear to be consistently associated with DR. A few genetic variants associated with DR, particularly those in SELP and near IDUA, should be investigated in additional DR cohorts.

}, keywords = {Cardiovascular Diseases, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Diabetic Nephropathies, Diabetic Retinopathy, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Iduronidase, Odds Ratio, P-Selectin, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1552-5783}, doi = {10.1167/iovs.11-7510}, author = {Sobrin, Lucia and Green, Todd and Sim, Xueling and Jensen, Richard A and Tai, E Shyong and Tay, Wan Ting and Wang, Jie Jin and Mitchell, Paul and Sandholm, Niina and Liu, Yiyuan and Hietala, Kustaa and Iyengar, Sudha K and Brooks, Matthew and Buraczynska, Monika and Van Zuydam, Natalie and Smith, Albert V and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Doney, Alex S F and Morris, Andrew D and Leese, Graham P and Palmer, Colin N A and Swaroop, Anand and Taylor, Herman A and Wilson, James G and Penman, Alan and Chen, Ching J and Groop, Per-Henrik and Saw, Seang-Mei and Aung, Tin and Klein, Barbara E and Rotter, Jerome I and Siscovick, David S and Cotch, Mary Frances and Klein, Ronald and Daly, Mark J and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {1275, title = {Cerivastatin, genetic variants, and the risk of rhabdomyolysis.}, journal = {Pharmacogenet Genomics}, volume = {21}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 May}, pages = {280-8}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: The withdrawal of cerivastatin involved an uncommon but serious adverse reaction, rhabdomyolysis. The bimodal response, rhabdomyolysis in a small proportion of users, points to genetic factors as a potential cause. We conducted a case-control study to evaluate genetic markers for cerivastatin-associated rhabdomyolysis.

METHODS: This study had two components: a candidate gene study to evaluate variants in CYP2C8, UGT1A1, UGT1A3, and SLCO1B1; and a genome-wide association study to identify risk factors in other regions of the genome. A total of 185 rhabdomyolysis cases were frequency matched to statin-using controls from the Cardiovascular Health Study (n=374) and the Heart and Vascular Health Study (n=358). Validation relied on functional studies.

RESULTS: Permutation test results suggested an association between cerivastatin-associated rhabdomyolysis and variants in SLCO1B1 (P=0.002), but not variants in CYP2C8 (P=0.073) or UGTs (P=0.523). An additional copy of the minor allele of SLCO1B1 rs4149056 (p.Val174Ala) was associated with the risk of rhabdomyolysis (odds ratio: 1.89; 95\% confidence interval: 1.40-2.56). In transfected cells, this variant reduced cerivastatin transport by 40\% compared with the reference transporter (P<0.001). The genome-wide association study identified an intronic variant (rs2819742) in the ryanodine receptor 2 gene (RYR2) as significant (P=1.74E-07). An additional copy of the minor allele of the RYR2 variant was associated with a reduced risk of rhabdomyolysis (odds ratio: 0.48; 95\% confidence interval: 0.36-0.63).

CONCLUSION: We identified modest genetic risk factors for an extreme response to cerivastatin. Disabling genetic variants in the candidate genes were not responsible for the bimodal response to cerivastatin.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylases, Case-Control Studies, Cytochrome P-450 CYP2C8, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glucuronosyltransferase, Humans, Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors, Male, Middle Aged, Organic Anion Transporters, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Pyridines, Rhabdomyolysis, Risk, Ryanodine Receptor Calcium Release Channel, Solute Carrier Organic Anion Transporter Family Member 1b1}, issn = {1744-6880}, doi = {10.1097/FPC.0b013e328343dd7d}, author = {Marciante, Kristin D and Durda, Jon P and Heckbert, Susan R and Lumley, Thomas and Rice, Ken and McKnight, Barbara and Totah, Rheem A and Tamraz, Bani and Kroetz, Deanna L and Fukushima, Hisayo and Kaspera, R{\"u}diger and Bis, Joshua C and Glazer, Nicole L and Li, Guo and Austin, Thomas R and Taylor, Kent D and Rotter, Jerome I and Jaquish, Cashell E and Kwok, Pui-Yan and Tracy, Russell P and Psaty, Bruce M} } @article {1271, title = {CUBN is a gene locus for albuminuria.}, journal = {J Am Soc Nephrol}, volume = {22}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Mar}, pages = {555-70}, abstract = {

Identification of genetic risk factors for albuminuria may alter strategies for early prevention of CKD progression, particularly among patients with diabetes. Little is known about the influence of common genetic variants on albuminuria in both general and diabetic populations. We performed a meta-analysis of data from 63,153 individuals of European ancestry with genotype information from genome-wide association studies (CKDGen Consortium) and from a large candidate gene study (CARe Consortium) to identify susceptibility loci for the quantitative trait urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) and the clinical diagnosis microalbuminuria. We identified an association between a missense variant (I2984V) in the CUBN gene, which encodes cubilin, and both UACR (P = 1.1 {\texttimes} 10(-11)) and microalbuminuria (P = 0.001). We observed similar associations among 6981 African Americans in the CARe Consortium. The associations between this variant and both UACR and microalbuminuria were significant in individuals of European ancestry regardless of diabetes status. Finally, this variant associated with a 41\% increased risk for the development of persistent microalbuminuria during 20 years of follow-up among 1304 participants with type 1 diabetes in the prospective DCCT/EDIC Study. In summary, we identified a missense CUBN variant that associates with levels of albuminuria in both the general population and in individuals with diabetes.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Albuminuria, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Mutation, Missense, Receptors, Cell Surface}, issn = {1533-3450}, doi = {10.1681/ASN.2010060598}, author = {B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and Chen, Ming-Huei and Tin, Adrienne and Olden, Matthias and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and de Boer, Ian H and Fuchsberger, Christian and O{\textquoteright}Seaghdha, Conall M and Pattaro, Cristian and Teumer, Alexander and Liu, Ching-Ti and Glazer, Nicole L and Li, Man and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Tanaka, Toshiko and Peralta, Carmen A and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Zhao, Jing Hua and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Akylbekova, Ermeg and Kramer, Holly and van der Harst, Pim and Smith, Albert V and Lohman, Kurt and de Andrade, Mariza and Hayward, Caroline and Kollerits, Barbara and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Aspelund, Thor and Ingelsson, Erik and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Launer, Lenore J and Harris, Tamara B and Shuldiner, Alan R and Mitchell, Braxton D and Arking, Dan E and Franceschini, Nora and Boerwinkle, Eric and Egan, Josephine and Hernandez, Dena and Reilly, Muredach and Townsend, Raymond R and Lumley, Thomas and Siscovick, David S and Psaty, Bruce M and Kestenbaum, Bryan and Haritunians, Talin and Bergmann, Sven and Vollenweider, Peter and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Mooser, Vincent and Waterworth, Dawn and Johnson, Andrew D and Florez, Jose C and Meigs, James B and Lu, Xiaoning and Turner, Stephen T and Atkinson, Elizabeth J and Leak, Tennille S and Aasar{\o}d, Knut and Skorpen, Frank and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and Illig, Thomas and Baumert, Jens and Koenig, Wolfgang and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernhard K and Devuyst, Olivier and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Minelli, Cosetta and Bakker, Stephan J L and Kedenko, Lyudmyla and Paulweber, Bernhard and Coassin, Stefan and Endlich, Karlhans and Kroemer, Heyo K and Biffar, Reiner and Stracke, Sylvia and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Stumvoll, Michael and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Campbell, Harry and Vitart, Veronique and Hastie, Nicholas D and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Kardia, Sharon L R and Liu, Yongmei and Polasek, Ozren and Curhan, Gary and Kronenberg, Florian and Prokopenko, Inga and Rudan, Igor and Arnl{\"o}v, Johan and Hallan, Stein and Navis, Gerjan and Parsa, Afshin and Ferrucci, Luigi and Coresh, Josef and Shlipak, Michael G and Bull, Shelley B and Paterson, Nicholas J and Wichmann, H-Erich and Wareham, Nicholas J and Loos, Ruth J F and Rotter, Jerome I and Pramstaller, Peter P and Cupples, L Adrienne and Beckmann, Jacques S and Yang, Qiong and Heid, Iris M and Rettig, Rainer and Dreisbach, Albert W and Bochud, Murielle and Fox, Caroline S and Kao, W H L} } @article {1272, title = {Diabetes mellitus, fasting glucose, and risk of cause-specific death.}, journal = {N Engl J Med}, volume = {364}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Mar 03}, pages = {829-841}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The extent to which diabetes mellitus or hyperglycemia is related to risk of death from cancer or other nonvascular conditions is uncertain.

METHODS: We calculated hazard ratios for cause-specific death, according to baseline diabetes status or fasting glucose level, from individual-participant data on 123,205 deaths among 820,900 people in 97 prospective studies.

RESULTS: After adjustment for age, sex, smoking status, and body-mass index, hazard ratios among persons with diabetes as compared with persons without diabetes were as follows: 1.80 (95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.71 to 1.90) for death from any cause, 1.25 (95\% CI, 1.19 to 1.31) for death from cancer, 2.32 (95\% CI, 2.11 to 2.56) for death from vascular causes, and 1.73 (95\% CI, 1.62 to 1.85) for death from other causes. Diabetes (vs. no diabetes) was moderately associated with death from cancers of the liver, pancreas, ovary, colorectum, lung, bladder, and breast. Aside from cancer and vascular disease, diabetes (vs. no diabetes) was also associated with death from renal disease, liver disease, pneumonia and other infectious diseases, mental disorders, nonhepatic digestive diseases, external causes, intentional self-harm, nervous-system disorders, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Hazard ratios were appreciably reduced after further adjustment for glycemia measures, but not after adjustment for systolic blood pressure, lipid levels, inflammation or renal markers. Fasting glucose levels exceeding 100 mg per deciliter (5.6 mmol per liter), but not levels of 70 to 100 mg per deciliter (3.9 to 5.6 mmol per liter), were associated with death. A 50-year-old with diabetes died, on average, 6 years earlier than a counterpart without diabetes, with about 40\% of the difference in survival attributable to excess nonvascular deaths.

CONCLUSIONS: In addition to vascular disease, diabetes is associated with substantial premature death from several cancers, infectious diseases, external causes, intentional self-harm, and degenerative disorders, independent of several major risk factors. (Funded by the British Heart Foundation and others.).

}, keywords = {Blood Glucose, Cause of Death, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Humans, Hyperglycemia, Life Expectancy, Male, Middle Aged, Risk, Survival Analysis}, issn = {1533-4406}, doi = {10.1056/NEJMoa1008862}, author = {Rao Kondapally Seshasai, Sreenivasa and Kaptoge, Stephen and Thompson, Alexander and Di Angelantonio, Emanuele and Gao, Pei and Sarwar, Nadeem and Whincup, Peter H and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Gillum, Richard F and Holme, Ingar and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Fletcher, Astrid and Nilsson, Peter and Lewington, Sarah and Collins, Rory and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Thompson, Simon G and Sattar, Naveed and Selvin, Elizabeth and Hu, Frank B and Danesh, John} } @article {1225, title = {The effects of physical activity, education, and body mass index on the aging brain.}, journal = {Hum Brain Mapp}, volume = {32}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep}, pages = {1371-82}, abstract = {

Normal human aging is accompanied by progressive brain tissue loss and cognitive decline; however, several factors are thought to influence brain aging. We applied tensor-based morphometry to high-resolution brain MRI scans to determine whether educational level or physical activity was associated with brain tissue volumes in the elderly, particularly in regions susceptible to age-related atrophy. We mapped the 3D profile of brain volume differences in 226 healthy elderly subjects (130F/96M; 77.9 {\textpm} 3.6 SD years) from the Cardiovascular Health Study-Cognition Study. Statistical maps revealed the 3D profile of brain regions whose volumes were associated with educational level and physical activity (based on leisure-time energy expenditure). After controlling for age, sex, and physical activity, higher educational levels were associated with ~2-3\% greater tissue volumes, on average, in the temporal lobe gray matter. After controlling for age, sex, and education, greater physical activity was associated with ~2-2.5\% greater average tissue volumes in the white matter of the corona radiata extending into the parietal-occipital junction. Body mass index (BMI) was highly correlated with both education and physical activity, so we examined BMI as a contributing factor by including physical activity, education, and BMI in the same model; only BMI effects remained significant. This is one of the largest MRI studies of factors influencing structural brain aging, and BMI may be a key factor explaining the observed relationship between education, physical activity, and brain structure. Independent contributions to brain structure could not be teased apart as all these factors were highly correlated with one another.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Analysis of Variance, Body Mass Index, Brain, Brain Mapping, Educational Status, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Motor Activity, Neuropsychological Tests, Statistics as Topic}, issn = {1097-0193}, doi = {10.1002/hbm.21113}, author = {Ho, April J and Raji, Cyrus A and Becker, James T and Lopez, Oscar L and Kuller, Lewis H and Hua, Xue and Dinov, Ivo D and Stein, Jason L and Rosano, Caterina and Toga, Arthur W and Thompson, Paul M} } @article {1288, title = {Enhanced statistical tests for GWAS in admixed populations: assessment using African Americans from CARe and a Breast Cancer Consortium.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Apr}, pages = {e1001371}, abstract = {

While genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have primarily examined populations of European ancestry, more recent studies often involve additional populations, including admixed populations such as African Americans and Latinos. In admixed populations, linkage disequilibrium (LD) exists both at a fine scale in ancestral populations and at a coarse scale (admixture-LD) due to chromosomal segments of distinct ancestry. Disease association statistics in admixed populations have previously considered SNP association (LD mapping) or admixture association (mapping by admixture-LD), but not both. Here, we introduce a new statistical framework for combining SNP and admixture association in case-control studies, as well as methods for local ancestry-aware imputation. We illustrate the gain in statistical power achieved by these methods by analyzing data of 6,209 unrelated African Americans from the CARe project genotyped on the Affymetrix 6.0 chip, in conjunction with both simulated and real phenotypes, as well as by analyzing the FGFR2 locus using breast cancer GWAS data from 5,761 African-American women. We show that, at typed SNPs, our method yields an 8\% increase in statistical power for finding disease risk loci compared to the power achieved by standard methods in case-control studies. At imputed SNPs, we observe an 11\% increase in statistical power for mapping disease loci when our local ancestry-aware imputation framework and the new scoring statistic are jointly employed. Finally, we show that our method increases statistical power in regions harboring the causal SNP in the case when the causal SNP is untyped and cannot be imputed. Our methods and our publicly available software are broadly applicable to GWAS in admixed populations.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Algorithms, Breast Neoplasms, Chromosome Mapping, Coronary Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Variation, Genetics, Population, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Odds Ratio, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Principal Component Analysis, Receptor, Fibroblast Growth Factor, Type 2, Software}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1001371}, author = {Pasaniuc, Bogdan and Zaitlen, Noah and Lettre, Guillaume and Chen, Gary K and Tandon, Arti and Kao, W H Linda and Ruczinski, Ingo and Fornage, Myriam and Siscovick, David S and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Larkin, Emma and Lange, Leslie A and Cupples, L Adrienne and Yang, Qiong and Akylbekova, Ermeg L and Musani, Solomon K and Divers, Jasmin and Mychaleckyj, Joe and Li, Mingyao and Papanicolaou, George J and Millikan, Robert C and Ambrosone, Christine B and John, Esther M and Bernstein, Leslie and Zheng, Wei and Hu, Jennifer J and Ziegler, Regina G and Nyante, Sarah J and Bandera, Elisa V and Ingles, Sue A and Press, Michael F and Chanock, Stephen J and Deming, Sandra L and Rodriguez-Gil, Jorge L and Palmer, Cameron D and Buxbaum, Sarah and Ekunwe, Lynette and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Henderson, Brian E and Myers, Simon and Haiman, Christopher A and Reich, David and Patterson, Nick and Wilson, James G and Price, Alkes L} } @article {1339, title = {Fasting and post-glucose load measures of insulin resistance and risk of ischemic stroke in older adults.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {42}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Dec}, pages = {3347-51}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Few studies have assessed post-glucose load measures of insulin resistance and ischemic stroke risk, and data are sparse for older adults. We investigated whether fasting and post-glucose load measures of insulin resistance were related to incident ischemic stroke in nondiabetic, older adults.

METHODS: Participants were men and women in the Cardiovascular Health Study, age 65+ years and without prevalent diabetes or stroke at baseline, followed for 17 years for incident ischemic stroke. The Gutt insulin sensitivity index was calculated from baseline body weight and from fasting and 2-hour postload insulin and glucose; a lower Gutt index indicates higher insulin resistance.

RESULTS: Analyses included 3442 participants (42\% men) with a mean age of 73 years. Incidence of ischemic stroke was 9.8 strokes per 1000 person-years. The relative risk (RR) for lowest quartile versus highest quartile of Gutt index was 1.64 (95\% CI, 1.24-2.16), adjusted for demographics and prevalent cardiovascular and kidney disease. Similarly, the adjusted RR for highest quartile versus lowest quartile of 2-hour glucose was 1.84 (95\% CI, 1.39-2.42). In contrast, the adjusted RR for highest quartile versus lowest quartile of fasting insulin was 1.10 (95\% CI, 0.84-1.46).

CONCLUSIONS: In nondiabetic, older adults, insulin resistance measured by Gutt index or 2-hour glucose, but not by fasting insulin, was associated with risk of incident ischemic stroke.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Blood Glucose, Body Mass Index, Brain Ischemia, Fasting, Female, Humans, Incidence, Insulin Resistance, Male, Risk, Stroke}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.111.620773}, author = {Thacker, Evan L and Psaty, Bruce M and McKnight, Barbara and Heckbert, Susan R and Longstreth, W T and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Meigs, James B and de Boer, Ian H and Boyko, Edward J and Carnethon, Mercedes R and Kizer, Jorge R and Tracy, Russell P and Smith, Nicholas L and Siscovick, David S} } @article {1299, title = {Fatty acids in the de novo lipogenesis pathway and risk of coronary heart disease: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {94}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Aug}, pages = {431-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: De novo lipogenesis (DNL) is an endogenous pathway whereby carbohydrates and proteins are converted to fatty acids. DNL could affect coronary heart disease (CHD) or sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) via generation of specific fatty acids. Whether these fatty acids are prospectively associated with SCA or other CHD events is unknown.

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to investigate the relations of 4 fatty acids in the DNL pathway-palmitic acid (16:0), palmitoleic acid (16:1n-7), 7-hexadecenoic acid (16:1n-9), and cis-vaccenic acid (18:1n-7)-with incident CHD, including fatal CHD, nonfatal myocardial infarction (NFMI), and SCA.

DESIGN: A community-based prospective study was conducted in 2890 men and women aged >=65 y, who were free of known CHD at baseline and who were followed from 1992 to 2006. Cardiovascular disease risk factors and plasma phospholipid fatty acids were measured at baseline by using standardized methods. Incident CHD was ascertained prospectively and was centrally adjudicated by using medical records. Risk was assessed by using multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards.

RESULTS: During 29,835 person-years of follow-up, 631 CHD and 71 SCA events occurred. Both 18:1n-7 and 16:1n-9 were associated with a higher risk of SCA [multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio (95\% CI) for the interquintile range: 7.63 (2.58, 22.6) for 18:1n-7 and 2.30 (1.16, 4.55) for 16:1n-9] but not of total CHD, fatal CHD, or NFMI. In secondary analyses censored to mid-follow-up (7 y) to minimize the effects of changes in concentrations over time, 16:1n-9 was also associated with a significantly higher risk of total CHD (2.11; 1.76, 2.54), including a higher risk of CHD death, NFMI, and SCA; 16:0 and 16:1n-7 were not associated with clinical CHD outcomes.

CONCLUSION: Higher plasma phospholipid 18:1n-7 and 16:1n-9 concentrations were prospectively associated with an elevated risk of SCA but not of other CHD events, except in secondary analyses.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cohort Studies, Coronary Disease, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, Diet, Fatty Acids, Female, Humans, Lipogenesis, Male, Phospholipids, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors}, issn = {1938-3207}, doi = {10.3945/ajcn.111.012054}, author = {Wu, Jason H Y and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Imamura, Fumiaki and King, Irena B and Song, Xiaoling and Spiegelman, Donna and Siscovick, David S and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {1259, title = {Gait speed and survival in older adults.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {305}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jan 05}, pages = {50-8}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Survival estimates help individualize goals of care for geriatric patients, but life tables fail to account for the great variability in survival. Physical performance measures, such as gait speed, might help account for variability, allowing clinicians to make more individualized estimates.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between gait speed and survival.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Pooled analysis of 9 cohort studies (collected between 1986 and 2000), using individual data from 34,485 community-dwelling older adults aged 65 years or older with baseline gait speed data, followed up for 6 to 21 years. Participants were a mean (SD) age of 73.5 (5.9) years; 59.6\%, women; and 79.8\%, white; and had a mean (SD) gait speed of 0.92 (0.27) m/s.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Survival rates and life expectancy.

RESULTS: There were 17,528 deaths; the overall 5-year survival rate was 84.8\% (confidence interval [CI], 79.6\%-88.8\%) and 10-year survival rate was 59.7\% (95\% CI, 46.5\%-70.6\%). Gait speed was associated with survival in all studies (pooled hazard ratio per 0.1 m/s, 0.88; 95\% CI, 0.87-0.90; P < .001). Survival increased across the full range of gait speeds, with significant increments per 0.1 m/s. At age 75, predicted 10-year survival across the range of gait speeds ranged from 19\% to 87\% in men and from 35\% to 91\% in women. Predicted survival based on age, sex, and gait speed was as accurate as predicted based on age, sex, use of mobility aids, and self-reported function or as age, sex, chronic conditions, smoking history, blood pressure, body mass index, and hospitalization.

CONCLUSION: In this pooled analysis of individual data from 9 selected cohorts, gait speed was associated with survival in older adults.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cohort Studies, Female, Gait, Geriatric Assessment, Humans, Life Expectancy, Male, Survival Analysis, United States}, issn = {1538-3598}, doi = {10.1001/jama.2010.1923}, author = {Studenski, Stephanie and Perera, Subashan and Patel, Kushang and Rosano, Caterina and Faulkner, Kimberly and Inzitari, Marco and Brach, Jennifer and Chandler, Julie and Cawthon, Peggy and Connor, Elizabeth Barrett and Nevitt, Michael and Visser, Marjolein and Kritchevsky, Stephen and Badinelli, Stefania and Harris, Tamara and Newman, Anne B and Cauley, Jane and Ferrucci, Luigi and Guralnik, Jack} } @article {1568, title = {A gene-centric association scan for Coagulation Factor VII levels in European and African Americans: the Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) Consortium.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {20}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep 01}, pages = {3525-34}, abstract = {

Polymorphisms in several distinct genomic regions, including the F7 gene, were recently associated with factor VII (FVII) levels in European Americans (EAs). The genetic determinants of FVII in African Americans (AAs) are unknown. We used a 50,000 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) gene-centric array having dense coverage of over 2,000 candidate genes for cardiovascular disease (CVD) pathways in a community-based sample of 16,324 EA and 3898 AA participants from the Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) consortium. Our aim was the discovery of new genomic loci and more detailed characterization of existing loci associated with FVII levels. In EAs, we identified three new loci associated with FVII, of which APOA5 on chromosome 11q23 and HNF4A on chromosome 20q12-13 were replicated in a sample of 4289 participants from the Whitehall II study. We confirmed four previously reported FVII-associated loci (GCKR, MS4A6A, F7 and PROCR) in CARe EA samples. In AAs, the F7 and PROCR regions were significantly associated with FVII. Several of the FVII-associated regions are known to be associated with lipids and other cardiovascular-related traits. At the F7 locus, there was evidence of at least five independently associated SNPs in EAs and three independent signals in AAs. Though the variance in FVII explained by the existing loci is substantial (20\% in EA and 10\% in AA), larger sample sizes and investigation of lower frequency variants may be required to identify additional FVII-associated loci in EAs and AAs and further clarify the relationship between FVII and other CVD risk factors.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, European Continental Ancestry Group, Factor VII, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddr264}, author = {Taylor, Kira C and Lange, Leslie A and Zabaneh, Delilah and Lange, Ethan and Keating, Brendan J and Tang, Weihong and Smith, Nicholas L and Delaney, Joseph A and Kumari, Meena and Hingorani, Aroon and North, Kari E and Kivimaki, Mika and Tracy, Russell P and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Folsom, Aaron R and Green, David and Humphries, Steve E and Reiner, Alexander P} } @article {1327, title = {Genetic association for renal traits among participants of African ancestry reveals new loci for renal function.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep}, pages = {e1002264}, abstract = {

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an increasing global public health concern, particularly among populations of African ancestry. We performed an interrogation of known renal loci, genome-wide association (GWA), and IBC candidate-gene SNP association analyses in African Americans from the CARe Renal Consortium. In up to 8,110 participants, we performed meta-analyses of GWA and IBC array data for estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), CKD (eGFR <60 mL/min/1.73 m(2)), urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR), and microalbuminuria (UACR >30 mg/g) and interrogated the 250 kb flanking region around 24 SNPs previously identified in European Ancestry renal GWAS analyses. Findings were replicated in up to 4,358 African Americans. To assess function, individually identified genes were knocked down in zebrafish embryos by morpholino antisense oligonucleotides. Expression of kidney-specific genes was assessed by in situ hybridization, and glomerular filtration was evaluated by dextran clearance. Overall, 23 of 24 previously identified SNPs had direction-consistent associations with eGFR in African Americans, 2 of which achieved nominal significance (UMOD, PIP5K1B). Interrogation of the flanking regions uncovered 24 new index SNPs in African Americans, 12 of which were replicated (UMOD, ANXA9, GCKR, TFDP2, DAB2, VEGFA, ATXN2, GATM, SLC22A2, TMEM60, SLC6A13, and BCAS3). In addition, we identified 3 suggestive loci at DOK6 (p-value = 5.3{\texttimes}10(-7)) and FNDC1 (p-value = 3.0{\texttimes}10(-7)) for UACR, and KCNQ1 with eGFR (p = 3.6{\texttimes}10(-6)). Morpholino knockdown of kcnq1 in the zebrafish resulted in abnormal kidney development and filtration capacity. We identified several SNPs in association with eGFR in African Ancestry individuals, as well as 3 suggestive loci for UACR and eGFR. Functional genetic studies support a role for kcnq1 in glomerular development in zebrafish.

}, keywords = {Adaptor Proteins, Vesicular Transport, Adult, African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Animals, Female, Gene Knockdown Techniques, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, KCNQ1 Potassium Channel, Kidney, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Male, Middle Aged, Neoplasm Proteins, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Zebrafish}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002264}, author = {Liu, Ching-Ti and Garnaas, Maija K and Tin, Adrienne and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Franceschini, Nora and Peralta, Carmen A and de Boer, Ian H and Lu, Xiaoning and Atkinson, Elizabeth and Ding, Jingzhong and Nalls, Michael and Shriner, Daniel and Coresh, Josef and Kutlar, Abdullah and Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten and Siscovick, David and Akylbekova, Ermeg and Wyatt, Sharon and Astor, Brad and Mychaleckjy, Josef and Li, Man and Reilly, Muredach P and Townsend, Raymond R and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Zonderman, Alan B and de Andrade, Mariza and Turner, Stephen T and Mosley, Thomas H and Harris, Tamara B and Rotimi, Charles N and Liu, Yongmei and Kardia, Sharon L R and Evans, Michele K and Shlipak, Michael G and Kramer, Holly and Flessner, Michael F and Dreisbach, Albert W and Goessling, Wolfram and Cupples, L Adrienne and Kao, W Linda and Fox, Caroline S} } @article {1303, title = {Genetic determinants of lipid traits in diverse populations from the population architecture using genomics and epidemiology (PAGE) study.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jun}, pages = {e1002138}, abstract = {

For the past five years, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified hundreds of common variants associated with human diseases and traits, including high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglyceride (TG) levels. Approximately 95 loci associated with lipid levels have been identified primarily among populations of European ancestry. The Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study was established in 2008 to characterize GWAS-identified variants in diverse population-based studies. We genotyped 49 GWAS-identified SNPs associated with one or more lipid traits in at least two PAGE studies and across six racial/ethnic groups. We performed a meta-analysis testing for SNP associations with fasting HDL-C, LDL-C, and ln(TG) levels in self-identified European American (~20,000), African American (~9,000), American Indian (~6,000), Mexican American/Hispanic (~2,500), Japanese/East Asian (~690), and Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian (~175) adults, regardless of lipid-lowering medication use. We replicated 55 of 60 (92\%) SNP associations tested in European Americans at p<0.05. Despite sufficient power, we were unable to replicate ABCA1 rs4149268 and rs1883025, CETP rs1864163, and TTC39B rs471364 previously associated with HDL-C and MAFB rs6102059 previously associated with LDL-C. Based on significance (p<0.05) and consistent direction of effect, a majority of replicated genotype-phentoype associations for HDL-C, LDL-C, and ln(TG) in European Americans generalized to African Americans (48\%, 61\%, and 57\%), American Indians (45\%, 64\%, and 77\%), and Mexican Americans/Hispanics (57\%, 56\%, and 86\%). Overall, 16 associations generalized across all three populations. For the associations that did not generalize, differences in effect sizes, allele frequencies, and linkage disequilibrium offer clues to the next generation of association studies for these traits.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Continental Population Groups, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetics, Population, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Lipid Metabolism, Lipoproteins, HDL, Lipoproteins, LDL, Male, Middle Aged, Molecular Epidemiology, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Risk Factors, Triglycerides, Young Adult}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002138}, author = {Dumitrescu, Logan and Carty, Cara L and Taylor, Kira and Schumacher, Fredrick R and Hindorff, Lucia A and Ambite, Jos{\'e} L and Anderson, Garnet and Best, Lyle G and Brown-Gentry, Kristin and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Carlson, Christopher S and Cochran, Barbara and Cole, Shelley A and Devereux, Richard B and Duggan, Dave and Eaton, Charles B and Fornage, Myriam and Franceschini, Nora and Haessler, Jeff and Howard, Barbara V and Johnson, Karen C and Laston, Sandra and Kolonel, Laurence N and Lee, Elisa T and MacCluer, Jean W and Manolio, Teri A and Pendergrass, Sarah A and Quibrera, Miguel and Shohet, Ralph V and Wilkens, Lynne R and Haiman, Christopher A and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Buyske, Steven and Kooperberg, Charles and North, Kari E and Crawford, Dana C} } @article {1311, title = {Genetic loci associated with plasma phospholipid n-3 fatty acids: a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies from the CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jul}, pages = {e1002193}, abstract = {

Long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) can derive from diet or from α-linolenic acid (ALA) by elongation and desaturation. We investigated the association of common genetic variation with plasma phospholipid levels of the four major n-3 PUFAs by performing genome-wide association studies in five population-based cohorts comprising 8,866 subjects of European ancestry. Minor alleles of SNPs in FADS1 and FADS2 (desaturases) were associated with higher levels of ALA (p = 3 x 10$^{-}$$^{6}$$^{4}$) and lower levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, p = 5 x 10$^{-}$$^{5}$$^{8}$) and docosapentaenoic acid (DPA, p = 4 x 10$^{-}${\textonesuperior}$^{5}$$^{4}$). Minor alleles of SNPs in ELOVL2 (elongase) were associated with higher EPA (p = 2 x 10$^{-}${\textonesuperior}{\texttwosuperior}) and DPA (p = 1 x 10$^{-}$$^{4}${\textthreesuperior}) and lower docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, p = 1 x 10$^{-}${\textonesuperior}$^{5}$). In addition to genes in the n-3 pathway, we identified a novel association of DPA with several SNPs in GCKR (glucokinase regulator, p = 1 x 10$^{-}$$^{8}$). We observed a weaker association between ALA and EPA among carriers of the minor allele of a representative SNP in FADS2 (rs1535), suggesting a lower rate of ALA-to-EPA conversion in these subjects. In samples of African, Chinese, and Hispanic ancestry, associations of n-3 PUFAs were similar with a representative SNP in FADS1 but less consistent with a representative SNP in ELOVL2. Our findings show that common variation in n-3 metabolic pathway genes and in GCKR influences plasma phospholipid levels of n-3 PUFAs in populations of European ancestry and, for FADS1, in other ancestries.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Continental Population Groups, Fatty Acids, Omega-3, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Metabolic Networks and Pathways, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002193}, author = {Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Tanaka, Toshiko and Tang, Weihong and Manichaikul, Ani and Foy, Millennia and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Nettleton, Jennifer A and King, Irena B and Weng, Lu-Chen and Bhattacharya, Sayanti and Bandinelli, Stefania and Bis, Joshua C and Rich, Stephen S and Jacobs, David R and Cherubini, Antonio and McKnight, Barbara and Liang, Shuang and Gu, Xiangjun and Rice, Kenneth and Laurie, Cathy C and Lumley, Thomas and Browning, Brian L and Psaty, Bruce M and Chen, Yii-der I and Friedlander, Yechiel and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Wu, Jason H Y and Siscovick, David S and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Arnett, Donna K and Ferrucci, Luigi and Fornage, Myriam and Tsai, Michael Y and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Steffen, Lyn M} } @article {1284, title = {Genetic predictors of fibrin D-dimer levels in healthy adults.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {123}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 May 03}, pages = {1864-72}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Fibrin fragment D-dimer, one of several peptides produced when crosslinked fibrin is degraded by plasmin, is the most widely used clinical marker of activated blood coagulation. To identity genetic loci influencing D-dimer levels, we performed the first large-scale, genome-wide association search.

METHODS AND RESULTS: A genome-wide investigation of the genomic correlates of plasma D-dimer levels was conducted among 21 052 European-ancestry adults. Plasma levels of D-dimer were measured independently in each of 13 cohorts. Each study analyzed the association between ≈2.6 million genotyped and imputed variants across the 22 autosomal chromosomes and natural-log{\textendash}transformed D-dimer levels using linear regression in additive genetic models adjusted for age and sex. Among all variants, 74 exceeded the genome-wide significance threshold and marked 3 regions. At 1p22, rs12029080 (P=6.4{\texttimes}10(-52)) was 46.0 kb upstream from F3, coagulation factor III (tissue factor). At 1q24, rs6687813 (P=2.4{\texttimes}10(-14)) was 79.7 kb downstream of F5, coagulation factor V. At 4q32, rs13109457 (P=2.9{\texttimes}10(-18)) was located between 2 fibrinogen genes: 10.4 kb downstream from FGG and 3.0 kb upstream from FGA. Variants were associated with a 0.099-, 0.096-, and 0.061-unit difference, respectively, in natural-log{\textendash}transformed D-dimer and together accounted for 1.8\% of the total variance. When adjusted for nonsynonymous substitutions in F5 and FGA loci known to be associated with D-dimer levels, there was no evidence of an additional association at either locus.

CONCLUSIONS: Three genes were associated with fibrin D-dimer levels. Of these 3, the F3 association was the strongest, and has not been previously reported.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Blood Coagulation, European Continental Ancestry Group, Factor V, Female, Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products, Fibrinogen, Genetic Testing, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Reference Values, Thromboplastin}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.009480}, author = {Smith, Nicholas L and Huffman, Jennifer E and Strachan, David P and Huang, Jie and Dehghan, Abbas and Trompet, Stella and Lopez, Lorna M and Shin, So-Youn and Baumert, Jens and Vitart, Veronique and Bis, Joshua C and Wild, Sarah H and Rumley, Ann and Yang, Qiong and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Stott, David J and Davies, Gail and Carter, Angela M and Thorand, Barbara and Polasek, Ozren and McKnight, Barbara and Campbell, Harry and Rudnicka, Alicja R and Chen, Ming-Huei and Buckley, Brendan M and Harris, Sarah E and Peters, Annette and Pulanic, Drazen and Lumley, Thomas and de Craen, Anton J M and Liewald, David C and Gieger, Christian and Campbell, Susan and Ford, Ian and Gow, Alan J and Luciano, Michelle and Porteous, David J and Guo, Xiuqing and Sattar, Naveed and Tenesa, Albert and Cushman, Mary and Slagboom, P Eline and Visscher, Peter M and Spector, Tim D and Illig, Thomas and Rudan, Igor and Bovill, Edwin G and Wright, Alan F and McArdle, Wendy L and Tofler, Geoffrey and Hofman, Albert and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Starr, John M and Grant, Peter J and Karakas, Mahir and Hastie, Nicholas D and Psaty, Bruce M and Wilson, James F and Lowe, Gordon D O and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Jukema, J Wouter and Deary, Ian J and Soranzo, Nicole and Koenig, Wolfgang and Hayward, Caroline} } @article {1325, title = {Genetic variants in novel pathways influence blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {478}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep 11}, pages = {103-9}, abstract = {

Blood pressure is a heritable trait influenced by several biological pathways and responsive to environmental stimuli. Over one billion people worldwide have hypertension (>=140 mm Hg systolic blood pressure or >=90 mm Hg diastolic blood pressure). Even small increments in blood pressure are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. This genome-wide association study of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, which used a multi-stage design in 200,000 individuals of European descent, identified sixteen novel loci: six of these loci contain genes previously known or suspected to regulate blood pressure (GUCY1A3-GUCY1B3, NPR3-C5orf23, ADM, FURIN-FES, GOSR2, GNAS-EDN3); the other ten provide new clues to blood pressure physiology. A genetic risk score based on 29 genome-wide significant variants was associated with hypertension, left ventricular wall thickness, stroke and coronary artery disease, but not kidney disease or kidney function. We also observed associations with blood pressure in East Asian, South Asian and African ancestry individuals. Our findings provide new insights into the genetics and biology of blood pressure, and suggest potential novel therapeutic pathways for cardiovascular disease prevention.

}, keywords = {Africa, Asia, Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Diseases, Coronary Artery Disease, Europe, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Kidney Diseases, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Stroke}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature10405}, author = {Ehret, Georg B and Munroe, Patricia B and Rice, Kenneth M and Bochud, Murielle and Johnson, Andrew D and Chasman, Daniel I and Smith, Albert V and Tobin, Martin D and Verwoert, Germaine C and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Pihur, Vasyl and Vollenweider, Peter and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Amin, Najaf and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer L and Teumer, Alexander and Glazer, Nicole L and Launer, Lenore and Zhao, Jing Hua and Aulchenko, Yurii and Heath, Simon and S{\~o}ber, Siim and Parsa, Afshin and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Arora, Pankaj and Dehghan, Abbas and Zhang, Feng and Lucas, Gavin and Hicks, Andrew A and Jackson, Anne U and Peden, John F and Tanaka, Toshiko and Wild, Sarah H and Rudan, Igor and Igl, Wilmar and Milaneschi, Yuri and Parker, Alex N and Fava, Cristiano and Chambers, John C and Fox, Ervin R and Kumari, Meena and Go, Min Jin and van der Harst, Pim and Kao, Wen Hong Linda and Sj{\"o}gren, Marketa and Vinay, D G and Alexander, Myriam and Tabara, Yasuharu and Shaw-Hawkins, Sue and Whincup, Peter H and Liu, Yongmei and Shi, Gang and Kuusisto, Johanna and Tayo, Bamidele and Seielstad, Mark and Sim, Xueling and Nguyen, Khanh-Dung Hoang and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Matullo, Giuseppe and Wu, Ying and Gaunt, Tom R and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Cooper, Matthew N and Platou, Carl G P and Org, Elin and Hardy, Rebecca and Dahgam, Santosh and Palmen, Jutta and Vitart, Veronique and Braund, Peter S and Kuznetsova, Tatiana and Uiterwaal, Cuno S P M and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Palmas, Walter and Campbell, Harry and Ludwig, Barbara and Tomaszewski, Maciej and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Palmer, Nicholette D and Aspelund, Thor and Garcia, Melissa and Chang, Yen-Pei C and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Steinle, Nanette I and Grobbee, Diederick E and Arking, Dan E and Kardia, Sharon L and Morrison, Alanna C and Hernandez, Dena and Najjar, Samer and McArdle, Wendy L and Hadley, David and Brown, Morris J and Connell, John M and Hingorani, Aroon D and Day, Ian N M and Lawlor, Debbie A and Beilby, John P and Lawrence, Robert W and Clarke, Robert and Hopewell, Jemma C and Ongen, Halit and Dreisbach, Albert W and Li, Yali and Young, J Hunter and Bis, Joshua C and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Viikari, Jorma and Adair, Linda S and Lee, Nanette R and Chen, Ming-Huei and Olden, Matthias and Pattaro, Cristian and Bolton, Judith A Hoffman and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Bergmann, Sven and Mooser, Vincent and Chaturvedi, Nish and Frayling, Timothy M and Islam, Muhammad and Jafar, Tazeen H and Erdmann, Jeanette and Kulkarni, Smita R and Bornstein, Stefan R and Gr{\"a}ssler, J{\"u}rgen and Groop, Leif and Voight, Benjamin F and Kettunen, Johannes and Howard, Philip and Taylor, Andrew and Guarrera, Simonetta and Ricceri, Fulvio and Emilsson, Valur and Plump, Andrew and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Weder, Alan B and Hunt, Steven C and Sun, Yan V and Bergman, Richard N and Collins, Francis S and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Scott, Laura J and Stringham, Heather M and Peltonen, Leena and Perola, Markus and Vartiainen, Erkki and Brand, Stefan-Martin and Staessen, Jan A and Wang, Thomas J and Burton, Paul R and Soler Artigas, Maria and Dong, Yanbin and Snieder, Harold and Wang, Xiaoling and Zhu, Haidong and Lohman, Kurt K and Rudock, Megan E and Heckbert, Susan R and Smith, Nicholas L and Wiggins, Kerri L and Doumatey, Ayo and Shriner, Daniel and Veldre, Gudrun and Viigimaa, Margus and Kinra, Sanjay and Prabhakaran, Dorairaj and Tripathy, Vikal and Langefeld, Carl D and Rosengren, Annika and Thelle, Dag S and Corsi, Anna Maria and Singleton, Andrew and Forrester, Terrence and Hilton, Gina and McKenzie, Colin A and Salako, Tunde and Iwai, Naoharu and Kita, Yoshikuni and Ogihara, Toshio and Ohkubo, Takayoshi and Okamura, Tomonori and Ueshima, Hirotsugu and Umemura, Satoshi and Eyheramendy, Susana and Meitinger, Thomas and Wichmann, H-Erich and Cho, Yoon Shin and Kim, Hyung-Lae and Lee, Jong-Young and Scott, James and Sehmi, Joban S and Zhang, Weihua and Hedblad, Bo and Nilsson, Peter and Smith, George Davey and Wong, Andrew and Narisu, Narisu and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Raffel, Leslie J and Yao, Jie and Kathiresan, Sekar and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Schwartz, Stephen M and Ikram, M Arfan and Longstreth, W T and Mosley, Thomas H and Seshadri, Sudha and Shrine, Nick R G and Wain, Louise V and Morken, Mario A and Swift, Amy J and Laitinen, Jaana and Prokopenko, Inga and Zitting, Paavo and Cooper, Jackie A and Humphries, Steve E and Danesh, John and Rasheed, Asif and Goel, Anuj and Hamsten, Anders and Watkins, Hugh and Bakker, Stephan J L and van Gilst, Wiek H and Janipalli, Charles S and Mani, K Radha and Yajnik, Chittaranjan S and Hofman, Albert and Mattace-Raso, Francesco U S and Oostra, Ben A and Demirkan, Ayse and Isaacs, Aaron and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Lakatta, Edward G and Orr{\`u}, Marco and Scuteri, Angelo and Ala-Korpela, Mika and Kangas, Antti J and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Soininen, Pasi and Tukiainen, Taru and W{\"u}rtz, Peter and Ong, Rick Twee-Hee and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Kroemer, Heyo K and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Galan, Pilar and Hercberg, Serge and Lathrop, Mark and Zelenika, Diana and Deloukas, Panos and Mangino, Massimo and Spector, Tim D and Zhai, Guangju and Meschia, James F and Nalls, Michael A and Sharma, Pankaj and Terzic, Janos and Kumar, M V Kranthi and Denniff, Matthew and Zukowska-Szczechowska, Ewa and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Fowkes, F Gerald R and Charchar, Fadi J and Schwarz, Peter E H and Hayward, Caroline and Guo, Xiuqing and Rotimi, Charles and Bots, Michiel L and Brand, Eva and Samani, Nilesh J and Polasek, Ozren and Talmud, Philippa J and Nyberg, Fredrik and Kuh, Diana and Laan, Maris and Hveem, Kristian and Palmer, Lyle J and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Casas, Juan P and Mohlke, Karen L and Vineis, Paolo and Raitakari, Olli and Ganesh, Santhi K and Wong, Tien Y and Tai, E Shyong and Cooper, Richard S and Laakso, Markku and Rao, Dabeeru C and Harris, Tamara B and Morris, Richard W and Dominiczak, Anna F and Kivimaki, Mika and Marmot, Michael G and Miki, Tetsuro and Saleheen, Danish and Chandak, Giriraj R and Coresh, Josef and Navis, Gerjan and Salomaa, Veikko and Han, Bok-Ghee and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Kooner, Jaspal S and Melander, Olle and Ridker, Paul M and Bandinelli, Stefania and Gyllensten, Ulf B and Wright, Alan F and Wilson, James F and Ferrucci, Luigi and Farrall, Martin and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Pramstaller, Peter P and Elosua, Roberto and Soranzo, Nicole and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Altshuler, David and Loos, Ruth J F and Shuldiner, Alan R and Gieger, Christian and Meneton, Pierre and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wareham, Nicholas J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Rotter, Jerome I and Rettig, Rainer and Uda, Manuela and Strachan, David P and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Beckmann, Jacques S and Boerwinkle, Eric and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Boehnke, Michael and Larson, Martin G and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Psaty, Bruce M and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Elliott, Paul and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Levy, Daniel and Caulfield, Mark J and Johnson, Toby} } @article {1301, title = {Genetic variation near IRS1 associates with reduced adiposity and an impaired metabolic profile.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {43}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jun 26}, pages = {753-60}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies have identified 32 loci influencing body mass index, but this measure does not distinguish lean from fat mass. To identify adiposity loci, we meta-analyzed associations between \~{}2.5 million SNPs and body fat percentage from 36,626 individuals and followed up the 14 most significant (P < 10(-6)) independent loci in 39,576 individuals. We confirmed a previously established adiposity locus in FTO (P = 3 {\texttimes} 10(-26)) and identified two new loci associated with body fat percentage, one near IRS1 (P = 4 {\texttimes} 10(-11)) and one near SPRY2 (P = 3 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Both loci contain genes with potential links to adipocyte physiology. Notably, the body-fat-decreasing allele near IRS1 is associated with decreased IRS1 expression and with an impaired metabolic profile, including an increased visceral to subcutaneous fat ratio, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, risk of diabetes and coronary artery disease and decreased adiponectin levels. Our findings provide new insights into adiposity and insulin resistance.

}, keywords = {Adiponectin, Adiposity, Alleles, Body Fat Distribution, Body Mass Index, Body Weight, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Insulin Receptor Substrate Proteins, Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins, Male, Membrane Proteins, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Metabolome, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Subcutaneous Fat}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.866}, author = {Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Zillikens, M Carola and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Finucane, Francis M and Ried, Janina S and Langenberg, Claudia and Zhang, Weihua and Beckmann, Jacques S and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Styrkarsdottir, Unnur and Zhou, Yanhua and Smith, Albert Vernon and Zhao, Jing-Hua and Amin, Najaf and Vedantam, Sailaja and Shin, So-Youn and Haritunians, Talin and Fu, Mao and Feitosa, Mary F and Kumari, Meena and Halldorsson, Bjarni V and Tikkanen, Emmi and Mangino, Massimo and Hayward, Caroline and Song, Ci and Arnold, Alice M and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Oostra, Ben A and Campbell, Harry and Cupples, L Adrienne and Davis, Kathryn E and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Estrada, Karol and Fern{\'a}ndez-Real, Jos{\'e} Manuel and Garcia, Melissa and Gieger, Christian and Glazer, Nicole L and Guiducci, Candace and Hofman, Albert and Humphries, Steve E and Isomaa, Bo and Jacobs, Leonie C and Jula, Antti and Karasik, David and Karlsson, Magnus K and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kim, Lauren J and Kivimaki, Mika and Klopp, Norman and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Kuusisto, Johanna and Liu, Yongmei and Ljunggren, Osten and Lorentzon, Mattias and Luben, Robert N and McKnight, Barbara and Mellstr{\"o}m, Dan and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mooser, Vincent and Moreno, Jos{\'e} Maria and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffery R and Pascoe, Laura and Peltonen, Leena and Peral, Bel{\'e}n and Perola, Markus and Psaty, Bruce M and Salomaa, Veikko and Savage, David B and Semple, Robert K and Skaric-Juric, Tatjana and Sigurdsson, Gunnar and Song, Kijoung S and Spector, Timothy D and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and Talmud, Philippa J and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Vidal-Puig, Antonio and Wild, Sarah H and Wright, Alan F and Clegg, Deborah J and Schadt, Eric and Wilson, James F and Rudan, Igor and Ripatti, Samuli and Borecki, Ingrid B and Shuldiner, Alan R and Ingelsson, Erik and Jansson, John-Olov and Kaplan, Robert C and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Groop, Leif and Kiel, Douglas P and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Walker, Mark and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Vollenweider, Peter and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Chambers, John C and Kooner, Jaspal S and Soranzo, Nicole and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Stefansson, Kari and Wichmann, H-Erich and Ohlsson, Claes and O{\textquoteright}Rahilly, Stephen and Wareham, Nicholas J and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Fox, Caroline S and Laakso, Markku and Loos, Ruth J F} } @article {6096, title = {Genome-wide association and large-scale follow up identifies 16 new loci influencing lung function.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {43}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep 25}, pages = {1082-90}, abstract = {

Pulmonary function measures reflect respiratory health and are used in the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We tested genome-wide association with forced expiratory volume in 1 second and the ratio of forced expiratory volume in 1 second to forced vital capacity in 48,201 individuals of European ancestry with follow up of the top associations in up to an additional 46,411 individuals. We identified new regions showing association (combined P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) with pulmonary function in or near MFAP2, TGFB2, HDAC4, RARB, MECOM (also known as EVI1), SPATA9, ARMC2, NCR3, ZKSCAN3, CDC123, C10orf11, LRP1, CCDC38, MMP15, CFDP1 and KCNE2. Identification of these 16 new loci may provide insight into the molecular mechanisms regulating pulmonary function and into molecular targets for future therapy to alleviate reduced lung function.

}, keywords = {Child, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive, Respiratory Function Tests}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.941}, author = {Soler Artigas, Maria and Loth, Daan W and Wain, Louise V and Gharib, Sina A and Obeidat, Ma{\textquoteright}en and Tang, Wenbo and Zhai, Guangju and Zhao, Jing Hua and Smith, Albert Vernon and Huffman, Jennifer E and Albrecht, Eva and Jackson, Catherine M and Evans, David M and Cadby, Gemma and Fornage, Myriam and Manichaikul, Ani and Lopez, Lorna M and Johnson, Toby and Aldrich, Melinda C and Aspelund, Thor and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Campbell, Harry and Cassano, Patricia A and Couper, David J and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Franceschini, Nora and Garcia, Melissa and Gieger, Christian and Gislason, Gauti Kjartan and Grkovic, Ivica and Hammond, Christopher J and Hancock, Dana B and Harris, Tamara B and Ramasamy, Adaikalavan and Heckbert, Susan R and Heli{\"o}vaara, Markku and Homuth, Georg and Hysi, Pirro G and James, Alan L and Jankovic, Stipan and Joubert, Bonnie R and Karrasch, Stefan and Klopp, Norman and Koch, Beate and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Launer, Lenore J and Liu, Yongmei and Loehr, Laura R and Lohman, Kurt and Loos, Ruth J F and Lumley, Thomas and Al Balushi, Khalid A and Ang, Wei Q and Barr, R Graham and Beilby, John and Blakey, John D and Boban, Mladen and Boraska, Vesna and Brisman, Jonas and Britton, John R and Brusselle, Guy G and Cooper, Cyrus and Curjuric, Ivan and Dahgam, Santosh and Deary, Ian J and Ebrahim, Shah and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Francks, Clyde and Gaysina, Darya and Granell, Raquel and Gu, Xiangjun and Hankinson, John L and Hardy, Rebecca and Harris, Sarah E and Henderson, John and Henry, Amanda and Hingorani, Aroon D and Hofman, Albert and Holt, Patrick G and Hui, Jennie and Hunter, Michael L and Imboden, Medea and Jameson, Karen A and Kerr, Shona M and Kolcic, Ivana and Kronenberg, Florian and Liu, Jason Z and Marchini, Jonathan and McKeever, Tricia and Morris, Andrew D and Olin, Anna-Carin and Porteous, David J and Postma, Dirkje S and Rich, Stephen S and Ring, Susan M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rochat, Thierry and Sayer, Avan Aihie and Sayers, Ian and Sly, Peter D and Smith, George Davey and Sood, Akshay and Starr, John M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vonk, Judith M and Wannamethee, S Goya and Whincup, Peter H and Wijmenga, Cisca and Williams, O Dale and Wong, Andrew and Mangino, Massimo and Marciante, Kristin D and McArdle, Wendy L and Meibohm, Bernd and Morrison, Alanna C and North, Kari E and Omenaas, Ernst and Palmer, Lyle J and Pietil{\"a}inen, Kirsi H and Pin, Isabelle and Pola Sbreve Ek, Ozren and Pouta, Anneli and Psaty, Bruce M and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Rantanen, Taina and Ripatti, Samuli and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Rudnicka, Alicja R and Schulz, Holger and Shin, So-Youn and Spector, Tim D and Surakka, Ida and Vitart, Veronique and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Wareham, Nicholas J and Warrington, Nicole M and Wichmann, H-Erich and Wild, Sarah H and Wilk, Jemma B and Wjst, Matthias and Wright, Alan F and Zgaga, Lina and Zemunik, Tatijana and Pennell, Craig E and Nyberg, Fredrik and Kuh, Diana and Holloway, John W and Boezen, H Marike and Lawlor, Debbie A and Morris, Richard W and Probst-Hensch, Nicole and Kaprio, Jaakko and Wilson, James F and Hayward, Caroline and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Heinrich, Joachim and Musk, Arthur W and Jarvis, Deborah L and Gl{\"a}ser, Sven and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Ch Stricker, Bruno H and Elliott, Paul and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Strachan, David P and London, Stephanie J and Hall, Ian P and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Tobin, Martin D} } @article {1298, title = {Genome-wide association studies of cerebral white matter lesion burden: the CHARGE consortium.}, journal = {Ann Neurol}, volume = {69}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jun}, pages = {928-39}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: White matter hyperintensities (WMHs) detectable by magnetic resonance imaging are part of the spectrum of vascular injury associated with aging of the brain and are thought to reflect ischemic damage to the small deep cerebral vessels. WMHs are associated with an increased risk of cognitive and motor dysfunction, dementia, depression, and stroke. Despite a significant heritability, few genetic loci influencing WMH burden have been identified.

METHODS: We performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for WMH burden in 9,361 stroke-free individuals of European descent from 7 community-based cohorts. Significant findings were tested for replication in 3,024 individuals from 2 additional cohorts.

RESULTS: We identified 6 novel risk-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 1 locus on chromosome 17q25 encompassing 6 known genes including WBP2, TRIM65, TRIM47, MRPL38, FBF1, and ACOX1. The most significant association was for rs3744028 (p(discovery) = 4.0 {\texttimes} 10(-9) ; p(replication) = 1.3 {\texttimes} 10(-7) ; p(combined) = 4.0 {\texttimes} 10(-15) ). Other SNPs in this region also reaching genome-wide significance were rs9894383 (p = 5.3 {\texttimes} 10(-9) ), rs11869977 (p = 5.7 {\texttimes} 10(-9) ), rs936393 (p = 6.8 {\texttimes} 10(-9) ), rs3744017 (p = 7.3 {\texttimes} 10(-9) ), and rs1055129 (p = 4.1 {\texttimes} 10(-8) ). Variant alleles at these loci conferred a small increase in WMH burden (4-8\% of the overall mean WMH burden in the sample).

INTERPRETATION: This large GWAS of WMH burden in community-based cohorts of individuals of European descent identifies a novel locus on chromosome 17. Further characterization of this locus may provide novel insights into the pathogenesis of cerebral WMH.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cerebral Cortex, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 17, Cognition Disorders, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Leukoencephalopathies, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Movement Disorders, Nerve Fibers, Myelinated, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Residence Characteristics, RNA, Messenger}, issn = {1531-8249}, doi = {10.1002/ana.22403}, author = {Fornage, Myriam and Debette, Stephanie and Bis, Joshua C and Schmidt, Helena and Ikram, M Arfan and Dufouil, Carole and Sigurdsson, Sigurdur and Lumley, Thomas and DeStefano, Anita L and Fazekas, Franz and Vrooman, Henri A and Shibata, Dean K and Maillard, Pauline and Zijdenbos, Alex and Smith, Albert V and Gudnason, Haukur and de Boer, Renske and Cushman, Mary and Mazoyer, Bernard and Heiss, Gerardo and Vernooij, Meike W and Enzinger, Christian and Glazer, Nicole L and Beiser, Alexa and Knopman, David S and Cavalieri, Margherita and Niessen, Wiro J and Harris, Tamara B and Petrovic, Katja and Lopez, Oscar L and Au, Rhoda and Lambert, Jean-Charles and Hofman, Albert and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Garcia, Melissa and Heckbert, Susan R and Atwood, Larry D and Catellier, Diane J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Yang, Qiong and Smith, Nicholas L and Aspelund, Thor and Romero, Jose R and Rice, Kenneth and Taylor, Kent D and Nalls, Michael A and Rotter, Jerome I and Sharrett, Richey and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Amouyel, Philippe and Wolf, Philip A and Gudnason, Vilmundur and van der Lugt, Aad and Boerwinkle, Eric and Psaty, Bruce M and Seshadri, Sudha and Tzourio, Christophe and Breteler, Monique M B and Mosley, Thomas H and Schmidt, Reinhold and Longstreth, W T and DeCarli, Charles and Launer, Lenore J} } @article {1305, title = {Genome-wide association study for serum urate concentrations and gout among African Americans identifies genomic risk loci and a novel URAT1 loss-of-function allele.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {20}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Oct 15}, pages = {4056-68}, abstract = {

Serum urate concentrations are highly heritable and elevated serum urate is a key risk factor for gout. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of serum urate in African American (AA) populations are lacking. We conducted a meta-analysis of GWAS of serum urate levels and gout among 5820 AA and a large candidate gene study among 6890 AA and 21 708 participants of European ancestry (EA) within the Candidate Gene Association Resource Consortium. Findings were tested for replication among 1996 independent AA individuals, and evaluated for their association among 28 283 EA participants of the CHARGE Consortium. Functional studies were conducted using (14)C-urate transport assays in mammalian Chinese hamster ovary cells. In the discovery GWAS of serum urate, three loci achieved genome-wide significance (P< 5.0 {\texttimes} 10(-8)): a novel locus near SGK1/SLC2A12 on chromosome 6 (rs9321453, P= 1.0 {\texttimes} 10(-9)), and two loci previously identified in EA participants, SLC2A9 (P= 3.8 {\texttimes} 10(-32)) and SLC22A12 (P= 2.1 {\texttimes} 10(-10)). A novel rare non-synonymous variant of large effect size in SLC22A12, rs12800450 (minor allele frequency 0.01, G65W), was identified and replicated (beta -1.19 mg/dl, P= 2.7 {\texttimes} 10(-16)). (14)C-urate transport assays showed reduced urate transport for the G65W URAT1 mutant. Finally, in analyses of 11 loci previously associated with serum urate in EA individuals, 10 of 11 lead single-nucleotide polymorphisms showed direction-consistent association with urate among AA. In summary, we identified and replicated one novel locus in association with serum urate levels and experimentally characterize the novel G65W variant in URAT1 as a functional allele. Our data support the importance of multi-ethnic GWAS in the identification of novel risk loci as well as functional variants.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Animals, CHO Cells, Cricetinae, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Gout, Humans, Loss of Heterozygosity, Male, Middle Aged, Organic Anion Transporters, Organic Cation Transport Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Uric Acid, Young Adult}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddr307}, author = {Tin, Adrienne and Woodward, Owen M and Kao, Wen Hong Linda and Liu, Ching-Ti and Lu, Xiaoning and Nalls, Michael A and Shriner, Daniel and Semmo, Mariam and Akylbekova, Ermeg L and Wyatt, Sharon B and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Yang, Qiong and Zonderman, Alan B and Adeyemo, Adebowale A and Palmer, Cameron and Meng, Yan and Reilly, Muredach and Shlipak, Michael G and Siscovick, David and Evans, Michele K and Rotimi, Charles N and Flessner, Michael F and K{\"o}ttgen, Michael and Cupples, L Adrienne and Fox, Caroline S and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna} } @article {1261, title = {A genome-wide association study identifies novel loci associated with circulating IGF-I and IGFBP-3.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {20}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Mar 15}, pages = {1241-51}, abstract = {

Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) are involved in cell replication, proliferation, differentiation, protein synthesis, carbohydrate homeostasis and bone metabolism. Circulating IGF-I and IGFBP-3 concentrations predict anthropometric traits and risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. In a genome-wide association study of 10 280 middle-aged and older men and women from four community-based cohort studies, we confirmed a known association of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the IGFBP3 gene region on chromosome 7p12.3 with IGFBP-3 concentrations using a significance threshold of P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8) (P = 3.3 {\texttimes} 10(-101)). Furthermore, the same IGFBP3 gene locus (e.g. rs11977526) that was associated with IGFBP-3 concentrations was also associated with the opposite direction of effect, with IGF-I concentration after adjustment for IGFBP-3 concentration (P = 1.9 {\texttimes} 10(-26)). A novel and independent locus on chromosome 7p12.3 (rs700752) had genome-wide significant associations with higher IGFBP-3 (P = 4.4 {\texttimes} 10(-21)) and higher IGF-I (P = 4.9 {\texttimes} 10(-9)) concentrations; when the two measurements were adjusted for one another, the IGF-I association was attenuated but the IGFBP-3 association was not. Two additional loci demonstrated genome-wide significant associations with IGFBP-3 concentration (rs1065656, chromosome 16p13.3, P = 1.2 {\texttimes} 10(-11), IGFALS, a confirmatory finding; and rs4234798, chromosome 4p16.1, P = 4.5 {\texttimes} 10(-10), SORCS2, a novel finding). Together, the four genome-wide significant loci explained 6.5\% of the population variation in IGFBP-3 concentration. Furthermore, we observed a borderline statistically significant association between IGF-I concentration and FOXO3 (rs2153960, chromosome 6q21, P = 5.1 {\texttimes} 10(-7)), a locus associated with longevity. These genetic loci deserve further investigation to elucidate the biological basis for the observed associations and clarify their possible role in IGF-mediated regulation of cell growth and metabolism.

}, keywords = {Aged, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 7, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 3, Insulin-Like Growth Factor I, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddq560}, author = {Kaplan, Robert C and Petersen, Ann-Kristin and Chen, Ming-Huei and Teumer, Alexander and Glazer, Nicole L and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Lam, Carolyn S P and Friedrich, Nele and Newman, Anne and M{\"u}ller, Martina and Yang, Qiong and Homuth, Georg and Cappola, Anne and Klopp, Norman and Smith, Holly and Ernst, Florian and Psaty, Bruce M and Wichmann, H-Erich and Sawyer, Douglas B and Biffar, Reiner and Rotter, Jerome I and Gieger, Christian and Sullivan, Lisa S and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Rice, Kenneth and Spyroglou, Ariadni and Kroemer, Heyo K and Ida Chen, Y-D and Manolopoulou, Jenny and Nauck, Matthias and Strickler, Howard D and Goodarzi, Mark O and Reincke, Martin and Pollak, Michael N and Bidlingmaier, Martin and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wallaschofski, Henri} } @article {1324, title = {Genome-wide association study identifies six new loci influencing pulse pressure and mean arterial pressure.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {43}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep 11}, pages = {1005-11}, abstract = {

Numerous genetic loci have been associated with systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in Europeans. We now report genome-wide association studies of pulse pressure (PP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP). In discovery (N = 74,064) and follow-up studies (N = 48,607), we identified at genome-wide significance (P = 2.7 {\texttimes} 10(-8) to P = 2.3 {\texttimes} 10(-13)) four new PP loci (at 4q12 near CHIC2, 7q22.3 near PIK3CG, 8q24.12 in NOV and 11q24.3 near ADAMTS8), two new MAP loci (3p21.31 in MAP4 and 10q25.3 near ADRB1) and one locus associated with both of these traits (2q24.3 near FIGN) that has also recently been associated with SBP in east Asians. For three of the new PP loci, the estimated effect for SBP was opposite of that for DBP, in contrast to the majority of common SBP- and DBP-associated variants, which show concordant effects on both traits. These findings suggest new genetic pathways underlying blood pressure variation, some of which may differentially influence SBP and DBP.

}, keywords = {Arteries, Blood Pressure, Case-Control Studies, Follow-Up Studies, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Linkage Disequilibrium, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.922}, author = {Wain, Louise V and Verwoert, Germaine C and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Shi, Gang and Johnson, Toby and Johnson, Andrew D and Bochud, Murielle and Rice, Kenneth M and Henneman, Peter and Smith, Albert V and Ehret, Georg B and Amin, Najaf and Larson, Martin G and Mooser, Vincent and Hadley, David and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Bis, Joshua C and Aspelund, Thor and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Janssens, A Cecile J W and Zhao, Jing Hua and Heath, Simon and Laan, Maris and Fu, Jingyuan and Pistis, Giorgio and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Arora, Pankaj and Lucas, Gavin and Pirastu, Nicola and Pichler, Irene and Jackson, Anne U and Webster, Rebecca J and Zhang, Feng and Peden, John F and Schmidt, Helena and Tanaka, Toshiko and Campbell, Harry and Igl, Wilmar and Milaneschi, Yuri and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Vitart, Veronique and Chasman, Daniel I and Trompet, Stella and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer L and Alizadeh, Behrooz Z and Chambers, John C and Guo, Xiuqing and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Lopez, Lorna M and Polasek, Ozren and Boban, Mladen and Nelson, Christopher P and Morrison, Alanna C and Pihur, Vasyl and Ganesh, Santhi K and Hofman, Albert and Kundu, Suman and Mattace-Raso, Francesco U S and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wang, Thomas J and Bergmann, Sven and Vollenweider, Peter and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Laitinen, Jaana and Pouta, Anneli and Zitting, Paavo and McArdle, Wendy L and Kroemer, Heyo K and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Glazer, Nicole L and Taylor, Kent D and Harris, Tamara B and Alavere, Helene and Haller, Toomas and Keis, Aime and Tammesoo, Mari-Liis and Aulchenko, Yurii and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Galan, Pilar and Hercberg, Serge and Lathrop, Mark and Eyheramendy, Susana and Org, Elin and S{\~o}ber, Siim and Lu, Xiaowen and Nolte, Ilja M and Penninx, Brenda W and Corre, Tanguy and Masciullo, Corrado and Sala, Cinzia and Groop, Leif and Voight, Benjamin F and Melander, Olle and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Salomaa, Veikko and d{\textquoteright}Adamo, Adamo Pio and Fabretto, Antonella and Faletra, Flavio and Ulivi, Sheila and Del Greco, Fabiola M and Facheris, Maurizio and Collins, Francis S and Bergman, Richard N and Beilby, John P and Hung, Joseph and Musk, A William and Mangino, Massimo and Shin, So-Youn and Soranzo, Nicole and Watkins, Hugh and Goel, Anuj and Hamsten, Anders and Gider, Pierre and Loitfelder, Marisa and Zeginigg, Marion and Hernandez, Dena and Najjar, Samer S and Navarro, Pau and Wild, Sarah H and Corsi, Anna Maria and Singleton, Andrew and de Geus, Eco J C and Willemsen, Gonneke and Parker, Alex N and Rose, Lynda M and Buckley, Brendan and Stott, David and Orr{\`u}, Marco and Uda, Manuela and van der Klauw, Melanie M and Zhang, Weihua and Li, Xinzhong and Scott, James and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Burke, Gregory L and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Viikari, Jorma and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Meitinger, Thomas and Davies, Gail and Starr, John M and Emilsson, Valur and Plump, Andrew and Lindeman, Jan H and Hoen, Peter A C {\textquoteright}t and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Felix, Janine F and Clarke, Robert and Hopewell, Jemma C and Ongen, Halit and Breteler, Monique and Debette, Stephanie and DeStefano, Anita L and Fornage, Myriam and Mitchell, Gary F and Smith, Nicholas L and Holm, Hilma and Stefansson, Kari and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Samani, Nilesh J and Preuss, Michael and Rudan, Igor and Hayward, Caroline and Deary, Ian J and Wichmann, H-Erich and Raitakari, Olli T and Palmas, Walter and Kooner, Jaspal S and Stolk, Ronald P and Jukema, J Wouter and Wright, Alan F and Boomsma, Dorret I and Bandinelli, Stefania and Gyllensten, Ulf B and Wilson, James F and Ferrucci, Luigi and Schmidt, Reinhold and Farrall, Martin and Spector, Tim D and Palmer, Lyle J and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Pfeufer, Arne and Gasparini, Paolo and Siscovick, David and Altshuler, David and Loos, Ruth J F and Toniolo, Daniela and Snieder, Harold and Gieger, Christian and Meneton, Pierre and Wareham, Nicholas J and Oostra, Ben A and Metspalu, Andres and Launer, Lenore and Rettig, Rainer and Strachan, David P and Beckmann, Jacques S and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Erdmann, Jeanette and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Boerwinkle, Eric and Boehnke, Michael and Ridker, Paul M and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Levy, Daniel and Munroe, Patricia B and Psaty, Bruce M and Caulfield, Mark J and Rao, Dabeeru C and Tobin, Martin D and Elliott, Paul and van Duijn, Cornelia M} } @article {1307, title = {A genome-wide association study of aging.}, journal = {Neurobiol Aging}, volume = {32}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Nov}, pages = {2109.e15-28}, abstract = {

Human longevity and healthy aging show moderate heritability (20\%-50\%). We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies from 9 studies from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium for 2 outcomes: (1) all-cause mortality, and (2) survival free of major disease or death. No single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) was a genome-wide significant predictor of either outcome (p < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). We found 14 independent SNPs that predicted risk of death, and 8 SNPs that predicted event-free survival (p < 10(-5)). These SNPs are in or near genes that are highly expressed in the brain (HECW2, HIP1, BIN2, GRIA1), genes involved in neural development and function (KCNQ4, LMO4, GRIA1, NETO1) and autophagy (ATG4C), and genes that are associated with risk of various diseases including cancer and Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease. In addition to considerable overlap between the traits, pathway and network analysis corroborated these findings. These findings indicate that variation in genes involved in neurological processes may be an important factor in regulating aging free of major disease and achieving longevity.

}, keywords = {Aging, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Longevity}, issn = {1558-1497}, doi = {10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2011.05.026}, author = {Walter, Stefan and Atzmon, Gil and Demerath, Ellen W and Garcia, Melissa E and Kaplan, Robert C and Kumari, Meena and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Milaneschi, Yuri and Tanaka, Toshiko and Tranah, Gregory J and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Yu, Lei and Arnold, Alice and Benjamin, Emelia J and Biffar, Reiner and Buchman, Aron S and Boerwinkle, Eric and Couper, David and De Jager, Philip L and Evans, Denis A and Harris, Tamara B and Hoffmann, Wolfgang and Hofman, Albert and Karasik, David and Kiel, Douglas P and Kocher, Thomas and Kuningas, Maris and Launer, Lenore J and Lohman, Kurt K and Lutsey, Pamela L and Mackenbach, Johan and Marciante, Kristin and Psaty, Bruce M and Reiman, Eric M and Rotter, Jerome I and Seshadri, Sudha and Shardell, Michelle D and Smith, Albert V and van Duijn, Cornelia and Walston, Jeremy and Zillikens, M Carola and Bandinelli, Stefania and Baumeister, Sebastian E and Bennett, David A and Ferrucci, Luigi and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Kivimaki, Mika and Liu, Yongmei and Murabito, Joanne M and Newman, Anne B and Tiemeier, Henning and Franceschini, Nora} } @article {1263, title = {Health and function of participants in the Long Life Family Study: A comparison with other cohorts.}, journal = {Aging (Albany NY)}, volume = {3}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jan}, pages = {63-76}, abstract = {

Individuals from families recruited for the Long Life Family Study (LLFS) (n= 4559) were examined and compared to individuals from other cohorts to determine whether the recruitment targeting longevity resulted in a cohort of individuals with better health and function. Other cohorts with similar data included the Cardiovascular Health Study, the Framingham Heart Study, and the New England Centenarian Study. Diabetes, chronic pulmonary disease and peripheral artery disease tended to be less common in LLFS probands and offspring compared to similar aged persons in the other cohorts. Pulse pressure and triglycerides were lower, high density lipids were higher, and a perceptual speed task and gait speed were better in LLFS. Age-specific comparisons showed differences that would be consistent with a higher peak, later onset of decline or slower rate of change across age in LLFS participants. These findings suggest several priority phenotypes for inclusion in future genetic analysis to identify loci contributing to exceptional survival.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Female, Gait, Humans, Longevity, Male, Middle Aged, Psychomotor Performance, Research Design}, issn = {1945-4589}, doi = {10.18632/aging.100242}, author = {Newman, Anne B and Glynn, Nancy W and Taylor, Christopher A and Sebastiani, Paola and Perls, Thomas T and Mayeux, Richard and Christensen, Kaare and Zmuda, Joseph M and Barral, Sandra and Lee, Joseph H and Simonsick, Eleanor M and Walston, Jeremy D and Yashin, Anatoli I and Hadley, Evan} } @article {1266, title = {Higher serum free testosterone concentration in older women is associated with greater bone mineral density, lean body mass, and total fat mass: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {J Clin Endocrinol Metab}, volume = {96}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Apr}, pages = {989-96}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: The physiological importance of endogenous testosterone (T) in older women is poorly understood.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to determine the association of higher total and free T levels with bone mineral density (BMD), lean body mass, and fat mass in elderly women.

DESIGN: Total and free T were measured using sensitive assays in 232 community-dwelling women aged 67-94 yr who were enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study and had dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry scans. Cross-sectional analyses were performed to examine associations between total and free T and BMD and body composition.

RESULTS: In adjusted models, total T was directly associated with BMD at the lumbar spine (P = 0.04) and hip (P = 0.001), but not body composition outcomes, in all women, and after excluding estrogen users and adjusting for estradiol (P = 0.04 and 0.01, respectively). Free T was positively related to hip BMD, lean body mass, and body fat (all P < 0.05), with more than 10\% differences in each outcome between women at the highest and lowest ends of the free T range, with attenuation after excluding estrogen users and adjusting for estradiol.

CONCLUSIONS: In the setting of the low estradiol levels found in older women, circulating T levels were associated with bone density. Women with higher free T levels had greater lean body mass, consistent with the anabolic effect of T, and, in contrast to men, greater fat mass. Mechanistic studies are required to determine whether a causal relationship exists between T, bone, and body composition in this population and the degree to which any T effects are estrogen-independent.

}, keywords = {Adipose Tissue, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Body Mass Index, Bone Density, Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena, Cohort Studies, Female, Health, Humans, Organ Size, Osmolar Concentration, Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal, Testosterone, Thinness, Up-Regulation}, issn = {1945-7197}, doi = {10.1210/jc.2010-0926}, author = {Rariy, Chevon M and Ratcliffe, Sarah J and Weinstein, Rachel and Bhasin, Shalender and Blackman, Marc R and Cauley, Jane A and Robbins, John and Zmuda, Joseph M and Harris, Tamara B and Cappola, Anne R} } @article {1269, title = {Hypertension, white matter hyperintensities, and concurrent impairments in mobility, cognition, and mood: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {123}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Mar 01}, pages = {858-65}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Our objective was to investigate the association between hypertension and concurrent impairments in mobility, cognition, and mood; the role of brain white matter hyperintensities in mediating this association; and the impact of these impairments on disability and mortality in elderly hypertensive individuals.

METHODS AND RESULTS: -Blood pressure, gait speed, digit symbol substitution test, and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale were measured yearly (1992-1999) on 4700 participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study (age: 74.7, 58\% women, 17\% blacks, 68\% hypertension, 3600 had brain magnetic resonance imaging in 1992-1993, survival data 1992-2005). Using latent profile analysis at baseline, we found that 498 (11\%) subjects had concurrent impairments and 3086 (66\%) were intact on all 3 measures. Between 1992 and 1999, 651 (21\%) became impaired in all 3 domains. Hypertensive individuals were more likely to be impaired at baseline (odds ratio 1.23, 95\% confidence interval 1.04 to 1.42, P=0.01) and become impaired during the follow-up (hazard ratio=1.3, 95\% confidence interval 1.02 to 1.66, P=0.037). A greater degree of white matter hyperintensities was associated with impairments in the 3 domains (P=0.007) and mediated the association with hypertension (P=0.19 for hypertension after adjusting for white matter hyperintensities in the model, 21\% hazard ratio change). Impairments in the 3 domains increased subsequent disability with hypertension (P<0.0001). Hypertension mortality also was increased in those impaired (compared with unimpaired hypertensive individuals: HR=1.10, 95\% confidence interval 1.04 to 1.17, P=0.004).

CONCLUSIONS: Hypertension increases the risk of concurrent impairments in mobility, cognition, and mood, which increases disability and mortality. This association is mediated in part by microvascular brain injury.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Brain, Cognition Disorders, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Longitudinal Studies, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Microcirculation, Mobility Limitation, Mood Disorders, Nerve Fibers, Myelinated, Retrospective Studies, Risk Factors}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.978114}, author = {Hajjar, Ihab and Quach, Lien and Yang, Frances and Chaves, Paulo H M and Newman, Anne B and Mukamal, Kenneth and Longstreth, Will and Inzitari, Marco and Lipsitz, Lewis A} } @article {1304, title = {Identification of a sudden cardiac death susceptibility locus at 2q24.2 through genome-wide association in European ancestry individuals.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jun}, pages = {e1002158}, abstract = {

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) continues to be one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide, with an annual incidence estimated at 250,000-300,000 in the United States and with the vast majority occurring in the setting of coronary disease. We performed a genome-wide association meta-analysis in 1,283 SCD cases and >20,000 control individuals of European ancestry from 5 studies, with follow-up genotyping in up to 3,119 SCD cases and 11,146 controls from 11 European ancestry studies, and identify the BAZ2B locus as associated with SCD (P = 1.8{\texttimes}10(-10)). The risk allele, while ancestral, has a frequency of ~1.4\%, suggesting strong negative selection and increases risk for SCD by 1.92-fold per allele (95\% CI 1.57-2.34). We also tested the role of 49 SNPs previously implicated in modulating electrocardiographic traits (QRS, QT, and RR intervals). Consistent with epidemiological studies showing increased risk of SCD with prolonged QRS/QT intervals, the interval-prolonging alleles are in aggregate associated with increased risk for SCD (P = 0.006).

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Alleles, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 2, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Myocardial Contraction, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002158}, author = {Arking, Dan E and Junttila, M Juhani and Goyette, Philippe and Huertas-Vazquez, Adriana and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Blom, Marieke T and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Reinier, Kyndaron and Teodorescu, Carmen and Uy-Evanado, Audrey and Carter-Monroe, Naima and Kaikkonen, Kari S and Kortelainen, Marja-Leena and Boucher, Gabrielle and Lagac{\'e}, Caroline and Moes, Anna and Zhao, XiaoQing and Kolodgie, Frank and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Hofman, Albert and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Marsman, Roos F and Pazoki, Raha and Bardai, Abdennasser and Koster, Rudolph W and Dehghan, Abbas and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Bhatnagar, Pallav and Post, Wendy and Hilton, Gina and Prineas, Ronald J and Li, Man and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Ehret, Georg and Boerwinkle, Eric and Coresh, Josef and Kao, W H Linda and Psaty, Bruce M and Tomaselli, Gordon F and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Siscovick, David S and Burke, Greg L and Marb{\'a}n, Eduardo and Spooner, Peter M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Jui, Jonathan and Gunson, Karen and Kesaniemi, Y Antero and Wilde, Arthur A M and Tardif, Jean-Claude and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Bezzina, Connie R and Virmani, Renu and Stricker, Bruno H C H and Tan, Hanno L and Albert, Christine M and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Rioux, John D and Huikuri, Heikki V and Chugh, Sumeet S} } @article {1316, title = {Large-scale candidate gene analysis in whites and African Americans identifies IL6R polymorphism in relation to atrial fibrillation: the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute{\textquoteright}s Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) project.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {4}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Oct}, pages = {557-64}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The genetic background of atrial fibrillation (AF) in whites and African Americans is largely unknown. Genes in cardiovascular pathways have not been systematically investigated.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We examined a panel of approximately 50,000 common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 2095 cardiovascular candidate genes and AF in 3 cohorts with participants of European (n=18,524; 2260 cases) or African American descent (n=3662; 263 cases) in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute{\textquoteright}s Candidate Gene Association Resource. Results in whites were followed up in the German Competence Network for AF (n=906, 468 cases). The top result was assessed in relation to incident ischemic stroke in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Stroke Consortium (n=19,602 whites, 1544 incident strokes). SNP rs4845625 in the IL6R gene was associated with AF (relative risk [RR] C allele, 0.90; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 0.85-0.95; P=0.0005) in whites but did not reach statistical significance in African Americans (RR, 0.86; 95\% CI, 0.72-1.03; P=0.09). The results were comparable in the German AF Network replication, (RR, 0.71; 95\% CI, 0.57-0.89; P=0.003). No association between rs4845625 and stroke was observed in whites. The known chromosome 4 locus near PITX2 in whites also was associated with AF in African Americans (rs4611994; hazard ratio, 1.40; 95\% CI, 1.16-1.69; P=0.0005).

CONCLUSIONS: In a community-based cohort meta-analysis, we identified genetic association in IL6R with AF in whites. Additionally, we demonstrated that the chromosome 4 locus known from recent genome-wide association studies in whites is associated with AF in African Americans.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Alleles, Atrial Fibrillation, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 4, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.), Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, Interleukin-6, Risk Factors, Stroke, United States}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.110.959197}, author = {Schnabel, Renate B and Kerr, Kathleen F and Lubitz, Steven A and Alkylbekova, Ermeg L and Marcus, Gregory M and Sinner, Moritz F and Magnani, Jared W and Wolf, Philip A and Deo, Rajat and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Mehra, Reena and Levy, Daniel and Fox, Ervin R and Arking, Dan E and Mosley, Thomas H and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Young, Taylor R and Wichmann, H-Erich and Seshadri, Sudha and Farlow, Deborah N and Rotter, Jerome I and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Glazer, Nicole L and Wilson, James G and Breteler, Monique M B and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Ellinor, Patrick T and Alonso, Alvaro and Benjamin, Emelia J and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {1265, title = {Leukocyte telomere length and mortality in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {66}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Apr}, pages = {421-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is related to diseases of aging, but studies of mortality have been inconsistent.

METHODS: We evaluated LTL in relation to total mortality and specific cause of death in 1,136 participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study who provided blood samples in 1992-1993 and survived through 1997-1998. LTL was measured by Southern blots of the terminal restriction fragments. Cause of death was classified by a committee of physicians reviewing death certificates, medical records, and informant interviews.

RESULTS: A total of 468 (41.2\%) deaths occurred over 6.1 years of follow-up in participants with mean age of 73.9 years (SD 4.7), 65.4\% female, and 14.8\% African American. Although increased age and male gender were associated with shorter LTLs, African Americans had significantly longer LTLs independent of age and sex (p < .001). Adjusted for age, sex, and race, persons with the shortest quartile of LTL were 60\% more likely to die during follow-up than those within the longest quartile (hazard ratio: 1.61, 95\% confidence interval: 1.22-2.12, p = .001). The association remained after adjustment for cardiovascular disease risk factors. Evaluations of cause of death found LTL to be related to deaths due to an infectious disease etiology (hazard ratio: 2.80, 95\% confidence interval: 1.32-5.94, p = .007), whereas a borderline association was found for cardiac deaths (hazard ratio: 1.82, 95\% confidence interval: 0.95-3.49, p = .07) in adjusted models. Risk estimates for deaths due to cancer, dementia, and ischemic stroke were not significant.

CONCLUSION: These data weakly corroborate prior findings of associations between LTL and mortality in the elderly.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Body Mass Index, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cause of Death, Comorbidity, Coronary Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Leukocytes, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Prospective Studies, Smoking, Stroke, Telomere}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glq224}, author = {Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Kronmal, Richard A and Kimura, Masayuki and Gardner, Jeffrey P and Psaty, Bruce M and Jenny, Nancy S and Tracy, Russell P and Hardikar, Sheetal and Aviv, Abraham} } @article {1250, title = {Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A(2) and future risk of subclinical disease and cardiovascular events in individuals with type 2 diabetes: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Diabetologia}, volume = {54}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Feb}, pages = {329-33}, abstract = {

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Type 2 diabetes is an established risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). This increased risk may be due in part to the increased levels of inflammatory factors associated with diabetes. Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A(2) (Lp-PLA(2)) is a risk marker for CVD and has pro-inflammatory effects in atherosclerotic plaques. We therefore sought to determine whether Lp-PLA(2) levels partially explain the greater prevalence of subclinical CVD and greater incidence of CVD outcomes associated with type 2 diabetes in the Cardiovascular Health Study.

METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional and prospective study of 4,062 men and women without previous CVD from the Cardiovascular Health Study (1989 to 2007). Lp-PLA(2) mass and activity were measured in baseline plasma. Subclinical disease was determined at baseline and incident CVD was ascertained annually. We used logistic regression for cross-sectional analyses and Cox proportional hazards models for incident analyses.

RESULTS: At baseline, Lp-PLA(2) mass did not differ significantly by type 2 diabetes status; however, Lp-PLA(2) activity was significantly higher among type 2 diabetic individuals. Baseline subclinical disease was significantly associated with baseline diabetes and this association was similar in models unadjusted or adjusted for Lp-PLA(2) (OR 1.68 [95\% CI 1.31-2.15] vs OR 1.67 [95\% CI 1.30-2.13]). Baseline type 2 diabetes was also significantly associated with incident CVD events, including fatal CHD, fatal myocardial infarction (MI) and non-fatal MI in multivariable analyses. There were no differences in these estimates after further adjustment for Lp-PLA(2) activity.

CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: In this older cohort, differences in Lp-PLA(2) activity did not explain any of the excess risk for subclinical disease or CVD outcomes related to diabetes.

}, keywords = {1-Alkyl-2-acetylglycerophosphocholine Esterase, Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Female, Humans, Male, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors}, issn = {1432-0428}, doi = {10.1007/s00125-010-1969-4}, author = {Nelson, T L and Kamineni, A and Psaty, B and Cushman, M and Jenny, N S and Hokanson, J and Furberg, C and Mukamal, K J} } @article {1295, title = {Longer legs are associated with greater risk of incident venous thromboembolism independent of total body height. The Longitudinal Study of Thromboembolism Etiology (LITE).}, journal = {Thromb Haemost}, volume = {106}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jul}, pages = {113-20}, abstract = {

Several studies have reported that taller individuals are at greater risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). We hypothesised that longer leg length would be positively associated with incident VTE, and would explain the height association. LITE ascertained VTE in a prospective population-based sample of 21,860 individuals aged 45 and older. Leg length was measured as standing height minus torso length. Cox regression models were adjusted for age, race, sex, waist circumference, diabetes, and factor VIII. To evaluate whether leg length was associated with VTE risk independent of height, we standardised leg length and height per 1 standard deviation (SD), and then included them simultaneously in Cox regression models. A total of 641 incident VTE cases accrued over a median follow-up of 16 years. Participants in the highest quintile of leg length were at 59\% (95\% CI: 22\%-108\%) greater risk of VTE, relative to the lowest quintile. For height, risk was 45\% (12\%-88\%) greater for those in the highest quintile, compared to the lowest. When leg length and height were modelled simultaneously leg length remained associated with VTE risk (HR per 1 SD: 1.21 (1.04-1.40) while height was unrelated (HR per 1 SD: 1.00 (0.86-1.16). To conclude, participants with longer legs were at greater risk of incident VTE, and leg length explained the relation of height to VTE. It remains to be established whether this finding is due to greater venous surface area, a larger number of venous valves, or greater hydrostatic pressure among individuals with longer legs.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Anthropometry, Body Height, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Leg, Male, Middle Aged, Population Groups, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, United States, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {2567-689X}, doi = {10.1160/TH11-02-0100}, author = {Lutsey, Pamela L and Cushman, Mary and Heckbert, Susan R and Tang, Weihong and Folsom, Aaron R} } @article {1296, title = {Longitudinal changes in adiponectin and inflammatory markers and relation to survival in the oldest old: the Cardiovascular Health Study All Stars study.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {66}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Oct}, pages = {1100-7}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Adiponectin has anti-inflammatory properties, and its production is suppressed by inflammatory factors. Although elevated levels of adiponectin and inflammatory markers each predict mortality in older adults, the implications of their interdependent actions have not been examined.

METHODS: We investigated the joint associations of levels and interval changes in adiponectin, C-reactive protein (CRP), and interleukin 6 (IL-6) with risk of death in 840 older adults participating in a population-based study. Adiponectin, CRP, and IL-6 were measured in samples collected 8.9 (8.2-9.8) years apart, and all-cause mortality was subsequently ascertained (n = 176).

RESULTS: Interval changes and end levels of adiponectin, CRP, and IL-6 showed mostly positive, independent associations with mortality, without evidence of multiplicative interaction. Joint models, however, showed an U-shaped relationship between end level of adiponectin and outcome (hazard ratio [HR] [95\% CI] = 0.72 [0.52-0.99] per standard deviation [SD] for levels <20.0 mg/L; HR = 1.91 [1.61-3.44] per SD for levels >=20.0 mg/L). Participants with the greatest longitudinal increases (upper quartile) in both adiponectin and inflammatory markers had a higher risk of death (HR = 2.85 [1.78-4.58]) than those with large increases in adiponectin alone (HR = 1.87 [1.20-2.92]) (p = .043), but not inflammatory markers alone (HR = 2.48 [1.67-3.67]) (p = .55), as compared with smaller changes for both.

CONCLUSION: Higher levels or interval change in adiponectin and inflammatory markers predict increased mortality in older persons independent of each other, although for adiponectin, the association appears inverse below 20 mg/L. These findings suggest that inflammatory and noninflammatory mechanisms governing aging-related decline operate in parallel and provide a potential explanation for paradoxical adiponectin-outcome associations reported previously.

}, keywords = {Adiponectin, Aged, 80 and over, Biomarkers, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Chi-Square Distribution, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Female, Humans, Inflammation, Interleukin-6, Male, Mortality, Predictive Value of Tests, Risk Factors, Sensitivity and Specificity, Survival Analysis, United States}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glr098}, author = {Kizer, Jorge R and Arnold, Alice M and Jenny, Nancy S and Cushman, Mary and Strotmeyer, Elsa S and Ives, Diane G and Ding, Jingzhong and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Chaves, Paulo H M and Hirsch, Calvin H and Newman, Anne B} } @article {1318, title = {Measurement of organ structure and function enhances understanding of the physiological basis of frailty: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {59}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep}, pages = {1581-8}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether disease burden is associated with frailty independent of diagnosed chronic disease and whether physiological measurements provide greater understanding of the etiology of frailty.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional.

SETTING: Community.

PARTICIPANTS: Two thousand four hundred thirty-seven participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study, 1992/93 examination (mean age 74.8 {\textpm} 4.8, 43.4\% male, 95.8\% white).

MEASUREMENTS: Disease burden and frailty were tabulated using 10-point scales (0 = healthy, 10 = unhealthy). Disease burden was the sum of measurements characterizing the vasculature, brain, kidneys, lungs, and glucose metabolism. Frailty was assessed using the frailty index reported by Fried. Multivariate linear models were used to determine the association between disease burden (predictor) and frailty (outcome).

RESULTS: Unadjusted, 1-point-higher disease burden was associated with a 0.28-point-higher frailty score (P < .001). White matter grade, forced vital capacity, and cystatin-C were particularly strongly and significantly associated with frailty. Disease burden attenuated the association between frailty and age by 29\%, and disease burden and age had similar associations with frailty. Disease burden attenuated the association between frailty and fibrinogen, Factor VIII, and C-reactive protein by 32\%, 56\%, and 83\%, respectively. Frailty was associated with diagnosed depression, stroke, cognitive impairment, arthritis, and pulmonary disease but not coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus, or kidney disease in the presence of a summary of disease burden. In the adjusted model, disease burden remained significantly associated with frailty (β = 0.11, P < .001).

CONCLUSION: Disease burden was independently and significantly associated with frailty. These results emphasize that typically unrecognized physiological changes may contribute significantly to frailty.

}, keywords = {Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Chronic Disease, Cost of Illness, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Frail Elderly, Humans, Male}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/j.1532-5415.2011.03557.x}, author = {Sanders, Jason L and Boudreau, Robert M and Fried, Linda P and Walston, Jeremy D and Harris, Tamara B and Newman, Anne B} } @article {1258, title = {Meta-analysis of gene-environment interaction: joint estimation of SNP and SNP {\texttimes} environment regression coefficients.}, journal = {Genet Epidemiol}, volume = {35}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jan}, pages = {11-8}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: Genetic discoveries are validated through the meta-analysis of genome-wide association scans in large international consortia. Because environmental variables may interact with genetic factors, investigation of differing genetic effects for distinct levels of an environmental exposure in these large consortia may yield additional susceptibility loci undetected by main effects analysis. We describe a method of joint meta-analysis (JMA) of SNP and SNP by Environment (SNP {\texttimes} E) regression coefficients for use in gene-environment interaction studies.

METHODS: In testing SNP {\texttimes} E interactions, one approach uses a two degree of freedom test to identify genetic variants that influence the trait of interest. This approach detects both main and interaction effects between the trait and the SNP. We propose a method to jointly meta-analyze the SNP and SNP {\texttimes} E coefficients using multivariate generalized least squares. This approach provides confidence intervals of the two estimates, a joint significance test for SNP and SNP {\texttimes} E terms, and a test of homogeneity across samples.

RESULTS: We present a simulation study comparing this method to four other methods of meta-analysis and demonstrate that the JMA performs better than the others when both main and interaction effects are present. Additionally, we implemented our methods in a meta-analysis of the association between SNPs from the type 2 diabetes-associated gene PPARG and log-transformed fasting insulin levels and interaction by body mass index in a combined sample of 19,466 individuals from five cohorts.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Body Mass Index, Confidence Intervals, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Environment, Fasting, Female, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Insulin, Least-Squares Analysis, Male, Mathematical Computing, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, PPAR gamma}, issn = {1098-2272}, doi = {10.1002/gepi.20546}, author = {Manning, Alisa K and LaValley, Michael and Liu, Ching-Ti and Rice, Kenneth and An, Ping and Liu, Yongmei and Miljkovic, Iva and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura and Harris, Tamara B and Province, Michael A and Borecki, Ingrid B and Florez, Jose C and Meigs, James B and Cupples, L Adrienne and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e} } @article {1323, title = {Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies from the CHARGE consortium identifies common variants associated with carotid intima media thickness and plaque.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {43}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep 11}, pages = {940-7}, abstract = {

Carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) and plaque determined by ultrasonography are established measures of subclinical atherosclerosis that each predicts future cardiovascular disease events. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association data in 31,211 participants of European ancestry from nine large studies in the setting of the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium. We then sought additional evidence to support our findings among 11,273 individuals using data from seven additional studies. In the combined meta-analysis, we identified three genomic regions associated with common carotid intima media thickness and two different regions associated with the presence of carotid plaque (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). The associated SNPs mapped in or near genes related to cellular signaling, lipid metabolism and blood pressure homeostasis, and two of the regions were associated with coronary artery disease (P < 0.006) in the Coronary Artery Disease Genome-Wide Replication and Meta-Analysis (CARDIoGRAM) consortium. Our findings may provide new insight into pathways leading to subclinical atherosclerosis and subsequent cardiovascular events.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aging, Atherosclerosis, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Cohort Studies, Coronary Artery Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Heart, Humans, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Plaque, Atherosclerotic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.920}, author = {Bis, Joshua C and Kavousi, Maryam and Franceschini, Nora and Isaacs, Aaron and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Schminke, Ulf and Post, Wendy S and Smith, Albert V and Cupples, L Adrienne and Markus, Hugh S and Schmidt, Reinhold and Huffman, Jennifer E and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Baumert, Jens and M{\"u}nzel, Thomas and Heckbert, Susan R and Dehghan, Abbas and North, Kari and Oostra, Ben and Bevan, Steve and Stoegerer, Eva-Maria and Hayward, Caroline and Raitakari, Olli and Meisinger, Christa and Schillert, Arne and Sanna, Serena and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Thorsson, Bolli and Fox, Caroline S and Rice, Kenneth and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Nambi, Vijay and Halperin, Eran and Petrovic, Katja E and Peltonen, Leena and Wichmann, H Erich and Schnabel, Renate B and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Parsa, Afshin and Aspelund, Thor and Demissie, Serkalem and Kathiresan, Sekar and Reilly, Muredach P and Taylor, Kent and Uitterlinden, Andre and Couper, David J and Sitzer, Matthias and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Illig, Thomas and Wild, Philipp S and Orr{\`u}, Marco and L{\"u}demann, Jan and Shuldiner, Alan R and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and White, Charles C and Rotter, Jerome I and Hofman, Albert and Seissler, Jochen and Zeller, Tanja and Usala, Gianluca and Ernst, Florian and Launer, Lenore J and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, Ralph B and O{\textquoteright}Leary, Daniel H and Ballantyne, Christie and Thiery, Joachim and Ziegler, Andreas and Lakatta, Edward G and Chilukoti, Ravi Kumar and Harris, Tamara B and Wolf, Philip A and Psaty, Bruce M and Polak, Joseph F and Li, Xia and Rathmann, Wolfgang and Uda, Manuela and Boerwinkle, Eric and Klopp, Norman and Schmidt, Helena and Wilson, James F and Viikari, Jorma and Koenig, Wolfgang and Blankenberg, Stefan and Newman, Anne B and Witteman, Jacqueline and Heiss, Gerardo and Duijn, Cornelia van and Scuteri, Angelo and Homuth, Georg and Mitchell, Braxton D and Gudnason, Vilmundur and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} } @article {1267, title = {Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in >80 000 subjects identifies multiple loci for C-reactive protein levels.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {123}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Feb 22}, pages = {731-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: C-reactive protein (CRP) is a heritable marker of chronic inflammation that is strongly associated with cardiovascular disease. We sought to identify genetic variants that are associated with CRP levels.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We performed a genome-wide association analysis of CRP in 66 185 participants from 15 population-based studies. We sought replication for the genome-wide significant and suggestive loci in a replication panel comprising 16 540 individuals from 10 independent studies. We found 18 genome-wide significant loci, and we provided evidence of replication for 8 of them. Our results confirm 7 previously known loci and introduce 11 novel loci that are implicated in pathways related to the metabolic syndrome (APOC1, HNF1A, LEPR, GCKR, HNF4A, and PTPN2) or the immune system (CRP, IL6R, NLRP3, IL1F10, and IRF1) or that reside in regions previously not known to play a role in chronic inflammation (PPP1R3B, SALL1, PABPC4, ASCL1, RORA, and BCL7B). We found a significant interaction of body mass index with LEPR (P<2.9{\texttimes}10(-6)). A weighted genetic risk score that was developed to summarize the effect of risk alleles was strongly associated with CRP levels and explained ≈5\% of the trait variance; however, there was no evidence for these genetic variants explaining the association of CRP with coronary heart disease.

CONCLUSIONS: We identified 18 loci that were associated with CRP levels. Our study highlights immune response and metabolic regulatory pathways involved in the regulation of chronic inflammation.

}, keywords = {Biomarkers, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Risk Factors, Vasculitis}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.948570}, author = {Dehghan, Abbas and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Barbalic, Maja and Bis, Joshua C and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Lu, Chen and Pellikka, Niina and Wallaschofski, Henri and Kettunen, Johannes and Henneman, Peter and Baumert, Jens and Strachan, David P and Fuchsberger, Christian and Vitart, Veronique and Wilson, James F and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Naitza, Silvia and Rudock, Megan E and Surakka, Ida and de Geus, Eco J C and Alizadeh, Behrooz Z and Guralnik, Jack and Shuldiner, Alan and Tanaka, Toshiko and Zee, Robert Y L and Schnabel, Renate B and Nambi, Vijay and Kavousi, Maryam and Ripatti, Samuli and Nauck, Matthias and Smith, Nicholas L and Smith, Albert V and Sundvall, Jouko and Scheet, Paul and Liu, Yongmei and Ruokonen, Aimo and Rose, Lynda M and Larson, Martin G and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Freimer, Nelson B and Teumer, Alexander and Tracy, Russell P and Launer, Lenore J and Buring, Julie E and Yamamoto, Jennifer F and Folsom, Aaron R and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Pankow, James and Elliott, Paul and Keaney, John F and Sun, Wei and Sarin, Antti-Pekka and Fontes, Jo{\~a}o D and Badola, Sunita and Astor, Brad C and Hofman, Albert and Pouta, Anneli and Werdan, Karl and Greiser, Karin H and Kuss, Oliver and Meyer zu Schwabedissen, Henriette E and Thiery, Joachim and Jamshidi, Yalda and Nolte, Ilja M and Soranzo, Nicole and Spector, Timothy D and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Parker, Alexander N and Aspelund, Thor and Bates, David and Young, Lauren and Tsui, Kim and Siscovick, David S and Guo, Xiuqing and Rotter, Jerome I and Uda, Manuela and Schlessinger, David and Rudan, Igor and Hicks, Andrew A and Penninx, Brenda W and Thorand, Barbara and Gieger, Christian and Coresh, Joe and Willemsen, Gonneke and Harris, Tamara B and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Rice, Kenneth and Radke, D{\"o}rte and Salomaa, Veikko and Willems van Dijk, Ko and Boerwinkle, Eric and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Ferrucci, Luigi and Gibson, Quince D and Bandinelli, Stefania and Snieder, Harold and Boomsma, Dorret I and Xiao, Xiangjun and Campbell, Harry and Hayward, Caroline and Pramstaller, Peter P and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Peltonen, Leena and Psaty, Bruce M and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Ridker, Paul M and Homuth, Georg and Koenig, Wolfgang and Ballantyne, Christie M and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Benjamin, Emelia J and Perola, Markus and Chasman, Daniel I} } @article {1285, title = {Mineral metabolism markers and the long-term risk of hip fracture: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {J Clin Endocrinol Metab}, volume = {96}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jul}, pages = {2186-93}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Disturbances in mineral metabolism are associated with lower bone mineral density and fracture; however, previous human studies have assessed individual mineral metabolism markers in isolation.

OBJECTIVE: We assessed serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD), PTH, and bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BAP) concentrations individually, and in combination, in association with the long-term risk of hip fracture among a general population of older adults.

DESIGN AND SETTING: We studied 2294 participants from the Cardiovascular Health Study (mean age 74 yr) who were ambulatory and free of hip fracture and known cardiovascular disease at baseline. We used proportional hazards models to evaluate associations of baseline serum 25-OHD, PTH, and BAP concentrations with the time to first hospitalized hip fracture.

RESULTS: During a median of 13 yr of follow-up, 242 participants (10.6\%) developed an incident hip fracture. Serum 25-OHD concentrations less than 15 ng/ml were associated with a 61\% greater adjusted risk of fracture (95\% confidence interval 12-132\% greater). In contrast, neither serum PTH nor BAP concentrations were significantly associated with fracture risk. The association of 25-OHD deficiency with hip fracture was not significantly altered by either PTH or BAP concentrations.

CONCLUSIONS: Serum concentrations of 25-OHD, but not PTH or BAP, are associated with long-term hip fracture risk among ambulatory older adults. These data suggest that 25-OHD is the most relevant mineral metabolism marker of fracture risk among older people.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alkaline Phosphatase, Biomarkers, Bone Density, Female, Hip Fractures, Humans, Male, Parathyroid Hormone, Risk, Vitamin D}, issn = {1945-7197}, doi = {10.1210/jc.2010-2878}, author = {Robinson-Cohen, Cassianne and Katz, Ronit and Hoofnagle, Andrew N and Cauley, Jane A and Furberg, Curt D and Robbins, John A and Chen, Zhao and Siscovick, David S and de Boer, Ian H and Kestenbaum, Bryan} } @article {1355, title = {New gene functions in megakaryopoiesis and platelet formation.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {480}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Nov 30}, pages = {201-8}, abstract = {

Platelets are the second most abundant cell type in blood and are essential for maintaining haemostasis. Their count and volume are tightly controlled within narrow physiological ranges, but there is only limited understanding of the molecular processes controlling both traits. Here we carried out a high-powered meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in up to 66,867 individuals of European ancestry, followed by extensive biological and functional assessment. We identified 68 genomic loci reliably associated with platelet count and volume mapping to established and putative novel regulators of megakaryopoiesis and platelet formation. These genes show megakaryocyte-specific gene expression patterns and extensive network connectivity. Using gene silencing in Danio rerio and Drosophila melanogaster, we identified 11 of the genes as novel regulators of blood cell formation. Taken together, our findings advance understanding of novel gene functions controlling fate-determining events during megakaryopoiesis and platelet formation, providing a new example of successful translation of GWAS to function.

}, keywords = {Animals, Blood Platelets, Cell Size, Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila Proteins, Europe, Gene Expression Profiling, Gene Silencing, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hematopoiesis, Humans, Megakaryocytes, Platelet Count, Protein Interaction Maps, Transcription, Genetic, Zebrafish, Zebrafish Proteins}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature10659}, author = {Gieger, Christian and Radhakrishnan, Aparna and Cvejic, Ana and Tang, Weihong and Porcu, Eleonora and Pistis, Giorgio and Serbanovic-Canic, Jovana and Elling, Ulrich and Goodall, Alison H and Labrune, Yann and Lopez, Lorna M and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Meacham, Stuart and Okada, Yukinori and Pirastu, Nicola and Sorice, Rossella and Teumer, Alexander and Voss, Katrin and Zhang, Weihua and Ramirez-Solis, Ramiro and Bis, Joshua C and Ellinghaus, David and G{\"o}gele, Martin and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Langenberg, Claudia and Kovacs, Peter and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Shin, So-Youn and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Hartiala, Jaana and Kanoni, Stavroula and Murgia, Federico and Parsa, Afshin and Stephens, Jonathan and van der Harst, Pim and Ellen van der Schoot, C and Allayee, Hooman and Attwood, Antony and Balkau, Beverley and Bastardot, Fran{\c c}ois and Basu, Saonli and Baumeister, Sebastian E and Biino, Ginevra and Bomba, Lorenzo and Bonnefond, Am{\'e}lie and Cambien, Francois and Chambers, John C and Cucca, Francesco and D{\textquoteright}Adamo, Pio and Davies, Gail and de Boer, Rudolf A and de Geus, Eco J C and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Elliott, Paul and Erdmann, Jeanette and Evans, David M and Falchi, Mario and Feng, Wei and Folsom, Aaron R and Frazer, Ian H and Gibson, Quince D and Glazer, Nicole L and Hammond, Chris and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Heckbert, Susan R and Hengstenberg, Christian and Hersch, Micha and Illig, Thomas and Loos, Ruth J F and Jolley, Jennifer and Khaw, Kay Tee and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Kyrtsonis, Marie-Christine and Lagou, Vasiliki and Lloyd-Jones, Heather and Lumley, Thomas and Mangino, Massimo and Maschio, Andrea and Mateo Leach, Irene and McKnight, Barbara and Memari, Yasin and Mitchell, Braxton D and Montgomery, Grant W and Nakamura, Yusuke and Nauck, Matthias and Navis, Gerjan and N{\"o}thlings, Ute and Nolte, Ilja M and Porteous, David J and Pouta, Anneli and Pramstaller, Peter P and Pullat, Janne and Ring, Susan M and Rotter, Jerome I and Ruggiero, Daniela and Ruokonen, Aimo and Sala, Cinzia and Samani, Nilesh J and Sambrook, Jennifer and Schlessinger, David and Schreiber, Stefan and Schunkert, Heribert and Scott, James and Smith, Nicholas L and Snieder, Harold and Starr, John M and Stumvoll, Michael and Takahashi, Atsushi and Tang, W H Wilson and Taylor, Kent and Tenesa, Albert and Lay Thein, Swee and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Uda, Manuela and Ulivi, Sheila and van Veldhuisen, Dirk J and Visscher, Peter M and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wichmann, H-Erich and Wiggins, Kerri L and Willemsen, Gonneke and Yang, Tsun-Po and Hua Zhao, Jing and Zitting, Paavo and Bradley, John R and Dedoussis, George V and Gasparini, Paolo and Hazen, Stanley L and Metspalu, Andres and Pirastu, Mario and Shuldiner, Alan R and Joost van Pelt, L and Zwaginga, Jaap-Jan and Boomsma, Dorret I and Deary, Ian J and Franke, Andre and Froguel, Philippe and Ganesh, Santhi K and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Martin, Nicholas G and Meisinger, Christa and Psaty, Bruce M and Spector, Timothy D and Wareham, Nicholas J and Akkerman, Jan-Willem N and Ciullo, Marina and Deloukas, Panos and Greinacher, Andreas and Jupe, Steve and Kamatani, Naoyuki and Khadake, Jyoti and Kooner, Jaspal S and Penninger, Josef and Prokopenko, Inga and Stemple, Derek and Toniolo, Daniela and Wernisch, Lorenz and Sanna, Serena and Hicks, Andrew A and Rendon, Augusto and Ferreira, Manuel A and Ouwehand, Willem H and Soranzo, Nicole} } @article {1313, title = {The Next PAGE in understanding complex traits: design for the analysis of Population Architecture Using Genetics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Study.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, volume = {174}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Oct 01}, pages = {849-59}, abstract = {

Genetic studies have identified thousands of variants associated with complex traits. However, most association studies are limited to populations of European descent and a single phenotype. The Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Study was initiated in 2008 by the National Human Genome Research Institute to investigate the epidemiologic architecture of well-replicated genetic variants associated with complex diseases in several large, ethnically diverse population-based studies. Combining DNA samples and hundreds of phenotypes from multiple cohorts, PAGE is well-suited to address generalization of associations and variability of effects in diverse populations; identify genetic and environmental modifiers; evaluate disease subtypes, intermediate phenotypes, and biomarkers; and investigate associations with novel phenotypes. PAGE investigators harmonize phenotypes across studies where possible and perform coordinated cohort-specific analyses and meta-analyses. PAGE researchers are genotyping thousands of genetic variants in up to 121,000 DNA samples from African-American, white, Hispanic/Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian participants. Initial analyses will focus on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with obesity, lipids, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, inflammation, various cancers, and related biomarkers. PAGE SNPs are also assessed for pleiotropy using the "phenome-wide association study" approach, testing each SNP for associations with hundreds of phenotypes. PAGE data will be deposited into the National Center for Biotechnology Information{\textquoteright}s Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes and made available via a custom browser.

}, keywords = {Epidemiologic Methods, Epidemiologic Research Design, Ethnic Groups, Genetic Association Studies, Genetics, Population, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Interinstitutional Relations, Multifactorial Inheritance, National Human Genome Research Institute (U.S.), Phenotype, Pilot Projects, Research Design, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {1476-6256}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kwr160}, author = {Matise, Tara C and Ambite, Jose Luis and Buyske, Steven and Carlson, Christopher S and Cole, Shelley A and Crawford, Dana C and Haiman, Christopher A and Heiss, Gerardo and Kooperberg, Charles and Marchand, Loic Le and Manolio, Teri A and North, Kari E and Peters, Ulrike and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Hindorff, Lucia A and Haines, Jonathan L} } @article {1346, title = {NK-like T cells and plasma cytokines, but not anti-viral serology, define immune fingerprints of resilience and mild disability in exceptional aging.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {6}, year = {2011}, month = {2011}, pages = {e26558}, abstract = {

Exceptional aging has been defined as maintenance of physical and cognitive function beyond the median lifespan despite a history of diseases and/or concurrent subclinical conditions. Since immunity is vital to individual fitness, we examined immunologic fingerprint(s) of highly functional elders. Therefore, survivors of the Cardiovascular Health Study in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA were recruited (n = 140; mean age = 86 years) and underwent performance testing. Blood samples were collected and examined blindly for humoral factors and T cell phenotypes. Based on results of physical and cognitive performance testing, elders were classified as "impaired" or "unimpaired", accuracy of group assignment was verified by discriminant function analysis. The two groups showed distinct immune profiles as determined by factor analysis. The dominant immune signature of impaired elders consisted of interferon (IFN)-γ, interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, and T cells expressing inhibitory natural killer-related receptors (NKR) CD158a, CD158e, and NKG2A. In contrast, the dominant signature of unimpaired elders consisted of IL-5, IL-12p70, and IL-13 with co-expression of IFN-γ, IL-4, and IL-17, and T cells expressing stimulatory NKRs CD56, CD16, and NKG2D. In logistic regression models, unimpaired phenotype was predicted independently by IL-5 and by CD4(+)CD28(null)CD56(+)CD57(+) T cells. All elders had high antibody titers to common viruses including cytomegalovirus. In cellular bioassays, T cell receptor (TCR)-independent ligation of either CD56 or NKG2D elicited activation of T cells. Collectively, these data demonstrate the importance of immunological parameters in distinguishing between health phenotypes of older adults. NKR(+) T cells and cytokine upregulation indicate a unique physiologic environment in old age. Correlation of particular NKR(+) T cell subsets and IL-5 with unimpaired performance, and NKR-driven TCR-independent activation of T cells suggest novel immunopathway(s) that could be exploited to improve immunity in old age.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena, CD56 Antigen, Cognition Disorders, Cytokines, Gene Expression Regulation, Humans, Immunity, Humoral, Killer Cells, Natural, Longevity, Male, NK Cell Lectin-Like Receptor Subfamily K, Phenotype, Physical Fitness, T-Lymphocyte Subsets, Young Adult}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0026558}, author = {Vallejo, Abbe N and Hamel, David L and Mueller, Robert G and Ives, Diane G and Michel, Joshua J and Boudreau, Robert M and Newman, Anne B} } @article {1345, title = {A phenomics-based strategy identifies loci on APOC1, BRAP, and PLCG1 associated with metabolic syndrome phenotype domains.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Oct}, pages = {e1002322}, abstract = {

Despite evidence of the clustering of metabolic syndrome components, current approaches for identifying unifying genetic mechanisms typically evaluate clinical categories that do not provide adequate etiological information. Here, we used data from 19,486 European American and 6,287 African American Candidate Gene Association Resource Consortium participants to identify loci associated with the clustering of metabolic phenotypes. Six phenotype domains (atherogenic dyslipidemia, vascular dysfunction, vascular inflammation, pro-thrombotic state, central obesity, and elevated plasma glucose) encompassing 19 quantitative traits were examined. Principal components analysis was used to reduce the dimension of each domain such that >55\% of the trait variance was represented within each domain. We then applied a statistically efficient and computational feasible multivariate approach that related eight principal components from the six domains to 250,000 imputed SNPs using an additive genetic model and including demographic covariates. In European Americans, we identified 606 genome-wide significant SNPs representing 19 loci. Many of these loci were associated with only one trait domain, were consistent with results in African Americans, and overlapped with published findings, for instance central obesity and FTO. However, our approach, which is applicable to any set of interval scale traits that is heritable and exhibits evidence of phenotypic clustering, identified three new loci in or near APOC1, BRAP, and PLCG1, which were associated with multiple phenotype domains. These pleiotropic loci may help characterize metabolic dysregulation and identify targets for intervention.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Apolipoprotein C-I, Blood Glucose, Dyslipidemias, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Humans, Metabolic Syndrome, Obesity, Abdominal, Phenotype, Phospholipase C gamma, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait, Heritable, Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases, Vascular Diseases}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002322}, author = {Avery, Christy L and He, Qianchuan and North, Kari E and Ambite, Jos{\'e} L and Boerwinkle, Eric and Fornage, Myriam and Hindorff, Lucia A and Kooperberg, Charles and Meigs, James B and Pankow, James S and Pendergrass, Sarah A and Psaty, Bruce M and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Kent D and Wilkens, Lynne R and Heiss, Gerardo and Lin, Dan Yu} } @article {1314, title = {Potential explanatory factors for higher incident hip fracture risk in older diabetic adults.}, journal = {Curr Gerontol Geriatr Res}, volume = {2011}, year = {2011}, month = {2011}, pages = {979270}, abstract = {

Type 2 diabetes is associated with higher fracture risk. Diabetes-related conditions may account for this risk. Cardiovascular Health Study participants (N = 5641; 42.0\% men; 15.5\% black; 72.8{\textpm}5.6 years) were followed 10.9 {\textpm} 4.6 years. Diabetes was defined as hypoglycemic medication use or fasting glucose (FG) >=126 mg/dL. Peripheral artery disease (PAD) was defined as ankle-arm index <0.9. Incident hip fractures were from medical records. Crude hip fracture rates (/1000 person-years) were higher for diabetic vs. non-diabetic participants with BMI <25 (13.6, 95\% CI: 8.9-20.2 versus 11.4, 95\% CI: 10.1-12.9) and BMI >=25 to <30 (8.3, 95\% CI: 5.7-11.9 versus 6.6, 95\% CI: 5.6-7.7), but similar for BMI >=30. Adjusting for BMI, sex, race, and age, diabetes was related to fractures (HR = 1.34; 95\% CI: 1.01-1.78). PAD (HR = 1.25 (95\% CI: 0.92-1.57)) and longer walk time (HR = 1.07 (95\% CI: 1.04-1.10)) modified the fracture risk in diabetes (HR = 1.17 (95\% CI: 0.87-1.57)). Diabetes was associated with higher hip fracture risk after adjusting for BMI though this association was modified by diabetes-related conditions.

}, issn = {1687-7071}, doi = {10.1155/2011/979270}, author = {Strotmeyer, Elsa S and Kamineni, Aruna and Cauley, Jane A and Robbins, John A and Fried, Linda F and Siscovick, David S and Harris, Tamara B and Newman, Anne B} } @article {1321, title = {The relationship between serum markers of collagen turnover and cardiovascular outcome in the elderly: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Circ Heart Fail}, volume = {4}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Nov}, pages = {733-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The deposition of collagen fibrils in the myocardial extracellular matrix increases with age and plays a key role in the pathophysiology of heart failure (HF). We sought to determine the predictive value of serum markers of collagen turnover for incident HF and cardiovascular (CV) morbidity, mortality, and all-cause mortality in elderly individuals.

METHODS AND RESULTS: In 880 participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study (mean age, 77{\textpm}6 years; 48\% women), serum levels of carboxyl-terminal peptide of procollagen type I (PIP), carboxyl-terminal telopeptide of collagen type I (CITP), and amino-terminal peptide of procollagen type III (PIIINP) were measured in 4 groups: HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFREF; n=146, EF <55\%); HF with preserved EF (HFPEF; n=175, EF >=55\%), control subjects with CV risk factors but not HF (CVD; n=280), and healthy control subjects free of CV disease (n=279). Relationships between these serum markers and outcome at follow-up of 12{\textpm}4 years (range, 3-17 years) was determined in six models including those adjusted for conventional risk factors, renal function, NT-proBNP and agents which interfere with collagen synthesis. For the entire cohort, in unadjusted and adjusted models, both PIIINP and CITP were associated with myocardial infarction, incident HF, hospitalization for HF, cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. In healthy control subjects, CITP and PIIINP were associated with all-cause death. In control subjects with risk factors, CITP was associated with incident HF, and in participants with HFPEF, CITP was associated with hospitalization for HF. No collagen biomarker was associated with outcome in participants with HFREF, and PIP was not associated with outcome in the cohort or its subgroups.

CONCLUSIONS: In both healthy and elderly individuals with CV disease at risk of developing HF, CITP and PIIINP are significantly associated with multiple adverse cardiac outcomes including myocardial infarction, HF, and death. Clinical Trial Registration- URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00005133.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Collagen, Collagen Type I, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Heart Failure, Humans, Incidence, Male, Peptide Fragments, Peptides, Predictive Value of Tests, Procollagen, Prospective Studies, Stroke Volume, Survival Rate}, issn = {1941-3297}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.111.962027}, author = {Barasch, Eddy and Gottdiener, John S and Aurigemma, Gerard and Kitzman, Dalane W and Han, Jing and Kop, Willem J and Tracy, Russell P} } @article {1283, title = {Retinal microvascular signs and functional loss in older persons: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {42}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jun}, pages = {1589-95}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: We hypothesized that retinal microvascular signs are associated with executive dysfunction, slow gait, and depressive mood, which are characteristic features of microvascular disease affecting frontal subcortical regions of the brain.

METHODS: In the Cardiovascular Health Study, 1744 participants (mean age, 78) free of stroke had retinal photographs and carotid ultrasound during the 1997 to 1998 visit. We examined the cross-sectional association of retinal signs with the digit-symbol substitution test (DSST) score, gait speed, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression score, and depressive mood, defined as Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression score >9 or antidepressant use.

RESULTS: After adjusting for potential confounders, retinal signs were associated with lower DSST score (generalized arteriolar narrowing and arteriovenous nicking), slower gait (retinopathy), and depressive mood (generalized arteriolar narrowing). A higher number of retinal signs was associated with lower DSST score (-0.76 and -2.79 points for 1 sign and >=2 signs versus none; P<0.001) and slower gait (-0.009 and -0.083 m/s; P=0.047), but not with the square root of Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression score (0.079 and -0.208; P=0.072). In addition, coexistence of retinal signs (generalized arteriolar narrowing and arteriovenous nicking) and carotid atherosclerosis was associated with lower DSST score compared with either process alone (P for interaction <0.01). Notably, further adjustment for ventricular size, white matter disease, and infarcts on MRI did not attenuate the association.

CONCLUSIONS: Retinal signs are associated with executive dysfunction and slow gait, and possibly with depressive mood, suggesting a common process involving small vessels.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Depressive Disorder, Frontal Lobe, Humans, Microcirculation, Neuropsychological Tests, Retinal Diseases, Retinal Vessels, Risk Factors}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.110.605261}, author = {Kim, Dae Hyun and Newman, Anne B and Hajjar, Ihab and Strotmeyer, Elsa S and Klein, Ronald and Newton, Elizabeth and Sarnak, Mark J and Burke, Gregory L and Lipsitz, Lewis A} } @article {1353, title = {Seasonal variation in 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations in the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, volume = {174}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Dec 15}, pages = {1363-72}, abstract = {

Low circulating concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) are associated with adverse health outcomes in diverse populations. However, 25(OH)D concentrations vary seasonally with varying exposure to sunlight, so single measurements may poorly reflect long-term 25(OH)D exposure. The authors investigated cyclical trends in average serum 25(OH)D concentrations among 2,298 individuals enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study of community-based older adults (1992-1993). A sinusoidal model closely approximated observed 25(OH)D concentrations and fit the data significantly better than did a mean model (P < 0.0001). The mean annual 25(OH)D concentration was 25.1 ng/mL (95\% confidence interval: 24.7, 25.5), and the mean peak-trough difference was 9.6 ng/mL (95\% confidence interval: 8.5, 10.7). Male sex, higher latitude of study site, and greater physical activity levels were associated with larger peak-trough difference in 25(OH)D concentration (each P < 0.05). Serum concentrations of intact parathyroid hormone and bone-specific alkaline phosphatase also varied in a sinusoidal fashion (P < 0.0001), inversely to 25(OH)D. In conclusion, serum 25(OH)D varies in a sinusoidal manner, with large seasonal differences relative to mean concentration and laboratory evidence of biologic sequelae. Single 25(OH)D measurements might not capture overall vitamin D status, and the extent of misclassification could vary by demographic and behavioral factors. Accounting for collection time may reduce bias in research studies and improve decision-making in clinical care.

}, keywords = {Aged, Biomarkers, Continental Population Groups, Exercise, Female, Humans, Male, Residence Characteristics, Seasons, Sex Factors, Vitamin D}, issn = {1476-6256}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kwr258}, author = {Shoben, Abigail B and Kestenbaum, Bryan and Levin, Gregory and Hoofnagle, Andrew N and Psaty, Bruce M and Siscovick, David S and de Boer, Ian H} } @article {1352, title = {Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and physical function in older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study All Stars.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {59}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Oct}, pages = {1793-801}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) and physical function in adults of advanced age.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of physical function over 3~years of follow-up in the Cardiovascular Health Study All Stars.

SETTING: Forsyth County, North Carolina; Sacramento County, California; Washington County, Maryland; and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

PARTICIPANTS: Community-dwelling adults aged 77 to 100 (N~=~988).

MEASUREMENTS: Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D 25(OH)D), Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), and grip and knee extensor strength assessed at baseline. Mobility disability (difficulty walking half a mile or up 10 steps) and activities of daily living (ADLs) disability were assessed at baseline and every 6~months over 3~years of follow-up.

RESULTS: Almost one-third (30.8\%) of participants were deficient in 25(OH)D (<20~ng/mL). SPPB scores were lower in those with deficient 25(OH)D (mean (standard error) 6.53~(0.24)) than in those with sufficient 25(OH)D (>=30~ng/mL) (7.15~(0.25)) after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, season, health behaviors, and chronic conditions (P~=~.006). Grip strength adjusted for body size was also lower in those with deficient 25(OH)D than in those with sufficient 25(OH)D (24.7~(0.6)~kg vs 26.0~(0.6)~kg, P~=~.02). Participants with deficient 25(OH)D were more likely to have prevalent mobility (OR~=~1.44, 95\% confidence interval (CI))~=~0.96-2.14) and ADL disability (OR~=~1.51, 95\% CI~=~1.01-2.25) at baseline than those with sufficient 25(OH)D. Furthermore, participants with deficient 25(OH)D were at greater risk of incident mobility disability over 3~years of follow-up (hazard ratio~=~1.56, 95\% CI~=~1.06-2.30).

CONCLUSION: Vitamin D deficiency was common and was associated with poorer physical performance, lower muscle strength, and prevalent mobility and ADL disability in community-dwelling older adults. Moreover, vitamin D deficiency predicted incident mobility disability.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Geriatric Assessment, Health Surveys, Humans, Male, Mobility Limitation, Muscle Strength, Physical Fitness, Proportional Hazards Models, Reference Values, United States, Vitamin D, Vitamin D Deficiency}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/j.1532-5415.2011.03601.x}, author = {Houston, Denise K and Tooze, Janet A and Davis, Cralen C and Chaves, Paulo H M and Hirsch, Calvin H and Robbins, John A and Arnold, Alice M and Newman, Anne B and Kritchevsky, Stephen B} } @article {1294, title = {Systolic blood pressure and incident heart failure in the elderly. The Cardiovascular Health Study and the Health, Ageing and Body Composition Study.}, journal = {Heart}, volume = {97}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Aug}, pages = {1304-11}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The exact form of the association between systolic blood pressure (SBP) and heart failure (HF) risk in the elderly remains incompletely defined, especially in individuals not receiving antihypertensive drugs.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between SBP and HF risk in the elderly.

DESIGN: Competing-risks proportional hazards modelling of incident HF risk, using 10-year follow-up data from two NIH-sponsored cohort studies: the Cardiovascular Health Study (inception: 1989-90 and 1992-3) and the Health ABC Study (inception: 1997-8).

SETTING: Community-based cohorts.

PARTICIPANTS: 4408 participants (age, 72.8 (4.9) years; 53.1\% women, 81.7\% white; 18.3\% black) without prevalent HF and not receiving antihypertensive drugs at baseline.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Incident HF, defined as first adjudicated hospitalisation for HF.

RESULTS: Over 10 years, 493 (11.2\%) participants developed HF. Prehypertension (120-139 mm Hg), stage 1 (140-159 mm Hg), and stage 2 (>=160 mm Hg) hypertension were associated with escalating HF risk; HRs versus optimal SBP (<120 mm Hg) in competing-risks models controlling for clinical characteristics were 1.63 (95\% CI 1.23 to 2.16; p=0.001), 2.21 (95\% CI 1.65 to 2.96; p<0.001) and 2.60 (95\% CI 1.85 to 3.64; p<0.001), respectively. Overall 255/493 (51.7\%) HF events occurred in participants with SBP <140 mm Hg at baseline. Increasing SBP was associated with higher HF risk in women than in men; no race-SBP interaction was seen. In analyses with continuous SBP, HF risk had a continuous positive association with SBP to levels as low as 113 mm Hg in men and 112 mm Hg in women.

CONCLUSIONS: There is a continuous positive association between SBP and HF risk in the elderly for levels of SBP as low as <115 mm Hg; over half of incident HF events occur in individuals with SBP <140 mm Hg.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Blood Pressure, Body Composition, Epidemiologic Methods, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Myocardial Infarction, Sex Factors, Stroke, Stroke Volume}, issn = {1468-201X}, doi = {10.1136/hrt.2011.225482}, author = {Butler, Javed and Kalogeropoulos, Andreas P and Georgiopoulou, Vasiliki V and Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten and Najjar, Samer S and Sutton-Tyrrell, Kim C and Harris, Tamara B and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Newman, Anne B and Psaty, Bruce M} } @article {1308, title = {Total zinc intake may modify the glucose-raising effect of a zinc transporter (SLC30A8) variant: a 14-cohort meta-analysis.}, journal = {Diabetes}, volume = {60}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep}, pages = {2407-16}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Many genetic variants have been associated with glucose homeostasis and type 2 diabetes in genome-wide association studies. Zinc is an essential micronutrient that is important for β-cell function and glucose homeostasis. We tested the hypothesis that zinc intake could influence the glucose-raising effect of specific variants.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We conducted a 14-cohort meta-analysis to assess the interaction of 20 genetic variants known to be related to glycemic traits and zinc metabolism with dietary zinc intake (food sources) and a 5-cohort meta-analysis to assess the interaction with total zinc intake (food sources and supplements) on fasting glucose levels among individuals of European ancestry without diabetes.

RESULTS: We observed a significant association of total zinc intake with lower fasting glucose levels (β-coefficient {\textpm} SE per 1 mg/day of zinc intake: -0.0012 {\textpm} 0.0003 mmol/L, summary P value = 0.0003), while the association of dietary zinc intake was not significant. We identified a nominally significant interaction between total zinc intake and the SLC30A8 rs11558471 variant on fasting glucose levels (β-coefficient {\textpm} SE per A allele for 1 mg/day of greater total zinc intake: -0.0017 {\textpm} 0.0006 mmol/L, summary interaction P value = 0.005); this result suggests a stronger inverse association between total zinc intake and fasting glucose in individuals carrying the glucose-raising A allele compared with individuals who do not carry it. None of the other interaction tests were statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that higher total zinc intake may attenuate the glucose-raising effect of the rs11558471 SLC30A8 (zinc transporter) variant. Our findings also support evidence for the association of higher total zinc intake with lower fasting glucose levels.

}, keywords = {Blood Glucose, Cation Transport Proteins, Cohort Studies, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Zinc, Zinc Transporter 8}, issn = {1939-327X}, doi = {10.2337/db11-0176}, author = {Kanoni, Stavroula and Nettleton, Jennifer A and Hivert, Marie-France and Ye, Zheng and van Rooij, Frank J A and Shungin, Dmitry and Sonestedt, Emily and Ngwa, Julius S and Wojczynski, Mary K and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Gustafsson, Stefan and Anderson, Jennifer S and Tanaka, Toshiko and Hindy, George and Saylor, Georgia and Renstrom, Frida and Bennett, Amanda J and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Florez, Jose C and Fox, Caroline S and Hofman, Albert and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Houston, Denise K and Hu, Frank B and Jacques, Paul F and Johansson, Ingegerd and Lind, Lars and Liu, Yongmei and McKeown, Nicola and Ordovas, Jose and Pankow, James S and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Yannakoulia, Mary and Zillikens, M Carola and Wareham, Nick J and Prokopenko, Inga and Bandinelli, Stefania and Forouhi, Nita G and Cupples, L Adrienne and Loos, Ruth J and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Langenberg, Claudia and Ferrucci, Luigi and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and McCarthy, Mark I and Ingelsson, Erik and Borecki, Ingrid B and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Orho-Melander, Marju and Siscovick, David S and Meigs, James B and Franks, Paul W and Dedoussis, George V} } @article {1227, title = {Trajectory of cognitive decline as a predictor of psychosis in early Alzheimer disease in the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Am J Geriatr Psychiatry}, volume = {19}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Feb}, pages = {160-8}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To compare the trajectories of cognitive decline between groups with, and without, the later development of psychotic symptoms during Alzheimer disease (AD) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

DESIGN: : The authors examined cognitive function in a new analysis of an existing data set, the Cardiovascular Health Study, an epidemiologic, longitudinal follow-up study. Our analyses examined 9 years of follow-up data.

SETTING: Community.

PARTICIPANTS: The authors examined subjects who were without dementia at study entry, received a diagnosis of AD or MCI during follow-up, and had been rated on the Neuropsychiatric Inventory for the presence of psychosis; 362 participants for the modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MS) analysis and 350 participants for the digit symbol substitution test (DSST) analysis had sufficient follow-up data and apolipoprotein-∊ (APOE) genotyping.

MEASUREMENTS: The 3MS and DSST were administered annually and analyzed using mixed-effects models including APOE4 status.

RESULTS: : Mean 3MS and DSST scores did not differ between AD with psychosis (AD + P) and without psychosis groups at baseline. The 3MS and DSST scores decreased more rapidly in subjects who ultimately developed psychosis.

CONCLUSIONS: Individuals who ultimately develop psychosis have more rapid cognitive deterioration during the earliest phases of AD than individuals with AD not developing psychosis. The genetic and other neurobiologic factors leading to the expression of AD + P may exert their effects by acceleration of the neurodegenerative process.

}, keywords = {Aged, Alzheimer Disease, Chi-Square Distribution, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Psychotic Disorders, Time Factors}, issn = {1545-7214}, doi = {10.1097/JGP.0b013e3181e446c8}, author = {Emanuel, James E and Lopez, Oscar L and Houck, Patricia R and Becker, James T and Weamer, Elise A and Demichele-Sweet, Mary Ann A and Kuller, Lewis and Sweet, Robert A} } @article {1329, title = {Vitamin D, parathyroid hormone, and cardiovascular events among older adults.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {58}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep 27}, pages = {1433-41}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate associations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) and parathyroid hormone (PTH) concentrations separately and in combination with incident cardiovascular events and mortality during 14 years of follow-up in the CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study).

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D deficiency and PTH excess are common in older adults and may adversely affect cardiovascular health.

METHODS: A total of 2,312 participants who were free of cardiovascular disease at baseline were studied. Vitamin D and intact PTH were measured from previously frozen serum using mass spectrometry and a 2-site immunoassay. Outcomes were adjudicated cases of myocardial infarction, heart failure, cardiovascular death, and all-cause mortality.

RESULTS: There were 384 participants (17\%) with serum 25-OHD concentrations <15 ng/ml and 570 (25\%) with serum PTH concentrations >= 65 pg/ml. After adjustment, each 10 ng/ml lower 25-OHD concentration was associated with a 9\% greater (95\% confidence interval [CI]: 2\% to 17\% greater) relative hazard of mortality and a 25\% greater (95\% CI: 8\% to 44\% greater) relative hazard of myocardial infarction. Serum 25-OHD concentrations <15 ng/ml were associated with a 29\% greater (95\% CI: 5\% to 55\% greater) risk for mortality. Serum PTH concentrations >= 65 pg/ml were associated with a 30\% greater risk for heart failure (95\% CI: 6\% to 61\% greater) but not other outcomes. There was no evidence of an interaction between serum 25-OHD and PTH concentrations and cardiovascular events.

CONCLUSIONS: Among older adults, 25-OHD deficiency is associated with myocardial infarction and mortality; PTH excess is associated with heart failure. Vitamin D and PTH might influence cardiovascular risk through divergent pathways.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Male, Parathyroid Hormone, Prospective Studies, Vitamin D}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2011.03.069}, author = {Kestenbaum, Bryan and Katz, Ronit and de Boer, Ian and Hoofnagle, Andy and Sarnak, Mark J and Shlipak, Michael G and Jenny, Nancy S and Siscovick, David S} } @article {7380, title = {Age and association of kidney measures with mortality and end-stage renal disease.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {308}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Dec 12}, pages = {2349-60}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is prevalent in older individuals, but the risk implications of low estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and high albuminuria across the full age range are controversial.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate possible effect modification (interaction) by age of the association of eGFR and albuminuria with clinical risk, examining both relative and absolute risks.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Individual-level meta-analysis including 2,051,244 participants from 33 general population or high-risk (of vascular disease) cohorts and 13 CKD cohorts from Asia, Australasia, Europe, and North/South America, conducted in 1972-2011 with a mean follow-up time of 5.8 years (range, 0-31 years).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Hazard ratios (HRs) of mortality and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) according to eGFR and albuminuria were meta-analyzed across age categories after adjusting for sex, race, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, systolic blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, and smoking. Absolute risks were estimated using HRs and average incidence rates.

RESULTS: Mortality (112,325 deaths) and ESRD (8411 events) risks were higher at lower eGFR and higher albuminuria in every age category. In general and high-risk cohorts, relative mortality risk for reduced eGFR decreased with increasing age; eg, adjusted HRs at an eGFR of 45 mL/min/1.73 m2 vs 80 mL/min/1.73 m2 were 3.50 (95\% CI, 2.55-4.81), 2.21 (95\% CI, 2.02-2.41), 1.59 (95\% CI, 1.42-1.77), and 1.35 (95\% CI, 1.23-1.48) in age categories 18-54, 55-64, 65-74, and >=75 years, respectively (P <.05 for age interaction). Absolute risk differences for the same comparisons were higher at older age (9.0 [95\% CI, 6.0-12.8], 12.2 [95\% CI, 10.3-14.3], 13.3 [95\% CI, 9.0-18.6], and 27.2 [95\% CI, 13.5-45.5] excess deaths per 1000 person-years, respectively). For increased albuminuria, reduction of relative risk with increasing age was less evident, while differences in absolute risk were higher in older age categories (7.5 [95\% CI, 4.3-11.9], 12.2 [95\% CI, 7.9-17.6], 22.7 [95\% CI, 15.3-31.6], and 34.3 [95\% CI, 19.5-52.4] excess deaths per 1000 person-years, respectively by age category, at an albumin-creatinine ratio of 300 mg/g vs 10 mg/g). In CKD cohorts, adjusted relative hazards of mortality did not decrease with age. In all cohorts, ESRD relative risks and absolute risk differences at lower eGFR or higher albuminuria were comparable across age categories.

CONCLUSIONS: Both low eGFR and high albuminuria were independently associated with mortality and ESRD regardless of age across a wide range of populations. Mortality showed lower relative risk but higher absolute risk differences at older age.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Albuminuria, Cohort Studies, Female, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Kidney, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Male, Middle Aged, Risk, Young Adult}, issn = {1538-3598}, doi = {10.1001/jama.2012.16817}, author = {Hallan, Stein I and Matsushita, Kunihiro and Sang, Yingying and Mahmoodi, Bakhtawar K and Black, Corri and Ishani, Areef and Kleefstra, Nanne and Naimark, David and Roderick, Paul and Tonelli, Marcello and Wetzels, Jack F M and Astor, Brad C and Gansevoort, Ron T and Levin, Adeera and Wen, Chi-Pang and Coresh, Josef} } @article {1556, title = {Assessment of gene-by-sex interaction effect on bone mineral density.}, journal = {J Bone Miner Res}, volume = {27}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Oct}, pages = {2051-64}, abstract = {

Sexual dimorphism in various bone phenotypes, including bone mineral density (BMD), is widely observed; however, the extent to which genes explain these sex differences is unclear. To identify variants with different effects by sex, we examined gene-by-sex autosomal interactions genome-wide, and performed expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis and bioinformatics network analysis. We conducted an autosomal genome-wide meta-analysis of gene-by-sex interaction on lumbar spine (LS) and femoral neck (FN) BMD in 25,353 individuals from 8 cohorts. In a second stage, we followed up the 12 top single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; p < 1 {\texttimes} 10(-5) ) in an additional set of 24,763 individuals. Gene-by-sex interaction and sex-specific effects were examined in these 12 SNPs. We detected one novel genome-wide significant interaction associated with LS-BMD at the Chr3p26.1-p25.1 locus, near the GRM7 gene (male effect = 0.02 and p = 3.0 {\texttimes} 10(-5) ; female effect = -0.007 and p = 3.3 {\texttimes} 10(-2) ), and 11 suggestive loci associated with either FN- or LS-BMD in discovery cohorts. However, there was no evidence for genome-wide significant (p < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8) ) gene-by-sex interaction in the joint analysis of discovery and replication cohorts. Despite the large collaborative effort, no genome-wide significant evidence for gene-by-sex interaction was found to influence BMD variation in this screen of autosomal markers. If they exist, gene-by-sex interactions for BMD probably have weak effects, accounting for less than 0.08\% of the variation in these traits per implicated SNP. {\textcopyright} 2012 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

}, keywords = {Bone Density, Cohort Studies, Female, Genes, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Reproducibility of Results, Sex Characteristics}, issn = {1523-4681}, doi = {10.1002/jbmr.1679}, author = {Liu, Ching-Ti and Estrada, Karol and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Amin, Najaf and Evangelou, Evangelos and Li, Guo and Minster, Ryan L and Carless, Melanie A and Kammerer, Candace M and Oei, Ling and Zhou, Yanhua and Alonso, Nerea and Dailiana, Zoe and Eriksson, Joel and Garc{\'\i}a-Giralt, Natalia and Giroux, Sylvie and Husted, Lise Bjerre and Khusainova, Rita I and Koromila, Theodora and Kung, Annie Waichee and Lewis, Joshua R and Masi, Laura and Mencej-Bedrac, Simona and Nogues, Xavier and Patel, Millan S and Prezelj, Janez and Richards, J Brent and Sham, Pak Chung and Spector, Timothy and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Xiao, Su-Mei and Zheng, Hou-Feng and Zhu, Kun and Balcells, Susana and Brandi, Maria Luisa and Frost, Morten and Goltzman, David and Gonz{\'a}lez-Mac{\'\i}as, Jes{\'u}s and Karlsson, Magnus and Khusnutdinova, Elza K and Kollia, Panagoula and Langdahl, Bente Lomholt and Ljunggren, Osten and Lorentzon, Mattias and Marc, Janja and Mellstr{\"o}m, Dan and Ohlsson, Claes and Olmos, Jos{\'e} M and Ralston, Stuart H and Riancho, Jos{\'e} A and Rousseau, Fran{\c c}ois and Urreizti, Roser and Van Hul, Wim and Zarrabeitia, Mar{\'\i}a T and Castano-Betancourt, Martha and Demissie, Serkalem and Grundberg, Elin and Herrera, Lizbeth and Kwan, Tony and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Pastinen, Tomi and Sigurdsson, Gunnar and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Vanmeurs, Joyce Bj and Blangero, John and Hofman, Albert and Liu, Yongmei and Mitchell, Braxton D and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Oostra, Ben A and Rotter, Jerome I and Stefansson, Kari and Streeten, Elizabeth A and Styrkarsdottir, Unnur and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tylavsky, Frances A and Uitterlinden, Andre and Cauley, Jane A and Harris, Tamara B and Ioannidis, John Pa and Psaty, Bruce M and Robbins, John A and Zillikens, M Carola and Vanduijn, Cornelia M and Prince, Richard L and Karasik, David and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Kiel, Douglas P and Cupples, L Adrienne and Hsu, Yi-Hsiang} } @article {1359, title = {Association between chromosome 9p21 variants and the ankle-brachial index identified by a meta-analysis of 21 genome-wide association studies.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {5}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Feb 01}, pages = {100-12}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genetic determinants of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) remain largely unknown. To identify genetic variants associated with the ankle-brachial index (ABI), a noninvasive measure of PAD, we conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association study data from 21 population-based cohorts.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Continuous ABI and PAD (ABI <=0.9) phenotypes adjusted for age and sex were examined. Each study conducted genotyping and imputed data to the ≈2.5 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in HapMap. Linear and logistic regression models were used to test each SNP for association with ABI and PAD using additive genetic models. Study-specific data were combined using fixed effects inverse variance weighted meta-analyses. There were a total of 41 692 participants of European ancestry (≈60\% women, mean ABI 1.02 to 1.19), including 3409 participants with PAD and with genome-wide association study data available. In the discovery meta-analysis, rs10757269 on chromosome 9 near CDKN2B had the strongest association with ABI (β=-0.006, P=2.46{\texttimes}10(-8)). We sought replication of the 6 strongest SNP associations in 5 population-based studies and 3 clinical samples (n=16 717). The association for rs10757269 strengthened in the combined discovery and replication analysis (P=2.65{\texttimes}10(-9)). No other SNP associations for ABI or PAD achieved genome-wide significance. However, 2 previously reported candidate genes for PAD and 1 SNP associated with coronary artery disease were associated with ABI: DAB21P (rs13290547, P=3.6{\texttimes}10(-5)), CYBA (rs3794624, P=6.3{\texttimes}10(-5)), and rs1122608 (LDLR, P=0.0026).

CONCLUSIONS: Genome-wide association studies in more than 40 000 individuals identified 1 genome wide significant association on chromosome 9p21 with ABI. Two candidate genes for PAD and 1 SNP for coronary artery disease are associated with ABI.

}, keywords = {Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alleles, Ankle Brachial Index, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 9, Cohort Studies, Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p15, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, HapMap Project, Humans, Logistic Models, Male, Middle Aged, Peripheral Vascular Diseases, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Sex Factors}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.111.961292}, author = {Murabito, Joanne M and White, Charles C and Kavousi, Maryam and Sun, Yan V and Feitosa, Mary F and Nambi, Vijay and Lamina, Claudia and Schillert, Arne and Coassin, Stefan and Bis, Joshua C and Broer, Linda and Crawford, Dana C and Franceschini, Nora and Frikke-Schmidt, Ruth and Haun, Margot and Holewijn, Suzanne and Huffman, Jennifer E and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Kiechl, Stefan and Kollerits, Barbara and Montasser, May E and Nolte, Ilja M and Rudock, Megan E and Senft, Andrea and Teumer, Alexander and van der Harst, Pim and Vitart, Veronique and Waite, Lindsay L and Wood, Andrew R and Wassel, Christina L and Absher, Devin M and Allison, Matthew A and Amin, Najaf and Arnold, Alice and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Aulchenko, Yurii and Bandinelli, Stefania and Barbalic, Maja and Boban, Mladen and Brown-Gentry, Kristin and Couper, David J and Criqui, Michael H and Dehghan, Abbas and den Heijer, Martin and Dieplinger, Benjamin and Ding, Jingzhong and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Espinola-Klein, Christine and Felix, Stephan B and Ferrucci, Luigi and Folsom, Aaron R and Fraedrich, Gustav and Gibson, Quince and Goodloe, Robert and Gunjaca, Grgo and Haltmayer, Meinhard and Heiss, Gerardo and Hofman, Albert and Kieback, Arne and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Kolcic, Ivana and Kullo, Iftikhar J and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Lackner, Karl J and Li, Xiaohui and Lieb, Wolfgang and Lohman, Kurt and Meisinger, Christa and Melzer, David and Mohler, Emile R and Mudnic, Ivana and Mueller, Thomas and Navis, Gerjan and Oberhollenzer, Friedrich and Olin, Jeffrey W and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Palmas, Walter and Penninx, Brenda W and Petersmann, Astrid and Polasek, Ozren and Psaty, Bruce M and Rantner, Barbara and Rice, Ken and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rotter, Jerome I and Seldenrijk, Adrie and Stadler, Marietta and Summerer, Monika and Tanaka, Toshiko and Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Gilst, Wiek H and Vermeulen, Sita H and Wild, Sarah H and Wild, Philipp S and Willeit, Johann and Zeller, Tanja and Zemunik, Tatijana and Zgaga, Lina and Assimes, Themistocles L and Blankenberg, Stefan and Boerwinkle, Eric and Campbell, Harry and Cooke, John P and de Graaf, Jacqueline and Herrington, David and Kardia, Sharon L R and Mitchell, Braxton D and Murray, Anna and M{\"u}nzel, Thomas and Newman, Anne B and Oostra, Ben A and Rudan, Igor and Shuldiner, Alan R and Snieder, Harold and van Duijn, Cornelia M and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wright, Alan F and Wichmann, H-Erich and Wilson, James F and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Liu, Yongmei and Hayward, Caroline and Borecki, Ingrid B and Ziegler, Andreas and North, Kari E and Cupples, L Adrienne and Kronenberg, Florian} } @article {1376, title = {The association between waist circumference and risk of mortality considering body mass index in 65- to 74-year-olds: a meta-analysis of 29 cohorts involving more than 58 000 elderly persons.}, journal = {Int J Epidemiol}, volume = {41}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Jun}, pages = {805-17}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: For the elderly, the association between waist circumference (WC) and mortality considering body mass index (BMI) remains unclear, and thereby also the evidence base for using these anthropometric measures in clinical practice. This meta-analysis examined the association between WC categories and (cause-specific) mortality within BMI categories. Furthermore, the association of continuous WC with lowest and increased mortality risks was examined.

METHODS: Age- and smoking-adjusted relative risks (RRs) of mortality associated with WC-BMI categories and continuous WC (including WC and WC(2)) were calculated by the investigators and pooled by means of random-effects models.

RESULTS: During a 5-year-follow-up of 32 678 men and 25 931 women, we ascertained 3318 and 1480 deaths, respectively. A large WC (men: >=102 cm, women: >=88 cm) was associated with increased all-cause mortality RRs for those in the {\textquoteright}healthy{\textquoteright} weight {1.7 [95\% confidence interval (CI): 1.2-2.2], 1.7 (95\% CI: 1.3-2.3)}, overweight [1.1(95\% CI: 1.0-1.3), 1.4 (95\%: 1.1-1.7)] and obese [1.1 (95\% CI: 1.0-1.3), 1.6 (95\% CI: 1.3-1.9)] BMI category compared with the {\textquoteright}healthy{\textquoteright} weight (20-24.9 kg/m(2)) and a small WC (<94 cm, men; <80 cm, women) category. Underweight was associated with highest all-cause mortality RRs in men [2.2 (95\% CI: 1.8-2.8)] and women [2.3 (95\% CI: 1.8-3.1]. We found a J-shaped association for continuous WC with all-cause, cardiovascular (CVD) and cancer, and a U-shaped association with respiratory disease mortality (P < 0.05). An all-cause (CVD) mortality RR of 2.0 was associated with a WC of 132 cm (123 cm) in men and 116 cm (105 cm) in women.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed increased mortality risks for elderly people with an increased WC-even across BMI categories- and for those who were classified as {\textquoteright}underweight{\textquoteright} using BMI. The results provide a solid basis for re-evaluation of WC cut-points in ageing populations.

}, keywords = {Aged, Body Mass Index, Body Weight, Cardiovascular Diseases, Female, Humans, Male, Mortality, Neoplasms, Overweight, Respiratory Tract Diseases, Risk Assessment, Waist Circumference}, issn = {1464-3685}, doi = {10.1093/ije/dys008}, author = {de Hollander, Ellen L and Bemelmans, Wanda Je and Boshuizen, Hendriek C and Friedrich, Nele and Wallaschofski, Henri and Guallar-Castill{\'o}n, Pilar and Walter, Stefan and Zillikens, M Carola and Rosengren, Annika and Lissner, Lauren and Bassett, Julie K and Giles, Graham G and Orsini, Nicola and Heim, Noor and Visser, Marjolein and de Groot, Lisette Cpgm} } @article {6178, title = {Association of genetic loci with sleep apnea in European Americans and African-Americans: the Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe).}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {7}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {e48836}, abstract = {

Although obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is known to have a strong familial basis, no genetic polymorphisms influencing apnea risk have been identified in cross-cohort analyses. We utilized the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) to identify sleep apnea susceptibility loci. Using a panel of 46,449 polymorphisms from roughly 2,100 candidate genes on a customized Illumina iSelect chip, we tested for association with the apnea hypopnea index (AHI) as well as moderate to severe OSA (AHI>=15) in 3,551 participants of the Cleveland Family Study and two cohorts participating in the Sleep Heart Health Study.Among 647 African-Americans, rs11126184 in the pleckstrin (PLEK) gene was associated with OSA while rs7030789 in the lysophosphatidic acid receptor 1 (LPAR1) gene was associated with AHI using a chip-wide significance threshold of p-value<2{\texttimes}10(-6). Among 2,904 individuals of European ancestry, rs1409986 in the prostaglandin E2 receptor (PTGER3) gene was significantly associated with OSA. Consistency of effects between rs7030789 and rs1409986 in LPAR1 and PTGER3 and apnea phenotypes were observed in independent clinic-based cohorts.Novel genetic loci for apnea phenotypes were identified through the use of customized gene chips and meta-analyses of cohort data with replication in clinic-based samples. The identified SNPs all lie in genes associated with inflammation suggesting inflammation may play a role in OSA pathogenesis.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Alleles, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Polysomnography, Sleep Apnea, Obstructive}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0048836}, author = {Patel, Sanjay R and Goodloe, Robert and De, Gourab and Kowgier, Matthew and Weng, Jia and Buxbaum, Sarah G and Cade, Brian and Fulop, Tibor and Gharib, Sina A and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Hillman, David and Larkin, Emma K and Lauderdale, Diane S and Li, Li and Mukherjee, Sutapa and Palmer, Lyle and Zee, Phyllis and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Redline, Susan} } @article {1406, title = {Association of mild to moderate chronic kidney disease with venous thromboembolism: pooled analysis of five prospective general population cohorts.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {126}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Oct 16}, pages = {1964-71}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Recent findings suggest that chronic kidney disease (CKD) may be associated with an increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). Given the high prevalence of mild-to-moderate CKD in the general population, in depth analysis of this association is warranted.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We pooled individual participant data from 5 community-based cohorts from Europe (second Nord-Tr{\o}ndelag Health Study [HUNT2], Prevention of Renal and Vascular End-stage Disease [PREVEND], and the Troms{\o} study) and the United States (Atherosclerosis Risks in Communities [ARIC] and Cardiovascular Health Study [CHS]) to assess the association of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), albuminuria, and CKD with objectively verified VTE. To estimate adjusted hazard ratios for VTE, categorical and continuous spline models were fit by using Cox regression with shared-frailty or random-effect meta-analysis. A total of 1178 VTE events occurred over 599 453 person-years follow-up. Relative to eGFR 100 mL/min per 1.73 m(2), hazard ratios for VTE were 1.29 (95\% confidence interval, 1.04-1.59) for eGFR 75, 1.31 (1.00-1.71) for eGFR 60, 1.82 (1.27-2.60) for eGFR 45, and 1.95 (1.26-3.01) for eGFR 30 mL/min per 1.73 m(2). In comparison with an albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) of 5.0 mg/g, the hazard ratios for VTE were 1.34 (1.04-1.72) for ACR 30 mg/g, 1.60 (1.08-2.36) for ACR 300 mg/g, and 1.92 (1.19-3.09) for ACR 1000 mg/g. There was no interaction between clinical categories of eGFR and ACR (P=0.20). The adjusted hazard ratio for CKD, defined as eGFR <60 mL/min per 1.73 m(2) or albuminuria >=30 mg/g, (versus no CKD) was 1.54 (95\% confidence interval, 1.15-2.06). Associations were consistent in subgroups according to age, sex, and comorbidities, and for unprovoked versus provoked VTE, as well.

CONCLUSIONS: Both eGFR and ACR are independently associated with increased risk of VTE in the general population, even across the normal eGFR and ACR ranges.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cohort Studies, Europe, Female, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Prevalence, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic, Risk Factors, Severity of Illness Index, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.112.113944}, author = {Mahmoodi, Bakhtawar K and Gansevoort, Ron T and N{\ae}ss, Inger Anne and Lutsey, Pamela L and Br{\ae}kkan, Sigrid K and Veeger, Nic J G M and Brodin, Ellen E and Meijer, Karina and Sang, Yingying and Matsushita, Kunihiro and Hallan, Stein I and Hammerstr{\o}m, Jens and Cannegieter, Suzanne C and Astor, Brad C and Coresh, Josef and Folsom, Aaron R and Hansen, John-Bjarne and Cushman, Mary} } @article {1362, title = {Association of plasma phospholipid long-chain ω-3 fatty acids with incident atrial fibrillation in older adults: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {125}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Mar 06}, pages = {1084-93}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Experimental studies suggest that long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) may reduce the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). Prior studies evaluating fish or n-3 PUFA consumption from dietary questionnaires and incident AF have been conflicting. Circulating levels of n-3 PUFAs provide an objective measurement of exposure.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Among 3326 US men and women >=65 years of age and free of AF or heart failure at baseline, plasma phospholipid levels of eicosapentaenoic acid, docosapentaenoic acid, and docosahexaenoic acid were measured at baseline by use of standardized methods. Incident AF (789 cases) was identified prospectively from hospital discharge records and study visit ECGs during 31 169 person-years of follow-up (1992-2006). In multivariable Cox models adjusted for other risk factors, the relative risk in the top versus lowest quartile of total n-3 PUFAs (eicosapentaenoic acid+docosapentaenoic acid+docosahexaenoic acid) levels was 0.71 (95\% confidence interval, 0.57-0.89; P for trend=0.004) and of DHA levels was 0.77 (95\% confidence interval, 0.62-0.96; P for trend=0.01). Eicosapentaenoic acid and docosapentaenoic acid levels were not significantly associated with incident AF. Evaluated nonparametrically, both total n-3 PUFAs and docosahexaenoic acid showed graded and linear inverse associations with incidence of AF. Adjustment for intervening events such as heart failure or myocardial infarction during follow-up did not appreciably alter results.

CONCLUSIONS: In older adults, higher circulating total long-chain n-3 PUFA and docosahexaenoic acid levels were associated with lower risk of incident AF. These results highlight the need to evaluate whether increased dietary intake of these fatty acids could be effective for the primary prevention of AF.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Biomarkers, Dietary Fats, Docosahexaenoic Acids, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Fatty Acids, Omega-3, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Male, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, Seafood}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.111.062653}, author = {Wu, Jason H Y and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and King, Irena B and Song, Xiaoling and Sacks, Frank M and Rimm, Eric B and Heckbert, Susan R and Siscovick, David S and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {1371, title = {Associations between incident ischemic stroke events and stroke and cardiovascular disease-related genome-wide association studies single nucleotide polymorphisms in the Population Architecture Using Genomics and Epidemiology study.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {5}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Apr 01}, pages = {210-6}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified loci associated with ischemic stroke (IS) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in European-descent individuals, but their replication in different populations has been largely unexplored.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) selected from GWAS and meta-analyses of stroke, and 86 SNPs previously associated with myocardial infarction and CVD risk factors, including blood lipids (high density lipoprotein [HDL], low density lipoprotein [LDL], and triglycerides), type 2 diabetes, and body mass index (BMI), were investigated for associations with incident IS in European Americans (EA) N=26 276, African-Americans (AA) N=8970, and American Indians (AI) N=3570 from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology Study. Ancestry-specific fixed effects meta-analysis with inverse variance weighting was used to combine study-specific log hazard ratios from Cox proportional hazards models. Two of 9 stroke SNPs (rs783396 and rs1804689) were significantly associated with [corrected] IS hazard in AA; none were significant in this large EA cohort. Of 73 CVD risk factor SNPs tested in EA, 2 (HDL and triglycerides SNPs) were associated with IS. In AA, SNPs associated with LDL, HDL, and BMI were significantly associated with IS (3 of 86 SNPs tested). Out of 58 SNPs tested in AI, 1 LDL SNP was significantly associated with IS.

CONCLUSIONS: Our analyses showing lack of replication in spite of reasonable power for many stroke SNPs and differing results by ancestry highlight the need to follow up on GWAS findings and conduct genetic association studies in diverse populations. We found modest IS associations with BMI and lipids SNPs, though these findings require confirmation.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetics, Population, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Stroke, Triglycerides}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.111.962191}, author = {Carty, Cara L and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Fornage, Myriam and Franceschini, Nora and Cole, Shelley and Heiss, Gerardo and Hindorff, Lucia A and Howard, Barbara V and Mann, Sue and Martin, Lisa W and Zhang, Ying and Matise, Tara C and Prentice, Ross and Reiner, Alexander P and Kooperberg, Charles} } @article {6086, title = {Associations of kidney disease measures with mortality and end-stage renal disease in individuals with and without diabetes: a meta-analysis.}, journal = {Lancet}, volume = {380}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Nov 10}, pages = {1662-73}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Chronic kidney disease is characterised by low estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and high albuminuria, and is associated with adverse outcomes. Whether these risks are modified by diabetes is unknown.

METHODS: We did a meta-analysis of studies selected according to Chronic Kidney Disease Prognosis Consortium criteria. Data transfer and analyses were done between March, 2011, and June, 2012. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the hazard ratios (HR) of mortality and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) associated with eGFR and albuminuria in individuals with and without diabetes.

FINDINGS: We analysed data for 1,024,977 participants (128,505 with diabetes) from 30 general population and high-risk cardiovascular cohorts and 13 chronic kidney disease cohorts. In the combined general population and high-risk cohorts with data for all-cause mortality, 75,306 deaths occurred during a mean follow-up of 8{\textperiodcentered}5 years (SD 5{\textperiodcentered}0). In the 23 studies with data for cardiovascular mortality, 21,237 deaths occurred from cardiovascular disease during a mean follow-up of 9{\textperiodcentered}2 years (SD 4{\textperiodcentered}9). In the general and high-risk cohorts, mortality risks were 1{\textperiodcentered}2-1{\textperiodcentered}9 times higher for participants with diabetes than for those without diabetes across the ranges of eGFR and albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR). With fixed eGFR and ACR reference points in the diabetes and no diabetes groups, HR of mortality outcomes according to lower eGFR and higher ACR were much the same in participants with and without diabetes (eg, for all-cause mortality at eGFR 45 mL/min per 1{\textperiodcentered}73 m(2) [vs 95 mL/min per 1{\textperiodcentered}73 m(2)], HR 1{\textperiodcentered}35; 95\% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}18-1{\textperiodcentered}55; vs 1{\textperiodcentered}33; 1{\textperiodcentered}19-1{\textperiodcentered}48 and at ACR 30 mg/g [vs 5 mg/g], 1{\textperiodcentered}50; 1{\textperiodcentered}35-1{\textperiodcentered}65 vs 1{\textperiodcentered}52; 1{\textperiodcentered}38-1{\textperiodcentered}67). The overall interactions were not significant. We identified much the same findings for ESRD in the chronic kidney disease cohorts.

INTERPRETATION: Despite higher risks for mortality and ESRD in diabetes, the relative risks of these outcomes by eGFR and ACR are much the same irrespective of the presence or absence of diabetes, emphasising the importance of kidney disease as a predictor of clinical outcomes.

FUNDING: US National Kidney Foundation.

}, keywords = {Aged, Albuminuria, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cause of Death, Diabetic Nephropathies, Female, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Factors}, issn = {1474-547X}, doi = {10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61350-6}, author = {Fox, Caroline S and Matsushita, Kunihiro and Woodward, Mark and Bilo, Henk J G and Chalmers, John and Heerspink, Hiddo J Lambers and Lee, Brian J and Perkins, Robert M and Rossing, Peter and Sairenchi, Toshimi and Tonelli, Marcello and Vassalotti, Joseph A and Yamagishi, Kazumasa and Coresh, Josef and de Jong, Paul E and Wen, Chi-Pang and Nelson, Robert G} } @article {6135, title = {Common folate gene variant, MTHFR C677T, is associated with brain structure in two independent cohorts of people with mild cognitive impairment.}, journal = {Neuroimage Clin}, volume = {1}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {179-87}, abstract = {

A commonly carried C677T polymorphism in a folate-related gene, MTHFR, is associated with higher plasma homocysteine, a well-known mediator of neuronal damage and brain atrophy. As homocysteine promotes brain atrophy, we set out to discover whether people carrying the C677T MTHFR polymorphism which increases homocysteine, might also show systematic differences in brain structure. Using tensor-based morphometry, we tested this association in 359 elderly Caucasian subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (mean age: 75~{\textpm}~7.1~years) scanned with brain MRI and genotyped as part of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. We carried out a replication study in an independent, non-overlapping sample of 51 elderly Caucasian subjects with MCI (mean age: 76~{\textpm}~5.5~years), scanned with brain MRI and genotyped for MTHFR, as part of the Cardiovascular Health Study. At each voxel in the brain, we tested to see where regional volume differences were associated with carrying one or more MTHFR {\textquoteright}T{\textquoteright} alleles. In ADNI subjects, carriers of the MTHFR risk allele had detectable brain volume deficits, in the white matter, of up to 2-8\% per risk T allele locally at baseline and showed accelerated brain atrophy of 0.5-1.5\% per T allele at 1~year follow-up, after adjusting for age and sex. We replicated these brain volume deficits of up to 5-12\% per MTHFR T allele in the independent cohort of CHS subjects. As expected, the associations weakened after controlling for homocysteine levels, which the risk gene affects. The MTHFR risk variant may thus promote brain atrophy by elevating homocysteine levels. This study aims to investigate the spatially detailed effects of this MTHFR polymorphism on brain structure in 3D, pointing to a causal pathway that may promote homocysteine-mediated brain atrophy in elderly people with MCI.

}, issn = {2213-1582}, doi = {10.1016/j.nicl.2012.09.012}, author = {Rajagopalan, Priya and Jahanshad, Neda and Stein, Jason L and Hua, Xue and Madsen, Sarah K and Kohannim, Omid and Hibar, Derrek P and Toga, Arthur W and Jack, Clifford R and Saykin, Andrew J and Green, Robert C and Weiner, Michael W and Bis, Joshua C and Kuller, Lewis H and Riverol, Mario and Becker, James T and Lopez, Oscar L and Thompson, Paul M} } @article {1385, title = {Comparison of risk prediction using the CKD-EPI equation and the MDRD study equation for estimated glomerular filtration rate.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {307}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 May 09}, pages = {1941-51}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: The Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equation more accurately estimates glomerular filtration rate (GFR) than the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) Study equation using the same variables, especially at higher GFR, but definitive evidence of its risk implications in diverse settings is lacking.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate risk implications of estimated GFR using the CKD-EPI equation compared with the MDRD Study equation in populations with a broad range of demographic and clinical characteristics.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A meta-analysis of data from 1.1 million adults (aged >= 18 years) from 25 general population cohorts, 7 high-risk cohorts (of vascular disease), and 13 CKD cohorts. Data transfer and analyses were conducted between March 2011 and March 2012.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: All-cause mortality (84,482 deaths from 40 cohorts), cardiovascular mortality (22,176 events from 28 cohorts), and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) (7644 events from 21 cohorts) during 9.4 million person-years of follow-up; the median of mean follow-up time across cohorts was 7.4 years (interquartile range, 4.2-10.5 years).

RESULTS: Estimated GFR was classified into 6 categories (>=90, 60-89, 45-59, 30-44, 15-29, and <15 mL/min/1.73 m(2)) by both equations. Compared with the MDRD Study equation, 24.4\% and 0.6\% of participants from general population cohorts were reclassified to a higher and lower estimated GFR category, respectively, by the CKD-EPI equation, and the prevalence of CKD stages 3 to 5 (estimated GFR <60 mL/min/1.73 m(2)) was reduced from 8.7\% to 6.3\%. In estimated GFR of 45 to 59 mL/min/1.73 m(2) by the MDRD Study equation, 34.7\% of participants were reclassified to estimated GFR of 60 to 89 mL/min/1.73 m(2) by the CKD-EPI equation and had lower incidence rates (per 1000 person-years) for the outcomes of interest (9.9 vs 34.5 for all-cause mortality, 2.7 vs 13.0 for cardiovascular mortality, and 0.5 vs 0.8 for ESRD) compared with those not reclassified. The corresponding adjusted hazard ratios were 0.80 (95\% CI, 0.74-0.86) for all-cause mortality, 0.73 (95\% CI, 0.65-0.82) for cardiovascular mortality, and 0.49 (95\% CI, 0.27-0.88) for ESRD. Similar findings were observed in other estimated GFR categories by the MDRD Study equation. Net reclassification improvement based on estimated GFR categories was significantly positive for all outcomes (range, 0.06-0.13; all P < .001). Net reclassification improvement was similarly positive in most subgroups defined by age (<65 years and >=65 years), sex, race/ethnicity (white, Asian, and black), and presence or absence of diabetes and hypertension. The results in the high-risk and CKD cohorts were largely consistent with the general population cohorts.

CONCLUSION: The CKD-EPI equation classified fewer individuals as having CKD and more accurately categorized the risk for mortality and ESRD than did the MDRD Study equation across a broad range of populations.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Algorithms, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Decision Support Techniques, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Theoretical, Risk Assessment, Sex Factors}, issn = {1538-3598}, doi = {10.1001/jama.2012.3954}, author = {Matsushita, Kunihiro and Mahmoodi, Bakhtawar K and Woodward, Mark and Emberson, Jonathan R and Jafar, Tazeen H and Jee, Sun Ha and Polkinghorne, Kevan R and Shankar, Anoop and Smith, David H and Tonelli, Marcello and Warnock, David G and Wen, Chi-Pang and Coresh, Josef and Gansevoort, Ron T and Hemmelgarn, Brenda R and Levey, Andrew S} } @article {6633, title = {Consistent directions of effect for established type 2 diabetes risk variants across populations: the population architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Consortium.}, journal = {Diabetes}, volume = {61}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Jun}, pages = {1642-7}, abstract = {

Common genetic risk variants for type 2 diabetes (T2D) have primarily been identified in populations of European and Asian ancestry. We tested whether the direction of association with 20 T2D risk variants generalizes across six major racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. as part of the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology Consortium (16,235 diabetes case and 46,122 control subjects of European American, African American, Hispanic, East Asian, American Indian, and Native Hawaiian ancestry). The percentage of positive (odds ratio [OR] >1 for putative risk allele) associations ranged from 69\% in American Indians to 100\% in European Americans. Of the nine variants where we observed significant heterogeneity of effect by racial/ethnic group (P(heterogeneity) < 0.05), eight were positively associated with risk (OR >1) in at least five groups. The marked directional consistency of association observed for most genetic variants across populations implies a shared functional common variant in each region. Fine-mapping of all loci will be required to reveal markers of risk that are important within and across populations.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alleles, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Male, Metagenomics, Middle Aged, Population Groups, Risk, Risk Factors}, issn = {1939-327X}, doi = {10.2337/db11-1296}, author = {Haiman, Christopher A and Fesinmeyer, Megan D and Spencer, Kylee L and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Voruganti, V Saroja and Wan, Peggy and Haessler, Jeff and Franceschini, Nora and Monroe, Kristine R and Howard, Barbara V and Jackson, Rebecca D and Florez, Jose C and Kolonel, Laurence N and Buyske, Steven and Goodloe, Robert J and Liu, Simin and Manson, JoAnn E and Meigs, James B and Waters, Kevin and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Pendergrass, Sarah A and Shrader, Peter and Wilkens, Lynne R and Hindorff, Lucia A and Ambite, Jose Luis and North, Kari E and Peters, Ulrike and Crawford, Dana C and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Pankow, James S} } @article {1408, title = {Development and validation of a coronary risk prediction model for older U.S. and European persons in the Cardiovascular Health Study and the Rotterdam Study.}, journal = {Ann Intern Med}, volume = {157}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Sep 18}, pages = {389-97}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Risk scores for prediction of coronary heart disease (CHD) in older adults are needed.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a sex-specific CHD risk prediction model for older adults that accounts for competing risks for death.

DESIGN: 2 observational cohort studies, using data from 4946 participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and 4303 participants in the Rotterdam Study (RS).

SETTING: Community settings in the United States (CHS) and Rotterdam, the Netherlands (RS).

PARTICIPANTS: Persons aged 65 years or older who were free of cardiovascular disease.

MEASUREMENTS: A composite of nonfatal myocardial infarction and coronary death.

RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 16.5 and 14.9 years, 1166 CHS and 698 RS participants had CHD events, respectively. Deaths from noncoronary causes largely exceeded the number of CHD events, complicating accurate CHD risk predictions. The prediction model had moderate ability to discriminate between events and nonevents (c-statistic, 0.63 in both U.S. and European men and 0.67 and 0.68 in U.S. and European women). The model was well-calibrated; predicted risks were in good agreement with observed risks. Compared with the Framingham point scores, the prediction model classified elderly U.S. persons into higher risk categories but elderly European persons into lower risk categories. Differences in classification accuracy were not consistent and depended on cohort and sex. Adding newer cardiovascular risk markers to the model did not substantially improve performance.

LIMITATION: The model may be less applicable in nonwhite populations, and the comparison Framingham model was not designed for adults older than 79 years.

CONCLUSION: A CHD risk prediction model that accounts for deaths from noncoronary causes among older adults provided well-calibrated risk estimates but was not substantially more accurate than Framingham point scores. Moreover, adding newer risk markers did not improve accuracy. These findings emphasize the difficulties of predicting CHD risk in elderly persons and the need to improve these predictions.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research; and the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Algorithms, Cause of Death, Coronary Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Humans, Incidence, Male, Models, Statistical, Multivariate Analysis, Netherlands, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {1539-3704}, doi = {10.7326/0003-4819-157-6-201209180-00002}, author = {Koller, Michael T and Leening, Maarten J G and Wolbers, Marcel and Steyerberg, Ewout W and Hunink, M G Myriam and Schoop, Rotraut and Hofman, Albert and Bucher, Heiner C and Psaty, Bruce M and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Witteman, Jacqueline C M} } @article {1337, title = {Echocardiographic diastolic parameters and risk of atrial fibrillation: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Eur Heart J}, volume = {33}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Apr}, pages = {904-12}, abstract = {

AIMS: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia in the elderly, and shares several risk factors with diastolic dysfunction, including hypertension and advanced age. The purpose of this study is to examine diastolic dysfunction as a risk for incident AF.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We examined the association of echocardiographic parameters of diastolic function with the incidence of AF in 4480 participants enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study, an ongoing cohort of community-dwelling older adults from four US communities. Participants underwent baseline echocardiography in 1989-1990 and were followed for incident AF on routine follow-up and hospitalizations. After 50 941 person-years of follow-up (median follow-up time 12.1 years), 1219 participants developed AF. In multivariable-adjusted age-stratified Cox models, diastolic echocardiographic parameters were significantly associated with the risk of incident AF. The most significant parameters were the Doppler peak E-wave velocity and left atrial diameter, which demonstrated a positive nonlinear association [HR 1.5 (CI 1.3-1.9) and HR 1.7 (CI 1.4-2.1) for highest vs. lowest quintile, respectively], and Doppler A-wave velocity time integral, which displayed a U-shaped relationship with the risk of AF [HR 0.7 (CI 0.6-0.9) for middle vs. lowest quintile]. Each diastolic parameter displayed a significant association with adjusted NT-proBNP levels, although the nature of the association did not entirely parallel the risk of AF. Further cluster analysis revealed unique patterns of diastolic function that may identify patients at risk for AF.

CONCLUSION: In a community-based population of older adults, echocardiographic measures of diastolic function are significantly associated with an increased risk of AF.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Blood Flow Velocity, Diastole, Echocardiography, Doppler, Female, Humans, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Natriuretic Peptide, Brain, Peptide Fragments, Risk Factors, United States, Ventricular Dysfunction, Left}, issn = {1522-9645}, doi = {10.1093/eurheartj/ehr378}, author = {Rosenberg, Michael A and Gottdiener, John S and Heckbert, Susan R and Mukamal, Kenneth J} } @article {1341, title = {Eight genetic loci associated with variation in lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 mass and activity and coronary heart disease: meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies from five community-based studies.}, journal = {Eur Heart J}, volume = {33}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Jan}, pages = {238-51}, abstract = {

AIMS: Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) generates proinflammatory and proatherogenic compounds in the arterial vascular wall and is a potential therapeutic target in coronary heart disease (CHD). We searched for genetic loci related to Lp-PLA2 mass or activity by a genome-wide association study as part of the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium.

METHODS AND RESULTS: In meta-analyses of findings from five population-based studies, comprising 13 664 subjects, variants at two loci (PLA2G7, CETP) were associated with Lp-PLA2 mass. The strongest signal was at rs1805017 in PLA2G7 [P = 2.4 {\texttimes} 10(-23), log Lp-PLA2 difference per allele (beta): 0.043]. Variants at six loci were associated with Lp-PLA2 activity (PLA2G7, APOC1, CELSR2, LDL, ZNF259, SCARB1), among which the strongest signals were at rs4420638, near the APOE-APOC1-APOC4-APOC2 cluster [P = 4.9 {\texttimes} 10(-30); log Lp-PLA2 difference per allele (beta): -0.054]. There were no significant gene-environment interactions between these eight polymorphisms associated with Lp-PLA2 mass or activity and age, sex, body mass index, or smoking status. Four of the polymorphisms (in APOC1, CELSR2, SCARB1, ZNF259), but not PLA2G7, were significantly associated with CHD in a second study.

CONCLUSION: Levels of Lp-PLA2 mass and activity were associated with PLA2G7, the gene coding for this protein. Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 activity was also strongly associated with genetic variants related to low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels.

}, keywords = {1-Alkyl-2-acetylglycerophosphocholine Esterase, Aged, Coronary Artery Disease, Coronary Disease, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Phospholipases A2, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1522-9645}, doi = {10.1093/eurheartj/ehr372}, author = {Grallert, Harald and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Bis, Joshua C and Dehghan, Abbas and Barbalic, Maja and Baumert, Jens and Lu, Chen and Smith, Nicholas L and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Roberts, Robert and Khuseyinova, Natalie and Schnabel, Renate B and Rice, Kenneth M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Fontes, Jo{\~a}o Daniel and Meisinger, Christa and Keaney, John F and Lemaitre, Rozenn and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Ellis, Stephen and Hazen, Stanley L and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Nelson, Jeanenne J and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Schunkert, Heribert and McPherson, Ruth M and Stirnadel-Farrant, Heide A and Psaty, Bruce M and Gieger, Christian and Siscovick, David and Hofman, Albert and Illig, Thomas and Cushman, Mary and Yamamoto, Jennifer F and Rotter, Jerome I and Larson, Martin G and Stewart, Alexandre F R and Boerwinkle, Eric and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Tracy, Russell P and Koenig, Wolfgang and Benjamin, Emelia J and Ballantyne, Christie M} } @article {6634, title = {Evaluation of the metabochip genotyping array in African Americans and implications for fine mapping of GWAS-identified loci: the PAGE study.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {7}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {e35651}, abstract = {

The Metabochip is a custom genotyping array designed for replication and fine mapping of metabolic, cardiovascular, and anthropometric trait loci and includes low frequency variation content identified from the 1000 Genomes Project. It has 196,725 SNPs concentrated in 257 genomic regions. We evaluated the Metabochip in 5,863 African Americans; 89\% of all SNPs passed rigorous quality control with a call rate of 99.9\%. Two examples illustrate the value of fine mapping with the Metabochip in African-ancestry populations. At CELSR2/PSRC1/SORT1, we found the strongest associated SNP for LDL-C to be rs12740374 (p = 3.5 {\texttimes} 10(-11)), a SNP indistinguishable from multiple SNPs in European ancestry samples due to high correlation. Its distinct signal supports functional studies elsewhere suggesting a causal role in LDL-C. At CETP we found rs17231520, with risk allele frequency 0.07 in African Americans, to be associated with HDL-C (p = 7.2 {\texttimes} 10(-36)). This variant is very rare in Europeans and not tagged in common GWAS arrays, but was identified as associated with HDL-C in African Americans in a single-gene study. Our results, one narrowing the risk interval and the other revealing an associated variant not found in Europeans, demonstrate the advantages of high-density genotyping of common and rare variation for fine mapping of trait loci in African American samples.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cholesterol Ester Transfer Proteins, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Chromosomes, Human, Cohort Studies, Gene Frequency, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Metabolic Diseases, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0035651}, author = {Buyske, Steven and Wu, Ying and Carty, Cara L and Cheng, Iona and Assimes, Themistocles L and Dumitrescu, Logan and Hindorff, Lucia A and Mitchell, Sabrina and Ambite, Jose Luis and Boerwinkle, Eric and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Carlson, Chris S and Cochran, Barbara and Duggan, David and Eaton, Charles B and Fesinmeyer, Megan D and Franceschini, Nora and Haessler, Jeffrey and Jenny, Nancy and Kang, Hyun Min and Kooperberg, Charles and Lin, Yi and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Matise, Tara C and Robinson, Jennifer G and Rodriguez, Carlos and Schumacher, Fredrick R and Voight, Benjamin F and Young, Alicia and Manolio, Teri A and Mohlke, Karen L and Haiman, Christopher A and Peters, Ulrike and Crawford, Dana C and North, Kari E} } @article {6083, title = {Fine-mapping and initial characterization of QT interval loci in African Americans.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {8}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {e1002870}, abstract = {

The QT interval (QT) is heritable and its prolongation is a risk factor for ventricular tachyarrhythmias and sudden death. Most genetic studies of QT have examined European ancestral populations; however, the increased genetic diversity in African Americans provides opportunities to narrow association signals and identify population-specific variants. We therefore evaluated 6,670 SNPs spanning eleven previously identified QT loci in 8,644 African American participants from two Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) studies: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study and Women{\textquoteright}s Health Initiative Clinical Trial. Of the fifteen known independent QT variants at the eleven previously identified loci, six were significantly associated with QT in African American populations (P<=1.20{\texttimes}10(-4)): ATP1B1, PLN1, KCNQ1, NDRG4, and two NOS1AP independent signals. We also identified three population-specific signals significantly associated with QT in African Americans (P<=1.37{\texttimes}10(-5)): one at NOS1AP and two at ATP1B1. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns in African Americans assisted in narrowing the region likely to contain the functional variants for several loci. For example, African American LD patterns showed that 0 SNPs were in LD with NOS1AP signal rs12143842, compared with European LD patterns that indicated 87 SNPs, which spanned 114.2 Kb, were in LD with rs12143842. Finally, bioinformatic-based characterization of the nine African American signals pointed to functional candidates located exclusively within non-coding regions, including predicted binding sites for transcription factors such as TBX5, which has been implicated in cardiac structure and conductance. In this detailed evaluation of QT loci, we identified several African Americans SNPs that better define the association with QT and successfully narrowed intervals surrounding established loci. These results demonstrate that the same loci influence variation in QT across multiple populations, that novel signals exist in African Americans, and that the SNPs identified as strong candidates for functional evaluation implicate gene regulatory dysfunction in QT prolongation.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Computational Biology, Electrocardiography, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Metagenomics, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Quantitative Trait, Heritable, Risk Factors, Tachycardia, United States}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002870}, author = {Avery, Christy L and Sethupathy, Praveen and Buyske, Steven and He, Qianchuan and Lin, Dan-Yu and Arking, Dan E and Carty, Cara L and Duggan, David and Fesinmeyer, Megan D and Hindorff, Lucia A and Jeff, Janina M and Klein, Liviu and Patton, Kristen K and Peters, Ulrike and Shohet, Ralph V and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Young, Alicia M and Kooperberg, Charles and Haiman, Christopher A and Mohlke, Karen L and Whitsel, Eric A and North, Kari E} } @article {6175, title = {FTO genotype is associated with phenotypic variability of body mass index.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {490}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Oct 11}, pages = {267-72}, abstract = {

There is evidence across several species for genetic control of phenotypic variation of complex traits, such that the variance among phenotypes is genotype dependent. Understanding genetic control of variability is important in evolutionary biology, agricultural selection programmes and human medicine, yet for complex traits, no individual genetic variants associated with variance, as opposed to the mean, have been identified. Here we perform a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of phenotypic variation using \~{}170,000 samples on height and body mass index (BMI) in human populations. We report evidence that the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs7202116 at the FTO gene locus, which is known to be associated with obesity (as measured by mean BMI for each rs7202116 genotype), is also associated with phenotypic variability. We show that the results are not due to scale effects or other artefacts, and find no other experiment-wise significant evidence for effects on variability, either at loci other than FTO for BMI or at any locus for height. The difference in variance for BMI among individuals with opposite homozygous genotypes at the FTO locus is approximately 7\%, corresponding to a difference of \~{}0.5 kilograms in the standard deviation of weight. Our results indicate that genetic variants can be discovered that are associated with variability, and that between-person variability in obesity can partly be explained by the genotype at the FTO locus. The results are consistent with reported FTO by environment interactions for BMI, possibly mediated by DNA methylation. Our BMI results for other SNPs and our height results for all SNPs suggest that most genetic variants, including those that influence mean height or mean BMI, are not associated with phenotypic variance, or that their effects on variability are too small to detect even with samples sizes greater than 100,000.

}, keywords = {Alpha-Ketoglutarate-Dependent Dioxygenase FTO, Body Height, Body Mass Index, Co-Repressor Proteins, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proteins, Repressor Proteins}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature11401}, author = {Yang, Jian and Loos, Ruth J F and Powell, Joseph E and Medland, Sarah E and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Chasman, Daniel I and Rose, Lynda M and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Waite, Lindsay and Smith, Albert Vernon and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Monda, Keri L and Hadley, David and Mahajan, Anubha and Li, Guo and Kapur, Karen and Vitart, Veronique and Huffman, Jennifer E and Wang, Sophie R and Palmer, Cameron and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Fischer, Krista and Zhao, Jing Hua and Demirkan, Ayse and Isaacs, Aaron and Feitosa, Mary F and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and White, Charles and Jackson, Anne U and Preuss, Michael and Ziegler, Andreas and Eriksson, Joel and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Frau, Francesca and Nolte, Ilja M and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Jacobs, Kevin B and Verweij, Niek and Goel, Anuj and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Estrada, Karol and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer Lynn and Sanna, Serena and Sidore, Carlo and Tyrer, Jonathan and Teumer, Alexander and Prokopenko, Inga and Mangino, Massimo and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Assimes, Themistocles L and Shuldiner, Alan R and Hui, Jennie and Beilby, John P and McArdle, Wendy L and Hall, Per and Haritunians, Talin and Zgaga, Lina and Kolcic, Ivana and Polasek, Ozren and Zemunik, Tatijana and Oostra, Ben A and Junttila, M Juhani and Gr{\"o}nberg, Henrik and Schreiber, Stefan and Peters, Annette and Hicks, Andrew A and Stephens, Jonathan and Foad, Nicola S and Laitinen, Jaana and Pouta, Anneli and Kaakinen, Marika and Willemsen, Gonneke and Vink, Jacqueline M and Wild, Sarah H and Navis, Gerjan and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Homuth, Georg and John, Ulrich and Iribarren, Carlos and Harris, Tamara and Launer, Lenore and Gudnason, Vilmundur and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Boerwinkle, Eric and Cadby, Gemma and Palmer, Lyle J and James, Alan L and Musk, Arthur W and Ingelsson, Erik and Psaty, Bruce M and Beckmann, Jacques S and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Vollenweider, Peter and Hayward, Caroline and Wright, Alan F and Rudan, Igor and Groop, Leif C and Metspalu, Andres and Khaw, Kay Tee and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Borecki, Ingrid B and Province, Michael A and Wareham, Nicholas J and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Huikuri, Heikki V and Cupples, L Adrienne and Atwood, Larry D and Fox, Caroline S and Boehnke, Michael and Collins, Francis S and Mohlke, Karen L and Erdmann, Jeanette and Schunkert, Heribert and Hengstenberg, Christian and Stark, Klaus and Lorentzon, Mattias and Ohlsson, Claes and Cusi, Daniele and Staessen, Jan A and van der Klauw, Melanie M and Pramstaller, Peter P and Kathiresan, Sekar and Jolley, Jennifer D and Ripatti, Samuli and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and de Geus, Eco J C and Boomsma, Dorret I and Penninx, Brenda and Wilson, James F and Campbell, Harry and Chanock, Stephen J and van der Harst, Pim and Hamsten, Anders and Watkins, Hugh and Hofman, Albert and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Zillikens, M Carola and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Zillikens, M Carola and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Vermeulen, Sita H and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Schlessinger, David and Schipf, Sabine and Stumvoll, Michael and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Spector, Tim D and North, Kari E and Lettre, Guillaume and McCarthy, Mark I and Berndt, Sonja I and Heath, Andrew C and Madden, Pamela A F and Nyholt, Dale R and Montgomery, Grant W and Martin, Nicholas G and McKnight, Barbara and Strachan, David P and Hill, William G and Snieder, Harold and Ridker, Paul M and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Stefansson, Kari and Frayling, Timothy M and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Goddard, Michael E and Visscher, Peter M} } @article {5864, title = {Genetic determinants of the ankle-brachial index: a meta-analysis of a cardiovascular candidate gene 50K SNP panel in the candidate gene association resource (CARe) consortium.}, journal = {Atherosclerosis}, volume = {222}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 May}, pages = {138-47}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Candidate gene association studies for peripheral artery disease (PAD), including subclinical disease assessed with the ankle-brachial index (ABI), have been limited by the modest number of genes examined. We conducted a two stage meta-analysis of \~{}50,000 SNPs across \~{}2100 candidate genes to identify genetic variants for ABI.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied subjects of European ancestry from 8 studies (n=21,547, 55\% women, mean age 44-73 years) and African American ancestry from 5 studies (n=7267, 60\% women, mean age 41-73 years) involved in the candidate gene association resource (CARe) consortium. In each ethnic group, additive genetic models were used (with each additional copy of the minor allele corresponding to the given beta) to test each SNP for association with continuous ABI (excluding ABI>1.40) and PAD (defined as ABI<0.90) using linear or logistic regression with adjustment for known PAD risk factors and population stratification. We then conducted a fixed-effects inverse-variance weighted meta-analyses considering a p<2{\texttimes}10(-6) to denote statistical significance.

RESULTS: In the European ancestry discovery meta-analyses, rs2171209 in SYTL3 (β=-0.007, p=6.02{\texttimes}10(-7)) and rs290481 in TCF7L2 (β=-0.008, p=7.01{\texttimes}10(-7)) were significantly associated with ABI. None of the SNP associations for PAD were significant, though a SNP in CYP2B6 (p=4.99{\texttimes}10(-5)) was among the strongest associations. These 3 genes are linked to key PAD risk factors (lipoprotein(a), type 2 diabetes, and smoking behavior, respectively). We sought replication in 6 population-based and 3 clinical samples (n=15,440) for rs290481 and rs2171209. However, in the replication stage (rs2171209, p=0.75; rs290481, p=0.19) and in the combined discovery and replication analysis the SNP-ABI associations were no longer significant (rs2171209, p=1.14{\texttimes}10(-3); rs290481, p=8.88{\texttimes}10(-5)). In African Americans, none of the SNP associations for ABI or PAD achieved an experiment-wide level of significance.

CONCLUSIONS: Genetic determinants of ABI and PAD remain elusive. Follow-up of these preliminary findings may uncover important biology given the known gene-risk factor associations. New and more powerful approaches to PAD gene discovery are warranted.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Ankle Brachial Index, Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylases, Cytochrome P-450 CYP2B6, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Oxidoreductases, N-Demethylating, Peripheral Arterial Disease, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Transcription Factor 7-Like 2 Protein}, issn = {1879-1484}, doi = {10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2012.01.039}, author = {Wassel, Christina L and Lamina, Claudia and Nambi, Vijay and Coassin, Stefan and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Ganesh, Santhi K and Jacobs, David R and Franceschini, Nora and Papanicolaou, George J and Gibson, Quince and Yanek, Lisa R and van der Harst, Pim and Ferguson, Jane F and Crawford, Dana C and Waite, Lindsay L and Allison, Matthew A and Criqui, Michael H and McDermott, Mary M and Mehra, Reena and Cupples, L Adrienne and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Redline, Susan and Kaplan, Robert C and Heiss, Gerardo and Rotter, Jerome I and Boerwinkle, Eric and Taylor, Herman A and Eraso, Luis H and Haun, Margot and Li, Mingyao and Meisinger, Christa and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Shuldiner, Alan R and Tybj{\ae}rg-Hansen, Anne and Frikke-Schmidt, Ruth and Kollerits, Barbara and Rantner, Barbara and Dieplinger, Benjamin and Stadler, Marietta and Mueller, Thomas and Haltmayer, Meinhard and Klein-Weigel, Peter and Summerer, Monika and Wichmann, H-Erich and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Navis, Gerjan and Mateo Leach, Irene and Brown-Gentry, Kristin and Goodloe, Robert and Assimes, Themistocles L and Becker, Diane M and Cooke, John P and Absher, Devin M and Olin, Jeffrey W and Mitchell, Braxton D and Reilly, Muredach P and Mohler, Emile R and North, Kari E and Reiner, Alexander P and Kronenberg, Florian and Murabito, Joanne M} } @article {5863, title = {Genetic risk factors for ischaemic stroke and its subtypes (the METASTROKE collaboration): a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies.}, journal = {Lancet Neurol}, volume = {11}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Nov}, pages = {951-62}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Various genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been done in ischaemic stroke, identifying a few loci associated with the disease, but sample sizes have been 3500 cases or less. We established the METASTROKE collaboration with the aim of validating associations from previous GWAS and identifying novel genetic associations through meta-analysis of GWAS datasets for ischaemic stroke and its subtypes.

METHODS: We meta-analysed data from 15 ischaemic stroke cohorts with a total of 12 389 individuals with ischaemic stroke and 62 004 controls, all of European ancestry. For the associations reaching genome-wide significance in METASTROKE, we did a further analysis, conditioning on the lead single nucleotide polymorphism in every associated region. Replication of novel suggestive signals was done in 13 347 cases and 29 083 controls.

FINDINGS: We verified previous associations for cardioembolic stroke near PITX2 (p=2{\textperiodcentered}8{\texttimes}10(-16)) and ZFHX3 (p=2{\textperiodcentered}28{\texttimes}10(-8)), and for large-vessel stroke at a 9p21 locus (p=3{\textperiodcentered}32{\texttimes}10(-5)) and HDAC9 (p=2{\textperiodcentered}03{\texttimes}10(-12)). Additionally, we verified that all associations were subtype specific. Conditional analysis in the three regions for which the associations reached genome-wide significance (PITX2, ZFHX3, and HDAC9) indicated that all the signal in each region could be attributed to one risk haplotype. We also identified 12 potentially novel loci at p<5{\texttimes}10(-6). However, we were unable to replicate any of these novel associations in the replication cohort.

INTERPRETATION: Our results show that, although genetic variants can be detected in patients with ischaemic stroke when compared with controls, all associations we were able to confirm are specific to a stroke subtype. This finding has two implications. First, to maximise success of genetic studies in ischaemic stroke, detailed stroke subtyping is required. Second, different genetic pathophysiological mechanisms seem to be associated with different stroke subtypes.

FUNDING: Wellcome Trust, UK Medical Research Council (MRC), Australian National and Medical Health Research Council, National Institutes of Health (NIH) including National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).

}, keywords = {Brain Ischemia, Databases, Genetic, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Risk Factors, Stroke}, issn = {1474-4465}, doi = {10.1016/S1474-4422(12)70234-X}, author = {Traylor, Matthew and Farrall, Martin and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Sudlow, Cathie and Hopewell, Jemma C and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Fornage, Myriam and Ikram, M Arfan and Malik, Rainer and Bevan, Steve and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Nalls, Mike A and Longstreth, Wt and Wiggins, Kerri L and Yadav, Sunaina and Parati, Eugenio A and DeStefano, Anita L and Worrall, Bradford B and Kittner, Steven J and Khan, Muhammad Saleem and Reiner, Alex P and Helgadottir, Anna and Achterberg, Sefanja and Fernandez-Cadenas, Israel and Abboud, Sherine and Schmidt, Reinhold and Walters, Matthew and Chen, Wei-Min and Ringelstein, E Bernd and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Martin and Ho, Weang Kee and Pera, Joanna and Lemmens, Robin and Norrving, Bo and Higgins, Peter and Benn, Marianne and Sale, Michele and Kuhlenb{\"a}umer, Gregor and Doney, Alexander S F and Vicente, Astrid M and Delavaran, Hossein and Algra, Ale and Davies, Gail and Oliveira, Sofia A and Palmer, Colin N A and Deary, Ian and Schmidt, Helena and Pandolfo, Massimo and Montaner, Joan and Carty, Cara and de Bakker, Paul I W and Kostulas, Konstantinos and Ferro, Jose M and van Zuydam, Natalie R and Valdimarsson, Einar and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Lindgren, Arne and Thijs, Vincent and Slowik, Agnieszka and Saleheen, Danish and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Berger, Klaus and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Hofman, Albert and Mosley, Thomas H and Mitchell, Braxton D and Furie, Karen and Clarke, Robert and Levi, Christopher and Seshadri, Sudha and Gschwendtner, Andreas and Boncoraglio, Giorgio B and Sharma, Pankaj and Bis, Joshua C and Gretarsdottir, Solveig and Psaty, Bruce M and Rothwell, Peter M and Rosand, Jonathan and Meschia, James F and Stefansson, Kari and Dichgans, Martin and Markus, Hugh S} } @article {1554, title = {Genetic variants and associations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations with major clinical outcomes.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {308}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Nov 14}, pages = {1898-905}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Lower serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations are associated with greater risks of many chronic diseases across large, prospective community-based studies. Substrate 25-hydroxyvitamin D must be converted to 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D for full biological activity, and complex metabolic pathways suggest that interindividual variability in vitamin D metabolism may alter the clinical consequences of measured serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether common variation within genes encoding the vitamin D-binding protein, megalin, cubilin, CYP27B1, CYP24A1, and the vitamin D receptor (VDR) modify associations of low 25-hydroxyvitamin D with major clinical outcomes.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Examination of 141 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in a discovery cohort of 1514 white participants (who were recruited from 4 US regions) from the community-based Cardiovascular Health Study. Participants had serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D measurements in 1992-1993 and were followed up for a median of 11 years (through 2006). Replication meta-analyses were conducted across the independent, community-based US Health, Aging, and Body Composition (n = 922; follow-up: 1998-1999 through 2005), Italian Invecchiare in Chianti (n = 835; follow-up: 1998-2000 through 2006), and Swedish Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men (n = 970; follow-up: 1991-1995 through 2008) cohort studies.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Composite outcome of incident hip facture, myocardial infarction, cancer, and mortality over long-term follow-up.

RESULTS: Interactions between 5 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and low 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration were identified in the discovery phase and 1 involving a variant in the VDR gene replicated in independent meta-analysis. Among Cardiovascular Health Study participants, low 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration was associated with hazard ratios for risk of the composite outcome of 1.40 (95\% CI, 1.12-1.74) for those who had 1 minor allele at rs7968585 and 1.82 (95\% CI, 1.31-2.54) for those with 2 minor alleles at rs7968585. In contrast, there was no evidence of an association (estimated hazard ratio, 0.93 [95\% CI, 0.70-1.24]) among participants who had 0 minor alleles at this single-nucleotide polymorphism.

CONCLUSION: Known associations of low 25-hydroxyvitamin D with major health outcomes may vary according to common genetic differences in the vitamin D receptor.

}, keywords = {25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 1-alpha-Hydroxylase, Aged, Chronic Disease, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Variation, Genotype, Hip Fractures, Humans, Low Density Lipoprotein Receptor-Related Protein-2, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Myocardial Infarction, Neoplasms, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, Calcitriol, Receptors, Cell Surface, Risk, Steroid Hydroxylases, Vitamin D, Vitamin D3 24-Hydroxylase}, issn = {1538-3598}, doi = {10.1001/jama.2012.17304}, author = {Levin, Gregory P and Robinson-Cohen, Cassianne and de Boer, Ian H and Houston, Denise K and Lohman, Kurt and Liu, Yongmei and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Cauley, Jane A and Tanaka, Toshiko and Ferrucci, Luigi and Bandinelli, Stefania and Patel, Kushang V and Hagstr{\"o}m, Emil and Micha{\"e}lsson, Karl and Melhus, H{\r a}kan and Wang, Thomas and Wolf, Myles and Psaty, Bruce M and Siscovick, David and Kestenbaum, Bryan} } @article {1364, title = {Genetic variation in F3 (tissue factor) and the risk of incident venous thrombosis: meta-analysis of eight studies.}, journal = {J Thromb Haemost}, volume = {10}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Apr}, pages = {719-22}, keywords = {Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Regression Analysis, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Thromboplastin, Venous Thrombosis}, issn = {1538-7836}, doi = {10.1111/j.1538-7836.2012.04665.x}, author = {Smith, N L and Heit, J A and Tang, W and Teichert, M and Chasman, D I and Morange, P-E} } @article {1377, title = {Genome-wide association and functional follow-up reveals new loci for kidney function.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {8}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {e1002584}, abstract = {

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an important public health problem with a genetic component. We performed genome-wide association studies in up to 130,600 European ancestry participants overall, and stratified for key CKD risk factors. We uncovered 6 new loci in association with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), the primary clinical measure of CKD, in or near MPPED2, DDX1, SLC47A1, CDK12, CASP9, and INO80. Morpholino knockdown of mpped2 and casp9 in zebrafish embryos revealed podocyte and tubular abnormalities with altered dextran clearance, suggesting a role for these genes in renal function. By providing new insights into genes that regulate renal function, these results could further our understanding of the pathogenesis of CKD.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Animals, Caspase 9, Cyclin-Dependent Kinases, DEAD-box RNA Helicases, DNA Helicases, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Gene Knockdown Techniques, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Kidney, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Male, Middle Aged, Phosphoric Diester Hydrolases, Zebrafish}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002584}, author = {Pattaro, Cristian and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Teumer, Alexander and Garnaas, Maija and B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and Fuchsberger, Christian and Olden, Matthias and Chen, Ming-Huei and Tin, Adrienne and Taliun, Daniel and Li, Man and Gao, Xiaoyi and Gorski, Mathias and Yang, Qiong and Hundertmark, Claudia and Foster, Meredith C and O{\textquoteright}Seaghdha, Conall M and Glazer, Nicole and Isaacs, Aaron and Liu, Ching-Ti and Smith, Albert V and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Struchalin, Maksim and Tanaka, Toshiko and Li, Guo and Johnson, Andrew D and Gierman, Hinco J and Feitosa, Mary and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Atkinson, Elizabeth J and Lohman, Kurt and Cornelis, Marilyn C and Johansson, Asa and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Dehghan, Abbas and Chouraki, Vincent and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Sorice, Rossella and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Deshmukh, Harshal and Ulivi, Sheila and Chu, Audrey Y and Murgia, Federico and Trompet, Stella and Imboden, Medea and Kollerits, Barbara and Pistis, Giorgio and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Aspelund, Thor and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Mitchell, Braxton D and Boerwinkle, Eric and Schmidt, Helena and Cavalieri, Margherita and Rao, Madhumathi and Hu, Frank B and Demirkan, Ayse and Oostra, Ben A and de Andrade, Mariza and Turner, Stephen T and Ding, Jingzhong and Andrews, Jeanette S and Freedman, Barry I and Koenig, Wolfgang and Illig, Thomas and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Wichmann, H-Erich and Kolcic, Ivana and Zemunik, Tatijana and Boban, Mladen and Minelli, Cosetta and Wheeler, Heather E and Igl, Wilmar and Zaboli, Ghazal and Wild, Sarah H and Wright, Alan F and Campbell, Harry and Ellinghaus, David and N{\"o}thlings, Ute and Jacobs, Gunnar and Biffar, Reiner and Endlich, Karlhans and Ernst, Florian and Homuth, Georg and Kroemer, Heyo K and Nauck, Matthias and Stracke, Sylvia and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Kovacs, Peter and Stumvoll, Michael and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Polasek, Ozren and Hastie, Nick and Vitart, Veronique and Helmer, Catherine and Wang, Jie Jin and Ruggiero, Daniela and Bergmann, Sven and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Viikari, Jorma and Nikopensius, Tiit and Province, Michael and Ketkar, Shamika and Colhoun, Helen and Doney, Alex and Robino, Antonietta and Giulianini, Franco and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernhard K and Portas, Laura and Ford, Ian and Buckley, Brendan M and Adam, Martin and Thun, Gian-Andri and Paulweber, Bernhard and Haun, Margot and Sala, Cinzia and Metzger, Marie and Mitchell, Paul and Ciullo, Marina and Kim, Stuart K and Vollenweider, Peter and Raitakari, Olli and Metspalu, Andres and Palmer, Colin and Gasparini, Paolo and Pirastu, Mario and Jukema, J Wouter and Probst-Hensch, Nicole M and Kronenberg, Florian and Toniolo, Daniela and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Shuldiner, Alan R and Coresh, Josef and Schmidt, Reinhold and Ferrucci, Luigi and Siscovick, David S and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Borecki, Ingrid and Kardia, Sharon L R and Liu, Yongmei and Curhan, Gary C and Rudan, Igor and Gyllensten, Ulf and Wilson, James F and Franke, Andre and Pramstaller, Peter P and Rettig, Rainer and Prokopenko, Inga and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Hayward, Caroline and Ridker, Paul and Parsa, Afshin and Bochud, Murielle and Heid, Iris M and Goessling, Wolfram and Chasman, Daniel I and Kao, W H Linda and Fox, Caroline S} } @article {6092, title = {Genome-wide association studies identify CHRNA5/3 and HTR4 in the development of airflow obstruction.}, journal = {Am J Respir Crit Care Med}, volume = {186}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Oct 01}, pages = {622-32}, abstract = {

RATIONALE: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified loci influencing lung function, but fewer genes influencing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are known.

OBJECTIVES: Perform meta-analyses of GWAS for airflow obstruction, a key pathophysiologic characteristic of COPD assessed by spirometry, in population-based cohorts examining all participants, ever smokers, never smokers, asthma-free participants, and more severe cases.

METHODS: Fifteen cohorts were studied for discovery (3,368 affected; 29,507 unaffected), and a population-based family study and a meta-analysis of case-control studies were used for replication and regional follow-up (3,837 cases; 4,479 control subjects). Airflow obstruction was defined as FEV(1) and its ratio to FVC (FEV(1)/FVC) both less than their respective lower limits of normal as determined by published reference equations.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The discovery meta-analyses identified one region on chromosome 15q25.1 meeting genome-wide significance in ever smokers that includes AGPHD1, IREB2, and CHRNA5/CHRNA3 genes. The region was also modestly associated among never smokers. Gene expression studies confirmed the presence of CHRNA5/3 in lung, airway smooth muscle, and bronchial epithelial cells. A single-nucleotide polymorphism in HTR4, a gene previously related to FEV(1)/FVC, achieved genome-wide statistical significance in combined meta-analysis. Top single-nucleotide polymorphisms in ADAM19, RARB, PPAP2B, and ADAMTS19 were nominally replicated in the COPD meta-analysis.

CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest an important role for the CHRNA5/3 region as a genetic risk factor for airflow obstruction that may be independent of smoking and implicate the HTR4 gene in the etiology of airflow obstruction.

}, keywords = {Aged, Female, Forced Expiratory Volume, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive, Receptors, Nicotinic, Receptors, Serotonin, 5-HT4, Smoking, Vital Capacity}, issn = {1535-4970}, doi = {10.1164/rccm.201202-0366OC}, author = {Wilk, Jemma B and Shrine, Nick R G and Loehr, Laura R and Zhao, Jing Hua and Manichaikul, Ani and Lopez, Lorna M and Smith, Albert Vernon and Heckbert, Susan R and Smolonska, Joanna and Tang, Wenbo and Loth, Daan W and Curjuric, Ivan and Hui, Jennie and Cho, Michael H and Latourelle, Jeanne C and Henry, Amanda P and Aldrich, Melinda and Bakke, Per and Beaty, Terri H and Bentley, Amy R and Borecki, Ingrid B and Brusselle, Guy G and Burkart, Kristin M and Chen, Ting-Hsu and Couper, David and Crapo, James D and Davies, Gail and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Franceschini, Nora and Gulsvik, Amund and Hancock, Dana B and Harris, Tamara B and Hofman, Albert and Imboden, Medea and James, Alan L and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Lahousse, Lies and Launer, Lenore J and Litonjua, Augusto and Liu, Yongmei and Lohman, Kurt K and Lomas, David A and Lumley, Thomas and Marciante, Kristin D and McArdle, Wendy L and Meibohm, Bernd and Morrison, Alanna C and Musk, Arthur W and Myers, Richard H and North, Kari E and Postma, Dirkje S and Psaty, Bruce M and Rich, Stephen S and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rochat, Thierry and Rotter, Jerome I and Soler Artigas, Maria and Starr, John M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wijmenga, Cisca and Zanen, Pieter and Province, Michael A and Silverman, Edwin K and Deary, Ian J and Palmer, Lyle J and Cassano, Patricia A and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Barr, R Graham and Loos, Ruth J F and Strachan, David P and London, Stephanie J and Boezen, H Marike and Probst-Hensch, Nicole and Gharib, Sina A and Hall, Ian P and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Tobin, Martin D and Stricker, Bruno H} } @article {6089, title = {Genome-wide association study for circulating levels of PAI-1 provides novel insights into its regulation.}, journal = {Blood}, volume = {120}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Dec 06}, pages = {4873-81}, abstract = {

We conducted a genome-wide association study to identify novel associations between genetic variants and circulating plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) concentration, and examined functional implications of variants and genes that were discovered. A discovery meta-analysis was performed in 19 599 subjects, followed by replication analysis of genome-wide significant (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 10 796 independent samples. We further examined associations with type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease, assessed the functional significance of the SNPs for gene expression in human tissues, and conducted RNA-silencing experiments for one novel association. We confirmed the association of the 4G/5G proxy SNP rs2227631 in the promoter region of SERPINE1 (7q22.1) and discovered genome-wide significant associations at 3 additional loci: chromosome 7q22.1 close to SERPINE1 (rs6976053, discovery P = 3.4 {\texttimes} 10(-10)); chromosome 11p15.2 within ARNTL (rs6486122, discovery P = 3.0 {\texttimes} 10(-8)); and chromosome 3p25.2 within PPARG (rs11128603, discovery P = 2.9 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Replication was achieved for the 7q22.1 and 11p15.2 loci. There was nominal association with type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease at ARNTL (P < .05). Functional studies identified MUC3 as a candidate gene for the second association signal on 7q22.1. In summary, SNPs in SERPINE1 and ARNTL and an SNP associated with the expression of MUC3 were robustly associated with circulating levels of PAI-1.

}, keywords = {Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, ARNTL Transcription Factors, ATPases Associated with Diverse Cellular Activities, Cell Line, Cell Line, Tumor, Cohort Studies, Coronary Artery Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Gene Expression Profiling, Gene Expression Regulation, Gene Frequency, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, LIM Domain Proteins, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Monocytes, Mucin-3, Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor 1, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, PPAR gamma, Proteasome Endopeptidase Complex, RNA Interference, Transcription Factors}, issn = {1528-0020}, doi = {10.1182/blood-2012-06-436188}, author = {Huang, Jie and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Tregouet, David and Shin, So-Youn and Ding, Jingzhong and Baumert, Jens and Oudot-Mellakh, Tiphaine and Folkersen, Lasse and Johnson, Andrew D and Smith, Nicholas L and Williams, Scott M and Ikram, Mohammad A and Kleber, Marcus E and Becker, Diane M and Truong, Vinh and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Tang, Weihong and Yang, Qiong and Sennblad, Bengt and Moore, Jason H and Williams, Frances M K and Dehghan, Abbas and Silbernagel, G{\"u}nther and Schrijvers, Elisabeth M C and Smith, Shelly and Karakas, Mahir and Tofler, Geoffrey H and Silveira, Angela and Navis, Gerjan J and Lohman, Kurt and Chen, Ming-Huei and Peters, Annette and Goel, Anuj and Hopewell, Jemma C and Chambers, John C and Saleheen, Danish and Lundmark, Per and Psaty, Bruce M and Strawbridge, Rona J and Boehm, Bernhard O and Carter, Angela M and Meisinger, Christa and Peden, John F and Bis, Joshua C and McKnight, Barbara and Ohrvik, John and Taylor, Kent and Franzosi, Maria Grazia and Seedorf, Udo and Collins, Rory and Franco-Cereceda, Anders and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and Goodall, Alison H and Yanek, Lisa R and Cushman, Mary and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Folsom, Aaron R and Basu, Saonli and Matijevic, Nena and van Gilst, Wiek H and Kooner, Jaspal S and Hofman, Albert and Danesh, John and Clarke, Robert and Meigs, James B and Kathiresan, Sekar and Reilly, Muredach P and Klopp, Norman and Harris, Tamara B and Winkelmann, Bernhard R and Grant, Peter J and Hillege, Hans L and Watkins, Hugh and Spector, Timothy D and Becker, Lewis C and Tracy, Russell P and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Eriksson, Per and Cambien, Francois and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and Koenig, Wolfgang and Soranzo, Nicole and van der Harst, Pim and Liu, Yongmei and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Hamsten, Anders} } @article {1555, title = {A genome-wide association study identifies a potential novel gene locus for keratoconus, one of the commonest causes for corneal transplantation in developed countries.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {21}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Jan 15}, pages = {421-9}, abstract = {

Keratoconus is a condition in which the cornea progressively thins over time, and is a major cause for cornea transplantation. To identify keratoconus susceptibility regions, we performed a comprehensive genome-wide association study (GWAS) using a discovery and replication design. A discovery panel of 222 keratoconus Caucasian patients and 3324 Caucasian controls was genotyped using Illumina 370K beadchips. Further associated and fine-mapping single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (n= 4905) were genotyped in an independent replication case-control panel of 304 cases and 518 controls and a family panel of 307 subjects in 70 families. Logistic regression models implemented in PLINK were performed to test associations in case-control samples with and without principal component (PC) adjustments. Generalized estimation equation models accounting for familial correlations implemented in GWAF were used for association testing in families. No genome-wide associations were identified in the discovery GWAS panel. From the initial testing without adjustments for PCs, the top three SNPs located at 3p26 (rs6442925), 2q21.3 (rs4954218) and 19q13.3 (rs1428642) were identified with unadjusted P-values of 6.5 {\texttimes} 10(-8), 2.4 {\texttimes} 10(-7) and 3.1 {\texttimes} 10(-7), respectively. After adjustments for PCs, rs1428642 became the most significant through the genome with a P-value of 1.4 {\texttimes} 10(-6), while rs6442925 and rs4954218 were less significant (P= 1.9 {\texttimes} 10(-5) and 2.6 {\texttimes} 10(-4)). SNP rs4954218 was confirmed in two independent replication panels with P-values of 0.004 and 0.009, respectively. Meta-analysis revealed a highest association at rs4954218 with adjusted P= 1.6 {\texttimes} 10(-7) (unadjusted P= 1.2 {\texttimes} 10(-9)). These findings suggest SNP rs4954218, located near the RAB3GAP1 gene, previously reported to be associated with corneal malformation, is a potential susceptibility locus for keratoconus.

}, keywords = {Case-Control Studies, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 2, Cohort Studies, Corneal Transplantation, Developed Countries, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Keratoconus, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddr460}, author = {Li, Xiaohui and Bykhovskaya, Yelena and Haritunians, Talin and Siscovick, David and Aldave, Anthony and Szczotka-Flynn, Loretta and Iyengar, Sudha K and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Kent D and Rabinowitz, Yaron S} } @article {6088, title = {Genome-wide joint meta-analysis of SNP and SNP-by-smoking interaction identifies novel loci for pulmonary function.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {8}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {e1003098}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies have identified numerous genetic loci for spirometic measures of pulmonary function, forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV(1)), and its ratio to forced vital capacity (FEV(1)/FVC). Given that cigarette smoking adversely affects pulmonary function, we conducted genome-wide joint meta-analyses (JMA) of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and SNP-by-smoking (ever-smoking or pack-years) associations on FEV(1) and FEV(1)/FVC across 19 studies (total N = 50,047). We identified three novel loci not previously associated with pulmonary function. SNPs in or near DNER (smallest P(JMA = )5.00{\texttimes}10(-11)), HLA-DQB1 and HLA-DQA2 (smallest P(JMA = )4.35{\texttimes}10(-9)), and KCNJ2 and SOX9 (smallest P(JMA = )1.28{\texttimes}10(-8)) were associated with FEV(1)/FVC or FEV(1) in meta-analysis models including SNP main effects, smoking main effects, and SNP-by-smoking (ever-smoking or pack-years) interaction. The HLA region has been widely implicated for autoimmune and lung phenotypes, unlike the other novel loci, which have not been widely implicated. We evaluated DNER, KCNJ2, and SOX9 and found them to be expressed in human lung tissue. DNER and SOX9 further showed evidence of differential expression in human airway epithelium in smokers compared to non-smokers. Our findings demonstrated that joint testing of SNP and SNP-by-environment interaction identified novel loci associated with complex traits that are missed when considering only the genetic main effects.

}, keywords = {Forced Expiratory Volume, Gene Expression, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, HLA-DQ Antigens, HLA-DQ beta-Chains, Humans, Lung, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Potassium Channels, Inwardly Rectifying, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive, Receptors, Cell Surface, Smoking, SOX9 Transcription Factor, Vital Capacity}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1003098}, author = {Hancock, Dana B and Soler Artigas, Maria and Gharib, Sina A and Henry, Amanda and Manichaikul, Ani and Ramasamy, Adaikalavan and Loth, Daan W and Imboden, Medea and Koch, Beate and McArdle, Wendy L and Smith, Albert V and Smolonska, Joanna and Sood, Akshay and Tang, Wenbo and Wilk, Jemma B and Zhai, Guangju and Zhao, Jing Hua and Aschard, Hugues and Burkart, Kristin M and Curjuric, Ivan and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Elliott, Paul and Gu, Xiangjun and Harris, Tamara B and Janson, Christer and Homuth, Georg and Hysi, Pirro G and Liu, Jason Z and Loehr, Laura R and Lohman, Kurt and Loos, Ruth J F and Manning, Alisa K and Marciante, Kristin D and Obeidat, Ma{\textquoteright}en and Postma, Dirkje S and Aldrich, Melinda C and Brusselle, Guy G and Chen, Ting-Hsu and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Franceschini, Nora and Heinrich, Joachim and Rotter, Jerome I and Wijmenga, Cisca and Williams, O Dale and Bentley, Amy R and Hofman, Albert and Laurie, Cathy C and Lumley, Thomas and Morrison, Alanna C and Joubert, Bonnie R and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Couper, David J and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Liu, Yongmei and Wjst, Matthias and Wain, Louise V and Vonk, Judith M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rochat, Thierry and Rich, Stephen S and Psaty, Bruce M and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and North, Kari E and Mirel, Daniel B and Meibohm, Bernd and Launer, Lenore J and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hammond, Christopher J and Gl{\"a}ser, Sven and Marchini, Jonathan and Kraft, Peter and Wareham, Nicholas J and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Stricker, Bruno H C and Spector, Timothy D and Probst-Hensch, Nicole M and Jarvis, Deborah and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Heckbert, Susan R and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Boezen, H Marike and Barr, R Graham and Cassano, Patricia A and Strachan, David P and Fornage, Myriam and Hall, Ian P and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Tobin, Martin D and London, Stephanie J} } @article {6804, title = {Genome-wide meta-analyses of smoking behaviors in African Americans.}, journal = {Transl Psychiatry}, volume = {2}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {e119}, abstract = {

The identification and exploration of genetic loci that influence smoking behaviors have been conducted primarily in populations of the European ancestry. Here we report results of the first genome-wide association study meta-analysis of smoking behavior in African Americans in the Study of Tobacco in Minority Populations Genetics Consortium (n = 32,389). We identified one non-coding single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP; rs2036527[A]) on chromosome 15q25.1 associated with smoking quantity (cigarettes per day), which exceeded genome-wide significance (β = 0.040, s.e. = 0.007, P = 1.84 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). This variant is present in the 5{\textquoteright}-distal enhancer region of the CHRNA5 gene and defines the primary index signal reported in studies of the European ancestry. No other SNP reached genome-wide significance for smoking initiation (SI, ever vs never smoking), age of SI, or smoking cessation (SC, former vs current smoking). Informative associations that approached genome-wide significance included three modestly correlated variants, at 15q25.1 within PSMA4, CHRNA5 and CHRNA3 for smoking quantity, which are associated with a second signal previously reported in studies in European ancestry populations, and a signal represented by three SNPs in the SPOCK2 gene on chr10q22.1. The association at 15q25.1 confirms this region as an important susceptibility locus for smoking quantity in men and women of African ancestry. Larger studies will be needed to validate the suggestive loci that did not reach genome-wide significance and further elucidate the contribution of genetic variation to disparities in cigarette consumption, SC and smoking-attributable disease between African Americans and European Americans.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 10, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 15, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proteoglycans, Receptors, Nicotinic, Smoking, Statistics as Topic}, issn = {2158-3188}, doi = {10.1038/tp.2012.41}, author = {David, S P and Hamidovic, A and Chen, G K and Bergen, A W and Wessel, J and Kasberger, J L and Brown, W M and Petruzella, S and Thacker, E L and Kim, Y and Nalls, M A and Tranah, G J and Sung, Y J and Ambrosone, C B and Arnett, D and Bandera, E V and Becker, D M and Becker, L and Berndt, S I and Bernstein, L and Blot, W J and Broeckel, U and Buxbaum, S G and Caporaso, N and Casey, G and Chanock, S J and Deming, S L and Diver, W R and Eaton, C B and Evans, D S and Evans, M K and Fornage, M and Franceschini, N and Harris, T B and Henderson, B E and Hernandez, D G and Hitsman, B and Hu, J J and Hunt, S C and Ingles, S A and John, E M and Kittles, R and Kolb, S and Kolonel, L N and Le Marchand, L and Liu, Y and Lohman, K K and McKnight, B and Millikan, R C and Murphy, A and Neslund-Dudas, C and Nyante, S and Press, M and Psaty, B M and Rao, D C and Redline, S and Rodriguez-Gil, J L and Rybicki, B A and Signorello, L B and Singleton, A B and Smoller, J and Snively, B and Spring, B and Stanford, J L and Strom, S S and Swan, G E and Taylor, K D and Thun, M J and Wilson, A F and Witte, J S and Yamamura, Y and Yanek, L R and Yu, K and Zheng, W and Ziegler, R G and Zonderman, A B and Jorgenson, E and Haiman, C A and Furberg, H} } @article {8016, title = {Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies 56 bone mineral density loci and reveals 14 loci associated with risk of fracture.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {44}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Apr 15}, pages = {491-501}, abstract = {

Bone mineral density (BMD) is the most widely used predictor of fracture risk. We performed the largest meta-analysis to date on lumbar spine and femoral neck BMD, including 17 genome-wide association studies and 32,961 individuals of European and east Asian ancestry. We tested the top BMD-associated markers for replication in 50,933 independent subjects and for association with risk of low-trauma fracture in 31,016 individuals with a history of fracture (cases) and 102,444 controls. We identified 56 loci (32 new) associated with BMD at genome-wide significance (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Several of these factors cluster within the RANK-RANKL-OPG, mesenchymal stem cell differentiation, endochondral ossification and Wnt signaling pathways. However, we also discovered loci that were localized to genes not known to have a role in bone biology. Fourteen BMD-associated loci were also associated with fracture risk (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-4), Bonferroni corrected), of which six reached P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8), including at 18p11.21 (FAM210A), 7q21.3 (SLC25A13), 11q13.2 (LRP5), 4q22.1 (MEPE), 2p16.2 (SPTBN1) and 10q21.1 (DKK1). These findings shed light on the genetic architecture and pathophysiological mechanisms underlying BMD variation and fracture susceptibility.

}, keywords = {Bone Density, Computational Biology, European Continental Ancestry Group, Extracellular Matrix Proteins, Female, Femur Neck, Fractures, Bone, Gene Expression Profiling, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Glycoproteins, Humans, Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins, Low Density Lipoprotein Receptor-Related Protein-5, Lumbar Vertebrae, Male, Mitochondrial Membrane Transport Proteins, Osteoporosis, Phosphoproteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Risk Factors, Spectrin}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2249}, author = {Estrada, Karol and Styrkarsdottir, Unnur and Evangelou, Evangelos and Hsu, Yi-Hsiang and Duncan, Emma L and Ntzani, Evangelia E and Oei, Ling and Albagha, Omar M E and Amin, Najaf and Kemp, John P and Koller, Daniel L and Li, Guo and Liu, Ching-Ti and Minster, Ryan L and Moayyeri, Alireza and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Willner, Dana and Xiao, Su-Mei and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Zheng, Hou-Feng and Alonso, Nerea and Eriksson, Joel and Kammerer, Candace M and Kaptoge, Stephen K and Leo, Paul J and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Wilson, Scott G and Wilson, James F and Aalto, Ville and Alen, Markku and Aragaki, Aaron K and Aspelund, Thor and Center, Jacqueline R and Dailiana, Zoe and Duggan, David J and Garcia, Melissa and Garc{\'\i}a-Giralt, Natalia and Giroux, Sylvie and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Hocking, Lynne J and Husted, Lise Bjerre and Jameson, Karen A and Khusainova, Rita and Kim, Ghi Su and Kooperberg, Charles and Koromila, Theodora and Kruk, Marcin and Laaksonen, Marika and LaCroix, Andrea Z and Lee, Seung Hun and Leung, Ping C and Lewis, Joshua R and Masi, Laura and Mencej-Bedrac, Simona and Nguyen, Tuan V and Nogues, Xavier and Patel, Millan S and Prezelj, Janez and Rose, Lynda M and Scollen, Serena and Siggeirsdottir, Kristin and Smith, Albert V and Svensson, Olle and Trompet, Stella and Trummer, Olivia and van Schoor, Natasja M and Woo, Jean and Zhu, Kun and Balcells, Susana and Brandi, Maria Luisa and Buckley, Brendan M and Cheng, Sulin and Christiansen, Claus and Cooper, Cyrus and Dedoussis, George and Ford, Ian and Frost, Morten and Goltzman, David and Gonz{\'a}lez-Mac{\'\i}as, Jes{\'u}s and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Karlsson, Magnus and Khusnutdinova, Elza and Koh, Jung-Min and Kollia, Panagoula and Langdahl, Bente Lomholt and Leslie, William D and Lips, Paul and Ljunggren, Osten and Lorenc, Roman S and Marc, Janja and Mellstr{\"o}m, Dan and Obermayer-Pietsch, Barbara and Olmos, Jos{\'e} M and Pettersson-Kymmer, Ulrika and Reid, David M and Riancho, Jos{\'e} A and Ridker, Paul M and Rousseau, Fran{\c c}ois and Slagboom, P Eline and Tang, Nelson L S and Urreizti, Roser and Van Hul, Wim and Viikari, Jorma and Zarrabeitia, Mar{\'\i}a T and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Castano-Betancourt, Martha and Grundberg, Elin and Herrera, Lizbeth and Ingvarsson, Thorvaldur and Johannsdottir, Hrefna and Kwan, Tony and Li, Rui and Luben, Robert and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Palsson, Stefan Th and Reppe, Sjur and Rotter, Jerome I and Sigurdsson, Gunnar and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Verlaan, Dominique and Williams, Frances M K and Wood, Andrew R and Zhou, Yanhua and Gautvik, Kaare M and Pastinen, Tomi and Raychaudhuri, Soumya and Cauley, Jane A and Chasman, Daniel I and Clark, Graeme R and Cummings, Steven R and Danoy, Patrick and Dennison, Elaine M and Eastell, Richard and Eisman, John A and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hofman, Albert and Jackson, Rebecca D and Jones, Graeme and Jukema, J Wouter and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Liu, Yongmei and Lorentzon, Mattias and McCloskey, Eugene and Mitchell, Braxton D and Nandakumar, Kannabiran and Nicholson, Geoffrey C and Oostra, Ben A and Peacock, Munro and Pols, Huibert A P and Prince, Richard L and Raitakari, Olli and Reid, Ian R and Robbins, John and Sambrook, Philip N and Sham, Pak Chung and Shuldiner, Alan R and Tylavsky, Frances A and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Wareham, Nick J and Cupples, L Adrienne and Econs, Michael J and Evans, David M and Harris, Tamara B and Kung, Annie Wai Chee and Psaty, Bruce M and Reeve, Jonathan and Spector, Timothy D and Streeten, Elizabeth A and Zillikens, M Carola and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Ohlsson, Claes and Karasik, David and Richards, J Brent and Brown, Matthew A and Stefansson, Kari and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Ralston, Stuart H and Ioannidis, John P A and Kiel, Douglas P and Rivadeneira, Fernando} } @article {6090, title = {Genome-wide meta-analysis points to CTC1 and ZNF676 as genes regulating telomere homeostasis in humans.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {21}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Dec 15}, pages = {5385-94}, abstract = {

Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is associated with a number of common age-related diseases and is a heritable trait. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWASs) identified two loci on chromosomes 3q26.2 (TERC) and 10q24.33 (OBFC1) that are associated with the inter-individual LTL variation. We performed a meta-analysis of 9190 individuals from six independent GWAS and validated our findings in 2226 individuals from four additional studies. We confirmed previously reported associations with OBFC1 (rs9419958 P = 9.1 {\texttimes} 10(-11)) and with the telomerase RNA component TERC (rs1317082, P = 1.1 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). We also identified two novel genomic regions associated with LTL variation that map near a conserved telomere maintenance complex component 1 (CTC1; rs3027234, P = 3.6 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) on chromosome17p13.1 and zinc finger protein 676 (ZNF676; rs412658, P = 3.3 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) on 19p12. The minor allele of rs3027234 was associated with both shorter LTL and lower expression of CTC1. Our findings are consistent with the recent observations that point mutations in CTC1 cause short telomeres in both Arabidopsis and humans affected by a rare Mendelian syndrome. Overall, our results provide novel insights into the genetic architecture of inter-individual LTL variation in the general population.

}, keywords = {Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Kruppel-Like Transcription Factors, Telomere, Telomere Homeostasis, Telomere-Binding Proteins}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/dds382}, author = {Mangino, Massimo and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Spector, Timothy D and Hunt, Steven C and Kimura, Masayuki and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Christiansen, Lene and Petersen, Inge and Elbers, Clara C and Harris, Tamara and Chen, Wei and Srinivasan, Sathanur R and Kark, Jeremy D and Benetos, Athanase and El Shamieh, Said and Visvikis-Siest, Sophie and Christensen, Kaare and Berenson, Gerald S and Valdes, Ana M and Vi{\~n}uela, Ana and Garcia, Melissa and Arnett, Donna K and Broeckel, Ulrich and Province, Michael A and Pankow, James S and Kammerer, Candace and Liu, Yongmei and Nalls, Michael and Tishkoff, Sarah and Thomas, Fridtjof and Ziv, Elad and Psaty, Bruce M and Bis, Joshua C and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Kent D and Smith, Erin and Schork, Nicholas J and Levy, Daniel and Aviv, Abraham} } @article {1394, title = {Hemodynamic fluid shear stress response genes and carotid intima-media thickness: a candidate gene association analysis in the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Int J Mol Epidemiol Genet}, volume = {3}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {174-8}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: This study examined whether carotid artery intimal-medial thickness (cIMT) is associated with genetic variations (SNPs) in a hemodynamics-responsive gene pathway.

METHODS: Subjects were Cardiovascular Health Study participants free of cardiovascular events at baseline (N=3388). Genotype was measured using Illumina 370CNV HumanHap chip. Carotid IMT was measured using ultrasound. Estimated mean differences in cIMT per additional minor allele for 366 SNPs in MAP2K5, MAPK7, MEF2A/C, and KLF2 were adjusted for sex, age, clinic, and medication use. SNP-SNP interactions were examined using logic regression for 71 tagSNPs.

RESULTS: None of the associations was significant after correction for multiple comparisons; smallest P-value=0.065 for MAP2K5 and common cIMT. The best-performing logic regression tree combined two SNPs in MAP2K5-rs745212 and rs12905175- and common cIMT; this association was not significant, corrected P-value=0.062.

CONCLUSION: There was not strong evidence of association between genetic variants in a hemodynamics-responsive gene pathway and atherosclerosis among older adults.

}, issn = {1948-1756}, author = {Suchy-Dicey, Astrid M and Enquobahrie, Daniel A and Heckbert, Susan R and Rotter, Jerome I and Psaty, Bruce M and McKnight, Barbara} } @article {6179, title = {Impact of ancestry and common genetic variants on QT interval in African Americans.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {5}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Dec}, pages = {647-55}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Ethnic differences in cardiac arrhythmia incidence have been reported, with a particularly high incidence of sudden cardiac death and low incidence of atrial fibrillation in individuals of African ancestry. We tested the hypotheses that African ancestry and common genetic variants are associated with prolonged duration of cardiac repolarization, a central pathophysiological determinant of arrhythmia, as measured by the electrocardiographic QT interval.

METHODS AND RESULTS: First, individual estimates of African and European ancestry were inferred from genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data in 7 population-based cohorts of African Americans (n=12,097) and regressed on measured QT interval from ECGs. Second, imputation was performed for 2.8 million SNPs, and a genome-wide association study of QT interval was performed in 10 cohorts (n=13,105). There was no evidence of association between genetic ancestry and QT interval (P=0.94). Genome-wide significant associations (P<2.5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) were identified with SNPs at 2 loci, upstream of the genes NOS1AP (rs12143842, P=2 {\texttimes} 10(-15)) and ATP1B1 (rs1320976, P=2 {\texttimes} 10(-10)). The most significant SNP in NOS1AP was the same as the strongest SNP previously associated with QT interval in individuals of European ancestry. Low probability values (P<10(-5)) were observed for SNPs at several other loci previously identified in genome-wide association studies in individuals of European ancestry, including KCNQ1, KCNH2, LITAF, and PLN.

CONCLUSIONS: We observed no difference in duration of cardiac repolarization with global genetic indices of African American ancestry. In addition, our genome-wide association study extends the association of polymorphisms at several loci associated with repolarization in individuals of European ancestry to include individuals of African ancestry.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Electrocardiography, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genealogy and Heraldry, Genetic Variation, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.112.962787}, author = {Smith, J Gustav and Avery, Christy L and Evans, Daniel S and Nalls, Michael A and Meng, Yan A and Smith, Erin N and Palmer, Cameron and Tanaka, Toshiko and Mehra, Reena and Butler, Anne M and Young, Taylor and Buxbaum, Sarah G and Kerr, Kathleen F and Berenson, Gerald S and Schnabel, Renate B and Li, Guo and Ellinor, Patrick T and Magnani, Jared W and Chen, Wei and Bis, Joshua C and Curb, J David and Hsueh, Wen-Chi and Rotter, Jerome I and Liu, Yongmei and Newman, Anne B and Limacher, Marian C and North, Kari E and Reiner, Alexander P and Quibrera, P Miguel and Schork, Nicholas J and Singleton, Andrew B and Psaty, Bruce M and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Solomon, Allen J and Srinivasan, Sathanur R and Alonso, Alvaro and Wallace, Robert and Redline, Susan and Zhang, Zhu-Ming and Post, Wendy S and Zonderman, Alan B and Taylor, Herman A and Murray, Sarah S and Ferrucci, Luigi and Arking, Dan E and Evans, Michele K and Fox, Ervin R and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Heckbert, Susan R and Whitsel, Eric A and Newton-Cheh, Christopher} } @article {1407, title = {The impact of height on the risk of atrial fibrillation: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Eur Heart J}, volume = {33}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Nov}, pages = {2709-17}, abstract = {

AIMS: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia. Increased body size has been associated with AF, but the relationship is not well understood. In this study, we examined the effect of increased height on the risk of AF and explore potential mediators and implications for clinical practice.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We examined data from 5860 individuals taking part in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a cohort study of older US adults followed for a median of 13.6 (women) and 10.3 years (men). Multivariate linear models and age-stratified Cox proportional hazards and risk models were used, with focus on the effect of height on both prevalent and incident AF. Among 684 (22.6\%) and 568 (27.1\%) incident cases in women and men, respectively, greater height was significantly associated with AF risk [hazard ratio (HR)(women) per 10 cm 1.32, confidence interval (CI) 1.16-1.50, P < 0.0001; HR(men) per 10 cm 1.26, CI 1.11-1.44, P < 0.0001]. The association was such that the incremental risk from sex was completely attenuated by the inclusion of height (for men, HR 1.48, CI 1.32-1.65, without height, and HR 0.94, CI 0.85-1.20, with height included). Inclusion of height in the Framingham model for incident AF improved discrimination. In sequential models, however, we found minimal attenuation of the risk estimates for AF with adjustment for left ventricular (LV) mass and left atrial (LA) dimension. The associations of LA and LV size measurements with AF risk were weakened when indexed to height.

CONCLUSION: Independent from sex, increased height is significantly associated with the risk of AF.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Body Height, Epidemiologic Methods, Female, Humans, Male, Sex Factors, United States}, issn = {1522-9645}, doi = {10.1093/eurheartj/ehs301}, author = {Rosenberg, Michael A and Patton, Kristen K and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Karas, Maria G and Kizer, Jorge R and Zimetbaum, Peter J and Chang, James D and Siscovick, David and Gottdiener, John S and Kronmal, Richard A and Heckbert, Susan R and Mukamal, Kenneth J} } @article {6091, title = {Large-scale association analyses identify new loci influencing glycemic traits and provide insight into the underlying biological pathways.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {44}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Sep}, pages = {991-1005}, abstract = {

Through genome-wide association meta-analyses of up to 133,010 individuals of European ancestry without diabetes, including individuals newly genotyped using the Metabochip, we have increased the number of confirmed loci influencing glycemic traits to 53, of which 33 also increase type 2 diabetes risk (q < 0.05). Loci influencing fasting insulin concentration showed association with lipid levels and fat distribution, suggesting impact on insulin resistance. Gene-based analyses identified further biologically plausible loci, suggesting that additional loci beyond those reaching genome-wide significance are likely to represent real associations. This conclusion is supported by an excess of directionally consistent and nominally significant signals between discovery and follow-up studies. Functional analysis of these newly discovered loci will further improve our understanding of glycemic control.

}, keywords = {Adult, Animals, Blood Glucose, Fasting, Female, Gene Frequency, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Insulin, Male, Metabolic Networks and Pathways, Mice, Osmolar Concentration, Quantitative Trait Loci}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2385}, author = {Scott, Robert A and Lagou, Vasiliki and Welch, Ryan P and Wheeler, Eleanor and Montasser, May E and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Strawbridge, Rona J and Rehnberg, Emil and Gustafsson, Stefan and Kanoni, Stavroula and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Yengo, Loic and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Shungin, Dmitry and Sanna, Serena and Sidore, Carlo and Johnson, Paul C D and Jukema, J Wouter and Johnson, Toby and Mahajan, Anubha and Verweij, Niek and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Shah, Sonia and Smith, Albert V and Sennblad, Bengt and Gieger, Christian and Salo, Perttu and Perola, Markus and Timpson, Nicholas J and Evans, David M and Pourcain, Beate St and Wu, Ying and Andrews, Jeanette S and Hui, Jennie and Bielak, Lawrence F and Zhao, Wei and Horikoshi, Momoko and Navarro, Pau and Isaacs, Aaron and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Stirrups, Kathleen and Vitart, Veronique and Hayward, Caroline and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Mihailov, Evelin and Fraser, Ross M and Fall, Tove and Voight, Benjamin F and Raychaudhuri, Soumya and Chen, Han and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Morris, Andrew P and Rayner, Nigel W and Robertson, Neil and Rybin, Denis and Liu, Ching-Ti and Beckmann, Jacques S and Willems, Sara M and Chines, Peter S and Jackson, Anne U and Kang, Hyun Min and Stringham, Heather M and Song, Kijoung and Tanaka, Toshiko and Peden, John F and Goel, Anuj and Hicks, Andrew A and An, Ping and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Franco-Cereceda, Anders and Folkersen, Lasse and Marullo, Letizia and Jansen, Hanneke and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Bruinenberg, Marcel and Pankow, James S and North, Kari E and Forouhi, Nita G and Loos, Ruth J F and Edkins, Sarah and Varga, Tibor V and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Oksa, Heikki and Antonella, Mulas and Nagaraja, Ramaiah and Trompet, Stella and Ford, Ian and Bakker, Stephan J L and Kong, Augustine and Kumari, Meena and Gigante, Bruna and Herder, Christian and Munroe, Patricia B and Caulfield, Mark and Antti, Jula and Mangino, Massimo and Small, Kerrin and Miljkovic, Iva and Liu, Yongmei and Atalay, Mustafa and Kiess, Wieland and James, Alan L and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Palmer, Colin N A and Doney, Alex S F and Willemsen, Gonneke and Smit, Johannes H and Campbell, Susan and Polasek, Ozren and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Hercberg, Serge and Dimitriou, Maria and Bolton, Jennifer L and Fowkes, Gerard R and Kovacs, Peter and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Zemunik, Tatijana and Bandinelli, Stefania and Wild, Sarah H and Basart, Hanneke V and Rathmann, Wolfgang and Grallert, Harald and Maerz, Winfried and Kleber, Marcus E and Boehm, Bernhard O and Peters, Annette and Pramstaller, Peter P and Province, Michael A and Borecki, Ingrid B and Hastie, Nicholas D and Rudan, Igor and Campbell, Harry and Watkins, Hugh and Farrall, Martin and Stumvoll, Michael and Ferrucci, Luigi and Waterworth, Dawn M and Bergman, Richard N and Collins, Francis S and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Watanabe, Richard M and de Geus, Eco J C and Penninx, Brenda W and Hofman, Albert and Oostra, Ben A and Psaty, Bruce M and Vollenweider, Peter and Wilson, James F and Wright, Alan F and Hovingh, G Kees and Metspalu, Andres and Uusitupa, Matti and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Kyvik, Kirsten O and Kaprio, Jaakko and Price, Jackie F and Dedoussis, George V and Deloukas, Panos and Meneton, Pierre and Lind, Lars and Boehnke, Michael and Shuldiner, Alan R and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Morris, Andrew D and Toenjes, Anke and Peyser, Patricia A and Beilby, John P and K{\"o}rner, Antje and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Bornstein, Stefan R and Schwarz, Peter E H and Lakka, Timo A and Rauramaa, Rainer and Adair, Linda S and Smith, George Davey and Spector, Tim D and Illig, Thomas and de Faire, Ulf and Hamsten, Anders and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Kivimaki, Mika and Hingorani, Aroon and Keinanen-Kiukaanniemi, Sirkka M and Saaristo, Timo E and Boomsma, Dorret I and Stefansson, Kari and van der Harst, Pim and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Pedersen, Nancy L and Sattar, Naveed and Harris, Tamara B and Cucca, Francesco and Ripatti, Samuli and Salomaa, Veikko and Mohlke, Karen L and Balkau, Beverley and Froguel, Philippe and Pouta, Anneli and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Wareham, Nicholas J and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and McCarthy, Mark I and Franks, Paul W and Meigs, James B and Teslovich, Tanya M and Florez, Jose C and Langenberg, Claudia and Ingelsson, Erik and Prokopenko, Inga and Barroso, In{\^e}s} } @article {7378, title = {Large-scale international validation of the ADO index in subjects with COPD: an individual subject data analysis of 10 cohorts.}, journal = {BMJ Open}, volume = {2}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Little evidence on the validity of simple and widely applicable tools to predict mortality in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exists.

OBJECTIVE: To conduct a large international study to validate the ADO index that uses age, dyspnoea and FEV(1) to predict 3-year mortality and to update it in order to make prediction of mortality in COPD patients as generalisable as possible.

DESIGN: Individual subject data analysis of 10 European and American cohorts (n=13 914).

SETTING: Population-based, primary, secondary and tertiary care.

PATIENTS: COPD GOLD stages I-IV.

MEASUREMENTS: We validated the original ADO index. We then obtained an updated ADO index in half of our cohorts to improve its predictive accuracy, which in turn was validated comprehensively in the remaining cohorts using discrimination, calibration and decision curve analysis and a number of sensitivity analyses.

RESULTS: 1350 (9.7\%) of all subjects with COPD (60\% male, mean age 61 years, mean FEV(1) 66\% predicted) had died at 3 years. The original ADO index showed high discrimination but poor calibration (p<0.001 for difference between predicted and observed risk). The updated ADO index (scores from 0 to 14) preserved excellent discrimination (area under curve 0.81, 95\% CI 0.80 to 0.82) but showed much improved calibration with predicted 3-year risks from 0.7\% (95\% CI 0.6\% to 0.9\%, score of 0) to 64.5\% (61.2\% to 67.7\%, score of 14). The ADO index showed higher net benefit in subjects at low-to-moderate risk of 3-year mortality than FEV(1) alone.

INTERPRETATION: The updated 15-point ADO index accurately predicts 3-year mortality across the COPD severity spectrum and can be used to inform patients about their prognosis, clinical trial study design or benefit harm assessment of medical interventions.

}, issn = {2044-6055}, doi = {10.1136/bmjopen-2012-002152}, author = {Puhan, Milo A and Hansel, Nadia N and Sobradillo, Patricia and Enright, Paul and Lange, Peter and Hickson, Demarc and Menezes, Ana M and ter Riet, Gerben and Held, Ulrike and Domingo-Salvany, Antonia and Mosenifar, Zab and Ant{\'o}, Josep M and Moons, Karel G M and Kessels, Alphons and Garcia-Aymerich, Judith} } @article {1328, title = {Leukocyte telomere length is associated with noninvasively measured age-related disease: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {67}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Apr}, pages = {409-16}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Most studies of leukocyte telomere length (LTL) focus on diagnosed disease in one system. A more encompassing depiction of health is disease burden, defined here as the sum of noninvasively measured markers of structure or function in different organ systems. We determined if (a) shorter LTL is associated with greater age-related disease burden and (b) shorter LTL is less strongly associated with disease in individual systems or diagnosed chronic conditions (cardiovascular disease, stroke, pulmonary disease, diabetes, kidney disease, arthritis, or depression).

METHODS: LTL was measured by Southern blots of terminal restriction fragment length. Age-related disease was measured noninvasively and included carotid intima-media thickness, lung vital capacity, white matter grade, cystatin-C, and fasting glucose; each graded 0 (best tertile), 1 (middle tertile), or 2 (worst tertile) and summed (0 to 10) to estimate disease burden. Of 419 participants randomly selected for LTL measurement, 236 had disease burden assessed (mean [SD] age 74.2 [4.9] years, 42.4\% male, 86.8\% white, and 13.2\% black).

RESULTS: Mean (SD) LTL was 6,312 (615) bp, and disease score was 4.7 (2.1) points. An SD higher disease score (β [SE] = -132 [47] bp, p < .01), age (β [SE] = -107 [46], p = .02) or carotid thickness (β [SE] = -95 [40] bp, p = .02) was associated with shorter LTL, but diagnosed conditions or number of conditions were not associated with LTL. Disease score attenuated the effect of age on LTL by 35\%.

CONCLUSION: LTL was associated with a characterization of age-related disease burden across multiple physiologic systems, which was comparable to, but independent of, its association with age.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Chronic Disease, Cystatin C, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Humans, Leukocytes, Lung, Male, Middle Aged, Telomere Homeostasis}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glr173}, author = {Sanders, Jason L and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Boudreau, Robert M and Arnold, Alice M and Aviv, Abraham and Kimura, Masayuki and Fried, Linda F and Harris, Tamara B and Newman, Anne B} } @article {1399, title = {Lipid-related markers and cardiovascular disease prediction.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {307}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Jun 20}, pages = {2499-506}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: The value of assessing various emerging lipid-related markers for prediction of first cardiovascular events is debated.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether adding information on apolipoprotein B and apolipoprotein A-I, lipoprotein(a), or lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 to total cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) improves cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk prediction.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Individual records were available for 165,544 participants without baseline CVD in 37 prospective cohorts (calendar years of recruitment: 1968-2007) with up to 15,126 incident fatal or nonfatal CVD outcomes (10,132 CHD and 4994 stroke outcomes) during a median follow-up of 10.4 years (interquartile range, 7.6-14 years).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Discrimination of CVD outcomes and reclassification of participants across predicted 10-year risk categories of low (<10\%), intermediate (10\%-<20\%), and high (>=20\%) risk.

RESULTS: The addition of information on various lipid-related markers to total cholesterol, HDL-C, and other conventional risk factors yielded improvement in the model{\textquoteright}s discrimination: C-index change, 0.0006 (95\% CI, 0.0002-0.0009) for the combination of apolipoprotein B and A-I; 0.0016 (95\% CI, 0.0009-0.0023) for lipoprotein(a); and 0.0018 (95\% CI, 0.0010-0.0026) for lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 mass. Net reclassification improvements were less than 1\% with the addition of each of these markers to risk scores containing conventional risk factors. We estimated that for 100,000 adults aged 40 years or older, 15,436 would be initially classified at intermediate risk using conventional risk factors alone. Additional testing with a combination of apolipoprotein B and A-I would reclassify 1.1\%; lipoprotein(a), 4.1\%; and lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 mass, 2.7\% of people to a 20\% or higher predicted CVD risk category and, therefore, in need of statin treatment under Adult Treatment Panel III guidelines.

CONCLUSION: In a study of individuals without known CVD, the addition of information on the combination of apolipoprotein B and A-I, lipoprotein(a), or lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 mass to risk scores containing total cholesterol and HDL-C led to slight improvement in CVD prediction.

}, keywords = {Aged, Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cholesterol, HDL, Cohort Studies, Female, Humans, Lipoproteins, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Assessment}, issn = {1538-3598}, doi = {10.1001/jama.2012.6571}, author = {Di Angelantonio, Emanuele and Gao, Pei and Pennells, Lisa and Kaptoge, Stephen and Caslake, Muriel and Thompson, Alexander and Butterworth, Adam S and Sarwar, Nadeem and Wormser, David and Saleheen, Danish and Ballantyne, Christie M and Psaty, Bruce M and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Ridker, Paul M and Nagel, Dorothea and Gillum, Richard F and Ford, Ian and Ducimetiere, Pierre and Kiechl, Stefan and Koenig, Wolfgang and Dullaart, Robin P F and Assmann, Gerd and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, Ralph B and Dagenais, Gilles R and Cooper, Jackie A and Kromhout, Daan and Onat, Altan and Tipping, Robert W and G{\'o}mez-de-la-C{\'a}mara, Agust{\'\i}n and Rosengren, Annika and Sutherland, Susan E and Gallacher, John and Fowkes, F Gerry R and Casiglia, Edoardo and Hofman, Albert and Salomaa, Veikko and Barrett-Connor, Elizabeth and Clarke, Robert and Brunner, Eric and Jukema, J Wouter and Simons, Leon A and Sandhu, Manjinder and Wareham, Nicholas J and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kauhanen, Jussi and Salonen, Jukka T and Howard, William J and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Wood, Angela M and Thompson, Simon G and Boekholdt, S Matthijs and Sattar, Naveed and Packard, Chris and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Danesh, John} } @article {1369, title = {Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) and future risk of type 2 diabetes: results from the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Clin Endocrinol Metab}, volume = {97}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 May}, pages = {1695-701}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA(2)) has been consistently associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and predictive of CVD outcomes; furthermore, it is consistently higher among type 2 diabetics than nondiabetics. However, the relationships of circulating Lp-PLA(2) mass and activity with incident type 2 diabetes mellitus have not been examined. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the association of Lp-PLA(2) mass and activity with type 2 diabetes among older adults.

METHODS: We conducted analyses of Lp-PLA(2) and prevalent and incident diabetes among 5474 men and women from the Cardiovascular Health Study (1989-2007). Lp-PLA(2) mass and activity were measured in baseline plasma. Diabetes status was ascertained annually with medication inventories and repeated blood glucose measurements. Generalized linear and Cox proportional hazards models were used to adjust for confounding factors including body mass index and inflammation.

RESULTS: At baseline, the top two quintiles of Lp-PLA(2) activity were significantly associated with prevalent type 2 diabetes with a multivariable relative risk = 1.35 [95\% confidence interval (CI) = 1.11-1.63] for quintile 4, and relative risk = 1.33 (95\% CI = 1.07-1.66) for quintile 5. Among participants free of diabetes at baseline, we found a significant positive association with both the homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance and β-cell function per SD increase in Lp-PLA(2) activity (P values for both <0.01). In prospective analyses, the risk of incident type 2 diabetes was significantly higher among those in the highest quintile of Lp-PLA(2) activity [multivariable hazard ratio = 1.45 (95\% CI = 1.01-2.07)] compared with the lowest quintile. Lp-PLA(2) mass was not significantly associated with incident type 2 diabetes.

DISCUSSION: Lp-PLA(2) activity is positively associated with insulin resistance and predicts incident type 2 diabetes among older adults independent of multiple factors associated with diabetes pathogenesis.

}, keywords = {1-Alkyl-2-acetylglycerophosphocholine Esterase, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Female, Humans, Incidence, Insulin Resistance, Male, Middle Aged, Predictive Value of Tests, Prevalence, Prospective Studies, Risk, Risk Factors}, issn = {1945-7197}, doi = {10.1210/jc.2011-3026}, author = {Nelson, T L and Biggs, M L and Kizer, J R and Cushman, M and Hokanson, J E and Furberg, C D and Mukamal, K J} } @article {1404, title = {Longitudinal changes in thyroid function in the oldest old and survival: the cardiovascular health study all-stars study.}, journal = {J Clin Endocrinol Metab}, volume = {97}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Nov}, pages = {3944-50}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Data on thyroid function in the oldest old are sparse, and existing studies show conflicting evidence on the relationship between thyroid function and mortality in this age group.

OBJECTIVE: We describe longitudinal changes in thyroid function in a cohort of elderly individuals and determine the relationship between thyroid function and mortality.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Eight hundred forty-three participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study All Stars Study who were not taking thyroid medications and had thyroid function testing in 2005-2006 (mean age 85 yr).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free T(4) (FT4), total T(3), and thyroid peroxidase antibody status were measured in 1992-1993 and 2005-2006. Deaths were ascertained through February 2011.

RESULTS: There was a statistically significant 13\% increase in TSH, 1.7\% increase in FT4, and 13\% decrease in total T(3) over the 13-yr period. Two hundred eighty-seven deaths occurred over a median follow-up of 5.1 yr. There was no association between subclinical hypothyroidism[hazard ratio (HR) 0.97, 95\% confidence interval (CI) 0.66-1.43], TSH level (HR per milliunits per liter 0.94, 95\% CI 0.88-1.01), or persistent thyroid peroxidase antibody positivity (HR 1.09, 95\% CI 0.62-1.92), and death. However, FT4 was positively associated with death (HR per nanograms per deciliter 2.57, 95\% CI 1.32-5.02).

CONCLUSIONS: TSH increased over time in these older individuals. This elevation was not associated with increased or decreased mortality, although higher FT4 levels were associated with death. These findings raise concern for treatment of mild elevations of TSH in advanced age. Further studies are needed to determine the potential benefit of treating age-related changes in thyroid function.

}, keywords = {Aged, 80 and over, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Thyroid Diseases, Thyroid Function Tests, Thyroid Gland, Thyrotropin, Thyroxine, Triiodothyronine}, issn = {1945-7197}, doi = {10.1210/jc.2012-2481}, author = {Waring, Avantika C and Arnold, Alice M and Newman, Anne B and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Hirsch, Calvin and Cappola, Anne R} } @article {1367, title = {Markers of cholesterol metabolism in the brain show stronger associations with cerebrovascular disease than Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.}, journal = {J Alzheimers Dis}, volume = {30}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {53-61}, abstract = {

Cholesterol metabolism is believed to play a role in the development of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD). Oxysterol metabolites of cholesterol, 24S-hydroxycholesterol (24-OHC, a brain-derived oxysterol) and 27-hydroxycholesterol (27-OHC, a peripherally derived oxysterol) cross the blood brain barrier and have been associated with AD. We investigated whether oxysterols were associated with markers of cerebrovascular disease prior to the onset of cognitive impairment. Oxysterols were quantified in 105 participants (average age: 80 {\textpm} 4 years) from the Pittsburgh Cardiovascular Health Study Cognition Study who remained cognitively normal at blood draw in 2002, had MRI in 1992 and 1998, and annual cognitive assessment for incident AD and mild cognitive impairment made by consensus conference between 1998 and 2010. Higher plasma levels of 24-OHC were associated with age, gender, the presence of high grade white matter hyperintensities, and brain infarcts on prior MRI. Participants with higher plasma 24-OHC and a greater ratio of 24-OHC/27-OHC were also more likely to develop incident cognitive impairment over 8 years of follow-up. Higher levels of 24-OHC suggest increased cholesterol metabolism occurring in the brains of participants with cerebrovascular disease prior to the onset of cognitive impairment. Measurement of oxysterols may provide information about cholesterol metabolism and brain disease over the cognitive impairment process.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Apolipoprotein E4, Brain, Cerebrovascular Disorders, Cognition Disorders, Cohort Studies, Female, Humans, Hydroxycholesterols, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Retrospective Studies}, issn = {1875-8908}, doi = {10.3233/JAD-2012-111460}, author = {Hughes, Timothy M and Kuller, Lewis H and Lopez, Oscar L and Becker, James T and Evans, Rhobert W and Sutton-Tyrrell, Kim and Rosano, Caterina} } @article {1360, title = {Meta-analyses identify 13 loci associated with age at menopause and highlight DNA repair and immune pathways.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {44}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Jan 22}, pages = {260-8}, abstract = {

To newly identify loci for age at natural menopause, we carried out a meta-analysis of 22 genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in 38,968 women of European descent, with replication in up to 14,435 women. In addition to four known loci, we identified 13 loci newly associated with age at natural menopause (at P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Candidate genes located at these newly associated loci include genes implicated in DNA repair (EXO1, HELQ, UIMC1, FAM175A, FANCI, TLK1, POLG and PRIM1) and immune function (IL11, NLRP11 and PRRC2A (also known as BAT2)). Gene-set enrichment pathway analyses using the full GWAS data set identified exoDNase, NF-κB signaling and mitochondrial dysfunction as biological processes related to timing of menopause.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, DNA Helicases, DNA Polymerase gamma, DNA Primase, DNA Repair, DNA Repair Enzymes, DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exodeoxyribonucleases, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Immunity, Menopause, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proteins}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.1051}, author = {Stolk, Lisette and Perry, John R B and Chasman, Daniel I and He, Chunyan and Mangino, Massimo and Sulem, Patrick and Barbalic, Maja and Broer, Linda and Byrne, Enda M and Ernst, Florian and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Franceschini, Nora and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Kraft, Peter and McArdle, Patrick F and Porcu, Eleonora and Shin, So-Youn and Smith, Albert V and van Wingerden, Sophie and Zhai, Guangju and Zhuang, Wei V and Albrecht, Eva and Alizadeh, Behrooz Z and Aspelund, Thor and Bandinelli, Stefania and Lauc, Lovorka Barac and Beckmann, Jacques S and Boban, Mladen and Boerwinkle, Eric and Broekmans, Frank J and Burri, Andrea and Campbell, Harry and Chanock, Stephen J and Chen, Constance and Cornelis, Marilyn C and Corre, Tanguy and Coviello, Andrea D and D{\textquoteright}Adamo, Pio and Davies, Gail and de Faire, Ulf and de Geus, Eco J C and Deary, Ian J and Dedoussis, George V Z and Deloukas, Panagiotis and Ebrahim, Shah and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Emilsson, Valur and Eriksson, Johan G and Fauser, Bart C J M and Ferreli, Liana and Ferrucci, Luigi and Fischer, Krista and Folsom, Aaron R and Garcia, Melissa E and Gasparini, Paolo and Gieger, Christian and Glazer, Nicole and Grobbee, Diederick E and Hall, Per and Haller, Toomas and Hankinson, Susan E and Hass, Merli and Hayward, Caroline and Heath, Andrew C and Hofman, Albert and Ingelsson, Erik and Janssens, A Cecile J W and Johnson, Andrew D and Karasik, David and Kardia, Sharon L R and Keyzer, Jules and Kiel, Douglas P and Kolcic, Ivana and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Lahti, Jari and Lai, Sandra and Laisk, Triin and Laven, Joop S E and Lawlor, Debbie A and Liu, Jianjun and Lopez, Lorna M and Louwers, Yvonne V and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Marongiu, Mara and Martin, Nicholas G and Klaric, Irena Martinovic and Masciullo, Corrado and McKnight, Barbara and Medland, Sarah E and Melzer, David and Mooser, Vincent and Navarro, Pau and Newman, Anne B and Nyholt, Dale R and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Palotie, Aarno and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Parker, Alex N and Pedersen, Nancy L and Peeters, Petra H M and Pistis, Giorgio and Plump, Andrew S and Polasek, Ozren and Pop, Victor J M and Psaty, Bruce M and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Rehnberg, Emil and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Sala, Cinzia and Salumets, Andres and Scuteri, Angelo and Singleton, Andrew and Smith, Jennifer A and Snieder, Harold and Soranzo, Nicole and Stacey, Simon N and Starr, John M and Stathopoulou, Maria G and Stirrups, Kathleen and Stolk, Ronald P and Styrkarsdottir, Unnur and Sun, Yan V and Tenesa, Albert and Thorand, Barbara and Toniolo, Daniela and Tryggvadottir, Laufey and Tsui, Kim and Ulivi, Sheila and van Dam, Rob M and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and van Gils, Carla H and van Nierop, Peter and Vink, Jacqueline M and Visscher, Peter M and Voorhuis, Marlies and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Wallaschofski, Henri and Wichmann, H Erich and Widen, Elisabeth and Wijnands-van Gent, Colette J M and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilson, James F and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Wright, Alan F and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Zemunik, Tatijana and Zgaga, Lina and Zillikens, M Carola and Zygmunt, Marek and Arnold, Alice M and Boomsma, Dorret I and Buring, Julie E and Crisponi, Laura and Demerath, Ellen W and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Hu, Frank B and Hunter, David J and Launer, Lenore J and Metspalu, Andres and Montgomery, Grant W and Oostra, Ben A and Ridker, Paul M and Sanna, Serena and Schlessinger, David and Spector, Tim D and Stefansson, Kari and Streeten, Elizabeth A and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Uda, Manuela and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Murray, Anna and Murabito, Joanne M and Visser, Jenny A and Lunetta, Kathryn L} } @article {1383, title = {Meta-analysis identifies six new susceptibility loci for atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {44}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Apr 29}, pages = {670-5}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation is a highly prevalent arrhythmia and a major risk factor for stroke, heart failure and death. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in individuals of European ancestry, including 6,707 with and 52,426 without atrial fibrillation. Six new atrial fibrillation susceptibility loci were identified and replicated in an additional sample of individuals of European ancestry, including 5,381 subjects with and 10,030 subjects without atrial fibrillation (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Four of the loci identified in Europeans were further replicated in silico in a GWAS of Japanese individuals, including 843 individuals with and 3,350 individuals without atrial fibrillation. The identified loci implicate candidate genes that encode transcription factors related to cardiopulmonary development, cardiac-expressed ion channels and cell signaling molecules.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Atrial Fibrillation, Child, Child, Preschool, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Young Adult}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2261}, author = {Ellinor, Patrick T and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Albert, Christine M and Glazer, Nicole L and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Smith, Albert V and Arking, Dan E and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Lubitz, Steven A and Bis, Joshua C and Chung, Mina K and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Ozaki, Kouichi and Roberts, Jason D and Smith, J Gustav and Pfeufer, Arne and Sinner, Moritz F and Lohman, Kurt and Ding, Jingzhong and Smith, Nicholas L and Smith, Jonathan D and Rienstra, Michiel and Rice, Kenneth M and Van Wagoner, David R and Magnani, Jared W and Wakili, Reza and Clauss, Sebastian and Rotter, Jerome I and Steinbeck, Gerhard and Launer, Lenore J and Davies, Robert W and Borkovich, Matthew and Harris, Tamara B and Lin, Honghuang and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Milan, David J and Hofman, Albert and Boerwinkle, Eric and Chen, Lin Y and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Voight, Benjamin F and Li, Guo and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Kubo, Michiaki and Tedrow, Usha B and Rose, Lynda M and Ridker, Paul M and Conen, David and Tsunoda, Tatsuhiko and Furukawa, Tetsushi and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Xu, Siyan and Kamatani, Naoyuki and Levy, Daniel and Nakamura, Yusuke and Parvez, Babar and Mahida, Saagar and Furie, Karen L and Rosand, Jonathan and Muhammad, Raafia and Psaty, Bruce M and Meitinger, Thomas and Perz, Siegfried and Wichmann, H-Erich and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Kao, W H Linda and Kathiresan, Sekar and Roden, Dan M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and McKnight, Barbara and Sj{\"o}gren, Marketa and Newman, Anne B and Liu, Yongmei and Gollob, Michael H and Melander, Olle and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Stricker, Bruno H Ch and Felix, Stephan B and Alonso, Alvaro and Darbar, Dawood and Barnard, John and Chasman, Daniel I and Heckbert, Susan R and Benjamin, Emelia J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan} } @article {1410, title = {Novel circulating fatty acid patterns and risk of cardiovascular disease: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {96}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Dec}, pages = {1252-61}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Complex interplays of diet and metabolism influence circulating fatty acids (FAs), possibly constituting FA patterns related to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to derive FA patterns from circulating FAs, relate the patterns to CVD incidence, and extend the derived patterns to atherosclerosis progression in another independent cohort.

DESIGN: We used principal component analysis (PCA) to derive FA patterns from 38 plasma phospholipid FAs in 2972 older adults in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). Identified patterns were evaluated for prospective associations with 14-y incidence of CVD [ischemic heart disease (IHD) or stroke]. In another independent cohort of postmenopausal women with IHD, we evaluated associations of the CHS-derived patterns with 3.2-y progression of angiographically defined coronary atherosclerosis.

RESULTS: Three distinct patterns were identified, characterized by higher proportions of trans FAs, de novo lipogenesis (DNL) FAs, and long-chain MUFAs (LCMUFAs). During 32,265 person-years, 780 incident CVD events occurred. The trans FA pattern was associated with higher CVD risk (multivariable-adjusted HR for the highest compared with the lowest quintiles = 1.58; 95\% CI: 1.17, 2.12; P-trend = 0.006), primarily attributable to higher risk of stroke (HR: 2.46; 95\% CI: 1.54, 3.92; P-trend = 0.005). The DNL and LCMUFA patterns were not associated with CVD incidence or with IHD or stroke (P-trend > 0.11 each). In the second cohort, the trans FA pattern, but not the other 2 patterns, was positively associated with progression of coronary atherosclerosis (P-trend < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: PCA appears to provide informative circulating FA patterns. A pattern driven mainly by trans FA levels related to greater CVD risk in older adults and coronary atherosclerosis progression in women with IHD.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Coronary Artery Disease, Disease Progression, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Myocardial Ischemia, Principal Component Analysis, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Stroke, Trans Fatty Acids, United States}, issn = {1938-3207}, doi = {10.3945/ajcn.112.039990}, author = {Imamura, Fumiaki and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and King, Irena B and Song, Xiaoling and Lichtenstein, Alice H and Matthan, Nirupa R and Herrington, David M and Siscovick, David S and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {6084, title = {Novel loci associated with PR interval in a genome-wide association study of 10 African American cohorts.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {5}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Dec}, pages = {639-46}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The PR interval, as measured by the resting, standard 12-lead ECG, reflects the duration of atrial/atrioventricular nodal depolarization. Substantial evidence exists for a genetic contribution to PR, including genome-wide association studies that have identified common genetic variants at 9 loci influencing PR in populations of European and Asian descent. However, few studies have examined loci associated with PR in African Americans.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We present results from the largest genome-wide association study to date of PR in 13 415 adults of African descent from 10 cohorts. We tested for association between PR (ms) and ≈2.8 million genotyped and imputed single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Imputation was performed using HapMap 2 YRI and CEU panels. Study-specific results, adjusted for global ancestry and clinical correlates of PR, were meta-analyzed using the inverse variance method. Variation in genome-wide test statistic distributions was noted within studies (λ range: 0.9-1.1), although not after genomic control correction was applied to the overall meta-analysis (λ: 1.008). In addition to generalizing previously reported associations with MEIS1, SCN5A, ARHGAP24, CAV1, and TBX5 to African American populations at the genome-wide significance level (P<5.0 {\texttimes} 10(-8)), we also identified a novel locus: ITGA9, located in a region previously implicated in SCN5A expression. The 3p21 region harboring SCN5A also contained 2 additional independent secondary signals influencing PR (P<5.0 {\texttimes} 10(-8)).

CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the ability to map novel loci in African Americans as well as the generalizability of loci associated with PR across populations of African, European, and Asian descent.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Cohort Studies, Electrocardiography, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.112.963991}, author = {Butler, Anne M and Yin, Xiaoyan and Evans, Daniel S and Nalls, Michael A and Smith, Erin N and Tanaka, Toshiko and Li, Guo and Buxbaum, Sarah G and Whitsel, Eric A and Alonso, Alvaro and Arking, Dan E and Benjamin, Emelia J and Berenson, Gerald S and Bis, Josh C and Chen, Wei and Deo, Rajat and Ellinor, Patrick T and Heckbert, Susan R and Heiss, Gerardo and Hsueh, Wen-Chi and Keating, Brendan J and Kerr, Kathleen F and Li, Yun and Limacher, Marian C and Liu, Yongmei and Lubitz, Steven A and Marciante, Kristin D and Mehra, Reena and Meng, Yan A and Newman, Anne B and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and North, Kari E and Palmer, Cameron D and Psaty, Bruce M and Quibrera, P Miguel and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alex P and Rotter, Jerome I and Schnabel, Renate B and Schork, Nicholas J and Singleton, Andrew B and Smith, J Gustav and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Srinivasan, Sathanur R and Zhang, Zhu-Ming and Zonderman, Alan B and Ferrucci, Luigi and Murray, Sarah S and Evans, Michele K and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Magnani, Jared W and Avery, Christy L} } @article {1378, title = {Novel loci for adiponectin levels and their influence on type 2 diabetes and metabolic traits: a multi-ethnic meta-analysis of 45,891 individuals.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {8}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {e1002607}, abstract = {

Circulating levels of adiponectin, a hormone produced predominantly by adipocytes, are highly heritable and are inversely associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) and other metabolic traits. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in 39,883 individuals of European ancestry to identify genes associated with metabolic disease. We identified 8 novel loci associated with adiponectin levels and confirmed 2 previously reported loci (P = 4.5{\texttimes}10(-8)-1.2{\texttimes}10(-43)). Using a novel method to combine data across ethnicities (N = 4,232 African Americans, N = 1,776 Asians, and N = 29,347 Europeans), we identified two additional novel loci. Expression analyses of 436 human adipocyte samples revealed that mRNA levels of 18 genes at candidate regions were associated with adiponectin concentrations after accounting for multiple testing (p<3{\texttimes}10(-4)). We next developed a multi-SNP genotypic risk score to test the association of adiponectin decreasing risk alleles on metabolic traits and diseases using consortia-level meta-analytic data. This risk score was associated with increased risk of T2D (p = 4.3{\texttimes}10(-3), n = 22,044), increased triglycerides (p = 2.6{\texttimes}10(-14), n = 93,440), increased waist-to-hip ratio (p = 1.8{\texttimes}10(-5), n = 77,167), increased glucose two hours post oral glucose tolerance testing (p = 4.4{\texttimes}10(-3), n = 15,234), increased fasting insulin (p = 0.015, n = 48,238), but with lower in HDL-cholesterol concentrations (p = 4.5{\texttimes}10(-13), n = 96,748) and decreased BMI (p = 1.4{\texttimes}10(-4), n = 121,335). These findings identify novel genetic determinants of adiponectin levels, which, taken together, influence risk of T2D and markers of insulin resistance.

}, keywords = {Adiponectin, African Americans, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Cholesterol, HDL, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Expression, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glucose Tolerance Test, Humans, Insulin Resistance, Male, Metabolic Networks and Pathways, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Waist-Hip Ratio}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002607}, author = {Dastani, Zari and Hivert, Marie-France and Timpson, Nicholas and Perry, John R B and Yuan, Xin and Scott, Robert A and Henneman, Peter and Heid, Iris M and Kizer, Jorge R and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Fuchsberger, Christian and Tanaka, Toshiko and Morris, Andrew P and Small, Kerrin and Isaacs, Aaron and Beekman, Marian and Coassin, Stefan and Lohman, Kurt and Qi, Lu and Kanoni, Stavroula and Pankow, James S and Uh, Hae-Won and Wu, Ying and Bidulescu, Aurelian and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Greenwood, Celia M T and Ladouceur, Martin and Grimsby, Jonna and Manning, Alisa K and Liu, Ching-Ti and Kooner, Jaspal and Mooser, Vincent E and Vollenweider, Peter and Kapur, Karen A and Chambers, John and Wareham, Nicholas J and Langenberg, Claudia and Frants, Rune and Willems-Vandijk, Ko and Oostra, Ben A and Willems, Sara M and Lamina, Claudia and Winkler, Thomas W and Psaty, Bruce M and Tracy, Russell P and Brody, Jennifer and Chen, Ida and Viikari, Jorma and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Pramstaller, Peter P and Evans, David M and St Pourcain, Beate and Sattar, Naveed and Wood, Andrew R and Bandinelli, Stefania and Carlson, Olga D and Egan, Josephine M and B{\"o}hringer, Stefan and van Heemst, Diana and Kedenko, Lyudmyla and Kristiansson, Kati and Nuotio, Marja-Liisa and Loo, Britt-Marie and Harris, Tamara and Garcia, Melissa and Kanaya, Alka and Haun, Margot and Klopp, Norman and Wichmann, H-Erich and Deloukas, Panos and Katsareli, Efi and Couper, David J and Duncan, Bruce B and Kloppenburg, Margreet and Adair, Linda S and Borja, Judith B and Wilson, James G and Musani, Solomon and Guo, Xiuqing and Johnson, Toby and Semple, Robert and Teslovich, Tanya M and Allison, Matthew A and Redline, Susan and Buxbaum, Sarah G and Mohlke, Karen L and Meulenbelt, Ingrid and Ballantyne, Christie M and Dedoussis, George V and Hu, Frank B and Liu, Yongmei and Paulweber, Bernhard and Spector, Timothy D and Slagboom, P Eline and Ferrucci, Luigi and Jula, Antti and Perola, Markus and Raitakari, Olli and Florez, Jose C and Salomaa, Veikko and Eriksson, Johan G and Frayling, Timothy M and Hicks, Andrew A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Smith, George Davey and Siscovick, David S and Kronenberg, Florian and van Duijn, Cornelia and Loos, Ruth J F and Waterworth, Dawn M and Meigs, James B and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Richards, J Brent and Voight, Benjamin F and Scott, Laura J and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Dina, Christian and Welch, Ryan P and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Huth, Cornelia and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and McCulloch, Laura J and Ferreira, Teresa and Grallert, Harald and Amin, Najaf and Wu, Guanming and Willer, Cristen J and Raychaudhuri, Soumya and McCarroll, Steve A and Hofmann, Oliver M and Segr{\`e}, Ayellet V and van Hoek, Mandy and Navarro, Pau and Ardlie, Kristin and Balkau, Beverley and Benediktsson, Rafn and Bennett, Amanda J and Blagieva, Roza and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bostr{\"o}m, Kristina Bengtsson and Bravenboer, Bert and Bumpstead, Suzannah and Burtt, Noel P and Charpentier, Guillaume and Chines, Peter S and Cornelis, Marilyn and Crawford, Gabe and Doney, Alex S F and Elliott, Katherine S and Elliott, Amanda L and Erdos, Michael R and Fox, Caroline S and Franklin, Christopher S and Ganser, Martha and Gieger, Christian and Grarup, Niels and Green, Todd and Griffin, Simon and Groves, Christopher J and Guiducci, Candace and Hadjadj, Samy and Hassanali, Neelam and Herder, Christian and Isomaa, Bo and Jackson, Anne U and Johnson, Paul R V and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Kao, Wen H L and Kong, Augustine and Kraft, Peter and Kuusisto, Johanna and Lauritzen, Torsten and Li, Man and Lieverse, Aloysius and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Marre, Michel and Meitinger, Thomas and Midthjell, Kristian and Morken, Mario A and Narisu, Narisu and Nilsson, Peter and Owen, Katharine R and Payne, Felicity and Petersen, Ann-Kristin and Platou, Carl and Proen{\c c}a, Christine and Prokopenko, Inga and Rathmann, Wolfgang and Rayner, N William and Robertson, Neil R and Rocheleau, Ghislain and Roden, Michael and Sampson, Michael J and Saxena, Richa and Shields, Beverley M and Shrader, Peter and Sigurdsson, Gunnar and Spars{\o}, Thomas and Strassburger, Klaus and Stringham, Heather M and Sun, Qi and Swift, Amy J and Thorand, Barbara and Tichet, Jean and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and van Dam, Rob M and van Haeften, Timon W and van Herpt, Thijs and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Walters, G Bragi and Weedon, Michael N and Wijmenga, Cisca and Witteman, Jacqueline and Bergman, Richard N and Cauchi, Stephane and Collins, Francis S and Gloyn, Anna L and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hansen, Torben and Hide, Winston A and Hitman, Graham A and Hofman, Albert and Hunter, David J and Hveem, Kristian and Laakso, Markku and Morris, Andrew D and Palmer, Colin N A and Rudan, Igor and Sijbrands, Eric and Stein, Lincoln D and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uitterlinden, Andre and Walker, Mark and Watanabe, Richard M and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Boehm, Bernhard O and Campbell, Harry and Daly, Mark J and Hattersley, Andrew T and Pedersen, Oluf and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Groop, Leif and Sladek, Rob and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Wilson, James F and Illig, Thomas and Froguel, Philippe and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Stefansson, Kari and Altshuler, David and Boehnke, Michael and McCarthy, Mark I and Soranzo, Nicole and Wheeler, Eleanor and Glazer, Nicole L and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Randall, Joshua and Elliott, Paul and Rybin, Denis and Dehghan, Abbas and Hottenga, Jouke Jan and Song, Kijoung and Goel, Anuj and Lajunen, Taina and Doney, Alex and Cavalcanti-Proen{\c c}a, Christine and Kumari, Meena and Timpson, Nicholas J and Zabena, Carina and Ingelsson, Erik and An, Ping and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Elliott, Amanda and McCarroll, Steven A and Roccasecca, Rosa Maria and Pattou, Fran{\c c}ois and Sethupathy, Praveen and Ariyurek, Yavuz and Barter, Philip and Beilby, John P and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Bergmann, Sven and Bochud, Murielle and Bonnefond, Am{\'e}lie and Borch-Johnsen, Knut and B{\"o}ttcher, Yvonne and Brunner, Eric and Bumpstead, Suzannah J and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chines, Peter and Clarke, Robert and Coin, Lachlan J M and Cooper, Matthew N and Crisponi, Laura and Day, Ian N M and de Geus, Eco J C and Delplanque, Jerome and Fedson, Annette C and Fischer-Rosinsky, Antje and Forouhi, Nita G and Franzosi, Maria Grazia and Galan, Pilar and Goodarzi, Mark O and Graessler, J{\"u}rgen and Grundy, Scott and Gwilliam, Rhian and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Hammond, Naomi and Han, Xijing and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hayward, Caroline and Heath, Simon C and Hercberg, Serge and Hillman, David R and Hingorani, Aroon D and Hui, Jennie and Hung, Joe and Kaakinen, Marika and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kesaniemi, Y Antero and Kivimaki, Mika and Knight, Beatrice and Koskinen, Seppo and Kovacs, Peter and Kyvik, Kirsten Ohm and Lathrop, G Mark and Lawlor, Debbie A and Le Bacquer, Olivier and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Li, Yun and Mahley, Robert and Mangino, Massimo and Mart{\'\i}nez-Larrad, Mar{\'\i}a Teresa and McAteer, Jarred B and McPherson, Ruth and Meisinger, Christa and Melzer, David and Meyre, David and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mukherjee, Sutapa and Naitza, Silvia and Neville, Matthew J and Orr{\`u}, Marco and Pakyz, Ruth and Paolisso, Giuseppe and Pattaro, Cristian and Pearson, Daniel and Peden, John F and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pfeiffer, Andreas F H and Pichler, Irene and Polasek, Ozren and Posthuma, Danielle and Potter, Simon C and Pouta, Anneli and Province, Michael A and Rayner, Nigel W and Rice, Kenneth and Ripatti, Samuli and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rolandsson, Olov and Sandbaek, Annelli and Sandhu, Manjinder and Sanna, Serena and Sayer, Avan Aihie and Scheet, Paul and Seedorf, Udo and Sharp, Stephen J and Shields, Beverley and Sigur{\dh}sson, Gunnar and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Silveira, Angela and Simpson, Laila and Singleton, Andrew and Smith, Nicholas L and Sovio, Ulla and Swift, Amy and Syddall, Holly and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Varma, Dhiraj and Visvikis-Siest, Sophie and Vitart, Veronique and Vogelzangs, Nicole and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Wagner, Peter J and Walley, Andrew and Ward, Kim L and Watkins, Hugh and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Witteman, Jaqueline C M and Yarnell, John W G and Zelenika, Diana and Zethelius, Bj{\"o}rn and Zhai, Guangju and Zhao, Jing Hua and Zillikens, M Carola and Borecki, Ingrid B and Meneton, Pierre and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Nathan, David M and Williams, Gordon H and Silander, Kaisa and Bornstein, Stefan R and Schwarz, Peter and Spranger, Joachim and Karpe, Fredrik and Shuldiner, Alan R and Cooper, Cyrus and Serrano-R{\'\i}os, Manuel and Lind, Lars and Palmer, Lyle J and Hu, Frank B and Franks, Paul W and Ebrahim, Shah and Marmot, Michael and Kao, W H Linda and Pramstaller, Peter Paul and Wright, Alan F and Stumvoll, Michael and Hamsten, Anders and Buchanan, Thomas A and Valle, Timo T and Rotter, Jerome I and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Boomsma, Dorret I and Cao, Antonio and Scuteri, Angelo and Schlessinger, David and Uda, Manuela and Ruokonen, Aimo and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Peltonen, Leena and Mooser, Vincent and Sladek, Robert and Musunuru, Kiran and Smith, Albert V and Edmondson, Andrew C and Stylianou, Ioannis M and Koseki, Masahiro and Pirruccello, James P and Chasman, Daniel I and Johansen, Christopher T and Fouchier, Sigrid W and Peloso, Gina M and Barbalic, Maja and Ricketts, Sally L and Bis, Joshua C and Feitosa, Mary F and Orho-Melander, Marju and Melander, Olle and Li, Xiaohui and Li, Mingyao and Cho, Yoon Shin and Go, Min Jin and Kim, Young Jin and Lee, Jong-Young and Park, Taesung and Kim, Kyunga and Sim, Xueling and Ong, Rick Twee-Hee and Croteau-Chonka, Damien C and Lange, Leslie A and Smith, Joshua D and Ziegler, Andreas and Zhang, Weihua and Zee, Robert Y L and Whitfield, John B and Thompson, John R and Surakka, Ida and Spector, Tim D and Smit, Johannes H and Sinisalo, Juha and Scott, James and Saharinen, Juha and Sabatti, Chiara and Rose, Lynda M and Roberts, Robert and Rieder, Mark and Parker, Alex N and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Nieminen, Markku S and Nickerson, Deborah A and Montgomery, Grant W and McArdle, Wendy and Masson, David and Martin, Nicholas G and Marroni, Fabio and Lucas, Gavin and Luben, Robert and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Lettre, Guillaume and Launer, Lenore J and Lakatta, Edward G and Laaksonen, Reijo and Kyvik, Kirsten O and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kaplan, Lee M and Johansson, Asa and Janssens, A Cecile J W and Igl, Wilmar and Hovingh, G Kees and Hengstenberg, Christian and Havulinna, Aki S and Hastie, Nicholas D and Harris, Tamara B and Haritunians, Talin and Hall, Alistair S and Groop, Leif C and Gonzalez, Elena and Freimer, Nelson B and Erdmann, Jeanette and Ejebe, Kenechi G and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Dominiczak, Anna F and Demissie, Serkalem and Deloukas, Panagiotis and de Faire, Ulf and Crawford, Gabriel and Chen, Yii-der I and Caulfield, Mark J and Boekholdt, S Matthijs and Assimes, Themistocles L and Quertermous, Thomas and Seielstad, Mark and Wong, Tien Y and Tai, E-Shyong and Feranil, Alan B and Kuzawa, Christopher W and Taylor, Herman A and Gabriel, Stacey B and Holm, Hilma and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Krauss, Ronald M and Ordovas, Jose M and Munroe, Patricia B and Kooner, Jaspal S and Tall, Alan R and Hegele, Robert A and Kastelein, John J P and Schadt, Eric E and Strachan, David P and Reilly, Muredach P and Samani, Nilesh J and Schunkert, Heribert and Cupples, L Adrienne and Sandhu, Manjinder S and Ridker, Paul M and Rader, Daniel J and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {1379, title = {Plasma free fatty acids and risk of atrial fibrillation (from the Cardiovascular Health Study).}, journal = {Am J Cardiol}, volume = {110}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Jul 15}, pages = {212-6}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a highly prevalent cardiac arrhythmia in clinical practice, affecting approximately 2.3 million residents of the United States and 4.5 million residents of the European Union. It is unclear whether plasma free fatty acids (FFAs) influence the risk of AF in older adults. The aim of this study was to prospectively examine the association between plasma FFAs and incident AF in a prospective cohort of 4,175 men and women >=65 years old from the Cardiovascular Health Study. Plasma concentrations of FFAs were measured 2 times during the 1992 to 1993 examination. Incident AF was ascertained based on study electrocardiographic and hospitalization records during follow-up. We used Cox regression to estimate relative risks of AF. Average age at baseline was 74.6 {\textpm} 5.1 years. During a mean follow-up of 10.0 years, 1,041 new cases of AF occurred. Crude incidence rates of AF were 23.7, 23.3, 23.9, and 29.7 cases/1,000 person-years across consecutive quartiles of plasma FFAs. There was a positive association between plasma FFAs and risk of AF. Multivariable adjusted hazard ratios (95\% confidence intervals) for incident AF were 1.00 (referent), 1.02 (0.85 to 1.21), 1.05 (0.88 to 1.26), and 1.29 (1.08 to 1.55) from the lowest to highest quartiles of FFAs, respectively. In a secondary analysis restricted to the first 5 years of follow-up, this association persisted. In conclusion, our data show an increased risk of AF with higher plasma FFAs in community-dwelling older adults.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, C-Reactive Protein, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Fatty Acids, Nonesterified, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Hypertension, Incidence, Lipoproteins, HDL, Lipoproteins, LDL, Male, Natriuretic Peptide, Brain, Obesity, Peptide Fragments, Prospective Studies, Sex Factors, Triglycerides, United States}, issn = {1879-1913}, doi = {10.1016/j.amjcard.2012.03.010}, author = {Khawaja, Owais and Bartz, Traci M and Ix, Joachim H and Heckbert, Susan R and Kizer, Jorge R and Zieman, Susan J and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Tracy, Russell P and Siscovick, David S and Djouss{\'e}, Luc} } @article {1357, title = {Predicting late-life disability and death by the rate of decline in physical performance measures.}, journal = {Age Ageing}, volume = {41}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Mar}, pages = {155-61}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: the rate of performance decline may influence the risk of disability or death.

METHODS: for 4,182 Cardiovascular Health Study participants, we used multinomial Poisson log-linear models to assess the contribution of physical performance in 1998-99, and the rate of performance change between 1992-93 and 1998-99, to the risk of death or disability in 2005-06 in three domains: mobility, upper-extremity function (UEF) and activities of daily living (ADL). We evaluated performance in finger-tapping, grip strength, stride length, gait speed and chair stands separately and together for each outcome, adjusting for age, gender, race and years of disability in that outcome between 1992-93 and 1998-99.

RESULTS: participants{\textquoteright} age averaged 79.4 in 1998-99; 1,901 died over 7 years. Compared with the lowest change quintile in stride length, the highest quintile had a 1.32 relative risk (RR) of ADL disability (95\% CI: 1.16 -1.96) and a 1.27 RR of death (95\% CI: 1.07 -1.51). The highest change quintile for grip strength increased the risk of ADL disability by 35\% (95\% CI: 1.13 -1.61) and death by 31\% (95\% CI: 1.16 -1.49), compared with the lowest quintile. The annual change in stride length and grip strength also predicted disability in mobility and UEF.

CONCLUSION: performance trajectories independently predict death and disability.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Disability Evaluation, Disabled Persons, Female, Geriatric Assessment, Hand Strength, Health Surveys, Humans, Linear Models, Male, Mobility Limitation, Mortality, Motor Skills, Predictive Value of Tests, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Survival Analysis, Time Factors, United States, Upper Extremity, Walking}, issn = {1468-2834}, doi = {10.1093/ageing/afr151}, author = {Hirsch, Calvin Hayes and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Robbins, John A and Patel, Kushang V and Newman, Anne B} } @article {1549, title = {A screening study of drug-drug interactions in cerivastatin users: an adverse effect of clopidogrel.}, journal = {Clin Pharmacol Ther}, volume = {91}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 May}, pages = {896-904}, abstract = {

An analysis of a case-control study of rhabdomyolysis was conducted to screen for previously unrecognized cytochrome P450 enzyme (CYP) 2C8 inhibitors that may cause other clinically important drug-drug interactions. Medication use in cases of rhabdomyolysis using cerivastatin (n = 72) was compared with that in controls using atorvastatin (n = 287) for the period 1998-2001. The use of clopidogrel was strongly associated with rhabdomyolysis (odds ratio (OR) 29.6; 95\% confidence interval (CI), 6.1-143). In a replication effort that used the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS), it was found that clopidogrel was used more commonly in patients with rhabdomyolysis receiving cerivastatin (17\%) than in those receiving atorvastatin (0\%, OR infinity; 95\% CI = 5.2-infinity). Several medications were tested in vitro for their potential to cause drug-drug interactions. Clopidogrel, rosiglitazone, and montelukast were the most potent inhibitors of cerivastatin metabolism. Clopidogrel and its metabolites also inhibited cerivastatin metabolism in human hepatocytes. These epidemiological and in vitro findings suggest that clopidogrel may cause clinically important, dose-dependent drug-drug interactions with other medications metabolized by CYP2C8.

}, keywords = {Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylases, Case-Control Studies, Cytochrome P-450 CYP2C8, Cytochrome P-450 CYP3A, Cytochrome P-450 CYP3A Inhibitors, Drug Interactions, Female, Humans, Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors, Male, Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors, Pyridines, Rhabdomyolysis, Ticlopidine}, issn = {1532-6535}, doi = {10.1038/clpt.2011.295}, author = {Floyd, J S and Kaspera, R and Marciante, K D and Weiss, N S and Heckbert, S R and Lumley, T and Wiggins, K L and Tamraz, B and Kwok, P-Y and Totah, R A and Psaty, B M} } @article {1384, title = {Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration and risk for major clinical disease events in a community-based population of older adults: a cohort study.}, journal = {Ann Intern Med}, volume = {156}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 May 01}, pages = {627-34}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Circulating concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25-(OH)D] are used to define vitamin D deficiency. Current clinical 25-(OH)D targets based on associations with intermediate markers of bone metabolism may not reflect optimal levels for other chronic diseases and do not account for known seasonal variation in 25-(OH)D concentration.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship of 25-(OH)D concentration with the incidence of major clinical disease events that are pathophysiologically relevant to vitamin D.

DESIGN: Cohort study.

SETTING: The Cardiovascular Health Study conducted in 4 U.S. communities. Data from 1992 to 2006 were included in this analysis.

PARTICIPANTS: 1621 white older adults.

MEASUREMENTS: Serum 25-(OH)D concentration (using a high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry assay that conforms to National Institute of Standards and Technology reference standards) and associations with time to a composite outcome of incident hip fracture, myocardial infarction, cancer, or death.

RESULTS: Over a median 11-year follow-up, the composite outcome occurred in 1018 participants (63\%). Defining events included 137 hip fractures, 186 myocardial infarctions, 335 incidences of cancer, and 360 deaths. The association of low 25-(OH)D concentration with risk for the composite outcome varied by season (P = 0.057). A concentration lower than a season-specific Z score of -0.54 best discriminated risk for the composite outcome and was associated with a 24\% higher risk in adjusted analyses (95\% CI, 9\% to 42\%). Corresponding season-specific 25-(OH)D concentrations were 43, 50, 61, and 55 nmol/L (17, 20, 24, and 22 ng/mL) in winter, spring, summer, and autumn, respectively.

LIMITATION: The observational study was restricted to white participants.

CONCLUSION: Threshold concentrations of 25-(OH)D associated with increased risk for relevant clinical disease events center near 50 nmol/L (20 ng/mL). Season-specific targets for 25-(OH)D concentration may be more appropriate than static targets when evaluating health risk.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: National Institutes of Health.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cause of Death, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Hip Fractures, Humans, Male, Myocardial Infarction, Neoplasms, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Seasons, United States, Vitamin D, Vitamin D Deficiency}, issn = {1539-3704}, doi = {10.7326/0003-4819-156-9-201205010-00004}, author = {de Boer, Ian H and Levin, Gregory and Robinson-Cohen, Cassianne and Biggs, Mary L and Hoofnagle, Andy N and Siscovick, David S and Kestenbaum, Bryan} } @article {1544, title = {Ultraconserved elements in the human genome: association and transmission analyses of highly constrained single-nucleotide polymorphisms.}, journal = {Genetics}, volume = {192}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Sep}, pages = {253-66}, abstract = {

Ultraconserved elements in the human genome likely harbor important biological functions as they are dosage sensitive and are able to direct tissue-specific expression. Because they are under purifying selection, variants in these elements may have a lower frequency in the population but a higher likelihood of association with complex traits. We tested a set of highly constrained SNPs (hcSNPs) distributed genome-wide among ultraconserved and nearly ultraconserved elements for association with seven traits related to reproductive (age at natural menopause, number of children, age at first child, and age at last child) and overall [longevity, body mass index (BMI), and height] fitness. Using up to 24,047 European-American samples from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe), we observed an excess of associations with BMI and height. In an independent replication panel the most strongly associated SNPs showed an 8.4-fold enrichment of associations at the nominal level, including three variants in previously identified loci and one in a locus (DENND1A) previously shown to be associated with polycystic ovary syndrome. Finally, using 1430 family trios, we showed that the transmissions from heterozygous parents to offspring of the derived alleles of rare (frequency <= 0.5\%) hcSNPs are not biased, particularly after adjusting for the rates of genotype missingness and error in the data. The lack of transmission bias ruled out an immediately and strongly deleterious effect due to the rare derived alleles, consistent with the observation that mice homozygous for the deletion of ultraconserved elements showed no overt phenotype. Our study also illustrated the importance of carefully modeling potential technical confounders when analyzing genotype data of rare variants.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Animals, Body Height, Body Mass Index, Child, Conserved Sequence, Dogs, Evolution, Molecular, Female, Genetic Fitness, Genetic Variation, Genome, Human, Genotype, Humans, Inheritance Patterns, Male, Mice, Pedigree, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Rats, Reproduction, Young Adult}, issn = {1943-2631}, doi = {10.1534/genetics.112.141945}, author = {Chiang, Charleston W K and Liu, Ching-Ti and Lettre, Guillaume and Lange, Leslie A and Jorgensen, Neal W and Keating, Brendan J and Vedantam, Sailaja and Nock, Nora L and Franceschini, Nora and Reiner, Alex P and Demerath, Ellen W and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rotter, Jerome I and Wilson, James G and North, Kari E and Papanicolaou, George J and Cupples, L Adrienne and Murabito, Joanne M and Hirschhorn, Joel N} } @article {1543, title = {Variation in the lysyl oxidase (LOX) gene is associated with keratoconus in family-based and case-control studies.}, journal = {Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci}, volume = {53}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Jun 28}, pages = {4152-7}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: Keratoconus is a bilateral noninflammatory progressive corneal disorder with complex genetic inheritance and a common cause for cornea transplantation in young adults. A genomewide linkage scan in keratoconus families identified a locus at 5q23.2, overlapping the gene coding for the lysyl oxidase (LOX). LOX encodes an enzyme responsible for collagen cross-linking in a variety of tissues including the cornea. Corneal collagen cross-linking with long-wave ultraviolet light and riboflavin is a promising new treatment for keratoconus. To determine whether LOX is a genetic determinant of the pathogenesis of keratoconus, we analyzed association results of LOX polymorphisms in two independent case-control samples and in keratoconus families.

METHODS: Association results were analyzed of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the LOX gene from a Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) investigation in two independent panels of patients with keratoconus and controls and in keratoconus families.

RESULTS: Evidence of association was found at SNPs rs10519694 and rs2956540 located in intron 4 of LOX in the GWAS discovery case-control panel with P values of 2.3{\texttimes}10(-3) and 7{\texttimes}10(-3), respectively. The same two SNPs were found to be associated with keratoconus by family-based association testing with P values of 2.7{\texttimes}10(-3) and 7.7{\texttimes}10(-4), respectively. Meta P values of 4.0{\texttimes}10(-5) and 4.0{\texttimes}10(-7) were calculated for SNPs rs10519694 and rs2956540 by analyzing case-control and family samples simultaneously. Sequencing of LOX exons in a subset of keratoconus patients identified two polymorphisms, rs1800449 and rs2288393, located in LOX transcripts I and II, associated with keratoconus in case-control and family samples with a meta P value of 0.02.

CONCLUSIONS: Results provided strong genetic evidence that LOX variants lead to increased susceptibility to developing of keratoconus.

}, keywords = {Case-Control Studies, Cornea, Corneal Topography, DNA, Family, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Keratoconus, Polymorphism, Genetic, Protein-Lysine 6-Oxidase}, issn = {1552-5783}, doi = {10.1167/iovs.11-9268}, author = {Bykhovskaya, Yelena and Li, Xiaohui and Epifantseva, Irina and Haritunians, Talin and Siscovick, David and Aldave, Anthony and Szczotka-Flynn, Loretta and Iyengar, Sudha K and Taylor, Kent D and Rotter, Jerome I and Rabinowitz, Yaron S} } @article {6081, title = {Adhesion molecules, endothelin-1 and lung function in seven population-based cohorts.}, journal = {Biomarkers}, volume = {18}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 May}, pages = {196-203}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Endothelial function is abnormal in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); whether endothelial dysfunction causes COPD is unknown.

OBJECTIVE: Test associations of endothelial biomarkers with FEV1 using instrumental variables.

METHODS: Among 26 907 participants with spirometry, ICAM-1, P-selectin, E-selectin and endothelin-1 were measured in subsets.

RESULTS: ICAM-1 and P-selectin were inversely associated with FEV1 among European-Americans (-29 mL and -34 mL per standard deviation of log-transformed biomarker, p < 0.001), as was endothelin-1 among African-Americans (-22 mL, p = 0.008). Genetically-estimated ICAM-1 and P-selectin were not significantly associated with FEV1. The instrumental variable for endothelin-1 was non-informative.

CONCLUSION: Although ICAM-1, P-selectin and endothelin-1 were inversely associated with FEV1, associations for ICAM-1 and P-selectin do not appear causal.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Biomarkers, Cohort Studies, E-Selectin, Endothelin-1, Endothelium, Vascular, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Expression, Humans, Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1, Lung, Male, Middle Aged, P-Selectin, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive, Respiratory Function Tests, Spirometry}, issn = {1366-5804}, doi = {10.3109/1354750X.2012.762805}, author = {Oelsner, E C and Pottinger, T D and Burkart, K M and Allison, M and Buxbaum, S G and Hansel, N N and Kumar, R and Larkin, E K and Lange, L A and Loehr, L R and London, S J and O{\textquoteright}Connor, G T and Papanicolaou, G and Petrini, M F and Rabinowitz, D and Raghavan, S and Redline, S and Thyagarajan, B and Tracy, R P and Wilk, J B and White, W B and Rich, S S and Barr, R G} } @article {6827, title = {Association of functional polymorphism rs2231142 (Q141K) in the ABCG2 gene with serum uric acid and gout in 4 US populations: the PAGE Study.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, volume = {177}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 May 1}, pages = {923-32}, abstract = {

A loss-of-function mutation (Q141K, rs2231142) in the ATP-binding cassette, subfamily G, member 2 gene (ABCG2) has been shown to be associated with serum uric acid levels and gout in Asians, Europeans, and European and African Americans; however, less is known about these associations in other populations. Rs2231142 was genotyped in 22,734 European Americans, 9,720 African Americans, 3,849 Mexican Americans, and 3,550 American Indians in the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Study (2008-2012). Rs2231142 was significantly associated with serum uric acid levels (P = 2.37 {\texttimes} 10(-67), P = 3.98 {\texttimes} 10(-5), P = 6.97 {\texttimes} 10(-9), and P = 5.33 {\texttimes} 10(-4) in European Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and American Indians, respectively) and gout (P = 2.83 {\texttimes} 10(-10), P = 0.01, and P = 0.01 in European Americans, African Americans, and Mexican Americans, respectively). Overall, the T allele was associated with a 0.24-mg/dL increase in serum uric acid level (P = 1.37 {\texttimes} 10(-80)) and a 1.75-fold increase in the odds of gout (P = 1.09 {\texttimes} 10(-12)). The association between rs2231142 and serum uric acid was significantly stronger in men, postmenopausal women, and hormone therapy users compared with their counterparts. The association with gout was also significantly stronger in men than in women. These results highlight a possible role of sex hormones in the regulation of ABCG2 urate transporter and its potential implications for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of hyperuricemia and gout.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Age Distribution, ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters, Comorbidity, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetics, Population, Genome-Wide Association Study, Gout, Hormone Replacement Therapy, Humans, Indians, North American, Male, Mexican Americans, Middle Aged, Neoplasm Proteins, Polymorphism, Genetic, Postmenopause, Sex Distribution, United States, Uric Acid}, issn = {1476-6256}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kws330}, author = {Zhang, Lili and Spencer, Kylee L and Voruganti, V Saroja and Jorgensen, Neal W and Fornage, Myriam and Best, Lyle G and Brown-Gentry, Kristin D and Cole, Shelley A and Crawford, Dana C and Deelman, Ewa and Franceschini, Nora and Gaffo, Angelo L and Glenn, Kimberly R and Heiss, Gerardo and Jenny, Nancy S and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Li, Qiong and Liu, Kiang and Matise, Tara C and North, Kari E and Umans, Jason G and Kao, W H Linda} } @article {5857, title = {Association of genome-wide variation with highly sensitive cardiac troponin-T levels in European Americans and Blacks: a meta-analysis from atherosclerosis risk in communities and cardiovascular health studies.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {6}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Feb}, pages = {82-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: High levels of cardiac troponin T, measured by a highly sensitive assay (hs-cTnT), are strongly associated with incident coronary heart disease and heart failure. To date, no large-scale genome-wide association study of hs-cTnT has been reported. We sought to identify novel genetic variants that are associated with hs-cTnT levels.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We performed a genome-wide association in 9491 European Americans and 2053 blacks free of coronary heart disease and heart failure from 2 prospective cohorts: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study and the Cardiovascular Health Study. Genome-wide association studies were conducted in each study and race stratum. Fixed-effect meta-analyses combined the results of linear regression from 2 cohorts within each race stratum and then across race strata to produce overall estimates and probability values. The meta-analysis identified a significant association at chromosome 8q13 (rs10091374; P=9.06{\texttimes}10(-9)) near the nuclear receptor coactivator 2 (NCOA2) gene. Overexpression of NCOA2 can be detected in myoblasts. An additional analysis using logistic regression and the clinically motivated 99th percentile cut point detected a significant association at 1q32 (rs12564445; P=4.73{\texttimes}10(-8)) in the gene TNNT2, which encodes the cardiac troponin T protein itself. The hs-cTnT-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms were not associated with coronary heart disease in a large case-control study, but rs12564445 was significantly associated with incident heart failure in Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study European Americans (hazard ratio=1.16; P=0.004).

CONCLUSIONS: We identified 2 loci, near NCOA2 and in the TNNT2 gene, at which variation was significantly associated with hs-cTnT levels. Further use of the new assay should enable replication of these results.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Atherosclerosis, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Nuclear Receptor Coactivator 2, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prospective Studies, Residence Characteristics, Risk Factors, Troponin T}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.112.963058}, author = {Yu, Bing and Barbalic, Maja and Brautbar, Ariel and Nambi, Vijay and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Tang, Weihong and Mosley, Thomas H and Rotter, Jerome I and deFilippi, Christopher R and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Kathiresan, Sekar and Rice, Ken and Heckbert, Susan R and Ballantyne, Christie M and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric} } @article {6061, title = {Association of heat shock proteins with all-cause mortality.}, journal = {Age (Dordr)}, volume = {35}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Aug}, pages = {1367-76}, abstract = {

Experimental mild heat shock is widely known as an intervention that results in extended longevity in various models along the evolutionary lineage. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are highly upregulated immediately after a heat shock. The elevation in HSP levels was shown to inhibit stress-mediated cell death, and recent experiments indicate a highly versatile role for these proteins as inhibitors of programmed cell death. In this study, we examined common genetic variations in 31 genes encoding all members of the HSP70, small HSP, and heat shock factor (HSF) families for their association with all-cause mortality. Our discovery cohort was the Rotterdam study (RS1) containing 5,974 participants aged 55 years and older (3,174 deaths). We assessed 4,430 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) using the HumanHap550K Genotyping BeadChip from Illumina. After adjusting for multiple testing by permutation analysis, three SNPs showed evidence for association with all-cause mortality in RS1. These findings were followed in eight independent population-based cohorts, leading to a total of 25,007 participants (8,444 deaths). In the replication phase, only HSF2 (rs1416733) remained significantly associated with all-cause mortality. Rs1416733 is a known cis-eQTL for HSF2. Our findings suggest a role of HSF2 in all-cause mortality.

}, keywords = {Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cause of Death, Forecasting, Genotype, Heat-Shock Proteins, Humans, Longevity, Promoter Regions, Genetic, Retrospective Studies, Transcription, Genetic, United States}, issn = {1574-4647}, doi = {10.1007/s11357-012-9417-7}, author = {Broer, L and Demerath, E W and Garcia, M E and Homuth, G and Kaplan, R C and Lunetta, K L and Tanaka, T and Tranah, G J and Walter, S and Arnold, A M and Atzmon, G and Harris, T B and Hoffmann, W and Karasik, D and Kiel, D P and Kocher, T and Launer, L J and Lohman, K K and Rotter, J I and Tiemeier, H and Uitterlinden, A G and Wallaschofski, H and Bandinelli, S and D{\"o}rr, M and Ferrucci, L and Franceschini, N and Gudnason, V and Hofman, A and Liu, Y and Murabito, J M and Newman, A B and Oostra, B A and Psaty, B M and Smith, A V and van Duijn, C M} } @article {5846, title = {Associations of plasma phospholipid and dietary alpha linolenic acid with incident atrial fibrillation in older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {2}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jan 31}, pages = {e003814}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Few studies have examined the relationship of α-linolenic acid (ALA 18:3n-3), an intermediate-chain essential n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid derived from plants and vegetable oils, with incident atrial fibrillation (AF).

METHODS AND RESULTS: The study population included participants from the Cardiovascular Health Study, a community-based longitudinal cohort of adults aged 65 or older, free of prevalent coronary heart disease and atrial fibrillation. We assessed the associations of plasma phospholipid and dietary ALA with incident AF using Cox regression. The biomarker analysis comprised a total of 2899 participants, and the dietary analysis comprised 4337 participants. We found no association of plasma phospholipid ALA and incident AF. Comparing each of the second, third, and fourth quartiles to the lowest quartile, the hazard ratios for AF were 1.11 (95\% CI, 0.90 to 1.37), 1.09 (95\% CI, 0.88 to 1.35), and 0.92 (95\% CI, 0.74 to 1.15), after adjustment for age, sex, race, clinic, education, smoking, alcohol, body mass index, waist circumference, diabetes, heart failure, stroke, treated hypertension, and physical activity (P trend=0.48). When dietary ALA was considered the exposure of interest, results were similar.

CONCLUSIONS: Results from this prospective cohort study of older adults indicate no association of plasma phospholipid or dietary ALA and incident AF.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, alpha-Linolenic Acid, Atrial Fibrillation, Biomarkers, Diet, Female, Humans, Incidence, Linear Models, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Nutritional Status, Phospholipids, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Time Factors, United States}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.112.003814}, author = {Fretts, Amanda M and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Siscovick, David S and Heckbert, Susan R and McKnight, Barbara and King, Irena B and Rimm, Eric B and Psaty, Bruce M and Sacks, Frank M and Song, Xiaoling and Spiegelman, Donna and Lemaitre, Rozenn N} } @article {6166, title = {Atrial ectopy as a predictor of incident atrial fibrillation: a cohort study.}, journal = {Ann Intern Med}, volume = {159}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Dec 03}, pages = {721-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) prediction models have unclear clinical utility given the absence of AF prevention therapies and the immutability of many risk factors. Premature atrial contractions (PACs) play a critical role in AF pathogenesis and may be modifiable.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether PAC count improves model performance for AF risk.

DESIGN: Prospective cohort study.

SETTING: 4 U.S. communities.

PATIENTS: A random subset of 1260 adults without prevalent AF enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study between 1989 and 1990.

MEASUREMENTS: The PAC count was quantified by 24-hour electrocardiography. Participants were followed for the diagnosis of incident AF or death. The Framingham AF risk algorithm was used as the comparator prediction model.

RESULTS: In adjusted analyses, doubling the hourly PAC count was associated with a significant increase in AF risk (hazard ratio, 1.17 [95\% CI, 1.13 to 1.22]; P < 0.001) and overall mortality (hazard ratio, 1.06 [CI, 1.03 to 1.09]; P < 0.001). Compared with the Framingham model, PAC count alone resulted in similar AF risk discrimination at 5 and 10 years of follow-up and superior risk discrimination at 15 years. The addition of PAC count to the Framingham model resulted in significant 10-year AF risk discrimination improvement (c-statistic, 0.65 vs. 0.72; P < 0.001), net reclassification improvement (23.2\% [CI, 12.8\% to 33.6\%]; P < 0.001), and integrated discrimination improvement (5.6\% [CI, 4.2\% to 7.0\%]; P < 0.001). The specificity for predicting AF at 15 years exceeded 90\% for PAC counts more than 32 beats/h.

LIMITATION: This study does not establish a causal link between PACs and AF.

CONCLUSION: The addition of PAC count to a validated AF risk algorithm provides superior AF risk discrimination and significantly improves risk reclassification. Further study is needed to determine whether PAC modification can prospectively reduce AF risk.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: American Heart Association, Joseph Drown Foundation, and National Institutes of Health.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Atrial Function, Cause of Death, Electrocardiography, Female, Humans, Male, Models, Statistical, Myocardial Contraction, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment}, issn = {1539-3704}, doi = {10.7326/0003-4819-159-11-201312030-00004}, author = {Dewland, Thomas A and Vittinghoff, Eric and Mandyam, Mala C and Heckbert, Susan R and Siscovick, David S and Stein, Phyllis K and Psaty, Bruce M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Gottdiener, John S and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {6002, title = {Atrial fibrillation and cognitive decline: a longitudinal cohort study.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {81}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jul 09}, pages = {119-25}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine whether in the absence of clinical stroke, people with atrial fibrillation experience faster cognitive decline than people without atrial fibrillation.

METHODS: We conducted a longitudinal analysis in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a community-based study of 5,888 men and women aged 65 years and older, enrolled in 1989/1990 or 1992/1993. Participants did not have atrial fibrillation or a history of stroke at baseline. Participants were censored when they experienced incident clinical stroke. Incident atrial fibrillation was identified by hospital discharge diagnosis codes and annual study ECGs. The main outcome was rate of decline in mean scores on the 100-point Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MSE), administered annually up to 9 times.

RESULTS: Analyses included 5,150 participants, of whom 552 (10.7\%) developed incident atrial fibrillation during a mean of 7 years of follow-up. Mean 3MSE scores declined faster after incident atrial fibrillation compared with no prior atrial fibrillation. For example, the predicted 5-year decline in mean 3MSE score from age 80 to age 85 was -6.4 points (95\% confidence interval [CI]: -7.0, -5.9) for participants without a history of atrial fibrillation, but was -10.3 points (95\% CI: -11.8, -8.9) for participants experiencing incident atrial fibrillation at age 80, a 5-year difference of -3.9 points (95\% CI: -5.3, -2.5).

CONCLUSIONS: In the absence of clinical stroke, people with incident atrial fibrillation are likely to reach thresholds of cognitive impairment or dementia at earlier ages than people with no history of atrial fibrillation.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atrial Fibrillation, Cognition Disorders, Comorbidity, Female, Humans, Incidence, Longitudinal Studies, Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery, Male, Predictive Value of Tests}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0b013e31829a33d1}, author = {Thacker, Evan L and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and Longstreth, W T and Sitlani, Colleen M and Dublin, Sascha and Arnold, Alice M and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {5850, title = {Atrial fibrillation and the risk of sudden cardiac death: the atherosclerosis risk in communities study and cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {JAMA Intern Med}, volume = {173}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jan 14}, pages = {29-35}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: It is unknown whether atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with an increased risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in the general population. This association was examined in 2 population-based cohorts.

METHODS: In the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study, we analyzed data from 15 439 participants (baseline age, 45-64 years; 55.2\% women; and 26.6\% black) from baseline (1987-1989) through December 31, 2001. In the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), we analyzed data from 5479 participants (baseline age, >=65 years; 58.2\% women; and 15.4\% black) from baseline (first cohort, 1989-1990; second cohort, 1992-1993) through December 31, 2006. The main outcome was physician-adjudicated SCD, defined as death from a sudden, pulseless condition presumed to be due to a ventricular tachyarrhythmia. The secondary outcome was non-SCD (NSCD), defined as coronary heart disease death not meeting SCD criteria. We used Cox proportional hazards models to assess the association between AF and SCD/NSCD, adjusting for baseline demographic and cardiovascular risk factors.

RESULTS: In the ARIC Study, 894 AF, 269 SCD, and 233 NSCD events occurred during follow-up (median, 13.1 years). The crude incidence rates of SCD were 2.89 per 1000 person-years (with AF) and 1.30 per 1000 person-years (without AF). The multivariable hazard ratios (HRs) (95\% CIs) of AF for SCD and NSCD were 3.26 (2.17-4.91) and 2.43 (1.60-3.71), respectively. In the CHS, 1458 AF, 292 SCD, and 581 NSCD events occurred during follow-up (median, 13.1 years). The crude incidence rates of SCD were 12.00 per 1000 person-years (with AF) and 3.82 per 1000 person-years (without AF). The multivariable HRs (95\% CIs) of AF for SCD and NSCD were 2.14 (1.60-2.87) and 3.10 (2.58-3.72), respectively. The meta-analyzed HRs (95\% CIs) of AF for SCD and NSCD were 2.47 (1.95-3.13) and 2.98 (2.52-3.53), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: Incident AF is associated with an increased risk of SCD and NSCD in the general population. Additional research to identify predictors of SCD in patients with AF is warranted.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Cardiovascular Diseases, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, Demography, Ethnic Groups, Female, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, United States}, issn = {2168-6114}, doi = {10.1001/2013.jamainternmed.744}, author = {Chen, Lin Y and Sotoodehnia, Nona and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Lopez, Faye L and Yee, Laura M and Heckbert, Susan R and Prineas, Ronald and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Adabag, Selcuk and Konety, Suma and Folsom, Aaron R and Siscovick, David and Alonso, Alvaro} } @article {6067, title = {Best practices and joint calling of the HumanExome BeadChip: the CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {8}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e68095}, abstract = {

Genotyping arrays are a cost effective approach when typing previously-identified genetic polymorphisms in large numbers of samples. One limitation of genotyping arrays with rare variants (e.g., minor allele frequency [MAF] <0.01) is the difficulty that automated clustering algorithms have to accurately detect and assign genotype calls. Combining intensity data from large numbers of samples may increase the ability to accurately call the genotypes of rare variants. Approximately 62,000 ethnically diverse samples from eleven Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium cohorts were genotyped with the Illumina HumanExome BeadChip across seven genotyping centers. The raw data files for the samples were assembled into a single project for joint calling. To assess the quality of the joint calling, concordance of genotypes in a subset of individuals having both exome chip and exome sequence data was analyzed. After exclusion of low performing SNPs on the exome chip and non-overlap of SNPs derived from sequence data, genotypes of 185,119 variants (11,356 were monomorphic) were compared in 530 individuals that had whole exome sequence data. A total of 98,113,070 pairs of genotypes were tested and 99.77\% were concordant, 0.14\% had missing data, and 0.09\% were discordant. We report that joint calling allows the ability to accurately genotype rare variation using array technology when large sample sizes are available and best practices are followed. The cluster file from this experiment is available at www.chargeconsortium.com/main/exomechip.

}, keywords = {Aging, Alleles, Cluster Analysis, Cohort Studies, Continental Population Groups, Exome, Female, Gene Frequency, Genomics, Genotype, Heart, Humans, Male, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sample Size, Self Report, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0068095}, author = {Grove, Megan L and Yu, Bing and Cochran, Barbara J and Haritunians, Talin and Bis, Joshua C and Taylor, Kent D and Hansen, Mark and Borecki, Ingrid B and Cupples, L Adrienne and Fornage, Myriam and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Kathiresan, Sekar and Kraaij, Robert and Launer, Lenore J and Levy, Daniel and Liu, Yongmei and Mosley, Thomas and Peloso, Gina M and Psaty, Bruce M and Rich, Stephen S and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Siscovick, David S and Smith, Albert V and Uitterlinden, Andre and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Wilson, James G and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Rotter, Jerome I and Boerwinkle, Eric} } @article {6285, title = {Bidirectional relationship between cognitive function and pneumonia.}, journal = {Am J Respir Crit Care Med}, volume = {188}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Sep 01}, pages = {586-92}, abstract = {

RATIONALE: Relationships between chronic health conditions and acute infections remain poorly understood. Preclinical studies suggest crosstalk between nervous and immune systems.

OBJECTIVES: To determine bidirectional relationships between cognition and pneumonia.

METHODS: We conducted longitudinal analyses of a population-based cohort over 10 years. We determined whether changes in cognition increase risk of pneumonia hospitalization by trajectory analyses and joint modeling. We then determined whether pneumonia hospitalization increased risk of subsequent dementia using a Cox model with pneumonia as a time-varying covariate.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Of the 5,888 participants, 639 (10.9\%) were hospitalized with pneumonia at least once. Most participants had normal cognition before pneumonia. Three cognition trajectories were identified: no, minimal, and severe rapid decline. A greater proportion of participants hospitalized with pneumonia were on trajectories of minimal or severe decline before occurrence of pneumonia compared with those never hospitalized with pneumonia (proportion with no, minimal, and severe decline were 67.1\%, 22.8\%, and 10.0\% vs. 76.0\%, 19.3\%, and 4.6\% for participants with and without pneumonia, respectively; P < 0.001). Small subclinical changes in cognition increased risk of pneumonia, even in those with normal cognition and physical function before pneumonia (β = -0.02; P < 0.001). Participants with pneumonia were subsequently at an increased risk of dementia (hazard ratio, 2.24 [95\% confidence interval, 1.62-3.11]; P = 0.01). Associations were independent of demographics, health behaviors, other chronic conditions, and physical function. Bidirectional relationship did not vary based on severity of disease, and similar associations were noted for those with severe sepsis and other infections.

CONCLUSIONS: A bidirectional relationship exists between pneumonia and cognition and may explain how a single episode of infection in well-appearing older individuals accelerates decline in chronic health conditions and loss of functional independence.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cognition Disorders, Dementia, Female, Hospitalization, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Pneumonia, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors}, issn = {1535-4970}, doi = {10.1164/rccm.201212-2154OC}, author = {Shah, Faraaz Ali and Pike, Francis and Alvarez, Karina and Angus, Derek and Newman, Anne B and Lopez, Oscar and Tate, Judith and Kapur, Vishesh and Wilsdon, Anthony and Krishnan, Jerry A and Hansel, Nadia and Au, David and Avdalovic, Mark and Fan, Vincent S and Barr, R Graham and Yende, Sachin} } @article {6071, title = {Cardiomyocyte injury assessed by a highly sensitive troponin assay and sudden cardiac death in the community: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {62}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Dec 03}, pages = {2112-20}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to determine the association between markers of cardiomyocyte injury in ambulatory subjects and sudden cardiac death (SCD).

BACKGROUND: The pathophysiology of SCD is complex but is believed to be associated with an abnormal cardiac substrate in most cases. The association between biomarkers of cardiomyocyte injury in ambulatory subjects and SCD has not been investigated.

METHODS: Levels of cardiac troponin T, a biomarker of cardiomyocyte injury, were measured by a highly sensitive assay (hsTnT) in 4,431 ambulatory participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a longitudinal community-based prospective cohort study. Serial measures were obtained in 3,089 subjects. All deaths, including SCD, were adjudicated by a central events committee.

RESULTS: Over a median follow-up of 13.1 years, 246 participants had SCD. Baseline levels of hsTnT were significantly associated with SCD (hazard ratio [HR] for +1 log(hsTnT): 2.04, 95\% confidence interval [CI]: 1.78 to 2.34]. This association persisted in covariate-adjusted Cox analyses accounting for baseline risk factors (HR: 1.30, 95\% CI: 1.05 to 1.62), as well as for incident heart failure and myocardial infarction (HR: 1.26, 95\% CI: 1.01 to 1.57). The population was also categorized into 3 groups based on baseline hsTnT levels and SCD risk [fully adjusted HR: 1.89 vs. 1.55 vs. 1 (reference group) for hsTnT >=12.10 vs. 5.01 to 12.09 vs. <= 5.00 pg/ml, respectively; p trend = 0.005]. On serial measurements, change in hsTnT levels was also associated with SCD risk (fully adjusted HR for +1 pg/ml per year increase from baseline: 1.03, 95\% CI: 1.01 to 1.06).

CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest an association between cardiomyocyte injury in ambulatory subjects and SCD risk beyond that of traditional risk factors.

}, keywords = {Aged, Ambulatory Care, Biomarkers, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, Female, Heart Arrest, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Myocardium, Myocytes, Cardiac, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Assessment, Troponin T}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2013.07.049}, author = {Hussein, Ayman A and Gottdiener, John S and Bartz, Traci M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and DeFilippi, Christopher and Dickfeld, Timm and Deo, Rajat and Siscovick, David and Stein, Phyllis K and Lloyd-Jones, Donald} } @article {6751, title = {Common carotid intima-media thickness does not add to Framingham risk score in individuals with diabetes mellitus: the USE-IMT initiative.}, journal = {Diabetologia}, volume = {56}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jul}, pages = {1494-502}, abstract = {

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The aim of this work was to investigate whether measurement of the mean common carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) improves cardiovascular risk prediction in individuals with diabetes.

METHODS: We performed a subanalysis among 4,220 individuals with diabetes in a large ongoing individual participant data meta-analysis involving 56,194 subjects from 17 population-based cohorts worldwide. We first refitted the risk factors of the Framingham heart risk score on the individuals without previous cardiovascular disease (baseline model) and then expanded this model with the mean common CIMT (CIMT model). The absolute 10~year risk for developing a myocardial infarction or stroke was estimated from both models. In individuals with diabetes we compared discrimination and calibration of the two models. Reclassification of individuals with diabetes was based on allocation to another cardiovascular risk category when mean common CIMT was added.

RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 8.7~years, 684 first-time cardiovascular events occurred among the population with diabetes. The C statistic was 0.67 for the Framingham model and 0.68 for the CIMT model. The absolute 10~year risk for developing a myocardial infarction or stroke was 16\% in both models. There was no net reclassification improvement with the addition of mean common CIMT (1.7\%; 95\% CI -1.8, 3.8). There were no differences in the results between men and women.

CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: There is no improvement in risk prediction in individuals with diabetes when measurement of the mean common CIMT is added to the Framingham risk score. Therefore, this measurement is not recommended for improving individual cardiovascular risk stratification in individuals with diabetes.

}, keywords = {Cardiovascular Diseases, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Diabetes Mellitus, Humans, Myocardial Infarction, Risk Factors, Stroke}, issn = {1432-0428}, doi = {10.1007/s00125-013-2898-9}, author = {den Ruijter, H M and Peters, S A E and Groenewegen, K A and Anderson, T J and Britton, A R and Dekker, J M and Engstrom, G and Eijkemans, M J and Evans, G W and de Graaf, J and Grobbee, D E and Hedblad, B and Hofman, A and Holewijn, S and Ikeda, A and Kavousi, M and Kitagawa, K and Kitamura, A and Koffijberg, H and Ikram, M A and Lonn, E M and Lorenz, M W and Mathiesen, E B and Nijpels, G and Okazaki, S and O{\textquoteright}Leary, D H and Polak, J F and Price, J F and Robertson, C and Rembold, C M and Rosvall, M and Rundek, T and Salonen, J T and Sitzer, M and Stehouwer, C D A and Witteman, J C and Moons, K G and Bots, M L} } @article {6284, title = {Common genetic loci influencing plasma homocysteine concentrations and their effect on risk of coronary artery disease.}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {98}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Sep}, pages = {668-76}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The strong observational association between total homocysteine (tHcy) concentrations and risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) and the null associations in the homocysteine-lowering trials have prompted the need to identify genetic variants associated with homocysteine concentrations and risk of CAD.

OBJECTIVE: We tested whether common genetic polymorphisms associated with variation in tHcy are also associated with CAD.

DESIGN: We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on tHcy concentrations in 44,147 individuals of European descent. Polymorphisms associated with tHcy (P < 10($^{-}$$^{8}$) were tested for association with CAD in 31,400 cases and 92,927 controls.

RESULTS: Common variants at 13 loci, explaining 5.9\% of the variation in tHcy, were associated with tHcy concentrations, including 6 novel loci in or near MMACHC (2.1 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}$$^{9}$), SLC17A3 (1.0 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}$$^{8}$), GTPB10 (1.7 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}$$^{8}$), CUBN (7.5 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}${\textonesuperior}$^{0}$), HNF1A (1.2 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}${\textonesuperior}{\texttwosuperior})), and FUT2 (6.6 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}$$^{9}$), and variants previously reported at or near the MTHFR, MTR, CPS1, MUT, NOX4, DPEP1, and CBS genes. Individuals within the highest 10\% of the genotype risk score (GRS) had 3-μmol/L higher mean tHcy concentrations than did those within the lowest 10\% of the GRS (P = 1 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}${\textthreesuperior}$^{6}$). The GRS was not associated with risk of CAD (OR: 1.01; 95\% CI: 0.98, 1.04; P = 0.49).

CONCLUSIONS: We identified several novel loci that influence plasma tHcy concentrations. Overall, common genetic variants that influence plasma tHcy concentrations are not associated with risk of CAD in white populations, which further refutes the causal relevance of moderately elevated tHcy concentrations and tHcy-related pathways for CAD.

}, keywords = {Coronary Artery Disease, Genes, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Homocysteine, Humans, Polymorphism, Genetic, Risk Factors}, issn = {1938-3207}, doi = {10.3945/ajcn.112.044545}, author = {van Meurs, Joyce B J and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Schwartz, Stephen M and Hazra, Aditi and Tanaka, Toshiko and Vermeulen, Sita H and Cotlarciuc, Ioana and Yuan, Xin and M{\"a}larstig, Anders and Bandinelli, Stefania and Bis, Joshua C and Blom, Henk and Brown, Morris J and Chen, Constance and Chen, Yii-Der and Clarke, Robert J and Dehghan, Abbas and Erdmann, Jeanette and Ferrucci, Luigi and Hamsten, Anders and Hofman, Albert and Hunter, David J and Goel, Anuj and Johnson, Andrew D and Kathiresan, Sekar and Kampman, Ellen and Kiel, Douglas P and Kiemeney, Lambertus A L M and Chambers, John C and Kraft, Peter and Lindemans, Jan and McKnight, Barbara and Nelson, Christopher P and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rose, Lynda M and Seedorf, Udo and Siscovick, David S and Schunkert, Heribert and Selhub, Jacob and Ueland, Per M and Vollenweider, Peter and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Waterworth, Dawn M and Watkins, Hugh and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and den Heijer, Martin and Jacques, Paul and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Kooner, Jaspal S and Rader, Dan J and Reilly, Muredach P and Mooser, Vincent and Chasman, Daniel I and Samani, Nilesh J and Ahmadi, Kourosh R} } @article {6063, title = {Common genetic variation near the connexin-43 gene is associated with resting heart rate in African Americans: a genome-wide association study of 13,372 participants.}, journal = {Heart Rhythm}, volume = {10}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Mar}, pages = {401-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies have identified several genetic loci associated with variation in resting heart rate in European and Asian populations. No study has evaluated genetic variants associated with heart rate in African Americans.

OBJECTIVE: To identify novel genetic variants associated with resting heart rate in African Americans.

METHODS: Ten cohort studies participating in the Candidate-gene Association Resource and Continental Origins and Genetic Epidemiology Network consortia performed genome-wide genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and imputed 2,954,965 SNPs using HapMap YRI and CEU panels in 13,372 participants of African ancestry. Each study measured the RR interval (ms) from 10-second resting 12-lead electrocardiograms and estimated RR-SNP associations using covariate-adjusted linear regression. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to combine cohort-specific measures of association and identify genome-wide significant loci (P<=2.5{\texttimes}10(-8)).

RESULTS: Fourteen SNPs on chromosome 6q22 exceeded the genome-wide significance threshold. The most significant association was for rs9320841 (+13 ms per minor allele; P = 4.98{\texttimes}10(-15)). This SNP was approximately 350 kb downstream of GJA1, a locus previously identified as harboring SNPs associated with heart rate in Europeans. Adjustment for rs9320841 also attenuated the association between the remaining 13 SNPs in this region and heart rate. In addition, SNPs in MYH6, which have been identified in European genome-wide association study, were associated with similar changes in the resting heart rate as this population of African Americans.

CONCLUSIONS: An intergenic region downstream of GJA1 (the gene encoding connexin 43, the major protein of the human myocardial gap junction) and an intragenic region within MYH6 are associated with variation in resting heart rate in African Americans as well as in populations of European and Asian origin.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Connexin 43, Electrocardiography, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Heart Rate, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Rest, United States}, issn = {1556-3871}, doi = {10.1016/j.hrthm.2012.11.014}, author = {Deo, R and Nalls, M A and Avery, C L and Smith, J G and Evans, D S and Keller, M F and Butler, A M and Buxbaum, S G and Li, G and Miguel Quibrera, P and Smith, E N and Tanaka, T and Akylbekova, E L and Alonso, A and Arking, D E and Benjamin, E J and Berenson, G S and Bis, J C and Chen, L Y and Chen, W and Cummings, S R and Ellinor, P T and Evans, M K and Ferrucci, L and Fox, E R and Heckbert, S R and Heiss, G and Hsueh, W C and Kerr, K F and Limacher, M C and Liu, Y and Lubitz, S A and Magnani, J W and Mehra, R and Marcus, G M and Murray, S S and Newman, A B and Njajou, O and North, K E and Paltoo, D N and Psaty, B M and Redline, S S and Reiner, A P and Robinson, J G and Rotter, J I and Samdarshi, T E and Schnabel, R B and Schork, N J and Singleton, A B and Siscovick, D and Soliman, E Z and Sotoodehnia, N and Srinivasan, S R and Taylor, H A and Trevisan, M and Zhang, Z and Zonderman, A B and Newton-Cheh, C and Whitsel, E A} } @article {8014, title = {Common variants associated with plasma triglycerides and risk for coronary artery disease.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {45}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Nov}, pages = {1345-52}, abstract = {

Triglycerides are transported in plasma by specific triglyceride-rich lipoproteins; in epidemiological studies, increased triglyceride levels correlate with higher risk for coronary artery disease (CAD). However, it is unclear whether this association reflects causal processes. We used 185 common variants recently mapped for plasma lipids (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8) for each) to examine the role of triglycerides in risk for CAD. First, we highlight loci associated with both low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglyceride levels, and we show that the direction and magnitude of the associations with both traits are factors in determining CAD risk. Second, we consider loci with only a strong association with triglycerides and show that these loci are also associated with CAD. Finally, in a model accounting for effects on LDL-C and/or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels, the strength of a polymorphism{\textquoteright}s effect on triglyceride levels is correlated with the magnitude of its effect on CAD risk. These results suggest that triglyceride-rich lipoproteins causally influence risk for CAD.

}, keywords = {Biological Transport, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Coronary Artery Disease, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Triglycerides}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2795}, author = {Do, Ron and Willer, Cristen J and Schmidt, Ellen M and Sengupta, Sebanti and Gao, Chi and Peloso, Gina M and Gustafsson, Stefan and Kanoni, Stavroula and Ganna, Andrea and Chen, Jin and Buchkovich, Martin L and Mora, Samia and Beckmann, Jacques S and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer L and Chang, Hsing-Yi and Demirkan, Ayse and Den Hertog, Heleen M and Donnelly, Louise A and Ehret, Georg B and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Feitosa, Mary F and Ferreira, Teresa and Fischer, Krista and Fontanillas, Pierre and Fraser, Ross M and Freitag, Daniel F and Gurdasani, Deepti and Heikkil{\"a}, Kauko and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and Isaacs, Aaron and Jackson, Anne U and Johansson, Asa and Johnson, Toby and Kaakinen, Marika and Kettunen, Johannes and Kleber, Marcus E and Li, Xiaohui and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Mangino, Massimo and Mihailov, Evelin and Montasser, May E and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Nolte, Ilja M and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Palmer, Cameron D and Perola, Markus and Petersen, Ann-Kristin and Sanna, Serena and Saxena, Richa and Service, Susan K and Shah, Sonia and Shungin, Dmitry and Sidore, Carlo and Song, Ci and Strawbridge, Rona J and Surakka, Ida and Tanaka, Toshiko and Teslovich, Tanya M and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and van den Herik, Evita G and Voight, Benjamin F and Volcik, Kelly A and Waite, Lindsay L and Wong, Andrew and Wu, Ying and Zhang, Weihua and Absher, Devin and Asiki, Gershim and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Been, Latonya F and Bolton, Jennifer L and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Brambilla, Paolo and Burnett, Mary S and Cesana, Giancarlo and Dimitriou, Maria and Doney, Alex S F and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Elliott, Paul and Epstein, Stephen E and Eyjolfsson, Gudmundur Ingi and Gigante, Bruna and Goodarzi, Mark O and Grallert, Harald and Gravito, Martha L and Groves, Christopher J and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hayward, Caroline and Hernandez, Dena and Hicks, Andrew A and Holm, Hilma and Hung, Yi-Jen and Illig, Thomas and Jones, Michelle R and Kaleebu, Pontiano and Kastelein, John J P and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kim, Eric and Klopp, Norman and Komulainen, Pirjo and Kumari, Meena and Langenberg, Claudia and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lin, Shih-Yi and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Loos, Ruth J F and Mach, Fran{\c c}ois and McArdle, Wendy L and Meisinger, Christa and Mitchell, Braxton D and M{\"u}ller, Gabrielle and Nagaraja, Ramaiah and Narisu, Narisu and Nieminen, Tuomo V M and Nsubuga, Rebecca N and Olafsson, Isleifur and Ong, Ken K and Palotie, Aarno and Papamarkou, Theodore and Pomilla, Cristina and Pouta, Anneli and Rader, Daniel J and Reilly, Muredach P and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rudan, Igor and Ruokonen, Aimo and Samani, Nilesh and Scharnagl, Hubert and Seeley, Janet and Silander, Kaisa and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Stirrups, Kathleen and Swift, Amy J and Tiret, Laurence and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Pelt, L Joost and Vedantam, Sailaja and Wainwright, Nicholas and Wijmenga, Cisca and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilsgaard, Tom and Wilson, James F and Young, Elizabeth H and Zhao, Jing Hua and Adair, Linda S and Arveiler, Dominique and Assimes, Themistocles L and Bandinelli, Stefania and Bennett, Franklyn and Bochud, Murielle and Boehm, Bernhard O and Boomsma, Dorret I and Borecki, Ingrid B and Bornstein, Stefan R and Bovet, Pascal and Burnier, Michel and Campbell, Harry and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Chambers, John C and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Collins, Francis S and Cooper, Richard S and Danesh, John and Dedoussis, George and de Faire, Ulf and Feranil, Alan B and Ferrieres, Jean and Ferrucci, Luigi and Freimer, Nelson B and Gieger, Christian and Groop, Leif C and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hamsten, Anders and Harris, Tamara B and Hingorani, Aroon and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Hofman, Albert and Hovingh, G Kees and Hsiung, Chao Agnes and Humphries, Steve E and Hunt, Steven C and Hveem, Kristian and Iribarren, Carlos and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Jula, Antti and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kes{\"a}niemi, Antero and Kivimaki, Mika and Kooner, Jaspal S and Koudstaal, Peter J and Krauss, Ronald M and Kuh, Diana and Kuusisto, Johanna and Kyvik, Kirsten O and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo A and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Martin, Nicholas G and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and McCarthy, Mark I and McKenzie, Colin A and Meneton, Pierre and Metspalu, Andres and Moilanen, Leena and Morris, Andrew D and Munroe, Patricia B and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Pedersen, Nancy L and Power, Chris and Pramstaller, Peter P and Price, Jackie F and Psaty, Bruce M and Quertermous, Thomas and Rauramaa, Rainer and Saleheen, Danish and Salomaa, Veikko and Sanghera, Dharambir K and Saramies, Jouko and Schwarz, Peter E H and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Shuldiner, Alan R and Siegbahn, Agneta and Spector, Tim D and Stefansson, Kari and Strachan, David P and Tayo, Bamidele O and Tremoli, Elena and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uusitupa, Matti and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Vollenweider, Peter and Wallentin, Lars and Wareham, Nicholas J and Whitfield, John B and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Altshuler, David and Ordovas, Jose M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Palmer, Colin N A and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Chasman, Daniel I and Rotter, Jerome I and Franks, Paul W and Ripatti, Samuli and Cupples, L Adrienne and Sandhu, Manjinder S and Rich, Stephen S and Boehnke, Michael and Deloukas, Panos and Mohlke, Karen L and Ingelsson, Erik and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Daly, Mark J and Neale, Benjamin M and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {6288, title = {Common variants in Mendelian kidney disease genes and their association with renal function.}, journal = {J Am Soc Nephrol}, volume = {24}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Dec}, pages = {2105-17}, abstract = {

Many common genetic variants identified by genome-wide association studies for complex traits map to genes previously linked to rare inherited Mendelian disorders. A systematic analysis of common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes responsible for Mendelian diseases with kidney phenotypes has not been performed. We thus developed a comprehensive database of genes for Mendelian kidney conditions and evaluated the association between common genetic variants within these genes and kidney function in the general population. Using the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man database, we identified 731 unique disease entries related to specific renal search terms and confirmed a kidney phenotype in 218 of these entries, corresponding to mutations in 258 genes. We interrogated common SNPs (minor allele frequency >5\%) within these genes for association with the estimated GFR in 74,354 European-ancestry participants from the CKDGen Consortium. However, the top four candidate SNPs (rs6433115 at LRP2, rs1050700 at TSC1, rs249942 at PALB2, and rs9827843 at ROBO2) did not achieve significance in a stage 2 meta-analysis performed in 56,246 additional independent individuals, indicating that these common SNPs are not associated with estimated GFR. The effect of less common or rare variants in these genes on kidney function in the general population and disease-specific cohorts requires further research.

}, keywords = {Databases, Genetic, European Continental Ancestry Group, Gene Frequency, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Kidney, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic}, issn = {1533-3450}, doi = {10.1681/ASN.2012100983}, author = {Parsa, Afshin and Fuchsberger, Christian and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and O{\textquoteright}Seaghdha, Conall M and Pattaro, Cristian and de Andrade, Mariza and Chasman, Daniel I and Teumer, Alexander and Endlich, Karlhans and Olden, Matthias and Chen, Ming-Huei and Tin, Adrienne and Kim, Young J and Taliun, Daniel and Li, Man and Feitosa, Mary and Gorski, Mathias and Yang, Qiong and Hundertmark, Claudia and Foster, Meredith C and Glazer, Nicole and Isaacs, Aaron and Rao, Madhumathi and Smith, Albert V and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Struchalin, Maksim and Tanaka, Toshiko and Li, Guo and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Atkinson, Elizabeth J and Lohman, Kurt and Cornelis, Marilyn C and Johansson, Asa and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Dehghan, Abbas and Couraki, Vincent and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Sorice, Rossella and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Deshmukh, Harshal and Ulivi, Sheila and Chu, Audrey Y and Murgia, Federico and Trompet, Stella and Imboden, Medea and Kollerits, Barbara and Pistis, Giorgio and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Aspelund, Thor and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Mitchell, Braxton D and Boerwinkle, Eric and Schmidt, Helena and Hofer, Edith and Hu, Frank and Demirkan, Ayse and Oostra, Ben A and Turner, Stephen T and Ding, Jingzhong and Andrews, Jeanette S and Freedman, Barry I and Giulianini, Franco and Koenig, Wolfgang and Illig, Thomas and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Wichmann, H-Erich and Zgaga, Lina and Zemunik, Tatijana and Boban, Mladen and Minelli, Cosetta and Wheeler, Heather E and Igl, Wilmar and Zaboli, Ghazal and Wild, Sarah H and Wright, Alan F and Campbell, Harry and Ellinghaus, David and N{\"o}thlings, Ute and Jacobs, Gunnar and Biffar, Reiner and Ernst, Florian and Homuth, Georg and Kroemer, Heyo K and Nauck, Matthias and Stracke, Sylvia and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Kovacs, Peter and Stumvoll, Michael and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Polasek, Ozren and Hastie, Nick and Vitart, Veronique and Helmer, Catherine and Wang, Jie Jin and Stengel, B{\'e}n{\'e}dicte and Ruggiero, Daniela and Bergmann, Sven and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Viikari, Jorma and Nikopensius, Tiit and Province, Michael and Colhoun, Helen and Doney, Alex and Robino, Antonietta and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernhard K and Portas, Laura and Ford, Ian and Buckley, Brendan M and Adam, Martin and Thun, Gian-Andri and Paulweber, Bernhard and Haun, Margot and Sala, Cinzia and Mitchell, Paul and Ciullo, Marina and Vollenweider, Peter and Raitakari, Olli and Metspalu, Andres and Palmer, Colin and Gasparini, Paolo and Pirastu, Mario and Jukema, J Wouter and Probst-Hensch, Nicole M and Kronenberg, Florian and Toniolo, Daniela and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Shuldiner, Alan R and Coresh, Josef and Schmidt, Reinhold and Ferrucci, Luigi and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Borecki, Ingrid and Kardia, Sharon L R and Liu, Yongmei and Curhan, Gary C and Rudan, Igor and Gyllensten, Ulf and Wilson, James F and Franke, Andre and Pramstaller, Peter P and Rettig, Rainer and Prokopenko, Inga and Witteman, Jacqueline and Hayward, Caroline and Ridker, Paul M and Bochud, Murielle and Heid, Iris M and Siscovick, David S and Fox, Caroline S and Kao, W Linda and B{\"o}ger, Carsten A} } @article {5992, title = {Decline in health for older adults: five-year change in 13 key measures of standardized health.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {68}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Sep}, pages = {1059-67}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The health of older adults declines over time, but there are many ways of measuring health. It is unclear whether all health measures decline at the same rate or whether some aspects of health are less sensitive to aging than others.

METHODS: We compared the decline in 13 measures of physical, mental, and functional health from the Cardiovascular Health Study: hospitalization, bed days, cognition, extremity strength, feelings about life as a whole, satisfaction with the purpose of life, self-rated health, depression, digit symbol substitution test, grip strength, activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living, and gait speed. Each measure was standardized against self-rated health. We compared the 5-year change to see which of the 13 measures declined the fastest and the slowest.

RESULTS: The 5-year change in standardized health varied from a decline of 12 points (out of 100) for hospitalization to a decline of 17 points for gait speed. In most comparisons, standardized health from hospitalization and bed days declined the least, whereas health measured by activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living, and gait speed declined the most. These rankings were independent of age, sex, mortality patterns, and the method of standardization.

CONCLUSIONS: All of the health variables declined, on average, with advancing age, but at significantly different rates. Standardized measures of mental health, cognition, quality of life, and hospital utilization did not decline as fast as gait speed, activities of daily living, and instrumental activities of daily living. Public health interventions to address problems with gait speed, activities of daily living, and instrumental activities of daily living may help older adults to remain healthier in all dimensions.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Aged, Aging, Cohort Studies, Female, Gait, Health Status, Health Status Indicators, Hospitalization, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Mental Health, Quality of Life, Self Report, United States}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glt038}, author = {Diehr, Paula H and Thielke, Stephen M and Newman, Anne B and Hirsch, Calvin and Tracy, Russell} } @article {6154, title = {Discovery and refinement of loci associated with lipid levels.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {45}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Nov}, pages = {1274-1283}, abstract = {

Levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, triglycerides and total cholesterol are heritable, modifiable risk factors for coronary artery disease. To identify new loci and refine known loci influencing these lipids, we examined 188,577 individuals using genome-wide and custom genotyping arrays. We identify and annotate 157 loci associated with lipid levels at P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8), including 62 loci not previously associated with lipid levels in humans. Using dense genotyping in individuals of European, East Asian, South Asian and African ancestry, we narrow association signals in 12 loci. We find that loci associated with blood lipid levels are often associated with cardiovascular and metabolic traits, including coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, blood pressure, waist-hip ratio and body mass index. Our results demonstrate the value of using genetic data from individuals of diverse ancestry and provide insights into the biological mechanisms regulating blood lipids to guide future genetic, biological and therapeutic research.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Coronary Artery Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Lipids, Triglycerides}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2797}, author = {Willer, Cristen J and Schmidt, Ellen M and Sengupta, Sebanti and Peloso, Gina M and Gustafsson, Stefan and Kanoni, Stavroula and Ganna, Andrea and Chen, Jin and Buchkovich, Martin L and Mora, Samia and Beckmann, Jacques S and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer L and Chang, Hsing-Yi and Demirkan, Ayse and Den Hertog, Heleen M and Do, Ron and Donnelly, Louise A and Ehret, Georg B and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Feitosa, Mary F and Ferreira, Teresa and Fischer, Krista and Fontanillas, Pierre and Fraser, Ross M and Freitag, Daniel F and Gurdasani, Deepti and Heikkil{\"a}, Kauko and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and Isaacs, Aaron and Jackson, Anne U and Johansson, Asa and Johnson, Toby and Kaakinen, Marika and Kettunen, Johannes and Kleber, Marcus E and Li, Xiaohui and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Mangino, Massimo and Mihailov, Evelin and Montasser, May E and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Nolte, Ilja M and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Palmer, Cameron D and Perola, Markus and Petersen, Ann-Kristin and Sanna, Serena and Saxena, Richa and Service, Susan K and Shah, Sonia and Shungin, Dmitry and Sidore, Carlo and Song, Ci and Strawbridge, Rona J and Surakka, Ida and Tanaka, Toshiko and Teslovich, Tanya M and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and van den Herik, Evita G and Voight, Benjamin F and Volcik, Kelly A and Waite, Lindsay L and Wong, Andrew and Wu, Ying and Zhang, Weihua and Absher, Devin and Asiki, Gershim and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Been, Latonya F and Bolton, Jennifer L and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Brambilla, Paolo and Burnett, Mary S and Cesana, Giancarlo and Dimitriou, Maria and Doney, Alex S F and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Elliott, Paul and Epstein, Stephen E and Ingi Eyjolfsson, Gudmundur and Gigante, Bruna and Goodarzi, Mark O and Grallert, Harald and Gravito, Martha L and Groves, Christopher J and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hayward, Caroline and Hernandez, Dena and Hicks, Andrew A and Holm, Hilma and Hung, Yi-Jen and Illig, Thomas and Jones, Michelle R and Kaleebu, Pontiano and Kastelein, John J P and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kim, Eric and Klopp, Norman and Komulainen, Pirjo and Kumari, Meena and Langenberg, Claudia and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lin, Shih-Yi and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Loos, Ruth J F and Mach, Fran{\c c}ois and McArdle, Wendy L and Meisinger, Christa and Mitchell, Braxton D and M{\"u}ller, Gabrielle and Nagaraja, Ramaiah and Narisu, Narisu and Nieminen, Tuomo V M and Nsubuga, Rebecca N and Olafsson, Isleifur and Ong, Ken K and Palotie, Aarno and Papamarkou, Theodore and Pomilla, Cristina and Pouta, Anneli and Rader, Daniel J and Reilly, Muredach P and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rudan, Igor and Ruokonen, Aimo and Samani, Nilesh and Scharnagl, Hubert and Seeley, Janet and Silander, Kaisa and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Stirrups, Kathleen and Swift, Amy J and Tiret, Laurence and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Pelt, L Joost and Vedantam, Sailaja and Wainwright, Nicholas and Wijmenga, Cisca and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilsgaard, Tom and Wilson, James F and Young, Elizabeth H and Zhao, Jing Hua and Adair, Linda S and Arveiler, Dominique and Assimes, Themistocles L and Bandinelli, Stefania and Bennett, Franklyn and Bochud, Murielle and Boehm, Bernhard O and Boomsma, Dorret I and Borecki, Ingrid B and Bornstein, Stefan R and Bovet, Pascal and Burnier, Michel and Campbell, Harry and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Chambers, John C and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Collins, Francis S and Cooper, Richard S and Danesh, John and Dedoussis, George and de Faire, Ulf and Feranil, Alan B and Ferrieres, Jean and Ferrucci, Luigi and Freimer, Nelson B and Gieger, Christian and Groop, Leif C and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hamsten, Anders and Harris, Tamara B and Hingorani, Aroon and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Hofman, Albert and Hovingh, G Kees and Hsiung, Chao Agnes and Humphries, Steve E and Hunt, Steven C and Hveem, Kristian and Iribarren, Carlos and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Jula, Antti and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kes{\"a}niemi, Antero and Kivimaki, Mika and Kooner, Jaspal S and Koudstaal, Peter J and Krauss, Ronald M and Kuh, Diana and Kuusisto, Johanna and Kyvik, Kirsten O and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo A and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Martin, Nicholas G and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and McCarthy, Mark I and McKenzie, Colin A and Meneton, Pierre and Metspalu, Andres and Moilanen, Leena and Morris, Andrew D and Munroe, Patricia B and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Pedersen, Nancy L and Power, Chris and Pramstaller, Peter P and Price, Jackie F and Psaty, Bruce M and Quertermous, Thomas and Rauramaa, Rainer and Saleheen, Danish and Salomaa, Veikko and Sanghera, Dharambir K and Saramies, Jouko and Schwarz, Peter E H and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Shuldiner, Alan R and Siegbahn, Agneta and Spector, Tim D and Stefansson, Kari and Strachan, David P and Tayo, Bamidele O and Tremoli, Elena and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uusitupa, Matti and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Vollenweider, Peter and Wallentin, Lars and Wareham, Nicholas J and Whitfield, John B and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Ordovas, Jose M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Palmer, Colin N A and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Chasman, Daniel I and Rotter, Jerome I and Franks, Paul W and Ripatti, Samuli and Cupples, L Adrienne and Sandhu, Manjinder S and Rich, Stephen S and Boehnke, Michael and Deloukas, Panos and Kathiresan, Sekar and Mohlke, Karen L and Ingelsson, Erik and Abecasis, Goncalo R} } @article {5997, title = {Effects of respiratory and non-respiratory factors on disability among older adults with airway obstruction: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {COPD}, volume = {10}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Oct}, pages = {588-96}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: High rates of disability associated with chronic airway obstruction may be caused by impaired pulmonary function, pulmonary symptoms, other chronic diseases, or systemic inflammation.

METHODS: We analyzed data from the Cardiovascular Health Study, a longitudinal cohort of 5888 older adults. Categories of lung function (normal; restricted; borderline, mild-moderate, and severe obstruction) were delineated by baseline spirometry (without bronchodilator). Disability-free years were calculated as total years alive and without self-report of difficulty performing \&γτ;1 Instrumental Activities of Daily Living over 6 years of follow-up. Using linear regression, we compared disability-free years by lung disease category, adjusting for demographic factors, body mass index, smoking, cognition, and other chronic co-morbidities. Among participants with airflow obstruction, we examined the association of respiratory factors (FEV1 and dyspnea) and non-respiratory factors (ischemic heart disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, muscle weakness, osteoporosis, depression and cognitive impairment) on disability-free years.

RESULTS: The average disability free years were 4.0 out of a possible 6 years. Severe obstruction was associated with 1 fewer disability-free year compared to normal spirometry in the adjusted model. For the 1,048 participants with airway obstruction, both respiratory factors (FEV1 and dyspnea) and non-respiratory factors (heart disease, coronary artery disease, diabetes, depression, osteoporosis, cognitive function, and weakness) were associated with decreased disability-free years.

CONCLUSIONS: Severe obstruction is associated with greater disability compared to patients with normal spirometery. Both respiratory and non-respiratory factors contribute to disability in older adults with abnormal spirometry.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Aged, Cognition Disorders, Cohort Studies, Comorbidity, Depression, Diabetes Mellitus, Disease Progression, Dyspnea, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Linear Models, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Muscle Weakness, Myocardial Ischemia, Osteoporosis, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive, Severity of Illness Index, Spirometry}, issn = {1541-2563}, doi = {10.3109/15412555.2013.781148}, author = {Locke, Emily and Thielke, Stephen and Diehr, Paula and Wilsdon, Anthony G and Barr, R Graham and Hansel, Nadia and Kapur, Vishesh K and Krishnan, Jerry and Enright, Paul and Heckbert, Susan R and Kronmal, Richard A and Fan, Vincent S} } @article {6065, title = {Effects of smoking on the genetic risk of obesity: the population architecture using genomics and epidemiology study.}, journal = {BMC Med Genet}, volume = {14}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jan 11}, pages = {6}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Although smoking behavior is known to affect body mass index (BMI), the potential for smoking to influence genetic associations with BMI is largely unexplored.

METHODS: As part of the {\textquoteright}Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE){\textquoteright} Consortium, we investigated interaction between genetic risk factors associated with BMI and smoking for 10 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously identified in genome-wide association studies. We included 6 studies with a total of 56,466 subjects (16,750 African Americans (AA) and 39,716 European Americans (EA)). We assessed effect modification by testing an interaction term for each SNP and smoking (current vs. former/never) in the linear regression and by stratified analyses.

RESULTS: We did not observe strong evidence for interactions and only observed two interactions with p-values <0.1: for rs6548238/TMEM18, the risk allele (C) was associated with BMI only among AA females who were former/never smokers (β = 0.018, p = 0.002), vs. current smokers (β = 0.001, p = 0.95, p(interaction) = 0.10). For rs9939609/FTO, the A allele was more strongly associated with BMI among current smoker EA females (β = 0.017, p = 3.5 x 10(-5)), vs. former/never smokers (β = 0.006, p = 0.05, p(interaction) = 0.08).

CONCLUSIONS: These analyses provide limited evidence that smoking status may modify genetic effects of previously identified genetic risk factors for BMI. Larger studies are needed to follow up our results.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT00000611.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, African Americans, Aged, Alpha-Ketoglutarate-Dependent Dioxygenase FTO, Body Mass Index, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Male, Membrane Proteins, Middle Aged, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proteins, Risk Factors, Smoking, Young Adult}, issn = {1471-2350}, doi = {10.1186/1471-2350-14-6}, author = {Fesinmeyer, Megan D and North, Kari E and Lim, Unhee and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Crawford, Dana C and Haessler, Jeffrey and Gross, Myron D and Fowke, Jay H and Goodloe, Robert and Love, Shelley-Ann and Graff, Misa and Carlson, Christopher S and Kuller, Lewis H and Matise, Tara C and Hong, Ching-Ping and Henderson, Brian E and Allen, Melissa and Rohde, Rebecca R and Mayo, Ping and Schnetz-Boutaud, Nathalie and Monroe, Kristine R and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Prentice, Ross L and Kolonel, Lawrence N and Manson, JoAnn E and Pankow, James and Hindorff, Lucia A and Franceschini, Nora and Wilkens, Lynne R and Haiman, Christopher A and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Peters, Ulrike} } @article {6193, title = {Epidemiology and long-term clinical and biologic risk factors for pneumonia in community-dwelling older Americans: analysis of three cohorts.}, journal = {Chest}, volume = {144}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Sep}, pages = {1008-1017}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Preventing pneumonia requires better understanding of incidence, mortality, and long-term clinical and biologic risk factors, particularly in younger individuals.

METHODS: This was a cohort study in three population-based cohorts of community-dwelling individuals. A derivation cohort (n = 16,260) was used to determine incidence and survival and develop a risk prediction model. The prediction model was validated in two cohorts (n = 8,495). The primary outcome was 10-year risk of pneumonia hospitalization.

RESULTS: The crude and age-adjusted incidences of pneumonia were 6.71 and 9.43 cases/1,000 person-years (10-year risk was 6.15\%). The 30-day and 1-year mortality were 16.5\% and 31.5\%. Although age was the most important risk factor (range of crude incidence rates, 1.69-39.13 cases/1,000 person-years for each 5-year increment from 45-85 years), 38\% of pneumonia cases occurred in adults \< 65 years of age. The 30-day and 1-year mortality were 12.5\% and 25.7\% in those \< 65 years of age. Although most comorbidities were associated with higher risk of pneumonia, reduced lung function was the most important risk factor (relative risk = 6.61 for severe reduction based on FEV1 by spirometry). A clinical risk prediction model based on age, smoking, and lung function predicted 10-year risk (area under curve [AUC] = 0.77 and Hosmer-Lemeshow [HL] C statistic = 0.12). Model discrimination and calibration were similar in the internal validation cohort (AUC = 0.77; HL C statistic, 0.65) but lower in the external validation cohort (AUC = 0.62; HL C statistic, 0.45). The model also calibrated well in blacks and younger adults. C-reactive protein and IL-6 were associated with higher pneumonia risk but did not improve model performance.

CONCLUSIONS: Pneumonia hospitalization is common and associated with high mortality, even in younger healthy adults. Long-term risk of pneumonia can be predicted in community-dwelling adults with a simple clinical risk prediction model.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Community-Acquired Infections, Comorbidity, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Hospitalization, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Pneumonia, Prognosis, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Survival Rate, Time Factors}, issn = {1931-3543}, doi = {10.1378/chest.12-2818}, author = {Yende, Sachin and Alvarez, Karina and Loehr, Laura and Folsom, Aaron R and Newman, Anne B and Weissfeld, Lisa A and Wunderink, Richard G and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Mukamal, Kenneth J and London, Stephanie J and Harris, Tamara B and Bauer, Doug C and Angus, Derek C} } @article {6138, title = {Exome sequencing and genome-wide linkage analysis in 17 families illustrate the complex contribution of TTN truncating variants to dilated cardiomyopathy.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {6}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Apr}, pages = {144-53}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND- Familial dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a genetically heterogeneous disease with >30 known genes. TTN truncating variants were recently implicated in a candidate gene study to cause 25\% of familial and 18\% of sporadic DCM cases. METHODS AND RESULTS- We used an unbiased genome-wide approach using both linkage analysis and variant filtering across the exome sequences of 48 individuals affected with DCM from 17 families to identify genetic cause. Linkage analysis ranked the TTN region as falling under the second highest genome-wide multipoint linkage peak, multipoint logarithm of odds, 1.59. We identified 6 TTN truncating variants carried by individuals affected with DCM in 7 of 17 DCM families (logarithm of odds, 2.99); 2 of these 7 families also had novel missense variants that segregated with disease. Two additional novel truncating TTN variants did not segregate with DCM. Nucleotide diversity at the TTN locus, including missense variants, was comparable with 5 other known DCM genes. The average number of missense variants in the exome sequences from the DCM cases or the ≈5400 cases from the Exome Sequencing Project was ≈23 per individual. The average number of TTN truncating variants in the Exome Sequencing Project was 0.014 per individual. We also identified a region (chr9q21.11-q22.31) with no known DCM genes with a maximum heterogeneity logarithm of odds score of 1.74. CONCLUSIONS- These data suggest that TTN truncating variants contribute to DCM cause. However, the lack of segregation of all identified TTN truncating variants illustrates the challenge of determining variant pathogenicity even with full exome sequencing.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Cardiomyopathy, Dilated, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 9, Connectin, Exome, Female, Genetic Heterogeneity, Genetic Linkage, Genetic Loci, Genome, Human, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Muscle Proteins, Mutation, Missense, Odds Ratio, Pedigree, Protein Kinases, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Young Adult}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.111.000062}, author = {Norton, Nadine and Li, Duanxiang and Rampersaud, Evadnie and Morales, Ana and Martin, Eden R and Zuchner, Stephan and Guo, Shengru and Gonzalez, Michael and Hedges, Dale J and Robertson, Peggy D and Krumm, Niklas and Nickerson, Deborah A and Hershberger, Ray E} } @article {6626, title = {Fine Mapping and Identification of BMI Loci in African Americans.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {93}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Oct 3}, pages = {661-71}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) primarily performed in European-ancestry (EA) populations have identified numerous loci associated with body mass index (BMI). However, it is still unclear whether these GWAS loci can be generalized to other ethnic groups, such as African Americans (AAs). Furthermore, the putative functional variant or variants in these loci mostly remain under investigation. The overall lower linkage disequilibrium in AA compared to EA populations provides the opportunity to narrow in or fine-map these BMI-related loci. Therefore, we used the Metabochip to densely genotype and evaluate 21 BMI GWAS loci identified in EA studies in 29,151 AAs from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study. Eight of the 21 loci (SEC16B, TMEM18, ETV5, GNPDA2, TFAP2B, BDNF, FTO, and MC4R) were found to be associated with BMI in AAs at 5.8~{\texttimes} 10(-5). Within seven out of these eight loci, we found that, on average, a substantially smaller number of variants was correlated (r(2) > 0.5) with the most significant SNP in AA than in EA populations (16 versus 55). Conditional analyses revealed GNPDA2 harboring a potential additional independent signal. Moreover, Metabochip-wide discovery analyses revealed two BMI-related loci, BRE (rs116612809, p = 3.6~{\texttimes} 10(-8)) and DHX34 (rs4802349, p = 1.2~{\texttimes} 10(-7)), which were significant when adjustment was made for the total number of SNPs tested across the chip. These results demonstrate that fine mapping in AAs is a powerful approach for both narrowing in on the underlying causal variants in known loci and discovering BMI-related loci.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Body Mass Index, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Young Adult}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2013.08.012}, author = {Gong, Jian and Schumacher, Fredrick and Lim, Unhee and Hindorff, Lucia A and Haessler, Jeff and Buyske, Steven and Carlson, Christopher S and Rosse, Stephanie and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Fornage, Myriam and Gross, Myron and Pankratz, Nathan and Pankow, James S and Schreiner, Pamela J and Cooper, Richard and Ehret, Georg and Gu, C Charles and Houston, Denise and Irvin, Marguerite R and Jackson, Rebecca and Kuller, Lew and Henderson, Brian and Cheng, Iona and Wilkens, Lynne and Leppert, Mark and Lewis, Cora E and Li, Rongling and Nguyen, Khanh-Dung H and Goodloe, Robert and Farber-Eger, Eric and Boston, Jonathan and Dilks, Holli H and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Fowke, Jay and Pooler, Loreall and Graff, Misa and Fernandez-Rhodes, Lindsay and Cochrane, Barbara and Boerwinkle, Eric and Kooperberg, Charles and Matise, Tara C and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Crawford, Dana C and Haiman, Christopher A and North, Kari E and Peters, Ulrike} } @article {1550, title = {Gene-centric meta-analyses of 108 912 individuals confirm known body mass index loci and reveal three novel signals.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {22}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jan 01}, pages = {184-201}, abstract = {

Recent genetic association studies have made progress in uncovering components of the genetic architecture of the body mass index (BMI). We used the ITMAT-Broad-Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) (IBC) array comprising up to 49 320 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across ~2100 metabolic and cardiovascular-related loci to genotype up to 108 912 individuals of European ancestry (EA), African-Americans, Hispanics and East Asians, from 46 studies, to provide additional insight into SNPs underpinning BMI. We used a five-phase study design: Phase I focused on meta-analysis of EA studies providing individual level genotype data; Phase II performed a replication of cohorts providing summary level EA data; Phase III meta-analyzed results from the first two phases; associated SNPs from Phase III were used for replication in Phase IV; finally in Phase V, a multi-ethnic meta-analysis of all samples from four ethnicities was performed. At an array-wide significance (P < 2.40E-06), we identify novel BMI associations in loci translocase of outer mitochondrial membrane 40 homolog (yeast) - apolipoprotein E - apolipoprotein C-I (TOMM40-APOE-APOC1) (rs2075650, P = 2.95E-10), sterol regulatory element binding transcription factor 2 (SREBF2, rs5996074, P = 9.43E-07) and neurotrophic tyrosine kinase, receptor, type 2 [NTRK2, a brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) receptor gene, rs1211166, P = 1.04E-06] in the Phase IV meta-analysis. Of 10 loci with previous evidence for BMI association represented on the IBC array, eight were replicated, with the remaining two showing nominal significance. Conditional analyses revealed two independent BMI-associated signals in BDNF and melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) regions. Of the 11 array-wide significant SNPs, three are associated with gene expression levels in both primary B-cells and monocytes; with rs4788099 in SH2B adaptor protein 1 (SH2B1) notably being associated with the expression of multiple genes in cis. These multi-ethnic meta-analyses expand our knowledge of BMI genetics.

}, keywords = {Body Mass Index, Cohort Studies, Ethnic Groups, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/dds396}, author = {Guo, Yiran and Lanktree, Matthew B and Taylor, Kira C and Hakonarson, Hakon and Lange, Leslie A and Keating, Brendan J} } @article {6289, title = {Generalization and dilution of association results from European GWAS in populations of non-European ancestry: the PAGE study.}, journal = {PLoS Biol}, volume = {11}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Sep}, pages = {e1001661}, abstract = {

The vast majority of genome-wide association study (GWAS) findings reported to date are from populations with European Ancestry (EA), and it is not yet clear how broadly the genetic associations described will generalize to populations of diverse ancestry. The Population Architecture Using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study is a consortium of multi-ancestry, population-based studies formed with the objective of refining our understanding of the genetic architecture of common traits emerging from GWAS. In the present analysis of five common diseases and traits, including body mass index, type 2 diabetes, and lipid levels, we compare direction and magnitude of effects for GWAS-identified variants in multiple non-EA populations against EA findings. We demonstrate that, in all populations analyzed, a significant majority of GWAS-identified variants have allelic associations in the same direction as in EA, with none showing a statistically significant effect in the opposite direction, after adjustment for multiple testing. However, 25\% of tagSNPs identified in EA GWAS have significantly different effect sizes in at least one non-EA population, and these differential effects were most frequent in African Americans where all differential effects were diluted toward the null. We demonstrate that differential LD between tagSNPs and functional variants within populations contributes significantly to dilute effect sizes in this population. Although most variants identified from GWAS in EA populations generalize to all non-EA populations assessed, genetic models derived from GWAS findings in EA may generate spurious results in non-EA populations due to differential effect sizes. Regardless of the origin of the differential effects, caution should be exercised in applying any genetic risk prediction model based on tagSNPs outside of the ancestry group in which it was derived. Models based directly on functional variation may generalize more robustly, but the identification of functional variants remains challenging.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Asian Americans, Body Mass Index, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, European Continental Ancestry Group, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hispanic Americans, Humans, Indians, North American, Lipids, Metagenomics, Oceanic Ancestry Group, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1545-7885}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pbio.1001661}, author = {Carlson, Christopher S and Matise, Tara C and North, Kari E and Haiman, Christopher A and Fesinmeyer, Megan D and Buyske, Steven and Schumacher, Fredrick R and Peters, Ulrike and Franceschini, Nora and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Duggan, David J and Spencer, Kylee L and Dumitrescu, Logan and Eaton, Charles B and Thomas, Fridtjof and Young, Alicia and Carty, Cara and Heiss, Gerardo and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Crawford, Dana C and Hindorff, Lucia A and Kooperberg, Charles L} } @article {1620, title = {Genetic analysis of a population heavy drinking phenotype identifies risk variants in whites.}, journal = {J Clin Psychopharmacol}, volume = {33}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Apr}, pages = {206-10}, chapter = {206}, abstract = {

Genetic association studies thus far have used detailed diagnoses of alcoholism to identify loci associated with risk. This proof-of-concept analysis examined whether population data of lifetime heaviest alcohol consumption may be used to identify genetic loci that modulate risk. We conducted a genetic association study in European Americans between variants in approximately 2100 genes and alcohol consumption as part of the Candidate gene Association Resource project. We defined cases as individuals with a history of drinking 5 or more drinks per day almost every day of the week and controls as current light drinkers (1-5 drinks per week). We cross-validated identified single nucleotide polymorphisms in a meta-analysis of 2 cohorts of unrelated individuals--Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) and Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS)--and in a separate cohort of related individuals--Framingham Heart Study (FHS). The most significant variant in the meta-analysis of ARIC and CHS was rs6933598 in methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase (P = 7.46 {\texttimes} 10(-05)) with a P value in FHS of 0.042. The top variants in FHS were rs12249562 in cubulin (P = 3.03 {\texttimes} 10(-05)) and rs9839267 near cholecystokinin (P = 3.05 {\texttimes} 10(-05)) with a P value of 0.019 for rs9839267 in CHS. We have here shown feasibility in evaluating lifetime incidence of heavy alcohol drinking from population-based studies for the purpose of conducting genetic association analyses.

}, keywords = {Aged, Alcohol Drinking, Alcoholism, Case-Control Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Feasibility Studies, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk}, issn = {1533-712X}, doi = {10.1097/JCP.0b013e318287009a}, author = {Hamidovic, Ajna and Goodloe, Robert J and Young, Taylor R and Styn, Mindi A and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Choquet, Helene and Kasberger, Jay L and Buxbaum, Sarah G and Papanicolaou, George J and White, Wendy and Volcik, Kelly and Spring, Bonnie and Hitsman, Brian and Levy, Daniel and Jorgenson, Eric} } @article {6076, title = {Genetic association of COL5A1 variants in keratoconus patients suggests a complex connection between corneal thinning and keratoconus.}, journal = {Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci}, volume = {54}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Apr 12}, pages = {2696-704}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located near or within the COL5A1 gene, at 9q34.2-q34.3 chromosomal region have been reported in association with central corneal thickness (CCT). Using family linkage analysis, we identified a keratoconus susceptibility locus at 9q34. These findings led us to perform an association study between COL5A1 variation and keratoconus susceptibility.

METHODS: A Caucasian case-control cohort of 222 keratoconus patients and 3324 controls was selected as the discovery panel. An independent case-control panel of 304 cases and 518 controls and a family panel of 186 subjects were replicated for genotyping and association. Forty-four SNPs (21 for discovery and 23 for fine-mapping) spanning 300 kilobases in and around COL5A1 were genotyped and tested for genetic association. Logistic regression models implemented in PLINK were used to test for association in case controls. Generalized estimating equation models accounting for familial correlations implemented in genome-wide interaction analyses with family data were used for association testing in families.

RESULTS: Two CCT associated SNPs (rs1536482 and rs7044529 near and within COL5A1) were identified in the keratoconus discovery cohort (P values of 6.5 {\texttimes} 10(-3) and 7.4 {\texttimes} 10(-3)). SNP rs1536482 was replicated in the second case-control sample (P = 0.02), and SNP rs7044529 was replicated in a keratoconus family panel (P = 0.03). Meta P values of rs1536482 and rs7044529 in the keratoconus cohorts were 1.5 {\texttimes} 10(-4) (odds ratio [OR] = 1.30) and 2.9 {\texttimes} 10(-3) (OR = 1.39). After Bonferroni correction, the association of SNP rs1536482 remained significant (P = 6.5 {\texttimes} 10(-3)).

CONCLUSIONS: SNPs in the COL5A1 region, which regulate normal variation in CCT, may play a role in the thinning associated with keratoconus.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Collagen Type V, Cornea, Corneal Topography, DNA, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Keratoconus, Male, Microscopy, Acoustic, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Tomography, Optical Coherence}, issn = {1552-5783}, doi = {10.1167/iovs.13-11601}, author = {Li, Xiaohui and Bykhovskaya, Yelena and Canedo, Ana Laura Caiado and Haritunians, Talin and Siscovick, David and Aldave, Anthony J and Szczotka-Flynn, Loretta and Iyengar, Sudha K and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Kent D and Rabinowitz, Yaron S} } @article {6027, title = {Genetic loci for retinal arteriolar microcirculation.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {8}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e65804}, abstract = {

Narrow arterioles in the retina have been shown to predict hypertension as well as other vascular diseases, likely through an increase in the peripheral resistance of the microcirculatory flow. In this study, we performed a genome-wide association study in 18,722 unrelated individuals of European ancestry from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium and the Blue Mountain Eye Study, to identify genetic determinants associated with variations in retinal arteriolar caliber. Retinal vascular calibers were measured on digitized retinal photographs using a standardized protocol. One variant (rs2194025 on chromosome 5q14 near the myocyte enhancer factor 2C MEF2C gene) was associated with retinal arteriolar caliber in the meta-analysis of the discovery cohorts at genome-wide significance of P-value <5{\texttimes}10(-8). This variant was replicated in an additional 3,939 individuals of European ancestry from the Australian Twins Study and Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (rs2194025, P-value = 2.11{\texttimes}10(-12) in combined meta-analysis of discovery and replication cohorts). In independent studies of modest sample sizes, no significant association was found between this variant and clinical outcomes including coronary artery disease, stroke, myocardial infarction or hypertension. In conclusion, we found one novel loci which underlie genetic variation in microvasculature which may be relevant to vascular disease. The relevance of these findings to clinical outcomes remains to be determined.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Arterioles, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 5, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Male, MEF2 Transcription Factors, Microcirculation, Middle Aged, Models, Genetic, Retinal Vessels}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0065804}, author = {Sim, Xueling and Jensen, Richard A and Ikram, M Kamran and Cotch, Mary Frances and Li, Xiaohui and Macgregor, Stuart and Xie, Jing and Smith, Albert Vernon and Boerwinkle, Eric and Mitchell, Paul and Klein, Ronald and Klein, Barbara E K and Glazer, Nicole L and Lumley, Thomas and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and de Jong, Paulus T V M and Hofman, Albert and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Aspelund, Thor and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Harris, Tamara B and Jonasson, Fridbert and Launer, Lenore J and Attia, John and Baird, Paul N and Harrap, Stephen and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Inouye, Michael and Rochtchina, Elena and Scott, Rodney J and Viswanathan, Ananth and Li, Guo and Smith, Nicholas L and Wiggins, Kerri L and Kuo, Jane Z and Taylor, Kent D and Hewitt, Alex W and Martin, Nicholas G and Montgomery, Grant W and Sun, Cong and Young, Terri L and Mackey, David A and van Zuydam, Natalie R and Doney, Alex S F and Palmer, Colin N A and Morris, Andrew D and Rotter, Jerome I and Tai, E Shyong and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Vingerling, Johannes R and Siscovick, David S and Wang, Jie Jin and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {6631, title = {Genetic risk factors for BMI and obesity in an ethnically diverse population: results from the population architecture using genomics and epidemiology (PAGE) study.}, journal = {Obesity (Silver Spring)}, volume = {21}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Apr}, pages = {835-46}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Several genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have demonstrated that common genetic variants contribute to obesity. However, studies of this complex trait have focused on ancestrally European populations, despite the high prevalence of obesity in some minority groups.

DESIGN AND METHODS: As part of the "Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE)" Consortium, we investigated the association between 13 GWAS-identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and BMI and obesity in 69,775 subjects, including 6,149 American Indians, 15,415 African-Americans, 2,438 East Asians, 7,346 Hispanics, 604 Pacific Islanders, and 37,823 European Americans. For the BMI-increasing allele of each SNP, we calculated β coefficients using linear regression (for BMI) and risk estimates using logistic regression (for obesity defined as BMI >= 30) followed by fixed-effects meta-analysis to combine results across PAGE sites. Analyses stratified by racial/ethnic group assumed an additive genetic model and were adjusted for age, sex, and current smoking. We defined "replicating SNPs" (in European Americans) and "generalizing SNPs" (in other racial/ethnic groups) as those associated with an allele frequency-specific increase in BMI.

RESULTS: By this definition, we replicated 9/13 SNP associations (5 out of 8 loci) in European Americans. We also generalized 8/13 SNP associations (5/8 loci) in East Asians, 7/13 (5/8 loci) in African Americans, 6/13 (4/8 loci) in Hispanics, 5/8 in Pacific Islanders (5/8 loci), and 5/9 (4/8 loci) in American Indians.

CONCLUSION: Linkage disequilibrium patterns suggest that tagSNPs selected for European Americans may not adequately tag causal variants in other ancestry groups. Accordingly, fine-mapping in large samples is needed to comprehensively explore these loci in diverse populations.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Body Mass Index, Ethnic Groups, Gene Frequency, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Metagenomics, Obesity, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1930-739X}, doi = {10.1002/oby.20268}, author = {Fesinmeyer, Megan D and North, Kari E and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Lim, Unhee and Franceschini, Nora and Wilkens, Lynne R and Gross, Myron D and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Glenn, Kimberly and Quibrera, P Miguel and Fernandez-Rhodes, Lindsay and Li, Qiong and Fowke, Jay H and Li, Rongling and Carlson, Christopher S and Prentice, Ross L and Kuller, Lewis H and Manson, JoAnn E and Matise, Tara C and Cole, Shelley A and Chen, Christina T L and Howard, Barbara V and Kolonel, Laurence N and Henderson, Brian E and Monroe, Kristine R and Crawford, Dana C and Hindorff, Lucia A and Buyske, Steven and Haiman, Christopher A and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Peters, Ulrike} } @article {6290, title = {Genetic variants associated with fasting glucose and insulin concentrations in an ethnically diverse population: results from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study.}, journal = {BMC Med Genet}, volume = {14}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Sep 25}, pages = {98}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Multiple genome-wide association studies (GWAS) within European populations have implicated common genetic variants associated with insulin and glucose concentrations. In contrast, few studies have been conducted within minority groups, which carry the highest burden of impaired glucose homeostasis and type 2 diabetes in the U.S.

METHODS: As part of the {\textquoteright}Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Consortium, we investigated the association of up to 10 GWAS-identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 8 genetic regions with glucose or insulin concentrations in up to 36,579 non-diabetic subjects including 23,323 European Americans (EA) and 7,526 African Americans (AA), 3,140 Hispanics, 1,779 American Indians (AI), and 811 Asians. We estimated the association between each SNP and fasting glucose or log-transformed fasting insulin, followed by meta-analysis to combine results across PAGE sites.

RESULTS: Overall, our results show that 9/9 GWAS SNPs are associated with glucose in EA (p = 0.04 to 9 {\texttimes} 10-15), versus 3/9 in AA (p= 0.03 to 6 {\texttimes} 10-5), 3/4 SNPs in Hispanics, 2/4 SNPs in AI, and 1/2 SNPs in Asians. For insulin we observed a significant association with rs780094/GCKR in EA, Hispanics and AI only.

CONCLUSIONS: Generalization of results across multiple racial/ethnic groups helps confirm the relevance of some of these loci for glucose and insulin metabolism. Lack of association in non-EA groups may be due to insufficient power, or to unique patterns of linkage disequilibrium.

}, keywords = {Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Adult, African Americans, Aged, Alleles, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Blood Glucose, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Hispanic Americans, Humans, Indians, North American, Insulin, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Transcription Factor 7-Like 2 Protein}, issn = {1471-2350}, doi = {10.1186/1471-2350-14-98}, author = {Fesinmeyer, Megan D and Meigs, James B and North, Kari E and Schumacher, Fredrick R and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Franceschini, Nora and Haessler, Jeffrey and Goodloe, Robert and Spencer, Kylee L and Voruganti, Venkata Saroja and Howard, Barbara V and Jackson, Rebecca and Kolonel, Laurence N and Liu, Simin and Manson, JoAnn E and Monroe, Kristine R and Mukamal, Kenneth and Dilks, Holli H and Pendergrass, Sarah A and Nato, Andrew and Wan, Peggy and Wilkens, Lynne R and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Ambite, Jose Luis and Buyske, Steven and Florez, Jose C and Crawford, Dana C and Hindorff, Lucia A and Haiman, Christopher A and Peters, Ulrike and Pankow, James S} } @article {6282, title = {Genome-wide and gene-centric analyses of circulating myeloperoxidase levels in the charge and care consortia.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {22}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Aug 15}, pages = {3381-93}, abstract = {

Increased systemic levels of myeloperoxidase (MPO) are associated with the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD). To identify the genetic factors that are associated with circulating MPO levels, we carried out a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and a gene-centric analysis in subjects of European ancestry and African Americans (AAs). A locus on chromosome 1q31.1 containing the complement factor H (CFH) gene was strongly associated with serum MPO levels in 9305 subjects of European ancestry (lead SNP rs800292; P = 4.89 {\texttimes} 10(-41)) and in 1690 AA subjects (rs505102; P = 1.05 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Gene-centric analyses in 8335 subjects of European ancestry additionally identified two rare MPO coding sequence variants that were associated with serum MPO levels (rs28730837, P = 5.21 {\texttimes} 10(-12); rs35897051, P = 3.32 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). A GWAS for plasma MPO levels in 9260 European ancestry subjects identified a chromosome 17q22 region near MPO that was significantly associated (lead SNP rs6503905; P = 2.94 {\texttimes} 10(-12)), but the CFH locus did not exhibit evidence of association with plasma MPO levels. Functional analyses revealed that rs800292 was associated with levels of complement proteins in serum. Variants at chromosome 17q22 also had pleiotropic cis effects on gene expression. In a case-control analysis of \~{}80 000 subjects from CARDIoGRAM, none of the identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were associated with CAD. These results suggest that distinct genetic factors regulate serum and plasma MPO levels, which may have relevance for various acute and chronic inflammatory disorders. The clinical implications for CAD and a better understanding of the functional basis for the association of CFH and MPO variants with circulating MPO levels require further study.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Case-Control Studies, Complement Factor H, Coronary Artery Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Peroxidase, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Young Adult}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddt189}, author = {Reiner, Alexander P and Hartiala, Jaana and Zeller, Tanja and Bis, Joshua C and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Fornage, Myriam and Baumert, Jens and Kleber, Marcus E and Wild, Philipp S and Baldus, Stephan and Bielinski, Suzette J and Fontes, Jo{\~a}o D and Illig, Thomas and Keating, Brendan J and Lange, Leslie A and Ojeda, Francisco and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Munzel, Thomas F and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Kenneth and Rotter, Jerome I and Schnabel, Renate B and Tang, W H Wilson and Thorand, Barbara and Erdmann, Jeanette and Jacobs, David R and Wilson, James G and Koenig, Wolfgang and Tracy, Russell P and Blankenberg, Stefan and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Gross, Myron D and Benjamin, Emelia J and Hazen, Stanley L and Allayee, Hooman} } @article {6075, title = {Genome-wide association analyses identify 18 new loci associated with serum urate concentrations.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {45}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Feb}, pages = {145-54}, abstract = {

Elevated serum urate concentrations can cause gout, a prevalent and painful inflammatory arthritis. By combining data from >140,000 individuals of European ancestry within the Global Urate Genetics Consortium (GUGC), we identified and replicated 28 genome-wide significant loci in association with serum urate concentrations (18 new regions in or near TRIM46, INHBB, SFMBT1, TMEM171, VEGFA, BAZ1B, PRKAG2, STC1, HNF4G, A1CF, ATXN2, UBE2Q2, IGF1R, NFAT5, MAF, HLF, ACVR1B-ACVRL1 and B3GNT4). Associations for many of the loci were of similar magnitude in individuals of non-European ancestry. We further characterized these loci for associations with gout, transcript expression and the fractional excretion of urate. Network analyses implicate the inhibins-activins signaling pathways and glucose metabolism in systemic urate control. New candidate genes for serum urate concentration highlight the importance of metabolic control of urate production and excretion, which may have implications for the treatment and prevention of gout.

}, keywords = {Analysis of Variance, European Continental Ancestry Group, Gene Frequency, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glucose, Gout, Humans, Inhibins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Signal Transduction, Uric Acid}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2500}, author = {K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Albrecht, Eva and Teumer, Alexander and Vitart, Veronique and Krumsiek, Jan and Hundertmark, Claudia and Pistis, Giorgio and Ruggiero, Daniela and O{\textquoteright}Seaghdha, Conall M and Haller, Toomas and Yang, Qiong and Tanaka, Toshiko and Johnson, Andrew D and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Smith, Albert V and Shi, Julia and Struchalin, Maksim and Middelberg, Rita P S and Brown, Morris J and Gaffo, Angelo L and Pirastu, Nicola and Li, Guo and Hayward, Caroline and Zemunik, Tatijana and Huffman, Jennifer and Yengo, Loic and Zhao, Jing Hua and Demirkan, Ayse and Feitosa, Mary F and Liu, Xuan and Malerba, Giovanni and Lopez, Lorna M and van der Harst, Pim and Li, Xinzhong and Kleber, Marcus E and Hicks, Andrew A and Nolte, Ilja M and Johansson, Asa and Murgia, Federico and Wild, Sarah H and Bakker, Stephan J L and Peden, John F and Dehghan, Abbas and Steri, Maristella and Tenesa, Albert and Lagou, Vasiliki and Salo, Perttu and Mangino, Massimo and Rose, Lynda M and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Woodward, Owen M and Okada, Yukinori and Tin, Adrienne and M{\"u}ller, Christian and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Putku, Margus and Czamara, Darina and Kraft, Peter and Frogheri, Laura and Thun, Gian Andri and Grotevendt, Anne and Gislason, Gauti Kjartan and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and McArdle, Patrick and Shuldiner, Alan R and Boerwinkle, Eric and Coresh, Josef and Schmidt, Helena and Schallert, Michael and Martin, Nicholas G and Montgomery, Grant W and Kubo, Michiaki and Nakamura, Yusuke and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Munroe, Patricia B and Samani, Nilesh J and Jacobs, David R and Liu, Kiang and D{\textquoteright}Adamo, Pio and Ulivi, Sheila and Rotter, Jerome I and Psaty, Bruce M and Vollenweider, Peter and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Campbell, Susan and Devuyst, Olivier and Navarro, Pau and Kolcic, Ivana and Hastie, Nicholas and Balkau, Beverley and Froguel, Philippe and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Salumets, Andres and Khaw, Kay Tee and Langenberg, Claudia and Wareham, Nicholas J and Isaacs, Aaron and Kraja, Aldi and Zhang, Qunyuan and Wild, Philipp S and Scott, Rodney J and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Org, Elin and Viigimaa, Margus and Bandinelli, Stefania and Metter, Jeffrey E and Lupo, Antonio and Trabetti, Elisabetta and Sorice, Rossella and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Lattka, Eva and Strauch, Konstantin and Theis, Fabian and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wichmann, H-Erich and Davies, Gail and Gow, Alan J and Bruinenberg, Marcel and Stolk, Ronald P and Kooner, Jaspal S and Zhang, Weihua and Winkelmann, Bernhard R and Boehm, Bernhard O and Lucae, Susanne and Penninx, Brenda W and Smit, Johannes H and Curhan, Gary and Mudgal, Poorva and Plenge, Robert M and Portas, Laura and Persico, Ivana and Kirin, Mirna and Wilson, James F and Mateo Leach, Irene and van Gilst, Wiek H and Goel, Anuj and Ongen, Halit and Hofman, Albert and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Imboden, Medea and von Eckardstein, Arnold and Cucca, Francesco and Nagaraja, Ramaiah and Piras, Maria Grazia and Nauck, Matthias and Schurmann, Claudia and Budde, Kathrin and Ernst, Florian and Farrington, Susan M and Theodoratou, Evropi and Prokopenko, Inga and Stumvoll, Michael and Jula, Antti and Perola, Markus and Salomaa, Veikko and Shin, So-Youn and Spector, Tim D and Sala, Cinzia and Ridker, Paul M and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Viikari, Jorma and Hengstenberg, Christian and Nelson, Christopher P and Meschia, James F and Nalls, Michael A and Sharma, Pankaj and Singleton, Andrew B and Kamatani, Naoyuki and Zeller, Tanja and Burnier, Michel and Attia, John and Laan, Maris and Klopp, Norman and Hillege, Hans L and Kloiber, Stefan and Choi, Hyon and Pirastu, Mario and Tore, Silvia and Probst-Hensch, Nicole M and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Parsa, Afshin and Schmidt, Reinhold and Whitfield, John B and Fornage, Myriam and Gasparini, Paolo and Siscovick, David S and Polasek, Ozren and Campbell, Harry and Rudan, Igor and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and Metspalu, Andres and Loos, Ruth J F and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Borecki, Ingrid B and Ferrucci, Luigi and Gambaro, Giovanni and Deary, Ian J and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Chambers, John C and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Pramstaller, Peter P and Snieder, Harold and Gyllensten, Ulf and Wright, Alan F and Navis, Gerjan and Watkins, Hugh and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Sanna, Serena and Schipf, Sabine and Dunlop, Malcolm G and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Ripatti, Samuli and Soranzo, Nicole and Toniolo, Daniela and Chasman, Daniel I and Raitakari, Olli and Kao, W H Linda and Ciullo, Marina and Fox, Caroline S and Caulfield, Mark and Bochud, Murielle and Gieger, Christian} } @article {6287, title = {Genome-wide association of body fat distribution in African ancestry populations suggests new loci.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e1003681}, abstract = {

Central obesity, measured by waist circumference (WC) or waist-hip ratio (WHR), is a marker of body fat distribution. Although obesity disproportionately affects minority populations, few studies have conducted genome-wide association study (GWAS) of fat distribution among those of predominantly African ancestry (AA). We performed GWAS of WC and WHR, adjusted and unadjusted for BMI, in up to 33,591 and 27,350 AA individuals, respectively. We identified loci associated with fat distribution in AA individuals using meta-analyses of GWA results for WC and WHR (stage 1). Overall, 25 SNPs with single genomic control (GC)-corrected p-values<5.0 {\texttimes} 10(-6) were followed-up (stage 2) in AA with WC and with WHR. Additionally, we interrogated genomic regions of previously identified European ancestry (EA) WHR loci among AA. In joint analysis of association results including both Stage 1 and 2 cohorts, 2 SNPs demonstrated association, rs2075064 at LHX2, p = 2.24{\texttimes}10(-8) for WC-adjusted-for-BMI, and rs6931262 at RREB1, p = 2.48{\texttimes}10(-8) for WHR-adjusted-for-BMI. However, neither signal was genome-wide significant after double GC-correction (LHX2: p = 6.5 {\texttimes} 10(-8); RREB1: p = 5.7 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Six of fourteen previously reported loci for waist in EA populations were significant (p<0.05 divided by the number of independent SNPs within the region) in AA studied here (TBX15-WARS2, GRB14, ADAMTS9, LY86, RSPO3, ITPR2-SSPN). Further, we observed associations with metabolic traits: rs13389219 at GRB14 associated with HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, and fasting insulin, and rs13060013 at ADAMTS9 with HDL-cholesterol and fasting insulin. Finally, we observed nominal evidence for sexual dimorphism, with stronger results in AA women at the GRB14 locus (p for interaction = 0.02). In conclusion, we identified two suggestive loci associated with fat distribution in AA populations in addition to confirming 6 loci previously identified in populations of EA. These findings reinforce the concept that there are fat distribution loci that are independent of generalized adiposity.

}, keywords = {Adiposity, African Continental Ancestry Group, Body Fat Distribution, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Waist-Hip Ratio}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1003681}, author = {Liu, Ching-Ti and Monda, Keri L and Taylor, Kira C and Lange, Leslie and Demerath, Ellen W and Palmas, Walter and Wojczynski, Mary K and Ellis, Jaclyn C and Vitolins, Mara Z and Liu, Simin and Papanicolaou, George J and Irvin, Marguerite R and Xue, Luting and Griffin, Paula J and Nalls, Michael A and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Liu, Jiankang and Li, Guo and Ruiz-Narvaez, Edward A and Chen, Wei-Min and Chen, Fang and Henderson, Brian E and Millikan, Robert C and Ambrosone, Christine B and Strom, Sara S and Guo, Xiuqing and Andrews, Jeanette S and Sun, Yan V and Mosley, Thomas H and Yanek, Lisa R and Shriner, Daniel and Haritunians, Talin and Rotter, Jerome I and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Smith, Megan and Rosenberg, Lynn and Mychaleckyj, Josyf and Nayak, Uma and Spruill, Ida and Garvey, W Timothy and Pettaway, Curtis and Nyante, Sarah and Bandera, Elisa V and Britton, Angela F and Zonderman, Alan B and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Ding, Jingzhong and Lohman, Kurt and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Zhao, Wei and Peyser, Patricia A and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kabagambe, Edmond and Broeckel, Ulrich and Chen, Guanjie and Zhou, Jie and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Neuhouser, Marian L and Rampersaud, Evadnie and Psaty, Bruce and Kooperberg, Charles and Manson, JoAnn E and Kuller, Lewis H and Ochs-Balcom, Heather M and Johnson, Karen C and Sucheston, Lara and Ordovas, Jose M and Palmer, Julie R and Haiman, Christopher A and McKnight, Barbara and Howard, Barbara V and Becker, Diane M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Liu, Yongmei and Allison, Matthew A and Grant, Struan F A and Burke, Gregory L and Patel, Sanjay R and Schreiner, Pamela J and Borecki, Ingrid B and Evans, Michele K and Taylor, Herman and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Howard, Virginia and Carlson, Christopher S and Rotimi, Charles N and Cushman, Mary and Harris, Tamara B and Reiner, Alexander P and Cupples, L Adrienne and North, Kari E and Fox, Caroline S} } @article {6029, title = {A genome-wide association study for venous thromboembolism: the extended cohorts for heart and aging research in genomic epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium.}, journal = {Genet Epidemiol}, volume = {37}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jul}, pages = {512-521}, abstract = {

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a common, heritable disease resulting in high rates of hospitalization and mortality. Yet few associations between VTE and genetic variants, all in the coagulation pathway, have been established. To identify additional genetic determinants of VTE, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study (GWAS) among individuals of European ancestry in the extended cohorts for heart and aging research in genomic epidemiology (CHARGE) VTE consortium. The discovery GWAS comprised 1,618 incident VTE cases out of 44,499 participants from six community-based studies. Genotypes for genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were imputed to approximately 2.5 million SNPs in HapMap and association with VTE assessed using study-design appropriate regression methods. Meta-analysis of these results identified two known loci, in F5 and ABO. Top 1,047 tag SNPs (P <= 0.0016) from the discovery GWAS were tested for association in an additional 3,231 cases and 3,536 controls from three case-control studies. In the combined data from these two stages, additional genome-wide significant associations were observed on 4q35 at F11 (top SNP rs4253399, intronic to F11) and on 4q28 at FGG (rs6536024, 9.7 kb from FGG; P < 5.0 {\texttimes} 10(-13) for both). The associations at the FGG locus were not completely explained by previously reported variants. Loci at or near SUSD1 and OTUD7A showed borderline yet novel associations (P < 5.0 {\texttimes} 10(-6) ) and constitute new candidate genes. In conclusion, this large GWAS replicated key genetic associations in F5 and ABO, and confirmed the importance of F11 and FGG loci for VTE. Future studies are warranted to better characterize the associations with F11 and FGG and to replicate the new candidate associations.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aging, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Regression Analysis, Risk Factors, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1098-2272}, doi = {10.1002/gepi.21731}, author = {Tang, Weihong and Teichert, Martina and Chasman, Daniel I and Heit, John A and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and Li, Guo and Pankratz, Nathan and Leebeek, Frank W and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and de Andrade, Mariza and Tzourio, Christophe and Psaty, Bruce M and Basu, Saonli and Ruiter, Rikje and Rose, Lynda and Armasu, Sebastian M and Lumley, Thomas and Heckbert, Susan R and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Lathrop, Mark and Rice, Kenneth M and Cushman, Mary and Hofman, Albert and Lambert, Jean-Charles and Glazer, Nicole L and Pankow, James S and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Amouyel, Philippe and Bis, Joshua C and Bovill, Edwin G and Kong, Xiaoxiao and Tracy, Russell P and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rotter, Jerome I and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Loth, Daan W and Stricker, Bruno H Ch and Ridker, Paul M and Folsom, Aaron R and Smith, Nicholas L} } @article {5880, title = {Genome-wide association study identifies novel loci associated with concentrations of four plasma phospholipid fatty acids in the de novo lipogenesis pathway: results from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortiu}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {6}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Apr}, pages = {171-83}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND- Palmitic acid (16:0), stearic acid (18:0), palmitoleic acid (16:1n-7), and oleic acid (18:1n-9) are major saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids that affect cellular signaling and metabolic pathways. They are synthesized via de novo lipogenesis and are the main saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids in the diet. Levels of these fatty acids have been linked to diseases including type 2 diabetes mellitus and coronary heart disease. METHODS AND RESULTS- Genome-wide association studies were conducted in 5 population-based cohorts comprising 8961 participants of European ancestry to investigate the association of common genetic variation with plasma levels of these 4 fatty acids. We identified polymorphisms in 7 novel loci associated with circulating levels of >=1 of these fatty acids. ALG14 (asparagine-linked glycosylation 14 homolog) polymorphisms were associated with higher 16:0 (P=2.7{\texttimes}10(-11)) and lower 18:0 (P=2.2{\texttimes}10(-18)). FADS1 and FADS2 (desaturases) polymorphisms were associated with higher 16:1n-7 (P=6.6{\texttimes}10(-13)) and 18:1n-9 (P=2.2{\texttimes}10(-32)) and lower 18:0 (P=1.3{\texttimes}10(-20)). LPGAT1 (lysophosphatidylglycerol acyltransferase) polymorphisms were associated with lower 18:0 (P=2.8{\texttimes}10(-9)). GCKR (glucokinase regulator; P=9.8{\texttimes}10(-10)) and HIF1AN (factor inhibiting hypoxia-inducible factor-1; P=5.7{\texttimes}10(-9)) polymorphisms were associated with higher 16:1n-7, whereas PKD2L1 (polycystic kidney disease 2-like 1; P=5.7{\texttimes}10(-15)) and a locus on chromosome 2 (not near known genes) were associated with lower 16:1n-7 (P=4.1{\texttimes}10(-8)). CONCLUSIONS- Our findings provide novel evidence that common variations in genes with diverse functions, including protein-glycosylation, polyunsaturated fatty acid metabolism, phospholipid modeling, and glucose- and oxygen-sensing pathways, are associated with circulating levels of 4 fatty acids in the de novo lipogenesis pathway. These results expand our knowledge of genetic factors relevant to de novo lipogenesis and fatty acid biology.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 2, Cohort Studies, Coronary Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Fatty Acids, Monounsaturated, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Lipogenesis, Male, Middle Aged, Oleic Acid, Palmitic Acid, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Stearic Acids}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.112.964619}, author = {Wu, Jason H Y and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Manichaikul, Ani and Guan, Weihua and Tanaka, Toshiko and Foy, Millennia and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Siscovick, David and Fretts, Amanda M and Johnson, Catherine and King, Irena B and Psaty, Bruce M and McKnight, Barbara and Rich, Stephen S and Chen, Yii-der I and Nettleton, Jennifer A and Tang, Weihong and Bandinelli, Stefania and Jacobs, David R and Browning, Brian L and Laurie, Cathy C and Gu, Xiangjun and Tsai, Michael Y and Steffen, Lyn M and Ferrucci, Luigi and Fornage, Myriam and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {6632, title = {Genome-wide association study of cardiac structure and systolic function in African Americans: the Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) study.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {6}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Feb}, pages = {37-46}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Using data from 4 community-based cohorts of African Americans, we tested the association between genome-wide markers (single-nucleotide polymorphisms) and cardiac phenotypes in the Candidate-gene Association Resource study.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Among 6765 African Americans, we related age, sex, height, and weight-adjusted residuals for 9 cardiac phenotypes (assessed by echocardiogram or magnetic resonance imaging) to 2.5 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms genotyped using Genome-wide Affymetrix Human SNP Array 6.0 (Affy6.0) and the remainder imputed. Within the cohort, genome-wide association analysis was conducted, followed by meta-analysis across cohorts using inverse variance weights (genome-wide significance threshold=4.0 {\texttimes}10(-7)). Supplementary pathway analysis was performed. We attempted replication in 3 smaller cohorts of African ancestry and tested lookups in 1 consortium of European ancestry (EchoGEN). Across the 9 phenotypes, variants in 4 genetic loci reached genome-wide significance: rs4552931 in UBE2V2 (P=1.43{\texttimes}10(-7)) for left ventricular mass, rs7213314 in WIPI1 (P=1.68{\texttimes}10(-7)) for left ventricular internal diastolic diameter, rs1571099 in PPAPDC1A (P=2.57{\texttimes}10(-8)) for interventricular septal wall thickness, and rs9530176 in KLF5 (P=4.02{\texttimes}10(-7)) for ejection fraction. Associated variants were enriched in 3 signaling pathways involved in cardiac remodeling. None of the 4 loci replicated in cohorts of African ancestry was confirmed in lookups in EchoGEN.

CONCLUSIONS: In the largest genome-wide association study of cardiac structure and function to date in African Americans, we identified 4 genetic loci related to left ventricular mass, interventricular septal wall thickness, left ventricular internal diastolic diameter, and ejection fraction, which reached genome-wide significance. Replication results suggest that these loci may be unique to individuals of African ancestry. Additional large-scale studies are warranted for these complex phenotypes.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Cohort Studies, Diastole, Echocardiography, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Heart, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Systole}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.111.962365}, author = {Fox, Ervin R and Musani, Solomon K and Barbalic, Maja and Lin, Honghuang and Yu, Bing and Ogunyankin, Kofo O and Smith, Nicholas L and Kutlar, Abdullah and Glazer, Nicole L and Post, Wendy S and Paltoo, Dina N and Dries, Daniel L and Farlow, Deborah N and Duarte, Christine W and Kardia, Sharon L and Meyers, Kristin J and Sun, Yan V and Arnett, Donna K and Patki, Amit A and Sha, Jin and Cui, Xiangqui and Samdarshi, Tandaw E and Penman, Alan D and Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Benjamin, Emelia J and Bluemke, David A and Morrison, Alanna C and Heiss, Gerardo and Carr, J Jeffrey and Tracy, Russell P and Mosley, Thomas H and Taylor, Herman A and Psaty, Bruce M and Heckbert, Susan R and Cappola, Thomas P and Vasan, Ramachandran S} } @article {6070, title = {A genome-wide association study of depressive symptoms.}, journal = {Biol Psychiatry}, volume = {73}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Apr 01}, pages = {667-78}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Depression is a heritable trait that exists on a continuum of varying severity and duration. Yet, the search for genetic variants associated with depression has had few successes. We exploit the entire continuum of depression to find common variants for depressive symptoms.

METHODS: In this genome-wide association study, we combined the results of 17 population-based studies assessing depressive symptoms with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Replication of the independent top hits (p<1{\texttimes}10(-5)) was performed in five studies assessing depressive symptoms with other instruments. In addition, we performed a combined meta-analysis of all 22 discovery and replication studies.

RESULTS: The discovery sample comprised 34,549 individuals (mean age of 66.5) and no loci reached genome-wide significance (lowest p = 1.05{\texttimes}10(-7)). Seven independent single nucleotide polymorphisms were considered for replication. In the replication set (n = 16,709), we found suggestive association of one single nucleotide polymorphism with depressive symptoms (rs161645, 5q21, p = 9.19{\texttimes}10(-3)). This 5q21 region reached genome-wide significance (p = 4.78{\texttimes}10(-8)) in the overall meta-analysis combining discovery and replication studies (n = 51,258).

CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that only a large sample comprising more than 50,000 subjects may be sufficiently powered to detect genes for depressive symptoms.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 5, Depression, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1873-2402}, doi = {10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.09.033}, author = {Hek, Karin and Demirkan, Ayse and Lahti, Jari and Terracciano, Antonio and Teumer, Alexander and Cornelis, Marilyn C and Amin, Najaf and Bakshis, Erin and Baumert, Jens and Ding, Jingzhong and Liu, Yongmei and Marciante, Kristin and Meirelles, Osorio and Nalls, Michael A and Sun, Yan V and Vogelzangs, Nicole and Yu, Lei and Bandinelli, Stefania and Benjamin, Emelia J and Bennett, David A and Boomsma, Dorret and Cannas, Alessandra and Coker, Laura H and de Geus, Eco and De Jager, Philip L and Diez-Roux, Ana V and Purcell, Shaun and Hu, Frank B and Rimma, Eric B and Hunter, David J and Jensen, Majken K and Curhan, Gary and Rice, Kenneth and Penman, Alan D and Rotter, Jerome I and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Emeny, Rebecca and Eriksson, Johan G and Evans, Denis A and Ferrucci, Luigi and Fornage, Myriam and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hofman, Albert and Illig, Thomas and Kardia, Sharon and Kelly-Hayes, Margaret and Koenen, Karestan and Kraft, Peter and Kuningas, Maris and Massaro, Joseph M and Melzer, David and Mulas, Antonella and Mulder, Cornelis L and Murray, Anna and Oostra, Ben A and Palotie, Aarno and Penninx, Brenda and Petersmann, Astrid and Pilling, Luke C and Psaty, Bruce and Rawal, Rajesh and Reiman, Eric M and Schulz, Andrea and Shulman, Joshua M and Singleton, Andrew B and Smith, Albert V and Sutin, Angelina R and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Widen, Elisabeth and Yaffe, Kristine and Zonderman, Alan B and Cucca, Francesco and Harris, Tamara and Ladwig, Karl-Heinz and Llewellyn, David J and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Tanaka, Toshiko and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Grabe, Hans J and Launer, Lenore J and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Mosley, Thomas H and Newman, Anne B and Tiemeier, Henning and Murabito, Joanne} } @article {6153, title = {A genome-wide association study of early menopause and the combined impact of identified variants.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {22}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Apr 01}, pages = {1465-72}, abstract = {

Early menopause (EM) affects up to 10\% of the female population, reducing reproductive lifespan considerably. Currently, it constitutes the leading cause of infertility in the western world, affecting mainly those women who postpone their first pregnancy beyond the age of 30 years. The genetic aetiology of EM is largely unknown in the majority of cases. We have undertaken a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) in 3493 EM cases and 13 598 controls from 10 independent studies. No novel genetic variants were discovered, but the 17 variants previously associated with normal age at natural menopause as a quantitative trait (QT) were also associated with EM and primary ovarian insufficiency (POI). Thus, EM has a genetic aetiology which overlaps variation in normal age at menopause and is at least partly explained by the additive effects of the same polygenic variants. The combined effect of the common variants captured by the single nucleotide polymorphism arrays was estimated to account for \~{}30\% of the variance in EM. The association between the combined 17 variants and the risk of EM was greater than the best validated non-genetic risk factor, smoking.

}, keywords = {Case-Control Studies, Female, Gene Frequency, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Menopause, Premature, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Primary Ovarian Insufficiency, Quantitative Trait Loci, Risk}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/dds551}, author = {Perry, John R B and Corre, Tanguy and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Chasman, Daniel I and Fischer, Krista and Franceschini, Nora and He, Chunyan and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Mangino, Massimo and Rose, Lynda M and Vernon Smith, Albert and Stolk, Lisette and Sulem, Patrick and Weedon, Michael N and Zhuang, Wei V and Arnold, Alice and Ashworth, Alan and Bergmann, Sven and Buring, Julie E and Burri, Andrea and Chen, Constance and Cornelis, Marilyn C and Couper, David J and Goodarzi, Mark O and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara and Hofman, Albert and Jones, Michael and Kraft, Peter and Launer, Lenore and Laven, Joop S E and Li, Guo and McKnight, Barbara and Masciullo, Corrado and Milani, Lili and Orr, Nicholas and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Sala, Cinzia and Salumets, Andres and Schoemaker, Minouk and Traglia, Michela and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Chanock, Stephen J and Demerath, Ellen W and Garcia, Melissa and Hankinson, Susan E and Hu, Frank B and Hunter, David J and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Metspalu, Andres and Montgomery, Grant W and Murabito, Joanne M and Newman, Anne B and Ong, Ken K and Spector, Tim D and Stefansson, Kari and Swerdlow, Anthony J and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and van Dam, Rob M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Visser, Jenny A and Vollenweider, Peter and Toniolo, Daniela and Murray, Anna} } @article {6072, title = {Genome-wide association study of retinopathy in individuals without diabetes.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {8}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e54232}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Mild retinopathy (microaneurysms or dot-blot hemorrhages) is observed in persons without diabetes or hypertension and may reflect microvascular disease in other organs. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of mild retinopathy in persons without diabetes.

METHODS: A working group agreed on phenotype harmonization, covariate selection and analytic plans for within-cohort GWAS. An inverse-variance weighted fixed effects meta-analysis was performed with GWAS results from six cohorts of 19,411 Caucasians. The primary analysis included individuals without diabetes and secondary analyses were stratified by hypertension status. We also singled out the results from single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously shown to be associated with diabetes and hypertension, the two most common causes of retinopathy.

RESULTS: No SNPs reached genome-wide significance in the primary analysis or the secondary analysis of participants with hypertension. SNP, rs12155400, in the histone deacetylase 9 gene (HDAC9) on chromosome 7, was associated with retinopathy in analysis of participants without hypertension, -1.3{\textpm}0.23 (beta {\textpm} standard error), p = 6.6{\texttimes}10(-9). Evidence suggests this was a false positive finding. The minor allele frequency was low (\~{}2\%), the quality of the imputation was moderate (r(2) \~{}0.7), and no other common variants in the HDAC9 gene were associated with the outcome. SNPs found to be associated with diabetes and hypertension in other GWAS were not associated with retinopathy in persons without diabetes or in subgroups with or without hypertension.

CONCLUSIONS: This GWAS of retinopathy in individuals without diabetes showed little evidence of genetic associations. Further studies are needed to identify genes associated with these signs in order to help unravel novel pathways and determinants of microvascular diseases.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Histone Deacetylases, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Repressor Proteins, Retinal Diseases}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0054232}, author = {Jensen, Richard A and Sim, Xueling and Li, Xiaohui and Cotch, Mary Frances and Ikram, M Kamran and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Harris, Tamara B and Jonasson, Fridbert and Klein, Barbara E K and Launer, Lenore J and Smith, Albert Vernon and Boerwinkle, Eric and Cheung, Ning and Hewitt, Alex W and Liew, Gerald and Mitchell, Paul and Wang, Jie Jin and Attia, John and Scott, Rodney and Glazer, Nicole L and Lumley, Thomas and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and Taylor, Kent and Hofman, Albert and de Jong, Paulus T V M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Tay, Wan-Ting and Teo, Yik Ying and Seielstad, Mark and Liu, Jianjun and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Saw, Seang-Mei and Aung, Tin and Ganesh, Santhi K and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Nalls, Mike A and Wiggins, Kerri L and Kuo, Jane Z and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Klein, Ronald and Siscovick, David S and Rotter, Jerome I and Tai, E Shong and Vingerling, Johannes and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {6152, title = {Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies 11 new loci for anthropometric traits and provides insights into genetic architecture.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {45}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 May}, pages = {501-12}, abstract = {

Approaches exploiting trait distribution extremes may be used to identify loci associated with common traits, but it is unknown whether these loci are generalizable to the broader population. In a genome-wide search for loci associated with the upper versus the lower 5th percentiles of body mass index, height and waist-to-hip ratio, as well as clinical classes of obesity, including up to 263,407 individuals of European ancestry, we identified 4 new loci (IGFBP4, H6PD, RSRC1 and PPP2R2A) influencing height detected in the distribution tails and 7 new loci (HNF4G, RPTOR, GNAT2, MRPS33P4, ADCY9, HS6ST3 and ZZZ3) for clinical classes of obesity. Further, we find a large overlap in genetic structure and the distribution of variants between traits based on extremes and the general population and little etiological heterogeneity between obesity subgroups.

}, keywords = {Anthropometry, Body Height, Body Mass Index, Case-Control Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Obesity, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Waist-Hip Ratio}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2606}, author = {Berndt, Sonja I and Gustafsson, Stefan and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Ganna, Andrea and Wheeler, Eleanor and Feitosa, Mary F and Justice, Anne E and Monda, Keri L and Croteau-Chonka, Damien C and Day, Felix R and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Fall, Tove and Ferreira, Teresa and Gentilini, Davide and Jackson, Anne U and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Randall, Joshua C and Vedantam, Sailaja and Willer, Cristen J and Winkler, Thomas W and Wood, Andrew R and Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie and Hu, Yi-Juan and Lee, Sang Hong and Liang, Liming and Lin, Dan-Yu and Min, Josine L and Neale, Benjamin M and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Yang, Jian and Albrecht, Eva and Amin, Najaf and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer L and Cadby, Gemma and den Heijer, Martin and Eklund, Niina and Fischer, Krista and Goel, Anuj and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Huffman, Jennifer E and Jarick, Ivonne and Johansson, Asa and Johnson, Toby and Kanoni, Stavroula and Kleber, Marcus E and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Kristiansson, Kati and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Lamina, Claudia and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Li, Guo and Mangino, Massimo and McArdle, Wendy L and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Ngwa, Julius S and Nolte, Ilja M and Paternoster, Lavinia and Pechlivanis, Sonali and Perola, Markus and Peters, Marjolein J and Preuss, Michael and Rose, Lynda M and Shi, Jianxin and Shungin, Dmitry and Smith, Albert Vernon and Strawbridge, Rona J and Surakka, Ida and Teumer, Alexander and Trip, Mieke D and Tyrer, Jonathan and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Waite, Lindsay L and Zhao, Jing Hua and Absher, Devin and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Atalay, Mustafa and Attwood, Antony P and Balmforth, Anthony J and Basart, Hanneke and Beilby, John and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Brambilla, Paolo and Bruinenberg, Marcel and Campbell, Harry and Chasman, Daniel I and Chines, Peter S and Collins, Francis S and Connell, John M and Cookson, William O and de Faire, Ulf and de Vegt, Femmie and Dei, Mariano and Dimitriou, Maria and Edkins, Sarah and Estrada, Karol and Evans, David M and Farrall, Martin and Ferrario, Marco M and Ferrieres, Jean and Franke, Lude and Frau, Francesca and Gejman, Pablo V and Grallert, Harald and Gr{\"o}nberg, Henrik and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hall, Alistair S and Hall, Per and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hayward, Caroline and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Heath, Andrew C and Hebebrand, Johannes and Homuth, Georg and Hu, Frank B and Hunt, Sarah E and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and Iribarren, Carlos and Jacobs, Kevin B and Jansson, John-Olov and Jula, Antti and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kathiresan, Sekar and Kee, Frank and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kivimaki, Mika and Koenig, Wolfgang and Kraja, Aldi T and Kumari, Meena and Kuulasmaa, Kari and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laitinen, Jaana H and Lakka, Timo A and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lind, Lars and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Liu, Jianjun and Liuzzi, Antonio and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Lorentzon, Mattias and Madden, Pamela A and Magnusson, Patrik K and Manunta, Paolo and Marek, Diana and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Mateo Leach, Irene and McKnight, Barbara and Medland, Sarah E and Mihailov, Evelin and Milani, Lili and Montgomery, Grant W and Mooser, Vincent and M{\"u}hleisen, Thomas W and Munroe, Patricia B and Musk, Arthur W and Narisu, Narisu and Navis, Gerjan and Nicholson, George and Nohr, Ellen A and Ong, Ken K and Oostra, Ben A and Palmer, Colin N A and Palotie, Aarno and Peden, John F and Pedersen, Nancy and Peters, Annette and Polasek, Ozren and Pouta, Anneli and Pramstaller, Peter P and Prokopenko, Inga and P{\"u}tter, Carolin and Radhakrishnan, Aparna and Raitakari, Olli and Rendon, Augusto and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rudan, Igor and Saaristo, Timo E and Sambrook, Jennifer G and Sanders, Alan R and Sanna, Serena and Saramies, Jouko and Schipf, Sabine and Schreiber, Stefan and Schunkert, Heribert and Shin, So-Youn and Signorini, Stefano and Sinisalo, Juha and Skrobek, Boris and Soranzo, Nicole and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Stark, Klaus and Stephens, Jonathan C and Stirrups, Kathleen and Stolk, Ronald P and Stumvoll, Michael and Swift, Amy J and Theodoraki, Eirini V and Thorand, Barbara and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Tremoli, Elena and van der Klauw, Melanie M and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Vermeulen, Sita H and Viikari, Jorma and Virtamo, Jarmo and Vitart, Veronique and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Wang, Zhaoming and Widen, Elisabeth and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Winkelmann, Bernhard R and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Wong, Andrew and Wright, Alan F and Zillikens, M Carola and Amouyel, Philippe and Boehm, Bernhard O and Boerwinkle, Eric and Boomsma, Dorret I and Caulfield, Mark J and Chanock, Stephen J and Cupples, L Adrienne and Cusi, Daniele and Dedoussis, George V and Erdmann, Jeanette and Eriksson, Johan G and Franks, Paul W and Froguel, Philippe and Gieger, Christian and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hamsten, Anders and Harris, Tamara B and Hengstenberg, Christian and Hicks, Andrew A and Hingorani, Aroon and Hinney, Anke and Hofman, Albert and Hovingh, Kees G and Hveem, Kristian and Illig, Thomas and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and J{\"o}ckel, Karl-Heinz and Keinanen-Kiukaanniemi, Sirkka M and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Kuh, Diana and Laakso, Markku and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Levinson, Douglas F and Martin, Nicholas G and Metspalu, Andres and Morris, Andrew D and Nieminen, Markku S and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Ohlsson, Claes and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Ouwehand, Willem H and Palmer, Lyle J and Penninx, Brenda and Power, Chris and Province, Michael A and Psaty, Bruce M and Qi, Lu and Rauramaa, Rainer and Ridker, Paul M and Ripatti, Samuli and Salomaa, Veikko and Samani, Nilesh J and Snieder, Harold and S{\o}rensen, Thorkild I A and Spector, Timothy D and Stefansson, Kari and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Uusitupa, Matti and van der Harst, Pim and Vollenweider, Peter and Wallaschofski, Henri and Wareham, Nicholas J and Watkins, Hugh and Wichmann, H-Erich and Wilson, James F and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Assimes, Themistocles L and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Boehnke, Michael and Borecki, Ingrid B and Deloukas, Panos and Fox, Caroline S and Frayling, Timothy and Groop, Leif C and Haritunian, Talin and Heid, Iris M and Hunter, David and Kaplan, Robert C and Karpe, Fredrik and Moffatt, Miriam F and Mohlke, Karen L and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Pawitan, Yudi and Schadt, Eric E and Schlessinger, David and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Strachan, David P and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Visscher, Peter M and Di Blasio, Anna Maria and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Morris, Andrew P and Meyre, David and Scherag, Andre and McCarthy, Mark I and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and North, Kari E and Loos, Ruth J F and Ingelsson, Erik} } @article {6163, title = {Genome-wide meta-analysis of observational studies shows common genetic variants associated with macronutrient intake.}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {97}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jun}, pages = {1395-402}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Macronutrient intake varies substantially between individuals, and there is evidence that this variation is partly accounted for by genetic variants.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to identify common genetic variants that are associated with macronutrient intake.

DESIGN: We performed 2-stage genome-wide association (GWA) meta-analysis of macronutrient intake in populations of European descent. Macronutrients were assessed by using food-frequency questionnaires and analyzed as percentages of total energy consumption from total fat, protein, and carbohydrate. From the discovery GWA (n = 38,360), 35 independent loci associated with macronutrient intake at P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-6) were identified and taken forward to replication in 3 additional cohorts (n = 33,533) from the DietGen Consortium. For one locus, fat mass obesity-associated protein (FTO), cohorts with Illumina MetaboChip genotype data (n = 7724) provided additional replication data.

RESULTS: A variant in the chromosome 19 locus (rs838145) was associated with higher carbohydrate (β {\textpm} SE: 0.25 {\textpm} 0.04\%; P = 1.68 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) and lower fat (β {\textpm} SE: -0.21 {\textpm} 0.04\%; P = 1.57 {\texttimes} 10(-9)) consumption. A candidate gene in this region, fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), encodes a fibroblast growth factor involved in glucose and lipid metabolism. The variants in this locus were associated with circulating FGF21 protein concentrations (P < 0.05) but not mRNA concentrations in blood or brain. The body mass index (BMI)-increasing allele of the FTO variant (rs1421085) was associated with higher protein intake (β {\textpm} SE: 0.10 {\textpm} 0.02\%; P = 9.96 {\texttimes} 10(-10)), independent of BMI (after adjustment for BMI, β {\textpm} SE: 0.08 {\textpm} 0.02\%; P = 3.15 {\texttimes} 10(-7)).

CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that variants in genes involved in nutrient metabolism and obesity are associated with macronutrient consumption in humans. Trials related to this study were registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00005131 (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities), NCT00005133 (Cardiovascular Health Study), NCT00005136 (Family Heart Study), NCT00005121 (Framingham Heart Study), NCT00083369 (Genetic and Environmental Determinants of Triglycerides), NCT01331512 (InCHIANTI Study), and NCT00005487 (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis).

}, keywords = {Alleles, Atherosclerosis, Body Mass Index, Dietary Carbohydrates, Dietary Fats, Dietary Proteins, Energy Intake, European Continental Ancestry Group, Fibroblast Growth Factors, Follow-Up Studies, Gene-Environment Interaction, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Life Style, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prospective Studies, Quantitative Trait Loci, Surveys and Questionnaires}, issn = {1938-3207}, doi = {10.3945/ajcn.112.052183}, author = {Tanaka, Toshiko and Ngwa, Julius S and van Rooij, Frank J A and Zillikens, M Carola and Wojczynski, Mary K and Frazier-Wood, Alexis C and Houston, Denise K and Kanoni, Stavroula and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Mikkil{\"a}, Vera and Renstrom, Frida and Sonestedt, Emily and Zhao, Jing Hua and Chu, Audrey Y and Qi, Lu and Chasman, Daniel I and de Oliveira Otto, Marcia C and Dhurandhar, Emily J and Feitosa, Mary F and Johansson, Ingegerd and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Lohman, Kurt K and Manichaikul, Ani and McKeown, Nicola M and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Singleton, Andrew and Stirrups, Kathleen and Viikari, Jorma and Ye, Zheng and Bandinelli, Stefania and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Deloukas, Panos and Forouhi, Nita G and Hofman, Albert and Liu, Yongmei and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and North, Kari E and Dimitriou, Maria and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Langenberg, Claudia and Ordovas, Jose M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hu, Frank B and Kalafati, Ioanna-Panagiota and Raitakari, Olli and Franco, Oscar H and Johnson, Andrew and Emilsson, Valur and Schrack, Jennifer A and Semba, Richard D and Siscovick, David S and Arnett, Donna K and Borecki, Ingrid B and Franks, Paul W and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Loos, Ruth J F and Orho-Melander, Marju and Rotter, Jerome I and Wareham, Nicholas J and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Ferrucci, Luigi and Dedoussis, George and Cupples, L Adrienne and Nettleton, Jennifer A} } @article {6068, title = {Genome-wide study identifies two loci associated with lung function decline in mild to moderate COPD.}, journal = {Hum Genet}, volume = {132}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jan}, pages = {79-90}, abstract = {

Accelerated lung function decline is a key COPD phenotype; however, its genetic control remains largely unknown. We performed a genome-wide association study using the Illumina Human660W-Quad v.1_A BeadChip. Generalized estimation equations were used to assess genetic contributions to lung function decline over a 5-year period in 4,048 European American Lung Health Study participants with largely mild COPD. Genotype imputation was performed using reference HapMap II data. To validate regions meeting genome-wide significance, replication of top SNPs was attempted in independent cohorts. Three genes (TMEM26, ANK3 and FOXA1) within the regions of interest were selected for tissue expression studies using immunohistochemistry. Two intergenic SNPs (rs10761570, rs7911302) on chromosome 10 and one SNP on chromosome 14 (rs177852) met genome-wide significance after Bonferroni. Further support for the chromosome 10 region was obtained by imputation, the most significantly associated imputed SNPs (rs10761571, rs7896712) being flanked by observed markers rs10761570 and rs7911302. Results were not replicated in four general population cohorts or a smaller cohort of subjects with moderate to severe COPD; however, we show novel expression of genes near regions of significantly associated SNPS, including TMEM26 and FOXA1 in airway epithelium and lung parenchyma, and ANK3 in alveolar macrophages. Levels of expression were associated with lung function and COPD status. We identified two novel regions associated with lung function decline in mild COPD. Genes within these regions were expressed in relevant lung cells and their expression related to airflow limitation suggesting they may represent novel candidate genes for COPD susceptibility.

}, keywords = {Adult, Ankyrins, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 10, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 14, Cohort Studies, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 3-alpha, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Lung, Male, Membrane Proteins, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive}, issn = {1432-1203}, doi = {10.1007/s00439-012-1219-6}, author = {Hansel, Nadia N and Ruczinski, Ingo and Rafaels, Nicholas and Sin, Don D and Daley, Denise and Malinina, Alla and Huang, Lili and Sandford, Andrew and Murray, Tanda and Kim, Yoonhee and Vergara, Candelaria and Heckbert, Susan R and Psaty, Bruce M and Li, Guo and Elliott, W Mark and Aminuddin, Farzian and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Doheny, Kimberly and Scott, Alan F and Boezen, H Marike and Postma, Dirkje S and Smolonska, Joanna and Zanen, Pieter and Mohamed Hoesein, Firdaus A and de Koning, Harry J and Crystal, Ronald G and Tanaka, Toshiko and Ferrucci, Luigi and Silverman, Edwin and Wan, Emily and Vestbo, Jorgen and Lomas, David A and Connett, John and Wise, Robert A and Neptune, Enid R and Mathias, Rasika A and Par{\'e}, Peter D and Beaty, Terri H and Barnes, Kathleen C} } @article {5879, title = {Higher magnesium intake is associated with lower fasting glucose and insulin, with no evidence of interaction with select genetic loci, in a meta-analysis of 15 CHARGE Consortium Studies.}, journal = {J Nutr}, volume = {143}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Mar}, pages = {345-53}, abstract = {

Favorable associations between magnesium intake and glycemic traits, such as fasting glucose and insulin, are observed in observational and clinical studies, but whether genetic variation affects these associations is largely unknown. We hypothesized that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with either glycemic traits or magnesium metabolism affect the association between magnesium intake and fasting glucose and insulin. Fifteen studies from the CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) Consortium provided data from up to 52,684 participants of European descent without known diabetes. In fixed-effects meta-analyses, we quantified 1) cross-sectional associations of dietary magnesium intake with fasting glucose (mmol/L) and insulin (ln-pmol/L) and 2) interactions between magnesium intake and SNPs related to fasting glucose (16 SNPs), insulin (2 SNPs), or magnesium (8 SNPs) on fasting glucose and insulin. After adjustment for age, sex, energy intake, BMI, and behavioral risk factors, magnesium (per 50-mg/d increment) was inversely associated with fasting glucose [β = -0.009 mmol/L (95\% CI: -0.013, -0.005), P < 0.0001] and insulin [-0.020 ln-pmol/L (95\% CI: -0.024, -0.017), P < 0.0001]. No magnesium-related SNP or interaction between any SNP and magnesium reached significance after correction for multiple testing. However, rs2274924 in magnesium transporter-encoding TRPM6 showed a nominal association (uncorrected P = 0.03) with glucose, and rs11558471 in SLC30A8 and rs3740393 near CNNM2 showed a nominal interaction (uncorrected, both P = 0.02) with magnesium on glucose. Consistent with other studies, a higher magnesium intake was associated with lower fasting glucose and insulin. Nominal evidence of TRPM6 influence and magnesium interaction with select loci suggests that further investigation is warranted.

}, keywords = {Blood Glucose, Female, Genetic Loci, Humans, Insulin, Magnesium, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Trace Elements, TRPM Cation Channels}, issn = {1541-6100}, doi = {10.3945/jn.112.172049}, author = {Hruby, Adela and Ngwa, Julius S and Renstrom, Frida and Wojczynski, Mary K and Ganna, Andrea and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Houston, Denise K and Jacques, Paul F and Kanoni, Stavroula and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Manichaikul, Ani and North, Kari E and Ntalla, Ioanna and Sonestedt, Emily and Tanaka, Toshiko and van Rooij, Frank J A and Bandinelli, Stefania and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Grigoriou, Efi and Johansson, Ingegerd and Lohman, Kurt K and Pankow, James S and Raitakari, Olli T and Riserus, Ulf and Yannakoulia, Mary and Zillikens, M Carola and Hassanali, Neelam and Liu, Yongmei and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Papoutsakis, Constantina and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Viikari, Jorma and Groves, Christopher J and Hofman, Albert and Lind, Lars and McCarthy, Mark I and Mikkil{\"a}, Vera and Mukamal, Kenneth and Franco, Oscar H and Borecki, Ingrid B and Cupples, L Adrienne and Dedoussis, George V and Ferrucci, Luigi and Hu, Frank B and Ingelsson, Erik and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kao, W H Linda and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Orho-Melander, Marju and Prokopenko, Inga and Rotter, Jerome I and Siscovick, David S and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Franks, Paul W and Meigs, James B and McKeown, Nicola M and Nettleton, Jennifer A} } @article {5854, title = {Hypertension and low HDL cholesterol were associated with reduced kidney function across the age spectrum: a collaborative study.}, journal = {Ann Epidemiol}, volume = {23}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Mar}, pages = {106-11}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: To determine if the associations among established risk factors and reduced kidney function vary by age.

METHODS: We pooled cross-sectional data from 14,788 nondiabetics aged 40 to 100 years in 4 studies: Cardiovascular Health Study, Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study, Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and Prevention of Renal and Vascular End-Stage Disease cohort.

RESULTS: Hypertension and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol were associated with reduced cystatin C-based estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) across the age spectrum. In adjusted analyses, hypertension was associated with a 2.3 (95\% confidence interval [CI], 0.1, 4.4), 5.1 (95\% CI, 4.1, 6.1), and 6.9 (95\%~CI, 3.0, 10.4) mL/min/1.73 m(2) lower eGFR in participants 40 to 59, 60 to 79, and at least 80~years, respectively (P for interaction < .001). The association of low HDL cholesterol with reduced kidney function was also greater in the older age groups: 4.9 (95\% CI, 3.5, 6.3), 7.1 (95\% CI, 6.0, 8.3), 8.9 (95\% CI, 5.4, 11.9) mL/min/1.73 m(2) (P for interaction < .001). Smoking and obesity were associated with reduced kidney function in participants under 80 years. All estimates of the potential population impact of the risk factors were modest.

CONCLUSIONS: Hypertension, obesity, smoking, and low HDL cholesterol are modestly associated with reduced kidney function in nondiabetics. The associations of hypertension and HDL cholesterol with reduced kidney function seem to be stronger in older adults.

}, keywords = {Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Causality, Cholesterol, LDL, Cohort Studies, Comorbidity, Cross-Sectional Studies, Cystatin C, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Kidney Function Tests, Male, Netherlands, Obesity, Prevalence, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic, Risk Factors, Smoking, United States}, issn = {1873-2585}, doi = {10.1016/j.annepidem.2012.12.004}, author = {Odden, Michelle C and Tager, Ira B and Gansevoort, Ron T and Bakker, Stephan J L and Fried, Linda F and Newman, Anne B and Katz, Ronit and Satterfield, Suzanne and Harris, Tamara B and Sarnak, Mark J and Siscovick, David and Shlipak, Michael G} } @article {8015, title = {Identification of heart rate-associated loci and their effects on cardiac conduction and rhythm disorders.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {45}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jun}, pages = {621-31}, abstract = {

Elevated resting heart rate is associated with greater risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality. In a 2-stage meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in up to 181,171 individuals, we identified 14 new loci associated with heart rate and confirmed associations with all 7 previously established loci. Experimental downregulation of gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster and Danio rerio identified 20 genes at 11 loci that are relevant for heart rate regulation and highlight a role for genes involved in signal transmission, embryonic cardiac development and the pathophysiology of dilated cardiomyopathy, congenital heart failure and/or sudden cardiac death. In addition, genetic susceptibility to increased heart rate is associated with altered cardiac conduction and reduced risk of sick sinus syndrome, and both heart rate-increasing and heart rate-decreasing variants associate with risk of atrial fibrillation. Our findings provide fresh insights into the mechanisms regulating heart rate and identify new therapeutic targets.

}, keywords = {Animals, Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Gene Frequency, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heart Conduction System, Heart Rate, Humans, Metabolic Networks and Pathways, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2610}, author = {den Hoed, Marcel and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Brundel, Bianca J J M and Peal, David S and Evans, David M and Nolte, Ilja M and Segr{\`e}, Ayellet V and Holm, Hilma and Handsaker, Robert E and Westra, Harm-Jan and Johnson, Toby and Isaacs, Aaron and Yang, Jian and Lundby, Alicia and Zhao, Jing Hua and Kim, Young Jin and Go, Min Jin and Almgren, Peter and Bochud, Murielle and Boucher, Gabrielle and Cornelis, Marilyn C and Gudbjartsson, Daniel and Hadley, David and van der Harst, Pim and Hayward, Caroline and den Heijer, Martin and Igl, Wilmar and Jackson, Anne U and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Kemp, John P and Kristiansson, Kati and Ladenvall, Claes and Lorentzon, Mattias and Montasser, May E and Njajou, Omer T and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and St Pourcain, Beate and Rankinen, Tuomo and Salo, Perttu and Tanaka, Toshiko and Timpson, Nicholas J and Vitart, Veronique and Waite, Lindsay and Wheeler, William and Zhang, Weihua and Draisma, Harmen H M and Feitosa, Mary F and Kerr, Kathleen F and Lind, Penelope A and Mihailov, Evelin and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Song, Ci and Weedon, Michael N and Xie, Weijia and Yengo, Loic and Absher, Devin and Albert, Christine M and Alonso, Alvaro and Arking, Dan E and de Bakker, Paul I W and Balkau, Beverley and Barlassina, Cristina and Benaglio, Paola and Bis, Joshua C and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and Brage, S{\o}ren and Chanock, Stephen J and Chines, Peter S and Chung, Mina and Darbar, Dawood and Dina, Christian and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Elliott, Paul and Felix, Stephan B and Fischer, Krista and Fuchsberger, Christian and de Geus, Eco J C and Goyette, Philippe and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Havulinna, Aki S and Heckbert, Susan R and Hicks, Andrew A and Hofman, Albert and Holewijn, Suzanne and Hoogstra-Berends, Femke and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Jensen, Majken K and Johansson, Asa and Junttila, Juhani and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Kanon, Bart and Ketkar, Shamika and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Knowles, Joshua W and Kooner, Angrad S and Kors, Jan A and Kumari, Meena and Milani, Lili and Laiho, P{\"a}ivi and Lakatta, Edward G and Langenberg, Claudia and Leusink, Maarten and Liu, Yongmei and Luben, Robert N and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Lynch, Stacey N and Markus, Marcello R P and Marques-Vidal, Pedro and Mateo Leach, Irene and McArdle, Wendy L and McCarroll, Steven A and Medland, Sarah E and Miller, Kathryn A and Montgomery, Grant W and Morrison, Alanna C and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Navarro, Pau and Nelis, Mari and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Ong, Ken K and Newman, Anne B and Peters, Annette and Polasek, Ozren and Pouta, Anneli and Pramstaller, Peter P and Psaty, Bruce M and Rao, Dabeeru C and Ring, Susan M and Rossin, Elizabeth J and Rudan, Diana and Sanna, Serena and Scott, Robert A and Sehmi, Jaban S and Sharp, Stephen and Shin, Jordan T and Singleton, Andrew B and Smith, Albert V and Soranzo, Nicole and Spector, Tim D and Stewart, Chip and Stringham, Heather M and Tarasov, Kirill V and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Whitfield, John B and Wijmenga, Cisca and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilson, James F and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Wong, Andrew and Wong, Quenna and Jamshidi, Yalda and Zitting, Paavo and Boer, Jolanda M A and Boomsma, Dorret I and Borecki, Ingrid B and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Ekelund, Ulf and Forouhi, Nita G and Froguel, Philippe and Hingorani, Aroon and Ingelsson, Erik and Kivimaki, Mika and Kronmal, Richard A and Kuh, Diana and Lind, Lars and Martin, Nicholas G and Oostra, Ben A and Pedersen, Nancy L and Quertermous, Thomas and Rotter, Jerome I and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Verschuren, W M Monique and Walker, Mark and Albanes, Demetrius and Arnar, David O and Assimes, Themistocles L and Bandinelli, Stefania and Boehnke, Michael and de Boer, Rudolf A and Bouchard, Claude and Caulfield, W L Mark and Chambers, John C and Curhan, Gary and Cusi, Daniele and Eriksson, Johan and Ferrucci, Luigi and van Gilst, Wiek H and Glorioso, Nicola and de Graaf, Jacqueline and Groop, Leif and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hsueh, Wen-Chi and Hu, Frank B and Huikuri, Heikki V and Hunter, David J and Iribarren, Carlos and Isomaa, Bo and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Jula, Antti and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and van der Klauw, Melanie M and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kraft, Peter and Iacoviello, Licia and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lokki, Marja-Liisa L and Mitchell, Braxton D and Navis, Gerjan and Nieminen, Markku S and Ohlsson, Claes and Poulter, Neil R and Qi, Lu and Raitakari, Olli T and Rimm, Eric B and Rioux, John D and Rizzi, Federica and Rudan, Igor and Salomaa, Veikko and Sever, Peter S and Shields, Denis C and Shuldiner, Alan R and Sinisalo, Juha and Stanton, Alice V and Stolk, Ronald P and Strachan, David P and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tuomilehto, Jaako and van Veldhuisen, Dirk J and Virtamo, Jarmo and Viikari, Jorma and Vollenweider, Peter and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Widen, Elisabeth and Cho, Yoon Shin and Olsen, Jesper V and Visscher, Peter M and Willer, Cristen and Franke, Lude and Erdmann, Jeanette and Thompson, John R and Pfeufer, Arne and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Ellinor, Patrick T and Stricker, Bruno H Ch and Metspalu, Andres and Perola, Markus and Beckmann, Jacques S and Smith, George Davey and Stefansson, Kari and Wareham, Nicholas J and Munroe, Patricia B and Sibon, Ody C M and Milan, David J and Snieder, Harold and Samani, Nilesh J and Loos, Ruth J F} } @article {6167, title = {Impact of inflammatory biomarkers on relation of high density lipoprotein-cholesterol with incident coronary heart disease: cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Atherosclerosis}, volume = {231}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Dec}, pages = {246-51}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory factors and low HDL-C relate to CHD risk, but whether inflammation attenuates any protective association of high HDL-C is unknown.

OBJECTIVE: Investigate inflammatory markers{\textquoteright} individual and collective impact on the association of HDL-C with incident coronary heart disease (CHD).

METHODS: In 3888 older adults without known cardiovascular disease (CVD), we examined if the inflammatory markers C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA$_{2}$) modify the relation of HDL-C with CHD. HDL-C, CRP, IL-6, and Lp-PLA$_{2}$ values were grouped as using gender-specific tertiles. Also, an inflammation index of z-score sums for CRP, IL-6, and Lp-PLA$_{2}$ was categorized into tertiles. We calculated CHD incidence for each HDL-C/inflammation group and performed Cox regression, adjusted for standard CVD risk factors and triglycerides to examine the relationship of combined HDL-C-inflammation groups with incident events.

RESULTS: CHD incidence (per 1000 person years) was higher for higher levels of CRP, IL-6, and the index, and lower for higher levels of HDL-C. Compared to high HDL-C/low-inflammation categories (referent), adjusted HRs for incident CHD were increased for those with high HDL-C and high CRP (HR = 1.50, p < 0.01) or highest IL-6 tertile (HR = 1.40, p < 0.05), but not with highest Lp-PLA$_{2}$ tertile. Higher CHD incidence was similarly seen for those with intermediate or low HDL-C accompanied by high CRP, high IL-6, or a high inflammatory index.

CONCLUSION: The protective relation of high HDL-C for incident CHD appears to be attenuated by greater inflammation.

}, keywords = {1-Alkyl-2-acetylglycerophosphocholine Esterase, African Americans, Aged, Biomarkers, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cholesterol, HDL, Coronary Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Humans, Incidence, Inflammation, Interleukin-6, Male, Middle Aged, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors}, issn = {1879-1484}, doi = {10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2013.08.036}, author = {Tehrani, David M and Gardin, Julius M and Yanez, David and Hirsch, Calvin H and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Stein, Phyllis K and Wong, Nathan D} } @article {5993, title = {Inflammation and sudden cardiac death in a community-based population of older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Heart Rhythm}, volume = {10}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Oct}, pages = {1425-32}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Inflammation is linked to adverse cardiovascular events, but its association with sudden cardiac death (SCD) has been controversial. Older subjects, who are at particular risk for SCD, were underrepresented in previous studies addressing this issue.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to study the association between inflammation and SCD in a community-based population of older adults.

METHODS: In the Cardiovascular Health Study, 5806 and 5382 participants had measurements of C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL6), respectively, and were followed for up to 17 years. SCD risk as a function of baseline IL-6 and CRP was assessed in the overall population and in a group of participants without known prevalent cardiac disease.

RESULTS: In univariate analyses, both IL-6 (hazard ratio [HR] 1.79 for 1+ log IL-6, 95\% confidence interval [CI] 1.50-2.13; 5th vs 1st quintile HR 3.36, 95\% CI 2.24-5.05) and CRP (HR 1.31 for 1+ log CRP, 95\% CI 1.18-1.45; 5th vs 1st quintile HR 2.00, 95\% CI 1.40-2.87) were associated with SCD risk. In covariate-adjusted analyses, accounting for baseline risk factors, incident myocardial infarction, and heart failure, the association with SCD risk persisted for IL-6 (HR 1.26 for 1+ log IL-6, 95\% CI 1.02-1.56; 5th vs 1st quintile HR 1.63, 95\% CI 1.03-2.56) but was significantly attenuated for CRP (HR 1.13 for 1+ log CRP, 95\% CI 1.00-1.28; 5th vs 1st quintile HR 1.34, 95\% CI 0.88-2.05). Similar findings were observed in participants without prevalent cardiac disease.

CONCLUSION: Greater burden of inflammation, assessed by IL-6 levels, is associated with SCD risk beyond traditional risk factors, incident myocardial infarction, and heart failure.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Biomarkers, C-Reactive Protein, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, Female, Humans, Inflammation, Interleukin-6, Male, Risk Factors}, issn = {1556-3871}, doi = {10.1016/j.hrthm.2013.07.004}, author = {Hussein, Ayman A and Gottdiener, John S and Bartz, Traci M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and DeFilippi, Christopher and See, Vincent and Deo, Rajat and Siscovick, David and Stein, Phyllis K and Lloyd-Jones, Donald} } @article {6630, title = {The influence of obesity-related single nucleotide polymorphisms on BMI across the life course: the PAGE study.}, journal = {Diabetes}, volume = {62}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 May}, pages = {1763-7}, abstract = {

Evidence is limited as to whether heritable risk of obesity varies throughout adulthood. Among >34,000 European Americans, aged 18-100 years, from multiple U.S. studies in the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Consortium, we examined evidence for heterogeneity in the associations of five established obesity risk variants (near FTO, GNPDA2, MTCH2, TMEM18, and NEGR1) with BMI across four distinct epochs of adulthood: 1) young adulthood (ages 18-25 years), adulthood (ages 26-49 years), middle-age adulthood (ages 50-69 years), and older adulthood (ages >=70 years); or 2) by menopausal status in women and stratification by age 50 years in men. Summary-effect estimates from each meta-analysis were compared for heterogeneity across the life epochs. We found heterogeneity in the association of the FTO (rs8050136) variant with BMI across the four adulthood epochs (P = 0.0006), with larger effects in young adults relative to older adults (β [SE] = 1.17 [0.45] vs. 0.09 [0.09] kg/m{\texttwosuperior}, respectively, per A allele) and smaller intermediate effects. We found no evidence for heterogeneity in the association of GNPDA2, MTCH2, TMEM18, and NEGR1 with BMI across adulthood. Genetic predisposition to obesity may have greater effects on body weight in young compared with older adulthood for FTO, suggesting changes by age, generation, or secular trends. Future research should compare and contrast our findings with results using longitudinal data.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Body Mass Index, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Association Studies, Health Surveys, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proteins, United States, Young Adult}, issn = {1939-327X}, doi = {10.2337/db12-0863}, author = {Graff, Mariaelisa and Gordon-Larsen, Penny and Lim, Unhee and Fowke, Jay H and Love, Shelly-Ann and Fesinmeyer, Megan and Wilkens, Lynne R and Vertilus, Shawyntee and Ritchie, Marilyn D and Prentice, Ross L and Pankow, Jim and Monroe, Kristine and Manson, JoAnn E and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Kuller, Lewis H and Kolonel, Laurence N and Hong, Ching P and Henderson, Brian E and Haessler, Jeff and Gross, Myron D and Goodloe, Robert and Franceschini, Nora and Carlson, Christopher S and Buyske, Steven and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Hindorff, Lucia A and Matise, Tara C and Crawford, Dana C and Haiman, Christopher A and Peters, Ulrike and North, Kari E} } @article {5875, title = {Insights into the genetic architecture of early stage age-related macular degeneration: a genome-wide association study meta-analysis.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {8}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e53830}, abstract = {

Genetic factors explain a majority of risk variance for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). While genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for late AMD implicate genes in complement, inflammatory and lipid pathways, the genetic architecture of early AMD has been relatively under studied. We conducted a GWAS meta-analysis of early AMD, including 4,089 individuals with prevalent signs of early AMD (soft drusen and/or retinal pigment epithelial changes) and 20,453 individuals without these signs. For various published late AMD risk loci, we also compared effect sizes between early and late AMD using an additional 484 individuals with prevalent late AMD. GWAS meta-analysis confirmed previously reported association of variants at the complement factor H (CFH) (peak P = 1.5{\texttimes}10(-31)) and age-related maculopathy susceptibility 2 (ARMS2) (P = 4.3{\texttimes}10(-24)) loci, and suggested Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) polymorphisms (rs2075650; P = 1.1{\texttimes}10(-6)) associated with early AMD. Other possible loci that did not reach GWAS significance included variants in the zinc finger protein gene GLI3 (rs2049622; P = 8.9{\texttimes}10(-6)) and upstream of GLI2 (rs6721654; P = 6.5{\texttimes}10(-6)), encoding retinal Sonic hedgehog signalling regulators, and in the tyrosinase (TYR) gene (rs621313; P = 3.5{\texttimes}10(-6)), involved in melanin biosynthesis. For a range of published, late AMD risk loci, estimated effect sizes were significantly lower for early than late AMD. This study confirms the involvement of multiple established AMD risk variants in early AMD, but suggests weaker genetic effects on the risk of early AMD relative to late AMD. Several biological processes were suggested to be potentially specific for early AMD, including pathways regulating RPE cell melanin content and signalling pathways potentially involved in retinal regeneration, generating hypotheses for further investigation.

}, keywords = {Apolipoproteins E, Complement Factor H, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Kruppel-Like Transcription Factors, Macular Degeneration, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proteins, Risk Factors, Zinc Finger Protein Gli3}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0053830}, author = {Holliday, Elizabeth G and Smith, Albert V and Cornes, Belinda K and Buitendijk, Gabri{\"e}lle H S and Jensen, Richard A and Sim, Xueling and Aspelund, Thor and Aung, Tin and Baird, Paul N and Boerwinkle, Eric and Cheng, Ching Yu and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara and Hewitt, Alex W and Inouye, Michael and Jonasson, Fridbert and Klein, Barbara E K and Launer, Lenore and Li, Xiaohui and Liew, Gerald and Lumley, Thomas and McElduff, Patrick and McKnight, Barbara and Mitchell, Paul and Psaty, Bruce M and Rochtchina, Elena and Rotter, Jerome I and Scott, Rodney J and Tay, Wanting and Taylor, Kent and Teo, Yik Ying and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Viswanathan, Ananth and Xie, Sophia and Vingerling, Johannes R and Klaver, Caroline C W and Tai, E Shyong and Siscovick, David and Klein, Ronald and Cotch, Mary Frances and Wong, Tien Y and Attia, John and Wang, Jie Jin} } @article {6627, title = {Investigation of gene-by-sex interactions for lipid traits in diverse populations from the population architecture using genomics and epidemiology study.}, journal = {BMC Genet}, volume = {14}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {33}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglyceride (TG) levels are influenced by both genes and the environment. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified ~100 common genetic variants associated with HDL-C, LDL-C, and/or TG levels, mostly in populations of European descent, but little is known about the modifiers of these associations. Here, we investigated whether GWAS-identified SNPs for lipid traits exhibited heterogeneity by sex in the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study.

RESULTS: A sex-stratified meta-analysis was performed for 49 GWAS-identified SNPs for fasting HDL-C, LDL-C, and ln(TG) levels among adults self-identified as European American (25,013). Heterogeneity by sex was established when phet < 0.001. There was evidence for heterogeneity by sex for two SNPs for ln(TG) in the APOA1/C3/A4/A5/BUD13 gene cluster: rs28927680 (p(het) = 7.4 x 10(-7)) and rs3135506 (p(het) = 4.3 x 10(-4)one SNP in PLTP for HDL levels (rs7679; p(het) = 9.9 x 10(-4)), and one in HMGCR for LDL levels (rs12654264; p(het) = 3.1 x 10(-5)). We replicated heterogeneity by sex in five of seventeen loci previously reported by genome-wide studies (binomial p = 0.0009). We also present results for other racial/ethnic groups in the supplementary materials, to provide a resource for future meta-analyses.

CONCLUSIONS: We provide further evidence for sex-specific effects of SNPs in the APOA1/C3/A4/A5/BUD13 gene cluster, PLTP, and HMGCR on fasting triglyceride levels in European Americans from the PAGE study. Our findings emphasize the need for considering context-specific effects when interpreting genetic associations emerging from GWAS, and also highlight the difficulties in replicating interaction effects across studies and across racial/ethnic groups.

}, keywords = {Female, Genetic Heterogeneity, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lipids, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Population Groups}, issn = {1471-2156}, doi = {10.1186/1471-2156-14-33}, author = {Taylor, Kira C and Carty, Cara L and Dumitrescu, Logan and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Cole, Shelley A and Hindorff, Lucia and Schumacher, Fred R and Wilkens, Lynne R and Shohet, Ralph V and Quibrera, P Miguel and Johnson, Karen C and Henderson, Brian E and Haessler, Jeff and Franceschini, Nora and Eaton, Charles B and Duggan, David J and Cochran, Barbara and Cheng, Iona and Carlson, Chris S and Brown-Gentry, Kristin and Anderson, Garnet and Ambite, Jose Luis and Haiman, Christopher and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Kooperberg, Charles and Crawford, Dana C and Buyske, Steven and North, Kari E and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {6108, title = {Ischemic stroke is associated with the ABO locus: the EuroCLOT study.}, journal = {Ann Neurol}, volume = {73}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jan}, pages = {16-31}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: End-stage coagulation and the structure/function of fibrin are implicated in the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke. We explored whether genetic variants associated with end-stage coagulation in healthy volunteers account for the genetic predisposition to ischemic stroke and examined their influence on stroke subtype.

METHODS: Common genetic variants identified through genome-wide association studies of coagulation factors and fibrin structure/function in healthy twins (n = 2,100, Stage 1) were examined in ischemic stroke (n = 4,200 cases) using 2 independent samples of European ancestry (Stage 2). A third clinical collection having stroke subtyping (total 8,900 cases, 55,000 controls) was used for replication (Stage 3).

RESULTS: Stage 1 identified 524 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 23 linkage disequilibrium blocks having significant association (p < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) with 1 or more coagulation/fibrin phenotypes. The most striking associations included SNP rs5985 with factor XIII activity (p = 2.6 {\texttimes} 10(-186)), rs10665 with FVII (p = 2.4 {\texttimes} 10(-47)), and rs505922 in the ABO gene with both von Willebrand factor (p = 4.7 {\texttimes} 10(-57)) and factor VIII (p = 1.2 {\texttimes} 10(-36)). In Stage 2, the 23 independent SNPs were examined in stroke cases/noncases using MOnica Risk, Genetics, Archiving and Monograph (MORGAM) and Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 collections. SNP rs505922 was nominally associated with ischemic stroke (odds ratio = 0.94, 95\% confidence interval = 0.88-0.99, p = 0.023). Independent replication in Meta-Stroke confirmed the rs505922 association with stroke, beta (standard error, SE) = 0.066 (0.02), p = 0.001, a finding specific to large-vessel and cardioembolic stroke (p = 0.001 and p = < 0.001, respectively) but not seen with small-vessel stroke (p = 0.811).

INTERPRETATION: ABO gene variants are associated with large-vessel and cardioembolic stroke but not small-vessel disease. This work sheds light on the different pathogenic mechanisms underpinning stroke subtype.

}, keywords = {ABO Blood-Group System, Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Blood Coagulation, Brain Ischemia, Cohort Studies, Europe, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Stroke, Young Adult}, issn = {1531-8249}, doi = {10.1002/ana.23838}, author = {Williams, Frances M K and Carter, Angela M and Hysi, Pirro G and Surdulescu, Gabriela and Hodgkiss, Dylan and Soranzo, Nicole and Traylor, Matthew and Bevan, Steve and Dichgans, Martin and Rothwell, Peter M W and Sudlow, Cathie and Farrall, Martin and Silander, Kaisa and Kaunisto, Mari and Wagner, Peter and Saarela, Olli and Kuulasmaa, Kari and Virtamo, Jarmo and Salomaa, Veikko and Amouyel, Philippe and Arveiler, Dominique and Ferrieres, Jean and Wiklund, Per-Gunnar and Ikram, M Arfan and Hofman, Albert and Boncoraglio, Giorgio B and Parati, Eugenio A and Helgadottir, Anna and Gretarsdottir, Solveig and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Stefansson, Kari and Seshadri, Sudha and DeStefano, Anita and Gschwendtner, Andreas and Psaty, Bruce and Longstreth, Will and Mitchell, Braxton D and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Clarke, Robert and Ferrario, Marco and Bis, Joshua C and Levi, Christopher and Attia, John and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Scott, Rodney J and Fornage, Myriam and Sharma, Pankaj and Furie, Karen L and Rosand, Jonathan and Nalls, Mike and Meschia, James and Mosely, Thomas H and Evans, Alun and Palotie, Aarno and Markus, Hugh S and Grant, Peter J and Spector, Tim D} } @article {6094, title = {Lack of associations of ten candidate coronary heart disease risk genetic variants and subclinical atherosclerosis in four US populations: the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study.}, journal = {Atherosclerosis}, volume = {228}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jun}, pages = {390-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: A number of genetic variants have been discovered by recent genome-wide association studies for their associations with clinical coronary heart disease (CHD). However, it is unclear whether these variants are also associated with the development of CHD as measured by subclinical atherosclerosis phenotypes, ankle brachial index (ABI), carotid artery intima-media thickness (cIMT) and carotid plaque.

METHODS: Ten CHD risk single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped in individuals of European American (EA), African American (AA), American Indian (AI), and Mexican American (MA) ancestry in the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study. In each individual study, we performed linear or logistic regression to examine population-specific associations between SNPs and ABI, common and internal cIMT, and plaque. The results from individual studies were meta-analyzed using a fixed effect inverse variance weighted model.

RESULTS: None of the ten SNPs was significantly associated with ABI and common or internal cIMT, after Bonferroni correction. In the sample of 13,337 EA, 3809 AA, and 5353 AI individuals with carotid plaque measurement, the GCKR SNP rs780094 was significantly associated with the presence of plaque in AI only (OR~=~1.32, 95\% confidence interval: 1.17, 1.49, P~=~1.08~{\texttimes}~10(-5)), but not in the other populations (P~=~0.90 in EA and P~=~0.99 in AA). A 9p21 region SNP, rs1333049, was nominally associated with plaque in EA (OR~=~1.07, P~=~0.02) and in AI (OR~=~1.10, P~=~0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: We identified a significant association between rs780094 and plaque in AI populations, which needs to be replicated in future studies. There was little evidence that the index CHD risk variants identified through genome-wide association studies in EA influence the development of CHD through subclinical atherosclerosis as assessed by cIMT and ABI across ancestries.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Ankle Brachial Index, Asymptomatic Diseases, Carotid Artery Diseases, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Coronary Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Indians, North American, Linear Models, Logistic Models, Male, Mexican Americans, Middle Aged, Odds Ratio, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Predictive Value of Tests, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {1879-1484}, doi = {10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2013.02.038}, author = {Zhang, Lili and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Wassel, Christina L and Roman, Mary J and North, Kari E and Crawford, Dana C and Boston, Jonathan and Brown-Gentry, Kristin D and Cole, Shelley A and Deelman, Ewa and Goodloe, Robert and Wilson, Sarah and Heiss, Gerardo and Jenny, Nancy S and Jorgensen, Neal W and Matise, Tara C and McClellan, Bob E and Nato, Alejandro Q and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Franceschini, Nora and Kao, W H Linda} } @article {5847, title = {Lifetime risk for heart failure among white and black Americans: cardiovascular lifetime risk pooling project.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {61}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Apr 09}, pages = {1510-7}, chapter = {1510}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to estimate lifetime risk for heart failure (HF) by sex and race.

BACKGROUND: Prior estimates of lifetime risk for developing HF range from 20\% to 33\% in predominantly white cohorts. Short-term risks for HF appear higher for blacks than whites, but only limited comparisons of lifetime risk for HF have been made.

METHODS: Using public-release and internal datasets from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-sponsored cohorts, we estimated lifetime risks for developing HF to age 95 years, with death free of HF as the competing event, among participants in the CHA (Chicago Heart Association Detection Project in Industry), ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities), and CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study) cohorts.

RESULTS: There were 39,578 participants (33,652 [85\%] white; 5,926 [15\%] black) followed for 716,976 person-years; 5,983 participants developed HF. At age 45 years, lifetime risks for HF through age 95 years in CHA and CHS were 30\% to 42\% in white men, 20\% to 29\% in black men, 32\% to 39\% in white women, and 24\% to 46\% in black women. Results for ARIC demonstrated similar lifetime risks for HF in blacks and whites through age 75 years (limit of follow-up). Lifetime risk for HF was higher with higher blood pressure and body mass index at all ages in both blacks and whites, and did not diminish substantially with advancing index age.

CONCLUSIONS: These are among the first data to compare lifetime risks for HF between blacks and whites. Lifetime risks for HF are high and appear similar for black and white women, yet are somewhat lower for black compared with white men due to competing risks.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, African Americans, Age Factors, Aged, Anthropometry, Body Mass Index, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Health Surveys, Heart Failure, Humans, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Male, Middle Aged, Predictive Value of Tests, Prognosis, Risk Assessment, Severity of Illness Index, Sex Factors, Survival Analysis, Time Factors, United States, Young Adult}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2013.01.022}, author = {Huffman, Mark D and Berry, Jarett D and Ning, Hongyan and Dyer, Alan R and Garside, Daniel B and Cai, Xuan and Daviglus, Martha L and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M} } @article {6281, title = {Lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 variants and dietary fatty acids: meta-analysis of European origin and African American studies.}, journal = {Int J Obes (Lond)}, volume = {37}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Sep}, pages = {1211-20}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Low-density lipoprotein-related receptor protein 1 (LRP1) is a multi-functional endocytic receptor and signaling molecule that is expressed in adipose and the hypothalamus. Evidence for a role of LRP1 in adiposity is accumulating from animal and in vitro models, but data from human studies are limited. The study objectives were to evaluate (i) relationships between LRP1 genotype and anthropometric traits, and (ii) whether these relationships were modified by dietary fatty acids.

DESIGN AND METHODS: We conducted race/ethnic-specific meta-analyses using data from 14 studies of US and European whites and 4 of African Americans to evaluate associations of dietary fatty acids and LRP1 genotypes with body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and hip circumference, as well as interactions between dietary fatty acids and LRP1 genotypes. Seven single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of LRP1 were evaluated in whites (N up to 42 000) and twelve SNPs in African Americans (N up to 5800).

RESULTS: After adjustment for age, sex and population substructure if relevant, for each one unit greater intake of percentage of energy from saturated fat (SFA), BMI was 0.104 kg m(-2) greater, waist was 0.305 cm larger and hip was 0.168 cm larger (all P<0.0001). Other fatty acids were not associated with outcomes. The association of SFA with outcomes varied by genotype at rs2306692 (genotyped in four studies of whites), where the magnitude of the association of SFA intake with each outcome was greater per additional copy of the T allele: 0.107 kg m(-2) greater for BMI (interaction P=0.0001), 0.267 cm for waist (interaction P=0.001) and 0.21 cm for hip (interaction P=0.001). No other significant interactions were observed.

CONCLUSION: Dietary SFA and LRP1 genotype may interactively influence anthropometric traits. Further exploration of this, and other diet x genotype interactions, may improve understanding of interindividual variability in the relationships of dietary factors with anthropometric traits.

}, keywords = {Adipose Tissue, Adult, African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Body Mass Index, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Fatty Acids, Female, Gene Frequency, Gene-Environment Interaction, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Humans, Low Density Lipoprotein Receptor-Related Protein-1, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prevalence, United States}, issn = {1476-5497}, doi = {10.1038/ijo.2012.215}, author = {Smith, C E and Ngwa, J and Tanaka, T and Qi, Q and Wojczynski, M K and Lemaitre, R N and Anderson, J S and Manichaikul, A and Mikkil{\"a}, V and van Rooij, F J A and Ye, Z and Bandinelli, S and Frazier-Wood, A C and Houston, D K and Hu, F and Langenberg, C and McKeown, N M and Mozaffarian, D and North, K E and Viikari, J and Zillikens, M C and Djouss{\'e}, L and Hofman, A and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, M and Kabagambe, E K and Loos, R J F and Saylor, G B and Forouhi, N G and Liu, Y and Mukamal, K J and Chen, Y-D I and Tsai, M Y and Uitterlinden, A G and Raitakari, O and van Duijn, C M and Arnett, D K and Borecki, I B and Cupples, L A and Ferrucci, L and Kritchevsky, S B and Lehtim{\"a}ki, T and Qi, Lu and Rotter, J I and Siscovick, D S and Wareham, N J and Witteman, J C M and Ordov{\'a}s, J M and Nettleton, J A} } @article {6077, title = {Long-term outcomes of left anterior fascicular block in the absence of overt cardiovascular disease.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {309}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Apr 17}, pages = {1587-8}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Biomarkers, Bundle-Branch Block, Cohort Studies, Electrocardiography, Endomyocardial Fibrosis, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Male, Prognosis, Risk}, issn = {1538-3598}, doi = {10.1001/jama.2013.2729}, author = {Mandyam, Mala C and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Heckbert, Susan R and Vittinghoff, Eric and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {6078, title = {A meta-analysis identifies new loci associated with body mass index in individuals of African ancestry.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {45}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jun}, pages = {690-6}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 36 loci associated with body mass index (BMI), predominantly in populations of European ancestry. We conducted a meta-analysis to examine the association of >3.2 million SNPs with BMI in 39,144 men and women of African ancestry and followed up the most significant associations in an additional 32,268 individuals of African ancestry. We identified one new locus at 5q33 (GALNT10, rs7708584, P = 3.4 {\texttimes} 10(-11)) and another at 7p15 when we included data from the GIANT consortium (MIR148A-NFE2L3, rs10261878, P = 1.2 {\texttimes} 10(-10)). We also found suggestive evidence of an association at a third locus at 6q16 in the African-ancestry sample (KLHL32, rs974417, P = 6.9 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Thirty-two of the 36 previously established BMI variants showed directionally consistent effect estimates in our GWAS (binomial P = 9.7 {\texttimes} 10(-7)), five of which reached genome-wide significance. These findings provide strong support for shared BMI loci across populations, as well as for the utility of studying ancestrally diverse populations.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Body Mass Index, Case-Control Studies, Gene Frequency, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2608}, author = {Monda, Keri L and Chen, Gary K and Taylor, Kira C and Palmer, Cameron and Edwards, Todd L and Lange, Leslie A and Ng, Maggie C Y and Adeyemo, Adebowale A and Allison, Matthew A and Bielak, Lawrence F and Chen, Guanjie and Graff, Mariaelisa and Irvin, Marguerite R and Rhie, Suhn K and Li, Guo and Liu, Yongmei and Liu, Youfang and Lu, Yingchang and Nalls, Michael A and Sun, Yan V and Wojczynski, Mary K and Yanek, Lisa R and Aldrich, Melinda C and Ademola, Adeyinka and Amos, Christopher I and Bandera, Elisa V and Bock, Cathryn H and Britton, Angela and Broeckel, Ulrich and Cai, Quiyin and Caporaso, Neil E and Carlson, Chris S and Carpten, John and Casey, Graham and Chen, Wei-Min and Chen, Fang and Chen, Yii-der I and Chiang, Charleston W K and Coetzee, Gerhard A and Demerath, Ellen and Deming-Halverson, Sandra L and Driver, Ryan W and Dubbert, Patricia and Feitosa, Mary F and Feng, Ye and Freedman, Barry I and Gillanders, Elizabeth M and Gottesman, Omri and Guo, Xiuqing and Haritunians, Talin and Harris, Tamara and Harris, Curtis C and Hennis, Anselm J M and Hernandez, Dena G and McNeill, Lorna H and Howard, Timothy D and Howard, Barbara V and Howard, Virginia J and Johnson, Karen C and Kang, Sun J and Keating, Brendan J and Kolb, Suzanne and Kuller, Lewis H and Kutlar, Abdullah and Langefeld, Carl D and Lettre, Guillaume and Lohman, Kurt and Lotay, Vaneet and Lyon, Helen and Manson, JoAnn E and Maixner, William and Meng, Yan A and Monroe, Kristine R and Morhason-Bello, Imran and Murphy, Adam B and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Nadukuru, Rajiv and Nathanson, Katherine L and Nayak, Uma and N{\textquoteright}diaye, Amidou and Nemesure, Barbara and Wu, Suh-Yuh and Leske, M Cristina and Neslund-Dudas, Christine and Neuhouser, Marian and Nyante, Sarah and Ochs-Balcom, Heather and Ogunniyi, Adesola and Ogundiran, Temidayo O and Ojengbede, Oladosu and Olopade, Olufunmilayo I and Palmer, Julie R and Ruiz-Narvaez, Edward A and Palmer, Nicholette D and Press, Michael F and Rampersaud, Evandine and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Rodriguez-Gil, Jorge L and Salako, Babatunde and Schadt, Eric E and Schwartz, Ann G and Shriner, Daniel A and Siscovick, David and Smith, Shad B and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Spitz, Margaret R and Sucheston, Lara and Taylor, Herman and Tayo, Bamidele O and Tucker, Margaret A and Van Den Berg, David J and Edwards, Digna R Velez and Wang, Zhaoming and Wiencke, John K and Winkler, Thomas W and Witte, John S and Wrensch, Margaret and Wu, Xifeng and Yang, James J and Levin, Albert M and Young, Taylor R and Zakai, Neil A and Cushman, Mary and Zanetti, Krista A and Zhao, Jing Hua and Zhao, Wei and Zheng, Yonglan and Zhou, Jie and Ziegler, Regina G and Zmuda, Joseph M and Fernandes, Jyotika K and Gilkeson, Gary S and Kamen, Diane L and Hunt, Kelly J and Spruill, Ida J and Ambrosone, Christine B and Ambs, Stefan and Arnett, Donna K and Atwood, Larry and Becker, Diane M and Berndt, Sonja I and Bernstein, Leslie and Blot, William J and Borecki, Ingrid B and Bottinger, Erwin P and Bowden, Donald W and Burke, Gregory and Chanock, Stephen J and Cooper, Richard S and Ding, Jingzhong and Duggan, David and Evans, Michele K and Fox, Caroline and Garvey, W Timothy and Bradfield, Jonathan P and Hakonarson, Hakon and Grant, Struan F A and Hsing, Ann and Chu, Lisa and Hu, Jennifer J and Huo, Dezheng and Ingles, Sue A and John, Esther M and Jordan, Joanne M and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kittles, Rick A and Goodman, Phyllis J and Klein, Eric A and Kolonel, Laurence N and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Liu, Simin and McKnight, Barbara and Millikan, Robert C and Mosley, Thomas H and Padhukasahasram, Badri and Williams, L Keoki and Patel, Sanjay R and Peters, Ulrike and Pettaway, Curtis A and Peyser, Patricia A and Psaty, Bruce M and Redline, Susan and Rotimi, Charles N and Rybicki, Benjamin A and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Schreiner, Pamela J and Signorello, Lisa B and Singleton, Andrew B and Stanford, Janet L and Strom, Sara S and Thun, Michael J and Vitolins, Mara and Zheng, Wei and Moore, Jason H and Williams, Scott M and Ketkar, Shamika and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Zonderman, Alan B and Kooperberg, Charles and Papanicolaou, George J and Henderson, Brian E and Reiner, Alex P and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Loos, Ruth J F and North, Kari E and Haiman, Christopher A} } @article {6156, title = {Meta-analysis of 74,046 individuals identifies 11 new susceptibility loci for Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {45}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Dec}, pages = {1452-8}, abstract = {

Eleven susceptibility loci for late-onset Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (LOAD) were identified by previous studies; however, a large portion of the genetic risk for this disease remains unexplained. We conducted a large, two-stage meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in individuals of European ancestry. In stage 1, we used genotyped and imputed data (7,055,881 SNPs) to perform meta-analysis on 4 previously published GWAS data sets consisting of 17,008 Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease cases and 37,154 controls. In stage 2, 11,632 SNPs were genotyped and tested for association in an independent set of 8,572 Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease cases and 11,312 controls. In addition to the APOE locus (encoding apolipoprotein E), 19 loci reached genome-wide significance (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) in the combined stage 1 and stage 2 analysis, of which 11 are newly associated with Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.

}, keywords = {Age of Onset, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2802}, author = {Lambert, J C and Ibrahim-Verbaas, C A and Harold, D and Naj, A C and Sims, R and Bellenguez, C and DeStafano, A L and Bis, J C and Beecham, G W and Grenier-Boley, B and Russo, G and Thorton-Wells, T A and Jones, N and Smith, A V and Chouraki, V and Thomas, C and Ikram, M A and Zelenika, D and Vardarajan, B N and Kamatani, Y and Lin, C F and Gerrish, A and Schmidt, H and Kunkle, B and Dunstan, M L and Ruiz, A and Bihoreau, M T and Choi, S H and Reitz, C and Pasquier, F and Cruchaga, C and Craig, D and Amin, N and Berr, C and Lopez, O L and De Jager, P L and Deramecourt, V and Johnston, J A and Evans, D and Lovestone, S and Letenneur, L and Mor{\'o}n, F J and Rubinsztein, D C and Eiriksdottir, G and Sleegers, K and Goate, A M and Fi{\'e}vet, N and Huentelman, M W and Gill, M and Brown, K and Kamboh, M I and Keller, L and Barberger-Gateau, P and McGuiness, B and Larson, E B and Green, R and Myers, A J and Dufouil, C and Todd, S and Wallon, D and Love, S and Rogaeva, E and Gallacher, J and St George-Hyslop, P and Clarimon, J and Lleo, A and Bayer, A and Tsuang, D W and Yu, L and Tsolaki, M and Boss{\`u}, P and Spalletta, G and Proitsi, P and Collinge, J and Sorbi, S and Sanchez-Garcia, F and Fox, N C and Hardy, J and Deniz Naranjo, M C and Bosco, P and Clarke, R and Brayne, C and Galimberti, D and Mancuso, M and Matthews, F and Moebus, S and Mecocci, P and Del Zompo, M and Maier, W and Hampel, H and Pilotto, A and Bullido, M and Panza, F and Caffarra, P and Nacmias, B and Gilbert, J R and Mayhaus, M and Lannefelt, L and Hakonarson, H and Pichler, S and Carrasquillo, M M and Ingelsson, M and Beekly, D and Alvarez, V and Zou, F and Valladares, O and Younkin, S G and Coto, E and Hamilton-Nelson, K L and Gu, W and Razquin, C and Pastor, P and Mateo, I and Owen, M J and Faber, K M and Jonsson, P V and Combarros, O and O{\textquoteright}Donovan, M C and Cantwell, L B and Soininen, H and Blacker, D and Mead, S and Mosley, T H and Bennett, D A and Harris, T B and Fratiglioni, L and Holmes, C and de Bruijn, R F and Passmore, P and Montine, T J and Bettens, K and Rotter, J I and Brice, A and Morgan, K and Foroud, T M and Kukull, W A and Hannequin, D and Powell, J F and Nalls, M A and Ritchie, K and Lunetta, K L and Kauwe, J S and Boerwinkle, E and Riemenschneider, M and Boada, M and Hiltuenen, M and Martin, E R and Schmidt, R and Rujescu, D and Wang, L S and Dartigues, J F and Mayeux, R and Tzourio, C and Hofman, A and N{\"o}then, M M and Graff, C and Psaty, B M and Jones, L and Haines, J L and Holmans, P A and Lathrop, M and Pericak-Vance, M A and Launer, L J and Farrer, L A and van Duijn, C M and Van Broeckhoven, C and Moskvina, V and Seshadri, S and Williams, J and Schellenberg, G D and Amouyel, P} } @article {6291, title = {Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies six new Loci for serum calcium concentrations.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e1003796}, abstract = {

Calcium is vital to the normal functioning of multiple organ systems and its serum concentration is tightly regulated. Apart from CASR, the genes associated with serum calcium are largely unknown. We conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of 39,400 individuals from 17 population-based cohorts and investigated the 14 most strongly associated loci in <= 21,679 additional individuals. Seven loci (six new regions) in association with serum calcium were identified and replicated. Rs1570669 near CYP24A1 (P = 9.1E-12), rs10491003 upstream of GATA3 (P = 4.8E-09) and rs7481584 in CARS (P = 1.2E-10) implicate regions involved in Mendelian calcemic disorders: Rs1550532 in DGKD (P = 8.2E-11), also associated with bone density, and rs7336933 near DGKH/KIAA0564 (P = 9.1E-10) are near genes that encode distinct isoforms of diacylglycerol kinase. Rs780094 is in GCKR. We characterized the expression of these genes in gut, kidney, and bone, and demonstrate modulation of gene expression in bone in response to dietary calcium in mice. Our results shed new light on the genetics of calcium homeostasis.

}, keywords = {Animals, Bone and Bones, Bone Density, Calcium, European Continental Ancestry Group, Gene Expression Regulation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Homeostasis, Humans, Kidney, Mice, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1003796}, author = {O{\textquoteright}Seaghdha, Conall M and Wu, Hongsheng and Yang, Qiong and Kapur, Karen and Guessous, Idris and Zuber, Annie Mercier and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Stoudmann, Candice and Teumer, Alexander and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Mangino, Massimo and Dehghan, Abbas and Zhang, Weihua and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Li, Guo and Tanaka, Toshiko and Portas, Laura and Lopez, Lorna M and Hayward, Caroline and Lohman, Kurt and Matsuda, Koichi and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Firsov, Dmitri and Sorice, Rossella and Ulivi, Sheila and Brockhaus, A Catharina and Kleber, Marcus E and Mahajan, Anubha and Ernst, Florian D and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Launer, Lenore J and Mace, Aurelien and Boerwinckle, Eric and Arking, Dan E and Tanikawa, Chizu and Nakamura, Yusuke and Brown, Morris J and Gaspoz, Jean-Michel and Theler, Jean-Marc and Siscovick, David S and Psaty, Bruce M and Bergmann, Sven and Vollenweider, Peter and Vitart, Veronique and Wright, Alan F and Zemunik, Tatijana and Boban, Mladen and Kolcic, Ivana and Navarro, Pau and Brown, Edward M and Estrada, Karol and Ding, Jingzhong and Harris, Tamara B and Bandinelli, Stefania and Hernandez, Dena and Singleton, Andrew B and Girotto, Giorgia and Ruggiero, Daniela and d{\textquoteright}Adamo, Adamo Pio and Robino, Antonietta and Meitinger, Thomas and Meisinger, Christa and Davies, Gail and Starr, John M and Chambers, John C and Boehm, Bernhard O and Winkelmann, Bernhard R and Huang, Jie and Murgia, Federico and Wild, Sarah H and Campbell, Harry and Morris, Andrew P and Franco, Oscar H and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Hannemann, Anke and Biffar, Reiner and Hoffmann, Wolfgang and Shin, So-Youn and Lescuyer, Pierre and Henry, Hughes and Schurmann, Claudia and Munroe, Patricia B and Gasparini, Paolo and Pirastu, Nicola and Ciullo, Marina and Gieger, Christian and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Lind, Lars and Spector, Tim D and Smith, Albert V and Rudan, Igor and Wilson, James F and Polasek, Ozren and Deary, Ian J and Pirastu, Mario and Ferrucci, Luigi and Liu, Yongmei and Kestenbaum, Bryan and Kooner, Jaspal S and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Nauck, Matthias and Kao, W H Linda and Wallaschofski, Henri and Bonny, Olivier and Fox, Caroline S and Bochud, Murielle} } @article {5877, title = {A meta-analysis of thyroid-related traits reveals novel loci and gender-specific differences in the regulation of thyroid function.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e1003266}, abstract = {

Thyroid hormone is essential for normal metabolism and development, and overt abnormalities in thyroid function lead to common endocrine disorders affecting approximately 10\% of individuals over their life span. In addition, even mild alterations in thyroid function are associated with weight changes, atrial fibrillation, osteoporosis, and psychiatric disorders. To identify novel variants underlying thyroid function, we performed a large meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for serum levels of the highly heritable thyroid function markers TSH and FT4, in up to 26,420 and 17,520 euthyroid subjects, respectively. Here we report 26 independent associations, including several novel loci for TSH (PDE10A, VEGFA, IGFBP5, NFIA, SOX9, PRDM11, FGF7, INSR, ABO, MIR1179, NRG1, MBIP, ITPK1, SASH1, GLIS3) and FT4 (LHX3, FOXE1, AADAT, NETO1/FBXO15, LPCAT2/CAPNS2). Notably, only limited overlap was detected between TSH and FT4 associated signals, in spite of the feedback regulation of their circulating levels by the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis. Five of the reported loci (PDE8B, PDE10A, MAF/LOC440389, NETO1/FBXO15, and LPCAT2/CAPNS2) show strong gender-specific differences, which offer clues for the known sexual dimorphism in thyroid function and related pathologies. Importantly, the TSH-associated loci contribute not only to variation within the normal range, but also to TSH values outside the reference range, suggesting that they may be involved in thyroid dysfunction. Overall, our findings explain, respectively, 5.64\% and 2.30\% of total TSH and FT4 trait variance, and they improve the current knowledge of the regulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis function and the consequences of genetic variation for hypo- or hyperthyroidism.

}, keywords = {Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hyperthyroidism, Hypothyroidism, Male, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Genetic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sex Characteristics, Signal Transduction, Thyroid Gland, Thyrotropin, Thyroxine}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1003266}, author = {Porcu, Eleonora and Medici, Marco and Pistis, Giorgio and Volpato, Claudia B and Wilson, Scott G and Cappola, Anne R and Bos, Steffan D and Deelen, Joris and den Heijer, Martin and Freathy, Rachel M and Lahti, Jari and Liu, Chunyu and Lopez, Lorna M and Nolte, Ilja M and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Tanaka, Toshiko and Trompet, Stella and Arnold, Alice and Bandinelli, Stefania and Beekman, Marian and B{\"o}hringer, Stefan and Brown, Suzanne J and Buckley, Brendan M and Camaschella, Clara and de Craen, Anton J M and Davies, Gail and de Visser, Marieke C H and Ford, Ian and Forsen, Tom and Frayling, Timothy M and Fugazzola, Laura and G{\"o}gele, Martin and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hermus, Ad R and Hofman, Albert and Houwing-Duistermaat, Jeanine J and Jensen, Richard A and Kajantie, Eero and Kloppenburg, Margreet and Lim, Ee M and Masciullo, Corrado and Mariotti, Stefano and Minelli, Cosetta and Mitchell, Braxton D and Nagaraja, Ramaiah and Netea-Maier, Romana T and Palotie, Aarno and Persani, Luca and Piras, Maria G and Psaty, Bruce M and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Richards, J Brent and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Sala, Cinzia and Sabra, Mona M and Sattar, Naveed and Shields, Beverley M and Soranzo, Nicole and Starr, John M and Stott, David J and Sweep, Fred C G J and Usala, Gianluca and van der Klauw, Melanie M and van Heemst, Diana and van Mullem, Alies and Vermeulen, Sita H and Visser, W Edward and Walsh, John P and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Widen, Elisabeth and Zhai, Guangju and Cucca, Francesco and Deary, Ian J and Eriksson, Johan G and Ferrucci, Luigi and Fox, Caroline S and Jukema, J Wouter and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Pramstaller, Peter P and Schlessinger, David and Shuldiner, Alan R and Slagboom, Eline P and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaidya, Bijay and Visser, Theo J and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Meulenbelt, Ingrid and Rotter, Jerome I and Spector, Tim D and Hicks, Andrew A and Toniolo, Daniela and Sanna, Serena and Peeters, Robin P and Naitza, Silvia} } @article {6155, title = {Multiethnic meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in >100 000 subjects identifies 23 fibrinogen-associated Loci but no strong evidence of a causal association between circulating fibrinogen and cardiovascular disease.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {128}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Sep 17}, pages = {1310-24}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Estimates of the heritability of plasma fibrinogen concentration, an established predictor of cardiovascular disease, range from 34\% to 50\%. Genetic variants so far identified by genome-wide association studies explain only a small proportion (<2\%) of its variation.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted a meta-analysis of 28 genome-wide association studies including >90 000 subjects of European ancestry, the first genome-wide association meta-analysis of fibrinogen levels in 7 studies in blacks totaling 8289 samples, and a genome-wide association study in Hispanics totaling 1366 samples. Evaluation for association of single-nucleotide polymorphisms with clinical outcomes included a total of 40 695 cases and 85 582 controls for coronary artery disease, 4752 cases and 24 030 controls for stroke, and 3208 cases and 46 167 controls for venous thromboembolism. Overall, we identified 24 genome-wide significant (P<5{\texttimes}10(-8)) independent signals in 23 loci, including 15 novel associations, together accounting for 3.7\% of plasma fibrinogen variation. Gene-set enrichment analysis highlighted key roles in fibrinogen regulation for the 3 structural fibrinogen genes and pathways related to inflammation, adipocytokines, and thyrotrophin-releasing hormone signaling. Whereas lead single-nucleotide polymorphisms in a few loci were significantly associated with coronary artery disease, the combined effect of all 24 fibrinogen-associated lead single-nucleotide polymorphisms was not significant for coronary artery disease, stroke, or venous thromboembolism.

CONCLUSIONS: We identify 23 robustly associated fibrinogen loci, 15 of which are new. Clinical outcome analysis of these loci does not support a causal relationship between circulating levels of fibrinogen and coronary artery disease, stroke, or venous thromboembolism.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Coronary Artery Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Fibrinogen, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hispanic Americans, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Myocardial Infarction, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Stroke, Venous Thromboembolism, Young Adult}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.113.002251}, author = {Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Huang, Jie and Chasman, Daniel and Naitza, Silvia and Dehghan, Abbas and Johnson, Andrew D and Teumer, Alexander and Reiner, Alex P and Folkersen, Lasse and Basu, Saonli and Rudnicka, Alicja R and Trompet, Stella and M{\"a}larstig, Anders and Baumert, Jens and Bis, Joshua C and Guo, Xiuqing and Hottenga, Jouke J and Shin, So-Youn and Lopez, Lorna M and Lahti, Jari and Tanaka, Toshiko and Yanek, Lisa R and Oudot-Mellakh, Tiphaine and Wilson, James F and Navarro, Pau and Huffman, Jennifer E and Zemunik, Tatijana and Redline, Susan and Mehra, Reena and Pulanic, Drazen and Rudan, Igor and Wright, Alan F and Kolcic, Ivana and Polasek, Ozren and Wild, Sarah H and Campbell, Harry and Curb, J David and Wallace, Robert and Liu, Simin and Eaton, Charles B and Becker, Diane M and Becker, Lewis C and Bandinelli, Stefania and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Widen, Elisabeth and Palotie, Aarno and Fornage, Myriam and Green, David and Gross, Myron and Davies, Gail and Harris, Sarah E and Liewald, David C and Starr, John M and Williams, Frances M K and Grant, Peter J and Spector, Timothy D and Strawbridge, Rona J and Silveira, Angela and Sennblad, Bengt and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Franco, Oscar H and Hofman, Albert and van Dongen, Jenny and Willemsen, Gonneke and Boomsma, Dorret I and Yao, Jie and Swords Jenny, Nancy and Haritunians, Talin and McKnight, Barbara and Lumley, Thomas and Taylor, Kent D and Rotter, Jerome I and Psaty, Bruce M and Peters, Annette and Gieger, Christian and Illig, Thomas and Grotevendt, Anne and Homuth, Georg and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Kocher, Thomas and Goel, Anuj and Franzosi, Maria Grazia and Seedorf, Udo and Clarke, Robert and Steri, Maristella and Tarasov, Kirill V and Sanna, Serena and Schlessinger, David and Stott, David J and Sattar, Naveed and Buckley, Brendan M and Rumley, Ann and Lowe, Gordon D and McArdle, Wendy L and Chen, Ming-Huei and Tofler, Geoffrey H and Song, Jaejoon and Boerwinkle, Eric and Folsom, Aaron R and Rose, Lynda M and Franco-Cereceda, Anders and Teichert, Martina and Ikram, M Arfan and Mosley, Thomas H and Bevan, Steve and Dichgans, Martin and Rothwell, Peter M and Sudlow, Cathie L M and Hopewell, Jemma C and Chambers, John C and Saleheen, Danish and Kooner, Jaspal S and Danesh, John and Nelson, Christopher P and Erdmann, Jeanette and Reilly, Muredach P and Kathiresan, Sekar and Schunkert, Heribert and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and Ferrucci, Luigi and Eriksson, Johan G and Jacobs, David and Deary, Ian J and Soranzo, Nicole and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and de Geus, Eco J C and Tracy, Russell P and Hayward, Caroline and Koenig, Wolfgang and Cucca, Francesco and Jukema, J Wouter and Eriksson, Per and Seshadri, Sudha and Markus, Hugh S and Watkins, Hugh and Samani, Nilesh J and Wallaschofski, Henri and Smith, Nicholas L and Tregouet, David and Ridker, Paul M and Tang, Weihong and Strachan, David P and Hamsten, Anders and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} } @article {6292, title = {No evidence of interaction between known lipid-associated genetic variants and smoking in the multi-ethnic PAGE population.}, journal = {Hum Genet}, volume = {132}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Dec}, pages = {1427-31}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified many variants that influence high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and/or triglycerides. However, environmental modifiers, such as smoking, of these known genotype-phenotype associations are just recently emerging in the literature. We have tested for interactions between smoking and 49 GWAS-identified variants in over 41,000 racially/ethnically diverse samples with lipid levels from the Population Architecture Using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study. Despite their biological plausibility, we were unable to detect significant SNP {\texttimes} smoking interactions.

}, keywords = {Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Cohort Studies, Ethnic Groups, Female, Gene Frequency, Gene-Environment Interaction, Genetics, Population, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lipid Metabolism, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prevalence, Smoking, Triglycerides, Young Adult}, issn = {1432-1203}, doi = {10.1007/s00439-013-1375-3}, author = {Dumitrescu, Logan and Carty, Cara L and Franceschini, Nora and Hindorff, Lucia A and Cole, Shelley A and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Schumacher, Fredrick R and Eaton, Charles B and Goodloe, Robert J and Duggan, David J and Haessler, Jeff and Cochran, Barbara and Henderson, Brian E and Cheng, Iona and Johnson, Karen C and Carlson, Chris S and Love, Shelly-Anne and Brown-Gentry, Kristin and Nato, Alejandro Q and Quibrera, Miguel and Shohet, Ralph V and Ambite, Jose Luis and Wilkens, Lynne R and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Haiman, Christopher A and Buyske, Steven and Kooperberg, Charles and North, Kari E and Fornage, Myriam and Crawford, Dana C} } @article {1411, title = {Obesity is associated with a lower resting oxygen saturation in the ambulatory elderly: results from the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Respir Care}, volume = {58}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 May}, pages = {831-7}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The contribution of obesity to hypoxemia has not been reported in a community-based study. Our hypothesis was that increasing obesity would be independently associated with lower SpO2 in an ambulatory elderly population.

METHODS: The Cardiovascular Health Study ascertained resting SpO2 in 2,252 subjects over age 64. We used multiple linear regression to estimate the association of body mass index (BMI) with SpO2 and to adjust for potentially confounding factors. Covariates including age, sex, race, smoking, airway obstruction (based on spirometry), self reported diagnosis of emphysema, asthma, heart failure, and left ventricular function (by echocardiography) were evaluated.

RESULTS: Among 2,252 subjects the mean and median SpO2 were 97.6\% and 98.0\% respectively; 5\% of subjects had SpO2 values below 95\%. BMI was negatively correlated with SpO2 (Spearman R = -0.27, P < .001). The mean difference in SpO2 between the lowest and highest BMI categories (< 25 kg/m(2) and >= 35 kg/m(2)) was 1.33\% (95\% CI 0.89-1.78\%). In multivariable linear regression analysis, SpO2 was significantly inversely associated with BMI (1.4\% per 10 units of BMI, 95\% CI 1.2-1.6, for whites/others, and 0.87\% per 10 units of BMI, 95\% CI 0.47-1.27, for African Americans).

CONCLUSIONS: We found a narrow distribution of SpO2 values in a community-based sample of ambulatory elderly. Obesity was a strong independent contributor to a low SpO2, with effects comparable to or greater than other factors clinically associated with lower SpO2.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Body Mass Index, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Humans, Male, Obesity, Oximetry, Oxygen, Smoking, Waist Circumference}, issn = {1943-3654}, doi = {10.4187/respcare.02008}, author = {Kapur, Vishesh K and Wilsdon, Anthony G and Au, David and Avdalovic, Mark and Enright, Paul and Fan, Vincent S and Hansel, Nadia N and Heckbert, Susan R and Jiang, Rui and Krishnan, Jerry A and Mukamal, Kenneth and Yende, Sachin and Barr, R Graham} } @article {1551, title = {Persistent subclinical hypothyroidism and cardiovascular risk in the elderly: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {J Clin Endocrinol Metab}, volume = {98}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Feb}, pages = {533-40}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Use of a single set of thyroid function tests to define subclinical hypothyroidism may lead to misclassification over time and could influence findings from longitudinal studies.

OBJECTIVE: We assessed the risks of coronary heart disease (CHD), heart failure (HF), and cardiovascular (CV) death in older adults with persistent subclinical hypothyroidism.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: The study included 679 subclinically hypothyroid and 4184 euthyroid U.S. individuals at least 65 yr old enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study and not taking thyroid preparations.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: We measured the 10-yr risk of incident CHD, HF, and CV death from persistent subclinical hypothyroidism, overall and stratified by degree of TSH elevation (4.5-6.9, 7.0-9.9, and 10.0-19.9 mU/liter).

RESULTS: There was no association between persistent subclinical hypothyroidism and incident CHD [hazard ratio (HR), 1.12; 95\% confidence interval (CI), 0.93-1.36], HF (HR, 1.05; 95\% CI, 0.97-1.27), or CV death (HR, 1.07; 95\% CI, 0.87-1.31) in adjusted analyses in which subclinical hypothyroidism was modeled as a time-varying exposure using up to four serial thyroid function tests. When subclinical hypothyroidism was stratified by degree of TSH elevation, no significant associations were found in any stratum. Findings were similar in fixed exposure analyses in which only participants with testing 2 yr apart were considered, with no association between persistent or transient subclinical hypothyroidism and incident CHD, HF, or CV death.

CONCLUSIONS: Our data do not support increased risk of CHD, HF, or CV death in older adults with persistent subclinical hypothyroidism.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Coronary Disease, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Hypothyroidism, Incidence, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Risk, Thyroid Function Tests}, issn = {1945-7197}, doi = {10.1210/jc.2012-2180}, author = {Hyland, Kristen A and Arnold, Alice M and Lee, Jennifer S and Cappola, Anne R} } @article {6079, title = {Plasma phospholipid long-chain ω-3 fatty acids and total and cause-specific mortality in older adults: a cohort study.}, journal = {Ann Intern Med}, volume = {158}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Apr 02}, pages = {515-25}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Long-chain ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω3-PUFAs), including eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) (20:5ω-3), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) (22:5ω-3), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) (22:6ω-3), have been shown to reduce cardiovascular risk, but effects on cause-specific and total mortality and potential dose-responses remain controversial. Most observational studies have assessed self-reported dietary intake and most randomized trials have tested effects of adding supplements to dietary intake and evaluated secondary prevention, thus limiting inference for dietary ω3-PUFAs or primary prevention.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate associations of plasma phospholipid EPA, DPA, DHA, and total ω3-PUFA levels with total and cause-specific mortality among healthy older adults not receiving supplements.

DESIGN: Prospective cohort study.

SETTING: 4 U.S. communities.

PARTICIPANTS: 2692 U.S. adults aged 74 years ({\textpm}5 years) without prevalent coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, or heart failure at baseline.

MEASUREMENTS: Phospholipid fatty acid levels and cardiovascular risk factors were measured in 1992. Relationships with total and cause-specific mortality and incident fatal or nonfatal CHD and stroke through 2008 were assessed.

RESULTS: During 30 829 person-years, 1625 deaths (including 570 cardiovascular deaths), 359 fatal and 371 nonfatal CHD events, and 130 fatal and 276 nonfatal strokes occurred. After adjustment, higher plasma levels of ω3-PUFA biomarkers were associated with lower total mortality, with extreme-quintile hazard ratios of 0.83 for EPA (95\% CI, 0.71 to 0.98; P for trend = 0.005), 0.77 for DPA (CI, 0.66 to 0.90; P for trend = 0.008), 0.80 for DHA (CI, 0.67 to 0.94; P for trend = 0.006), and 0.73 for total ω3-PUFAs (CI, 0.61 to 0.86; P for trend < 0.001). Lower risk was largely attributable to fewer cardiovascular than noncardiovascular deaths. Individuals in the highest quintile of phospholipid ω3-PUFA level lived an average of 2.22 more years (CI, 0.75 to 3.13 years) after age 65 years than did those in the lowest quintile.

LIMITATION: Temporal changes in fatty acid levels and misclassification of causes of death may have resulted in underestimated associations, and unmeasured or imperfectly measured covariates may have caused residual confounding.

CONCLUSION: Higher circulating individual and total ω3-PUFA levels are associated with lower total mortality, especially CHD death, in older adults.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: National Institutes of Health.

}, keywords = {Aged, Biomarkers, Cause of Death, Coronary Disease, Diet Records, Docosahexaenoic Acids, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Fatty Acids, Omega-3, Fatty Acids, Unsaturated, Feeding Behavior, Female, Humans, Male, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Stroke}, issn = {1539-3704}, doi = {10.7326/0003-4819-158-7-201304020-00003}, author = {Mozaffarian, Dariush and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and King, Irena B and Song, Xiaoling and Huang, Hongyan and Sacks, Frank M and Rimm, Eric B and Wang, Molin and Siscovick, David S} } @article {6111, title = {Post-genome-wide association study challenges for lipid traits: describing age as a modifier of gene-lipid associations in the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study.}, journal = {Ann Hum Genet}, volume = {77}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Sep}, pages = {416-25}, abstract = {

Numerous common genetic variants that influence plasma high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglyceride distributions have been identified via genome-wide association studies (GWAS). However, whether or not these associations are age-dependent has largely been overlooked. We conducted an association study and meta-analysis in more than 22,000 European Americans between 49 previously identified GWAS variants and the three lipid traits, stratified by age (males: <50 or >=50 years of age; females: pre- or postmenopausal). For each variant, a test of heterogeneity was performed between the two age strata and significant Phet values were used as evidence of age-specific genetic effects. We identified seven associations in females and eight in males that displayed suggestive heterogeneity by age (Phet < 0.05). The association between rs174547 (FADS1) and LDL-C in males displayed the most evidence for heterogeneity between age groups (Phet = 1.74E-03, I(2) = 89.8), with a significant association in older males (P = 1.39E-06) but not younger males (P = 0.99). However, none of the suggestive modifying effects survived adjustment for multiple testing, highlighting the challenges of identifying modifiers of modest SNP-trait associations despite large sample sizes.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Association Studies, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lipids, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Quantitative Trait, Heritable, Risk Factors}, issn = {1469-1809}, doi = {10.1111/ahg.12027}, author = {Dumitrescu, Logan and Carty, Cara L and Franceschini, Nora and Hindorff, Lucia A and Cole, Shelley A and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Schumacher, Fredrick R and Eaton, Charles B and Goodloe, Robert J and Duggan, David J and Haessler, Jeff and Cochran, Barbara and Henderson, Brian E and Cheng, Iona and Johnson, Karen C and Carlson, Chris S and Love, Shelly-Ann and Brown-Gentry, Kristin and Nato, Alejandro Q and Quibrera, Miguel and Anderson, Garnet and Shohet, Ralph V and Ambite, Jose Luis and Wilkens, Lynne R and Marchand, Loic Le and Haiman, Christopher A and Buyske, Steven and Kooperberg, Charles and North, Kari E and Fornage, Myriam and Crawford, Dana C} } @article {5998, title = {The QT interval and risk of incident atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Heart Rhythm}, volume = {10}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Oct}, pages = {1562-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Abnormal atrial repolarization is important in the development of atrial fibrillation (AF), but no direct measurement is available in clinical medicine.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the QT interval, a marker of ventricular repolarization, could be used to predict incident AF.

METHODS: We examined a prolonged QT interval corrected by using the Framingham formula (QT(Fram)) as a predictor of incident AF in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. The Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and Health, Aging, and Body Composition (ABC) study were used for validation. Secondary predictors included QT duration as a continuous variable, a short QT interval, and QT intervals corrected by using other formulas.

RESULTS: Among 14,538 ARIC study participants, a prolonged QT(Fram) predicted a roughly 2-fold increased risk of AF (hazard ratio [HR] 2.05; 95\% confidence interval [CI] 1.42-2.96; P < .001). No substantive attenuation was observed after adjustment for age, race, sex, study center, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes, coronary disease, and heart failure. The findings were validated in Cardiovascular Health Study and Health, Aging, and Body Composition study and were similar across various QT correction methods. Also in the ARIC study, each 10-ms increase in QT(Fram) was associated with an increased unadjusted (HR 1.14; 95\% CI 1.10-1.17; P < .001) and adjusted (HR 1.11; 95\% CI 1.07-1.14; P < .001) risk of AF. Findings regarding a short QT interval were inconsistent across cohorts.

CONCLUSIONS: A prolonged QT interval is associated with an increased risk of incident AF.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Cohort Studies, Electrocardiography, Female, Humans, Incidence, Long QT Syndrome, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Factors}, issn = {1556-3871}, doi = {10.1016/j.hrthm.2013.07.023}, author = {Mandyam, Mala C and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Alonso, Alvaro and Dewland, Thomas A and Heckbert, Susan R and Vittinghoff, Eric and Cummings, Steven R and Ellinor, Patrick T and Chaitman, Bernard R and Stocke, Karen and Applegate, William B and Arking, Dan E and Butler, Javed and Loehr, Laura R and Magnani, Jared W and Murphy, Rachel A and Satterfield, Suzanne and Newman, Anne B and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {5852, title = {Racial differences in the incidence of and risk factors for atrial fibrillation in older adults: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {61}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Feb}, pages = {276-80}, abstract = {

This study examined whether different associations between risk factors and atrial fibrillation (AF) according to race could explain the lower incidence of AF in blacks. Baseline risk factor information was obtained from interviews, clinical examinations, and echocardiography in 4,774 white and 911 black Cardiovascular Health Study participants aged 65 and older without a history of AF at baseline in 1989/90 or 1992/93. Incident AF was determined according to hospital discharge diagnosis or annual study electrocardiogram. Cox regression was used to assess associations between risk factors and race and incident AF. During a mean 11.2 years of follow-up, 1,403 whites and 182 blacks had incident AF. Associations between all examined risk factors were similar in both races, except left ventricular posterior wall thickness, which was more strongly associated with AF in blacks (per 0.2 cm, blacks: hazard ratio (HR) = 1.72, 95\% confidence interval (CI) = 1.44-2.06; whites: HR = 1.30, 95\% CI = 1.18-1.43). Overall, the relative risk of AF was 25\% lower in blacks than whites after adjustment for age and sex (HR = 0.75, 95\% CI = 0.64-0.87) and 45\% lower after adjustment for all considered risk factors (HR = 0.55, 95\% CI = 0.35-0.88). Different associations of the considered risk factors and incident AF by race do not explain the lower incidence of AF in blacks.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Continental Population Groups, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Male, Prevalence, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Stroke, United States}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/jgs.12085}, author = {Jensen, Paul N and Thacker, Evan L and Dublin, Sascha and Psaty, Bruce M and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {6106, title = {Replication of genetic loci for ages at menarche and menopause in the multi-ethnic Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study.}, journal = {Hum Reprod}, volume = {28}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jun}, pages = {1695-706}, abstract = {

STUDY QUESTION: Do genetic associations identified in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of age at menarche (AM) and age at natural menopause (ANM) replicate in women of diverse race/ancestry from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Study?

SUMMARY ANSWER: We replicated GWAS reproductive trait single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in our European descent population and found that many SNPs were also associated with AM and ANM in populations of diverse ancestry.

WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Menarche and menopause mark the reproductive lifespan in women and are important risk factors for chronic diseases including obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Both events are believed to be influenced by environmental and genetic factors, and vary in populations differing by genetic ancestry and geography. Most genetic variants associated with these traits have been identified in GWAS of European-descent populations.

STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION: A total of 42 251 women of diverse ancestry from PAGE were included in cross-sectional analyses of AM and ANM.

MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS: SNPs previously associated with ANM (n = 5 SNPs) and AM (n = 3 SNPs) in GWAS were genotyped in American Indians, African Americans, Asians, European Americans, Hispanics and Native Hawaiians. To test SNP associations with ANM or AM, we used linear regression models stratified by race/ethnicity and PAGE sub-study. Results were then combined in race-specific fixed effect meta-analyses for each outcome. For replication and generalization analyses, significance was defined at P < 0.01 for ANM analyses and P < 0.017 for AM analyses.

MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: We replicated findings for AM SNPs in the LIN28B locus and an intergenic region on 9q31 in European Americans. The LIN28B SNPs (rs314277 and rs314280) were also significantly associated with AM in Asians, but not in other race/ethnicity groups. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns at this locus varied widely among the ancestral groups. With the exception of an intergenic SNP at 13q34, all ANM SNPs replicated in European Americans. Three were significantly associated with ANM in other race/ethnicity populations: rs2153157 (6p24.2/SYCP2L), rs365132 (5q35/UIMC1) and rs16991615 (20p12.3/MCM8). While rs1172822 (19q13/BRSK1) was not significant in the populations of non-European descent, effect sizes showed similar trends.

LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION: Lack of association for the GWAS SNPs in the non-European American groups may be due to differences in locus LD patterns between these groups and the European-descent populations included in the GWAS discovery studies; and in some cases, lower power may also contribute to non-significant findings.

WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: The discovery of genetic variants associated with the reproductive traits provides an important opportunity to elucidate the biological mechanisms involved with normal variation and disorders of menarche and menopause. In this study we replicated most, but not all reported SNPs in European descent populations and examined the epidemiologic architecture of these early reported variants, describing their generalizability and effect size across differing ancestral populations. Such data will be increasingly important for prioritizing GWAS SNPs for follow-up in fine-mapping and resequencing studies, as well as in translational research.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Menarche, Menopause, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1460-2350}, doi = {10.1093/humrep/det071}, author = {Carty, C L and Spencer, K L and Setiawan, V W and Fernandez-Rhodes, L and Malinowski, J and Buyske, S and Young, A and Jorgensen, N W and Cheng, I and Carlson, C S and Brown-Gentry, K and Goodloe, R and Park, A and Parikh, N I and Henderson, B and Le Marchand, L and Wactawski-Wende, J and Fornage, M and Matise, T C and Hindorff, L A and Arnold, A M and Haiman, C A and Franceschini, N and Peters, U and Crawford, D C} } @article {6074, title = {Resequencing and clinical associations of the 9p21.3 region: a comprehensive investigation in the Framingham heart study.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {127}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Feb 19}, pages = {799-810}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: 9p21.3 is among the most strongly replicated regions for cardiovascular disease. There are few reports of sequencing the associated 9p21.3 interval. We set out to sequence the 9p21.3 region followed by a comprehensive study of genetic associations with clinical and subclinical cardiovascular disease and its risk factors, as well as with copy number variation and gene expression, in the Framingham Heart Study (FHS).

METHODS AND RESULTS: We sequenced 281 individuals (94 with myocardial infarction, 94 with high coronary artery calcium levels, and 93 control subjects free of elevated coronary artery calcium or myocardial infarction), followed by genotyping and association in >7000 additional FHS individuals. We assessed genetic associations with clinical and subclinical cardiovascular disease, risk factor phenotypes, and gene expression levels of the protein-coding genes CDKN2A and CDKN2B and the noncoding gene ANRIL in freshly harvested leukocytes and platelets. Within this large sample, we found strong associations of 9p21.3 variants with increased risk for myocardial infarction, higher coronary artery calcium levels, and larger abdominal aorta diameters and no evidence for association with traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors. No common protein-coding variation, variants in splice donor or acceptor sites, or copy number variation events were observed. By contrast, strong associations were observed between genetic variants and gene expression, particularly for a short isoform of ANRIL and for CDKN2B.

CONCLUSIONS: Our thorough genomic characterization of 9p21.3 suggests common variants likely account for observed disease associations and provides further support for the hypothesis that complex regulatory variation affecting ANRIL and CDKN2B gene expression may contribute to increased risk for clinically apparent and subclinical coronary artery disease and aortic disease.

}, keywords = {Calcinosis, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 9, Coronary Artery Disease, Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p15, Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16, DNA Copy Number Variations, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Massachusetts, Middle Aged, Myocardial Infarction, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, RNA, Long Noncoding, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.112.111559}, author = {Johnson, Andrew D and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Voorman, Arend and Morrison, Alanna and Peloso, Gina M and Hsu, Yi-Hsiang and Thanassoulis, George and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Rogers, Ian S and Hoffmann, Udo and Freedman, Jane E and Fox, Caroline S and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Cupples, L Adrienne and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} } @article {6007, title = {Risk of venous thromboembolism associated with single and combined effects of Factor V Leiden, Prothrombin 20210A and Methylenetethraydrofolate reductase C677T: a meta-analysis involving over 11,000 cases and 21,000 controls.}, journal = {Eur J Epidemiol}, volume = {28}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Aug}, pages = {621-47}, abstract = {

Genetic and environmental factors interact in determining the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). The risk associated with the polymorphic variants G1691A of factor V (Factor V Leiden, FVL), G20210A of prothrombin (PT20210A) and C677T of methylentetrahydrofolate reductase (C677T MTHFR) genes has been investigated in many studies. We performed a pooled analysis of case-control and cohort studies investigating in adults the association between each variant and VTE, published on Pubmed, Embase or Google through January 2010. Authors of eligible papers, were invited to provide all available individual data for the pooling. The Odds Ratio (OR) for first VTE associated with each variant, individually and combined with the others, were calculated with a random effect model, in heterozygotes and homozygotes (dominant model for FVL and PT20210A; recessive for C677T MTHFR). We analysed 31 databases, including 11,239 cases and 21,521 controls. No significant association with VTE was found for homozygous C677T MTHFR (OR: 1.38; 95~\% confidence intervals [CI]: 0.98-1.93), whereas the risk was increased in carriers of either heterozygous FVL or PT20210 (OR~=~4.22; 95~\% CI: 3.35-5.32; and OR~=~2.79;95~\% CI: 2.25-3.46, respectively), in double heterozygotes (OR~=~3.42; 95~\%CI 1.64-7.13), and in homozygous FVL or PT20210A (OR~=~11.45; 95~\%CI: 6.79-19.29; and OR: 6.74 (CI 95~\% 2.19-20.72), respectively). The stratified analyses showed a stronger effect of FVL on individuals~<=~45~years (p value for interaction~=~0.036) and of PT20210A in women using oral contraceptives (p-value for interaction~=~0.045). In this large pooled analysis, inclusive of large studies like MEGA, no effect was found for C677T MTHFR on VTE; FVL and PT20210A were confirmed to be moderate risk factors. Notably, double carriers of the two genetic variants produced an impact on VTE risk significantly increased but weaker than previously thought.

}, keywords = {Case-Control Studies, Factor V, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (NADPH2), Prothrombin, Risk Factors, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1573-7284}, doi = {10.1007/s10654-013-9825-8}, author = {Simone, Benedetto and De Stefano, Valerio and Leoncini, Emanuele and Zacho, Jeppe and Martinelli, Ida and Emmerich, Joseph and Rossi, Elena and Folsom, Aaron R and Almawi, Wassim Y and Scarabin, Pierre Y and den Heijer, Martin and Cushman, Mary and Penco, Silvana and Vaya, Amparo and Angchaisuksiri, Pantep and Okumus, Gulfer and Gemmati, Donato and Cima, Simona and Akar, Nejat and Oguzulgen, Kivilcim I and Ducros, V{\'e}ronique and Lichy, Christoph and Fernandez-Miranda, Consuelo and Szczeklik, Andrzej and Nieto, Jos{\'e} A and Torres, Jose Domingo and Le Cam-Duchez, V{\'e}ronique and Ivanov, Petar and Cantu-Brito, Carlos and Shmeleva, Veronika M and Stegnar, Mojka and Ogunyemi, Dotun and Eid, Suhair S and Nicolotti, Nicola and De Feo, Emma and Ricciardi, Walter and Boccia, Stefania} } @article {6028, title = {Sex-stratified genome-wide association studies including 270,000 individuals show sexual dimorphism in genetic loci for anthropometric traits.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jun}, pages = {e1003500}, abstract = {

Given the anthropometric differences between men and women and previous evidence of sex-difference in genetic effects, we conducted a genome-wide search for sexually dimorphic associations with height, weight, body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference, and waist-to-hip-ratio (133,723 individuals) and took forward 348 SNPs into follow-up (additional 137,052 individuals) in a total of 94 studies. Seven loci displayed significant sex-difference (FDR<5\%), including four previously established (near GRB14/COBLL1, LYPLAL1/SLC30A10, VEGFA, ADAMTS9) and three novel anthropometric trait loci (near MAP3K1, HSD17B4, PPARG), all of which were genome-wide significant in women (P<5{\texttimes}10(-8)), but not in men. Sex-differences were apparent only for waist phenotypes, not for height, weight, BMI, or hip circumference. Moreover, we found no evidence for genetic effects with opposite directions in men versus women. The PPARG locus is of specific interest due to its role in diabetes genetics and therapy. Our results demonstrate the value of sex-specific GWAS to unravel the sexually dimorphic genetic underpinning of complex traits.

}, keywords = {Anthropometry, Body Height, Body Mass Index, Body Weight, Body Weights and Measures, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sex Characteristics, Waist Circumference, Waist-Hip Ratio}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1003500}, author = {Randall, Joshua C and Winkler, Thomas W and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Berndt, Sonja I and Jackson, Anne U and Monda, Keri L and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Esko, T{\~o}nu and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Li, Shengxu and Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie and Feitosa, Mary F and Croteau-Chonka, Damien C and Day, Felix R and Fall, Tove and Ferreira, Teresa and Gustafsson, Stefan and Locke, Adam E and Mathieson, Iain and Scherag, Andre and Vedantam, Sailaja and Wood, Andrew R and Liang, Liming and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Dermitzakis, Emmanouil T and Dimas, Antigone S and Karpe, Fredrik and Min, Josine L and Nicholson, George and Clegg, Deborah J and Person, Thomas and Krohn, Jon P and Bauer, Sabrina and Buechler, Christa and Eisinger, Kristina and Bonnefond, Am{\'e}lie and Froguel, Philippe and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Prokopenko, Inga and Waite, Lindsay L and Harris, Tamara B and Smith, Albert Vernon and Shuldiner, Alan R and McArdle, Wendy L and Caulfield, Mark J and Munroe, Patricia B and Gr{\"o}nberg, Henrik and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Li, Guo and Beckmann, Jacques S and Johnson, Toby and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Teder-Laving, Maris and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Wareham, Nicholas J and Zhao, Jing Hua and Amin, Najaf and Oostra, Ben A and Kraja, Aldi T and Province, Michael A and Cupples, L Adrienne and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Kaprio, Jaakko and Ripatti, Samuli and Surakka, Ida and Collins, Francis S and Saramies, Jouko and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Jula, Antti and Salomaa, Veikko and Erdmann, Jeanette and Hengstenberg, Christian and Loley, Christina and Schunkert, Heribert and Lamina, Claudia and Wichmann, H Erich and Albrecht, Eva and Gieger, Christian and Hicks, Andrew A and Johansson, Asa and Pramstaller, Peter P and Kathiresan, Sekar and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Penninx, Brenda and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Gyllensten, Ulf and Boomsma, Dorret I and Campbell, Harry and Wilson, James F and Chanock, Stephen J and Farrall, Martin and Goel, Anuj and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Estrada, Karol and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hofman, Albert and Zillikens, M Carola and den Heijer, Martin and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Maschio, Andrea and Hall, Per and Tyrer, Jonathan and Teumer, Alexander and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Kovacs, Peter and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Mangino, Massimo and Spector, Tim D and Hayward, Caroline and Rudan, Igor and Hall, Alistair S and Samani, Nilesh J and Attwood, Antony Paul and Sambrook, Jennifer G and Hung, Joseph and Palmer, Lyle J and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Sinisalo, Juha and Boucher, Gabrielle and Huikuri, Heikki and Lorentzon, Mattias and Ohlsson, Claes and Eklund, Niina and Eriksson, Johan G and Barlassina, Cristina and Rivolta, Carlo and Nolte, Ilja M and Snieder, Harold and van der Klauw, Melanie M and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Gejman, Pablo V and Shi, Jianxin and Jacobs, Kevin B and Wang, Zhaoming and Bakker, Stephan J L and Mateo Leach, Irene and Navis, Gerjan and van der Harst, Pim and Martin, Nicholas G and Medland, Sarah E and Montgomery, Grant W and Yang, Jian and Chasman, Daniel I and Ridker, Paul M and Rose, Lynda M and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Raitakari, Olli and Absher, Devin and Iribarren, Carlos and Basart, Hanneke and Hovingh, Kees G and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and Power, Chris and Anderson, Denise and Beilby, John P and Hui, Jennie and Jolley, Jennifer and Sager, Hendrik and Bornstein, Stefan R and Schwarz, Peter E H and Kristiansson, Kati and Perola, Markus and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Swift, Amy J and Uusitupa, Matti and Atalay, Mustafa and Lakka, Timo A and Rauramaa, Rainer and Bolton, Jennifer L and Fowkes, Gerry and Fraser, Ross M and Price, Jackie F and Fischer, Krista and Krjut{\r a} Kov, Kaarel and Metspalu, Andres and Mihailov, Evelin and Langenberg, Claudia and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Ong, Ken K and Chines, Peter S and Keinanen-Kiukaanniemi, Sirkka M and Saaristo, Timo E and Edkins, Sarah and Franks, Paul W and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Shungin, Dmitry and Morris, Andrew David and Palmer, Colin N A and Erbel, Raimund and Moebus, Susanne and N{\"o}then, Markus M and Pechlivanis, Sonali and Hveem, Kristian and Narisu, Narisu and Hamsten, Anders and Humphries, Steve E and Strawbridge, Rona J and Tremoli, Elena and Grallert, Harald and Thorand, Barbara and Illig, Thomas and Koenig, Wolfgang and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Peters, Annette and Boehm, Bernhard O and Kleber, Marcus E and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Winkelmann, Bernhard R and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Arveiler, Dominique and Cesana, Giancarlo and Kuulasmaa, Kari and Virtamo, Jarmo and Yarnell, John W G and Kuh, Diana and Wong, Andrew and Lind, Lars and de Faire, Ulf and Gigante, Bruna and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Pedersen, Nancy L and Dedoussis, George and Dimitriou, Maria and Kolovou, Genovefa and Kanoni, Stavroula and Stirrups, Kathleen and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Wilsgaard, Tom and Ganna, Andrea and Rehnberg, Emil and Hingorani, Aroon and Kivimaki, Mika and Kumari, Meena and Assimes, Themistocles L and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Boehnke, Michael and Borecki, Ingrid B and Deloukas, Panos and Fox, Caroline S and Frayling, Timothy and Groop, Leif C and Haritunians, Talin and Hunter, David and Ingelsson, Erik and Kaplan, Robert and Mohlke, Karen L and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Schlessinger, David and Strachan, David P and Stefansson, Kari and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Abecasis, Goncalo R and McCarthy, Mark I and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Qi, Lu and Loos, Ruth J F and Lindgren, Cecilia M and North, Kari E and Heid, Iris M} } @article {5878, title = {Simple risk model predicts incidence of atrial fibrillation in a racially and geographically diverse population: the CHARGE-AF consortium.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {2}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Mar 18}, pages = {e000102}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Tools for the prediction of atrial fibrillation (AF) may identify high-risk individuals more likely to benefit from preventive interventions and serve as a benchmark to test novel putative risk factors.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Individual-level data from 3 large cohorts in the United States (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities [ARIC] study, the Cardiovascular Health Study [CHS], and the Framingham Heart Study [FHS]), including 18 556 men and women aged 46 to 94 years (19\% African Americans, 81\% whites) were pooled to derive predictive models for AF using clinical variables. Validation of the derived models was performed in 7672 participants from the Age, Gene and Environment-Reykjavik study (AGES) and the Rotterdam Study (RS). The analysis included 1186 incident AF cases in the derivation cohorts and 585 in the validation cohorts. A simple 5-year predictive model including the variables age, race, height, weight, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, current smoking, use of antihypertensive medication, diabetes, and history of myocardial infarction and heart failure had good discrimination (C-statistic, 0.765; 95\% CI, 0.748 to 0.781). Addition of variables from the electrocardiogram did not improve the overall model discrimination (C-statistic, 0.767; 95\% CI, 0.750 to 0.783; categorical net reclassification improvement, -0.0032; 95\% CI, -0.0178 to 0.0113). In the validation cohorts, discrimination was acceptable (AGES C-statistic, 0.664; 95\% CI, 0.632 to 0.697 and RS C-statistic, 0.705; 95\% CI, 0.664 to 0.747) and calibration was adequate.

CONCLUSION: A risk model including variables readily available in primary care settings adequately predicted AF in diverse populations from the United States and Europe.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atrial Fibrillation, Cohort Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Hypertension, Iceland, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Myocardial Infarction, Netherlands, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Assessment, Smoking, United States}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.112.000102}, author = {Alonso, Alvaro and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Aspelund, Thor and Stepas, Katherine A and Pencina, Michael J and Moser, Carlee B and Sinner, Moritz F and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Fontes, Jo{\~a}o D and Janssens, A Cecile J W and Kronmal, Richard A and Magnani, Jared W and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Chamberlain, Alanna M and Lubitz, Steven A and Schnabel, Renate B and Agarwal, Sunil K and McManus, David D and Ellinor, Patrick T and Larson, Martin G and Burke, Gregory L and Launer, Lenore J and Hofman, Albert and Levy, Daniel and Gottdiener, John S and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Couper, David and Harris, Tamara B and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Stricker, Bruno H C and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Heckbert, Susan R and Benjamin, Emelia J} } @article {6628, title = {A systematic mapping approach of 16q12.2/FTO and BMI in more than 20,000 African Americans narrows in on the underlying functional variation: results from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e1003171}, abstract = {

Genetic variants in intron 1 of the fat mass- and obesity-associated (FTO) gene have been consistently associated with body mass index (BMI) in Europeans. However, follow-up studies in African Americans (AA) have shown no support for some of the most consistently BMI-associated FTO index single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). This is most likely explained by different race-specific linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns and lower correlation overall in AA, which provides the opportunity to fine-map this region and narrow in on the functional variant. To comprehensively explore the 16q12.2/FTO locus and to search for second independent signals in the broader region, we fine-mapped a 646-kb region, encompassing the large FTO gene and the flanking gene RPGRIP1L by investigating a total of 3,756 variants (1,529 genotyped and 2,227 imputed variants) in 20,488 AAs across five studies. We observed associations between BMI and variants in the known FTO intron 1 locus: the SNP with the most significant p-value, rs56137030 (8.3 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) had not been highlighted in previous studies. While rs56137030was correlated at r(2)>0.5 with 103 SNPs in Europeans (including the GWAS index SNPs), this number was reduced to 28 SNPs in AA. Among rs56137030 and the 28 correlated SNPs, six were located within candidate intronic regulatory elements, including rs1421085, for which we predicted allele-specific binding affinity for the transcription factor CUX1, which has recently been implicated in the regulation of FTO. We did not find strong evidence for a second independent signal in the broader region. In summary, this large fine-mapping study in AA has substantially reduced the number of common alleles that are likely to be functional candidates of the known FTO locus. Importantly our study demonstrated that comprehensive fine-mapping in AA provides a powerful approach to narrow in on the functional candidate(s) underlying the initial GWAS findings in European populations.

}, keywords = {Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Adult, African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alleles, Body Mass Index, Chromosome Mapping, Continental Population Groups, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Metagenomics, Middle Aged, Obesity, Proteins}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1003171}, author = {Peters, Ulrike and North, Kari E and Sethupathy, Praveen and Buyske, Steve and Haessler, Jeff and Jiao, Shuo and Fesinmeyer, Megan D and Jackson, Rebecca D and Kuller, Lew H and Rajkovic, Aleksandar and Lim, Unhee and Cheng, Iona and Schumacher, Fred and Wilkens, Lynne and Li, Rongling and Monda, Keri and Ehret, Georg and Nguyen, Khanh-Dung H and Cooper, Richard and Lewis, Cora E and Leppert, Mark and Irvin, Marguerite R and Gu, C Charles and Houston, Denise and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Ritchie, Marylyn and Matise, Tara C and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Hindorff, Lucia A and Crawford, Dana C and Haiman, Christopher A and Kooperberg, Charles} } @article {6629, title = {Trans-ethnic fine-mapping of lipid loci identifies population-specific signals and allelic heterogeneity that increases the trait variance explained.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Mar}, pages = {e1003379}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified ~100 loci associated with blood lipid levels, but much of the trait heritability remains unexplained, and at most loci the identities of the trait-influencing variants remain unknown. We conducted a trans-ethnic fine-mapping study at 18, 22, and 18 GWAS loci on the Metabochip for their association with triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), respectively, in individuals of African American (n = 6,832), East Asian (n = 9,449), and European (n = 10,829) ancestry. We aimed to identify the variants with strongest association at each locus, identify additional and population-specific signals, refine association signals, and assess the relative significance of previously described functional variants. Among the 58 loci, 33 exhibited evidence of association at P<1 {\texttimes} 10(-4) in at least one ancestry group. Sequential conditional analyses revealed that ten, nine, and four loci in African Americans, Europeans, and East Asians, respectively, exhibited two or more signals. At these loci, accounting for all signals led to a 1.3- to 1.8-fold increase in the explained phenotypic variance compared to the strongest signals. Distinct signals across ancestry groups were identified at PCSK9 and APOA5. Trans-ethnic analyses narrowed the signals to smaller sets of variants at GCKR, PPP1R3B, ABO, LCAT, and ABCA1. Of 27 variants reported previously to have functional effects, 74\% exhibited the strongest association at the respective signal. In conclusion, trans-ethnic high-density genotyping and analysis confirm the presence of allelic heterogeneity, allow the identification of population-specific variants, and limit the number of candidate SNPs for functional studies.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Apolipoproteins A, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lipoproteins, HDL, Lipoproteins, LDL, Proprotein Convertases, Serine Endopeptidases, Triglycerides}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1003379}, author = {Wu, Ying and Waite, Lindsay L and Jackson, Anne U and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Buyske, Steven and Absher, Devin and Arnett, Donna K and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Carty, Cara L and Cheng, Iona and Cochran, Barbara and Croteau-Chonka, Damien C and Dumitrescu, Logan and Eaton, Charles B and Franceschini, Nora and Guo, Xiuqing and Henderson, Brian E and Hindorff, Lucia A and Kim, Eric and Kinnunen, Leena and Komulainen, Pirjo and Lee, Wen-Jane and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Lin, Yi and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Lingaas-Holmen, Oddgeir and Mitchell, Sabrina L and Narisu, Narisu and Robinson, Jennifer G and Schumacher, Fred and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Sundvall, Jouko and Sung, Yun-Ju and Swift, Amy J and Wang, Wen-Chang and Wilkens, Lynne and Wilsgaard, Tom and Young, Alicia M and Adair, Linda S and Ballantyne, Christie M and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Collins, Francis S and Duggan, David and Feranil, Alan B and Ho, Low-Tone and Hung, Yi-Jen and Hunt, Steven C and Hveem, Kristian and Juang, Jyh-Ming J and Kes{\"a}niemi, Antero Y and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo A and Lee, I-Te and Leppert, Mark F and Matise, Tara C and Moilanen, Leena and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Peters, Ulrike and Quertermous, Thomas and Rauramaa, Rainer and Rotter, Jerome I and Saramies, Jouko and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uusitupa, Matti and Wang, Tzung-Dau and Boehnke, Michael and Haiman, Christopher A and Chen, Yii-der I and Kooperberg, Charles and Assimes, Themistocles L and Crawford, Dana C and Hsiung, Chao A and North, Kari E and Mohlke, Karen L} } @article {6283, title = {Whole-genome sequence-based analysis of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {45}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Aug}, pages = {899-901}, abstract = {

We describe initial steps for interrogating whole-genome sequence data to characterize the genetic architecture of a complex trait, levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). We report whole-genome sequencing and analysis of 962 individuals from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genetic Epidemiology (CHARGE) studies. From this analysis, we estimate that common variation contributes more to heritability of HDL-C levels than rare variation, and screening for mendelian variants for dyslipidemia identified individuals with extreme HDL-C levels. Whole-genome sequencing analyses highlight the value of regulatory and non-protein-coding regions of the genome in addition to protein-coding regions.

}, keywords = {Cholesterol, HDL, Computational Biology, Databases, Genetic, Genetic Variation, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Heterozygote, Humans, Open Reading Frames}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2671}, author = {Morrison, Alanna C and Voorman, Arend and Johnson, Andrew D and Liu, Xiaoming and Yu, Jin and Li, Alexander and Muzny, Donna and Yu, Fuli and Rice, Kenneth and Zhu, Chengsong and Bis, Joshua and Heiss, Gerardo and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Psaty, Bruce M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Gibbs, Richard and Boerwinkle, Eric} } @article {6580, title = {ADAM19 and HTR4 variants and pulmonary function: Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium Targeted Sequencing Study.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun}, pages = {350-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The pulmonary function measures of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and its ratio to forced vital capacity (FVC) are used in the diagnosis and monitoring of lung diseases and predict cardiovascular mortality in the general population. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified numerous loci associated with FEV1 and FEV1/FVC, but the causal variants remain uncertain. We hypothesized that novel or rare variants poorly tagged by GWASs may explain the significant associations between FEV1/FVC and 2 genes: ADAM19 and HTR4.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We sequenced ADAM19 and its promoter region along with the ≈21-kb portion of HTR4 harboring GWAS single-nucleotide polymorphisms for pulmonary function and analyzed associations with FEV1/FVC among 3983 participants of European ancestry from Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium. Meta-analysis of common variants in each region identified statistically significant associations (316 tests; P<1.58{\texttimes}10(-4)) with FEV1/FVC for 14 ADAM19 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and 24 HTR4 single-nucleotide polymorphisms. After conditioning on the sentinel GWASs hit in each gene (ADAM19 rs1422795, minor allele frequency=0.33 and HTR4 rs11168048, minor allele frequency=0.40], 1 single-nucleotide polymorphism remained statistically significant (ADAM19 rs13155908, minor allele frequency=0.12; P=1.56{\texttimes}10(-4)). Analysis of rare variants (minor allele frequency <1\%) using sequence kernel association test did not identify associations with either region.

CONCLUSIONS: Sequencing identified 1 common variant associated with FEV1/FVC independent of the sentinel ADAM19 GWAS hit and supports the original HTR4 GWAS findings. Rare variants do not seem to underlie GWAS associations with pulmonary function for common variants in ADAM19 and HTR4.

}, keywords = {ADAM Proteins, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Heart Diseases, Humans, Lung, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.113.000066}, author = {London, Stephanie J and Gao, Wei and Gharib, Sina A and Hancock, Dana B and Wilk, Jemma B and House, John S and Gibbs, Richard A and Muzny, Donna M and Lumley, Thomas and Franceschini, Nora and North, Kari E and Psaty, Bruce M and Kovar, Christie L and Coresh, Josef and Zhou, Yanhua and Heckbert, Susan R and Brody, Jennifer A and Morrison, Alanna C and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e} } @article {6238, title = {Age- and sex-dependent upper reference limits for the high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T assay.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {63}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Apr 15}, pages = {1441-8}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: The study sought to determine the 99th percentile upper reference limit for the high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T assay (hs-cTnT) in 3 large independent cohorts.

BACKGROUND: The presently recommended 14 ng/l cut point for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction using the hs-cTnT assay was derived from small studies of presumably healthy individuals, with relatively little phenotypic characterization.

METHODS: Data were included from 3 well-characterized population-based studies: the Dallas Heart Study (DHS), the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study, and the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). Within each cohort, reference subcohorts were defined excluding individuals with recent hospitalization, overt cardiovascular disease, and kidney disease (subcohort 1), and further excluding those with subclinical structural heart disease (subcohort 2). Data were analyzed stratified by age, sex, and race.

RESULTS: The 99th percentile values for the hs-cTnT assay in DHS, ARIC, and CHS were 18, 22, and 36 ng/l (subcohort 1) and 14, 21, and 28 ng/l (subcohort 2), respectively. These differences in 99th percentile values paralleled age differences across cohorts. Analyses within sex/age strata yielded similar results between cohorts. Within each cohort, 99th percentile values increased with age and were higher in men. More than 10\% of men 65 to 74 years of age with no cardiovascular disease in our study had cardiac troponin T values above the current myocardial infarction threshold.

CONCLUSIONS: Use of a uniform 14 ng/l cutoff for the hs-cTnT assay may lead to over-diagnosis of myocardial infarction, particularly in men and the elderly. Clinical validation is needed of new age- and sex-specific cutoff values for this assay.

}, keywords = {Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Biological Assay, Biomarkers, Blood Chemical Analysis, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Myocardial Infarction, Reference Values, Risk Assessment, Sensitivity and Specificity, Severity of Illness Index, Sex Factors, Troponin T}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2013.12.032}, author = {Gore, M Odette and Seliger, Stephen L and deFilippi, Christopher R and Nambi, Vijay and Christenson, Robert H and Hashim, Ibrahim A and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Ayers, Colby R and Sun, Wensheng and McGuire, Darren K and Ballantyne, Christie M and de Lemos, James A} } @article {6569, title = {Association between alcohol and cardiovascular disease: Mendelian randomisation analysis based on individual participant data.}, journal = {BMJ}, volume = {349}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jul 10}, pages = {g4164}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To use the rs1229984 variant in the alcohol dehydrogenase 1B gene (ADH1B) as an instrument to investigate the causal role of alcohol in cardiovascular disease.

DESIGN: Mendelian randomisation meta-analysis of 56 epidemiological studies.

PARTICIPANTS: 261 991 individuals of European descent, including 20 259 coronary heart disease cases and 10 164 stroke events. Data were available on ADH1B rs1229984 variant, alcohol phenotypes, and cardiovascular biomarkers.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Odds ratio for coronary heart disease and stroke associated with the ADH1B variant in all individuals and by categories of alcohol consumption.

RESULTS: Carriers of the A-allele of ADH1B rs1229984 consumed 17.2\% fewer units of alcohol per week (95\% confidence interval 15.6\% to 18.9\%), had a lower prevalence of binge drinking (odds ratio 0.78 (95\% CI 0.73 to 0.84)), and had higher abstention (odds ratio 1.27 (1.21 to 1.34)) than non-carriers. Rs1229984 A-allele carriers had lower systolic blood pressure (-0.88 (-1.19 to -0.56) mm Hg), interleukin-6 levels (-5.2\% (-7.8 to -2.4\%)), waist circumference (-0.3 (-0.6 to -0.1) cm), and body mass index (-0.17 (-0.24 to -0.10) kg/m(2)). Rs1229984 A-allele carriers had lower odds of coronary heart disease (odds ratio 0.90 (0.84 to 0.96)). The protective association of the ADH1B rs1229984 A-allele variant remained the same across all categories of alcohol consumption (P=0.83 for heterogeneity). Although no association of rs1229984 was identified with the combined subtypes of stroke, carriers of the A-allele had lower odds of ischaemic stroke (odds ratio 0.83 (0.72 to 0.95)).

CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with a genetic variant associated with non-drinking and lower alcohol consumption had a more favourable cardiovascular profile and a reduced risk of coronary heart disease than those without the genetic variant. This suggests that reduction of alcohol consumption, even for light to moderate drinkers, is beneficial for cardiovascular health.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Alcohol Dehydrogenase, Alcohol Drinking, Biomarkers, Coronary Disease, Female, Genetic Markers, Genotype, Humans, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Models, Statistical, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Stroke}, issn = {1756-1833}, doi = {10.1136/bmj.g4164}, author = {Holmes, Michael V and Dale, Caroline E and Zuccolo, Luisa and Silverwood, Richard J and Guo, Yiran and Ye, Zheng and Prieto-Merino, David and Dehghan, Abbas and Trompet, Stella and Wong, Andrew and Cavadino, Alana and Drogan, Dagmar and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Li, Shanshan and Yesupriya, Ajay and Leusink, Maarten and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Hubacek, Jaroslav A and Pikhart, Hynek and Swerdlow, Daniel I and Panayiotou, Andrie G and Borinskaya, Svetlana A and Finan, Chris and Shah, Sonia and Kuchenbaecker, Karoline B and Shah, Tina and Engmann, Jorgen and Folkersen, Lasse and Eriksson, Per and Ricceri, Fulvio and Melander, Olle and Sacerdote, Carlotta and Gamble, Dale M and Rayaprolu, Sruti and Ross, Owen A and McLachlan, Stela and Vikhireva, Olga and Sluijs, Ivonne and Scott, Robert A and Adamkova, Vera and Flicker, Leon and Bockxmeer, Frank M van and Power, Christine and Marques-Vidal, Pedro and Meade, Tom and Marmot, Michael G and Ferro, Jose M and Paulos-Pinheiro, Sofia and Humphries, Steve E and Talmud, Philippa J and Mateo Leach, Irene and Verweij, Niek and Linneberg, Allan and Skaaby, Tea and Doevendans, Pieter A and Cramer, Maarten J and van der Harst, Pim and Klungel, Olaf H and Dowling, Nicole F and Dominiczak, Anna F and Kumari, Meena and Nicolaides, Andrew N and Weikert, Cornelia and Boeing, Heiner and Ebrahim, Shah and Gaunt, Tom R and Price, Jackie F and Lannfelt, Lars and Peasey, Anne and Kubinova, Ruzena and Pajak, Andrzej and Malyutina, Sofia and Voevoda, Mikhail I and Tamosiunas, Abdonas and Maitland-van der Zee, Anke H and Norman, Paul E and Hankey, Graeme J and Bergmann, Manuela M and Hofman, Albert and Franco, Oscar H and Cooper, Jackie and Palmen, Jutta and Spiering, Wilko and de Jong, Pim A and Kuh, Diana and Hardy, Rebecca and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Ikram, M Arfan and Ford, Ian and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and Almeida, Osvaldo P and Wareham, Nicholas J and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Hamsten, Anders and Husemoen, Lise Lotte N and Tj{\o}nneland, Anne and Tolstrup, Janne S and Rimm, Eric and Beulens, Joline W J and Verschuren, W M Monique and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Hofker, Marten H and Wannamethee, S Goya and Whincup, Peter H and Morris, Richard and Vicente, Astrid M and Watkins, Hugh and Farrall, Martin and Jukema, J Wouter and Meschia, James and Cupples, L Adrienne and Sharp, Stephen J and Fornage, Myriam and Kooperberg, Charles and LaCroix, Andrea Z and Dai, James Y and Lanktree, Matthew B and Siscovick, David S and Jorgenson, Eric and Spring, Bonnie and Coresh, Josef and Li, Yun R and Buxbaum, Sarah G and Schreiner, Pamela J and Ellison, R Curtis and Tsai, Michael Y and Patel, Sanjay R and Redline, Susan and Johnson, Andrew D and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Hakonarson, Hakon and Rotter, Jerome I and Boerwinkle, Eric and de Bakker, Paul I W and Kivimaki, Mika and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Sattar, Naveed and Lawlor, Debbie A and Whittaker, John and Davey Smith, George and Mukamal, Kenneth and Psaty, Bruce M and Wilson, James G and Lange, Leslie A and Hamidovic, Ajna and Hingorani, Aroon D and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Bobak, Martin and Leon, David A and Langenberg, Claudia and Palmer, Tom M and Reiner, Alex P and Keating, Brendan J and Dudbridge, Frank and Casas, Juan P} } @article {6542, title = {Association between the metabolic syndrome, its individual components, and unprovoked venous thromboembolism: results of a patient-level meta-analysis.}, journal = {Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol}, volume = {34}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Nov}, pages = {2478-85}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: The metabolic syndrome (MetS) may contribute to the pathogenesis of venous thromboembolism (VTE), but this association requires additional investigation.

APPROACH AND RESULTS: We performed a patient-level meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies that evaluated the role of MetS and risk of unprovoked VTE. For case-control studies, odds ratios and 95\% confidence intervals were calculated using logistic regression analysis to estimate the influence of individual variables on the risk of VTE; χ(2) tests for trend were used to investigate the effect of increasing number of components of MetS on the risk of VTE and to explore the influence of abdominal obesity on this relationship. For cohort studies, hazard ratios and 95\% confidence interval were calculated using multivariable Cox regression analysis. Six case-control studies were included (908 cases with unprovoked VTE and 1794 controls): in multivariate analysis, MetS was independently associated with VTE (odds ratio, 1.91; 95\% confidence interval, 1.57-2.33), and both MetS and abdominal obesity were better predictors of unprovoked VTE than obesity defined by the body mass index. Two prospective cohort studies were included (26,531 subjects and 289 unprovoked VTE events): age, obesity, and abdominal obesity, but not MetS were associated with VTE.

CONCLUSIONS: Case-control but not prospective cohort studies support an association between MetS and VTE. Abdominal adiposity is a strong risk factor for VTE.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Female, Humans, Logistic Models, Male, Metabolic Syndrome, Middle Aged, Obesity, Abdominal, Risk Factors, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1524-4636}, doi = {10.1161/ATVBAHA.114.304085}, author = {Ageno, Walter and Di Minno, Matteo N D and Ay, Cihan and Jang, Moon Ju and Hansen, John-Bjarne and Steffen, Lyn M and Vaya, Amparo and Rattazzi, Marcello and Pabinger, Ingrid and Oh, Doyeun and Di Minno, Giovanni and Braekkan, Sigrid K and Cushman, Mary and Bonet, Elena and Pauletto, Paolo and Squizzato, Alessandro and Dentali, Francesco} } @article {6587, title = {Association of a cystatin C gene variant with cystatin C levels, CKD, and risk of incident cardiovascular disease and mortality.}, journal = {Am J Kidney Dis}, volume = {63}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jan}, pages = {16-22}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Carriers of the T allele of the single-nucleotide polymorphism rs13038305 tend to have lower cystatin C levels and higher cystatin C-based estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFRcys). Adjusting for this genetic effect on cystatin C concentrations may improve GFR estimation, reclassify cases of chronic kidney disease (CKD), and strengthen risk estimates for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality.

STUDY DESIGN: Observational.

SETTING \& POPULATION: 4 population-based cohorts: Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC), Cardiovascular Health (CHS), Framingham Heart (FHS), and Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) studies.

PREDICTORS: We estimated the association of rs13038305 with eGFRcys and serum creatinine-based eGFR (eGFRcr) and performed longitudinal analyses of the associations of eGFRcys with mortality and cardiovascular events following adjustment for rs13038305.

OUTCOMES: We assessed reclassification by genotype-adjusted eGFRcys across CKD categories: <45, 45-59, 60-89, and >= 90 mL/min/1.73 m(2). We compared mortality and CVD outcomes in those reclassified to a worse eGFRcys category with those unaffected. Results were combined using fixed-effect inverse-variance meta-analysis.

RESULTS: In 14,645 participants, each copy of the T allele of rs13038305 (frequency, 21\%) was associated with a 6.4\% lower cystatin C concentration, 5.5-mL/min/1.73 m(2) higher eGFRcys, and 36\% [95\% CI, 29\%-41\%] lower odds of CKD. Associations with CVD (HR, 1.17; 95\% CI, 1.14-1.20) and mortality (HR, 1.22; 95\% CI, 1.19-1.24) per 10-mL/min/1.73 m(2) lower eGFRcys were similar with or without rs13038305 adjustment. 1,134 (7.7\%) participants were reclassified to a worse CKD category following rs13038305 adjustment, and rates of CVD and mortality were higher in individuals who were reclassified. However, the overall net reclassification index was not significant for either outcome, at 0.009 (95\% CI, -0.003 to 0.022) for mortality and 0.014 (95\% CI, 0.0 to 0.028) for CVD.

LIMITATIONS: rs13038305 explains only a small proportion of cystatin C variation.

CONCLUSIONS: Statistical adjustment can correct a genetic bias in GFR estimates based on cystatin C in carriers of the T allele of rs13038305 and result in changes in disease classification. However, on a population level, the effects on overall reclassification of CKD status are modest.

}, keywords = {Aged, Bias, Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Creatinine, Cystatin C, Female, Genetic Variation, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Severity of Illness Index, Statistics as Topic, Survival Rate}, issn = {1523-6838}, doi = {10.1053/j.ajkd.2013.06.015}, author = {O{\textquoteright}Seaghdha, Conall M and Tin, Adrienne and Yang, Qiong and Katz, Ronit and Liu, Yongmei and Harris, Tamara and Astor, Brad and Coresh, Josef and Fox, Caroline S and Kao, W H Linda and Shlipak, Michael G} } @article {6590, title = {Association of low-frequency and rare coding-sequence variants with blood lipids and coronary heart disease in 56,000 whites and blacks.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {94}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Feb 06}, pages = {223-32}, abstract = {

Low-frequency coding DNA sequence variants in the proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 gene (PCSK9) lower plasma low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), protect against risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), and have prompted the development of a new class of therapeutics. It is uncertain whether the PCSK9 example represents a paradigm or an isolated exception. We used the "Exome Array" to genotype >200,000 low-frequency and rare coding sequence variants across the genome in 56,538 individuals (42,208 European ancestry [EA] and 14,330 African ancestry [AA]) and tested these variants for association with LDL-C, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglycerides. Although we did not identify new genes associated with LDL-C, we did identify four low-frequency (frequencies between 0.1\% and 2\%) variants (ANGPTL8 rs145464906 [c.361C>T; p.Gln121*], PAFAH1B2 rs186808413 [c.482C>T; p.Ser161Leu], COL18A1 rs114139997 [c.331G>A; p.Gly111Arg], and PCSK7 rs142953140 [c.1511G>A; p.Arg504His]) with large effects on HDL-C and/or triglycerides. None of these four variants was associated with risk for CHD, suggesting that examples of low-frequency coding variants with robust effects on both lipids and CHD will be limited.

}, keywords = {1-Alkyl-2-acetylglycerophosphocholine Esterase, Adult, African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Alleles, Animals, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Cohort Studies, Coronary Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Code, Genetic Variation, Humans, Linear Models, Male, Mice, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Microtubule-Associated Proteins, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Subtilisins, Triglycerides}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.01.009}, author = {Peloso, Gina M and Auer, Paul L and Bis, Joshua C and Voorman, Arend and Morrison, Alanna C and Stitziel, Nathan O and Brody, Jennifer A and Khetarpal, Sumeet A and Crosby, Jacy R and Fornage, Myriam and Isaacs, Aaron and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Feitosa, Mary F and Davies, Gail and Huffman, Jennifer E and Manichaikul, Ani and Davis, Brian and Lohman, Kurt and Joon, Aron Y and Smith, Albert V and Grove, Megan L and Zanoni, Paolo and Redon, Valeska and Demissie, Serkalem and Lawson, Kim and Peters, Ulrike and Carlson, Christopher and Jackson, Rebecca D and Ryckman, Kelli K and Mackey, Rachel H and Robinson, Jennifer G and Siscovick, David S and Schreiner, Pamela J and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Pankow, James S and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Harris, Tamara B and Taylor, Kent D and Stafford, Jeanette M and Reynolds, Lindsay M and Marioni, Riccardo E and Dehghan, Abbas and Franco, Oscar H and Patel, Aniruddh P and Lu, Yingchang and Hindy, George and Gottesman, Omri and Bottinger, Erwin P and Melander, Olle and Orho-Melander, Marju and Loos, Ruth J F and Duga, Stefano and Merlini, Piera Angelica and Farrall, Martin and Goel, Anuj and Asselta, Rosanna and Girelli, Domenico and Martinelli, Nicola and Shah, Svati H and Kraus, William E and Li, Mingyao and Rader, Daniel J and Reilly, Muredach P and McPherson, Ruth and Watkins, Hugh and Ardissino, Diego and Zhang, Qunyuan and Wang, Judy and Tsai, Michael Y and Taylor, Herman A and Correa, Adolfo and Griswold, Michael E and Lange, Leslie A and Starr, John M and Rudan, Igor and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Launer, Lenore J and Ordovas, Jose M and Levy, Daniel and Chen, Y-D Ida and Reiner, Alexander P and Hayward, Caroline and Polasek, Ozren and Deary, Ian J and Borecki, Ingrid B and Liu, Yongmei and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Wilson, James G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Kooperberg, Charles and Rich, Stephen S and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Rice, Kenneth and Boerwinkle, Eric and Kathiresan, Sekar and Cupples, L Adrienne} } @article {6543, title = {Association of sick sinus syndrome with incident cardiovascular disease and mortality: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study and Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {9}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {e109662}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Sick sinus syndrome (SSS) is a common indication for pacemaker implantation. Limited information exists on the association of sick sinus syndrome (SSS) with mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the general population.

METHODS: We studied 19,893 men and women age 45 and older in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study and the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), two community-based cohorts, who were without a pacemaker or atrial fibrillation (AF) at baseline. Incident SSS cases were validated by review of medical charts. Incident CVD and mortality were ascertained using standardized protocols. Multivariable Cox models were used to estimate the association of incident SSS with selected outcomes.

RESULTS: During a mean follow-up of 17 years, 213 incident SSS events were identified and validated (incidence, 0.6 events per 1,000 person-years). After adjustment for confounders, SSS incidence was associated with increased mortality (hazard ratio [HR] 1.39, 95\% confidence interval [CI] 1.14-1.70), coronary heart disease (HR 1.72, 95\%CI 1.11-2.66), heart failure (HR 2.87, 95\%CI 2.17-3.80), stroke (HR 1.56, 95\%CI 0.99-2.46), AF (HR 5.75, 95\%CI 4.43-7.46), and pacemaker implantation (HR 53.7, 95\%CI 42.9-67.2). After additional adjustment for other incident CVD during follow-up, SSS was no longer associated with increased mortality, coronary heart disease, or stroke, but remained associated with higher risk of heart failure (HR 2.00, 95\%CI 1.51-2.66), AF (HR 4.25, 95\%CI 3.28-5.51), and pacemaker implantation (HR 25.2, 95\%CI 19.8-32.1).

CONCLUSION: Individuals who develop SSS are at increased risk of death and CVD. The mechanisms underlying these associations warrant further investigation.

}, keywords = {Age Distribution, Atherosclerosis, Cohort Studies, Continental Population Groups, Female, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Residence Characteristics, Risk, Sex Distribution, Sick Sinus Syndrome}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0109662}, author = {Alonso, Alvaro and Jensen, Paul N and Lopez, Faye L and Chen, Lin Y and Psaty, Bruce M and Folsom, Aaron R and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {6548, title = {Associations of NINJ2 sequence variants with incident ischemic stroke in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {9}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {e99798}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Stroke, the leading neurologic cause of death and disability, has a substantial genetic component. We previously conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in four prospective studies from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium and demonstrated that sequence variants near the NINJ2 gene are associated with incident ischemic stroke. Here, we sought to fine-map functional variants in the region and evaluate the contribution of rare variants to ischemic stroke risk.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We sequenced 196 kb around NINJ2 on chromosome 12p13 among 3,986 European ancestry participants, including 475 ischemic stroke cases, from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, Cardiovascular Health Study, and Framingham Heart Study. Meta-analyses of single-variant tests for 425 common variants (minor allele frequency [MAF] >= 1\%) confirmed the original GWAS results and identified an independent intronic variant, rs34166160 (MAF = 0.012), most significantly associated with incident ischemic stroke (HR = 1.80, p = 0.0003). Aggregating 278 putatively-functional variants with MAF<= 1\% using count statistics, we observed a nominally statistically significant association, with the burden of rare NINJ2 variants contributing to decreased ischemic stroke incidence (HR = 0.81; p = 0.026).

CONCLUSION: Common and rare variants in the NINJ2 region were nominally associated with incident ischemic stroke among a subset of CHARGE participants. Allelic heterogeneity at this locus, caused by multiple rare, low frequency, and common variants with disparate effects on risk, may explain the difficulties in replicating the original GWAS results. Additional studies that take into account the complex allelic architecture at this locus are needed to confirm these findings.

}, keywords = {Cell Adhesion Molecules, Neuronal, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Heterogeneity, Humans, Introns, Ischemia, Male, Myocardial Infarction, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prospective Studies, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0099798}, author = {Bis, Joshua C and DeStefano, Anita and Liu, Xiaoming and Brody, Jennifer A and Choi, Seung Hoan and Verhaaren, Benjamin F J and Debette, Stephanie and Ikram, M Arfan and Shahar, Eyal and Butler, Kenneth R and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Muzny, Donna and Kovar, Christie L and Psaty, Bruce M and Hofman, Albert and Lumley, Thomas and Gupta, Mayetri and Wolf, Philip A and van Duijn, Cornelia and Gibbs, Richard A and Mosley, Thomas H and Longstreth, W T and Boerwinkle, Eric and Seshadri, Sudha and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {6601, title = {B-type natriuretic peptide and C-reactive protein in the prediction of atrial fibrillation risk: the CHARGE-AF Consortium of community-based cohort studies.}, journal = {Europace}, volume = {16}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Oct}, pages = {1426-33}, abstract = {

AIMS: B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and C-reactive protein (CRP) predict atrial fibrillation (AF) risk. However, their risk stratification abilities in the broad community remain uncertain. We sought to improve risk stratification for AF using biomarker information.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We ascertained AF incidence in 18 556 Whites and African Americans from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC, n=10 675), Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS, n = 5043), and Framingham Heart Study (FHS, n = 2838), followed for 5 years (prediction horizon). We added BNP (ARIC/CHS: N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide; FHS: BNP), CRP, or both to a previously reported AF risk score, and assessed model calibration and predictive ability [C-statistic, integrated discrimination improvement (IDI), and net reclassification improvement (NRI)]. We replicated models in two independent European cohorts: Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility Reykjavik Study (AGES), n = 4467; Rotterdam Study (RS), n = 3203. B-type natriuretic peptide and CRP were significantly associated with AF incidence (n = 1186): hazard ratio per 1-SD ln-transformed biomarker 1.66 [95\% confidence interval (CI), 1.56-1.76], P < 0.0001 and 1.18 (95\% CI, 1.11-1.25), P < 0.0001, respectively. Model calibration was sufficient (BNP, χ(2) = 17.0; CRP, χ(2) = 10.5; BNP and CRP, χ(2) = 13.1). B-type natriuretic peptide improved the C-statistic from 0.765 to 0.790, yielded an IDI of 0.027 (95\% CI, 0.022-0.032), a relative IDI of 41.5\%, and a continuous NRI of 0.389 (95\% CI, 0.322-0.455). The predictive ability of CRP was limited (C-statistic increment 0.003). B-type natriuretic peptide consistently improved prediction in AGES and RS.

CONCLUSION: B-type natriuretic peptide, not CRP, substantially improved AF risk prediction beyond clinical factors in an independently replicated, heterogeneous population. B-type natriuretic peptide may serve as a benchmark to evaluate novel putative AF risk biomarkers.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Biomarkers, C-Reactive Protein, Europe, Female, Humans, Incidence, Male, Natriuretic Peptide, Brain, Peptide Fragments, Predictive Value of Tests, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {1532-2092}, doi = {10.1093/europace/euu175}, author = {Sinner, Moritz F and Stepas, Katherine A and Moser, Carlee B and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Aspelund, Thor and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Fontes, Jo{\~a}o D and Janssens, A Cecile J W and Kronmal, Richard A and Magnani, Jared W and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Chamberlain, Alanna M and Lubitz, Steven A and Schnabel, Renate B and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wang, Thomas J and Agarwal, Sunil K and McManus, David D and Franco, Oscar H and Yin, Xiaoyan and Larson, Martin G and Burke, Gregory L and Launer, Lenore J and Hofman, Albert and Levy, Daniel and Gottdiener, John S and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Couper, David and Harris, Tamara B and Astor, Brad C and Ballantyne, Christie M and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Arai, Andrew E and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Ellinor, Patrick T and Stricker, Bruno H C and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Heckbert, Susan R and Pencina, Michael J and Benjamin, Emelia J and Alonso, Alvaro} } @article {6607, title = {The challenges of genome-wide interaction studies: lessons to learn from the analysis of HDL blood levels.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {9}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {e109290}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have revealed 74 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) blood levels. This study is, to our knowledge, the first genome-wide interaction study (GWIS) to identify SNP{\texttimes}SNP interactions associated with HDL levels. We performed a GWIS in the Rotterdam Study (RS) cohort I (RS-I) using the GLIDE tool which leverages the massively parallel computing power of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to perform linear regression on all genome-wide pairs of SNPs. By performing a meta-analysis together with Rotterdam Study cohorts II and III (RS-II and RS-III), we were able to filter 181 interaction terms with a p-value<1 {\textperiodcentered} 10-8 that replicated in the two independent cohorts. We were not able to replicate any of these interaction term in the AGES, ARIC, CHS, ERF, FHS and NFBC-66 cohorts (Ntotal = 30,011) when adjusting for multiple testing. Our GWIS resulted in the consistent finding of a possible interaction between rs774801 in ARMC8 (ENSG00000114098) and rs12442098 in SPATA8 (ENSG00000185594) being associated with HDL levels. However, p-values do not reach the preset Bonferroni correction of the p-values. Our study suggest that even for highly genetically determined traits such as HDL the sample sizes needed to detect SNP{\texttimes}SNP interactions are large and the 2-step filtering approaches do not yield a solution. Here we present our analysis plan and our reservations concerning GWIS.

}, keywords = {Cholesterol, HDL, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0109290}, author = {van Leeuwen, Elisabeth M and Smouter, Fran{\c c}oise A S and Kam-Thong, Tony and Karbalai, Nazanin and Smith, Albert V and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Sitlani, Colleen M and Li, Guo and Brody, Jennifer A and Bis, Joshua C and White, Charles C and Jaiswal, Alok and Oostra, Ben A and Hofman, Albert and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Boerwinkle, Eric and Ballantyne, Christie M and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Psaty, Bruce M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Ripatti, Samuli and Isaacs, Aaron and M{\"u}ller-Myhsok, Bertram and Karssen, Lennart C and van Duijn, Cornelia M} } @article {6337, title = {Circulating fibrosis biomarkers and risk of atrial fibrillation: The Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS).}, journal = {Am Heart J}, volume = {167}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 May}, pages = {723-8.e2}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Cardiac fibrosis is thought to play a central role in the pathogenesis of atrial fibrillation (AF). Retrospective studies have suggested that circulating fibrosis biomarkers are associated with AF, but prospective studies are limited.

METHODS: We measured circulating levels of 2 fibrosis biomarkers, procollagen type III, N-terminal propeptide (PIIINP) and transforming growth factor β1 among participants of the CHS, a population-based study of older Americans. We used Cox proportional hazards and competing risks models to examine adjusted risk of incident AF over a median follow-up of 8.8 years.

RESULTS: Levels of PIIINP were assessed in 2,935 participants, of whom 767 developed AF. Compared with the median PIIINP level (4.45 μg/L), adjusted hazard ratios (95\% CIs) were 0.85 (0.72-1.00) at the 10th percentile, 0.93 (0.88-0.99) at the 25th percentile, 1.04 (0.95-1.04) at the 75th percentile, and 1.07 (0.90-1.26) at the 90th. Transforming growth factor β1 levels, assessed in 1,538 participants with 408 cases of incident AF, were not associated with AF risk.

CONCLUSION: In older adults, PIIINP levels were associated with risk of incident AF in a complex manner, with an association that appeared to be positive up to median levels but with little relationship beyond that. Further studies are required to confirm and possibly delineate the mechanism for this relationship.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Biomarkers, Cardiomyopathies, Electrocardiography, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Female, Fibrosis, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Male, Peptide Fragments, Procollagen, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Time Factors, Transforming Growth Factor beta1, United States}, issn = {1097-6744}, doi = {10.1016/j.ahj.2014.01.010}, author = {Rosenberg, Michael A and Maziarz, Marlena and Tan, Alex Y and Glazer, Nicole L and Zieman, Susan J and Kizer, Jorge R and Ix, Joachim H and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Siscovick, David S and Heckbert, Susan R and Mukamal, Kenneth J} } @article {6613, title = {Circulating omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids and total and cause-specific mortality: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {130}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Oct 7}, pages = {1245-53}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Although omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-6 PUFA) have been recommended to reduce coronary heart disease (CHD), controversy remains about benefits versus harms, including concerns over theorized proinflammatory effects of n-6 PUFA. We investigated associations of circulating n-6 PUFA including linoleic acid (the major dietary PUFA), γ-linolenic acid, dihomo-γ-linolenic acid, and arachidonic acid, with total and cause-specific mortality in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a community-based U.S. cohort.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Among 2792 participants(aged >=65 years) free of cardiovascular disease at baseline, plasma phospholipid n-6 PUFA were measured at baseline using standardized methods. All-cause and cause-specific mortality, and total incident CHD and stroke, were assessed and adjudicated centrally. Associations of PUFA with risk were assessed by Cox regression. During 34 291 person-years of follow-up (1992-2010), 1994 deaths occurred (678 cardiovascular deaths), with 427 fatal and 418 nonfatal CHD, and 154 fatal and 399 nonfatal strokes. In multivariable models, higher linoleic acid was associated with lower total mortality, with extreme-quintile hazard ratio =0.87 (P trend=0.005). Lower death was largely attributable to cardiovascular disease causes, especially nonarrhythmic CHD mortality (hazard ratio, 0.51; 95\% confidence interval, 0.32-0.82; P trend=0.001). Circulating γ-linolenic acid, dihomo-γ-linolenic acid, and arachidonic acid were not significantly associated with total or cause-specific mortality (eg, for arachidonic acid and CHD death, the extreme-quintile hazard ratio was 0.97; 95\% confidence interval, 0.70-1.34; P trend=0.87). Evaluated semiparametrically, linoleic acid showed graded inverse associations with total mortality (P=0.005). There was little evidence that associations of n-6 PUFA with total mortality varied by age, sex, race, or plasma n-3 PUFA. Evaluating both n-6 and n-3 PUFA, lowest risk was evident with highest levels of both.

CONCLUSIONS: High circulating linoleic acid, but not other n-6 PUFA, was inversely associated with total and CHD mortality in older adults.

}, keywords = {Aged, Arachidonic Acid, Biomarkers, Cohort Studies, Coronary Disease, Fatty Acids, Omega-3, Fatty Acids, Omega-6, Fatty Acids, Unsaturated, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Linoleic Acid, Male, Prospective Studies, Regression Analysis, Risk Factors, Stroke, Survival Rate, United States}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.114.011590}, author = {Wu, Jason H Y and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and King, Irena B and Song, Xiaoling and Psaty, Bruce M and Siscovick, David S and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {6549, title = {Common carotid intima-media thickness measurements do not improve cardiovascular risk prediction in individuals with elevated blood pressure: the USE-IMT collaboration.}, journal = {Hypertension}, volume = {63}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun}, pages = {1173-81}, abstract = {

Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) is a marker of cardiovascular risk. It is unclear whether measurement of mean common CIMT improves 10-year risk prediction of first-time myocardial infarction or stroke in individuals with elevated blood pressure. We performed an analysis among individuals with elevated blood pressure (i.e., a systolic blood pressure >=140 mm Hg and a diastolic blood pressure >= 90 mm Hg) in USE-IMT, a large ongoing individual participant data meta-analysis. We refitted the risk factors of the Framingham Risk Score on asymptomatic individuals (baseline model) and expanded this model with mean common CIMT (CIMT model) measurements. From both models, 10-year risks to develop a myocardial infarction or stroke were estimated. In individuals with elevated blood pressure, we compared discrimination and calibration of the 2 models and calculated the net reclassification improvement (NRI). We included 17 254 individuals with elevated blood pressure from 16 studies. During a median follow-up of 9.9 years, 2014 first-time myocardial infarctions or strokes occurred. The C-statistics of the baseline and CIMT models were similar (0.73). NRI with the addition of mean common CIMT was small and not significant (1.4\%; 95\% confidence intervals, -1.1 to 3.7). In those at intermediate risk (n=5008, 10-year absolute risk of 10\% to 20\%), the NRI was 5.6\% (95\% confidence intervals, 1.6-10.4). There is no added value of measurement of mean common CIMT in individuals with elevated blood pressure for improving cardiovascular risk prediction. For those at intermediate risk, the addition of mean common CIMT to an existing cardiovascular risk score is small but statistically significant.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Antihypertensive Agents, Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carotid Artery, Common, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Cohort Studies, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Middle Aged, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors}, issn = {1524-4563}, doi = {10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.113.02683}, author = {Bots, Michiel L and Groenewegen, Karlijn A and Anderson, Todd J and Britton, Annie R and Dekker, Jacqueline M and Engstr{\"o}m, Gunnar and Evans, Greg W and de Graaf, Jacqueline and Grobbee, Diederick E and Hedblad, Bo and Hofman, Albert and Holewijn, Suzanne and Ikeda, Ai and Kavousi, Maryam and Kitagawa, Kazuo and Kitamura, Akihiko and Ikram, M Arfan and Lonn, Eva M and Lorenz, Matthias W and Mathiesen, Ellisiv B and Nijpels, Giel and Okazaki, Shuhei and O{\textquoteright}Leary, Daniel H and Polak, Joseph F and Price, Jacqueline F and Robertson, Christine and Rembold, Christopher M and Rosvall, Maria and Rundek, Tatjana and Salonen, Jukka T and Sitzer, Matthias and Stehouwer, Coen D A and Franco, Oscar H and Peters, Sanne A E and den Ruijter, Hester M} } @article {6570, title = {A common SCN5A variant is associated with PR interval and atrial fibrillation among African Americans.}, journal = {J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol}, volume = {25}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Nov}, pages = {1150-7}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: We examined the association of rs7626962 (S1103Y) or rs7629265, a variant in high linkage disequilibrium with S1103Y (r(2) = 0.87 - 1), with sudden cardiac death (SCD) and atrial fibrillation (AF) among African Americans.

BACKGROUND: The SCN5A missense variant S1103Y has been associated with SCD among African Americans in small case-control studies, but larger population-based studies are needed to validate these findings. The association of this variant with AF has not been fully explored.

METHODS: Using genotyping data on over 7,000 African Americans from 5 cohorts (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities [ARIC], Cleveland Family Study [CFS], Jackson Heart Study [JHS], Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis [MESA], Cardiovascular Health Study [CHS]), we examined the association of rs7629265 with electrocardiographic PR, QRS, and QT intervals, and with incident AF and SCD. We examined association of S1103Y (rs7626962) with SCD using a population-based case-control study of SCD Cardiac Arrest Blood Study (CABS).

RESULTS: Meta-analyses across 5 cohorts demonstrated that rs7629265 was significantly associated with PR duration (β = -4.1 milliseconds; P = 2.2{\texttimes}10(-6) ), but not significantly associated with QRS or QT intervals. In meta-analyses of prospectively followed ARIC and CHS participants (n = 3,656), rs7629265 was associated with increased AF risk (n = 299 AF cases; HR = 1.74, P = 1.9 {\texttimes} 10(-4) ). By contrast, rs7629265 was not significantly associated with SCD risk in ARIC (n = 83 SCD cases; P = 0.30) or CHS (n = 54 SCD cases; P = 0.47). Similarly, S1103Y was not significantly associated with SCD risk in CABS (n = 225 SCD cases; P = 0.29).

CONCLUSION: The common SCN5A variant, rs7629265, is associated with increased AF risk and shorter PR interval among African Americans. In contrast to prior reports, we found no evidence of association of rs7629265 or rs7626962 (S1103Y) with SCD risk in the general population.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atrial Fibrillation, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, Female, Genetic Variation, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, NAV1.5 Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Single-Blind Method}, issn = {1540-8167}, doi = {10.1111/jce.12483}, author = {Ilkhanoff, Leonard and Arking, Dan E and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Alonso, Alvaro and Chen, Lin Y and Durda, Peter and Hesselson, Stephanie E and Kerr, Kathleen F and Magnani, Jared W and Marcus, Gregory M and Schnabel, Renate B and Smith, J Gustav and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Reiner, Alexander P and Sotoodehnia, Nona} } @article {6325, title = {Common variation in fatty acid metabolic genes and risk of incident sudden cardiac arrest.}, journal = {Heart Rhythm}, volume = {11}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Mar}, pages = {471-7}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: There is limited information on genetic factors associated with sudden cardiac arrest (SCA).

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association of common variation in genes in fatty acid pathways with SCA risk.

METHODS: We selected 85 candidate genes and 1155 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) tagging common variation in each gene. We investigated the SNP associations with SCA in a population-based case-control study. Cases (n = 2160) were from a repository of SCA in the greater Seattle area. Controls (n = 2615), frequency-matched on age and sex, were from the same area. We used linear logistic regression to examine SNP associations with SCA. We performed permutation-based p-min tests to account for multiple comparisons within each gene. The SNP associations with a corrected P value of <.05 were then examined in a meta-analysis of these SNP associations in 9 replication studies totaling 2129 SCA cases and 23,833 noncases.

RESULTS: Eight SNPs in or near 8 genes were associated with SCA risk in the discovery study, one of which was nominally significant in the replication phase (rs7737692, minor allele frequency 36\%, near the LPCAT1 gene). For each copy of the minor allele, rs7737692 was associated with 13\% lower SCA risk (95\% confidence interval -21\% to -5\%) in the discovery phase and 9\% lower SCA risk (95\% confidence interval -16\% to -1\%) in the replication phase.

CONCLUSIONS: While none of the associations reached significance with Bonferroni correction, a common genetic variant near LPCAT1, a gene involved in the remodeling of phospholipids, was nominally associated with incident SCA risk. Further study is needed to validate this observation.

}, keywords = {1-Acylglycerophosphocholine O-Acyltransferase, Aged, Algorithms, Alleles, Case-Control Studies, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, Fatty Acids, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genotype, Humans, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1556-3871}, doi = {10.1016/j.hrthm.2014.01.008}, author = {Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Johnson, Catherine O and Hesselson, Stephanie and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Sotoodhenia, Nona and McKnight, Barbara and Sitlani, Colleen M and Rea, Thomas D and King, Irena B and Kwok, Pui-Yan and Mak, Angel and Li, Guo and Brody, Jennifer and Larson, Eric and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Psaty, Bruce M and Huertas-Vazquez, Adriana and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Albert, Christine M and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Arking, Dan E and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Huikuri, Heikki V and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Wang, Ying A and Reinier, Kyndaron and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Pulit, Sara L and Brugada, Ramon and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Newton-Cheh, Chris H and Karhunen, Pekka J and Stricker, Bruno H and Goyette, Philippe and Rotter, Jerome I and Chugh, Sumeet S and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Jouven, Xavier and Siscovick, David S} } @article {6554, title = {Decline in estimated glomerular filtration rate and subsequent risk of end-stage renal disease and mortality.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {311}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun 25}, pages = {2518-2531}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: The established chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression end point of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) or a doubling of serum creatinine concentration (corresponding to a change in estimated glomerular filtration rate [GFR] of -57\% or greater) is a late event.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the association of decline in estimated GFR with subsequent progression to ESRD with implications for using lesser declines in estimated GFR as potential alternative end points for CKD progression. Because most people with CKD die before reaching ESRD, mortality risk also was investigated.

DATA SOURCES AND STUDY SELECTION: Individual meta-analysis of 1.7 million participants with 12,344 ESRD events and 223,944 deaths from 35 cohorts in the CKD Prognosis Consortium with a repeated measure of serum creatinine concentration over 1 to 3 years and outcome data.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Transfer of individual participant data or standardized analysis of outputs for random-effects meta-analysis conducted between July 2012 and September 2013, with baseline estimated GFR values collected from 1975 through 2012.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: End-stage renal disease (initiation of dialysis or transplantation) or all-cause mortality risk related to percentage change in estimated GFR over 2 years, adjusted for potential confounders and first estimated GFR.

RESULTS: The adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of ESRD and mortality were higher with larger estimated GFR decline. Among participants with baseline estimated GFR of less than 60 mL/min/1.73 m2, the adjusted HRs for ESRD were 32.1 (95\% CI, 22.3-46.3) for changes of -57\% in estimated GFR and 5.4 (95\% CI, 4.5-6.4) for changes of -30\%. However, changes of -30\% or greater (6.9\% [95\% CI, 6.4\%-7.4\%] of the entire consortium) were more common than changes of -57\% (0.79\% [95\% CI, 0.52\%-1.06\%]). This association was strong and consistent across the length of the baseline period (1 to 3 years), baseline estimated GFR, age, diabetes status, or albuminuria. Average adjusted 10-year risk of ESRD (in patients with a baseline estimated GFR of 35 mL/min/1.73 m2) was 99\% (95\% CI, 95\%-100\%) for estimated GFR change of -57\%, was 83\% (95\% CI, 71\%-93\%) for estimated GFR change of -40\%, and was 64\% (95\% CI, 52\%-77\%) for estimated GFR change of -30\% vs 18\% (95\% CI, 15\%-22\%) for estimated GFR change of 0\%. Corresponding mortality risks were 77\% (95\% CI, 71\%-82\%), 60\% (95\% CI, 56\%-63\%), and 50\% (95\% CI, 47\%-52\%) vs 32\% (95\% CI, 31\%-33\%), showing a similar but weaker pattern.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Declines in estimated GFR smaller than a doubling of serum creatinine concentration occurred more commonly and were strongly and consistently associated with the risk of ESRD and mortality, supporting consideration of lesser declines in estimated GFR (such as a 30\% reduction over 2 years) as an alternative end point for CKD progression.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cohort Studies, Creatinine, Disease Progression, Endpoint Determination, Female, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Male, Middle Aged, Reference Values, Risk}, issn = {1538-3598}, doi = {10.1001/jama.2014.6634}, author = {Coresh, Josef and Turin, Tanvir Chowdhury and Matsushita, Kunihiro and Sang, Yingying and Ballew, Shoshana H and Appel, Lawrence J and Arima, Hisatomi and Chadban, Steven J and Cirillo, Massimo and Djurdjev, Ognjenka and Green, Jamie A and Heine, Gunnar H and Inker, Lesley A and Irie, Fujiko and Ishani, Areef and Ix, Joachim H and Kovesdy, Csaba P and Marks, Angharad and Ohkubo, Takayoshi and Shalev, Varda and Shankar, Anoop and Wen, Chi Pang and de Jong, Paul E and Iseki, Kunitoshi and Stengel, B{\'e}n{\'e}dicte and Gansevoort, Ron T and Levey, Andrew S} } @article {6302, title = {Development and validation of a brief dementia screening indicator for primary care.}, journal = {Alzheimers Dement}, volume = {10}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Nov}, pages = {656-665.e1}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Detection of "any cognitive impairment" is mandated as part of the Medicare annual wellness visit, but screening all patients may result in excessive false positives.

METHODS: We developed and validated a brief Dementia Screening Indicator using data from four large, ongoing cohort studies (the Cardiovascular Health Study [CHS]; the Framingham Heart Study [FHS]; the Health and Retirement Study [HRS]; the Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging [SALSA]) to help clinicians identify a subgroup of high-risk patients to target for cognitive screening.

RESULTS: The final Dementia Screening Indicator included age (1 point/year; ages, 65-79 years), less than 12~years of education (9 points), stroke (6 points), diabetes mellitus (3 points), body mass index less than 18.5~kg/m(2) (8 points), requiring assistance with money or medications (10 points), and~depressive symptoms (6 points). Accuracy was good across the cohorts (Harrell{\textquoteright}s C statistic: CHS, 0.68; FHS, 0.77; HRS, 0.76; SALSA, 0.78).

CONCLUSIONS: The Dementia Screening Indicator is a simple tool that may be useful in primary care settings to identify high-risk patients to target for cognitive screening.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cohort Studies, Dementia, Female, Humans, Male, Mass Screening, Predictive Value of Tests, Primary Health Care, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Assessment}, issn = {1552-5279}, doi = {10.1016/j.jalz.2013.11.006}, author = {Barnes, Deborah E and Beiser, Alexa S and Lee, Anne and Langa, Kenneth M and Koyama, Alain and Preis, Sarah R and Neuhaus, John and McCammon, Ryan J and Yaffe, Kristine and Seshadri, Sudha and Haan, Mary N and Weir, David R} } @article {6803, title = {Development and validation of an ankle brachial index risk model for the prediction of cardiovascular events.}, journal = {Eur J Prev Cardiol}, volume = {21}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Mar}, pages = {310-20}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The ankle brachial index (ABI) is related to risk of cardiovascular events independent of the Framingham risk score (FRS). The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a risk model for cardiovascular events incorporating the ABI and FRS.

DESIGN: An analysis of participant data from 18 cohorts in which 24,375 men and 20,377 women free of coronary heart disease had ABI measured and were followed up for events.

METHODS: Subjects were divided into a development and internal validation dataset and an external validation dataset. Two models, comprising FRS and FRS + ABI, were fitted for the primary outcome of major coronary events.

RESULTS: In predicting events in the external validation dataset, C-index for the FRS was 0.672 (95\% CI 0.599 to 0.737) in men and 0.578 (95\% CI 0.492 to 0.661) in women. The FRS + ABI led to a small increase in C-index in men to 0.685 (95\% CI 0.612 to 0.749) and large increase in women to 0.690 (95\% CI 0.605 to 0.764) with net reclassification improvement (NRI) of 4.3\% (95\% CI 0.0 to 7.6\%, p = 0.050) and 9.6\% (95\% CI 6.1 to 16.4\%, p < 0.001), respectively. Restricting the FRS + ABI model to those with FRS intermediate 10-year risk of 10 to 19\% resulted in higher NRI of 15.9\% (95\% CI 6.1 to 20.6\%, p < 0.001) in men and 23.3\% (95\% CI 13.8 to 62.5\%, p = 0.002) in women. However, incorporating ABI in an improved newly fitted risk factor model had a nonsignificant effect: NRI 2.0\% (95\% CI 2.3 to 4.2\%, p = 0.567) in men and 1.1\% (95\% CI 1.9 to 4.0\%, p = 0.483) in women.

CONCLUSIONS: An ABI risk model may improve prediction especially in individuals at intermediate risk and when performance of the base risk factor model is modest.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Ankle Brachial Index, Cardiovascular Diseases, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Statistical, Predictive Value of Tests, Prognosis, Reproducibility of Results, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Time Factors, United States, Young Adult}, issn = {2047-4881}, doi = {10.1177/2047487313516564}, author = {Fowkes, F G R and Murray, G D and Butcher, I and Folsom, A R and Hirsch, A T and Couper, D J and deBacker, G and Kornitzer, M and Newman, A B and Sutton-Tyrrell, K C and Cushman, M and Lee, A J and Price, J F and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, R B and Murabito, J M and Norman, Pe and Masaki, K H and Bouter, L M and Heine, R J and Stehouwer, C D A and McDermott, M M and Stoffers, H E J H and Knottnerus, J A and Ogren, M and Hedblad, B and Koenig, W and Meisinger, C and Cauley, J A and Franco, Oh and Hunink, M G M and Hofman, A and Witteman, J C and Criqui, M H and Langer, R D and Hiatt, W R and Hamman, R F} } @article {5978, title = {Drug-gene interactions and the search for missing heritability: a cross-sectional pharmacogenomics study of the QT interval.}, journal = {Pharmacogenomics J}, volume = {14}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Feb}, pages = {6-13}, abstract = {

Variability in response to drug use is common and heritable, suggesting that genome-wide pharmacogenomics studies may help explain the {\textquoteright}missing heritability{\textquoteright} of complex traits. Here, we describe four independent analyses in 33 781 participants of European ancestry from 10 cohorts that were designed to identify genetic variants modifying the effects of drugs on QT interval duration (QT). Each analysis cross-sectionally examined four therapeutic classes: thiazide diuretics (prevalence of use=13.0\%), tri/tetracyclic antidepressants (2.6\%), sulfonylurea hypoglycemic agents (2.9\%) and QT-prolonging drugs as classified by the University of Arizona Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics (4.4\%). Drug-gene interactions were estimated using covariable-adjusted linear regression and results were combined with fixed-effects meta-analysis. Although drug-single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) interactions were biologically plausible and variables were well-measured, findings from the four cross-sectional meta-analyses were null (Pinteraction>5.0 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Simulations suggested that additional efforts, including longitudinal modeling to increase statistical power, are likely needed to identify potentially important pharmacogenomic effects.

}, keywords = {Computer Simulation, Cross-Sectional Studies, Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions, Electrocardiography, European Continental Ancestry Group, Gene-Environment Interaction, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linear Models, Long QT Syndrome, Markov Chains, Pharmacogenetics, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait, Heritable}, issn = {1473-1150}, doi = {10.1038/tpj.2013.4}, author = {Avery, C L and Sitlani, C M and Arking, D E and Arnett, D K and Bis, J C and Boerwinkle, E and Buckley, B M and Ida Chen, Y-D and de Craen, A J M and Eijgelsheim, M and Enquobahrie, D and Evans, D S and Ford, I and Garcia, M E and Gudnason, V and Harris, T B and Heckbert, S R and Hochner, H and Hofman, A and Hsueh, W-C and Isaacs, A and Jukema, J W and Knekt, P and Kors, J A and Krijthe, B P and Kristiansson, K and Laaksonen, M and Liu, Y and Li, X and Macfarlane, P W and Newton-Cheh, C and Nieminen, M S and Oostra, B A and Peloso, G M and Porthan, K and Rice, K and Rivadeneira, F F and Rotter, J I and Salomaa, V and Sattar, N and Siscovick, D S and Slagboom, P E and Smith, A V and Sotoodehnia, N and Stott, D J and Stricker, B H and St{\"u}rmer, T and Trompet, S and Uitterlinden, A G and van Duijn, C and Westendorp, R G J and Witteman, J C and Whitsel, E A and Psaty, B M} } @article {6556, title = {Effect of genetic variants associated with plasma homocysteine levels on stroke risk.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {45}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jul}, pages = {1920-4}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Elevated total plasma homocysteine (tHcy) levels are known to be associated with increased risk of ischemic stroke (IS). Given that both tHcy and IS are heritable traits, we investigated a potential genetic relationship between homocysteine levels and stroke risk by assessing 18 polymorphisms previously associated with tHcy levels for their association with IS and its subtypes.

METHODS: Previous meta-analysis results from an international stroke collaborative network, METASTROKE, were used to assess association of the 18 tHcy-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 12 389 IS cases and 62 004 controls. We also investigated the associations in regions located within 50 kb from the 18 tHcy-related SNPs and the association of a genetic risk score, including the 18 SNPs.

RESULTS: One SNP located in the RASIP1 gene and a cluster of 3 SNPs located at and near SLC17A3 were significantly associated with IS (P<0.0003) after correcting for multiple testing. For stroke subtypes, the sentinel SNP located upstream of MUT was significantly associated with small-vessel disease (P=0.0022), whereas 1 SNP located in MTHFR was significantly associated with large-vessel disease (P=0.00019). A genetic risk score, including the 18 SNPs, did not show significant association with IS or its subtypes.

CONCLUSIONS: This study found several potential associations with IS and its subtypes: an association of an MUT variant with small-vessel disease, an MTHFR variant with large-vessel disease, and associations of RASIP1 and SLC17A3 variants with overall IS.

}, keywords = {Brain Ischemia, Cohort Studies, Europe, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome, Homocysteine, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk, Stroke}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.114.005208}, author = {Cotlarciuc, Ioana and Malik, Rainer and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Ahmadi, Kourosh R and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Psaty, Bruce M and Fornage, Myriam and Hasan, Nazeeha and Rinne, Paul E and Ikram, M Arfan and Markus, Hugh S and Rosand, Jonathan and Mitchell, Braxton D and Kittner, Steven J and Meschia, James F and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Worrall, Bradford B and Dichgans, Martin and Sharma, Pankaj} } @article {6563, title = {Effects of long-term averaging of quantitative blood pressure traits on the detection of genetic associations.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {95}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jul 03}, pages = {49-65}, abstract = {

Blood pressure (BP) is a heritable, quantitative trait with intraindividual variability and susceptibility to measurement error. Genetic studies of BP generally use single-visit measurements and thus cannot remove variability occurring over months or years. We leveraged the idea that averaging BP measured across time would improve phenotypic accuracy and thereby increase statistical power to detect genetic associations. We studied systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), and pulse pressure (PP) averaged over multiple years in 46,629 individuals of European ancestry. We identified 39 trait-variant associations across 19 independent loci (p < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)); five associations (in four loci) uniquely identified by our LTA analyses included those of SBP and MAP at 2p23 (rs1275988, near KCNK3), DBP at 2q11.2 (rs7599598, in FER1L5), and PP at 6p21 (rs10948071, near CRIP3) and 7p13 (rs2949837, near IGFBP3). Replication analyses conducted in cohorts with single-visit BP data showed positive replication of associations and a nominal association (p < 0.05). We estimated a 20\% gain in statistical power with long-term average (LTA) as compared to single-visit BP association studies. Using LTA analysis, we identified genetic loci influencing BP. LTA might be one way of increasing the power of genetic associations for continuous traits in extant samples for other phenotypes that are measured serially over time.

}, keywords = {Blood Pressure, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.06.002}, author = {Ganesh, Santhi K and Chasman, Daniel I and Larson, Martin G and Guo, Xiuqing and Verwoert, Germain and Bis, Joshua C and Gu, Xiangjun and Smith, Albert V and Yang, Min-Lee and Zhang, Yan and Ehret, Georg and Rose, Lynda M and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Papanicolau, George J and Sijbrands, Eric J and Rice, Kenneth and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Pihur, Vasyl and Ridker, Paul M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Raffel, Leslie J and Amin, Najaf and Rotter, Jerome I and Liu, Kiang and Launer, Lenore J and Xu, Ming and Caulfield, Mark and Morrison, Alanna C and Johnson, Andrew D and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Dehghan, Abbas and Li, Guo and Bouchard, Claude and Harris, Tamara B and Zhang, He and Boerwinkle, Eric and Siscovick, David S and Gao, Wei and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Hofman, Albert and Willer, Cristen J and Franco, Oscar H and Huo, Yong and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Munroe, Patricia B and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Palmas, Walter and van Duijn, Cornelia and Fornage, Myriam and Levy, Daniel and Psaty, Bruce M and Chakravarti, Aravinda} } @article {6188, title = {Enhancing case ascertainment of Parkinson{\textquoteright}s disease using Medicare claims data in a population-based cohort: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf}, volume = {23}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Feb}, pages = {119-27}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: We sought to improve a previous algorithm to ascertain Parkinson{\textquoteright}s disease (PD) in the Cardiovascular Health Study by incorporating additional data from Medicare outpatient claims. We compared our results to the previous algorithm in terms of baseline prevalence and incidence of PD, as well as associations with baseline smoking characteristics.

METHODS: Our original case ascertainment used self-reported diagnosis, antiparkinsonian medication, and hospitalization discharge International Classification of Diseases-Ninth version code. In this study, we incorporated additional data from fee-for-service Medicare claims, extended follow-up time, review of hospitalization records, and adjudicated cause of death. Two movement disorders specialists adjudicated final PD status. We used logistic regression models and controlled for age, sex, African American race, and education.

RESULTS: We identified 75 additional cases but reclassified 80 previously identified cases as not having PD. We observed significant inverse association with smoking status (odds ratio = 0.42; 95\% confidence interval (CI) = 0.22, 0.79), and inverse linear trends with pack-years (p = 0.005), and cigarettes per day (p = 0.019) with incident PD. All estimates were stronger than those from the previous algorithm.

CONCLUSIONS: Our enhanced method did not alter prevalence and incidence estimates compared with our previous algorithm. However, our enhanced method provided stronger estimates of association, potentially due to reduced level of disease misclassification.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Algorithms, Antiparkinson Agents, Cohort Studies, Databases, Factual, Female, Hospitalization, Humans, Incidence, Logistic Models, Male, Medicare, Parkinson Disease, Prevalence, Prospective Studies, Smoking, Time Factors, United States}, issn = {1099-1557}, doi = {10.1002/pds.3552}, author = {Ton, Thanh G N and Biggs, Mary Lou and Comer, Diane and Curtis, Lesley and Hu, Shu-Ching and Thacker, Evan L and Searles Nielsen, Susan and Delaney, Joseph A and Landsittel, Douglas and Longstreth, William T and Checkoway, Harvey and Jain, Samay} } @article {6340, title = {Estimated GFR and circulating 24,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 concentration: a participant-level analysis of 5 cohort studies and clinical trials.}, journal = {Am J Kidney Dis}, volume = {64}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Aug}, pages = {187-97}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Decreased glomerular filtration rate (GFR) leads to reduced production of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 from 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25[OH]D3). Effects of low GFR on vitamin D catabolism are less well understood. We tested associations of estimated GFR (eGFR) with the circulating concentration of 24,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (24,25[OH]2D3), the most abundant product of 25(OH)D3 catabolism, across populations with a wide range of GFRs.

STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.

SETTING \& PARTICIPANTS: 9,596 participants in 5 cohort studies and clinical trials: the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (N=1,193), Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (N=6,470), Cardiovascular Health Study (N=932), Seattle Kidney Study (N=289), and Hemodialysis Study (N=712).

PREDICTOR: eGFR.

OUTCOME: Circulating 24,25(OH)2D3 concentration.

MEASUREMENTS: GFR was estimated from serum creatinine using the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration equation. Vitamin D metabolites were measured by mass spectrometry.

RESULTS: Circulating 24,25(OH)2D3 concentration was correlated with circulating 25(OH)D3 concentration (Pearson r range, 0.64-0.88). This correlation was weaker with lower eGFRs. Moreover, the increment in 24,25(OH)2D3 concentration associated with higher 25(OH)D3 concentration (slope) was lower with lower eGFRs: 2.06 (95\% CI, 2.01-2.10), 1.77 (95\% CI, 1.74-1.81), 1.55 (95\% CI, 1.48-1.62), 1.17 (95\% CI, 1.05-1.29), 0.92 (95\% CI, 0.74-1.10), 0.61 (95\% CI, 0.22-1.00), and 0.37 (95\% CI, 0.35-0.39) ng/mL of 24,25(OH)2D3 per 10 ng/mL of 25(OH)D3 for eGFRs>=90, 60-89, 45-59, 30-44, 15-29, and <15 mL/min/1.73 m2 and end-stage renal disease treated with hemodialysis, respectively. As a result, at a 25(OH)D3 concentration of 20 ng/mL, mean 24,25(OH)2D3 concentrations were 2.92 (95\% CI, 2.87-2.96), 2.68 (95\% CI, 2.64-2.72), 2.35 (95\% CI, 2.26-2.45), 1.92 (95\% CI, 1.74-2.10), 1.69 (95\% CI, 1.43-1.95), 1.14 (95\% CI, 0.62-1.66), and 1.04 (95\% CI,1.02-1.07) ng/mL for each category, respectively. This interaction was independent of other relevant clinical characteristics. Race, diabetes, urine albumin excretion, and circulating parathyroid hormone and fibroblast growth factor 23 concentrations more modestly modified the association of 24,25(OH)2D3 with 25(OH)D3.

LIMITATIONS: Lack of direct pharmacokinetic measurements of vitamin D catabolism.

CONCLUSIONS: Lower eGFR is associated strongly with reduced vitamin D catabolism, as measured by circulating 24,25(OH)2D3 concentration.

}, keywords = {24,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D 3, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Biomarkers, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Male, Middle Aged, Observational Studies as Topic, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Young Adult}, issn = {1523-6838}, doi = {10.1053/j.ajkd.2014.02.015}, author = {de Boer, Ian H and Sachs, Michael C and Chonchol, Michel and Himmelfarb, Jonathan and Hoofnagle, Andrew N and Ix, Joachim H and Kremsdorf, Robin A and Lin, Yvonne S and Mehrotra, Rajnish and Robinson-Cohen, Cassianne and Siscovick, David S and Steffes, Michael W and Thummel, Kenneth E and Tracy, Russell P and Wang, Zhican and Kestenbaum, Bryan} } @article {6598, title = {Evidence of heterogeneity by race/ethnicity in genetic determinants of QT interval.}, journal = {Epidemiology}, volume = {25}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Nov}, pages = {790-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: QT interval (QT) prolongation is an established risk factor for ventricular tachyarrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. Previous genome-wide association studies in populations of the European descent have identified multiple genetic loci that influence QT, but few have examined these loci in ethnically diverse populations.

METHODS: Here, we examine the direction, magnitude, and precision of effect sizes for 21 previously reported SNPs from 12 QT loci, in populations of European (n = 16,398), African (n = 5,437), American Indian (n = 5,032), Hispanic (n = 1,143), and Asian (n = 932) descent as part of the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study. Estimates obtained from linear regression models stratified by race/ethnicity were combined using inverse-variance weighted meta-analysis. Heterogeneity was evaluated using Cochran{\textquoteright}s Q test.

RESULTS: Of 21 SNPs, 7 showed consistent direction of effect across all 5 populations, and an additional 9 had estimated effects that were consistent across 4 populations. Despite consistent direction of effect, 9 of 16 SNPs had evidence (P < 0.05) of heterogeneity by race/ethnicity. For these 9 SNPs, linkage disequilibrium plots often indicated substantial variation in linkage disequilibrium patterns among the various racial/ethnic groups, as well as possible allelic heterogeneity.

CONCLUSIONS: These results emphasize the importance of analyzing racial/ethnic groups separately in genetic studies. Furthermore, they underscore the possible utility of trans-ethnic studies to pinpoint underlying casual variants influencing heritable traits such as QT.

}, keywords = {Aged, Continental Population Groups, Electrocardiography, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Haplotypes, Humans, Long QT Syndrome, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Quantitative Trait, Heritable, Risk Factors}, issn = {1531-5487}, doi = {10.1097/EDE.0000000000000168}, author = {Seyerle, Amanda A and Young, Alicia M and Jeff, Janina M and Melton, Phillip E and Jorgensen, Neal W and Lin, Yi and Carty, Cara L and Deelman, Ewa and Heckbert, Susan R and Hindorff, Lucia A and Jackson, Rebecca D and Martin, Lisa W and Okin, Peter M and Perez, Marco V and Psaty, Bruce M and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Whitsel, Eric A and North, Kari E and Laston, Sandra and Kooperberg, Charles and Avery, Christy L} } @article {6239, title = {Fibroblast growth factor 23, the ankle-brachial index, and incident peripheral artery disease in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Atherosclerosis}, volume = {233}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Mar}, pages = {91-6}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) has emerged as a novel risk factor for mortality and cardiovascular events. Its association with the ankle-brachial index (ABI) and clinical peripheral artery disease (PAD) is less known.

METHODS: Using data (N = 3143) from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a cohort of community dwelling adults >65 years of age, we analyzed the cross-sectional association of FGF23 with ABI and its association with incident clinical PAD events during 9.8 years of follow up using multinomial logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards models respectively.

RESULTS: The prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and traditional risk factors like diabetes, coronary artery disease, and heart failure increased across higher quartiles of FGF23. Compared to those with ABI of 1.1-1.4, FGF23 per doubling at baseline was associated with prevalent PAD (ABI < 0.9) although this association was attenuated after adjusting for CVD risk factors, and kidney function (OR 0.91, 95\% CI 0.76-1.08). FGF23 was not associated with high ABI (>1.4) (OR 1.06, 95\% CI 0.75-1.51). Higher FGF23 was associated with incidence of PAD events in unadjusted, demographic adjusted, and CVD risk factor adjusted models (HR 2.26, 95\% CI 1.28-3.98; highest versus lowest quartile). The addition of estimated glomerular filtration and urine albumin to creatinine ratio to the model however, attenuated these findings (HR 1.46, 95\% CI, 0.79-2.70).

CONCLUSIONS: In community dwelling older adults, FGF23 was not associated with baseline low or high ABI or incident PAD events after adjusting for confounding variables. These results suggest that FGF23 may primarily be associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes through non atherosclerotic mechanisms.

}, keywords = {Aged, Ankle Brachial Index, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cross-Sectional Studies, Fibroblast Growth Factors, Humans, Incidence, Peripheral Arterial Disease, Risk Factors}, issn = {1879-1484}, doi = {10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2013.12.015}, author = {Garimella, Pranav S and Ix, Joachim H and Katz, Ronit and Chonchol, Michel B and Kestenbaum, Bryan R and de Boer, Ian H and Siscovick, David S and Shastri, Shani and Hiramoto, Jade S and Shlipak, Michael G and Sarnak, Mark J} } @article {6399, title = {Fibroblast growth factor-23 and incident atrial fibrillation: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) and the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS).}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {130}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jul 22}, pages = {298-307}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF-23) is a hormone that promotes urinary phosphate excretion and regulates vitamin D metabolism. Circulating FGF-23 concentrations increase markedly in chronic kidney disease and are associated with increased risk of clinical cardiovascular events. FGF-23 may promote atrial fibrillation (AF) by inducing left ventricular hypertrophy and diastolic and left atrial dysfunction.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We tested the associations of circulating FGF-23 concentration with incident AF among 6398 participants in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) and 1350 participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), all free of clinical cardiovascular disease at baseline. Over a median of 7.7 and 8.0 years of follow-up, we observed 291 and 229 incident AF events in MESA and CHS, respectively. In multivariable Cox proportional hazards models, each 2-fold-higher FGF-23 concentration was associated with a 41\% higher risk of incident AF in MESA (hazard ratio, 1.41; 95\% confidence interval, 1.13-1.76; P=0.003) and a 30\% higher risk of incident AF in CHS (hazard ratio, 1.30; 95\% confidence interval, 1.05-1.61; P=0.016) after adjustment for potential confounding characteristics, including kidney disease. Serum phosphate concentration was significantly associated with incident AF in MESA (hazard ratio, 1.15 per 0.5 mg/dL; 95\% confidence interval, 1.02-1.31; P=0.023) but not CHS. In MESA, an association of low estimated glomerular filtration rate with incident AF was partially attenuated by adjustment for FGF-23.

CONCLUSION: Higher circulating FGF-23 concentration is associated with incident AF and may, in part, explain the link between chronic kidney disease and AF.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atrial Fibrillation, Comorbidity, Ethnic Groups, Female, Fibroblast Growth Factor 3, Follow-Up Studies, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Heart Failure, Humans, Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular, Male, Middle Aged, Phosphates, Proportional Hazards Models, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic, Risk Factors, United States, Ventricular Dysfunction, Left, Ventricular Remodeling, Vitamin D}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.113.005499}, author = {Mathew, Jehu S and Sachs, Michael C and Katz, Ronit and Patton, Kristen K and Heckbert, Susan R and Hoofnagle, Andrew N and Alonso, Alvaro and Chonchol, Michel and Deo, Rajat and Ix, Joachim H and Siscovick, David S and Kestenbaum, Bryan and de Boer, Ian H} } @article {6938, title = {FTO genetic variants, dietary intake and body mass index: insights from 177,330 individuals.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {23}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Dec 20}, pages = {6961-72}, abstract = {

FTO is the strongest known genetic susceptibility locus for obesity. Experimental studies in animals suggest the potential roles of FTO in regulating food intake. The interactive relation among FTO variants, dietary intake and body mass index (BMI) is complex and results from previous often small-scale studies in humans are highly inconsistent. We performed large-scale analyses based on data from 177,330 adults (154 439 Whites, 5776 African Americans and 17 115 Asians) from 40 studies to examine: (i) the association between the FTO-rs9939609 variant (or a proxy single-nucleotide polymorphism) and total energy and macronutrient intake and (ii) the interaction between the FTO variant and dietary intake on BMI. The minor allele (A-allele) of the FTO-rs9939609 variant was associated with higher BMI in Whites (effect per allele = 0.34 [0.31, 0.37] kg/m(2), P = 1.9 {\texttimes} 10(-105)), and all participants (0.30 [0.30, 0.35] kg/m(2), P = 3.6 {\texttimes} 10(-107)). The BMI-increasing allele of the FTO variant showed a significant association with higher dietary protein intake (effect per allele = 0.08 [0.06, 0.10] \%, P = 2.4 {\texttimes} 10(-16)), and relative weak associations with lower total energy intake (-6.4 [-10.1, -2.6] kcal/day, P = 0.001) and lower dietary carbohydrate intake (-0.07 [-0.11, -0.02] \%, P = 0.004). The associations with protein (P = 7.5 {\texttimes} 10(-9)) and total energy (P = 0.002) were attenuated but remained significant after adjustment for BMI. We did not find significant interactions between the FTO variant and dietary intake of total energy, protein, carbohydrate or fat on BMI. Our findings suggest a positive association between the BMI-increasing allele of FTO variant and higher dietary protein intake and offer insight into potential link between FTO, dietary protein intake and adiposity.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Alleles, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Body Mass Index, Dietary Carbohydrates, Dietary Fats, Dietary Proteins, Energy Intake, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Frequency, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proteins}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddu411}, author = {Qi, Qibin and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Downer, Mary K and Tanaka, Toshiko and Smith, Caren E and Sluijs, Ivonne and Sonestedt, Emily and Chu, Audrey Y and Renstrom, Frida and Lin, Xiaochen and {\"A}ngquist, Lars H and Huang, Jinyan and Liu, Zhonghua and Li, Yanping and Asif Ali, Muhammad and Xu, Min and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer Singh and Boer, Jolanda M A and Chen, Peng and Daimon, Makoto and Eriksson, Johan and Perola, Markus and Friedlander, Yechiel and Gao, Yu-Tang and Heppe, Denise H M and Holloway, John W and Houston, Denise K and Kanoni, Stavroula and Kim, Yu-Mi and Laaksonen, Maarit A and J{\"a}{\"a}skel{\"a}inen, Tiina and Lee, Nanette R and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Lu, Wei and Luben, Robert N and Manichaikul, Ani and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and Marques-Vidal, Pedro and Monda, Keri L and Ngwa, Julius S and Perusse, Louis and van Rooij, Frank J A and Xiang, Yong-Bing and Wen, Wanqing and Wojczynski, Mary K and Zhu, Jingwen and Borecki, Ingrid B and Bouchard, Claude and Cai, Qiuyin and Cooper, Cyrus and Dedoussis, George V and Deloukas, Panos and Ferrucci, Luigi and Forouhi, Nita G and Hansen, Torben and Christiansen, Lene and Hofman, Albert and Johansson, Ingegerd and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Karasawa, Shigeru and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kim, Mi-Kyung and Kristiansson, Kati and Li, Huaixing and Lin, Xu and Liu, Yongmei and Lohman, Kurt K and Long, Jirong and Mikkil{\"a}, Vera and Mozaffarian, Dariush and North, Kari and Pedersen, Oluf and Raitakari, Olli and Rissanen, Harri and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Zillikens, M Carola and Franco, Oscar H and Shyong Tai, E and Ou Shu, Xiao and Siscovick, David S and Toft, Ulla and Verschuren, W M Monique and Vollenweider, Peter and Wareham, Nicholas J and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Zheng, Wei and Ridker, Paul M and Kang, Jae H and Liang, Liming and Jensen, Majken K and Curhan, Gary C and Pasquale, Louis R and Hunter, David J and Mohlke, Karen L and Uusitupa, Matti and Cupples, L Adrienne and Rankinen, Tuomo and Orho-Melander, Marju and Wang, Tao and Chasman, Daniel I and Franks, Paul W and S{\o}rensen, Thorkild I A and Hu, Frank B and Loos, Ruth J F and Nettleton, Jennifer A and Qi, Lu} } @article {6246, title = {Gender and telomere length: systematic review and meta-analysis.}, journal = {Exp Gerontol}, volume = {51}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Mar}, pages = {15-27}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: It is widely believed that females have longer telomeres than males, although results from studies have been contradictory.

METHODS: We carried out a systematic review and meta-analyses to test the hypothesis that in humans, females have longer telomeres than males and that this association becomes stronger with increasing age. Searches were conducted in EMBASE and MEDLINE (by November 2009) and additional datasets were obtained from study investigators. Eligible observational studies measured telomeres for both females and males of any age, had a minimum sample size of 100 and included participants not part of a diseased group. We calculated summary estimates using random-effects meta-analyses. Heterogeneity between studies was investigated using sub-group analysis and meta-regression.

RESULTS: Meta-analyses from 36 cohorts (36,230 participants) showed that on average females had longer telomeres than males (standardised difference in telomere length between females and males 0.090, 95\% CI 0.015, 0.166; age-adjusted). There was little evidence that these associations varied by age group (p=1.00) or cell type (p=0.29). However, the size of this difference did vary by measurement methods, with only Southern blot but neither real-time PCR nor Flow-FISH showing a significant difference. This difference was not associated with random measurement error.

CONCLUSIONS: Telomere length is longer in females than males, although this difference was not universally found in studies that did not use Southern blot methods. Further research on explanations for the methodological differences is required.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Sex Factors, Telomere}, issn = {1873-6815}, doi = {10.1016/j.exger.2013.12.004}, author = {Gardner, Michael and Bann, David and Wiley, Laura and Cooper, Rachel and Hardy, Rebecca and Nitsch, Dorothea and Martin-Ruiz, Carmen and Shiels, Paul and Sayer, Avan Aihie and Barbieri, Michelangela and Bekaert, Sofie and Bischoff, Claus and Brooks-Wilson, Angela and Chen, Wei and Cooper, Cyrus and Christensen, Kaare and De Meyer, Tim and Deary, Ian and Der, Geoff and Diez Roux, Ana and Fitzpatrick, Annette and Hajat, Anjum and Halaschek-Wiener, Julius and Harris, Sarah and Hunt, Steven C and Jagger, Carol and Jeon, Hyo-Sung and Kaplan, Robert and Kimura, Masayuki and Lansdorp, Peter and Li, Changyong and Maeda, Toyoki and Mangino, Massimo and Nawrot, Tim S and Nilsson, Peter and Nordfjall, Katarina and Paolisso, Giuseppe and Ren, Fu and Riabowol, Karl and Robertson, Tony and Roos, Goran and Staessen, Jan A and Spector, Tim and Tang, Nelson and Unryn, Brad and van der Harst, Pim and Woo, Jean and Xing, Chao and Yadegarfar, Mohammad E and Park, Jae Yong and Young, Neal and Kuh, Diana and von Zglinicki, Thomas and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav} } @article {6603, title = {Gene expression in thiazide diuretic or statin users in relation to incident type 2 diabetes.}, journal = {Int J Mol Epidemiol Genet}, volume = {5}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {22-30}, abstract = {Thiazide diuretics and statins are used to improve cardiovascular outcomes, but may also cause type 2 diabetes (T2DM), although mechanisms are unknown. Gene expression studies may facilitate understanding of these associations. Participants from ongoing population-based studies were sampled for these longitudinal studies of peripheral blood microarray gene expression, and followed to incident diabetes. All sampled subjects were statin or thiazide users. Those who developed diabetes during follow-up comprised cases (44 thiazide users; 19 statin users), and were matched to drug-using controls who did not develop diabetes on several factors. Supervised normalization, surrogate variable analyses removed technical bias and confounding. Differentially-expressed genes were those with a false discovery rate Q-value<0.05. Among thiazide users, diabetes cases had significantly different expression of CCL14 (down-regulated 6\%, Q-value=0.0257), compared with controls. Among statin users, diabetes cases had marginal but insignificantly different expression of ZNF532 (up-regulated 15\%, Q-value=0.0584), CXORF21 (up-regulated 11\%, Q-value=0.0584), and ZNHIT3 (up-regulated 19\%, Q-value=0.0959), compared with controls. These genes comprise potential targets for future expression or mechanistic research on medication-related diabetes development.}, issn = {1948-1756}, author = {Suchy-Dicey, Astrid and Heckbert, Susan R and Smith, Nicholas L and McKnight, Barbara and Rotter, Jerome I and Chen, Yd Ida and Psaty, Bruce M and Enquobahrie, Daniel A} } @article {6599, title = {Gene-age interactions in blood pressure regulation: a large-scale investigation with the CHARGE, Global BPgen, and ICBP Consortia.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {95}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jul 03}, pages = {24-38}, abstract = {

Although age-dependent effects on blood pressure (BP) have been reported, they have not been systematically investigated in large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWASs). We leveraged the infrastructure of three well-established consortia (CHARGE, GBPgen, and ICBP) and a nonstandard approach (age stratification and metaregression) to conduct a genome-wide search of common variants with age-dependent effects on systolic (SBP), diastolic (DBP), mean arterial (MAP), and pulse (PP) pressure. In a two-staged design using 99,241 individuals of European ancestry, we identified 20 genome-wide significant (p <= 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) loci by using joint tests of the SNP main effect and SNP-age interaction. Nine of the significant loci demonstrated nominal evidence of age-dependent effects on BP by tests of the interactions alone. Index SNPs in the EHBP1L1 (DBP and MAP), CASZ1 (SBP and MAP), and GOSR2 (PP) loci exhibited the largest age interactions, with opposite directions of effect in the young versus the old. The changes in the genetic effects over time were small but nonnegligible (up to 1.58 mm Hg over 60 years). The EHBP1L1 locus was discovered through gene-age interactions only in whites but had DBP main effects replicated (p = 8.3 {\texttimes} 10(-4)) in 8,682 Asians from Singapore, indicating potential interethnic heterogeneity. A secondary analysis revealed 22 loci with evidence of age-specific effects (e.g., only in 20 to 29-year-olds). Age can be used to select samples with larger genetic effect sizes and more homogenous phenotypes, which may increase statistical power. Age-dependent effects identified through novel statistical approaches can provide insight into the biology and temporal regulation underlying BP associations.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Blood Pressure, Cohort Studies, Humans, Middle Aged, Young Adult}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.05.010}, author = {Simino, Jeannette and Shi, Gang and Bis, Joshua C and Chasman, Daniel I and Ehret, Georg B and Gu, Xiangjun and Guo, Xiuqing and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Sijbrands, Eric and Smith, Albert V and Verwoert, Germaine C and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer L and Cadby, Gemma and Chen, Peng and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Corre, Tanguy and de Boer, Rudolf A and Goel, Anuj and Johnson, Toby and Khor, Chiea-Chuen and Llu{\'\i}s-Ganella, Carla and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Nolte, Ilja M and Sim, Xueling and S{\~o}ber, Siim and van der Most, Peter J and Verweij, Niek and Zhao, Jing Hua and Amin, Najaf and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bouchard, Claude and Dehghan, Abbas and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Elosua, Roberto and Franco, Oscar H and Gieger, Christian and Harris, Tamara B and Hercberg, Serge and Hofman, Albert and James, Alan L and Johnson, Andrew D and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Larson, Martin G and Launer, Lenore J and Li, Guo and Liu, Jianjun and Liu, Kiang and Morrison, Alanna C and Navis, Gerjan and Ong, Rick Twee-Hee and Papanicolau, George J and Penninx, Brenda W and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffel, Leslie J and Raitakari, Olli T and Rice, Kenneth and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rose, Lynda M and Sanna, Serena and Scott, Robert A and Siscovick, David S and Stolk, Ronald P and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaidya, Dhananjay and van der Klauw, Melanie M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Vithana, Eranga Nishanthie and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Watkins, Hugh and Young, Terri L and Aung, Tin and Bochud, Murielle and Farrall, Martin and Hartman, Catharina A and Laan, Maris and Lakatta, Edward G and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Loos, Ruth J F and Lucas, Gavin and Meneton, Pierre and Palmer, Lyle J and Rettig, Rainer and Snieder, Harold and Tai, E Shyong and Teo, Yik-Ying and van der Harst, Pim and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wijmenga, Cisca and Wong, Tien Yin and Fornage, Myriam and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Levy, Daniel and Palmas, Walter and Ridker, Paul M and Rotter, Jerome I and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Rao, Dabeeru C} } @article {6368, title = {Gene-centric meta-analyses for central adiposity traits in up to 57 412 individuals of European descent confirm known loci and reveal several novel associations.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {23}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 May 01}, pages = {2498-510}, abstract = {

Waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) are surrogate measures of central adiposity that are associated with adverse cardiovascular events, type 2 diabetes and cancer independent of body mass index (BMI). WC and WHR are highly heritable with multiple susceptibility loci identified to date. We assessed the association between SNPs and BMI-adjusted WC and WHR and unadjusted WC in up to 57 412 individuals of European descent from 22 cohorts collaborating with the NHLBI{\textquoteright}s Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe) project. The study population consisted of women and men aged 20-80 years. Study participants were genotyped using the ITMAT/Broad/CARE array, which includes \~{}50 000 cosmopolitan tagged SNPs across \~{}2100 cardiovascular-related genes. Each trait was modeled as a function of age, study site and principal components to control for population stratification, and we conducted a fixed-effects meta-analysis. No new loci for WC were observed. For WHR analyses, three novel loci were significantly associated (P < 2.4 {\texttimes} 10(-6)). Previously unreported rs2811337-G near TMCC1 was associated with increased WHR (β {\textpm} SE, 0.048 {\textpm} 0.008, P = 7.7 {\texttimes} 10(-9)) as was rs7302703-G in HOXC10 (β = 0.044 {\textpm} 0.008, P = 2.9 {\texttimes} 10(-7)) and rs936108-C in PEMT (β = 0.035 {\textpm} 0.007, P = 1.9 {\texttimes} 10(-6)). Sex-stratified analyses revealed two additional novel signals among females only, rs12076073-A in SHC1 (β = 0.10 {\textpm} 0.02, P = 1.9 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) and rs1037575-A in ATBDB4 (β = 0.046 {\textpm} 0.01, P = 2.2 {\texttimes} 10(-6)), supporting an already established sexual dimorphism of central adiposity-related genetic variants. Functional analysis using ENCODE and eQTL databases revealed that several of these loci are in regulatory regions or regions with differential expression in adipose tissue.

}, keywords = {Adiposity, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Body Mass Index, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Waist Circumference, Waist-Hip Ratio, Young Adult}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddt626}, author = {Yoneyama, Sachiko and Guo, Yiran and Lanktree, Matthew B and Barnes, Michael R and Elbers, Clara C and Karczewski, Konrad J and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Bauer, Florianne and Baumert, Jens and Beitelshees, Amber and Berenson, Gerald S and Boer, Jolanda M A and Burke, Gregory and Cade, Brian and Chen, Wei and Cooper-Dehoff, Rhonda M and Gaunt, Tom R and Gieger, Christian and Gong, Yan and Gorski, Mathias and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Johnson, Toby and Lamonte, Michael J and McDonough, Caitrin and Monda, Keri L and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Nelson, Christopher P and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Ordovas, Jose and Peter, Inga and Peters, Annette and Shaffer, Jonathan and Shen, Haiqinq and Smith, Erin and Speilotes, Liz and Thomas, Fridtjof and Thorand, Barbara and Monique Verschuren, W M and Anand, Sonia S and Dominiczak, Anna and Davidson, Karina W and Hegele, Robert A and Heid, Iris and Hofker, Marten H and Huggins, Gordon S and Illig, Thomas and Johnson, Julie A and Kirkland, Susan and K{\"o}nig, Wolfgang and Langaee, Taimour Y and McCaffery, Jeanne and Melander, Olle and Mitchell, Braxton D and Munroe, Patricia and Murray, Sarah S and Papanicolaou, George and Redline, Susan and Reilly, Muredach and Samani, Nilesh J and Schork, Nicholas J and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Shimbo, Daichi and Shuldiner, Alan R and Tobin, Martin D and Wijmenga, Cisca and Yusuf, Salim and Hakonarson, Hakon and Lange, Leslie A and Demerath, Ellen W and Fox, Caroline S and North, Kari E and Reiner, Alex P and Keating, Brendan and Taylor, Kira C} } @article {6544, title = {Genetic association study of QT interval highlights role for calcium signaling pathways in myocardial repolarization.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {46}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Aug}, pages = {826-36}, abstract = {

The QT interval, an electrocardiographic measure reflecting myocardial repolarization, is a heritable trait. QT prolongation is a risk factor for ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death (SCD) and could indicate the presence of the potentially lethal mendelian long-QT syndrome (LQTS). Using a genome-wide association and replication study in up to 100,000 individuals, we identified 35 common variant loci associated with QT interval that collectively explain \~{}8-10\% of QT-interval variation and highlight the importance of calcium regulation in myocardial repolarization. Rare variant analysis of 6 new QT interval-associated loci in 298 unrelated probands with LQTS identified coding variants not found in controls but of uncertain causality and therefore requiring validation. Several newly identified loci encode proteins that physically interact with other recognized repolarization proteins. Our integration of common variant association, expression and orthogonal protein-protein interaction screens provides new insights into cardiac electrophysiology and identifies new candidate genes for ventricular arrhythmias, LQTS and SCD.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Calcium Signaling, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, Electrocardiography, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Heart Ventricles, Humans, Long QT Syndrome, Male, Middle Aged, Myocardium, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3014}, author = {Arking, Dan E and Pulit, Sara L and Crotti, Lia and van der Harst, Pim and Munroe, Patricia B and Koopmann, Tamara T and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Rossin, Elizabeth J and Morley, Michael and Wang, Xinchen and Johnson, Andrew D and Lundby, Alicia and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Noseworthy, Peter A and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Bradford, Yuki and Tarasov, Kirill V and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Lahtinen, Annukka M and Nolte, Ilja M and Smith, Albert Vernon and Bis, Joshua C and Isaacs, Aaron and Newhouse, Stephen J and Evans, Daniel S and Post, Wendy S and Waggott, Daryl and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Hicks, Andrew A and Eisele, Lewin and Ellinghaus, David and Hayward, Caroline and Navarro, Pau and Ulivi, Sheila and Tanaka, Toshiko and Tester, David J and Chatel, St{\'e}phanie and Gustafsson, Stefan and Kumari, Meena and Morris, Richard W and Naluai, {\r A}sa T and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Kluttig, Alexander and Strohmer, Bernhard and Panayiotou, Andrie G and Torres, Maria and Knoflach, Michael and Hubacek, Jaroslav A and Slowikowski, Kamil and Raychaudhuri, Soumya and Kumar, Runjun D and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Shuldiner, Alan R and Alonso, Alvaro and Bader, Joel S and Ehret, Georg and Huang, Hailiang and Kao, W H Linda and Strait, James B and Macfarlane, Peter W and Brown, Morris and Caulfield, Mark J and Samani, Nilesh J and Kronenberg, Florian and Willeit, Johann and Smith, J Gustav and Greiser, Karin H and Meyer Zu Schwabedissen, Henriette and Werdan, Karl and Carella, Massimo and Zelante, Leopoldo and Heckbert, Susan R and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Kolcic, Ivana and Polasek, Ozren and Wright, Alan F and Griffin, Maura and Daly, Mark J and Arnar, David O and Holm, Hilma and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Denny, Joshua C and Roden, Dan M and Zuvich, Rebecca L and Emilsson, Valur and Plump, Andrew S and Larson, Martin G and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Yin, Xiaoyan and Bobbo, Marco and D{\textquoteright}Adamo, Adamo P and Iorio, Annamaria and Sinagra, Gianfranco and Carracedo, Angel and Cummings, Steven R and Nalls, Michael A and Jula, Antti and Kontula, Kimmo K and Marjamaa, Annukka and Oikarinen, Lasse and Perola, Markus and Porthan, Kimmo and Erbel, Raimund and Hoffmann, Per and J{\"o}ckel, Karl-Heinz and K{\"a}lsch, Hagen and N{\"o}then, Markus M and den Hoed, Marcel and Loos, Ruth J F and Thelle, Dag S and Gieger, Christian and Meitinger, Thomas and Perz, Siegfried and Peters, Annette and Prucha, Hanna and Sinner, Moritz F and Waldenberger, Melanie and de Boer, Rudolf A and Franke, Lude and van der Vleuten, Pieter A and Beckmann, Britt Maria and Martens, Eimo and Bardai, Abdennasser and Hofman, Nynke and Wilde, Arthur A M and Behr, Elijah R and Dalageorgou, Chrysoula and Giudicessi, John R and Medeiros-Domingo, Argelia and Barc, Julien and Kyndt, Florence and Probst, Vincent and Ghidoni, Alice and Insolia, Roberto and Hamilton, Robert M and Scherer, Stephen W and Brandimarto, Jeffrey and Margulies, Kenneth and Moravec, Christine E and del Greco M, Fabiola and Fuchsberger, Christian and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Lee, Wai K and Watt, Graham C M and Campbell, Harry and Wild, Sarah H and El Mokhtari, Nour E and Frey, Norbert and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Mateo Leach, Irene and Navis, Gerjan and van den Berg, Maarten P and van Veldhuisen, Dirk J and Kellis, Manolis and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Franco, Oscar H and Hofman, Albert and Kors, Jan A and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Kedenko, Lyudmyla and Lamina, Claudia and Oostra, Ben A and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Lakatta, Edward G and Mulas, Antonella and Orr{\`u}, Marco and Schlessinger, David and Uda, Manuela and Markus, Marcello R P and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Snieder, Harold and Spector, Timothy D and Arnl{\"o}v, Johan and Lind, Lars and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and Kivimaki, Mika and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Mononen, Nina and Raitakari, Olli T and Viikari, Jorma S and Adamkova, Vera and Kiechl, Stefan and Brion, Maria and Nicolaides, Andrew N and Paulweber, Bernhard and Haerting, Johannes and Dominiczak, Anna F and Nyberg, Fredrik and Whincup, Peter H and Hingorani, Aroon D and Schott, Jean-Jacques and Bezzina, Connie R and Ingelsson, Erik and Ferrucci, Luigi and Gasparini, Paolo and Wilson, James F and Rudan, Igor and Franke, Andre and M{\"u}hleisen, Thomas W and Pramstaller, Peter P and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho J and Paterson, Andrew D and Parsa, Afshin and Liu, Yongmei and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Siscovick, David S and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Jamshidi, Yalda and Salomaa, Veikko and Felix, Stephan B and Sanna, Serena and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Stricker, Bruno H and Stefansson, Kari and Boyer, Laurie A and Cappola, Thomas P and Olsen, Jesper V and Lage, Kasper and Schwartz, Peter J and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Ackerman, Michael J and Pfeufer, Arne and de Bakker, Paul I W and Newton-Cheh, Christopher} } @article {7019, title = {Genetic determinants of age-related macular degeneration in diverse populations from the PAGE study.}, journal = {Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci}, volume = {55}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Sep 9}, pages = {6839-50}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: Substantial progress has been made in identifying susceptibility variants for AMD in European populations; however, few studies have been conducted to understand the role these variants play in AMD risk in diverse populations. The present study aims to examine AMD risk across diverse populations in known and suspected AMD complement factor and lipid-related loci.

METHODS: Targeted genotyping was performed across study sites for AMD and lipid trait-associated single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs). Genetic association tests were performed at individual sites and then meta-analyzed using logistic regression assuming an additive genetic model stratified by self-described race/ethnicity. Participants included cases with early or late AMD and controls with no signs of AMD as determined by fundus photography. Populations included in this study were European Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Singaporeans from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study.

RESULTS: Index variants of AMD, rs1061170 (CFH) and rs10490924 (ARMS2), were associated with AMD at P=3.05{\texttimes}10(-8) and P=6.36{\texttimes}10(-6), respectively, in European Americans. In general, none of the major AMD index variants generalized to our non-European populations with the exception of rs10490924 in Mexican Americans at an uncorrected P value<0.05. Four lipid-associated SNPS (LPL rs328, TRIB1 rs6987702, CETP rs1800775, and KCTD10/MVK rs2338104) were associated with AMD in African Americans and Mexican Americans (P<0.05), but these associations did not survive strict corrections for multiple testing.

CONCLUSIONS: While most associations did not generalize in the non-European populations, variants within lipid-related genes were found to be associated with AMD. This study highlights the need for larger well-powered studies in non-European populations.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Complement Factor H, DNA, Ethnic Groups, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Humans, Macular Degeneration, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prevalence, Prospective Studies, Proteins, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {1552-5783}, doi = {10.1167/iovs.14-14246}, author = {Restrepo, Nicole A and Spencer, Kylee L and Goodloe, Robert and Garrett, Tiana A and Heiss, Gerardo and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Jorgensen, Neal and Jensen, Richard A and Matise, Tara C and Hindorff, Lucia A and Klein, Barbara E K and Klein, Ronald and Wong, Tien Y and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Cornes, Belinda K and Tai, E-Shyong and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Haines, Jonathan L and Crawford, Dana C} } @article {6690, title = {Genetic diversity is a predictor of mortality in humans.}, journal = {BMC Genet}, volume = {15}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {159}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: It has been well-established, both by population genetics theory and direct observation in many organisms, that increased genetic diversity provides a survival advantage. However, given the limitations of both sample size and genome-wide metrics, this hypothesis has not been comprehensively tested in human populations. Moreover, the presence of numerous segregating small effect alleles that influence traits that directly impact health directly raises the question as to whether global measures of genomic variation are themselves associated with human health and disease.

RESULTS: We performed a meta-analysis of 17 cohorts followed prospectively, with a combined sample size of 46,716 individuals, including a total of 15,234 deaths. We find a significant association between increased heterozygosity and survival (P = 0.03). We estimate that within a single population, every standard deviation of heterozygosity an individual has over the mean decreases that person{\textquoteright}s risk of death by 1.57\%.

CONCLUSIONS: This effect was consistent between European and African ancestry cohorts, men and women, and major causes of death (cancer and cardiovascular disease), demonstrating the broad positive impact of genomic diversity on human survival.

}, keywords = {Genome-Wide Association Study, Heterozygote, Humans, Mortality, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proportional Hazards Models}, issn = {1471-2156}, doi = {10.1186/s12863-014-0159-7}, author = {Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and Brody, Jennifer A and Smith, Albert Vernon and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Nalls, Mike and Smith, Jennifer A and Tanaka, Toshiko and Davies, Gail and Yu, Lei and Mirza, Saira Saeed and Teumer, Alexander and Coresh, Josef and Pankow, James S and Franceschini, Nora and Scaria, Anish and Oshima, Junko and Psaty, Bruce M and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Harris, Tamara B and Li, Hanyue and Karasik, David and Kiel, Douglas P and Garcia, Melissa and Liu, Yongmei and Faul, Jessica D and Kardia, Sharon Lr and Zhao, Wei and Ferrucci, Luigi and Allerhand, Michael and Liewald, David C and Redmond, Paul and Starr, John M and De Jager, Philip L and Evans, Denis A and Direk, Nese and Ikram, Mohammed Arfan and Uitterlinden, Andre and Homuth, Georg and Lorbeer, Roberto and Grabe, Hans J and Launer, Lenore and Murabito, Joanne M and Singleton, Andrew B and Weir, David R and Bandinelli, Stefania and Deary, Ian J and Bennett, David A and Tiemeier, Henning and Kocher, Thomas and Lumley, Thomas and Arking, Dan E} } @article {6595, title = {Genetic variants related to height and risk of atrial fibrillation: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, volume = {180}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jul 15}, pages = {215-22}, abstract = {

Increased height is a known independent risk factor for atrial fibrillation (AF). However, whether genetic determinants of height influence risk is uncertain. In this candidate gene study, we examined the association of 209 height-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with incident AF in 3,309 persons of European descent from the Cardiovascular Health Study, a prospective cohort study of older adults (aged >= 65 years) enrolled in 1989-1990. After a median follow-up period of 13.2 years, 879 participants developed incident AF. The height-associated SNPs together explained approximately 10\% of the variation in height (P = 6.0 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Using an unweighted genetic height score, we found a nonsignificant association with risk of AF (per allele, hazard ratio = 1.01, 95\% confidence interval: 1.00, 1.02; P = 0.06). In weighted analyses, we found that genetically predicted height was strongly associated with AF risk (per 10 cm, hazard ratio = 1.30, 95\% confidence interval: 1.03, 1.64; P = 0.03). Importantly, for all models, the inclusion of actual height completely attenuated the genetic height effect. Finally, we identified 1 nonsynonymous SNP (rs1046934) that was independently associated with AF and may warrant future study. In conclusion, we found that genetic determinants of height appear to increase the risk of AF, primarily via height itself. This approach of examining SNPs associated with an intermediate phenotype should be considered as a method for identifying novel genetic targets.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Body Height, Endonucleases, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors}, issn = {1476-6256}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kwu126}, author = {Rosenberg, Michael A and Kaplan, Robert C and Siscovick, David S and Psaty, Bruce M and Heckbert, Susan R and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Mukamal, Kenneth J} } @article {6617, title = {Gene-wide analysis detects two new susceptibility genes for Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {9}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {e94661}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease is a common debilitating dementia with known heritability, for which 20 late onset susceptibility loci have been identified, but more remain to be discovered. This study sought to identify new susceptibility genes, using an alternative gene-wide analytical approach which tests for patterns of association within genes, in the powerful genome-wide association dataset of the International Genomics of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Project Consortium, comprising over 7 m genotypes from 25,580 Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s cases and 48,466 controls.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In addition to earlier reported genes, we detected genome-wide significant loci on chromosomes 8 (TP53INP1, p = 1.4{\texttimes}10-6) and 14 (IGHV1-67 p = 7.9{\texttimes}10-8) which indexed novel susceptibility loci.

SIGNIFICANCE: The additional genes identified in this study, have an array of functions previously implicated in Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease, including aspects of energy metabolism, protein degradation and the immune system and add further weight to these pathways as potential therapeutic targets in Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.

}, keywords = {Alzheimer Disease, Carrier Proteins, Case-Control Studies, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heat-Shock Proteins, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, Antigen, B-Cell}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0094661}, author = {Escott-Price, Valentina and Bellenguez, C{\'e}line and Wang, Li-San and Choi, Seung-Hoan and Harold, Denise and Jones, Lesley and Holmans, Peter and Gerrish, Amy and Vedernikov, Alexey and Richards, Alexander and DeStefano, Anita L and Lambert, Jean-Charles and Ibrahim-Verbaas, Carla A and Naj, Adam C and Sims, Rebecca and Jun, Gyungah and Bis, Joshua C and Beecham, Gary W and Grenier-Boley, Benjamin and Russo, Giancarlo and Thornton-Wells, Tricia A and Denning, Nicola and Smith, Albert V and Chouraki, Vincent and Thomas, Charlene and Ikram, M Arfan and Zelenika, Diana and Vardarajan, Badri N and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Lin, Chiao-Feng and Schmidt, Helena and Kunkle, Brian and Dunstan, Melanie L and Vronskaya, Maria and Johnson, Andrew D and Ruiz, Agustin and Bihoreau, Marie-Th{\'e}r{\`e}se and Reitz, Christiane and Pasquier, Florence and Hollingworth, Paul and Hanon, Olivier and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Buxbaum, Joseph D and Campion, Dominique and Crane, Paul K and Baldwin, Clinton and Becker, Tim and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Cruchaga, Carlos and Craig, David and Amin, Najaf and Berr, Claudine and Lopez, Oscar L and De Jager, Philip L and Deramecourt, Vincent and Johnston, Janet A and Evans, Denis and Lovestone, Simon and Letenneur, Luc and Hernandez, Isabel and Rubinsztein, David C and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Sleegers, Kristel and Goate, Alison M and Fi{\'e}vet, Nathalie and Huentelman, Matthew J and Gill, Michael and Brown, Kristelle and Kamboh, M Ilyas and Keller, Lina and Barberger-Gateau, Pascale and McGuinness, Bernadette and Larson, Eric B and Myers, Amanda J and Dufouil, Carole and Todd, Stephen and Wallon, David and Love, Seth and Rogaeva, Ekaterina and Gallacher, John and George-Hyslop, Peter St and Clarimon, Jordi and Lleo, Alberto and Bayer, Anthony and Tsuang, Debby W and Yu, Lei and Tsolaki, Magda and Boss{\`u}, Paola and Spalletta, Gianfranco and Proitsi, Petra and Collinge, John and Sorbi, Sandro and Garcia, Florentino Sanchez and Fox, Nick C and Hardy, John and Naranjo, Maria Candida Deniz and Bosco, Paolo and Clarke, Robert and Brayne, Carol and Galimberti, Daniela and Scarpini, Elio and Bonuccelli, Ubaldo and Mancuso, Michelangelo and Siciliano, Gabriele and Moebus, Susanne and Mecocci, Patrizia and Zompo, Maria Del and Maier, Wolfgang and Hampel, Harald and Pilotto, Alberto and Frank-Garc{\'\i}a, Ana and Panza, Francesco and Solfrizzi, Vincenzo and Caffarra, Paolo and Nacmias, Benedetta and Perry, William and Mayhaus, Manuel and Lannfelt, Lars and Hakonarson, Hakon and Pichler, Sabrina and Carrasquillo, Minerva M and Ingelsson, Martin and Beekly, Duane and Alvarez, Victoria and Zou, Fanggeng and Valladares, Otto and Younkin, Steven G and Coto, Eliecer and Hamilton-Nelson, Kara L and Gu, Wei and Razquin, Cristina and Pastor, Pau and Mateo, Ignacio and Owen, Michael J and Faber, Kelley M and Jonsson, Palmi V and Combarros, Onofre and O{\textquoteright}Donovan, Michael C and Cantwell, Laura B and Soininen, Hilkka and Blacker, Deborah and Mead, Simon and Mosley, Thomas H and Bennett, David A and Harris, Tamara B and Fratiglioni, Laura and Holmes, Clive and de Bruijn, Renee F A G and Passmore, Peter and Montine, Thomas J and Bettens, Karolien and Rotter, Jerome I and Brice, Alexis and Morgan, Kevin and Foroud, Tatiana M and Kukull, Walter A and Hannequin, Didier and Powell, John F and Nalls, Michael A and Ritchie, Karen and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Kauwe, John S K and Boerwinkle, Eric and Riemenschneider, Matthias and Boada, Merce and Hiltunen, Mikko and Martin, Eden R and Schmidt, Reinhold and Rujescu, Dan and Dartigues, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and Mayeux, Richard and Tzourio, Christophe and Hofman, Albert and N{\"o}then, Markus M and Graff, Caroline and Psaty, Bruce M and Haines, Jonathan L and Lathrop, Mark and Pericak-Vance, Margaret A and Launer, Lenore J and Van Broeckhoven, Christine and Farrer, Lindsay A and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Ramirez, Alfredo and Seshadri, Sudha and Schellenberg, Gerard D and Amouyel, Philippe and Williams, Julie} } @article {6582, title = {Genome-wide association analysis identifies six new loci associated with forced vital capacity.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {46}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jul}, pages = {669-77}, abstract = {

Forced vital capacity (FVC), a spirometric measure of pulmonary function, reflects lung volume and is used to diagnose and monitor lung diseases. We performed genome-wide association study meta-analysis of FVC in 52,253 individuals from 26 studies and followed up the top associations in 32,917 additional individuals of European ancestry. We found six new regions associated at genome-wide significance (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) with FVC in or near EFEMP1, BMP6, MIR129-2-HSD17B12, PRDM11, WWOX and KCNJ2. Two loci previously associated with spirometric measures (GSTCD and PTCH1) were related to FVC. Newly implicated regions were followed up in samples from African-American, Korean, Chinese and Hispanic individuals. We detected transcripts for all six newly implicated genes in human lung tissue. The new loci may inform mechanisms involved in lung development and the pathogenesis of restrictive lung disease.

}, keywords = {Cohort Studies, Databases, Genetic, Follow-Up Studies, Forced Expiratory Volume, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lung Diseases, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prognosis, Quantitative Trait Loci, Respiratory Function Tests, Spirometry, Vital Capacity}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3011}, author = {Loth, Daan W and Soler Artigas, Maria and Gharib, Sina A and Wain, Louise V and Franceschini, Nora and Koch, Beate and Pottinger, Tess D and Smith, Albert Vernon and Duan, Qing and Oldmeadow, Chris and Lee, Mi Kyeong and Strachan, David P and James, Alan L and Huffman, Jennifer E and Vitart, Veronique and Ramasamy, Adaikalavan and Wareham, Nicholas J and Kaprio, Jaakko and Wang, Xin-Qun and Trochet, Holly and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Flexeder, Claudia and Albrecht, Eva and Lopez, Lorna M and de Jong, Kim and Thyagarajan, Bharat and Alves, Alexessander Couto and Enroth, Stefan and Omenaas, Ernst and Joshi, Peter K and Fall, Tove and Vi{\~n}uela, Ana and Launer, Lenore J and Loehr, Laura R and Fornage, Myriam and Li, Guo and Wilk, Jemma B and Tang, Wenbo and Manichaikul, Ani and Lahousse, Lies and Harris, Tamara B and North, Kari E and Rudnicka, Alicja R and Hui, Jennie and Gu, Xiangjun and Lumley, Thomas and Wright, Alan F and Hastie, Nicholas D and Campbell, Susan and Kumar, Rajesh and Pin, Isabelle and Scott, Robert A and Pietil{\"a}inen, Kirsi H and Surakka, Ida and Liu, Yongmei and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Schulz, Holger and Heinrich, Joachim and Davies, Gail and Vonk, Judith M and Wojczynski, Mary and Pouta, Anneli and Johansson, Asa and Wild, Sarah H and Ingelsson, Erik and Rivadeneira, Fernando and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Hysi, Pirro G and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Morrison, Alanna C and Rotter, Jerome I and Gao, Wei and Postma, Dirkje S and White, Wendy B and Rich, Stephen S and Hofman, Albert and Aspelund, Thor and Couper, David and Smith, Lewis J and Psaty, Bruce M and Lohman, Kurt and Burchard, Esteban G and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Garcia, Melissa and Joubert, Bonnie R and McArdle, Wendy L and Musk, A Bill and Hansel, Nadia and Heckbert, Susan R and Zgaga, Lina and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Navarro, Pau and Rudan, Igor and Oh, Yeon-Mok and Redline, Susan and Jarvis, Deborah L and Zhao, Jing Hua and Rantanen, Taina and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Ripatti, Samuli and Scott, Rodney J and Karrasch, Stefan and Grallert, Harald and Gaddis, Nathan C and Starr, John M and Wijmenga, Cisca and Minster, Ryan L and Lederer, David J and Pekkanen, Juha and Gyllensten, Ulf and Campbell, Harry and Morris, Andrew P and Gl{\"a}ser, Sven and Hammond, Christopher J and Burkart, Kristin M and Beilby, John and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hancock, Dana B and Williams, O Dale and Polasek, Ozren and Zemunik, Tatijana and Kolcic, Ivana and Petrini, Marcy F and Wjst, Matthias and Kim, Woo Jin and Porteous, David J and Scotland, Generation and Smith, Blair H and Viljanen, Anne and Heli{\"o}vaara, Markku and Attia, John R and Sayers, Ian and Hampel, Regina and Gieger, Christian and Deary, Ian J and Boezen, H Marike and Newman, Anne and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Wilson, James F and Lind, Lars and Stricker, Bruno H and Teumer, Alexander and Spector, Timothy D and Mel{\'e}n, Erik and Peters, Marjolein J and Lange, Leslie A and Barr, R Graham and Bracke, Ken R and Verhamme, Fien M and Sung, Joohon and Hiemstra, Pieter S and Cassano, Patricia A and Sood, Akshay and Hayward, Caroline and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Hall, Ian P and Brusselle, Guy G and Tobin, Martin D and London, Stephanie J} } @article {6367, title = {Genome-wide association study for circulating tissue plasminogen activator levels and functional follow-up implicates endothelial STXBP5 and STX2.}, journal = {Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol}, volume = {34}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 May}, pages = {1093-101}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), a serine protease, catalyzes the conversion of plasminogen to plasmin, the major enzyme responsible for endogenous fibrinolysis. In some populations, elevated plasma levels of tPA have been associated with myocardial infarction and other cardiovascular diseases. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies to identify novel correlates of circulating levels of tPA.

APPROACH AND RESULTS: Fourteen cohort studies with tPA measures (N=26 929) contributed to the meta-analysis. Three loci were significantly associated with circulating tPA levels (P<5.0{\texttimes}10(-8)). The first locus is on 6q24.3, with the lead single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP; rs9399599; P=2.9{\texttimes}10(-14)) within STXBP5. The second locus is on 8p11.21. The lead SNP (rs3136739; P=1.3{\texttimes}10(-9)) is intronic to POLB and <200 kb away from the tPA encoding the gene PLAT. We identified a nonsynonymous SNP (rs2020921) in modest linkage disequilibrium with rs3136739 (r(2)=0.50) within exon 5 of PLAT (P=2.0{\texttimes}10(-8)). The third locus is on 12q24.33, with the lead SNP (rs7301826; P=1.0{\texttimes}10(-9)) within intron 7 of STX2. We further found evidence for the association of lead SNPs in STXBP5 and STX2 with expression levels of the respective transcripts. In in vitro cell studies, silencing STXBP5 decreased the release of tPA from vascular endothelial cells, whereas silencing STX2 increased the tPA release. Through an in silico lookup, we found no associations of the 3 lead SNPs with coronary artery disease or stroke.

CONCLUSIONS: We identified 3 loci associated with circulating tPA levels, the PLAT region, STXBP5, and STX2. Our functional studies implicate a novel role for STXBP5 and STX2 in regulating tPA release.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cells, Cultured, Coronary Artery Disease, Endothelial Cells, Europe, Female, Gene Expression Regulation, Gene Silencing, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, R-SNARE Proteins, Risk Factors, Stroke, Syntaxin 1, Tissue Plasminogen Activator, Transfection, United States, Up-Regulation}, issn = {1524-4636}, doi = {10.1161/ATVBAHA.113.302088}, author = {Huang, Jie and Huffman, Jennifer E and Yamakuchi, Munekazu and Yamkauchi, Munekazu and Trompet, Stella and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Chen, Wei-Min and Smith, Nicholas L and Kleber, Marcus E and Shin, So-Youn and Becker, Diane M and Tang, Weihong and Dehghan, Abbas and Johnson, Andrew D and Truong, Vinh and Folkersen, Lasse and Yang, Qiong and Oudot-Mellkah, Tiphaine and Buckley, Brendan M and Moore, Jason H and Williams, Frances M K and Campbell, Harry and Silbernagel, G{\"u}nther and Vitart, Veronique and Rudan, Igor and Tofler, Geoffrey H and Navis, Gerjan J and DeStefano, Anita and Wright, Alan F and Chen, Ming-Huei and de Craen, Anton J M and Worrall, Bradford B and Rudnicka, Alicja R and Rumley, Ann and Bookman, Ebony B and Psaty, Bruce M and Chen, Fang and Keene, Keith L and Franco, Oscar H and B{\"o}hm, Bernhard O and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Carter, Angela M and Jukema, J Wouter and Sattar, Naveed and Bis, Joshua C and Ikram, Mohammad A and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and McKnight, Barbara and Fornage, Myriam and Ford, Ian and Taylor, Kent and Slagboom, P Eline and McArdle, Wendy L and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Franco-Cereceda, Anders and Goodall, Alison H and Yanek, Lisa R and Furie, Karen L and Cushman, Mary and Hofman, Albert and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Folsom, Aaron R and Basu, Saonli and Matijevic, Nena and van Gilst, Wiek H and Wilson, James F and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Kathiresan, Sekar and Reilly, Muredach P and Tracy, Russell P and Polasek, Ozren and Winkelmann, Bernhard R and Grant, Peter J and Hillege, Hans L and Cambien, Francois and Stott, David J and Lowe, Gordon D and Spector, Timothy D and Meigs, James B and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Eriksson, Per and Becker, Lewis C and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and Soranzo, Nicole and Williams, Scott M and Hayward, Caroline and van der Harst, Pim and Hamsten, Anders and Lowenstein, Charles J and Strachan, David P and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} } @article {6819, title = {Genome-wide association study of L-arginine and dimethylarginines reveals novel metabolic pathway for symmetric dimethylarginine.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Dec}, pages = {864-72}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Dimethylarginines (DMA) interfere with nitric oxide formation by inhibiting nitric oxide synthase (asymmetrical DMA [ADMA]) and l-arginine uptake into the cell (ADMA and symmetrical DMA [SDMA]). In prospective clinical studies, ADMA has been characterized as a cardiovascular risk marker, whereas SDMA is a novel marker for renal function and associated with all-cause mortality after ischemic stroke. The aim of the current study was to characterize the environmental and genetic contributions to interindividual variability of these biomarkers.

METHODS AND RESULTS: This study comprised a genome-wide association analysis of 3 well-characterized population-based cohorts (Framingham Heart Study [FHS; n=2992], Gutenberg Health Study [GHS; n=4354], and Multinational Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Disease Study [MONICA]/Cooperative Health Research in the Augsburg Area, Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany [KORA] F3 [n=581]) and identified replicated loci (DDAH1, MED23, Arg1, and AGXT2) associated with the interindividual variability in ADMA, l-arginine, and SDMA. Experimental in silico and in vitro studies confirmed functional significance of the identified AGXT2 variants. Clinical outcome analysis in 384 patients of the Leeds stroke study demonstrated an association between increased plasma levels of SDMA, AGXT2 variants, and various cardiometabolic risk factors. AGXT2 variants were not associated with poststroke survival in the Leeds study or were they associated with incident stroke in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium.

CONCLUSIONS: These genome-wide association study support the importance of DDAH1 and MED23/Arg1 in regulating ADMA and l-arginine metabolism, respectively, and identify a novel regulatory renal pathway for SDMA by AGXT2. AGXT2 variants might explain part of the pathogenic link between SDMA, renal function, and outcome. An association between AGXT2 variants and stroke is unclear and warrants further investigation.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Amidohydrolases, Arginine, Binding Sites, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, HEK293 Cells, Humans, Male, Mediator Complex, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Protein Structure, Tertiary, Risk Factors, Stroke, Substrate Specificity, Transaminases}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.113.000264}, author = {L{\"u}neburg, Nicole and Lieb, Wolfgang and Zeller, Tanja and Chen, Ming-Huei and Maas, Renke and Carter, Angela M and Xanthakis, Vanessa and Glazer, Nicole L and Schwedhelm, Edzard and Seshadri, Sudha and Ikram, Mohammad Arfan and Longstreth, William T and Fornage, Myriam and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Loley, Christina and Ojeda, Francisco M and Schillert, Arne and Wang, Thomas J and Sticht, Heinrich and Kittel, Anja and K{\"o}nig, J{\"o}rg and Benjamin, Emelia J and Sullivan, Lisa M and Bernges, Isabel and Anderssohn, Maike and Ziegler, Andreas and Gieger, Christian and Illig, Thomas and Meisinger, Christa and Wichmann, H-Erich and Wild, Philipp S and Schunkert, Heribert and Psaty, Bruce M and Wiggins, Kerri L and Heckbert, Susan R and Smith, Nicholas and Lackner, Karl and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Blankenberg, Stefan and Erdmann, Jeanette and M{\"u}nzel, Thomas and Grant, Peter J and Vasan, Ramachandran S and B{\"o}ger, Rainer H} } @article {6567, title = {Genome-wide association study of plasma N6 polyunsaturated fatty acids within the cohorts for heart and aging research in genomic epidemiology consortium.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun}, pages = {321-331}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Omega6 (n6) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and their metabolites are involved in cell signaling, inflammation, clot formation, and other crucial biological processes. Genetic components, such as variants of fatty acid desaturase (FADS) genes, determine the composition of n6 PUFAs.

METHODS AND RESULTS: To elucidate undiscovered biological pathways that may influence n6 PUFA composition, we conducted genome-wide association studies and meta-analyses of associations of common genetic variants with 6 plasma n6 PUFAs in 8631 white adults (55\% women) across 5 prospective studies. Plasma phospholipid or total plasma fatty acids were analyzed by similar gas chromatography techniques. The n6 fatty acids linoleic acid (LA), γ-linolenic acid (GLA), dihomo-GLA, arachidonic acid, and adrenic acid were expressed as percentage of total fatty acids. We performed linear regression with robust SEs to test for single-nucleotide polymorphism-fatty acid associations, with pooling using inverse-variance-weighted meta-analysis. Novel regions were identified on chromosome 10 associated with LA (rs10740118; P=8.1{\texttimes}10(-9); near NRBF2), on chromosome 16 with LA, GLA, dihomo-GLA, and arachidonic acid (rs16966952; P=1.2{\texttimes}10(-15), 5.0{\texttimes}10(-11), 7.6{\texttimes}10(-65), and 2.4{\texttimes}10(-10), respectively; NTAN1), and on chromosome 6 with adrenic acid after adjustment for arachidonic acid (rs3134950; P=2.1{\texttimes}10(-10); AGPAT1). We confirmed previous findings of the FADS cluster on chromosome 11 with LA and arachidonic acid, and further observed novel genome-wide significant association of this cluster with GLA, dihomo-GLA, and adrenic acid (P=2.3{\texttimes}10(-72), 2.6{\texttimes}10(-151), and 6.3{\texttimes}10(-140), respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that along with the FADS gene cluster, additional genes may influence n6 PUFA composition.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 10, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 16, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 6, Fatty Acid Desaturases, Fatty Acids, Omega-6, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Heart Diseases, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prospective Studies, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.113.000208}, author = {Guan, Weihua and Steffen, Brian T and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Wu, Jason H Y and Tanaka, Toshiko and Manichaikul, Ani and Foy, Millennia and Rich, Stephen S and Wang, Lu and Nettleton, Jennifer A and Tang, Weihong and Gu, Xiangjun and Bandinelli, Stafania and King, Irena B and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and Siscovick, David and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Ferrucci, Luigi and Fornage, Myriam and Mozafarrian, Dariush and Tsai, Michael Y and Steffen, Lyn M} } @article {6294, title = {Identification of novel genetic Loci associated with thyroid peroxidase antibodies and clinical thyroid disease.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {10}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Feb}, pages = {e1004123}, abstract = {

Autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITD) are common, affecting 2-5\% of the general population. Individuals with positive thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAbs) have an increased risk of autoimmune hypothyroidism (Hashimoto{\textquoteright}s thyroiditis), as well as autoimmune hyperthyroidism (Graves{\textquoteright} disease). As the possible causative genes of TPOAbs and AITD remain largely unknown, we performed GWAS meta-analyses in 18,297 individuals for TPOAb-positivity (1769 TPOAb-positives and 16,528 TPOAb-negatives) and in 12,353 individuals for TPOAb serum levels, with replication in 8,990 individuals. Significant associations (P<5{\texttimes}10(-8)) were detected at TPO-rs11675434, ATXN2-rs653178, and BACH2-rs10944479 for TPOAb-positivity, and at TPO-rs11675434, MAGI3-rs1230666, and KALRN-rs2010099 for TPOAb levels. Individual and combined effects (genetic risk scores) of these variants on (subclinical) hypo- and hyperthyroidism, goiter and thyroid cancer were studied. Individuals with a high genetic risk score had, besides an increased risk of TPOAb-positivity (OR: 2.18, 95\% CI 1.68-2.81, P = 8.1{\texttimes}10(-8)), a higher risk of increased thyroid-stimulating hormone levels (OR: 1.51, 95\% CI 1.26-1.82, P = 2.9{\texttimes}10(-6)), as well as a decreased risk of goiter (OR: 0.77, 95\% CI 0.66-0.89, P = 6.5{\texttimes}10(-4)). The MAGI3 and BACH2 variants were associated with an increased risk of hyperthyroidism, which was replicated in an independent cohort of patients with Graves{\textquoteright} disease (OR: 1.37, 95\% CI 1.22-1.54, P = 1.2{\texttimes}10(-7) and OR: 1.25, 95\% CI 1.12-1.39, P = 6.2{\texttimes}10(-5)). The MAGI3 variant was also associated with an increased risk of hypothyroidism (OR: 1.57, 95\% CI 1.18-2.10, P = 1.9{\texttimes}10(-3)). This first GWAS meta-analysis for TPOAbs identified five newly associated loci, three of which were also associated with clinical thyroid disease. With these markers we identified a large subgroup in the general population with a substantially increased risk of TPOAbs. The results provide insight into why individuals with thyroid autoimmunity do or do not eventually develop thyroid disease, and these markers may therefore predict which TPOAb-positives are particularly at risk of developing clinical thyroid dysfunction.

}, keywords = {Autoantibodies, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Graves Disease, Hashimoto Disease, Humans, Iodide Peroxidase, Risk Factors, Thyroiditis, Autoimmune, Thyrotropin}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1004123}, author = {Medici, Marco and Porcu, Eleonora and Pistis, Giorgio and Teumer, Alexander and Brown, Suzanne J and Jensen, Richard A and Rawal, Rajesh and Roef, Greet L and Plantinga, Theo S and Vermeulen, Sita H and Lahti, Jari and Simmonds, Matthew J and Husemoen, Lise Lotte N and Freathy, Rachel M and Shields, Beverley M and Pietzner, Diana and Nagy, Rebecca and Broer, Linda and Chaker, Layal and Korevaar, Tim I M and Plia, Maria Grazia and Sala, Cinzia and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Richards, J Brent and Sweep, Fred C and Gieger, Christian and Corre, Tanguy and Kajantie, Eero and Thuesen, Betina and Taes, Youri E and Visser, W Edward and Hattersley, Andrew T and Kratzsch, J{\"u}rgen and Hamilton, Alexander and Li, Wei and Homuth, Georg and Lobina, Monia and Mariotti, Stefano and Soranzo, Nicole and Cocca, Massimiliano and Nauck, Matthias and Spielhagen, Christin and Ross, Alec and Arnold, Alice and van de Bunt, Martijn and Liyanarachchi, Sandya and Heier, Margit and Grabe, Hans J{\"o}rgen and Masciullo, Corrado and Galesloot, Tessel E and Lim, Ee M and Reischl, Eva and Leedman, Peter J and Lai, Sandra and Delitala, Alessandro and Bremner, Alexandra P and Philips, David I W and Beilby, John P and Mulas, Antonella and Vocale, Matteo and Abecasis, Goncalo and Forsen, Tom and James, Alan and Widen, Elisabeth and Hui, Jennie and Prokisch, Holger and Rietzschel, Ernst E and Palotie, Aarno and Feddema, Peter and Fletcher, Stephen J and Schramm, Katharina and Rotter, Jerome I and Kluttig, Alexander and Radke, D{\"o}rte and Traglia, Michela and Surdulescu, Gabriela L and He, Huiling and Franklyn, Jayne A and Tiller, Daniel and Vaidya, Bijay and De Meyer, Tim and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Eriksson, Johan G and O{\textquoteright}Leary, Peter C and Wichmann, Eric and Hermus, Ad R and Psaty, Bruce M and Ittermann, Till and Hofman, Albert and Bosi, Emanuele and Schlessinger, David and Wallaschofski, Henri and Pirastu, Nicola and Aulchenko, Yurii S and de la Chapelle, Albert and Netea-Maier, Romana T and Gough, Stephen C L and Meyer Zu Schwabedissen, Henriette and Frayling, Timothy M and Kaufman, Jean-Marc and Linneberg, Allan and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Smit, Johannes W A and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Walsh, John P and Meisinger, Christa and den Heijer, Martin and Visser, Theo J and Spector, Timothy D and Wilson, Scott G and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Cappola, Anne and Toniolo, Daniela and Sanna, Serena and Naitza, Silvia and Peeters, Robin P} } @article {6572, title = {Incidence of and risk factors for sick sinus~syndrome in the general population.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {64}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Aug 12}, pages = {531-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the incidence of and risk factors for sick sinus syndrome (SSS), a common indication for pacemaker implantation.

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to describe the epidemiology of SSS.

METHODS: This analysis included 20,572 participants (mean baseline age 59 years, 43\% male) in the ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities) study and the CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study), who at baseline were free of prevalent atrial fibrillation and pacemaker therapy, had a heart rate of >= 50 beats/min unless using beta blockers, and were identified as of white or black race. Incident SSS cases were identified by hospital discharge International Classification of Disease-revision 9-Clinical Modification code 427.81 and validated by medical record review.

RESULTS: During an average 17 years of follow-up, 291 incident SSS cases were identified (unadjusted rate 0.8 per 1,000 person-years). Incidence increased with age (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.73; 95\% confidence interval [CI]: 1.47 to 2.05 per 5-year increment), and blacks had a 41\% lower risk of SSS than whites (HR: 0.59; 95\% CI: 0.37 to 0.98). Incident SSS was associated with greater baseline body mass index, height, N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, and cystatin C, with longer QRS interval, with lower heart rate, and with prevalent hypertension, right bundle branch block, and cardiovascular disease. We project that the annual number of new SSS cases in the United States will increase from 78,000 in 2012 to 172,000 in 2060.

CONCLUSIONS: Blacks have a lower risk of SSS than whites, and several cardiovascular risk factors were associated with incident SSS. With the aging of the population, the number of Americans with SSS will increase dramatically over the next 50 years.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Population Surveillance, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Sick Sinus Syndrome}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2014.03.056}, author = {Jensen, Paul N and Gronroos, Noelle N and Chen, Lin Y and Folsom, Aaron R and deFilippi, Chris and Heckbert, Susan R and Alonso, Alvaro} } @article {6600, title = {Integrating genetic, transcriptional, and functional analyses to identify 5 novel genes for atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {130}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Oct 7}, pages = {1225-35}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects >30 million individuals worldwide and is associated with an increased risk of stroke, heart failure, and death. AF is highly heritable, yet the genetic basis for the arrhythmia remains incompletely understood.

METHODS AND RESULTS: To identify new AF-related genes, we used a multifaceted approach, combining large-scale genotyping in 2 ethnically distinct populations, cis-eQTL (expression quantitative trait loci) mapping, and functional validation. Four novel loci were identified in individuals of European descent near the genes NEURL (rs12415501; relative risk [RR]=1.18; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.13-1.23; P=6.5{\texttimes}10(-16)), GJA1 (rs13216675; RR=1.10; 95\% CI, 1.06-1.14; P=2.2{\texttimes}10(-8)), TBX5 (rs10507248; RR=1.12; 95\% CI, 1.08-1.16; P=5.7{\texttimes}10(-11)), and CAND2 (rs4642101; RR=1.10; 95\% CI, 1.06-1.14; P=9.8{\texttimes}10(-9)). In Japanese, novel loci were identified near NEURL (rs6584555; RR=1.32; 95\% CI, 1.26-1.39; P=2.0{\texttimes}10(-25)) and CUX2 (rs6490029; RR=1.12; 95\% CI, 1.08-1.16; P=3.9{\texttimes}10(-9)). The top single-nucleotide polymorphisms or their proxies were identified as cis-eQTLs for the genes CAND2 (P=2.6{\texttimes}10(-19)), GJA1 (P=2.66{\texttimes}10(-6)), and TBX5 (P=1.36{\texttimes}10(-5)). Knockdown of the zebrafish orthologs of NEURL and CAND2 resulted in prolongation of the atrial action potential duration (17\% and 45\%, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: We have identified 5 novel loci for AF. Our results expand the diversity of genetic pathways implicated in AF and provide novel molecular targets for future biological and pharmacological investigation.

}, keywords = {Aged, Animals, Atrial Fibrillation, Chromosome Mapping, Connexin 43, Europe, Female, Gene Knockdown Techniques, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Homeodomain Proteins, Humans, Japan, Male, Middle Aged, Muscle Proteins, Nuclear Proteins, Quantitative Trait Loci, Repressor Proteins, T-Box Domain Proteins, Transcription Factors, Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases, Zebrafish, Zebrafish Proteins}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.114.009892}, author = {Sinner, Moritz F and Tucker, Nathan R and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Ozaki, Kouichi and Smith, J Gustav and Trompet, Stella and Bis, Joshua C and Lin, Honghuang and Chung, Mina K and Nielsen, Jonas B and Lubitz, Steven A and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Magnani, Jared W and Ye, Jiangchuan and Gollob, Michael H and Tsunoda, Tatsuhiko and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Lichtner, Peter and Peters, Annette and Dolmatova, Elena and Kubo, Michiaki and Smith, Jonathan D and Psaty, Bruce M and Smith, Nicholas L and Jukema, J Wouter and Chasman, Daniel I and Albert, Christine M and Ebana, Yusuke and Furukawa, Tetsushi and Macfarlane, Peter W and Harris, Tamara B and Darbar, Dawood and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Holst, Anders G and Svendsen, Jesper H and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Isobe, Mitsuaki and Malik, Rainer and Dichgans, Martin and Rosand, Jonathan and Van Wagoner, David R and Benjamin, Emelia J and Milan, David J and Melander, Olle and Heckbert, Susan R and Ford, Ian and Liu, Yongmei and Barnard, John and Olesen, Morten S and Stricker, Bruno H C and Tanaka, Toshihiro and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {6604, title = {Large-scale genome-wide association studies and meta-analyses of longitudinal change in adult lung function.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {9}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {e100776}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous loci influencing cross-sectional lung function, but less is known about genes influencing longitudinal change in lung function.

METHODS: We performed GWAS of the rate of change in forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) in 14 longitudinal, population-based cohort studies comprising 27,249 adults of European ancestry using linear mixed effects model and combined cohort-specific results using fixed effect meta-analysis to identify novel genetic loci associated with longitudinal change in lung function. Gene expression analyses were subsequently performed for identified genetic loci. As a secondary aim, we estimated the mean rate of decline in FEV1 by smoking pattern, irrespective of genotypes, across these 14 studies using meta-analysis.

RESULTS: The overall meta-analysis produced suggestive evidence for association at the novel IL16/STARD5/TMC3 locus on chromosome 15 (P  =  5.71 {\texttimes} 10(-7)). In addition, meta-analysis using the five cohorts with >=3 FEV1 measurements per participant identified the novel ME3 locus on chromosome 11 (P  =  2.18 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) at genome-wide significance. Neither locus was associated with FEV1 decline in two additional cohort studies. We confirmed gene expression of IL16, STARD5, and ME3 in multiple lung tissues. Publicly available microarray data confirmed differential expression of all three genes in lung samples from COPD patients compared with controls. Irrespective of genotypes, the combined estimate for FEV1 decline was 26.9, 29.2 and 35.7 mL/year in never, former, and persistent smokers, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: In this large-scale GWAS, we identified two novel genetic loci in association with the rate of change in FEV1 that harbor candidate genes with biologically plausible functional links to lung function.

}, keywords = {Adult, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 11, Female, Gene Expression Regulation, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Respiration}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0100776}, author = {Tang, Wenbo and Kowgier, Matthew and Loth, Daan W and Soler Artigas, Maria and Joubert, Bonnie R and Hodge, Emily and Gharib, Sina A and Smith, Albert V and Ruczinski, Ingo and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Mathias, Rasika A and Harris, Tamara B and Hansel, Nadia N and Launer, Lenore J and Barnes, Kathleen C and Hansen, Joyanna G and Albrecht, Eva and Aldrich, Melinda C and Allerhand, Michael and Barr, R Graham and Brusselle, Guy G and Couper, David J and Curjuric, Ivan and Davies, Gail and Deary, Ian J and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Fall, Tove and Foy, Millennia and Franceschini, Nora and Gao, Wei and Gl{\"a}ser, Sven and Gu, Xiangjun and Hancock, Dana B and Heinrich, Joachim and Hofman, Albert and Imboden, Medea and Ingelsson, Erik and James, Alan and Karrasch, Stefan and Koch, Beate and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Kumar, Ashish and Lahousse, Lies and Li, Guo and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia and Liu, Yongmei and Lohman, Kurt and Lumley, Thomas and McArdle, Wendy L and Meibohm, Bernd and Morris, Andrew P and Morrison, Alanna C and Musk, Bill and North, Kari E and Palmer, Lyle J and Probst-Hensch, Nicole M and Psaty, Bruce M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rotter, Jerome I and Schulz, Holger and Smith, Lewis J and Sood, Akshay and Starr, John M and Strachan, David P and Teumer, Alexander and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Voorman, Arend and Wain, Louise V and Wells, Martin T and Wilk, Jemma B and Williams, O Dale and Heckbert, Susan R and Stricker, Bruno H and London, Stephanie J and Fornage, Myriam and Tobin, Martin D and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Hall, Ian P and Cassano, Patricia A} } @article {6789, title = {Large-scale meta-analysis of genome-wide association data identifies six new risk loci for Parkinson{\textquoteright}s disease.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {46}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Sep}, pages = {989-93}, abstract = {

We conducted a meta-analysis of Parkinson{\textquoteright}s disease genome-wide association studies using a common set of 7,893,274 variants across 13,708 cases and 95,282 controls. Twenty-six loci were identified as having genome-wide significant association; these and 6 additional previously reported loci were then tested in an independent set of 5,353 cases and 5,551 controls. Of the 32 tested SNPs, 24 replicated, including 6 newly identified loci. Conditional analyses within loci showed that four loci, including GBA, GAK-DGKQ, SNCA and the HLA region, contain a secondary independent risk variant. In total, we identified and replicated 28 independent risk variants for Parkinson{\textquoteright}s disease across 24 loci. Although the effect of each individual locus was small, risk profile analysis showed substantial cumulative risk in a comparison of the highest and lowest quintiles of genetic risk (odds ratio (OR) = 3.31, 95\% confidence interval (CI) = 2.55-4.30; P = 2 {\texttimes} 10(-16)). We also show six risk loci associated with proximal gene expression or DNA methylation.

}, keywords = {Case-Control Studies, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Parkinson Disease, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3043}, author = {Nalls, Mike A and Pankratz, Nathan and Lill, Christina M and Do, Chuong B and Hernandez, Dena G and Saad, Mohamad and DeStefano, Anita L and Kara, Eleanna and Bras, Jose and Sharma, Manu and Schulte, Claudia and Keller, Margaux F and Arepalli, Sampath and Letson, Christopher and Edsall, Connor and Stefansson, Hreinn and Liu, Xinmin and Pliner, Hannah and Lee, Joseph H and Cheng, Rong and Ikram, M Arfan and Ioannidis, John P A and Hadjigeorgiou, Georgios M and Bis, Joshua C and Martinez, Maria and Perlmutter, Joel S and Goate, Alison and Marder, Karen and Fiske, Brian and Sutherland, Margaret and Xiromerisiou, Georgia and Myers, Richard H and Clark, Lorraine N and Stefansson, Kari and Hardy, John A and Heutink, Peter and Chen, Honglei and Wood, Nicholas W and Houlden, Henry and Payami, Haydeh and Brice, Alexis and Scott, William K and Gasser, Thomas and Bertram, Lars and Eriksson, Nicholas and Foroud, Tatiana and Singleton, Andrew B} } @article {6605, title = {Loss-of-function mutations in APOC3, triglycerides, and coronary disease.}, journal = {N Engl J Med}, volume = {371}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jul 3}, pages = {22-31}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Plasma triglyceride levels are heritable and are correlated with the risk of coronary heart disease. Sequencing of the protein-coding regions of the human genome (the exome) has the potential to identify rare mutations that have a large effect on phenotype.

METHODS: We sequenced the protein-coding regions of 18,666 genes in each of 3734 participants of European or African ancestry in the Exome Sequencing Project. We conducted tests to determine whether rare mutations in coding sequence, individually or in aggregate within a gene, were associated with plasma triglyceride levels. For mutations associated with triglyceride levels, we subsequently evaluated their association with the risk of coronary heart disease in 110,970 persons.

RESULTS: An aggregate of rare mutations in the gene encoding apolipoprotein C3 (APOC3) was associated with lower plasma triglyceride levels. Among the four mutations that drove this result, three were loss-of-function mutations: a nonsense mutation (R19X) and two splice-site mutations (IVS2+1G{\textrightarrow}A and IVS3+1G{\textrightarrow}T). The fourth was a missense mutation (A43T). Approximately 1 in 150 persons in the study was a heterozygous carrier of at least one of these four mutations. Triglyceride levels in the carriers were 39\% lower than levels in noncarriers (P<1{\texttimes}10(-20)), and circulating levels of APOC3 in carriers were 46\% lower than levels in noncarriers (P=8{\texttimes}10(-10)). The risk of coronary heart disease among 498 carriers of any rare APOC3 mutation was 40\% lower than the risk among 110,472 noncarriers (odds ratio, 0.60; 95\% confidence interval, 0.47 to 0.75; P=4{\texttimes}10(-6)).

CONCLUSIONS: Rare mutations that disrupt APOC3 function were associated with lower levels of plasma triglycerides and APOC3. Carriers of these mutations were found to have a reduced risk of coronary heart disease. (Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and others.).

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Apolipoprotein C-III, Coronary Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exome, Genotype, Heterozygote, Humans, Liver, Mutation, Risk Factors, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Triglycerides}, issn = {1533-4406}, doi = {10.1056/NEJMoa1307095}, author = {Crosby, Jacy and Peloso, Gina M and Auer, Paul L and Crosslin, David R and Stitziel, Nathan O and Lange, Leslie A and Lu, Yingchang and Tang, Zheng-Zheng and Zhang, He and Hindy, George and Masca, Nicholas and Stirrups, Kathleen and Kanoni, Stavroula and Do, Ron and Jun, Goo and Hu, Youna and Kang, Hyun Min and Xue, Chenyi and Goel, Anuj and Farrall, Martin and Duga, Stefano and Merlini, Pier Angelica and Asselta, Rosanna and Girelli, Domenico and Olivieri, Oliviero and Martinelli, Nicola and Yin, Wu and Reilly, Dermot and Speliotes, Elizabeth and Fox, Caroline S and Hveem, Kristian and Holmen, Oddgeir L and Nikpay, Majid and Farlow, Deborah N and Assimes, Themistocles L and Franceschini, Nora and Robinson, Jennifer and North, Kari E and Martin, Lisa W and DePristo, Mark and Gupta, Namrata and Escher, Stefan A and Jansson, Jan-H{\r a}kan and Van Zuydam, Natalie and Palmer, Colin N A and Wareham, Nicholas and Koch, Werner and Meitinger, Thomas and Peters, Annette and Lieb, Wolfgang and Erbel, Raimund and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Kruppa, Jochen and Degenhardt, Franziska and Gottesman, Omri and Bottinger, Erwin P and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Psaty, Bruce M and Ballantyne, Christie M and Abecasis, Goncalo and Ordovas, Jose M and Melander, Olle and Watkins, Hugh and Orho-Melander, Marju and Ardissino, Diego and Loos, Ruth J F and McPherson, Ruth and Willer, Cristen J and Erdmann, Jeanette and Hall, Alistair S and Samani, Nilesh J and Deloukas, Panos and Schunkert, Heribert and Wilson, James G and Kooperberg, Charles and Rich, Stephen S and Tracy, Russell P and Lin, Dan-Yu and Altshuler, David and Gabriel, Stacey and Nickerson, Deborah A and Jarvik, Gail P and Cupples, L Adrienne and Reiner, Alex P and Boerwinkle, Eric and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {6574, title = {Meta-analysis in more than 17,900 cases of ischemic stroke reveals a novel association at 12q24.12.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {83}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Aug 19}, pages = {678-85}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using the Immunochip array in 3,420 cases of ischemic stroke and 6,821 controls, followed by a meta-analysis with data from more than 14,000 additional ischemic stroke cases.

METHODS: Using the Immunochip, we genotyped 3,420 ischemic stroke cases and 6,821 controls. After imputation we meta-analyzed the results with imputed GWAS data from 3,548 cases and 5,972 controls recruited from the ischemic stroke WTCCC2 study, and with summary statistics from a further 8,480 cases and 56,032 controls in the METASTROKE consortium. A final in silico "look-up" of 2 single nucleotide polymorphisms in 2,522 cases and 1,899 controls was performed. Associations were also examined in 1,088 cases with intracerebral hemorrhage and 1,102 controls.

RESULTS: In an overall analysis of 17,970 cases of ischemic stroke and 70,764 controls, we identified a novel association on chromosome 12q24 (rs10744777, odds ratio [OR] 1.10 [1.07-1.13], p = 7.12 {\texttimes} 10(-11)) with ischemic stroke. The association was with all ischemic stroke rather than an individual stroke subtype, with similar effect sizes seen in different stroke subtypes. There was no association with intracerebral hemorrhage (OR 1.03 [0.90-1.17], p = 0.695).

CONCLUSION: Our results show, for the first time, a genetic risk locus associated with ischemic stroke as a whole, rather than in a subtype-specific manner. This finding was not associated with intracerebral hemorrhage.

}, keywords = {Brain Ischemia, Cerebral Hemorrhage, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 12, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk, Stroke}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000000707}, author = {Kilarski, Laura L and Achterberg, Sefanja and Devan, William J and Traylor, Matthew and Malik, Rainer and Lindgren, Arne and Pare, Guillame and Sharma, Pankaj and Slowik, Agniesczka and Thijs, Vincent and Walters, Matthew and Worrall, Bradford B and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Algra, Ale and Kappelle, L Jaap and Wijmenga, Cisca and Norrving, Bo and Sandling, Johanna K and R{\"o}nnblom, Lars and Goris, An and Franke, Andre and Sudlow, Cathie and Rothwell, Peter M and Levi, Christopher and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Fornage, Myriam and Psaty, Bruce and Gretarsdottir, Solveig and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnar and Seshadri, Sudha and Mitchell, Braxton D and Kittner, Steven and Clarke, Robert and Hopewell, Jemma C and Bis, Joshua C and Boncoraglio, Giorgio B and Meschia, James and Ikram, M Arfan and Hansen, Bjorn M and Montaner, Joan and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Stefanson, Kari and Rosand, Jonathan and de Bakker, Paul I W and Farrall, Martin and Dichgans, Martin and Markus, Hugh S and Bevan, Steve} } @article {6585, title = {Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in African Americans provides insights into the genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {10}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Aug}, pages = {e1004517}, abstract = {

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is more prevalent in African Americans than in Europeans. However, little is known about the genetic risk in African Americans despite the recent identification of more than 70 T2D loci primarily by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in individuals of European ancestry. In order to investigate the genetic architecture of T2D in African Americans, the MEta-analysis of type 2 DIabetes in African Americans (MEDIA) Consortium examined 17 GWAS on T2D comprising 8,284 cases and 15,543 controls in African Americans in stage 1 analysis. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) association analysis was conducted in each study under the additive model after adjustment for age, sex, study site, and principal components. Meta-analysis of approximately 2.6 million genotyped and imputed SNPs in all studies was conducted using an inverse variance-weighted fixed effect model. Replications were performed to follow up 21 loci in up to 6,061 cases and 5,483 controls in African Americans, and 8,130 cases and 38,987 controls of European ancestry. We identified three known loci (TCF7L2, HMGA2 and KCNQ1) and two novel loci (HLA-B and INS-IGF2) at genome-wide significance (4.15 {\texttimes} 10(-94)}, keywords = {African Americans, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Genome-Wide Association Study, HLA-B27 Antigen, HMGA2 Protein, Humans, KCNQ1 Potassium Channel, Mutant Chimeric Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Transcription Factor 7-Like 2 Protein}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1004517}, author = {Ng, Maggie C Y and Shriner, Daniel and Chen, Brian H and Li, Jiang and Chen, Wei-Min and Guo, Xiuqing and Liu, Jiankang and Bielinski, Suzette J and Yanek, Lisa R and Nalls, Michael A and Comeau, Mary E and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Jensen, Richard A and Evans, Daniel S and Sun, Yan V and An, Ping and Patel, Sanjay R and Lu, Yingchang and Long, Jirong and Armstrong, Loren L and Wagenknecht, Lynne and Yang, Lingyao and Snively, Beverly M and Palmer, Nicholette D and Mudgal, Poorva and Langefeld, Carl D and Keene, Keith L and Freedman, Barry I and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Nayak, Uma and Raffel, Leslie J and Goodarzi, Mark O and Chen, Y-D Ida and Taylor, Herman A and Correa, Adolfo and Sims, Mario and Couper, David and Pankow, James S and Boerwinkle, Eric and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Doumatey, Ayo and Chen, Guanjie and Mathias, Rasika A and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Singleton, Andrew B and Zonderman, Alan B and Igo, Robert P and Sedor, John R and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Siscovick, David S and McKnight, Barbara and Rice, Kenneth and Liu, Yongmei and Hsueh, Wen-Chi and Zhao, Wei and Bielak, Lawrence F and Kraja, Aldi and Province, Michael A and Bottinger, Erwin P and Gottesman, Omri and Cai, Qiuyin and Zheng, Wei and Blot, William J and Lowe, William L and Pacheco, Jennifer A and Crawford, Dana C and Grundberg, Elin and Rich, Stephen S and Hayes, M Geoffrey and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Loos, Ruth J F and Borecki, Ingrid B and Peyser, Patricia A and Cummings, Steven R and Psaty, Bruce M and Fornage, Myriam and Iyengar, Sudha K and Evans, Michele K and Becker, Diane M and Kao, W H Linda and Wilson, James G and Rotter, Jerome I and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Liu, Simin and Rotimi, Charles N and Bowden, Donald W} } @article {6552, title = {Meta-analysis of loci associated with age at natural menopause in African-American women.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {23}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun 15}, pages = {3327-42}, abstract = {

Age at menopause marks the end of a woman{\textquoteright}s reproductive life and its timing associates with risks for cancer, cardiovascular and bone disorders. GWAS and candidate gene studies conducted in women of European ancestry have identified 27 loci associated with age at menopause. The relevance of these loci to women of African ancestry has not been previously studied. We therefore sought to uncover additional menopause loci and investigate the relevance of European menopause loci by performing a GWAS meta-analysis in 6510 women with African ancestry derived from 11 studies across the USA. We did not identify any additional loci significantly associated with age at menopause in African Americans. We replicated the associations between six loci and age at menopause (P-value < 0.05): AMHR2, RHBLD2, PRIM1, HK3/UMC1, BRSK1/TMEM150B and MCM8. In addition, associations of 14 loci are directionally consistent with previous reports. We provide evidence that genetic variants influencing reproductive traits identified in European populations are also important in women of African ancestry residing in USA.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Age Factors, Chromosomes, Human, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Menopause, United States}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddu041}, author = {Chen, Christina T L and Liu, Ching-Ti and Chen, Gary K and Andrews, Jeanette S and Arnold, Alice M and Dreyfus, Jill and Franceschini, Nora and Garcia, Melissa E and Kerr, Kathleen F and Li, Guo and Lohman, Kurt K and Musani, Solomon K and Nalls, Michael A and Raffel, Leslie J and Smith, Jennifer and Ambrosone, Christine B and Bandera, Elisa V and Bernstein, Leslie and Britton, Angela and Brzyski, Robert G and Cappola, Anne and Carlson, Christopher S and Couper, David and Deming, Sandra L and Goodarzi, Mark O and Heiss, Gerardo and John, Esther M and Lu, Xiaoning and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Marciante, Kristin and McKnight, Barbara and Millikan, Robert and Nock, Nora L and Olshan, Andrew F and Press, Michael F and Vaiyda, Dhananjay and Woods, Nancy F and Taylor, Herman A and Zhao, Wei and Zheng, Wei and Evans, Michele K and Harris, Tamara B and Henderson, Brian E and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kooperberg, Charles and Liu, Yongmei and Mosley, Thomas H and Psaty, Bruce and Wellons, Melissa and Windham, Beverly G and Zonderman, Alan B and Cupples, L Adrienne and Demerath, Ellen W and Haiman, Christopher and Murabito, Joanne M and Rajkovic, Aleksandar} } @article {6360, title = {Multiancestral analysis of inflammation-related genetic variants and C-reactive protein in the population architecture using genomics and epidemiology study.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Apr}, pages = {178-88}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: C-reactive protein (CRP) is a biomarker of inflammation. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with CRP concentrations and inflammation-related traits such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and obesity. We aimed to replicate previous CRP-SNP associations, assess whether these associations generalize to additional race/ethnicity groups, and evaluate inflammation-related SNPs for a potentially pleiotropic association with CRP.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We selected and analyzed 16 CRP-associated and 250 inflammation-related GWAS SNPs among 40 473 African American, American Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander, European American, and Hispanic participants from 7 studies collaborating in the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study. Fixed-effect meta-analyses combined study-specific race/ethnicity-stratified linear regression estimates to evaluate the association between each SNP and high-sensitivity CRP. Overall, 18 SNPs in 8 loci were significantly associated with CRP (Bonferroni-corrected P<3.1{\texttimes}10(-3) for replication, P<2.0{\texttimes}10(-4) for pleiotropy): Seven of these were specific to European Americans, while 9 additionally generalized to African Americans (1), Hispanics (5), or both (3); 1 SNP was seen only in African Americans and Hispanics. Two SNPs in the CELSR2/PSRC1/SORT1 locus showed a potentially novel association with CRP: rs599839 (P=2.0{\texttimes}10(-6)) and rs646776 (P=3.1{\texttimes}10(-5)).

CONCLUSIONS: We replicated 16 SNP-CRP associations, 10 of which generalized to African Americans and/or Hispanics. We also identified potentially novel pleiotropic associations with CRP for two SNPs previously associated with coronary artery disease and/or low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol. These findings demonstrate the benefit of evaluating genotype-phenotype associations in multiple race/ethnicity groups and looking for pleiotropic relationships among SNPs previously associated with related phenotypes.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, C-Reactive Protein, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hispanic Americans, Humans, Indians, North American, Inflammation, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, United States, Young Adult}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.113.000173}, author = {Kocarnik, Jonathan M and Pendergrass, Sarah A and Carty, Cara L and Pankow, James S and Schumacher, Fredrick R and Cheng, Iona and Durda, Peter and Ambite, Jose Luis and Deelman, Ewa and Cook, Nancy R and Liu, Simin and Wactawski-Wende, Jean and Hutter, Carolyn and Brown-Gentry, Kristin and Wilson, Sarah and Best, Lyle G and Pankratz, Nathan and Hong, Ching-Ping and Cole, Shelley A and Voruganti, V Saroja and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Jorgensen, Neal W and Jenny, Nancy S and Wilkens, Lynne R and Haiman, Christopher A and Kolonel, Laurence N and LaCroix, Andrea and North, Kari and Jackson, Rebecca and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Hindorff, Lucia A and Crawford, Dana C and Gross, Myron and Peters, Ulrike} } @article {6297, title = {Multilocus genetic risk score associates with ischemic stroke in case-control and prospective cohort studies.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {45}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Feb}, pages = {394-402}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Genome-wide association studies have revealed multiple common variants associated with known risk factors for ischemic stroke (IS). However, their aggregate effect on risk is uncertain. We aimed to generate a multilocus genetic risk score (GRS) for IS based on genome-wide association studies data from clinical-based samples and to establish its external validity in prospective population-based cohorts.

METHODS: Three thousand five hundred forty-eight clinic-based IS cases and 6399 controls from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 were used for derivation of the GRS. Subjects from the METASTROKE consortium served as a replication sample. The validation sample consisted of 22 751 participants from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium. We selected variants that had reached genome-wide significance in previous association studies on established risk factors for IS.

RESULTS: A combined GRS for atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, hypertension, and systolic blood pressure significantly associated with IS both in the case-control samples and in the prospective population-based studies. Subjects in the top quintile of the combined GRS had >2-fold increased risk of IS compared with subjects in the lowest quintile. Addition of the combined GRS to a simple model based on sex significantly improved the prediction of IS in the combined clinic-based samples but not in the population-based studies, and there was no significant improvement in net reclassification.

CONCLUSIONS: A multilocus GRS based on common variants for established cardiovascular risk factors was significantly associated with IS both in clinic-based samples and in the general population. However, the improvement in clinical risk prediction was found to be small.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atrial Fibrillation, Blood Pressure, Brain Ischemia, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Coronary Artery Disease, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Middle Aged, Multilocus Sequence Typing, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Population, Prospective Studies, Reproducibility of Results, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Stroke}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.113.002938}, author = {Malik, Rainer and Bevan, Steve and Nalls, Michael A and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Devan, William J and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Ibrahim-Verbaas, Carla A and Verhaaren, Benjamin F J and Bis, Joshua C and Joon, Aron Y and de Stefano, Anita L and Fornage, Myriam and Psaty, Bruce M and Ikram, M Arfan and Launer, Lenore J and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Sharma, Pankaj and Mitchell, Braxton D and Rosand, Jonathan and Meschia, James F and Levi, Christopher and Rothwell, Peter M and Sudlow, Cathie and Markus, Hugh S and Seshadri, Sudha and Dichgans, Martin} } @article {6667, title = {No evidence for genome-wide interactions on plasma fibrinogen by smoking, alcohol consumption and body mass index: results from meta-analyses of 80,607 subjects.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {9}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {e111156}, abstract = {

Plasma fibrinogen is an acute phase protein playing an important role in the blood coagulation cascade having strong associations with smoking, alcohol consumption and body mass index (BMI). Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified a variety of gene regions associated with elevated plasma fibrinogen concentrations. However, little is yet known about how associations between environmental factors and fibrinogen might be modified by genetic variation. Therefore, we conducted large-scale meta-analyses of genome-wide interaction studies to identify possible interactions of genetic variants and smoking status, alcohol consumption or BMI on fibrinogen concentration. The present study included 80,607 subjects of European ancestry from 22 studies. Genome-wide interaction analyses were performed separately in each study for about 2.6 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across the 22 autosomal chromosomes. For each SNP and risk factor, we performed a linear regression under an additive genetic model including an interaction term between SNP and risk factor. Interaction estimates were meta-analysed using a fixed-effects model. No genome-wide significant interaction with smoking status, alcohol consumption or BMI was observed in the meta-analyses. The most suggestive interaction was found for smoking and rs10519203, located in the LOC123688 region on chromosome 15, with a p value of 6.2 {\texttimes} 10(-8). This large genome-wide interaction study including 80,607 participants found no strong evidence of interaction between genetic variants and smoking status, alcohol consumption or BMI on fibrinogen concentrations. Further studies are needed to yield deeper insight in the interplay between environmental factors and gene variants on the regulation of fibrinogen concentrations.

}, keywords = {Alcohol Drinking, Body Mass Index, Fibrinogen, Gene-Environment Interaction, Genomics, Humans, Smoking}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0111156}, author = {Baumert, Jens and Huang, Jie and McKnight, Barbara and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Steri, Maristella and Chu, Audrey Y and Trompet, Stella and Lopez, Lorna M and Fornage, Myriam and Teumer, Alexander and Tang, Weihong and Rudnicka, Alicja R and M{\"a}larstig, Anders and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Kavousi, Maryam and Lahti, Jari and Tanaka, Toshiko and Hayward, Caroline and Huffman, Jennifer E and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and Rose, Lynda M and Basu, Saonli and Rumley, Ann and Stott, David J and Buckley, Brendan M and de Craen, Anton J M and Sanna, Serena and Masala, Marco and Biffar, Reiner and Homuth, Georg and Silveira, Angela and Sennblad, Bengt and Goel, Anuj and Watkins, Hugh and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and R{\"u}ckerl, Regina and Taylor, Kent and Chen, Ming-Huei and de Geus, Eco J C and Hofman, Albert and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and de Maat, Moniek P M and Palotie, Aarno and Davies, Gail and Siscovick, David S and Kolcic, Ivana and Wild, Sarah H and Song, Jaejoon and McArdle, Wendy L and Ford, Ian and Sattar, Naveed and Schlessinger, David and Grotevendt, Anne and Franzosi, Maria Grazia and Illig, Thomas and Waldenberger, Melanie and Lumley, Thomas and Tofler, Geoffrey H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Chasman, Daniel I and Folsom, Aaron R and Lowe, Gordon D and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Slagboom, P Eline and Cucca, Francesco and Wallaschofski, Henri and Strawbridge, Rona J and Seedorf, Udo and Koenig, Wolfgang and Bis, Joshua C and Mukamal, Kenneth J and van Dongen, Jenny and Widen, Elisabeth and Franco, Oscar H and Starr, John M and Liu, Kiang and Ferrucci, Luigi and Polasek, Ozren and Wilson, James F and Oudot-Mellakh, Tiphaine and Campbell, Harry and Navarro, Pau and Bandinelli, Stefania and Eriksson, Johan and Boomsma, Dorret I and Dehghan, Abbas and Clarke, Robert and Hamsten, Anders and Boerwinkle, Eric and Jukema, J Wouter and Naitza, Silvia and Ridker, Paul M and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Deary, Ian J and Reiner, Alexander P and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Strachan, David P and Peters, Annette and Smith, Nicholas L} } @article {6820, title = {Novel genetic markers associate with atrial fibrillation risk in Europeans and Japanese.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {63}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Apr 1}, pages = {1200-10}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to identify nonredundant atrial fibrillation (AF) genetic susceptibility signals and examine their cumulative relations with AF risk.

BACKGROUND: AF-associated loci span broad genomic regions that may contain multiple susceptibility signals. Whether multiple signals exist at AF loci has not been systematically explored.

METHODS: We performed association testing conditioned on the most significant, independently associated genetic markers at 9 established AF loci using 2 complementary techniques in 64,683 individuals of European ancestry (3,869 incident and 3,302 prevalent AF cases). Genetic risk scores were created and tested for association with AF in Europeans and an independent sample of 11,309 individuals of Japanese ancestry (7,916 prevalent AF cases).

RESULTS: We observed at least 4 distinct AF susceptibility signals on chromosome 4q25 upstream of PITX2, but not at the remaining 8 AF loci. A multilocus score comprised 12 genetic markers demonstrated an estimated 5-fold gradient in AF risk. We observed a similar spectrum of risk associated with these markers in Japanese. Regions containing AF signals on chromosome 4q25 displayed a greater degree of evolutionary conservation than the remainder of the locus, suggesting that they may tag regulatory elements.

CONCLUSIONS: The chromosome 4q25 AF locus is architecturally complex and harbors at least 4 AF susceptibility signals in individuals of European ancestry. Similar polygenic AF susceptibility exists between Europeans and Japanese. Future work is necessary to identify causal variants, determine mechanisms by which associated loci predispose to AF, and explore whether AF susceptibility signals classify individuals at risk for AF and related morbidity.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Atrial Fibrillation, Chromosome Mapping, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 4, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Markers, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Homeodomain Proteins, Humans, Japan, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Transcription Factors}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2013.12.015}, author = {Lubitz, Steven A and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Lin, Honghuang and Arking, Dan E and Trompet, Stella and Li, Guo and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Chasman, Daniel I and Barnard, John and Kleber, Marcus E and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Ozaki, Kouichi and Smith, Albert V and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Walter, Stefan and Agarwal, Sunil K and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Chen, Lin Y and Everett, Brendan M and Ford, Ian and Franco, Oscar H and Harris, Tamara B and Hofman, Albert and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Mahida, Saagar and Kathiresan, Sekar and Kubo, Michiaki and Launer, Lenore J and Macfarlane, Peter W and Magnani, Jared W and McKnight, Barbara and McManus, David D and Peters, Annette and Psaty, Bruce M and Rose, Lynda M and Rotter, Jerome I and Silbernagel, Guenther and Smith, Jonathan D and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stott, David J and Taylor, Kent D and Tomaschitz, Andreas and Tsunoda, Tatsuhiko and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Van Wagoner, David R and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Murabito, Joanne M and Sinner, Moritz F and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Felix, Stephan B and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Chung, Mina and Albert, Christine M and Stricker, Bruno H and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Heckbert, Susan R and Jukema, J Wouter and Alonso, Alvaro and Benjamin, Emelia J and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {6591, title = {Pharmacogenetic meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of LDL cholesterol response to statins.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {5}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Oct 28}, pages = {5068}, abstract = {

Statins effectively lower LDL cholesterol levels in large studies and the observed interindividual response variability may be partially explained by genetic variation. Here we perform a pharmacogenetic meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in studies addressing the LDL cholesterol response to statins, including up to 18,596 statin-treated subjects. We validate the most promising signals in a further 22,318 statin recipients and identify two loci, SORT1/CELSR2/PSRC1 and SLCO1B1, not previously identified in GWAS. Moreover, we confirm the previously described associations with APOE and LPA. Our findings advance the understanding of the pharmacogenetic architecture of statin response.

}, keywords = {Cholesterol, LDL, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors, Pharmacogenetics, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms6068}, author = {Postmus, Iris and Trompet, Stella and Deshmukh, Harshal A and Barnes, Michael R and Li, Xiaohui and Warren, Helen R and Chasman, Daniel I and Zhou, Kaixin and Arsenault, Benoit J and Donnelly, Louise A and Wiggins, Kerri L and Avery, Christy L and Griffin, Paula and Feng, QiPing and Taylor, Kent D and Li, Guo and Evans, Daniel S and Smith, Albert V and de Keyser, Catherine E and Johnson, Andrew D and de Craen, Anton J M and Stott, David J and Buckley, Brendan M and Ford, Ian and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Slagboom, P Eline and Sattar, Naveed and Munroe, Patricia B and Sever, Peter and Poulter, Neil and Stanton, Alice and Shields, Denis C and O{\textquoteright}Brien, Eoin and Shaw-Hawkins, Sue and Chen, Y-D Ida and Nickerson, Deborah A and Smith, Joshua D and Dub{\'e}, Marie Pierre and Boekholdt, S Matthijs and Hovingh, G Kees and Kastelein, John J P and McKeigue, Paul M and Betteridge, John and Neil, Andrew and Durrington, Paul N and Doney, Alex and Carr, Fiona and Morris, Andrew and McCarthy, Mark I and Groop, Leif and Ahlqvist, Emma and Bis, Joshua C and Rice, Kenneth and Smith, Nicholas L and Lumley, Thomas and Whitsel, Eric A and St{\"u}rmer, Til and Boerwinkle, Eric and Ngwa, Julius S and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wei, Wei-Qi and Wilke, Russell A and Liu, Ching-Ti and Sun, Fangui and Guo, Xiuqing and Heckbert, Susan R and Post, Wendy and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Arnold, Alice M and Stafford, Jeanette M and Ding, Jingzhong and Herrington, David M and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Launer, Leonore J and Harris, Tamara B and Chu, Audrey Y and Giulianini, Franco and MacFadyen, Jean G and Barratt, Bryan J and Nyberg, Fredrik and Stricker, Bruno H and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hofman, Albert and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Emilsson, Valur and Franco, Oscar H and Ridker, Paul M and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Liu, Yongmei and Denny, Joshua C and Ballantyne, Christie M and Rotter, Jerome I and Adrienne Cupples, L and Psaty, Bruce M and Palmer, Colin N A and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Colhoun, Helen M and Hitman, Graham and Krauss, Ronald M and Wouter Jukema, J and Caulfield, Mark J} } @article {6397, title = {Plasma phospholipid saturated fatty acids and incident atrial fibrillation: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {3}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun 26}, pages = {e000889}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Prior studies suggest that circulating fatty acids may influence the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF), but little is known about the associations of circulating saturated fatty acids with risk of AF.

METHODS AND RESULTS: The study population included 2899 participants from the Cardiovascular Health Study, a community-based longitudinal cohort of adults aged 65 years or older in the United States who were free of prevalent coronary heart disease and AF in 1992. Cox regression was used to assess the association of all the long-chain saturated fatty acids-palmitic acid (16:0), stearic acid (18:0), arachidic acid (20:0), behenic acid (22:0), and lignoceric acid (24:0)-with incident AF. During a median of 11.2 years of follow-up, 707 cases of incident AF occurred. After adjustment for other AF risk factors, higher levels of circulating 16:0 were associated with a higher risk of AF (hazard ratio comparing highest and lowest quartiles: 1.48; 95\% CI: 1.18, 1.86). In contrast, higher levels of circulating 18:0, 20:0, 22:0, and 24:0 were each associated with a lower risk of AF. The hazard ratios (95\% CI) for AF in the top and bottom quartiles were 0.76 (95\% CI: 0.61, 0.95) for 18:0; 0.78 (95\% CI: 0.63, 0.97) for 20:0; 0.62 (95\% CI: 0.50, 0.78) for 22:0; and 0.68 (95\% CI: 0.55, 0.85) for 24:0.

CONCLUSIONS: Results from this prospective cohort study of older adults demonstrate divergent associations of circulating 16:0 versus longer-chain saturated fatty acids with incident AF, highlighting the need to investigate both determinants of these levels and potential pathways of the observed differential risk.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atrial Fibrillation, Eicosanoic Acids, Fatty Acids, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Palmitic Acid, Phospholipids, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Stearic Acids, United States}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.114.000889}, author = {Fretts, Amanda M and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Siscovick, David S and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Heckbert, Susan R and King, Irena B and McKnight, Barbara and Sitlani, Colleen and Sacks, Frank M and Song, Xiaoling and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Spiegelman, Donna and Wallace, Erin R and Lemaitre, Rozenn N} } @article {6220, title = {Predicting stroke through genetic risk functions: the CHARGE Risk Score Project.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {45}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Feb}, pages = {403-12}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Beyond the Framingham Stroke Risk Score, prediction of future stroke may improve with a genetic risk score (GRS) based on single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with stroke and its risk factors.

METHODS: The study includes 4 population-based cohorts with 2047 first incident strokes from 22,720 initially stroke-free European origin participants aged >=55 years, who were followed for up to 20 years. GRSs were constructed with 324 single-nucleotide polymorphisms implicated in stroke and 9 risk factors. The association of the GRS to first incident stroke was tested using Cox regression; the GRS predictive properties were assessed with area under the curve statistics comparing the GRS with age and sex, Framingham Stroke Risk Score models, and reclassification statistics. These analyses were performed per cohort and in a meta-analysis of pooled data. Replication was sought in a case-control study of ischemic stroke.

RESULTS: In the meta-analysis, adding the GRS to the Framingham Stroke Risk Score, age and sex model resulted in a significant improvement in discrimination (all stroke: Δjoint area under the curve=0.016, P=2.3{\texttimes}10(-6); ischemic stroke: Δjoint area under the curve=0.021, P=3.7{\texttimes}10(-7)), although the overall area under the curve remained low. In all the studies, there was a highly significantly improved net reclassification index (P<10(-4)).

CONCLUSIONS: The single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with stroke and its risk factors result only in a small improvement in prediction of future stroke compared with the classical epidemiological risk factors for stroke.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Area Under Curve, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Regression Analysis, Risk Factors, ROC Curve, Sex Factors, Stroke}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.113.003044}, author = {Ibrahim-Verbaas, Carla A and Fornage, Myriam and Bis, Joshua C and Choi, Seung Hoan and Psaty, Bruce M and Meigs, James B and Rao, Madhu and Nalls, Mike and Fontes, Jo{\~a}o D and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Kathiresan, Sekar and Ehret, Georg B and Fox, Caroline S and Malik, Rainer and Dichgans, Martin and Schmidt, Helena and Lahti, Jari and Heckbert, Susan R and Lumley, Thomas and Rice, Kenneth and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Kent D and Folsom, Aaron R and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rosamond, Wayne D and Shahar, Eyal and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Koudstaal, Peter J and Amin, Najaf and Wieberdink, Renske G and Dehghan, Abbas and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and DeStefano, Anita L and Debette, Stephanie and Xue, Luting and Beiser, Alexa and Wolf, Philip A and DeCarli, Charles and Ikram, M Arfan and Seshadri, Sudha and Mosley, Thomas H and Longstreth, W T and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Launer, Lenore J} } @article {6557, title = {Prediction of asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis in the general population: identification of high-risk groups.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {45}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Aug}, pages = {2366-71}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Because of a low prevalence of severe carotid stenosis in the general population, screening for presence of asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis (ACAS) is not warranted. Possibly, for certain subgroups, screening is worthwhile. The present study aims to develop prediction rules for the presence of ACAS (>50\% and >70\%).

METHODS: Individual participant data from 4 population-based cohort studies (Malm{\"o} Diet and Cancer Study, Troms{\o} Study, Carotid Atherosclerosis Progression Study, and Cardiovascular Health Study; totaling 23 706 participants) were pooled. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to determine which variables predict presence of ACAS (>50\% and >70\%). Calibration and discrimination of the models were assessed, and bootstrapping was used to correct for overfitting.

RESULTS: Age, sex, history of vascular disease, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein ratio, diabetes mellitus, and current smoking were predictors of stenosis (>50\% and >70\%). The calibration of the model was good confirmed by a nonsignificant Hosmer and Lemeshow test for moderate (P=0.59) and severe stenosis (P=0.07). The models discriminated well between participants with and without stenosis, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve corrected for over optimism of 0.82 (95\% confidence interval, 0.80-0.84) for moderate stenosis and of 0.87 (95\% confidence interval, 0.85-0.90) for severe stenosis. The regression coefficients of the predictors were converted into a score chart to facilitate practical application.

CONCLUSIONS: A clinical prediction rule was developed that allows identification of subgroups with high prevalence of moderate (>50\%) and severe (>70\%) ACAS. When confirmed in comparable cohorts, application of the prediction rule may lead to a reduction in the number needed to screen for ACAS.

}, keywords = {Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Blood Pressure, Carotid Stenosis, Female, Humans, Life Style, Male, Mass Screening, Middle Aged, Prevalence, Registries, Risk, Smoking}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.114.005145}, author = {de Weerd, Marjolein and Greving, Jacoba P and Hedblad, Bo and Lorenz, Matthias W and Mathiesen, Ellisiv B and O{\textquoteright}Leary, Daniel H and Rosvall, Maria and Sitzer, Matthias and de Borst, Gert Jan and Buskens, Erik and Bots, Michiel L} } @article {6565, title = {Quantifying rare, deleterious variation in 12 human cytochrome P450 drug-metabolism genes in a large-scale exome dataset.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {23}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Apr 15}, pages = {1957-63}, abstract = {

The study of genetic influences on drug response and efficacy ({\textquoteright}pharmacogenetics{\textquoteright}) has existed for over 50 years. Yet, we still lack a complete picture of how genetic variation, both common and rare, affects each individual{\textquoteright}s responses to medications. Exome sequencing is a promising alternative method for pharmacogenetic discovery as it provides information on both common and rare variation in large numbers of individuals. Using exome data from 2203 AA and 4300 Caucasian individuals through the NHLBI Exome Sequencing Project, we conducted a survey of coding variation within 12 Cytochrome P450 (CYP) genes that are collectively responsible for catalyzing nearly 75\% of all known Phase I drug oxidation reactions. In addition to identifying many polymorphisms with known pharmacogenetic effects, we discovered over 730 novel nonsynonymous alleles across the 12 CYP genes of interest. These alleles include many with diverse functional effects such as premature stop codons, aberrant splicesites and mutations at conserved active site residues. Our analysis considering both novel, predicted functional alleles as well as known, actionable CYP alleles reveals that rare, deleterious variation contributes markedly to the overall burden of pharmacogenetic alleles within the populations considered, and that the contribution of rare variation to this burden is over three times greater in AA individuals as compared with Caucasians. While most of these impactful alleles are individually rare, 7.6-11.7\% of individuals interrogated in the study carry at least one newly described potentially deleterious alleles in a major drug-metabolizing CYP.

}, keywords = {Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System, Databases, Genetic, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exome, Humans, Pharmaceutical Preparations, Pharmacogenetics, Polymorphism, Genetic}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddt588}, author = {Gordon, Adam S and Tabor, Holly K and Johnson, Andrew D and Snively, Beverly M and Assimes, Themistocles L and Auer, Paul L and Ioannidis, John P A and Peters, Ulrike and Robinson, Jennifer G and Sucheston, Lara E and Wang, Danxin and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Rotter, Jerome I and Psaty, Bruce M and Jackson, Rebecca D and Herrington, David M and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Reiner, Alexander P and Rich, Stephen S and Rieder, Mark J and Bamshad, Michael J and Nickerson, Deborah A} } @article {9409, title = {A self-report risk index to predict occurrence of dementia in three independent cohorts of older adults: the ANU-ADRI.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {9}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {e86141}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The Australian National University AD Risk Index (ANU-ADRI, http://anuadri.anu.edu.au) is a self-report risk index developed using an evidence-based medicine approach to measure risk of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD). We aimed to evaluate the extent to which the ANU-ADRI can predict the risk of AD in older adults and to compare the ANU-ADRI to the dementia risk index developed from the Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Dementia (CAIDE) study for middle-aged cohorts.

METHODS: This study included three validation cohorts, i.e., the Rush Memory and Aging Study (MAP) (n = 903, age >=53 years), the Kungsholmen Project (KP) (n = 905, age >=75 years), and the Cardiovascular Health Cognition Study (CVHS) (n = 2496, age >=65 years) that were each followed for dementia. Baseline data were collected on exposure to the 15 risk factors included in the ANU-ADRI of which MAP had 10, KP had 8 and CVHS had 9. Risk scores and C-statistics were computed for individual participants for the ANU-ADRI and the CAIDE index.

RESULTS: For the ANU-ADRI using available data, the MAP study c-statistic was 0{\textperiodcentered}637 (95\% CI 0{\textperiodcentered}596-0{\textperiodcentered}678), for the KP study it was 0{\textperiodcentered}740 (0{\textperiodcentered}712-0{\textperiodcentered}768) and for the CVHS it was 0{\textperiodcentered}733 (0{\textperiodcentered}691-0{\textperiodcentered}776) for predicting AD. When a common set of risk and protective factors were used c-statistics were 0.689 (95\% CI 0.650-0.727), 0.666 (0.628-0.704) and 0.734 (0.707-0.761) for MAP, KP and CVHS respectively. Results for CAIDE ranged from c-statistics of 0.488 (0.427-0.554) to 0.595 (0.565-0.625).

CONCLUSION: A composite risk score derived from the ANU-ADRI weights including 8-10 risk or protective factors is a valid, self-report tool to identify those at risk of AD and dementia. The accuracy can be further improved in studies including more risk factors and younger cohorts with long-term follow-up.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Dementia, Female, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Risk, ROC Curve, Self Report}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0086141}, author = {Anstey, Kaarin J and Cherbuin, Nicolas and Herath, Pushpani M and Qiu, Chengxuan and Kuller, Lewis H and Lopez, Oscar L and Wilson, Robert S and Fratiglioni, Laura} } @article {6338, title = {Separate prediction of intracerebral hemorrhage and ischemic stroke.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {82}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 May 20}, pages = {1804-12}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To develop and validate 10-year cumulative incidence functions of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and ischemic stroke (IS).

METHODS: We used data on 27,493 participants from 3 population-based cohort studies: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, median age 54 years, 45\% male, median follow-up 20.7 years; the Rotterdam Study, median age 68 years, 38\% male, median follow-up 14.3 years; and the Cardiovascular Health Study, median age 71 years, 41\% male, median follow-up 12.8 years. Among these participants, 325 ICH events, 2,559 IS events, and 9,909 nonstroke deaths occurred. We developed 10-year cumulative incidence functions for ICH and IS using stratified Cox regression and competing risks analysis. Basic models including only established nonlaboratory risk factors were extended with diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, and glomerular filtration rate. The cumulative incidence functions{\textquoteright} performances were cross-validated in each cohort separately by Harrell C-statistic and calibration plots.

RESULTS: High total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio decreased the ICH rates but increased IS rates (p for difference across stroke types <0.001). For both the ICH and IS models, C statistics increased more by model extension in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities and Cardiovascular Health Study cohorts. Improvements in C statistics were reproduced by cross-validation. Models were well calibrated in all cohorts. Correlations between 10-year ICH and IS risks were moderate in each cohort.

CONCLUSIONS: We developed and cross-validated cumulative incidence functions for separate prediction of 10-year ICH and IS risk. These functions can be useful to further specify an individual{\textquoteright}s stroke risk.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atherosclerosis, Body Mass Index, Brain Ischemia, Cholesterol, Female, Humans, Incidence, Intracranial Hemorrhages, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Statistical, Predictive Value of Tests, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Stroke}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000000427}, author = {Ferket, Bart S and van Kempen, Bob J H and Wieberdink, Renske G and Steyerberg, Ewout W and Koudstaal, Peter J and Hofman, Albert and Shahar, Eyal and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Rosamond, Wayne and Kizer, Jorge R and Kronmal, Richard A and Psaty, Bruce M and Longstreth, W T and Mosley, Thomas and Folsom, Aaron R and Hunink, M G Myriam and Ikram, M Arfan} } @article {6618, title = {Sequence analysis of six blood pressure candidate regions in 4,178 individuals: the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) targeted sequencing study.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {9}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {e109155}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identified multiple loci for blood pressure (BP) and hypertension. Six genes--ATP2B1, CACNB2, CYP17A1, JAG1, PLEKHA7, and SH2B3--were evaluated for sequence variation with large effects on systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), pulse pressure (PP), and mean arterial pressure (MAP).

METHODS AND RESULTS: Targeted genomic sequence was determined in 4,178 European ancestry participants from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium. Common variants (>=50 minor allele copies) were evaluated individually and rare variants (minor allele frequency, MAF<=1\%) were aggregated by locus. 464 common variants were identified across the 6 genes. An upstream CYP17A1 variant, rs11191416 (MAF = 0.09), was the most significant association for SBP (P = 0.0005); however the association was attenuated (P = 0.0469) after conditioning on the GWAS index single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). A PLEKHA7 intronic variant was the strongest DBP association (rs12806040, MAF = 0.007, P = 0.0006) and was not in LD (r{\texttwosuperior} = 0.01) with the GWAS SNP. A CACNB2 intronic SNP, rs1571787, was the most significant association with PP (MAF = 0.27, P = 0.0003), but was not independent from the GWAS SNP (r{\texttwosuperior} = 0.34). Three variants (rs6163 and rs743572 in the CYP17A1 region and rs112467382 in PLEKHA7) were associated with BP traits (P<0.001). Rare variation, aggregately assessed in the 6 regions, was not significantly associated with BP measures.

CONCLUSION: Six targeted gene regions, previously identified by GWAS, did not harbor novel variation with large effects on BP in this sample.

}, keywords = {Aging, Blood Pressure, Cohort Studies, Heart, Humans, Sequence Analysis}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0109155}, author = {Morrison, Alanna C and Bis, Joshua C and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Ehret, Georg B and Lumley, Thomas and Rice, Kenneth and Muzny, Donna and Gibbs, Richard A and Boerwinkle, Eric and Psaty, Bruce M and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Levy, Daniel} } @article {6579, title = {Sequence variation in TMEM18 in association with body mass index: Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium Targeted Sequencing Study.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun}, pages = {344-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies for body mass index (BMI) previously identified a locus near TMEM18. We conducted targeted sequencing of this region to investigate the role of common, low-frequency, and rare variants influencing BMI.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We sequenced TMEM18 and regions downstream of TMEM18 on chromosome 2 in 3976 individuals of European ancestry from 3 community-based cohorts (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities, Cardiovascular Health Study, and Framingham Heart Study), including 200 adults selected for high BMI. We examined the association between BMI and variants identified in the region from nucleotide position 586 432 to 677 539 (hg18). Rare variants (minor allele frequency, <1\%) were analyzed using a burden test and the sequence kernel association test. Results from the 3 cohort studies were meta-analyzed. We estimate that mean BMI is 0.43 kg/m(2) higher for each copy of the G allele of single-nucleotide polymorphism rs7596758 (minor allele frequency, 29\%; P=3.46{\texttimes}10(-4)) using a Bonferroni threshold of P<4.6{\texttimes}10(-4). Analyses conditional on previous genome-wide association study single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with BMI in the region led to attenuation of this signal and uncovered another independent (r(2)<0.2), statistically significant association, rs186019316 (P=2.11{\texttimes}10(-4)). Both rs186019316 and rs7596758 or proxies are located in transcription factor binding regions. No significant association with rare variants was found in either the exons of TMEM18 or the 3{\textquoteright} genome-wide association study region.

CONCLUSIONS: Targeted sequencing around TMEM18 identified 2 novel BMI variants with possible regulatory function.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aging, Body Mass Index, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Heart Diseases, Humans, Male, Membrane Proteins, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Young Adult}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.13.000067}, author = {Liu, Ching-Ti and Young, Kristin L and Brody, Jennifer A and Olden, Matthias and Wojczynski, Mary K and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Li, Guo and Morrison, Alanna C and Muzny, Donna and Gibbs, Richard A and Reid, Jeffrey G and Shao, Yaming and Zhou, Yanhua and Boerwinkle, Eric and Heiss, Gerardo and Wagenknecht, Lynne and McKnight, Barbara and Borecki, Ingrid B and Fox, Caroline S and North, Kari E and Cupples, L Adrienne} } @article {6583, title = {Sequencing of SCN5A identifies rare and common variants associated with cardiac conduction: Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun}, pages = {365-73}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The cardiac sodium channel SCN5A regulates atrioventricular and ventricular conduction. Genetic variants in this gene are associated with PR and QRS intervals. We sought to characterize further the contribution of rare and common coding variation in SCN5A to cardiac conduction.

METHODS AND RESULTS: In Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium Targeted Sequencing Study, we performed targeted exonic sequencing of SCN5A (n=3699, European ancestry individuals) and identified 4 common (minor allele frequency >1\%) and 157 rare variants. Common and rare SCN5A coding variants were examined for association with PR and QRS intervals through meta-analysis of European ancestry participants from CHARGE, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute{\textquoteright}s Exome Sequencing Project (n=607), and the UK10K (n=1275) and by examining Exome Sequencing Project African ancestry participants (n=972). Rare coding SCN5A variants in aggregate were associated with PR interval in European and African ancestry participants (P=1.3{\texttimes}10(-3)). Three common variants were associated with PR and QRS interval duration among European ancestry participants and one among African ancestry participants. These included 2 well-known missense variants: rs1805124 (H558R) was associated with PR and QRS shortening in European ancestry participants (P=6.25{\texttimes}10(-4) and P=5.2{\texttimes}10(-3), respectively) and rs7626962 (S1102Y) was associated with PR shortening in those of African ancestry (P=2.82{\texttimes}10(-3)). Among European ancestry participants, 2 novel synonymous variants, rs1805126 and rs6599230, were associated with cardiac conduction. Our top signal, rs1805126 was associated with PR and QRS lengthening (P=3.35{\texttimes}10(-7) and P=2.69{\texttimes}10(-4), respectively) and rs6599230 was associated with PR shortening (P=2.67{\texttimes}10(-5)).

CONCLUSIONS: By sequencing SCN5A, we identified novel common and rare coding variants associated with cardiac conduction.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Heart Conduction System, Heart Diseases, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, NAV1.5 Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.113.000098}, author = {Magnani, Jared W and Brody, Jennifer A and Prins, Bram P and Arking, Dan E and Lin, Honghuang and Yin, Xiaoyan and Liu, Ching-Ti and Morrison, Alanna C and Zhang, Feng and Spector, Tim D and Alonso, Alvaro and Bis, Joshua C and Heckbert, Susan R and Lumley, Thomas and Sitlani, Colleen M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Lubitz, Steven A and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Pulit, Sara L and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Ellinor, Patrick T and Benjamin, Emelia J and Muzny, Donna M and Gibbs, Richard A and Santibanez, Jireh and Taylor, Herman A and Rotter, Jerome I and Lange, Leslie A and Psaty, Bruce M and Jackson, Rebecca and Rich, Stephen S and Boerwinkle, Eric and Jamshidi, Yalda and Sotoodehnia, Nona} } @article {6243, title = {Serum carboxymethyl-lysine, disability, and frailty in older persons: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {69}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun}, pages = {710-6}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Advanced glycation endproducts are biologically active compounds that accumulate in disordered metabolism and normal aging. Carboxymethyl-lysine (CML), a ubiquitous human advanced glycation endproduct, has been associated with age-related conditions and mortality. Our objective was to ascertain the relationship between CML and geriatric outcomes (disability and frailty) in a large cohort of older men and women.

METHODS: In 1996-1997, serum CML was measured in 3,373 Cardiovascular Health Study participants (mean age 78.1 {\textpm} 4.8 years). Disability, defined as difficulty in any of six activities of daily living, was assessed every 6-12 months for 14 years. Frailty was defined according to five standard criteria at the 1996-1997 visit. Cox proportional hazard models estimated the relationship between CML and incident disability (N = 2,643). Logistic regression models estimated the relationship between CML and prevalent frailty.

RESULTS: Adjusting for multiple potential confounders, higher CML was associated with incident disability (hazard ratio per standard deviation [225 ng/mL] increase: 1.05, 95\% CI 1.01-1.11). In men, odds of frailty increased with higher CML values (odds ratio = 1.30 per standard deviation, 95\% CI 1.14-1.48), but the relationship was attenuated by adjustment for cognitive status, kidney function, and arthritis. CML was not associated with frailty in women.

CONCLUSIONS: Higher serum CML levels in late life are associated with incident disability and prevalent frailty. Further work is needed to understand CML{\textquoteright}s value as a risk stratifier, biomarker, or target for interventions that promote healthy aging.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Biomarkers, Cardiac Rehabilitation, Cardiovascular Diseases, Disabled Persons, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Frail Elderly, Health Status, Humans, Incidence, Lysine, Male, Prevalence, Prognosis, Retrospective Studies, United States}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glt155}, author = {Whitson, Heather E and Arnold, Alice M and Yee, Laura M and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Kizer, Jorge R and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Ix, Joachim H and Siscovick, David and Tracy, Russell P and Thielke, Stephen M and Hirsch, Calvin and Newman, Anne B and Zieman, Susan} } @article {6370, title = {Shared genetic susceptibility to ischemic stroke and coronary artery disease: a genome-wide analysis of common variants.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {45}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jan}, pages = {24-36}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Ischemic stroke (IS) and coronary artery disease (CAD) share several risk factors and each has a substantial heritability. We conducted a genome-wide analysis to evaluate the extent of shared genetic determination of the two diseases.

METHODS: Genome-wide association data were obtained from the METASTROKE, Coronary Artery Disease Genome-wide Replication and Meta-analysis (CARDIoGRAM), and Coronary Artery Disease (C4D) Genetics consortia. We first analyzed common variants reaching a nominal threshold of significance (P<0.01) for CAD for their association with IS and vice versa. We then examined specific overlap across phenotypes for variants that reached a high threshold of significance. Finally, we conducted a joint meta-analysis on the combined phenotype of IS or CAD. Corresponding analyses were performed restricted to the 2167 individuals with the ischemic large artery stroke (LAS) subtype.

RESULTS: Common variants associated with CAD at P<0.01 were associated with a significant excess risk for IS and for LAS and vice versa. Among the 42 known genome-wide significant loci for CAD, 3 and 5 loci were significantly associated with IS and LAS, respectively. In the joint meta-analyses, 15 loci passed genome-wide significance (P<5{\texttimes}10(-8)) for the combined phenotype of IS or CAD and 17 loci passed genome-wide significance for LAS or CAD. Because these loci had prior evidence for genome-wide significance for CAD, we specifically analyzed the respective signals for IS and LAS and found evidence for association at chr12q24/SH2B3 (PIS=1.62{\texttimes}10(-7)) and ABO (PIS=2.6{\texttimes}10(-4)), as well as at HDAC9 (PLAS=2.32{\texttimes}10(-12)), 9p21 (PLAS=3.70{\texttimes}10(-6)), RAI1-PEMT-RASD1 (PLAS=2.69{\texttimes}10(-5)), EDNRA (PLAS=7.29{\texttimes}10(-4)), and CYP17A1-CNNM2-NT5C2 (PLAS=4.9{\texttimes}10(-4)).

CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate substantial overlap in the genetic risk of IS and particularly the LAS subtype with CAD.

}, keywords = {Brain Ischemia, Coronary Artery Disease, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Reproducibility of Results, Risk Factors, Stroke}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.113.002707}, author = {Dichgans, Martin and Malik, Rainer and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Rosand, Jonathan and Clarke, Robert and Gretarsdottir, Solveig and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Mitchell, Braxton D and Assimes, Themistocles L and Levi, Christopher and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Fornage, Myriam and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Psaty, Bruce M and Hengstenberg, Christian and Seshadri, Sudha and Erdmann, Jeanette and Bis, Joshua C and Peters, Annette and Boncoraglio, Giorgio B and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Meschia, James F and Kathiresan, Sekar and Ikram, M Arfan and McPherson, Ruth and Stefansson, Kari and Sudlow, Cathie and Reilly, Muredach P and Thompson, John R and Sharma, Pankaj and Hopewell, Jemma C and Chambers, John C and Watkins, Hugh and Rothwell, Peter M and Roberts, Robert and Markus, Hugh S and Samani, Nilesh J and Farrall, Martin and Schunkert, Heribert} } @article {6578, title = {Strategies to design and analyze targeted sequencing data: cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium Targeted Sequencing Study.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun}, pages = {335-43}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies have identified thousands of genetic variants that influence a variety of diseases and health-related quantitative traits. However, the causal variants underlying the majority of genetic associations remain unknown. Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium Targeted Sequencing Study aims to follow up genome-wide association study signals and identify novel associations of the allelic spectrum of identified variants with cardiovascular-related traits.

METHODS AND RESULTS: The study included 4231 participants from 3 CHARGE cohorts: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, the Cardiovascular Health Study, and the Framingham Heart Study. We used a case-cohort design in which we selected both a random sample of participants and participants with extreme phenotypes for each of 14 traits. We sequenced and analyzed 77 genomic loci, which had previously been associated with >=1 of 14 phenotypes. A total of 52 736 variants were characterized by sequencing and passed our stringent quality control criteria. For common variants (minor allele frequency >=1\%), we performed unweighted regression analyses to obtain P values for associations and weighted regression analyses to obtain effect estimates that accounted for the sampling design. For rare variants, we applied 2 approaches: collapsed aggregate statistics and joint analysis of variants using the sequence kernel association test.

CONCLUSIONS: We sequenced 77 genomic loci in participants from 3 cohorts. We established a set of filters to identify high-quality variants and implemented statistical and bioinformatics strategies to analyze the sequence data and identify potentially functional variants within genome-wide association study loci.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Heart Diseases, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Research Design, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.113.000350}, author = {Lin, Honghuang and Wang, Min and Brody, Jennifer A and Bis, Joshua C and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Lumley, Thomas and McKnight, Barbara and Rice, Kenneth M and Sitlani, Colleen M and Reid, Jeffrey G and Bressler, Jan and Liu, Xiaoming and Davis, Brian C and Johnson, Andrew D and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Kovar, Christie L and Dinh, Huyen and Wu, Yuanqing and Newsham, Irene and Chen, Han and Broka, Andi and DeStefano, Anita L and Gupta, Mayetri and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Liu, Ching-Ti and White, Charles C and Xing, Chuanhua and Zhou, Yanhua and Benjamin, Emelia J and Schnabel, Renate B and Heckbert, Susan R and Psaty, Bruce M and Muzny, Donna M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Morrison, Alanna C and Boerwinkle, Eric} } @article {6589, title = {Subclinical vascular disease burden and longer survival.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {62}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Sep}, pages = {1692-8}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To determine the contribution of gradations of subclinical vascular disease (SVD) to the likelihood of longer survival and to determine what allows some individuals with SVD to live longer.

DESIGN: Cohort study.

SETTING: Cardiovascular Health Study.

PARTICIPANTS: Individuals born between June 30, 1918, and June 30, 1921 (N~=~2,082; aged 70-75 at baseline (1992-93)).

MEASUREMENTS: A SVD index was scored as 0 for no abnormalities, 1 for mild abnormalities, and 2 for severe abnormalities on ankle-arm index, electrocardiogram, and common carotid intima-media thickness measured at baseline. Survival groups were categorized as 80 and younger, 81 to 84, 85 to 89, and 90 and older.

RESULTS: A 1-point lower SVD score was associated with 1.22 greater odds (95\% confidence interval~=~1.14-1.31) of longer survival, independent of potential confounders. This association was unchanged after adjustment for intermediate incident cardiovascular events. There was suggestion of an interaction between kidney function, smoking, and C-reactive protein and SVD; the association between SVD and longer survival appeared to be modestly greater in persons with poor kidney function, inflammation, or a history of smoking.

CONCLUSION: A lower burden of SVD is associated with longer survival, independent of intermediate cardiovascular events. Abstinence from smoking, better kidney function, and lower inflammation may attenuate the effects of higher SVD and promote longer survival.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, C-Reactive Protein, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Cohort Studies, Cystatin C, Depression, Diabetes Mellitus, Electrocardiography, Female, Humans, Inflammation, Kidney Diseases, Male, Smoking, Survival Analysis, United States, Vascular Diseases}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/jgs.13018}, author = {Odden, Michelle C and Yee, Laura M and Arnold, Alice M and Sanders, Jason L and Hirsch, Calvin and DeFilippi, Christopher and Kizer, Jorge R and Inzitari, Marco and Newman, Anne B} } @article {6149, title = {Targeted sequencing in candidate genes for atrial fibrillation: the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Targeted Sequencing Study.}, journal = {Heart Rhythm}, volume = {11}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Mar}, pages = {452-7}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified common genetic variants that predispose to atrial fibrillation (AF). It is unclear whether rare and low-frequency variants in genes implicated by such GWAS confer additional risk of AF.

OBJECTIVE: To study the association of genetic variants with AF at GWAS top loci.

METHODS: In the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Targeted Sequencing Study, we selected and sequenced 77 target gene regions from GWAS loci of complex diseases or traits, including 4 genes hypothesized to be related to AF (PRRX1, CAV1, CAV2, and ZFHX3). Sequencing was performed in participants with (n = 948) and without (n = 3330) AF from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, the Cardiovascular Health Study, the Framingham Heart Study, and the Massachusetts General Hospital.

RESULTS: One common variant (rs11265611; P = 1.70 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) intronic to IL6R (interleukin-6 receptor gene) was significantly associated with AF after Bonferroni correction (odds ratio 0.70; 95\% confidence interval 0.58-0.85). The variant was not genotyped or imputed by prior GWAS, but it is in linkage disequilibrium (r(2) = .69) with the single-nucleotide polymorphism, with the strongest association with AF so far at this locus (rs4845625). In the rare variant joint analysis, damaging variants within the PRRX1 region showed significant association with AF after Bonferroni correction (P = .01).

CONCLUSIONS: We identified 1 common single-nucleotide polymorphism and 1 gene region that were significantly associated with AF. Future sequencing efforts with larger sample sizes and more comprehensive genome coverage are anticipated to identify additional AF-related variants.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Homeodomain Proteins, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, Interleukin-6}, issn = {1556-3871}, doi = {10.1016/j.hrthm.2013.11.012}, author = {Lin, Honghuang and Sinner, Moritz F and Brody, Jennifer A and Arking, Dan E and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Rienstra, Michiel and Lubitz, Steven A and Magnani, Jared W and Sotoodehnia, Nona and McKnight, Barbara and McManus, David D and Boerwinkle, Eric and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Bis, Joshua C and Gibbs, Richard A and Muzny, Donna and Kovar, Christie L and Morrison, Alanna C and Gupta, Mayetri and Folsom, Aaron R and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Heckbert, Susan R and Alonso, Alvaro and Ellinor, Patrick T and Benjamin, Emelia J} } @article {6594, title = {Telomere length and the risk of atrial fibrillation: insights into the role of biological versus chronological aging.}, journal = {Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Dec}, pages = {1026-32}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Advanced age is the most important risk factor for atrial fibrillation (AF); however, the mechanism remains unknown. Telomeres, regions of DNA that shorten with cell division, are considered reliable markers of biological aging. We sought to examine the association between leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and incident AF in a large population-based cohort using direct LTL measurements and genetic data. To further explore our findings, we compared atrial cell telomere length and LTL in cardiac surgery patients.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Mean LTL and the TERT rs2736100 single nucleotide polymorphism were assessed as predictors of incident AF in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). Among the surgical patients, within subject comparison of atrial cell telomere length versus LTL was assessed. Among 1639 CHS participants, we observed no relationship between mean LTL and incident AF before and after adjustment for potential confounders (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.09; 95\% confidence interval: 0.92-1.29; P=0.299); chronologic age remained strongly associated with AF in the same model. No association was observed between the TERT rs2736100 single nucleotide polymorphism and incident AF (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.95; 95\% confidence interval: 0.88-1.04; P=0.265). In 35 cardiac surgery patients (26 with AF), atrial cell telomere length was longer than LTL (1.19 {\textpm} 0.20 versus 1.02 {\textpm} 0.25 [T/S ratio], P<0.001), a finding that remained consistent within the AF subgroup.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed no evidence of an association between LTL and incident AF and no evidence of relative atrial cell telomere shortening in AF. Chronological aging independent of biological markers of aging is the primary risk factor for AF.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aging, Atrial Fibrillation, California, Cardiac Surgical Procedures, Cellular Senescence, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Incidence, Leukocytes, Male, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Telomerase, Telomere, Time Factors}, issn = {1941-3084}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCEP.114.001781}, author = {Roberts, Jason D and Dewland, Thomas A and Longoria, James and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Ziv, Elad and Hu, Donglei and Lin, Jue and Glidden, David V and Psaty, Bruce M and Burchard, Esteban G and Blackburn, Elizabeth H and Olgin, Jeffrey E and Heckbert, Susan R and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {6277, title = {Testosterone and dihydrotestosterone and incident ischaemic stroke in men in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Clin Endocrinol (Oxf)}, volume = {81}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Nov}, pages = {746-53}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Ischaemic stroke is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in elderly men. Our main objective was to examine whether testosterone (T) or dihydrotestosterone (DHT) was associated with incident ischaemic stroke in elderly men.

DESIGN: Cohort study.

PARTICIPANTS: Elderly men in the Cardiovascular Health Study who had no history of stroke, heart disease or prostate cancer as of 1994 and were followed until December 2010.

MEASUREMENTS: Adjudicated ischaemic stroke.

RESULTS: Among 1032 men (mean age 76, range 66-97), followed for a median of 10~years, 114 had an incident ischaemic stroke. Total T and free T were not significantly associated with stroke risk, while DHT had a nonlinear association with incident stroke (P~=~0{\textperiodcentered}006) in analyses adjusted for stroke risk factors. The lowest risk of stroke was at DHT levels of 50-75~ng/dl, with greater risk of stroke at DHT levels above 75~ng/dl or below 50~ng/dl. Results were unchanged when SHBG was added to the model. Calculated free DHT had an inverse linear association with incident ischaemic stroke with HR 0{\textperiodcentered}77 (95\% CI, 0{\textperiodcentered}61, 0{\textperiodcentered}98) per standard deviation in analyses adjusted for stroke risk factors.

CONCLUSIONS: Dihydrotestosterone had a nonlinear association with stroke risk in which there was an optimal DHT level associated with the lowest stroke risk. Further studies are needed to confirm these results and to clarify whether there is an optimal androgen range associated with the least risk of adverse outcomes in elderly men.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Brain Ischemia, Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena, Dihydrotestosterone, Health, Humans, Incidence, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Stroke, Testosterone}, issn = {1365-2265}, doi = {10.1111/cen.12452}, author = {Shores, Molly M and Arnold, Alice M and Biggs, Mary L and Longstreth, W T and Smith, Nicholas L and Kizer, Jorge R and Cappola, Anne R and Hirsch, Calvin H and Marck, Brett T and Matsumoto, Alvin M} } @article {6278, title = {Testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, and incident cardiovascular disease and mortality in the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {J Clin Endocrinol Metab}, volume = {99}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun}, pages = {2061-8}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Low testosterone (T) is associated with prevalent cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality. DHT, a more potent androgen, may also be associated with CVD and mortality, but few studies have examined this.

OBJECTIVE: The study objective was to examine whether T and DHT are risk factors for incident CVD and mortality.

DESIGN: In a longitudinal cohort study, we evaluated whether total T, calculated free T (cFT), DHT, and calculated free DHT were associated with incident CVD and mortality in men in the Cardiovascular Health Study (mean age 76, range 66-97 years) who were free of CVD at the time of blood collection.

MAIN OUTCOME: The main outcomes were incident CVD and all-cause mortality.

RESULTS: Among 1032 men followed for a median of 9 years, 436 incident CVD events and 777 deaths occurred. In models adjusted for cardiovascular risk factors, total T and cFT were not associated with incident CVD or all-cause mortality, whereas DHT and calculated free DHT had curvilinear associations with incident CVD (P < .002 and P = .04, respectively) and all-cause mortality (P < .001 for both).

CONCLUSIONS: In a cohort of elderly men, DHT and calculated free DHT were associated with incident CVD and all-cause mortality. Further studies are needed to confirm these results and to clarify the underlying physiologic mechanisms.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cause of Death, Dihydrotestosterone, Humans, Incidence, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Mortality, Residence Characteristics, Risk Factors, Testosterone}, issn = {1945-7197}, doi = {10.1210/jc.2013-3576}, author = {Shores, Molly M and Biggs, Mary L and Arnold, Alice M and Smith, Nicholas L and Longstreth, W T and Kizer, Jorge R and Hirsch, Calvin H and Cappola, Anne R and Matsumoto, Alvin M} } @article {6573, title = {Trans-ethnic meta-analysis of white blood cell phenotypes.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {23}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Dec 20}, pages = {6944-60}, abstract = {

White blood cell (WBC) count is a common clinical measure used as a predictor of certain aspects of human health, including immunity and infection status. WBC count is also a complex trait that varies among individuals and ancestry groups. Differences in linkage disequilibrium structure and heterogeneity in allelic effects are expected to play a role in the associations observed between populations. Prior genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analyses have identified genomic loci associated with WBC and its subtypes, but much of the heritability of these phenotypes remains unexplained. Using GWAS summary statistics for over 50 000 individuals from three diverse populations (Japanese, African-American and European ancestry), a Bayesian model methodology was employed to account for heterogeneity between ancestry groups. This approach was used to perform a trans-ethnic meta-analysis of total WBC, neutrophil and monocyte counts. Ten previously known associations were replicated and six new loci were identified, including several regions harboring genes related to inflammation and immune cell function. Ninety-five percent credible interval regions were calculated to narrow the association signals and fine-map the putatively causal variants within loci. Finally, a conditional analysis was performed on the most significant SNPs identified by the trans-ethnic meta-analysis (MA), and nine secondary signals within loci previously associated with WBC or its subtypes were identified. This work illustrates the potential of trans-ethnic analysis and ascribes a critical role to multi-ethnic cohorts and consortia in exploring complex phenotypes with respect to variants that lie outside the European-biased GWAS pool.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Bayes Theorem, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Leukocyte Count, Leukocytes, Linkage Disequilibrium, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddu401}, author = {Keller, Margaux F and Reiner, Alexander P and Okada, Yukinori and van Rooij, Frank J A and Johnson, Andrew D and Chen, Ming-Huei and Smith, Albert V and Morris, Andrew P and Tanaka, Toshiko and Ferrucci, Luigi and Zonderman, Alan B and Lettre, Guillaume and Harris, Tamara and Garcia, Melissa and Bandinelli, Stefania and Qayyum, Rehan and Yanek, Lisa R and Becker, Diane M and Becker, Lewis C and Kooperberg, Charles and Keating, Brendan and Reis, Jared and Tang, Hua and Boerwinkle, Eric and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Matsuda, Koichi and Kamatani, Naoyuki and Nakamura, Yusuke and Kubo, Michiaki and Liu, Simin and Dehghan, Abbas and Felix, Janine F and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Franco, Oscar H and Longo, Dan L and Singleton, Andrew B and Psaty, Bruce M and Evans, Michelle K and Cupples, L Adrienne and Rotter, Jerome I and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Takahashi, Atsushi and Wilson, James G and Ganesh, Santhi K and Nalls, Mike A} } @article {6235, title = {Troponin T, NT-proBNP, and venous thromboembolism: the Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology (LITE).}, journal = {Vasc Med}, volume = {19}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Feb}, pages = {33-41}, abstract = {

Increased levels of plasma troponins and natriuretic peptides are markers of cardiac dysfunction associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Little information exists on cardiac dysfunction and occurrence of venous thromboembolism (VTE). In two prospective epidemiological cohorts, we tested the hypothesis that high-sensitivity troponin T (TnT) and N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) are associated positively with VTE occurrence. The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study and the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) measured plasma TnT and NT-proBNP in 13,719 men or women with no history of venous thrombosis, coronary heart disease, or heart failure and followed them for approximately 10 years for VTE occurrence (n = 348 VTEs). In both ARIC and CHS, TnT was associated positively with incidence of total VTE and provoked VTE, but not with unprovoked VTE: age, race, and sex-adjusted hazard ratios for total VTE in the pooled analysis were 1.00, 0.85, 1.36, 1.51, and 1.98 (p-trend <0.0001) across five categories of TnT. In contrast, the association of NT-proBNP with VTE was positive in ARIC (hazard ratios approximately 2.5-fold for the highest versus lowest NT-proBNP quintiles), but non-existent in CHS.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atherosclerosis, Biomarkers, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Incidence, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Natriuretic Peptide, Brain, Peptide Fragments, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Troponin T, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1477-0377}, doi = {10.1177/1358863X14520869}, author = {Folsom, Aaron R and Lutsey, Pamela L and Nambi, Vijay and deFilippi, Christopher R and Heckbert, Susan R and Cushman, Mary and Ballantyne, Christie M} } @article {6692, title = {A variant of sparse partial least squares for variable selection and data exploration.}, journal = {Front Neuroinform}, volume = {8}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {18}, abstract = {When data are sparse and/or predictors multicollinear, current implementation of sparse partial least squares (SPLS) does not give estimates for non-selected predictors nor provide a measure of inference. In response, an approach termed "all-possible" SPLS is proposed, which fits a SPLS model for all tuning parameter values across a set grid. Noted is the percentage of time a given predictor is chosen, as well as the average non-zero parameter estimate. Using a "large" number of multicollinear predictors, simulation confirmed variables not associated with the outcome were least likely to be chosen as sparsity increased across the grid of tuning parameters, while the opposite was true for those strongly associated. Lastly, variables with a weak association were chosen more often than those with no association, but less often than those with a strong relationship to the outcome. Similarly, predictors most strongly related to the outcome had the largest average parameter estimate magnitude, followed by those with a weak relationship, followed by those with no relationship. Across two independent studies regarding the relationship between volumetric MRI measures and a cognitive test score, this method confirmed a priori hypotheses about which brain regions would be selected most often and have the largest average parameter estimates. In conclusion, the percentage of time a predictor is chosen is a useful measure for ordering the strength of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables, serving as a form of inference. The average parameter estimates give further insight regarding the direction and strength of association. As a result, all-possible SPLS gives more information than the dichotomous output of traditional SPLS, making it useful when undertaking data exploration and hypothesis generation for a large number of potential predictors.}, issn = {1662-5196}, doi = {10.3389/fninf.2014.00018}, author = {Olson Hunt, Megan J and Weissfeld, Lisa and Boudreau, Robert M and Aizenstein, Howard and Newman, Anne B and Simonsick, Eleanor M and Van Domelen, Dane R and Thomas, Fridtjof and Yaffe, Kristine and Rosano, Caterina} } @article {7017, title = {Vitamin D and the risk of dementia and Alzheimer disease.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {83}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Sep 2}, pages = {920-8}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether low vitamin D concentrations are associated with an increased risk of incident all-cause dementia and Alzheimer disease.

METHODS: One thousand six hundred fifty-eight elderly ambulatory adults free from dementia, cardiovascular disease, and stroke who participated in the US population-based Cardiovascular Health Study between 1992-1993 and 1999 were included. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations were determined by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry from blood samples collected in 1992-1993. Incident all-cause dementia and Alzheimer disease status were assessed during follow-up using National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke/Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease and Related Disorders Association criteria.

RESULTS: During a mean follow-up of 5.6 years, 171 participants developed all-cause dementia, including 102 cases of Alzheimer disease. Using Cox proportional hazards models, the multivariate adjusted hazard ratios (95\% confidence interval [CI]) for incident all-cause dementia in participants who were severely 25(OH)D deficient (<25 nmol/L) and deficient (>=25 to <50 nmol/L) were 2.25 (95\% CI: 1.23-4.13) and 1.53 (95\% CI: 1.06-2.21) compared to participants with sufficient concentrations (>=50 nmol/L). The multivariate adjusted hazard ratios for incident Alzheimer disease in participants who were severely 25(OH)D deficient and deficient compared to participants with sufficient concentrations were 2.22 (95\% CI: 1.02-4.83) and 1.69 (95\% CI: 1.06-2.69). In multivariate adjusted penalized smoothing spline plots, the risk of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer disease markedly increased below a threshold of 50 nmol/L.

CONCLUSION: Our results confirm that vitamin D deficiency is associated with a substantially increased risk of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer disease. This adds to the ongoing debate about the role of vitamin D in nonskeletal conditions.

}, keywords = {Aged, Alzheimer Disease, Dementia, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Male, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, United States, Vitamin D, Vitamin D Deficiency}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000000755}, author = {Littlejohns, Thomas J and Henley, William E and Lang, Iain A and Annweiler, Cedric and Beauchet, Olivier and Chaves, Paulo H M and Fried, Linda and Kestenbaum, Bryan R and Kuller, Lewis H and Langa, Kenneth M and Lopez, Oscar L and Kos, Katarina and Soni, Maya and Llewellyn, David J} } @article {6577, title = {Whole-exome sequencing identifies rare and low-frequency coding variants associated with LDL cholesterol.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {94}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Feb 06}, pages = {233-45}, abstract = {

Elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is a treatable, heritable risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified 157 variants associated with lipid levels but are not well suited to assess the impact of rare and low-frequency variants. To determine whether rare or low-frequency coding variants are associated with LDL-C, we exome sequenced 2,005 individuals, including 554 individuals selected for extreme LDL-C (>98(th) or <2(nd) percentile). Follow-up analyses included sequencing of 1,302 additional individuals and genotype-based analysis of 52,221 individuals. We observed significant evidence of association between LDL-C and the burden of rare or low-frequency variants in PNPLA5, encoding a phospholipase-domain-containing protein, and both known and previously unidentified variants in PCSK9, LDLR and APOB, three known lipid-related genes. The effect sizes for the burden of rare variants for each associated gene were substantially higher than those observed for individual SNPs identified from GWASs. We replicated the PNPLA5 signal in an independent large-scale sequencing study of 2,084 individuals. In conclusion, this large whole-exome-sequencing study for LDL-C identified a gene not known to be implicated in LDL-C and provides unique insight into the design and analysis of similar experiments.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Apolipoproteins E, Cholesterol, LDL, Cohort Studies, Dyslipidemias, Exome, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Gene Frequency, Genetic Code, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Lipase, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proprotein Convertase 9, Proprotein Convertases, Receptors, LDL, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Serine Endopeptidases}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.01.010}, author = {Lange, Leslie A and Hu, Youna and Zhang, He and Xue, Chenyi and Schmidt, Ellen M and Tang, Zheng-Zheng and Bizon, Chris and Lange, Ethan M and Smith, Joshua D and Turner, Emily H and Jun, Goo and Kang, Hyun Min and Peloso, Gina and Auer, Paul and Li, Kuo-Ping and Flannick, Jason and Zhang, Ji and Fuchsberger, Christian and Gaulton, Kyle and Lindgren, Cecilia and Locke, Adam and Manning, Alisa and Sim, Xueling and Rivas, Manuel A and Holmen, Oddgeir L and Gottesman, Omri and Lu, Yingchang and Ruderfer, Douglas and Stahl, Eli A and Duan, Qing and Li, Yun and Durda, Peter and Jiao, Shuo and Isaacs, Aaron and Hofman, Albert and Bis, Joshua C and Correa, Adolfo and Griswold, Michael E and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Smith, Albert V and Schreiner, Pamela J and Feitosa, Mary F and Zhang, Qunyuan and Huffman, Jennifer E and Crosby, Jacy and Wassel, Christina L and Do, Ron and Franceschini, Nora and Martin, Lisa W and Robinson, Jennifer G and Assimes, Themistocles L and Crosslin, David R and Rosenthal, Elisabeth A and Tsai, Michael and Rieder, Mark J and Farlow, Deborah N and Folsom, Aaron R and Lumley, Thomas and Fox, Ervin R and Carlson, Christopher S and Peters, Ulrike and Jackson, Rebecca D and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Levy, Daniel and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Herman A and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Siscovick, David S and Fornage, Myriam and Borecki, Ingrid B and Hayward, Caroline and Rudan, Igor and Chen, Y Eugene and Bottinger, Erwin P and Loos, Ruth J F and S{\ae}trom, P{\r a}l and Hveem, Kristian and Boehnke, Michael and Groop, Leif and McCarthy, Mark and Meitinger, Thomas and Ballantyne, Christie M and Gabriel, Stacey B and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Post, Wendy S and North, Kari E and Reiner, Alexander P and Boerwinkle, Eric and Psaty, Bruce M and Altshuler, David and Kathiresan, Sekar and Lin, Dan-Yu and Jarvik, Gail P and Cupples, L Adrienne and Kooperberg, Charles and Wilson, James G and Nickerson, Deborah A and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Rich, Stephen S and Tracy, Russell P and Willer, Cristen J} } @article {6668, title = {Association between left atrial abnormality on ECG and vascular brain injury on MRI in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {46}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Mar}, pages = {711-6}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Emerging evidence suggests that atrial disease is associated with vascular brain injury in the absence of atrial fibrillation.

METHODS: The Cardiovascular Health Study prospectively enrolled community-dwelling adults aged >=65 years. Among participants who underwent MRI, we examined associations of ECG left atrial abnormality with brain infarcts and leukoaraiosis. P-wave terminal force in lead V1 was the primary measure of left atrial abnormality; P-wave area and duration were secondary predictors. We excluded participants with atrial fibrillation before or on their index ECG. Primary outcomes were incident infarcts and worsening leukoaraiosis from initial to follow-up scan ≈5 years later. Secondary outcomes were prevalent infarcts and degree of leukoaraiosis on initial MRI. Relative risk (RR) and linear regression models were adjusted for vascular risk factors.

RESULTS: Among 3129 participants with >=1 scan, each SD increase in P-wave terminal force in lead V1 was associated with a 0.05-point (95\% confidence interval [CI], 0.0003-0.10) higher baseline white matter grade on a 10-point scale. P-wave terminal force in lead V1 was associated with prevalent infarcts of any type (RR per SD, 1.09; 95\% CI, 1.04-1.16) and more so with prevalent nonlacunar infarcts (RR per SD, 1.22; 95\% CI, 1.08-1.38). Among 1839 participants with 2 scans, P-wave terminal force in lead V1 was associated with worsening leukoaraiosis (RR per SD, 1.09; 95\% CI, 1.01-1.18), but not with incident infarcts (RR per SD, 1.06; 95\% CI, 0.93-1.20). Sensitivity analyses adjusting for incident atrial fibrillation found similar results. P-wave area and duration were not associated with outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS: ECG left atrial abnormality is associated with vascular brain injury in the absence of documented atrial fibrillation.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Brain, Brain Infarction, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cerebrovascular Trauma, Electrocardiography, Female, Heart Atria, Heart Diseases, Humans, Linear Models, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Predictive Value of Tests, Prospective Studies, Regression Analysis, Risk Factors, Treatment Outcome}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.114.007762}, author = {Kamel, Hooman and Bartz, Traci M and Longstreth, W T and Okin, Peter M and Thacker, Evan L and Patton, Kristen K and Stein, Phyllis K and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Heckbert, Susan R and Kronmal, Richard A and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Soliman, Elsayed Z} } @article {6851, title = {Association of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D status and genetic variation in the vitamin D metabolic pathway with FEV1 in the Framingham Heart Study.}, journal = {Respir Res}, volume = {16}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {81}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D is associated with lung function in cross-sectional studies, and vitamin D inadequacy is hypothesized to play a role in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Further data are needed to clarify the relation between vitamin D status, genetic variation in vitamin D metabolic genes, and cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in lung function in healthy adults.

METHODS: We estimated the association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and cross-sectional forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) in Framingham Heart Study (FHS) Offspring and Third Generation participants and the association between serum 25(OH)D and longitudinal change in FEV1 in Third Generation participants using linear mixed-effects models. Using a gene-based approach, we investigated the association between 241 SNPs in 6 select vitamin D metabolic genes in relation to longitudinal change in FEV1 in Offspring participants and pursued replication of these findings in a meta-analyzed set of 4 independent cohorts.

RESULTS: We found a positive cross-sectional association between 25(OH)D and FEV1 in FHS Offspring and Third Generation participants (P=0.004). There was little or no association between 25(OH)D and longitudinal change in FEV1 in Third Generation participants (P=0.97). In Offspring participants, the CYP2R1 gene, hypothesized to influence usual serum 25(OH)D status, was associated with longitudinal change in FEV1 (gene-based P<0.05). The most significantly associated SNP from CYP2R1 had a consistent direction of association with FEV1 in the meta-analyzed set of replication cohorts, but the association did not reach statistical significance thresholds (P=0.09).

CONCLUSIONS: Serum 25(OH)D status was associated with cross-sectional FEV1, but not longitudinal change in FEV1. The inconsistent associations may be driven by differences in the groups studied. CYP2R1 demonstrated a gene-based association with longitudinal change in FEV1 and is a promising candidate gene for further studies.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, DNA-Binding Proteins, Female, Genetic Variation, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Massachusetts, Metabolic Networks and Pathways, Middle Aged, Nuclear Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Vitamin D}, issn = {1465-993X}, doi = {10.1186/s12931-015-0238-y}, author = {Hansen, J G and Gao, W and Dupuis, J and O{\textquoteright}Connor, G T and Tang, W and Kowgier, M and Sood, A and Gharib, S A and Palmer, L J and Fornage, M and Heckbert, S R and Psaty, B M and Booth, S L and Cassano, Patricia A} } @article {6815, title = {Association of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease GWAS loci with MRI markers of brain aging.}, journal = {Neurobiol Aging}, volume = {36}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Apr}, pages = {1765.e7-16}, abstract = {

Whether novel risk variants of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD) identified through genome-wide association studies also influence magnetic resonance imaging-based intermediate phenotypes of AD in the general population is unclear. We studied association of 24 AD risk loci with intracranial volume, total brain volume, hippocampal volume (HV), white matter hyperintensity burden, and brain infarcts in a meta-analysis of genetic association studies from large population-based samples (N = 8175-11,550). In single-SNP based tests, AD risk allele of APOE (rs2075650) was associated with smaller HV (p = 0.0054) and CD33 (rs3865444) with smaller intracranial volume (p = 0.0058). In gene-based tests, there was associations of HLA-DRB1 with total brain volume (p = 0.0006) and BIN1 with HV (p = 0.00089). A weighted AD genetic risk score was associated with smaller HV (beta {\textpm} SE = -0.047 {\textpm} 0.013, p = 0.00041), even after excluding the APOE locus (p = 0.029). However, only association of AD genetic risk score with HV, including APOE, was significant after multiple testing correction (including number of independent phenotypes tested). These results suggest that novel AD genetic risk variants may contribute to structural brain aging in nondemented older community persons.

}, keywords = {Aging, Alleles, Alzheimer Disease, Apolipoproteins E, Brain, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hippocampus, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Organ Size, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk, Sialic Acid Binding Ig-like Lectin 3}, issn = {1558-1497}, doi = {10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2014.12.028}, author = {Chauhan, Ganesh and Adams, Hieab H H and Bis, Joshua C and Weinstein, Galit and Yu, Lei and T{\"o}glhofer, Anna Maria and Smith, Albert Vernon and van der Lee, Sven J and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Thomson, Russell and Wang, Jing and Yang, Qiong and Niessen, Wiro J and Lopez, Oscar L and Becker, James T and Phan, Thanh G and Beare, Richard J and Arfanakis, Konstantinos and Fleischman, Debra and Vernooij, Meike W and Mazoyer, Bernard and Schmidt, Helena and Srikanth, Velandai and Knopman, David S and Jack, Clifford R and Amouyel, Philippe and Hofman, Albert and DeCarli, Charles and Tzourio, Christophe and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Bennett, David A and Schmidt, Reinhold and Longstreth, William T and Mosley, Thomas H and Fornage, Myriam and Launer, Lenore J and Seshadri, Sudha and Ikram, M Arfan and Debette, Stephanie} } @article {6811, title = {Association of Cardiometabolic Multimorbidity With Mortality.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {314}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jul 7}, pages = {52-60}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: The prevalence of cardiometabolic multimorbidity is increasing.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate reductions in life expectancy associated with cardiometabolic multimorbidity.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Age- and sex-adjusted mortality rates and hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using individual participant data from the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration (689,300 participants; 91 cohorts; years of baseline surveys: 1960-2007; latest mortality follow-up: April 2013; 128,843 deaths). The HRs from the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration were compared with those from the UK Biobank (499,808 participants; years of baseline surveys: 2006-2010; latest mortality follow-up: November 2013; 7995 deaths). Cumulative survival was estimated by applying calculated age-specific HRs for mortality to contemporary US age-specific death rates.

EXPOSURES: A history of 2 or more of the following: diabetes mellitus, stroke, myocardial infarction (MI).

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: All-cause mortality and estimated reductions in life expectancy.

RESULTS: In participants in the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration without a history of diabetes, stroke, or MI at baseline (reference group), the all-cause mortality rate adjusted to the age of 60 years was 6.8 per 1000 person-years. Mortality rates per 1000 person-years were 15.6 in participants with a history of diabetes, 16.1 in those with stroke, 16.8 in those with MI, 32.0 in those with both diabetes and MI, 32.5 in those with both diabetes and stroke, 32.8 in those with both stroke and MI, and 59.5 in those with diabetes, stroke, and MI. Compared with the reference group, the HRs for all-cause mortality were 1.9 (95\% CI, 1.8-2.0) in participants with a history of diabetes, 2.1 (95\% CI, 2.0-2.2) in those with stroke, 2.0 (95\% CI, 1.9-2.2) in those with MI, 3.7 (95\% CI, 3.3-4.1) in those with both diabetes and MI, 3.8 (95\% CI, 3.5-4.2) in those with both diabetes and stroke, 3.5 (95\% CI, 3.1-4.0) in those with both stroke and MI, and 6.9 (95\% CI, 5.7-8.3) in those with diabetes, stroke, and MI. The HRs from the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration were similar to those from the more recently recruited UK Biobank. The HRs were little changed after further adjustment for markers of established intermediate pathways (eg, levels of lipids and blood pressure) and lifestyle factors (eg, smoking, diet). At the age of 60 years, a history of any 2 of these conditions was associated with 12 years of reduced life expectancy and a history of all 3 of these conditions was associated with 15 years of reduced life expectancy.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Mortality associated with a history of diabetes, stroke, or MI was similar for each condition. Because any combination of these conditions was associated with multiplicative mortality risk, life expectancy was substantially lower in people with multimorbidity.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Comorbidity, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Humans, Life Expectancy, Male, Middle Aged, Mortality, Myocardial Infarction, Risk Factors, Stroke}, issn = {1538-3598}, doi = {10.1001/jama.2015.7008}, author = {Di Angelantonio, Emanuele and Kaptoge, Stephen and Wormser, David and Willeit, Peter and Butterworth, Adam S and Bansal, Narinder and O{\textquoteright}Keeffe, Linda M and Gao, Pei and Wood, Angela M and Burgess, Stephen and Freitag, Daniel F and Pennells, Lisa and Peters, Sanne A and Hart, Carole L and H{\r a}heim, Lise Lund and Gillum, Richard F and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Psaty, Bruce M and Yeap, Bu B and Knuiman, Matthew W and Nietert, Paul J and Kauhanen, Jussi and Salonen, Jukka T and Kuller, Lewis H and Simons, Leon A and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Barrett-Connor, Elizabeth and Selmer, Randi and Crespo, Carlos J and Rodriguez, Beatriz and Verschuren, W M Monique and Salomaa, Veikko and Sv{\"a}rdsudd, Kurt and van der Harst, Pim and Bj{\"o}rkelund, Cecilia and Wilhelmsen, Lars and Wallace, Robert B and Brenner, Hermann and Amouyel, Philippe and Barr, Elizabeth L M and Iso, Hiroyasu and Onat, Altan and Trevisan, Maurizio and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, Ralph B and Cooper, Cyrus and Kavousi, Maryam and Welin, Lennart and Roussel, Ronan and Hu, Frank B and Sato, Shinichi and Davidson, Karina W and Howard, Barbara V and Leening, Maarten J G and Leening, Maarten and Rosengren, Annika and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Deeg, Dorly J H and Kiechl, Stefan and Stehouwer, Coen D A and Nissinen, Aulikki and Giampaoli, Simona and Donfrancesco, Chiara and Kromhout, Daan and Price, Jackie F and Peters, Annette and Meade, Tom W and Casiglia, Edoardo and Lawlor, Debbie A and Gallacher, John and Nagel, Dorothea and Franco, Oscar H and Assmann, Gerd and Dagenais, Gilles R and Jukema, J Wouter and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Woodward, Mark and Brunner, Eric J and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Wareham, Nicholas J and Whitsel, Eric A and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Hedblad, Bo and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Engstr{\"o}m, Gunnar and Rosamond, Wayne D and Selvin, Elizabeth and Sattar, Naveed and Thompson, Simon G and Danesh, John} } @article {6597, title = {Association of exome sequences with plasma C-reactive protein levels in >9000 participants.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {24}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jan 15}, pages = {559-71}, abstract = {

C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration is a heritable systemic marker of inflammation that is associated with cardiovascular disease risk. Genome-wide association studies have identified CRP-associated common variants associated in \~{}25 genes. Our aims were to apply exome sequencing to (1) assess whether the candidate loci contain rare coding variants associated with CRP levels and (2) perform an exome-wide search for rare variants in novel genes associated with CRP levels. We exome-sequenced 6050 European-Americans (EAs) and 3109 African-Americans (AAs) from the NHLBI-ESP and the CHARGE consortia, and performed association tests of sequence data with measured CRP levels. In single-variant tests across candidate loci, a novel rare (minor allele frequency = 0.16\%) CRP-coding variant (rs77832441-A; p.Thr59Met) was associated with 53\% lower mean CRP levels (P = 2.9 {\texttimes} 10(-6)). We replicated the association of rs77832441 in an exome array analysis of 11 414 EAs (P = 3.0 {\texttimes} 10(-15)). Despite a strong effect on CRP levels, rs77832441 was not associated with inflammation-related phenotypes including coronary heart disease. We also found evidence for an AA-specific association of APOE-ε2 rs7214 with higher CRP levels. At the exome-wide significance level (P < 5.0 {\texttimes} 10(-8)), we confirmed associations for reported common variants of HNF1A, CRP, IL6R and TOMM40-APOE. In gene-based tests, a burden of rare/lower frequency variation in CRP in EAs (P <= 6.8 {\texttimes} 10(-4)) and in retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor α (RORA) in AAs (P = 1.7 {\texttimes} 10(-3)) were associated with CRP levels at the candidate gene level (P < 2.0 {\texttimes} 10(-3)). This inquiry did not elucidate novel genes, but instead demonstrated that variants distributed across the allele frequency spectrum within candidate genes contribute to CRP levels.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exome, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 1-alpha, Humans, Male, Plasma, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, Interleukin-6, Risk Factors}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddu450}, author = {Schick, Ursula M and Auer, Paul L and Bis, Joshua C and Lin, Honghuang and Wei, Peng and Pankratz, Nathan and Lange, Leslie A and Brody, Jennifer and Stitziel, Nathan O and Kim, Daniel S and Carlson, Christopher S and Fornage, Myriam and Haessler, Jeffery and Hsu, Li and Jackson, Rebecca D and Kooperberg, Charles and Leal, Suzanne M and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Tracy, Russell and Ardissino, Diego and Shah, Svati and Willer, Cristen and Loos, Ruth and Melander, Olle and McPherson, Ruth and Hovingh, Kees and Reilly, Muredach and Watkins, Hugh and Girelli, Domenico and Fontanillas, Pierre and Chasman, Daniel I and Gabriel, Stacey B and Gibbs, Richard and Nickerson, Deborah A and Kathiresan, Sekar and Peters, Ulrike and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Wilson, James G and Rich, Stephen S and Morrison, Alanna C and Benjamin, Emelia J and Gross, Myron D and Reiner, Alex P} } @article {6689, title = {Association of Rare Loss-Of-Function Alleles in HAL, Serum Histidine: Levels and Incident Coronary Heart Disease.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {8}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Apr}, pages = {351-5}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Histidine is a semiessential amino acid with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Few data are available on the associations between genetic variants, histidine levels, and incident coronary heart disease (CHD) in a population-based sample.

METHODS AND RESULTS: By conducting whole exome sequencing on 1152 African Americans in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study and focusing on loss-of-function (LoF) variants, we identified 3 novel rare LoF variants in HAL, a gene that encodes histidine ammonia-lyase in the first step of histidine catabolism. These LoF variants had large effects on blood histidine levels (β=0.26; P=1.2{\texttimes}10(-13)). The positive association with histidine levels was replicated by genotyping an independent sample of 718 ARIC African Americans (minor allele frequency=1\%; P=1.2{\texttimes}10(-4)). In addition, high blood histidine levels were associated with reduced risk of developing incident CHD with an average of 21.5 years of follow-up among African Americans (hazard ratio=0.18; P=1.9{\texttimes}10(-4)). This finding was validated in an independent sample of European Americans from the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) Offspring Cohort. However, LoF variants in HAL were not directly significantly associated with incident CHD after meta-analyzing results from the CHARGE Consortium.

CONCLUSIONS: Three LoF mutations in HAL were associated with increased histidine levels, which in turn were shown to be inversely related to the risk of CHD among both African Americans and European Americans. Future investigations on the association between HAL gene variation and CHD are warranted.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Alleles, Coronary Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Histidine, Histidine Ammonia-Lyase, Humans, Male, Mutation}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.114.000697}, author = {Yu, Bing and Li, Alexander H and Muzny, Donna and Veeraraghavan, Narayanan and de Vries, Paul S and Bis, Joshua C and Musani, Solomon K and Alexander, Danny and Morrison, Alanna C and Franco, Oscar H and Uitterlinden, Andre and Hofman, Albert and Dehghan, Abbas and Wilson, James G and Psaty, Bruce M and Gibbs, Richard and Wei, Peng and Boerwinkle, Eric} } @article {6864, title = {Common variation in COL4A1/COL4A2 is associated with sporadic cerebral small vessel disease.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {84}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Mar 3}, pages = {918-26}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: We hypothesized that common variants in the collagen genes COL4A1/COL4A2 are associated with sporadic forms of cerebral small vessel disease.

METHODS: We conducted meta-analyses of existing genotype data among individuals of European ancestry to determine associations of 1,070 common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the COL4A1/COL4A2 genomic region with the following: intracerebral hemorrhage and its subtypes (deep, lobar) (1,545 cases, 1,485 controls); ischemic stroke and its subtypes (cardioembolic, large vessel disease, lacunar) (12,389 cases, 62,004 controls); and white matter hyperintensities (2,733 individuals with ischemic stroke and 9,361 from population-based cohorts with brain MRI data). We calculated a statistical significance threshold that accounted for multiple testing and linkage disequilibrium between SNPs (p < 0.000084).

RESULTS: Three intronic SNPs in COL4A2 were significantly associated with deep intracerebral hemorrhage (lead SNP odds ratio [OR] 1.29, 95\% confidence interval [CI] 1.14-1.46, p = 0.00003; r(2) > 0.9 between SNPs). Although SNPs associated with deep intracerebral hemorrhage did not reach our significance threshold for association with lacunar ischemic stroke (lead SNP OR 1.10, 95\% CI 1.03-1.18, p = 0.0073), and with white matter hyperintensity volume in symptomatic ischemic stroke patients (lead SNP OR 1.07, 95\% CI 1.01-1.13, p = 0.016), the direction of association was the same. There was no convincing evidence of association with white matter hyperintensities in population-based studies or with non-small vessel disease cerebrovascular phenotypes.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate an association between common variation in the COL4A2 gene and symptomatic small vessel disease, particularly deep intracerebral hemorrhage. These findings merit replication studies, including in ethnic groups of non-European ancestry.

}, keywords = {Cerebral Small Vessel Diseases, Collagen Type IV, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Variation, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000001309}, author = {Rannikmae, Kristiina and Davies, Gail and Thomson, Pippa A and Bevan, Steve and Devan, William J and Falcone, Guido J and Traylor, Matthew and Anderson, Christopher D and Battey, Thomas W K and Radmanesh, Farid and Deka, Ranjan and Woo, Jessica G and Martin, Lisa J and Jimenez-Conde, Jordi and Selim, Magdy and Brown, Devin L and Silliman, Scott L and Kidwell, Chelsea S and Montaner, Joan and Langefeld, Carl D and Slowik, Agnieszka and Hansen, Bjorn M and Lindgren, Arne G and Meschia, James F and Fornage, Myriam and Bis, Joshua C and Debette, Stephanie and Ikram, Mohammad A and Longstreth, Will T and Schmidt, Reinhold and Zhang, Cathy R and Yang, Qiong and Sharma, Pankaj and Kittner, Steven J and Mitchell, Braxton D and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Levi, Christopher R and Attia, John and Rothwell, Peter M and Poole, Deborah L and Boncoraglio, Giorgio B and Psaty, Bruce M and Malik, Rainer and Rost, Natalia and Worrall, Bradford B and Dichgans, Martin and Van Agtmael, Tom and Woo, Daniel and Markus, Hugh S and Seshadri, Sudha and Rosand, Jonathan and Sudlow, Cathie L M} } @article {6844, title = {Consumption of meat is associated with higher fasting glucose and insulin concentrations regardless of glucose and insulin genetic risk scores: a meta-analysis of 50,345 Caucasians.}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {102}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Nov}, pages = {1266-78}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Recent studies suggest that meat intake is associated with diabetes-related phenotypes. However, whether the associations of meat intake and glucose and insulin homeostasis are modified by genes related to glucose and insulin is unknown.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the associations of meat intake and the interaction of meat with genotype on fasting glucose and insulin concentrations in Caucasians free of diabetes mellitus.

DESIGN: Fourteen studies that are part of the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium participated in the analysis. Data were provided for up to 50,345 participants. Using linear regression within studies and a fixed-effects meta-analysis across studies, we examined 1) the associations of processed meat and unprocessed red meat intake with fasting glucose and insulin concentrations; and 2) the interactions of processed meat and unprocessed red meat with genetic risk score related to fasting glucose or insulin resistance on fasting glucose and insulin concentrations.

RESULTS: Processed meat was associated with higher fasting glucose, and unprocessed red meat was associated with both higher fasting glucose and fasting insulin concentrations after adjustment for potential confounders [not including body mass index (BMI)]. For every additional 50-g serving of processed meat per day, fasting glucose was 0.021 mmol/L (95\% CI: 0.011, 0.030 mmol/L) higher. Every additional 100-g serving of unprocessed red meat per day was associated with a 0.037-mmol/L (95\% CI: 0.023, 0.051-mmol/L) higher fasting glucose concentration and a 0.049-ln-pmol/L (95\% CI: 0.035, 0.063-ln-pmol/L) higher fasting insulin concentration. After additional adjustment for BMI, observed associations were attenuated and no longer statistically significant. The association of processed meat and fasting insulin did not reach statistical significance after correction for multiple comparisons. Observed associations were not modified by genetic loci known to influence fasting glucose or insulin resistance.

CONCLUSION: The association of higher fasting glucose and insulin concentrations with meat consumption was not modified by an index of glucose- and insulin-related single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Six of the participating studies are registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT0000513 (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities), NCT00149435 (Cardiovascular Health Study), NCT00005136 (Family Heart Study), NCT00005121 (Framingham Heart Study), NCT00083369 (Genetics of Lipid Lowering Drugs and Diet Network), and NCT00005487 (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis).

}, keywords = {Blood Glucose, Cohort Studies, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hyperglycemia, Hyperinsulinism, Insulin, Insulin Resistance, Insulin-Secreting Cells, Meat, Meat Products, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1938-3207}, doi = {10.3945/ajcn.114.101238}, author = {Fretts, Amanda M and Follis, Jack L and Nettleton, Jennifer A and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Ngwa, Julius S and Wojczynski, Mary K and Kalafati, Ioanna Panagiota and Varga, Tibor V and Frazier-Wood, Alexis C and Houston, Denise K and Lahti, Jari and Ericson, Ulrika and van den Hooven, Edith H and Mikkil{\"a}, Vera and Kiefte-de Jong, Jessica C and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Rice, Kenneth and Renstrom, Frida and North, Kari E and McKeown, Nicola M and Feitosa, Mary F and Kanoni, Stavroula and Smith, Caren E and Garcia, Melissa E and Tiainen, Anna-Maija and Sonestedt, Emily and Manichaikul, Ani and van Rooij, Frank J A and Dimitriou, Maria and Raitakari, Olli and Pankow, James S and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Province, Michael A and Hu, Frank B and Lai, Chao-Qiang and Keller, Margaux F and Per{\"a}l{\"a}, Mia-Maria and Rotter, Jerome I and Hofman, Albert and Graff, Misa and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Mukamal, Kenneth and Johansson, Ingegerd and Ordovas, Jose M and Liu, Yongmei and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Deloukas, Panos and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, Ilkka and Psaty, Bruce M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Borecki, Ingrid B and Franks, Paul W and Arnett, Donna K and Nalls, Mike A and Eriksson, Johan G and Orho-Melander, Marju and Franco, Oscar H and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Dedoussis, George V and Meigs, James B and Siscovick, David S} } @article {6817, title = {DCAF4, a novel gene associated with leucocyte telomere length.}, journal = {J Med Genet}, volume = {52}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Mar}, pages = {157-62}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Leucocyte telomere length (LTL), which is fashioned by multiple genes, has been linked to a host of human diseases, including sporadic melanoma. A number of genes associated with LTL have already been identified through genome-wide association studies. The main aim of this study was to establish whether DCAF4 (DDB1 and CUL4-associated factor 4) is associated with LTL. In addition, using ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA), we examined whether LTL-associated genes in the general population might partially explain the inherently longer LTL in patients with sporadic melanoma, the risk for which is increased with ultraviolet radiation (UVR).

RESULTS: Genome-wide association (GWA) meta-analysis and de novo genotyping of 20 022 individuals revealed a novel association (p=6.4{\texttimes}10(-10)) between LTL and rs2535913, which lies within DCAF4. Notably, eQTL analysis showed that rs2535913 is associated with decline in DCAF4 expressions in both lymphoblastoid cells and sun-exposed skin (p=4.1{\texttimes}10(-3) and 2{\texttimes}10(-3), respectively). Moreover, IPA revealed that LTL-associated genes, derived from GWA meta-analysis (N=9190), are over-represented among genes engaged in melanoma pathways. Meeting increasingly stringent p value thresholds (p<0.05, <0.01, <0.005, <0.001) in the LTL-GWA meta-analysis, these genes were jointly over-represented for melanoma at p values ranging from 1.97{\texttimes}10(-169) to 3.42{\texttimes}10(-24).

CONCLUSIONS: We uncovered a new locus associated with LTL in the general population. We also provided preliminary findings that suggest a link of LTL through genetic mechanisms with UVR and melanoma in the general population.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Carrier Proteins, Gene Expression Regulation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Leukocytes, Melanoma, Risk Factors, Telomere, Telomere Homeostasis}, issn = {1468-6244}, doi = {10.1136/jmedgenet-2014-102681}, author = {Mangino, Massimo and Christiansen, Lene and Stone, Rivka and Hunt, Steven C and Horvath, Kent and Eisenberg, Dan T A and Kimura, Masayuki and Petersen, Inge and Kark, Jeremy D and Herbig, Utz and Reiner, Alex P and Benetos, Athanase and Codd, Veryan and Nyholt, Dale R and Sinnreich, Ronit and Christensen, Kaare and Nassar, Hisham and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Levy, Daniel and Bataille, Veronique and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Chen, Wei and Berenson, Gerald S and Samani, Nilesh J and Martin, Nicholas G and Tishkoff, Sarah and Schork, Nicholas J and Kyvik, Kirsten Ohm and Dalg{\r a}rd, Christine and Spector, Timothy D and Aviv, Abraham} } @article {6659, title = {Development and validation of a model to predict 5-year risk of death without ESRD among older adults with CKD.}, journal = {Clin J Am Soc Nephrol}, volume = {10}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Mar 6}, pages = {363-71}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: CKD is associated with mortality. Accurate prediction tools for mortality may guide clinical decision-making, particularly among elderly persons with CKD.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, \& MEASUREMENTS: A prediction equation was developed for 5-year risk of mortality among participants with CKD in the Cardiovascular Health Study. Sixteen candidate predictor variables were explored, which included demographics, physical examination measures, comorbidity, medication use, and kidney function measures (eGFR calculated from serum creatinine and the CKD Epidemiology Collaboration equation and the urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio). Models were developed using Cox regression and evaluated using c statistics. A final parsimonious model was externally validated in an independent cohort of community-living elders with CKD in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study.

RESULTS: The development cohort included 828 participants who had a mean age of 80 ({\textpm}5.6) years and an eGFR of 47 ({\textpm}11) ml/min per 1.73 m(2), and median albumin-to-creatinine ratio of 13 (interquartile range 6-51) mg/g. The validation cohort included 789 participants who had a mean age of 74 ({\textpm}2.8) years and an eGFR of 50 ({\textpm}9) ml/min per 1.73 m(2), and median albumin-to-creatinine ratio of 13 (interquartile range 6-42) mg/g. The final model for 5-year mortality risk included age, sex, race, eGFR, urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio, smoking, diabetes mellitus, and history of heart failure and stroke (c statistic=0.72; 95\% confidence interval, 0.68 to 0.74). When a point-based system was assigned for each of nine variables in the equation, the estimated risk of death within 5 years ranged from 3.8\% among participants with the lowest scores to 83.6\% among participants with nine points. The model performed fair in external validation (c statistic=0.69; 95\% confidence interval, 0.64 to 0.74).

CONCLUSIONS: A simple prediction tool using nine readily available clinical variables can assist in predicting 5-year mortality risk in elderly patients with CKD, which may be useful in counseling patients and guiding clinical decision making.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Albuminuria, Continental Population Groups, Creatinine, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Heart Failure, Humans, Male, Proportional Hazards Models, Regression Analysis, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Smoking, Stroke}, issn = {1555-905X}, doi = {10.2215/CJN.04650514}, author = {Bansal, Nisha and Katz, Ronit and de Boer, Ian H and Peralta, Carmen A and Fried, Linda F and Siscovick, David S and Rifkin, Dena E and Hirsch, Calvin and Cummings, Steven R and Harris, Tamara B and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Sarnak, Mark J and Shlipak, Michael G and Ix, Joachim H} } @article {6687, title = {Dietary fatty acids modulate associations between genetic variants and circulating fatty acids in plasma and erythrocyte membranes: Meta-analysis of nine studies in the CHARGE consortium.}, journal = {Mol Nutr Food Res}, volume = {59}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jul}, pages = {1373-83}, abstract = {

SCOPE: Tissue concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids may reduce cardiovascular disease risk, and genetic variants are associated with circulating fatty acids concentrations. Whether dietary fatty acids interact with genetic variants to modify circulating omega-3 fatty acids is unclear. We evaluated interactions between genetic variants and fatty acid intakes for circulating alpha-linoleic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid, and docosapentaenoic acid.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted meta-analyses (N = 11~668) evaluating interactions between dietary fatty acids and genetic variants (rs174538 and rs174548 in FADS1 (fatty acid desaturase 1), rs7435 in AGPAT3 (1-acyl-sn-glycerol-3-phosphate), rs4985167 in PDXDC1 (pyridoxal-dependent decarboxylase domain-containing 1), rs780094 in GCKR (glucokinase regulatory protein), and rs3734398 in ELOVL2 (fatty acid elongase 2)). Stratification by measurement compartment (plasma versus erthyrocyte) revealed compartment-specific interactions between FADS1 rs174538 and rs174548 and dietary alpha-linolenic acid and linoleic acid for docosahexaenoic acid and docosapentaenoic acid.

CONCLUSION: Our findings reinforce earlier reports that genetically based differences in circulating fatty acids may be partially due to differences in the conversion of fatty acid precursors. Further, fatty acids measurement compartment may modify gene-diet relationships, and considering compartment may improve the detection of gene-fatty acids interactions for circulating fatty acid outcomes.

}, keywords = {Acetyltransferases, Acyltransferases, Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Carboxy-Lyases, Diet, Docosahexaenoic Acids, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Erythrocyte Membrane, Fatty Acid Desaturases, Fatty Acids, Fatty Acids, Omega-3, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1613-4133}, doi = {10.1002/mnfr.201400734}, author = {Smith, Caren E and Follis, Jack L and Nettleton, Jennifer A and Foy, Millennia and Wu, Jason H Y and Ma, Yiyi and Tanaka, Toshiko and Manichakul, Ani W and Wu, Hongyu and Chu, Audrey Y and Steffen, Lyn M and Fornage, Myriam and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Ferruci, Luigi and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Rich, Stephen S and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Ridker, Paul M and Tang, Weihong and McKnight, Barbara and Tsai, Michael Y and Bandinelli, Stefania and Rotter, Jerome I and Hu, Frank B and Chasman, Daniel I and Psaty, Bruce M and Arnett, Donna K and King, Irena B and Sun, Qi and Wang, Lu and Lumley, Thomas and Chiuve, Stephanie E and Siscovick, David S and Ordovas, Jose M and Lemaitre, Rozenn N} } @article {6875, title = {Drug-Gene Interactions of Antihypertensive Medications and Risk of Incident Cardiovascular Disease: A Pharmacogenomics Study from the CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {10}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {e0140496}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is a major risk factor for a spectrum of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including myocardial infarction, sudden death, and stroke. In the US, over 65 million people have high blood pressure and a large proportion of these individuals are prescribed antihypertensive medications. Although large long-term clinical trials conducted in the last several decades have identified a number of effective antihypertensive treatments that reduce the risk of future clinical complications, responses to therapy and protection from cardiovascular events vary among individuals.

METHODS: Using a genome-wide association study among 21,267 participants with pharmaceutically treated hypertension, we explored the hypothesis that genetic variants might influence or modify the effectiveness of common antihypertensive therapies on the risk of major cardiovascular outcomes. The classes of drug treatments included angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, and diuretics. In the setting of the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium, each study performed array-based genome-wide genotyping, imputed to HapMap Phase II reference panels, and used additive genetic models in proportional hazards or logistic regression models to evaluate drug-gene interactions for each of four therapeutic drug classes. We used meta-analysis to combine study-specific interaction estimates for approximately 2 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a discovery analysis among 15,375 European Ancestry participants (3,527 CVD cases) with targeted follow-up in a case-only study of 1,751 European Ancestry GenHAT participants as well as among 4,141 African-Americans (1,267 CVD cases).

RESULTS: Although drug-SNP interactions were biologically plausible, exposures and outcomes were well measured, and power was sufficient to detect modest interactions, we did not identify any statistically significant interactions from the four antihypertensive therapy meta-analyses (Pinteraction > 5.0{\texttimes}10-8). Similarly, findings were null for meta-analyses restricted to 66 SNPs with significant main effects on coronary artery disease or blood pressure from large published genome-wide association studies (Pinteraction >= 0.01). Our results suggest that there are no major pharmacogenetic influences of common SNPs on the relationship between blood pressure medications and the risk of incident CVD.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Antihypertensive Agents, Cardiovascular Diseases, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Treatment Outcome}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0140496}, author = {Bis, Joshua C and Sitlani, Colleen and Irvin, Ryan and Avery, Christy L and Smith, Albert Vernon and Sun, Fangui and Evans, Daniel S and Musani, Solomon K and Li, Xiaohui and Trompet, Stella and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Harris, Tamara B and Quibrera, P Miguel and Brody, Jennifer A and Demissie, Serkalem and Davis, Barry R and Wiggins, Kerri L and Tranah, Gregory J and Lange, Leslie A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stott, David J and Franco, Oscar H and Launer, Lenore J and St{\"u}rmer, Til and Taylor, Kent D and Cupples, L Adrienne and Eckfeldt, John H and Smith, Nicholas L and Liu, Yongmei and Wilson, James G and Heckbert, Susan R and Buckley, Brendan M and Ikram, M Arfan and Boerwinkle, Eric and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and de Craen, Anton J M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rotter, Jerome I and Ford, Ian and Hofman, Albert and Sattar, Naveed and Slagboom, P Eline and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Lumley, Thomas and Cummings, Steven R and Taylor, Herman A and Post, Wendy and Jukema, J Wouter and Stricker, Bruno H and Whitsel, Eric A and Psaty, Bruce M and Arnett, Donna} } @article {6691, title = {Exome sequencing identifies rare LDLR and APOA5 alleles conferring risk for myocardial infarction.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {518}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Feb 5}, pages = {102-6}, abstract = {

Myocardial infarction (MI), a leading cause of death around the world, displays a complex pattern of inheritance. When MI occurs early in life, genetic inheritance is a major component to risk. Previously, rare mutations in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) genes have been shown to contribute to MI risk in individual families, whereas common variants at more than 45 loci have been associated with MI risk in the population. Here we evaluate how rare mutations contribute to early-onset MI risk in the population. We sequenced the protein-coding regions of 9,793 genomes from patients with MI at an early age (<=50 years in males and <=60 years in females) along with MI-free controls. We identified two genes in which rare coding-sequence mutations were more frequent in MI cases versus controls at exome-wide significance. At low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR), carriers of rare non-synonymous mutations were at 4.2-fold increased risk for MI; carriers of null alleles at LDLR were at even higher risk (13-fold difference). Approximately 2\% of early MI cases harbour a rare, damaging mutation in LDLR; this estimate is similar to one made more than 40 years ago using an analysis of total cholesterol. Among controls, about 1 in 217 carried an LDLR coding-sequence mutation and had plasma LDL cholesterol > 190~mg~dl(-1). At apolipoprotein A-V (APOA5), carriers of rare non-synonymous mutations were at 2.2-fold increased risk for MI. When compared with non-carriers, LDLR mutation carriers had higher plasma LDL cholesterol, whereas APOA5 mutation carriers had higher plasma triglycerides. Recent evidence has connected MI risk with coding-sequence mutations at two genes functionally related to APOA5, namely lipoprotein lipase and apolipoprotein C-III (refs 18, 19). Combined, these observations suggest that, as well as LDL cholesterol, disordered metabolism of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins contributes to MI risk.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Age of Onset, Alleles, Apolipoproteins A, Case-Control Studies, Cholesterol, LDL, Coronary Artery Disease, Exome, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetics, Population, Heterozygote, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Mutation, Myocardial Infarction, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.), Receptors, LDL, Triglycerides, United States}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature13917}, author = {Do, Ron and Stitziel, Nathan O and Won, Hong-Hee and J{\o}rgensen, Anders Berg and Duga, Stefano and Angelica Merlini, Pier and Kiezun, Adam and Farrall, Martin and Goel, Anuj and Zuk, Or and Guella, Illaria and Asselta, Rosanna and Lange, Leslie A and Peloso, Gina M and Auer, Paul L and Girelli, Domenico and Martinelli, Nicola and Farlow, Deborah N and DePristo, Mark A and Roberts, Robert and Stewart, Alexander F R and Saleheen, Danish and Danesh, John and Epstein, Stephen E and Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh and Hovingh, G Kees and Kastelein, John J and Samani, Nilesh J and Schunkert, Heribert and Erdmann, Jeanette and Shah, Svati H and Kraus, William E and Davies, Robert and Nikpay, Majid and Johansen, Christopher T and Wang, Jian and Hegele, Robert A and Hechter, Eliana and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Kleber, Marcus E and Huang, Jie and Johnson, Andrew D and Li, Mingyao and Burke, Greg L and Gross, Myron and Liu, Yongmei and Assimes, Themistocles L and Heiss, Gerardo and Lange, Ethan M and Folsom, Aaron R and Taylor, Herman A and Olivieri, Oliviero and Hamsten, Anders and Clarke, Robert and Reilly, Dermot F and Yin, Wu and Rivas, Manuel A and Donnelly, Peter and Rossouw, Jacques E and Psaty, Bruce M and Herrington, David M and Wilson, James G and Rich, Stephen S and Bamshad, Michael J and Tracy, Russell P and Cupples, L Adrienne and Rader, Daniel J and Reilly, Muredach P and Spertus, John A and Cresci, Sharon and Hartiala, Jaana and Tang, W H Wilson and Hazen, Stanley L and Allayee, Hooman and Reiner, Alex P and Carlson, Christopher S and Kooperberg, Charles and Jackson, Rebecca D and Boerwinkle, Eric and Lander, Eric S and Schwartz, Stephen M and Siscovick, David S and McPherson, Ruth and Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Watkins, Hugh and Nickerson, Deborah A and Ardissino, Diego and Sunyaev, Shamil R and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Altshuler, David and Gabriel, Stacey and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {6802, title = {Gene {\texttimes} dietary pattern interactions in obesity: analysis of up to 68 317 adults of European ancestry.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {24}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Aug 15}, pages = {4728-38}, abstract = {

Obesity is highly heritable. Genetic variants showing robust associations with obesity traits have been identified through genome-wide association studies. We investigated whether a composite score representing healthy diet modifies associations of these variants with obesity traits. Totally, 32 body mass index (BMI)- and 14 waist-hip ratio (WHR)-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms were genotyped, and genetic risk scores (GRS) were calculated in 18 cohorts of European ancestry (n = 68 317). Diet score was calculated based on self-reported intakes of whole grains, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds (favorable) and red/processed meats, sweets, sugar-sweetened beverages and fried potatoes (unfavorable). Multivariable adjusted, linear regression within each cohort followed by inverse variance-weighted, fixed-effects meta-analysis was used to characterize: (a) associations of each GRS with BMI and BMI-adjusted WHR~and (b) diet score modification of genetic associations with BMI and BMI-adjusted WHR. Nominally significant interactions (P = 0.006-0.04) were observed between the diet score and WHR-GRS (but not BMI-GRS), two WHR loci (GRB14 rs10195252; LYPLAL1 rs4846567) and two BMI loci (LRRN6C rs10968576; MTIF3 rs4771122), for the respective BMI-adjusted WHR or BMI outcomes. Although the magnitudes of these select interactions were small, our data indicated that associations between genetic predisposition and obesity traits were stronger with a healthier diet. Our findings generate interesting hypotheses; however, experimental and functional studies are needed to determine their clinical relevance.

}, keywords = {Adult, Body Mass Index, Case-Control Studies, Diet, Western, Epistasis, Genetic, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddv186}, author = {Nettleton, Jennifer A and Follis, Jack L and Ngwa, Julius S and Smith, Caren E and Ahmad, Shafqat and Tanaka, Toshiko and Wojczynski, Mary K and Voortman, Trudy and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Kristiansson, Kati and Nuotio, Marja-Liisa and Houston, Denise K and Per{\"a}l{\"a}, Mia-Maria and Qi, Qibin and Sonestedt, Emily and Manichaikul, Ani and Kanoni, Stavroula and Ganna, Andrea and Mikkil{\"a}, Vera and North, Kari E and Siscovick, David S and Harald, Kennet and McKeown, Nicola M and Johansson, Ingegerd and Rissanen, Harri and Liu, Yongmei and Lahti, Jari and Hu, Frank B and Bandinelli, Stefania and Rukh, Gull and Rich, Stephen and Booij, Lisanne and Dmitriou, Maria and Ax, Erika and Raitakari, Olli and Mukamal, Kenneth and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Jula, Antti and Ericson, Ulrika and Jacobs, David R and van Rooij, Frank J A and Deloukas, Panos and Sjogren, Per and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Perola, Markus and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Hofman, Albert and Stirrups, Kathleen and Viikari, Jorma and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Kalafati, Ioanna P and Franco, Oscar H and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Salomaa, Veikko and Borecki, Ingrid B and Knekt, Paul and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Eriksson, Johan G and Dedoussis, George V and Qi, Lu and Ferrucci, Luigi and Orho-Melander, Marju and Zillikens, M Carola and Ingelsson, Erik and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Renstrom, Frida and Cupples, L Adrienne and Loos, Ruth J F and Franks, Paul W} } @article {6927, title = {Gene-Environment Interactions of Circadian-Related Genes for Cardiometabolic Traits.}, journal = {Diabetes Care}, volume = {38}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Aug}, pages = {1456-66}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Common circadian-related gene variants associate with increased risk for metabolic alterations including type 2 diabetes. However, little is known about whether diet and sleep could modify associations between circadian-related variants (CLOCK-rs1801260, CRY2-rs11605924, MTNR1B-rs1387153, MTNR1B-rs10830963, NR1D1-rs2314339) and cardiometabolic traits (fasting glucose [FG], HOMA-insulin resistance, BMI, waist circumference, and HDL-cholesterol) to facilitate personalized recommendations.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We conducted inverse-variance weighted, fixed-effect meta-analyses of results of adjusted associations and interactions between dietary intake/sleep duration and selected variants on cardiometabolic traits from 15 cohort studies including up to 28,190 participants of European descent from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium.

RESULTS: We observed significant associations between relative macronutrient intakes and glycemic traits and short sleep duration (<7 h) and higher FG and replicated known MTNR1B associations with glycemic traits. No interactions were evident after accounting for multiple comparisons. However, we observed nominally significant interactions (all P < 0.01) between carbohydrate intake and MTNR1B-rs1387153 for FG with a 0.003 mmol/L higher FG with each additional 1\% carbohydrate intake in the presence of the T allele, between sleep duration and CRY2-rs11605924 for HDL-cholesterol with a 0.010 mmol/L higher HDL-cholesterol with each additional hour of sleep in the presence of the A allele, and between long sleep duration (>=9 h) and MTNR1B-rs1387153 for BMI with a 0.60 kg/m(2) higher BMI with long sleep duration in the presence of the T allele relative to normal sleep duration (>=7 to <9 h).

CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that lower carbohydrate intake and normal sleep duration may ameliorate cardiometabolic abnormalities conferred by common circadian-related genetic variants. Until further mechanistic examination of the nominally significant interactions is conducted, recommendations applicable to the general population regarding diet{\textemdash}specifically higher carbohydrate and lower fat composition{\textemdash}and normal sleep duration should continue to be emphasized among individuals with the investigated circadian-related gene variants.

}, keywords = {Adult, Alleles, Blood Glucose, Circadian Rhythm Signaling Peptides and Proteins, Cohort Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Diet, Fat-Restricted, European Continental Ancestry Group, Fasting, Female, Gene-Environment Interaction, Humans, Insulin Resistance, Male, Middle Aged, Multicenter Studies as Topic, Observational Studies as Topic, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sleep, Waist Circumference}, issn = {1935-5548}, doi = {10.2337/dc14-2709}, author = {Dashti, Hassan S and Follis, Jack L and Smith, Caren E and Tanaka, Toshiko and Garaulet, Marta and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Hruby, Adela and Jacques, Paul F and Kiefte-de Jong, Jessica C and Lamon-Fava, Stefania and Scheer, Frank A J L and Bartz, Traci M and Kovanen, Leena and Wojczynski, Mary K and Frazier-Wood, Alexis C and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Per{\"a}l{\"a}, Mia-Maria and Jonsson, Anna and Muka, Taulant and Kalafati, Ioanna P and Mikkil{\"a}, Vera and Ordovas, Jose M} } @article {6818, title = {Genes from a translational analysis support a multifactorial nature of white matter hyperintensities.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {46}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Feb}, pages = {341-7}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: White matter hyperintensities (WMH) of presumed vascular origin increase the risk of stroke and dementia. Despite strong WMH heritability, few gene associations have been identified. Relevant experimental models may be informative.

METHODS: We tested the associations between genes that were differentially expressed in brains of young spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats and human WMH (using volume and visual score) in 621 subjects from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (LBC1936). We then attempted replication in 9361 subjects from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE). We also tested the subjects from LBC1936 for previous genome-wide WMH associations found in subjects from CHARGE.

RESULTS: Of 126 spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rat genes, 10 were nominally associated with WMH volume or score in subjects from LBC1936, of which 5 (AFP, ALB, GNAI1, RBM8a, and MRPL18) were associated with both WMH volume and score (P<0.05); 2 of the 10 (XPNPEP1, P=6.7{\texttimes}10(-5); FARP1, P=0.024) plus another spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rat gene (USMG5, P=0.00014), on chromosomes 10, 13, and 10 respectively, were associated with WMH in subjects from CHARGE. Gene set enrichment showed significant associations for downregulated spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rat genes with WMH in humans. In subjects from LBC1936, we replicated CHARGE{\textquoteright}s genome-wide WMH associations on chromosomes 17 (TRIM65 and TRIM47) and, for the first time, 1 (PMF1).

CONCLUSIONS: Despite not passing multiple testing thresholds individually, these genes collectively are relevant to known WMH associations, proposed WMH mechanisms, or dementia: associations with Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease, late-life depression, ATP production, osmotic regulation, neurodevelopmental abnormalities, and cognitive impairment. If replicated further, they suggest a multifactorial nature for WMH and argue for more consideration of vascular contributions to dementia.

}, keywords = {Aged, Alzheimer Disease, Animals, Brain, Causality, Dementia, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Leukoencephalopathies, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Rats, Rats, Inbred SHR, Rats, Wistar, Risk Factors, Translational Medical Research, White Matter}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.114.007649}, author = {Lopez, Lorna M and Hill, W David and Harris, Sarah E and Valdes Hernandez, Maria and Munoz Maniega, Susana and Bastin, Mark E and Bailey, Emma and Smith, Colin and McBride, Martin and McClure, John and Graham, Delyth and Dominiczak, Anna and Yang, Qiong and Fornage, Myriam and Ikram, M Arfan and Debette, Stephanie and Launer, Lenore and Bis, Joshua C and Schmidt, Reinhold and Seshadri, Sudha and Porteous, David J and Starr, John and Deary, Ian J and Wardlaw, Joanna M} } @article {6816, title = {Genetic contributions to variation in general cognitive function: a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in the CHARGE consortium (N=53949).}, journal = {Mol Psychiatry}, volume = {20}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Feb}, pages = {183-92}, abstract = {

General cognitive function is substantially heritable across the human life course from adolescence to old age. We investigated the genetic contribution to variation in this important, health- and well-being-related trait in middle-aged and older adults. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of 31 cohorts (N=53,949) in which the participants had undertaken multiple, diverse cognitive tests. A general cognitive function phenotype was tested for, and created in each cohort by principal component analysis. We report 13 genome-wide significant single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associations in three genomic regions, 6q16.1, 14q12 and 19q13.32 (best SNP and closest gene, respectively: rs10457441, P=3.93 {\texttimes} 10(-9), MIR2113; rs17522122, P=2.55 {\texttimes} 10(-8), AKAP6; rs10119, P=5.67 {\texttimes} 10(-9), APOE/TOMM40). We report one gene-based significant association with the HMGN1 gene located on chromosome 21 (P=1 {\texttimes} 10(-6)). These genes have previously been associated with neuropsychiatric phenotypes. Meta-analysis results are consistent with a polygenic model of inheritance. To estimate SNP-based heritability, the genome-wide complex trait analysis procedure was applied to two large cohorts, the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (N=6617) and the Health and Retirement Study (N=5976). The proportion of phenotypic variation accounted for by all genotyped common SNPs was 29\% (s.e.=5\%) and 28\% (s.e.=7\%), respectively. Using polygenic prediction analysis, ~1.2\% of the variance in general cognitive function was predicted in the Generation Scotland cohort (N=5487; P=1.5 {\texttimes} 10(-17)). In hypothesis-driven tests, there was significant association between general cognitive function and four genes previously associated with Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease: TOMM40, APOE, ABCG1 and MEF2C.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atherosclerosis, Cognition, Cognition Disorders, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, HMGN1 Protein, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Scotland}, issn = {1476-5578}, doi = {10.1038/mp.2014.188}, author = {Davies, G and Armstrong, N and Bis, J C and Bressler, J and Chouraki, V and Giddaluru, S and Hofer, E and Ibrahim-Verbaas, C A and Kirin, M and Lahti, J and van der Lee, S J and Le Hellard, S and Liu, T and Marioni, R E and Oldmeadow, C and Postmus, I and Smith, A V and Smith, J A and Thalamuthu, A and Thomson, R and Vitart, V and Wang, J and Yu, L and Zgaga, L and Zhao, W and Boxall, R and Harris, S E and Hill, W D and Liewald, D C and Luciano, M and Adams, H and Ames, D and Amin, N and Amouyel, P and Assareh, A A and Au, R and Becker, J T and Beiser, A and Berr, C and Bertram, L and Boerwinkle, E and Buckley, B M and Campbell, H and Corley, J and De Jager, P L and Dufouil, C and Eriksson, J G and Espeseth, T and Faul, J D and Ford, I and Gottesman, R F and Griswold, M E and Gudnason, V and Harris, T B and Heiss, G and Hofman, A and Holliday, E G and Huffman, J and Kardia, S L R and Kochan, N and Knopman, D S and Kwok, J B and Lambert, J-C and Lee, T and Li, G and Li, S-C and Loitfelder, M and Lopez, O L and Lundervold, A J and Lundqvist, A and Mather, K A and Mirza, S S and Nyberg, L and Oostra, B A and Palotie, A and Papenberg, G and Pattie, A and Petrovic, K and Polasek, O and Psaty, B M and Redmond, P and Reppermund, S and Rotter, J I and Schmidt, H and Schuur, M and Schofield, P W and Scott, R J and Steen, V M and Stott, D J and van Swieten, J C and Taylor, K D and Trollor, J and Trompet, S and Uitterlinden, A G and Weinstein, G and Widen, E and Windham, B G and Jukema, J W and Wright, A F and Wright, M J and Yang, Q and Amieva, H and Attia, J R and Bennett, D A and Brodaty, H and de Craen, A J M and Hayward, C and Ikram, M A and Lindenberger, U and Nilsson, L-G and Porteous, D J and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, K and Reinvang, I and Rudan, I and Sachdev, P S and Schmidt, R and Schofield, P R and Srikanth, V and Starr, J M and Turner, S T and Weir, D R and Wilson, J F and van Duijn, C and Launer, L and Fitzpatrick, A L and Seshadri, S and Mosley, T H and Deary, I J} } @article {6615, title = {Genetic loci associated with circulating levels of very long-chain saturated fatty acids.}, journal = {J Lipid Res}, volume = {56}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jan}, pages = {176-84}, abstract = {

Very long-chain saturated fatty acids (VLSFAs) are saturated fatty acids with 20 or more carbons. In contrast to the more abundant saturated fatty acids, such as palmitic acid, there is growing evidence that circulating VLSFAs may have beneficial biological properties. Whether genetic factors influence circulating levels of VLSFAs is not known. We investigated the association of common genetic variation with plasma phospholipid/erythrocyte levels of three VLSFAs by performing genome-wide association studies in seven population-based cohorts comprising 10,129 subjects of European ancestry. We observed associations of circulating VLSFA concentrations with common variants in two genes, serine palmitoyl-transferase long-chain base subunit 3 (SPTLC3), a gene involved in the rate-limiting step of de novo sphingolipid synthesis, and ceramide synthase 4 (CERS4). The SPTLC3 variant at rs680379 was associated with higher arachidic acid (20:0 , P = 5.81 {\texttimes} 10(-13)). The CERS4 variant at rs2100944 was associated with higher levels of 20:0 (P = 2.65 {\texttimes} 10(-40)) and in analyses that adjusted for 20:0, with lower levels of behenic acid (P = 4.22 {\texttimes} 10(-26)) and lignoceric acid (P = 3.20 {\texttimes} 10(-21)). These novel associations suggest an inter-relationship of circulating VLSFAs and sphingolipid synthesis.

}, keywords = {Cohort Studies, Fatty Acids, Genetic Loci, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans}, issn = {1539-7262}, doi = {10.1194/jlr.M052456}, author = {Lemaitre, Rozenn N and King, Irena B and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Wu, Jason H Y and McKnight, Barbara and Manichaikul, Ani and Guan, Weihua and Sun, Qi and Chasman, Daniel I and Foy, Millennia and Wang, Lu and Zhu, Jingwen and Siscovick, David S and Tsai, Michael Y and Arnett, Donna K and Psaty, Bruce M and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Chen, Yii-der I and Tang, Weihong and Weng, Lu-Chen and Wu, Hongyu and Jensen, Majken K and Chu, Audrey Y and Jacobs, David R and Rich, Stephen S and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Steffen, Lyn and Rimm, Eric B and Hu, Frank B and Ridker, Paul M and Fornage, Myriam and Friedlander, Yechiel} } @article {6685, title = {Genetic loci associated with circulating phospholipid trans fatty acids: a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies from the CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {101}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Feb}, pages = {398-406}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Circulating trans fatty acids (TFAs), which cannot be synthesized by humans, are linked to adverse health outcomes. Although TFAs are obtained from diet, little is known about subsequent influences (e.g., relating to incorporation, metabolism, or intercompetition with other fatty acids) that could alter circulating concentrations and possibly modulate or mediate impacts on health.

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to elucidate novel biologic pathways that may influence circulating TFAs by evaluating associations between common genetic variation and TFA biomarkers.

DESIGN: We performed meta-analyses using 7 cohorts of European-ancestry participants (n = 8013) having measured genome-wide variation in single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and circulating TFA biomarkers (erythrocyte or plasma phospholipids), including trans-16:1n-7, total trans-18:1, trans/cis-18:2, cis/trans-18:2, and trans/trans-18:2. We further evaluated SNPs with genome-wide significant associations among African Americans (n = 1082), Chinese Americans (n = 669), and Hispanic Americans (n = 657) from 2 of these cohorts.

RESULTS: Among European-ancestry participants, 31 SNPs in or near the fatty acid desaturase (FADS) 1 and 2 cluster were associated with cis/trans-18:2; a top hit was rs174548 (β = 0.0035, P = 4.90 {\texttimes} 10(-15)), an SNP previously associated with circulating n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid concentrations. No significant association was identified for other TFAs. rs174548 in FADS1/2 was also associated with cis/trans-18:2 in Hispanic Americans (β = 0.0053, P = 1.05 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) and Chinese Americans (β = 0.0028, P = 0.002) but not African Americans (β = 0.0009, P = 0.34); however, in African Americans, fine mapping identified a top hit in FADS2 associated with cis/trans-18:2 (rs174579: β = 0.0118, P = 4.05 {\texttimes} 10(-5)). The association between rs174548 and cis/trans-18:2 remained significant after further adjustment for individual circulating n-3 and n-6 fatty acids, except arachidonic acid. After adjustment for arachidonic acid concentrations, the association between rs174548 and cis/trans-18:2 was nearly eliminated in European-ancestry participants (β-coefficient reduced by 86\%), with similar reductions in Hispanic Americans and Chinese Americans.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide novel evidence for genetic regulation of cis/trans-18:2 by the FADS1/2 cluster and suggest that this regulation may be influenced/mediated by concentrations of arachidonic acid, an n-6 polyunsaturated fat.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Arachidonic Acid, Asian Americans, Biomarkers, European Continental Ancestry Group, Fatty Acids, Omega-6, Gene Frequency, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Loci, Genotyping Techniques, Humans, Phospholipids, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Trans Fatty Acids}, issn = {1938-3207}, doi = {10.3945/ajcn.114.094557}, author = {Mozaffarian, Dariush and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Johnson, Catherine O and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Manichaikul, Ani and Sun, Qi and Foy, Millennia and Wang, Lu and Wiener, Howard and Irvin, Marguerite R and Rich, Stephen S and Wu, Hongyu and Jensen, Majken K and Chasman, Daniel I and Chu, Audrey Y and Fornage, Myriam and Steffen, Lyn and King, Irena B and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Chen, Ida Y-D and Wu, Jason H Y and Siscovick, David S and Ridker, Paul M and Tsai, Michael Y and Rimm, Eric B and Hu, Frank B and Arnett, Donna K} } @article {6688, title = {Genetic overlap between diagnostic subtypes of ischemic stroke.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {46}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Mar}, pages = {615-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Despite moderate heritability, the phenotypic heterogeneity of ischemic stroke has hampered gene discovery, motivating analyses of diagnostic subtypes with reduced sample sizes. We assessed evidence for a shared genetic basis among the 3 major subtypes: large artery atherosclerosis (LAA), cardioembolism, and small vessel disease (SVD), to inform potential cross-subtype analyses.

METHODS: Analyses used genome-wide summary data for 12 389 ischemic stroke cases (including 2167 LAA, 2405 cardioembolism, and 1854 SVD) and 62 004 controls from the Metastroke consortium. For 4561 cases and 7094 controls, individual-level genotype data were also available. Genetic correlations between subtypes were estimated using linear mixed models and polygenic profile scores. Meta-analysis of a combined LAA-SVD phenotype (4021 cases and 51 976 controls) was performed to identify shared risk alleles.

RESULTS: High genetic correlation was identified between LAA and SVD using linear mixed models (rg=0.96, SE=0.47, P=9{\texttimes}10(-4)) and profile scores (rg=0.72; 95\% confidence interval, 0.52-0.93). Between LAA and cardioembolism and SVD and cardioembolism, correlation was moderate using linear mixed models but not significantly different from zero for profile scoring. Joint meta-analysis of LAA and SVD identified strong association (P=1{\texttimes}10(-7)) for single nucleotide polymorphisms near the opioid receptor μ1 (OPRM1) gene.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that LAA and SVD, which have been hitherto treated as genetically distinct, may share a substantial genetic component. Combined analyses of LAA and SVD may increase power to identify small-effect alleles influencing shared pathophysiological processes.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Atherosclerosis, Cerebral Small Vessel Diseases, Cohort Studies, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Embolism, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Ischemia, Linear Models, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Stroke}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.114.007930}, author = {Holliday, Elizabeth G and Traylor, Matthew and Malik, Rainer and Bevan, Steve and Falcone, Guido and Hopewell, Jemma C and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Cotlarciuc, Ioana and Bis, Joshua C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Boncoraglio, Giorgio B and Clarke, Robert and Cole, John W and Fornage, Myriam and Furie, Karen L and Ikram, M Arfan and Jannes, Jim and Kittner, Steven J and Lincz, Lisa F and Maguire, Jane M and Meschia, James F and Mosley, Thomas H and Nalls, Mike A and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Parati, Eugenio A and Psaty, Bruce M and Rothwell, Peter M and Seshadri, Sudha and Scott, Rodney J and Sharma, Pankaj and Sudlow, Cathie and Wiggins, Kerri L and Worrall, Bradford B and Rosand, Jonathan and Mitchell, Braxton D and Dichgans, Martin and Markus, Hugh S and Levi, Christopher and Attia, John and Wray, Naomi R} } @article {6682, title = {Genome of The Netherlands population-specific imputations identify an ABCA6 variant associated with cholesterol levels.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {6}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {6065}, abstract = {

Variants associated with blood lipid levels may be population-specific. To identify low-frequency variants associated with this phenotype, population-specific reference panels may be used. Here we impute nine large Dutch biobanks (~35,000 samples) with the population-specific reference panel created by the Genome of The Netherlands Project and perform association testing with blood lipid levels. We report the discovery of five novel associations at four loci (P value <6.61 {\texttimes} 10(-4)), including a rare missense variant in ABCA6 (rs77542162, p.Cys1359Arg, frequency 0.034), which is predicted to be deleterious. The frequency of this ABCA6 variant is 3.65-fold increased in the Dutch and its effect (βLDL-C=0.135, βTC=0.140) is estimated to be very similar to those observed for single variants in well-known lipid genes, such as LDLR.

}, keywords = {ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters, Cholesterol, Gene Frequency, Genetic Association Studies, Humans, Mutation, Missense, Netherlands}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms7065}, author = {van Leeuwen, Elisabeth M and Karssen, Lennart C and Deelen, Joris and Isaacs, Aaron and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Mbarek, Hamdi and Kanterakis, Alexandros and Trompet, Stella and Postmus, Iris and Verweij, Niek and van Enckevort, David J and Huffman, Jennifer E and White, Charles C and Feitosa, Mary F and Bartz, Traci M and Manichaikul, Ani and Joshi, Peter K and Peloso, Gina M and Deelen, Patrick and van Dijk, Freerk and Willemsen, Gonneke and de Geus, Eco J and Milaneschi, Yuri and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Francioli, Laurent C and Menelaou, Androniki and Pulit, Sara L and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Hofman, Albert and Oostra, Ben A and Franco, Oscar H and Mateo Leach, Irene and Beekman, Marian and de Craen, Anton J M and Uh, Hae-Won and Trochet, Holly and Hocking, Lynne J and Porteous, David J and Sattar, Naveed and Packard, Chris J and Buckley, Brendan M and Brody, Jennifer A and Bis, Joshua C and Rotter, Jerome I and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Campbell, Harry and Duan, Qing and Lange, Leslie A and Wilson, James F and Hayward, Caroline and Polasek, Ozren and Vitart, Veronique and Rudan, Igor and Wright, Alan F and Rich, Stephen S and Psaty, Bruce M and Borecki, Ingrid B and Kearney, Patricia M and Stott, David J and Adrienne Cupples, L and Jukema, J Wouter and van der Harst, Pim and Sijbrands, Eric J and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Swertz, Morris A and van Ommen, Gert-Jan B and de Bakker, Paul I W and Eline Slagboom, P and Boomsma, Dorret I and Wijmenga, Cisca and van Duijn, Cornelia M} } @article {6606, title = {Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies six novel loci associated with habitual coffee consumption.}, journal = {Mol Psychiatry}, volume = {20}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 May}, pages = {647-56}, abstract = {

Coffee, a major dietary source of caffeine, is among the most widely consumed beverages in the world and has received considerable attention regarding health risks and benefits. We conducted a genome-wide (GW) meta-analysis of predominately regular-type coffee consumption (cups per day) among up to 91,462 coffee consumers of European ancestry with top single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) followed-up in ~30 062 and 7964 coffee consumers of European and African-American ancestry, respectively. Studies from both stages were combined in a trans-ethnic meta-analysis. Confirmed loci were examined for putative functional and biological relevance. Eight loci, including six novel loci, met GW significance (log10Bayes factor (BF)>5.64) with per-allele effect sizes of 0.03-0.14 cups per day. Six are located in or near genes potentially involved in pharmacokinetics (ABCG2, AHR, POR and CYP1A2) and pharmacodynamics (BDNF and SLC6A4) of caffeine. Two map to GCKR and MLXIPL genes related to metabolic traits but lacking known roles in coffee consumption. Enhancer and promoter histone marks populate the regions of many confirmed loci and several potential regulatory SNPs are highly correlated with the lead SNP of each. SNP alleles near GCKR, MLXIPL, BDNF and CYP1A2 that were associated with higher coffee consumption have previously been associated with smoking initiation, higher adiposity and fasting insulin and glucose but lower blood pressure and favorable lipid, inflammatory and liver enzyme profiles (P<5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)).Our genetic findings among European and African-American adults reinforce the role of caffeine in mediating habitual coffee consumption and may point to molecular mechanisms underlying inter-individual variability in pharmacological and health effects of coffee.

}, keywords = {Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors, Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor, Coffea, Cytochrome P-450 CYP1A2, Food Habits, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1476-5578}, doi = {10.1038/mp.2014.107}, author = {Cornelis, M C and Byrne, E M and Esko, T and Nalls, M A and Ganna, A and Paynter, N and Monda, K L and Amin, N and Fischer, K and Renstrom, F and Ngwa, J S and Huikari, V and Cavadino, A and Nolte, I M and Teumer, A and Yu, K and Marques-Vidal, P and Rawal, R and Manichaikul, A and Wojczynski, M K and Vink, J M and Zhao, J H and Burlutsky, G and Lahti, J and Mikkil{\"a}, V and Lemaitre, R N and Eriksson, J and Musani, S K and Tanaka, T and Geller, F and Luan, J and Hui, J and M{\"a}gi, R and Dimitriou, M and Garcia, M E and Ho, W-K and Wright, M J and Rose, L M and Magnusson, P K E and Pedersen, N L and Couper, D and Oostra, B A and Hofman, A and Ikram, M A and Tiemeier, H W and Uitterlinden, A G and van Rooij, F J A and Barroso, I and Johansson, I and Xue, L and Kaakinen, M and Milani, L and Power, C and Snieder, H and Stolk, R P and Baumeister, S E and Biffar, R and Gu, F and Bastardot, F and Kutalik, Z and Jacobs, D R and Forouhi, N G and Mihailov, E and Lind, L and Lindgren, C and Micha{\"e}lsson, K and Morris, A and Jensen, M and Khaw, K-T and Luben, R N and Wang, J J and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, S and Per{\"a}l{\"a}, M-M and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, M and Lehtim{\"a}ki, T and Viikari, J and Mozaffarian, D and Mukamal, K and Psaty, B M and D{\"o}ring, A and Heath, A C and Montgomery, G W and Dahmen, N and Carithers, T and Tucker, K L and Ferrucci, L and Boyd, H A and Melbye, M and Treur, J L and Mellstr{\"o}m, D and Hottenga, J J and Prokopenko, I and T{\"o}njes, A and Deloukas, P and Kanoni, S and Lorentzon, M and Houston, D K and Liu, Y and Danesh, J and Rasheed, A and Mason, M A and Zonderman, A B and Franke, L and Kristal, B S and Karjalainen, J and Reed, D R and Westra, H-J and Evans, M K and Saleheen, D and Harris, T B and Dedoussis, G and Curhan, G and Stumvoll, M and Beilby, J and Pasquale, L R and Feenstra, B and Bandinelli, S and Ordov{\'a}s, J M and Chan, A T and Peters, U and Ohlsson, C and Gieger, C and Martin, N G and Waldenberger, M and Siscovick, D S and Raitakari, O and Eriksson, J G and Mitchell, P and Hunter, D J and Kraft, P and Rimm, E B and Boomsma, D I and Borecki, I B and Loos, R J F and Wareham, N J and Vollenweider, P and Caporaso, N and Grabe, H J and Neuhouser, M L and Wolffenbuttel, B H R and Hu, F B and Hypponen, E and J{\"a}rvelin, M-R and Cupples, L A and Franks, P W and Ridker, P M and van Duijn, C M and Heiss, G and Metspalu, A and North, K E and Ingelsson, E and Nettleton, J A and van Dam, R M and Chasman, D I} } @article {6684, title = {Genome-wide studies of verbal declarative memory in nondemented older people: the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium.}, journal = {Biol Psychiatry}, volume = {77}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Apr 15}, pages = {749-63}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Memory performance in older persons can reflect genetic influences on cognitive function and dementing processes. We aimed to identify genetic contributions to verbal declarative memory in a community setting.

METHODS: We conducted genome-wide association studies for paragraph or word list delayed recall in 19 cohorts from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium, comprising 29,076 dementia- and stroke-free individuals of European descent, aged >=45 years. Replication of suggestive associations (p < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) was sought in 10,617 participants of European descent, 3811 African-Americans, and 1561 young adults.

RESULTS: rs4420638, near APOE, was associated with poorer delayed recall performance in discovery (p = 5.57 {\texttimes} 10(-10)) and replication cohorts (p = 5.65 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). This association was stronger for paragraph than word list delayed recall and in the oldest persons. Two associations with specific tests, in subsets of the total sample, reached genome-wide significance in combined analyses of discovery and replication (rs11074779 [HS3ST4], p = 3.11 {\texttimes} 10(-8), and rs6813517 [SPOCK3], p = 2.58 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) near genes involved in immune response. A genetic score combining 58 independent suggestive memory risk variants was associated with increasing Alzheimer disease pathology in 725 autopsy samples. Association of memory risk loci with gene expression in 138 human hippocampus samples showed cis-associations with WDR48 and CLDN5, both related to ubiquitin metabolism.

CONCLUSIONS: This largest study to date exploring the genetics of memory function in ~40,000 older individuals revealed genome-wide associations and suggested an involvement of immune and ubiquitin pathways.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Apolipoproteins E, Claudin-5, Cohort Studies, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Male, Memory Disorders, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proteins, Proteoglycans, Regression Analysis, Sulfotransferases, Verbal Learning}, issn = {1873-2402}, doi = {10.1016/j.biopsych.2014.08.027}, author = {Debette, Stephanie and Ibrahim Verbaas, Carla A and Bressler, Jan and Schuur, Maaike and Smith, Albert and Bis, Joshua C and Davies, Gail and Wolf, Christiane and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Chibnik, Lori B and Yang, Qiong and DeStefano, Anita L and de Quervain, Dominique J F and Srikanth, Velandai and Lahti, Jari and Grabe, Hans J and Smith, Jennifer A and Priebe, Lutz and Yu, Lei and Karbalai, Nazanin and Hayward, Caroline and Wilson, James F and Campbell, Harry and Petrovic, Katja and Fornage, Myriam and Chauhan, Ganesh and Yeo, Robin and Boxall, Ruth and Becker, James and Stegle, Oliver and Mather, Karen A and Chouraki, Vincent and Sun, Qi and Rose, Lynda M and Resnick, Susan and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Kirin, Mirna and Wright, Alan F and Jonsdottir, Maria K and Au, Rhoda and Becker, Albert and Amin, Najaf and Nalls, Mike A and Turner, Stephen T and Kardia, Sharon L R and Oostra, Ben and Windham, Gwen and Coker, Laura H and Zhao, Wei and Knopman, David S and Heiss, Gerardo and Griswold, Michael E and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Vitart, Veronique and Hastie, Nicholas D and Zgaga, Lina and Rudan, Igor and Polasek, Ozren and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Schofield, Peter and Choi, Seung Hoan and Tanaka, Toshiko and An, Yang and Perry, Rodney T and Kennedy, Richard E and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Wang, Jing and Wadley, Virginia G and Liewald, David C and Ridker, Paul M and Gow, Alan J and Pattie, Alison and Starr, John M and Porteous, David and Liu, Xuan and Thomson, Russell and Armstrong, Nicola J and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Assareh, Arezoo A and Kochan, Nicole A and Widen, Elisabeth and Palotie, Aarno and Hsieh, Yi-Chen and Eriksson, Johan G and Vogler, Christian and van Swieten, John C and Shulman, Joshua M and Beiser, Alexa and Rotter, Jerome and Schmidt, Carsten O and Hoffmann, Wolfgang and N{\"o}then, Markus M and Ferrucci, Luigi and Attia, John and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Amouyel, Philippe and Dartigues, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and Amieva, H{\'e}l{\`e}ne and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Garcia, Melissa and Wolf, Philip A and Hofman, Albert and Longstreth, W T and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric and DeJager, Philip L and Sachdev, Perminder S and Schmidt, Reinhold and Breteler, Monique M B and Teumer, Alexander and Lopez, Oscar L and Cichon, Sven and Chasman, Daniel I and Grodstein, Francine and M{\"u}ller-Myhsok, Bertram and Tzourio, Christophe and Papassotiropoulos, Andreas and Bennett, David A and Ikram, M Arfan and Deary, Ian J and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Launer, Lenore and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Seshadri, Sudha and Mosley, Thomas H} } @article {6550, title = {GWAS of longevity in CHARGE consortium confirms APOE and FOXO3 candidacy.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {70}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jan}, pages = {110-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The genetic contribution to longevity in humans has been estimated to range from 15\% to 25\%. Only two genes, APOE and FOXO3, have shown association with longevity in multiple independent studies.

METHODS: We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies including 6,036 longevity cases, age >=90 years, and 3,757 controls that died between ages 55 and 80 years. We additionally attempted to replicate earlier identified single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associations with longevity.

RESULTS: In our meta-analysis, we found suggestive evidence for the association of SNPs near CADM2 (odds ratio [OR] = 0.81; p value = 9.66 {\texttimes} 10(-7)) and GRIK2 (odds ratio = 1.24; p value = 5.09 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) with longevity. When attempting to replicate findings earlier identified in genome-wide association studies, only the APOE locus consistently replicated. In an additional look-up of the candidate gene FOXO3, we found that an earlier identified variant shows a highly significant association with longevity when including published data with our meta-analysis (odds ratio = 1.17; p value = 1.85{\texttimes}10(-10)).

CONCLUSIONS: We did not identify new genome-wide significant associations with longevity and did not replicate earlier findings except for APOE and FOXO3. Our inability to find new associations with survival to ages >=90 years because longevity represents multiple complex traits with heterogeneous genetic underpinnings, or alternatively, that longevity may be regulated by rare variants that are not captured by standard genome-wide genotyping and imputation of common variants.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Apolipoproteins E, Cell Adhesion Molecules, Cohort Studies, Female, Forkhead Box Protein O3, Forkhead Transcription Factors, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Longevity, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, Kainic Acid}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glu166}, author = {Broer, Linda and Buchman, Aron S and Deelen, Joris and Evans, Daniel S and Faul, Jessica D and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Sebastiani, Paola and Smith, Jennifer A and Smith, Albert V and Tanaka, Toshiko and Yu, Lei and Arnold, Alice M and Aspelund, Thor and Benjamin, Emelia J and De Jager, Philip L and Eirkisdottir, Gudny and Evans, Denis A and Garcia, Melissa E and Hofman, Albert and Kaplan, Robert C and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kiel, Douglas P and Oostra, Ben A and Orwoll, Eric S and Parimi, Neeta and Psaty, Bruce M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rotter, Jerome I and Seshadri, Sudha and Singleton, Andrew and Tiemeier, Henning and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Zhao, Wei and Bandinelli, Stefania and Bennett, David A and Ferrucci, Luigi and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Karasik, David and Launer, Lenore J and Perls, Thomas T and Slagboom, P Eline and Tranah, Gregory J and Weir, David R and Newman, Anne B and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Murabito, Joanne M} } @article {6614, title = {Habitual sleep duration is associated with BMI and macronutrient intake and may be modified by CLOCK genetic variants.}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {101}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jan}, pages = {135-43}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Short sleep duration has been associated with greater risks of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Also, common genetic variants in the human Circadian Locomotor Output Cycles Kaput (CLOCK) show associations with ghrelin and total energy intake.

OBJECTIVES: We examined associations between habitual sleep duration, body mass index (BMI), and macronutrient intake and assessed whether CLOCK variants modify these associations.

DESIGN: We conducted inverse-variance weighted, fixed-effect meta-analyses of results of adjusted associations of sleep duration and BMI and macronutrient intake as percentages of total energy as well as interactions with CLOCK variants from 9 cohort studies including up to 14,906 participants of European descent from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium.

RESULTS: We observed a significant association between sleep duration and lower BMI (β {\textpm} SE = 0.16 {\textpm} 0.04, P < 0.0001) in the overall sample; however, associations between sleep duration and relative macronutrient intake were evident in age- and sex-stratified analyses only. We observed a significant association between sleep duration and lower saturated fatty acid intake in younger (aged 20-64 y) adults (men: 0.11 {\textpm} 0.06\%, P = 0.03; women: 0.10 {\textpm} 0.05\%, P = 0.04) and with lower carbohydrate (-0.31 {\textpm} 0.12\%, P < 0.01), higher total fat (0.18 {\textpm} 0.09\%, P = 0.05), and higher PUFA (0.05 {\textpm} 0.02\%, P = 0.02) intakes in older (aged 65-80 y) women. In addition, the following 2 nominally significant interactions were observed: between sleep duration and rs12649507 on PUFA intake and between sleep duration and rs6858749 on protein intake.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that longer habitual sleep duration is associated with lower BMI and age- and sex-specific favorable dietary behaviors. Differences in the relative intake of specific macronutrients associated with short sleep duration could, at least in part, explain previously reported associations between short sleep duration and chronic metabolic abnormalities. In addition, the influence of obesity-associated CLOCK variants on the association between sleep duration and macronutrient intake suggests that longer habitual sleep duration could ameliorate the genetic predisposition to obesity via a favorable dietary profile.

}, keywords = {Adult, Body Mass Index, CLOCK Proteins, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diet, Dietary Proteins, Energy Intake, European Continental Ancestry Group, Fatty Acids, Unsaturated, Female, Gene-Environment Interaction, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sleep, Young Adult}, issn = {1938-3207}, doi = {10.3945/ajcn.114.095026}, author = {Dashti, Hassan S and Follis, Jack L and Smith, Caren E and Tanaka, Toshiko and Cade, Brian E and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Hruby, Adela and Jacques, Paul F and Lamon-Fava, Stefania and Richardson, Kris and Saxena, Richa and Scheer, Frank A J L and Kovanen, Leena and Bartz, Traci M and Per{\"a}l{\"a}, Mia-Maria and Jonsson, Anna and Frazier-Wood, Alexis C and Kalafati, Ioanna-Panagiota and Mikkil{\"a}, Vera and Partonen, Timo and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Lahti, Jari and Hernandez, Dena G and Toft, Ulla and Johnson, W Craig and Kanoni, Stavroula and Raitakari, Olli T and Perola, Markus and Psaty, Bruce M and Ferrucci, Luigi and Grarup, Niels and Highland, Heather M and Rallidis, Loukianos and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Havulinna, Aki S and Siscovick, David S and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Rotter, Jerome I and Deloukas, Panos and Viikari, Jorma S A and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Linneberg, Allan and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, Ilkka and Hansen, Torben and Salomaa, Veikko and Gharib, Sina A and Eriksson, Johan G and Bandinelli, Stefania and Pedersen, Oluf and Rich, Stephen S and Dedoussis, George and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Ordovas, Jose M} } @article {6801, title = {Higher circulating adiponectin levels are associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation in older adults.}, journal = {Heart}, volume = {101}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Sep}, pages = {1368-74}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Adiponectin has cardioprotective properties, suggesting that lower levels seen in obesity and diabetes could heighten risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). Among older adults, however, higher adiponectin has been linked to greater incidence of adverse outcomes associated with AF, although recent reports have shown this association to be U-shaped. We postulated that higher adiponectin would be linked to increased risk for AF in older adults in a U-shaped manner.

METHODS: We examined the associations of total and high-molecular-weight (HMW) adiponectin with incident AF among individuals free of prevalent cardiovascular disease (CVD) participating in a population-based cohort study of older adults (n=3190; age=74{\textpm}5 years).

RESULTS: During median follow-up of 11.4 years, there were 886 incident AF events. Adjusted cubic splines showed a positive and linear association between adiponectin and incident AF. After adjusting for potential confounders, including amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide 1-76, the HR (95\% CI) for AF per SD increase in total adiponectin was 1.14 (1.05 to 1.24), while that for HMW adiponectin was 1.17 (1.08 to 1.27). Additional adjustment for putative mediators, including subclinical CVD, diabetes, lipids and inflammation, did not significantly affect these estimates.

CONCLUSIONS: The present findings demonstrate that higher, not lower, levels of adiponectin are independently associated with increased risk of AF in older adults despite its documented cardiometabolic benefits. Additional work is necessary to determine if adiponectin is a marker of failed counter-regulatory pathways or whether this hormone is directly harmful in the setting of or as a result of advanced age.

}, keywords = {Adiponectin, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Atrial Fibrillation, Biomarkers, Female, Humans, Incidence, Linear Models, Male, Multivariate Analysis, Natriuretic Peptide, Brain, Peptide Fragments, Prognosis, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Time Factors, United States, Up-Regulation}, issn = {1468-201X}, doi = {10.1136/heartjnl-2014-307015}, author = {Macheret, Fima and Bartz, Traci M and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Ix, Joachim H and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Zieman, Susan J and Siscovick, David S and Tracy, Russell P and Heckbert, Susan R and Psaty, Bruce M and Kizer, Jorge R} } @article {6863, title = {HMG-coenzyme A reductase inhibition, type 2 diabetes, and bodyweight: evidence from genetic analysis and randomised trials.}, journal = {Lancet}, volume = {385}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jan 24}, pages = {351-61}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Statins increase the risk of new-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus. We aimed to assess whether this increase in risk is a consequence of inhibition of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGCR), the intended drug target.

METHODS: We used single nucleotide polymorphisms in the HMGCR gene, rs17238484 (for the main analysis) and rs12916 (for a subsidiary analysis) as proxies for HMGCR inhibition by statins. We examined associations of these variants with plasma lipid, glucose, and insulin concentrations; bodyweight; waist circumference; and prevalent and incident type 2 diabetes. Study-specific effect estimates per copy of each LDL-lowering allele were pooled by meta-analysis. These findings were compared with a meta-analysis of new-onset type 2 diabetes and bodyweight change data from randomised trials of statin drugs. The effects of statins in each randomised trial were assessed using meta-analysis.

FINDINGS: Data were available for up to 223 463 individuals from 43 genetic studies. Each additional rs17238484-G allele was associated with a mean 0{\textperiodcentered}06 mmol/L (95\% CI 0{\textperiodcentered}05-0{\textperiodcentered}07) lower LDL cholesterol and higher body weight (0{\textperiodcentered}30 kg, 0{\textperiodcentered}18-0{\textperiodcentered}43), waist circumference (0{\textperiodcentered}32 cm, 0{\textperiodcentered}16-0{\textperiodcentered}47), plasma insulin concentration (1{\textperiodcentered}62\%, 0{\textperiodcentered}53-2{\textperiodcentered}72), and plasma glucose concentration (0{\textperiodcentered}23\%, 0{\textperiodcentered}02-0{\textperiodcentered}44). The rs12916 SNP had similar effects on LDL cholesterol, bodyweight, and waist circumference. The rs17238484-G allele seemed to be associated with higher risk of type 2 diabetes (odds ratio [OR] per allele 1{\textperiodcentered}02, 95\% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}00-1{\textperiodcentered}05); the rs12916-T allele association was consistent (1{\textperiodcentered}06, 1{\textperiodcentered}03-1{\textperiodcentered}09). In 129 170 individuals in randomised trials, statins lowered LDL cholesterol by 0{\textperiodcentered}92 mmol/L (95\% CI 0{\textperiodcentered}18-1{\textperiodcentered}67) at 1-year of follow-up, increased bodyweight by 0{\textperiodcentered}24 kg (95\% CI 0{\textperiodcentered}10-0{\textperiodcentered}38 in all trials; 0{\textperiodcentered}33 kg, 95\% CI 0{\textperiodcentered}24-0{\textperiodcentered}42 in placebo or standard care controlled trials and -0{\textperiodcentered}15 kg, 95\% CI -0{\textperiodcentered}39 to 0{\textperiodcentered}08 in intensive-dose vs moderate-dose trials) at a mean of 4{\textperiodcentered}2 years (range 1{\textperiodcentered}9-6{\textperiodcentered}7) of follow-up, and increased the odds of new-onset type 2 diabetes (OR 1{\textperiodcentered}12, 95\% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}06-1{\textperiodcentered}18 in all trials; 1{\textperiodcentered}11, 95\% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}03-1{\textperiodcentered}20 in placebo or standard care controlled trials and 1{\textperiodcentered}12, 95\% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}04-1{\textperiodcentered}22 in intensive-dose vs moderate dose trials).

INTERPRETATION: The increased risk of type 2 diabetes noted with statins is at least partially explained by HMGCR inhibition.

FUNDING: The funding sources are cited at the end of the paper.

}, keywords = {Aged, Body Mass Index, Body Weight, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Female, Genetic Testing, Humans, Hydroxymethylglutaryl CoA Reductases, Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Risk Factors}, issn = {1474-547X}, doi = {10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61183-1}, author = {Swerdlow, Daniel I and Preiss, David and Kuchenbaecker, Karoline B and Holmes, Michael V and Engmann, Jorgen E L and Shah, Tina and Sofat, Reecha and Stender, Stefan and Johnson, Paul C D and Scott, Robert A and Leusink, Maarten and Verweij, Niek and Sharp, Stephen J and Guo, Yiran and Giambartolomei, Claudia and Chung, Christina and Peasey, Anne and Amuzu, Antoinette and Li, KaWah and Palmen, Jutta and Howard, Philip and Cooper, Jackie A and Drenos, Fotios and Li, Yun R and Lowe, Gordon and Gallacher, John and Stewart, Marlene C W and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Buxbaum, Sarah G and van der A, Daphne L and Forouhi, Nita G and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Schnabel, Renate B and Hubacek, Jaroslav A and Kubinova, Ruzena and Baceviciene, Migle and Tamosiunas, Abdonas and Pajak, Andrzej and Topor-Madry, Roman and Stepaniak, Urszula and Malyutina, Sofia and Baldassarre, Damiano and Sennblad, Bengt and Tremoli, Elena and de Faire, Ulf and Veglia, Fabrizio and Ford, Ian and Jukema, J Wouter and Westendorp, Rudi G J and de Borst, Gert Jan and de Jong, Pim A and Algra, Ale and Spiering, Wilko and Maitland-van der Zee, Anke H and Klungel, Olaf H and de Boer, Anthonius and Doevendans, Pieter A and Eaton, Charles B and Robinson, Jennifer G and Duggan, David and Kjekshus, John and Downs, John R and Gotto, Antonio M and Keech, Anthony C and Marchioli, Roberto and Tognoni, Gianni and Sever, Peter S and Poulter, Neil R and Waters, David D and Pedersen, Terje R and Amarenco, Pierre and Nakamura, Haruo and McMurray, John J V and Lewsey, James D and Chasman, Daniel I and Ridker, Paul M and Maggioni, Aldo P and Tavazzi, Luigi and Ray, Kausik K and Seshasai, Sreenivasa Rao Kondapally and Manson, JoAnn E and Price, Jackie F and Whincup, Peter H and Morris, Richard W and Lawlor, Debbie A and Smith, George Davey and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Schreiner, Pamela J and Fornage, Myriam and Siscovick, David S and Cushman, Mary and Kumari, Meena and Wareham, Nick J and Verschuren, W M Monique and Redline, Susan and Patel, Sanjay R and Whittaker, John C and Hamsten, Anders and Delaney, Joseph A and Dale, Caroline and Gaunt, Tom R and Wong, Andrew and Kuh, Diana and Hardy, Rebecca and Kathiresan, Sekar and Castillo, Berta A and van der Harst, Pim and Brunner, Eric J and Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne and Marmot, Michael G and Krauss, Ronald M and Tsai, Michael and Coresh, Josef and Hoogeveen, Ronald C and Psaty, Bruce M and Lange, Leslie A and Hakonarson, Hakon and Dudbridge, Frank and Humphries, Steve E and Talmud, Philippa J and Kivimaki, Mika and Timpson, Nicholas J and Langenberg, Claudia and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Voevoda, Mikhail and Bobak, Martin and Pikhart, Hynek and Wilson, James G and Reiner, Alex P and Keating, Brendan J and Hingorani, Aroon D and Sattar, Naveed} } @article {6860, title = {Integrative pathway genomics of lung function and airflow obstruction.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {24}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Dec 1}, pages = {6836-48}, abstract = {

Chronic respiratory disorders are important contributors to the global burden of disease. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of lung function measures have identified several trait-associated loci, but explain only a modest portion of the phenotypic variability. We postulated that integrating pathway-based methods with GWASs of pulmonary function and airflow obstruction would identify a broader repertoire of genes and processes influencing these traits. We performed two independent GWASs of lung function and applied gene set enrichment analysis to one of the studies and validated the results using the second GWAS. We identified 131 significantly enriched gene sets associated with lung function and clustered them into larger biological modules involved in diverse processes including development, immunity, cell signaling, proliferation and arachidonic acid. We found that enrichment of gene sets was not driven by GWAS-significant variants or loci, but instead by those with less stringent association P-values. Next, we applied pathway enrichment analysis to a meta-analyzed GWAS of airflow obstruction. We identified several biologic modules that functionally overlapped with those associated with pulmonary function. However, differences were also noted, including enrichment of extracellular matrix (ECM) processes specifically in the airflow obstruction study. Network analysis of the ECM module implicated a candidate gene, matrix metalloproteinase 10 (MMP10), as a putative disease target. We used a knockout mouse model to functionally validate MMP10{\textquoteright}s role in influencing lung{\textquoteright}s susceptibility to cigarette smoke-induced emphysema. By integrating pathway analysis with population-based genomics, we unraveled biologic processes underlying pulmonary function traits and identified a candidate gene for obstructive lung disease.

}, keywords = {Airway Obstruction, Animals, Cell Proliferation, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Humans, Immune System, Lung, Male, Metabolic Networks and Pathways, Mice, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Signal Transduction}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddv378}, author = {Gharib, Sina A and Loth, Daan W and Soler Artigas, Maria and Birkland, Timothy P and Wilk, Jemma B and Wain, Louise V and Brody, Jennifer A and Obeidat, Ma{\textquoteright}en and Hancock, Dana B and Tang, Wenbo and Rawal, Rajesh and Boezen, H Marike and Imboden, Medea and Huffman, Jennifer E and Lahousse, Lies and Alves, Alexessander C and Manichaikul, Ani and Hui, Jennie and Morrison, Alanna C and Ramasamy, Adaikalavan and Smith, Albert Vernon and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Surakka, Ida and Vitart, Veronique and Evans, David M and Strachan, David P and Deary, Ian J and Hofman, Albert and Gl{\"a}ser, Sven and Wilson, James F and North, Kari E and Zhao, Jing Hua and Heckbert, Susan R and Jarvis, Deborah L and Probst-Hensch, Nicole and Schulz, Holger and Barr, R Graham and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Cassano, Patricia A and Hysi, Pirro G and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Hayward, Caroline and Psaty, Bruce M and Hall, Ian P and Parks, William C and Tobin, Martin D and London, Stephanie J} } @article {6686, title = {Low-frequency and rare exome chip variants associate with fasting glucose and type 2 diabetes susceptibility.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {6}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {5897}, abstract = {

Fasting glucose and insulin are intermediate traits for type 2 diabetes. Here we explore the role of coding variation on these traits by analysis of variants on the HumanExome BeadChip in 60,564 non-diabetic individuals and in 16,491 T2D cases and 81,877 controls. We identify a novel association of a low-frequency nonsynonymous SNV in GLP1R (A316T; rs10305492; MAF=1.4\%) with lower FG (β=-0.09{\textpm}0.01 mmol l(-1), P=3.4 {\texttimes} 10(-12)), T2D risk (OR[95\%CI]=0.86[0.76-0.96], P=0.010), early insulin secretion (β=-0.07{\textpm}0.035 pmolinsulin mmolglucose(-1), P=0.048), but higher 2-h glucose (β=0.16{\textpm}0.05 mmol l(-1), P=4.3 {\texttimes} 10(-4)). We identify a gene-based association with FG at G6PC2 (pSKAT=6.8 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) driven by four rare protein-coding SNVs (H177Y, Y207S, R283X and S324P). We identify rs651007 (MAF=20\%) in the first intron of ABO at the putative promoter of an antisense lncRNA, associating with higher FG (β=0.02{\textpm}0.004 mmol l(-1), P=1.3 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Our approach identifies novel coding variant associations and extends the allelic spectrum of variation underlying diabetes-related quantitative traits and T2D susceptibility.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Blood Glucose, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exome, Fasting, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor, Glucose-6-Phosphatase, Humans, Insulin, Mutation Rate, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms6897}, author = {Wessel, Jennifer and Chu, Audrey Y and Willems, Sara M and Wang, Shuai and Yaghootkar, Hanieh and Brody, Jennifer A and Dauriz, Marco and Hivert, Marie-France and Raghavan, Sridharan and Lipovich, Leonard and Hidalgo, Bertha and Fox, Keolu and Huffman, Jennifer E and An, Ping and Lu, Yingchang and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Grarup, Niels and Ehm, Margaret G and Li, Li and Baldridge, Abigail S and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Abrol, Ravinder and Besse, C{\'e}line and Boland, Anne and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Fornage, Myriam and Freitag, Daniel F and Garcia, Melissa E and Guo, Xiuqing and Hara, Kazuo and Isaacs, Aaron and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Lange, Leslie A and Layton, Jill C and Li, Man and Hua Zhao, Jing and Meidtner, Karina and Morrison, Alanna C and Nalls, Mike A and Peters, Marjolein J and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Schurmann, Claudia and Silveira, Angela and Smith, Albert V and Southam, Lorraine and Stoiber, Marcus H and Strawbridge, Rona J and Taylor, Kent D and Varga, Tibor V and Allin, Kristine H and Amin, Najaf and Aponte, Jennifer L and Aung, Tin and Barbieri, Caterina and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and Boehnke, Michael and Bombieri, Cristina and Bowden, Donald W and Burns, Sean M and Chen, Yuning and Chen, Yii-DerI and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Correa, Adolfo and Czajkowski, Jacek and Dehghan, Abbas and Ehret, Georg B and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Escher, Stefan A and Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni and Fr{\r a}nberg, Mattias and Gambaro, Giovanni and Giulianini, Franco and Goddard, William A and Goel, Anuj and Gottesman, Omri and Grove, Megan L and Gustafsson, Stefan and Hai, Yang and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Heo, Jiyoung and Hoffmann, Per and Ikram, Mohammad K and Jensen, Richard A and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Karaleftheri, Maria and Khor, Chiea C and Kirkpatrick, Andrea and Kraja, Aldi T and Kuusisto, Johanna and Lange, Ethan M and Lee, I T and Lee, Wen-Jane and Leong, Aaron and Liao, Jiemin and Liu, Chunyu and Liu, Yongmei and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Linneberg, Allan and Malerba, Giovanni and Mamakou, Vasiliki and Marouli, Eirini and Maruthur, Nisa M and Matchan, Angela and McKean-Cowdin, Roberta and McLeod, Olga and Metcalf, Ginger A and Mohlke, Karen L and Muzny, Donna M and Ntalla, Ioanna and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pasko, Dorota and Peter, Andreas and Rayner, Nigel W and Renstrom, Frida and Rice, Ken and Sala, Cinzia F and Sennblad, Bengt and Serafetinidis, Ioannis and Smith, Jennifer A and Soranzo, Nicole and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Stahl, Eli A and Stirrups, Kathleen and Tentolouris, Nikos and Thanopoulou, Anastasia and Torres, Mina and Traglia, Michela and Tsafantakis, Emmanouil and Javad, Sundas and Yanek, Lisa R and Zengini, Eleni and Becker, Diane M and Bis, Joshua C and Brown, James B and Cupples, L Adrienne and Hansen, Torben and Ingelsson, Erik and Karter, Andrew J and Lorenzo, Carlos and Mathias, Rasika A and Norris, Jill M and Peloso, Gina M and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Toniolo, Daniela and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Varma, Rohit and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Boeing, Heiner and Bottinger, Erwin P and Dedoussis, George and Deloukas, Panos and Ferrannini, Ele and Franco, Oscar H and Franks, Paul W and Gibbs, Richard A and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hamsten, Anders and Harris, Tamara B and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hayward, Caroline and Hofman, Albert and Jansson, Jan-H{\r a}kan and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Levy, Daniel and Oostra, Ben A and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and O{\textquoteright}Rahilly, Stephen and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Pankow, James S and Polasek, Ozren and Province, Michael A and Rich, Stephen S and Ridker, Paul M and Rudan, Igor and Schulze, Matthias B and Smith, Blair H and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Walker, Mark and Watkins, Hugh and Wong, Tien Y and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Laakso, Markku and Borecki, Ingrid B and Chasman, Daniel I and Pedersen, Oluf and Psaty, Bruce M and Tai, E Shyong and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Wareham, Nicholas J and Waterworth, Dawn M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Kao, W H Linda and Florez, Jose C and Loos, Ruth J F and Wilson, James G and Frayling, Timothy M and Siscovick, David S and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Rotter, Jerome I and Meigs, James B and Scott, Robert A and Goodarzi, Mark O} } @article {6826, title = {LV Mass as a Predictor of CVD Events in~Older Adults With and Without Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes.}, journal = {JACC Cardiovasc Imaging}, volume = {8}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Sep}, pages = {1007-15}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine the prognostic significance of left ventricular (LV) mass for cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in older adults with and without metabolic syndrome (MetS) and diabetes mellitus (DM).

BACKGROUND: MetS and DM are associated with increased CVD risk, but it is unclear in these groups whether subclinical CVD as shown by increased LV mass improves risk prediction compared to standard risk factors in older individuals.

METHODS: We studied 3,724 adults (mean 72.4 {\textpm} 5.4 years of age, 61.0\% female, 4.4\% African-American) from the Cardiovascular Health Study who had MetS but not DM or had DM alone or had neither condition. Cox regression was used to examine the association of LV mass, (alone and indexed by height and body surface area [BSA]) as determined by echocardiography, with CVD events, including coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, heart failure (HF), and CVD death, as well as total mortality. We also assessed the added prediction, discriminative value, and net reclassification improvement (NRI) for clinical utility of LV mass compared to standard risk factors.

RESULTS: Over a mean follow-up of 14.2 {\textpm} 6.3 years, 2,180 subjects experienced CVD events, including 986 CVD deaths. After adjustment for age, sex and standard risk factors, LV mass was positively associated with CVD events in those with MetS (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.4, p~< 0.001) and without MetS (HR: 1.4, p~< 0.001), but not DM (HR: 1.0, p~= 0.62), with similar findings for LV mass indexed for height or BSA. Adding LV mass to standard risk factors moderately improved the prediction accuracy in the overall sample and MetS group from changes in C-statistics (p~< 0.05). Categorical-free net reclassification improvement increased significantly by 17\% to 19\% in those with MetS. Findings were comparable for CHD, CVD mortality, and total mortality.

CONCLUSIONS: LV mass is associated with increased CVD risk and provides modest added prediction and clinical utility compared to standard risk factors in older persons with and without MetS but not with DM.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Comorbidity, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Heart Ventricles, Humans, Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular, Logistic Models, Male, Metabolic Syndrome X, Prognosis, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Time Factors, United States}, issn = {1876-7591}, doi = {10.1016/j.jcmg.2015.04.019}, author = {Hoang, Khiet and Zhao, Yanglu and Gardin, Julius M and Carnethon, Mercedes and Mukamal, Ken and Yanez, David and Wong, Nathan D} } @article {6568, title = {Mendelian randomization of blood lipids for coronary heart disease.}, journal = {Eur Heart J}, volume = {36}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Mar 01}, pages = {539-50}, abstract = {

AIMS: To investigate the causal role of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglycerides in coronary heart disease (CHD) using multiple instrumental variables for Mendelian randomization.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We developed weighted allele scores based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with established associations with HDL-C, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). For each trait, we constructed two scores. The first was unrestricted, including all independent SNPs associated with the lipid trait identified from a prior meta-analysis (threshold P < 2 {\texttimes} 10(-6)); and the second a restricted score, filtered to remove any SNPs also associated with either of the other two lipid traits at P <= 0.01. Mendelian randomization meta-analyses were conducted in 17 studies including 62,199 participants and 12,099 CHD events. Both the unrestricted and restricted allele scores for LDL-C (42 and 19 SNPs, respectively) associated with CHD. For HDL-C, the unrestricted allele score (48 SNPs) was associated with CHD (OR: 0.53; 95\% CI: 0.40, 0.70), per 1 mmol/L higher HDL-C, but neither the restricted allele score (19 SNPs; OR: 0.91; 95\% CI: 0.42, 1.98) nor the unrestricted HDL-C allele score adjusted for triglycerides, LDL-C, or statin use (OR: 0.81; 95\% CI: 0.44, 1.46) showed a robust association. For triglycerides, the unrestricted allele score (67 SNPs) and the restricted allele score (27 SNPs) were both associated with CHD (OR: 1.62; 95\% CI: 1.24, 2.11 and 1.61; 95\% CI: 1.00, 2.59, respectively) per 1-log unit increment. However, the unrestricted triglyceride score adjusted for HDL-C, LDL-C, and statin use gave an OR for CHD of 1.01 (95\% CI: 0.59, 1.75).

CONCLUSION: The genetic findings support a causal effect of triglycerides on CHD risk, but a causal role for HDL-C, though possible, remains less certain.

}, keywords = {Case-Control Studies, Cholesterol, HDL, Coronary Artery Disease, Female, Gene Frequency, Genotype, Genotyping Techniques, Humans, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Assessment, Triglycerides}, issn = {1522-9645}, doi = {10.1093/eurheartj/eht571}, author = {Holmes, Michael V and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Palmer, Tom M and Drenos, Fotios and Lanktree, Matthew B and Nelson, Christopher P and Dale, Caroline E and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Finan, Chris and Swerdlow, Daniel I and Tragante, Vinicius and van Iperen, Erik P A and Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh and Shah, Sonia and Elbers, Clara C and Shah, Tina and Engmann, Jorgen and Giambartolomei, Claudia and White, Jon and Zabaneh, Delilah and Sofat, Reecha and McLachlan, Stela and Doevendans, Pieter A and Balmforth, Anthony J and Hall, Alistair S and North, Kari E and Almoguera, Berta and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Cushman, Mary and Fornage, Myriam and Patel, Sanjay R and Redline, Susan and Siscovick, David S and Tsai, Michael Y and Karczewski, Konrad J and Hofker, Marten H and Verschuren, W Monique and Bots, Michiel L and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Melander, Olle and Dominiczak, Anna F and Morris, Richard and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Price, Jackie and Kumari, Meena and Baumert, Jens and Peters, Annette and Thorand, Barbara and Koenig, Wolfgang and Gaunt, Tom R and Humphries, Steve E and Clarke, Robert and Watkins, Hugh and Farrall, Martin and Wilson, James G and Rich, Stephen S and de Bakker, Paul I W and Lange, Leslie A and Davey Smith, George and Reiner, Alex P and Talmud, Philippa J and Kivimaki, Mika and Lawlor, Debbie A and Dudbridge, Frank and Samani, Nilesh J and Keating, Brendan J and Hingorani, Aroon D and Casas, Juan P} } @article {6681, title = {Meta-analysis of 65,734 individuals identifies TSPAN15 and SLC44A2 as two susceptibility loci for venous thromboembolism.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {96}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Apr 2}, pages = {532-42}, abstract = {

Venous thromboembolism (VTE), the third leading cause of cardiovascular mortality, is a complex thrombotic disorder with environmental and genetic determinants. Although several genetic variants have been found associated with VTE, they explain a minor proportion of VTE risk in cases. We undertook a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) to identify additional VTE susceptibility genes. Twelve GWASs totaling 7,507 VTE case subjects and 52,632 control subjects formed our discovery stage where 6,751,884 SNPs were tested for association with VTE. Nine loci reached the genome-wide significance level of 5~{\texttimes} 10(-8) including six already known to associate with VTE (ABO, F2, F5, F11, FGG, and PROCR) and three unsuspected loci. SNPs mapping to these latter were selected for replication in three independent case-control studies totaling 3,009 VTE-affected individuals and 2,586 control subjects. This strategy led to the identification and replication of two VTE-associated loci, TSPAN15 and SLC44A2, with lead risk alleles associated with odds ratio for disease of 1.31 (p = 1.67~{\texttimes} 10(-16)) and 1.21 (p = 2.75~{\texttimes} 10(-15)), respectively. The lead SNP at the TSPAN15 locus is the intronic rs78707713 and the lead SLC44A2 SNP is the non-synonymous rs2288904 previously shown to associate with transfusion-related acute lung injury. We further showed that these two variants did not associate with known hemostatic plasma markers. TSPAN15 and SLC44A2 do not belong to conventional pathways for thrombosis and have not been associated to other cardiovascular diseases nor related quantitative biomarkers. Our findings uncovered unexpected actors of VTE etiology and pave the way for novel mechanistic concepts of VTE pathophysiology.

}, keywords = {Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Membrane Glycoproteins, Membrane Transport Proteins, Odds Ratio, Tetraspanins, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2015.01.019}, author = {Germain, Marine and Chasman, Daniel I and de Haan, Hugoline and Tang, Weihong and Lindstr{\"o}m, Sara and Weng, Lu-Chen and de Andrade, Mariza and de Visser, Marieke C H and Wiggins, Kerri L and Suchon, Pierre and Saut, No{\'e}mie and Smadja, David M and Le Gal, Gr{\'e}goire and van Hylckama Vlieg, Astrid and Di Narzo, Antonio and Hao, Ke and Nelson, Christopher P and Rocanin-Arjo, Ares and Folkersen, Lasse and Monajemi, Ramin and Rose, Lynda M and Brody, Jennifer A and Slagboom, Eline and A{\"\i}ssi, Dylan and Gagnon, France and Deleuze, Jean-Francois and Deloukas, Panos and Tzourio, Christophe and Dartigues, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and Berr, Claudine and Taylor, Kent D and Civelek, Mete and Eriksson, Per and Psaty, Bruce M and Houwing-Duitermaat, Jeanine and Goodall, Alison H and Cambien, Francois and Kraft, Peter and Amouyel, Philippe and Samani, Nilesh J and Basu, Saonli and Ridker, Paul M and Rosendaal, Frits R and Kabrhel, Christopher and Folsom, Aaron R and Heit, John and Reitsma, Pieter H and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Smith, Nicholas L and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel} } @article {6683, title = {Multiethnic genome-wide association study of cerebral white matter hyperintensities on MRI.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {8}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Apr}, pages = {398-409}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The burden of cerebral white matter hyperintensities (WMH) is associated with an increased risk of stroke, dementia, and death. WMH are highly heritable, but their genetic underpinnings are incompletely characterized. To identify novel genetic variants influencing WMH burden, we conducted a meta-analysis of multiethnic genome-wide association studies.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We included 21 079 middle-aged to elderly individuals from 29 population-based cohorts, who were free of dementia and stroke and were of European (n=17 936), African (n=1943), Hispanic (n=795), and Asian (n=405) descent. WMH burden was quantified on MRI either by a validated automated segmentation method or a validated visual grading scale. Genotype data in each study were imputed to the 1000 Genomes reference. Within each ethnic group, we investigated the relationship between each single-nucleotide polymorphism and WMH burden using a linear regression model adjusted for age, sex, intracranial volume, and principal components of ancestry. A meta-analysis was conducted for each ethnicity separately and for the combined sample. In the European descent samples, we confirmed a previously known locus on chr17q25 (P=2.7{\texttimes}10(-19)) and identified novel loci on chr10q24 (P=1.6{\texttimes}10(-9)) and chr2p21 (P=4.4{\texttimes}10(-8)). In the multiethnic meta-analysis, we identified 2 additional loci, on chr1q22 (P=2.0{\texttimes}10(-8)) and chr2p16 (P=1.5{\texttimes}10(-8)). The novel loci contained genes that have been implicated in Alzheimer disease (chr2p21 and chr10q24), intracerebral hemorrhage (chr1q22), neuroinflammatory diseases (chr2p21), and glioma (chr10q24 and chr2p16).

CONCLUSIONS: We identified 4 novel genetic loci that implicate inflammatory and glial proliferative pathways in the development of WMH in addition to previously proposed ischemic mechanisms.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Chromosomes, Human, Continental Population Groups, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Middle Aged, Models, Genetic, Stroke, White Matter}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.114.000858}, author = {Verhaaren, Benjamin F J and Debette, Stephanie and Bis, Joshua C and Smith, Jennifer A and Ikram, M Kamran and Adams, Hieab H and Beecham, Ashley H and Rajan, Kumar B and Lopez, Lorna M and Barral, Sandra and van Buchem, Mark A and van der Grond, Jeroen and Smith, Albert V and Hegenscheid, Katrin and Aggarwal, Neelum T and de Andrade, Mariza and Atkinson, Elizabeth J and Beekman, Marian and Beiser, Alexa S and Blanton, Susan H and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brickman, Adam M and Bryan, R Nick and Chauhan, Ganesh and Chen, Christopher P L H and Chouraki, Vincent and de Craen, Anton J M and Crivello, Fabrice and Deary, Ian J and Deelen, Joris and De Jager, Philip L and Dufouil, Carole and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Evans, Denis A and Freudenberger, Paul and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Gu{\dh}nason, Vilmundur and Habes, Mohamad and Heckbert, Susan R and Heiss, Gerardo and Hilal, Saima and Hofer, Edith and Hofman, Albert and Ibrahim-Verbaas, Carla A and Knopman, David S and Lewis, Cora E and Liao, Jiemin and Liewald, David C M and Luciano, Michelle and van der Lugt, Aad and Martinez, Oliver O and Mayeux, Richard and Mazoyer, Bernard and Nalls, Mike and Nauck, Matthias and Niessen, Wiro J and Oostra, Ben A and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Kenneth M and Rotter, Jerome I and von Sarnowski, Bettina and Schmidt, Helena and Schreiner, Pamela J and Schuur, Maaike and Sidney, Stephen S and Sigurdsson, Sigurdur and Slagboom, P Eline and Stott, David J M and van Swieten, John C and Teumer, Alexander and T{\"o}glhofer, Anna Maria and Traylor, Matthew and Trompet, Stella and Turner, Stephen T and Tzourio, Christophe and Uh, Hae-Won and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vernooij, Meike W and Wang, Jing J and Wong, Tien Y and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Windham, B Gwen and Wittfeld, Katharina and Wolf, Christiane and Wright, Clinton B and Yang, Qiong and Zhao, Wei and Zijdenbos, Alex and Jukema, J Wouter and Sacco, Ralph L and Kardia, Sharon L R and Amouyel, Philippe and Mosley, Thomas H and Longstreth, W T and DeCarli, Charles C and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Schmidt, Reinhold and Launer, Lenore J and Grabe, Hans J and Seshadri, Sudha S and Ikram, M Arfan and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {6596, title = {Multisystem physiologic impairments and changes in gait speed of older adults.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {70}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Mar}, pages = {319-24}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Slowed gait is an important health indicator in older adults but a single identifiable cause is often lacking. We assessed whether a summary index measuring impairments across multiple physiologic systems was associated with slowed gait in older individuals.

METHODS: Data from the Cardiovascular Health Study (n = 3,010) were used to assess associations between baseline physiologic index (measuring vasculature, brain, kidneys, lungs, and glucose metabolism; range 0-10 with 0-2 points/system and lower score indicating higher function) and annual gait speed (m/s) over 6 years. Participants with complete data on the physiologic index and at least two gait speed measures were included. Mean gait speed and 95\% confidence intervals (CI) by category of index were calculated using mixed effects models.

RESULTS: Those with scores of three or higher on the index had significantly slower gait speed at baseline compared to those with scores of 0-2 (7-10: mean speed = 0.83 m/s, 95\% CI: 0.80, 0.84; 0-2: mean speed = 1.01 m/s, 95\% CI: 0.99, 1.03). Those with higher indices also had faster decline in gait speed compared to those with lower scores after adjustment for demographic and health characteristics (7-10: change in speed = -0.020 m/s/year, 95\% CI: -0.024, -0.016; 0-2: change in speed= -0.010 m/s/year, 95\% CI: -0.014, -0.006).

CONCLUSIONS: Greater impairment across five organ systems was associated with slower gait speed and greater declines in gait speed over 6 years. Impairments accumulated over multiple physiologic systems may make older adults more vulnerable to slow gait speed.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Brain, Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena, Cohort Studies, Female, Gait, Geriatric Assessment, Glucose, Health Status Indicators, Humans, Kidney, Lung, Male, Sensitivity and Specificity, Time Factors}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glu176}, author = {Rosso, Andrea L and Sanders, Jason L and Arnold, Alice M and Boudreau, Robert M and Hirsch, Calvin H and Carlson, Michelle C and Rosano, Caterina and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Newman, Anne B} } @article {6566, title = {Novel loci associated with usual sleep duration: the CHARGE Consortium Genome-Wide Association Study.}, journal = {Mol Psychiatry}, volume = {20}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Oct}, pages = {1232-9}, abstract = {

Usual sleep duration is a heritable trait correlated with psychiatric morbidity, cardiometabolic disease and mortality, although little is known about the genetic variants influencing this trait. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) of usual sleep duration was conducted using 18 population-based cohorts totaling 47 180 individuals of European ancestry. Genome-wide significant association was identified at two loci. The strongest is located on chromosome 2, in an intergenic region 35- to 80-kb upstream from the thyroid-specific transcription factor PAX8 (lowest P=1.1 {\texttimes} 10(-9)). This finding was replicated in an African-American sample of 4771 individuals (lowest P=9.3 {\texttimes} 10(-4)). The strongest combined association was at rs1823125 (P=1.5 {\texttimes} 10(-10), minor allele frequency 0.26 in the discovery sample, 0.12 in the replication sample), with each copy of the minor allele associated with a sleep duration 3.1 min longer per night. The alleles associated with longer sleep duration were associated in previous GWAS with a more favorable metabolic profile and a lower risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these associations may help elucidate biological mechanisms influencing sleep duration and its association with psychiatric, metabolic and cardiovascular disease.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Aged, Dyssomnias, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Association Studies, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Self Report, Sleep}, issn = {1476-5578}, doi = {10.1038/mp.2014.133}, author = {Gottlieb, D J and Hek, K and Chen, T-H and Watson, N F and Eiriksdottir, G and Byrne, E M and Cornelis, M and Warby, S C and Bandinelli, S and Cherkas, L and Evans, D S and Grabe, H J and Lahti, J and Li, M and Lehtim{\"a}ki, T and Lumley, T and Marciante, K D and P{\'e}russe, L and Psaty, B M and Robbins, J and Tranah, G J and Vink, J M and Wilk, J B and Stafford, J M and Bellis, C and Biffar, R and Bouchard, C and Cade, B and Curhan, G C and Eriksson, J G and Ewert, R and Ferrucci, L and F{\"u}l{\"o}p, T and Gehrman, P R and Goodloe, R and Harris, T B and Heath, A C and Hernandez, D and Hofman, A and Hottenga, J-J and Hunter, D J and Jensen, M K and Johnson, A D and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, M and Kao, L and Kraft, P and Larkin, E K and Lauderdale, D S and Luik, A I and Medici, M and Montgomery, G W and Palotie, A and Patel, S R and Pistis, G and Porcu, E and Quaye, L and Raitakari, O and Redline, S and Rimm, E B and Rotter, J I and Smith, A V and Spector, T D and Teumer, A and Uitterlinden, A G and Vohl, M-C and Widen, E and Willemsen, G and Young, T and Zhang, X and Liu, Y and Blangero, J and Boomsma, D I and Gudnason, V and Hu, F and Mangino, M and Martin, N G and O{\textquoteright}Connor, G T and Stone, K L and Tanaka, T and Viikari, J and Gharib, S A and Punjabi, N M and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, K and V{\"o}lzke, H and Mignot, E and Tiemeier, H} } @article {6809, title = {Plasma Levels of Soluble Interleukin-2 Receptor α: Associations With Clinical Cardiovascular Events and Genome-Wide Association Scan.}, journal = {Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol}, volume = {35}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Oct}, pages = {2246-53}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Interleukin (IL) -2 receptor subunit α regulates lymphocyte activation, which plays an important role in atherosclerosis. Associations between soluble IL-2Rα (sIL-2Rα) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) have not been widely studied and little is known about the genetic determinants of sIL-2Rα levels.

APPROACH AND RESULTS: We measured baseline levels of sIL-2Rα in 4408 European American (EA) and 766 African American (AA) adults from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and examined associations with baseline CVD risk factors, subclinical CVD, and incident CVD events. We also performed a genome-wide association study for sIL-2Rα in CHS (2964 EAs and 683 AAs) and further combined CHS EA results with those from two other EA cohorts in a meta-analysis (n=4464 EAs). In age, sex- and race- adjusted models, sIL-2Rα was positively associated with current smoking, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, insulin, waist circumference, C-reactive protein, IL-6, fibrinogen, internal carotid wall thickness, all-cause mortality, CVD mortality, and incident CVD, stroke, and heart failure. When adjusted for baseline CVD risk factors and subclinical CVD, associations with all-cause mortality, CVD mortality, and heart failure remained significant in both EAs and AAs. In the EA genome-wide association study analysis, we observed 52 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the chromosome 10p15-14 region, which contains IL2RA, IL15RA, and RMB17, that reached genome-wide significance (P<5{\texttimes}10(-8)). The most significant single-nucleotide polymorphism was rs7911500 (P=1.31{\texttimes}10(-75)). The EA meta-analysis results were highly consistent with CHS-only results. No single-nucleotide polymorphisms reached statistical significance in the AAs.

CONCLUSIONS: These results support a role for sIL-2Rα in atherosclerosis and provide evidence for multiple-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms at chromosome 10p15-14.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Americans, Age Distribution, Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Coronary Artery Disease, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Incidence, Interleukin-2 Receptor alpha Subunit, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Sex Distribution, Survival Analysis}, issn = {1524-4636}, doi = {10.1161/ATVBAHA.115.305289}, author = {Durda, Peter and Sabourin, Jeremy and Lange, Ethan M and Nalls, Mike A and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Jenny, Nancy Swords and Li, Jin and Walston, Jeremy and Harris, Tamara B and Psaty, Bruce M and Valdar, William and Liu, Yongmei and Cushman, Mary and Reiner, Alex P and Tracy, Russell P and Lange, Leslie A} } @article {6814, title = {Population genomic analysis of 962 whole genome sequences of humans reveals natural selection in non-coding regions.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {10}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {e0121644}, abstract = {

Whole genome analysis in large samples from a single population is needed to provide adequate power to assess relative strengths of natural selection across different functional components of the genome. In this study, we analyzed next-generation sequencing data from 962 European Americans, and found that as expected approximately 60\% of the top 1\% of positive selection signals lie in intergenic regions, 33\% in intronic regions, and slightly over 1\% in coding regions. Several detailed functional annotation categories in intergenic regions showed statistically significant enrichment in positively selected loci when compared to the null distribution of the genomic span of ENCODE categories. There was a significant enrichment of purifying selection signals detected in enhancers, transcription factor binding sites, microRNAs and target sites, but not on lincRNA or piRNAs, suggesting different evolutionary constraints for these domains. Loci in "repressed or low activity regions" and loci near or overlapping the transcription start site were the most significantly over-represented annotations among the top 1\% of signals for positive selection.

}, keywords = {DNA, Intergenic, Genetic Loci, Humans, Metagenomics, Open Reading Frames, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0121644}, author = {Yu, Fuli and Lu, Jian and Liu, Xiaoming and Gazave, Elodie and Chang, Diana and Raj, Srilakshmi and Hunter-Zinck, Haley and Blekhman, Ran and Arbiza, Leonardo and Van Hout, Cris and Morrison, Alanna and Johnson, Andrew D and Bis, Joshua and Cupples, L Adrienne and Psaty, Bruce M and Muzny, Donna and Yu, Jin and Gibbs, Richard A and Keinan, Alon and Clark, Andrew G and Boerwinkle, Eric} } @article {6823, title = {Positive association of tomato consumption with serum urate: support for tomato consumption as an anecdotal trigger of gout flares.}, journal = {BMC Musculoskelet Disord}, volume = {16}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {196}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Gout is a consequence of an innate immune reaction to monosodium urate crystals deposited in joints. Acute gout attacks can be triggered by dietary factors that are themselves associated with serum urate levels. Tomato consumption is an anecdotal trigger of gout flares. This study aimed to measure the frequency of tomato consumption as a self-reported trigger of gout attacks in a large New Zealand sample set, and to test the hypothesis that tomato consumption is associated with serum urate levels.

METHODS: Two thousand fifty one New Zealanders (of M{\={a}}ori, Pacific Island, European or other ancestry) with clinically-ascertained gout were asked about gout trigger foods. European individuals from the Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities (ARIC; n = 7517) Study, Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS; n = 2151) and Framingham Heart Study (FHS; n = 3052) were used to test, in multivariate-adjusted analyses, for association between serum urate and tomato intake.

RESULTS: Seventy one percent of people with gout reported having >=1 gout trigger food. Of these 20\% specifically mentioned tomatoes, the 4(th) most commonly reported trigger food. There was association between tomato intake and serum urate levels in the ARIC, CHS and FHS combined cohort (β = 0.66 μmolL(-1) increase in serum urate per additional serve per week; P = 0.006) - evident in both sexes (men: β = 0.84 μmolL(-1), P = 0.035; women: β = 0.59 μmolL (-1), P = 0.041).

CONCLUSIONS: While our descriptive and observational data are unable to support the claim that tomato consumption is a trigger of gout attacks, the positive association between tomato consumption and serum urate levels suggests that the self-reporting of tomatoes as a dietary trigger by people with gout has a biological basis.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gout, Humans, Hyperuricemia, Lycopersicon esculentum, Male, Middle Aged, New Zealand, Oceanic Ancestry Group, Surveys and Questionnaires, Uric Acid, Young Adult}, issn = {1471-2474}, doi = {10.1186/s12891-015-0661-8}, author = {Flynn, Tanya J and Cadzow, Murray and Dalbeth, Nicola and Jones, Peter B and Stamp, Lisa K and Hindmarsh, Jennie Harr{\'e} and Todd, Alwyn S and Walker, Robert J and Topless, Ruth and Merriman, Tony R} } @article {7648, title = {Predicting Future Years of Life, Health, and Functional Ability: A Healthy Life Calculator for Older Adults.}, journal = {Gerontol Geriatr Med}, volume = {1}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jan-Dec}, pages = {2333721415605989}, abstract = {

To create personalized estimates of future health and ability status for older adults.Data came from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a large longitudinal study. Outcomes included years of life, years of healthy life (based on self-rated health), years of able life (based on activities of daily living), and years of healthy and able life. We developed regression estimates using the demographic and health characteristics that best predicted the four outcomes. Internal and external validity were assessed.A prediction equation based on 11 variables accounted for about 40\% of the variability for each outcome. Internal validity was excellent, and external validity was satisfactory. The resulting CHS Healthy Life Calculator (CHSHLC) is available at http://healthylifecalculator.org.CHSHLC provides a well-documented estimate of future years of healthy and able life for older adults, who may use it in planning for the future.

}, issn = {2333-7214}, doi = {10.1177/2333721415605989}, author = {Diehr, Paula and Diehr, Michael and Arnold, Alice and Yee, Laura M and Odden, Michelle C and Hirsch, Calvin H and Thielke, Stephen and Psaty, Bruce M and Johnson, W Craig and Kizer Md, Jorge R and Newman, Anne} } @article {6616, title = {Prospective association of fatty acids in the de novo lipogenesis pathway with risk of type 2 diabetes: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {101}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jan}, pages = {153-63}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Experimental evidence suggests that hepatic de novo lipogenesis (DNL) affects insulin homeostasis via synthesis of saturated fatty acids (SFAs) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs). Few prospective studies have used fatty acid biomarkers to assess associations with type 2 diabetes.

OBJECTIVES: We investigated associations of major circulating SFAs [palmitic acid (16:0) and stearic acid (18:0)] and MUFA [oleic acid (18:1n-9)] in the DNL pathway with metabolic risk factors and incident diabetes in community-based older U.S. adults in the Cardiovascular Health Study. We secondarily assessed other DNL fatty acid biomarkers [myristic acid (14:0), palmitoleic acid (16:1n-7), 7-hexadecenoic acid (16:1n-9), and vaccenic acid (18:1n-7)] and estimated dietary SFAs and MUFAs.

DESIGN: In 3004 participants free of diabetes, plasma phospholipid fatty acids were measured in 1992, and incident diabetes was identified by medication use and blood glucose. Usual diets were assessed by using repeated food-frequency questionnaires. Multivariable linear and Cox regression were used to assess associations with metabolic risk factors and incident diabetes, respectively.

RESULTS: At baseline, circulating palmitic acid and stearic acid were positively associated with adiposity, triglycerides, inflammation biomarkers, and insulin resistance (P-trend < 0.01 each), whereas oleic acid showed generally beneficial associations (P-trend < 0.001 each). During 30,763 person-years, 297 incident diabetes cases occurred. With adjustment for demographics and lifestyle, palmitic acid (extreme-quintile HR: 1.89; 95\% CI: 1.27, 2.83; P-trend = 0.001) and stearic acid (HR: 1.62; 95\% CI: 1.09, 2.41; P-trend = 0.006) were associated with higher diabetes risk, whereas oleic acid was not significantly associated. In secondary analyses, vaccenic acid was inversely associated with diabetes (HR: 0.56; 95\% CI: 0.38, 0.83; P-trend = 0.005). Other fatty acid biomarkers and estimated dietary SFAs or MUFAs were not significantly associated with incident diabetes.

CONCLUSIONS: In this large prospective cohort, circulating palmitic acid and stearic acid were associated with higher diabetes risk, and vaccenic acid was associated with lower diabetes risk. These results indicate a need for additional investigation of biological mechanisms linking specific fatty acids in the DNL pathway to the pathogenesis of diabetes.

}, keywords = {Aged, Biomarkers, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Lipogenesis, Liver, Male, Palmitic Acid, Phospholipids, Prevalence, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, Stearic Acids, United States, Up-Regulation}, issn = {1938-3207}, doi = {10.3945/ajcn.114.092601}, author = {Ma, Wenjie and Wu, Jason H Y and Wang, Qianyi and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and King, Irena B and Song, Xiaoling and Biggs, Mary L and Delaney, Joseph A and Kizer, Jorge R and Siscovick, David S and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {6930, title = {Prospective study of circulating factor XI and incident venous thromboembolism: The Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology (LITE).}, journal = {Am J Hematol}, volume = {90}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Nov}, pages = {1047-51}, abstract = {

Elevated plasma concentrations of coagulation factor XI may increase risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), but prospective data are limited. We studied prospectively the associations of plasma factor XI and a key F11 genetic variant with incident VTE in whites and African-Americans. We measured factor XI in 16,299 participants, initially free of VTE, in two prospective population cohorts. We also measured the F11 single nucleotide polymorphism rs4241824, which a genome-wide association study had linked to factor XI concentration. During follow-up, we identified 606 VTEs. The age, race, sex, and study-adjusted hazard ratio of VTE increased across factor XI quintiles (P < 0.001 for trend), and the hazard ratio was 1.51 (95\% CI 1.16, 1.97) for the highest versus lowest quintile overall, and was 1.42 (95\% CI 1.03, 1.95) in whites and 1.72 (95\% CI 1.08, 2.73) in African-Americans. In whites, the F11 variant was associated with both factor XI concentration and VTE incidence (1.15-fold greater incidence of VTE per risk allele). In African-Americans, these associations were absent. In conclusion, this cohort study documented that an elevated plasma factor XI concentration is a risk factor for VTE over extended follow-up, not only in whites but also in African-Americans. In whites, the association of the F11 genetic variant with VTE suggests a causal relation, but we did not observe this genetic relation in African-Americans.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Alleles, European Continental Ancestry Group, Factor XI, Female, Gene Expression, Humans, Incidence, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, United States, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1096-8652}, doi = {10.1002/ajh.24168}, author = {Folsom, Aaron R and Tang, Weihong and Roetker, Nicholas S and Heckbert, Susan R and Cushman, Mary and Pankow, James S} } @article {6876, title = {Race/Ethnic Differences in the Associations of the Framingham Risk Factors with Carotid IMT and Cardiovascular Events.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {10}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {e0132321}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Clinical manifestations and outcomes of atherosclerotic disease differ between ethnic groups. In addition, the prevalence of risk factors is substantially different. Primary prevention programs are based on data derived from almost exclusively White people. We investigated how race/ethnic differences modify the associations of established risk factors with atherosclerosis and cardiovascular events.

METHODS: We used data from an ongoing individual participant meta-analysis involving 17 population-based cohorts worldwide. We selected 60,211 participants without cardiovascular disease at baseline with available data on ethnicity (White, Black, Asian or Hispanic). We generated a multivariable linear regression model containing risk factors and ethnicity predicting mean common carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) and a multivariable Cox regression model predicting myocardial infarction or stroke. For each risk factor we assessed how the association with the preclinical and clinical measures of cardiovascular atherosclerotic disease was affected by ethnicity.

RESULTS: Ethnicity appeared to significantly modify the associations between risk factors and CIMT and cardiovascular events. The association between age and CIMT was weaker in Blacks and Hispanics. Systolic blood pressure associated more strongly with CIMT in Asians. HDL cholesterol and smoking associated less with CIMT in Blacks. Furthermore, the association of age and total cholesterol levels with the occurrence of cardiovascular events differed between Blacks and Whites.

CONCLUSION: The magnitude of associations between risk factors and the presence of atherosclerotic disease differs between race/ethnic groups. These subtle, yet significant differences provide insight in the etiology of cardiovascular disease among race/ethnic groups. These insights aid the race/ethnic-specific implementation of primary prevention.

}, keywords = {Adult, Age Distribution, Aged, Carotid Artery Diseases, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Comorbidity, Continental Population Groups, Diabetes Mellitus, Dyslipidemias, Ethnic Groups, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Global Health, Humans, Hypertension, Incidence, Linear Models, Male, Middle Aged, Myocardial Infarction, Prevalence, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, Smoking, Stroke}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0132321}, author = {Gijsberts, Crystel M and Groenewegen, Karlijn A and Hoefer, Imo E and Eijkemans, Marinus J C and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Anderson, Todd J and Britton, Annie R and Dekker, Jacqueline M and Engstr{\"o}m, Gunnar and Evans, Greg W and de Graaf, Jacqueline and Grobbee, Diederick E and Hedblad, Bo and Holewijn, Suzanne and Ikeda, Ai and Kitagawa, Kazuo and Kitamura, Akihiko and de Kleijn, Dominique P V and Lonn, Eva M and Lorenz, Matthias W and Mathiesen, Ellisiv B and Nijpels, Giel and Okazaki, Shuhei and O{\textquoteright}Leary, Daniel H and Pasterkamp, Gerard and Peters, Sanne A E and Polak, Joseph F and Price, Jacqueline F and Robertson, Christine and Rembold, Christopher M and Rosvall, Maria and Rundek, Tatjana and Salonen, Jukka T and Sitzer, Matthias and Stehouwer, Coen D A and Bots, Michiel L and den Ruijter, Hester M} } @article {6849, title = {Rare and Coding Region Genetic Variants Associated With Risk of Ischemic Stroke: The NHLBI Exome Sequence Project.}, journal = {JAMA Neurol}, volume = {72}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jul}, pages = {781-8}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: Stroke is the second leading cause of death and the third leading cause of years of life lost. Genetic factors contribute to stroke prevalence, and candidate gene and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified variants associated with ischemic stroke risk. These variants often have small effects without obvious biological significance. Exome sequencing may discover predicted protein-altering variants with a potentially large effect on ischemic stroke risk.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the contribution of rare and common genetic variants to ischemic stroke risk by targeting the protein-coding regions of the human genome.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Exome Sequencing Project (ESP) analyzed approximately 6000 participants from numerous cohorts of European and African ancestry. For discovery, 365 cases of ischemic stroke (small-vessel and large-vessel subtypes) and 809 European ancestry controls were sequenced; for replication, 47 affected sibpairs concordant for stroke subtype and an African American case-control series were sequenced, with 1672 cases and 4509 European ancestry controls genotyped. The ESP{\textquoteright}s exome sequencing and genotyping started on January 1, 2010, and continued through June 30, 2012. Analyses were conducted on the full data set between July 12, 2012, and July 13, 2013.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Discovery of new variants or genes contributing to ischemic stroke risk and subtype (primary analysis) and determination of support for protein-coding variants contributing to risk in previously published candidate genes (secondary analysis).

RESULTS: We identified 2 novel genes associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke: a protein-coding variant in PDE4DIP (rs1778155; odds ratio, 2.15; P = 2.63 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) with an intracellular signal transduction mechanism and in ACOT4 (rs35724886; odds ratio, 2.04; P = 1.24 {\texttimes} 10(-7)) with a fatty acid metabolism; confirmation of PDE4DIP was observed in affected sibpair families with large-vessel stroke subtype and in African Americans. Replication of protein-coding variants in candidate genes was observed for 2 previously reported GWAS associations: ZFHX3 (cardioembolic stroke) and ABCA1 (large-vessel stroke).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Exome sequencing discovered 2 novel genes and mechanisms, PDE4DIP and ACOT4, associated with increased risk for ischemic stroke. In addition, ZFHX3 and ABCA1 were discovered to have protein-coding variants associated with ischemic stroke. These results suggest that genetic variation in novel pathways contributes to ischemic stroke risk and serves as a target for prediction, prevention, and therapy.

}, keywords = {Aged, Brain Ischemia, Exome, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Muscle Proteins, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.), Nuclear Proteins, Open Reading Frames, Palmitoyl-CoA Hydrolase, Stroke, United States}, issn = {2168-6157}, doi = {10.1001/jamaneurol.2015.0582}, author = {Auer, Paul L and Nalls, Mike and Meschia, James F and Worrall, Bradford B and Longstreth, W T and Seshadri, Sudha and Kooperberg, Charles and Burger, Kathleen M and Carlson, Christopher S and Carty, Cara L and Chen, Wei-Min and Cupples, L Adrienne and DeStefano, Anita L and Fornage, Myriam and Hardy, John and Hsu, Li and Jackson, Rebecca D and Jarvik, Gail P and Kim, Daniel S and Lakshminarayan, Kamakshi and Lange, Leslie A and Manichaikul, Ani and Quinlan, Aaron R and Singleton, Andrew B and Thornton, Timothy A and Nickerson, Deborah A and Peters, Ulrike and Rich, Stephen S} } @article {6788, title = {Rare and low-frequency variants and their association with plasma levels of fibrinogen, FVII, FVIII, and vWF.}, journal = {Blood}, volume = {126}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Sep 10}, pages = {e19-29}, abstract = {

Fibrinogen, coagulation factor VII (FVII), and factor VIII (FVIII) and its carrier von Willebrand factor (vWF) play key roles in hemostasis. Previously identified common variants explain only a small fraction of the trait heritabilities, and additional variations may be explained by associations with rarer variants with larger effects. The aim of this study was to identify low-frequency (minor allele frequency [MAF] >=0.01 and <0.05) and rare (MAF <0.01) variants that influence plasma concentrations of these 4 hemostatic factors by meta-analyzing exome chip data from up to 76,000 participants of 4 ancestries. We identified 12 novel associations of low-frequency (n = 2) and rare (n = 10) variants across the fibrinogen, FVII, FVIII, and vWF traits that were independent of previously identified associations. Novel loci were found within previously reported genes and had effect sizes much larger than and independent of previously identified common variants. In addition, associations at KCNT1, HID1, and KATNB1 identified new candidate genes related to hemostasis for follow-up replication and functional genomic analysis. Newly identified low-frequency and rare-variant associations accounted for modest amounts of trait variance and therefore are unlikely to increase predicted trait heritability but provide new information for understanding individual variation in hemostasis pathways.

}, keywords = {Cohort Studies, Factor VII, Factor VIII, Fibrinogen, Gene Frequency, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Variation, Humans, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Potassium Channels, von Willebrand Factor}, issn = {1528-0020}, doi = {10.1182/blood-2015-02-624551}, author = {Huffman, Jennifer E and de Vries, Paul S and Morrison, Alanna C and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Kacprowski, Tim and Auer, Paul L and Brody, Jennifer A and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Ming-Huei and Guo, Xiuqing and Lin, Li-An and Marioni, Riccardo E and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Yanek, Lisa R and Pankratz, Nathan and Grove, Megan L and de Maat, Moniek P M and Cushman, Mary and Wiggins, Kerri L and Qi, Lihong and Sennblad, Bengt and Harris, Sarah E and Polasek, Ozren and Riess, Helene and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rose, Lynda M and Goel, Anuj and Taylor, Kent D and Teumer, Alexander and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Yao, Jie and Tang, Weihong and Levy, Daniel and Waldenberger, Melanie and Becker, Diane M and Folsom, Aaron R and Giulianini, Franco and Greinacher, Andreas and Hofman, Albert and Huang, Chiang-Ching and Kooperberg, Charles and Silveira, Angela and Starr, John M and Strauch, Konstantin and Strawbridge, Rona J and Wright, Alan F and McKnight, Barbara and Franco, Oscar H and Zakai, Neil and Mathias, Rasika A and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and Tofler, Geoffrey H and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Watkins, Hugh and Fornage, Myriam and Hamsten, Anders and Deary, Ian J and Boerwinkle, Eric and Koenig, Wolfgang and Rotter, Jerome I and Hayward, Caroline and Dehghan, Abbas and Reiner, Alex P and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Smith, Nicholas L} } @article {6771, title = {Resting heart rate and risk of incident heart failure: three prospective cohort studies and a systematic meta-analysis.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {4}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jan}, pages = {e001364}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The relationship between resting heart rate (RHR) and incident heart failure (HF) has been questioned.

METHODS AND RESULTS: RHR was assessed at baseline in 7073 participants in 3 prospective cohorts (Cardiovascular Health Study, Health ABC study and Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Study) that recorded 1189 incident HF outcomes during 92 702 person-years of follow-up. Mean age of participants was 67 (9.9) years and mean RHR was 64.6 (11.1) bpm. Baseline RHR correlated (P<0.001) positively with body mass index (r=0.10), fasting glucose (r=0.18), and C-reactive protein (r=0.20); and inversely with serum creatinine (r=-0.05) and albumin (r=-0.05). Baseline RHR was non-linearly associated with HF risk. The age and sex-adjusted hazard ratio for HF comparing the top (>72 bpm) versus the bottom (<57 bpm) quartile of baseline RHR was 1.48 (95\% confidence interval [CI] 1.26 to 1.74) and was modestly attenuated (1.30, 95\% CI 1.10 to 1.53) with further adjustment for body mass index, history of diabetes, hypertension, smoking status, serum creatinine, and left ventricular hypertrophy. These findings remained consistent in analyses accounting for incident coronary heart disease, excluding individuals with prior cardiovascular events, or those taking beta-blockers; and in subgroups defined by several individual participant characteristics. In a pooled random effects meta-analysis of 7 population-based studies (43 051 participants and 3476 HF events), the overall hazard ratio comparing top versus bottom fourth of RHR was 1.40 (95\% CI: 1.19 to 1.64).

CONCLUSIONS: There is a non-linear association between RHR and incident HF. Further research is needed to understand the physiologic foundations of this association.

}, keywords = {Age Distribution, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cohort Studies, Female, Heart Failure, Heart Rate, Humans, Incidence, Japan, Male, Predictive Value of Tests, Prospective Studies, Rest, Risk Assessment, Severity of Illness Index, Sex Distribution, Survival Rate}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.114.001364}, author = {Khan, Hassan and Kunutsor, Setor and Kalogeropoulos, Andreas P and Georgiopoulou, Vasiliki V and Newman, Anne B and Harris, Tamara B and Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten and Kauhanen, Jussi and Gheorghiade, Mihai and Fonarow, Gregg C and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Laukkanen, Jari A and Butler, Javed} } @article {6702, title = {Serial measures of cardiac troponin T levels by a highly sensitive assay and incident atrial fibrillation in a prospective cohort of ambulatory older adults.}, journal = {Heart Rhythm}, volume = {12}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 May}, pages = {879-85}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Various mechanisms in cardiac remodeling related to atrial fibrillation (AF) lead to elevated circulating cardiac troponin levels, but little is known about such elevations upstream to AF onset.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to study the association between circulating troponin levels as assessed by a highly sensitive cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) assay and incident atrial fibrillation (AF).

METHODS: In a large prospective cohort of ambulatory older adults [the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS)], hs-cTnT levels were measured in sera that were collected at enrollment from 4262 participants without AF (2871 with follow-up measurements). Incident AF was identified by electrocardiograms during CHS visits, hospital discharge diagnoses, and Medicare files, including outpatient and physician claims diagnoses.

RESULTS: Over median follow-up of 11.2 years (interquartile range 6.1-16.5), 1363 participants (32.0\%) developed AF. Higher baseline levels of hs-cTnT were associated with incident AF in covariate-adjusted analyses accounting for demographics, traditional risk factors, and incident heart failure in time-dependent analyzes (hazard ratio for 3rd tertile vs undetectable 1.75, 95\% confidence interval 1.48-2.08). This association was statistically significant in analyses that additionally adjusted for biomarkers of inflammation and hemodynamic strain (hazard ratio for 3rd tertile vs undetectable 1.38, 95\% confidence interval 1.16-1.65). Significant associations were also found when hs-cTnT levels were treated as a continuous variable and when examining change from baseline of hs-cTnT levels and incident AF.

CONCLUSION: The findings show a significant association of circulating troponin levels in ambulatory older adults with incident AF beyond that of traditional risk factors, incident heart failure, and biomarkers of inflammation and hemodynamic strain.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Biomarkers, Electrocardiography, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Incidence, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Outpatients, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Statistics as Topic, Troponin T, United States}, issn = {1556-3871}, doi = {10.1016/j.hrthm.2015.01.020}, author = {Hussein, Ayman A and Bartz, Traci M and Gottdiener, John S and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Heckbert, Susan R and Lloyd-Jones, Donald and Kizer, Jorge R and Christenson, Robert and Wazni, Oussama and DeFilippi, Christopher} } @article {6813, title = {Shared genetic basis for migraine and ischemic stroke: A genome-wide analysis of common variants.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {84}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 May 26}, pages = {2132-45}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To quantify genetic overlap between migraine and ischemic stroke (IS) with respect to common genetic variation.

METHODS: We applied 4 different approaches to large-scale meta-analyses of genome-wide data on migraine (23,285 cases and 95,425 controls) and IS (12,389 cases and 62,004 controls). First, we queried known genome-wide significant loci for both disorders, looking for potential overlap of signals. We then analyzed the overall shared genetic load using polygenic scores and estimated the genetic correlation between disease subtypes using data derived from these models. We further interrogated genomic regions of shared risk using analysis of covariance patterns between the 2 phenotypes using cross-phenotype spatial mapping.

RESULTS: We found substantial genetic overlap between migraine and IS using all 4 approaches. Migraine without aura (MO) showed much stronger overlap with IS and its subtypes than migraine with aura (MA). The strongest overlap existed between MO and large artery stroke (LAS; p = 6.4 {\texttimes} 10(-28) for the LAS polygenic score in MO) and between MO and cardioembolic stroke (CE; p = 2.7 {\texttimes} 10(-20) for the CE score in MO).

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate shared genetic susceptibility to migraine and IS, with a particularly strong overlap between MO and both LAS and CE pointing towards shared mechanisms. Our observations on MA are consistent with a limited role of common genetic variants in this subtype.

}, keywords = {Brain Ischemia, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Migraine with Aura, Migraine without Aura, Stroke}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000001606}, author = {Malik, Rainer and Freilinger, Tobias and Winsvold, Bendik S and Anttila, Verneri and Vander Heiden, Jason and Traylor, Matthew and de Vries, Boukje and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Terwindt, Gisela M and Sturm, Jonathan and Bis, Joshua C and Hopewell, Jemma C and Ferrari, Michel D and Rannikmae, Kristiina and Wessman, Maija and Kallela, Mikko and Kubisch, Christian and Fornage, Myriam and Meschia, James F and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Sudlow, Cathie and Clarke, Robert and Chasman, Daniel I and Mitchell, Braxton D and Maguire, Jane and Kaprio, Jaakko and Farrall, Martin and Raitakari, Olli T and Kurth, Tobias and Ikram, M Arfan and Reiner, Alex P and Longstreth, W T and Rothwell, Peter M and Strachan, David P and Sharma, Pankaj and Seshadri, Sudha and Quaye, Lydia and Cherkas, Lynn and Sch{\"u}rks, Markus and Rosand, Jonathan and Ligthart, Lannie and Boncoraglio, Giorgio B and Davey Smith, George and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Stefansson, Kari and Worrall, Bradford B and Nyholt, Dale R and Markus, Hugh S and van den Maagdenberg, Arn M J M and Cotsapas, Chris and Zwart, John A and Palotie, Aarno and Dichgans, Martin} } @article {6800, title = {Subclinical Hypothyroidism and the Risk of Stroke Events and Fatal Stroke: An Individual Participant Data Analysis.}, journal = {J Clin Endocrinol Metab}, volume = {100}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jun}, pages = {2181-91}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to determine the risk of stroke associated with subclinical hypothyroidism.

DATA SOURCES AND STUDY SELECTION: Published prospective cohort studies were identified through a systematic search through November 2013 without restrictions in several databases. Unpublished studies were identified through the Thyroid Studies Collaboration. We collected individual participant data on thyroid function and stroke outcome. Euthyroidism was defined as TSH levels of 0.45-4.49 mIU/L, and subclinical hypothyroidism was defined as TSH levels of 4.5-19.9 mIU/L with normal T4 levels.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: We collected individual participant data on 47 573 adults (3451 subclinical hypothyroidism) from 17 cohorts and followed up from 1972-2014 (489 192 person-years). Age- and sex-adjusted pooled hazard ratios (HRs) for participants with subclinical hypothyroidism compared to euthyroidism were 1.05 (95\% confidence interval [CI], 0.91-1.21) for stroke events (combined fatal and nonfatal stroke) and 1.07 (95\% CI, 0.80-1.42) for fatal stroke. Stratified by age, the HR for stroke events was 3.32 (95\% CI, 1.25-8.80) for individuals aged 18-49 years. There was an increased risk of fatal stroke in the age groups 18-49 and 50-64 years, with a HR of 4.22 (95\% CI, 1.08-16.55) and 2.86 (95\% CI, 1.31-6.26), respectively (p trend 0.04). We found no increased risk for those 65-79 years old (HR, 1.00; 95\% CI, 0.86-1.18) or >= 80 years old (HR, 1.31; 95\% CI, 0.79-2.18). There was a pattern of increased risk of fatal stroke with higher TSH concentrations.

CONCLUSIONS: Although no overall effect of subclinical hypothyroidism on stroke could be demonstrated, an increased risk in subjects younger than 65 years and those with higher TSH concentrations was observed.

}, keywords = {Adult, Asymptomatic Diseases, Female, Humans, Hypothyroidism, Incidence, Male, Risk Factors, Stroke, Thyrotropin}, issn = {1945-7197}, doi = {10.1210/jc.2015-1438}, author = {Chaker, Layal and Baumgartner, Christine and den Elzen, Wendy P J and Ikram, M Arfan and Blum, Manuel R and Collet, Tinh-Hai and Bakker, Stephan J L and Dehghan, Abbas and Drechsler, Christiane and Luben, Robert N and Hofman, Albert and Portegies, Marileen L P and Medici, Marco and Iervasi, Giorgio and Stott, David J and Ford, Ian and Bremner, Alexandra and Wanner, Christoph and Ferrucci, Luigi and Newman, Anne B and Dullaart, Robin P and Sgarbi, Jos{\'e} A and Ceresini, Graziano and Maciel, Rui M B and Westendorp, Rudi G and Jukema, J Wouter and Imaizumi, Misa and Franklyn, Jayne A and Bauer, Douglas C and Walsh, John P and Razvi, Salman and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Cappola, Anne R and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Franco, Oscar H and Gussekloo, Jacobijn and Rodondi, Nicolas and Peeters, Robin P} } @article {6795, title = {Subclinical thyroid dysfunction and fracture risk: a meta-analysis.}, journal = {JAMA}, volume = {313}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 May 26}, pages = {2055-65}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: Associations between subclinical thyroid dysfunction and fractures are unclear and clinical trials are lacking.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association of subclinical thyroid dysfunction with hip, nonspine, spine, or any fractures.

DATA SOURCES AND STUDY SELECTION: The databases of MEDLINE and EMBASE (inception to March 26, 2015) were searched without language restrictions for prospective cohort studies with thyroid function data and subsequent fractures.

DATA EXTRACTION: Individual participant data were obtained from 13 prospective cohorts in the United States, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Levels of thyroid function were defined as euthyroidism (thyroid-stimulating hormone [TSH], 0.45-4.49 mIU/L), subclinical hyperthyroidism (TSH <0.45 mIU/L), and subclinical hypothyroidism (TSH >=4.50-19.99 mIU/L) with normal thyroxine concentrations.

MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was hip fracture. Any fractures, nonspine fractures, and clinical spine fractures were secondary outcomes.

RESULTS: Among 70,298 participants, 4092 (5.8\%) had subclinical hypothyroidism and 2219 (3.2\%) had subclinical hyperthyroidism. During 762,401 person-years of follow-up, hip fracture occurred in 2975 participants (4.6\%; 12 studies), any fracture in 2528 participants (9.0\%; 8 studies), nonspine fracture in 2018 participants (8.4\%; 8 studies), and spine fracture in 296 participants (1.3\%; 6 studies). In age- and sex-adjusted analyses, the hazard ratio (HR) for subclinical hyperthyroidism vs euthyroidism was 1.36 for hip fracture (95\% CI, 1.13-1.64; 146 events in 2082 participants vs 2534 in 56,471); for any fracture, HR was 1.28 (95\% CI, 1.06-1.53; 121 events in 888 participants vs 2203 in 25,901); for nonspine fracture, HR was 1.16 (95\% CI, 0.95-1.41; 107 events in 946 participants vs 1745 in 21,722); and for spine fracture, HR was 1.51 (95\% CI, 0.93-2.45; 17 events in 732 participants vs 255 in 20,328). Lower TSH was associated with higher fracture rates: for TSH of less than 0.10 mIU/L, HR was 1.61 for hip fracture (95\% CI, 1.21-2.15; 47 events in 510 participants); for any fracture, HR was 1.98 (95\% CI, 1.41-2.78; 44 events in 212 participants); for nonspine fracture, HR was 1.61 (95\% CI, 0.96-2.71; 32 events in 185 participants); and for spine fracture, HR was 3.57 (95\% CI, 1.88-6.78; 8 events in 162 participants). Risks were similar after adjustment for other fracture risk factors. Endogenous subclinical hyperthyroidism (excluding thyroid medication users) was associated with HRs of 1.52 (95\% CI, 1.19-1.93) for hip fracture, 1.42 (95\% CI, 1.16-1.74) for any fracture, and 1.74 (95\% CI, 1.01-2.99) for spine fracture. No association was found between subclinical hypothyroidism and fracture risk.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Subclinical hyperthyroidism was associated with an increased risk of hip and other fractures, particularly among those with TSH levels of less than 0.10 mIU/L and those with endogenous subclinical hyperthyroidism. Further study is needed to determine whether treating subclinical hyperthyroidism can prevent fractures.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Fractures, Bone, Hip Fractures, Humans, Hyperthyroidism, Hypothyroidism, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Factors, Spinal Fractures, Thyrotropin, Young Adult}, issn = {1538-3598}, doi = {10.1001/jama.2015.5161}, author = {Blum, Manuel R and Bauer, Douglas C and Collet, Tinh-Hai and Fink, Howard A and Cappola, Anne R and da Costa, Bruno R and Wirth, Christina D and Peeters, Robin P and Asvold, Bj{\o}rn O and den Elzen, Wendy P J and Luben, Robert N and Imaizumi, Misa and Bremner, Alexandra P and Gogakos, Apostolos and Eastell, Richard and Kearney, Patricia M and Strotmeyer, Elsa S and Wallace, Erin R and Hoff, Mari and Ceresini, Graziano and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Stott, David J and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Langhammer, Arnuf and Ferrucci, Luigi and Gussekloo, Jacobijn and Williams, Graham R and Walsh, John P and J{\"u}ni, Peter and Aujesky, Drahomir and Rodondi, Nicolas} } @article {6660, title = {Urine Collagen Fragments and CKD Progression-The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Soc Nephrol}, volume = {26}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Oct}, pages = {2494-503}, abstract = {

Tubulointerstitial fibrosis is common with ageing and strongly prognostic for ESRD but is poorly captured by eGFR or urine albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR). Higher urine levels of procollagen type III N-terminal propeptide (PIIINP) mark the severity of tubulointerstitial fibrosis in biopsy studies, but the association of urine PIIINP with CKD progression is unknown. Among community-living persons aged >=65 years, we measured PIIINP in spot urine specimens from the 1996 to 1997 Cardiovascular Health Study visit among individuals with CKD progression (30\% decline in eGFR over 9 years, n=192) or incident ESRD (n=54) during follow-up, and in 958 randomly selected participants. We evaluated associations of urine PIIINP with CKD progression and incident ESRD. Associations of urine PIIINP with cardiovascular disease, heart failure, and death were evaluated as secondary end points. At baseline, mean age ({\textpm}SD) was 78{\textpm}5 years, mean eGFR was 63{\textpm}18 ml/min per 1.73 m(2), and median urine PIIINP was 2.6 (interquartile range, 1.4-4.2) μg/L. In a case-control study (192 participants, 231 controls), each doubling of urine PIIINP associated with 22\% higher odds of CKD progression (adjusted odds ratio, 1.22; 95\% confidence interval, 1.00 to 1.49). Higher urine PIIINP level was also associated with incident ESRD, but results were not significant in fully adjusted models. In a prospective study among the 958 randomly selected participants, higher urine PIIINP was significantly associated with death, but not with incident cardiovascular disease or heart failure. These data suggest higher urine PIIINP levels associate with CKD progression independently of eGFR and ACR in older individuals.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Case-Control Studies, Disease Progression, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Male, Peptide Fragments, Procollagen, Prospective Studies, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic}, issn = {1533-3450}, doi = {10.1681/ASN.2014070696}, author = {Ix, Joachim H and Biggs, Mary L and Mukamal, Kenneth and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Siscovick, David and Tracy, Russell and Katz, Ronit and Delaney, Joseph A and Chaves, Paulo and Rifkin, Dena E and Hughes-Austin, Jan M and Garimella, Pranav S and Sarnak, Mark J and Shlipak, Michael G and Kizer, Jorge R} } @article {6561, title = {Variation in resting heart rate over 4 years and the risks of myocardial infarction and death among older adults.}, journal = {Heart}, volume = {101}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jan}, pages = {132-8}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Resting heart rate (RHR) is an established predictor of myocardial infarction (MI) and mortality, but the relationship between variation in RHR over a period of several years and health outcomes is unclear. We evaluated the relationship between long-term variation in RHR and the risks of incident MI and mortality among older adults.

METHODS: 1991 subjects without cardiovascular disease from the Cardiovascular Health Study were included. RHR was taken from resting ECGs at the first five annual study visits. RHR mean, trend and variation were estimated with linear regression. Subjects were followed for incident MI and death until December 2010. HRs for RHR mean, trend and variation are reported for differences of 10 bpm, 2 bpm/year and 2 bpm, respectively.

RESULTS: 262 subjects had an incident MI event (13\%) and 1326 died (67\%) during 12 years of median follow-up. In primary analyses adjusted for cardiovascular risk factors, RHR mean (HR 1.12; 95\% CI 1.05 to 1.20) and variation (HR 1.08; 95\% CI 1.03 to 1.13) were associated with the risk of death while trend was not. None of the RHR variables were significantly associated with the risk of incident MI events; however, CIs were wide and the MI associations with RHR variables were not significantly different from the mortality associations. Adjusting for additional variables did not affect estimates, and there were no significant interactions with sex.

CONCLUSIONS: Variation in RHR over a period of several years represents a potential predictor of long-term mortality among older persons free of cardiovascular disease.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cause of Death, Electrocardiography, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Heart Rate, Humans, Incidence, Linear Models, Male, Myocardial Infarction, Outcome Assessment (Health Care), Prognosis, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Rest, Risk Factors, Time, Washington}, issn = {1468-201X}, doi = {10.1136/heartjnl-2014-306046}, author = {Floyd, James S and Sitlani, Colleen M and Wiggins, Kerri L and Wallace, Erin and Suchy-Dicey, Astrid and Abbasi, Siddique A and Carnethon, Mercedes R and Siscovick, David S and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Heckbert, Susan R and McKnight, Barbara and Rice, Kenneth M and Psaty, Bruce M} } @article {6767, title = {Ventricular Ectopy as a Predictor of Heart Failure and Death.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {66}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Jul 14}, pages = {101-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Studies of patients presenting for catheter ablation suggest that premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) are a modifiable risk factor for congestive heart failure (CHF). The relationship among PVC frequency, incident CHF, and mortality in the general population remains unknown.

OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to determine whether PVC frequency ascertained using a 24-h Holter monitor is a predictor of a decrease in the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), incident CHF, and death in a population-based cohort.

METHODS: We studied 1,139 Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) participants who were randomly assigned to 24-h ambulatory electrocardiography (Holter) monitoring and who had a normal LVEF and no history of CHF. PVC frequency was quantified using Holter studies, and LVEF was measured from baseline and 5-year echocardiograms. Participants were followed for incident CHF and death.

RESULTS: Those in the upper quartile versus the lowest quartile of PVC frequency had a multivariable-adjusted, 3-fold greater odds of a 5-year decrease in LVEF (odds ratio [OR]: 3.10; 95\% confidence interval [CI]: 1.42 to 6.77; p = 0.005), a 48\% increased risk of incident CHF (HR: 1.48; 95\% CI: 1.08 to 2.04; p = 0.02), and a 31\% increased risk of death (HR: 1.31; 95\% CI: 1.06 to 1.63; p = 0.01) during a median follow-up of >13 years. Similar statistically significant results were observed for PVCs analyzed as a continuous variable. The specificity for the 15-year risk of CHF exceeded 90\% when PVCs included at least 0.7\% of ventricular beats. The population-level risk for incident CHF attributed to PVCs was 8.1\% (95\% CI: 1.2\% to 14.9\%).

CONCLUSIONS: In a population-based sample, a higher frequency of PVCs was associated with a decrease in LVEF, an increase in incident CHF, and increased mortality. Because of the capacity to prevent PVCs through medical or ablation therapy, PVCs may represent a modifiable risk factor for CHF and death.

}, keywords = {Aged, Catheter Ablation, Echocardiography, Electrocardiography, Ambulatory, Female, Forecasting, Heart Failure, Humans, Male, Risk Factors, Stroke Volume, Ventricular Premature Complexes}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2015.04.062}, author = {Dukes, Jonathan W and Dewland, Thomas A and Vittinghoff, Eric and Mandyam, Mala C and Heckbert, Susan R and Siscovick, David S and Stein, Phyllis K and Psaty, Bruce M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Gottdiener, John S and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {6861, title = {White Matter Lesion Progression: Genome-Wide Search for Genetic Influences.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {46}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Nov}, pages = {3048-57}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: White matter lesion (WML) progression on magnetic resonance imaging is related to cognitive decline and stroke, but its determinants besides baseline WML burden are largely unknown. Here, we estimated heritability of WML progression, and sought common genetic variants associated with WML progression in elderly participants from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium.

METHODS: Heritability of WML progression was calculated in the Framingham Heart Study. The genome-wide association study included 7773 elderly participants from 10 cohorts. To assess the relative contribution of genetic factors to progression of WML, we compared in 7 cohorts risk models including demographics, vascular risk factors plus single-nucleotide polymorphisms that have been shown to be associated cross-sectionally with WML in the current and previous association studies.

RESULTS: A total of 1085 subjects showed WML progression. The heritability estimate for WML progression was low at 6.5\%, and no single-nucleotide polymorphisms achieved genome-wide significance (P<5{\texttimes}10(-8)). Four loci were suggestive (P<1{\texttimes}10(-5)) of an association with WML progression: 10q24.32 (rs10883817, P=1.46{\texttimes}10(-6)); 12q13.13 (rs4761974, P=8.71{\texttimes}10(-7)); 20p12.1 (rs6135309, P=3.69{\texttimes}10(-6)); and 4p15.31 (rs7664442, P=2.26{\texttimes}10(-6)). Variants that have been previously related to WML explained only 0.8\% to 11.7\% more of the variance in WML progression than age, vascular risk factors, and baseline WML burden.

CONCLUSIONS: Common genetic factors contribute little to the progression of age-related WML in middle-aged and older adults. Future research on determinants of WML progression should focus more on environmental, lifestyle, or host-related biological factors.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Cohort Studies, Disease Progression, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Leukoencephalopathies, Male, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, White Matter}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.115.009252}, author = {Hofer, Edith and Cavalieri, Margherita and Bis, Joshua C and DeCarli, Charles and Fornage, Myriam and Sigurdsson, Sigurdur and Srikanth, Velandai and Trompet, Stella and Verhaaren, Benjamin F J and Wolf, Christiane and Yang, Qiong and Adams, Hieab H H and Amouyel, Philippe and Beiser, Alexa and Buckley, Brendan M and Callisaya, Michele and Chauhan, Ganesh and de Craen, Anton J M and Dufouil, Carole and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Ford, Ian and Freudenberger, Paul and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Heiss, Gerardo and Hofman, Albert and Lumley, Thomas and Martinez, Oliver and Mazoyer, Bernard and Moran, Chris and Niessen, Wiro J and Phan, Thanh and Psaty, Bruce M and Satizabal, Claudia L and Sattar, Naveed and Schilling, Sabrina and Shibata, Dean K and Slagboom, P Eline and Smith, Albert and Stott, David J and Taylor, Kent D and Thomson, Russell and T{\"o}glhofer, Anna M and Tzourio, Christophe and van Buchem, Mark and Wang, Jing and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Windham, B Gwen and Vernooij, Meike W and Zijdenbos, Alex and Beare, Richard and Debette, Stephanie and Ikram, M Arfan and Jukema, J Wouter and Launer, Lenore J and Longstreth, W T and Mosley, Thomas H and Seshadri, Sudha and Schmidt, Helena and Schmidt, Reinhold} } @article {9464, title = {-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Biomarkers and Coronary Heart Disease: Pooling Project of 19 Cohort Studies}, journal = {JAMA Intern Med}, volume = {176}, year = {2016}, month = {Aug}, pages = {1155{\textendash}1166}, abstract = {-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids for primary prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD) remains controversial. Most prior longitudinal studies evaluated self-reported consumption rather than biomarkers.\ -3) for incident CHD.\ A global consortium of 19 studies identified by November 2014.\ -3 biomarkers and ascertained CHD.\ -6 levels, and FADS desaturase genes.\ Incident total CHD, fatal CHD, and nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI).\ -3 biomarkers ALA, DPA, and DHA were associated with a lower risk of fatal CHD, with relative risks (RRs) of 0.91 (95\% CI, 0.84-0.98) for ALA, 0.90 (95\% CI, 0.85-0.96) for DPA, and 0.90 (95\% CI, 0.84-0.96) for DHA. Although DPA was associated with a lower risk of total CHD (RR, 0.94; 95\% CI, 0.90-0.99), ALA (RR, 1.00; 95\% CI, 0.95-1.05), EPA (RR, 0.94; 95\% CI, 0.87-1.02), and DHA (RR, 0.95; 95\% CI, 0.91-1.00) were not. Significant associations with nonfatal MI were not evident. Associations appeared generally stronger in phospholipids and total plasma. Restricted cubic splines did not identify evidence of nonlinearity in dose responses.\ -3 fatty acids are associated with a modestly lower incidence of fatal CHD.}, author = {Del Gobbo, L. C. and Imamura, F. and Aslibekyan, S. and Marklund, M. and Virtanen, J. K. and Wennberg, M. and Yakoob, M. Y. and Chiuve, S. E. and Dela Cruz, L. and Frazier-Wood, A. C. and Fretts, A. M. and Guallar, E. and Matsumoto, C. and Prem, K. and Tanaka, T. and Wu, J. H. and Zhou, X. and Helmer, C. and Ingelsson, E. and Yuan, J. M. and Barberger-Gateau, P. and Campos, H. and Chaves, P. H. and {\'e}, L. and Giles, G. G. and mez-Aracena, J. and Hodge, A. M. and Hu, F. B. and Jansson, J. H. and Johansson, I. and Khaw, K. T. and Koh, W. P. and Lemaitre, R. N. and Lind, L. and Luben, R. N. and Rimm, E. B. and rus, U. and Samieri, C. and Franks, P. W. and Siscovick, D. S. and Stampfer, M. and Steffen, L. M. and Steffen, B. T. and Tsai, M. Y. and van Dam, R. M. and Voutilainen, S. and Willett, W. C. and Woodward, M. and Mozaffarian, D.} } @article {7262, title = {52 Genetic Loci Influencing Myocardial~Mass.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {68}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Sep 27}, pages = {1435-48}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Myocardial mass is a key determinant of cardiac muscle function and hypertrophy. Myocardial depolarization leading to cardiac muscle contraction is reflected by the amplitude and duration of the QRS complex on the electrocardiogram (ECG). Abnormal QRS amplitude or duration reflect changes in myocardial mass and conduction, and are associated with increased risk of heart failure and death.

OBJECTIVES: This meta-analysis sought to gain insights into the genetic determinants of myocardial mass.

METHODS: We carried out a genome-wide association meta-analysis of 4 QRS traits in up to 73,518 individuals of European ancestry, followed by extensive biological and functional assessment.

RESULTS: We identified 52 genomic loci, of which 32 are novel, that are reliably associated with 1 or more QRS phenotypes at p~< 1~{\texttimes} 10(-8). These loci are enriched in regions of open chromatin, histone modifications, and transcription factor binding, suggesting that they represent regions of the genome that are actively transcribed in the human heart. Pathway analyses provided evidence that these loci play a role in cardiac hypertrophy. We further highlighted 67~candidate genes at the identified loci that are preferentially expressed in cardiac tissue and associated with cardiac abnormalities in Drosophila melanogaster and Mus musculus. We validated the regulatory function of a novel variant in the SCN5A/SCN10A locus in~vitro and in~vivo.

CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our findings provide new insights into genes and biological pathways controlling myocardial mass and may help identify novel therapeutic targets.

}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2016.07.729}, author = {van der Harst, Pim and van Setten, Jessica and Verweij, Niek and Vogler, Georg and Franke, Lude and Maurano, Matthew T and Wang, Xinchen and Mateo Leach, Irene and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Hayward, Caroline and Sorice, Rossella and Meirelles, Osorio and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Polasek, Ozren and Tanaka, Toshiko and Arking, Dan E and Ulivi, Sheila and Trompet, Stella and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Smith, Albert V and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Kerr, Kathleen F and Magnani, Jared W and del Greco M, Fabiola and Zhang, Weihua and Nolte, Ilja M and Silva, Claudia T and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Tragante, Vinicius and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Adriaens, Michiel E and Andersen, Karl and Barnett, Phil and Bis, Joshua C and Bodmer, Rolf and Buckley, Brendan M and Campbell, Harry and Cannon, Megan V and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Chen, Lin Y and Delitala, Alessandro and Devereux, Richard B and Doevendans, Pieter A and Dominiczak, Anna F and Ferrucci, Luigi and Ford, Ian and Gieger, Christian and Harris, Tamara B and Haugen, Eric and Heinig, Matthias and Hernandez, Dena G and Hillege, Hans L and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Hofman, Albert and Hubner, Norbert and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Iorio, Annamaria and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kellis, Manolis and Kolcic, Ivana and Kooner, Ishminder K and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kors, Jan A and Lakatta, Edward G and Lage, Kasper and Launer, Lenore J and Levy, Daniel and Lundby, Alicia and Macfarlane, Peter W and May, Dalit and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Nappo, Stefania and Naitza, Silvia and Neph, Shane and Nord, Alex S and Nutile, Teresa and Okin, Peter M and Olsen, Jesper V and Oostra, Ben A and Penninger, Josef M and Pennacchio, Len A and Pers, Tune H and Perz, Siegfried and Peters, Annette and Pinto, Yigal M and Pfeufer, Arne and Pilia, Maria Grazia and Pramstaller, Peter P and Prins, Bram P and Raitakari, Olli T and Raychaudhuri, Soumya and Rice, Ken M and Rossin, Elizabeth J and Rotter, Jerome I and Schafer, Sebastian and Schlessinger, David and Schmidt, Carsten O and Sehmi, Jobanpreet and Sillj{\'e}, Herman H W and Sinagra, Gianfranco and Sinner, Moritz F and Slowikowski, Kamil and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Spector, Timothy D and Spiering, Wilko and Stamatoyannopoulos, John A and Stolk, Ronald P and Strauch, Konstantin and Tan, Sian-Tsung and Tarasov, Kirill V and Trinh, Bosco and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van den Boogaard, Malou and van Duijn, Cornelia M and van Gilst, Wiek H and Viikari, Jorma S and Visscher, Peter M and Vitart, Veronique and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Waldenberger, Melanie and Weichenberger, Christian X and Westra, Harm-Jan and Wijmenga, Cisca and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H and Yang, Jian and Bezzina, Connie R and Munroe, Patricia B and Snieder, Harold and Wright, Alan F and Rudan, Igor and Boyer, Laurie A and Asselbergs, Folkert W and van Veldhuisen, Dirk J and Stricker, Bruno H and Psaty, Bruce M and Ciullo, Marina and Sanna, Serena and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Wilson, James F and Bandinelli, Stefania and Alonso, Alvaro and Gasparini, Paolo and Jukema, J Wouter and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Felix, Stephan B and Heckbert, Susan R and de Boer, Rudolf A and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Hicks, Andrew A and Chambers, John C and Jamshidi, Yalda and Visel, Axel and Christoffels, Vincent M and Isaacs, Aaron and Samani, Nilesh J and de Bakker, Paul I W} } @article {6950, title = {Association of Smoking, Alcohol, and Obesity with Cardiovascular Death and Ischemic Stroke in Atrial Fibrillation: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study and Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS).}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {11}, year = {2016}, month = {2016}, pages = {e0147065}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke and cardiovascular (CV) death. Whether modifiable lifestyle risk factors are associated with these CV outcomes in AF is unknown. Among Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study and Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) participants with incident AF, we estimated the risk of composite endpoint of ischemic stroke or CV death associated with candidate modifiable risk factor (smoking, heavy alcohol consumption, or high body mass index [BMI]), and computed the C-statistic, net reclassification improvement (NRI), and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) of incorporating each factor into the CHA2DS2-VASc. Among 1222 ARIC (mean age: 63.4) and 756 CHS (mean age: 79.1) participants with incident AF, during mean follow-up of 6.9 years and 5.7 years, there were 332 and 335 composite events respectively. Compared with never smokers, current smokers had a higher incidence of the composite endpoint in ARIC [HR: 1.65 (1.21-2.26)] but not in CHS [HR: 1.05 (0.69-1.61)]. In ARIC, the addition of current smoking did not improve risk prediction over and above the CHA2DS2-VASc. No significant associations were observed with alcohol consumption or BMI with CVD outcomes in AF patients from either cohort. Smoking is associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke or CV death in ARIC, which comprised mostly middle-aged to young-old (65-74 years), but not in CHS, which comprised mostly middle-old or oldest-old (>=75 years) adults with AF. However, addition of smoking to the CHA2DS2-VASc score did not improve risk prediction of these outcomes.

}, keywords = {Aged, Alcohol Drinking, Atrial Fibrillation, Cardiovascular Diseases, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Smoking, Stroke}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0147065}, author = {Kwon, Younghoon and Norby, Faye L and Jensen, Paul N and Agarwal, Sunil K and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Lip, Gregory Y H and Longstreth, W T and Alonso, Alvaro and Heckbert, Susan R and Chen, Lin Y} } @article {7252, title = {Body size measures, hemostatic and inflammatory markers and risk of venous thrombosis: The Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology.}, journal = {Thromb Res}, volume = {144}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Aug}, pages = {127-32}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Obesity is an important venous thrombosis (VT) risk factor but the reasons for this are unclear.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a cohort of 20,914 individuals aged 45 and older without prior VT, we calculated the relative risk (RR) of VT over 12.6years follow-up according to baseline body size measures, and studied whether associations were mediated by biomarkers of hemostasis and inflammation that are related to adiposity.

RESULTS: Greater levels of all body size measures (weight, height, waist, hip circumference, calf circumference, body-mass index, waist-hip ratio, fat mass and fat-free mass) were associated with increased risk of VT, with 4th versus 1st quartile RRs of 1.5-3.0. There were no multiplicative interactions of biomarkers with obesity status. Adjustment for biomarkers associated with VT risk and body size (factors VII and VIII, von Willebrand factor, partial thromboplastin time, D-dimer, C-reactive protein and factor XI) only marginally lowered, or did not impact, the RRs associated with body size measures.

CONCLUSIONS: Greater body size, by multiple measures, is a risk factor for VT. Associations were not mediated by circulating levels of studied biomarkers suggesting that body size relates to VT because of physical factors associated with blood flow, not the hypercoagulability or inflammation associated with adiposity.

}, issn = {1879-2472}, doi = {10.1016/j.thromres.2016.06.012}, author = {Cushman, Mary and O{\textquoteright}Meara, Ellen S and Heckbert, Susan R and Zakai, Neil A and Rosamond, Wayne and Folsom, Aaron R} } @article {7247, title = {Can a Healthy Lifestyle Compress the Disabled Period in Older Adults?}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {64}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Oct}, pages = {1952-1961}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether lifestyle factors, measured late in life, could compress the disabled period toward the end of life.

DESIGN: Community-based cohort study of older adults followed from 1989 to 2015.

SETTING: Four U.S. communities.

PARTICIPANTS: Community-living men and women aged 65 and older (N = 5,248, mean age 72.7 {\textpm} 5.5, 57\% female, 15.2\% minority) who were not wheelchair dependent and were able to give informed consent at baseline.

MEASUREMENTS: Multiple lifestyle factors, including smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, diet, body mass index (BMI), social networks, and social support, were measured at baseline. Activities of daily living (ADLs) were assessed at baseline and throughout follow-up. Years of life (YoL) was defined as years until death. Years of able life (YAL) was defined as years without any ADL difficulty. YAL/YoL\%, the proportion of life lived able, was used to indicate the relative compression or expansion of the disabled period.

RESULTS: The average duration of disabled years was 4.5 (out of 15.4 mean YoL) for women and 2.9 (out of 12.4 mean YoL) for men. In a multivariable model, obesity was associated with 7.3 percentage points (95\% confidence interval (CI) = 5.4-9.2) lower YAL/YoL\% than normal weight. Scores in the lowest quintile of the Alternate Healthy Eating Index were associated with a 3.7\% (95\% CI = 1.6-5.9) lower YAL/YoL\% than scores in the highest quintile. Every 25 blocks walked in a week was associated with 0.5 percentage points (95\% CI = 0.3-0.8) higher YAL/YoL\%.

CONCLUSION: The effects of healthy lifestyle factors on the proportion of future life lived free of disability indicate that the disabled period can be compressed, given the right combination of these factors.

}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/jgs.14314}, author = {Jacob, Mini E and Yee, Laura M and Diehr, Paula H and Arnold, Alice M and Thielke, Stephen M and Chaves, Paulo H M and Gobbo, Liana Del and Hirsch, Calvin and Siscovick, David and Newman, Anne B} } @article {7117, title = {Cardiovascular Disease, Mortality Risk, and Healthcare Costs by Lipoprotein(a) Levels According to Low-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Levels in Older High-risk Adults.}, journal = {Clin Cardiol}, volume = {39}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jul}, pages = {413-20}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The value of lipoprotein(a) (Lp[a]) for predicting cardiovascular disease (CVD) across low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is uncertain.

HYPOTHESIS: In older high-risk adults, higher LDL and Lp(a) combined would be associated with higher CVD risk and more healthcare costs.

METHODS: We included 3251 high-risk subjects (prior CVD, diabetes, or 10-year Framingham CVD risk >20\%) age >=65 years from the Cardiovascular Health Study and examined the relation of Lp(a) tertiles with incident CVD, coronary heart disease (CHD), and all-cause mortality within LDL-C strata (spanning <70 mg/dL to >=160 mg/dL). We also examined 1-year all-cause and CVD healthcare costs from Medicare claims.

RESULTS: Over a 22.5-year follow-up, higher Lp(a) levels predicted CVD and total mortality (both standardized hazard ratio [HR]: 1.06, P < 0.01), whereas higher LDL-C levels predicted higher CHD (standardized HR: 1.09, P < 0.01) but lower total mortality (standardized HR: 0.94, P < 0.001). Adjusted HRs in the highest (vs lowest) tertile of Lp(a) level were 1.95 (P = 0.06) for CVD events and 2.68 (P = 0.03) for CHD events when LDL-C was <70 mg/dL. One-year all-cause healthcare costs were increased for Lp(a) ($771 per SD of 56 {\textmu}g/mL [P = 0.03], $1976 for Lp(a) 25-64 {\textmu}g/mL vs <25 {\textmu}g/mL [P = 0.02], and $1648 for Lp(a) >=65 {\textmu}g/mL vs <25 {\textmu}g/mL [P = 0.054]) but not LDL-C.

CONCLUSIONS: In older high-risk adults, increased Lp(a) levels were associated with higher CVD risk, especially in those with LDL-C <70 mg/dL, and with higher healthcare costs.

}, issn = {1932-8737}, doi = {10.1002/clc.22546}, author = {Zhao, Yanglu and Delaney, Joseph A and Quek, Ruben G W and Gardin, Julius M and Hirsch, Calvin H and Gandra, Shravanthi R and Wong, Nathan D} } @article {6992, title = {Consumption of Caffeinated Products and Cardiac Ectopy.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {5}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jan}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Premature cardiac contractions are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Though experts associate premature atrial contractions (PACs) and premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) with caffeine, there are no data to support this relationship in the general population. As certain caffeinated products may have cardiovascular benefits, recommendations against them may be detrimental.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied Cardiovascular Health Study participants with a baseline food frequency assessment, 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiography (Holter) monitoring, and without persistent atrial fibrillation. Frequencies of habitual coffee, tea, and chocolate consumption were assessed using a picture-sort food frequency survey. The main outcomes were PACs/h and PVCs/hour. Among 1388 participants (46\% male, mean age 72 years), 840 (61\%) consumed >=1 caffeinated product per day. The median numbers of PACs and PVCs/h and interquartile ranges were 3 (1-12) and 1 (0-7), respectively. There were no differences in the number of PACs or PVCs/h across levels of coffee, tea, and chocolate consumption. After adjustment for potential confounders, more frequent consumption of these products was not associated with ectopy. In examining combined dietary intake of coffee, tea, and chocolate as a continuous measure, no relationships were observed after multivariable adjustment: 0.48\% fewer PACs/h (95\% CI -4.60 to 3.64) and 2.87\% fewer PVCs/h (95\% CI -8.18 to 2.43) per 1-serving/week increase in consumption.

CONCLUSIONS: In the largest study to evaluate dietary patterns and quantify cardiac ectopy using 24-hour Holter monitoring, we found no relationship between chronic consumption of caffeinated products and ectopy.

}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.115.002503}, author = {Dixit, Shalini and Stein, Phyllis K and Dewland, Thomas A and Dukes, Jonathan W and Vittinghoff, Eric and Heckbert, Susan R and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {7243, title = {Development and Validation of a Sudden Cardiac Death Prediction Model for the General Population.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {134}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Sep 13}, pages = {806-16}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Most sudden cardiac death (SCD) events occur in the general population among persons who do not have any prior history of clinical heart disease. We sought to develop a predictive model of SCD among US adults.

METHODS: We evaluated a series of demographic, clinical, laboratory, electrocardiographic, and echocardiographic measures in participants in the ARIC study (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) (n=13 677) and the CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study) (n=4207) who were free of baseline cardiovascular disease. Our initial objective was to derive a SCD prediction model using the ARIC cohort and validate it in CHS. Independent risk factors for SCD were first identified in the ARIC cohort to derive a 10-year risk model of SCD. We compared the prediction of SCD with non-SCD and all-cause mortality in both the derivation and validation cohorts. Furthermore, we evaluated whether the SCD prediction equation was better at predicting SCD than the 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Cardiovascular Disease Pooled Cohort risk equation.

RESULTS: There were a total of 345 adjudicated SCD events in our analyses, and the 12 independent risk factors in the ARIC study included age, male sex, black race, current smoking, systolic blood pressure, use of antihypertensive medication, diabetes mellitus, serum potassium, serum albumin, high-density lipoprotein, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and QTc interval. During a 10-year follow-up period, a model combining these risk factors showed good to excellent discrimination for SCD risk (c-statistic 0.820 in ARIC and 0.745 in CHS). The SCD prediction model was slightly better in predicting SCD than the 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Pooled Cohort risk equations (c-statistic 0.808 in ARIC and 0.743 in CHS). Only the SCD prediction model, however, demonstrated similar and accurate prediction for SCD using both the original, uncalibrated score and the recalibrated equation. Finally, in the echocardiographic subcohort, a left ventricular ejection fraction <50\% was present in only 1.1\% of participants and did not enhance SCD prediction.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study is the first to derive and validate a generalizable risk score that provides well-calibrated, absolute risk estimates across different risk strata in an adult population of white and black participants without a clinical diagnosis of cardiovascular disease.

}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.116.023042}, author = {Deo, Rajat and Norby, Faye L and Katz, Ronit and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Adabag, Selcuk and deFilippi, Christopher R and Kestenbaum, Bryan and Chen, Lin Y and Heckbert, Susan R and Folsom, Aaron R and Kronmal, Richard A and Konety, Suma and Patton, Kristen K and Siscovick, David and Shlipak, Michael G and Alonso, Alvaro} } @article {7144, title = {Discovery of Genetic Variation on Chromosome 5q22 Associated with Mortality in Heart Failure.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {12}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 May}, pages = {e1006034}, abstract = {

Failure of the human heart to maintain sufficient output of blood for the demands of the body, heart failure, is a common condition with high mortality even with modern therapeutic alternatives. To identify molecular determinants of mortality in patients with new-onset heart failure, we performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies and follow-up genotyping in independent populations. We identified and replicated an association for a genetic variant on chromosome 5q22 with 36\% increased risk of death in subjects with heart failure (rs9885413, P = 2.7x10-9). We provide evidence from reporter gene assays, computational predictions and epigenomic marks that this polymorphism increases activity of an enhancer region active in multiple human tissues. The polymorphism was further reproducibly associated with a DNA methylation signature in whole blood (P = 4.5x10-40) that also associated with allergic sensitization and expression in blood of the cytokine TSLP (P = 1.1x10-4). Knockdown of the transcription factor predicted to bind the enhancer region (NHLH1) in a human cell line (HEK293) expressing NHLH1 resulted in lower TSLP expression. In addition, we observed evidence of recent positive selection acting on the risk allele in populations of African descent. Our findings provide novel genetic leads to factors that influence mortality in patients with heart failure.

}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1006034}, author = {Smith, J Gustav and Felix, Janine F and Morrison, Alanna C and Kalogeropoulos, Andreas and Trompet, Stella and Wilk, Jemma B and Gidl{\"o}f, Olof and Wang, Xinchen and Morley, Michael and Mendelson, Michael and Joehanes, Roby and Ligthart, Symen and Shan, Xiaoyin and Bis, Joshua C and Wang, Ying A and Sj{\"o}gren, Marketa and Ngwa, Julius and Brandimarto, Jeffrey and Stott, David J and Aguilar, David and Rice, Kenneth M and Sesso, Howard D and Demissie, Serkalem and Buckley, Brendan M and Taylor, Kent D and Ford, Ian and Yao, Chen and Liu, Chunyu and Sotoodehnia, Nona and van der Harst, Pim and Stricker, Bruno H Ch and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Liu, Yongmei and Gaziano, J Michael and Hofman, Albert and Moravec, Christine S and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Kellis, Manolis and van Meurs, Joyce B and Margulies, Kenneth B and Dehghan, Abbas and Levy, Daniel and Olde, Bj{\"o}rn and Psaty, Bruce M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Jukema, J Wouter and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Franco, Oscar H and Boerwinkle, Eric and Boyer, Laurie A and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Butler, Javed and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Cappola, Thomas P and Smith, Nicholas L} } @article {7375, title = {A DNA methylation biomarker of alcohol consumption.}, journal = {Mol Psychiatry}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Nov 15}, abstract = {

The lack of reliable measures of alcohol intake is a major obstacle to the diagnosis and treatment of alcohol-related diseases. Epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation may provide novel biomarkers of alcohol use. To examine this possibility, we performed an epigenome-wide association study of methylation of cytosine-phosphate-guanine dinucleotide (CpG) sites in relation to alcohol intake in 13 population-based cohorts (ntotal=13 317; 54\% women; mean age across cohorts 42-76 years) using whole blood (9643 European and 2423 African ancestries) or monocyte-derived DNA (588 European, 263 African and 400 Hispanic ancestry) samples. We performed meta-analysis and variable selection in whole-blood samples of people of European ancestry (n=6926) and identified 144 CpGs that provided substantial discrimination (area under the curve=0.90-0.99) for current heavy alcohol intake (⩾42 g per day in men and ⩾28 g per day in women) in four replication cohorts. The ancestry-stratified meta-analysis in whole blood identified 328 (9643 European ancestry samples) and 165 (2423 African ancestry samples) alcohol-related CpGs at Bonferroni-adjusted P<1 {\texttimes} 10(-7). Analysis of the monocyte-derived DNA (n=1251) identified 62 alcohol-related CpGs at P<1 {\texttimes} 10(-7). In whole-blood samples of people of European ancestry, we detected differential methylation in two neurotransmitter receptor genes, the γ-Aminobutyric acid-A receptor delta and γ-aminobutyric acid B receptor subunit 1; their differential methylation was associated with expression levels of a number of genes involved in immune function. In conclusion, we have identified a robust alcohol-related DNA methylation signature and shown the potential utility of DNA methylation as a clinically useful diagnostic test to detect current heavy alcohol consumption.Molecular Psychiatry advance online publication, 15 November 2016; doi:10.1038/mp.2016.192.

}, issn = {1476-5578}, doi = {10.1038/mp.2016.192}, author = {Liu, C and Marioni, R E and Hedman, {\r A} K and Pfeiffer, L and Tsai, P-C and Reynolds, L M and Just, A C and Duan, Q and Boer, C G and Tanaka, T and Elks, C E and Aslibekyan, S and Brody, J A and K{\"u}hnel, B and Herder, C and Almli, L M and Zhi, D and Wang, Y and Huan, T and Yao, C and Mendelson, M M and Joehanes, R and Liang, L and Love, S-A and Guan, W and Shah, S and McRae, A F and Kretschmer, A and Prokisch, H and Strauch, K and Peters, A and Visscher, P M and Wray, N R and Guo, X and Wiggins, K L and Smith, A K and Binder, E B and Ressler, K J and Irvin, M R and Absher, D M and Hernandez, D and Ferrucci, L and Bandinelli, S and Lohman, K and Ding, J and Trevisi, L and Gustafsson, S and Sandling, J H and Stolk, L and Uitterlinden, A G and Yet, I and Castillo-Fernandez, J E and Spector, T D and Schwartz, J D and Vokonas, P and Lind, L and Li, Y and Fornage, M and Arnett, D K and Wareham, N J and Sotoodehnia, N and Ong, K K and van Meurs, J B J and Conneely, K N and Baccarelli, A A and Deary, I J and Bell, J T and North, K E and Liu, Y and Waldenberger, M and London, S J and Ingelsson, E and Levy, D} } @article {7349, title = {DNA methylation signatures of chronic low-grade inflammation are associated with complex diseases.}, journal = {Genome Biol}, volume = {17}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Dec 12}, pages = {255}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Chronic low-grade inflammation reflects a subclinical immune response implicated in the pathogenesis of complex diseases. Identifying genetic loci where DNA methylation is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation may reveal novel pathways or therapeutic targets for inflammation.

RESULTS: We performed a meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) of serum C-reactive protein (CRP), which is a sensitive marker of low-grade inflammation, in a large European population (n = 8863) and trans-ethnic replication in African Americans (n = 4111). We found differential methylation at 218 CpG sites to be associated with CRP (P < 1.15 {\texttimes} 10(-7)) in the discovery panel of European ancestry and replicated (P < 2.29 {\texttimes} 10(-4)) 58 CpG sites (45 unique loci) among African Americans. To further characterize the molecular and clinical relevance of the findings, we examined the association with gene expression, genetic sequence variants, and clinical outcomes. DNA methylation at nine (16\%) CpG sites was associated with whole blood gene expression in cis (P < 8.47 {\texttimes} 10(-5)), ten (17\%) CpG sites were associated with a nearby genetic variant (P < 2.50 {\texttimes} 10(-3)), and 51 (88\%) were also associated with at least one related cardiometabolic entity (P < 9.58 {\texttimes} 10(-5)). An additive weighted score of replicated CpG sites accounted for up to 6\% inter-individual variation (R2) of age-adjusted and sex-adjusted CRP, independent of known CRP-related genetic variants.

CONCLUSION: We have completed an EWAS of chronic low-grade inflammation and identified many novel genetic loci underlying inflammation that may serve as targets for the development of novel therapeutic interventions for inflammation.

}, issn = {1474-760X}, doi = {10.1186/s13059-016-1119-5}, author = {Ligthart, Symen and Marzi, Carola and Aslibekyan, Stella and Mendelson, Michael M and Conneely, Karen N and Tanaka, Toshiko and Colicino, Elena and Waite, Lindsay L and Joehanes, Roby and Guan, Weihua and Brody, Jennifer A and Elks, Cathy and Marioni, Riccardo and Jhun, Min A and Agha, Golareh and Bressler, Jan and Ward-Caviness, Cavin K and Chen, Brian H and Huan, Tianxiao and Bakulski, Kelly and Salfati, Elias L and Fiorito, Giovanni and Wahl, Simone and Schramm, Katharina and Sha, Jin and Hernandez, Dena G and Just, Allan C and Smith, Jennifer A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Pilling, Luke C and Pankow, James S and Tsao, Phil S and Liu, Chunyu and Zhao, Wei and Guarrera, Simonetta and Michopoulos, Vasiliki J and Smith, Alicia K and Peters, Marjolein J and Melzer, David and Vokonas, Pantel and Fornage, Myriam and Prokisch, Holger and Bis, Joshua C and Chu, Audrey Y and Herder, Christian and Grallert, Harald and Yao, Chen and Shah, Sonia and McRae, Allan F and Lin, Honghuang and Horvath, Steve and Fallin, Daniele and Hofman, Albert and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wiggins, Kerri L and Feinberg, Andrew P and Starr, John M and Visscher, Peter M and Murabito, Joanne M and Kardia, Sharon L R and Absher, Devin M and Binder, Elisabeth B and Singleton, Andrew B and Bandinelli, Stefania and Peters, Annette and Waldenberger, Melanie and Matullo, Giuseppe and Schwartz, Joel D and Demerath, Ellen W and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Franco, Oscar H and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Levy, Daniel and Turner, Stephen T and Deary, Ian J and Ressler, Kerry J and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Ferrucci, Luigi and Ong, Ken K and Assimes, Themistocles L and Boerwinkle, Eric and Koenig, Wolfgang and Arnett, Donna K and Baccarelli, Andrea A and Benjamin, Emelia J and Dehghan, Abbas} } @article {7251, title = {Dyspnea in Community-Dwelling Older Persons: A Multifactorial Geriatric Health Condition.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {64}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Oct}, pages = {2042-2050}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the associations between a broad array of cardiorespiratory and noncardiorespiratory impairments and dyspnea in older persons.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional.

SETTING: Cardiovascular Health Study.

PARTICIPANTS: Community-dwelling persons (N = 4,413; mean age 72.6, 57.1\% female, 4.5\% African American, 27.2\%

MEASUREMENTS: Dyspnea severity (moderate to severe defined as American Thoracic Society Grade >=2) and several impairments, including those established using spirometry (forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1 )), maximal inspiratory pressure (respiratory muscle strength), echocardiography, ankle-brachial index, blood pressure, whole-body muscle mass (bioelectrical impedance), single chair stand (lower extremity function), grip strength, serum hemoglobin and creatinine, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), Mini-Mental State Examination, medication use, and body mass index (BMI).

RESULTS: In a multivariable logistic regression model, impairments that had strong associations with moderate to severe dyspnea were FEV1 less than the lower limit of normal (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 2.88, 95\% confidence interval (CI) = 2.37-3.49), left ventricular ejection fraction less than 45\% (aOR = 2.12, 95\% CI = 1.43, 3.16), unable to perform a single chair stand (aOR = 2.10, 95\% CI = 1.61-2.73), depressive symptoms (CES-D score >=16; aOR = 2.02, 95\% CI = 1.26-3.23), and obesity (BMI >=30; aOR = 2.07, 95\% CI = 1.67-2.55). Impairments with modest but still statistically significant associations with moderate to severe dyspnea included respiratory muscle weakness, diastolic cardiac dysfunction, grip weakness, anxiety symptoms, and use of cardiovascular and psychoactive medications (aORs = 1.31-1.71).

CONCLUSION: In community-dwelling older persons, several cardiorespiratory and noncardiorespiratory impairments were significantly associated with moderate to severe dyspnea, akin to a multifactorial geriatric health condition.

}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/jgs.14290}, author = {Miner, Brienne and Tinetti, Mary E and Van Ness, Peter H and Han, Ling and Leo-Summers, Linda and Newman, Anne B and Lee, Patty J and Vaz Fragoso, Carlos A} } @article {7133, title = {Effects of Disease Burden and Functional Adaptation on Morbidity and Mortality on Older Adults.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {64}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jun}, pages = {1242-9}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To ascertain whether older adults with extensive disease but relative vigor (adapters) shorten the period at the end of life in which they live with morbidity (compress morbidity).

DESIGN: Prospective, community-based cohort study in four U.S. cities.

SETTING: Cardiovascular Health Study.

PARTICIPANTS: Individuals aged 65 and older.

MEASUREMENTS: Participants were categorized into three groups according to extent of disease (assessed noninvasively), vigor, and frailty (expected agers (n~=~3,528, extent of disease similar to vigor and frailty-reference group), adapters (n~=~882, higher disease but vigorous), and prematurely frail (n~=~855, lower disease but frail)) and compared according to years of able life (YAL), years of self-reported healthy life (YHL), and mortality using multivariable regression and survival analysis.

RESULTS: After adjustment, adapters had 0.97 (95\% confidence interval (CI)~=~0.60-1.33) more YAL and 0.54 (95\% CI~=~0.19-0.90) more YHL than expected agers, and those who were prematurely frail had -0.99 (95\% CI~=~-1.36 to -0.62) fewer YAL and -0.53 (95\% CI~=~-0.89 to -0.17) fewer YHL than expected agers. Adapters had 0.9 more and prematurely frail had 1.5 fewer years of total life than expected agers (P~<~.001). Adapters spent 55\% of their remaining life able and healthy, those who were prematurely frail spent 37\%, and of expected agers spent 47\% (P~<~.001).

CONCLUSION: Despite similar levels of disease burden, older adults who were more vigorous appeared to compress morbidity and live longer. Older adults with higher frailty lengthened morbidity and had greater mortality. Adaptive factors may compress morbidity and decrease mortality.

}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/jgs.14163}, author = {Sanders, Jason L and Arnold, Alice M and Hirsch, Calvin H and Thielke, Stephen M and Kim, Dae and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Kizer, Jorge R and Ix, Joachim H and Kaplan, Robert C and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Newman, Anne B} } @article {7129, title = {Electrocardiographic Predictors of Incident Atrial Fibrillation.}, journal = {Am J Cardiol}, volume = {118}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Sep 1}, pages = {714-9}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is likely secondary to multiple different pathophysiological mechanisms that are increasingly but incompletely understood. Motivated by the hypothesis that 3 previously described electrocardiographic predictors of AF identify distinct AF mechanisms, we sought to determine if these electrocardiographic findings independently predict incident disease. Among Cardiovascular Health Study participants without prevalent AF, we determined whether left anterior fascicular block (LAFB), a prolonged QTC, and atrial premature complexes (APCs) each predicted AF after adjusting for each other. We then calculated the attributable risk in the exposed for each electrocardiographic marker. LAFB and QTC intervals were assessed on baseline 12-lead electrocardiogram (n~= 4,696). APC count was determined using 24-hour Holter recordings obtained in a random subsample (n~= 1,234). After adjusting for potential confounders and each electrocardiographic marker, LAFB (hazard ratio [HR] 2.1, 95\% confidence interval [CI] 1.1 to 3.9, p~= 0.023), a prolonged QTC (HR 2.5, 95\% CI 1.4 to 4.3, p~= 0.002), and every doubling of APC count (HR 1.2, 95\% CI 1.1 to 1.3, p <0.001) each remained independently predictive of incident AF. The attributable risk of AF in the exposed was 35\% (95\% CI 13\% to 52\%) for LAFB, 25\% (95\% CI 0.6\% to 44\%) for a prolonged QTC, and 34\% (95\% CI 26\% to 42\%) for APCs. In conclusion, in a community-based cohort, 3 previously established electrocardiogram-derived AF predictors were each independently associated with incident AF, suggesting that they may represent distinct mechanisms underlying the disease.

}, issn = {1879-1913}, doi = {10.1016/j.amjcard.2016.06.008}, author = {Nguyen, Kaylin T and Vittinghoff, Eric and Dewland, Thomas A and Mandyam, Mala C and Stein, Phyllis K and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Heckbert, Susan R and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {7145, title = {An Empirical Comparison of Joint and Stratified Frameworks for Studying G {\texttimes} E Interactions: Systolic Blood Pressure and Smoking in the CHARGE Gene-Lifestyle Interactions Working Group.}, journal = {Genet Epidemiol}, volume = {40}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jul}, pages = {404-15}, abstract = {

Studying gene-environment (G {\texttimes} E) interactions is important, as they extend our knowledge of the genetic architecture of complex traits and may help to identify novel variants not detected via analysis of main effects alone. The main statistical framework for studying G {\texttimes} E interactions uses a single regression model that includes both the genetic main and G {\texttimes} E interaction effects (the "joint" framework). The alternative "stratified" framework combines results from genetic main-effect analyses carried out separately within the exposed and unexposed groups. Although there have been several investigations using theory and simulation, an empirical comparison of the two frameworks is lacking. Here, we compare the two frameworks using results from genome-wide association studies of systolic blood pressure for 3.2 million low frequency and 6.5 million common variants across 20 cohorts of European ancestry, comprising 79,731 individuals. Our cohorts have sample sizes ranging from 456 to 22,983 and include both family-based and population-based samples. In cohort-specific analyses, the two frameworks provided similar inference for population-based cohorts. The agreement was reduced for family-based cohorts. In meta-analyses, agreement between the two frameworks was less than that observed in cohort-specific analyses, despite the increased sample size. In meta-analyses, agreement depended on (1) the minor allele frequency, (2) inclusion of family-based cohorts in meta-analysis, and (3) filtering scheme. The stratified framework appears to approximate the joint framework well only for common variants in population-based cohorts. We conclude that the joint framework is the preferred approach and should be used to control false positives when dealing with low-frequency variants and/or family-based cohorts.

}, issn = {1098-2272}, doi = {10.1002/gepi.21978}, author = {Sung, Yun Ju and Winkler, Thomas W and Manning, Alisa K and Aschard, Hugues and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Smith, Albert V and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brown, Michael R and Morrison, Alanna C and Fornage, Myriam and Lin, Li-An and Richard, Melissa and Bartz, Traci M and Psaty, Bruce M and Hayward, Caroline and Polasek, Ozren and Marten, Jonathan and Rudan, Igor and Feitosa, Mary F and Kraja, Aldi T and Province, Michael A and Deng, Xuan and Fisher, Virginia A and Zhou, Yanhua and Bielak, Lawrence F and Smith, Jennifer and Huffman, Jennifer E and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Smith, Blair H and Ding, Jingzhong and Liu, Yongmei and Lohman, Kurt and Bouchard, Claude and Rankinen, Tuomo and Rice, Treva K and Arnett, Donna and Schwander, Karen and Guo, Xiuqing and Palmas, Walter and Rotter, Jerome I and Alfred, Tamuno and Bottinger, Erwin P and Loos, Ruth J F and Amin, Najaf and Franco, Oscar H and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Vojinovic, Dina and Chasman, Daniel I and Ridker, Paul M and Rose, Lynda M and Kardia, Sharon and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Rice, Kenneth and Borecki, Ingrid B and Rao, Dabeeru C and Gauderman, W James and Cupples, L Adrienne} } @article {7261, title = {Epigenetic Signatures of Cigarette Smoking.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Oct}, pages = {436-447}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation leaves a long-term signature of smoking exposure and is one potential mechanism by which tobacco exposure predisposes to adverse health outcomes, such as cancers, osteoporosis, lung, and cardiovascular disorders.

METHODS AND RESULTS: To comprehensively determine the association between cigarette smoking and DNA methylation, we conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide DNA methylation assessed using the Illumina BeadChip 450K array on 15 907 blood-derived DNA samples from participants in 16 cohorts (including 2433 current, 6518 former, and 6956 never smokers). Comparing current versus never smokers, 2623 cytosine-phosphate-guanine sites (CpGs), annotated to 1405 genes, were statistically significantly differentially methylated at Bonferroni threshold of P<1{\texttimes}10(-7) (18 760 CpGs at false discovery rate <0.05). Genes annotated to these CpGs were enriched for associations with several smoking-related traits in genome-wide studies including pulmonary function, cancers, inflammatory diseases, and heart disease. Comparing former versus never smokers, 185 of the CpGs that differed between current and never smokers were significant P<1{\texttimes}10(-7) (2623 CpGs at false discovery rate <0.05), indicating a pattern of persistent altered methylation, with attenuation, after smoking cessation. Transcriptomic integration identified effects on gene expression at many differentially methylated CpGs.

CONCLUSIONS: Cigarette smoking has a broad impact on genome-wide methylation that, at many loci, persists many years after smoking cessation. Many of the differentially methylated genes were novel genes with respect to biological effects of smoking and might represent therapeutic targets for prevention or treatment of tobacco-related diseases. Methylation at these sites could also serve as sensitive and stable biomarkers of lifetime exposure to tobacco smoke.

}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.116.001506}, author = {Joehanes, Roby and Just, Allan C and Marioni, Riccardo E and Pilling, Luke C and Reynolds, Lindsay M and Mandaviya, Pooja R and Guan, Weihua and Xu, Tao and Elks, Cathy E and Aslibekyan, Stella and Moreno-Macias, Hortensia and Smith, Jennifer A and Brody, Jennifer A and Dhingra, Radhika and Yousefi, Paul and Pankow, James S and Kunze, Sonja and Shah, Sonia H and McRae, Allan F and Lohman, Kurt and Sha, Jin and Absher, Devin M and Ferrucci, Luigi and Zhao, Wei and Demerath, Ellen W and Bressler, Jan and Grove, Megan L and Huan, Tianxiao and Liu, Chunyu and Mendelson, Michael M and Yao, Chen and Kiel, Douglas P and Peters, Annette and Wang-Sattler, Rui and Visscher, Peter M and Wray, Naomi R and Starr, John M and Ding, Jingzhong and Rodriguez, Carlos J and Wareham, Nicholas J and Irvin, Marguerite R and Zhi, Degui and Barrdahl, Myrto and Vineis, Paolo and Ambatipudi, Srikant and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hofman, Albert and Schwartz, Joel and Colicino, Elena and Hou, Lifang and Vokonas, Pantel S and Hernandez, Dena G and Singleton, Andrew B and Bandinelli, Stefania and Turner, Stephen T and Ware, Erin B and Smith, Alicia K and Klengel, Torsten and Binder, Elisabeth B and Psaty, Bruce M and Taylor, Kent D and Gharib, Sina A and Swenson, Brenton R and Liang, Liming and DeMeo, Dawn L and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Herceg, Zdenko and Ressler, Kerry J and Conneely, Karen N and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Kardia, Sharon L R and Melzer, David and Baccarelli, Andrea A and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Romieu, Isabelle and Arnett, Donna K and Ong, Ken K and Liu, Yongmei and Waldenberger, Melanie and Deary, Ian J and Fornage, Myriam and Levy, Daniel and London, Stephanie J} } @article {7185, title = {Evaluation of a Genetic Risk Score to Improve Risk Prediction for Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease.}, journal = {J Alzheimers Dis}, volume = {53}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jun 18}, pages = {921-32}, abstract = {

Effective prevention of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD) requires the development of risk prediction tools permitting preclinical intervention. We constructed a genetic risk score (GRS) comprising common genetic variants associated with AD, evaluated its association with incident AD and assessed its capacity to improve risk prediction over traditional models based on age, sex, education, and APOEɛ4. In eight prospective cohorts included in the International Genomics of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Project (IGAP), we derived weighted sum of risk alleles from the 19 top SNPs reported by the IGAP GWAS in participants aged 65 and older without prevalent dementia. Hazard ratios (HR) of incident AD were estimated in Cox models. Improvement in risk prediction was measured by the difference in C-index (Δ-C), the integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) and continuous net reclassification improvement (NRI>0). Overall, 19,687 participants at risk were included, of whom 2,782 developed AD. The GRS was associated with a 17\% increase in AD risk (pooled HR = 1.17; 95\% CI =   [1.13-1.21] per standard deviation increase in GRS; p-value =  2.86{\texttimes}10-16). This association was stronger among persons with at least one APOEɛ4 allele (HRGRS = 1.24; 95\% CI =   [1.15-1.34]) than in others (HRGRS = 1.13; 95\% CI =   [1.08-1.18]; pinteraction = 3.45{\texttimes}10-2). Risk prediction after seven years of follow-up showed a small improvement when adding the GRS to age, sex, APOEɛ4, and education (Δ-Cindex =  0.0043 [0.0019-0.0067]). Similar patterns were observed for IDI and NRI>0. In conclusion, a risk score incorporating common genetic variation outside the APOEɛ4 locus improved AD risk prediction and may facilitate risk stratification for prevention trials.

}, issn = {1875-8908}, doi = {10.3233/JAD-150749}, author = {Chouraki, Vincent and Reitz, Christiane and Maury, Fleur and Bis, Joshua C and Bellenguez, C{\'e}line and Yu, Lei and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Mukherjee, Shubhabrata and Adams, Hieab H and Choi, Seung Hoan and Larson, Eric B and Fitzpatrick, Annette and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and De Jager, Philip L and Hofman, Albert and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Vardarajan, Badri and Ibrahim-Verbaas, Carla and van der Lee, Sven J and Lopez, Oscar and Dartigues, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and Berr, Claudine and Amouyel, Philippe and Bennett, David A and van Duijn, Cornelia and DeStefano, Anita L and Launer, Lenore J and Ikram, M Arfan and Crane, Paul K and Lambert, Jean-Charles and Mayeux, Richard and Seshadri, Sudha} } @article {7138, title = {Exome Genotyping Identifies Pleiotropic Variants Associated with Red Blood Cell Traits.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {99}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jul 7}, pages = {8-21}, abstract = {

Red blood cell (RBC) traits are important heritable clinical biomarkers and modifiers of disease severity. To identify coding genetic variants associated with these traits, we conducted meta-analyses of seven RBC phenotypes in 130,273 multi-ethnic individuals from~studies genotyped on an exome array. After conditional analyses and replication in 27,480 independent individuals, we identified 16 new RBC variants. We found low-frequency missense variants in MAP1A (rs55707100, minor allele frequency [MAF] = 3.3\%, p = 2~{\texttimes}~10(-10) for hemoglobin [HGB]) and HNF4A (rs1800961, MAF = 2.4\%, p < 3~{\texttimes} 10(-8) for hematocrit [HCT] and HGB). In African Americans, we identified a nonsense variant in CD36 associated with higher RBC distribution width (rs3211938, MAF = 8.7\%, p = 7~{\texttimes} 10(-11)) and showed that it is associated with lower CD36 expression and strong allelic imbalance in ex~vivo differentiated human erythroblasts. We also identified a rare missense variant in ALAS2 (rs201062903, MAF = 0.2\%) associated with lower mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (p < 8~{\texttimes} 10(-9)). Mendelian mutations in ALAS2 are a cause of sideroblastic anemia and erythropoietic protoporphyria. Gene-based testing highlighted three rare missense variants in PKLR, a gene mutated in Mendelian non-spherocytic hemolytic anemia, associated with HGB and HCT (SKAT p < 8~{\texttimes} 10(-7)). These rare, low-frequency, and common RBC variants showed pleiotropy, being also associated with platelet, white blood cell, and lipid traits. Our association results and functional annotation suggest the involvement of new genes in human erythropoiesis. We also confirm that rare and low-frequency variants play a role in the architecture of complex human traits, although their phenotypic effect is generally smaller than originally anticipated.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.05.007}, author = {Chami, Nathalie and Chen, Ming-Huei and Slater, Andrew J and Eicher, John D and Evangelou, Evangelos and Tajuddin, Salman M and Love-Gregory, Latisha and Kacprowski, Tim and Schick, Ursula M and Nomura, Akihiro and Giri, Ayush and Lessard, Samuel and Brody, Jennifer A and Schurmann, Claudia and Pankratz, Nathan and Yanek, Lisa R and Manichaikul, Ani and Pazoki, Raha and Mihailov, Evelin and Hill, W David and Raffield, Laura M and Burt, Amber and Bartz, Traci M and Becker, Diane M and Becker, Lewis C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Bottinger, Erwin P and O{\textquoteright}Donoghue, Michelle L and Crosslin, David R and de Denus, Simon and Dub{\'e}, Marie-Pierre and Elliott, Paul and Engstr{\"o}m, Gunnar and Evans, Michele K and Floyd, James S and Fornage, Myriam and Gao, He and Greinacher, Andreas and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hansen, Torben and Harris, Tamara B and Hayward, Caroline and Hernesniemi, Jussi and Highland, Heather M and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Hofman, Albert and Irvin, Marguerite R and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Lange, Ethan and Launer, Lenore J and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Li, Jin and Liewald, David C M and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Yongmei and Lu, Yingchang and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Mathias, Rasika A and Melander, Olle and Metspalu, Andres and Mononen, Nina and Nalls, Mike A and Nickerson, Deborah A and Nikus, Kjell and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Chris J and Orho-Melander, Marju and Pedersen, Oluf and Petersmann, Astrid and Polfus, Linda and Psaty, Bruce M and Raitakari, Olli T and Raitoharju, Emma and Richard, Melissa and Rice, Kenneth M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rotter, Jerome I and Schmidt, Frank and Smith, Albert Vernon and Starr, John M and Taylor, Kent D and Teumer, Alexander and Thuesen, Betina H and Torstenson, Eric S and Tracy, Russell P and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Zakai, Neil A and Vacchi-Suzzi, Caterina and van Duijn, Cornelia M and van Rooij, Frank J A and Cushman, Mary and Deary, Ian J and Velez Edwards, Digna R and Vergnaud, Anne-Claire and Wallentin, Lars and Waterworth, Dawn M and White, Harvey D and Wilson, James G and Zonderman, Alan B and Kathiresan, Sekar and Grarup, Niels and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Loos, Ruth J F and Lange, Leslie A and Faraday, Nauder and Abumrad, Nada A and Edwards, Todd L and Ganesh, Santhi K and Auer, Paul L and Johnson, Andrew D and Reiner, Alexander P and Lettre, Guillaume} } @article {6990, title = {Fibroblast Growth Factor-23 and Frailty in Elderly Community-Dwelling Individuals: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {64}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Feb}, pages = {270-6}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate whether fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF-23) is related to frailty and to characterize the nature of their joint association with mortality.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis for frailty and longitudinal cohort analysis for mortality.

SETTING: Cardiovascular Health Study.

PARTICIPANTS: Community-dwelling individuals (N = 2,977; mean age 77.9 {\textpm} 4.7, 40\% male, 83\% white).

MEASUREMENTS: The predictor was serum FGF-23 concentration (C-terminal enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), and the outcomes were frailty status (determined according to frailty phenotype criteria of weight loss, weakness, exhaustion, slowness, and low physical activity) and mortality. Multinomial logistic regression was used to assess the cross-sectional association between FGF-23 and frailty and prefrailty, adjusting for demographic characteristics, cardiovascular disease and risk factors, and kidney markers. Proportional hazards Cox proportional hazards regression was used to assess the association between FGF-23, frailty, and all-cause mortality.

RESULTS: Mean estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was 64 {\textpm} 17 mL/min per 1.73 m(2) . Median FGF-23 was 70.3 RU/mL (interquartile range 53.4-99.2); 52\% were prefrail, and 13\% were frail. After multivariate adjustment, each doubling in FGF-23 concentration was associated with 38\% (95\% confidence interval (CI) = 17-62\%) higher odds of frailty than of nonfrailty and 16\% (95\% CI = 3-30\%) higher odds of prefrailty. FGF-23 (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.16, 95\% CI = 1.10-1.23) and frailty (HR = 1.82, 95\% CI = 1.57-2.12) were independently associated with mortality, but neither association was meaningfully attenuated when adjusted for the other.

CONCLUSION: In a large cohort of older adults, higher FGF-23 was independently associated with prevalent frailty and prefrailty. FGF-23 and frailty were independent and additive risk factors for mortality. FGF-23 may be a marker for functional outcomes.

}, keywords = {Aged, Anthropometry, Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cross-Sectional Studies, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Female, Fibroblast Growth Factors, Frail Elderly, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Independent Living, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Phenotype, Risk Factors, Surveys and Questionnaires}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/jgs.13951}, author = {Beben, Tomasz and Ix, Joachim H and Shlipak, Michael G and Sarnak, Mark J and Fried, Linda F and Hoofnagle, Andrew N and Chonchol, Michel and Kestenbaum, Bryan R and de Boer, Ian H and Rifkin, Dena E} } @article {7259, title = {Fine-mapping, novel loci identification, and SNP association transferability in a genome-wide association study of QRS duration in African Americans.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Aug 29}, abstract = {

The electrocardiographic QRS duration, a measure of ventricular depolarization and conduction, is associated with cardiovascular mortality. While single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with QRS duration have been identified at 22 loci in populations of European descent, the genetic architecture of QRS duration in non-European populations is largely unknown. We therefore performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis of QRS duration in 13,031 African Americans from ten cohorts and a transethnic GWAS meta-analysis with additional results from populations of European descent. In the African American GWAS, a single genome-wide significant SNP association was identified (rs3922844, P = 4 {\texttimes} 10(-14)) in intron 16 of SCN5A, a voltage-gated cardiac sodium channel gene. The QRS-prolonging rs3922844 C allele was also associated with decreased SCN5A RNA expression in human atrial tissue (P = 1.1 {\texttimes} 10(-4)). High density genotyping revealed that the SCN5A association region in African Americans was confined to intron 16. Transethnic GWAS meta-analysis identified novel SNP associations on chromosome 18 in MYL12A (rs1662342, P = 4.9 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) and chromosome 1 near CD1E and SPTA1 (rs7547997, P = 7.9 {\texttimes} 10(-9)). The 22 QRS loci previously identified in populations of European descent were enriched for significant SNP associations with QRS duration in African Americans (P = 9.9 {\texttimes} 10(-7)), and index SNP associations in or near SCN5A, SCN10A, CDKN1A, NFIA, HAND1, TBX5 and SETBP1 replicated in African Americans. In summary, rs3922844 was associated with QRS duration and SCN5A expression, two novel QRS loci were identified using transethnic meta-analysis, and a significant proportion of QRS-SNP associations discovered in populations of European descent were transferable to African Americans when adequate power was achieved.

}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddw284}, author = {Evans, Daniel S and Avery, Christy L and Nalls, Mike A and Li, Guo and Barnard, John and Smith, Erin N and Tanaka, Toshiko and Butler, Anne M and Buxbaum, Sarah G and Alonso, Alvaro and Arking, Dan E and Berenson, Gerald S and Bis, Joshua C and Buyske, Steven and Carty, Cara L and Chen, Wei and Chung, Mina K and Cummings, Steven R and Deo, Rajat and Eaton, Charles B and Fox, Ervin R and Heckbert, Susan R and Heiss, Gerardo and Hindorff, Lucia A and Hsueh, Wen-Chi and Isaacs, Aaron and Jamshidi, Yalda and Kerr, Kathleen F and Liu, Felix and Liu, Yongmei and Lohman, Kurt K and Magnani, Jared W and Maher, Joseph F and Mehra, Reena and Meng, Yan A and Musani, Solomon K and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and North, Kari E and Psaty, Bruce M and Redline, Susan and Rotter, Jerome I and Schnabel, Renate B and Schork, Nicholas J and Shohet, Ralph V and Singleton, Andrew B and Smith, Jonathan D and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Srinivasan, Sathanur R and Taylor, Herman A and Van Wagoner, David R and Wilson, James G and Young, Taylor and Zhang, Zhu-Ming and Zonderman, Alan B and Evans, Michele K and Ferrucci, Luigi and Murray, Sarah S and Tranah, Gregory J and Whitsel, Eric A and Reiner, Alex P and Sotoodehnia, Nona} } @article {7161, title = {Gait Speed Predicts Incident Disability: A Pooled Analysis.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {71}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jan}, pages = {63-71}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Functional independence with aging is an important goal for individuals and society. Simple prognostic indicators can inform health promotion and care planning, but evidence is limited by heterogeneity in measures of function.

METHODS: We performed a pooled analysis of data from seven studies of 27,220 community-dwelling older adults aged 65 or older with baseline gait speed, followed for disability and mortality. Outcomes were incident inability or dependence on another person in bathing or dressing; and difficulty walking {\textonequarter} - {\textonehalf} mile or climbing 10 steps within 3 years.

RESULTS: Participants with faster baseline gait had lower rates of incident disability. In subgroups (defined by 0.2 m/s-wide intervals from <0.4 to >= 1.4 m/s) with increasingly greater gait speed, 3-year rates of bathing or dressing dependence trended from 10\% to 1\% in men, and from 15\% to 1\% in women, while mobility difficulty trended from 47\% to 4\% in men and 40\% to 6\% in women. The age-adjusted relative risk ratio per 0.1 m/s greater speed for bathing or dressing dependence in men was 0.68 (0.57-0.81) and in women: 0.74 (0.66-0.82); for mobility difficulty, men: 0.75 (0.68-0.82), women: 0.73 (0.67-0.80). Results were similar for combined disability and mortality. Effects were largely consistent across subgroups based on age, gender, race, body mass index, prior hospitalization, and selected chronic conditions. In the presence of multiple other risk factors for disability, gait speed significantly increased the area under the receiver operator characteristic curve.

CONCLUSION: In older adults, gait speed predicts 3 year incidence of bathing or dressing dependence, mobility difficulty, and a composite outcome of disability and mortality.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cohort Studies, Disability Evaluation, Disabled Persons, Female, Gait, Geriatric Assessment, Humans, Independent Living, Male, Mobility Limitation, Predictive Value of Tests, Prognosis, Psychomotor Performance, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, ROC Curve, Survival Analysis, United States}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glv126}, author = {Perera, Subashan and Patel, Kushang V and Rosano, Caterina and Rubin, Susan M and Satterfield, Suzanne and Harris, Tamara and Ensrud, Kristine and Orwoll, Eric and Lee, Christine G and Chandler, Julie M and Newman, Anne B and Cauley, Jane A and Guralnik, Jack M and Ferrucci, Luigi and Studenski, Stephanie A} } @article {8566, title = {{Gene-gene Interaction Analyses for Atrial Fibrillation}, journal = {Sci Rep}, volume = {6}, year = {2016}, month = {11}, pages = {35371}, abstract = {{Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a heritable disease that affects more than thirty million individuals worldwide. Extensive efforts have been devoted to the study of genetic determinants of AF. The objective of our study is to examine the effect of gene-gene interaction on AF susceptibility. We performed a large-scale association analysis of gene-gene interactions with AF in 8,173 AF cases, and 65,237 AF-free referents collected from 15 studies for discovery. We examined putative interactions between genome-wide SNPs and 17 known AF-related SNPs. The top interactions were then tested for association in an independent cohort for replication, which included more than 2,363 AF cases and 114,746 AF-free referents. One interaction, between rs7164883 at the HCN4 locus and rs4980345 at the SLC28A1 locus, was found to be significantly associated with AF in the discovery cohorts (interaction OR = 1.44, 95\% CI: 1.27-1.65}, author = {Lin, H. and Mueller-Nurasyid, M. and Smith, A. V. and Arking, D. E. and Barnard, J. and Bartz, T. M. and Lunetta, K. L. and Lohman, K. and Kleber, M. E. and Lubitz, S. A. and Geelhoed, B. and Trompet, S. and Niemeijer, M. N. and Kacprowski, T. and Chasman, D. I. and Klarin, D. and Sinner, M. F. and Waldenberger, M. and Meitinger, T. and Harris, T. B. and Launer, L. J. and Soliman, E. Z. and Chen, L. Y. and Smith, J. D. and Van Wagoner, D. R. and Rotter, J. I. and Psaty, B. M. and Xie, Z. and Hendricks, A. E. and Ding, J. and Delgado, G. E. and Verweij, N. and van der Harst, P. and Macfarlane, P. W. and Ford, I. and Hofman, A. and Uitterlinden, A. and Heeringa, J. and Franco, O. H. and Kors, J. A. and Weiss, S. and V?lzke, H. and Rose, L. M. and Natarajan, P. and Kathiresan, S. and K??b, S. and Gudnason, V. and Alonso, A. and Chung, M. K. and Heckbert, S. R. and Benjamin, E. J. and Liu, Y. and M?rz, W. and Rienstra, M. and Jukema, J. W. and Stricker, B. H. and D?rr, M. and Albert, C. M. and Ellinor, P. T.} } @article {7136, title = {General Framework for Meta-Analysis of Haplotype Association Tests.}, journal = {Genet Epidemiol}, volume = {40}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Apr}, pages = {244-52}, abstract = {

For complex traits, most associated single nucleotide variants (SNV) discovered to date have a small effect, and detection of association is only possible with large sample sizes. Because of patient confidentiality concerns, it is often not possible to pool genetic data from multiple cohorts, and meta-analysis has emerged as the method of choice to combine results from multiple studies. Many meta-analysis methods are available for single SNV analyses. As new approaches allow the capture of low frequency and rare genetic variation, it is of interest to jointly consider multiple variants to improve power. However, for the analysis of haplotypes formed by multiple SNVs, meta-analysis remains a challenge, because different haplotypes may be observed across studies. We propose a two-stage meta-analysis approach to combine haplotype analysis results. In the first stage, each cohort estimate haplotype effect sizes in a regression framework, accounting for relatedness among observations if appropriate. For the second stage, we use a multivariate generalized least square meta-analysis approach to combine haplotype effect estimates from multiple cohorts. Haplotype-specific association tests and a global test of independence between haplotypes and traits are obtained within our framework. We demonstrate through simulation studies that we control the type-I error rate, and our approach is more powerful than inverse variance weighted meta-analysis of single SNV analysis when haplotype effects are present. We replicate a published haplotype association between fasting glucose-associated locus (G6PC2) and fasting glucose in seven studies from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium and we provide more precise haplotype effect estimates.

}, issn = {1098-2272}, doi = {10.1002/gepi.21959}, author = {Wang, Shuai and Zhao, Jing Hua and An, Ping and Guo, Xiuqing and Jensen, Richard A and Marten, Jonathan and Huffman, Jennifer E and Meidtner, Karina and Boeing, Heiner and Campbell, Archie and Rice, Kenneth M and Scott, Robert A and Yao, Jie and Schulze, Matthias B and Wareham, Nicholas J and Borecki, Ingrid B and Province, Michael A and Rotter, Jerome I and Hayward, Caroline and Goodarzi, Mark O and Meigs, James B and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e} } @article {8569, title = {{Genetic associations at 53 loci highlight cell types and biological pathways relevant for kidney function}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {7}, year = {2016}, month = {Jan}, pages = {10023}, abstract = {Reduced glomerular filtration rate defines chronic kidney disease and is associated with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), combining data across 133,413 individuals with replication in up to 42,166 individuals. We identify 24 new and confirm 29 previously identified loci. Of these 53 loci, 19 associate with eGFR among individuals with diabetes. Using bioinformatics, we show that identified genes at eGFR loci are enriched for expression in kidney tissues and in pathways relevant for kidney development and transmembrane transporter activity, kidney structure, and regulation of glucose metabolism. Chromatin state mapping and DNase I hypersensitivity analyses across adult tissues demonstrate preferential mapping of associated variants to regulatory regions in kidney but not extra-renal tissues. These findings suggest that genetic determinants of eGFR are mediated largely through direct effects within the kidney and highlight important cell types and biological pathways.}, author = {Pattaro, C. and Teumer, A. and Gorski, M. and Chu, A. Y. and Li, M. and Mijatovic, V. and Garnaas, M. and Tin, A. and Sorice, R. and Li, Y. and Taliun, D. and Olden, M. and Foster, M. and Yang, Q. and Chen, M. H. and Pers, T. H. and Johnson, A. D. and Ko, Y. A. and Fuchsberger, C. and Tayo, B. and Nalls, M. and Feitosa, M. F. and Isaacs, A. and Dehghan, A. and d{\textquoteright}Adamo, P. and Adeyemo, A. and Dieffenbach, A. K. and Zonderman, A. B. and Nolte, I. M. and van der Most, P. J. and Wright, A. F. and Shuldiner, A. R. and Morrison, A. C. and Hofman, A. and Smith, A. V. and Dreisbach, A. W. and Franke, A. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and Metspalu, A. and Tonjes, A. and Lupo, A. and Robino, A. and Johansson, ?. and Demirkan, A. and Kollerits, B. and Freedman, B. I. and Ponte, B. and Oostra, B. A. and Paulweber, B. and Kr?mer, B. K. and Mitchell, B. D. and Buckley, B. M. and Peralta, C. A. and Hayward, C. and Helmer, C. and Rotimi, C. N. and Shaffer, C. M. and M?ller, C. and Sala, C. and van Duijn, C. M. and Saint-Pierre, A. and Ackermann, D. and Shriner, D. and Ruggiero, D. and Toniolo, D. and Lu, Y. and Cusi, D. and Czamara, D. and Ellinghaus, D. and Siscovick, D. S. and Ruderfer, D. and Gieger, C. and Grallert, H. and Rochtchina, E. and Atkinson, E. J. and Holliday, E. G. and Boerwinkle, E. and Salvi, E. and Bottinger, E. P. and Murgia, F. and Rivadeneira, F. and Ernst, F. and Kronenberg, F. and Hu, F. B. and Navis, G. J. and Curhan, G. C. and Ehret, G. B. and Homuth, G. and Coassin, S. and Thun, G. A. and Pistis, G. and Gambaro, G. and Malerba, G. and Montgomery, G. W. and Eiriksdottir, G. and Jacobs, G. and Li, G. and Wichmann, H. E. and Campbell, H. and Schmidt, H. and Wallaschofski, H. and V?lzke, H. and Brenner, H. and Kroemer, H. K. and Kramer, H. and Lin, H. and Leach, I. M. and Ford, I. and Guessous, I. and Rudan, I. and Prokopenko, I. and Borecki, I. and Heid, I. M. and Kolcic, I. and Persico, I. and Jukema, J. W. and Wilson, J. F. and Felix, J. F. and Divers, J. and Lambert, J. C. and Stafford, J. M. and Gaspoz, J. M. and Smith, J. A. and Faul, J. D. and Wang, J. J. and Ding, J. and Hirschhorn, J. N. and Attia, J. and Whitfield, J. B. and Chalmers, J. and Viikari, J. and Coresh, J. and Denny, J. C. and Karjalainen, J. and Fernandes, J. K. and Endlich, K. and Butterbach, K. and Keene, K. L. and Lohman, K. and Portas, L. and Launer, L. J. and Lyytik?inen, L. P. and Yengo, L. and Franke, L. and Ferrucci, L. and Rose, L. M. and Kedenko, L. and Rao, M. and Struchalin, M. and Kleber, M. E. and Cavalieri, M. and Haun, M. and Cornelis, M. C. and Ciullo, M. and Pirastu, M. and de Andrade, M. and McEvoy, M. A. and Woodward, M. and Adam, M. and Cocca, M. and Nauck, M. and Imboden, M. and Waldenberger, M. and Pruijm, M. and Metzger, M. and Stumvoll, M. and Evans, M. K. and Sale, M. M. and K?h?nen, M. and Boban, M. and Bochud, M. and Rheinberger, M. and Verweij, N. and Bouatia-Naji, N. and Martin, N. G. and Hastie, N. and Probst-Hensch, N. and Soranzo, N. and Devuyst, O. and Raitakari, O. and Gottesman, O. and Franco, O. H. and Polasek, O. and Gasparini, P. and Munroe, P. B. and Ridker, P. M. and Mitchell, P. and Muntner, P. and Meisinger, C. and Smit, J. H. and Kovacs, P. and Wild, P. S. and Froguel, P. and Rettig, R. and M?gi, R. and Biffar, R. and Schmidt, R. and Middelberg, R. P. and Carroll, R. J. and Penninx, B. W. and Scott, R. J. and Katz, R. and Sedaghat, S. and Wild, S. H. and Kardia, S. L. and Ulivi, S. and Hwang, S. J. and Enroth, S. and Kloiber, S. and Trompet, S. and Stengel, B. and Hancock, S. J. and Turner, S. T. and Rosas, S. E. and Stracke, S. and Harris, T. B. and Zeller, T. and Zemunik, T. and Lehtim?ki, T. and Illig, T. and Aspelund, T. and Nikopensius, T. and Esko, T. and Tanaka, T. and Gyllensten, U. and V?lker, U. and Emilsson, V. and Vitart, V. and Aalto, V. and Gudnason, V. and Chouraki, V. and Chen, W. M. and Igl, W. and M?rz, W. and Koenig, W. and Lieb, W. and Loos, R. J. and Liu, Y. and Snieder, H. and Pramstaller, P. P. and Parsa, A. and O{\textquoteright}Connell, J. R. and Susztak, K. and Hamet, P. and Tremblay, J. and De Boer, I. H. and B?ger, C. A. and Goessling, W. and Chasman, D. I. and K?ttgen, A. and Kao, W. H. and Fox, C. S. and Abecasis, G. R. and Adair, L. S. and Alexander, M. and Altshuler, D. and Amin, N. and Arking, D. E. and Arora, P. and Aulchenko, Y. and Bakker, S. J. and Bandinelli, S. and Barroso, I. and Beckmann, J. S. and Beilby, J. P. and Bergman, R. N. and Bergmann, S. and Bis, J. C. and Boehnke, M. and Bonnycastle, L. L. and Bornstein, S. R. and Bots, M. L. and Bragg-Gresham, J. L. and Brand, S. M. and Brand, E. and Braund, P. S. and Brown, M. J. and Burton, P. R. and Casas, J. P. and Caulfield, M. J. and Chakravarti, A. and Chambers, J. C. and Chandak, G. R. and Chang, Y. P. and Charchar, F. J. and Chaturvedi, N. and Shin Cho, Y. and Clarke, R. and Collins, F. S. and Collins, R. and Connell, J. M. and Cooper, J. A. and Cooper, M. N. and Cooper, R. S. and Corsi, A. M. and D?rr, M. and Dahgam, S. and Danesh, J. and Davey Smith, G. and Day, I. N. and Deloukas, P. and Denniff, M. and Dominiczak, A. F. and Dong, Y. and Doumatey, A. and Elliott, P. and Elosua, R. and Erdmann, J. and Eyheramendy, S. and Farrall, M. and Fava, C. and Forrester, T. and Fowkes, F. G. and Fox, E. R. and Frayling, T. M. and Galan, P. and Ganesh, S. K. and Garcia, M. and Gaunt, T. R. and Glazer, N. L. and Go, M. J. and Goel, A. and Gr?ssler, J. and Grobbee, D. E. and Groop, L. and Guarrera, S. and Guo, X. and Hadley, D. and Hamsten, A. and Han, B. G. and Hardy, R. and Hartikainen, A. 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J. and Scott, J. and Scuteri, A. and Sehmi, J. S. and Seielstad, M. and Seshadri, S. and Sharma, P. and Shaw-Hawkins, S. and Shi, G. and Shrine, N. R. and Sijbrands, E. J. and Sim, X. and Singleton, A. and Sj?gren, M. and Smith, N. L. and Soler Artigas, M. and Spector, T. D. and Staessen, J. A. and Stancakova, A. and Steinle, N. I. and Strachan, D. P. and Stringham, H. M. and Sun, Y. V. and Swift, A. J. and Tabara, Y. and Tai, E. S. and Talmud, P. J. and Taylor, A. and Terzic, J. and Thelle, D. S. and Tobin, M. D. and Tomaszewski, M. and Tripathy, V. and Tuomilehto, J. and Tzoulaki, I. and Uda, M. and Ueshima, H. and Uiterwaal, C. S. and Umemura, S. and van der Harst, P. and van der Schouw, Y. T. and van Gilst, W. H. and Vartiainen, E. and Vasan, R. S. and Veldre, G. and Verwoert, G. C. and Viigimaa, M. and Vinay, D. G. and Vineis, P. and Voight, B. F. and Vollenweider, P. and Wagenknecht, L. E. and Wain, L. V. and Wang, X. and Wang, T. J. and Wareham, N. J. and Watkins, H. and Weder, A. B. and Whincup, P. H. and Wiggins, K. L. and Witteman, J. C. and Wong, A. and Wu, Y. and Yajnik, C. S. and Yao, J. and Young, J. H. and Zelenika, D. and Zhai, G. and Zhang, W. and Zhang, F. and Zhao, J. H. and Zhu, H. and Zhu, X. and Zitting, P. and Zukowska-Szczechowska, E. and Okada, Y. and Wu, J. Y. and Gu, D. and Takeuchi, F. and Takahashi, A. and Maeda, S. and Tsunoda, T. and Chen, P. and Lim, S. C. and Wong, T. Y. and Liu, J. and Young, T. L. and Aung, T. and Teo, Y. Y. and Kim, Y. J. and Kang, D. and Chen, C. H. and Tsai, F. J. and Chang, L. C. and Fann, S. J. and Mei, H. and Hixson, J. E. and Chen, S. and Katsuya, T. and Isono, M. and Albrecht, E. and Yamamoto, K. and Kubo, M. and Nakamura, Y. and Kamatani, N. and Kato, N. and He, J. and Chen, Y. T. and Tanaka, T. and Reilly, M. P. and Schunkert, H. and Assimes, T. L. and Hall, A. and Hengstenberg, C. and K?nig, I. R. and Laaksonen, R. and McPherson, R. and Thompson, J. R. and Thorsteinsdottir, U. and Ziegler, A. and Absher, D. and Chen, L. and Cupples, L. A. and Halperin, E. and Li, M. and Musunuru, K. and Preuss, M. and Schillert, A. and Thorleifsson, G. and Wells, G. A. and Holm, H. and Roberts, R. and Stewart, A. F. and Fortmann, S. and Go, A. and Hlatky, M. and Iribarren, C. and Knowles, J. and Myers, R. and Quertermous, T. and Sidney, S. and Risch, N. and Tang, H. and Blankenberg, S. and Schnabel, R. and Sinning, C. and Lackner, K. J. and Tiret, L. and Nicaud, V. and Cambien, F. and Bickel, C. and Rupprecht, H. J. and Perret, C. and Proust, C. and M?nzel, T. F. and Barbalic, M. and Chen, I. Y. and Demissie-Banjaw, S. and Folsom, A. and Lumley, T. and Marciante, K. and Taylor, K. D. and Volcik, K. and Gretarsdottir, S. and Gulcher, J. R. and Kong, A. and Stefansson, K. and Thorgeirsson, G. and Andersen, K. and Fischer, M. and Grosshennig, A. and Linsel-Nitschke, P. and Stark, K. and Schreiber, S. and Aherrahrou, Z. and Bruse, P. and Doering, A. and Klopp, N. and Diemert, P. and Loley, C. and Medack, A. and Nahrstedt, J. and Peters, A. and Wagner, A. K. and Willenborg, C. and B?hm, B. O. and Dobnig, H. and Grammer, T. B. and Hoffmann, M. M. and Meinitzer, A. and Winkelmann, B. R. and Pilz, S. and Renner, W. and Scharnagl, H. and Stojakovic, T. and Tomaschitz, A. and Winkler, K. and Guiducci, C. and Burtt, N. and Gabriel, S. B. and Dandona, S. and Jarinova, O. and Qu, L. and Wilensky, R. and Matthai, W. and Hakonarson, H. H. and Devaney, J. and Burnett, M. S. and Pichard, A. D. and Kent, K. M. and Satler, L. and Lindsay, J. M. and Waksman, R. and Knouff, C. W. and Waterworth, D. M. and Walker, M. C. and Epstein, S. E. and Rader, D. J. and Nelson, C. P. and Wright, B. J. and Balmforth, A. J. and Ball, S. G. and Loehr, L. R. and Rosamond, W. D. and Benjamin, E. and Haritunians, T. and Couper, D. and Murabito, J. and Wang, Y. A. and Stricker, B. H. and Chang, P. P. and Willerson, J. T. and Felix, S. B. and Watzinger, N. and Aragam, J. and Zweiker, R. and Lind, L. and Rodeheffer, R. J. and Greiser, K. H. and Deckers, J. W. and Stritzke, J. and Ingelsson, E. and Kullo, I. and Haerting, J. and Reffelmann, T. and Redfield, M. M. and Werdan, K. and Mitchell, G. F. and Arnett, D. K. and Gottdiener, J. S. and Blettner, M. and Friedrich, N.} } @article {7165, title = {Genetic Investigation Into the Differential Risk of Atrial Fibrillation Among Black and White Individuals.}, journal = {JAMA Cardiol}, volume = {1}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jul 1}, pages = {442-50}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: White persons have a higher risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) compared with black individuals despite a lower prevalence of risk factors. This difference may be due, at least in part, to genetic factors.

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether 9 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with AF account for this paradoxical differential racial risk for AF and to use admixture mapping to search genome-wide for loci that may account for this phenomenon.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Genome-wide admixture analysis and candidate SNP study involving 3 population-based cohort studies that were initiated between 1987 and 1997, including the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) (n = 4173), the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) (n = 12 341) study, and the Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) (n = 1015) study. In all 3 studies, race was self-identified. Cox proportional hazards regression models and the proportion of treatment effect method were used to determine the impact of 9 AF-risk SNPs among participants from CHS and the ARIC study. The present study began July 1, 2012, and was completed in 2015.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Incident AF systematically ascertained using clinic visit electrocardiograms, hospital discharge diagnosis codes, death certificates, and Medicare claims data.

RESULTS: A single SNP, rs10824026 (chromosome 10: position 73661450), was found to significantly mediate the higher risk for AF in white participants compared with black participants in CHS (11.4\%; 95\% CI, 2.9\%-29.9\%) and ARIC (31.7\%; 95\% CI, 16.0\%-53.0\%). Admixture mapping was performed in a meta-analysis of black participants within CHS (n = 811), ARIC (n = 3112), and Health ABC (n = 1015). No loci that reached the prespecified statistical threshold for genome-wide significance were identified.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The rs10824026 SNP on chromosome 10q22 mediates a modest proportion of the increased risk of AF among white individuals compared with black individuals, potentially through an effect on gene expression levels of MYOZ1. No additional genetic variants accounting for a significant portion of the differential racial risk of AF were identified with genome-wide admixture mapping, suggesting that additional genetic or environmental influences beyond single SNPs in isolation may account for the paradoxical racial risk of AF among white individuals and black individuals.

}, issn = {2380-6591}, doi = {10.1001/jamacardio.2016.1185}, author = {Roberts, Jason D and Hu, Donglei and Heckbert, Susan R and Alonso, Alvaro and Dewland, Thomas A and Vittinghoff, Eric and Liu, Yongmei and Psaty, Bruce M and Olgin, Jeffrey E and Magnani, Jared W and Huntsman, Scott and Burchard, Esteban G and Arking, Dan E and Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten and Harris, Tamara B and Perez, Marco V and Ziv, Elad and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {7254, title = {Genetic Variants Associated with Circulating Parathyroid Hormone.}, journal = {J Am Soc Nephrol}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Dec 07}, abstract = {

Parathyroid hormone (PTH) is a primary calcium regulatory hormone. Elevated serum PTH concentrations in primary and secondary hyperparathyroidism have been associated with bone disease, hypertension, and in some studies, cardiovascular mortality. Genetic causes of variation in circulating PTH concentrations are incompletely understood. We performed a genome-wide association study of serum PTH concentrations among 29,155 participants of European ancestry from 13 cohort studies (n=22,653 and n=6502 in discovery and replication analyses, respectively). We evaluated the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with natural log-transformed PTH concentration adjusted for age, sex, season, study site, and principal components of ancestry. We discovered associations of SNPs from five independent regions with serum PTH concentration, including the strongest association with rs6127099 upstream of CYP24A1 (P=4.2 {\texttimes} 10(-53)), a gene that encodes the primary catabolic enzyme for 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D and 25-dihydroxyvitamin D. Each additional copy of the minor allele at this SNP associated with 7\% higher serum PTH concentration. The other SNPs associated with serum PTH concentration included rs4074995 within RGS14 (P=6.6 {\texttimes} 10(-17)), rs219779 adjacent to CLDN14 (P=3.5 {\texttimes} 10(-16)), rs4443100 near RTDR1 (P=8.7 {\texttimes} 10(-9)), and rs73186030 near CASR (P=4.8 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Of these five SNPs, rs6127099, rs4074995, and rs219779 replicated. Thus, common genetic variants located near genes involved in vitamin D metabolism and calcium and renal phosphate transport associated with differences in circulating PTH concentrations. Future studies could identify the causal variants at these loci, and the clinical and functional relevance of these variants should be pursued.

}, issn = {1533-3450}, doi = {10.1681/ASN.2016010069}, author = {Robinson-Cohen, Cassianne and Lutsey, Pamela L and Kleber, Marcus E and Nielson, Carrie M and Mitchell, Braxton D and Bis, Joshua C and Eny, Karen M and Portas, Laura and Eriksson, Joel and Lorentzon, Mattias and Koller, Daniel L and Milaneschi, Yuri and Teumer, Alexander and Pilz, Stefan and Nethander, Maria and Selvin, Elizabeth and Tang, Weihong and Weng, Lu-Chen and Wong, Hoi Suen and Lai, Dongbing and Peacock, Munro and Hannemann, Anke and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Homuth, Georg and Nauk, Matthias and Murgia, Federico and Pattee, Jack W and Orwoll, Eric and Zmuda, Joseph M and Riancho, Jose Antonio and Wolf, Myles and Williams, Frances and Penninx, Brenda and Econs, Michael J and Ryan, Kathleen A and Ohlsson, Claes and Paterson, Andrew D and Psaty, Bruce M and Siscovick, David S and Rotter, Jerome I and Pirastu, Mario and Streeten, Elizabeth and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Fox, Caroline and Coresh, Josef and Wallaschofski, Henri and Pankow, James S and de Boer, Ian H and Kestenbaum, Bryan} } @article {7168, title = {Genetic variants in RBFOX3 are associated with sleep latency.}, journal = {Eur J Hum Genet}, volume = {24}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Oct}, pages = {1488-95}, abstract = {

Time to fall asleep (sleep latency) is a major determinant of sleep quality. Chronic, long sleep latency is a major characteristic of sleep-onset insomnia and/or delayed sleep phase syndrome. In this study we aimed to discover common polymorphisms that contribute to the genetics of sleep latency. We performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) including 2 572 737 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) established in seven European cohorts including 4242 individuals. We found a cluster of three highly correlated variants (rs9900428, rs9907432 and rs7211029) in the RNA-binding protein fox-1 homolog 3 gene (RBFOX3) associated with sleep latency (P-values=5.77 {\texttimes} 10(-08), 6.59 {\texttimes} 10(-)(08) and 9.17 {\texttimes} 10(-)(08)). These SNPs were replicated in up to 12 independent populations including 30 377 individuals (P-values=1.5 {\texttimes} 10(-)(02), 7.0 {\texttimes} 10(-)(03) and 2.5 {\texttimes} 10(-)(03); combined meta-analysis P-values=5.5 {\texttimes} 10(-07), 5.4 {\texttimes} 10(-07) and 1.0 {\texttimes} 10(-07)). A functional prediction of RBFOX3 based on co-expression with other genes shows that this gene is predominantly expressed in brain (P-value=1.4 {\texttimes} 10(-316)) and the central nervous system (P-value=7.5 {\texttimes} 10(-)(321)). The predicted function of RBFOX3 based on co-expression analysis with other genes shows that this gene is significantly involved in the release cycle of neurotransmitters including gamma-aminobutyric acid and various monoamines (P-values<2.9 {\texttimes} 10(-11)) that are crucial in triggering the onset of sleep. To conclude, in this first large-scale GWAS of sleep latency we report a novel association of variants in RBFOX3 gene. Further, a functional prediction of RBFOX3 supports the involvement of RBFOX3 with sleep latency.

}, issn = {1476-5438}, doi = {10.1038/ejhg.2016.31}, author = {Amin, Najaf and Allebrandt, Karla V and van der Spek, Ashley and M{\"u}ller-Myhsok, Bertram and Hek, Karin and Teder-Laving, Maris and Hayward, Caroline and Esko, T{\~o}nu and van Mill, Josine G and Mbarek, Hamdi and Watson, Nathaniel F and Melville, Scott A and Del Greco, Fabiola M and Byrne, Enda M and Oole, Edwin and Kolcic, Ivana and Chen, Ting-Hsu and Evans, Daniel S and Coresh, Josef and Vogelzangs, Nicole and Karjalainen, Juha and Willemsen, Gonneke and Gharib, Sina A and Zgaga, Lina and Mihailov, Evelin and Stone, Katie L and Campbell, Harry and Brouwer, Rutger Ww and Demirkan, Ayse and Isaacs, Aaron and Dogas, Zoran and Marciante, Kristin D and Campbell, Susan and Borovecki, Fran and Luik, Annemarie I and Li, Man and Hottenga, Jouke Jan and Huffman, Jennifer E and van den Hout, Mirjam Cgn and Cummings, Steven R and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Gehrman, Philip R and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wichmann, Heinz-Erich and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Fehrmann, Rudolf Sn and Montgomery, Grant W and Hofman, Albert and Kao, Wen Hong Linda and Oostra, Ben A and Wright, Alan F and Vink, Jacqueline M and Wilson, James F and Pramstaller, Peter P and Hicks, Andrew A and Polasek, Ozren and Punjabi, Naresh M and Redline, Susan and Psaty, Bruce M and Heath, Andrew C and Merrow, Martha and Tranah, Gregory J and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Boomsma, Dorret I and Martin, Nicholas G and Rudan, Igor and Tiemeier, Henning and van IJcken, Wilfred Fj and Penninx, Brenda W and Metspalu, Andres and Meitinger, Thomas and Franke, Lude and Roenneberg, Till and van Duijn, Cornelia M} } @article {8562, title = {{The genetics of blood pressure regulation and its target organs from association studies in 342,415 individuals}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {48}, year = {2016}, month = {10}, pages = {1171{\textendash}1184}, abstract = {To dissect the genetic architecture of blood pressure and assess effects on target organ damage, we analyzed 128,272 SNPs from targeted and genome-wide arrays in 201,529 individuals of European ancestry, and genotypes from an additional 140,886 individuals were used for validation. We identified 66 blood pressure-associated loci, of which 17 were new; 15 harbored multiple distinct association signals. The 66 index SNPs were enriched for cis-regulatory elements, particularly in vascular endothelial cells, consistent with a primary role in blood pressure control through modulation of vascular tone across multiple tissues. The 66 index SNPs combined in a risk score showed comparable effects in 64,421 individuals of non-European descent. The 66-SNP blood pressure risk score was significantly associated with target organ damage in multiple tissues but with minor effects in the kidney. Our findings expand current knowledge of blood pressure-related pathways and highlight tissues beyond the classical renal system in blood pressure regulation.}, author = {Ehret, G. B. and Ferreira, T. and Chasman, D. I. and Jackson, A. U. and Schmidt, E. M. and Johnson, T. and Thorleifsson, G. and Luan, J. and Donnelly, L. A. and Kanoni, S. and Petersen, A. K. and Pihur, V. and Strawbridge, R. J. and Shungin, D. and Hughes, M. F. and Meirelles, O. and Kaakinen, M. and Bouatia-Naji, N. and Kristiansson, K. and Shah, S. and Kleber, M. E. and Guo, X. and Lyytik?inen, L. P. and Fava, C. and Eriksson, N. and Nolte, I. M. and Magnusson, P. K. and Salfati, E. L. and Rallidis, L. S. and Theusch, E. and Smith, A. J. P. and Folkersen, L. and Witkowska, K. and Pers, T. H. and Joehanes, R. and Kim, S. K. and Lataniotis, L. and Jansen, R. and Johnson, A. D. and Warren, H. and Kim, Y. J. and Zhao, W. and Wu, Y. and Tayo, B. O. and Bochud, M. and Absher, D. and Adair, L. S. and Amin, N. and Arking, D. E. and Axelsson, T. and Baldassarre, D. and Balkau, B. and Bandinelli, S. and Barnes, M. R. and Barroso, I. and Bevan, S. and Bis, J. C. and Bjornsdottir, G. and Boehnke, M. and Boerwinkle, E. and Bonnycastle, L. L. and Boomsma, D. I. and Bornstein, S. R. and Brown, M. J. and Burnier, M. and Cabrera, C. P. and Chambers, J. C. and Chang, I. S. and Cheng, C. Y. and Chines, P. S. and Chung, R. H. and Collins, F. S. and Connell, J. M. and D?ring, A. and Dallongeville, J. and Danesh, J. and de Faire, U. and Delgado, G. and Dominiczak, A. F. and Doney, A. S. F. and Drenos, F. and Edkins, S. and Eicher, J. D. and Elosua, R. and Enroth, S. and Erdmann, J. and Eriksson, P. and Esko, T. and Evangelou, E. and Evans, A. and Fall, T. and Farrall, M. and Felix, J. F. and Ferri?res, J. and Ferrucci, L. and Fornage, M. and Forrester, T. and Franceschini, N. and Duran, O. H. F. and Franco-Cereceda, A. and Fraser, R. M. and Ganesh, S. K. and Gao, H. and Gertow, K. and Gianfagna, F. and Gigante, B. and Giulianini, F. and Goel, A. and Goodall, A. H. and Goodarzi, M. O. and Gorski, M. and Gr??ler, J. and Groves, C. and Gudnason, V. and Gyllensten, U. and Hallmans, G. and Hartikainen, A. L. and Hassinen, M. and Havulinna, A. S. and Hayward, C. and Hercberg, S. and Herzig, K. H. and Hicks, A. A. and Hingorani, A. D. and Hirschhorn, J. N. and Hofman, A. and Holmen, J. and Holmen, O. L. and Hottenga, J. J. and Howard, P. and Hsiung, C. A. and Hunt, S. C. and Ikram, M. A. and Illig, T. and Iribarren, C. and Jensen, R. A. and K?h?nen, M. and Kang, H. and Kathiresan, S. and Keating, B. J. and Khaw, K. T. and Kim, Y. K. and Kim, E. and Kivimaki, M. and Klopp, N. and Kolovou, G. and Komulainen, P. and Kooner, J. S. and Kosova, G. and Krauss, R. M. and Kuh, D. and Kutalik, Z. and Kuusisto, J. and Kval?y, K. and Lakka, T. A. and Lee, N. R. and Lee, I. T. and Lee, W. J. and Levy, D. and Li, X. and Liang, K. W. and Lin, H. and Lin, L. and Lindstr?m, J. and Lobbens, S. and M?nnist?, S. and M?ller, G. and M?ller-Nurasyid, M. and Mach, F. and Markus, H. S. and Marouli, E. and McCarthy, M. I. and McKenzie, C. A. and Meneton, P. and Menni, C. and Metspalu, A. and Mijatovic, V. and Moilanen, L. and Montasser, M. E. and Morris, A. D. and Morrison, A. C. and Mulas, A. and Nagaraja, R. and Narisu, N. and Nikus, K. and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, C. J. and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, P. F. and Ong, K. K. and Paccaud, F. and Palmer, C. D. and Parsa, A. and Pedersen, N. L. and Penninx, B. W. and Perola, M. and Peters, A. and Poulter, N. and Pramstaller, P. P. and Psaty, B. M. and Quertermous, T. and Rao, D. C. and Rasheed, A. and Rayner, N. W. N. W. R. and Renstr?m, F. and Rettig, R. and Rice, K. M. and Roberts, R. and Rose, L. M. and Rossouw, J. and Samani, N. J. and Sanna, S. and Saramies, J. and Schunkert, H. and Sebert, S. and Sheu, W. H. and Shin, Y. A. and Sim, X. and Smit, J. H. and Smith, A. V. and Sosa, M. X. and Spector, T. D. and Stan??kov?, A. and Stanton, A. and Stirrups, K. E. and Stringham, H. M. and Sundstrom, J. and Swift, A. J. and Syv?nen, A. C. and Tai, E. S. and Tanaka, T. and Tarasov, K. V. and Teumer, A. and Thorsteinsdottir, U. and Tobin, M. D. and Tremoli, E. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and Uusitupa, M. and Vaez, A. and Vaidya, D. and van Duijn, C. M. and van Iperen, E. P. A. and Vasan, R. S. and Verwoert, G. C. and Virtamo, J. and Vitart, V. and Voight, B. F. and Vollenweider, P. and Wagner, A. and Wain, L. V. and Wareham, N. J. and Watkins, H. and Weder, A. B. and Westra, H. J. and Wilks, R. and Wilsgaard, T. and Wilson, J. F. and Wong, T. Y. and Yang, T. P. and Yao, J. and Yengo, L. and Zhang, W. and Zhao, J. H. and Zhu, X. and Bovet, P. and Cooper, R. S. and Mohlke, K. L. and Saleheen, D. and Lee, J. Y. and Elliott, P. and Gierman, H. J. and Willer, C. J. and Franke, L. and Hovingh, G. K. and Taylor, K. D. and Dedoussis, G. and Sever, P. and Wong, A. and Lind, L. and Assimes, T. L. and Nj?lstad, I. and Schwarz, P. E. and Langenberg, C. and Snieder, H. and Caulfield, M. J. and Melander, O. and Laakso, M. and Saltevo, J. and Rauramaa, R. and Tuomilehto, J. and Ingelsson, E. and Lehtim?ki, T. and Hveem, K. and Palmas, W. and M?rz, W. and Kumari, M. and Salomaa, V. and Chen, Y. I. and Rotter, J. I. and Froguel, P. and Jarvelin, M. R. and Lakatta, E. G. and Kuulasmaa, K. and Franks, P. W. and Hamsten, A. and Wichmann, H. E. and Palmer, C. N. A. and Stefansson, K. and Ridker, P. M. and Loos, R. J. F. and Chakravarti, A. and Deloukas, P. and Morris, A. P. and Newton-Cheh, C. and Munroe, P. B.} } @article {6991, title = {Genome-Wide Association Analysis of Young-Onset Stroke Identifies a Locus on Chromosome 10q25 Near HABP2.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {47}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Feb}, pages = {307-16}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Although a genetic contribution to ischemic stroke is well recognized, only a handful of stroke loci have been identified by large-scale genetic association studies to date. Hypothesizing that genetic effects might be stronger for early- versus late-onset stroke, we conducted a 2-stage meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies, focusing on stroke cases with an age of onset <60 years.

METHODS: The discovery stage of our genome-wide association studies included 4505 cases and 21 968 controls of European, South-Asian, and African ancestry, drawn from 6 studies. In Stage 2, we selected the lead genetic variants at loci with association P<5{\texttimes}10(-6) and performed in silico association analyses in an independent sample of <=1003 cases and 7745 controls.

RESULTS: One stroke susceptibility locus at 10q25 reached genome-wide significance in the combined analysis of all samples from the discovery and follow-up stages (rs11196288; odds ratio =1.41; P=9.5{\texttimes}10(-9)). The associated locus is in an intergenic region between TCF7L2 and HABP2. In a further analysis in an independent sample, we found that 2 single nucleotide polymorphisms in high linkage disequilibrium with rs11196288 were significantly associated with total plasma factor VII-activating protease levels, a product of HABP2.

CONCLUSIONS: HABP2, which encodes an extracellular serine protease involved in coagulation, fibrinolysis, and inflammatory pathways, may be a genetic susceptibility locus for early-onset stroke.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Continental Ancestry Group, Age of Onset, Aged, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Brain Ischemia, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 10, Computer Simulation, DNA, Intergenic, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Odds Ratio, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Serine Endopeptidases, Stroke}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.115.011328}, author = {Cheng, Yu-Ching and Stanne, Tara M and Giese, Anne-Katrin and Ho, Weang Kee and Traylor, Matthew and Amouyel, Philippe and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Malik, Rainer and Xu, Huichun and Kittner, Steven J and Cole, John W and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Danesh, John and Rasheed, Asif and Zhao, Wei and Engelter, Stefan and Grond-Ginsbach, Caspar and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Lathrop, Mark and Leys, Didier and Thijs, Vincent and Metso, Tiina M and Tatlisumak, Turgut and Pezzini, Alessandro and Parati, Eugenio A and Norrving, Bo and Bevan, Steve and Rothwell, Peter M and Sudlow, Cathie and Slowik, Agnieszka and Lindgren, Arne and Walters, Matthew R and Jannes, Jim and Shen, Jess and Crosslin, David and Doheny, Kimberly and Laurie, Cathy C and Kanse, Sandip M and Bis, Joshua C and Fornage, Myriam and Mosley, Thomas H and Hopewell, Jemma C and Strauch, Konstantin and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Gieger, Christian and Waldenberger, Melanie and Peters, Annette and Meisinger, Christine and Ikram, M Arfan and Longstreth, W T and Meschia, James F and Seshadri, Sudha and Sharma, Pankaj and Worrall, Bradford and Jern, Christina and Levi, Christopher and Dichgans, Martin and Boncoraglio, Giorgio B and Markus, Hugh S and Debette, Stephanie and Rolfs, Arndt and Saleheen, Danish and Mitchell, Braxton D} } @article {7004, title = {Genome-Wide Association Study for Incident Myocardial Infarction and Coronary Heart Disease in Prospective Cohort Studies: The CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {11}, year = {2016}, month = {2016}, pages = {e0144997}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Data are limited on genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for incident coronary heart disease (CHD). Moreover, it is not known whether genetic variants identified to date also associate with risk of CHD in a prospective setting.

METHODS: We performed a two-stage GWAS analysis of incident myocardial infarction (MI) and CHD in a total of 64,297 individuals (including 3898 MI cases, 5465 CHD cases). SNPs that passed an arbitrary threshold of 5{\texttimes}10-6 in Stage I were taken to Stage II for further discovery. Furthermore, in an analysis of prognosis, we studied whether known SNPs from former GWAS were associated with total mortality in individuals who experienced MI during follow-up.

RESULTS: In Stage I 15 loci passed the threshold of 5{\texttimes}10-6; 8 loci for MI and 8 loci for CHD, for which one locus overlapped and none were reported in previous GWAS meta-analyses. We took 60 SNPs representing these 15 loci to Stage II of discovery. Four SNPs near QKI showed nominally significant association with MI (p-value<8.8{\texttimes}10-3) and three exceeded the genome-wide significance threshold when Stage I and Stage II results were combined (top SNP rs6941513: p = 6.2{\texttimes}10-9). Despite excellent power, the 9p21 locus SNP (rs1333049) was only modestly associated with MI (HR = 1.09, p-value = 0.02) and marginally with CHD (HR = 1.06, p-value = 0.08). Among an inception cohort of those who experienced MI during follow-up, the risk allele of rs1333049 was associated with a decreased risk of subsequent mortality (HR = 0.90, p-value = 3.2{\texttimes}10-3).

CONCLUSIONS: QKI represents a novel locus that may serve as a predictor of incident CHD in prospective studies. The association of the 9p21 locus both with increased risk of first myocardial infarction and longer survival after MI highlights the importance of study design in investigating genetic determinants of complex disorders.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cohort Studies, Cooperative Behavior, Coronary Artery Disease, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Myocardial Infarction, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prospective Studies}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0144997}, author = {Dehghan, Abbas and Bis, Joshua C and White, Charles C and Smith, Albert Vernon and Morrison, Alanna C and Cupples, L Adrienne and Trompet, Stella and Chasman, Daniel I and Lumley, Thomas and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Buckley, Brendan M and Ding, Jingzhong and Jensen, Majken K and Folsom, Aaron R and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Girman, Cynthia J and Ford, Ian and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Salomaa, Veikko and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Franceschini, Nora and Carty, Cara L and Virtamo, Jarmo and Demissie, Serkalem and Amouyel, Philippe and Arveiler, Dominique and Heckbert, Susan R and Ferrieres, Jean and Ducimetiere, Pierre and Smith, Nicholas L and Wang, Ying A and Siscovick, David S and Rice, Kenneth M and Wiklund, Per-Gunnar and Taylor, Kent D and Evans, Alun and Kee, Frank and Rotter, Jerome I and Karvanen, Juha and Kuulasmaa, Kari and Heiss, Gerardo and Kraft, Peter and Launer, Lenore J and Hofman, Albert and Markus, Marcello R P and Rose, Lynda M and Silander, Kaisa and Wagner, Peter and Benjamin, Emelia J and Lohman, Kurt and Stott, David J and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Harris, Tamara B and Levy, Daniel and Liu, Yongmei and Rimm, Eric B and Jukema, J Wouter and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Ridker, Paul M and Blankenberg, Stefan and Franco, Oscar H and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} } @article {7593, title = {A genome-wide association study meta-analysis of clinical fracture in 10,012 African American women.}, journal = {Bone Rep}, volume = {5}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Dec}, pages = {233-242}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis is a major public health problem associated with excess disability and mortality. It is estimated that 50-70\% of the variation in osteoporotic fracture risk is attributable to genetic factors. The purpose of this hypothesis-generating study was to identify possible genetic determinants of fracture among African American (AA) women in a GWAS meta-analysis.

METHODS: Data on clinical fractures (all fractures except fingers, toes, face, skull or sternum) were analyzed among AA female participants in the Women{\textquoteright}s Health Initiative (WHI) (N~=~8155), Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) (N~=~504), BioVU (N~=~704), Health ABC (N~=~651), and the Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project (JoCoOA) (N~=~291). Affymetrix (WHI) and Illumina (Health ABC, JoCoOA, BioVU, CHS) GWAS panels were used for genotyping, and a 1:1 ratio of YRI:CEU HapMap haplotypes was used as an imputation reference panel. We used Cox proportional hazard models or logistic regression to evaluate the association of ~~2.5 million SNPs with fracture risk, adjusting for ancestry, age, and geographic region where applicable. We conducted a fixed-effects, inverse variance-weighted meta-analysis. Genome-wide significance was set at P~<~5~{\texttimes}~10-~8.

RESULTS: One SNP, rs12775980 in an intron of SVIL on chromosome 10p11.2, reached genome-wide significance (P~=~4.0~{\texttimes}~10-~8). Although this SNP has a low minor allele frequency (0.03), there was no evidence for heterogeneity of effects across the studies (I2~=~0). This locus was not reported in any previous osteoporosis-related GWA studies. We also interrogated previously reported GWA-significant loci associated with fracture or bone mineral density in our data. One locus (SMOC1) generalized, but overall there was not substantial evidence of generalization. Possible reasons for the lack of generalization are discussed.

CONCLUSION: This GWAS meta-analysis of fractures in African American women identified a potentially novel locus in the supervillin gene, which encodes a platelet-associated factor and was previously associated with platelet thrombus formation in African Americans. If validated in other populations of African descent, these findings suggest potential new mechanisms involved in fracture that may be particularly important among African Americans.

}, issn = {2352-1872}, doi = {10.1016/j.bonr.2016.08.005}, author = {Taylor, Kira C and Evans, Daniel S and Edwards, Digna R Velez and Edwards, Todd L and Sofer, Tamar and Li, Guo and Liu, Youfang and Franceschini, Nora and Jackson, Rebecca D and Giri, Ayush and Donneyong, Macarius and Psaty, Bruce and Rotter, Jerome I and LaCroix, Andrea Z and Jordan, Joanne M and Robbins, John A and Lewis, Beth and Stefanick, Marcia L and Liu, Yongmei and Garcia, Melissa and Harris, Tamara and Cauley, Jane A and North, Kari E} } @article {7167, title = {Genome-Wide Association Study of the Modified Stumvoll Insulin Sensitivity Index Identifies BCL2 and FAM19A2 as Novel Insulin Sensitivity Loci.}, journal = {Diabetes}, volume = {65}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Oct}, pages = {3200-11}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have found few common variants that influence fasting measures of insulin sensitivity. We hypothesized that a GWAS of an integrated assessment of fasting and dynamic measures of insulin sensitivity would detect novel common variants. We performed a GWAS of the modified Stumvoll Insulin Sensitivity Index (ISI) within the Meta-Analyses of Glucose and Insulin-Related Traits Consortium. Discovery for genetic association was performed in 16,753 individuals, and replication was attempted for the 23 most significant novel loci in 13,354 independent individuals. Association with ISI was tested in models adjusted for age, sex, and BMI and in a model analyzing the combined influence of the genotype effect adjusted for BMI and the interaction effect between the genotype and BMI on ISI (model 3). In model 3, three variants reached genome-wide significance: rs13422522 (NYAP2; P = 8.87 {\texttimes} 10(-11)), rs12454712 (BCL2; P = 2.7 {\texttimes} 10(-8)), and rs10506418 (FAM19A2; P = 1.9 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). The association at NYAP2 was eliminated by conditioning on the known IRS1 insulin sensitivity locus; the BCL2 and FAM19A2 associations were independent of known cardiometabolic loci. In conclusion, we identified two novel loci and replicated known variants associated with insulin sensitivity. Further studies are needed to clarify the causal variant and function at the BCL2 and FAM19A2 loci.

}, issn = {1939-327X}, doi = {10.2337/db16-0199}, author = {Walford, Geoffrey A and Gustafsson, Stefan and Rybin, Denis and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Chen, Han and Liu, Ching-Ti and Hong, Jaeyoung and Jensen, Richard A and Rice, Ken and Morris, Andrew P and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Prokopenko, Inga and Kleber, Marcus E and Delgado, Graciela and Silbernagel, G{\"u}nther and Jackson, Anne U and Appel, Emil V and Grarup, Niels and Lewis, Joshua P and Montasser, May E and Landenvall, Claes and Staiger, Harald and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Frayling, Timothy M and Weedon, Michael N and Xie, Weijia and Morcillo, Sonsoles and Mart{\'\i}nez-Larrad, Mar{\'\i}a Teresa and Biggs, Mary L and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Corbaton-Anchuelo, Arturo and F{\ae}rch, Kristine and G{\'o}mez-Zumaquero, Juan Miguel and Goodarzi, Mark O and Kizer, Jorge R and Koistinen, Heikki A and Leong, Aaron and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia and Machicao, Fausto and Manning, Alisa K and Mart{\'\i}n-N{\'u}{\~n}ez, Gracia Mar{\'\i}a and Rojo-Mart{\'\i}nez, Gemma and Rotter, Jerome I and Siscovick, David S and Zmuda, Joseph M and Zhang, Zhongyang and Serrano-R{\'\i}os, Manuel and Smith, Ulf and Soriguer, Federico and Hansen, Torben and J{\o}rgensen, Torben J and Linnenberg, Allan and Pedersen, Oluf and Walker, Mark and Langenberg, Claudia and Scott, Robert A and Wareham, Nicholas J and Fritsche, Andreas and H{\"a}ring, Hans-Ulrich and Stefan, Norbert and Groop, Leif and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff R and Boehnke, Michael and Bergman, Richard N and Collins, Francis S and Mohlke, Karen L and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Kovacs, Peter and Stumvoll, Michael and Psaty, Bruce M and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Meigs, James B and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Ingelsson, Erik and Florez, Jose C} } @article {7147, title = {Genomewide meta-analysis identifies loci associated with IGF-I and IGFBP-3 levels with impact on age-related traits.}, journal = {Aging Cell}, volume = {15}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Oct}, pages = {811-24}, abstract = {

The growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) axis can be manipulated in animal models to promote longevity, and IGF-related proteins including IGF-I and IGF-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) have also been implicated in risk of human diseases including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer. Through genomewide association study of up to 30~884 adults of European ancestry from 21 studies, we confirmed and extended the list of previously identified loci associated with circulating IGF-I and IGFBP-3 concentrations (IGF1, IGFBP3, GCKR, TNS3, GHSR, FOXO3, ASXL2, NUBP2/IGFALS, SORCS2, and CELSR2). Significant sex interactions, which were characterized by different genotype-phenotype associations between men and women, were found only for associations of IGFBP-3 concentrations with SNPs at the loci IGFBP3 and SORCS2. Analyses of SNPs, gene expression, and protein levels suggested that interplay between IGFBP3 and genes within the NUBP2 locus (IGFALS and HAGH) may affect circulating IGF-I and IGFBP-3 concentrations. The IGF-I-decreasing allele of SNP rs934073, which is an eQTL of ASXL2, was associated with lower adiposity and higher likelihood of survival beyond 90~years. The known longevity-associated variant rs2153960 (FOXO3) was observed to be a genomewide significant SNP for IGF-I concentrations. Bioinformatics analysis suggested enrichment of putative regulatory elements among these IGF-I- and IGFBP-3-associated loci, particularly of rs646776 at CELSR2. In conclusion, this study identified several loci associated with circulating IGF-I and IGFBP-3 concentrations and provides clues to the potential role of the IGF axis in mediating effects of known (FOXO3) and novel (ASXL2) longevity-associated loci.

}, issn = {1474-9726}, doi = {10.1111/acel.12490}, author = {Teumer, Alexander and Qi, Qibin and Nethander, Maria and Aschard, Hugues and Bandinelli, Stefania and Beekman, Marian and Berndt, Sonja I and Bidlingmaier, Martin and Broer, Linda and Cappola, Anne and Ceda, Gian Paolo and Chanock, Stephen and Chen, Ming-Huei and Chen, Tai C and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chung, Jonathan and Del Greco Miglianico, Fabiola and Eriksson, Joel and Ferrucci, Luigi and Friedrich, Nele and Gnewuch, Carsten and Goodarzi, Mark O and Grarup, Niels and Guo, Tingwei and Hammer, Elke and Hayes, Richard B and Hicks, Andrew A and Hofman, Albert and Houwing-Duistermaat, Jeanine J and Hu, Frank and Hunter, David J and Husemoen, Lise L and Isaacs, Aaron and Jacobs, Kevin B and Janssen, Joop A M J L and Jansson, John-Olov and Jehmlich, Nico and Johnson, Simon and Juul, Anders and Karlsson, Magnus and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Kovacs, Peter and Kraft, Peter and Li, Chao and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Yongmei and Loos, Ruth J F and Lorentzon, Mattias and Lu, Yingchang and Maggio, Marcello and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Meigs, James and Mellstr{\"o}m, Dan and Nauck, Matthias and Newman, Anne B and Pollak, Michael N and Pramstaller, Peter P and Prokopenko, Inga and Psaty, Bruce M and Reincke, Martin and Rimm, Eric B and Rotter, Jerome I and Saint Pierre, Aude and Schurmann, Claudia and Seshadri, Sudha and Sj{\"o}gren, Klara and Slagboom, P Eline and Strickler, Howard D and Stumvoll, Michael and Suh, Yousin and Sun, Qi and Zhang, Cuilin and Svensson, Johan and Tanaka, Toshiko and Tare, Archana and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Uh, Hae-Won and van Duijn, Cornelia M and van Heemst, Diana and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Vasan, Ramachandran S and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Willems, Sara M and Ohlsson, Claes and Wallaschofski, Henri and Kaplan, Robert C} } @article {7135, title = {Global Electric Heterogeneity Risk Score for Prediction of Sudden Cardiac Death in the General Population: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) and Cardiovascular Health (CHS) Studies.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {133}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jun 7}, pages = {2222-34}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Asymptomatic individuals account for the majority of sudden cardiac deaths (SCDs). Development of effective, low-cost, and noninvasive SCD risk stratification tools is necessary.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Participants from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study and Cardiovascular Health Study (n=20 177; age, 59.3{\textpm}10.1 years; age range, 44-100 years; 56\% female; 77\% white) were followed up for 14.0 years (median). Five ECG markers of global electric heterogeneity (GEH; sum absolute QRST integral, spatial QRST angle, spatial ventricular gradient [SVG] magnitude, SVG elevation, and SVG azimuth) were measured on standard 12-lead ECGs. Cox proportional hazards and competing risks models evaluated associations between GEH electrocardiographic parameters and SCD. An SCD competing risks score was derived from demographics, comorbidities, and GEH parameters. SCD incidence was 1.86 per 1000 person-years. After multivariable adjustment, baseline GEH parameters and large increases in GEH parameters over time were independently associated with SCD. Final SCD risk scores included age, sex, race, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, and GEH parameters as continuous variables. When GEH parameters were added to clinical/demographic factors, the C statistic increased from 0.777 to 0.790 (P=0.008), the risk score classified 10-year SCD risk as high (>5\%) in 7.2\% of participants, 10\% of SCD victims were appropriately reclassified into a high-risk category, and only 1.4\% of SCD victims were inappropriately reclassified from high to intermediate risk. The net reclassification index was 18.3\%.

CONCLUSIONS: Abnormal electrophysiological substrate quantified by GEH parameters is independently associated with SCD in the general population. The addition of GEH parameters to clinical characteristics improves SCD risk prediction.

}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.116.021306}, author = {Waks, Jonathan W and Sitlani, Colleen M and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Kabir, Muammar and Ghafoori, Elyar and Biggs, Mary L and Henrikson, Charles A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Biering-S{\o}rensen, Tor and Agarwal, Sunil K and Siscovick, David S and Post, Wendy S and Solomon, Scott D and Buxton, Alfred E and Josephson, Mark E and Tereshchenko, Larisa G} } @article {7142, title = {GWAS analysis of handgrip and lower body strength in older adults in the CHARGE consortium.}, journal = {Aging Cell}, volume = {15}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Oct}, pages = {792-800}, abstract = {

Decline in muscle strength with aging is an important predictor of health trajectory in the elderly. Several factors, including genetics, are proposed contributors to variability in muscle strength. To identify genetic contributors to muscle strength, a meta-analysis of genomewide association studies of handgrip was conducted. Grip strength was measured using a handheld dynamometer in 27~581 individuals of European descent over 65~years of age from 14 cohort studies. Genomewide association analysis was conducted on ~2.7 million imputed and genotyped variants (SNPs). Replication of the most significant findings was conducted using data from 6393 individuals from three cohorts. GWAS of lower body strength was also characterized in a subset of cohorts. Two genomewide significant (P-value< 5~{\texttimes}~10(-8) ) and 39 suggestive (P-value< 5~{\texttimes}~10(-5) ) associations were observed from meta-analysis of the discovery cohorts. After meta-analysis with replication cohorts, genomewide significant association was observed for rs752045 on chromosome 8 (β~=~0.47, SE~=~0.08, P-value~=~5.20~{\texttimes}~10(-10) ). This SNP is mapped to an intergenic region and is located within an accessible chromatin region (DNase hypersensitivity site) in skeletal muscle myotubes differentiated from the human skeletal muscle myoblasts cell line. This locus alters a binding motif of the CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-β (CEBPB) that is implicated in muscle repair mechanisms. GWAS of lower body strength did not yield significant results. A common genetic variant in a chromosomal region that regulates myotube differentiation and muscle repair may contribute to variability in grip strength in the elderly. Further studies are needed to uncover the mechanisms that link this genetic variant with muscle strength.

}, issn = {1474-9726}, doi = {10.1111/acel.12468}, author = {Matteini, Amy M and Tanaka, Toshiko and Karasik, David and Atzmon, Gil and Chou, Wen-Chi and Eicher, John D and Johnson, Andrew D and Arnold, Alice M and Callisaya, Michele L and Davies, Gail and Evans, Daniel S and Holtfreter, Birte and Lohman, Kurt and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Mangino, Massimo and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Jennifer A and Teumer, Alexander and Yu, Lei and Arking, Dan E and Buchman, Aron S and Chibinik, Lori B and De Jager, Philip L and Evans, Denis A and Faul, Jessica D and Garcia, Melissa E and Gillham-Nasenya, Irina and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hofman, Albert and Hsu, Yi-Hsiang and Ittermann, Till and Lahousse, Lies and Liewald, David C and Liu, Yongmei and Lopez, Lorna and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rotter, Jerome I and Siggeirsdottir, Kristin and Starr, John M and Thomson, Russell and Tranah, Gregory J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Weir, David R and Yaffe, Kristine and Zhao, Wei and Zhuang, Wei Vivian and Zmuda, Joseph M and Bennett, David A and Cummings, Steven R and Deary, Ian J and Ferrucci, Luigi and Harris, Tamara B and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kocher, Thomas and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Psaty, Bruce M and Seshadri, Sudha and Spector, Timothy D and Srikanth, Velandai K and Windham, B Gwen and Zillikens, M Carola and Newman, Anne B and Walston, Jeremy D and Kiel, Douglas P and Murabito, Joanne M} } @article {6799, title = {GWAS for executive function and processing speed suggests involvement of the CADM2 gene.}, journal = {Mol Psychiatry}, volume = {21}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Feb}, pages = {189-97}, abstract = {

To identify common variants contributing to normal variation in two specific domains of cognitive functioning, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of executive functioning and information processing speed in non-demented older adults from the CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) consortium. Neuropsychological testing was available for 5429-32,070 subjects of European ancestry aged 45 years or older, free of dementia and clinical stroke at the time of cognitive testing from 20 cohorts in the discovery phase. We analyzed performance on the Trail Making Test parts A and B, the Letter Digit Substitution Test (LDST), the Digit Symbol Substitution Task (DSST), semantic and phonemic fluency tests, and the Stroop Color and Word Test. Replication was sought in 1311-21860 subjects from 20 independent cohorts. A significant association was observed in the discovery cohorts for the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs17518584 (discovery P-value=3.12 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) and in the joint discovery and replication meta-analysis (P-value=3.28 {\texttimes} 10(-9) after adjustment for age, gender and education) in an intron of the gene cell adhesion molecule 2 (CADM2) for performance on the LDST/DSST. Rs17518584 is located about 170 kb upstream of the transcription start site of the major transcript for the CADM2 gene, but is within an intron of a variant transcript that includes an alternative first exon. The variant is associated with expression of CADM2 in the cingulate cortex (P-value=4 {\texttimes} 10(-4)). The protein encoded by CADM2 is involved in glutamate signaling (P-value=7.22 {\texttimes} 10(-15)), gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) transport (P-value=1.36 {\texttimes} 10(-11)) and neuron cell-cell adhesion (P-value=1.48 {\texttimes} 10(-13)). Our findings suggest that genetic variation in the CADM2 gene is associated with individual differences in information processing speed.

}, issn = {1476-5578}, doi = {10.1038/mp.2015.37}, author = {Ibrahim-Verbaas, C A and Bressler, J and Debette, S and Schuur, M and Smith, A V and Bis, J C and Davies, G and Trompet, S and Smith, J A and Wolf, C and Chibnik, L B and Liu, Y and Vitart, V and Kirin, M and Petrovic, K and Polasek, O and Zgaga, L and Fawns-Ritchie, C and Hoffmann, P and Karjalainen, J and Lahti, J and Llewellyn, D J and Schmidt, C O and Mather, K A and Chouraki, V and Sun, Q and Resnick, S M and Rose, L M and Oldmeadow, C and Stewart, M and Smith, B H and Gudnason, V and Yang, Q and Mirza, S S and Jukema, J W and deJager, P L and Harris, T B and Liewald, D C and Amin, N and Coker, L H and Stegle, O and Lopez, O L and Schmidt, R and Teumer, A and Ford, I and Karbalai, N and Becker, J T and Jonsdottir, M K and Au, R and Fehrmann, R S N and Herms, S and Nalls, M and Zhao, W and Turner, S T and Yaffe, K and Lohman, K and van Swieten, J C and Kardia, S L R and Knopman, D S and Meeks, W M and Heiss, G and Holliday, E G and Schofield, P W and Tanaka, T and Stott, D J and Wang, J and Ridker, P and Gow, A J and Pattie, A and Starr, J M and Hocking, L J and Armstrong, N J and McLachlan, S and Shulman, J M and Pilling, L C and Eiriksdottir, G and Scott, R J and Kochan, N A and Palotie, A and Hsieh, Y-C and Eriksson, J G and Penman, A and Gottesman, R F and Oostra, B A and Yu, L and DeStefano, A L and Beiser, A and Garcia, M and Rotter, J I and N{\"o}then, M M and Hofman, A and Slagboom, P E and Westendorp, R G J and Buckley, B M and Wolf, P A and Uitterlinden, A G and Psaty, B M and Grabe, H J and Bandinelli, S and Chasman, D I and Grodstein, F and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, K and Lambert, J-C and Porteous, D J and Price, J F and Sachdev, P S and Ferrucci, L and Attia, J R and Rudan, I and Hayward, C and Wright, A F and Wilson, J F and Cichon, S and Franke, L and Schmidt, H and Ding, J and de Craen, A J M and Fornage, M and Bennett, D A and Deary, I J and Ikram, M A and Launer, L J and Fitzpatrick, A L and Seshadri, S and van Duijn, C M and Mosley, T H} } @article {8564, title = {A hybrid computational strategy to address WGS variant analysis in >5000 samples.}, journal = {BMC Bioinformatics}, volume = {17}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Sep 10}, pages = {361}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The decreasing costs of sequencing are driving the need for cost effective and real time variant calling of whole genome sequencing data. The scale of these projects are far beyond the capacity of typical computing resources available with most research labs. Other infrastructures like the cloud AWS environment and supercomputers also have limitations due to which large scale joint variant calling becomes infeasible, and infrastructure specific variant calling strategies either fail to scale up to large datasets or abandon joint calling strategies.

RESULTS: We present a high throughput framework including multiple variant callers for single nucleotide variant (SNV) calling, which leverages hybrid computing infrastructure consisting of cloud AWS, supercomputers and local high performance computing infrastructures. We present a novel binning approach for large scale joint variant calling and imputation which can scale up to over 10,000 samples while producing SNV callsets with high sensitivity and specificity. As a proof of principle, we present results of analysis on Cohorts for Heart And Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) WGS freeze 3 dataset in which joint calling, imputation and phasing of over 5300 whole genome samples was produced in under 6 weeks using four state-of-the-art callers. The callers used were SNPTools, GATK-HaplotypeCaller, GATK-UnifiedGenotyper and GotCloud. We used Amazon AWS, a 4000-core in-house cluster at Baylor College of Medicine, IBM power PC Blue BioU at Rice and Rhea at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for the computation. AWS was used for joint calling of 180~TB of BAM files, and ORNL and Rice supercomputers were used for the imputation and phasing step. All other steps were carried out on the local compute cluster. The entire operation used 5.2 million core hours and only transferred a total of 6~TB of data across the platforms.

CONCLUSIONS: Even with increasing sizes of whole genome datasets, ensemble joint calling of SNVs for low coverage data can be accomplished in a scalable, cost effective and fast manner by using heterogeneous computing platforms without compromising on the quality of variants.

}, keywords = {Databases, Genetic, Genome, Human, Genomics, High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing, Humans}, issn = {1471-2105}, doi = {10.1186/s12859-016-1211-6}, author = {Huang, Zhuoyi and Rustagi, Navin and Veeraraghavan, Narayanan and Carroll, Andrew and Gibbs, Richard and Boerwinkle, Eric and Venkata, Manjunath Gorentla and Yu, Fuli} } @article {7166, title = {Impact of genetic variants on the upstream efficacy of renin-angiotensin system inhibitors for the prevention of atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Am Heart J}, volume = {175}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 May}, pages = {9-17}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibition via angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers may reduce the risk of developing atrial fibrillation (AF) in certain populations, but the evidence is conflicting. Recent genome-wide association studies have identified several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with AF, potentially identifying clinically relevant subtypes of the disease. We sought to investigate the impact of carrier status of 9 AF-associated SNPs on the efficacy of RAS inhibition for the primary prevention of AF.

METHODS: We performed SNP-RAS inhibitor interaction testing with unadjusted and adjusted Cox proportional hazards models using a discovery (Cardiovascular Health Study) and a replication (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) cohort. Additive genetic models were used for the SNP analyses, and 2-tailed P values <.05 were considered statistically significant.

RESULTS: Among 2,796 Cardiovascular Health Study participants, none of the 9 a priori identified candidate SNPs exhibited a significant SNP-drug interaction. Two of the 9 SNPs, rs2106261 (16q22) and rs6666258 (1q21), revealed interaction relationships that neared statistical significance (with point estimates in the same direction for angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor only and angiotensin II receptor blocker only analyses), but neither association could be replicated among 8,604 participants in Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study failed to identify AF-associated SNP genetic subtypes of AF that derive increased benefit from upstream RAS inhibition for AF prevention. Future studies should continue to investigate the impact of genotype on the response to AF treatment strategies in an effort to develop personalized approaches to therapy and prevention.

}, issn = {1097-6744}, doi = {10.1016/j.ahj.2016.02.002}, author = {Roberts, Jason D and Dewland, Thomas A and Glidden, David V and Hoffmann, Thomas J and Arking, Dan E and Chen, Lin Y and Psaty, Bruce M and Olgin, Jeffrey E and Alonso, Alvaro and Heckbert, Susan R and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {7002, title = {Incident Atrial Fibrillation and Disability-Free Survival in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {64}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Apr}, pages = {838-43}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To assess the associations between incident atrial fibrillation (AF) and disability-free survival and risk of disability.

DESIGN: Prospective cohort study.

SETTING: Cardiovascular Health Study.

PARTICIPANTS: Individuals aged 65 and older and enrolled in fee-for-service Medicare followed between 1991 and 2009 (MN = 4,046). Individuals with prevalent AF, activity of daily living (ADL) disability, or a history of stroke or heart failure at baseline were excluded.

MEASUREMENTS: Incident AF was identified according to annual study electrocardiogram, hospital discharge diagnosis, or Medicare claims. Disability-free survival was defined as survival free of ADL disability (any difficulty or inability in bathing, dressing, eating, using the toilet, walking around the home, or getting out of a bed or chair). ADLs were assessed at annual study visits or in a telephone interview. Association between incident AF and disability-free survival or risk of disability was estimated using Cox proportional hazards models.

RESULTS: Over an average of 7.0 years of follow-up, 660 individuals (16.3\%) developed incident AF, and 3,112 (77\%) became disabled or died. Incident AF was associated with shorter disability-free survival (hazard ratio (HR) for death or ADL disability = 1.71, 95\% confidence interval (CI) = 1.55-1.90) and a higher risk of ADL disability (HR = 1.36, 95\% CI = 1.18-1.58) than in individuals with no history of AF. This association persisted after adjustment for interim stroke and heart failure.

CONCLUSION: These results suggest that AF is a risk factor for shorter functional longevity in older adults, independent of other risk factors and comorbid conditions.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atrial Fibrillation, Disability Evaluation, Electrocardiography, Female, Geriatric Assessment, Humans, Incidence, Longevity, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Medicare, Prevalence, Prospective Studies, Survival Rate, United States}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/jgs.14037}, author = {Wallace, Erin R and Siscovick, David S and Sitlani, Colleen M and Dublin, Sascha and Mitchell, Pamela H and Odden, Michelle C and Hirsch, Calvin H and Thielke, Stephen and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {6612, title = {Inflammatory markers and extent and progression of early atherosclerosis: Meta-analysis of individual-participant-data from 20 prospective studies of the PROG-IMT collaboration.}, journal = {Eur J Prev Cardiol}, volume = {23}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jan}, pages = {194-205}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Large-scale epidemiological evidence on the role of inflammation in early atherosclerosis, assessed by carotid ultrasound, is lacking. We aimed to quantify cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of inflammatory markers with common-carotid-artery intima-media thickness (CCA-IMT) in the general population.

METHODS: Information on high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, leucocyte count and CCA-IMT was available in 20 prospective cohort studies of the PROG-IMT collaboration involving 49,097 participants free of pre-existing cardiovascular disease. Estimates of associations were calculated within each study and then combined using random-effects meta-analyses.

RESULTS: Mean baseline CCA-IMT amounted to 0.74 mm (SD = 0.18) and mean CCA-IMT progression over a mean of 3.9 years to 0.011 mm/year (SD = 0.039). Cross-sectional analyses showed positive linear associations between inflammatory markers and baseline CCA-IMT. After adjustment for traditional cardiovascular risk factors, mean differences in baseline CCA-IMT per one-SD higher inflammatory marker were: 0.0082 mm for high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (p < 0.001); 0.0072 mm for fibrinogen (p < 0.001); and 0.0025 mm for leucocyte count (p = 0.033). {\textquoteright}Inflammatory load{\textquoteright}, defined as the number of elevated inflammatory markers (i.e. in upper two quintiles), showed a positive linear association with baseline CCA-IMT (p < 0.001). Longitudinal associations of baseline inflammatory markers and changes therein with CCA-IMT progression were null or at most weak. Participants with the highest {\textquoteright}inflammatory load{\textquoteright} had a greater CCA-IMT progression (p = 0.015).

CONCLUSION: Inflammation was independently associated with CCA-IMT cross-sectionally. The lack of clear associations with CCA-IMT progression may be explained by imprecision in its assessment within a limited time period. Our findings for {\textquoteright}inflammatory load{\textquoteright} suggest important combined effects of the three inflammatory markers on early atherosclerosis.

}, issn = {2047-4881}, doi = {10.1177/2047487314560664}, author = {Willeit, Peter and Thompson, Simon G and Agewall, Stefan and Bergstr{\"o}m, G{\"o}ran and Bickel, Horst and Catapano, Alberico L and Chien, Kuo-Liong and de Groot, Eric and Empana, Jean-Philippe and Etgen, Thorleif and Franco, Oscar H and Iglseder, Bernhard and Johnsen, Stein H and Kavousi, Maryam and Lind, Lars and Liu, Jing and Mathiesen, Ellisiv B and Norata, Giuseppe D and Olsen, Michael H and Papagianni, Aikaterini and Poppert, Holger and Price, Jackie F and Sacco, Ralph L and Yanez, David N and Zhao, Dong and Schminke, Ulf and B{\"u}lb{\"u}l, Alpaslan and Polak, Joseph F and Sitzer, Matthias and Hofman, Albert and Grigore, Liliana and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Su, Ta-Chen and Ducimetiere, Pierre and Xie, Wuxiang and Ronkainen, Kimmo and Kiechl, Stefan and Rundek, Tatjana and Robertson, Christine and Fagerberg, Bj{\"o}rn and Bokemark, Lena and Steinmetz, Helmuth and Ikram, M Arfan and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Lin, Hung-Ju and Plichart, Matthieu and Tuomainen, Tomi-Pekka and Desvarieux, Mo{\"\i}se and McLachlan, Stela and Schmidt, Caroline and Kauhanen, Jussi and Willeit, Johann and Lorenz, Matthias W and Sander, Dirk} } @article {6951, title = {Interaction of methylation-related genetic variants with circulating fatty acids on plasma lipids: a meta-analysis of 7 studies and methylation analysis of 3 studies in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium.}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {103}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Feb}, pages = {567-78}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation is influenced by diet and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and methylation modulates gene expression.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to explore whether the gene-by-diet interactions on blood lipids act through DNA methylation.

DESIGN: We selected 7 SNPs on the basis of predicted relations in fatty acids, methylation, and lipids. We conducted a meta-analysis and a methylation and mediation analysis with the use of data from the CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) consortium and the ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) consortium.

RESULTS: On the basis of the meta-analysis of 7 cohorts in the CHARGE consortium, higher plasma HDL cholesterol was associated with fewer C alleles at ATP-binding cassette subfamily A member 1 (ABCA1) rs2246293 (β = -0.6 mg/dL, P = 0.015) and higher circulating eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) (β = 3.87 mg/dL, P = 5.62 {\texttimes} 10(21)). The difference in HDL cholesterol associated with higher circulating EPA was dependent on genotypes at rs2246293, and it was greater for each additional C allele (β = 1.69 mg/dL, P = 0.006). In the GOLDN (Genetics of Lipid Lowering Drugs and Diet Network) study, higher ABCA1 promoter cg14019050 methylation was associated with more C alleles at rs2246293 (β = 8.84\%, P = 3.51 {\texttimes} 10(18)) and lower circulating EPA (β = -1.46\%, P = 0.009), and the mean difference in methylation of cg14019050 that was associated with higher EPA was smaller with each additional C allele of rs2246293 (β = -2.83\%, P = 0.007). Higher ABCA1 cg14019050 methylation was correlated with lower ABCA1 expression (r = -0.61, P = 0.009) in the ENCODE consortium and lower plasma HDL cholesterol in the GOLDN study (r = -0.12, P = 0.0002). An additional mediation analysis was meta-analyzed across the GOLDN study, Cardiovascular Health Study, and the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Compared with the model without the adjustment of cg14019050 methylation, the model with such adjustment provided smaller estimates of the mean plasma HDL cholesterol concentration in association with both the rs2246293 C allele and EPA and a smaller difference by rs2246293 genotypes in the EPA-associated HDL cholesterol. However, the differences between 2 nested models were NS (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION: We obtained little evidence that the gene-by-fatty acid interactions on blood lipids act through DNA methylation.

}, keywords = {Apolipoproteins E, ATP Binding Cassette Transporter 1, Cholesterol, HDL, Cohort Studies, Diet, DNA Methylation, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Epigenesis, Genetic, Fatty Acids, Gene Expression Regulation, Humans, Lipids, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Promoter Regions, Genetic, Triglycerides}, issn = {1938-3207}, doi = {10.3945/ajcn.115.112987}, author = {Ma, Yiyi and Follis, Jack L and Smith, Caren E and Tanaka, Toshiko and Manichaikul, Ani W and Chu, Audrey Y and Samieri, Cecilia and Zhou, Xia and Guan, Weihua and Wang, Lu and Biggs, Mary L and Chen, Yii-der I and Hernandez, Dena G and Borecki, Ingrid and Chasman, Daniel I and Rich, Stephen S and Ferrucci, Luigi and Irvin, Marguerite Ryan and Aslibekyan, Stella and Zhi, Degui and Tiwari, Hemant K and Claas, Steven A and Sha, Jin and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Lai, Chao-Qiang and Parnell, Laurence D and Lee, Yu-Chi and Amouyel, Philippe and Lambert, Jean-Charles and Psaty, Bruce M and King, Irena B and Mozaffarian, Dariush and McKnight, Barbara and Bandinelli, Stefania and Tsai, Michael Y and Ridker, Paul M and Ding, Jingzhong and Mstat, Kurt Lohmant and Liu, Yongmei and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Barberger-Gateau, Pascale and Steffen, Lyn M and Siscovick, David S and Absher, Devin and Arnett, Donna K and Ordovas, Jose M and Lemaitre, Rozenn N} } @article {7256, title = {KLB is associated with alcohol drinking, and its gene product β-Klotho is necessary for FGF21 regulation of alcohol preference.}, journal = {Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A}, volume = {113}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Dec 13}, pages = {14372-14377}, abstract = {

Excessive alcohol consumption is a major public health problem worldwide. Although drinking habits are known to be inherited, few genes have been identified that are robustly linked to alcohol drinking. We conducted a genome-wide association metaanalysis and replication study among >105,000 individuals of European ancestry and identified β-Klotho (KLB) as a locus associated with alcohol consumption (rs11940694; P = 9.2 {\texttimes} 10(-12)). β-Klotho is an obligate coreceptor for the hormone FGF21, which is secreted from the liver and implicated in macronutrient preference in humans. We show that brain-specific β-Klotho KO mice have an increased alcohol preference and that FGF21 inhibits alcohol drinking by acting on the brain. These data suggest that a liver-brain endocrine axis may play an important role in the regulation of alcohol drinking behavior and provide a unique pharmacologic target for reducing alcohol consumption.

}, issn = {1091-6490}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.1611243113}, author = {Schumann, Gunter and Liu, Chunyu and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul and Gao, He and Song, Parkyong and Xu, Bing and Ruggeri, Barbara and Amin, Najaf and Jia, Tianye and Preis, Sarah and Segura Lepe, Marcelo and Akira, Shizuo and Barbieri, Caterina and Baumeister, Sebastian and Cauchi, Stephane and Clarke, Toni-Kim and Enroth, Stefan and Fischer, Krista and H{\"a}llfors, Jenni and Harris, Sarah E and Hieber, Saskia and Hofer, Edith and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Johansson, Asa and Joshi, Peter K and Kaartinen, Niina and Laitinen, Jaana and Lemaitre, Rozenn and Loukola, Anu and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Mangino, Massimo and Manichaikul, Ani and Mbarek, Hamdi and Milaneschi, Yuri and Moayyeri, Alireza and Mukamal, Kenneth and Nelson, Christopher and Nettleton, Jennifer and Partinen, Eemil and Rawal, Rajesh and Robino, Antonietta and Rose, Lynda and Sala, Cinzia and Satoh, Takashi and Schmidt, Reinhold and Schraut, Katharina and Scott, Robert and Smith, Albert Vernon and Starr, John M and Teumer, Alexander and Trompet, Stella and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Venturini, Cristina and Vergnaud, Anne-Claire and Verweij, Niek and Vitart, Veronique and Vuckovic, Dragana and Wedenoja, Juho and Yengo, Loic and Yu, Bing and Zhang, Weihua and Zhao, Jing Hua and Boomsma, Dorret I and Chambers, John and Chasman, Daniel I and Daniela, Toniolo and de Geus, Eco and Deary, Ian and Eriksson, Johan G and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Eulenburg, Volker and Franco, Oscar H and Froguel, Philippe and Gieger, Christian and Grabe, Hans J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gyllensten, Ulf and Harris, Tamara B and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Heath, Andrew C and Hocking, Lynne and Hofman, Albert and Huth, Cornelia and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Jukema, J Wouter and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Lahti, Jari and Langenberg, Claudia and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Liu, Yongmei and Madden, Pamela A F and Martin, Nicholas and Morrison, Alanna and Penninx, Brenda and Pirastu, Nicola and Psaty, Bruce and Raitakari, Olli and Ridker, Paul and Rose, Richard and Rotter, Jerome I and Samani, Nilesh J and Schmidt, Helena and Spector, Tim D and Stott, David and Strachan, David and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and van der Harst, Pim and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Marques-Vidal, Pedro and Vollenweider, Peter and Wareham, Nicholas J and Whitfield, John B and Wilson, James and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce and Bakalkin, Georgy and Evangelou, Evangelos and Liu, Yun and Rice, Kenneth M and Desrivi{\`e}res, Sylvane and Kliewer, Steven A and Mangelsdorf, David J and M{\"u}ller, Christian P and Levy, Daniel and Elliott, Paul} } @article {7118, title = {Lack of association of plasma gamma prime (γ{\textquoteright}) fibrinogen with incident cardiovascular disease.}, journal = {Thromb Res}, volume = {143}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jul}, pages = {50-2}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: The association of gamma prime (γ{\textquoteright}) fibrinogen; a fibrinogen γ chain variant generated via alternative mRNA processing, with cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains equivocal. We prospectively examine the association of plasma γ{\textquoteright} fibrinogen with the incidence of multiple cardiovascular disease (CVD) endpoints, independent of established CVD risk factors and total fibrinogen.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We measured plasma γ{\textquoteright} fibrinogen on plasma samples collected in 1992-1993 from adults >=65years (n=3219) enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study, who were followed through 2013 for incident CVD events.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: In multivariable Cox models adjusted for traditional CVD risk factors and total fibrinogen, the hazard ratio per 1 standard deviation (10.7mg/dl) increment of γ{\textquoteright} fibrinogen was 1.02 (95\%CI: 0.95-1.10) for coronary heart disease; 0.88 (0.77-1.00) for ischemic stroke; 1.07 (0.87-1.32) for peripheral artery disease; 1.00 (0.92-1.08) for heart failure and 1.01 (0.92-1.10) for CVD mortality. Likewise, we failed to show a statistically significant association of γ{\textquoteright}/total fibrinogen ratio with any CVD endpoint. These results suggest that among the elderly, γ{\textquoteright} fibrinogen does not add much to CVD prediction beyond traditional risk factors and total fibrinogen level.

}, issn = {1879-2472}, doi = {10.1016/j.thromres.2016.04.023}, author = {Appiah, Duke and Heckbert, Susan R and Cushman, Mary and Psaty, Bruce M and Folsom, Aaron R} } @article {7146, title = {Large-Scale Exome-wide Association Analysis Identifies Loci for White Blood Cell Traits and Pleiotropy with Immune-Mediated Diseases.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {99}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jul 7}, pages = {22-39}, abstract = {

White blood cells play diverse roles in innate and adaptive immunity. Genetic association analyses of phenotypic variation in circulating white blood cell (WBC) counts from large samples of otherwise healthy individuals can provide insights into genes and biologic pathways involved in production, differentiation, or clearance of particular WBC lineages (myeloid, lymphoid) and also potentially inform the genetic basis of autoimmune, allergic, and blood diseases. We performed an exome array-based meta-analysis of total WBC and subtype counts (neutrophils, monocytes, lymphocytes, basophils, and eosinophils) in a multi-ancestry discovery and replication sample of~\~{}157,622 individuals from 25 studies. We identified 16 common variants (8 of which were coding variants) associated with one or more WBC traits, the majority of which are pleiotropically associated with autoimmune diseases. Based on functional annotation, these loci included genes encoding surface markers of myeloid, lymphoid, or hematopoietic stem cell differentiation (CD69, CD33, CD87), transcription factors regulating lineage specification during hematopoiesis (ASXL1, IRF8, IKZF1, JMJD1C, ETS2-PSMG1), and molecules involved in neutrophil clearance/apoptosis (C10orf54, LTA), adhesion (TNXB), or centrosome and microtubule structure/function (KIF9, TUBD1). Together with recent reports of somatic ASXL1 mutations among individuals with idiopathic cytopenias or clonal hematopoiesis of undetermined significance, the identification of a common regulatory 3{\textquoteright} UTR variant of ASXL1 suggests that both germline and somatic ASXL1 mutations contribute to lower blood counts in otherwise asymptomatic individuals. These association results shed light on genetic mechanisms that regulate circulating WBC counts and suggest a prominent shared genetic architecture with inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.05.003}, author = {Tajuddin, Salman M and Schick, Ursula M and Eicher, John D and Chami, Nathalie and Giri, Ayush and Brody, Jennifer A and Hill, W David and Kacprowski, Tim and Li, Jin and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Manichaikul, Ani and Mihailov, Evelin and O{\textquoteright}Donoghue, Michelle L and Pankratz, Nathan and Pazoki, Raha and Polfus, Linda M and Smith, Albert Vernon and Schurmann, Claudia and Vacchi-Suzzi, Caterina and Waterworth, Dawn M and Evangelou, Evangelos and Yanek, Lisa R and Burt, Amber and Chen, Ming-Huei and van Rooij, Frank J A and Floyd, James S and Greinacher, Andreas and Harris, Tamara B and Highland, Heather M and Lange, Leslie A and Liu, Yongmei and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Nalls, Mike A and Mathias, Rasika A and Nickerson, Deborah A and Nikus, Kjell and Starr, John M and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Velez Edwards, Digna R and Wallentin, Lars and Bartz, Traci M and Becker, Lewis C and Denny, Joshua C and Raffield, Laura M and Rioux, John D and Friedrich, Nele and Fornage, Myriam and Gao, He and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Liewald, David C M and Rich, Stephen S and Uitterlinden, Andre and Bastarache, Lisa and Becker, Diane M and Boerwinkle, Eric and de Denus, Simon and Bottinger, Erwin P and Hayward, Caroline and Hofman, Albert and Homuth, Georg and Lange, Ethan and Launer, Lenore J and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lu, Yingchang and Metspalu, Andres and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Chris J and Quarells, Rakale C and Richard, Melissa and Torstenson, Eric S and Taylor, Kent D and Vergnaud, Anne-Claire and Zonderman, Alan B and Crosslin, David R and Deary, Ian J and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Elliott, Paul and Evans, Michele K and Gudnason, Vilmundur and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Slater, Andrew J and Dehghan, Abbas and White, Harvey D and Ganesh, Santhi K and Loos, Ruth J F and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Faraday, Nauder and Wilson, James G and Cushman, Mary and Johnson, Andrew D and Edwards, Todd L and Zakai, Neil A and Lettre, Guillaume and Reiner, Alex P and Auer, Paul L} } @article {7253, title = {Large-scale pharmacogenomic study of sulfonylureas and the QT, JT and QRS intervals: CHARGE Pharmacogenomics Working Group.}, journal = {Pharmacogenomics J}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Dec 13}, abstract = {

Sulfonylureas, a commonly used class of medication used to treat type 2 diabetes, have been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Their effects on QT interval duration and related electrocardiographic phenotypes are potential mechanisms for this adverse effect. In 11 ethnically diverse cohorts that included 71 857 European, African-American and Hispanic/Latino ancestry individuals with repeated measures of medication use and electrocardiogram (ECG) measurements, we conducted a pharmacogenomic genome-wide association study of sulfonylurea use and three ECG phenotypes: QT, JT and QRS intervals. In ancestry-specific meta-analyses, eight novel pharmacogenomic loci met the threshold for genome-wide significance (P<5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)), and a pharmacokinetic variant in CYP2C9 (rs1057910) that has been associated with sulfonylurea-related treatment effects and other adverse drug reactions in previous studies was replicated. Additional research is needed to replicate the novel findings and to understand their biological basis.The Pharmacogenomics Journal advance online publication, 13 December 2016; doi:10.1038/tpj.2016.90.

}, issn = {1473-1150}, doi = {10.1038/tpj.2016.90}, author = {Floyd, J S and Sitlani, C M and Avery, C L and Noordam, R and Li, X and Smith, A V and Gogarten, S M and Li, J and Broer, L and Evans, D S and Trompet, S and Brody, J A and Stewart, J D and Eicher, J D and Seyerle, A A and Roach, J and Lange, L A and Lin, H J and Kors, J A and Harris, T B and Li-Gao, R and Sattar, N and Cummings, S R and Wiggins, K L and Napier, M D and St{\"u}rmer, T and Bis, J C and Kerr, K F and Uitterlinden, A G and Taylor, K D and Stott, D J and de Mutsert, R and Launer, L J and Busch, E L and M{\'e}ndez-Gir{\'a}ldez, R and Sotoodehnia, N and Soliman, E Z and Li, Y and Duan, Q and Rosendaal, F R and Slagboom, P E and Wilhelmsen, K C and Reiner, A P and Chen, Y-DI and Heckbert, S R and Kaplan, R C and Rice, K M and Jukema, J W and Johnson, A D and Liu, Y and Mook-Kanamori, D O and Gudnason, V and Wilson, J G and Rotter, J I and Laurie, C C and Psaty, B M and Whitsel, E A and Cupples, L A and Stricker, B H} } @article {6906, title = {Lifetime Risk of Venous Thromboembolism in Two Cohort Studies.}, journal = {Am J Med}, volume = {129}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Mar}, pages = {339.e19-26}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Greater public awareness of venous thromboembolism may be an important next step for optimizing venous thromboembolism prevention and treatment. "Lifetime risk" is an easily interpretable way of presenting risk information. Therefore, we sought to calculate the lifetime risk of venous thromboembolism (deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism) using data from 2 large, prospective cohort studies: the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study.

METHODS: We followed participants aged 45-64 years in ARIC (n = 14,185) and >=65 in CHS (n = 5414) at baseline visits (1987-1989 in ARIC, 1989-1990 and 1992-1993 in CHS) for incident venous thromboembolism (n = 728 in ARIC through 2011 and n = 172 in CHS through 2001). We estimated lifetime risks and 95\% confidence intervals of incident venous thromboembolism using a modified Kaplan-Meier method, accounting for the competing risk of death from other causes.

RESULTS: At age 45 years, the remaining lifetime risk of venous thromboembolism in ARIC was 8.1\% (95\% confidence interval, 7.1-8.7). High-risk groups were African Americans (11.5\% lifetime risk), those with obesity (10.9\%), heterozygous for the factor V Leiden (17.1\%), or with sickle cell trait or disease (18.2\%). Lifetime risk estimates differed by cohort; these differences were explained by differences in time period of venous thromboembolism ascertainment.

CONCLUSIONS: At least 1 in 12 middle-aged adults will develop venous thromboembolism in their remaining lifetime. This estimate of lifetime risk may be useful to promote awareness of venous thromboembolism and guide decisions at both clinical and policy levels.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Anemia, Sickle Cell, Cohort Studies, Factor V, Follow-Up Studies, Heterozygote, Humans, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Middle Aged, Obesity, Risk, Sickle Cell Trait, United States, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1555-7162}, doi = {10.1016/j.amjmed.2015.10.014}, author = {Bell, Elizabeth J and Lutsey, Pamela L and Basu, Saonli and Cushman, Mary and Heckbert, Susan R and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Folsom, Aaron R} } @article {7123, title = {Measures of Body Size and Composition and Risk of Incident Atrial Fibrillation in Older People: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, volume = {183}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jun 1}, pages = {998-1007}, abstract = {

Various anthropometric measures, including height, have been associated with atrial fibrillation (AF). This raises questions about the appropriateness of using ratio measures such as body mass index (BMI), which contains height squared in its denominator, in the evaluation of AF risk. Among older adults, the optimal anthropometric approach to risk stratification of AF remains uncertain. Anthropometric and bioelectrical impedance measures were obtained from 4,276 participants (mean age = 72.4 years) free of cardiovascular disease in the Cardiovascular Health Study. During follow-up (1989-2008), 1,050 cases of AF occurred. BMI showed a U-shaped association, whereas height, weight, waist circumference, hip circumference, fat mass, and fat-free mass were linearly related to incident AF. The strongest adjusted association occurred for height (per each 1-standard-deviation increment, hazard ratio = 1.38, 95\% confidence interval: 1.25, 1.51), which exceeded all other measures, including weight (hazard ratio = 1.21, 95\% confidence interval: 1.13, 1.29). Combined assessment of log-transformed weight and height showed regression coefficients that departed from the 1 to -2 ratio inherent in BMI, indicating a loss of predictive information. Risk estimates for AF tended to be stronger for hip circumference than for waist circumference and for fat-free mass than for fat mass, which was explained largely by height. These findings highlight the prominent role of body size and the inadequacy of BMI as determinants of AF in older adults.

}, issn = {1476-6256}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kwv278}, author = {Karas, Maria G and Yee, Laura M and Biggs, Mary L and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Ix, Joachim H and Zieman, Susan J and Siscovick, David S and Gottdiener, John S and Rosenberg, Michael A and Kronmal, Richard A and Heckbert, Susan R and Kizer, Jorge R} } @article {7264, title = {Meta-analysis identifies common and rare variants influencing blood pressure and overlapping with metabolic trait loci.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {48}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Oct}, pages = {1162-70}, abstract = {

Meta-analyses of association results for blood pressure using exome-centric single-variant and gene-based tests identified 31 new loci in a discovery stage among 146,562 individuals, with follow-up and meta-analysis in 180,726 additional individuals (total n = 327,288). These blood pressure-associated loci are enriched for known variants for cardiometabolic traits. Associations were also observed for the aggregation of rare and low-frequency missense variants in three genes, NPR1, DBH, and PTPMT1. In addition, blood pressure associations at 39 previously reported loci were confirmed. The identified variants implicate biological pathways related to cardiometabolic traits, vascular function, and development. Several new variants are inferred to have roles in transcription or as hubs in protein-protein interaction networks. Genetic risk scores constructed from the identified variants were strongly associated with coronary disease and myocardial infarction. This large collection of blood pressure-associated loci suggests new therapeutic strategies for hypertension, emphasizing a link with cardiometabolic risk.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3660}, author = {Liu, Chunyu and Kraja, Aldi T and Smith, Jennifer A and Brody, Jennifer A and Franceschini, Nora and Bis, Joshua C and Rice, Kenneth and Morrison, Alanna C and Lu, Yingchang and Weiss, Stefan and Guo, Xiuqing and Palmas, Walter and Martin, Lisa W and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Surendran, Praveen and Drenos, Fotios and Cook, James P and Auer, Paul L and Chu, Audrey Y and Giri, Ayush and Zhao, Wei and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Lin, Li-An and Stafford, Jeanette M and Amin, Najaf and Mei, Hao and Yao, Jie and Voorman, Arend and Larson, Martin G and Grove, Megan L and Smith, Albert V and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Chen, Han and Huan, Tianxiao and Kosova, Gulum and Stitziel, Nathan O and Kathiresan, Sekar and Samani, Nilesh and Schunkert, Heribert and Deloukas, Panos and Li, Man and Fuchsberger, Christian and Pattaro, Cristian and Gorski, Mathias and Kooperberg, Charles and Papanicolaou, George J and Rossouw, Jacques E and Faul, Jessica D and Kardia, Sharon L R and Bouchard, Claude and Raffel, Leslie J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Franco, Oscar H and Vasan, Ramachandran S and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Taylor, Kent D and Liu, Kiang and Bottinger, Erwin P and Gottesman, Omri and Daw, E Warwick and Giulianini, Franco and Ganesh, Santhi and Salfati, Elias and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Felix, Stephan B and Rettig, Rainer and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Kim, Eric and Lee, Wen-Jane and Lee, I-Te and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Tsosie, Krystal S and Edwards, Digna R Velez and Liu, Yongmei and Correa, Adolfo and Weir, David R and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Ridker, Paul M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Reiner, Alexander P and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Borecki, Ingrid B and Edwards, Todd L and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Rotter, Jerome I and Psaty, Bruce M and Loos, Ruth J F and Fornage, Myriam and Ehret, Georg B and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Levy, Daniel and Chasman, Daniel I} } @article {6936, title = {A meta-analysis of 120 246 individuals identifies 18 new loci for fibrinogen concentration.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {25}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jan 15}, pages = {358-70}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies have previously identified 23 genetic loci associated with circulating fibrinogen concentration. These studies used HapMap imputation and did not examine the X-chromosome. 1000 Genomes imputation provides better coverage of uncommon variants, and includes indels. We conducted a genome-wide association analysis of 34 studies imputed to the 1000 Genomes Project reference panel and including \~{}120 000 participants of European ancestry (95 806 participants with data on the X-chromosome). Approximately 10.7 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms and 1.2 million indels were examined. We identified 41 genome-wide significant fibrinogen loci; of which, 18 were newly identified. There were no genome-wide significant signals on the X-chromosome. The lead variants of five significant loci were indels. We further identified six additional independent signals, including three rare variants, at two previously characterized loci: FGB and IRF1. Together the 41 loci explain 3\% of the variance in plasma fibrinogen concentration.

}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddv454}, author = {de Vries, Paul S and Chasman, Daniel I and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Chen, Ming-Huei and Huffman, Jennifer E and Steri, Maristella and Tang, Weihong and Teumer, Alexander and Marioni, Riccardo E and Grossmann, Vera and Hottenga, Jouke J and Trompet, Stella and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Zhao, Jing Hua and Brody, Jennifer A and Kleber, Marcus E and Guo, Xiuqing and Wang, Jie Jin and Auer, Paul L and Attia, John R and Yanek, Lisa R and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Lahti, Jari and Venturini, Cristina and Tanaka, Toshiko and Bielak, Lawrence F and Joshi, Peter K and Rocanin-Arjo, Ares and Kolcic, Ivana and Navarro, Pau and Rose, Lynda M and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Riess, Helene and Mazur, Johanna and Basu, Saonli and Goel, Anuj and Yang, Qiong and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Willemsen, Gonneke and Rumley, Ann and Fiorillo, Edoardo and de Craen, Anton J M and Grotevendt, Anne and Scott, Robert and Taylor, Kent D and Delgado, Graciela E and Yao, Jie and Kifley, Annette and Kooperberg, Charles and Qayyum, Rehan and Lopez, Lorna M and Berentzen, Tina L and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Mangino, Massimo and Bandinelli, Stefania and Peyser, Patricia A and Wild, Sarah and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Wright, Alan F and Marten, Jonathan and Zemunik, Tatijana and Morrison, Alanna C and Sennblad, Bengt and Tofler, Geoffrey and de Maat, Moniek P M and de Geus, Eco J C and Lowe, Gordon D and Zoledziewska, Magdalena and Sattar, Naveed and Binder, Harald and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Waldenberger, Melanie and Khaw, Kay-Tee and McKnight, Barbara and Huang, Jie and Jenny, Nancy S and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Qi, Lihong and Mcevoy, Mark G and Becker, Diane M and Starr, John M and Sarin, Antti-Pekka and Hysi, Pirro G and Hernandez, Dena G and Jhun, Min A and Campbell, Harry and Hamsten, Anders and Rivadeneira, Fernando and McArdle, Wendy L and Slagboom, P Eline and Zeller, Tanja and Koenig, Wolfgang and Psaty, Bruce M and Haritunians, Talin and Liu, Jingmin and Palotie, Aarno and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Stott, David J and Hofman, Albert and Franco, Oscar H and Polasek, Ozren and Rudan, Igor and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and Wilson, James F and Kardia, Sharon L R and Ferrucci, Luigi and Spector, Tim D and Eriksson, Johan G and Hansen, Torben and Deary, Ian J and Becker, Lewis C and Scott, Rodney J and Mitchell, Paul and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Wareham, Nick J and Peters, Annette and Greinacher, Andreas and Wild, Philipp S and Jukema, J Wouter and Boomsma, Dorret I and Hayward, Caroline and Cucca, Francesco and Tracy, Russell and Watkins, Hugh and Reiner, Alex P and Folsom, Aaron R and Ridker, Paul M and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Smith, Nicholas L and Strachan, David P and Dehghan, Abbas} } @article {7011, title = {Meta-analysis of 49 549 individuals imputed with the 1000 Genomes Project reveals an exonic damaging variant in ANGPTL4 determining fasting TG levels.}, journal = {J Med Genet}, volume = {53}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jul}, pages = {441-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: So far, more than 170 loci have been associated with circulating lipid levels through genome-wide association studies (GWAS). These associations are largely driven by common variants, their function is often not known, and many are likely to be markers for the causal variants. In this study we aimed to identify more new rare and low-frequency functional variants associated with circulating lipid levels.

METHODS: We used the 1000 Genomes Project as a reference panel for the imputations of GWAS data from \~{}60 000 individuals in the discovery stage and \~{}90 000 samples in the replication stage.

RESULTS: Our study resulted in the identification of five new associations with circulating lipid levels at four loci. All four loci are within genes that can be linked biologically to lipid metabolism. One of the variants, rs116843064, is a damaging missense variant within the ANGPTL4 gene.

CONCLUSIONS: This study illustrates that GWAS with high-scale imputation may still help us unravel the biological mechanism behind circulating lipid levels.

}, issn = {1468-6244}, doi = {10.1136/jmedgenet-2015-103439}, author = {van Leeuwen, Elisabeth M and Sabo, Aniko and Bis, Joshua C and Huffman, Jennifer E and Manichaikul, Ani and Smith, Albert V and Feitosa, Mary F and Demissie, Serkalem and Joshi, Peter K and Duan, Qing and Marten, Jonathan and van Klinken, Jan B and Surakka, Ida and Nolte, Ilja M and Zhang, Weihua and Mbarek, Hamdi and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Trompet, Stella and Verweij, Niek and Evangelou, Evangelos and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Tayo, Bamidele O and Deelen, Joris and van der Most, Peter J and van der Laan, Sander W and Arking, Dan E and Morrison, Alanna and Dehghan, Abbas and Franco, Oscar H and Hofman, Albert and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Sijbrands, Eric J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Campbell, Archie and Hocking, Lynne J and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Brody, Jennifer A and Rice, Kenneth M and White, Charles C and Harris, Tamara and Isaacs, Aaron and Campbell, Harry and Lange, Leslie A and Rudan, Igor and Kolcic, Ivana and Navarro, Pau and Zemunik, Tatijana and Salomaa, Veikko and Kooner, Angad S and Kooner, Jaspal S and Lehne, Benjamin and Scott, William R and Tan, Sian-Tsung and de Geus, Eco J and Milaneschi, Yuri and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Willemsen, Gonneke and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Ford, Ian and Gansevoort, Ron T and Segura-Lepe, Marcelo P and Raitakari, Olli T and Viikari, Jorma S and Nikus, Kjell and Forrester, Terrence and McKenzie, Colin A and de Craen, Anton J M and de Ruijter, Hester M and Pasterkamp, Gerard and Snieder, Harold and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Slagboom, P Eline and Cooper, Richard S and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Elliott, Paul and van der Harst, Pim and Jukema, J Wouter and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Boomsma, Dorret I and Chambers, John C and Swertz, Morris and Ripatti, Samuli and Willems van Dijk, Ko and Vitart, Veronique and Polasek, Ozren and Hayward, Caroline and Wilson, James G and Wilson, James F and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Rich, Stephen S and Psaty, Bruce M and Borecki, Ingrid B and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rotter, Jerome I and Cupples, L Adrienne and van Duijn, Cornelia M} } @article {7358, title = {Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of HDL cholesterol response to statins.}, journal = {J Med Genet}, volume = {53}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Dec}, pages = {835-845}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: In addition to lowering low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), statin therapy also raises high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels. Inter-individual variation in HDL-C response to statins may be partially explained by genetic variation.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to identify variants with an effect on statin-induced high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) changes. The 123 most promising signals with p<1{\texttimes}10(-4) from the 16 769 statin-treated participants in the first analysis stage were followed up in an independent group of 10 951 statin-treated individuals, providing a total sample size of 27 720 individuals. The only associations of genome-wide significance (p<5{\texttimes}10(-8)) were between minor alleles at the CETP locus and greater HDL-C response to statin treatment.

CONCLUSIONS: Based on results from this study that included a relatively large sample size, we suggest that CETP may be the only detectable locus with common genetic variants that influence HDL-C response to statins substantially in individuals of European descent. Although CETP is known to be associated with HDL-C, we provide evidence that this pharmacogenetic effect is independent of its association with baseline HDL-C levels.

}, issn = {1468-6244}, doi = {10.1136/jmedgenet-2016-103966}, author = {Postmus, Iris and Warren, Helen R and Trompet, Stella and Arsenault, Benoit J and Avery, Christy L and Bis, Joshua C and Chasman, Daniel I and de Keyser, Catherine E and Deshmukh, Harshal A and Evans, Daniel S and Feng, QiPing and Li, Xiaohui and Smit, Roelof A J and Smith, Albert V and Sun, Fangui and Taylor, Kent D and Arnold, Alice M and Barnes, Michael R and Barratt, Bryan J and Betteridge, John and Boekholdt, S Matthijs and Boerwinkle, Eric and Buckley, Brendan M and Chen, Y-D Ida and de Craen, Anton J M and Cummings, Steven R and Denny, Joshua C and Dub{\'e}, Marie Pierre and Durrington, Paul N and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Ford, Ian and Guo, Xiuqing and Harris, Tamara B and Heckbert, Susan R and Hofman, Albert and Hovingh, G Kees and Kastelein, John J P and Launer, Leonore J and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Yongmei and Lumley, Thomas and McKeigue, Paul M and Munroe, Patricia B and Neil, Andrew and Nickerson, Deborah A and Nyberg, Fredrik and O{\textquoteright}Brien, Eoin and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Post, Wendy and Poulter, Neil and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Rice, Kenneth and Rich, Stephen S and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Sattar, Naveed and Sever, Peter and Shaw-Hawkins, Sue and Shields, Denis C and Slagboom, P Eline and Smith, Nicholas L and Smith, Joshua D and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stanton, Alice and Stott, David J and Stricker, Bruno H and St{\"u}rmer, Til and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wei, Wei-Qi and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Whitsel, Eric A and Wiggins, Kerri L and Wilke, Russell A and Ballantyne, Christie M and Colhoun, Helen M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Franco, Oscar H and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hitman, Graham and Palmer, Colin N A and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and Stafford, Jeanette M and Stein, Charles M and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Caulfield, Mark J and Jukema, J Wouter and Rotter, Jerome I and Krauss, Ronald M} } @article {7257, title = {Multiethnic Exome-Wide Association Study of Subclinical Atherosclerosis.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Nov 21}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: -The burden of subclinical atherosclerosis in asymptomatic individuals is heritable and associated with elevated risk of developing clinical coronary heart disease (CHD). We sought to identify genetic variants in protein-coding regions associated with subclinical atherosclerosis and the risk of subsequent CHD.

METHODS AND RESULTS: -We studied a total of 25,109 European ancestry and African-American participants with coronary artery calcification (CAC) measured by cardiac computed tomography and 52,869 with common carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) measured by ultrasonography within the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium. Participants were genotyped for 247,870 DNA sequence variants (231,539 in exons) across the genome. A meta-analysis of exome-wide association studies was performed across cohorts for CAC and CIMT. APOB p.Arg3527Gln was associated with four-fold excess CAC (P = 3{\texttimes}10(-10)). The APOE ε2 allele (p.Arg176Cys) was associated with both 22.3\% reduced CAC (P = 1{\texttimes}10(-12)) and 1.4\% reduced CIMT (P = 4{\texttimes}10(-14)) in carriers compared with non-carriers. In secondary analyses conditioning on LDL cholesterol concentration, the ε2 protective association with CAC, although attenuated, remained strongly significant. Additionally, the presence of ε2 was associated with reduced risk for CHD (OR 0.77; P = 1{\texttimes}10(-11)).

CONCLUSIONS: -Exome-wide association meta-analysis demonstrates that protein-coding variants in APOB and APOE associate with subclinical atherosclerosis. APOE ε2 represents the first significant association for multiple subclinical atherosclerosis traits across multiple ethnicities as well as clinical CHD.

}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.116.001572}, author = {Natarajan, Pradeep and Bis, Joshua C and Bielak, Lawrence F and Cox, Amanda J and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Feitosa, Mary F and Franceschini, Nora and Guo, Xiuqing and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Isaacs, Aaron and Jhun, Min A and Kavousi, Maryam and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Marioni, Riccardo E and Schminke, Ulf and Stitziel, Nathan O and Tada, Hayato and van Setten, Jessica and Smith, Albert V and Vojinovic, Dina and Yanek, Lisa R and Yao, Jie and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Amin, Najaf and Baber, Usman and Borecki, Ingrid B and Carr, J Jeffrey and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Cupples, L Adrienne and de Jong, Pim A and de Koning, Harry and de Vos, Bob D and Demirkan, Ayse and Fuster, Valentin and Franco, Oscar H and Goodarzi, Mark O and Harris, Tamara B and Heckbert, Susan R and Heiss, Gerardo and Hoffmann, Udo and Hofman, Albert and I{\v s}gum, Ivana and Jukema, J Wouter and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kral, Brian G and Launer, Lenore J and Massaro, Joseph and Mehran, Roxana and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mosley, Thomas H and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Newman, Anne B and Nguyen, Khanh-Dung and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Oudkerk, Matthijs and Pankow, James S and Peloso, Gina M and Post, Wendy and Province, Michael A and Raffield, Laura M and Raitakari, Olli T and Reilly, Dermot F and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rosendaal, Frits and Sartori, Samantha and Taylor, Kent D and Teumer, Alexander and Trompet, Stella and Turner, Stephen T and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaidya, Dhananjay and van der Lugt, Aad and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Wassel, Christina L and Weiss, Stefan and Wojczynski, Mary K and Becker, Diane M and Becker, Lewis C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowden, Donald W and Deary, Ian J and Dehghan, Abbas and Felix, Stephan B and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Mathias, Rasika and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Psaty, Bruce M and Rader, Daniel J and Rotter, Jerome I and Wilson, James G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Kathiresan, Sekar and Peyser, Patricia A and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} } @article {6680, title = {A novel Alzheimer disease locus located near the gene encoding tau protein.}, journal = {Mol Psychiatry}, volume = {21}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jan}, pages = {108-17}, abstract = {

APOE ɛ4, the most significant genetic risk factor for Alzheimer disease (AD), may mask effects of other loci. We re-analyzed genome-wide association study (GWAS) data from the International Genomics of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Project (IGAP) Consortium in APOE ɛ4+ (10 352 cases and 9207 controls) and APOE ɛ4- (7184 cases and 26 968 controls) subgroups as well as in the total sample testing for interaction between a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and APOE ɛ4 status. Suggestive associations (P<1 {\texttimes} 10(-4)) in stage 1 were evaluated in an independent sample (stage 2) containing 4203 subjects (APOE ɛ4+: 1250 cases and 536 controls; APOE ɛ4-: 718 cases and 1699 controls). Among APOE ɛ4- subjects, novel genome-wide significant (GWS) association was observed with 17 SNPs (all between KANSL1 and LRRC37A on chromosome 17 near MAPT) in a meta-analysis of the stage 1 and stage 2 data sets (best SNP, rs2732703, P=5{\textperiodcentered}8 {\texttimes} 10(-9)). Conditional analysis revealed that rs2732703 accounted for association signals in the entire 100-kilobase region that includes MAPT. Except for previously identified AD loci showing stronger association in APOE ɛ4+ subjects (CR1 and CLU) or APOE ɛ4- subjects (MS4A6A/MS4A4A/MS4A6E), no other SNPs were significantly associated with AD in a specific APOE genotype subgroup. In addition, the finding in the stage 1 sample that AD risk is significantly influenced by the interaction of APOE with rs1595014 in TMEM106B (P=1{\textperiodcentered}6 {\texttimes} 10(-7)) is noteworthy, because TMEM106B variants have previously been associated with risk of frontotemporal dementia. Expression quantitative trait locus analysis revealed that rs113986870, one of the GWS SNPs near rs2732703, is significantly associated with four KANSL1 probes that target transcription of the first translated exon and an untranslated exon in hippocampus (P ⩽ 1.3 {\texttimes} 10(-8)), frontal cortex (P ⩽ 1.3 {\texttimes} 10(-9)) and temporal cortex (P⩽1.2 {\texttimes} 10(-11)). Rs113986870 is also strongly associated with a MAPT probe that targets transcription of alternatively spliced exon 3 in frontal cortex (P=9.2 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) and temporal cortex (P=2.6 {\texttimes} 10(-6)). Our APOE-stratified GWAS is the first to show GWS association for AD with SNPs in the chromosome 17q21.31 region. Replication of this finding in independent samples is needed to verify that SNPs in this region have significantly stronger effects on AD risk in persons lacking APOE ɛ4 compared with persons carrying this allele, and if this is found to hold, further examination of this region and studies aimed at deciphering the mechanism(s) are warranted.

}, keywords = {Alzheimer Disease, Apolipoprotein E4, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 17, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, tau Proteins}, issn = {1476-5578}, doi = {10.1038/mp.2015.23}, author = {Jun, G and Ibrahim-Verbaas, C A and Vronskaya, M and Lambert, J-C and Chung, J and Naj, A C and Kunkle, B W and Wang, L-S and Bis, J C and Bellenguez, C and Harold, D and Lunetta, K L and DeStefano, A L and Grenier-Boley, B and Sims, R and Beecham, G W and Smith, A V and Chouraki, V and Hamilton-Nelson, K L and Ikram, M A and Fi{\'e}vet, N and Denning, N and Martin, E R and Schmidt, H and Kamatani, Y and Dunstan, M L and Valladares, O and Laza, A R and Zelenika, D and Ramirez, A and Foroud, T M and Choi, S-H and Boland, A and Becker, T and Kukull, W A and van der Lee, S J and Pasquier, F and Cruchaga, C and Beekly, D and Fitzpatrick, A L and Hanon, O and Gill, M and Barber, R and Gudnason, V and Campion, D and Love, S and Bennett, D A and Amin, N and Berr, C and Tsolaki, Magda and Buxbaum, J D and Lopez, O L and Deramecourt, V and Fox, N C and Cantwell, L B and T{\'a}rraga, L and Dufouil, C and Hardy, J and Crane, P K and Eiriksdottir, G and Hannequin, D and Clarke, R and Evans, D and Mosley, T H and Letenneur, L and Brayne, C and Maier, W and De Jager, P and Emilsson, V and Dartigues, J-F and Hampel, H and Kamboh, M I and de Bruijn, R F A G and Tzourio, C and Pastor, P and Larson, E B and Rotter, J I and O{\textquoteright}Donovan, M C and Montine, T J and Nalls, M A and Mead, S and Reiman, E M and Jonsson, P V and Holmes, C and St George-Hyslop, P H and Boada, M and Passmore, P and Wendland, J R and Schmidt, R and Morgan, K and Winslow, A R and Powell, J F and Carasquillo, M and Younkin, S G and Jakobsd{\'o}ttir, J and Kauwe, J S K and Wilhelmsen, K C and Rujescu, D and N{\"o}then, M M and Hofman, A and Jones, L and Haines, J L and Psaty, B M and Van Broeckhoven, C and Holmans, P and Launer, L J and Mayeux, R and Lathrop, M and Goate, A M and Escott-Price, V and Seshadri, S and Pericak-Vance, M A and Amouyel, P and Williams, J and van Duijn, C M and Schellenberg, G D and Farrer, L A} } @article {6900, title = {Novel Genetic Loci Associated With Retinal Microvascular Diameter.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Feb}, pages = {45-54}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: There is increasing evidence that retinal microvascular diameters are associated with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular conditions. The shared genetic effects of these associations are currently unknown. The aim of this study was to increase our understanding of the genetic factors that mediate retinal vessel size.

METHODS AND RESULTS: This study extends previous genome-wide association study results using 24 000+ multiethnic participants from 7 discovery cohorts and 5000+ subjects of European ancestry from 2 replication cohorts. Using the Illumina HumanExome BeadChip, we investigate the association of single-nucleotide polymorphisms and variants collectively across genes with summary measures of retinal vessel diameters, referred to as the central retinal venule equivalent and the central retinal arteriole equivalent. We report 4 new loci associated with central retinal venule equivalent, one of which is also associated with central retinal arteriole equivalent. The 4 single-nucleotide polymorphisms are rs7926971 in TEAD1 (P=3.1{\texttimes}10(-) (11); minor allele frequency=0.43), rs201259422 in TSPAN10 (P=4.4{\texttimes}10(-9); minor allele frequency=0.27), rs5442 in GNB3 (P=7.0{\texttimes}10(-10); minor allele frequency=0.05), and rs1800407 in OCA2 (P=3.4{\texttimes}10(-8); minor allele frequency=0.05). The latter single-nucleotide polymorphism, rs1800407, was also associated with central retinal arteriole equivalent (P=6.5{\texttimes}10(-12)). Results from the gene-based burden tests were null. In phenotype look-ups, single-nucleotide polymorphism rs201255422 was associated with both systolic (P=0.001) and diastolic blood pressures (P=8.3{\texttimes}10(-04)).

CONCLUSIONS: Our study expands the understanding of genetic factors influencing the size of the retinal microvasculature. These findings may also provide insight into the relationship between retinal and systemic microvascular disease.

}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.115.001142}, author = {Jensen, Richard A and Sim, Xueling and Smith, Albert Vernon and Li, Xiaohui and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Brody, Jennifer A and Cotch, Mary Frances and McKnight, Barbara and Klein, Ronald and Wang, Jie Jin and Kifley, Annette and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Taylor, Kent D and Klein, Barbara E K and Raffel, Leslie J and Li, Xiang and Ikram, M Arfan and Klaver, Caroline C and van der Lee, Sven J and Mutlu, Unal and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Liu, Chunyu and Kraja, Aldi T and Mitchell, Paul and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Rotter, Jerome I and Boerwinkle, Eric and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Psaty, Bruce M and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {8561, title = {{Novel genetic loci underlying human intracranial volume identified through genome-wide association}, journal = {Nat Neurosci}, volume = {19}, year = {2016}, month = {12}, pages = {1569{\textendash}1582}, abstract = {Intracranial volume reflects the maximally attained brain size during development, and remains stable with loss of tissue in late life. It is highly heritable, but the underlying genes remain largely undetermined. In a genome-wide association study of 32,438 adults, we discovered five previously unknown loci for intracranial volume and confirmed two known signals. Four of the loci were also associated with adult human stature, but these remained associated with intracranial volume after adjusting for height. We found a high genetic correlation with child head circumference ({\"I}genetic = 0.748), which indicates a similar genetic background and allowed us to identify four additional loci through meta-analysis (Ncombined = 37,345). Variants for intracranial volume were also related to childhood and adult cognitive function, and Parkinson{\textquoteright}s disease, and were enriched near genes involved in growth pathways, including PI3K-AKT signaling. These findings identify the biological underpinnings of intracranial volume and their link to physiological and pathological traits.}, author = {Adams, H. H. and Hibar, D. P. and Chouraki, V. and Stein, J. L. and Nyquist, P. A. and Renter?a, M. E. and Trompet, S. and Arias-Vasquez, A. and Seshadri, S. and Desrivi?res, S. and Beecham, A. H. and Jahanshad, N. and Wittfeld, K. and van der Lee, S. J. and Abramovic, L. and Alhusaini, S. and Amin, N. and Andersson, M. and Arfanakis, K. and Aribisala, B. S. and Armstrong, N. J. and Athanasiu, L. and Axelsson, T. and Beiser, A. and Bernard, M. and Bis, J. C. and Blanken, L. M. and Blanton, S. H. and Bohlken, M. M. and Boks, M. P. and Bralten, J. and Brickman, A. M. and Carmichael, O. and Chakravarty, M. M. and Chauhan, G. and Chen, Q. and Ching, C. R. and Cuellar-Partida, G. and Braber, A. D. and Doan, N. T. and Ehrlich, S. and Filippi, I. and Ge, T. and Giddaluru, S. and Goldman, A. L. and Gottesman, R. F. and Greven, C. U. and Grimm, O. and Griswold, M. E. and Guadalupe, T. and Hass, J. and Haukvik, U. K. and Hilal, S. and Hofer, E. and Hoehn, D. and Holmes, A. J. and Hoogman, M. and Janowitz, D. and Jia, T. and Kasperaviciute, D. and Kim, S. and Klein, M. and Kraemer, B. and Lee, P. H. and Liao, J. and Liewald, D. C. and Lopez, L. M. and Luciano, M. and Macare, C. and Marquand, A. and Matarin, M. and Mather, K. A. and Mattheisen, M. and Mazoyer, B. and McKay, D. R. and McWhirter, R. and Milaneschi, Y. and Mirza-Schreiber, N. and Muetzel, R. L. and Maniega, S. M. and Nho, K. and Nugent, A. C. and Loohuis, L. M. and Oosterlaan, J. and Papmeyer, M. and Pappa, I. and Pirpamer, L. and Pudas, S. and P?tz, B. and Rajan, K. B. and Ramasamy, A. and Richards, J. S. and Risacher, S. L. and Roiz-Santia?ez, R. and Rommelse, N. and Rose, E. J. and Royle, N. A. and Rundek, T. and S?mann, P. G. and Satizabal, C. L. and Schmaal, L. and Schork, A. J. and Shen, L. and Shin, J. and Shumskaya, E. and Smith, A. V. and Sprooten, E. and Strike, L. T. and Teumer, A. and Thomson, R. and Tordesillas-Gutierrez, D. and Toro, R. and Trabzuni, D. and Vaidya, D. and van der Grond, J. and van der Meer, D. and Van Donkelaar, M. M. and Van Eijk, K. R. and Van Erp, T. G. and van Rooij, D. and Walton, E. and Westlye, L. T. and Whelan, C. D. and Windham, B. G. and Winkler, A. M. and Woldehawariat, G. and Wolf, C. and Wolfers, T. and Xu, B. and Yanek, L. R. and Yang, J. and Zijdenbos, A. and Zwiers, M. P. and Agartz, I. and Aggarwal, N. T. and Almasy, L. and Ames, D. and Amouyel, P. and Andreassen, O. A. and Arepalli, S. and Assareh, A. A. and Barral, S. and Bastin, M. E. and Becker, D. M. and Becker, J. T. and Bennett, D. A. and Blangero, J. and van Bokhoven, H. and Boomsma, D. I. and Brodaty, H. and Brouwer, R. M. and Brunner, H. G. and Buckner, R. L. and Buitelaar, J. K. and Bulayeva, K. B. and Cahn, W. and Calhoun, V. D. and Cannon, D. M. and Cavalleri, G. L. and Chen, C. and Cheng, C. Y. and Cichon, S. and Cookson, M. R. and Corvin, A. and Crespo-Facorro, B. and Curran, J. E. and Czisch, M. and Dale, A. M. and Davies, G. E. and De Geus, E. J. and De Jager, P. L. and de Zubicaray, G. I. and Delanty, N. and Depondt, C. and DeStefano, A. L. and Dillman, A. and Djurovic, S. and Donohoe, G. and Drevets, W. C. and Duggirala, R. and Dyer, T. D. and Erk, S. and Espeseth, T. and Evans, D. A. and Fedko, I. O. and Fern?ndez, G. and Ferrucci, L. and Fisher, S. E. and Fleischman, D. A. and Ford, I. and Foroud, T. M. and Fox, P. T. and Francks, C. and Fukunaga, M. and Gibbs, J. R. and Glahn, D. C. and Gollub, R. L. and G?ring, H. H. and Grabe, H. J. and Green, R. C. and Gruber, O. and Gudnason, V. and Guelfi, S. and Hansell, N. K. and Hardy, J. and Hartman, C. A. and Hashimoto, R. and Hegenscheid, K. and Heinz, A. and Le Hellard, S. and Hernandez, D. G. and Heslenfeld, D. J. and Ho, B. C. and Hoekstra, P. J. and Hoffmann, W. and Hofman, A. and Holsboer, F. and Homuth, G. and Hosten, N. and Hottenga, J. J. and Hulshoff Pol, H. E. and Ikeda, M. and Ikram, M. K. and Jack, C. R. and Jenkinson, M. and Johnson, R. and J?nsson, E. G. and Jukema, J. W. and Kahn, R. S. and Kanai, R. and Kloszewska, I. and Knopman, D. S. and Kochunov, P. and Kwok, J. B. and Lawrie, S. M. and Lema?tre, H. and Liu, X. and Longo, D. L. and Longstreth, W. T. and Lopez, O. L. and Lovestone, S. and Martinez, O. and Martinot, J. L. and Mattay, V. S. and McDonald, C. and McIntosh, A. M. and McMahon, K. L. and McMahon, F. J. and Mecocci, P. and Melle, I. and Meyer-Lindenberg, A. and Mohnke, S. and Montgomery, G. W. and Morris, D. W. and Mosley, T. H. and M?hleisen, T. W. and M?ller-Myhsok, B. and Nalls, M. A. and Nauck, M. and Nichols, T. E. and Niessen, W. J. and N?then, M. M. and Nyberg, L. and Ohi, K. and Olvera, R. L. and Ophoff, R. A. and Pandolfo, M. and Paus, T. and Pausova, Z. and Penninx, B. W. and Pike, G. B. and Potkin, S. G. and Psaty, B. M. and Reppermund, S. and Rietschel, M. and Roffman, J. L. and Romanczuk-Seiferth, N. and Rotter, J. I. and Ryten, M. and Sacco, R. L. and Sachdev, P. S. and Saykin, A. J. and Schmidt, R. and Schofield, P. R. and Sigurdsson, S. and Simmons, A. and Singleton, A. and Sisodiya, S. M. and Smith, C. and Smoller, J. W. and Soininen, H. and Srikanth, V. and Steen, V. M. and Stott, D. J. and Sussmann, J. E. and Thalamuthu, A. and Tiemeier, H. and Toga, A. W. and Traynor, B. J. and Troncoso, J. and Turner, J. A. and Tzourio, C. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and Hern?ndez, M. C. and Van der Brug, M. and van der Lugt, A. and Van der Wee, N. J. and van Duijn, C. M. and Van Haren, N. E. and Van T Ent, D. and van Tol, M. J. and Vardarajan, B. N. and Veltman, D. J. and Vernooij, M. W. and V?lzke, H. and Walter, H. and Wardlaw, J. M. and Wassink, T. H. and Weale, M. E. and Weinberger, D. R. and Weiner, M. W. and Wen, W. and Westman, E. and White, T. and Wong, T. Y. and Wright, C. B. and Zielke, H. R. and Zonderman, A. B. and Deary, I. J. and DeCarli, C. and Schmidt, H. and Martin, N. G. and De Craen, A. J. and Wright, M. J. and Launer, L. J. and Schumann, G. and Fornage, M. and Franke, B. and Debette, S. and Medland, S. E. and Ikram, M. A. and Thompson, P. M.} } @article {6807, title = {Orthostatic Hypotension and Risk of Venous Thromboembolism in 2 Cohort Studies.}, journal = {Am J Hypertens}, volume = {29}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 May}, pages = {634-40}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Although venous stasis is a risk factor for venous thromboembolism (VTE) and orthostatic hypotension (OH) can cause venous stasis, to our knowledge no study has examined the relationship between OH and VTE risk. We sought to quantify the association between OH and VTE (deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism) using data from 2 large, prospective cohort studies: the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. We hypothesized that OH was positively associated with incident VTE.

METHODS: We measured OH-defined as a drop in systolic blood pressure (SBP) of at least 20 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) of at least 10 mm Hg within 3 minutes of standing-in participants aged 45-64 years in ARIC (n = 12,480) and >=65 years in CHS (n = 5,027) at baseline visits (1987-1989 in ARIC; 1989-1990 and 1992-1993 in CHS), and followed participants for incident VTE (n = 568 in ARIC through 2011 and n = 148 in CHS through 2001). We calculated adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and their 95\% confidence intervals (CIs) for incident VTE in relation to OH status.

RESULTS: In CHS, there was a positive association between OH status and incident VTE (HR for VTE = 1.74 (95\% CI: 1.20-2.51)). In contrast, there was no association between OH and VTE in the ARIC study (HR for VTE = 0.97 (95\% CI: 0.70-1.33)).

CONCLUSIONS: Community-dwelling older adults with OH had a moderately increased risk of VTE. These results were not seen in a population-based middle-aged cohort.

}, issn = {1941-7225}, doi = {10.1093/ajh/hpv151}, author = {Bell, Elizabeth J and Agarwal, Sunil K and Cushman, Mary and Heckbert, Susan R and Lutsey, Pamela L and Folsom, Aaron R} } @article {7139, title = {Platelet-Related Variants Identified by Exomechip Meta-analysis in 157,293 Individuals.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {99}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jul 7}, pages = {40-55}, abstract = {

Platelet production, maintenance, and clearance are tightly controlled processes indicative of platelets{\textquoteright} important roles in hemostasis and thrombosis. Platelets are common targets for primary and secondary prevention of several conditions. They are monitored clinically by complete blood counts, specifically with measurements of platelet count (PLT) and mean platelet volume (MPV). Identifying genetic effects on PLT and MPV can provide mechanistic insights into platelet biology and their role in disease. Therefore, we formed the Blood Cell Consortium (BCX) to perform a large-scale meta-analysis of Exomechip association results for PLT and MPV in 157,293 and 57,617 individuals, respectively. Using the low-frequency/rare coding variant-enriched Exomechip genotyping array, we sought to identify genetic variants associated with PLT and MPV. In addition to confirming 47 known PLT and 20 known MPV associations, we identified 32 PLT and 18 MPV associations not previously observed in the literature across the allele frequency spectrum, including rare large effect (FCER1A), low-frequency (IQGAP2, MAP1A, LY75), and common (ZMIZ2, SMG6, PEAR1, ARFGAP3/PACSIN2) variants. Several variants associated with PLT/MPV (PEAR1, MRVI1, PTGES3) were also associated with platelet reactivity. In concurrent BCX analyses, there was overlap of platelet-associated variants with red (MAP1A, TMPRSS6, ZMIZ2) and white (PEAR1, ZMIZ2, LY75) blood cell traits, suggesting common regulatory pathways with shared genetic architecture among these hematopoietic lineages. Our large-scale Exomechip analyses identified previously undocumented associations with platelet traits and further indicate that several complex quantitative hematological, lipid, and cardiovascular traits share genetic factors.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.05.005}, author = {Eicher, John D and Chami, Nathalie and Kacprowski, Tim and Nomura, Akihiro and Chen, Ming-Huei and Yanek, Lisa R and Tajuddin, Salman M and Schick, Ursula M and Slater, Andrew J and Pankratz, Nathan and Polfus, Linda and Schurmann, Claudia and Giri, Ayush and Brody, Jennifer A and Lange, Leslie A and Manichaikul, Ani and Hill, W David and Pazoki, Raha and Elliot, Paul and Evangelou, Evangelos and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Gao, He and Vergnaud, Anne-Claire and Mathias, Rasika A and Becker, Diane M and Becker, Lewis C and Burt, Amber and Crosslin, David R and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Nikus, Kjell and Hernesniemi, Jussi and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Raitoharju, Emma and Mononen, Nina and Raitakari, Olli T and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Cushman, Mary and Zakai, Neil A and Nickerson, Deborah A and Raffield, Laura M and Quarells, Rakale and Willer, Cristen J and Peloso, Gina M and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Liu, Dajiang J and Deloukas, Panos and Samani, Nilesh J and Schunkert, Heribert and Erdmann, Jeanette and Fornage, Myriam and Richard, Melissa and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Rioux, John D and Dub{\'e}, Marie-Pierre and de Denus, Simon and Lu, Yingchang and Bottinger, Erwin P and Loos, Ruth J F and Smith, Albert Vernon and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Velez Edwards, Digna R and Torstenson, Eric S and Liu, Yongmei and Tracy, Russell P and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Highland, Heather M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Li, Jin and Lange, Ethan and Wilson, James G and Mihailov, Evelin and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Hirschhorn, Joel and Metspalu, Andres and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Vacchi-Suzzi, Caterina and Nalls, Mike A and Zonderman, Alan B and Evans, Michele K and Engstr{\"o}m, Gunnar and Orho-Melander, Marju and Melander, Olle and O{\textquoteright}Donoghue, Michelle L and Waterworth, Dawn M and Wallentin, Lars and White, Harvey D and Floyd, James S and Bartz, Traci M and Rice, Kenneth M and Psaty, Bruce M and Starr, J M and Liewald, David C M and Hayward, Caroline and Deary, Ian J and Greinacher, Andreas and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Thiele, Thomas and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and van Rooij, Frank J A and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Franco, Oscar H and Dehghan, Abbas and Edwards, Todd L and Ganesh, Santhi K and Kathiresan, Sekar and Faraday, Nauder and Auer, Paul L and Reiner, Alex P and Lettre, Guillaume and Johnson, Andrew D} } @article {8563, title = {Pleiotropic Meta-Analyses of Longitudinal Studies Discover Novel Genetic Variants Associated with Age-Related Diseases.}, journal = {Front Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2016}, month = {2016}, pages = {179}, abstract = {

Age-related diseases may result from shared biological mechanisms in intrinsic processes of aging. Genetic effects on age-related diseases are often modulated by environmental factors due to their little contribution to fitness or are mediated through certain endophenotypes. Identification of genetic variants with pleiotropic effects on both common complex diseases and endophenotypes may reveal potential conflicting evolutionary pressures and deliver new insights into shared genetic contribution to healthspan and lifespan. Here, we performed pleiotropic meta-analyses of genetic variants using five NIH-funded datasets by integrating univariate summary statistics for age-related diseases and endophenotypes. We investigated three groups of traits: (1) endophenotypes such as blood glucose, blood pressure, lipids, hematocrit, and body mass index, (2) time-to-event outcomes such as the age-at-onset of diabetes mellitus (DM), cancer, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and neurodegenerative diseases (NDs), and (3) both combined. In addition to replicating previous findings, we identify seven novel genome-wide significant loci (< 5e-08), out of which five are low-frequency variants. Specifically, from Group 2, we find rs7632505 on 3q21.1 in , rs460976 on 21q22.3 (1 kb from ) and rs12420422 on 11q24.1 predominantly associated with a variety of CVDs, rs4905014 in associated with stroke and heart failure, rs7081476 on 10p12.1 in associated with multiple diseases including DM, CVDs, and NDs. From Group 3, we find rs8082812 on 18p11.22 and rs1869717 on 4q31.3 associated with both endophenotypes and CVDs. Our follow-up analyses show that rs7632505, rs4905014, and rs8082812 have age-dependent effects on coronary heart disease or stroke. Functional annotation suggests that most of these SNPs are within regulatory regions or DNase clusters and in linkage disequilibrium with expression quantitative trait loci, implying their potential regulatory influence on the expression of nearby genes. Our mediation analyses suggest that the effects of some SNPs are mediated by specific endophenotypes. In conclusion, these findings indicate that loci with pleiotropic effects on age-related disorders tend to be enriched in genes involved in underlying mechanisms potentially related to nervous, cardiovascular and immune system functions, stress resistance, inflammation, ion channels and hematopoiesis, supporting the hypothesis of shared pathological role of infection, and inflammation in chronic age-related diseases.

}, issn = {1664-8021}, doi = {10.3389/fgene.2016.00179}, author = {He, Liang and Kernogitski, Yelena and Kulminskaya, Irina and Loika, Yury and Arbeev, Konstantin G and Loiko, Elena and Bagley, Olivia and Duan, Matt and Yashkin, Arseniy and Ukraintseva, Svetlana V and Kovtun, Mikhail and Yashin, Anatoliy I and Kulminski, Alexander M} } @article {7140, title = {Predicting Heart Failure With Preserved and Reduced Ejection Fraction: The International Collaboration on Heart Failure Subtypes.}, journal = {Circ Heart Fail}, volume = {9}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jun}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Heart failure (HF) is a prevalent and deadly disease, and preventive strategies focused on at-risk individuals are needed. Current HF prediction models have not examined HF subtypes. We sought to develop and validate risk prediction models for HF with preserved and reduced ejection fraction (HFpEF, HFrEF).

METHODS AND RESULTS: Of 28,820 participants from 4 community-based cohorts, 982 developed incident HFpEF and 909 HFrEF during a median follow-up of 12 years. Three cohorts were combined, and a 2:1 random split was used for derivation and internal validation, with the fourth cohort as external validation. Models accounted for multiple competing risks (death, other HF subtype, and unclassified HF). The HFpEF-specific model included age, sex, systolic blood pressure, body mass index, antihypertensive treatment, and previous myocardial infarction; it had good discrimination in derivation (c-statistic 0.80; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 0.78-0.82) and validation samples (internal: 0.79; 95\% CI, 0.77-0.82 and external: 0.76; 95\% CI: 0.71-0.80). The HFrEF-specific model additionally included smoking, left ventricular hypertrophy, left bundle branch block, and diabetes mellitus; it had good discrimination in derivation (c-statistic 0.82; 95\% CI, 0.80-0.84) and validation samples (internal: 0.80; 95\% CI, 0.78-0.83 and external: 0.76; 95\% CI, 0.71-0.80). Age was more strongly associated with HFpEF, and male sex, left ventricular hypertrophy, bundle branch block, previous myocardial infarction, and smoking with HFrEF (P value for each comparison <=0.02).

CONCLUSIONS: We describe and validate risk prediction models for HF subtypes and show good discrimination in a large sample. Some risk factors differed between HFpEF and HFrEF, supporting the notion of pathogenetic differences among HF subtypes.

}, issn = {1941-3297}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.115.003116}, author = {Ho, Jennifer E and Enserro, Danielle and Brouwers, Frank P and Kizer, Jorge R and Shah, Sanjiv J and Psaty, Bruce M and Bartz, Traci M and Santhanakrishnan, Rajalakshmi and Lee, Douglas S and Chan, Cheeling and Liu, Kiang and Blaha, Michael J and Hillege, Hans L and van der Harst, Pim and van Gilst, Wiek H and Kop, Willem J and Gansevoort, Ron T and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Gardin, Julius M and Levy, Daniel and Gottdiener, John S and de Boer, Rudolf A and Larson, Martin G} } @article {8570, title = {A principal component meta-analysis on multiple anthropometric traits identifies novel loci for body shape.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {7}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 11 23}, pages = {13357}, abstract = {

Large consortia have revealed hundreds of genetic loci associated with anthropometric traits, one trait at a time. We examined whether genetic variants affect body shape as a composite phenotype that is represented by a combination of anthropometric traits. We developed an approach that calculates averaged PCs (AvPCs) representing body shape derived from six anthropometric traits (body mass index, height, weight, waist and hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio). The first four AvPCs explain >99\% of the variability, are heritable, and associate with cardiometabolic outcomes. We performed genome-wide association analyses for each body shape composite phenotype across 65 studies and meta-analysed summary statistics. We identify six novel loci: LEMD2 and CD47 for AvPC1, RPS6KA5/C14orf159 and GANAB for AvPC3, and ARL15 and ANP32 for AvPC4. Our findings highlight the value of using multiple traits to define complex phenotypes for discovery, which are not captured by single-trait analyses, and may shed light onto new pathways.

}, keywords = {Anthropometry, Body Size, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Models, Genetic, Principal Component Analysis}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms13357}, author = {Ried, Janina S and Jeff M, Janina and Chu, Audrey Y and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer L and van Dongen, Jenny and Huffman, Jennifer E and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Cadby, Gemma and Eklund, Niina and Eriksson, Joel and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Feitosa, Mary F and Goel, Anuj and Gorski, Mathias and Hayward, Caroline and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Jackson, Anne U and Jokinen, Eero and Kanoni, Stavroula and Kristiansson, Kati and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Lahti, Jari and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Mahajan, Anubha and Mangino, Massimo and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Monda, Keri L and Nolte, Ilja M and Perusse, Louis and Prokopenko, Inga and Qi, Lu and Rose, Lynda M and Salvi, Erika and Smith, Megan T and Snieder, Harold and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Ju Sung, Yun and Tachmazidou, Ioanna and Teumer, Alexander and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and van der Harst, Pim and Walker, Ryan W and Wang, Sophie R and Wild, Sarah H and Willems, Sara M and Wong, Andrew and Zhang, Weihua and Albrecht, Eva and Couto Alves, Alexessander and Bakker, Stephan J L and Barlassina, Cristina and Bartz, Traci M and Beilby, John and Bellis, Claire and Bergman, Richard N and Bergmann, Sven and Blangero, John and Bl{\"u}her, Matthias and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bornstein, Stefan R and Bruinenberg, Marcel and Campbell, Harry and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chiang, Charleston W K and Chines, Peter S and Collins, Francis S and Cucca, Fracensco and Cupples, L Adrienne and D{\textquoteright}Avila, Francesca and de Geus, Eco J C and Dedoussis, George and Dimitriou, Maria and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Eriksson, Johan G and Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni and Farrall, Martin and Ferreira, Teresa and Fischer, Krista and Forouhi, Nita G and Friedrich, Nele and Gjesing, Anette Prior and Glorioso, Nicola and Graff, Mariaelisa and Grallert, Harald and Grarup, Niels and Gr{\"a}{\ss}ler, J{\"u}rgen and Grewal, Jagvir and Hamsten, Anders and Harder, Marie Neergaard and Hartman, Catharina A and Hassinen, Maija and Hastie, Nicholas and Hattersley, Andrew Tym and Havulinna, Aki S and Heli{\"o}vaara, Markku and Hillege, Hans and Hofman, Albert and Holmen, Oddgeir and Homuth, Georg and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Hui, Jennie and Husemoen, Lise Lotte and Hysi, Pirro G and Isaacs, Aaron and Ittermann, Till and Jalilzadeh, Shapour and James, Alan L and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jula, Antti and Marie Justesen, Johanne and Justice, Anne E and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Karaleftheri, Maria and Tee Khaw, Kay and Keinanen-Kiukaanniemi, Sirkka M and Kinnunen, Leena and Knekt, Paul B and Koistinen, Heikki A and Kolcic, Ivana and Kooner, Ishminder K and Koskinen, Seppo and Kovacs, Peter and Kyriakou, Theodosios and Laitinen, Tomi and Langenberg, Claudia and Lewin, Alexandra M and Lichtner, Peter and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Linneberg, Allan and Lorbeer, Roberto and Lorentzon, Mattias and Luben, Robert and Lyssenko, Valeriya and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and Manunta, Paolo and Leach, Irene Mateo and McArdle, Wendy L and McKnight, Barbara and Mohlke, Karen L and Mihailov, Evelin and Milani, Lili and Mills, Rebecca and Montasser, May E and Morris, Andrew P and M{\"u}ller, Gabriele and Musk, Arthur W and Narisu, Narisu and Ong, Ken K and Oostra, Ben A and Osmond, Clive and Palotie, Aarno and Pankow, James S and Paternoster, Lavinia and Penninx, Brenda W and Pichler, Irene and Pilia, Maria G and Polasek, Ozren and Pramstaller, Peter P and Raitakari, Olli T and Rankinen, Tuomo and Rao, D C and Rayner, Nigel W and Ribel-Madsen, Rasmus and Rice, Treva K and Richards, Marcus and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Ryan, Kathy A and Sanna, Serena and Sarzynski, Mark A and Scholtens, Salome and Scott, Robert A and Sebert, Sylvain and Southam, Lorraine and Spars{\o}, Thomas Hempel and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Stirrups, Kathleen and Stolk, Ronald P and Strauch, Konstantin and Stringham, Heather M and Swertz, Morris A and Swift, Amy J and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Tsafantakis, Emmanouil and van der Most, Peter J and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Vartiainen, Erkki and Venturini, Cristina and Verweij, Niek and Viikari, Jorma S and Vitart, Veronique and Vohl, Marie-Claude and Vonk, Judith M and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Widen, Elisabeth and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilsgaard, Tom and Winkler, Thomas W and Wright, Alan F and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Hua Zhao, Jing and Zillikens, M Carola and Boomsma, Dorret I and Bouchard, Claude and Chambers, John C and Chasman, Daniel I and Cusi, Daniele and Gansevoort, Ron T and Gieger, Christian and Hansen, Torben and Hicks, Andrew A and Hu, Frank and Hveem, Kristian and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Kajantie, Eero and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kuh, Diana and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Metspalu, Andres and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Ohlsson, Claes and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Palmer, Lyle J and Pedersen, Oluf and Perola, Markus and Peters, Annette and Psaty, Bruce M and Puolijoki, Hannu and Rauramaa, Rainer and Rudan, Igor and Salomaa, Veikko and Schwarz, Peter E H and Shudiner, Alan R and Smit, Jan H and S{\o}rensen, Thorkild I A and Spector, Timothy D and Stefansson, Kari and Stumvoll, Michael and Tremblay, Angelo and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Uusitupa, Matti and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Vollenweider, Peter and Wareham, Nicholas J and Watkins, Hugh and Wilson, James F and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Boehnke, Michael and Borecki, Ingrid B and Deloukas, Panos and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Fox, Caroline and Groop, Leif C and Heid, Iris M and Hunter, David J and Kaplan, Robert C and McCarthy, Mark I and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Schlessinger, David and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Strachan, David P and Frayling, Timothy and Hirschhorn, Joel N and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Loos, Ruth J F} } @article {6993, title = {Prospective study of γ{\textquoteright} fibrinogen and incident venous thromboembolism: The Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology (LITE).}, journal = {Thromb Res}, volume = {139}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Mar}, pages = {44-9}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: Epidemiological studies generally have not found plasma total fibrinogen to be a risk factor for venous thromboembolism (VTE), but several have reported associations between variants in the fibrinogen gamma gene (FGG) and VTE. A case-control study in whites suggested plasma γ{\textquoteright} fibrinogen concentration may be associated inversely with VTE, but this was not replicated in African Americans.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the prospective association between γ{\textquoteright} fibrinogen concentrations and occurrence of VTE.

METHODS: We used the Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology (LITE), involving two pooled population-based cohorts in the United States including 16,234 participants. The cohorts comprised white and African American men and women, aged 50years and older at study onset in the early 1990s. We identified VTEs during follow-up and documented they met standardized diagnostic criteria.

RESULTS: During two decades of follow-up, neither γ{\textquoteright} fibrinogen nor total fibrinogen nor their ratio was associated with VTE overall (n=521 VTEs), in subgroups defined by race, or in other subgroups. In both race groups, the minor allele of FGG rs2066865 was associated with lower γ{\textquoteright} fibrinogen concentrations, but this allele was not associated with VTE.

CONCLUSIONS: A lower plasma concentration of γ{\textquoteright} fibrinogen in healthy adults does not appear to increase VTE risk.

}, issn = {1879-2472}, doi = {10.1016/j.thromres.2016.01.008}, author = {Folsom, Aaron R and Tang, Weihong and George, Kristen M and Heckbert, Susan R and MacLehose, Richard F and Cushman, Mary and Pankow, James S} } @article {6937, title = {Rare Exome Sequence Variants in CLCN6 Reduce Blood Pressure Levels and Hypertension Risk.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Feb}, pages = {64-70}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Rare genetic variants influence blood pressure (BP).

METHODS AND RESULTS: Whole-exome sequencing was performed on DNA samples from 17 956 individuals of European ancestry and African ancestry (14 497, first-stage discovery and 3459, second-stage discovery) to examine the effect of rare variants on hypertension and 4 BP traits: systolic BP, diastolic BP, pulse pressure, and mean arterial pressure. Tests of ≈170 000 common variants (minor allele frequency, >=1\%; statistical significance, P<=2.9{\texttimes}10(-7)) and gene-based tests of rare variants (minor allele frequency, <1\%; ≈17 000 genes; statistical significance, P<=1.5{\texttimes}10(-6)) were evaluated for each trait and ancestry, followed by multiethnic meta-analyses. In the first-stage discovery, rare coding variants (splicing, stop-gain, stop-loss, nonsynonymous variants, or indels) in CLCN6 were associated with lower diastolic BP (cumulative minor allele frequency, 1.3\%; β=-3.20; P=4.1{\texttimes}10(-6)) and were independent of a nearby common variant (rs17367504) previously associated with BP. CLCN6 rare variants were also associated with lower systolic BP (β=-4.11; P=2.8{\texttimes}10(-4)), mean arterial pressure (β=-3.50; P=8.9{\texttimes}10(-6)), and reduced hypertension risk (odds ratio, 0.72; P=0.017). Meta-analysis of the 2-stage discovery samples showed that CLCN6 was associated with lower diastolic BP at exome-wide significance (cumulative minor allele frequency, 1.1\%; β=-3.30; P=5.0{\texttimes}10(-7)).

CONCLUSIONS: These findings implicate the effect of rare coding variants in CLCN6 in BP variation and offer new insights into BP regulation.

}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.115.001215}, author = {Yu, Bing and Pulit, Sara L and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Brody, Jennifer A and Amin, Najaf and Auer, Paul L and Bis, Joshua C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Burke, Gregory L and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Correa, Adolfo and Dreisbach, Albert W and Franco, Oscar H and Ehret, Georg B and Franceschini, Nora and Hofman, Albert and Lin, Dan-Yu and Metcalf, Ginger A and Musani, Solomon K and Muzny, Donna and Palmas, Walter and Raffel, Leslie and Reiner, Alex and Rice, Ken and Rotter, Jerome I and Veeraraghavan, Narayanan and Fox, Ervin and Guo, Xiuqing and North, Kari E and Gibbs, Richard A and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Psaty, Bruce M and Levy, Daniel and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Morrison, Alanna C} } @article {7260, title = {Rare Functional Variant in TM2D3 is Associated with Late-Onset Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {12}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Oct}, pages = {e1006327}, abstract = {

We performed an exome-wide association analysis in 1393 late-onset Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (LOAD) cases and 8141 controls from the CHARGE consortium. We found that a rare variant (P155L) in TM2D3 was enriched in Icelanders (~0.5\% versus <0.05\% in other European populations). In 433 LOAD cases and 3903 controls from the Icelandic AGES sub-study, P155L was associated with increased risk and earlier onset of LOAD [odds ratio (95\% CI) = 7.5 (3.5-15.9), p = 6.6x10-9]. Mutation in the Drosophila TM2D3 homolog, almondex, causes a phenotype similar to loss of Notch/Presenilin signaling. Human TM2D3 is capable of rescuing these phenotypes, but this activity is abolished by P155L, establishing it as a functionally damaging allele. Our results establish a rare TM2D3 variant in association with LOAD susceptibility, and together with prior work suggests possible links to the β-amyloid cascade.

}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1006327}, author = {Jakobsdottir, Johanna and van der Lee, Sven J and Bis, Joshua C and Chouraki, Vincent and Li-Kroeger, David and Yamamoto, Shinya and Grove, Megan L and Naj, Adam and Vronskaya, Maria and Salazar, Jose L and DeStefano, Anita L and Brody, Jennifer A and Smith, Albert V and Amin, Najaf and Sims, Rebecca and Ibrahim-Verbaas, Carla A and Choi, Seung-Hoan and Satizabal, Claudia L and Lopez, Oscar L and Beiser, Alexa and Ikram, M Arfan and Garcia, Melissa E and Hayward, Caroline and Varga, Tibor V and Ripatti, Samuli and Franks, Paul W and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Rolandsson, Olov and Jansson, Jan-H{\r a}kon and Porteous, David J and Salomaa, Veikko and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Rice, Kenneth M and Bellen, Hugo J and Levy, Daniel and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Emilsson, Valur and Rotter, Jerome I and Aspelund, Thor and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Launer, Lenore J and Hofman, Albert and Wang, Li-San and Williams, Julie and Schellenberg, Gerard D and Boerwinkle, Eric and Psaty, Bruce M and Seshadri, Sudha and Shulman, Joshua M and Gudnason, Vilmundur and van Duijn, Cornelia M} } @article {6793, title = {Rare, low frequency and common coding variants in CHRNA5 and their contribution to nicotine dependence in European and African Americans.}, journal = {Mol Psychiatry}, volume = {21}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 May}, pages = {601-7}, abstract = {

The common nonsynonymous variant rs16969968 in the α5 nicotinic receptor subunit gene (CHRNA5) is the strongest genetic risk factor for nicotine dependence in European Americans and contributes to risk in African Americans. To comprehensively examine whether other CHRNA5 coding variation influences nicotine dependence risk, we performed targeted sequencing on 1582 nicotine-dependent cases (Fagerstr{\"o}m Test for Nicotine Dependence score⩾4) and 1238 non-dependent controls, with independent replication of common and low frequency variants using 12 studies with exome chip data. Nicotine dependence was examined using logistic regression with individual common variants (minor allele frequency (MAF)⩾0.05), aggregate low frequency variants (0.05>MAF⩾0.005) and aggregate rare variants (MAF<0.005). Meta-analysis of primary results was performed with replication studies containing 12 174 heavy and 11 290 light smokers. Next-generation sequencing with 180 {\texttimes} coverage identified 24 nonsynonymous variants and 2 frameshift deletions in CHRNA5, including 9 novel variants in the 2820 subjects. Meta-analysis confirmed the risk effect of the only common variant (rs16969968, European ancestry: odds ratio (OR)=1.3, P=3.5 {\texttimes} 10(-11); African ancestry: OR=1.3, P=0.01) and demonstrated that three low frequency variants contributed an independent risk (aggregate term, European ancestry: OR=1.3, P=0.005; African ancestry: OR=1.4, P=0.0006). The remaining 22 rare coding variants were associated with increased risk of nicotine dependence in the European American primary sample (OR=12.9, P=0.01) and in the same risk direction in African Americans (OR=1.5, P=0.37). Our results indicate that common, low frequency and rare CHRNA5 coding variants are independently associated with nicotine dependence risk. These newly identified variants likely influence the risk for smoking-related diseases such as lung cancer.

}, issn = {1476-5578}, doi = {10.1038/mp.2015.105}, author = {Olfson, E and Saccone, N L and Johnson, E O and Chen, L-S and Culverhouse, R and Doheny, K and Foltz, S M and Fox, L and Gogarten, S M and Hartz, S and Hetrick, K and Laurie, C C and Marosy, B and Amin, N and Arnett, D and Barr, R G and Bartz, T M and Bertelsen, S and Borecki, I B and Brown, M R and Chasman, D I and van Duijn, C M and Feitosa, M F and Fox, E R and Franceschini, N and Franco, O H and Grove, M L and Guo, X and Hofman, A and Kardia, S L R and Morrison, A C and Musani, S K and Psaty, B M and Rao, D C and Reiner, A P and Rice, K and Ridker, P M and Rose, L M and Schick, U M and Schwander, K and Uitterlinden, A G and Vojinovic, D and Wang, J-C and Ware, E B and Wilson, G and Yao, J and Zhao, W and Breslau, N and Hatsukami, D and Stitzel, J A and Rice, J and Goate, A and Bierut, L J} } @article {7368, title = {Relation of coagulation factor XI with incident coronary heart disease and stroke: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Blood Coagul Fibrinolysis}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Dec 22}, abstract = {

The role of coagulation factor XI (FXI) in the cause of arterial thrombotic events remains uncertain. We examined the association of FXI with incident coronary heart disease (CHD), ischemic stroke, and hemorrhagic stroke. Data were from 3394 adults (mean age: 74.5 years) enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study who had FXI antigen from plasma samples drawn in 1992-1993 and were followed for cardiovascular events until 30 June 2013. Approximately 63\% of participants were women and 17\% were black. FXI levels were higher in blacks and women, showed positive associations with high-density lipoprotein and total cholesterol, BMI and diabetes, and negative associations with age and alcohol intake. During median follow-up of 13 years, we identified 1232 incident CHD, 473 ischemic stroke, and 84 hemorrhagic stroke events. In multivariable Cox models adjusted for traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors, the hazard ratio per one SD (32.2 mg/dl) increment of FXI was 1.02 (95\% confidence interval: 0.96-1.08) for CHD; 0.94 (0.85-1.04) for ischemic stroke, and 0.85 (0.65-1.10) for hemorrhagic stroke. In this prospective cohort of elderly adults, there was no statistically significant association of higher FXI levels with incident CHD and stroke.

}, issn = {1473-5733}, doi = {10.1097/MBC.0000000000000616}, author = {Appiah, Duke and Fashanu, Oluwaseun E and Heckbert, Susa R and Cushman, Mary and Psaty, Bruce M and Folsom, Aaron R} } @article {7244, title = {Risk Factors for Incident Carotid Artery Revascularization among Older Adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Cerebrovasc Dis Extra}, volume = {6}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Nov 16}, pages = {129-139}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Population-based risk factors for carotid artery revascularization are not known. We investigated the association between demographic and clinical characteristics and incident carotid artery revascularization in a cohort of older adults.

METHODS: Among Cardiovascular Health Study participants, a population-based cohort of 5,888 adults aged 65 years or older enrolled in two waves (1989-1990 and 1992-1993), 5,107 participants without a prior history of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) or cerebrovascular disease had a carotid ultrasound at baseline and were included in these analyses. Cox proportional hazards multivariable analysis was used to determine independent risk factors for incident carotid artery revascularization.

RESULTS: Over a mean follow-up of 13.5 years, 141 participants underwent carotid artery revascularization, 97\% were CEA. Baseline degree of stenosis and incident ischemic cerebral events occurring during follow-up were the strongest predictors of incident revascularization. After adjustment for these, factors independently associated with an increased risk of incident revascularization were: hypertension (HR 1.53; 95\% CI: 1.05-2.23), peripheral arterial disease (HR 2.57; 95\% CI: 1.34-4.93), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HR 1.23 per standard deviation [SD] increment [35.4 mg/dL]; 95\% CI: 1.04-1.46). Factors independently associated with a lower risk of incident revascularization were: female gender (HR 0.51; 95\% CI: 0.34-0.77) and older age (HR 0.69 per SD increment [5.5 years]; 95\% CI: 0.56-0.86).

CONCLUSIONS: Even after accounting for carotid stenosis and incident cerebral ischemic events, carotid revascularization is related to age, gender, and cardiovascular risk factors. Further study of these demographic disparities and the role of risk factor control is warranted.

}, issn = {1664-5456}, doi = {10.1159/000452426}, author = {Garg, Parveen K and Koh, Willam J H and Delaney, Joseph A and Halm, Ethan A and Hirsch, Calvin H and Longstreth, William T and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Kucharska-Newton, Anna and Polak, Joseph F and Curtis, Lesley} } @article {8571, title = {Rooted in risk: genetic predisposition for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level associates with diminished low-density lipoprotein cholesterol response to statin treatment.}, journal = {Pharmacogenomics}, volume = {17}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 10}, pages = {1621-1628}, abstract = {

AIMS: To utilize previously reported lead SNPs for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) levels to find additional loci of importance to statin response, and examine whether genetic predisposition to LDL-c levels associates with differential statin response.

METHODS: We investigated effects on statin response of 59 LDL-c SNPs, by combining summary level statistics from the Global Lipids Genetics and Genomic Investigation of Statin Therapy consortia.

RESULTS: Lead SNPs for APOE, SORT1 and NPC1L1 were associated with a decreased LDL-c response to statin treatment, as was overall genetic predisposition for increased LDL-c levels as quantified with 59 SNPs, with a 5.4\% smaller statin response per standard deviation increase in genetically raised LDL-c levels.

CONCLUSION: Genetic predisposition for increased LDL-c level may decrease efficacy of statin therapy.

}, keywords = {Cholesterol, LDL, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors, Pharmacogenetics, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Triglycerides}, issn = {1744-8042}, doi = {10.2217/pgs-2016-0091}, author = {Smit, Roelof Aj and Postmus, Iris and Trompet, Stella and Barnes, Michael R and Warren, Helen and Arsenault, Benoit J and Chasman, Daniel I and Cupples, L Adrienne and Hitman, Graham A and Krauss, Ronald M and Li, Xiaohui and Psaty, Bruce M and Stein, Charles M and Rotter, Jerome I and Jukema, J Wouter} } @article {7255, title = {SOS2 and ACP1 Loci Identified through Large-Scale Exome Chip Analysis Regulate Kidney Development and Function.}, journal = {J Am Soc Nephrol}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Dec 05}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies have identified >50 common variants associated with kidney function, but these variants do not fully explain the variation in eGFR. We performed a two-stage meta-analysis of associations between genotypes from the Illumina exome array and eGFR on the basis of serum creatinine (eGFRcrea) among participants of European ancestry from the CKDGen Consortium (nStage1: 111,666; nStage2: 48,343). In single-variant analyses, we identified single nucleotide polymorphisms at seven new loci associated with eGFRcrea (PPM1J, EDEM3, ACP1, SPEG, EYA4, CYP1A1, and ATXN2L; PStage1<3.7{\texttimes}10(-7)), of which most were common and annotated as nonsynonymous variants. Gene-based analysis identified associations of functional rare variants in three genes with eGFRcrea, including a novel association with the SOS Ras/Rho guanine nucleotide exchange factor 2 gene, SOS2 (P=5.4{\texttimes}10(-8) by sequence kernel association test). Experimental follow-up in zebrafish embryos revealed changes in glomerular gene expression and renal tubule morphology in the embryonic kidney of acp1- and sos2-knockdowns. These developmental abnormalities associated with altered blood clearance rate and heightened prevalence of edema. This study expands the number of loci associated with kidney function and identifies novel genes with potential roles in kidney formation.

}, issn = {1533-3450}, doi = {10.1681/ASN.2016020131}, author = {Li, Man and Li, Yong and Weeks, Olivia and Mijatovic, Vladan and Teumer, Alexander and Huffman, Jennifer E and Tromp, Gerard and Fuchsberger, Christian and Gorski, Mathias and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Nutile, Teresa and Sedaghat, Sanaz and Sorice, Rossella and Tin, Adrienne and Yang, Qiong and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Arking, Dan E and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and Carroll, Robert J and Chasman, Daniel I and Cornelis, Marilyn C and Dehghan, Abbas and Faul, Jessica D and Feitosa, Mary F and Gambaro, Giovanni and Gasparini, Paolo and Giulianini, Franco and Heid, Iris and Huang, Jinyan and Imboden, Medea and Jackson, Anne U and Jeff, Janina and Jhun, Min A and Katz, Ronit and Kifley, Annette and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Kumar, Ashish and Laakso, Markku and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Lohman, Kurt and Lu, Yingchang and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Malerba, Giovanni and Mihailov, Evelin and Mohlke, Karen L and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Robino, Antonietta and Ruderfer, Douglas and Salvi, Erika and Schick, Ursula M and Schulz, Christina-Alexandra and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Jennifer A and Traglia, Michela and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Zhao, Wei and Goodarzi, Mark O and Kraja, Aldi T and Liu, Chunyu and Wessel, Jennifer and Boerwinkle, Eric and Borecki, Ingrid B and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Bottinger, Erwin P and Braga, Daniele and Brandslund, Ivan and Brody, Jennifer A and Campbell, Archie and Carey, David J and Christensen, Cramer and Coresh, Josef and Crook, Errol and Curhan, Gary C and Cusi, Daniele and de Boer, Ian H and de Vries, Aiko P J and Denny, Joshua C and Devuyst, Olivier and Dreisbach, Albert W and Endlich, Karlhans and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Franco, Oscar H and Fulop, Tibor and Gerhard, Glenn S and Gl{\"u}mer, Charlotte and Gottesman, Omri and Grarup, Niels and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Hayward, Caroline and Hocking, Lynne and Hofman, Albert and Hu, Frank B and Husemoen, Lise Lotte N and Jackson, Rebecca D and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kardia, Sharon L R and K{\"o}nig, Wolfgang and Kooperberg, Charles and Kriebel, Jennifer and Launer, Lenore J and Lauritzen, Torsten and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Levy, Daniel and Linksted, Pamela and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Yongmei and Loos, Ruth J F and Lupo, Antonio and Meisinger, Christine and Melander, Olle and Metspalu, Andres and Mitchell, Paul and Nauck, Matthias and N{\"u}rnberg, Peter and Orho-Melander, Marju and Parsa, Afshin and Pedersen, Oluf and Peters, Annette and Peters, Ulrike and Polasek, Ozren and Porteous, David and Probst-Hensch, Nicole M and Psaty, Bruce M and Qi, Lu and Raitakari, Olli T and Reiner, Alex P and Rettig, Rainer and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rossouw, Jacques E and Schmidt, Frank and Siscovick, David and Soranzo, Nicole and Strauch, Konstantin and Toniolo, Daniela and Turner, Stephen T and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Ulivi, Sheila and Velayutham, Dinesh and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wang, Jie Jin and Weir, David R and Witte, Daniel and Kuivaniemi, Helena and Fox, Caroline S and Franceschini, Nora and Goessling, Wolfram and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Chu, Audrey Y} } @article {6932, title = {Study of Cardiovascular Health Outcomes in the Era of Claims Data: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {133}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jan 12}, pages = {156-64}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Increasingly, the diagnostic codes from administrative claims data are being used as clinical outcomes.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Data from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) were used to compare event rates and risk factor associations between adjudicated hospitalized cardiovascular events and claims-based methods of defining events. The outcomes of myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and heart failure were defined in 3 ways: the CHS adjudicated event (CHS[adj]), selected International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Edition diagnostic codes only in the primary position for Medicare claims data from the Center for Medicare \& Medicaid Services (CMS[1st]), and the same selected diagnostic codes in any position (CMS[any]). Conventional claims-based methods of defining events had high positive predictive values but low sensitivities. For instance, the positive predictive value of International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Edition code 410.x1 for a new acute MI in the first position was 90.6\%, but this code identified only 53.8\% of incident MIs. The observed event rates for CMS[1st] were low. For MI, the incidence was 14.9 events per 1000 person-years for CHS[adj] MI, 8.6 for CMS[1st] MI, and 12.2 for CMS[any] MI. In general, cardiovascular disease risk factor associations were similar across the 3 methods of defining events. Indeed, traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors were also associated with all first hospitalizations not resulting from an MI.

CONCLUSIONS: The use of diagnostic codes from claims data as clinical events, especially when restricted to primary diagnoses, leads to an underestimation of event rates. Additionally, claims-based events data represent a composite end point that includes the outcome of interest and selected (misclassified) nonevent hospitalizations.

}, keywords = {Blood Glucose, Cardiovascular Diseases, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Health Surveys, Hospitalization, Hospitals, Veterans, Humans, Insurance Claim Review, International Classification of Diseases, Lipids, Male, Managed Care Programs, Medicare, Risk Factors, Sampling Studies, Treatment Outcome, United States}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.115.018610}, author = {Psaty, Bruce M and Delaney, Joseph A and Arnold, Alice M and Curtis, Lesley H and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Heckbert, Susan R and McKnight, Barbara and Ives, Diane and Gottdiener, John S and Kuller, Lewis H and Longstreth, W T} } @article {7246, title = {Targeted Sequencing of Genome Wide Significant Loci Associated with Bone Mineral Density (BMD) Reveals Significant Novel and Rare Variants: The Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Targeted Sequencing Study.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Sep 11}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Bone mineral density (BMD) is a heritable phenotype that predicts fracture risk. We performed fine-mapping by targeted sequencing at WLS, MEF2C, ARHGAP1/F2 and JAG1 loci prioritized by eQTL and bioinformatic approaches among 56 BMD loci from our previous GWAS meta-analysis.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Targeted sequencing was conducted in 1,291 Caucasians from the Framingham Heart Study (n=925) and Cardiovascular Health Study (n=366), including 206 women and men with extreme low femoral neck (FN) BMD. A total of 4,964 sequence variants (SNVs) were observed and 80\% were rare with MAF <1\%. The associations between previously identified SNPs in these loci and BMD, while nominally significant in sequenced participants, were no longer significant after multiple testing corrections. Conditional analyses did not find protein-coding variants that may be responsible for GWAS signals. On the other hand, in the sequenced subjects, we identified novel associations in WLS, ARHGAP1, and 5{\textquoteright} of MEF2C (p-values < 8x10(-5); false discovery rate (FDR) q-values < 0.01) that were much more strongly associated with BMD compared to the GWAS SNPs. These associated SNVs are less-common; independent from previous GWAS signals in the same loci; and located in gene regulatory elements.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that protein-coding variants in selected GWAS loci did not contribute to GWAS signals. By performing targeted sequencing in GWAS loci, we identified less-common and rare non-coding SNVs associated with BMD independently from GWAS common SNPs, suggesting both common and less-common variants may associate with disease risks and phenotypes in the same loci.

}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddw289}, author = {Hsu, Yi-Hsiang and Li, Guo and Liu, Ching-Ti and Brody, Jennifer A and Karasik, David and Chou, Wen-Chi and Demissie, Serkalem and Nandakumar, Kannabiran and Zhou, Yanhua and Cheng, Chia-Ho and Gill, Richard and Gibbs, Richard A and Muzny, Donna and Santibanez, Jireh and Estrada, Karol and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Harris, Tamara and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Uitterlinden, Andre and Psaty, Bruce M and Robbins, John A and Adrienne Cupples, L and Kiel, Douglas P} } @article {7238, title = {Thyroid Function Within the Reference Range and the Risk of Stroke: An Individual Participant Data Analysis.}, journal = {J Clin Endocrinol Metab}, volume = {101}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Nov}, pages = {4270-4282}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: The currently applied reference ranges for thyroid function are under debate. Despite evidence that thyroid function within the reference range is related with several cardiovascular disorders, its association with the risk of stroke has not been evaluated previously.

DESIGN AND SETTING: We identified studies through a systematic literature search and the Thyroid Studies Collaboration, a collaboration of prospective cohort studies. Studies measuring baseline TSH, free T4, and stroke outcomes were included, and we collected individual participant data from each study, including thyroid function measurements and incident all stroke (combined fatal and nonfatal) and fatal stroke. The applied reference range for TSH levels was between 0.45 and 4.49 mIU/L.

RESULTS: We collected individual participant data on 43 598 adults with TSH within the reference range from 17 cohorts, with a median follow-up of 11.6 years (interquartile range 5.1-13.9), including 449 908 person-years. Age- and sex-adjusted pooled hazard ratio for TSH was 0.78 (95\% confidence interval [CI] 0.65-0.95 across the reference range of TSH) for all stroke and 0.83 (95\% CI 0.62-1.09) for fatal stroke. For the free T4 analyses, the hazard ratio was 1.08 (95\% CI 0.99-1.15 per SD increase) for all stroke and 1.10 (95\% CI 1.04-1.19) for fatal stroke. This was independent of cardiovascular risk factors including systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, smoking, and prevalent diabetes.

CONCLUSION: Higher levels of TSH within the reference range may decrease the risk of stroke, highlighting the need for further research focusing on the clinical consequences associated with differences within the reference range of thyroid function.

}, issn = {1945-7197}, doi = {10.1210/jc.2016-2255}, author = {Chaker, Layal and Baumgartner, Christine and den Elzen, Wendy P J and Collet, Tinh-Hai and Ikram, M Arfan and Blum, Manuel R and Dehghan, Abbas and Drechsler, Christiane and Luben, Robert N and Portegies, Marileen L P and Iervasi, Giorgio and Medici, Marco and Stott, David J and Dullaart, Robin P and Ford, Ian and Bremner, Alexandra and Newman, Anne B and Wanner, Christoph and Sgarbi, Jos{\'e} A and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Longstreth, W T and Psaty, Bruce M and Ferrucci, Luigi and Maciel, Rui M B and Westendorp, Rudi G and Jukema, J Wouter and Ceresini, Graziano and Imaizumi, Misa and Hofman, Albert and Bakker, Stephan J L and Franklyn, Jayne A and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Bauer, Douglas C and Walsh, John P and Razvi, Salman and Gussekloo, Jacobijn and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Franco, Oscar H and Cappola, Anne R and Rodondi, Nicolas and Peeters, Robin P} } @article {7128, title = {Trajectories of function and biomarkers with age: the CHS All Stars Study.}, journal = {Int J Epidemiol}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jun 6}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Multimorbidity is a major driver of physical and cognitive impairment, but rates of decline are also related to ageing. We sought to determine trajectories of decline in a large cohort by disease status, and examined their correspondence with biomarkers of ageing processes including growth hormone, sex steroid, inflammation, visceral adiposity and kidney function pathways.

METHODS: We have followed the 5888 participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) for healthy ageing and longevity since 1989-90. Gait speed, grip strength, modified mini-mental status examination (3MSE) and the digit symbol substitution test (DSST) were assessed annually to 1998-99 and again in 2005-06. Insulin-like growth hormone (IGF-1), dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS), interleukin-6 (IL-6), adiponectin and cystatin-C were assessed 3-5 times from stored samples. Health status was updated annually and dichotomized as healthy vs not healthy. Trajectories for each function measure and biomarker were estimated using generalized estimating equations as a function of age and health status using standardized values.

RESULTS: Trajectories of functional decline showed strong age acceleration late in life in healthy older men and women as well as in chronically ill older adults. Adiponectin, IL-6 and cystatin-C tracked with functional decline in all domains; cystatin-C was consistently associated with functional declines independent of other biomarkers. DHEAS was independently associated with grip strength and IL-6 with grip strength and gait speed trajectories.

CONCLUSIONS: Functional decline in late life appears to mark a fundamental ageing process in that it occurred and was accelerated in late life regardless of health status. Cystatin C was most consistently associated with these functional declines.

}, issn = {1464-3685}, doi = {10.1093/ije/dyw092}, author = {Newman, Anne B and Sanders, Jason L and Kizer, Jorge R and Boudreau, Robert M and Odden, Michelle C and Zeki Al Hazzouri, Adina and Arnold, Alice M} } @article {7141, title = {Trans-ethnic Meta-analysis and Functional Annotation Illuminates the~Genetic Architecture of Fasting Glucose and Insulin.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {99}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jul 7}, pages = {56-75}, abstract = {

Knowledge of the genetic basis of the type 2 diabetes (T2D)-related quantitative traits fasting glucose (FG) and insulin (FI) in African ancestry (AA) individuals has been limited. In non-diabetic subjects of AA (n = 20,209) and European ancestry (EA; n = 57,292), we performed trans-ethnic (AA+EA) fine-mapping of 54 established EA FG or FI loci with detailed functional annotation, assessed their relevance in AA individuals, and sought previously undescribed loci through trans-ethnic (AA+EA) meta-analysis. We narrowed credible sets of variants driving association signals for 22/54 EA-associated loci; 18/22 credible sets overlapped with active islet-specific enhancers or transcription factor (TF) binding sites, and 21/22 contained at least one TF motif. Of the 54 EA-associated loci, 23 were shared between EA and AA. Replication with an additional 10,096 AA individuals identified two previously undescribed FI loci, chrX FAM133A (rs213676) and chr5 PELO (rs6450057). Trans-ethnic analyses with regulatory annotation illuminate the genetic architecture of glycemic traits and suggest gene regulation as a target to advance precision medicine for T2D. Our approach to utilize state-of-the-art functional annotation and implement trans-ethnic association analysis for discovery and fine-mapping offers a framework for further follow-up and characterization of GWAS signals of complex trait loci.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.05.006}, author = {Liu, Ching-Ti and Raghavan, Sridharan and Maruthur, Nisa and Kabagambe, Edmond Kato and Hong, Jaeyoung and Ng, Maggie C Y and Hivert, Marie-France and Lu, Yingchang and An, Ping and Bentley, Amy R and Drolet, Anne M and Gaulton, Kyle J and Guo, Xiuqing and Armstrong, Loren L and Irvin, Marguerite R and Li, Man and Lipovich, Leonard and Rybin, Denis V and Taylor, Kent D and Agyemang, Charles and Palmer, Nicholette D and Cade, Brian E and Chen, Wei-Min and Dauriz, Marco and Delaney, Joseph A C and Edwards, Todd L and Evans, Daniel S and Evans, Michele K and Lange, Leslie A and Leong, Aaron and Liu, Jingmin and Liu, Yongmei and Nayak, Uma and Patel, Sanjay R and Porneala, Bianca C and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Snijder, Marieke B and Stallings, Sarah C and Tanaka, Toshiko and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhao, Wei and Becker, Diane M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Biggs, Mary L and Bottinger, Erwin P and Bowden, Donald W and Chen, Guanjie and Correa, Adolfo and Couper, David J and Crawford, Dana C and Cushman, Mary and Eicher, John D and Fornage, Myriam and Franceschini, Nora and Fu, Yi-Ping and Goodarzi, Mark O and Gottesman, Omri and Hara, Kazuo and Harris, Tamara B and Jensen, Richard A and Johnson, Andrew D and Jhun, Min A and Karter, Andrew J and Keller, Margaux F and Kho, Abel N and Kizer, Jorge R and Krauss, Ronald M and Langefeld, Carl D and Li, Xiaohui and Liang, Jingling and Liu, Simin and Lowe, William L and Mosley, Thomas H and North, Kari E and Pacheco, Jennifer A and Peyser, Patricia A and Patrick, Alan L and Rice, Kenneth M and Selvin, Elizabeth and Sims, Mario and Smith, Jennifer A and Tajuddin, Salman M and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Wren, Mary P and Yao, Jie and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Ziegler, Julie T and Zmuda, Joseph M and Zonderman, Alan B and Zwinderman, Aeilko H and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Boerwinkle, Eric and Ferrucci, Luigi and Hayes, M Geoffrey and Kardia, Sharon L R and Miljkovic, Iva and Pankow, James S and Rotimi, Charles N and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Arnett, Donna K and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Nalls, Michael A and Province, Michael A and Kao, W H Linda and Siscovick, David S and Psaty, Bruce M and Wilson, James G and Loos, Ruth J F and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Rich, Stephen S and Florez, Jose C and Rotter, Jerome I and Morris, Andrew P and Meigs, James B} } @article {7604, title = {Twenty-eight genetic loci associated with ST-T-wave amplitudes of the electrocardiogram.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {25}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 05 15}, pages = {2093-2103}, abstract = {

The ST-segment and adjacent T-wave (ST-T wave) amplitudes of the electrocardiogram are quantitative characteristics of cardiac repolarization. Repolarization abnormalities have been linked to ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. We performed the first genome-wide association meta-analysis of ST-T-wave amplitudes in up to 37 977 individuals identifying 71 robust genotype-phenotype associations clustered within 28 independent loci. Fifty-four genes were prioritized as candidates underlying the phenotypes, including genes with established roles in the cardiac repolarization phase (SCN5A/SCN10A, KCND3, KCNB1, NOS1AP and HEY2) and others with as yet undefined cardiac function. These associations may provide insights in the spatiotemporal contribution of genetic variation influencing cardiac repolarization and provide novel leads for future functional follow-up.

}, keywords = {Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors, Brugada Syndrome, Cardiac Conduction System Disease, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, Electrocardiography, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heart Conduction System, Humans, Male, NAV1.5 Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Repressor Proteins, Shab Potassium Channels, Shal Potassium Channels}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddw058}, author = {Verweij, Niek and Mateo Leach, Irene and Isaacs, Aaron and Arking, Dan E and Bis, Joshua C and Pers, Tune H and van den Berg, Marten E and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Barnett, Phil and Wang, Xinchen and Soliman, Elsayed Z and van Duijn, Cornelia M and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and van Veldhuisen, Dirk J and Kors, Jan A and Raitakari, Olli T and Silva, Claudia T and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Hillege, Hans L and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Boyer, Laurie A and van Gilst, Wiek H and Alonso, Alvaro and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Eijgelsheim, Mark and de Boer, Rudolf A and de Bakker, Paul I W and Franke, Lude and van der Harst, Pim} } @article {6999, title = {Vitamin D and Memory Decline: Two Population-Based Prospective Studies.}, journal = {J Alzheimers Dis}, volume = {50}, year = {2016}, month = {2016}, pages = {1099-108}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D deficiency has been linked with dementia risk, cognitive decline, and executive dysfunction. However, the association with memory remains largely unknown.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations are associated with memory decline.

METHODS: We used data on 1,291 participants from the US Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and 915 participants from the Dutch Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) who were dementia-free at baseline, had valid vitamin D measurements, and follow-up memory assessments. The Benton Visual Retention Test (in the CHS) and Rey{\textquoteright}s Auditory Verbal Learning Test (in the LASA) were used to assess visual and verbal memory, respectively.

RESULTS: In the CHS, those moderately and severely deficient in serum 25(OH)D changed -0.03 SD (95\% CI: -0.06 to 0.01) and -0.10 SD (95\% CI: -0.19 to -0.02) per year respectively in visual memory compared to those sufficient (p = 0.02). In the LASA, moderate and severe deficiency in serum 25(OH)D was associated with a mean change of 0.01 SD (95\% CI: -0.01 to 0.02) and -0.01 SD (95\% CI: -0.04 to 0.02) per year respectively in verbal memory compared to sufficiency (p = 0.34).

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest an association between severe vitamin D deficiency and visual memory decline but no association with verbal memory decline. They warrant further investigation in prospective studies assessing different memory subtypes.

}, issn = {1875-8908}, doi = {10.3233/JAD-150811}, author = {Ku{\'z}ma, El{\.z}bieta and Soni, Maya and Littlejohns, Thomas J and Ranson, Janice M and van Schoor, Natasja M and Deeg, Dorly J H and Comijs, Hannie and Chaves, Paulo H M and Kestenbaum, Bryan R and Kuller, Lewis H and Lopez, Oscar L and Becker, James T and Langa, Kenneth M and Henley, William E and Lang, Iain A and Ukoumunne, Obioha C and Llewellyn, David J} } @article {7126, title = {Vitamin D and Risk of Neuroimaging Abnormalities.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {11}, year = {2016}, month = {2016}, pages = {e0154896}, abstract = {

Vitamin D deficiency has been linked with an increased risk of incident all-cause dementia and Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease. The aim of the current study was to explore the potential mechanisms underlying these associations by determining whether low vitamin D concentrations are associated with the development of incident cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative neuroimaging abnormalities. The population consisted of 1,658 participants aged >=65 years from the US-based Cardiovascular Health Study who were free from prevalent cardiovascular disease, stroke and dementia at baseline in 1992-93. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations were determined by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry from blood samples collected at baseline. The first MRI scan was conducted between 1991-1994 and the second MRI scan was conducted between 1997-1999. Change in white matter grade, ventricular grade and presence of infarcts between MRI scan one and two were used to define neuroimaging abnormalities. During a mean follow-up of 5.0 years, serum 25(OH)D status was not significantly associated with the development of any neuroimaging abnormalities. Using logistic regression models, the multivariate adjusted odds ratios (95\% confidence interval) for worsening white matter grade in participants who were severely 25(OH)D deficient (<25 nmol/L) and deficient (>=25-50 nmol/L) were 0.76 (0.35-1.66) and 1.09 (0.76-1.55) compared to participants with sufficient concentrations (>=50 nmol/L). The multivariate adjusted odds ratios for ventricular grade in participants who were severely 25(OH)D deficient and deficient were 0.49 (0.20-1.19) and 1.12 (0.79-1.59) compared to those sufficient. The multivariate adjusted odds ratios for incident infarcts in participants who were severely 25(OH)D deficient and deficient were 1.95 (0.84-4.54) and 0.73 (0.47-1.95) compared to those sufficient. Overall, serum vitamin D concentrations could not be shown to be associated with the development of cerebrovascular or neurodegenerative neuroimaging abnormalities in Cardiovascular Health Study participants.

}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0154896}, author = {Littlejohns, Thomas J and Kos, Katarina and Henley, William E and Lang, Iain A and Annweiler, Cedric and Beauchet, Olivier and Chaves, Paulo H M and Kestenbaum, Bryan R and Kuller, Lewis H and Langa, Kenneth M and Lopez, Oscar L and Llewellyn, David J} } @article {7250, title = {Whole Exome Sequencing in Atrial Fibrillation.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {12}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Sep}, pages = {e1006284}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a morbid and heritable arrhythmia. Over 35 genes have been reported to underlie AF, most of which were described in small candidate gene association studies. Replication remains lacking for most, and therefore the contribution of coding variation to AF susceptibility remains poorly understood. We examined whole exome sequencing data in a large community-based sample of 1,734 individuals with and 9,423 without AF from the Framingham Heart Study, Cardiovascular Health Study, Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, and NHLBI-GO Exome Sequencing Project and meta-analyzed the results. We also examined whether genetic variation was enriched in suspected AF genes (N = 37) in AF cases versus controls. The mean age ranged from 59 to 73 years; 8,656 (78\%) were of European ancestry. None of the 99,404 common variants evaluated was significantly associated after adjusting for multiple testing. Among the most significantly associated variants was a common (allele frequency = 86\%) missense variant in SYNPO2L (rs3812629, p.Pro707Leu, [odds ratio 1.27, 95\% confidence interval 1.13-1.43, P = 6.6x10-5]) which lies at a known AF susceptibility locus and is in linkage disequilibrium with a top marker from prior analyses at the locus. We did not observe significant associations between rare variants and AF in gene-based tests. Individuals with AF did not display any statistically significant enrichment for common or rare coding variation in previously implicated AF genes. In conclusion, we did not observe associations between coding genetic variants and AF, suggesting that large-effect coding variation is not the predominant mechanism underlying AF. A coding variant in SYNPO2L requires further evaluation to determine whether it is causally related to AF. Efforts to identify biologically meaningful coding variation underlying AF may require large sample sizes or populations enriched for large genetic effects.

}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1006284}, author = {Lubitz, Steven A and Brody, Jennifer A and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and Roselli, Carolina and Weng, Lu-Chen and Christophersen, Ingrid E and Alonso, Alvaro and Boerwinkle, Eric and Gibbs, Richard A and Bis, Joshua C and Cupples, L Adrienne and Mohler, Peter J and Nickerson, Deborah A and Muzny, Donna and Perez, Marco V and Psaty, Bruce M and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Benjamin, Emelia J and Heckbert, Susan R and Arking, Dan E and Ellinor, Patrick T and Lin, Honghuang} } @article {7263, title = {Whole-Exome Sequencing Identifies Loci Associated with Blood Cell Traits and Reveals a Role for Alternative GFI1B Splice Variants in Human Hematopoiesis.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {99}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Sep 01}, pages = {785}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.08.002}, author = {Polfus, Linda M and Khajuria, Rajiv K and Schick, Ursula M and Pankratz, Nathan and Pazoki, Raha and Brody, Jennifer A and Chen, Ming-Huei and Auer, Paul L and Floyd, James S and Huang, Jie and Lange, Leslie and van Rooij, Frank J A and Gibbs, Richard A and Metcalf, Ginger and Muzny, Donna and Veeraraghavan, Narayanan and Walter, Klaudia and Chen, Lu and Yanek, Lisa and Becker, Lewis C and Peloso, Gina M and Wakabayashi, Aoi and Kals, Mart and Metspalu, Andres and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Fox, Keolu and Wallace, Robert and Franceschini, Nora and Matijevic, Nena and Rice, Kenneth M and Bartz, Traci M and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Raitakari, Olli T and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Lettre, Guillaume and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Franco, Oscar H and Rich, Stephen S and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wilson, James G and Psaty, Bruce M and Soranzo, Nicole and Dehghan, Abbas and Boerwinkle, Eric and Zhang, Xiaoling and Johnson, Andrew D and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Johnsen, Jill M and Reiner, Alexander P and Ganesh, Santhi K and Sankaran, Vijay G} } @article {9462, title = {740 adults from 20 prospective cohort studies}, journal = {Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol}, volume = {5}, year = {2017}, month = {Dec}, pages = {965{\textendash}974}, abstract = {The metabolic effects of omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) remain contentious, and little evidence is available regarding their potential role in primary prevention of type 2 diabetes. We aimed to assess the associations of linoleic acid and arachidonic acid biomarkers with incident type 2 diabetes.\ We did a pooled analysis of new, harmonised, individual-level analyses for the biomarkers linoleic acid and its metabolite arachidonic acid and incident type 2 diabetes. We analysed data from 20 prospective cohort studies from ten countries (Iceland, the Netherlands, the USA, Taiwan, the UK, Germany, Finland, Australia, Sweden, and France), with biomarkers sampled between 1970 and 2010. Participants included in the analyses were aged 18 years or older and had data available for linoleic acid and arachidonic acid biomarkers at baseline. We excluded participants with type 2 diabetes at baseline. The main outcome was the association between omega-6 PUFA biomarkers and incident type 2 diabetes. We assessed the relative risk of type 2 diabetes prospectively for each cohort and lipid compartment separately using a prespecified analytic plan for exposures, covariates, effect modifiers, and analysis, and the findings were then pooled using inverse-variance weighted meta-analysis.\ 13).\ Findings suggest that linoleic acid has long-term benefits for the prevention of type 2 diabetes and that arachidonic acid is not harmful.\ Funders are shown in the appendix.}, author = {Wu, J. H. Y. and Marklund, M. and Imamura, F. and Tintle, N. and Ardisson Korat, A. V. and de Goede, J. and Zhou, X. and Yang, W. S. and de Oliveira Otto, M. C. and ger, J. and Qureshi, W. and Virtanen, J. K. and Bassett, J. K. and Frazier-Wood, A. C. and Lankinen, M. and Murphy, R. A. and Rajaobelina, K. and Del Gobbo, L. C. and Forouhi, N. G. and Luben, R. and Khaw, K. T. and Wareham, N. and Kalsbeek, A. and Veenstra, J. and Luo, J. and Hu, F. B. and Lin, H. J. and Siscovick, D. S. and Boeing, H. and Chen, T. A. and Steffen, B. and Steffen, L. M. and Hodge, A. and Eriksdottir, G. and Smith, A. V. and Gudnason, V. and Harris, T. B. and Brouwer, I. A. and Berr, C. and Helmer, C. and Samieri, C. and Laakso, M. and Tsai, M. Y. and Giles, G. G. and Nurmi, T. and Wagenknecht, L. and Schulze, M. B. and Lemaitre, R. N. and Chien, K. L. and Soedamah-Muthu, S. S. and Geleijnse, J. M. and Sun, Q. and Harris, W. S. and Lind, L. and v, J. and Riserus, U. and Micha, R. and Mozaffarian, D.} } @article {7551, title = {The Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Sequencing Project: Study design and sample selection.}, journal = {Neurol Genet}, volume = {3}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Oct}, pages = {e194}, issn = {2376-7839}, doi = {10.1212/NXG.0000000000000194}, author = {Beecham, Gary W and Bis, J C and Martin, E R and Choi, S-H and DeStefano, A L and van Duijn, C M and Fornage, M and Gabriel, S B and Koboldt, D C and Larson, D E and Naj, A C and Psaty, B M and Salerno, W and Bush, W S and Foroud, T M and Wijsman, E and Farrer, L A and Goate, A and Haines, J L and Pericak-Vance, Margaret A and Boerwinkle, E and Mayeux, R and Seshadri, S and Schellenberg, G} } @article {7553, title = {Analysis commons, a team approach to discovery in a big-data environment for genetic epidemiology.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {49}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Oct 27}, pages = {1560-1563}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3968}, author = {Brody, Jennifer A and Morrison, Alanna C and Bis, Joshua C and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Brown, Michael R and Huffman, Jennifer E and Ames, Darren C and Carroll, Andrew and Conomos, Matthew P and Gabriel, Stacey and Gibbs, Richard A and Gogarten, Stephanie M and Gupta, Namrata and Jaquish, Cashell E and Johnson, Andrew D and Lewis, Joshua P and Liu, Xiaoming and Manning, Alisa K and Papanicolaou, George J and Pitsillides, Achilleas N and Rice, Kenneth M and Salerno, William and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Nicholas L and Heckbert, Susan R and Laurie, Cathy C and Mitchell, Braxton D and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Wilson, James G and Boerwinkle, Eric and Psaty, Bruce M and Cupples, L Adrienne} } @article {7777, title = {Assessing the causal relationship between obesity and venous thromboembolism through a Mendelian Randomization study.}, journal = {Hum Genet}, volume = {136}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 07}, pages = {897-902}, abstract = {

Observational studies have shown an association between obesity and venous thromboembolism (VTE) but it is not known if observed associations are causal, due to reverse causation or confounding bias. We conducted a Mendelian Randomization study of body mass index (BMI) and VTE. We identified 95 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that have been previously associated with BMI and assessed the association between genetically predicted high BMI and VTE leveraging data from a previously conducted GWAS within the INVENT consortium comprising a total of 7507 VTE cases and 52,632 controls of European ancestry. Five BMI SNPs were associated with VTE at P~<~0.05, with the strongest association seen for the FTO SNP rs1558902 (OR 1.07, 95\% CI 1.02-1.12, P~=~0.005). In addition, we observed a significant association between genetically predicted BMI and VTE (OR~=~1.59, 95\% CI 1.30-1.93 per standard deviation increase in BMI, P~=~5.8~{\texttimes}~10). Our study provides evidence for a causal relationship between high BMI and risk of VTE. Reducing obesity levels will likely result in lower incidence in VTE.

}, keywords = {Adult, Body Mass Index, Case-Control Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Incidence, Logistic Models, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proportional Hazards Models, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1432-1203}, doi = {10.1007/s00439-017-1811-x}, author = {Lindstr{\"o}m, Sara and Germain, Marine and Crous-Bou, Marta and Smith, Erin N and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and van Hylckama Vlieg, Astrid and de Haan, Hugoline G and Chasman, Daniel and Ridker, Paul and Brody, Jennifer and de Andrade, Mariza and Heit, John A and Tang, Weihong and DeVivo, Immaculata and Grodstein, Francine and Smith, Nicholas L and Tregouet, David and Kabrhel, Christopher} } @article {7594, title = {Association Between Telomere Length and Risk of Cancer and Non-Neoplastic Diseases: A Mendelian Randomization Study.}, journal = {JAMA Oncol}, volume = {3}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 May 01}, pages = {636-651}, abstract = {

Importance: The causal direction and magnitude of the association between telomere length and incidence of cancer and non-neoplastic diseases is uncertain owing to the susceptibility of observational studies to confounding and reverse causation.

Objective: To conduct a Mendelian randomization study, using germline genetic variants as instrumental variables, to appraise the causal relevance of telomere length for risk of cancer and non-neoplastic diseases.

Data Sources: Genomewide association studies (GWAS) published up to January 15, 2015.

Study Selection: GWAS of noncommunicable diseases that assayed germline genetic variation and did not select cohort or control participants on the basis of preexisting diseases. Of 163 GWAS of noncommunicable diseases identified, summary data from 103 were available.

Data Extraction and Synthesis: Summary association statistics for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are strongly associated with telomere length in the general population.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Odds ratios (ORs) and 95\% confidence intervals (CIs) for disease per standard deviation (SD) higher telomere length due to germline genetic variation.

Results: Summary data were available for 35 cancers and 48 non-neoplastic diseases, corresponding to 420 081 cases (median cases, 2526 per disease) and 1 093 105 controls (median, 6789 per disease). Increased telomere length due to germline genetic variation was generally associated with increased risk for site-specific cancers. The strongest associations (ORs [95\% CIs] per 1-SD change in genetically increased telomere length) were observed for glioma, 5.27 (3.15-8.81); serous low-malignant-potential ovarian cancer, 4.35 (2.39-7.94); lung adenocarcinoma, 3.19 (2.40-4.22); neuroblastoma, 2.98 (1.92-4.62); bladder cancer, 2.19 (1.32-3.66); melanoma, 1.87 (1.55-2.26); testicular cancer, 1.76 (1.02-3.04); kidney cancer, 1.55 (1.08-2.23); and endometrial cancer, 1.31 (1.07-1.61). Associations were stronger for rarer cancers and at tissue sites with lower rates of stem cell division. There was generally little evidence of association between genetically increased telomere length and risk of psychiatric, autoimmune, inflammatory, diabetic, and other non-neoplastic diseases, except for coronary heart disease (OR, 0.78 [95\% CI, 0.67-0.90]), abdominal aortic aneurysm (OR, 0.63 [95\% CI, 0.49-0.81]), celiac disease (OR, 0.42 [95\% CI, 0.28-0.61]) and interstitial lung disease (OR, 0.09 [95\% CI, 0.05-0.15]).

Conclusions and Relevance: It is likely that longer telomeres increase risk for several cancers but reduce risk for some non-neoplastic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Germ-Line Mutation, Humans, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Neoplasms, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Assessment, Telomere, Telomere Homeostasis}, issn = {2374-2445}, doi = {10.1001/jamaoncol.2016.5945}, author = {Haycock, Philip C and Burgess, Stephen and Nounu, Aayah and Zheng, Jie and Okoli, George N and Bowden, Jack and Wade, Kaitlin Hazel and Timpson, Nicholas J and Evans, David M and Willeit, Peter and Aviv, Abraham and Gaunt, Tom R and Hemani, Gibran and Mangino, Massimo and Ellis, Hayley Patricia and Kurian, Kathreena M and Pooley, Karen A and Eeles, Rosalind A and Lee, Jeffrey E and Fang, Shenying and Chen, Wei V and Law, Matthew H and Bowdler, Lisa M and Iles, Mark M and Yang, Qiong and Worrall, Bradford B and Markus, Hugh Stephen and Hung, Rayjean J and Amos, Chris I and Spurdle, Amanda B and Thompson, Deborah J and O{\textquoteright}Mara, Tracy A and Wolpin, Brian and Amundadottir, Laufey and Stolzenberg-Solomon, Rachael and Trichopoulou, Antonia and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Lund, Eiliv and Duell, Eric J and Canzian, Federico and Severi, Gianluca and Overvad, Kim and Gunter, Marc J and Tumino, Rosario and Svenson, Ulrika and van Rij, Andre and Baas, Annette F and Bown, Matthew J and Samani, Nilesh J and van t{\textquoteright}Hof, Femke N G and Tromp, Gerard and Jones, Gregory T and Kuivaniemi, Helena and Elmore, James R and Johansson, Mattias and Mckay, James and Scelo, Ghislaine and Carreras-Torres, Robert and Gaborieau, Valerie and Brennan, Paul and Bracci, Paige M and Neale, Rachel E and Olson, Sara H and Gallinger, Steven and Li, Donghui and Petersen, Gloria M and Risch, Harvey A and Klein, Alison P and Han, Jiali and Abnet, Christian C and Freedman, Neal D and Taylor, Philip R and Maris, John M and Aben, Katja K and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Vermeulen, Sita H and Wiencke, John K and Walsh, Kyle M and Wrensch, Margaret and Rice, Terri and Turnbull, Clare and Litchfield, Kevin and Paternoster, Lavinia and Standl, Marie and Abecasis, Goncalo R and SanGiovanni, John Paul and Li, Yong and Mijatovic, Vladan and Sapkota, Yadav and Low, Siew-Kee and Zondervan, Krina T and Montgomery, Grant W and Nyholt, Dale R and van Heel, David A and Hunt, Karen and Arking, Dan E and Ashar, Foram N and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Woo, Daniel and Rosand, Jonathan and Comeau, Mary E and Brown, W Mark and Silverman, Edwin K and Hokanson, John E and Cho, Michael H and Hui, Jennie and Ferreira, Manuel A and Thompson, Philip J and Morrison, Alanna C and Felix, Janine F and Smith, Nicholas L and Christiano, Angela M and Petukhova, Lynn and Betz, Regina C and Fan, Xing and Zhang, Xuejun and Zhu, Caihong and Langefeld, Carl D and Thompson, Susan D and Wang, Feijie and Lin, Xu and Schwartz, David A and Fingerlin, Tasha and Rotter, Jerome I and Cotch, Mary Frances and Jensen, Richard A and Munz, Matthias and Dommisch, Henrik and Schaefer, Arne S and Han, Fang and Ollila, Hanna M and Hillary, Ryan P and Albagha, Omar and Ralston, Stuart H and Zeng, Chenjie and Zheng, Wei and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Reis, Andre and Uebe, Steffen and H{\"u}ffmeier, Ulrike and Kawamura, Yoshiya and Otowa, Takeshi and Sasaki, Tsukasa and Hibberd, Martin Lloyd and Davila, Sonia and Xie, Gang and Siminovitch, Katherine and Bei, Jin-Xin and Zeng, Yi-Xin and F{\"o}rsti, Asta and Chen, Bowang and Landi, Stefano and Franke, Andre and Fischer, Annegret and Ellinghaus, David and Flores, Carlos and Noth, Imre and Ma, Shwu-Fan and Foo, Jia Nee and Liu, Jianjun and Kim, Jong-Won and Cox, David G and Delattre, Olivier and Mirabeau, Olivier and Skibola, Christine F and Tang, Clara S and Garcia-Barcelo, Merce and Chang, Kai-Ping and Su, Wen-Hui and Chang, Yu-Sun and Martin, Nicholas G and Gordon, Scott and Wade, Tracey D and Lee, Chaeyoung and Kubo, Michiaki and Cha, Pei-Chieng and Nakamura, Yusuke and Levy, Daniel and Kimura, Masayuki and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Hunt, Steven and Spector, Tim and Soranzo, Nicole and Manichaikul, Ani W and Barr, R Graham and Kahali, Bratati and Speliotes, Elizabeth and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Jonas, Jost B and Wong, Tien Yin and Fogh, Isabella and Lin, Kuang and Powell, John F and Rice, Kenneth and Relton, Caroline L and Martin, Richard M and Davey Smith, George} } @article {7442, title = {Association of Coronary Artery Calcium Score vs Age With Cardiovascular Risk in Older Adults: An Analysis of Pooled Population-Based Studies.}, journal = {JAMA Cardiol}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jul 26}, abstract = {

Importance: Besides age, other discriminators of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk are needed in older adults.

Objectives: To examine the predictive ability of coronary artery calcium (CAC) score vs age for incident ASCVD and how risk prediction changes by adding CAC score and removing only age from prediction models.

Design, Setting, and Participants: We conducted an analysis of pooled US population-based studies, including the Framingham Heart Study, the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and the Cardiovascular Health Study. Results were compared with 2 European cohorts, the Rotterdam Study and the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study. Participants underwent CAC scoring between 1998 and 2006 using cardiac computed tomography. The participants included adults older than 60 years without known ASCVD at baseline.

Exposures: Coronary artery calcium scores.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Incident ASCVD events including coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke.

Results: The study included 4778 participants from 3 US cohorts, with a mean age of 70.1 years; 2582 (54.0\%) were women, and 2431 (50.9\%) were nonwhite. Over 11 years of follow-up (44 152 person-years), 405 CHD and 228 stroke events occurred. Coronary artery calcium score (vs age) had a greater association with incident CHD (C statistic, 0.733 vs 0.690; C statistics difference, 0.043; 95\% CI of difference, 0.009-0.075) and modestly improved prediction of incident stroke (C statistic, 0.695 vs 0.670; C statistics difference, 0.025; 95\% CI of difference, -0.015 to 0.064). Adding CAC score to models including traditional cardiovascular risk factors, with only age being removed, provided improved discrimination for incident CHD (C statistic, 0.735 vs 0.703; C statistics difference, 0.032; 95\% CI of difference, 0.002-0.062) but not for stroke. Coronary artery calcium score was more likely than age to provide higher category-free net reclassification improvement among participants who experienced an ASCVD event (0.390; 95\% CI, 0.312-0.467 vs 0.08; 95\% CI -0.001 to 0.181) and to result in more accurate reclassification of risk for ASCVD events among these individuals. The findings were similar in the 2 European cohorts (n = 4990).

Conclusions and Relevance: Coronary artery calcium may be an alternative marker besides age to better discriminate between lower and higher CHD risk in older adults. Whether CAC score can assist in guiding the decision to initiate statin treatment for primary prevention in older adults requires further investigation.

}, issn = {2380-6591}, doi = {10.1001/jamacardio.2017.2498}, author = {Yano, Yuichiro and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Kuller, Lewis and Kavousi, Maryam and Erbel, Raimund and Ning, Hongyan and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, Ralph and Newman, Anne B and Nasir, Khurram and Hofman, Albert and Lehmann, Nils and Dhana, Klodian and Blankstein, Ron and Hoffmann, Udo and M{\"o}hlenkamp, Stefan and Massaro, Joseph M and Mahabadi, Amir-Abbas and Lima, Jo{\~a}o A C and Ikram, M Arfan and J{\"o}ckel, Karl-Heinz and Franco, Oscar H and Liu, Kiang and Lloyd-Jones, Donald and Greenland, Philip} } @article {7366, title = {Association of DPP-4 activity with BMD, body composition, and incident hip fracture: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Osteoporos Int}, volume = {28}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 May}, pages = {1631-1640}, abstract = {

There was no association of plasma DPP-4 activity levels with bone mineral density (BMD), body composition, or incident hip fractures in a cohort of elderly community-dwelling adults.

INTRODUCTION: Dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-4) inactivates several key hormones including those that stimulate postprandial insulin secretion, and DPP-4 inhibitors (gliptins) are approved to treat diabetes. While DPP-4 is known to modulate osteogenesis, the relationship between DPP-4 activity and skeletal health is uncertain. The purpose of the present study was to examine possible associations between DPP-4 activity in elderly subjects enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and BMD, body composition measurements, and incident hip fractures.

METHODS: All 1536 male and female CHS participants who had evaluable DXA scans and plasma for DPP-4 activity were included in the analyses. The association between (1) BMD of the total hip, femoral neck, lumbar spine, and total body; (2) body composition measurements (\% lean, \% fat, and total body mass); and (3) incident hip fractures and plasma levels of DPP-4 activity were determined.

RESULTS: Mean plasma levels of DPP-4 activity were significantly higher in blacks (227~{\textpm}~78) compared with whites (216~{\textpm}~89) (p~=~0.04). However, there was no significant association of DPP-4 activity with age or gender (p~>=~0.14 for both). In multivariable adjusted models, there was no association of plasma DPP-4 activity with BMD overall (p~>=~0.55 for all) or in gender stratified analyses (p~>=~0.23). There was also no association of DPP-4 levels and incident hip fractures overall (p~>=~0.24) or in gender stratified analyses (p~>=~0.39).

CONCLUSION: Plasma DPP-4 activity, within the endogenous physiological range, was significantly associated with race, but not with BMD, body composition, or incident hip fractures in elderly community-dwelling subjects.

}, issn = {1433-2965}, doi = {10.1007/s00198-017-3916-4}, author = {Carbone, L D and B{\r u}{\v z}kov{\'a}, P and Fink, H A and Robbins, J A and Bethel, M and Isales, C M and Hill, W D} } @article {7341, title = {Association of Plasma SDF-1 with Bone Mineral Density, Body Composition, and Hip Fractures in Older Adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Calcif Tissue Int}, volume = {100}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jun}, pages = {599-608}, abstract = {

Aging is associated with an increase in circulating inflammatory factors. One, the cytokine stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF-1 or CXCL12), is critical to stem cell mobilization, migration, and homing as well as to bone marrow stem cell (BMSC), osteoblast, and osteoclast function. SDF-1 has pleiotropic roles in bone formation and BMSC differentiation into osteoblasts/osteocytes, and in osteoprogenitor cell survival. The objective of this study was to examine the association of plasma SDF-1 in participants in the cardiovascular health study (CHS) with bone mineral density (BMD), body composition, and incident hip fractures. In 1536 CHS participants, SDF-1 plasma levels were significantly associated with increasing age (p < 0.01) and male gender (p = 0.04), but not with race (p = 0.63). In multivariable-adjusted models, higher SDF-1 levels were associated with lower total hip BMD (p = 0.02). However, there was no significant association of SDF-1 with hip fractures (p = 0.53). In summary, circulating plasma levels of SDF-1 are associated with increasing age and independently associated with lower total hip BMD in both men and women. These findings suggest that SDF-1 levels are linked to bone homeostasis.

}, issn = {1432-0827}, doi = {10.1007/s00223-017-0245-8}, author = {Carbone, Laura D and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Fink, Howard A and Robbins, John A and Bethel, Monique and Hamrick, Mark W and Hill, William D} } @article {7555, title = {Atrial ectopy as a mediator of the association between race and atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Heart Rhythm}, volume = {14}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Dec}, pages = {1856-1861}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Blacks have a lower risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) despite having more AF risk factors, but the mechanism remains unknown. Premature atrial contraction (PAC) burden is a recently identified risk factor for AF.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the burden of PACs explains racial differences in AF risk.

METHODS: PAC burden (number per hour) was assessed by 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiographic (ECG) monitoring in a randomly selected subset of patients in the Cardiovascular Health Study. Participants were followed prospectively for the development of AF, diagnosed by study ECG and hospital admission records.

RESULTS: Among 938 participants (median age 73 years; 34\% black; 58\% female), 206 (22\%) developed AF over a median follow-up of 11.0 years (interquartile range 6.1-13.4). After adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, coronary disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, hypertension, alcohol consumption, smoking status, and study site, black race was associated with a 42\% lower risk of AF (hazard ratio 0.58, 95\% confidence interval [CI] 0.40-0.85; P = .005). The baseline PAC burden was 2.10 times (95\% CI 1.57-2.83; P <.001) higher in whites than blacks. There was no detectable difference in premature ventricular contraction (PVC) burden by race. PAC burden mediated 19.5\% (95\% CI 6.3-52.5) of the adjusted association between race and AF.

CONCLUSION: On average, whites exhibited more PACs than blacks, and this difference statistically explains a modest proportion of the differential risk of AF by race. The differential PAC burden, without differences in PVCs, by race suggests that identifiable common exposures or genetic influences might be important to atrial pathophysiology.

}, issn = {1556-3871}, doi = {10.1016/j.hrthm.2017.09.034}, author = {Christensen, Matthew A and Nguyen, Kaylin T and Stein, Phyllis K and Fohtung, Raymond B and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Dewland, Thomas A and Vittinghoff, Eric and Psaty, Bruce M and Heckbert, Susan R and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {7565, title = {Bivariate Genome-Wide Association Study of Depressive Symptoms with Type 2 Diabetes and Quantitative Glycemic Traits.}, journal = {Psychosom Med}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Dec 27}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Shared genetic background may explain phenotypic associations between depression and Type-2-Diabetes (T2D). We aimed to study, on a genome-wide level, if genetic correlation and pleiotropic loci exist between depressive symptoms and T2D or glycemic traits.

METHODS: We estimated SNP-based heritability and analyzed genetic correlation between depressive symptoms and T2D and glycemic traits with the LD Score Regression (LDSC) by combining summary statistics of previously conducted meta-analyses for depressive symptoms by CHARGE consortium (N = 51,258), T2D by Diagram consortium (N = 34,840 patients and 114,981 controls), fasting glucose, fasting insulin, HOMA-β, and HOMA-IR by MAGIC consortium (N = 58,074). Finally, we investigated pleiotropic loci using a bivariate GWAS approach with summary statistics from GWAS meta-analyses and reported loci with genome-wide significant bivariate association p-value (p < 5x10). Biological annotation and function of significant pleiotropic SNPs were assessed in several databases.

RESULTS: The SNP-based heritability ranged from 0.04 to 0.10 in each individual trait. In the LDSC analyses, depressive symptoms showed no significant genetic correlation with T2D or glycemic traits (p > 0.37). Yet, we identified pleiotropic genetic variations for depressive symptoms and T2D (in the IGF2BP2, CDKAL1, CDKN2B-AS, and PLEKHA1 genes), and fasting glucose (in the MADD, CDKN2B-AS, PEX16, and MTNR1B genes).

CONCLUSIONS: We found no significant overall genetic correlations between depressive symptoms, T2D or glycemic traits suggesting major differences in underlying biology of these traits. Yet, several potential pleiotropic loci were identified between depressive symptoms, T2D and fasting glucose suggesting that previously established phenotypic associations may be partly explained by genetic variation in these specific loci.

}, issn = {1534-7796}, doi = {10.1097/PSY.0000000000000555}, author = {Haljas, Kadri and Amare, Azmeraw T and Alizadeh, Behrooz Z and Hsu, Yi-Hsiang and Mosley, Thomas and Newman, Anne and Murabito, Joanne and Tiemeier, Henning and Tanaka, Toshiko and van Duijn, Cornelia and Ding, Jingzhong and Llewellyn, David J and Bennett, David A and Terracciano, Antonio and Launer, Lenore and Ladwig, Karl-Heinz and Cornelis, Marylin C and Teumer, Alexander and Grabe, Hans and Kardia, Sharon L R and Ware, Erin B and Smith, Jennifer A and Snieder, Harold and Eriksson, Johan G and Groop, Leif and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Lahti, Jari} } @article {7665, title = {Causal effects of cardiovascular risk factors on onset of major age-related diseases: A time-to-event Mendelian randomization study.}, journal = {Exp Gerontol}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Sep 28}, abstract = {

BACKGROUNDS: Elucidating the causal effects of common intermediate risk factors on the onset of age-related diseases is indispensable for developing prevention and intervention procedures.

METHODS: We conducted two-stage time-to-event Mendelian randomization meta-analyses combining five large-scale longitudinal cohorts to investigate dynamic causal effects of cardiovascular disease risk factors including body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and lipids on the age-at-onset of age-related diseases. We constructed weighted polygenic scores based on genetic markers from previously reported genome-wide association studies as instrumental variables to estimate the causal effects. To avoid false positive due to potential pleiotropic effects of the genetic markers, we performed a leave-one-out sensitivity analysis and an MR-Egger sensitivity analysis that we expanded in the survival context.

RESULTS: Our results show that elevated BMI increases the absolute risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) (p=7.68e-04), heart failure (p=9.03e-03), and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) (p=1.69e-03) and the causal effects start at different ages. A significant association between BMI and the risk of stroke is observed; however, the sensitivity analyses suggest that the association is attributed to the potential pleiotropic effects of rs2867125 and rs1558902. Raised SBP levels are significantly associated with the development of atrial fibrillation (p=6.42e-03). Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels are inversely associated with the age-at-onset of T2D (p=1.05e-02). In addition, LDL-C and triglycerides are inversely associated with the risks of cancer and T2D, respectively. Nevertheless, the sensitivity analyses suggest that these associations are probably due to pleiotropic effects of several single-nucleotide polymorphisms including rs4970834 and rs1260326.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results highlight the involvement of BMI in the development of multiple age-related diseases. Some observed causal associations can attribute to pleiotropic effects of some genetic variations. These findings have important implications in unraveling causal effects of common risk factors on age-related diseases and guiding effective intervention strategies to reduce the incidence of these diseases.

}, issn = {1873-6815}, doi = {10.1016/j.exger.2017.09.019}, author = {He, Liang and Culminskaya, Irina and Loika, Yury and Arbeev, Konstantin G and Bagley, Olivia and Duan, Matt and Yashin, Anatoliy I and Kulminski, Alexander M} } @article {7502, title = {Comparing methods to address bias in observational data: statin use and cardiovascular events in a US cohort.}, journal = {Int J Epidemiol}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Sep 08}, abstract = {

Background: The theoretical conditions under which causal estimates can be derived from observational data are challenging to achieve in the real world. Applied examples can help elucidate the practical limitations of methods to estimate randomized-controlled trial effects from observational data.

Methods: We used six methods with varying design and analytic features to compare the 5-year risk of incident myocardial infarction among statin users and non-users, and used non-cardiovascular mortality as a negative control outcome. Design features included restriction to a statin-eligible population and new users only; analytic features included multivariable adjustment and propensity score matching.

Results: We used data from 5294 participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study from 1989 to 2004. For non-cardiovascular mortality, most methods produced protective estimates with confidence intervals that crossed the null. The hazard ratio (HR) was 0.92, 95\% confidence interval: 0.58, 1.46 using propensity score matching among eligible new users. For myocardial infarction, all estimates were strongly protective; the propensity score-matched analysis among eligible new users resulted in a HR of 0.55 (0.29, 1.05)-a much stronger association than observed in randomized controlled trials.

Conclusions: In designs that compare active treatment with non-treated participants to evaluate effectiveness, methods to address bias in observational data may be limited in real-world settings by residual bias.

}, issn = {1464-3685}, doi = {10.1093/ije/dyx179}, author = {Kaiser, Paulina and Arnold, Alice M and Benkeser, David and Zeki Al Hazzouri, Adina and Hirsch, Calvin H and Psaty, Bruce M and Odden, Michelle C} } @article {7343, title = {Comparison of HapMap and 1000 Genomes Reference Panels in a Large-Scale Genome-Wide Association Study.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {12}, year = {2017}, month = {2017}, pages = {e0167742}, abstract = {

An increasing number of genome-wide association (GWA) studies are now using the higher resolution 1000 Genomes Project reference panel (1000G) for imputation, with the expectation that 1000G imputation will lead to the discovery of additional associated loci when compared to HapMap imputation. In order to assess the improvement of 1000G over HapMap imputation in identifying associated loci, we compared the results of GWA studies of circulating fibrinogen based on the two reference panels. Using both HapMap and 1000G imputation we performed a meta-analysis of 22 studies comprising the same 91,953 individuals. We identified six additional signals using 1000G imputation, while 29 loci were associated using both HapMap and 1000G imputation. One locus identified using HapMap imputation was not significant using 1000G imputation. The genome-wide significance threshold of 5{\texttimes}10-8 is based on the number of independent statistical tests using HapMap imputation, and 1000G imputation may lead to further independent tests that should be corrected for. When using a stricter Bonferroni correction for the 1000G GWA study (P-value < 2.5{\texttimes}10-8), the number of loci significant only using HapMap imputation increased to 4 while the number of loci significant only using 1000G decreased to 5. In conclusion, 1000G imputation enabled the identification of 20\% more loci than HapMap imputation, although the advantage of 1000G imputation became less clear when a stricter Bonferroni correction was used. More generally, our results provide insights that are applicable to the implementation of other dense reference panels that are under development.

}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0167742}, author = {de Vries, Paul S and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Chasman, Daniel I and Trompet, Stella and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Teumer, Alexander and Kleber, Marcus E and Chen, Ming-Huei and Wang, Jie Jin and Attia, John R and Marioni, Riccardo E and Steri, Maristella and Weng, Lu-Chen and Pool, Rene and Grossmann, Vera and Brody, Jennifer A and Venturini, Cristina and Tanaka, Toshiko and Rose, Lynda M and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Mazur, Johanna and Basu, Saonli and Fr{\r a}nberg, Mattias and Yang, Qiong and Ligthart, Symen and Hottenga, Jouke J and Rumley, Ann and Mulas, Antonella and de Craen, Anton J M and Grotevendt, Anne and Taylor, Kent D and Delgado, Graciela E and Kifley, Annette and Lopez, Lorna M and Berentzen, Tina L and Mangino, Massimo and Bandinelli, Stefania and Morrison, Alanna C and Hamsten, Anders and Tofler, Geoffrey and de Maat, Moniek P M and Draisma, Harmen H M and Lowe, Gordon D and Zoledziewska, Magdalena and Sattar, Naveed and Lackner, Karl J and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and McKnight, Barbara and Huang, Jie and Holliday, Elizabeth G and McEvoy, Mark A and Starr, John M and Hysi, Pirro G and Hernandez, Dena G and Guan, Weihua and Rivadeneira, Fernando and McArdle, Wendy L and Slagboom, P Eline and Zeller, Tanja and Psaty, Bruce M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and de Geus, Eco J C and Stott, David J and Binder, Harald and Hofman, Albert and Franco, Oscar H and Rotter, Jerome I and Ferrucci, Luigi and Spector, Tim D and Deary, Ian J and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Greinacher, Andreas and Wild, Philipp S and Cucca, Francesco and Boomsma, Dorret I and Watkins, Hugh and Tang, Weihong and Ridker, Paul M and Jukema, Jan W and Scott, Rodney J and Mitchell, Paul and Hansen, Torben and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Smith, Nicholas L and Strachan, David P and Dehghan, Abbas} } @article {7340, title = {The complex genetics of gait speed: genome-wide meta-analysis approach.}, journal = {Aging (Albany NY)}, volume = {9}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jan 10}, pages = {209-246}, abstract = {

Emerging evidence suggests that the basis for variation in late-life mobility is attributable, in part, to genetic factors, which may become increasingly important with age. Our objective was to systematically assess the contribution of genetic variation to gait speed in older individuals. We conducted a meta-analysis of gait speed GWASs in 31,478 older adults from 17 cohorts of the CHARGE consortium, and validated our results in 2,588 older adults from 4 independent studies. We followed our initial discoveries with network and eQTL analysis of candidate signals in tissues. The meta-analysis resulted in a list of 536 suggestive genome wide significant SNPs in or near 69 genes. Further interrogation with Pathway Analysis placed gait speed as a polygenic complex trait in five major networks. Subsequent eQTL analysis revealed several SNPs significantly associated with the expression of PRSS16, WDSUB1 and PTPRT, which in addition to the meta-analysis and pathway suggested that genetic effects on gait speed may occur through synaptic function and neuronal development pathways. No genome-wide significant signals for gait speed were identified from this moderately large sample of older adults, suggesting that more refined physical function phenotypes will be needed to identify the genetic basis of gait speed in aging.

}, issn = {1945-4589}, doi = {10.18632/aging.101151}, author = {Ben-Avraham, Dan and Karasik, David and Verghese, Joe and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Smith, Jennifer A and Eicher, John D and Vered, Rotem and Deelen, Joris and Arnold, Alice M and Buchman, Aron S and Tanaka, Toshiko and Faul, Jessica D and Nethander, Maria and Fornage, Myriam and Adams, Hieab H and Matteini, Amy M and Callisaya, Michele L and Smith, Albert V and Yu, Lei and De Jager, Philip L and Evans, Denis A and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hofman, Albert and Pattie, Alison and Corley, Janie and Launer, Lenore J and Knopman, Davis S and Parimi, Neeta and Turner, Stephen T and Bandinelli, Stefania and Beekman, Marian and Gutman, Danielle and Sharvit, Lital and Mooijaart, Simon P and Liewald, David C and Houwing-Duistermaat, Jeanine J and Ohlsson, Claes and Moed, Matthijs and Verlinden, Vincent J and Mellstr{\"o}m, Dan and van der Geest, Jos N and Karlsson, Magnus and Hernandez, Dena and McWhirter, Rebekah and Liu, Yongmei and Thomson, Russell and Tranah, Gregory J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Weir, David R and Zhao, Wei and Starr, John M and Johnson, Andrew D and Ikram, M Arfan and Bennett, David A and Cummings, Steven R and Deary, Ian J and Harris, Tamara B and Kardia, Sharon L R and Mosley, Thomas H and Srikanth, Velandai K and Windham, Beverly G and Newman, Ann B and Walston, Jeremy D and Davies, Gail and Evans, Daniel S and Slagboom, Eline P and Ferrucci, Luigi and Kiel, Douglas P and Murabito, Joanne M and Atzmon, Gil} } @article {7452, title = {Dairy consumption, systolic blood pressure, and risk of hypertension: Mendelian randomization study.}, journal = {BMJ}, volume = {356}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 03 16}, pages = {j1000}, abstract = {

Objective~To examine whether previous observed inverse associations of dairy intake with systolic blood pressure and risk of hypertension were causal.Design~Mendelian randomization study using the single nucleotide polymorphism rs4988235 related to lactase persistence as an instrumental variable.Setting~CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) Consortium.Participants~Data from 22 studies with 171 213 participants, and an additional 10 published prospective studies with 26 119 participants included in the observational analysis.Main outcome measures~The instrumental variable estimation was conducted using the ratio of coefficients approach. Using meta-analysis, an additional eight published randomized clinical trials on the association of dairy consumption with systolic blood pressure were summarized.Results~Compared with the CC genotype (CC is associated with complete lactase deficiency), the CT/TT genotype (TT is associated with lactose persistence, and CT is associated with certain lactase deficiency) of LCT-13910 (lactase persistence gene) rs4988235 was associated with higher dairy consumption (0.23 (about 55 g/day), 95\% confidence interval 0.17 to 0.29) serving/day; P<0.001) and was not associated with systolic blood pressure (0.31, 95\% confidence interval -0.05 to 0.68 mm Hg; P=0.09) or risk of hypertension (odds ratio 1.01, 95\% confidence interval 0.97 to 1.05; P=0.27). Using LCT-13910 rs4988235 as the instrumental variable, genetically determined dairy consumption was not associated with systolic blood pressure (β=1.35, 95\% confidence interval -0.28 to 2.97 mm Hg for each serving/day) or risk of hypertension (odds ratio 1.04, 0.88 to 1.24). Moreover, meta-analysis of the published clinical trials showed that higher dairy intake has no significant effect on change in systolic blood pressure for interventions over one month to 12 months (intervention compared with control groups: β=-0.21, 95\% confidence interval -0.98 to 0.57 mm Hg). In observational analysis, each serving/day increase in dairy consumption was associated with -0.11 (95\% confidence interval -0.20 to -0.02 mm Hg; P=0.02) lower systolic blood pressure but not risk of hypertension (odds ratio 0.98, 0.97 to 1.00; P=0.11).Conclusion~The weak inverse association between dairy intake and systolic blood pressure in observational studies was not supported by a comprehensive instrumental variable analysis and systematic review of existing clinical trials.

}, keywords = {Blood Pressure, Dairy Products, Feeding Behavior, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Hypertension, Lactase, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Observational Studies as Topic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic}, issn = {1756-1833}, doi = {10.1136/bmj.j1000}, author = {Ding, Ming and Huang, Tao and Bergholdt, Helle Km and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Ellervik, Christina and Qi, Lu} } @article {7328, title = {Detection of genetic loci associated with plasma fetuin-A: A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies from the CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Apr 03}, abstract = {

Plasma fetuin-A is associated with type 2 diabetes, and AHSG, the gene encoding fetuin-A, has been identified as a susceptibility locus for diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Thus far, unbiased investigations of the genetic determinants of plasma fetuin-A concentrations have not been conducted. We searched for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) related to fetuin-A concentrations by a genome-wide association study in six population-based studies.We examined the association of fetuin-A levels with \~{} 2.5 million genotyped and imputed SNPs in 9,055 participants of European descent and 2,119 African Americans. In both ethnicities, strongest associations were centered in a region with a high degree of LD near the AHSG locus. Among 136 genome-wide significant (p < 0.05x10-8) SNPs near the AHSG locus, the top SNP was rs4917 (p = 1.27x10-303), a known coding SNP in exon 6 that is associated with a 0.06 g/L (\~{}13\%) lower fetuin-A level. This variant alone explained 14\% of the variation in fetuin-A levels. Analyses conditioned on rs4917 indicated that the strong association with the AHSG locus stems from additional independent associations of multiple variants among European Americans. In conclusion, levels of fetuin-A in plasma are strongly associated with SNPs in its encoding gene, AHSG, but not elsewhere in the genome. Given the strength of the associations observed for multiple independent SNPs, the AHSG gene is an example of a candidate locus suitable for additional investigations including fine mapping to elucidate the biological basis of the findings and further functional experiments to clarify AHSG as a potential therapeutic target.

}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddx091}, author = {Jensen, Majken K and Jensen, Richard A and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Guo, Xiuqing and Yao, Jie and Sun, Qi and Cornelis, Marilyn and Liu, Yongmei and Chen, Ming-Huei and Kizer, Jorge R and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Siscovick, David S and Psaty, Bruce M and Zmuda, Joseph M and Rotter, Jerome I and Garcia, Melissa and Harris, Tamara and Chen, Ida and Goodarzi, Mark O and Nalls, Michael A and Keller, Margaux and Arnold, Alice M and Newman, Anne and Hoogeeven, Ron C and Rexrode, Kathryn M and Rimm, Eric B and Hu, Frank B and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Katz, Ronit and Pankow, James S and Ix, Joachim H} } @article {7352, title = {Discovery and fine-mapping of adiposity loci using high density imputation of genome-wide association studies in individuals of African ancestry: African ancestry anthropometry genetics consortium.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {13}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Apr 21}, pages = {e1006719}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified >300 loci associated with measures of adiposity including body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (adjusted for BMI, WHRadjBMI), but few have been identified through screening of the African ancestry genomes. We performed large scale meta-analyses and replications in up to 52,895 individuals for BMI and up to 23,095 individuals for WHRadjBMI from the African Ancestry Anthropometry Genetics Consortium (AAAGC) using 1000 Genomes phase 1 imputed GWAS to improve coverage of both common and low frequency variants in the low linkage disequilibrium African ancestry genomes. In the sex-combined analyses, we identified one novel locus (TCF7L2/HABP2) for WHRadjBMI and eight previously established loci at P < 5{\texttimes}10-8: seven for BMI, and one for WHRadjBMI in African ancestry individuals. An additional novel locus (SPRYD7/DLEU2) was identified for WHRadjBMI when combined with European GWAS. In the sex-stratified analyses, we identified three novel loci for BMI (INTS10/LPL and MLC1 in men, IRX4/IRX2 in women) and four for WHRadjBMI (SSX2IP, CASC8, PDE3B and ZDHHC1/HSD11B2 in women) in individuals of African ancestry or both African and European ancestry. For four of the novel variants, the minor allele frequency was low (<5\%). In the trans-ethnic fine mapping of 47 BMI loci and 27 WHRadjBMI loci that were locus-wide significant (P < 0.05 adjusted for effective number of variants per locus) from the African ancestry sex-combined and sex-stratified analyses, 26 BMI loci and 17 WHRadjBMI loci contained <= 20 variants in the credible sets that jointly account for 99\% posterior probability of driving the associations. The lead variants in 13 of these loci had a high probability of being causal. As compared to our previous HapMap imputed GWAS for BMI and WHRadjBMI including up to 71,412 and 27,350 African ancestry individuals, respectively, our results suggest that 1000 Genomes imputation showed modest improvement in identifying GWAS loci including low frequency variants. Trans-ethnic meta-analyses further improved fine mapping of putative causal variants in loci shared between the African and European ancestry populations.

}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1006719}, author = {Ng, Maggie C Y and Graff, Mariaelisa and Lu, Yingchang and Justice, Anne E and Mudgal, Poorva and Liu, Ching-Ti and Young, Kristin and Yanek, Lisa R and Feitosa, Mary F and Wojczynski, Mary K and Rand, Kristin and Brody, Jennifer A and Cade, Brian E and Dimitrov, Latchezar and Duan, Qing and Guo, Xiuqing and Lange, Leslie A and Nalls, Michael A and Okut, Hayrettin and Tajuddin, Salman M and Tayo, Bamidele O and Vedantam, Sailaja and Bradfield, Jonathan P and Chen, Guanjie and Chen, Wei-Min and Chesi, Alessandra and Irvin, Marguerite R and Padhukasahasram, Badri and Smith, Jennifer A and Zheng, Wei and Allison, Matthew A and Ambrosone, Christine B and Bandera, Elisa V and Bartz, Traci M and Berndt, Sonja I and Bernstein, Leslie and Blot, William J and Bottinger, Erwin P and Carpten, John and Chanock, Stephen J and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Conti, David V and Cooper, Richard S and Fornage, Myriam and Freedman, Barry I and Garcia, Melissa and Goodman, Phyllis J and Hsu, Yu-Han H and Hu, Jennifer and Huff, Chad D and Ingles, Sue A and John, Esther M and Kittles, Rick and Klein, Eric and Li, Jin and McKnight, Barbara and Nayak, Uma and Nemesure, Barbara and Ogunniyi, Adesola and Olshan, Andrew and Press, Michael F and Rohde, Rebecca and Rybicki, Benjamin A and Salako, Babatunde and Sanderson, Maureen and Shao, Yaming and Siscovick, David S and Stanford, Janet L and Stevens, Victoria L and Stram, Alex and Strom, Sara S and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Witte, John S and Yao, Jie and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Ziegler, Regina G and Zonderman, Alan B and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Ambs, Stefan and Cushman, Mary and Faul, Jessica D and Hakonarson, Hakon and Levin, Albert M and Nathanson, Katherine L and Ware, Erin B and Weir, David R and Zhao, Wei and Zhi, Degui and Arnett, Donna K and Grant, Struan F A and Kardia, Sharon L R and Oloapde, Olufunmilayo I and Rao, D C and Rotimi, Charles N and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Williams, L Keoki and Zemel, Babette S and Becker, Diane M and Borecki, Ingrid B and Evans, Michele K and Harris, Tamara B and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Li, Yun and Patel, Sanjay R and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Wilson, James G and Bowden, Donald W and Cupples, L Adrienne and Haiman, Christopher A and Loos, Ruth J F and North, Kari E} } @article {7346, title = {Discovery and fine-mapping of loci associated with monounsaturated fatty acids through trans-ethnic meta-analysis in Chinese and European populations.}, journal = {J Lipid Res}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Mar 15}, abstract = {

Monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) are unsaturated fatty acids with one double bond and are derived from endogenous synthesis and dietary intake. Accumulating evidence has suggested that plasma and erythrocyte MUFA levels were associated with cardiometabolic disorders including cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes (T2D) and metabolic syndrome (MS). Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified seven loci for plasma and erythrocyte palmitoleic acid and oleic acid levels in populations of European origin. To identify additional MUFA-associated loci and the potential causal variant at each locus, we performed ethnic-specific GWAS meta-analyses and trans-ethnic meta-analyses in over 15,000 participants of Chinese- and European-ancestry. We identified novel genome-wide significant associations for vaccenic acid at FADS1/2 and PKD2L1 [log10(Bayes factor)>=8.07] and for gondoic acid at FADS1/2 and GCKR [log10(Bayes factor)>=61619;6.22], and also observed improved fine-mapping resolutions at FADS1/2 and GCKR loci. The greatest improvement was observed at GCKR, where the number of variants in the 99\% credible set was reduced from 16 (covering ~95kb) to five (covering ~20kb, including a missense variant rs1260326) after trans-ethnic meta-analysis. We also confirmed the previously reported associations of PKD2L1, FADS1/2, GCKR and HIF1AN with palmitoleic acid and of FADS1/2 and LPCAT3 with oleic acid in the Chinese-specific GWAS and trans-ethnic meta-analyses. Pathway-based analyses suggested that the identified loci were enriched in unsaturated fatty acids metabolism and signaling pathways. Our findings provided novel insight into the genetic basis relevant to MUFA metabolism and biology.

}, issn = {1539-7262}, doi = {10.1194/jlr.P071860}, author = {Hu, Yao and Tanaka, Toshiko and Zhu, Jingwen and Guan, Weihua and Wu, Jason H Y and Psaty, Bruce M and McKnight, Barbara and King, Irena B and Sun, Qi and Richard, Melissa and Manichaikul, Ani and Frazier-Wood, Alexis C and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Hopkins, Paul N and Ordovas, Jose M and Ferrucci, Luigi and Bandinelli, Stefania and Arnett, Donna K and Chen, Yii-der I and Liang, Shuang and Siscovick, David S and Tsai, Michael Y and Rich, Stephen S and Fornage, Myriam and Hu, Frank B and Rimm, Eric B and Jensen, Majken K and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Steffen, Lyn M and Morris, Andrew P and Li, Huaixing and Lin, Xu} } @article {7566, title = {Discovery and replication of SNP-SNP interactions for quantitative lipid traits in over 60,000 individuals.}, journal = {BioData Min}, volume = {10}, year = {2017}, month = {2017}, pages = {25}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The genetic etiology of human lipid quantitative traits is not fully elucidated, and interactions between variants may play a role. We performed a gene-centric interaction study for four different lipid traits: low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), total cholesterol (TC), and triglycerides (TG).

RESULTS: Our analysis consisted of a discovery phase using a merged dataset of five different cohorts (n~=~12,853 to n~=~16,849 depending on lipid phenotype) and a replication phase with ten independent cohorts totaling up to 36,938 additional samples. Filters are often applied before interaction testing to correct for the burden of testing all pairwise interactions. We used two different filters: 1. A filter that tested only single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with a main effect of p~<~0.001 in a previous association study. 2. A filter that only tested interactions identified by Biofilter 2.0. Pairwise models that reached an interaction significance level of p~<~0.001 in the discovery dataset were tested for replication. We identified thirteen SNP-SNP models that were significant in more than one replication cohort after accounting for multiple testing.

CONCLUSIONS: These results may reveal novel insights into the genetic etiology of lipid levels. Furthermore, we developed a pipeline to perform a computationally efficient interaction analysis with multi-cohort replication.

}, issn = {1756-0381}, doi = {10.1186/s13040-017-0145-5}, author = {Holzinger, Emily R and Verma, Shefali S and Moore, Carrie B and Hall, Molly and De, Rishika and Gilbert-Diamond, Diane and Lanktree, Matthew B and Pankratz, Nathan and Amuzu, Antoinette and Burt, Amber and Dale, Caroline and Dudek, Scott and Furlong, Clement E and Gaunt, Tom R and Kim, Daniel Seung and Riess, Helene and Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh and Tragante, Vinicius and van Iperen, Erik P A and Brautbar, Ariel and Carrell, David S and Crosslin, David R and Jarvik, Gail P and Kuivaniemi, Helena and Kullo, Iftikhar J and Larson, Eric B and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Tromp, Gerard and Baumert, Jens and Cruickshanks, Karen J and Farrall, Martin and Hingorani, Aroon D and Hovingh, G K and Kleber, Marcus E and Klein, Barbara E and Klein, Ronald and Koenig, Wolfgang and Lange, Leslie A and Mӓrz, Winfried and North, Kari E and Charlotte Onland-Moret, N and Reiner, Alex P and Talmud, Philippa J and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Wilson, James G and Kivimaki, Mika and Kumari, Meena and Moore, Jason H and Drenos, Fotios and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Keating, Brendan J and Ritchie, Marylyn D} } @article {7363, title = {Discovery of novel heart rate-associated loci using the Exome Chip.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Apr 03}, abstract = {

Background Resting heart rate is a heritable trait, and an increase in heart rate is associated with increased mortality risk. GWAS analyses have found loci associated with resting heart rate, at the time of our study these loci explained 0.9\% of the variation.Aim To discover new genetic loci associated with heart rate from Exome Chip meta-analyses.Methods Heart rate was measured from either elecrtrocardiograms or pulse recordings. We meta-analysed heart rate association results from 104,452 European-ancestry individuals from 30 cohorts, genotyped using the Exome Chip. Twenty-four variants were selected for follow-up in an independent dataset (UK Biobank, N = 134,251). Conditional and gene-based testing was undertaken, and variants were investigated with bioinformatics methods.Results We discovered five novel heart rate loci, and one new independent low-frequency non-synonymous variant in an established heart rate locus (KIAA1755). Lead variants in four of the novel loci are non-synonymous variants in the genes C10orf71, DALDR3, TESK2, SEC31B. The variant at SEC31B is significantly associated with SEC31B expression in heart and tibial nerve tissue. Further candidate genes were detected from long range regulatory chromatin interactions in heart tissue (SCD, SLF2, MAPK8). We observed significant enrichment in DNase I hypersensitive sites in fetal heart and lung. Moreover, enrichment was seen for the first time in human neuronal progenitor cells (derived from embryonic stem cells) and fetal muscle samples by including our novel variants.Conclusion Our findings advance the knowledge of the genetic architecture of heart rate, and indicate new candidate genes for follow-up functional studies.

}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddx113}, author = {van den Berg, Marten E and Warren, Helen R and Cabrera, Claudia P and Verweij, Niek and Mifsud, Borbala and Haessler, Jeffrey and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and Fu, Yi-Ping and Weiss, Stefan and Lin, Henry J and Grarup, Niels and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Pistis, Giorgio and Shah, Nabi and Brody, Jennifer A and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Lin, Honghuang and Mei, Hao and Smith, Albert V and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Hall, Leanne M and van Setten, Jessica and Trompet, Stella and Prins, Bram P and Isaacs, Aaron and Radmanesh, Farid and Marten, Jonathan and Entwistle, Aiman and Kors, Jan A and Silva, Claudia T and Alonso, Alvaro and Bis, Joshua C and de Boer, Rudolf and de Haan, Hugoline G and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Dedoussis, George and Dominiczak, Anna F and Doney, Alex S F and Ellinor, Patrick T and Eppinga, Ruben N and Felix, Stephan B and Guo, Xiuqing and Hagemeijer, Yanick and Hansen, Torben and Harris, Tamara B and Heckbert, Susan R and Huang, Paul L and Hwang, Shih-Jen and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kanters, J{\o}rgen K and Kolcic, Ivana and Launer, Lenore J and Li, Man and Yao, Jie and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Simin and Macfarlane, Peter W and Mangino, Massimo and Morris, Andrew D and Mulas, Antonella and Murray, Alison D and Nelson, Christopher P and Orr{\`u}, Marco and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Peters, Annette and Porteous, David J and Poulter, Neil and Psaty, Bruce M and Qi, Lihong and Raitakari, Olli T and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Roselli, Carolina and Rudan, Igor and Sattar, Naveed and Sever, Peter and Sinner, Moritz F and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Spector, Timothy D and Stanton, Alice V and Stirrups, Kathleen E and Taylor, Kent D and Tobin, Martin D and Uitterlinden, Andre and Vaartjes, Ilonca and Hoes, Arno W and van der Meer, Peter and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Waldenberger, Melanie and Xie, Zhijun and Zoledziewska, Magdalena and Tinker, Andrew and Polasek, Ozren and Rosand, Jonathan and Jamshidi, Yalda and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Wouter Jukema, J and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Samani, Nilesh J and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Wilson, James and Lubitz, Steven A and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Caulfield, Mark J and Palmer, Colin N A and Sanna, Serena and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Deloukas, Panos and Pedersen, Oluf and Rotter, Jerome I and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Chris J and Hayward, Caroline and Arking, Dan E and Kooperberg, Charles and van der Harst, Pim and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Stricker, Bruno H and Munroe, Patricia B} } @article {7583, title = {DNA Methylation Analysis Identifies Loci for Blood Pressure Regulation.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {101}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Dec 07}, pages = {888-902}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies have identified hundreds of genetic variants associated with blood pressure (BP), but sequence variation accounts for a small fraction of the phenotypic variance. Epigenetic changes may alter the expression of genes involved in BP regulation and explain part of the missing heritability. We therefore conducted a two-stage meta-analysis of the cross-sectional associations of systolic and diastolic BP with blood-derived genome-wide DNA methylation measured on the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip in 17,010 individuals of European, African American, and Hispanic ancestry. Of 31 discovery-stage cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) dinucleotides, 13 replicated after Bonferroni correction (discovery: N = 9,828, p < 1.0~{\texttimes} 10-7; replication: N = 7,182, p~<~1.6~{\texttimes} 10-3). The replicated methylation sites are heritable (h2 > 30\%) and independent of known BP genetic variants, explaining an additional 1.4\% and 2.0\% of the interindividual variation in systolic and diastolic BP, respectively. Bidirectional Mendelian randomization among up to 4,513 individuals of European ancestry from 4 cohorts suggested that methylation at cg08035323 (TAF1B-YWHAQ) influences BP, while BP influences methylation at cg00533891 (ZMIZ1), cg00574958 (CPT1A), and cg02711608 (SLC1A5). Gene expression analyses further identified six genes (TSPAN2, SLC7A11, UNC93B1, CPT1A, PTMS, and LPCAT3) with evidence of triangular associations between methylation, gene expression, and BP. Additional integrative Mendelian randomization analyses of gene expression and DNA methylation suggested that the expression of TSPAN2 is a putative mediator of association between DNA methylation at cg23999170 and BP. These findings suggest that heritable DNA methylation plays a role in regulating BP independently of previously known genetic variants.

}, keywords = {Aged, Blood Pressure, CpG Islands, Cross-Sectional Studies, DNA Methylation, Epigenesis, Genetic, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Quantitative Trait Loci, Tetraspanins}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2017.09.028}, author = {Richard, Melissa A and Huan, Tianxiao and Ligthart, Symen and Gondalia, Rahul and Jhun, Min A and Brody, Jennifer A and Irvin, Marguerite R and Marioni, Riccardo and Shen, Jincheng and Tsai, Pei-Chien and Montasser, May E and Jia, Yucheng and Syme, Catriona and Salfati, Elias L and Boerwinkle, Eric and Guan, Weihua and Mosley, Thomas H and Bressler, Jan and Morrison, Alanna C and Liu, Chunyu and Mendelson, Michael M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Meurs, Joyce B and Franco, Oscar H and Zhang, Guosheng and Li, Yun and Stewart, James D and Bis, Joshua C and Psaty, Bruce M and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Kardia, Sharon L R and Zhao, Wei and Turner, Stephen T and Absher, Devin and Aslibekyan, Stella and Starr, John M and McRae, Allan F and Hou, Lifang and Just, Allan C and Schwartz, Joel D and Vokonas, Pantel S and Menni, Cristina and Spector, Tim D and Shuldiner, Alan and Damcott, Coleen M and Rotter, Jerome I and Palmas, Walter and Liu, Yongmei and Paus, Tom{\'a}{\v s} and Horvath, Steve and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Guo, Xiuqing and Pausova, Zdenka and Assimes, Themistocles L and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Smith, Jennifer A and Arnett, Donna K and Deary, Ian J and Baccarelli, Andrea A and Bell, Jordana T and Whitsel, Eric and Dehghan, Abbas and Levy, Daniel and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {7489, title = {Ectopy on a Single 12-Lead ECG, Incident Cardiac Myopathy, and Death in the Community.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {6}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Aug 03}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation and heart failure are 2 of the most common diseases, yet ready means to identify individuals at risk are lacking. The 12-lead ECG is one of the most accessible tests in medicine. Our objective was to determine whether a premature atrial contraction observed on a standard 12-lead ECG would predict atrial fibrillation and mortality and whether a premature ventricular contraction would predict heart failure and mortality.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We utilized the CHS (Cardiovascular Health) Study, which followed 5577 participants for a median of 12~years, as the primary cohort. The ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study), the replication cohort, captured data from 15~792 participants over a median of 22~years. In the CHS, multivariable analyses revealed that a baseline 12-lead ECG premature atrial contraction predicted a 60\% increased risk of atrial fibrillation (hazard ratio, 1.6; 95\% CI, 1.3-2.0; P<0.001) and a premature ventricular contraction predicted a 30\% increased risk of heart failure (hazard ratio, 1.3; 95\% CI, 1.0-1.6; P=0.021). In the negative control analyses, neither predicted incident myocardial infarction. A premature atrial contraction was associated with a 30\% increased risk of death (hazard ratio, 1.3; 95\% CI, 1.1-1.5; P=0.008) and a premature ventricular contraction was associated with a 20\% increased risk of death (hazard ratio, 1.2; 95\% CI, 1.0-1.3; P=0.044). Similarly statistically significant results for each analysis were also observed in ARIC.

CONCLUSIONS: Based on a single standard ECG, a premature atrial contraction predicted incident atrial fibrillation and death and a premature ventricular contraction predicted incident heart failure and death, suggesting that this commonly used test may predict future disease.

}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.117.006028}, author = {Nguyen, Kaylin T and Vittinghoff, Eric and Dewland, Thomas A and Dukes, Jonathan W and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Stein, Phyllis K and Gottdiener, John S and Alonso, Alvaro and Chen, Lin Y and Psaty, Bruce M and Heckbert, Susan R and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {7464, title = {eGFR and Albuminuria in Relation to Risk of Incident Atrial Fibrillation: A Meta-Analysis of the Jackson Heart Study, the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Clin J Am Soc Nephrol}, volume = {12}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Sep 07}, pages = {1386-1398}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The incidence of atrial fibrillation is high in ESRD, but limited data are available on the incidence of atrial fibrillation across a broad range of kidney function. Thus, we examined the association of eGFR and urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio with risk of incident atrial fibrillation.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, \& MEASUREMENTS: We meta-analyzed three prospective cohorts: the Jackson Heart Study, the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and the Cardiovascular Health Study. Cox regression models were performed examining the association of eGFR and urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio with incident atrial fibrillation adjusting for demographics and comorbidity. In additional analyses, we adjusted for measures of subclinical cardiovascular disease (by electrocardiogram and cardiac imaging) and interim heart failure and myocardial infarction events.

RESULTS: In the meta-analyzed study population of 16,769 participants without prevalent atrial fibrillation, across categories of decreasing eGFR (eGFR>90 [reference], 60-89, 45-59, 30-44, and <30 ml/min per 1.73 m(2)), there was a stepwise increase in the adjusted risk of incident atrial fibrillation: hazard ratios (95\% confidence intervals) were 1.00, 1.09 (0.97 to 1.24), 1.17 (1.00 to 1.38), 1.59 (1.28 to 1.98), and 2.03 (1.40 to 2.96), respectively. There was a stepwise increase in the adjusted risk of incident atrial fibrillation across categories of increasing urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio <15 [reference], 15-29, 30-299, and >=300 mg/g): hazard ratios (95\% confidence intervals) were 1.00, 1.04 (0.83 to 1.30), 1.47 (1.20 to 1.79), and 1.76 (1.18 to 2.62), respectively. The associations were consistent after adjustment for subclinical cardiovascular disease measures and interim heart failure and myocardial infarction events.

CONCLUSIONS: In this meta-analysis of three cohorts, reduced eGFR and elevated urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio were significantly associated with greater risk of incident atrial fibrillation, highlighting the need for further studies to understand mechanisms linking kidney disease with atrial fibrillation.

}, issn = {1555-905X}, doi = {10.2215/CJN.01860217}, author = {Bansal, Nisha and Zelnick, Leila R and Alonso, Alvaro and Benjamin, Emelia J and de Boer, Ian H and Deo, Rajat and Katz, Ronit and Kestenbaum, Bryan and Mathew, Jehu and Robinson-Cohen, Cassianne and Sarnak, Mark J and Shlipak, Michael G and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Young, Bessie and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {7573, title = {Exome-wide association study of plasma lipids in >300,000 individuals.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {49}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Dec}, pages = {1758-1766}, abstract = {

We screened variants on an exome-focused genotyping array in >300,000 participants (replication in >280,000 participants) and identified 444 independent variants in 250 loci significantly associated with total cholesterol (TC), high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and/or triglycerides (TG). At two loci (JAK2 and A1CF), experimental analysis in mice showed lipid changes consistent with the human data. We also found that: (i) beta-thalassemia trait carriers displayed lower TC and were protected from coronary artery disease (CAD); (ii) excluding the CETP locus, there was not a predictable relationship between plasma HDL-C and risk for age-related macular degeneration; (iii) only some mechanisms of lowering LDL-C appeared to increase risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D); and (iv) TG-lowering alleles involved in hepatic production of TG-rich lipoproteins (TM6SF2 and PNPLA3) tracked with higher liver fat, higher risk for T2D, and lower risk for CAD, whereas TG-lowering alleles involved in peripheral lipolysis (LPL and ANGPTL4) had no effect on liver fat but decreased risks for both T2D and CAD.

}, keywords = {Coronary Artery Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Exome, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genotype, Humans, Lipids, Macular Degeneration, Phenotype, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3977}, author = {Liu, Dajiang J and Peloso, Gina M and Yu, Haojie and Butterworth, Adam S and Wang, Xiao and Mahajan, Anubha and Saleheen, Danish and Emdin, Connor and Alam, Dewan and Alves, Alexessander Couto and Amouyel, Philippe and Di Angelantonio, Emanuele and Arveiler, Dominique and Assimes, Themistocles L and Auer, Paul L and Baber, Usman and Ballantyne, Christie M and Bang, Lia E and Benn, Marianne and Bis, Joshua C and Boehnke, Michael and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Bottinger, Erwin P and Brandslund, Ivan and Brown, Morris and Busonero, Fabio and Caulfield, Mark J and Chambers, John C and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Y Eugene and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chowdhury, Rajiv and Christensen, Cramer and Chu, Audrey Y and Connell, John M and Cucca, Francesco and Cupples, L Adrienne and Damrauer, Scott M and Davies, Gail and Deary, Ian J and Dedoussis, George and Denny, Joshua C and Dominiczak, Anna and Dub{\'e}, Marie-Pierre and Ebeling, Tapani and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni and Feitosa, Mary F and Ferrario, Marco and Ferrieres, Jean and Ford, Ian and Fornage, Myriam and Franks, Paul W and Frayling, Timothy M and Frikke-Schmidt, Ruth and Fritsche, Lars G and Frossard, Philippe and Fuster, Valentin and Ganesh, Santhi K and Gao, Wei and Garcia, Melissa E and Gieger, Christian and Giulianini, Franco and Goodarzi, Mark O and Grallert, Harald and Grarup, Niels and Groop, Leif and Grove, Megan L and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hansen, Torben and Harris, Tamara B and Hayward, Caroline and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Holmen, Oddgeir L and Huffman, Jennifer and Huo, Yong and Hveem, Kristian and Jabeen, Sehrish and Jackson, Anne U and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Jensen, Gorm B and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and Jukema, J Wouter and Justesen, Johanne M and Kamstrup, Pia R and Kanoni, Stavroula and Karpe, Fredrik and Kee, Frank and Khera, Amit V and Klarin, Derek and Koistinen, Heikki A and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kooperberg, Charles and Kuulasmaa, Kari and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo and Langenberg, Claudia and Langsted, Anne and Launer, Lenore J and Lauritzen, Torsten and Liewald, David C M and Lin, Li An and Linneberg, Allan and Loos, Ruth J F and Lu, Yingchang and Lu, Xiangfeng and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and M{\"a}larstig, Anders and Manichaikul, Ani and Manning, Alisa K and M{\"a}ntyselk{\"a}, Pekka and Marouli, Eirini and Masca, Nicholas G D and Maschio, Andrea and Meigs, James B and Melander, Olle and Metspalu, Andres and Morris, Andrew P and Morrison, Alanna C and Mulas, Antonella and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Munroe, Patricia B and Neville, Matt J and Nielsen, Jonas B and Nielsen, Sune F and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Ordovas, Jose M and Mehran, Roxana and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christoper J and Orho-Melander, Marju and Molony, Cliona M and Muntendam, Pieter and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Palmer, Colin N A and Pasko, Dorota and Patel, Aniruddh P and Pedersen, Oluf and Perola, Markus and Peters, Annette and Pisinger, Charlotta and Pistis, Giorgio and Polasek, Ozren and Poulter, Neil and Psaty, Bruce M and Rader, Daniel J and Rasheed, Asif and Rauramaa, Rainer and Reilly, Dermot F and Reiner, Alex P and Renstrom, Frida and Rich, Stephen S and Ridker, Paul M and Rioux, John D and Robertson, Neil R and Roden, Dan M and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Salomaa, Veikko and Samani, Nilesh J and Sanna, Serena and Sattar, Naveed and Schmidt, Ellen M and Scott, Robert A and Sever, Peter and Sevilla, Raquel S and Shaffer, Christian M and Sim, Xueling and Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh and Small, Kerrin S and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Blair H and Somayajula, Sangeetha and Southam, Lorraine and Spector, Timothy D and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Starr, John M and Stirrups, Kathleen E and Stitziel, Nathan and Strauch, Konstantin and Stringham, Heather M and Surendran, Praveen and Tada, Hayato and Tall, Alan R and Tang, Hua and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Taylor, Kent D and Trompet, Stella and Tsao, Philip S and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne and van Zuydam, Natalie R and Varbo, Anette and Varga, Tibor V and Virtamo, Jarmo and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wang, Nan and Wareham, Nick J and Warren, Helen R and Weeke, Peter E and Weinstock, Joshua and Wessel, Jennifer and Wilson, James G and Wilson, Peter W F and Xu, Ming and Yaghootkar, Hanieh and Young, Robin and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Zhang, He and Zheng, Neil S and Zhang, Weihua and Zhang, Yan and Zhou, Wei and Zhou, Yanhua and Zoledziewska, Magdalena and Howson, Joanna M M and Danesh, John and McCarthy, Mark I and Cowan, Chad A and Abecasis, Goncalo and Deloukas, Panos and Musunuru, Kiran and Willer, Cristen J and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {7493, title = {Factors Associated With Ischemic Stroke Survival and Recovery in Older Adults.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {48}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jul}, pages = {1818-1826}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Little is known about factors that predispose older adults to poor recovery after a stroke. In this study, we sought to evaluate prestroke measures of frailty and related factors as markers of vulnerability to poor outcomes after ischemic stroke.

METHODS: In participants aged 65 to 99 years with incident ischemic strokes from the Cardiovascular Health Study, we evaluated the association of several risk factors (frailty, frailty components, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, and cystatin C) assessed before stroke with stroke outcomes of survival, cognitive decline (>=5 points on Modified Mini-Mental State Examination), and activities of daily living decline (increase in limitations).

RESULTS: Among 717 participants with incident ischemic stroke with survival data, slow walking speed, low grip strength, and cystatin C were independently associated with shorter survival. Among participants <80 years of age, frailty and interleukin-6 were also associated with shorter survival. Among 509 participants with recovery data, slow walking speed, and low grip strength were associated with both cognitive and activities of daily living decline poststroke. C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 were associated with poststroke cognitive decline among men only. Frailty status was associated with activities of daily living decline among women only.

CONCLUSIONS: Markers of physical function-walking speed and grip strength-were consistently associated with survival and recovery after ischemic stroke. Inflammation, kidney function, and frailty also seemed to be determinants of survival and recovery after an ischemic stroke. These markers of vulnerability may identify targets for differing pre and poststroke medical management and rehabilitation among older adults at risk of poor stroke outcomes.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Brain Ischemia, Cohort Studies, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Frail Elderly, Humans, Male, Recovery of Function, Risk Factors, Stroke, Survival Rate}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.117.016726}, author = {Winovich, Divya Thekkethala and Longstreth, William T and Arnold, Alice M and Varadhan, Ravi and Zeki Al Hazzouri, Adina and Cushman, Mary and Newman, Anne B and Odden, Michelle C} } @article {7557, title = {Fifteen Genetic Loci Associated With the Electrocardiographic P Wave.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {10}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Aug}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The P wave on an ECG is a measure of atrial electric function, and its characteristics may serve as predictors for atrial arrhythmias. Increased mean P-wave duration and P-wave terminal force traditionally have been used as markers for left atrial enlargement, and both have been associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation. Here, we explore the genetic basis of P-wave morphology through meta-analysis of genome-wide association study results for P-wave duration and P-wave terminal force from 12 cohort studies.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We included 44 456 individuals, of which 6778 (16\%) were of African ancestry. Genotyping, imputation, and genome-wide association study were performed at each study site. Summary-level results were meta-analyzed centrally using inverse-variance weighting. In meta-analyses of P-wave duration, we identified 6 significant (P<5{\texttimes}10-8) novel loci and replicated a prior association with SCN10A. We identified 3 loci at SCN5A, TBX5, and CAV1/CAV2 that were jointly associated with the PR interval, PR segment, and P-wave duration. We identified 6 novel loci in meta-analysis of P-wave terminal force. Four of the identified genetic loci were significantly associated with gene expression in 329 left atrial samples. Finally, we observed that some of the loci associated with the P wave were linked to overall atrial conduction, whereas others identified distinct phases of atrial conduction.

CONCLUSIONS: We have identified 6 novel genetic loci associated with P-wave duration and 6 novel loci associated with P-wave terminal force. Future studies of these loci may aid in identifying new targets for drugs that may modify atrial conduction or treat atrial arrhythmias.

}, keywords = {Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Caveolin 1, Caveolin 2, Electrocardiography, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Heart Atria, Humans, NAV1.5 Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel, NAV1.8 Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel, T-Box Domain Proteins}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.116.001667}, author = {Christophersen, Ingrid E and Magnani, Jared W and Yin, Xiaoyan and Barnard, John and Weng, Lu-Chen and Arking, Dan E and Niemeijer, Maartje N and Lubitz, Steven A and Avery, Christy L and Duan, Qing and Felix, Stephan B and Bis, Joshua C and Kerr, Kathleen F and Isaacs, Aaron and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and M{\"u}ller, Christian and North, Kari E and Reiner, Alex P and Tinker, Lesley F and Kors, Jan A and Teumer, Alexander and Petersmann, Astrid and Sinner, Moritz F and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Smith, Jonathan D and Van Wagoner, David R and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Waldenberger, Melanie and Peters, Annette and Meitinger, Thomas and Limacher, Marian C and Wilhelmsen, Kirk C and Psaty, Bruce M and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andre and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Zhang, Zhu-Ming and Schnabel, Renate B and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and van Duijn, Cornelia and Rotter, Jerome I and Sotoodehnia, Nona and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Li, Yun and Chung, Mina K and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Alonso, Alvaro and Whitsel, Eric A and Stricker, Bruno H and Benjamin, Emelia J and Heckbert, Susan R and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {7463, title = {Fine mapping of QT interval regions in global populations refines previously identified QT interval loci and identifies signals unique to African and Hispanic descent populations.}, journal = {Heart Rhythm}, volume = {14}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Apr}, pages = {572-580}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The electrocardiographically measured QT interval (QT) is heritable and its prolongation is an established risk factor for several cardiovascular diseases. Yet, most QT genetic studies have been performed in European ancestral populations, possibly reducing their global relevance.

OBJECTIVE: To leverage diversity and improve biological insight, we fine mapped 16 of the 35 previously identified QT loci (46\%) in populations of African American (n = 12,410) and Hispanic/Latino (n = 14,837) ancestry.

METHODS: Racial/ethnic-specific multiple linear regression analyses adjusted for heart rate and clinical covariates were examined separately and in combination after inverse-variance weighted trans-ethnic meta-analysis.

RESULTS: The 16 fine-mapped QT loci included on the Illumina Metabochip represented 21 independent signals, of which 16 (76\%) were significantly (P-value<=9.1{\texttimes}10(-5)) associated with QT. Through sequential conditional analysis we also identified three trans-ethnic novel SNPs at ATP1B1, SCN5A-SCN10A, and KCNQ1 and three Hispanic/Latino-specific novel SNPs at NOS1AP and SCN5A-SCN10A (two novel SNPs) with evidence of associations with QT independent of previous identified GWAS lead SNPs. Linkage disequilibrium patterns helped to narrow the region likely to contain the functional variants at several loci, including NOS1AP, USP50-TRPM7, and PRKCA, although intervals surrounding SLC35F1-PLN and CNOT1 remained broad in size (>100 kb). Finally, bioinformatics-based functional characterization suggested a regulatory function in cardiac tissues for the majority of independent signals that generalized and the novel SNPs.

CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that a majority of identified SNPs implicate gene regulatory dysfunction in QT prolongation, that the same loci influence variation in QT across global populations, and that additional, novel, population-specific QT signals exist.

}, issn = {1556-3871}, doi = {10.1016/j.hrthm.2016.12.021}, author = {Avery, Christy L and Wassel, Christina L and Richard, Melissa A and Highland, Heather M and Bien, Stephanie and Zubair, Niha and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Fornage, Myriam and Bielinski, Suzette J and Tao, Ran and Seyerle, Amanda A and Shah, Sanjiv J and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Buyske, Steven and Rotter, Jerome I and Post, Wendy S and Rich, Stephen S and Hindorff, Lucia A and Jeff, Janina M and Shohet, Ralph V and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Lin, Dan Yu and Whitsel, Eric A and Peters, Ulrike and Haiman, Christopher A and Crawford, Dana C and Kooperberg, Charles and North, Kari E} } @article {7518, title = {Galectin-3 and Venous Thromboembolism Incidence: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study.}, journal = {Res Pract Thromb Haemost}, volume = {1}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Oct}, pages = {223-230}, abstract = {

Background: The inflammatory biomarker galectin-3 contributes to pathologic conditions such as heart failure and stimulates murine thrombogenesis. Its association with venous thromboembolism (VTE) has been sparsely studied.

Objectives: To assess the prospective association of plasma galectin-3 and the LGALS3 rs4644 SNP with VTE incidence.

Methods: We measured plasma galectin-3 in 9,916 participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study cohort in 1996 - 1998 and identified VTEs through 2013. Using Cox regression, we estimated the hazard ratio associating galectin-3 with incident VTE over a median of 13.9 years. Replication was sought in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS).

Results: ARIC included 21.8\% blacks and 56.2\% females with mean baseline age of 62.7 years. The incidence rate of VTE (n=389 events) increased across quintiles of galectin-3, with hazard ratios (95\% CI) of 1 (reference), 1.13 (0.80 - 1.61), 1.00 (0.70 - 1.43), 1.36 (0.96 - 1.91), and 1.55 (1.09 - 2.19) (p-trend = 0.005), adjusted for age, sex, race, body mass index, diabetes status, and renal function. Results did not replicate in the CHS (124 VTE), but meta-analysis of both studies yielded a pooled hazard ratio (95\% CI) for 1 SD increment in log galectin-3 of 1.10 (1.00 - 1.22). In ARIC, the C allele of rs4644 in the LGALS3 gene was associated with higher galectin-3 level, and in whites, with an increased rate of VTE.

Conclusion: Galectin-3 levels were associated positively with VTE incidence.

}, issn = {2475-0379}, doi = {10.1002/rth2.12038}, author = {Fashanu, Oluwaseun E and Heckbert, Susan R and Aguilar, David and Jensen, Paul N and Ballantyne, Christie M and Basu, Saonli and Hoogeveen, Ron C and DeFilippi, Christopher and Cushman, Mary and Folsom, Aaron R} } @article {7599, title = {Generalization and fine mapping of European ancestry-based central adiposity variants in African ancestry populations.}, journal = {Int J Obes (Lond)}, volume = {41}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Feb}, pages = {324-331}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Central adiposity measures such as waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) are associated with cardiometabolic disorders independently of body mass index (BMI) and are gaining clinically utility. Several studies report genetic variants associated with central adiposity, but most utilize only European ancestry populations. Understanding whether the genetic associations discovered among mainly European descendants are shared with African ancestry populations will help elucidate the biological underpinnings of abdominal fat deposition.

SUBJECTS/METHODS: To identify the underlying functional genetic determinants of body fat distribution, we conducted an array-wide association meta-analysis among persons of African ancestry across seven studies/consortia participating in the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) consortium. We used the Metabochip array, designed for fine-mapping cardiovascular-associated loci, to explore novel array-wide associations with WC and WHR among 15 945 African descendants using all and sex-stratified groups. We further interrogated 17 known WHR regions for African ancestry-specific variants.

RESULTS: Of the 17 WHR loci, eight single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located in four loci were replicated in the sex-combined or sex-stratified meta-analyses. Two of these eight independently associated with WHR after conditioning on the known variant in European descendants (rs12096179 in TBX15-WARS2 and rs2059092 in ADAMTS9). In the fine-mapping assessment, the putative functional region was reduced across all four loci but to varying degrees (average 40\% drop in number of putative SNPs and 20\% drop in genomic region). Similar to previous studies, the significant SNPs in the female-stratified analysis were stronger than the significant SNPs from the sex-combined analysis. No novel associations were detected in the array-wide analyses.

CONCLUSIONS: Of 17 previously identified loci, four loci replicated in the African ancestry populations of this study. Utilizing different linkage disequilibrium patterns observed between European and African ancestries, we narrowed the suggestive region containing causative variants for all four loci.

}, issn = {1476-5497}, doi = {10.1038/ijo.2016.207}, author = {Yoneyama, S and Yao, J and Guo, X and Fernandez-Rhodes, L and Lim, U and Boston, J and B{\r u}{\v z}kov{\'a}, P and Carlson, C S and Cheng, I and Cochran, B and Cooper, R and Ehret, G and Fornage, M and Gong, J and Gross, M and Gu, C C and Haessler, J and Haiman, C A and Henderson, B and Hindorff, L A and Houston, D and Irvin, M R and Jackson, R and Kuller, L and Leppert, M and Lewis, C E and Li, R and Le Marchand, L and Matise, T C and Nguyen, K-Dh and Chakravarti, A and Pankow, J S and Pankratz, N and Pooler, L and Ritchie, M D and Bien, S A and Wassel, C L and Chen, Y-DI and Taylor, K D and Allison, M and Rotter, J I and Schreiner, P J and Schumacher, F and Wilkens, L and Boerwinkle, E and Kooperberg, C and Peters, U and Buyske, S and Graff, M and North, K E} } @article {7595, title = {Genetic Interactions with Age, Sex, Body Mass Index, and Hypertension in Relation to Atrial Fibrillation: The AFGen Consortium.}, journal = {Sci Rep}, volume = {7}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Sep 12}, pages = {11303}, abstract = {

It is unclear whether genetic markers interact with risk factors to influence atrial fibrillation (AF) risk. We performed genome-wide interaction analyses between genetic variants and age, sex, hypertension, and body mass index in the AFGen Consortium. Study-specific results were combined using meta-analysis (88,383 individuals of European descent, including 7,292 with AF). Variants with nominal interaction associations in the discovery analysis were tested for association in four independent studies (131,441 individuals, including 5,722 with AF). In the discovery analysis, the AF risk associated with the minor rs6817105 allele (at the PITX2 locus) was greater among subjects <= 65 years of age than among those > 65 years (interaction p-value = 4.0 {\texttimes} 10-5). The interaction p-value exceeded genome-wide significance in combined discovery and replication analyses (interaction p-value = 1.7 {\texttimes} 10-8). We observed one genome-wide significant interaction with body mass index and several suggestive interactions with age, sex, and body mass index in the discovery analysis. However, none was replicated in the independent sample. Our findings suggest that the pathogenesis of AF may differ according to age in individuals of European descent, but we did not observe evidence of statistically significant genetic interactions with sex, body mass index, or hypertension on AF risk.

}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-017-09396-7}, author = {Weng, Lu-Chen and Lunetta, Kathryn L and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Smith, Albert Vernon and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Weeke, Peter E and Barnard, John and Bis, Joshua C and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Kleber, Marcus E and Martinsson, Andreas and Lin, Henry J and Rienstra, Michiel and Trompet, Stella and Krijthe, Bouwe P and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Klarin, Derek and Chasman, Daniel I and Sinner, Moritz F and Waldenberger, Melanie and Launer, Lenore J and Harris, Tamara B and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Alonso, Alvaro and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Teixeira, Pedro L and Denny, Joshua C and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Van Wagoner, David R and Smith, Jonathan D and Psaty, Bruce M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Taylor, Kent D and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Nikus, Kjell and Delgado, Graciela E and Melander, Olle and Engstr{\"o}m, Gunnar and Yao, Jie and Guo, Xiuqing and Christophersen, Ingrid E and Ellinor, Patrick T and Geelhoed, Bastiaan and Verweij, Niek and Macfarlane, Peter and Ford, Ian and Heeringa, Jan and Franco, Oscar H and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Teumer, Alexander and Rose, Lynda M and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Arking, Dan E and Conen, David and Roden, Dan M and Chung, Mina K and Heckbert, Susan R and Benjamin, Emelia J and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Smith, J Gustav and Rotter, Jerome I and van der Harst, Pim and Jukema, J Wouter and Stricker, Bruno H and Felix, Stephan B and Albert, Christine M and Lubitz, Steven A} } @article {7345, title = {Genetic loci associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap with loci for lung function and pulmonary fibrosis.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {49}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Mar}, pages = {426-432}, abstract = {

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of mortality worldwide. We performed a genetic association study in 15,256 cases and 47,936 controls, with replication of select top results (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) in 9,498 cases and 9,748 controls. In the combined meta-analysis, we identified 22 loci associated at genome-wide significance, including 13 new associations with COPD. Nine of these 13 loci have been associated with lung function in general population samples, while 4 (EEFSEC, DSP, MTCL1, and SFTPD) are new. We noted two loci shared with pulmonary fibrosis (FAM13A and DSP) but that had opposite risk alleles for COPD. None of our loci overlapped with genome-wide associations for asthma, although one locus has been implicated in joint susceptibility to asthma and obesity. We also identified genetic correlation between COPD and asthma. Our findings highlight new loci associated with COPD, demonstrate the importance of specific loci associated with lung function to COPD, and identify potential regions of genetic overlap between COPD and other respiratory diseases.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3752}, author = {Hobbs, Brian D and de Jong, Kim and Lamontagne, Maxime and Boss{\'e}, Yohan and Shrine, Nick and Artigas, Maria Soler and Wain, Louise V and Hall, Ian P and Jackson, Victoria E and Wyss, Annah B and London, Stephanie J and North, Kari E and Franceschini, Nora and Strachan, David P and Beaty, Terri H and Hokanson, John E and Crapo, James D and Castaldi, Peter J and Chase, Robert P and Bartz, Traci M and Heckbert, Susan R and Psaty, Bruce M and Gharib, Sina A and Zanen, Pieter and Lammers, Jan W and Oudkerk, Matthijs and Groen, H J and Locantore, Nicholas and Tal-Singer, Ruth and Rennard, Stephen I and Vestbo, J{\o}rgen and Timens, Wim and Par{\'e}, Peter D and Latourelle, Jeanne C and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Wilk, Jemma B and Kim, Woo Jin and Lee, Mi Kyeong and Oh, Yeon-Mok and Vonk, Judith M and de Koning, Harry J and Leng, Shuguang and Belinsky, Steven A and Tesfaigzi, Yohannes and Manichaikul, Ani and Wang, Xin-Qun and Rich, Stephen S and Barr, R Graham and Sparrow, David and Litonjua, Augusto A and Bakke, Per and Gulsvik, Amund and Lahousse, Lies and Brusselle, Guy G and Stricker, Bruno H and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Ampleford, Elizabeth J and Bleecker, Eugene R and Woodruff, Prescott G and Meyers, Deborah A and Qiao, Dandi and Lomas, David A and Yim, Jae-Joon and Kim, Deog Kyeom and Hawrylkiewicz, Iwona and Sliwinski, Pawel and Hardin, Megan and Fingerlin, Tasha E and Schwartz, David A and Postma, Dirkje S and MacNee, William and Tobin, Martin D and Silverman, Edwin K and Boezen, H Marike and Cho, Michael H} } @article {7579, title = {Genetic loci associated with heart rate variability and their effects on cardiac disease risk.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {8}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jun 14}, pages = {15805}, abstract = {

Reduced cardiac vagal control reflected in low heart rate variability (HRV) is associated with greater risks for cardiac morbidity and mortality. In two-stage meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies for three HRV traits in up to 53,174 individuals of European ancestry, we detect 17 genome-wide significant SNPs in eight loci. HRV SNPs tag non-synonymous SNPs (in NDUFA11 and KIAA1755), expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) (influencing GNG11, RGS6 and NEO1), or are located in genes preferentially expressed in the sinoatrial node (GNG11, RGS6 and HCN4). Genetic risk scores account for 0.9 to 2.6\% of the HRV variance. Significant genetic correlation is found for HRV with heart rate (-0.74}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms15805}, author = {Nolte, Ilja M and Munoz, M Loretto and Tragante, Vinicius and Amare, Azmeraw T and Jansen, Rick and Vaez, Ahmad and von der Heyde, Benedikt and Avery, Christy L and Bis, Joshua C and Dierckx, Bram and van Dongen, Jenny and Gogarten, Stephanie M and Goyette, Philippe and Hernesniemi, Jussi and Huikari, Ville and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Jaju, Deepali and Kerr, Kathleen F and Kluttig, Alexander and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Kumar, Jitender and van der Laan, Sander W and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Maihofer, Adam X and Minassian, Arpi and van der Most, Peter J and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Nivard, Michel and Salvi, Erika and Stewart, James D and Thayer, Julian F and Verweij, Niek and Wong, Andrew and Zabaneh, Delilah and Zafarmand, Mohammad H and Abdellaoui, Abdel and Albarwani, Sulayma and Albert, Christine and Alonso, Alvaro and Ashar, Foram and Auvinen, Juha and Axelsson, Tomas and Baker, Dewleen G and de Bakker, Paul I W and Barcella, Matteo and Bayoumi, Riad and Bieringa, Rob J and Boomsma, Dorret and Boucher, Gabrielle and Britton, Annie R and Christophersen, Ingrid and Dietrich, Andrea and Ehret, George B and Ellinor, Patrick T and Eskola, Markku and Felix, Janine F and Floras, John S and Franco, Oscar H and Friberg, Peter and Gademan, Maaike G J and Geyer, Mark A and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Hartman, Catharina A and Hemerich, Daiane and Hofman, Albert and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Huikuri, Heikki and Hutri-K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Nina and Jouven, Xavier and Junttila, Juhani and Juonala, Markus and Kiviniemi, Antti M and Kors, Jan A and Kumari, Meena and Kuznetsova, Tatiana and Laurie, Cathy C and Lefrandt, Joop D and Li, Yong and Li, Yun and Liao, Duanping and Limacher, Marian C and Lin, Henry J and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Lubitz, Steven A and Mahajan, Anubha and McKnight, Barbara and Zu Schwabedissen, Henriette Meyer and Milaneschi, Yuri and Mononen, Nina and Morris, Andrew P and Nalls, Mike A and Navis, Gerjan and Neijts, Melanie and Nikus, Kjell and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connor, Daniel T and Ormel, Johan and Perz, Siegfried and Peters, Annette and Psaty, Bruce M and Raitakari, Olli T and Risbrough, Victoria B and Sinner, Moritz F and Siscovick, David and Smit, Johannes H and Smith, Nicholas L and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Staessen, Jan A and Stein, Phyllis K and Stilp, Adrienne M and Stolarz-Skrzypek, Katarzyna and Strauch, Konstantin and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Swenne, Cees A and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Taylor, Kent D and Teumer, Alexander and Thornton, Timothy A and Tinker, Lesley E and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Setten, Jessica and Voss, Andreas and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wilhelmsen, Kirk C and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wong, Quenna and Zhang, Zhu-Ming and Zonderman, Alan B and Cusi, Daniele and Evans, Michele K and Greiser, Halina K and van der Harst, Pim and Hassan, Mohammad and Ingelsson, Erik and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kivimaki, Mika and Kooperberg, Charles and Kuh, Diana and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lind, Lars and Nievergelt, Caroline M and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Chris J and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Penninx, Brenda and Reiner, Alexander P and Riese, Harri{\"e}tte and van Roon, Arie M and Rioux, John D and Rotter, Jerome I and Sofer, Tamar and Stricker, Bruno H and Tiemeier, Henning and Vrijkotte, Tanja G M and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Brundel, Bianca J J M and Heckbert, Susan R and Whitsel, Eric A and den Hoed, Marcel and Snieder, Harold and de Geus, Eco J C} } @article {8557, title = {{Genetic Risk Prediction of Atrial Fibrillation}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {135}, year = {2017}, month = {Apr}, pages = {1311{\textendash}1320}, abstract = {Atrial fibrillation (AF) has a substantial genetic basis. Identification of individuals at greatest AF risk could minimize the incidence of cardioembolic stroke.\ To determine whether genetic data can stratify risk for development of AF, we examined associations between AF genetic risk scores and incident AF in 5 prospective studies comprising 18 919 individuals of European ancestry. We examined associations between AF genetic risk scores and ischemic stroke in a separate study of 509 ischemic stroke cases (202 cardioembolic [40\%]) and 3028 referents. Scores were based on 11 to 719 common variants ({\^a}{\textperthousand}{\textyen}5\%) associated with AF at P values ranging from <1{\~A}{\textemdash}10-3 to <1{\~A}{\textemdash}10-8 in a prior independent genetic association study.\ Incident AF occurred in 1032 individuals (5.5\%). AF genetic risk scores were associated with new-onset AF after adjustment for clinical risk factors. The pooled hazard ratio for incident AF for the highest versus lowest quartile of genetic risk scores ranged from 1.28 (719 variants; 95\% confidence interval, 1.13-1.46; P=1.5{\~A}{\textemdash}10-4) to 1.67 (25 variants; 95\% confidence interval, 1.47-1.90; P=9.3{\~A}{\textemdash}10-15). Discrimination of combined clinical and genetic risk scores varied across studies and scores (maximum C statistic, 0.629-0.811; maximum {\^I}{\textquotedblright}C statistic from clinical score alone, 0.009-0.017). AF genetic risk was associated with stroke in age- and sex-adjusted models. For example, individuals in the highest versus lowest quartile of a 127-variant score had a 2.49-fold increased odds of cardioembolic stroke (95\% confidence interval, 1.39-4.58; P=2.7{\~A}{\textemdash}10-3). The effect persisted after the exclusion of individuals (n=70) with known AF (odds ratio, 2.25; 95\% confidence interval, 1.20-4.40; P=0.01).\ Comprehensive AF genetic risk scores were associated with incident AF beyond associations for clinical AF risk factors but offered small improvements in discrimination. AF genetic risk was also associated with cardioembolic stroke in age- and sex-adjusted analyses. Efforts are warranted to determine whether AF genetic risk may improve identification of subclinical AF or help distinguish between stroke mechanisms.}, author = {Lubitz, S. A. and Yin, X. and Lin, H. J. and Kolek, M. and Smith, J. G. and Trompet, S. and Rienstra, M. and Rost, N. S. and Teixeira, P. L. and Almgren, P. and Anderson, C. D. and Chen, L. Y. and Engstr?m, G. and Ford, I. and Furie, K. L. and Guo, X. and Larson, M. G. and Lunetta, K. L. and Macfarlane, P. W. and Psaty, B. M. and Soliman, E. Z. and Sotoodehnia, N. and Stott, D. J. and Taylor, K. D. and Weng, L. C. and Yao, J. and Geelhoed, B. and Verweij, N. and Siland, J. E. and Kathiresan, S. and Roselli, C. and Roden, D. M. and van der Harst, P. and Darbar, D. and Jukema, J. W. and Melander, O. and Rosand, J. and Rotter, J. I. and Heckbert, S. R. and Ellinor, P. T. and Alonso, A. and Benjamin, E. J.} } @article {7590, title = {Genetically Determined Plasma Lipid Levels and Risk of Diabetic Retinopathy: A Mendelian Randomization Study.}, journal = {Diabetes}, volume = {66}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 12}, pages = {3130-3141}, abstract = {

Results from observational studies examining dyslipidemia as a risk factor for diabetic retinopathy (DR) have been inconsistent. We evaluated the causal relationship between plasma lipids and DR using a Mendelian randomization approach. We pooled genome-wide association studies summary statistics from 18 studies for two DR phenotypes: any DR (N = 2,969 case and 4,096 control subjects) and severe DR (N = 1,277 case and 3,980 control subjects). Previously identified lipid-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms served as instrumental variables. Meta-analysis to combine the Mendelian randomization estimates from different cohorts was conducted. There was no statistically significant change in odds ratios of having any DR or severe DR for any of the lipid fractions in the primary analysis that used single nucleotide polymorphisms that did not have a pleiotropic effect on another lipid fraction. Similarly, there was no significant association in the Caucasian and Chinese subgroup analyses. This study did not show evidence of a causal role of the four lipid fractions on DR. However, the study had limited power to detect odds ratios less than 1.23 per SD in genetically induced increase in plasma lipid levels, thus we cannot exclude that causal relationships with more modest effect sizes exist.

}, keywords = {Aged, Diabetic Retinopathy, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lipids, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk}, issn = {1939-327X}, doi = {10.2337/db17-0398}, author = {Sobrin, Lucia and Chong, Yong He and Fan, Qiao and Gan, Alfred and Stanwyck, Lynn K and Kaidonis, Georgia and Craig, Jamie E and Kim, Jihye and Liao, Wen-Ling and Huang, Yu-Chuen and Lee, Wen-Jane and Hung, Yi-Jen and Guo, Xiuqing and Hai, Yang and Ipp, Eli and Pollack, Samuela and Hancock, Heather and Price, Alkes and Penman, Alan and Mitchell, Paul and Liew, Gerald and Smith, Albert V and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Tan, Gavin and Klein, Barbara E K and Kuo, Jane and Li, Xiaohui and Christiansen, Mark W and Psaty, Bruce M and Sandow, Kevin and Jensen, Richard A and Klein, Ronald and Cotch, Mary Frances and Wang, Jie Jin and Jia, Yucheng and Chen, Ching J and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Rotter, Jerome I and Tsai, Fuu-Jen and Hanis, Craig L and Burdon, Kathryn P and Wong, Tien Yin and Cheng, Ching-Yu} } @article {8560, title = {{Genome-wide association analysis identifies novel blood pressure loci and offers biological insights into cardiovascular risk}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {49}, year = {2017}, month = {Mar}, pages = {403{\textendash}415}, abstract = {Elevated blood pressure is the leading heritable risk factor for cardiovascular disease worldwide. We report genetic association of blood pressure (systolic, diastolic, pulse pressure) among UK Biobank participants of European ancestry with independent replication in other cohorts, and robust validation of 107 independent loci. We also identify new independent variants at 11 previously reported blood pressure loci. In combination with results from a range of in silico functional analyses and wet bench experiments, our findings highlight new biological pathways for blood pressure regulation enriched for genes expressed in vascular tissues and identify potential therapeutic targets for hypertension. Results from genetic risk score models raise the possibility of a precision medicine approach through early lifestyle intervention to offset the impact of blood pressure-raising genetic variants on future cardiovascular disease risk.}, author = {Warren, H. R. and Evangelou, E. and Cabrera, C. P. and Gao, H. and Ren, M. and Mifsud, B. and Ntalla, I. and Surendran, P. and Liu, C. and Cook, J. P. and Kraja, A. T. and Drenos, F. and Loh, M. and Verweij, N. and Marten, J. and Karaman, I. and Lepe, M. P. and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, P. F. and Knight, J. and Snieder, H. and Kato, N. and He, J. and Tai, E. S. and Said, M. A. and Porteous, D. and Alver, M. and Poulter, N. and Farrall, M. and Gansevoort, R. T. and Padmanabhan, S. and M?gi, R. and Stanton, A. and Connell, J. and Bakker, S. J. and Metspalu, A. and Shields, D. C. and Thom, S. and Brown, M. and Sever, P. and Esko, T. and Hayward, C. and van der Harst, P. and Saleheen, D. and Chowdhury, R. and Chambers, J. C. and Chasman, D. I. and Chakravarti, A. and Newton-Cheh, C. and Lindgren, C. M. and Levy, D. and Kooner, J. S. and Keavney, B. and Tomaszewski, M. and Samani, N. J. and Howson, J. M. and Tobin, M. D. and Munroe, P. B. and Ehret, G. B. and Wain, L. V. and V?lker, U. and Vollenweider, P. and Wild, S. and Willemsen, G. and Wright, A. F. and Yao, J. and Th?riault, S. and Conen, D. and John, A. and Sever, P. and Debette, S. and Mook-Kanamori, D. O. and Zeggini, E. and Spector, T. D. and van der Harst, P. and Palmer, C. N. and Vergnaud, A. C. and Loos, R. J. and Polasek, O. and Starr, J. M. and Girotto, G. and Hayward, C. and Kooner, J. S. and Lindgren, C. M. and Vitart, V. and Samani, N. J. and Tuomilehto, J. and Gyllensten, U. and Knekt, P. and Deary, I. J. and Ciullo, M. and Elosua, R. and Keavney, B. D. and Hicks, A. A. and Scott, R. A. and Gasparini, P. and Laan, M. and Liu, Y. and Watkins, H. and Hartman, C. A. and Salomaa, V. and Toniolo, D. and Perola, M. and Wilson, J. F. and Schmidt, H. and Zhao, J. H. and Lehtim?ki, T. and van Duijn, C. M. and Gudnason, V. and Psaty, B. M. and Peters, A. and Rettig, R. and James, A. and Jukema, J. W. and Strachan, D. P. and Palmas, W. and Metspalu, A. and Ingelsson, E. and Boomsma, D. I. and Franco, O. H. and Bochud, M. and Newton-Cheh, C. and Munroe, P. B. and Elliott, P. and Chasman, D. I. and Chakravarti, A. and Knight, J. and Morris, A. P. and Levy, D. and Tobin, M. D. and Snieder, H. and Caulfield, M. J. and Ehret, G. B. and Barnes, M. R. and Tzoulaki, I. and Caulfield, M. J. and Elliott, P.} } @article {7578, title = {Genome-wide association meta-analysis of fish and EPA+DHA consumption in 17 US and European cohorts.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {12}, year = {2017}, month = {2017}, pages = {e0186456}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Regular fish and omega-3 consumption may have several health benefits and are recommended by major dietary guidelines. Yet, their intakes remain remarkably variable both within and across populations, which could partly owe to genetic influences.

OBJECTIVE: To identify common genetic variants that influence fish and dietary eicosapentaenoic acid plus docosahexaenoic acid (EPA+DHA) consumption.

DESIGN: We conducted genome-wide association (GWA) meta-analysis of fish (n = 86,467) and EPA+DHA (n = 62,265) consumption in 17 cohorts of European descent from the CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) Consortium Nutrition Working Group. Results from cohort-specific GWA analyses (additive model) for fish and EPA+DHA consumption were adjusted for age, sex, energy intake, and population stratification, and meta-analyzed separately using fixed-effect meta-analysis with inverse variance weights (METAL software). Additionally, heritability was estimated in 2 cohorts.

RESULTS: Heritability estimates for fish and EPA+DHA consumption ranged from 0.13-0.24 and 0.12-0.22, respectively. A significant GWA for fish intake was observed for rs9502823 on chromosome 6: each copy of the minor allele (FreqA = 0.015) was associated with 0.029 servings/day (~1 serving/month) lower fish consumption (P = 1.96x10-8). No significant association was observed for EPA+DHA, although rs7206790 in the obesity-associated FTO gene was among top hits (P = 8.18x10-7). Post-hoc calculations demonstrated 95\% statistical power to detect a genetic variant associated with effect size of 0.05\% for fish and 0.08\% for EPA+DHA.

CONCLUSIONS: These novel findings suggest that non-genetic personal and environmental factors are principal determinants of the remarkable variation in fish consumption, representing modifiable targets for increasing intakes among all individuals. Genes underlying the signal at rs72838923 and mechanisms for the association warrant further investigation.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Cohort Studies, Docosahexaenoic Acids, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Seafood, United States}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0186456}, author = {Mozaffarian, Dariush and Dashti, Hassan S and Wojczynski, Mary K and Chu, Audrey Y and Nettleton, Jennifer A and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and Kristiansson, Kati and Reedik, M{\"a}gi and Lahti, Jari and Houston, Denise K and Cornelis, Marilyn C and van Rooij, Frank J A and Dimitriou, Maria and Kanoni, Stavroula and Mikkil{\"a}, Vera and Steffen, Lyn M and de Oliveira Otto, Marcia C and Qi, Lu and Psaty, Bruce and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Rotter, Jerome I and Harald, Kennet and Perola, Markus and Rissanen, Harri and Jula, Antti and Krista, Fischer and Mihailov, Evelin and Feitosa, Mary F and Ngwa, Julius S and Xue, Luting and Jacques, Paul F and Per{\"a}l{\"a}, Mia-Maria and Palotie, Aarno and Liu, Yongmei and Nalls, Nike A and Ferrucci, Luigi and Hernandez, Dena and Manichaikul, Ani and Tsai, Michael Y and Kiefte-de Jong, Jessica C and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rallidis, Loukianos and Ridker, Paul M and Rose, Lynda M and Buring, Julie E and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Viikari, Jorma and Lemaitre, Rozenn and Salomaa, Veikko and Knekt, Paul and Metspalu, Andres and Borecki, Ingrid B and Cupples, L Adrienne and Eriksson, Johan G and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Bandinelli, Stefania and Siscovick, David and Franco, Oscar H and Deloukas, Panos and Dedoussis, George and Chasman, Daniel I and Raitakari, Olli and Tanaka, Toshiko} } @article {7571, title = {Genome-Wide Association Study Meta-Analysis of Long-Term Average Blood Pressure in East Asians.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {10}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Apr}, pages = {e001527}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide single marker and gene-based meta-analyses of long-term average (LTA) blood pressure (BP) phenotypes may reveal novel findings for BP.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted genome-wide analysis among 18 422 East Asian participants (stage 1) followed by replication study of <=46 629 participants of European ancestry (stage 2). Significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms and genes were determined by a P<5.0{\texttimes}10-8 and 2.5{\texttimes}10-6, respectively, in joint analyses of stage-1 and stage-2 data. We identified 1 novel ARL3 variant, rs4919669 at 10q24.32, influencing LTA systolic BP (stage-1 P=5.03{\texttimes}10-8, stage-2 P=8.64{\texttimes}10-3, joint P=2.63{\texttimes}10-8) and mean arterial pressure (stage-1 P=3.59{\texttimes}10-9, stage-2 P=2.35{\texttimes}10-2, joint P=2.64{\texttimes}10-8). Three previously reported BP loci (WBP1L, NT5C2, and ATP2B1) were also identified for all BP phenotypes. Gene-based analysis provided the first robust evidence for association of KCNJ11 with LTA systolic BP (stage-1 P=8.55{\texttimes}10-6, stage-2 P=1.62{\texttimes}10-5, joint P=3.28{\texttimes}10-9) and mean arterial pressure (stage-1 P=9.19{\texttimes}10-7, stage-2 P=9.69{\texttimes}10-5, joint P=2.15{\texttimes}10-9) phenotypes. Fourteen genes (TMEM180, ACTR1A, SUFU, ARL3, SFXN2, WBP1L, CYP17A1, C10orf32, C10orf32-ASMT, AS3MT, CNNM2, and NT5C2 at 10q24.32; ATP2B1 at 12q21.33; and NCR3LG1 at 11p15.1) implicated by previous genome-wide association study meta-analyses were also identified. Among the loci identified by the previous genome-wide association study meta-analysis of LTA BP, we transethnically replicated associations of the KCNK3 marker rs1275988 at 2p23.3 with LTA systolic BP and mean arterial pressure phenotypes (P=1.27{\texttimes}10-4 and 3.30{\texttimes}10-4, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: We identified 1 novel variant and 1 novel gene and present the first direct evidence of relevance of the KCNK3 locus for LTA BP among East Asians.

}, keywords = {Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Blood Pressure, Far East, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.116.001527}, author = {Li, Changwei and Kim, Yun Kyoung and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Li, Huaixing and Lee, I-Te and Cheng, Ching-Yu and He, Meian and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Guo, Xiuqing and Ganesh, Santhi K and He, Jiang and Lee, Juyoung and Liu, Jianjun and Hu, Yao and Rao, Dabeeru C and Tsai, Fuu-Jen and Koh, Jia Yu and Hu, Hua and Liang, Kae-Woei and Palmas, Walter and Hixson, James E and Han, Sohee and Teo, Yik-Ying and Wang, Yiqin and Chen, Jing and Lu, Chieh Hsiang and Zheng, Yingfeng and Gui, Lixuan and Lee, Wen-Jane and Yao, Jie and Gu, Dongfeng and Han, Bok-Ghee and Sim, Xueling and Sun, Liang and Zhao, Jinying and Chen, Chien-Hsiun and Kumari, Neelam and He, Yunfeng and Taylor, Kent D and Raffel, Leslie J and Moon, Sanghoon and Rotter, Jerome I and Ida Chen, Yii-Der and Wu, Tangchun and Wong, Tien Yin and Wu, Jer-Yuarn and Lin, Xu and Tai, E-Shyong and Kim, Bong-Jo and Kelly, Tanika N} } @article {7353, title = {A genome-wide interaction analysis of tricyclic/tetracyclic antidepressants and RR and QT intervals: a pharmacogenomics study from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium.}, journal = {J Med Genet}, volume = {54}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 May}, pages = {313-323}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Increased heart rate and a prolonged QT interval are important risk factors for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and can be influenced by the use of various medications, including tricyclic/tetracyclic antidepressants (TCAs). We aim to identify genetic loci that modify the association between TCA use and RR and QT intervals.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted race/ethnic-specific genome-wide interaction analyses (with HapMap phase II imputed reference panel imputation) of TCAs and resting RR and QT intervals in cohorts of European (n=45 706; n=1417 TCA users), African (n=10 235; n=296 TCA users) and Hispanic/Latino (n=13 808; n=147 TCA users) ancestry, adjusted for clinical covariates. Among the populations of European ancestry, two genome-wide significant loci were identified for RR interval: rs6737205 in BRE (β=56.3, pinteraction=3.9e(-9)) and rs9830388 in UBE2E2 (β=25.2, pinteraction=1.7e(-8)). In Hispanic/Latino cohorts, rs2291477 in TGFBR3 significantly modified the association between TCAs and QT intervals (β=9.3, pinteraction=2.55e(-8)). In the meta-analyses of the other ethnicities, these loci either were excluded from the meta-analyses (as part of quality control), or their effects did not reach the level of nominal statistical significance (pinteraction>0.05). No new variants were identified in these ethnicities. No additional loci were identified after inverse-variance-weighted meta-analysis of the three ancestries.

CONCLUSIONS: Among Europeans, TCA interactions with variants in BRE and UBE2E2 were identified in relation to RR intervals. Among Hispanic/Latinos, variants in TGFBR3 modified the relation between TCAs and QT intervals. Future studies are required to confirm our results.

}, issn = {1468-6244}, doi = {10.1136/jmedgenet-2016-104112}, author = {Noordam, Raymond and Sitlani, Colleen M and Avery, Christy L and Stewart, James D and Gogarten, Stephanie M and Wiggins, Kerri L and Trompet, Stella and Warren, Helen R and Sun, Fangui and Evans, Daniel S and Li, Xiaohui and Li, Jin and Smith, Albert V and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Busch, Evan L and Caulfield, Mark J and Chen, Yii-der I and Cummings, Steven R and Cupples, L Adrienne and Duan, Qing and Franco, Oscar H and M{\'e}ndez-Gir{\'a}ldez, R{\'a}ul and Harris, Tamara B and Heckbert, Susan R and van Heemst, Diana and Hofman, Albert and Floyd, James S and Kors, Jan A and Launer, Lenore J and Li, Yun and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Lange, Leslie A and Lin, Henry J and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Napier, Melanie D and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Poulter, Neil and Reiner, Alexander P and Rice, Kenneth M and Roach, Jeffrey and Rodriguez, Carlos J and Rosendaal, Frits R and Sattar, Naveed and Sever, Peter and Seyerle, Amanda A and Slagboom, P Eline and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stott, David J and St{\"u}rmer, Til and Taylor, Kent D and Thornton, Timothy A and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wilhelmsen, Kirk C and Wilson, James G and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Jukema, J Wouter and Laurie, Cathy C and Liu, Yongmei and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Munroe, Patricia B and Rotter, Jerome I and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Psaty, Bruce M and Stricker, Bruno H and Whitsel, Eric A} } @article {7588, title = {Genome-Wide Interactions with Dairy Intake for Body Mass Index in Adults of European Descent.}, journal = {Mol Nutr Food Res}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Sep 21}, abstract = {

SCOPE: Body weight responds variably to the intake of dairy foods. Genetic variation may contribute to inter-individual variability in associations between body weight and dairy consumption.

METHODS AND RESULTS: A genome-wide interaction study to discover genetic variants that account for variation in BMI in the context of low-fat, high-fat and total dairy intake in cross-sectional analysis was conducted. Data from nine discovery studies (up to 25 513 European descent individuals) were meta-analyzed. Twenty-six genetic variants reached the selected significance threshold (p-interaction <10-7) , and six independent variants (LINC01512-rs7751666, PALM2/AKAP2-rs914359, ACTA2-rs1388, PPP1R12A-rs7961195, LINC00333-rs9635058, AC098847.1-rs1791355) were evaluated meta-analytically for replication of interaction in up to 17 675 individuals. Variant rs9635058 (128 kb 3{\textquoteright} of LINC00333) was replicated (p-interaction = 0.004). In the discovery cohorts, rs9635058 interacted with dairy (p-interaction = 7.36 {\texttimes} 10-8) such that each serving of low-fat dairy was associated with 0.225 kg m-2 lower BMI per each additional copy of the effect allele (A). A second genetic variant (ACTA2-rs1388) approached interaction replication significance for low-fat dairy exposure.

CONCLUSION: Body weight responses to dairy intake may be modified by genotype, in that greater dairy intake may protect a genetic subgroup from higher body weight.

}, issn = {1613-4133}, doi = {10.1002/mnfr.201700347}, author = {Smith, Caren E and Follis, Jack L and Dashti, Hassan S and Tanaka, Toshiko and Graff, Mariaelisa and Fretts, Amanda M and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Wojczynski, Mary K and Richardson, Kris and Nalls, Mike A and Schulz, Christina-Alexandra and Liu, Yongmei and Frazier-Wood, Alexis C and van Eekelen, Esther and Wang, Carol and de Vries, Paul S and Mikkil{\"a}, Vera and Rohde, Rebecca and Psaty, Bruce M and Hansen, Torben and Feitosa, Mary F and Lai, Chao-Qiang and Houston, Denise K and Ferruci, Luigi and Ericson, Ulrika and Wang, Zhe and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Oddy, Wendy H and de Jonge, Ester A L and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, Ilkka and Justice, Anne E and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and S{\o}rensen, Thorkild I A and Province, Michael A and Parnell, Laurence D and Garcia, Melissa E and Bandinelli, Stefania and Orho-Melander, Marju and Rich, Stephen S and Rosendaal, Frits R and Pennell, Craig E and Kiefte-de Jong, Jessica C and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Young, Kristin L and Pedersen, Oluf and Aslibekyan, Stella and Rotter, Jerome I and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Zillikens, M Carola and Raitakari, Olli T and North, Kari E and Overvad, Kim and Arnett, Donna K and Hofman, Albert and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Tj{\o}nneland, Anne and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Franco, Oscar H and German, J Bruce and Siscovick, David S and Cupples, L Adrienne and Ordovas, Jose M} } @article {7568, title = {Genome-wide meta-analysis associates HLA-DQA1/DRB1 and LPA and lifestyle factors with human longevity.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {8}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Oct 13}, pages = {910}, abstract = {

Genomic analysis of longevity offers the potential to illuminate the biology of human aging. Here, using genome-wide association meta-analysis of 606,059 parents{\textquoteright} survival, we discover two regions associated with longevity (HLA-DQA1/DRB1 and LPA). We also validate previous suggestions that APOE, CHRNA3/5, CDKN2A/B, SH2B3 and FOXO3A influence longevity. Next we show that giving up smoking, educational attainment, openness to new experience and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels are most positively genetically correlated with lifespan while susceptibility to coronary artery disease (CAD), cigarettes smoked per day, lung cancer, insulin resistance and body fat are most negatively correlated. We suggest that the effect of education on lifespan is principally mediated through smoking while the effect of obesity appears to act via CAD. Using instrumental variables, we suggest that an increase of one body mass index unit reduces lifespan by 7 months while 1 year of education adds 11 months to expected lifespan.Variability in human longevity is genetically influenced. Using genetic data of parental lifespan, the authors identify associations at HLA-DQA/DRB1 and LPA and find that genetic variants that increase educational attainment have a positive effect on lifespan whereas increasing BMI negatively affects lifespan.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-017-00934-5}, author = {Joshi, Peter K and Pirastu, Nicola and Kentistou, Katherine A and Fischer, Krista and Hofer, Edith and Schraut, Katharina E and Clark, David W and Nutile, Teresa and Barnes, Catriona L K and Timmers, Paul R H J and Shen, Xia and Gandin, Ilaria and McDaid, Aaron F and Hansen, Thomas Folkmann and Gordon, Scott D and Giulianini, Franco and Boutin, Thibaud S and Abdellaoui, Abdel and Zhao, Wei and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Bartz, Traci M and Trompet, Stella and Lange, Leslie A and Raffield, Laura and van der Spek, Ashley and Galesloot, Tessel E and Proitsi, Petroula and Yanek, Lisa R and Bielak, Lawrence F and Payton, Antony and Murgia, Federico and Concas, Maria Pina and Biino, Ginevra and Tajuddin, Salman M and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, Ilkka and Amin, Najaf and Boerwinkle, Eric and B{\o}rglum, Anders D and Campbell, Archie and Demerath, Ellen W and Demuth, Ilja and Faul, Jessica D and Ford, Ian and Gialluisi, Alessandro and G{\"o}gele, Martin and Graff, Mariaelisa and Hingorani, Aroon and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Hougaard, David M and Hurme, Mikko A and Ikram, M Arfan and Jylh{\"a}, Marja and Kuh, Diana and Ligthart, Lannie and Lill, Christina M and Lindenberger, Ulman and Lumley, Thomas and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Marques-Vidal, Pedro and Medland, Sarah E and Milani, Lili and Nagy, Reka and Ollier, William E R and Peyser, Patricia A and Pramstaller, Peter P and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Ruggiero, Daniela and Saba, Yasaman and Schmidt, Reinhold and Schmidt, Helena and Slagboom, P Eline and Smith, Blair H and Smith, Jennifer A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Steinhagen-Thiessen, Elisabeth and van Rooij, Frank J A and Verbeek, Andr{\'e} L and Vermeulen, Sita H and Vollenweider, Peter and Wang, Yunpeng and Werge, Thomas and Whitfield, John B and Zonderman, Alan B and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Evans, Michele K and Pirastu, Mario and Fuchsberger, Christian and Bertram, Lars and Pendleton, Neil and Kardia, Sharon L R and Ciullo, Marina and Becker, Diane M and Wong, Andrew and Psaty, Bruce M and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Wilson, James G and Jukema, J Wouter and Kiemeney, Lambertus and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Franceschini, Nora and North, Kari E and Weir, David R and Metspalu, Andres and Boomsma, Dorret I and Hayward, Caroline and Chasman, Daniel and Martin, Nicholas G and Sattar, Naveed and Campbell, Harry and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Wilson, James F} } @article {8554, title = {{Genome-wide meta-analysis of 241,258 adults accounting for smoking behaviour identifies novel loci for obesity traits}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {8}, year = {2017}, month = {04}, pages = {14977}, abstract = {Few genome-wide association studies (GWAS) account for environmental exposures, like smoking, potentially impacting the overall trait variance when investigating the genetic contribution to obesity-related traits. Here, we use GWAS data from 51,080 current smokers and 190,178 nonsmokers (87\% European descent) to identify loci influencing BMI and central adiposity, measured as waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio both adjusted for BMI. We identify 23 novel genetic loci, and 9 loci with convincing evidence of gene-smoking interaction (GxSMK) on obesity-related traits. We show consistent direction of effect for all identified loci and significance for 18 novel and for 5 interaction loci in an independent study sample. These loci highlight novel biological functions, including response to oxidative stress, addictive behaviour, and regulatory functions emphasizing the importance of accounting for environment in genetic analyses. Our results suggest that tobacco smoking may alter the genetic susceptibility to overall adiposity and body fat distribution.}, author = {Justice, A. E. and Winkler, T. W. and Feitosa, M. F. and Graff, M. and Fisher, V. A. and Young, K. and Barata, L. and Deng, X. and Czajkowski, J. and Hadley, D. and Ngwa, J. S. and Ahluwalia, T. S. and Chu, A. Y. and Heard-Costa, N. L. and Lim, E. and Perez, J. and Eicher, J. D. and Kutalik, Z. and Xue, L. and Mahajan, A. and Renstr?m, F. and Wu, J. and Qi, Q. and Ahmad, S. and Alfred, T. and Amin, N. and Bielak, L. F. and Bonnefond, A. and Bragg, J. and Cadby, G. and Chittani, M. and Coggeshall, S. and Corre, T. and Direk, N. and Eriksson, J. and Fischer, K. and Gorski, M. and Neergaard Harder, M. and Horikoshi, M. and Huang, T. and Huffman, J. E. and Jackson, A. U. and Justesen, J. M. and Kanoni, S. and Kinnunen, L. and Kleber, M. E. and Komulainen, P. and Kumari, M. and Lim, U. and Luan, J. and Lyytik?inen, L. P. and Mangino, M. and Manichaikul, A. and Marten, J. and Middelberg, R. P. S. and M?ller-Nurasyid, M. and Navarro, P. and P?russe, L. and Pervjakova, N. and Sarti, C. and Smith, A. V. and Smith, J. A. and Stan??kov?, A. and Strawbridge, R. J. and Stringham, H. M. and Sung, Y. J. and Tanaka, T. and Teumer, A. and Trompet, S. and van der Laan, S. W. and van der Most, P. J. and Van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, J. V. and Vedantam, S. L. and Verweij, N. and Vink, J. M. and Vitart, V. and Wu, Y. and Yengo, L. and Zhang, W. and Hua Zhao, J. and Zimmermann, M. E. and Zubair, N. and Abecasis, G. R. and Adair, L. S. and Afaq, S. and Afzal, U. and Bakker, S. J. L. and Bartz, T. M. and Beilby, J. and Bergman, R. N. and Bergmann, S. and Biffar, R. and Blangero, J. and Boerwinkle, E. and Bonnycastle, L. L. and Bottinger, E. and Braga, D. and Buckley, B. M. and Buyske, S. and Campbell, H. and Chambers, J. C. and Collins, F. S. and Curran, J. E. and de Borst, G. J. and de Craen, A. J. M. and de Geus, E. J. C. and Dedoussis, G. and Delgado, G. E. and den Ruijter, H. M. and Eiriksdottir, G. and Eriksson, A. L. and Esko, T. and Faul, J. D. and Ford, I. and Forrester, T. and Gertow, K. and Gigante, B. and Glorioso, N. and Gong, J. and Grallert, H. and Grammer, T. B. and Grarup, N. and Haitjema, S. and Hallmans, G. and Hamsten, A. and Hansen, T. and Harris, T. B. and Hartman, C. A. and Hassinen, M. and Hastie, N. D. and Heath, A. C. and Hernandez, D. and Hindorff, L. and Hocking, L. J. and Hollensted, M. and Holmen, O. L. and Homuth, G. and Jan Hottenga, J. and Huang, J. and Hung, J. and Hutri-K?h?nen, N. and Ingelsson, E. and James, A. L. and Jansson, J. O. and Jarvelin, M. R. and Jhun, M. A. and J?rgensen, M. E. and Juonala, M. and K?h?nen, M. and Karlsson, M. and Koistinen, H. A. and Kolcic, I. and Kolovou, G. and Kooperberg, C. and Kr?mer, B. K. and Kuusisto, J. and Kval?y, K. and Lakka, T. A. and Langenberg, C. and Launer, L. J. and Leander, K. and Lee, N. R. and Lind, L. and Lindgren, C. M. and Linneberg, A. and Lobbens, S. and Loh, M. and Lorentzon, M. and Luben, R. and Lubke, G. and Ludolph-Donislawski, A. and Lupoli, S. and Madden, P. A. F. and M?nnikk?, R. and Marques-Vidal, P. and Martin, N. G. and McKenzie, C. A. and McKnight, B. and Mellstr?m, D. and Menni, C. and Montgomery, G. W. and Musk, A. B. and Narisu, N. and Nauck, M. and Nolte, I. M. and Oldehinkel, A. J. and Olden, M. and Ong, K. K. and Padmanabhan, S. and Peyser, P. A. and Pisinger, C. and Porteous, D. J. and Raitakari, O. T. and Rankinen, T. and Rao, D. C. and Rasmussen-Torvik, L. J. and Rawal, R. and Rice, T. and Ridker, P. M. and Rose, L. M. and Bien, S. A. and Rudan, I. and Sanna, S. and Sarzynski, M. A. and Sattar, N. and Savonen, K. and Schlessinger, D. and Scholtens, S. and Schurmann, C. and Scott, R. A. and Sennblad, B. and Siemelink, M. A. and Silbernagel, G. and Slagboom, P. E. and Snieder, H. and Staessen, J. A. and Stott, D. J. and Swertz, M. A. and Swift, A. J. and Taylor, K. D. and Tayo, B. O. and Thorand, B. and Thuillier, D. and Tuomilehto, J. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and Vandenput, L. and Vohl, M. C. and V?lzke, H. and Vonk, J. M. and Waeber, G. and Waldenberger, M. and Westendorp, R. G. J. and Wild, S. and Willemsen, G. and Wolffenbuttel, B. H. R. and Wong, A. and Wright, A. F. and Zhao, W. and Zillikens, M. C. and Baldassarre, D. and Balkau, B. and Bandinelli, S. and B?ger, C. A. and Boomsma, D. I. and Bouchard, C. and Bruinenberg, M. and Chasman, D. I. and Chen, Y. D. and Chines, P. S. and Cooper, R. S. and Cucca, F. and Cusi, D. and Faire, U. and Ferrucci, L. and Franks, P. W. and Froguel, P. and Gordon-Larsen, P. and Grabe, H. J. and Gudnason, V. and Haiman, C. A. and Hayward, C. and Hveem, K. and Johnson, A. D. and Wouter Jukema, J. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Kivimaki, M. and Kooner, J. S. and Kuh, D. and Laakso, M. and Lehtim?ki, T. and Marchand, L. L. and M?rz, W. and McCarthy, M. I. and Metspalu, A. and Morris, A. P. and Ohlsson, C. and Palmer, L. J. and Pasterkamp, G. and Pedersen, O. and Peters, A. and Peters, U. and Polasek, O. and Psaty, B. M. and Qi, L. and Rauramaa, R. and Smith, B. H. and S?rensen, T. I. A. and Strauch, K. and Tiemeier, H. and Tremoli, E. and van der Harst, P. and Vestergaard, H. and Vollenweider, P. and Wareham, N. J. and Weir, D. R. and Whitfield, J. B. and Wilson, J. F. and Tyrrell, J. and Frayling, T. M. and Barroso, I. and Boehnke, M. and Deloukas, P. and Fox, C. S. and Hirschhorn, J. N. and Hunter, D. J. and Spector, T. D. and Strachan, D. P. and van Duijn, C. M. and Heid, I. M. and Mohlke, K. L. and Marchini, J. and Loos, R. J. F. and Kilpel?inen, T. O. and Liu, C. T. and Borecki, I. B. and North, K. E. and Cupples, L. A.} } @article {7364, title = {Genome-wide Trans-ethnic Meta-analysis Identifies Seven Genetic Loci Influencing Erythrocyte Traits and a Role for RBPMS in Erythropoiesis.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {100}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jan 05}, pages = {51-63}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified loci for erythrocyte traits in primarily European ancestry populations. We conducted GWAS meta-analyses of six erythrocyte traits in 71,638 individuals from European, East Asian, and African ancestries using a Bayesian approach to account for heterogeneity in allelic effects and variation in the structure of linkage disequilibrium between ethnicities. We identified seven loci for erythrocyte traits including a locus (RBPMS/GTF2E2) associated with mean corpuscular hemoglobin and mean corpuscular volume. Statistical fine-mapping at this locus pointed to RBPMS at this locus and excluded nearby GTF2E2. Using zebrafish morpholino to evaluate loss of function, we observed a strong in~vivo erythropoietic effect for RBPMS but not for GTF2E2, supporting the statistical fine-mapping at this locus and demonstrating that RBPMS is a regulator of erythropoiesis. Our findings show the utility of trans-ethnic GWASs for discovery and characterization of genetic loci influencing hematologic traits.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2016.11.016}, author = {van Rooij, Frank J A and Qayyum, Rehan and Smith, Albert V and Zhou, Yi and Trompet, Stella and Tanaka, Toshiko and Keller, Margaux F and Chang, Li-Ching and Schmidt, Helena and Yang, Min-Lee and Chen, Ming-Huei and Hayes, James and Johnson, Andrew D and Yanek, Lisa R and Mueller, Christian and Lange, Leslie and Floyd, James S and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Zonderman, Alan B and Jukema, J Wouter and Hofman, Albert and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Desch, Karl C and Saba, Yasaman and Ozel, Ayse B and Snively, Beverly M and Wu, Jer-Yuarn and Schmidt, Reinhold and Fornage, Myriam and Klein, Robert J and Fox, Caroline S and Matsuda, Koichi and Kamatani, Naoyuki and Wild, Philipp S and Stott, David J and Ford, Ian and Slagboom, P Eline and Yang, Jaden and Chu, Audrey Y and Lambert, Amy J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Franco, Oscar H and Hofer, Edith and Ginsburg, David and Hu, Bella and Keating, Brendan and Schick, Ursula M and Brody, Jennifer A and Li, Jun Z and Chen, Zhao and Zeller, Tanja and Guralnik, Jack M and Chasman, Daniel I and Peters, Luanne L and Kubo, Michiaki and Becker, Diane M and Li, Jin and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Rotter, Jerome I and Levy, Daniel and Grossmann, Vera and Patel, Kushang V and Chen, Chien-Hsiun and Ridker, Paul M and Tang, Hua and Launer, Lenore J and Rice, Kenneth M and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Ferrucci, Luigi and Evans, Michelle K and Choudhuri, Avik and Trompouki, Eirini and Abraham, Brian J and Yang, Song and Takahashi, Atsushi and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kooperberg, Charles and Harris, Tamara B and Jee, Sun Ha and Coresh, Josef and Tsai, Fuu-Jen and Longo, Dan L and Chen, Yuan-Tsong and Felix, Janine F and Yang, Qiong and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Becker, Lewis C and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Wilson, James G and Gudnason, Vilmundur and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Dehghan, Abbas and Cupples, L Adrienne and Nalls, Michael A and Morris, Andrew P and Okada, Yukinori and Reiner, Alexander P and Zon, Leonard I and Ganesh, Santhi K} } @article {7546, title = {Identifying risk for type 2 diabetes in different age cohorts: does one size fit all?}, journal = {BMJ Open Diabetes Res Care}, volume = {5}, year = {2017}, month = {2017}, pages = {e000447}, abstract = {

Objective: To estimate age-specific risk equations for type 2 diabetes onset in young, middle-aged, and older US adults, and to compare the performance of simple equations based on readily available demographic information alone, against enhanced equations that require both demographic and clinical information (fasting plasma glucose, high-density lipoprotein, and triglyceride levels).

Research design and methods: We estimated the probability of developing diabetes by age group using data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (for ages 18-40 years), Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (for ages 45-64 years), and the Cardiovascular Health Study (for ages 65 years and older). Simple and enhanced equations were estimated using logistic regression models, and performance was compared by age group. Thresholds based on these risk equations were evaluated using split-sample bootstraps and calibrating the constant of one age cohort to others.

Results: Simple risk equations had an area under the receiver-operating curve (AUROC) of 0.72, 0.79, 0.75, and 0.69 for age groups 18-30, 28-40, 45-64, and 65 and older, respectively. The corresponding AUROCs for enhanced equations were 0.75, 0.85, 0.85, and 0.81. Risk equations based on younger populations, when applied to older cohorts, underpredict diabetes incidence and risk. Conversely, risk equations based on older populations overpredict the likelihood of diabetes in younger cohorts.

Conclusions: In general, risk equations are more successful in middle-aged adults than in young and old populations. The results demonstrate the importance of applying age-specific risk equations to identify target populations for intervention. While the predictive capacity of equations that include biomarkers is better than of those based solely on self-reported variables, biomarkers are more important in older populations than in younger ones.

}, issn = {2052-4897}, doi = {10.1136/bmjdrc-2017-000447}, author = {Alva, Maria L and Hoerger, Thomas J and Zhang, Ping and Gregg, Edward W} } @article {7596, title = {Impact of common genetic determinants of Hemoglobin A1c on type 2 diabetes risk and diagnosis in ancestrally diverse populations: A transethnic genome-wide meta-analysis.}, journal = {PLoS Med}, volume = {14}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Sep}, pages = {e1002383}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is used to diagnose type 2 diabetes (T2D) and assess glycemic control in patients with diabetes. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 18 HbA1c-associated genetic variants. These variants proved to be classifiable by their likely biological action as erythrocytic (also associated with erythrocyte traits) or glycemic (associated with other glucose-related traits). In this study, we tested the hypotheses that, in a very large scale GWAS, we would identify more genetic variants associated with HbA1c and that HbA1c variants implicated in erythrocytic biology would affect the diagnostic accuracy of HbA1c. We therefore expanded the number of HbA1c-associated loci and tested the effect of genetic risk-scores comprised of erythrocytic or glycemic variants on incident diabetes prediction and on prevalent diabetes screening performance. Throughout this multiancestry study, we kept a focus on interancestry differences in HbA1c genetics performance that might influence race-ancestry differences in health outcomes.

METHODS \& FINDINGS: Using genome-wide association meta-analyses in up to 159,940 individuals from 82 cohorts of European, African, East Asian, and South Asian ancestry, we identified 60 common genetic variants associated with HbA1c. We classified variants as implicated in glycemic, erythrocytic, or unclassified biology and tested whether additive genetic scores of erythrocytic variants (GS-E) or glycemic variants (GS-G) were associated with higher T2D incidence in multiethnic longitudinal cohorts (N = 33,241). Nineteen glycemic and 22 erythrocytic variants were associated with HbA1c at genome-wide significance. GS-G was associated with higher T2D risk (incidence OR = 1.05, 95\% CI 1.04-1.06, per HbA1c-raising allele, p = 3 {\texttimes} 10-29); whereas GS-E was not (OR = 1.00, 95\% CI 0.99-1.01, p = 0.60). In Europeans and Asians, erythrocytic variants in aggregate had only modest effects on the diagnostic accuracy of HbA1c. Yet, in African Americans, the X-linked G6PD G202A variant (T-allele frequency 11\%) was associated with an absolute decrease in HbA1c of 0.81\%-units (95\% CI 0.66-0.96) per allele in hemizygous men, and 0.68\%-units (95\% CI 0.38-0.97) in homozygous women. The G6PD variant may cause approximately 2\% (N = 0.65 million, 95\% CI 0.55-0.74) of African American adults with T2D to remain undiagnosed when screened with HbA1c. Limitations include the smaller sample sizes for non-European ancestries and the inability to classify approximately one-third of the variants. Further studies in large multiethnic cohorts with HbA1c, glycemic, and erythrocytic traits are required to better determine the biological action of the unclassified variants.

CONCLUSIONS: As G6PD deficiency can be clinically silent until illness strikes, we recommend investigation of the possible benefits of screening for the G6PD genotype along with using HbA1c to diagnose T2D in populations of African ancestry or groups where G6PD deficiency is common. Screening with direct glucose measurements, or genetically-informed HbA1c diagnostic thresholds in people with G6PD deficiency, may be required to avoid missed or delayed diagnoses.

}, keywords = {Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glycated Hemoglobin A, Humans, Phenotype, Risk}, issn = {1549-1676}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pmed.1002383}, author = {Wheeler, Eleanor and Leong, Aaron and Liu, Ching-Ti and Hivert, Marie-France and Strawbridge, Rona J and Podmore, Clara and Li, Man and Yao, Jie and Sim, Xueling and Hong, Jaeyoung and Chu, Audrey Y and Zhang, Weihua and Wang, Xu and Chen, Peng and Maruthur, Nisa M and Porneala, Bianca C and Sharp, Stephen J and Jia, Yucheng and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Chang, Li-Ching and Chen, Wei-Min and Elks, Cathy E and Evans, Daniel S and Fan, Qiao and Giulianini, Franco and Go, Min Jin and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Hu, Yao and Jackson, Anne U and Kanoni, Stavroula and Kim, Young Jin and Kleber, Marcus E and Ladenvall, Claes and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Lim, Sing-Hui and Lu, Yingchang and Mahajan, Anubha and Marzi, Carola and Nalls, Mike A and Navarro, Pau and Nolte, Ilja M and Rose, Lynda M and Rybin, Denis V and Sanna, Serena and Shi, Yuan and Stram, Daniel O and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Tan, Shu Pei and van der Most, Peter J and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Wong, Andrew and Yengo, Loic and Zhao, Wanting and Goel, Anuj and Martinez Larrad, Maria Teresa and Radke, D{\"o}rte and Salo, Perttu and Tanaka, Toshiko and van Iperen, Erik P A and Abecasis, Goncalo and Afaq, Saima and Alizadeh, Behrooz Z and Bertoni, Alain G and Bonnefond, Am{\'e}lie and B{\"o}ttcher, Yvonne and Bottinger, Erwin P and Campbell, Harry and Carlson, Olga D and Chen, Chien-Hsiun and Cho, Yoon Shin and Garvey, W Timothy and Gieger, Christian and Goodarzi, Mark O and Grallert, Harald and Hamsten, Anders and Hartman, Catharina A and Herder, Christian and Hsiung, Chao Agnes and Huang, Jie and Igase, Michiya and Isono, Masato and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Khor, Chiea-Chuen and Kiess, Wieland and Kohara, Katsuhiko and Kovacs, Peter and Lee, Juyoung and Lee, Wen-Jane and Lehne, Benjamin and Li, Huaixing and Liu, Jianjun and Lobbens, Stephane and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Meitinger, Thomas and Miki, Tetsuro and Miljkovic, Iva and Moon, Sanghoon and Mulas, Antonella and M{\"u}ller, Gabriele and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Nagaraja, Ramaiah and Nauck, Matthias and Pankow, James S and Polasek, Ozren and Prokopenko, Inga and Ramos, Paula S and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura and Rathmann, Wolfgang and Rich, Stephen S and Robertson, Neil R and Roden, Michael and Roussel, Ronan and Rudan, Igor and Scott, Robert A and Scott, William R and Sennblad, Bengt and Siscovick, David S and Strauch, Konstantin and Sun, Liang and Swertz, Morris and Tajuddin, Salman M and Taylor, Kent D and Teo, Yik-Ying and Tham, Yih Chung and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Wareham, Nicholas J and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilsgaard, Tom and Hingorani, Aroon D and Egan, Josephine and Ferrucci, Luigi and Hovingh, G Kees and Jula, Antti and Kivimaki, Mika and Kumari, Meena and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Palmer, Colin N A and Serrano R{\'\i}os, Manuel and Stumvoll, Michael and Watkins, Hugh and Aung, Tin and Bl{\"u}her, Matthias and Boehnke, Michael and Boomsma, Dorret I and Bornstein, Stefan R and Chambers, John C and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chen, Yduan-Tsong and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Cucca, Francesco and de Geus, Eco J C and Deloukas, Panos and Evans, Michele K and Fornage, Myriam and Friedlander, Yechiel and Froguel, Philippe and Groop, Leif and Gross, Myron D and Harris, Tamara B and Hayward, Caroline and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Ingelsson, Erik and Kato, Norihiro and Kim, Bong-Jo and Koh, Woon-Puay and Kooner, Jaspal S and K{\"o}rner, Antje and Kuh, Diana and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Lin, Xu and Liu, Yongmei and Loos, Ruth J F and Magnusson, Patrik K E and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and McCarthy, Mark I and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Ong, Ken K and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pereira, Mark A and Peters, Annette and Ridker, Paul M and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Sale, Michele and Saleheen, Danish and Saltevo, Juha and Schwarz, Peter Eh and Sheu, Wayne H H and Snieder, Harold and Spector, Timothy D and Tabara, Yasuharu and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and van Dam, Rob M and Wilson, James G and Wilson, James F and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Wong, Tien Yin and Wu, Jer-Yuarn and Yuan, Jian-Min and Zonderman, Alan B and Soranzo, Nicole and Guo, Xiuqing and Roberts, David J and Florez, Jose C and Sladek, Robert and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Morris, Andrew P and Tai, E-Shyong and Selvin, Elizabeth and Rotter, Jerome I and Langenberg, Claudia and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Meigs, James B} } @article {7365, title = {Incident atrial fibrillation and the risk of fracture in the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Osteoporos Int}, volume = {28}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Feb}, pages = {719-725}, abstract = {

In this prospective cohort of 4462 older adults, incident atrial fibrillation (AF) was not statistically significantly associated with subsequent risk of incident fracture.

INTRODUCTION: AF is associated with stroke, heart failure, dementia, and death, but its association with fracture is unknown. Therefore, we examined the association of incident AF with the risk of subsequent fracture in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) cohort.

METHODS: Of the CHS participants aged >=65~years, 4462 were followed between 1991 and 2009, mean follow-up 8.8~years. Incident AF was identified by annual study electrocardiogram (ECG), hospital discharge diagnosis codes, or Medicare claims. Fractures of the hip, distal forearm, humerus, or pelvis were identified using hospital discharge diagnosis codes or Medicare claims. We used Cox proportional hazard models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95~\% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between incident AF (time-varying) and the risk of subsequent fracture. We also evaluated whether AF was associated with risk of sustaining a fall.

RESULTS: Crude incident fracture rate was 22.9 per 1000 person-years in participants with AF and 17.7 per 1000 person-years in participants without AF. Individuals with incident AF were not at significantly higher risk of hip fracture (adjusted HR~=~1.09, 95~\% CI 0.83-1.42) or fracture at any selected site (adjusted HR~=~0.97, 95~\% CI 0.77-1.22) or risk of sustaining a fall (adjusted HR~=~1.00, 95~\% CI~=~0.87-1.16) compared with those without AF.

CONCLUSION: In this cohort of older, community-dwelling adults, incident AF was not shown to be associated with falls or hip or other fractures.

}, issn = {1433-2965}, doi = {10.1007/s00198-016-3778-1}, author = {Wallace, E R and Siscovick, D S and Sitlani, C M and Dublin, S and Mitchell, P and Robbins, J A and Fink, H A and Cauley, J A and B{\r u}{\v z}kov{\'a}, P and Carbone, L and Chen, Z and Heckbert, S R} } @article {7600, title = {Large meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies five loci for lean body mass.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {8}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jul 19}, pages = {80}, abstract = {

Lean body mass, consisting mostly of skeletal muscle, is important for healthy aging. We performed a genome-wide association study for whole body (20 cohorts of European ancestry with n = 38,292) and appendicular (arms and legs) lean body mass (n = 28,330) measured using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry or bioelectrical impedance analysis, adjusted for sex, age, height, and fat mass. Twenty-one single-nucleotide polymorphisms were significantly associated with lean body mass either genome wide (p < 5 {\texttimes} 10-8) or suggestively genome wide (p < 2.3 {\texttimes} 10-6). Replication in 63,475 (47,227 of European ancestry) individuals from 33 cohorts for whole body lean body mass and in 45,090 (42,360 of European ancestry) subjects from 25 cohorts for appendicular lean body mass was successful for five single-nucleotide polymorphisms in/near HSD17B11, VCAN, ADAMTSL3, IRS1, and FTO for total lean body mass and for three single-nucleotide polymorphisms in/near VCAN, ADAMTSL3, and IRS1 for appendicular lean body mass. Our findings provide new insight into the genetics of lean body mass.Lean body mass is a highly heritable trait and is associated with various health conditions. Here, Kiel and colleagues perform a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for whole body lean body mass and find five novel genetic loci to be significantly associated.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-017-00031-7}, author = {Zillikens, M Carola and Demissie, Serkalem and Hsu, Yi-Hsiang and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Chou, Wen-Chi and Stolk, Lisette and Livshits, Gregory and Broer, Linda and Johnson, Toby and Koller, Daniel L and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Malkin, Ida and Ried, Janina S and Smith, Albert V and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Hua Zhao, Jing and Zhang, Weihua and Aghdassi, Ali and {\r A}kesson, Kristina and Amin, Najaf and Baier, Leslie J and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Bennett, David A and Bertram, Lars and Biffar, Rainer and Bochud, Murielle and Boehnke, Michael and Borecki, Ingrid B and Buchman, Aron S and Byberg, Liisa and Campbell, Harry and Campos Obanda, Natalia and Cauley, Jane A and Cawthon, Peggy M and Cederberg, Henna and Chen, Zhao and Cho, Nam H and Jin Choi, Hyung and Claussnitzer, Melina and Collins, Francis and Cummings, Steven R and De Jager, Philip L and Demuth, Ilja and Dhonukshe-Rutten, Rosalie A M and Diatchenko, Luda and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Enneman, Anke W and Erdos, Mike and Eriksson, Johan G and Eriksson, Joel and Estrada, Karol and Evans, Daniel S and Feitosa, Mary F and Fu, Mao and Garcia, Melissa and Gieger, Christian and Girke, Thomas and Glazer, Nicole L and Grallert, Harald and Grewal, Jagvir and Han, Bok-Ghee and Hanson, Robert L and Hayward, Caroline and Hofman, Albert and Hoffman, Eric P and Homuth, Georg and Hsueh, Wen-Chi and Hubal, Monica J and Hubbard, Alan and Huffman, Kim M and Husted, Lise B and Illig, Thomas and Ingelsson, Erik and Ittermann, Till and Jansson, John-Olov and Jordan, Joanne M and Jula, Antti and Karlsson, Magnus and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Klopp, Norman and Kloth, Jacqueline S L and Koistinen, Heikki A and Kraus, William E and Kritchevsky, Stephen and Kuulasmaa, Teemu and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Lahti, Jari and Lang, Thomas and Langdahl, Bente L and Launer, Lenore J and Lee, Jong-Young and Lerch, Markus M and Lewis, Joshua R and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia and Liu, Yongmei and Liu, Tian and Liu, Youfang and Ljunggren, Osten and Lorentzon, Mattias and Luben, Robert N and Maixner, William and McGuigan, Fiona E and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Meitinger, Thomas and Melhus, H{\r a}kan and Mellstr{\"o}m, Dan and Melov, Simon and Micha{\"e}lsson, Karl and Mitchell, Braxton D and Morris, Andrew P and Mosekilde, Leif and Newman, Anne and Nielson, Carrie M and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Oostra, Ben A and Orwoll, Eric S and Palotie, Aarno and Parker, Stephen C J and Peacock, Munro and Perola, Markus and Peters, Annette and Polasek, Ozren and Prince, Richard L and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Ralston, Stuart H and Ripatti, Samuli and Robbins, John A and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Salomaa, Veikko and Satterfield, Suzanne and Schadt, Eric E and Schipf, Sabine and Scott, Laura and Sehmi, Joban and Shen, Jian and Soo Shin, Chan and Sigurdsson, Gunnar and Smith, Shad and Soranzo, Nicole and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Steinhagen-Thiessen, Elisabeth and Streeten, Elizabeth A and Styrkarsdottir, Unnur and Swart, Karin M A and Tan, Sian-Tsung and Tarnopolsky, Mark A and Thompson, Patricia and Thomson, Cynthia A and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tikkanen, Emmi and Tranah, Gregory J and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and van Schoor, Natasja M and Verma, Arjun and Vollenweider, Peter and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Wactawski-Wende, Jean and Walker, Mark and Weedon, Michael N and Welch, Ryan and Wichmann, H-Erich and Widen, Elisabeth and Williams, Frances M K and Wilson, James F and Wright, Nicole C and Xie, Weijia and Yu, Lei and Zhou, Yanhua and Chambers, John C and D{\"o}ring, Angela and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Econs, Michael J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Kooner, Jaspal S and Psaty, Bruce M and Spector, Timothy D and Stefansson, Kari and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wareham, Nicholas J and Ossowski, Vicky and Waterworth, Dawn and Loos, Ruth J F and Karasik, David and Harris, Tamara B and Ohlsson, Claes and Kiel, Douglas P} } @article {7396, title = {Large-scale analyses of common and rare variants identify 12 new loci associated with atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {49}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jun}, pages = {946-952}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation affects more than 33 million people worldwide and increases the risk of stroke, heart failure, and death. Fourteen genetic loci have been associated with atrial fibrillation in European and Asian ancestry groups. To further define the genetic basis of atrial fibrillation, we performed large-scale, trans-ancestry meta-analyses of common and rare variant association studies. The genome-wide association studies (GWAS) included 17,931 individuals with atrial fibrillation and 115,142 referents; the exome-wide association studies (ExWAS) and rare variant association studies (RVAS) involved 22,346 cases and 132,086 referents. We identified 12 new genetic loci that exceeded genome-wide significance, implicating genes involved in cardiac electrical and structural remodeling. Our results nearly double the number of known genetic loci for atrial fibrillation, provide insights into the molecular basis of atrial fibrillation, and may facilitate the identification of new potential targets for drug discovery.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3843}, author = {Christophersen, Ingrid E and Rienstra, Michiel and Roselli, Carolina and Yin, Xiaoyan and Geelhoed, Bastiaan and Barnard, John and Lin, Honghuang and Arking, Dan E and Smith, Albert V and Albert, Christine M and Chaffin, Mark and Tucker, Nathan R and Li, Molong and Klarin, Derek and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and Low, Siew-Kee and Weeke, Peter E and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Smith, J Gustav and Brody, Jennifer A and Niemeijer, Maartje N and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Trompet, Stella and Huffman, Jennifer and Gustafsson, Stefan and Schurmann, Claudia and Kleber, Marcus E and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, Ilkka and Malik, Rainer and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Perez, Marco and Sinisalo, Juha and Aeschbacher, Stefanie and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Yao, Jie and Radmanesh, Farid and Weiss, Stefan and Teumer, Alexander and Choi, Seung Hoan and Weng, Lu-Chen and Clauss, Sebastian and Deo, Rajat and Rader, Daniel J and Shah, Svati H and Sun, Albert and Hopewell, Jemma C and Debette, Stephanie and Chauhan, Ganesh and Yang, Qiong and Worrall, Bradford B and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Hagemeijer, Yanick P and Verweij, Niek and Siland, Joylene E and Kubo, Michiaki and Smith, Jonathan D and Van Wagoner, David R and Bis, Joshua C and Perz, Siegfried and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and Magnani, Jared W and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Haessler, Jeffrey and Bartz, Traci M and Waldenberger, Melanie and Lichtner, Peter and Arendt, Marina and Krieger, Jose E and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Risch, Lorenz and Mansur, Alfredo J and Peters, Annette and Smith, Blair H and Lind, Lars and Scott, Stuart A and Lu, Yingchang and Bottinger, Erwin B and Hernesniemi, Jussi and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Wong, Jorge A and Huang, Jie and Eskola, Markku and Morris, Andrew P and Ford, Ian and Reiner, Alex P and Delgado, Graciela and Chen, Lin Y and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Sandhu, Roopinder K and Li, Man and Boerwinkle, Eric and Eisele, Lewin and Lannfelt, Lars and Rost, Natalia and Anderson, Christopher D and Taylor, Kent D and Campbell, Archie and Magnusson, Patrik K and Porteous, David and Hocking, Lynne J and Vlachopoulou, Efthymia and Pedersen, Nancy L and Nikus, Kjell and Orho-Melander, Marju and Hamsten, Anders and Heeringa, Jan and Denny, Joshua C and Kriebel, Jennifer and Darbar, Dawood and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Shaffer, Christian and Macfarlane, Peter W and Heilmann-Heimbach, Stefanie and Almgren, Peter and Huang, Paul L and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hofman, Albert and Franco, Oscar H and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and J{\"o}ckel, Karl-Heinz and Sinner, Moritz F and Lin, Henry J and Guo, Xiuqing and Dichgans, Martin and Ingelsson, Erik and Kooperberg, Charles and Melander, Olle and Loos, Ruth J F and Laurikka, Jari and Conen, David and Rosand, Jonathan and van der Harst, Pim and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Kathiresan, Sekar and Pereira, Alexandre and Jukema, J Wouter and Hayward, Caroline and Rotter, Jerome I and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Stricker, Bruno H and Chung, Mina K and Felix, Stephan B and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Alonso, Alvaro and Roden, Dan M and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Chasman, Daniel I and Heckbert, Susan R and Benjamin, Emelia J and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Lubitz, Steven A and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {7687, title = {Large-Scale Cognitive GWAS Meta-Analysis Reveals Tissue-Specific Neural Expression and Potential Nootropic Drug Targets.}, journal = {Cell Rep}, volume = {21}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Nov 28}, pages = {2597-2613}, abstract = {

Here, we present a large (n~= 107,207) genome-wide association study (GWAS) of general cognitive ability ("g"), further enhanced by combining results with a large-scale GWAS of educational attainment. We identified 70 independent genomic loci associated with general cognitive ability. Results showed significant enrichment for genes causing Mendelian disorders with an intellectual disability phenotype. Competitive pathway analysis implicated the biological processes of neurogenesis and synaptic regulation, as well as the gene targets of two pharmacologic agents: cinnarizine, a T-type calcium channel blocker, and LY97241, a potassium channel inhibitor. Transcriptome-wide and epigenome-wide analysis revealed that the implicated loci were enriched for genes expressed across all brain regions (most strongly in the cerebellum). Enrichment was exclusive to genes expressed in neurons but not oligodendrocytes or astrocytes. Finally, we report genetic correlations between cognitive ability and disparate phenotypes including psychiatric disorders, several autoimmune disorders, longevity, and maternal age at first birth.

}, issn = {2211-1247}, doi = {10.1016/j.celrep.2017.11.028}, author = {Lam, Max and Trampush, Joey W and Yu, Jin and Knowles, Emma and Davies, Gail and Liewald, David C and Starr, John M and Djurovic, Srdjan and Melle, Ingrid and Sundet, Kjetil and Christoforou, Andrea and Reinvang, Ivar and DeRosse, Pamela and Lundervold, Astri J and Steen, Vidar M and Espeseth, Thomas and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Widen, Elisabeth and Palotie, Aarno and Eriksson, Johan G and Giegling, Ina and Konte, Bettina and Roussos, Panos and Giakoumaki, Stella and Burdick, Katherine E and Payton, Antony and Ollier, William and Chiba-Falek, Ornit and Attix, Deborah K and Need, Anna C and Cirulli, Elizabeth T and Voineskos, Aristotle N and Stefanis, Nikos C and Avramopoulos, Dimitrios and Hatzimanolis, Alex and Arking, Dan E and Smyrnis, Nikolaos and Bilder, Robert M and Freimer, Nelson A and Cannon, Tyrone D and London, Edythe and Poldrack, Russell A and Sabb, Fred W and Congdon, Eliza and Conley, Emily Drabant and Scult, Matthew A and Dickinson, Dwight and Straub, Richard E and Donohoe, Gary and Morris, Derek and Corvin, Aiden and Gill, Michael and Hariri, Ahmad R and Weinberger, Daniel R and Pendleton, Neil and Bitsios, Panos and Rujescu, Dan and Lahti, Jari and Le Hellard, Stephanie and Keller, Matthew C and Andreassen, Ole A and Deary, Ian J and Glahn, David C and Malhotra, Anil K and Lencz, Todd} } @article {7373, title = {Large-scale genome-wide analysis identifies genetic variants associated with cardiac structure and function.}, journal = {J Clin Invest}, volume = {127}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 May 01}, pages = {1798-1812}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Understanding the genetic architecture of cardiac structure and function may help to prevent and treat heart disease. This investigation sought to identify common genetic variations associated with inter-individual variability in cardiac structure and function.

METHODS: A GWAS meta-analysis of echocardiographic traits was performed, including 46,533 individuals from 30 studies (EchoGen consortium). The analysis included 16 traits of left ventricular (LV) structure, and systolic and diastolic function.

RESULTS: The discovery analysis included 21 cohorts for structural and systolic function traits (n = 32,212) and 17 cohorts for diastolic function traits (n = 21,852). Replication was performed in 5 cohorts (n = 14,321) and 6 cohorts (n = 16,308), respectively. Besides 5 previously reported loci, the combined meta-analysis identified 10 additional genome-wide significant SNPs: rs12541595 near MTSS1 and rs10774625 in ATXN2 for LV end-diastolic internal dimension; rs806322 near KCNRG, rs4765663 in CACNA1C, rs6702619 near PALMD, rs7127129 in TMEM16A, rs11207426 near FGGY, rs17608766 in GOSR2, and rs17696696 in CFDP1 for aortic root diameter; and rs12440869 in IQCH for Doppler transmitral A-wave peak velocity. Findings were in part validated in other cohorts and in GWAS of related disease traits. The genetic loci showed associations with putative signaling pathways, and with gene expression in whole blood, monocytes, and myocardial tissue.

CONCLUSION: The additional genetic loci identified in this large meta-analysis of cardiac structure and function provide insights into the underlying genetic architecture of cardiac structure and warrant follow-up in future functional studies.

FUNDING: For detailed information per study, see Acknowledgments.

}, issn = {1558-8238}, doi = {10.1172/JCI84840}, author = {Wild, Philipp S and Felix, Janine F and Schillert, Arne and Teumer, Alexander and Chen, Ming-Huei and Leening, Maarten J G and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Gro{\ss}mann, Vera and Brody, Jennifer A and Irvin, Marguerite R and Shah, Sanjiv J and Pramana, Setia and Lieb, Wolfgang and Schmidt, Reinhold and Stanton, Alice V and Malzahn, D{\"o}rthe and Smith, Albert Vernon and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Minelli, Cosetta and Ruggiero, Daniela and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Tiller, Daniel and Smith, J Gustav and Monnereau, Claire and Di Tullio, Marco R and Musani, Solomon K and Morrison, Alanna C and Pers, Tune H and Morley, Michael and Kleber, Marcus E and Aragam, Jayashri and Benjamin, Emelia J and Bis, Joshua C and Bisping, Egbert and Broeckel, Ulrich and Cheng, Susan and Deckers, Jaap W and del Greco M, Fabiola and Edelmann, Frank and Fornage, Myriam and Franke, Lude and Friedrich, Nele and Harris, Tamara B and Hofer, Edith and Hofman, Albert and Huang, Jie and Hughes, Alun D and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Investigators, Knhi and Kruppa, Jochen and Lackner, Karl J and Lannfelt, Lars and Laskowski, Rafael and Launer, Lenore J and Leosdottir, Margr{\'e}t and Lin, Honghuang and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Loley, Christina and MacRae, Calum A and Mascalzoni, Deborah and Mayet, Jamil and Medenwald, Daniel and Morris, Andrew P and M{\"u}ller, Christian and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Nappo, Stefania and Nilsson, Peter M and Nuding, Sebastian and Nutile, Teresa and Peters, Annette and Pfeufer, Arne and Pietzner, Diana and Pramstaller, Peter P and Raitakari, Olli T and Rice, Kenneth M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rotter, Jerome I and Ruohonen, Saku T and Sacco, Ralph L and Samdarshi, Tandaw E and Schmidt, Helena and Sharp, Andrew S P and Shields, Denis C and Sorice, Rossella and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stricker, Bruno H and Surendran, Praveen and Thom, Simon and T{\"o}glhofer, Anna M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wachter, Rolf and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Ziegler, Andreas and M{\"u}nzel, Thomas and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Cappola, Thomas P and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Mitchell, Gary F and Smith, Nicholas L and Fox, Ervin R and Dueker, Nicole D and Jaddoe, Vincent W V and Melander, Olle and Russ, Martin and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Ciullo, Marina and Hicks, Andrew A and Lind, Lars and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Pieske, Burkert and Barron, Anthony J and Zweiker, Robert and Schunkert, Heribert and Ingelsson, Erik and Liu, Kiang and Arnett, Donna K and Psaty, Bruce M and Blankenberg, Stefan and Larson, Martin G and Felix, Stephan B and Franco, Oscar H and Zeller, Tanja and Vasan, Ramachandran S and D{\"o}rr, Marcus} } @article {7688, title = {Large-scale GWAS identifies multiple loci for hand grip strength providing biological insights into muscular fitness.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {8}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jul 12}, pages = {16015}, abstract = {

Hand grip strength is a widely used proxy of muscular fitness, a marker of frailty, and predictor of a range of morbidities and all-cause mortality. To investigate the genetic determinants of variation in grip strength, we perform a large-scale genetic discovery analysis in a combined sample of 195,180 individuals and identify 16 loci associated with grip strength (P<5 {\texttimes} 10) in combined analyses. A number of these loci contain genes implicated in structure and function of skeletal muscle fibres (ACTG1), neuronal maintenance and signal transduction (PEX14, TGFA, SYT1), or monogenic syndromes with involvement of psychomotor impairment (PEX14, LRPPRC and KANSL1). Mendelian randomization analyses are consistent with a causal effect of higher genetically predicted grip strength on lower fracture risk. In conclusion, our findings provide new biological insight into the mechanistic underpinnings of grip strength and the causal role of muscular strength in age-related morbidities and mortality.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms16015}, author = {Willems, Sara M and Wright, Daniel J and Day, Felix R and Trajanoska, Katerina and Joshi, Peter K and Morris, John A and Matteini, Amy M and Garton, Fleur C and Grarup, Niels and Oskolkov, Nikolay and Thalamuthu, Anbupalam and Mangino, Massimo and Liu, Jun and Demirkan, Ayse and Lek, Monkol and Xu, Liwen and Wang, Guan and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Gaulton, Kyle J and Lotta, Luca A and Miyamoto-Mikami, Eri and Rivas, Manuel A and White, Tom and Loh, Po-Ru and Aadahl, Mette and Amin, Najaf and Attia, John R and Austin, Krista and Benyamin, Beben and Brage, S{\o}ren and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Ci{\k e}szczyk, Pawe{\l} and Derave, Wim and Eriksson, Karl-Fredrik and Eynon, Nir and Linneberg, Allan and Lucia, Alejandro and Massidda, Myosotis and Mitchell, Braxton D and Miyachi, Motohiko and Murakami, Haruka and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Pandey, Ashutosh and Papadimitriou, Ioannis and Rajpal, Deepak K and Sale, Craig and Schnurr, Theresia M and Sessa, Francesco and Shrine, Nick and Tobin, Martin D and Varley, Ian and Wain, Louise V and Wray, Naomi R and Lindgren, Cecilia M and MacArthur, Daniel G and Waterworth, Dawn M and McCarthy, Mark I and Pedersen, Oluf and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kiel, Douglas P and Pitsiladis, Yannis and Fuku, Noriyuki and Franks, Paul W and North, Kathryn N and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Mather, Karen A and Hansen, Torben and Hansson, Ola and Spector, Tim and Murabito, Joanne M and Richards, J Brent and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Langenberg, Claudia and Perry, John R B and Wareham, Nick J and Scott, Robert A} } @article {7586, title = {Leisure-time physical activity and leukocyte telomere length among older women.}, journal = {Exp Gerontol}, volume = {95}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Sep}, pages = {141-147}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Shortened leukocyte telomere length (LTL), a purported marker of cellular aging, is associated with morbidity and mortality. However, the association of physical activity, a modifiable lifestyle behavior, with LTL has not been adequately studied among older adults.

METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we examined associations of various intensity levels of leisure-time physical activity with LTL among 1476 older white and African American women from the Women{\textquoteright}s Health Initiative Objective Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Health study. Self-reported physical activity was assessed by questionnaire, and LTL was measured by Southern blot. The association between physical activity and LTL was evaluated using multiple linear regression models adjusted for demographic characteristics, lifestyle behaviors, and health-related variables.

RESULTS: Women were on average aged 79.2 (standard deviation 6.7) years old. In the final model adjusted for age, race/ethnicity, education, marital status, smoking, alcohol, body mass index, a history of chronic diseases, and hormone therapy use, LTL was on average 110 (95\% confidence interval, 20-190) base pairs longer among women in the highest (>=17.00MET-hours/week) compared with the lowest (<1.25MET-hours/week) level of total leisure-time physical activity (P for trend=0.02). Higher levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (P for trend=0.04) and faster walking speed (P for trend=0.03) were also associated with longer LTL in the fully-adjusted models.

CONCLUSION: Older women participating in greater amounts of total leisure-time physical activity and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity had longer LTL.

}, issn = {1873-6815}, doi = {10.1016/j.exger.2017.05.019}, author = {Shadyab, Aladdin H and Lamonte, Michael J and Kooperberg, Charles and Reiner, Alexander P and Carty, Cara L and Manini, Todd M and Hou, Lifang and Di, Chongzhi and Macera, Caroline A and Gallo, Linda C and Shaffer, Richard A and Jain, Sonia and LaCroix, Andrea Z} } @article {7487, title = {Low-Frequency Synonymous Coding Variation in CYP2R1 Has Large Effects on Vitamin D Levels and Risk of Multiple Sclerosis.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {101}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Aug 03}, pages = {227-238}, abstract = {

Vitamin D insufficiency is common, correctable, and influenced by genetic factors, and it has been associated with risk of several diseases. We sought to identify low-frequency genetic variants that strongly increase the risk of vitamin D insufficiency and tested their effect on risk of multiple sclerosis, a disease influenced by low vitamin D concentrations. We used whole-genome sequencing data from 2,619 individuals through the UK10K program and deep-imputation data from 39,655 individuals genotyped genome-wide. Meta-analysis of the summary statistics from 19 cohorts identified in CYP2R1 the low-frequency (minor allele frequency = 2.5\%) synonymous coding variant g.14900931G>A (p.Asp120Asp) (rs117913124[A]), which conferred a large effect on 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) levels (-0.43 SD of standardized natural log-transformed 25OHD per A allele; p value = 1.5~{\texttimes} 10(-88)). The effect on 25OHD was four times larger and independent of the effect of a previously described common variant near CYP2R1. By analyzing 8,711 individuals, we showed that heterozygote carriers of this low-frequency variant have an increased risk of vitamin D insufficiency (odds ratio [OR] = 2.2, 95\% confidence interval [CI] = 1.78-2.78, p = 1.26~{\texttimes} 10(-12)). Individuals carrying one copy of this variant also had increased odds of multiple sclerosis (OR = 1.4, 95\% CI = 1.19-1.64, p = 2.63~{\texttimes} 10(-5)) in a sample of 5,927 case and 5,599 control subjects. In~conclusion, we describe a low-frequency CYP2R1 coding variant that exerts the largest effect upon 25OHD levels identified to date in the general European population and implicates vitamin D in the etiology of multiple sclerosis.

}, keywords = {Cholestanetriol 26-Monooxygenase, Cytochrome P450 Family 2, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Multiple Sclerosis, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Vitamin D, Vitamin D Deficiency}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2017.06.014}, author = {Manousaki, Despoina and Dudding, Tom and Haworth, Simon and Hsu, Yi-Hsiang and Liu, Ching-Ti and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Voortman, Trudy and van der Velde, Nathalie and Melhus, H{\r a}kan and Robinson-Cohen, Cassianne and Cousminer, Diana L and Nethander, Maria and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Noordam, Raymond and Forgetta, Vincenzo and Greenwood, Celia M T and Biggs, Mary L and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Zemel, Babette S and Mitchell, Jonathan A and Taylor, Bruce and Lorentzon, Mattias and Karlsson, Magnus and Jaddoe, Vincent V W and Tiemeier, Henning and Campos-Obando, Natalia and Franco, Oscar H and Utterlinden, Andre G and Broer, Linda and van Schoor, Natasja M and Ham, Annelies C and Ikram, M Arfan and Karasik, David and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Rosendaal, Frits R and den Heijer, Martin and Wang, Thomas J and Lind, Lars and Orwoll, Eric S and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Micha{\"e}lsson, Karl and Kestenbaum, Bryan and Ohlsson, Claes and Mellstr{\"o}m, Dan and de Groot, Lisette C P G M and Grant, Struan F A and Kiel, Douglas P and Zillikens, M Carola and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Sawcer, Stephen and Timpson, Nicholas J and Richards, J Brent} } @article {7575, title = {Measures of chronic kidney disease and risk of incident peripheral artery disease: a collaborative meta-analysis of individual participant data.}, journal = {Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol}, volume = {5}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Sep}, pages = {718-728}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Some evidence suggests that chronic kidney disease is a risk factor for lower-extremity peripheral artery disease. We aimed to quantify the independent and joint associations of two measures of chronic kidney disease (estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] and albuminuria) with the incidence of peripheral artery disease.

METHODS: In this collaborative meta-analysis of international cohorts included in the Chronic Kidney Disease Prognosis Consortium (baseline measurements obtained between 1972 and 2014) with baseline measurements of eGFR and albuminuria, at least 1000 participants (this criterion not applied to cohorts exclusively enrolling patients with chronic kidney disease), and at least 50 peripheral artery disease events, we analysed adult participants without peripheral artery disease at baseline at the individual patient level with Cox proportional hazards models to quantify associations of creatinine-based eGFR, urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR), and dipstick proteinuria with the incidence of peripheral artery disease (including hospitalisation with a diagnosis of peripheral artery disease, intermittent claudication, leg revascularisation, and leg amputation). We assessed discrimination improvement through c-statistics.

FINDINGS: We analysed 817 084 individuals without a history of peripheral artery disease at baseline from 21 cohorts. 18 261 cases of peripheral artery disease were recorded during follow-up across cohorts (median follow-up was 7{\textperiodcentered}4 years [IQR 5{\textperiodcentered}7-8{\textperiodcentered}9], range 2{\textperiodcentered}0-15{\textperiodcentered}8 years across cohorts). Both chronic kidney disease measures were independently associated with the incidence of peripheral artery disease. Compared with an eGFR of 95 mL/min per 1{\textperiodcentered}73 m2, adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for incident study-specific peripheral artery disease was 1{\textperiodcentered}22 (95\% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}14-1{\textperiodcentered}30) at an eGFR of 45 mL/min per 1{\textperiodcentered}73 m2 and 2{\textperiodcentered}06 (1{\textperiodcentered}70-2{\textperiodcentered}48) at an eGFR of 15 mL/min per 1{\textperiodcentered}73 m2. Compared with an ACR of 5 mg/g, the adjusted HR for incident study-specific peripheral artery disease was 1{\textperiodcentered}50 (1{\textperiodcentered}41-1{\textperiodcentered}59) at an ACR of 30 mg/g and 2{\textperiodcentered}28 (2{\textperiodcentered}12-2{\textperiodcentered}44) at an ACR of 300 mg/g. The adjusted HR at an ACR of 300 mg/g versus 5 mg/g was 3{\textperiodcentered}68 (95\% CI 3{\textperiodcentered}00-4{\textperiodcentered}52) for leg amputation. eGFR and albuminuria contributed multiplicatively (eg, adjusted HR 5{\textperiodcentered}76 [4{\textperiodcentered}90-6{\textperiodcentered}77] for incident peripheral artery disease and 10{\textperiodcentered}61 [5{\textperiodcentered}70-19{\textperiodcentered}77] for amputation in eGFR <30 mL/min per 1{\textperiodcentered}73 m2 plus ACR >=300 mg/g or dipstick proteinuria 2+ or higher vs eGFR >=90 mL/min per 1{\textperiodcentered}73 m2 plus ACR <10 mg/g or dipstick proteinuria negative). Both eGFR and ACR significantly improved peripheral artery disease risk discrimination beyond traditional predictors, with a substantial improvement prediction of amputation with ACR (difference in c-statistic 0{\textperiodcentered}058, 95\% CI 0{\textperiodcentered}045-0{\textperiodcentered}070). Patterns were consistent across clinical subgroups.

INTERPRETATION: Even mild-to-moderate chronic kidney disease conferred increased risk of incident peripheral artery disease, with a strong association between albuminuria and amputation. Clinical attention should be paid to the development of peripheral artery disease symptoms and signs in people with any stage of chronic kidney disease.

FUNDING: American Heart Association, US National Kidney Foundation, and US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

}, issn = {2213-8595}, doi = {10.1016/S2213-8587(17)30183-3}, author = {Matsushita, Kunihiro and Ballew, Shoshana H and Coresh, Josef and Arima, Hisatomi and Arnl{\"o}v, Johan and Cirillo, Massimo and Ebert, Natalie and Hiramoto, Jade S and Kimm, Heejin and Shlipak, Michael G and Visseren, Frank L J and Gansevoort, Ron T and Kovesdy, Csaba P and Shalev, Varda and Woodward, Mark and Kronenberg, Florian} } @article {7569, title = {New Blood Pressure-Associated Loci Identified in Meta-Analyses of 475 000 Individuals.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {10}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Oct}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies have recently identified >400 loci that harbor DNA sequence variants that influence blood pressure (BP). Our earlier studies identified and validated 56 single nucleotide variants (SNVs) associated with BP from meta-analyses of exome chip genotype data. An additional 100 variants yielded suggestive evidence of association.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Here, we augment the sample with 140 886 European individuals from the UK Biobank, in whom 77 of the 100 suggestive SNVs were available for association analysis with systolic BP or diastolic BP or pulse pressure. We performed 2 meta-analyses, one in individuals of European, South Asian, African, and Hispanic descent (pan-ancestry, ≈475 000), and the other in the subset of individuals of European descent (≈423 000). Twenty-one SNVs were genome-wide significant (P<5{\texttimes}10-8) for BP, of which 4 are new BP loci: rs9678851 (missense, SLC4A1AP), rs7437940 (AFAP1), rs13303 (missense, STAB1), and rs1055144 (7p15.2). In addition, we identified a potentially independent novel BP-associated SNV, rs3416322 (missense, SYNPO2L) at a known locus, uncorrelated with the previously reported SNVs. Two SNVs are associated with expression levels of nearby genes, and SNVs at 3 loci are associated with other traits. One SNV with a minor allele frequency <0.01, (rs3025380 at DBH) was genome-wide significant.

CONCLUSIONS: We report 4 novel loci associated with BP regulation, and 1 independent variant at an established BP locus. This analysis highlights several candidate genes with variation that alter protein function or gene expression for potential follow-up.

}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.117.001778}, author = {Kraja, Aldi T and Cook, James P and Warren, Helen R and Surendran, Praveen and Liu, Chunyu and Evangelou, Evangelos and Manning, Alisa K and Grarup, Niels and Drenos, Fotios and Sim, Xueling and Smith, Albert Vernon and Amin, Najaf and Blakemore, Alexandra I F and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Brandslund, Ivan and Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni and Fava, Cristiano and Ferreira, Teresa and Herzig, Karl-Heinz and Giri, Ayush and Giulianini, Franco and Grove, Megan L and Guo, Xiuqing and Harris, Sarah E and Have, Christian T and Havulinna, Aki S and Zhang, He and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and K{\"a}r{\"a}j{\"a}m{\"a}ki, AnneMari and Kooperberg, Charles and Linneberg, Allan and Little, Louis and Liu, Yongmei and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Lu, Yingchang and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Mahajan, Anubha and Malerba, Giovanni and Marioni, Riccardo E and Mei, Hao and Menni, Cristina and Morrison, Alanna C and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Palmas, Walter and Poveda, Alaitz and Rauramaa, Rainer and Rayner, Nigel William and Riaz, Muhammad and Rice, Ken and Richard, Melissa A and Smith, Jennifer A and Southam, Lorraine and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Stirrups, Kathleen E and Tragante, Vinicius and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Varga, Tibor V and Weiss, Stefan and Yiorkas, Andrianos M and Young, Robin and Zhang, Weihua and Barnes, Michael R and Cabrera, Claudia P and Gao, He and Boehnke, Michael and Boerwinkle, Eric and Chambers, John C and Connell, John M and Christensen, Cramer K and de Boer, Rudolf A and Deary, Ian J and Dedoussis, George and Deloukas, Panos and Dominiczak, Anna F and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Joehanes, Roby and Edwards, Todd L and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Fornage, Myriam and Franceschini, Nora and Franks, Paul W and Gambaro, Giovanni and Groop, Leif and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Hansen, Torben and Hayward, Caroline and Heikki, Oksa and Ingelsson, Erik and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Kardia, Sharon L R and Karpe, Fredrik and Kooner, Jaspal S and Lakka, Timo A and Langenberg, Claudia and Lind, Lars and Loos, Ruth J F and Laakso, Markku and McCarthy, Mark I and Melander, Olle and Mohlke, Karen L and Morris, Andrew P and Palmer, Colin N A and Pedersen, Oluf and Polasek, Ozren and Poulter, Neil R and Province, Michael A and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Salomaa, Veikko and Samani, Nilesh J and Sever, Peter J and Skaaby, Tea and Stafford, Jeanette M and Starr, John M and van der Harst, Pim and van der Meer, Peter and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Vergnaud, Anne-Claire and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wilson, James G and Willer, Cristen J and Witte, Daniel R and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Saleheen, Danish and Butterworth, Adam S and Danesh, John and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Wain, Louise V and Ehret, Georg B and Chasman, Daniel I and Caulfield, Mark J and Elliott, Paul and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Levy, Daniel and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Munroe, Patricia B and Howson, Joanna M M} } @article {7492, title = {Novel Blood Pressure Locus and Gene Discovery Using Genome-Wide Association Study and Expression Data Sets From Blood and the Kidney.}, journal = {Hypertension}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jul 24}, abstract = {

Elevated blood pressure is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and has a substantial genetic contribution. Genetic variation influencing blood pressure has the potential to identify new pharmacological targets for the treatment of hypertension. To discover additional novel blood pressure loci, we used 1000 Genomes Project-based imputation in 150 134 European ancestry individuals and sought significant evidence for independent replication in a further 228 245 individuals. We report 6 new signals of association in or near HSPB7, TNXB, LRP12, LOC283335, SEPT9, and AKT2, and provide new replication evidence for a further 2 signals in EBF2 and NFKBIA Combining large whole-blood gene expression resources totaling 12 607 individuals, we investigated all novel and previously reported signals and identified 48 genes with evidence for involvement in blood pressure regulation that are significant in multiple resources. Three novel kidney-specific signals were also detected. These robustly implicated genes may provide new leads for therapeutic innovation.

}, issn = {1524-4563}, doi = {10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.117.09438}, author = {Wain, Louise V and Vaez, Ahmad and Jansen, Rick and Joehanes, Roby and van der Most, Peter J and Erzurumluoglu, A Mesut and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Cabrera, Claudia P and Warren, Helen R and Rose, Lynda M and Verwoert, Germaine C and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Strawbridge, Rona J and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Arking, Dan E and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Guo, Xiuqing and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Trompet, Stella and Shrine, Nick and Teumer, Alexander and Ried, Janina S and Bis, Joshua C and Smith, Albert V and Amin, Najaf and Nolte, Ilja M and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Mahajan, Anubha and Wareham, Nicholas J and Hofer, Edith and Joshi, Peter K and Kristiansson, Kati and Traglia, Michela and Havulinna, Aki S and Goel, Anuj and Nalls, Mike A and S{\~o}ber, Siim and Vuckovic, Dragana and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and del Greco M, Fabiola and Ayers, Kristin L and Marrugat, Jaume and Ruggiero, Daniela and Lopez, Lorna M and Niiranen, Teemu and Enroth, Stefan and Jackson, Anne U and Nelson, Christopher P and Huffman, Jennifer E and Zhang, Weihua and Marten, Jonathan and Gandin, Ilaria and Harris, Sarah E and Zemunik, Tatijana and Lu, Yingchang and Evangelou, Evangelos and Shah, Nabi and de Borst, Martin H and Mangino, Massimo and Prins, Bram P and Campbell, Archie and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Chauhan, Ganesh and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Abecasis, Goncalo and Abedi, Maryam and Barbieri, Caterina M and Barnes, Michael R and Batini, Chiara and Beilby, John and Blake, Tineka and Boehnke, Michael and Bottinger, Erwin P and Braund, Peter S and Brown, Morris and Brumat, Marco and Campbell, Harry and Chambers, John C and Cocca, Massimiliano and Collins, Francis and Connell, John and Cordell, Heather J and Damman, Jeffrey J and Davies, Gail and de Geus, Eco J and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Deelen, Joris and Demirkale, Yusuf and Doney, Alex S F and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Farrall, Martin and Ferreira, Teresa and Fr{\r a}nberg, Mattias and Gao, He and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Gieger, Christian and Giulianini, Franco and Gow, Alan J and Hamsten, Anders and Harris, Tamara B and Hofman, Albert and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Hui, Jennie and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Johansson, Asa and Johnson, Andrew D and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jula, Antti and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kathiresan, Sekar and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kolcic, Ivana and Koskinen, Seppo and Langenberg, Claudia and Larson, Marty and Launer, Lenore J and Lehne, Benjamin and Liewald, David C M and Lin, Li and Lind, Lars and Mach, Fran{\c c}ois and Mamasoula, Chrysovalanto and Menni, Cristina and Mifsud, Borbala and Milaneschi, Yuri and Morgan, Anna and Morris, Andrew D and Morrison, Alanna C and Munson, Peter J and Nandakumar, Priyanka and Nguyen, Quang Tri and Nutile, Teresa and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Oostra, Ben A and Org, Elin and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Palotie, Aarno and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Pattie, Alison and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Poulter, Neil and Pramstaller, Peter P and Raitakari, Olli T and Ren, Meixia and Rice, Kenneth and Ridker, Paul M and Riese, Harri{\"e}tte and Ripatti, Samuli and Robino, Antonietta and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Saba, Yasaman and Saint Pierre, Aude and Sala, Cinzia F and Sarin, Antti-Pekka and Schmidt, Reinhold and Scott, Rodney and Seelen, Marc A and Shields, Denis C and Siscovick, David and Sorice, Rossella and Stanton, Alice and Stott, David J and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Swertz, Morris and Taylor, Kent D and Thom, Simon and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Tzourio, Christophe and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Vollenweider, Peter and Wild, Sarah and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wright, Alan F and Yao, Jie and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Conen, David and Attia, John and Sever, Peter and Debette, Stephanie and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Spector, Tim D and van der Harst, Pim and Palmer, Colin N A and Vergnaud, Anne-Claire and Loos, Ruth J F and Polasek, Ozren and Starr, John M and Girotto, Giorgia and Hayward, Caroline and Kooner, Jaspal S and Lindgren, Cecila M and Vitart, Veronique and Samani, Nilesh J and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Gyllensten, Ulf and Knekt, Paul and Deary, Ian J and Ciullo, Marina and Elosua, Roberto and Keavney, Bernard D and Hicks, Andrew A and Scott, Robert A and Gasparini, Paolo and Laan, Maris and Liu, Yongmei and Watkins, Hugh and Hartman, Catharina A and Salomaa, Veikko and Toniolo, Daniela and Perola, Markus and Wilson, James F and Schmidt, Helena and Zhao, Jing Hua and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Psaty, Bruce M and Peters, Annette and Rettig, Rainer and James, Alan and Jukema, J Wouter and Strachan, David P and Palmas, Walter and Metspalu, Andres and Ingelsson, Erik and Boomsma, Dorret I and Franco, Oscar H and Bochud, Murielle and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Munroe, Patricia B and Elliott, Paul and Chasman, Daniel I and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Knight, Joanne and Morris, Andrew P and Levy, Daniel and Tobin, Martin D and Snieder, Harold and Caulfield, Mark J and Ehret, Georg B} } @article {8552, title = {{Novel genetic loci associated with hippocampal volume}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {8}, year = {2017}, month = {01}, pages = {13624}, abstract = {The hippocampal formation is a brain structure integrally involved in episodic memory, spatial navigation, cognition and stress responsiveness. Structural abnormalities in hippocampal volume and shape are found in several common neuropsychiatric disorders. To identify the genetic underpinnings of hippocampal structure here we perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 33,536 individuals and discover six independent loci significantly associated with hippocampal volume, four of them novel. Of the novel loci, three lie within genes (ASTN2, DPP4 and MAST4) and one is found 200 kb upstream of SHH. A hippocampal subfield analysis shows that a locus within the MSRB3 gene shows evidence of a localized effect along the dentate gyrus, subiculum, CA1 and fissure. Further, we show that genetic variants associated with decreased hippocampal volume are also associated with increased risk for Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (rg=-0.155). Our findings suggest novel biological pathways through which human genetic variation influences hippocampal volume and risk for neuropsychiatric illness.}, author = {Hibar, D. P. and Adams, H. H. H. and Jahanshad, N. and Chauhan, G. and Stein, J. L. and Hofer, E. and Renteria, M. E. and Bis, J. C. and Arias-Vasquez, A. and Ikram, M. K. and Desrivi?res, S. and Vernooij, M. W. and Abramovic, L. and Alhusaini, S. and Amin, N. and Andersson, M. and Arfanakis, K. and Aribisala, B. S. and Armstrong, N. J. and Athanasiu, L. and Axelsson, T. and Beecham, A. H. and Beiser, A. and Bernard, M. and Blanton, S. H. and Bohlken, M. M. and Boks, M. P. and Bralten, J. and Brickman, A. M. and Carmichael, O. and Chakravarty, M. M. and Chen, Q. and Ching, C. R. K. and Chouraki, V. and Cuellar-Partida, G. and Crivello, F. and den Braber, A. and Doan, N. T. and Ehrlich, S. and Giddaluru, S. and Goldman, A. L. and Gottesman, R. F. and Grimm, O. and Griswold, M. E. and Guadalupe, T. and Gutman, B. A. and Hass, J. and Haukvik, U. K. and Hoehn, D. and Holmes, A. J. and Hoogman, M. and Janowitz, D. and Jia, T. and J?rgensen, K. N. and Karbalai, N. and Kasperaviciute, D. and Kim, S. and Klein, M. and Kraemer, B. and Lee, P. H. and Liewald, D. C. M. and Lopez, L. M. and Luciano, M. and Macare, C. and Marquand, A. F. and Matarin, M. and Mather, K. A. and Mattheisen, M. and McKay, D. R. and Milaneschi, Y. and Mu?oz Maniega, S. and Nho, K. and Nugent, A. C. and Nyquist, P. and Loohuis, L. M. O. and Oosterlaan, J. and Papmeyer, M. and Pirpamer, L. and P?tz, B. and Ramasamy, A. and Richards, J. S. and Risacher, S. L. and Roiz-Santia?ez, R. and Rommelse, N. and Ropele, S. and Rose, E. J. and Royle, N. A. and Rundek, T. and S?mann, P. G. and Saremi, A. and Satizabal, C. L. and Schmaal, L. and Schork, A. J. and Shen, L. and Shin, J. and Shumskaya, E. and Smith, A. V. and Sprooten, E. and Strike, L. T. and Teumer, A. and Tordesillas-Gutierrez, D. and Toro, R. and Trabzuni, D. and Trompet, S. and Vaidya, D. and van der Grond, J. and van der Lee, S. J. and van der Meer, D. and van Donkelaar, M. M. J. and Van Eijk, K. R. and van Erp, T. G. M. and van Rooij, D. and Walton, E. and Westlye, L. T. and Whelan, C. D. and Windham, B. G. and Winkler, A. M. and Wittfeld, K. and Woldehawariat, G. and Wolf, C. and Wolfers, T. and Yanek, L. R. and Yang, J. and Zijdenbos, A. and Zwiers, M. P. and Agartz, I. and Almasy, L. and Ames, D. and Amouyel, P. and Andreassen, O. A. and Arepalli, S. and Assareh, A. A. and Barral, S. and Bastin, M. E. and Becker, D. M. and Becker, J. T. and Bennett, D. A. and Blangero, J. and van Bokhoven, H. and Boomsma, D. I. and Brodaty, H. and Brouwer, R. M. and Brunner, H. G. and Buckner, R. L. and Buitelaar, J. K. and Bulayeva, K. B. and Cahn, W. and Calhoun, V. D. and Cannon, D. M. and Cavalleri, G. L. and Cheng, C. Y. and Cichon, S. and Cookson, M. R. and Corvin, A. and Crespo-Facorro, B. and Curran, J. E. and Czisch, M. and Dale, A. M. and Davies, G. E. and de Craen, A. J. M. and de Geus, E. J. C. and De Jager, P. L. and de Zubicaray, G. I. and Deary, I. J. and Debette, S. and DeCarli, C. and Delanty, N. and Depondt, C. and DeStefano, A. and Dillman, A. and Djurovic, S. and Donohoe, G. and Drevets, W. C. and Duggirala, R. and Dyer, T. D. and Enzinger, C. and Erk, S. and Espeseth, T. and Fedko, I. O. and Fern?ndez, G. and Ferrucci, L. and Fisher, S. E. and Fleischman, D. A. and Ford, I. and Fornage, M. and Foroud, T. M. and Fox, P. T. and Francks, C. and Fukunaga, M. and Gibbs, J. R. and Glahn, D. C. and Gollub, R. L. and G?ring, H. H. H. and Green, R. C. and Gruber, O. and Gudnason, V. and Guelfi, S. and H?berg, A. K. and Hansell, N. K. and Hardy, J. and Hartman, C. A. and Hashimoto, R. and Hegenscheid, K. and Heinz, A. and Le Hellard, S. and Hernandez, D. G. and Heslenfeld, D. J. and Ho, B. C. and Hoekstra, P. J. and Hoffmann, W. and Hofman, A. and Holsboer, F. and Homuth, G. and Hosten, N. and Hottenga, J. J. and Huentelman, M. and Hulshoff Pol, H. E. and Ikeda, M. and Jack, C. R. and Jenkinson, M. and Johnson, R. and J?nsson, E. G. and Jukema, J. W. and Kahn, R. S. and Kanai, R. and Kloszewska, I. and Knopman, D. S. and Kochunov, P. and Kwok, J. B. and Lawrie, S. M. and Lema?tre, H. and Liu, X. and Longo, D. L. and Lopez, O. L. and Lovestone, S. and Martinez, O. and Martinot, J. L. and Mattay, V. S. and McDonald, C. and McIntosh, A. M. and McMahon, F. J. and McMahon, K. L. and Mecocci, P. and Melle, I. and Meyer-Lindenberg, A. and Mohnke, S. and Montgomery, G. W. and Morris, D. W. and Mosley, T. H. and M?hleisen, T. W. and M?ller-Myhsok, B. and Nalls, M. A. and Nauck, M. and Nichols, T. E. and Niessen, W. J. and N?then, M. M. and Nyberg, L. and Ohi, K. and Olvera, R. L. and Ophoff, R. A. and Pandolfo, M. and Paus, T. and Pausova, Z. and Penninx, B. W. J. H. and Pike, G. B. and Potkin, S. G. and Psaty, B. M. and Reppermund, S. and Rietschel, M. and Roffman, J. L. and Romanczuk-Seiferth, N. and Rotter, J. I. and Ryten, M. and Sacco, R. L. and Sachdev, P. S. and Saykin, A. J. and Schmidt, R. and Schmidt, H. and Schofield, P. R. and Sigursson, S. and Simmons, A. and Singleton, A. and Sisodiya, S. M. and Smith, C. and Smoller, J. W. and Soininen, H. and Steen, V. M. and Stott, D. J. and Sussmann, J. E. and Thalamuthu, A. and Toga, A. W. and Traynor, B. J. and Troncoso, J. and Tsolaki, M. and Tzourio, C. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and Hern?ndez, M. C. V. and Van der Brug, M. and van der Lugt, A. and Van der Wee, N. J. A. and van Haren, N. E. M. and van {\textquoteright}t Ent, D. and van Tol, M. J. and Vardarajan, B. N. and Vellas, B. and Veltman, D. J. and V?lzke, H. and Walter, H. and Wardlaw, J. M. and Wassink, T. H. and Weale, M. E. and Weinberger, D. R. and Weiner, M. W. and Wen, W. and Westman, E. and White, T. and Wong, T. Y. and Wright, C. B. and Zielke, R. H. and Zonderman, A. B. and Martin, N. G. and van Duijn, C. M. and Wright, M. J. and Longstreth, W. T. and Schumann, G. and Grabe, H. J. and Franke, B. and Launer, L. J. and Medland, S. E. and Seshadri, S. and Thompson, P. M. and Ikram, M. A.} } @article {7448, title = {PCSK9 Loss-of-Function Variants, Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol, and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease and Stroke: Data From 9 Studies of Blacks and Whites.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {10}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Aug}, pages = {e001632}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: PCSK9 loss-of-function (LOF) variants allow for the examination of the effects of lifetime reduced low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) on cardiovascular events. We examined the association of PCSK9 LOF variants with LDL-C and incident coronary heart disease and stroke through a meta-analysis of data from 8 observational cohorts and 1 randomized trial of statin therapy.

METHODS AND RESULTS: These 9 studies together included 17 459 blacks with 403 (2.3\%) having at least 1 Y142X or C679X variant and 31 306 whites with 955 (3.1\%) having at least 1 R46L variant. Unadjusted odds ratios for associations between PCSK9 LOF variants and incident coronary heart disease (851 events in blacks and 2662 events in whites) and stroke (523 events in blacks and 1660 events in whites) were calculated using pooled Mantel-Haenszel estimates with continuity correction factors. Pooling results across studies using fixed-effects inverse-variance-weighted models, PCSK9 LOF variants were associated with 35 mg/dL (95\% confidence interval [CI], 32-39) lower LDL-C in blacks and 13 mg/dL (95\% CI, 11-16) lower LDL-C in whites. PCSK9 LOF variants were associated with a pooled odds ratio for coronary heart disease of 0.51 (95\% CI, 0.28-0.92) in blacks and 0.82 (95\% CI, 0.63-1.06) in whites. PCSK9 LOF variants were not associated with incident stroke (odds ratio, 0.84; 95\% CI, 0.48-1.47 in blacks and odds ratio, 1.06; 95\% CI, 0.80-1.41 in whites).

CONCLUSIONS: PCSK9 LOF variants were associated with lower LDL-C and coronary heart disease incidence. PCSK9 LOF variants were not associated with stroke risk.

}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.116.001632}, author = {Kent, Shia T and Rosenson, Robert S and Avery, Christy L and Chen, Yii-der I and Correa, Adolfo and Cummings, Steven R and Cupples, L Adrienne and Cushman, Mary and Evans, Daniel S and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Howard, George and Irvin, Marguerite R and Judd, Suzanne E and Jukema, J Wouter and Lange, Leslie and Levitan, Emily B and Li, Xiaohui and Liu, Yongmei and Post, Wendy S and Postmus, Iris and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Safford, Monika M and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Albert V and Stewart, James D and Trompet, Stella and Sun, Fangui and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Woolley, J Michael and Whitsel, Eric A and Wiggins, Kerri L and Wilson, James G and Muntner, Paul} } @article {7491, title = {Pharmacogenomics study of thiazide diuretics and QT interval in multi-ethnic populations: the cohorts for heart and aging research in genomic epidemiology.}, journal = {Pharmacogenomics J}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jul 18}, abstract = {

Thiazide diuretics, commonly used antihypertensives, may cause QT interval (QT) prolongation, a risk factor for highly fatal and difficult to predict ventricular arrhythmias. We examined whether common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) modified the association between thiazide use and QT or its component parts (QRS interval, JT interval) by performing ancestry-specific, trans-ethnic and cross-phenotype genome-wide analyses of European (66\%), African American (15\%) and Hispanic (19\%) populations (N=78 199), leveraging longitudinal data, incorporating corrected standard errors to account for underestimation of interaction estimate variances and evaluating evidence for pathway enrichment. Although no loci achieved genome-wide significance (P<5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)), we found suggestive evidence (P<5 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) for SNPs modifying the thiazide-QT association at 22 loci, including ion transport loci (for example, NELL1, KCNQ3). The biologic plausibility of our suggestive results and simulations demonstrating modest power to detect interaction effects at genome-wide significant levels indicate that larger studies and innovative statistical methods are warranted in future efforts evaluating thiazide-SNP interactions.The Pharmacogenomics Journal advance online publication, 18 July 2017; doi:10.1038/tpj.2017.10.

}, issn = {1473-1150}, doi = {10.1038/tpj.2017.10}, author = {Seyerle, A A and Sitlani, C M and Noordam, R and Gogarten, S M and Li, J and Li, X and Evans, D S and Sun, F and Laaksonen, M A and Isaacs, A and Kristiansson, K and Highland, H M and Stewart, J D and Harris, T B and Trompet, S and Bis, J C and Peloso, G M and Brody, J A and Broer, L and Busch, E L and Duan, Q and Stilp, A M and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, C J and Macfarlane, P W and Floyd, J S and Kors, J A and Lin, H J and Li-Gao, R and Sofer, T and M{\'e}ndez-Gir{\'a}ldez, R and Cummings, S R and Heckbert, S R and Hofman, A and Ford, I and Li, Y and Launer, L J and Porthan, K and Newton-Cheh, C and Napier, M D and Kerr, K F and Reiner, A P and Rice, K M and Roach, J and Buckley, B M and Soliman, E Z and de Mutsert, R and Sotoodehnia, N and Uitterlinden, A G and North, K E and Lee, C R and Gudnason, V and St{\"u}rmer, T and Rosendaal, F R and Taylor, K D and Wiggins, K L and Wilson, J G and Chen, Y-DI and Kaplan, R C and Wilhelmsen, K and Cupples, L A and Salomaa, V and van Duijn, C and Jukema, J W and Liu, Y and Mook-Kanamori, D O and Lange, L A and Vasan, R S and Smith, A V and Stricker, B H and Laurie, C C and Rotter, J I and Whitsel, E A and Psaty, B M and Avery, C L} } @article {8555, title = {Phenotype-Specific Association of Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms with Heart Failure and Preserved Ejection Fraction: a Genome-Wide Association Analysis of the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Cardiovasc Transl Res}, volume = {10}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jun}, pages = {285-294}, abstract = {

Little is known about genetics of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) in part because of the many comorbidities in this population. To identify single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with HFpEF, we analyzed phenotypic and genotypic data from the Cardiovascular Health Study, which profiled patients using a 50,000 SNP array. Results were explored using novel SNP- and gene-centric tools. We performed analyses to determine whether some SNPs were relevant only in certain phenotypes. Among 3804 patients, 7 clinical factors and 9 SNPs were significantly associated with HFpEF; the most notable of which was rs6996224, a SNP associated with transforming growth factor-beta receptor 3. Most SNPs were associated with HFpEF only in the absence of a clinical predictor. Significant SNPs represented genes involved in myocyte proliferation, transforming growth factor-beta/erbB signaling, and extracellular matrix formation. These findings suggest that genetic factors may be more important in some phenotypes than others.

}, keywords = {Aged, Computational Biology, Databases, Genetic, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Expression Profiling, Genetic Markers, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heart Failure, Humans, Male, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Predictive Value of Tests, Prognosis, Proteoglycans, Receptors, Transforming Growth Factor beta, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Stroke Volume, United States}, issn = {1937-5395}, doi = {10.1007/s12265-017-9729-1}, author = {Kao, David P and Stevens, Laura M and Hinterberg, Michael A and G{\"o}rg, Carsten} } @article {7549, title = {Predictors and outcomes of heart failure with mid-range ejection fraction.}, journal = {Eur J Heart Fail}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Dec 11}, abstract = {

AIMS: While heart failure with preserved (HFpEF) and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) are well described, determinants and outcomes of heart failure with mid-range ejection fraction (HFmrEF) remain unclear. We sought to examine clinical and biochemical predictors of incident HFmrEF in the community.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We pooled data from four community-based longitudinal cohorts, with ascertainment of new heart failure (HF) classified into HFmrEF [ejection fraction (EF) 41-49\%], HFpEF (EF >=50\%), and HFrEF (EF <=40\%). Predictors of incident HF subtypes were assessed using multivariable Cox models. Among 28 820 participants free of HF followed for a median of 12 years, there were 200 new HFmrEF cases, compared with 811 HFpEF and 1048 HFrEF. Clinical predictors of HFmrEF included age, male sex, systolic blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, and prior myocardial infarction (multivariable adjusted P~<= 0.003 for all). Biomarkers that predicted HFmrEF included natriuretic peptides, cystatin-C, and high-sensitivity troponin (P~<= 0.0004 for all). Natriuretic peptides were stronger predictors of HFrEF [hazard ratio (HR) 2.00 per 1 standard deviation increase, 95\% confidence interval (CI) 1.81-2.20] than of HFmrEF (HR 1.51, 95\% CI 1.20-1.90, P~= 0.01 for difference), and did not differ in their association with incident HFmrEF and HFpEF (HR 1.56, 95\% CI 1.41-1.73, P~= 0.68 for difference). All-cause mortality following the onset of HFmrEF was worse than that of HFpEF (50 vs. 39 events per 1000 person-years, P~= 0.02), but comparable to that of HFrEF (46 events per 1000 person-years, P~= 0.78).

CONCLUSIONS: We found overlap in predictors of incident HFmrEF with other HF subtypes. In contrast, mortality risk after HFmrEF was worse than HFpEF, and similar to HFrEF.

}, issn = {1879-0844}, doi = {10.1002/ejhf.1091}, author = {Bhambhani, Vijeta and Kizer, Jorge R and Lima, Jo{\~a}o A C and van der Harst, Pim and Bahrami, Hossein and Nayor, Matthew and de Filippi, Christopher R and Enserro, Danielle and Blaha, Michael J and Cushman, Mary and Wang, Thomas J and Gansevoort, Ron T and Fox, Caroline S and Gaggin, Hanna K and Kop, Willem J and Liu, Kiang and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Psaty, Bruce M and Lee, Douglas S and Brouwers, Frank P and Hillege, Hans L and Bartz, Traci M and Benjamin, Emelia J and Chan, Cheeling and Allison, Matthew and Gardin, Julius M and Januzzi, James L and Levy, Daniel and Herrington, David M and van Gilst, Wiek H and Bertoni, Alain G and Larson, Martin G and de Boer, Rudolf A and Gottdiener, John S and Shah, Sanjiv J and Ho, Jennifer E} } @article {7587, title = {Rare coding variants in PLCG2, ABI3, and TREM2 implicate microglial-mediated innate immunity in Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {49}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Sep}, pages = {1373-1384}, abstract = {

We identified rare coding variants associated with Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease in a three-stage case-control study of 85,133 subjects. In stage 1, we genotyped 34,174 samples using a whole-exome microarray. In stage 2, we tested associated variants (P < 1 {\texttimes} 10-4) in 35,962 independent samples using de novo genotyping and imputed genotypes. In stage 3, we used an additional 14,997 samples to test the most significant stage 2 associations (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10-8) using imputed genotypes. We observed three new genome-wide significant nonsynonymous variants associated with Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease: a protective variant in PLCG2 (rs72824905: p.Pro522Arg, P = 5.38 {\texttimes} 10-10, odds ratio (OR) = 0.68, minor allele frequency (MAF)cases = 0.0059, MAFcontrols = 0.0093), a risk variant in ABI3 (rs616338: p.Ser209Phe, P = 4.56 {\texttimes} 10-10, OR = 1.43, MAFcases = 0.011, MAFcontrols = 0.008), and a new genome-wide significant variant in TREM2 (rs143332484: p.Arg62His, P = 1.55 {\texttimes} 10-14, OR = 1.67, MAFcases = 0.0143, MAFcontrols = 0.0089), a known susceptibility gene for Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease. These protein-altering changes are in genes highly expressed in microglia and highlight an immune-related protein-protein interaction network enriched for previously identified risk genes in Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease. These genetic findings provide additional evidence that the microglia-mediated innate immune response contributes directly to the development of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.

}, keywords = {Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Alzheimer Disease, Amino Acid Sequence, Case-Control Studies, Exome, Gene Expression Profiling, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Humans, Immunity, Innate, Linkage Disequilibrium, Membrane Glycoproteins, Microglia, Odds Ratio, Phospholipase C gamma, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Protein Interaction Maps, Receptors, Immunologic, Sequence Homology, Amino Acid}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3916}, author = {Sims, Rebecca and van der Lee, Sven J and Naj, Adam C and Bellenguez, C{\'e}line and Badarinarayan, Nandini and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Kunkle, Brian W and Boland, Anne and Raybould, Rachel and Bis, Joshua C and Martin, Eden R and Grenier-Boley, Benjamin and Heilmann-Heimbach, Stefanie and Chouraki, Vincent and Kuzma, Amanda B and Sleegers, Kristel and Vronskaya, Maria and Ruiz, Agustin and Graham, Robert R and Olaso, Robert and Hoffmann, Per and Grove, Megan L and Vardarajan, Badri N and Hiltunen, Mikko and N{\"o}then, Markus M and White, Charles C and Hamilton-Nelson, Kara L and Epelbaum, Jacques and Maier, Wolfgang and Choi, Seung-Hoan and Beecham, Gary W and Dulary, C{\'e}cile and Herms, Stefan and Smith, Albert V and Funk, Cory C and Derbois, C{\'e}line and Forstner, Andreas J and Ahmad, Shahzad and Li, Hongdong and Bacq, Delphine and Harold, Denise and Satizabal, Claudia L and Valladares, Otto and Squassina, Alessio and Thomas, Rhodri and Brody, Jennifer A and Qu, Liming and S{\'a}nchez-Juan, Pascual and Morgan, Taniesha and Wolters, Frank J and Zhao, Yi and Garcia, Florentino Sanchez and Denning, Nicola and Fornage, Myriam and Malamon, John and Naranjo, Maria Candida Deniz and Majounie, Elisa and Mosley, Thomas H and Dombroski, Beth and Wallon, David and Lupton, Michelle K and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Whitehead, Patrice and Fratiglioni, Laura and Medway, Christopher and Jian, Xueqiu and Mukherjee, Shubhabrata and Keller, Lina and Brown, Kristelle and Lin, Honghuang and Cantwell, Laura B and Panza, Francesco and McGuinness, Bernadette and Moreno-Grau, Sonia and Burgess, Jeremy D and Solfrizzi, Vincenzo and Proitsi, Petra and Adams, Hieab H and Allen, Mariet and Seripa, Davide and Pastor, Pau and Cupples, L Adrienne and Price, Nathan D and Hannequin, Didier and Frank-Garc{\'\i}a, Ana and Levy, Daniel and Chakrabarty, Paramita and Caffarra, Paolo and Giegling, Ina and Beiser, Alexa S and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Hampel, Harald and Garcia, Melissa E and Wang, Xue and Lannfelt, Lars and Mecocci, Patrizia and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Crane, Paul K and Pasquier, Florence and Boccardi, Virginia and Hen{\'a}ndez, Isabel and Barber, Robert C and Scherer, Martin and Tarraga, Lluis and Adams, Perrie M and Leber, Markus and Chen, Yuning and Albert, Marilyn S and Riedel-Heller, Steffi and Emilsson, Valur and Beekly, Duane and Braae, Anne and Schmidt, Reinhold and Blacker, Deborah and Masullo, Carlo and Schmidt, Helena and Doody, Rachelle S and Spalletta, Gianfranco and Jr, W T Longstreth and Fairchild, Thomas J and Boss{\`u}, Paola and Lopez, Oscar L and Frosch, Matthew P and Sacchinelli, Eleonora and Ghetti, Bernardino and Yang, Qiong and Huebinger, Ryan M and Jessen, Frank and Li, Shuo and Kamboh, M Ilyas and Morris, John and Sotolongo-Grau, Oscar and Katz, Mindy J and Corcoran, Chris and Dunstan, Melanie and Braddel, Amy and Thomas, Charlene and Meggy, Alun and Marshall, Rachel and Gerrish, Amy and Chapman, Jade and Aguilar, Miquel and Taylor, Sarah and Hill, Matt and Fair{\'e}n, M{\`o}nica D{\'\i}ez and Hodges, Angela and Vellas, Bruno and Soininen, Hilkka and Kloszewska, Iwona and Daniilidou, Makrina and Uphill, James and Patel, Yogen and Hughes, Joseph T and Lord, Jenny and Turton, James and Hartmann, Annette M and Cecchetti, Roberta and Fenoglio, Chiara and Serpente, Maria and Arcaro, Marina and Caltagirone, Carlo and Orfei, Maria Donata and Ciaramella, Antonio and Pichler, Sabrina and Mayhaus, Manuel and Gu, Wei and Lleo, Alberto and Fortea, Juan and Blesa, Rafael and Barber, Imelda S and Brookes, Keeley and Cupidi, Chiara and Maletta, Raffaele Giovanni and Carrell, David and Sorbi, Sandro and Moebus, Susanne and Urbano, Maria and Pilotto, Alberto and Kornhuber, Johannes and Bosco, Paolo and Todd, Stephen and Craig, David and Johnston, Janet and Gill, Michael and Lawlor, Brian and Lynch, Aoibhinn and Fox, Nick C and Hardy, John and Albin, Roger L and Apostolova, Liana G and Arnold, Steven E and Asthana, Sanjay and Atwood, Craig S and Baldwin, Clinton T and Barnes, Lisa L and Barral, Sandra and Beach, Thomas G and Becker, James T and Bigio, Eileen H and Bird, Thomas D and Boeve, Bradley F and Bowen, James D and Boxer, Adam and Burke, James R and Burns, Jeffrey M and Buxbaum, Joseph D and Cairns, Nigel J and Cao, Chuanhai and Carlson, Chris S and Carlsson, Cynthia M and Carney, Regina M and Carrasquillo, Minerva M and Carroll, Steven L and Diaz, Carolina Ceballos and Chui, Helena C and Clark, David G and Cribbs, David H and Crocco, Elizabeth A and DeCarli, Charles and Dick, Malcolm and Duara, Ranjan and Evans, Denis A and Faber, Kelley M and Fallon, Kenneth B and Fardo, David W and Farlow, Martin R and Ferris, Steven and Foroud, Tatiana M and Galasko, Douglas R and Gearing, Marla and Geschwind, Daniel H and Gilbert, John R and Graff-Radford, Neill R and Green, Robert C and Growdon, John H and Hamilton, Ronald L and Harrell, Lindy E and Honig, Lawrence S and Huentelman, Matthew J and Hulette, Christine M and Hyman, Bradley T and Jarvik, Gail P and Abner, Erin and Jin, Lee-Way and Jun, Gyungah and Karydas, Anna and Kaye, Jeffrey A and Kim, Ronald and Kowall, Neil W and Kramer, Joel H and LaFerla, Frank M and Lah, James J and Leverenz, James B and Levey, Allan I and Li, Ge and Lieberman, Andrew P and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Lyketsos, Constantine G and Marson, Daniel C and Martiniuk, Frank and Mash, Deborah C and Masliah, Eliezer and McCormick, Wayne C and McCurry, Susan M and McDavid, Andrew N and McKee, Ann C and Mesulam, Marsel and Miller, Bruce L and Miller, Carol A and Miller, Joshua W and Morris, John C and Murrell, Jill R and Myers, Amanda J and O{\textquoteright}Bryant, Sid and Olichney, John M and Pankratz, Vernon S and Parisi, Joseph E and Paulson, Henry L and Perry, William and Peskind, Elaine and Pierce, Aimee and Poon, Wayne W and Potter, Huntington and Quinn, Joseph F and Raj, Ashok and Raskind, Murray and Reisberg, Barry and Reitz, Christiane and Ringman, John M and Roberson, Erik D and Rogaeva, Ekaterina and Rosen, Howard J and Rosenberg, Roger N and Sager, Mark A and Saykin, Andrew J and Schneider, Julie A and Schneider, Lon S and Seeley, William W and Smith, Amanda G and Sonnen, Joshua A and Spina, Salvatore and Stern, Robert A and Swerdlow, Russell H and Tanzi, Rudolph E and Thornton-Wells, Tricia A and Trojanowski, John Q and Troncoso, Juan C and Van Deerlin, Vivianna M and Van Eldik, Linda J and Vinters, Harry V and Vonsattel, Jean Paul and Weintraub, Sandra and Welsh-Bohmer, Kathleen A and Wilhelmsen, Kirk C and Williamson, Jennifer and Wingo, Thomas S and Woltjer, Randall L and Wright, Clinton B and Yu, Chang-En and Yu, Lei and Garzia, Fabienne and Golamaully, Feroze and Septier, Gislain and Engelborghs, Sebastien and Vandenberghe, Rik and De Deyn, Peter P and Fernadez, Carmen Mu{\~n}oz and Benito, Yoland Aladro and Thonberg, H{\r a}kan and Forsell, Charlotte and Lilius, Lena and Kinhult-St{\r a}hlbom, Anne and Kilander, Lena and Brundin, RoseMarie and Concari, Letizia and Helisalmi, Seppo and Koivisto, Anne Maria and Haapasalo, Annakaisa and Dermecourt, Vincent and Fi{\'e}vet, Nathalie and Hanon, Olivier and Dufouil, Carole and Brice, Alexis and Ritchie, Karen and Dubois, Bruno and Himali, Jayanadra J and Keene, C Dirk and Tschanz, JoAnn and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Kukull, Walter A and Norton, Maria and Aspelund, Thor and Larson, Eric B and Munger, Ron and Rotter, Jerome I and Lipton, Richard B and Bullido, Mar{\'\i}a J and Hofman, Albert and Montine, Thomas J and Coto, Eliecer and Boerwinkle, Eric and Petersen, Ronald C and Alvarez, Victoria and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Reiman, Eric M and Gallo, Maura and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Reisch, Joan S and Bruni, Amalia Cecilia and Royall, Donald R and Dichgans, Martin and Sano, Mary and Galimberti, Daniela and St George-Hyslop, Peter and Scarpini, Elio and Tsuang, Debby W and Mancuso, Michelangelo and Bonuccelli, Ubaldo and Winslow, Ashley R and Daniele, Antonio and Wu, Chuang-Kuo and Peters, Oliver and Nacmias, Benedetta and Riemenschneider, Matthias and Heun, Reinhard and Brayne, Carol and Rubinsztein, David C and Bras, Jose and Guerreiro, Rita and Al-Chalabi, Ammar and Shaw, Christopher E and Collinge, John and Mann, David and Tsolaki, Magda and Clarimon, Jordi and Sussams, Rebecca and Lovestone, Simon and O{\textquoteright}Donovan, Michael C and Owen, Michael J and Behrens, Timothy W and Mead, Simon and Goate, Alison M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Holmes, Clive and Cruchaga, Carlos and Ingelsson, Martin and Bennett, David A and Powell, John and Golde, Todd E and Graff, Caroline and De Jager, Philip L and Morgan, Kevin and Ertekin-Taner, Nilufer and Combarros, Onofre and Psaty, Bruce M and Passmore, Peter and Younkin, Steven G and Berr, Claudine and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Rujescu, Dan and Dickson, Dennis W and Dartigues, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and DeStefano, Anita L and Ortega-Cubero, Sara and Hakonarson, Hakon and Campion, Dominique and Boada, Merce and Kauwe, John Keoni and Farrer, Lindsay A and Van Broeckhoven, Christine and Ikram, M Arfan and Jones, Lesley and Haines, Jonathan L and Tzourio, Christophe and Launer, Lenore J and Escott-Price, Valentina and Mayeux, Richard and Deleuze, Jean-Francois and Amin, Najaf and Holmans, Peter A and Pericak-Vance, Margaret A and Amouyel, Philippe and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Ramirez, Alfredo and Wang, Li-San and Lambert, Jean-Charles and Seshadri, Sudha and Williams, Julie and Schellenberg, Gerard D} } @article {7577, title = {Rare coding variants pinpoint genes that control human hematological traits.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {13}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Aug}, pages = {e1006925}, abstract = {

The identification of rare coding or splice site variants remains the most straightforward strategy to link genes with human phenotypes. Here, we analyzed the association between 137,086 rare (minor allele frequency (MAF) <1\%) coding or splice site variants and 15 hematological traits in up to 308,572 participants. We found 56 such rare coding or splice site variants at P<5x10-8, including 31 that are associated with a blood-cell phenotype for the first time. All but one of these 31 new independent variants map to loci previously implicated in hematopoiesis by genome-wide association studies (GWAS). This includes a rare splice acceptor variant (rs146597587, MAF = 0.5\%) in interleukin 33 (IL33) associated with reduced eosinophil count (P = 2.4x10-23), and lower risk of asthma (P = 2.6x10-7, odds ratio [95\% confidence interval] = 0.56 [0.45-0.70]) and allergic rhinitis (P = 4.2x10-4, odds ratio = 0.55 [0.39-0.76]). The single new locus identified in our study is defined by a rare p.Arg172Gly missense variant (rs145535174, MAF = 0.05\%) in plasminogen (PLG) associated with increased platelet count (P = 6.8x10-9), and decreased D-dimer concentration (P = 0.018) and platelet reactivity (P<0.03). Finally, our results indicate that searching for rare coding or splice site variants in very large sample sizes can help prioritize causal genes at many GWAS loci associated with complex human diseases and traits.

}, keywords = {Asthma, Databases, Genetic, Endometriosis, Female, Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products, Gene Frequency, Genetic Loci, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Interleukin-33, Linear Models, Logistic Models, Male, Mutation, Missense, Phenotype, Plasminogen, Platelet Count, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Principal Component Analysis, Protein Splicing, Rhinitis, Allergic, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1006925}, author = {Mousas, Abdou and Ntritsos, Georgios and Chen, Ming-Huei and Song, Ci and Huffman, Jennifer E and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Elliott, Paul and Psaty, Bruce M and Auer, Paul L and Johnson, Andrew D and Evangelou, Evangelos and Lettre, Guillaume and Reiner, Alexander P} } @article {7347, title = {The Relation of Serum Potassium Concentration with Cardiovascular Events and Mortality in Community-Living Individuals.}, journal = {Clin J Am Soc Nephrol}, volume = {12}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Feb 07}, pages = {245-252}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Hyperkalemia is associated with adverse outcomes in patients with CKD and in hospitalized patients with acute medical conditions. Little is known regarding hyperkalemia, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and mortality in community-living populations. In a pooled analysis of two large observational cohorts, we investigated associations between serum potassium concentrations and CVD events and mortality, and whether potassium-altering medications and eGFR<60 ml/min per 1.73 m(2) modified these associations.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, \& MEASUREMENTS: Among 9651 individuals from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) and the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), who were free of CVD at baseline (2000-2002 in the MESA and 1989-1993 in the CHS), we investigated associations between serum potassium categories (<3.5, 3.5-3.9, 4.0-4.4, 4.5-4.9, and >=5.0 mEq/L) and CVD events, mortality, and mortality subtypes (CVD versus non-CVD) using Cox proportional hazards models, adjusting for demographics, time-varying eGFR, traditional CVD risk factors, and use of potassium-altering medications.

RESULTS: Compared with serum potassium concentrations between 4.0 and 4.4 mEq/L, those with concentrations >=5.0 mEq/L were at higher risk for all-cause mortality (hazard ratio, 1.41; 95\% confidence interval, 1.12 to 1.76), CVD death (hazard ratio, 1.50; 95\% confidence interval, 1.00 to 2.26), and non-CVD death (hazard ratio, 1.40; 95\% confidence interval, 1.07 to 1.83) in fully adjusted models. Associations of serum potassium with these end points differed among diuretic users (Pinteraction<0.02 for all), such that participants who had serum potassium >=5.0 mEq/L and were concurrently using diuretics were at higher risk of each end point compared with those not using diuretics.

CONCLUSIONS: Serum potassium concentration >=5.0 mEq/L was associated with all-cause mortality, CVD death, and non-CVD death in community-living individuals; associations were stronger in diuretic users. Whether maintenance of potassium within the normal range may improve clinical outcomes requires future study.

}, issn = {1555-905X}, doi = {10.2215/CJN.06290616}, author = {Hughes-Austin, Jan M and Rifkin, Dena E and Beben, Tomasz and Katz, Ronit and Sarnak, Mark J and Deo, Rajat and Hoofnagle, Andrew N and Homma, Shunichi and Siscovick, David S and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Psaty, Bruce M and de Boer, Ian H and Kestenbaum, Bryan and Shlipak, Michael G and Ix, Joachim H} } @article {7564, title = {Short telomere length is associated with impaired cognitive performance in European ancestry cohorts.}, journal = {Transl Psychiatry}, volume = {7}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 04 18}, pages = {e1100}, abstract = {

The association between telomere length (TL) dynamics on cognitive performance over the life-course is not well understood. This study meta-analyses observational and causal associations between TL and six cognitive traits, with stratifications on APOE genotype, in a Mendelian Randomization (MR) framework. Twelve European cohorts (N=17 052; mean age=59.2{\textpm}8.8 years) provided results for associations between qPCR-measured TL (T/S-ratio scale) and general cognitive function, mini-mental state exam (MMSE), processing speed by digit symbol substitution test (DSST), visuospatial functioning, memory and executive functioning (STROOP). In addition, a genetic risk score (GRS) for TL including seven known genetic variants for TL was calculated, and used in associations with cognitive traits as outcomes in all cohorts. Observational analyses showed that longer telomeres were associated with better scores on DSST (β=0.051 per s.d.-increase of TL; 95\% confidence interval (CI): 0.024, 0.077; P=0.0002), and MMSE (β=0.025; 95\% CI: 0.002, 0.047; P=0.03), and faster STROOP (β=-0.053; 95\% CI: -0.087, -0.018; P=0.003). Effects for DSST were stronger in APOE ɛ4 non-carriers (β=0.081; 95\% CI: 0.045, 0.117; P=1.0 {\texttimes} 10-5), whereas carriers performed better in STROOP (β=-0.074; 95\% CI: -0.140, -0.009; P=0.03). Causal associations were found for STROOP only (β=-0.598 per s.d.-increase of TL; 95\% CI: -1.125, -0.072; P=0.026), with a larger effect in ɛ4-carriers (β=-0.699; 95\% CI: -1.330, -0.069; P=0.03). Two-sample replication analyses using CHARGE summary statistics showed causal effects between TL and general cognitive function and DSST, but not with STROOP. In conclusion, we suggest causal effects from longer TL on better cognitive performance, where APOE ɛ4-carriers might be at differential risk.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Apolipoprotein E4, Cognitive Dysfunction, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Carrier Screening, Genotype, Humans, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests, Psychometrics, Statistics as Topic, Telomere}, issn = {2158-3188}, doi = {10.1038/tp.2017.73}, author = {H{\"a}gg, S and Zhan, Y and Karlsson, R and Gerritsen, L and Ploner, A and van der Lee, S J and Broer, L and Deelen, J and Marioni, R E and Wong, A and Lundquist, A and Zhu, G and Hansell, N K and Sillanp{\"a}{\"a}, E and Fedko, I O and Amin, N A and Beekman, M and de Craen, A J M and Degerman, S and Harris, S E and Kan, K-J and Martin-Ruiz, C M and Montgomery, G W and Adolfsson, A N and Reynolds, C A and Samani, N J and Suchiman, H E D and Viljanen, A and von Zglinicki, T and Wright, M J and Hottenga, J-J and Boomsma, D I and Rantanen, T and Kaprio, J A and Nyholt, D R and Martin, N G and Nyberg, L and Adolfsson, R and Kuh, D and Starr, J M and Deary, I J and Slagboom, P E and van Duijn, C M and Codd, V and Pedersen, N L} } @article {7572, title = {Single-trait and multi-trait genome-wide association analyses identify novel loci for blood pressure in African-ancestry populations.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {13}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 May}, pages = {e1006728}, abstract = {

Hypertension is a leading cause of global disease, mortality, and disability. While individuals of African descent suffer a disproportionate burden of hypertension and its complications, they have been underrepresented in genetic studies. To identify novel susceptibility loci for blood pressure and hypertension in people of African ancestry, we performed both single and multiple-trait genome-wide association analyses. We analyzed 21 genome-wide association studies comprised of 31,968 individuals of African ancestry, and validated our results with additional 54,395 individuals from multi-ethnic studies. These analyses identified nine loci with eleven independent variants which reached genome-wide significance (P < 1.25{\texttimes}10-8) for either systolic and diastolic blood pressure, hypertension, or for combined traits. Single-trait analyses identified two loci (TARID/TCF21 and LLPH/TMBIM4) and multiple-trait analyses identified one novel locus (FRMD3) for blood pressure. At these three loci, as well as at GRP20/CDH17, associated variants had alleles common only in African-ancestry populations. Functional annotation showed enrichment for genes expressed in immune and kidney cells, as well as in heart and vascular cells/tissues. Experiments driven by these findings and using angiotensin-II induced hypertension in mice showed altered kidney mRNA expression of six genes, suggesting their potential role in hypertension. Our study provides new evidence for genes related to hypertension susceptibility, and the need to study African-ancestry populations in order to identify biologic factors contributing to hypertension.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Animals, Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors, Blood Pressure, Cadherins, Case-Control Studies, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Membrane Proteins, Mice, Multifactorial Inheritance, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1006728}, author = {Liang, Jingjing and Le, Thu H and Edwards, Digna R Velez and Tayo, Bamidele O and Gaulton, Kyle J and Smith, Jennifer A and Lu, Yingchang and Jensen, Richard A and Chen, Guanjie and Yanek, Lisa R and Schwander, Karen and Tajuddin, Salman M and Sofer, Tamar and Kim, Wonji and Kayima, James and McKenzie, Colin A and Fox, Ervin and Nalls, Michael A and Young, J Hunter and Sun, Yan V and Lane, Jacqueline M and Cechova, Sylvia and Zhou, Jie and Tang, Hua and Fornage, Myriam and Musani, Solomon K and Wang, Heming and Lee, Juyoung and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Dreisbach, Albert W and Forrester, Terrence and Chu, Pei-Lun and Cappola, Anne and Evans, Michele K and Morrison, Alanna C and Martin, Lisa W and Wiggins, Kerri L and Hui, Qin and Zhao, Wei and Jackson, Rebecca D and Ware, Erin B and Faul, Jessica D and Reiner, Alex P and Bray, Michael and Denny, Joshua C and Mosley, Thomas H and Palmas, Walter and Guo, Xiuqing and Papanicolaou, George J and Penman, Alan D and Polak, Joseph F and Rice, Kenneth and Taylor, Ken D and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin P and Liu, Kiang and Risch, Neil and Hunt, Steven C and Kooperberg, Charles and Zonderman, Alan B and Laurie, Cathy C and Becker, Diane M and Cai, Jianwen and Loos, Ruth J F and Psaty, Bruce M and Weir, David R and Kardia, Sharon L R and Arnett, Donna K and Won, Sungho and Edwards, Todd L and Redline, Susan and Cooper, Richard S and Rao, D C and Rotter, Jerome I and Rotimi, Charles and Levy, Daniel and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Franceschini, Nora} } @article {7592, title = {Soluble Inflammatory Markers and Risk of Incident Fractures in Older Adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Bone Miner Res}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Oct 04}, abstract = {

Several in vitro and animal studies have showed that inflammatory markers play a role in bone remodeling and pathogenesis of osteoporosis. Additionally, some human longitudinal studies showed suggestive associations between elevated inflammatory markers and increased risk of nontraumatic fractures. We examined several inflammatory markers and multiple fracture types in a single study of older individuals with extensive follow-up. We assessed the association of four inflammatory markers with the risk of incident hip fractures among 5265 participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and a composite endpoint of incident fractures of the hip, pelvis, humerus, or proximal forearm in 4477 participants. Among CHS participants followed between 1992 and 2009, we observed 480 incident hip fractures during a median follow-up of 11 years. In the composite fracture analysis cohort of 4477 participants, we observed 711 fractures during a median follow-up of 7 years. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95\% confidence intervals (CIs) for hip fracture associated with doubling of IL-6 were HR 1.15 (95\% CI, 1.02 to 1.30) overall and HR 1.17 (95\% CI, 1.01 to 1.35) in women. We also observed a positive association between each unit increase in white blood cell (WBC) count and risk of hip fracture: HR 1.04 (95\% CI, 1.01 to 1.06) overall and HR 1.06 (95\% CI, 0.95 to 1.20) in women. We observed no significant associations between any of the four inflammatory markers and a composite fracture endpoint. Our findings suggest that chronic inflammatory and immune processes may be related to higher rates of incident hip fractures. {\textcopyright} 2017 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

}, issn = {1523-4681}, doi = {10.1002/jbmr.3301}, author = {Stojanovi{\'c}, Danijela and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Heckbert, Susan R and Psaty, Bruce M and Fink, Howard A and Cauley, Jane A and Wallace, Erin and Curtis, Lesley H and Hirsch, Calvin and Budoff, Matthew and Li, Dong and Young, Rebekah and Jalal, Diana and Delaney, Joseph Ac} } @article {7359, title = {Taller height as a risk factor for venous thromboembolism: a Mendelian randomization meta-analysis.}, journal = {J Thromb Haemost}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Apr 26}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Taller height is associated with greater risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE).

OBJECTIVES: We used instrumental variable (IV) techniques (Mendelian randomization) to further explore this relationship METHODS: Participants of European ancestry were included from two cohort studies [Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study and Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS)] and one case-control study [Mayo Clinic VTE Study (Mayo)]. We created two weighted genetic risk scores (GRS) for height; the full GRS included 668 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from a previously published meta-analysis and the restricted GRS included a subset of 362 SNPs not associated with weight independently of height. Standard logistic regression and IV models were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) for VTE per 10 cm increment in height. ORs were pooled across the three studies using inverse variance weighted random effects meta-analysis RESULTS: Among 9143 ARIC and 3180 CHS participants free of VTE at baseline, there were 367 and 109 incident VTE events. There were 1143 VTE cases and 1292 controls included from Mayo. The pooled ORs from non-IV models and models using the full and restricted GRSs as IVs were 1.27 (95\% CI: 1.11, 1.46), 1.34 (95\% CI: 1.04, 1.73), and 1.45 (95\% CI: 1.04, 2.01) per 10 cm greater height, respectively CONCLUSIONS: Taller height is associated with an increased risk of VTE in adults of European ancestry. Possible explanations for this association, including that taller people may have greater venous surface area, greater number of venous valves, or greater hydrostatic pressure, need to be explored further. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

}, issn = {1538-7836}, doi = {10.1111/jth.13719}, author = {Roetker, N S and Armasu, S M and Pankow, J S and Lutsey, P L and Tang, W and Rosenberg, M A and Palmer, T M and MacLehose, R F and Heckbert, S R and Cushman, M and de Andrade, M and Folsom, A R} } @article {7591, title = {Telomeres and the natural lifespan limit in humans.}, journal = {Aging (Albany NY)}, volume = {9}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Apr}, pages = {1130-1142}, abstract = {

An ongoing debate in demography has focused on whether the human lifespan has a maximal natural limit. Taking a mechanistic perspective, and knowing that short telomeres are associated with diminished longevity, we examined whether telomere length dynamics during adult life could set a maximal natural lifespan limit. We define leukocyte telomere length of 5 kb as the {\textquoteright}telomeric brink{\textquoteright}, which denotes a high risk of imminent death. We show that a subset of adults may reach the telomeric brink within the current life expectancy and more so for a 100-year life expectancy. Thus, secular trends in life expectancy should confront a biological limit due to crossing the telomeric brink.

}, issn = {1945-4589}, doi = {10.18632/aging.101216}, author = {Steenstrup, Troels and Kark, Jeremy D and Verhulst, Simon and Thinggaard, Mikael and Hjelmborg, Jacob V B and Dalg{\r a}rd, Christine and Kyvik, Kirsten Ohm and Christiansen, Lene and Mangino, Massimo and Spector, Timothy D and Petersen, Inge and Kimura, Masayuki and Benetos, Athanase and Labat, Carlos and Sinnreich, Ronit and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Levy, Daniel and Hunt, Steven C and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Chen, Wei and Berenson, Gerald S and Barbieri, Michelangela and Paolisso, Giuseppe and Gadalla, Shahinaz M and Savage, Sharon A and Christensen, Kaare and Yashin, Anatoliy I and Arbeev, Konstantin G and Aviv, Abraham} } @article {7550, title = {Thyroid Function Within the Normal Range, Subclinical Hypothyroidism, and the Risk of Atrial Fibrillation.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {136}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Nov 28}, pages = {2100-2116}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a highly prevalent disorder leading to heart failure, stroke, and death. Enhanced understanding of modifiable risk factors may yield opportunities for prevention. The risk of AF is increased in subclinical hyperthyroidism, but it is uncertain whether variations in thyroid function within the normal range or subclinical hypothyroidism are also associated with AF.

METHODS: We conducted a systematic review and obtained individual participant data from prospective cohort studies that measured thyroid function at baseline and assessed incident AF. Studies were identified from MEDLINE and EMBASE databases from inception to July 27, 2016. The euthyroid state was defined as thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) 0.45 to 4.49 mIU/L, and subclinical hypothyroidism as TSH 4.5 to 19.9 mIU/L with free thyroxine (fT4) levels within reference range. The association of TSH levels in the euthyroid and subclinical hypothyroid range with incident AF was examined by using Cox proportional hazards models. In euthyroid participants, we additionally examined the association between fT4 levels and incident AF.

RESULTS: Of 30 085 participants from 11 cohorts (278 955 person-years of follow-up), 1958 (6.5\%) had subclinical hypothyroidism and 2574 individuals (8.6\%) developed AF during follow-up. TSH at baseline was not significantly associated with incident AF in euthyroid participants or those with subclinical hypothyroidism. Higher fT4 levels at baseline in euthyroid individuals were associated with increased AF risk in age- and sex-adjusted analyses (hazard ratio, 1.45; 95\% confidence interval, 1.26-1.66, for the highest quartile versus the lowest quartile of fT4; P for trend <=0.001 across quartiles). Estimates did not substantially differ after further adjustment for preexisting cardiovascular disease.

CONCLUSIONS: In euthyroid individuals, higher circulating fT4 levels, but not TSH levels, are associated with increased risk of incident AF.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Asymptomatic Diseases, Atrial Fibrillation, Biomarkers, Chi-Square Distribution, Female, Humans, Hypothyroidism, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Predictive Value of Tests, Prognosis, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Thyroid Function Tests, Thyroid Gland, Thyrotropin, Thyroxine, Time Factors, Young Adult}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.028753}, author = {Baumgartner, Christine and da Costa, Bruno R and Collet, Tinh-Hai and Feller, Martin and Floriani, Carmen and Bauer, Douglas C and Cappola, Anne R and Heckbert, Susan R and Ceresini, Graziano and Gussekloo, Jacobijn and den Elzen, Wendy P J and Peeters, Robin P and Luben, Robert and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Walsh, John P and Bremner, Alexandra and Iacoviello, Massimo and Macfarlane, Peter and Heeringa, Jan and Stott, David J and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Magnani, Jared W and Aujesky, Drahomir and Rodondi, Nicolas} } @article {7465, title = {Trans-ethnic fine-mapping of genetic loci for body mass index in the diverse ancestral populations of the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Study reveals evidence for multiple signals at established loci.}, journal = {Hum Genet}, volume = {136}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jun}, pages = {771-800}, abstract = {

Most body mass index (BMI) genetic loci have been identified in studies of primarily European ancestries. The effect of these loci in other racial/ethnic groups is less clear. Thus, we aimed to characterize the generalizability of 170 established BMI variants, or their proxies, to diverse US populations and trans-ethnically fine-map 36 BMI loci using a sample of >102,000 adults of African, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, European and American Indian/Alaskan Native descent from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology Study. We performed linear regression of the natural log of BMI (18.5-70~kg/m(2)) on the additive single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at BMI loci on the MetaboChip (Illumina, Inc.), adjusting for age, sex, population stratification, study site, or relatedness. We then performed fixed-effect meta-analyses and a Bayesian trans-ethnic meta-analysis to empirically cluster by allele frequency differences. Finally, we approximated conditional and joint associations to test for the presence of secondary signals. We noted directional consistency with the previously reported risk alleles beyond what would have been expected by chance (binomial p~<~0.05). Nearly, a quarter of the previously described BMI index SNPs and 29 of 36 densely-genotyped BMI loci on the MetaboChip replicated/generalized in trans-ethnic analyses. We observed multiple signals at nine loci, including the description of seven loci with novel multiple signals. This study supports the generalization of most common genetic loci to diverse ancestral populations and emphasizes the importance of dense multiethnic genomic data in refining the functional variation at genetic loci of interest and describing several loci with multiple underlying genetic variants.

}, keywords = {Body Mass Index, Ethnic Groups, Genetics, Population, Humans, Obesity}, issn = {1432-1203}, doi = {10.1007/s00439-017-1787-6}, author = {Fernandez-Rhodes, Lindsay and Gong, Jian and Haessler, Jeffrey and Franceschini, Nora and Graff, Mariaelisa and Nishimura, Katherine K and Wang, Yujie and Highland, Heather M and Yoneyama, Sachiko and Bush, William S and Goodloe, Robert and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Crawford, Dana and Gross, Myron and Fornage, Myriam and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Tao, Ran and Isasi, Carmen and Avil{\'e}s-Santa, Larissa and Daviglus, Martha and Mackey, Rachel H and Houston, Denise and Gu, C Charles and Ehret, Georg and Nguyen, Khanh-Dung H and Lewis, Cora E and Leppert, Mark and Irvin, Marguerite R and Lim, Unhee and Haiman, Christopher A and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Schumacher, Fredrick and Wilkens, Lynne and Lu, Yingchang and Bottinger, Erwin P and Loos, Ruth J L and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Guo, Xiuqing and Lee, Wen-Jane and Hai, Yang and Hung, Yi-Jen and Absher, Devin and Wu, I-Chien and Taylor, Kent D and Lee, I-Te and Liu, Yeheng and Wang, Tzung-Dau and Quertermous, Thomas and Juang, Jyh-Ming J and Rotter, Jerome I and Assimes, Themistocles and Hsiung, Chao A and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Prentice, Ross and Kuller, Lewis H and Manson, JoAnn E and Kooperberg, Charles and Smokowski, Paul and Robinson, Whitney R and Gordon-Larsen, Penny and Li, Rongling and Hindorff, Lucia and Buyske, Steven and Matise, Tara C and Peters, Ulrike and North, Kari E} } @article {7554, title = {Trends in the incidence of dementia: design and methods in the Alzheimer Cohorts Consortium.}, journal = {Eur J Epidemiol}, volume = {32}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Oct}, pages = {931-938}, abstract = {

Several studies have reported a decline in incidence of dementia which may have large implications for the projected burden of disease, and provide important guidance to preventive efforts. However, reports are conflicting or inconclusive with regard to the impact of gender and education with underlying causes of a presumed declining trend remaining largely unidentified. The Alzheimer Cohorts Consortium aggregates data from nine international population-based cohorts to determine changes in the incidence of dementia since 1990. We will employ Poisson regression models to calculate incidence rates in each cohort and Cox proportional hazard regression to compare 5-year cumulative hazards across study-specific epochs. Finally, we will meta-analyse changes per decade across cohorts, and repeat all analysis stratified by sex, education and APOE genotype. In all cohorts combined, there are data on almost 69,000 people at risk of dementia with the range of follow-up years between 2 and 27. The average age at baseline is similar across cohorts ranging between 72 and 77. Uniting a wide range of disease-specific and methodological expertise in research teams, the first analyses within the Alzheimer Cohorts Consortium are underway to tackle outstanding challenges in the assessment of time-trends in dementia occurrence.

}, issn = {1573-7284}, doi = {10.1007/s10654-017-0320-5}, author = {Chibnik, Lori B and Wolters, Frank J and B{\"a}ckman, Kristoffer and Beiser, Alexa and Berr, Claudine and Bis, Joshua C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bos, Daniel and Brayne, Carol and Dartigues, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and Darweesh, Sirwan K L and Debette, Stephanie and Davis-Plourde, Kendra L and Dufouil, Carole and Fornage, Myriam and Grasset, Leslie and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hadjichrysanthou, Christoforos and Helmer, Catherine and Ikram, M Arfan and Ikram, M Kamran and Kern, Silke and Kuller, Lewis H and Launer, Lenore and Lopez, Oscar L and Matthews, Fiona and Meirelles, Osorio and Mosley, Thomas and Ower, Alison and Psaty, Bruce M and Satizabal, Claudia L and Seshadri, Sudha and Skoog, Ingmar and Stephan, Blossom C M and Tzourio, Christophe and Waziry, Reem and Wong, Mei Mei and Zettergren, Anna and Hofman, Albert} } @article {8572, title = {Visit-to-Visit Blood Pressure Variability and Mortality and Cardiovascular Outcomes Among Older Adults: The Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study.}, journal = {Am J Hypertens}, volume = {30}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Feb}, pages = {151-158}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Level of blood pressure (BP) is strongly associated with cardiovascular (CV) events and mortality. However, it is questionable whether mean BP can fully capture BP-related vascular risk. Increasing attention has been given to the value of visit-to-visit BP variability.

METHODS: We examined the association of visit-to-visit BP variability with mortality, incident myocardial infarction (MI), and incident stroke among 1,877 well-functioning elders in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study. We defined visit-to-visit diastolic BP (DBP) and systolic BP (SBP) variability as the root-mean-square error of person-specific linear regression of BP as a function of time. Alternatively, we counted the number of considerable BP increases and decreases (separately; 10mm Hg for DBP and 20mm Hg for SBP) between consecutive visits for each individual.

RESULTS: Over an average follow-up of 8.5 years, 623 deaths (207 from CV disease), 153 MIs, and 156 strokes occurred. The median visit-to-visit DBP and SBP variability was 4.96 mmHg and 8.53 mmHg, respectively. After multivariable adjustment, visit-to-visit DBP variability was related to higher all-cause (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.18 per 1 SD, 95\% confidence interval (CI) = 1.01-1.37) and CV mortality (HR = 1.35, 95\% CI = 1.05-1.73). Additionally, individuals having more considerable decreases of DBP (>=10mm Hg between 2 consecutive visits) had higher risk of all-cause (HR = 1.13, 95\% CI = 0.99-1.28) and CV mortality (HR = 1.30, 95\% CI = 1.05-1.61); considerable increases of SBP (>=20mm Hg) were associated with higher risk of all-cause (HR = 1.18, 95\% CI = 1.03-1.36) and CV mortality (HR = 1.37, 95\% CI = 1.08-1.74).

CONCLUSIONS: Visit-to-visit DBP variability and considerable changes in DBP and SBP were risk factors for mortality in the elderly.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aging, Blood Pressure, Blood Pressure Determination, Body Composition, California, Cohort Studies, Female, Health Status, Humans, Hypertension, Incidence, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Myocardial Infarction, Office Visits, Prognosis, Retrospective Studies, Risk Factors, Stroke, Survival Rate}, issn = {1941-7225}, doi = {10.1093/ajh/hpw106}, author = {Wu, Chenkai and Shlipak, Michael G and Stawski, Robert S and Peralta, Carmen A and Psaty, Bruce M and Harris, Tamara B and Satterfield, Suzanne and Shiroma, Eric J and Newman, Anne B and Odden, Michelle C} } @article {7561, title = {The 24,25 to 25-hydroxyvitamin D ratio and fracture risk in older adults: The cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Bone}, volume = {107}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Feb}, pages = {124-130}, abstract = {

25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] may not optimally indicate vitamin D receptor activity. Higher concentrations of its catabolic product 24,25-dihydroxyvitmin D [24,25(OH)2D] and a higher ratio of 24,25(OH)2D to 25(OH)D (the vitamin D metabolite ratio [VMR]) may provide additional information on receptor activity. We compared the strength of associations of these markers with serum PTH concentrations, hip bone mineral density (BMD), and risk of incident hip fracture in community-living older participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study. Among 890 participants, the mean age was 78years, 60\% were women, and the mean 25(OH)D was 28{\textpm}11ng/ml. In cross-sectional analysis, the strength of association of each vitamin D measure with PTH was similar; a 1\% higher 25(OH)D, 24,25(OH)2D, and VMR were associated with 0.32\%, 0.25\%, and 0.26\% lower PTH, respectively (p<0.05 for all). Among 358 participants with available BMD data, we found no associations of 25(OH)D or VMR with BMD, whereas higher 24,25(OH)2D was modestly associated with greater hip BMD (1\% higher 24,25(OH)2D associated with 0.04\% [95\% CI 0.01-0.08\%] higher BMD). Risk of incident hip fracture risk was evaluated using a case-cohort design. There were 289 hip fractures during a mean follow up time of 8.4years. Both higher 24,25(OH)2D and VMR were associated with lower risk of hip fracture (HR per SD higher, 0.73 [0.61, 0.87] and 0.74 [0.61, 0.88], respectively) whereas 25(OH)D was not associated with hip fracture (HR 0.93 [0.79, 1.10]). We conclude that evaluating vitamin D status by incorporating assessment of 24,25(OH)D and the VMR provides information on bone health above and beyond 25(OH)D alone.

}, issn = {1873-2763}, doi = {10.1016/j.bone.2017.11.011}, author = {Ginsberg, Charles and Katz, Ronit and de Boer, Ian H and Kestenbaum, Bryan R and Chonchol, Michel and Shlipak, Michael G and Sarnak, Mark J and Hoofnagle, Andrew N and Rifkin, Dena E and Garimella, Pranav S and Ix, Joachim H} } @article {7671, title = {Association of biomarker and physiologic indices with mortality in older adults: Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Apr 12}, abstract = {

Background: A goal of gerontology is discovering aging phenotypes that reflect biological aging distinct from disease pathogenesis. Biomarkers strongly and independently associated with mortality and which statistically attenuate chronologic age could be used to define such a phenotype. We determined the association of a Biomarker Index (BI) with mortality and compared it to a validated Physiologic Index (PI) in older adults.

Methods: The indices were constructed in the Cardiovascular Health Study, mean (SD) age 74.5 (5.1) years. The BI incorporated circulating levels of new biomarkers, including insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1, IGF binding protein 3, amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, and interleukin-6, and was built in test (N=2197) and validation (N=1124) samples. The PI included carotid intima-media thickness, pulmonary capacity, brain white matter grade, cystatin-C, and fasting glucose. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models predicting death were calculated with 10 years of follow-up.

Results: In separate age-adjusted models, the hazard ratio (HR) for mortality per point of the BI was 1.30 (95\% CI 1.25, 1.34) and the BI attenuated age by 25\%. The HR for the PI was 1.28 (1.24, 1.33) (29\% age attenuation). In the same model, the HR for the BI was 1.23 (1.18, 1.28) and for the PI was 1.22 (1.17, 1.26), and age was attenuated 42.5\%. Associations persisted after further adjustment.

Conclusions: The BI and PI were significantly and independently associated with mortality. Both attenuated the age effect on mortality substantially. The indices may be feasible phenotypes for developing interventions hoping to alter the trajectory of aging.

}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/gly075}, author = {Sanders, Jason L and Arnold, Alice M and Boudreau, Robert M and Hirsch, Calvin H and Kizer, Jorge R and Kaplan, Robert C and Cappola, Anne R and Cushman, Mary and Jacob, Mini E and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Newman, Anne B} } @article {7603, title = {Association of Cardiovascular Biomarkers With Incident Heart Failure With Preserved and Reduced Ejection Fraction.}, journal = {JAMA Cardiol}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Jan 10}, abstract = {

Importance: Nearly half of all patients with heart failure have preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) as opposed to reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), yet associations of biomarkers with future heart failure subtype are incompletely understood.

Objective: To evaluate the associations of 12 cardiovascular biomarkers with incident HFpEF vs HFrEF among adults from the general population.

Design, Setting, and Participants: This study included 4 longitudinal community-based cohorts: the Cardiovascular Health Study (1989-1990; 1992-1993 for supplemental African-American cohort), the Framingham Heart Study (1995-1998), the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (2000-2002), and the Prevention of Renal and Vascular End-stage Disease study (1997-1998). Each cohort had prospective ascertainment of incident HFpEF and HFrEF. Data analysis was performed from June 25, 2015, to November 9, 2017.

Exposures: The following biomarkers were examined: N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide or brain natriuretic peptide, high-sensitivity troponin T or I, C-reactive protein (CRP), urinary albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR), renin to aldosterone ratio, D-dimer, fibrinogen, soluble suppressor of tumorigenicity, galectin-3, cystatin C, plasminogen activator inhibitor 1, and interleukin 6.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Development of incident HFpEF and incident HFrEF.

Results: Among the 22 756 participants in these 4 cohorts (12 087 women and 10 669 men; mean [SD] age, 60 [13] years) in the study, during a median follow-up of 12 years, 633 participants developed incident HFpEF, and 841 developed HFrEF. In models adjusted for clinical risk factors of heart failure, 2 biomarkers were significantly associated with incident HFpEF: UACR (hazard ratio [HR], 1.33; 95\% CI, 1.20-1.48; P < .001) and natriuretic peptides (HR, 1.27; 95\% CI, 1.16-1.40; P < .001), with suggestive associations for high-sensitivity troponin (HR, 1.11; 95\% CI, 1.03-1.19; P = .008), plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (HR, 1.22; 95\% CI, 1.03-1.45; P = .02), and fibrinogen (HR, 1.12; 95\% CI, 1.03-1.22; P = .01). By contrast, 6 biomarkers were associated with incident HFrEF: natriuretic peptides (HR, 1.54; 95\% CI, 1.41-1.68; P < .001), UACR (HR, 1.21; 95\% CI, 1.11-1.32; P < .001), high-sensitivity troponin (HR, 1.37; 95\% CI, 1.29-1.46; P < .001), cystatin C (HR, 1.19; 95\% CI, 1.11-1.27; P < .001), D-dimer (HR, 1.22; 95\% CI, 1.11-1.35; P < .001), and CRP (HR, 1.19; 95\% CI, 1.11-1.28; P < .001). When directly compared, natriuretic peptides, high-sensitivity troponin, and CRP were more strongly associated with HFrEF compared with HFpEF.

Conclusions and Relevance: Biomarkers of renal dysfunction, endothelial dysfunction, and inflammation were associated with incident HFrEF. By contrast, only natriuretic peptides and UACR were associated with HFpEF. These findings highlight the need for future studies focused on identifying novel biomarkers of the risk of HFpEF.

}, issn = {2380-6591}, doi = {10.1001/jamacardio.2017.4987}, author = {de Boer, Rudolf A and Nayor, Matthew and deFilippi, Christopher R and Enserro, Danielle and Bhambhani, Vijeta and Kizer, Jorge R and Blaha, Michael J and Brouwers, Frank P and Cushman, Mary and Lima, Jo{\~a}o A C and Bahrami, Hossein and van der Harst, Pim and Wang, Thomas J and Gansevoort, Ron T and Fox, Caroline S and Gaggin, Hanna K and Kop, Willem J and Liu, Kiang and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Psaty, Bruce M and Lee, Douglas S and Hillege, Hans L and Bartz, Traci M and Benjamin, Emelia J and Chan, Cheeling and Allison, Matthew and Gardin, Julius M and Januzzi, James L and Shah, Sanjiv J and Levy, Daniel and Herrington, David M and Larson, Martin G and van Gilst, Wiek H and Gottdiener, John S and Bertoni, Alain G and Ho, Jennifer E} } @article {7678, title = {Association of lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A and risk of incident atrial fibrillation: Findings from 3 cohorts.}, journal = {Am Heart J}, volume = {197}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Mar}, pages = {62-69}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Multiple prospective studies have established an association between inflammation and higher risk of atrial fibrillation (AF), but the association between lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A (Lp-PLA) mass and activity and incident AF has not been extensively evaluated.

METHODS: Using data from 10,794 Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities (ARIC) study participants aged 53-75 years, 5,181 Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) participants aged 65 to 100 years, and 5,425 Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) participants aged 45-84 years, we investigated the association between baseline Lp-PLA levels and the risk of developing AF. Incident AF was identified in each cohort by follow-up visit electrocardiograms, hospital discharge coding of AF, or Medicare claims data.

RESULTS: Over a mean of 13.1, 11.5, and 10.0 years of follow-up, 1,439 (13\%), 2,084 (40\%), and 615 (11\%) incident AF events occurred in ARIC, CHS, and MESA, respectively. In adjusted analyses, each SD increment in Lp-PLA activity was associated with incident AF in both ARIC (hazard ratio [HR] 1.13, 95\% CI 1.06-1.20) and MESA (HR 1.24, 95\% CI 1.05-1.46). Each SD increment in Lp-PLA mass was also associated with incident AF in MESA (HR 1.25, 95\% CI 1.11-1.41). No significant associations were observed among CHS participants.

CONCLUSIONS: Although higher Lp-PLA mass and activity were associated with development of AF in ARIC and MESA, this relationship was not observed in CHS, a cohort of older individuals.

}, issn = {1097-6744}, doi = {10.1016/j.ahj.2017.11.010}, author = {Garg, Parveen K and Bartz, Traci M and Norby, Faye L and Jorgensen, Neal W and McClelland, Robyn L and Ballantyne, Christie M and Chen, Lin Y and Gottdiener, John S and Greenland, Philip and Hoogeveen, Ron and Jenny, Nancy S and Kizer, Jorge R and Rosenson, Robert S and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Cushman, Mary and Alonso, Alvaro and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {7812, title = {The Association of Obesity and Cardiometabolic Traits With Incident~HFpEF and HFrEF.}, journal = {JACC Heart Fail}, volume = {6}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Aug}, pages = {701-709}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated the associations of obesity and cardiometabolic traits with incident heart failure with preserved versus reduced ejection fraction (HFpEF vs. HFrEF). Given known sex differences in HF subtype, we examined men and women separately.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies suggest that obesity confers greater risk of HFpEF versus HFrEF. Contributions of associated metabolic traits to HFpEF are less clear.

METHODS: We studied 22,681 participants from 4 community-based cohorts followed for incident HFpEF versus HFrEF (ejection fraction >=50\% vs.~<50\%). We evaluated the association of body mass index (BMI) and cardiometabolic traits with incident HF subtype using Cox models.

RESULTS: The mean age was 60 {\textpm} 13 years, and 53\% were women. Over a median follow-up of 12 years, 628 developed incident HFpEF and 835 HFrEF. Greater BMI portended higher risk of HFpEF compared with HFrEF (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.34 per 1-SD increase in BMI; 95\% confidence interval [CI]: 1.24 to 1.45 vs. HR: 1.18; 95\% CI: 1.10 to 1.27). Similarly, insulin resistance (homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance) was associated with HFpEF (HR: 1.20 per 1-SD; 95\% CI: 1.05 to 1.37), but not HFrEF (HR: 0.99; 95\% CI: 0.88 to 1.11; p~< 0.05 for difference HFpEF vs. HFrEF). We found that the differential association of BMI with HFpEF versus HFrEF was more pronounced among women (p for difference HFpEF vs. HFrEF~= 0.01) when compared with men (p~= 0.34).

CONCLUSIONS: Obesity and related cardiometabolic traits including insulin resistance are more strongly associated with risk of future HFpEF versus HFrEF. The differential risk of HFpEF with obesity seems particularly pronounced among~women and may underlie sex differences in HF subtypes.

}, issn = {2213-1787}, doi = {10.1016/j.jchf.2018.05.018}, author = {Savji, Nazir and Meijers, Wouter C and Bartz, Traci M and Bhambhani, Vijeta and Cushman, Mary and Nayor, Matthew and Kizer, Jorge R and Sarma, Amy and Blaha, Michael J and Gansevoort, Ron T and Gardin, Julius M and Hillege, Hans L and Ji, Fei and Kop, Willem J and Lau, Emily S and Lee, Douglas S and Sadreyev, Ruslan and van Gilst, Wiek H and Wang, Thomas J and Zanni, Markella V and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Allen, Norrina B and Psaty, Bruce M and van der Harst, Pim and Levy, Daniel and Larson, Martin and Shah, Sanjiv J and de Boer, Rudolf A and Gottdiener, John S and Ho, Jennifer E} } @article {7682, title = {Atrial Cardiopathy and the Risk of Ischemic Stroke in the CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study).}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {49}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Apr}, pages = {980-986}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Emerging evidence suggests that an underlying atrial cardiopathy may result in thromboembolism before atrial fibrillation (AF) develops. We examined the association between various markers of atrial cardiopathy and the risk of ischemic stroke.

METHODS: The CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study) prospectively enrolled community-dwelling adults >=65 years of age. For this study, we excluded participants diagnosed with stroke or AF before baseline. Exposures were several markers of atrial cardiopathy: baseline P-wave terminal force in ECG lead V, left atrial dimension on echocardiogram, and N terminal pro B type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), as well as incident AF. Incident AF was ascertained from 12-lead electrocardiograms at annual study visits for the first decade after study enrollment and from inpatient and outpatient Medicare data throughout follow-up. The primary outcome was incident ischemic stroke. We used Cox proportional hazards models that included all 4 atrial cardiopathy markers along with adjustment for demographic characteristics and established vascular risk factors.

RESULTS: Among 3723 participants who were free of stroke and AF at baseline and who had data on all atrial cardiopathy markers, 585 participants (15.7\%) experienced an incident ischemic stroke during a median 12.9 years of follow-up. When all atrial cardiopathy markers were combined in 1 Cox model, we found significant associations with stroke for P-wave terminal force in ECG lead V (hazard ratio per 1000 μV*ms 1.04; 95\% confidence interval, 1.001-1.08), log-transformed NT-proBNP (hazard ratio per doubling of NT-proBNP, 1.09; 95\% confidence interval, 1.03-1.16), and incident AF (hazard ratio, 2.04; 95\% confidence interval, 1.67-2.48) but not left atrial dimension (hazard ratio per cm, 0.96; 95\% confidence interval, 0.84-1.10).

CONCLUSIONS: In addition to clinically apparent AF, other evidence of abnormal atrial substrate is associated with subsequent ischemic stroke. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that thromboembolism from the left atrium may occur in the setting of several different manifestations of atrial disease.

}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.117.020059}, author = {Kamel, Hooman and Bartz, Traci M and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Okin, Peter M and Thacker, Evan L and Patton, Kristen K and Stein, Phyllis K and deFilippi, Christopher R and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Heckbert, Susan R and Kronmal, Richard A and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Longstreth, W T} } @article {7779, title = {Atrial fibrillation in an African-American cohort: The Jackson Heart Study.}, journal = {Clin Cardiol}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Jul 02}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an important public health problem across race/ethnic groups. Data from US cohort studies initiated in the 1980s suggest a higher prevalence of AF risk factors among African-Americans (AAs) than whites, but lower AF incidence. The Jackson Heart Study (JHS) is a community-based study of 5306 AAs recruited starting in 2000.

HYPOTHESIS: Demographic, anthropometric, cardiovascular, and/or electrocardiographic factors are associated with AF incidence in JHS.

METHODS: Using baseline participant characteristics and incident AF identified through hospital surveillance, study electrocardiogram, and Medicare claims, we estimated age- and sex-specific AF incidence rates, compared them with rates in AA participants in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) and Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), and examined associations of cardiovascular risk factors with AF.

RESULTS: A total of 66 participants had prevalent AF at baseline. Over an average follow-up of 8.5 years, 242 cases of incident AF were identified. Age- and sex-specific AF incidence rates in JHS were similar to those among AAs in MESA and appeared slightly lower than those among AAs in CHS. In an age- and sex-adjusted model, associations with incident AF were observed for modifiable risk factors: high body weight (HR = 1.23 per 15 kg, 95\%CI 1.13-1.35), systolic blood pressure (HR = 1.29 per 20 mmHg, 95\%CI 1.13-1.47), and current smoking (HR = 1.80, 95\%CI 1.27-2.55). Risk estimates associated with these risk factors were only slightly attenuated after multivariable adjustments.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings underscore the potential additional benefits of interventions for weight management, control of hypertension, and smoking cessation for the prevention of AF among AAs.

}, issn = {1932-8737}, doi = {10.1002/clc.23020}, author = {Austin, Thomas R and Wiggins, Kerri L and Blackshear, Chad and Yang, Yi and Benjamin, Emelia J and Curtis, Lesley H and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Correa, Adolfo and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {7801, title = {Common and Rare Coding Genetic Variation Underlying the Electrocardiographic PR Interval.}, journal = {Circ Genom Precis Med}, volume = {11}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 May}, pages = {e002037}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Electrical conduction from the cardiac sinoatrial node to the ventricles is critical for normal heart function. Genome-wide association studies have identified more than a dozen common genetic loci that are associated with PR interval. However, it is unclear whether rare and low-frequency variants also contribute to PR interval heritability.

METHODS: We performed large-scale meta-analyses of the PR interval that included 83 367 participants of European ancestry and 9436 of African ancestry. We examined both common and rare variants associated with the PR interval.

RESULTS: We identified 31 genetic loci that were significantly associated with PR interval after Bonferroni correction (<1.2{\texttimes}10), including 11 novel loci that have not been reported previously. Many of these loci are involved in heart morphogenesis. In gene-based analysis, we found that multiple rare variants at (=5.9{\texttimes}10) and (=1.1{\texttimes}10) were associated with PR interval. locus also was implicated in the common variant analysis, whereas was a novel locus.

CONCLUSIONS: We identified common variants at 11 novel loci and rare variants within 2 gene regions that were significantly associated with PR interval. Our findings provide novel insights to the current understanding of atrioventricular conduction, which is critical for cardiac activity and an important determinant of health.

}, issn = {2574-8300}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGEN.117.002037}, author = {Lin, Honghuang and van Setten, Jessica and Smith, Albert V and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and Warren, Helen R and Brody, Jennifer A and Radmanesh, Farid and Hall, Leanne and Grarup, Niels and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Boutin, Thibaud and Verweij, Niek and Lin, Henry J and Li-Gao, Ruifang and van den Berg, Marten E and Marten, Jonathan and Weiss, Stefan and Prins, Bram P and Haessler, Jeffrey and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Mei, Hao and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Li, Man and Alonso, Alvaro and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Connell, John M and Huang, Paul L and Weng, Lu-Chen and Jameson, Heather S and Hucker, William and Hanley, Alan and Tucker, Nathan R and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Bis, Joshua C and Rice, Kenneth M and Sitlani, Colleen M and Kors, Jan A and Xie, Zhijun and Wen, Chengping and Magnani, Jared W and Nelson, Christopher P and Kanters, J{\o}rgen K and Sinner, Moritz F and Strauch, Konstantin and Peters, Annette and Waldenberger, Melanie and Meitinger, Thomas and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Pedersen, Oluf and Linneberg, Allan and Rudan, Igor and de Boer, Rudolf A and van der Meer, Peter and Yao, Jie and Guo, Xiuqing and Taylor, Kent D and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Rotter, Jerome I and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Trompet, Stella and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andre and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Smith, Blair H and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Felix, Stephan B and Homuth, Georg and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Mangino, Massimo and Spector, Timothy D and Bots, Michiel L and Perez, Marco and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Raitakari, Olli T and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Arking, Dan E and Munroe, Patricia B and Psaty, Bruce M and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Benjamin, Emelia J and Rosand, Jonathan and Samani, Nilesh J and Hansen, Torben and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Polasek, Ozren and van der Harst, Pim and Heckbert, Susan R and Jukema, J Wouter and Stricker, Bruno H and Hayward, Caroline and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Jamshidi, Yalda and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Kooperberg, Charles and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Wilson, James G and Ellinor, Patrick T and Lubitz, Steven A and Isaacs, Aaron} } @article {7802, title = {Common Coding Variants in Are Associated With the Nav1.8 Late Current and Cardiac Conduction.}, journal = {Circ Genom Precis Med}, volume = {11}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 May}, pages = {e001663}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genetic variants at the / locus are strongly associated with electrocardiographic PR and QRS intervals. While is the canonical cardiac sodium channel gene, the role of in cardiac conduction is less well characterized.

METHODS: We sequenced the locus in 3699 European-ancestry individuals to identify variants associated with cardiac conduction, and replicated our findings in 21,000 individuals of European ancestry. We examined association with expression in human atrial tissue. We explored the biophysical effect of variation on channel function using cellular electrophysiology.

RESULTS: We identified 2 intronic single nucleotide polymorphisms in high linkage disequilibrium ( =0.86) with each other to be the strongest signals for PR (rs10428132, β=-4.74, =1.52{\texttimes}10) and QRS intervals (rs6599251, QRS β=-0.73; =1.2{\texttimes}10), respectively. Although these variants were not associated with or expression in human atrial tissue (n=490), they were in high linkage disequilibrium ( >=0.72) with a common missense variant, rs6795970 (V1073A). In total, we identified 7 missense variants, 4 of which (I962V, P1045T, V1073A, and L1092P) were associated with cardiac conduction. These 4 missense variants cluster in the cytoplasmic linker of the second and third domains of the SCN10A protein and together form 6 common haplotypes. Using cellular electrophysiology, we found that haplotypes associated with shorter PR intervals had a significantly larger percentage of late current compared with wild-type (I962V+V1073A+L1092P, 20.2{\textpm}3.3\%, =0.03, and I962V+V1073A, 22.4{\textpm}0.8\%, =0.0004 versus wild-type 11.7{\textpm}1.6\%), and the haplotype associated with the longest PR interval had a significantly smaller late current percentage (P1045T, 6.4{\textpm}1.2\%, =0.03).

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest an association between genetic variation in , the late sodium current, and alterations in cardiac conduction.

}, issn = {2574-8300}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGEN.116.001663}, author = {Macri, Vincenzo and Brody, Jennifer A and Arking, Dan E and Hucker, William J and Yin, Xiaoyan and Lin, Honghuang and Mills, Robert W and Sinner, Moritz F and Lubitz, Steven A and Liu, Ching-Ti and Morrison, Alanna C and Alonso, Alvaro and Li, Ning and Fedorov, Vadim V and Janssen, Paul M and Bis, Joshua C and Heckbert, Susan R and Dolmatova, Elena V and Lumley, Thomas and Sitlani, Colleen M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Pulit, Sara L and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Barnard, John and Smith, Jonathan D and Van Wagoner, David R and Chung, Mina K and Vlahakes, Gus J and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Rotter, Jerome I and Margulies, Kenneth B and Morley, Michael P and Cappola, Thomas P and Benjamin, Emelia J and Muzny, Donna and Gibbs, Richard A and Jackson, Rebecca D and Magnani, Jared W and Herndon, Caroline N and Rich, Stephen S and Psaty, Bruce M and Milan, David J and Boerwinkle, Eric and Mohler, Peter J and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {7778, title = {A comprehensive evaluation of the genetic architecture of sudden cardiac arrest.}, journal = {Eur Heart J}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Aug 28}, abstract = {

Aims: Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) accounts for 10\% of adult mortality in Western populations. We aim to identify potential loci associated with SCA and to identify risk factors causally associated with SCA.

Methods and results: We carried out a large genome-wide association study (GWAS) for SCA (n = 3939 cases, 25~989 non-cases) to examine common variation genome-wide and in candidate arrhythmia genes. We also exploited Mendelian randomization (MR) methods using cross-trait multi-variant genetic risk score associations (GRSA) to assess causal relationships of 18 risk factors with SCA. No variants were associated with SCA at genome-wide significance, nor were common variants in candidate arrhythmia genes associated with SCA at nominal significance. Using cross-trait GRSA, we established genetic correlation between SCA and (i) coronary artery disease (CAD) and traditional CAD risk factors (blood pressure, lipids, and diabetes), (ii) height and BMI, and (iii) electrical instability traits (QT and atrial fibrillation), suggesting aetiologic roles for these traits in SCA risk.

Conclusions: Our findings show that a comprehensive approach to the genetic architecture of SCA can shed light on the determinants of a complex life-threatening condition with multiple influencing factors in the general population. The results of this genetic analysis, both positive and negative findings, have implications for evaluating the genetic architecture of patients with a family history of SCA, and for efforts to prevent SCA in high-risk populations and the general community.

}, issn = {1522-9645}, doi = {10.1093/eurheartj/ehy474}, author = {Ashar, Foram N and Mitchell, Rebecca N and Albert, Christine M and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Brody, Jennifer A and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Moes, Anna and Meitinger, Thomas and Mak, Angel and Huikuri, Heikki and Junttila, M Juhani and Goyette, Philippe and Pulit, Sara L and Pazoki, Raha and Tanck, Michael W and Blom, Marieke T and Zhao, XiaoQing and Havulinna, Aki S and Jabbari, Reza and Glinge, Charlotte and Tragante, Vinicius and Escher, Stefan A and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Ehret, Georg and Coresh, Josef and Li, Man and Prineas, Ronald J and Franco, Oscar H and Kwok, Pui-Yan and Lumley, Thomas and Dumas, Florence and McKnight, Barbara and Rotter, Jerome I and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Heckbert, Susan R and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Tardif, Jean-Claude and VanDenburgh, Martin and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hofman, Albert and Stricker, Bruno H C and de Bakker, Paul I W and Franks, Paul W and Jansson, Jan-H{\r a}kan and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Halushka, Marc K and Maleszewski, Joseph J and Tfelt-Hansen, Jacob and Engstr{\o}m, Thomas and Salomaa, Veikko and Virmani, Renu and Kolodgie, Frank and Wilde, Arthur A M and Tan, Hanno L and Bezzina, Connie R and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Rioux, John D and Jouven, Xavier and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Psaty, Bruce M and Siscovick, David S and Arking, Dan E and Sotoodehnia, Nona} } @article {8536, title = {{Dairy Consumption and Body Mass Index Among Adults: Mendelian Randomization Analysis of 184802 Individuals from 25 Studies}, journal = {Clin Chem}, volume = {64}, year = {2018}, month = {01}, pages = {183{\textendash}191}, abstract = {Associations between dairy intake and body mass index (BMI) have been inconsistently observed in epidemiological studies, and the causal relationship remains ill defined.\ We performed Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis using an established dairy intake-associated genetic polymorphism located upstream of the lactase gene (LCT-13910 C/T, rs4988235) as an instrumental variable (IV). Linear regression models were fitted to analyze associations between (a) dairy intake and BMI, (b) rs4988235 and dairy intake, and (c) rs4988235 and BMI in each study. The causal effect of dairy intake on BMI was quantified by IV estimators among 184802 participants from 25 studies.\ Higher dairy intake was associated with higher BMI ({\^I}{\texttwosuperior} = 0.03 kg/m2 per serving/day; 95\% CI, 0.00-0.06; P = 0.04), whereas the LCT genotype with 1 or 2 T allele was significantly associated with 0.20 (95\% CI, 0.14-0.25) serving/day higher dairy intake (P = 3.15 {\~A}{\textemdash} 10-12) and 0.12 (95\% CI, 0.06-0.17) kg/m2 higher BMI (P = 2.11 {\~A}{\textemdash} 10-5). MR analysis showed that the genetically determined higher dairy intake was significantly associated with higher BMI ({\^I}{\texttwosuperior} = 0.60 kg/m2 per serving/day; 95\% CI, 0.27-0.92; P = 3.0 {\~A}{\textemdash} 10-4).\ The present study provides strong evidence to support a causal effect of higher dairy intake on increased BMI among adults.}, author = {Huang, T. and Ding, M. and Bergholdt, H. K. M. and Wang, T. and Heianza, Y. and Sun, D. and Frazier-Wood, A. C. and Aslibekyan, S. and North, K. E. and Voortman, T. and Graff, M. and Smith, C. E. and Lai, C. Q. and Varbo, A. and Lemaitre, R. N. and de Jonge, M. E. A. L. and Fumeron, F. and Corella, D. and Wang, C. A. and Tj?nneland, A. and Overvad, K. and S?rensen, T. I. A. and Feitosa, M. F. and Wojczynski, M. K. and K?h?nen, M. and Renstr?m, F. and Psaty, B. M. and Siscovick, D. S. and Barroso, I. and Johansson, I. and Hernandez, D. and Ferrucci, L. and Bandinelli, S. and Linneberg, A. and Zillikens, M. C. and Sandholt, C. H. and Pedersen, O. and Hansen, T. and Schulz, C. A. and Sonestedt, E. and Orho-Melander, M. and Chen, T. A. and Rotter, J. I. and Allison, M. A. and Rich, S. S. and Sorl?, J. V. and Coltell, O. and Pennell, C. E. and Eastwood, P. and Hofman, A. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and van Rooij, F. J. A. and Chu, A. Y. and Rose, L. M. and Ridker, P. M. and Viikari, J. and Raitakari, O. and Lehtim?ki, T. and Mikkil?, V. and Willett, W. C. and Wang, Y. and Tucker, K. L. and Ordovas, J. M. and Kilpel?inen, T. O. and Province, M. A. and Franks, P. W. and Arnett, D. K. and Tanaka, T. and Toft, U. and Ericson, U. and Franco, O. H. and Mozaffarian, D. and Hu, F. B. and Chasman, D. I. and Nordestgaard, B. G. and Ellervik, C. and Qi, L.} } @article {7798, title = {Discovery, fine-mapping, and conditional analyses of genetic variants associated with C-reactive protein in multiethnic populations using the Metabochip in the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {27}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Aug 15}, pages = {2940-2953}, abstract = {

C-reactive protein (CRP) is a circulating biomarker indicative of systemic inflammation. We aimed to evaluate genetic associations with CRP levels among non-European-ancestry populations through discovery, fine-mapping and conditional analyses. A total of 30~503 non-European-ancestry participants from 6 studies participating in the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology study had serum high-sensitivity CRP measurements and \~{}200~000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) genotyped on the Metabochip. We evaluated the association between each SNP and log-transformed CRP levels using multivariate linear regression, with additive genetic models adjusted for age, sex, the first four principal components of genetic ancestry, and study-specific factors. Differential linkage disequilibrium patterns between race/ethnicity groups were used to fine-map regions associated with CRP levels. Conditional analyses evaluated for multiple independent signals within genetic regions. One hundred and sixty-three unique variants in 12 loci in overall or race/ethnicity-stratified Metabochip-wide scans reached a Bonferroni-corrected P-value <2.5E-7. Three loci have no (HACL1, OLFML2B) or only limited (PLA2G6) previous associations with CRP levels. Six loci had different top hits in race/ethnicity-specific versus overall analyses. Fine-mapping refined the signal in six loci, particularly in HNF1A. Conditional analyses provided evidence for secondary signals in LEPR, IL1RN and HNF1A, and for multiple independent signals in CRP and APOE. We identified novel variants and loci associated with CRP levels, generalized known CRP associations to a multiethnic study population, refined association signals at several loci and found evidence for multiple independent signals at several well-known loci. This study demonstrates the benefit of conducting inclusive genetic association studies in large multiethnic populations.

}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddy211}, author = {Kocarnik, Jonathan M and Richard, Melissa and Graff, Misa and Haessler, Jeffrey and Bien, Stephanie and Carlson, Chris and Carty, Cara L and Reiner, Alexander P and Avery, Christy L and Ballantyne, Christie M and LaCroix, Andrea Z and Assimes, Themistocles L and Barbalic, Maja and Pankratz, Nathan and Tang, Weihong and Tao, Ran and Chen, Dongquan and Talavera, Gregory A and Daviglus, Martha L and Chirinos-Medina, Diana A and Pereira, Rocio and Nishimura, Katie and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Best, Lyle G and Ambite, Jose Luis and Cheng, Iona and Crawford, Dana C and Hindorff, Lucia A and Fornage, Myriam and Heiss, Gerardo and North, Kari E and Haiman, Christopher A and Peters, Ulrike and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Kooperberg, Charles} } @article {7816, title = {DNA methylation age is associated with an altered hemostatic profile in a multi-ethnic meta-analysis.}, journal = {Blood}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Jul 24}, abstract = {

Many hemostatic factors are associated with age and age-related diseases, however much remains unknown about the biological mechanisms linking aging and hemostatic factors. DNA methylation is a novel means by which to assess epigenetic aging, which is a measure of age and the aging processes as determined by altered epigenetic states. We used a meta-analysis approach to examine the association between measures of epigenetic aging and hemostatic factors, as well as a clotting time measure. For fibrinogen, we used European and African-ancestry participants who were meta-analyzed separately and combined via a random effects meta-analysis. All other measures only included participants of European-ancestry. We found that 1-year higher extrinsic epigenetic age as compared to chronological age was associated with higher fibrinogen (0.004 g/L per year; 95\% CI: 0.001, 0.007; P = 0.01) and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1; 0.13 U/mL per year; 95\% CI: 0.07, 0.20; P = 6.6x10-5) concentrations as well as lower activated partial thromboplastin time, a measure of clotting time. We replicated PAI-1 associations using an independent cohort. To further elucidate potential functional mechanisms we associated epigenetic aging with expression levels of the PAI-1 protein encoding gene (SERPINE1) and the three fibrinogen subunit-encoding genes (FGA, FGG, and FGB), in both peripheral blood and aorta intima-media samples. We observed associations between accelerated epigenetic aging and transcription of FGG in both tissues. Collectively, our results indicate that accelerated epigenetic aging is associated with a pro-coagulation hemostatic profile, and that epigenetic aging may regulate hemostasis in part via gene transcription.

}, issn = {1528-0020}, doi = {10.1182/blood-2018-02-831347}, author = {Ward-Caviness, Cavin K and Huffman, Jennifer E and Evertt, Karl and Germain, Marine and van Dongen, Jenny and Hill, W David and Jhun, Min A and Brody, Jennifer A and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Du, Lei and Roetker, Nicholas S and de Vries, Paul S and Waldenberger, Melanie and Gieger, Christian and Wolf, Petra and Prokisch, Holger and Koenig, Wolfgang and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Levy, Daniel and Liu, Chunyu and Truong, Vinh and Wells, Philip S and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Tang, Weihong and Morrison, Alanna C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Wiggins, Kerri L and McKnight, Barbara and Guo, Xiuqing and Psaty, Bruce M and Sotoodenia, Nona and Boomsa, Dorret I and Willemsen, Gonneke and Ligthart, Lannie and Deary, Ian J and Zhao, Wei and Ware, Erin B and Kardia, Sharon L R and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Franco, Oscar H and Eriksson, Per and Franco-Cereceda, Anders and Pankow, James S and Johnson, Andrew D and Gagnon, France and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and de Geus, Eco J C and Starr, John M and Smith, Jennifer A and Dehghan, Abbas and Bj{\"o}rck, Hanna M and Smith, Nicholas L and Peters, Annette} } @article {7796, title = {Exome Chip Analysis Identifies Low-Frequency and Rare Variants in for White Matter Hyperintensities on Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging.}, journal = {Stroke}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Jul 12}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: White matter hyperintensities (WMH) on brain magnetic resonance imaging are typical signs of cerebral small vessel disease and may indicate various preclinical, age-related neurological disorders, such as stroke. Though WMH are highly heritable, known common variants explain a small proportion of the WMH variance. The contribution of low-frequency/rare coding variants to WMH burden has not been explored.

METHODS: In the discovery sample we recruited 20 719 stroke/dementia-free adults from 13 population-based cohort studies within the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium, among which 17 790 were of European ancestry and 2929 of African ancestry. We genotyped these participants at ≈250 000 mostly exonic variants with Illumina HumanExome BeadChip arrays. We performed ethnicity-specific linear regression on rank-normalized WMH in each study separately, which were then combined in meta-analyses to test for association with single variants and genes aggregating the effects of putatively functional low-frequency/rare variants. We then sought replication of the top findings in 1192 adults (European ancestry) with whole exome/genome sequencing data from 2 independent studies.

RESULTS: At 17q25, we confirmed the association of multiple common variants in , , and (<6{\texttimes}10). We also identified a novel association with 2 low-frequency nonsynonymous variants in (lead, rs34136221; =4.5{\texttimes}10) partially independent of known common signal (=1.4{\texttimes}10). We further identified a locus at 2q33 containing common variants in , , and (lead, rs2351524; =1.9{\texttimes}10). Although our novel findings were not replicated because of limited power and possible differences in study design, meta-analysis of the discovery and replication samples yielded stronger association for the 2 low-frequency variants (=2.8{\texttimes}10).

CONCLUSIONS: Both common and low-frequency/rare functional variants influence WMH. Larger replication and experimental follow-up are essential to confirm our findings and uncover the biological causal mechanisms of age-related WMH.

}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.118.020689}, author = {Jian, Xueqiu and Satizabal, Claudia L and Smith, Albert V and Wittfeld, Katharina and Bis, Joshua C and Smith, Jennifer A and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Nho, Kwangsik and Hofer, Edith and Hagenaars, Saskia P and Nyquist, Paul A and Mishra, Aniket and Adams, Hieab H H and Li, Shuo and Teumer, Alexander and Zhao, Wei and Freedman, Barry I and Saba, Yasaman and Yanek, Lisa R and Chauhan, Ganesh and van Buchem, Mark A and Cushman, Mary and Royle, Natalie A and Bryan, R Nick and Niessen, Wiro J and Windham, Beverly G and DeStefano, Anita L and Habes, Mohamad and Heckbert, Susan R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Lewis, Cora E and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Maillard, Pauline and Mathias, Rasika A and Homuth, Georg and Vald{\'e}s-Hern{\'a}ndez, Maria Del C and Divers, Jasmin and Beiser, Alexa S and Langner, S{\"o}nke and Rice, Kenneth M and Bastin, Mark E and Yang, Qiong and Maldjian, Joseph A and Starr, John M and Sidney, Stephen and Risacher, Shannon L and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Gudnason, Vilmundur G and Nauck, Matthias and Rotter, Jerome I and Schreiner, Pamela J and Boerwinkle, Eric and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Mazoyer, Bernard and von Sarnowski, Bettina and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Levy, Daniel and Sigurdsson, Sigurdur and Vernooij, Meike W and Turner, Stephen T and Schmidt, Reinhold and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Psaty, Bruce M and Mosley, Thomas H and DeCarli, Charles S and Saykin, Andrew J and Bowden, Donald W and Becker, Diane M and Deary, Ian J and Schmidt, Helena and Kardia, Sharon L R and Ikram, M Arfan and Debette, Stephanie and Grabe, Hans J and Longstreth, W T and Seshadri, Sudha and Launer, Lenore J and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {7809, title = {Exome-chip meta-analysis identifies novel loci associated with cardiac conduction, including ADAMTS6.}, journal = {Genome Biol}, volume = {19}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 07 17}, pages = {87}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies conducted on QRS duration, an electrocardiographic measurement associated with heart failure and sudden cardiac death, have led to novel biological insights into cardiac function. However, the variants identified fall predominantly in non-coding regions and their underlying mechanisms remain unclear.

RESULTS: Here, we identify putative functional coding variation associated with changes in the QRS interval duration by combining Illumina HumanExome BeadChip genotype data from 77,898 participants of European ancestry and 7695 of African descent in our discovery cohort, followed by replication in 111,874~individuals of European ancestry from the UK Biobank and deCODE cohorts. We identify ten novel loci, seven within coding regions, including ADAMTS6, significantly associated with QRS duration in gene-based analyses. ADAMTS6 encodes a secreted metalloprotease of currently unknown function. In vitro validation analysis shows that the QRS-associated variants lead to impaired ADAMTS6 secretion and loss-of function analysis in mice demonstrates a previously unappreciated role for ADAMTS6 in connexin 43 gap junction expression, which is essential for myocardial conduction.

CONCLUSIONS: Our approach identifies novel coding and non-coding variants underlying ventricular depolarization and provides a possible mechanism for the ADAMTS6-associated conduction changes.

}, issn = {1474-760X}, doi = {10.1186/s13059-018-1457-6}, author = {Prins, Bram P and Mead, Timothy J and Brody, Jennifer A and Sveinbjornsson, Gardar and Ntalla, Ioanna and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and van den Berg, Marten and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Cappellani, Stefania and Van Duijvenboden, Stefan and Klena, Nikolai T and Gabriel, George C and Liu, Xiaoqin and Gulec, Cagri and Grarup, Niels and Haessler, Jeffrey and Hall, Leanne M and Iorio, Annamaria and Isaacs, Aaron and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Lin, Honghuang and Liu, Ching-Ti and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Marten, Jonathan and Mei, Hao and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Orini, Michele and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Radmanesh, Farid and Ramirez, Julia and Robino, Antonietta and Schwartz, Molly and van Setten, Jessica and Smith, Albert V and Verweij, Niek and Warren, Helen R and Weiss, Stefan and Alonso, Alvaro and Arnar, David O and Bots, Michiel L and de Boer, Rudolf A and Dominiczak, Anna F and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Ellinor, Patrick T and Guo, Xiuqing and Felix, Stephan B and Harris, Tamara B and Hayward, Caroline and Heckbert, Susan R and Huang, Paul L and Jukema, J W and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kors, Jan A and Lambiase, Pier D and Launer, Lenore J and Li, Man and Linneberg, Allan and Nelson, Christopher P and Pedersen, Oluf and Perez, Marco and Peters, Annette and Polasek, Ozren and Psaty, Bruce M and Raitakari, Olli T and Rice, Kenneth M and Rotter, Jerome I and Sinner, Moritz F and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Spector, Tim D and Strauch, Konstantin and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tinker, Andrew and Trompet, Stella and Uitterlinden, Andre and Vaartjes, Ilonca and van der Meer, Peter and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wilson, James G and Xie, Zhijun and Asselbergs, Folkert W and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Gasparini, Paolo and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hansen, Torben and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Kanters, J{\o}rgen K and Kooperberg, Charles and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lin, Henry J and Lubitz, Steven A and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Conti, Francesco J and Newton-Cheh, Christopher H and Rosand, Jonathan and Rudan, Igor and Samani, Nilesh J and Sinagra, Gianfranco and Smith, Blair H and Holm, Hilma and Stricker, Bruno H and Ulivi, Sheila and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Apte, Suneel S and van der Harst, Pim and Stefansson, Kari and Munroe, Patricia B and Arking, Dan E and Lo, Cecilia W and Jamshidi, Yalda} } @article {7784, title = {ExomeChip-Wide Analysis of 95 626 Individuals Identifies 10 Novel Loci Associated With QT and JT Intervals.}, journal = {Circ Genom Precis Med}, volume = {11}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Jan}, pages = {e001758}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: QT interval, measured through a standard ECG, captures the time it takes for the cardiac ventricles to depolarize and repolarize. JT interval is the component of the QT interval that reflects ventricular repolarization alone. Prolonged QT interval has been linked to higher risk of sudden cardiac arrest.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We performed an ExomeChip-wide analysis for both QT and JT intervals, including 209 449 variants, both common and rare, in 17 341 genes from the Illumina Infinium HumanExome BeadChip. We identified 10 loci that modulate QT and JT interval duration that have not been previously reported in the literature using single-variant statistical models in a meta-analysis of 95 626 individuals from 23 cohorts (comprised 83 884 European ancestry individuals, 9610 blacks, 1382 Hispanics, and 750 Asians). This brings the total number of ventricular repolarization associated loci to 45. In addition, our approach of using coding variants has highlighted the role of 17 specific genes for involvement in ventricular repolarization, 7 of which are in novel loci.

CONCLUSIONS: Our analyses show a role for myocyte internal structure and interconnections in modulating QT interval duration, adding to previous known roles of potassium, sodium, and calcium ion regulation, as well as autonomic control. We anticipate that these discoveries will open new paths to the goal of making novel remedies for the prevention of lethal ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac arrest.

}, issn = {2574-8300}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGEN.117.001758}, author = {Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and Brody, Jennifer A and Smith, Albert Vernon and Warren, Helen R and Lin, Honghuang and Isaacs, Aaron and Liu, Ching-Ti and Marten, Jonathan and Radmanesh, Farid and Hall, Leanne M and Grarup, Niels and Mei, Hao and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Huffman, Jennifer E and Verweij, Niek and Guo, Xiuqing and Yao, Jie and Li-Gao, Ruifang and van den Berg, Marten and Weiss, Stefan and Prins, Bram P and van Setten, Jessica and Haessler, Jeffrey and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Li, Man and Alonso, Alvaro and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Bis, Joshua C and Austin, Tom and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Psaty, Bruce M and Harrris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Dominiczak, Anna and Huang, Paul L and Xie, Zhijun and Ellinor, Patrick T and Kors, Jan A and Campbell, Archie and Murray, Alison D and Nelson, Christopher P and Tobin, Martin D and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Hansen, Torben and Pedersen, Oluf and Linneberg, Allan and Sinner, Moritz F and Peters, Annette and Waldenberger, Melanie and Meitinger, Thomas and Perz, Siegfried and Kolcic, Ivana and Rudan, Igor and de Boer, Rudolf A and van der Meer, Peter and Lin, Henry J and Taylor, Kent D and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Trompet, Stella and Jukema, J Wouter and Maan, Arie C and Stricker, Bruno H C and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andre and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Homuth, Georg and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Felix, Stephan B and Mangino, Massimo and Spector, Timothy D and Bots, Michiel L and Perez, Marco and Raitakari, Olli T and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Mononen, Nina and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Munroe, Patricia B and Lubitz, Steven A and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Newton-Cheh, Christopher H and Hayward, Caroline and Rosand, Jonathan and Samani, Nilesh J and Kanters, J{\o}rgen K and Wilson, James G and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Polasek, Ozren and van der Harst, Pim and Heckbert, Susan R and Rotter, Jerome I and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Eijgelsheim, Mark and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Jamshidi, Yalda and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Kooperberg, Charles and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Arking, Dan E and Sotoodehnia, Nona} } @article {7666, title = {Fasting and post-glucose load measures of insulin resistance and risk of incident atrial fibrillation: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Mar 02}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Existing literature in individuals without diabetes has not demonstrated a relationship between IR and incident AF; however, data are limited and only fasting glucose measures of IR were assessed. We evaluated the relationship of both fasting and post-glucose load IR measures with the development of atrial fibrillation in nondiabetic older adults.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Among Cardiovascular Health Study participants, a population-based cohort of 5888 adults aged 65 years or older enrolled in two waves (1989-1990 and 1992-1993), those without prevalent AF or diabetes and with IR measures at baseline were followed for the development of AF, identified by follow-up visit electrocardiograms, hospital discharge diagnosis coding, or Medicare claims data, through 2014. Fasting IR was determined by the homeostatic model of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and post-glucose load IR was determined by the Gutt index. Cox proportional hazards models were used to determine the association of IR with risk of AF. Analyses included 3601 participants (41\% men) with a mean age of 73 years. Over a median follow-up of 12.3 years, 1443 (40\%) developed AF. After multivariate adjustment, neither HOMA-IR nor the Gutt index was associated with risk of developing AF [hazard ratios (95\% confidence intervals): 0.96 (0.90, 1.03) for 1-SD increase in HOMA-IR and 1.03 (0.97, 1.10) for 1-SD decrease in the Gutt index].

CONCLUSIONS: We found no evidence of an association between either fasting or post-glucose load IR measures and incident AF.

}, issn = {1590-3729}, doi = {10.1016/j.numecd.2018.02.016}, author = {Garg, P K and Biggs, M L and Kaplan, R and Kizer, J R and Heckbert, S R and Mukamal, K J} } @article {8041, title = {Fatty acid biomarkers of dairy fat consumption and incidence of type 2 diabetes: A pooled analysis of prospective cohort studies.}, journal = {PLoS Med}, volume = {15}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 10}, pages = {e1002670}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: We aimed to investigate prospective associations of circulating or adipose tissue odd-chain fatty acids 15:0 and 17:0 and trans-palmitoleic acid, t16:1n-7, as potential biomarkers of dairy fat intake, with incident type 2 diabetes (T2D).

METHODS AND FINDINGS: Sixteen prospective cohorts from 12 countries (7 from the United States, 7 from Europe, 1 from Australia, 1 from Taiwan) performed new harmonised individual-level analysis for the prospective associations according to a standardised plan. In total, 63,682 participants with a broad range of baseline ages and BMIs and 15,180 incident cases of T2D over the average of 9 years of follow-up were evaluated. Study-specific results were pooled using inverse-variance-weighted meta-analysis. Prespecified interactions by age, sex, BMI, and race/ethnicity were explored in each cohort and were meta-analysed. Potential heterogeneity by cohort-specific characteristics (regions, lipid compartments used for fatty acid assays) was assessed with metaregression. After adjustment for potential confounders, including measures of adiposity (BMI, waist circumference) and lipogenesis (levels of palmitate, triglycerides), higher levels of 15:0, 17:0, and t16:1n-7 were associated with lower incidence of T2D. In the most adjusted model, the hazard ratio (95\% CI) for incident T2D per cohort-specific 10th to 90th percentile range of 15:0 was 0.80 (0.73-0.87); of 17:0, 0.65 (0.59-0.72); of t16:1n7, 0.82 (0.70-0.96); and of their sum, 0.71 (0.63-0.79). In exploratory analyses, similar associations for 15:0, 17:0, and the sum of all three fatty acids were present in both genders but stronger in women than in men (pinteraction < 0.001). Whereas studying associations with biomarkers has several advantages, as limitations, the biomarkers do not distinguish between different food sources of dairy fat (e.g., cheese, yogurt, milk), and residual confounding by unmeasured or imprecisely measured confounders may exist.

CONCLUSIONS: In a large meta-analysis that pooled the findings from 16 prospective cohort studies, higher levels of 15:0, 17:0, and t16:1n-7 were associated with a lower risk of T2D.

}, keywords = {Aged, Australia, Biomarkers, Dairy Products, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Dietary Fats, Europe, Fatty Acids, Fatty Acids, Monounsaturated, Female, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, Sex Factors, Taiwan, United States}, issn = {1549-1676}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pmed.1002670}, author = {Imamura, Fumiaki and Fretts, Amanda and Marklund, Matti and Ardisson Korat, Andres V and Yang, Wei-Sin and Lankinen, Maria and Qureshi, Waqas and Helmer, Catherine and Chen, Tzu-An and Wong, Kerry and Bassett, Julie K and Murphy, Rachel and Tintle, Nathan and Yu, Chaoyu Ian and Brouwer, Ingeborg A and Chien, Kuo-Liong and Frazier-Wood, Alexis C and Del Gobbo, Liana C and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Geleijnse, Johanna M and Giles, Graham G and de Goede, Janette and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, William S and Hodge, Allison and Hu, Frank and Koulman, Albert and Laakso, Markku and Lind, Lars and Lin, Hung-Ju and McKnight, Barbara and Rajaobelina, Kalina and Riserus, Ulf and Robinson, Jennifer G and Samieri, Cecilia and Siscovick, David S and Soedamah-Muthu, Sabita S and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Sun, Qi and Tsai, Michael Y and Uusitupa, Matti and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wareham, Nick J and Wu, Jason HY and Micha, Renata and Forouhi, Nita G and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {7793, title = {Generalization and fine mapping of red blood cell trait genetic associations to multi-ethnic populations: The PAGE Study.}, journal = {Am J Hematol}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Jun 15}, abstract = {

Red blood cell (RBC) traits provide insight into a wide range of physiological states and exhibit moderate to high heritability, making them excellent candidates for genetic studies to inform underlying biologic mechanisms. Previous RBC trait genome-wide association studies were performed primarily in European- or Asian-ancestry populations, missing opportunities to inform understanding of RBC genetic architecture in diverse populations and reduce intervals surrounding putative functional SNPs through fine-mapping. Here, we report the first fine-mapping of six correlated (Pearson{\textquoteright}s r range: |0.04 - 0.92|) RBC traits in up to 19,036 African Americans and 19,562 Hispanic/Latinos participants of the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) consortium. Trans-ethnic meta-analysis of race/ethnic- and study-specific estimates for approximately 11,000 SNPs flanking 13 previously identified association signals as well as 150,000 additional array-wide SNPs was performed using inverse-variance meta-analysis after adjusting for study and clinical covariates. Approximately half of previously reported index SNP-RBC trait associations generalized to the trans-ethnic study population (p<1.7x10 ); previously unreported independent association signals within the ABO region reinforce the potential for multiple functional variants affecting the same locus. Trans-ethnic fine-mapping did not reveal additional signals at the HFE locus independent of the known functional variants. Finally, we identified a potential novel association in the Hispanic/Latino study population at the HECTD4/RPL6 locus for RBC count (p=1.9x10 ). The identification of a previously unknown association, generalization of a large proportion of known association signals, and refinement of known association signals all exemplify the benefits of genetic studies in diverse populations. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

}, issn = {1096-8652}, doi = {10.1002/ajh.25161}, author = {Jo Hodonsky, Chani and Schurmann, Claudia and Schick, Ursula M and Kocarnik, Jonathan and Tao, Ran and van Rooij, Frank Ja and Wassel, Christina and Buyske, Steve and Fornage, Myriam and Hindorff, Lucia A and Floyd, James S and Ganesh, Santhi K and Lin, Dan-Yu and North, Kari E and Reiner, Alex P and Loos, Ruth Jf and Kooperberg, Charles and Avery, Christy L} } @article {7845, title = {Genetic analysis of over 1 million people identifies 535 new loci associated with blood pressure traits.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {50}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Oct}, pages = {1412-1425}, abstract = {

High blood pressure is a highly heritable and modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease. We report the largest genetic association study of blood pressure traits (systolic, diastolic and pulse pressure) to date in over 1 million people of European ancestry. We identify 535 novel blood pressure loci that not only offer new biological insights into blood pressure regulation but also highlight shared genetic architecture between blood pressure and lifestyle exposures. Our findings identify new biological pathways for blood pressure regulation with potential for improved cardiovascular disease prevention in the future.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-018-0205-x}, author = {Evangelou, Evangelos and Warren, Helen R and Mosen-Ansorena, David and Mifsud, Borbala and Pazoki, Raha and Gao, He and Ntritsos, Georgios and Dimou, Niki and Cabrera, Claudia P and Karaman, Ibrahim and Ng, Fu Liang and Evangelou, Marina and Witkowska, Katarzyna and Tzanis, Evan and Hellwege, Jacklyn N and Giri, Ayush and Velez Edwards, Digna R and Sun, Yan V and Cho, Kelly and Gaziano, J Michael and Wilson, Peter W F and Tsao, Philip S and Kovesdy, Csaba P and Esko, T{\~o}nu and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Milani, Lili and Almgren, Peter and Boutin, Thibaud and Debette, Stephanie and Ding, Jun and Giulianini, Franco and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Jackson, Anne U and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Lin, Wei-Yu and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Mangino, Massimo and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Prins, Bram Peter and Qian, Yong and Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Shah, Nabi and Surendran, Praveen and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Verweij, Niek and Willems, Sara M and Zhao, Jing-Hua and Amouyel, Philippe and Connell, John and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Doney, Alex S F and Farrall, Martin and Menni, Cristina and Morris, Andrew D and Noordam, Raymond and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Poulter, Neil R and Shields, Denis C and Stanton, Alice and Thom, Simon and Abecasis, Goncalo and Amin, Najaf and Arking, Dan E and Ayers, Kristin L and Barbieri, Caterina M and Batini, Chiara and Bis, Joshua C and Blake, Tineka and Bochud, Murielle and Boehnke, Michael and Boerwinkle, Eric and Boomsma, Dorret I and Bottinger, Erwin P and Braund, Peter S and Brumat, Marco and Campbell, Archie and Campbell, Harry and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Chambers, John C and Chauhan, Ganesh and Ciullo, Marina and Cocca, Massimiliano and Collins, Francis and Cordell, Heather J and Davies, Gail and Borst, Martin H de and Geus, Eco J de and Deary, Ian J and Deelen, Joris and del Greco M, Fabiola and Demirkale, Cumhur Yusuf and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Ehret, Georg B and Elosua, Roberto and Enroth, Stefan and Erzurumluoglu, A Mesut and Ferreira, Teresa and Fr{\r a}nberg, Mattias and Franco, Oscar H and Gandin, Ilaria and Gasparini, Paolo and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Gieger, Christian and Girotto, Giorgia and Goel, Anuj and Gow, Alan J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Guo, Xiuqing and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hamsten, Anders and Harris, Tamara B and Harris, Sarah E and Hartman, Catharina A and Havulinna, Aki S and Hicks, Andrew A and Hofer, Edith and Hofman, Albert and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Huffman, Jennifer E and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Ingelsson, Erik and James, Alan and Jansen, Rick and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Joehanes, Roby and Johansson, Asa and Johnson, Andrew D and Joshi, Peter K and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jukema, J Wouter and Jula, Antti and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kathiresan, Sekar and Keavney, Bernard D and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Knekt, Paul and Knight, Joanne and Kolcic, Ivana and Kooner, Jaspal S and Koskinen, Seppo and Kristiansson, Kati and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Laan, Maris and Larson, Marty and Launer, Lenore J and Lehne, Benjamin and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Liewald, David C M and Lin, Li and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Liu, Yongmei and Loos, Ruth J F and Lopez, Lorna M and Lu, Yingchang and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Mahajan, Anubha and Mamasoula, Chrysovalanto and Marrugat, Jaume and Marten, Jonathan and Milaneschi, Yuri and Morgan, Anna and Morris, Andrew P and Morrison, Alanna C and Munson, Peter J and Nalls, Mike A and Nandakumar, Priyanka and Nelson, Christopher P and Niiranen, Teemu and Nolte, Ilja M and Nutile, Teresa and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Oostra, Ben A and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Org, Elin and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Palmas, Walter and Palotie, Aarno and Pattie, Alison and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Perola, Markus and Peters, Annette and Polasek, Ozren and Pramstaller, Peter P and Nguyen, Quang Tri and Raitakari, Olli T and Ren, Meixia and Rettig, Rainer and Rice, Kenneth and Ridker, Paul M and Ried, Janina S and Riese, Harri{\"e}tte and Ripatti, Samuli and Robino, Antonietta and Rose, Lynda M and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Ruggiero, Daniela and Saba, Yasaman and Sala, Cinzia F and Salomaa, Veikko and Samani, Nilesh J and Sarin, Antti-Pekka and Schmidt, Reinhold and Schmidt, Helena and Shrine, Nick and Siscovick, David and Smith, Albert V and Snieder, Harold and S{\~o}ber, Siim and Sorice, Rossella and Starr, John M and Stott, David J and Strachan, David P and Strawbridge, Rona J and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Swertz, Morris A and Taylor, Kent D and Teumer, Alexander and Tobin, Martin D and Tomaszewski, Maciej and Toniolo, Daniela and Traglia, Michela and Trompet, Stella and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tzourio, Christophe and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaez, Ahmad and van der Most, Peter J and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Vergnaud, Anne-Claire and Verwoert, Germaine C and Vitart, Veronique and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Vollenweider, Peter and Vuckovic, Dragana and Watkins, Hugh and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilson, James F and Wright, Alan F and Yao, Jie and Zemunik, Tatijana and Zhang, Weihua and Attia, John R and Butterworth, Adam S and Chasman, Daniel I and Conen, David and Cucca, Francesco and Danesh, John and Hayward, Caroline and Howson, Joanna M M and Laakso, Markku and Lakatta, Edward G and Langenberg, Claudia and Melander, Olle and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Palmer, Colin N A and Risch, Lorenz and Scott, Robert A and Scott, Rodney J and Sever, Peter and Spector, Tim D and van der Harst, Pim and Wareham, Nicholas J and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Levy, Daniel and Munroe, Patricia B and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Brown, Morris J and Metspalu, Andres and Hung, Adriana M and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Edwards, Todd L and Psaty, Bruce M and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Barnes, Michael R and Wain, Louise V and Elliott, Paul and Caulfield, Mark J} } @article {7786, title = {Genetic Variation in Genes Underlying Diverse Dementias May Explain a Small Proportion of Cases in the Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Sequencing Project.}, journal = {Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord}, volume = {45}, year = {2018}, month = {2018}, pages = {1-17}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP) aims to identify novel genes influencing Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD). Variants within genes known to cause dementias other than AD have previously been associated with AD risk. We describe evidence of co-segregation and associations between variants in dementia genes and clinically diagnosed AD within the ADSP.

METHODS: We summarize the properties of known pathogenic variants within dementia genes, describe the co-segregation of variants annotated as "pathogenic" in ClinVar and new candidates observed in ADSP families, and test for associations between rare variants in dementia genes in the ADSP case-control study. The participants were clinically evaluated for AD, and they represent European, Caribbean Hispanic, and isolate Dutch populations.

RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS: Pathogenic variants in dementia genes were predominantly rare and conserved coding changes. Pathogenic variants within ARSA, CSF1R, and GRN were observed, and candidate variants in GRN and CHMP2B were nominated in ADSP families. An independent case-control study provided evidence of an association between variants in TREM2, APOE, ARSA, CSF1R, PSEN1, and MAPT and risk of AD. Variants in genes which cause dementing disorders may influence the clinical diagnosis of AD in a small proportion of cases within the ADSP.

}, issn = {1421-9824}, doi = {10.1159/000485503}, author = {Blue, Elizabeth E and Bis, Joshua C and Dorschner, Michael O and Tsuang, Debby W and Barral, Sandra M and Beecham, Gary and Below, Jennifer E and Bush, William S and Butkiewicz, Mariusz and Cruchaga, Carlos and DeStefano, Anita and Farrer, Lindsay A and Goate, Alison and Haines, Jonathan and Jaworski, Jim and Jun, Gyungah and Kunkle, Brian and Kuzma, Amanda and Lee, Jenny J and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Ma, Yiyi and Martin, Eden and Naj, Adam and Nato, Alejandro Q and Navas, Patrick and Nguyen, Hiep and Reitz, Christiane and Reyes, Dolly and Salerno, William and Schellenberg, Gerard D and Seshadri, Sudha and Sohi, Harkirat and Thornton, Timothy A and Valadares, Otto and van Duijn, Cornelia and Vardarajan, Badri N and Wang, Li-San and Boerwinkle, Eric and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Pericak-Vance, Margaret A and Mayeux, Richard and Wijsman, Ellen M} } @article {7920, title = {Genome Analyses of >200,000 Individuals Identify 58 Loci for Chronic Inflammation and Highlight Pathways that Link Inflammation and Complex Disorders.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {103}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Nov 01}, pages = {691-706}, abstract = {

C-reactive protein (CRP) is a sensitive biomarker of chronic low-grade inflammation and is associated with multiple complex diseases. The genetic determinants of chronic inflammation remain largely unknown, and the causal role of CRP in several clinical outcomes is debated. We performed two genome-wide association studies (GWASs), on HapMap and 1000 Genomes imputed data, of circulating amounts of CRP by using data from 88 studies comprising 204,402 European individuals. Additionally, we performed in silico functional analyses and Mendelian randomization analyses with several clinical outcomes. The GWAS meta-analyses of CRP revealed 58 distinct genetic loci (p < 5~{\texttimes} 10). After adjustment for body mass index in the regression analysis, the associations at all except three loci remained. The lead variants at the distinct loci explained up to 7.0\% of the variance in circulating amounts of CRP. We identified 66 gene sets that were organized in two substantially correlated clusters, one mainly composed of immune pathways and the other characterized by metabolic pathways in the liver. Mendelian randomization analyses revealed a causal protective effect of CRP on schizophrenia and a risk-increasing effect on bipolar disorder. Our findings provide further insights into the biology of inflammation and could lead to interventions for treating inflammation and its clinical consequences.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.09.009}, author = {Ligthart, Symen and Vaez, Ahmad and V{\~o}sa, Urmo and Stathopoulou, Maria G and de Vries, Paul S and Prins, Bram P and van der Most, Peter J and Tanaka, Toshiko and Naderi, Elnaz and Rose, Lynda M and Wu, Ying and Karlsson, Robert and Barbalic, Maja and Lin, Honghuang and Pool, Rene and Zhu, Gu and Mace, Aurelien and Sidore, Carlo and Trompet, Stella and Mangino, Massimo and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Kemp, John P and Abbasi, Ali and Kacprowski, Tim and Verweij, Niek and Smith, Albert V and Huang, Tao and Marzi, Carola and Feitosa, Mary F and Lohman, Kurt K and Kleber, Marcus E and Milaneschi, Yuri and Mueller, Christian and Huq, Mahmudul and Vlachopoulou, Efthymia and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Deelen, Joris and Perola, Markus and Zhao, Jing Hua and Feenstra, Bjarke and Amini, Marzyeh and Lahti, Jari and Schraut, Katharina E and Fornage, Myriam and Suktitipat, Bhoom and Chen, Wei-Min and Li, Xiaohui and Nutile, Teresa and Malerba, Giovanni and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Bak, Tom and Schork, Nicholas and del Greco M, Fabiola and Thiering, Elisabeth and Mahajan, Anubha and Marioni, Riccardo E and Mihailov, Evelin and Eriksson, Joel and Ozel, Ayse Bilge and Zhang, Weihua and Nethander, Maria and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Aslibekyan, Stella and Ang, Wei and Gandin, Ilaria and Yengo, Loic and Portas, Laura and Kooperberg, Charles and Hofer, Edith and Rajan, Kumar B and Schurmann, Claudia and den Hollander, Wouter and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Zhao, Jing and Draisma, Harmen H M and Ford, Ian and Timpson, Nicholas and Teumer, Alexander and Huang, Hongyan and Wahl, Simone and Liu, Yongmei and Huang, Jie and Uh, Hae-Won and Geller, Frank and Joshi, Peter K and Yanek, Lisa R and Trabetti, Elisabetta and Lehne, Benjamin and Vozzi, Diego and Verbanck, Marie and Biino, Ginevra and Saba, Yasaman and Meulenbelt, Ingrid and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff R and Laakso, Markku and Giulianini, Franco and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Ballantyne, Christie M and Hottenga, Jouke Jan and Montgomery, Grant W and Rivadineira, Fernando and Rueedi, Rico and Steri, Maristella and Herzig, Karl-Heinz and Stott, David J and Menni, Cristina and Fr{\r a}nberg, Mattias and St Pourcain, Beate and Felix, Stephan B and Pers, Tune H and Bakker, Stephan J L and Kraft, Peter and Peters, Annette and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Delgado, Graciela and Smit, Johannes H and Gro{\ss}mann, Vera and Sinisalo, Juha and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, Ilkka and Williams, Stephen R and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Moed, Matthijs and Langenberg, Claudia and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Ding, Jingzhong and Campbell, Harry and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Chen, Yii-der I and James, Alan L and Ruggiero, Daniela and Soranzo, Nicole and Hartman, Catharina A and Smith, Erin N and Berenson, Gerald S and Fuchsberger, Christian and Hernandez, Dena and Tiesler, Carla M T and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Liewald, David and Fischer, Krista and Mellstr{\"o}m, Dan and Larsson, Anders and Wang, Yunmei and Scott, William R and Lorentzon, Matthias and Beilby, John and Ryan, Kathleen A and Pennell, Craig E and Vuckovic, Dragana and Balkau, Beverly and Concas, Maria Pina and Schmidt, Reinhold and Mendes de Leon, Carlos F and Bottinger, Erwin P and Kloppenburg, Margreet and Paternoster, Lavinia and Boehnke, Michael and Musk, A W and Willemsen, Gonneke and Evans, David M and Madden, Pamela A F and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Zoledziewska, Magdalena and Karhunen, Ville and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Sattar, Naveed and Lachance, Genevieve and Clarke, Robert and Harris, Tamara B and Raitakari, Olli T and Attia, John R and van Heemst, Diana and Kajantie, Eero and Sorice, Rossella and Gambaro, Giovanni and Scott, Robert A and Hicks, Andrew A and Ferrucci, Luigi and Standl, Marie and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Starr, John M and Karlsson, Magnus and Lind, Lars and Li, Jun Z and Chambers, John C and Mori, Trevor A and de Geus, Eco J C N and Heath, Andrew C and Martin, Nicholas G and Auvinen, Juha and Buckley, Brendan M and de Craen, Anton J M and Waldenberger, Melanie and Strauch, Konstantin and Meitinger, Thomas and Scott, Rodney J and McEvoy, Mark and Beekman, Marian and Bombieri, Cristina and Ridker, Paul M and Mohlke, Karen L and Pedersen, Nancy L and Morrison, Alanna C and Boomsma, Dorret I and Whitfield, John B and Strachan, David P and Hofman, Albert and Vollenweider, Peter and Cucca, Francesco and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Jukema, J Wouter and Spector, Tim D and Hamsten, Anders and Zeller, Tanja and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Nauck, Matthias and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Qi, Lu and Grallert, Harald and Borecki, Ingrid B and Rotter, Jerome I and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Wild, Philipp S and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Boyle, Michael and Salomaa, Veikko and Melbye, Mads and Eriksson, Johan G and Wilson, James F and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Becker, Diane M and Worrall, Bradford B and Gibson, Greg and Krauss, Ronald M and Ciullo, Marina and Zaza, Gianluigi and Wareham, Nicholas J and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Palmer, Lyle J and Murray, Sarah S and Pramstaller, Peter P and Bandinelli, Stefania and Heinrich, Joachim and Ingelsson, Erik and Deary, Ian J and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Vandenput, Liesbeth and van der Harst, Pim and Desch, Karl C and Kooner, Jaspal S and Ohlsson, Claes and Hayward, Caroline and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Shuldiner, Alan R and Arnett, Donna K and Beilin, Lawrence J and Robino, Antonietta and Froguel, Philippe and Pirastu, Mario and Jess, Tine and Koenig, Wolfgang and Loos, Ruth J F and Evans, Denis A and Schmidt, Helena and Smith, George Davey and Slagboom, P Eline and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Morris, Andrew P and Psaty, Bruce M and Tracy, Russell P and Nolte, Ilja M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Visvikis-Siest, Sophie and Reiner, Alex P and Gross, Myron and Bis, Joshua C and Franke, Lude and Franco, Oscar H and Benjamin, Emelia J and Chasman, Daniel I and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Snieder, Harold and Dehghan, Abbas and Alizadeh, Behrooz Z} } @article {7927, title = {Genome-wide analyses identify a role for SLC17A4 and AADAT in thyroid hormone regulation.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {9}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 10 26}, pages = {4455}, abstract = {

Thyroid dysfunction is an important public health problem, which affects 10\% of the general population and increases the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Many aspects of thyroid hormone regulation have only partly been elucidated, including its transport, metabolism, and genetic determinants. Here we report a large meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for thyroid function and dysfunction, testing 8 million genetic variants in up to 72,167 individuals. One-hundred-and-nine independent genetic variants are associated with these traits. A genetic risk score, calculated to assess their combined effects on clinical end points, shows significant associations with increased risk of both overt (Graves{\textquoteright} disease) and subclinical thyroid disease, as well as clinical complications. By functional follow-up on selected signals, we identify a novel thyroid hormone transporter (SLC17A4) and a metabolizing enzyme (AADAT). Together, these results provide new knowledge about thyroid hormone physiology and disease, opening new possibilities for therapeutic targets.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-06356-1}, author = {Teumer, Alexander and Chaker, Layal and Groeneweg, Stefan and Li, Yong and Di Munno, Celia and Barbieri, Caterina and Schultheiss, Ulla T and Traglia, Michela and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Akiyama, Masato and Appel, Emil Vincent R and Arking, Dan E and Arnold, Alice and Astrup, Arne and Beekman, Marian and Beilby, John P and Bekaert, Sofie and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brown, Suzanne J and De Buyzere, Marc and Campbell, Purdey J and Ceresini, Graziano and Cerqueira, Charlotte and Cucca, Francesco and Deary, Ian J and Deelen, Joris and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Ekici, Arif B and Eriksson, Johan G and Ferrrucci, Luigi and Fiers, Tom and Fiorillo, Edoardo and Ford, Ian and Fox, Caroline S and Fuchsberger, Christian and Galesloot, Tessel E and Gieger, Christian and G{\"o}gele, Martin and De Grandi, Alessandro and Grarup, Niels and Greiser, Karin Halina and Haljas, Kadri and Hansen, Torben and Harris, Sarah E and van Heemst, Diana and den Heijer, Martin and Hicks, Andrew A and den Hollander, Wouter and Homuth, Georg and Hui, Jennie and Ikram, M Arfan and Ittermann, Till and Jensen, Richard A and Jing, Jiaojiao and Jukema, J Wouter and Kajantie, Eero and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kasbohm, Elisa and Kaufman, Jean-Marc and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Kloppenburg, Margreet and Kronenberg, Florian and Kubo, Michiaki and Lahti, Jari and Lapauw, Bruno and Li, Shuo and Liewald, David C M and Lim, Ee Mun and Linneberg, Allan and Marina, Michela and Mascalzoni, Deborah and Matsuda, Koichi and Medenwald, Daniel and Meisinger, Christa and Meulenbelt, Ingrid and De Meyer, Tim and Meyer zu Schwabedissen, Henriette E and Mikolajczyk, Rafael and Moed, Matthijs and Netea-Maier, Romana T and Nolte, Ilja M and Okada, Yukinori and Pala, Mauro and Pattaro, Cristian and Pedersen, Oluf and Petersmann, Astrid and Porcu, Eleonora and Postmus, Iris and Pramstaller, Peter P and Psaty, Bruce M and Ramos, Yolande F M and Rawal, Rajesh and Redmond, Paul and Richards, J Brent and Rietzschel, Ernst R and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Roef, Greet and Rotter, Jerome I and Sala, Cinzia F and Schlessinger, David and Selvin, Elizabeth and Slagboom, P Eline and Soranzo, Nicole and S{\o}rensen, Thorkild I A and Spector, Timothy D and Starr, John M and Stott, David J and Taes, Youri and Taliun, Daniel and Tanaka, Toshiko and Thuesen, Betina and Tiller, Daniel and Toniolo, Daniela and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Visser, W Edward and Walsh, John P and Wilson, Scott G and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Yang, Qiong and Zheng, Hou-Feng and Cappola, Anne and Peeters, Robin P and Naitza, Silvia and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Sanna, Serena and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Visser, Theo J and Medici, Marco} } @article {7791, title = {Genome-wide association meta-analysis of circulating odd-numbered chain saturated fatty acids: Results from the CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {13}, year = {2018}, month = {2018}, pages = {e0196951}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Odd-numbered chain saturated fatty acids (OCSFA) have been associated with potential health benefits. Although some OCSFA (e.g., C15:0 and C17:0) are found in meats and dairy products, sources and metabolism of C19:0 and C23:0 are relatively unknown, and the influence of non-dietary determinants, including genetic factors, on circulating levels of OCSFA is not established.

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the biological processes that influence circulating levels of OCSFA by investigating associations between genetic variation and OCSFA.

DESIGN: We performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of plasma phospholipid/erythrocyte levels of C15:0, C17:0, C19:0, and C23:0 among 11,494 individuals of European descent. We also investigated relationships between specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the lactase (LCT) gene, associated with adult-onset lactase intolerance, with circulating levels of dairy-derived OCSFA, and evaluated associations of candidate sphingolipid genes with C23:0 levels.

RESULTS: We found no genome-wide significant evidence that common genetic variation is associated with circulating levels of C15:0 or C23:0. In two cohorts with available data, we identified one intronic SNP (rs13361131) in myosin X gene (MYO10) associated with C17:0 level (P = 1.37{\texttimes}10-8), and two intronic SNP (rs12874278 and rs17363566) in deleted in lymphocytic leukemia 1 (DLEU1) region associated with C19:0 level (P = 7.07{\texttimes}10-9). In contrast, when using a candidate-gene approach, we found evidence that three SNPs in LCT (rs11884924, rs16832067, and rs3816088) are associated with circulating C17:0 level (adjusted P = 4{\texttimes}10-2). In addition, nine SNPs in the ceramide synthase 4 (CERS4) region were associated with circulating C23:0 levels (adjusted P<5{\texttimes}10-2).

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that circulating levels of OCSFA may be predominantly influenced by non-genetic factors. SNPs associated with C17:0 level in the LCT gene may reflect genetic influence in dairy consumption or in metabolism of dairy foods. SNPs associated with C23:0 may reflect a role of genetic factors in the synthesis of sphingomyelin.

}, keywords = {Fatty Acids, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Introns, Lactase, Myosins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sphingomyelins, Sphingosine N-Acyltransferase, Tumor Suppressor Proteins}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0196951}, author = {de Oliveira Otto, Marcia C and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Sun, Qi and King, Irena B and Wu, Jason H Y and Manichaikul, Ani and Rich, Stephen S and Tsai, Michael Y and Chen, Y D and Fornage, Myriam and Weihua, Guan and Aslibekyan, Stella and Irvin, Marguerite R and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Arnett, Donna K and Jensen, Majken K and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and Steffen, Lyn M and Smith, Caren E and Riserus, Ulf and Lind, Lars and Hu, Frank B and Rimm, Eric B and Siscovick, David S and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {7669, title = {Genome-wide association study and meta-analysis identify loci associated with ventricular and supraventricular ectopy.}, journal = {Sci Rep}, volume = {8}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Apr 04}, pages = {5675}, abstract = {

The genetic basis of supraventricular and ventricular ectopy (SVE, VE) remains largely uncharacterized, despite established genetic mechanisms of arrhythmogenesis. To identify novel genetic variants associated with SVE/VE in ancestrally diverse human populations, we conducted a genome-wide association study of electrocardiographically~identified SVE and VE in five cohorts including approximately 43,000 participants of African, European and Hispanic/Latino ancestry. In thirteen ancestry-stratified subgroups, we tested multivariable-adjusted associations of SVE and VE with single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) dosage. We combined subgroup-specific association estimates in inverse variance-weighted, fixed-effects and Bayesian meta-analyses. We also combined fixed-effects meta-analytic t-test statistics for SVE and VE in multi-trait SNP association analyses. No loci reached genome-wide significance in trans-ethnic meta-analyses. However, we found genome-wide significant SNPs intronic to an apoptosis-enhancing gene previously associated with QRS interval duration (FAF1; lead SNP rs7545860; effect allele frequency = 0.02; P = 2.0 {\texttimes} 10) in multi-trait analysis among European ancestry participants and near a locus encoding calcium-dependent glycoproteins (DSC3; lead SNP rs8086068; effect allele frequency = 0.17) in meta-analysis of SVE (P = 4.0 {\texttimes} 10) and multi-trait analysis (P = 2.9 {\texttimes} 10) among African ancestry participants. The novel findings suggest several mechanisms by which genetic variation may predispose to ectopy in humans and highlight the potential value of leveraging pleiotropy in future studies of ectopy-related phenotypes.

}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-018-23843-z}, author = {Napier, Melanie D and Franceschini, Nora and Gondalia, Rahul and Stewart, James D and M{\'e}ndez-Gir{\'a}ldez, R{\'a}ul and Sitlani, Colleen M and Seyerle, Amanda A and Highland, Heather M and Li, Yun and Wilhelmsen, Kirk C and Yan, Song and Duan, Qing and Roach, Jeffrey and Yao, Jie and Guo, Xiuqing and Taylor, Kent D and Heckbert, Susan R and Rotter, Jerome I and North, Kari E and Reiner, Alexander P and Zhang, Zhu-Ming and Tinker, Lesley F and Liao, Duanping and Laurie, Cathy C and Gogarten, Stephanie M and Lin, Henry J and Brody, Jennifer A and Bartz, Traci M and Psaty, Bruce M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Avery, Christy L and Whitsel, Eric A} } @article {7667, title = {Genome-wide association study in 79,366 European-ancestry individuals informs the genetic architecture of 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {9}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Jan 17}, pages = {260}, abstract = {

Vitamin D is a steroid hormone precursor that is associated with a range of human traits and diseases. Previous GWAS of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations have identified four genome-wide significant loci (GC, NADSYN1/DHCR7, CYP2R1, CYP24A1). In this study, we expand the previous SUNLIGHT Consortium GWAS discovery sample size from 16,125 to 79,366 (all European descent). This larger GWAS yields two additional loci harboring genome-wide significant variants (P = 4.7{\texttimes}10 at rs8018720 in SEC23A, and P = 1.9{\texttimes}10 at rs10745742 in AMDHD1). The overall estimate of heritability of 25-hydroxyvitamin D serum concentrations attributable to GWAS common SNPs is 7.5\%, with statistically significant loci explaining 38\% of this total. Further investigation identifies signal enrichment in immune and hematopoietic tissues, and clustering with autoimmune diseases in cell-type-specific analysis. Larger studies are required to identify additional common SNPs, and to explore the role of rare or structural variants and gene-gene interactions in the heritability of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-017-02662-2}, author = {Jiang, Xia and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Aschard, Hugues and Hsu, Yi-Hsiang and Richards, J Brent and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Ingelsson, Erik and Karasik, David and Pilz, Stefan and Berry, Diane and Kestenbaum, Bryan and Zheng, Jusheng and Luan, Jianan and Sofianopoulou, Eleni and Streeten, Elizabeth A and Albanes, Demetrius and Lutsey, Pamela L and Yao, Lu and Tang, Weihong and Econs, Michael J and Wallaschofski, Henri and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Zhou, Ang and Power, Chris and McCarthy, Mark I and Michos, Erin D and Boerwinkle, Eric and Weinstein, Stephanie J and Freedman, Neal D and Huang, Wen-Yi and van Schoor, Natasja M and van der Velde, Nathalie and Groot, Lisette C P G M de and Enneman, Anke and Cupples, L Adrienne and Booth, Sarah L and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Liu, Ching-Ti and Zhou, Yanhua and Ripatti, Samuli and Ohlsson, Claes and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Lorentzon, Mattias and Eriksson, Johan G and Shea, M Kyla and Houston, Denise K and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Liu, Yongmei and Lohman, Kurt K and Ferrucci, Luigi and Peacock, Munro and Gieger, Christian and Beekman, Marian and Slagboom, Eline and Deelen, Joris and Heemst, Diana van and Kleber, Marcus E and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and de Boer, Ian H and Wood, Alexis C and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Robinson-Cohen, Cassianne and den Heijer, Martin and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Cavadino, Alana and Joshi, Peter K and Wilson, James F and Hayward, Caroline and Lind, Lars and Micha{\"e}lsson, Karl and Trompet, Stella and Zillikens, M Carola and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Broer, Linda and Zgaga, Lina and Campbell, Harry and Theodoratou, Evropi and Farrington, Susan M and Timofeeva, Maria and Dunlop, Malcolm G and Valdes, Ana M and Tikkanen, Emmi and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Raitakari, Olli T and Mikkil{\"a}, Vera and Ikram, M Arfan and Sattar, Naveed and Jukema, J Wouter and Wareham, Nicholas J and Langenberg, Claudia and Forouhi, Nita G and Gundersen, Thomas E and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Butterworth, Adam S and Danesh, John and Spector, Timothy and Wang, Thomas J and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and Kraft, Peter and Kiel, Douglas P} } @article {7849, title = {Genome-wide association study of 23,500 individuals identifies 7 loci associated with brain ventricular volume.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {9}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Sep 26}, pages = {3945}, abstract = {

The volume of the lateral ventricles (LV) increases with age and their abnormal enlargement is a key feature of several neurological and psychiatric diseases. Although lateral ventricular volume is heritable, a comprehensive investigation of its genetic determinants is lacking. In this meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of 23,533 healthy middle-aged to elderly individuals from 26 population-based cohorts, we identify 7 genetic loci associated with LV volume. These loci map to chromosomes 3q28, 7p22.3, 10p12.31, 11q23.1, 12q23.3, 16q24.2, and 22q13.1 and implicate pathways related to tau pathology, S1P signaling, and cytoskeleton organization. We also report a significant genetic overlap between the thalamus and LV volumes (ρ = -0.59, p-value = 3.14 {\texttimes} 10), suggesting that these brain structures may share a common biology. These genetic associations of LV volume provide insights into brain morphology.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-06234-w}, author = {Vojinovic, Dina and Adams, Hieab H and Jian, Xueqiu and Yang, Qiong and Smith, Albert Vernon and Bis, Joshua C and Teumer, Alexander and Scholz, Markus and Armstrong, Nicola J and Hofer, Edith and Saba, Yasaman and Luciano, Michelle and Bernard, Manon and Trompet, Stella and Yang, Jingyun and Gillespie, Nathan A and van der Lee, Sven J and Neumann, Alexander and Ahmad, Shahzad and Andreassen, Ole A and Ames, David and Amin, Najaf and Arfanakis, Konstantinos and Bastin, Mark E and Becker, Diane M and Beiser, Alexa S and Beyer, Frauke and Brodaty, Henry and Bryan, R Nick and B{\"u}low, Robin and Dale, Anders M and De Jager, Philip L and Deary, Ian J and DeCarli, Charles and Fleischman, Debra A and Gottesman, Rebecca F and van der Grond, Jeroen and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Homuth, Georg and Knopman, David S and Kwok, John B and Lewis, Cora E and Li, Shuo and Loeffler, Markus and Lopez, Oscar L and Maillard, Pauline and El Marroun, Hanan and Mather, Karen A and Mosley, Thomas H and Muetzel, Ryan L and Nauck, Matthias and Nyquist, Paul A and Panizzon, Matthew S and Pausova, Zdenka and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Ken and Rotter, Jerome I and Royle, Natalie and Satizabal, Claudia L and Schmidt, Reinhold and Schofield, Peter R and Schreiner, Pamela J and Sidney, Stephen and Stott, David J and Thalamuthu, Anbupalam and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vald{\'e}s Hern{\'a}ndez, Maria C and Vernooij, Meike W and Wen, Wei and White, Tonya and Witte, A Veronica and Wittfeld, Katharina and Wright, Margaret J and Yanek, Lisa R and Tiemeier, Henning and Kremen, William S and Bennett, David A and Jukema, J Wouter and Paus, Tom{\'a}{\v s} and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Schmidt, Helena and Sachdev, Perminder S and Villringer, Arno and Grabe, Hans J{\"o}rgen and Longstreth, W T and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Launer, Lenore J and Seshadri, Sudha and Ikram, M Arfan and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {7924, title = {Genome-Wide Association Trans-Ethnic Meta-Analyses Identifies Novel Associations Regulating Coagulation Factor VIII and von Willebrand Factor Plasma Levels.}, journal = {Circulation}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Nov 20}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Factor VIII (FVIII) and its carrier protein von Willebrand factor (VWF) are associated with risk of arterial and venous thrombosis and with hemorrhagic disorders. We aimed to identify and functionally test novel genetic associations regulating plasma FVIII and VWF.

METHODS: We meta-analyzed genome-wide association results from 46,354 individuals of European, African, East Asian, and Hispanic ancestry. All studies performed linear regression analysis using an additive genetic model and associated approximately 35 million imputed variants with natural-log transformed phenotype levels. In vitro gene silencing in cultured endothelial cells was performed for candidate genes to provide additional evidence on association and function. Two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses were applied to test the causal role of FVIII and VWF plasma levels on the risk of arterial and venous thrombotic events.

RESULTS: We identified 13 novel genome-wide significant (p<=2.5x10) associations; 7 with FVIII levels ( FCHO2/TMEM171/TNPO1, HLA, SOX17/RP1, LINC00583/NFIB, RAB5C-KAT2A, RPL3/TAB1/SYNGR1, and ARSA) and 11 with VWF levels ( PDHB/PXK/KCTD6, SLC39A8, FCHO2/TMEM171/TNPO1, HLA, GIMAP7/GIMAP4, OR13C5/NIPSNAP, DAB2IP, C2CD4B, RAB5C-KAT2A, TAB1/SYNGR1, and ARSA), beyond 10 previously reported associations with these phenotypes. Functional validation provided further evidence of association for all loci on VWF except ARSA and DAB2IP. MR suggested causal effects of plasma FVIII activity levels on venous thrombosis and coronary artery disease risk and plasma VWF levels on ischemic stroke risk.

CONCLUSIONS: The meta-analysis identified 13 novel genetic loci regulating FVIII and VWF plasma levels, 10 of which we validated functionally. We provide some evidence for a causal role of these proteins in thrombotic events.

}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.118.034532}, author = {Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Huffman, Jennifer E and de Vries, Paul S and Marten, Jonathan and Mastrangelo, Michael A and Song, Ci and Pankratz, Nathan and Ward-Caviness, Cavin K and Yanek, Lisa R and Trompet, Stella and Delgado, Graciela E and Guo, Xiuqing and Bartz, Traci M and Martinez-Perez, Angel and Germain, Marine and de Haan, Hugoline G and Ozel, Ayse B and Polasek, Ozren and Smith, Albert V and Eicher, John D and Reiner, Alex P and Tang, Weihong and Davies, Neil M and Stott, David J and Rotter, Jerome I and Tofler, Geoffrey H and Boerwinkle, Eric and de Maat, Moniek P M and Kleber, Marcus E and Welsh, Paul and Brody, Jennifer A and Chen, Ming-Huei and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Soria, Jos{\'e} Manuel and Suchon, Pierre and van Hylckama Vlieg, Astrid and Desch, Karl C and Kolcic, Ivana and Joshi, Peter K and Launer, Lenore J and Harris, Tamara B and Campbell, Harry and Rudan, Igor and Becker, Diane M and Li, Jun Z and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hofman, Albert and Franco, Oscar H and Cushman, Mary and Psaty, Bruce M and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and McKnight, Barbara and Chong, Michael R and Fernandez-Cadenas, Israel and Rosand, Jonathan and Lindgren, Arne and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Wilson, James F and Hayward, Caroline and Ginsburg, David and Fornage, Myriam and Rosendaal, Frits R and Souto, Juan Carlos and Becker, Lewis C and Jenny, Nancy S and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Jukema, J Wouter and Dehghan, Abbas and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Morrison, Alanna C and Johnson, Andrew D and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Strachan, David P and Lowenstein, Charles J and Smith, Nicholas L} } @article {7848, title = {Genome-wide meta-analysis of 158,000 individuals of European ancestry identifies three loci associated with chronic back pain.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {14}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Sep}, pages = {e1007601}, abstract = {

Back pain is the $\#$1 cause of years lived with disability worldwide, yet surprisingly little is known regarding the biology underlying this symptom. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis of chronic back pain (CBP). Adults of European ancestry were included from 15 cohorts in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium, and from the UK Biobank interim data release. CBP cases were defined as those reporting back pain present for >=3-6 months; non-cases were included as comparisons ("controls"). Each cohort conducted genotyping using commercially available arrays followed by imputation. GWAS used logistic regression models with additive genetic effects, adjusting for age, sex, study-specific covariates, and population substructure. The threshold for genome-wide significance in the fixed-effect inverse-variance weighted meta-analysis was p<5{\texttimes}10-8. Suggestive (p<5{\texttimes}10-7) and genome-wide significant (p<5{\texttimes}10-8) variants were carried forward for replication or further investigation in the remaining UK Biobank participants not included in the discovery sample. The discovery sample comprised 158,025 individuals, including 29,531 CBP cases. A genome-wide significant association was found for the intronic variant rs12310519 in SOX5 (OR 1.08, p = 7.2{\texttimes}10-10). This was subsequently replicated in 283,752 UK Biobank participants not included in the discovery sample, including 50,915 cases (OR 1.06, p = 5.3{\texttimes}10-11), and exceeded genome-wide significance in joint meta-analysis (OR 1.07, p = 4.5{\texttimes}10-19). We found suggestive associations at three other loci in the discovery sample, two of which exceeded genome-wide significance in joint meta-analysis: an intergenic variant, rs7833174, located between CCDC26 and GSDMC (OR 1.05, p = 4.4{\texttimes}10-13), and an intronic variant, rs4384683, in DCC (OR 0.97, p = 2.4{\texttimes}10-10). In this first reported meta-analysis of GWAS for CBP, we identified and replicated a genetic locus associated with CBP (SOX5). We also identified 2 other loci that reached genome-wide significance in a 2-stage joint meta-analysis (CCDC26/GSDMC and DCC).

}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1007601}, author = {Suri, Pradeep and Palmer, Melody R and Tsepilov, Yakov A and Freidin, Maxim B and Boer, Cindy G and Yau, Michelle S and Evans, Daniel S and Gelemanovic, Andrea and Bartz, Traci M and Nethander, Maria and Arbeeva, Liubov and Karssen, Lennart and Neogi, Tuhina and Campbell, Archie and Mellstr{\"o}m, Dan and Ohlsson, Claes and Marshall, Lynn M and Orwoll, Eric and Uitterlinden, Andre and Rotter, Jerome I and Lauc, Gordan and Psaty, Bruce M and Karlsson, Magnus K and Lane, Nancy E and Jarvik, Gail P and Polasek, Ozren and Hochberg, Marc and Jordan, Joanne M and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Jackson, Rebecca and Nielson, Carrie M and Mitchell, Braxton D and Smith, Blair H and Hayward, Caroline and Smith, Nicholas L and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Williams, Frances M K} } @article {7913, title = {GWAS and colocalization analyses implicate carotid intima-media thickness and carotid plaque loci in cardiovascular outcomes.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {9}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 12 03}, pages = {5141}, abstract = {

Carotid artery intima media thickness (cIMT) and carotid plaque are measures of subclinical atherosclerosis associated with ischemic stroke and coronary heart disease (CHD). Here, we undertake meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in 71,128 individuals for cIMT, and 48,434 individuals for carotid plaque traits. We identify eight novel susceptibility loci for cIMT, one independent association at the previously-identified PINX1 locus, and one novel locus for carotid plaque. Colocalization analysis with nearby vascular expression quantitative loci (cis-eQTLs) derived from arterial wall and metabolic tissues obtained from patients with CHD identifies candidate genes at two potentially additional loci, ADAMTS9 and LOXL4. LD score regression reveals significant genetic correlations between cIMT and plaque traits, and both cIMT and plaque with CHD, any stroke subtype and ischemic stroke. Our study provides insights into genes and tissue-specific regulatory mechanisms linking atherosclerosis both to its functional genomic origins and its clinical consequences in humans.

}, keywords = {ADAMTS9 Protein, Amino Acid Oxidoreductases, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Coronary Disease, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lod Score, Plaque, Atherosclerotic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Risk Factors}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-07340-5}, author = {Franceschini, Nora and Giambartolomei, Claudia and de Vries, Paul S and Finan, Chris and Bis, Joshua C and Huntley, Rachael P and Lovering, Ruth C and Tajuddin, Salman M and Winkler, Thomas W and Graff, Misa and Kavousi, Maryam and Dale, Caroline and Smith, Albert V and Hofer, Edith and van Leeuwen, Elisabeth M and Nolte, Ilja M and Lu, Lingyi and Scholz, Markus and Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Pitk{\"a}nen, Niina and Franz{\'e}n, Oscar and Joshi, Peter K and Noordam, Raymond and Marioni, Riccardo E and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Musani, Solomon K and Schminke, Ulf and Palmas, Walter and Isaacs, Aaron and Correa, Adolfo and Zonderman, Alan B and Hofman, Albert and Teumer, Alexander and Cox, Amanda J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wong, Andrew and Smit, Andries J and Newman, Anne B and Britton, Annie and Ruusalepp, Arno and Sennblad, Bengt and Hedblad, Bo and Pasaniuc, Bogdan and Penninx, Brenda W and Langefeld, Carl D and Wassel, Christina L and Tzourio, Christophe and Fava, Cristiano and Baldassarre, Damiano and O{\textquoteright}Leary, Daniel H and Teupser, Daniel and Kuh, Diana and Tremoli, Elena and Mannarino, Elmo and Grossi, Enzo and Boerwinkle, Eric and Schadt, Eric E and Ingelsson, Erik and Veglia, Fabrizio and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Beutner, Frank and Chauhan, Ganesh and Heiss, Gerardo and Snieder, Harold and Campbell, Harry and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Markus, Hugh S and Deary, Ian J and Jukema, J Wouter and de Graaf, Jacqueline and Price, Jacqueline and Pott, Janne and Hopewell, Jemma C and Liang, Jingjing and Thiery, Joachim and Engmann, Jorgen and Gertow, Karl and Rice, Kenneth and Taylor, Kent D and Dhana, Klodian and Kiemeney, Lambertus A L M and Lind, Lars and Raffield, Laura M and Launer, Lenore J and Holdt, Lesca M and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Dichgans, Martin and Traylor, Matthew and Sitzer, Matthias and Kumari, Meena and Kivimaki, Mika and Nalls, Mike A and Melander, Olle and Raitakari, Olli and Franco, Oscar H and Rueda-Ochoa, Oscar L and Roussos, Panos and Whincup, Peter H and Amouyel, Philippe and Giral, Philippe and Anugu, Pramod and Wong, Quenna and Malik, Rainer and Rauramaa, Rainer and Burkhardt, Ralph and Hardy, Rebecca and Schmidt, Reinhold and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Morris, Richard W and Strawbridge, Rona J and Wannamethee, S Goya and H{\"a}gg, Sara and Shah, Sonia and McLachlan, Stela and Trompet, Stella and Seshadri, Sudha and Kurl, Sudhir and Heckbert, Susan R and Ring, Susan and Harris, Tamara B and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Galesloot, Tessel E and Shah, Tina and de Faire, Ulf and Plagnol, Vincent and Rosamond, Wayne D and Post, Wendy and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Zhang, Xiaoling and Guo, Xiuqing and Saba, Yasaman and Dehghan, Abbas and Seldenrijk, Adrie and Morrison, Alanna C and Hamsten, Anders and Psaty, Bruce M and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Lawlor, Deborah A and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Bowden, Donald W and Schmidt, Helena and Wilson, James F and Wilson, James G and Rotter, Jerome I and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Deanfield, John and Halcox, Julian and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Loeffler, Markus and Evans, Michele K and Debette, Stephanie and Humphries, Steve E and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hingorani, Aroon D and Bj{\"o}rkegren, Johan L M and Casas, Juan P and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} } @article {8042, title = {Harmonization of Respiratory Data From 9 US Population-Based Cohorts: The NHLBI Pooled Cohorts Study.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, volume = {187}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Nov 01}, pages = {2265-2278}, abstract = {

Chronic lower respiratory diseases (CLRDs) are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. To support investigations into CLRD risk determinants and new approaches to primary prevention, we aimed to harmonize and pool respiratory data from US general population-based cohorts. Data were obtained from prospective cohorts that performed prebronchodilator spirometry and were harmonized following 2005 ATS/ERS standards. In cohorts conducting follow-up for noncardiovascular events, CLRD events were defined as hospitalizations/deaths adjudicated as CLRD-related or assigned relevant administrative codes. Coding and variable names were applied uniformly. The pooled sample included 65,251 adults in 9 cohorts followed-up for CLRD-related mortality over 653,380 person-years during 1983-2016. Average baseline age was 52 years; 56\% were female; 49\% were never-smokers; and racial/ethnic composition was 44\% white, 22\% black, 28\% Hispanic/Latino, and 5\% American Indian. Over 96\% had complete data on smoking, clinical CLRD diagnoses, and dyspnea. After excluding invalid spirometry examinations (13\%), there were 105,696 valid examinations (median, 2 per participant). Of 29,351 participants followed for CLRD hospitalizations, median follow-up was 14 years; only 5\% were lost to follow-up at 10 years. The NHLBI Pooled Cohorts Study provides a harmonization standard applied to a large, US population-based sample that may be used to advance epidemiologic research on CLRD.

}, issn = {1476-6256}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kwy139}, author = {Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Balte, Pallavi P and Cassano, Patricia A and Couper, David and Enright, Paul L and Folsom, Aaron R and Hankinson, John and Jacobs, David R and Kalhan, Ravi and Kaplan, Robert and Kronmal, Richard and Lange, Leslie and Loehr, Laura R and London, Stephanie J and Navas Acien, Ana and Newman, Anne B and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Schwartz, Joseph E and Smith, Lewis J and Yeh, Fawn and Zhang, Yiyi and Moran, Andrew E and Mwasongwe, Stanford and White, Wendy B and Yende, Sachin and Barr, R Graham} } @article {7677, title = {Hospital and clinical care costs associated with atrial fibrillation for Medicare beneficiaries in the Cardiovascular Health Study and the Framingham Heart Study.}, journal = {SAGE Open Med}, volume = {6}, year = {2018}, month = {2018}, pages = {2050312118759444}, abstract = {

Background: Atrial fibrillation is increasingly prevalent as the US population ages and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Care for patients with atrial fibrillation can be costly, US health care costs are comparatively high, and there are few cost estimates available that incorporate detailed measurement of comorbidities and their effects on costs.

Methods and Results: In the Cardiovascular Health Study and the Framingham Heart Study, participants aged 65 years or older with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation were matched on age and follow-up time to referents free of atrial fibrillation. The total clinical and hospital medical costs paid by Medicare Parts A and B (drug costs from Medicare Part D costs were not included) in the year prior to diagnosis (or matching) were compared with costs in the following year. Estimates were adjusted for other medical conditions and adjusted to 2009 dollars. In the Cardiovascular Health Study, 513 participants were diagnosed with new-onset atrial fibrillation and survived 30 days post-atrial fibrillation diagnosis, and 513 referents (as a control cohort) were identified, with a mean age of 77 years. In the Framingham Heart Study, we identified 336 participants diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, who survived 30 days post-atrial fibrillation diagnosis and matched these participants to 336 referents. We compared these new-onset atrial fibrillation participants with referents, using a difference in difference design to account for both time trends and differences between the two groups. The adjusted incremental cost for participants with atrial fibrillation, compared with referents, was US$18,060 (95\% confidence interval: US$14,965-US$21,155) in the Cardiovascular Health Study and US$20,012 (95\% confidence interval: US$15,057-US$24,966) in the Framingham Heart Study. The pooled estimate was US$18,601 (95\% confidence interval: US$15,981-US$21,234).

Conclusion: Atrial fibrillation was associated with increased costs in the year after diagnosis in two community-based cohorts, even after careful accounting for age, time period, and systematically measured comorbidities.

}, issn = {2050-3121}, doi = {10.1177/2050312118759444}, author = {Delaney, Joseph Ac and Yin, Xiaoyan and Fontes, Jo{\~a}o Daniel and Wallace, Erin R and Skinner, Asheley and Wang, Na and Hammill, Bradley G and Benjamin, Emelia J and Curtis, Lesley H and Heckbert, Susan R} } @article {7686, title = {A Large-Scale Multi-ancestry Genome-wide Study Accounting for Smoking Behavior Identifies Multiple Significant Loci for Blood Pressure.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {102}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Mar 01}, pages = {375-400}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association analysis advanced understanding of blood pressure (BP), a major risk factor for vascular conditions such as coronary heart disease and stroke. Accounting for smoking behavior may help identify BP loci and extend our knowledge of its genetic architecture. We performed genome-wide association meta-analyses of systolic and diastolic BP incorporating gene-smoking interactions in 610,091 individuals. Stage 1 analysis examined \~{}18.8 million SNPs and small insertion/deletion variants in 129,913 individuals from four ancestries (European, African, Asian, and Hispanic) with follow-up analysis of promising variants in 480,178 additional individuals from five ancestries. We identified 15 loci that were genome-wide significant (p < 5~{\texttimes} 10) in stage 1 and formally replicated in stage 2. A combined stage 1 and 2 meta-analysis identified 66 additional genome-wide significant loci (13, 35, and 18 loci in European, African, and trans-ancestry, respectively). A total of 56 known BP loci were also identified by our results (p < 5~{\texttimes} 10). Of the newly identified loci, ten showed significant interaction with smoking status, but none of them were replicated in stage 2. Several loci were identified in African ancestry, highlighting the importance of genetic studies in diverse populations. The identified loci show strong evidence for regulatory features and support shared pathophysiology with cardiometabolic and addiction traits. They also highlight a role in BP regulation for biological candidates such as modulators of vascular structure and function (CDKN1B, BCAR1-CFDP1, PXDN, EEA1), ciliopathies (SDCCAG8, RPGRIP1L), telomere maintenance (TNKS, PINX1, AKTIP), and central dopaminergic signaling (MSRA, EBF2).

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.01.015}, author = {Sung, Yun J and Winkler, Thomas W and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and Bentley, Amy R and Brown, Michael R and Kraja, Aldi T and Schwander, Karen and Ntalla, Ioanna and Guo, Xiuqing and Franceschini, Nora and Lu, Yingchang and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Sim, Xueling and Vojinovic, Dina and Marten, Jonathan and Musani, Solomon K and Li, Changwei and Feitosa, Mary F and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Richard, Melissa A and Noordam, Raymond and Aslibekyan, Stella and Aschard, Hugues and Bartz, Traci M and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Liu, Yongmei and Manning, Alisa K and Rankinen, Tuomo and Smith, Albert Vernon and Tajuddin, Salman M and Tayo, Bamidele O and Warren, Helen R and Zhao, Wei and Zhou, Yanhua and Matoba, Nana and Sofer, Tamar and Alver, Maris and Amini, Marzyeh and Boissel, Mathilde and Chai, Jin Fang and Chen, Xu and Divers, Jasmin and Gandin, Ilaria and Gao, Chuan and Giulianini, Franco and Goel, Anuj and Harris, Sarah E and Hartwig, Fernando Pires and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Jackson, Anne U and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kasturiratne, Anuradhani and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Leander, Karin and Lee, Wen-Jane and Lin, Keng-Hung and {\textquoteright}an Luan, Jian and McKenzie, Colin A and Meian, He and Nelson, Christopher P and Rauramaa, Rainer and Schupf, Nicole and Scott, Robert A and Sheu, Wayne H H and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and van der Most, Peter J and Varga, Tibor V and Wang, Heming and Wang, Yajuan and Ware, Erin B and Weiss, Stefan and Wen, Wanqing and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhang, Weihua and Zhao, Jing Hua and Afaq, Saima and Alfred, Tamuno and Amin, Najaf and Arking, Dan and Aung, Tin and Barr, R Graham and Bielak, Lawrence F and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin P and Braund, Peter S and Brody, Jennifer A and Broeckel, Ulrich and Cabrera, Claudia P and Cade, Brian and Caizheng, Yu and Campbell, Archie and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Chauhan, Ganesh and Christensen, Kaare and Cocca, Massimiliano and Collins, Francis S and Connell, John M and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and de Silva, H Janaka and Debette, Stephanie and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Duan, Qing and Eaton, Charles B and Ehret, Georg and Evangelou, Evangelos and Faul, Jessica D and Fisher, Virginia A and Forouhi, Nita G and Franco, Oscar H and Friedlander, Yechiel and Gao, He and Gigante, Bruna and Graff, Misa and Gu, C Charles and Gu, Dongfeng and Gupta, Preeti and Hagenaars, Saskia P and Harris, Tamara B and He, Jiang and Heikkinen, Sami and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Hirata, Makoto and Hofman, Albert and Howard, Barbara V and Hunt, Steven and Irvin, Marguerite R and Jia, Yucheng and Joehanes, Roby and Justice, Anne E and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Kaufman, Joel and Kerrison, Nicola D and Khor, Chiea Chuen and Koh, Woon-Puay and Koistinen, Heikki A and Komulainen, Pirjo and Kooperberg, Charles and Krieger, Jose E and Kubo, Michiaki and Kuusisto, Johanna and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lehne, Benjamin and Lewis, Cora E and Li, Yize and Lim, Sing Hui and Lin, Shiow and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Jianjun and Liu, Jingmin and Liu, Kiang and Liu, Yeheng and Loh, Marie and Lohman, Kurt K and Long, Jirong and Louie, Tin and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Mahajan, Anubha and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Milani, Lili and Momozawa, Yukihide and Morris, Andrew P and Mosley, Thomas H and Munson, Peter and Murray, Alison D and Nalls, Mike A and Nasri, Ubaydah and Norris, Jill M and North, Kari and Ogunniyi, Adesola and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Palmas, Walter R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pankow, James S and Pedersen, Nancy L and Peters, Annette and Peyser, Patricia A and Polasek, Ozren and Raitakari, Olli T and Renstrom, Frida and Rice, Treva K and Ridker, Paul M and Robino, Antonietta and Robinson, Jennifer G and Rose, Lynda M and Rudan, Igor and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Salako, Babatunde L and Sandow, Kevin and Schmidt, Carsten O and Schreiner, Pamela J and Scott, William R and Seshadri, Sudha and Sever, Peter and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Jennifer A and Snieder, Harold and Starr, John M and Strauch, Konstantin and Tang, Hua and Taylor, Kent D and Teo, Yik Ying and Tham, Yih Chung and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wang, Lihua and Wang, Ya X and Wei, Wen Bin and Williams, Christine and Wilson, Gregory and Wojczynski, Mary K and Yao, Jie and Yuan, Jian-Min and Zonderman, Alan B and Becker, Diane M and Boehnke, Michael and Bowden, Donald W and Chambers, John C and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and de Faire, Ulf and Deary, Ian J and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Farrall, Martin and Forrester, Terrence and Franks, Paul W and Freedman, Barry I and Froguel, Philippe and Gasparini, Paolo and Gieger, Christian and Horta, Bernardo Lessa and Hung, Yi-Jen and Jonas, Jost B and Kato, Norihiro and Kooner, Jaspal S and Laakso, Markku and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Liang, Kae-Woei and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Newman, Anne B and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Pereira, Alexandre C and Redline, Susan and Rettig, Rainer and Samani, Nilesh J and Scott, James and Shu, Xiao-Ou and van der Harst, Pim and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wareham, Nicholas J and Watkins, Hugh and Weir, David R and Wickremasinghe, Ananda R and Wu, Tangchun and Zheng, Wei and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Laurie, Cathy C and Bouchard, Claude and Cooper, Richard S and Evans, Michele K and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Levy, Daniel and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff R and Psaty, Bruce M and van Dam, Rob M and Sims, Mario and Arnett, Donna K and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Kelly, Tanika N and Fox, Ervin R and Hayward, Caroline and Fornage, Myriam and Rotimi, Charles N and Province, Michael A and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Tai, E Shyong and Wong, Tien Yin and Loos, Ruth J F and Reiner, Alex P and Rotter, Jerome I and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Bierut, Laura J and Gauderman, W James and Caulfield, Mark J and Elliott, Paul and Rice, Kenneth and Munroe, Patricia B and Morrison, Alanna C and Cupples, L Adrienne and Rao, Dabeeru C and Chasman, Daniel I} } @article {7928, title = {Large-scale whole-exome sequencing association studies identify rare functional variants influencing serum urate levels.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {9}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 10 12}, pages = {4228}, abstract = {

Elevated serum urate levels can cause gout, an excruciating disease with suboptimal treatment. Previous GWAS identified common variants with modest effects on serum urate. Here we report large-scale whole-exome sequencing association studies of serum urate and kidney function among <=19,517 European ancestry and African-American individuals. We identify aggregate associations of low-frequency damaging variants in the urate transporters SLC22A12 (URAT1; p = 1.3 {\texttimes} 10) and SLC2A9 (p = 4.5 {\texttimes} 10). Gout risk in rare SLC22A12 variant carriers is halved (OR = 0.5, p = 4.9 {\texttimes} 10). Selected rare variants in SLC22A12 are validated in transport studies, confirming three as loss-of-function (R325W, R405C, and T467M) and illustrating the therapeutic potential of the new URAT1-blocker lesinurad. In SLC2A9, mapping of rare variants of large effects onto the predicted protein structure reveals new residues that may affect urate binding. These findings provide new insights into the genetic architecture of serum urate, and highlight molecular targets in SLC22A12 and SLC2A9 for lowering serum urate and preventing gout.

}, keywords = {Exome, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Glucose Transport Proteins, Facilitative, Humans, Kidney Function Tests, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Organic Anion Transporters, Organic Cation Transport Proteins, Protein Structure, Secondary, Uric Acid}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-06620-4}, author = {Tin, Adrienne and Li, Yong and Brody, Jennifer A and Nutile, Teresa and Chu, Audrey Y and Huffman, Jennifer E and Yang, Qiong and Chen, Ming-Huei and Robinson-Cohen, Cassianne and Mace, Aurelien and Liu, Jun and Demirkan, Ayse and Sorice, Rossella and Sedaghat, Sanaz and Swen, Melody and Yu, Bing and Ghasemi, Sahar and Teumer, Alexanda and Vollenweider, Peter and Ciullo, Marina and Li, Meng and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Kraaij, Robert and Amin, Najaf and van Rooij, Jeroen and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Dehghan, Abbas and McKnight, Barbara and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Morrison, Alanna and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Fox, Caroline S and Woodward, Owen M and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna} } @article {7818, title = {Leukoaraiosis is independently associated with naming outcome in poststroke aphasia.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {91}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Aug 07}, pages = {e526-e532}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that severity of leukoaraiosis in the noninfarcted hemisphere at onset is associated with poorer language outcome after poststroke aphasia independently of volume of infarct, damage to 3 critical language areas (left inferior frontal gyrus, superior longitudinal fasciculus, and superior temporal gyrus), comorbid conditions, and time since stroke.

METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated naming outcome (>3 months after stroke) in 42 individuals who initially had aphasia after stroke. We rated leukoaraiosis in the right hemisphere 1 to 4 weeks from onset of stroke using the Cardiovascular Health Study rating scale. We evaluated associations between severity of leukoaraiosis and each measure of naming using Spearman correlations and evaluated the independent contributions of leukoaraiosis, lesion volume, months since onset, comorbid conditions, and damage to critical nodes of the language network on language outcomes using logistic regression. We also evaluated associations between dichotomously defined leukoaraiosis and language outcomes using χ tests.

RESULTS: Severity of leukoaraiosis at onset correlated with object naming (ρ = -0.56, = 0.0008) and word fluency (ρ = -0.37, = 0.01) outcomes. Severe leukoaraiosis was associated with failure to achieve the highest quartile of object naming and word fluency. Severity of leukoaraiosis was associated with degree of naming outcome with the use of both measures after controlling for lesion volume, months since stroke, comorbid conditions, and damage to specific locations.

CONCLUSION: Naming outcome after poststroke aphasia is influenced by the initial severity of right hemisphere leukoaraiosis independently of other variables. Degree of recovery from aphasia may depend on the integrity of the noninfarcted brain tissue.

}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000005945}, author = {Wright, Amy and Tippett, Donna and Saxena, Sadhvi and Sebastian, Rajani and Breining, Bonnie and Faria, Andreia and Hillis, Argye E} } @article {8538, title = {{Life-Course Genome-wide Association Study Meta-analysis of Total Body BMD and Assessment of Age-Specific Effects}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {102}, year = {2018}, month = {01}, pages = {88{\textendash}102}, abstract = {Bone mineral density (BMD) assessed by DXA is used to evaluate bone health. In children, total body (TB) measurements are commonly used; in older individuals, BMD at the lumbar spine (LS) and femoral neck (FN) is used to diagnose osteoporosis. To date, genetic variants in more than 60 loci have been identified as associated with BMD. To investigate the genetic determinants of TB-BMD variation along the life course and test for age-specific effects, we performed a meta-analysis of 30 genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of TB-BMD including 66,628 individuals overall and divided across five age strata, each spanning 15 years. We identified variants associated with TB-BMD at 80 loci, of which 36 have not been previously identified; overall, they explain approximately 10\% of the TB-BMD variance when combining all age groups and influence the risk of fracture. Pathway and enrichment analysis of the association signals showed clustering within gene sets implicated in the regulation of cell growth and SMAD proteins, overexpressed in the musculoskeletal system, and enriched in enhancer and promoter regions. These findings reveal TB-BMD as a relevant trait for genetic studies of osteoporosis, enabling the identification of variants and pathways influencing different bone compartments. Only variants in ESR1 and close proximity to RANKL showed a clear effect dependency on age. This most likely indicates that the majority of genetic variants identified influence BMD early in life and that their effect can be captured throughout the life course.}, author = {Medina-Gomez, C. and Kemp, J. P. and Trajanoska, K. and Luan, J. and Chesi, A. and Ahluwalia, T. S. and Mook-Kanamori, D. O. and Ham, A. and Hartwig, F. P. and Evans, D. S. and Joro, R. and Nedeljkovic, I. and Zheng, H. F. and Zhu, K. and Atalay, M. and Liu, C. T. and Nethander, M. and Broer, L. and Porleifsson, G. and Mullin, B. H. and Handelman, S. K. and Nalls, M. A. and Jessen, L. E. and Heppe, D. H. M. and Richards, J. B. and Wang, C. and Chawes, B. and Schraut, K. E. and Amin, N. and Wareham, N. and Karasik, D. and Van der Velde, N. and Ikram, M. A. and Zemel, B. S. and Zhou, Y. and Carlsson, C. J. and Liu, Y. and McGuigan, F. E. and Boer, C. G. and B?nnelykke, K. and Ralston, S. H. and Robbins, J. A. and Walsh, J. P. and Zillikens, M. C. and Langenberg, C. and Li-Gao, R. and Williams, F. M. K. and Harris, T. B. and Akesson, K. and Jackson, R. D. and Sigurdsson, G. and den Heijer, M. and van der Eerden, B. C. J. and van de Peppel, J. and Spector, T. D. and Pennell, C. and Horta, B. L. and Felix, J. F. and Zhao, J. H. and Wilson, S. G. and de Mutsert, R. and Bisgaard, H. and Styrk?rsd?ttir, U. and Jaddoe, V. W. and Orwoll, E. and Lakka, T. A. and Scott, R. and Grant, S. F. A. and Lorentzon, M. and van Duijn, C. M. and Wilson, J. F. and Stefansson, K. and Psaty, B. M. and Kiel, D. P. and Ohlsson, C. and Ntzani, E. and van Wijnen, A. J. and Forgetta, V. and Ghanbari, M. and Logan, J. G. and Williams, G. R. and Bassett, J. H. D. and Croucher, P. I. and Evangelou, E. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and Ackert-Bicknell, C. L. and Tobias, J. H. and Evans, D. M. and Rivadeneira, F.} } @article {7680, title = {Long-Term Cognitive Decline After Newly Diagnosed Heart Failure: Longitudinal Analysis in the CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study).}, journal = {Circ Heart Fail}, volume = {11}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Mar}, pages = {e004476}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Heart failure (HF) is associated with cognitive impairment. However, we know little about the time course of cognitive change after HF diagnosis, the importance of comorbid atrial fibrillation, or the role of ejection fraction. We sought to determine the associations of incident HF with rates of cognitive decline and whether these differed by atrial fibrillation status or reduced versus preserved ejection fraction.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Participants were 4864 men and women aged >=65 years without a history of HF and free of clinical stroke in the CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study)-a community-based prospective cohort study in the United States, with cognition assessed annually from 1989/1990 through 1998/1999. We identified 496 participants with incident HF by review of hospital discharge summaries and Medicare claims data, with adjudication according to standard criteria. Global cognitive ability was measured by the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination. In adjusted models, 5-year decline in model-predicted mean Modified Mini-Mental State Examination score was 10.2 points (95\% confidence interval, 8.6-11.8) after incident HF diagnosed at 80 years of age, compared with a mean 5-year decline of 5.8 points (95\% confidence interval, 5.3-6.2) from 80 to 85 years of age without HF. The association was stronger at older ages than at younger ages, did not vary significantly in the presence versus absence of atrial fibrillation (=0.084), and did not vary significantly by reduced versus preserved ejection fraction (=0.734).

CONCLUSIONS: Decline in global cognitive ability tends to be faster after HF diagnosis than without HF. Clinical and public health implications of this finding warrant further attention.

}, issn = {1941-3297}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.117.004476}, author = {Hammond, Christa A and Blades, Natalie J and Chaudhry, Sarwat I and Dodson, John A and Longstreth, W T and Heckbert, Susan R and Psaty, Bruce M and Arnold, Alice M and Dublin, Sascha and Sitlani, Colleen M and Gardin, Julius M and Thielke, Stephen M and Nanna, Michael G and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Newman, Anne B and Thacker, Evan L} } @article {7775, title = {Meta-analysis across Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium provides evidence for an association of serum vitamin D with pulmonary function.}, journal = {Br J Nutr}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Sep 12}, pages = {1-12}, abstract = {

The role that vitamin D plays in pulmonary function remains uncertain. Epidemiological studies reported mixed findings for serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D)-pulmonary function association. We conducted the largest cross-sectional meta-analysis of the 25(OH)D-pulmonary function association to date, based on nine European ancestry (EA) cohorts (n 22 838) and five African ancestry (AA) cohorts (n 4290) in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium. Data were analysed using linear models by cohort and ancestry. Effect modification by smoking status (current/former/never) was tested. Results were combined using fixed-effects meta-analysis. Mean serum 25(OH)D was 68 (sd 29) nmol/l for EA and 49 (sd 21) nmol/l for AA. For each 1 nmol/l higher 25(OH)D, forced expiratory volume in the 1st second (FEV1) was higher by 1{\textperiodcentered}1 ml in EA (95 \% CI 0{\textperiodcentered}9, 1{\textperiodcentered}3; P<0{\textperiodcentered}0001) and 1{\textperiodcentered}8 ml (95 \% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}1, 2{\textperiodcentered}5; P<0{\textperiodcentered}0001) in AA (P race difference=0{\textperiodcentered}06), and forced vital capacity (FVC) was higher by 1{\textperiodcentered}3 ml in EA (95 \% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}0, 1{\textperiodcentered}6; P<0{\textperiodcentered}0001) and 1{\textperiodcentered}5 ml (95 \% CI 0{\textperiodcentered}8, 2{\textperiodcentered}3; P=0{\textperiodcentered}0001) in AA (P race difference=0{\textperiodcentered}56). Among EA, the 25(OH)D-FVC association was stronger in smokers: per 1 nmol/l higher 25(OH)D, FVC was higher by 1{\textperiodcentered}7 ml (95 \% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}1, 2{\textperiodcentered}3) for current smokers and 1{\textperiodcentered}7 ml (95 \% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}2, 2{\textperiodcentered}1) for former smokers, compared with 0{\textperiodcentered}8 ml (95 \% CI 0{\textperiodcentered}4, 1{\textperiodcentered}2) for never smokers. In summary, the 25(OH)D associations with FEV1 and FVC were positive in both ancestries. In EA, a stronger association was observed for smokers compared with never smokers, which supports the importance of vitamin D in vulnerable populations.

}, issn = {1475-2662}, doi = {10.1017/S0007114518002180}, author = {Xu, Jiayi and Bartz, Traci M and Chittoor, Geetha and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Manichaikul, Ani W and Sun, Fangui and Terzikhan, Natalie and Zhou, Xia and Booth, Sarah L and Brusselle, Guy G and de Boer, Ian H and Fornage, Myriam and Frazier-Wood, Alexis C and Graff, Mariaelisa and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Hofman, Albert and Hou, Ruixue and Houston, Denise K and Jacobs, David R and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Latourelle, Jeanne and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Lutsey, Pamela L and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Pankow, James S and Psaty, Bruce M and Rohde, Rebecca R and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Smith, Lewis J and Stricker, Bruno H and Voruganti, V Saroja and Wang, Thomas J and Zillikens, M Carola and Barr, R Graham and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Gharib, Sina A and Lahousse, Lies and London, Stephanie J and North, Kari E and Smith, Albert V and Steffen, Lyn M and Hancock, Dana B and Cassano, Patricia A} } @article {7795, title = {Meta-analysis of exome array data identifies six novel genetic loci for lung function.}, journal = {Wellcome Open Res}, volume = {3}, year = {2018}, month = {2018}, pages = {4}, abstract = {

Over 90 regions of the genome have been associated with lung function to date, many of which have also been implicated in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We carried out meta-analyses of exome array data and three lung function measures: forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV ), forced vital capacity (FVC) and the ratio of FEV to FVC (FEV /FVC). These analyses by the SpiroMeta and CHARGE consortia included 60,749 individuals of European ancestry from 23 studies, and 7,721 individuals of African Ancestry from 5 studies in the discovery stage, with follow-up in up to 111,556 independent individuals. We identified significant (P<2{\textperiodcentered}8x10 ) associations with six SNPs: a nonsynonymous variant in , which is predicted to be damaging, three intronic SNPs ( and ) and two intergenic SNPs near to and Expression quantitative trait loci analyses found evidence for regulation of gene expression at three signals and implicated several genes, including and . Further interrogation of these loci could provide greater understanding of the determinants of lung function and pulmonary disease.

}, issn = {2398-502X}, doi = {10.12688/wellcomeopenres.12583.3}, author = {Jackson, Victoria E and Latourelle, Jeanne C and Wain, Louise V and Smith, Albert V and Grove, Megan L and Bartz, Traci M and Obeidat, Ma{\textquoteright}en and Province, Michael A and Gao, Wei and Qaiser, Beenish and Porteous, David J and Cassano, Patricia A and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Grarup, Niels and Li, Jin and Altmaier, Elisabeth and Marten, Jonathan and Harris, Sarah E and Manichaikul, Ani and Pottinger, Tess D and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Lind-Thomsen, Allan and Mahajan, Anubha and Lahousse, Lies and Imboden, Medea and Teumer, Alexander and Prins, Bram and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Franceschini, Nora and Sitlani, Colleen M and Brody, Jennifer A and Boss{\'e}, Yohan and Timens, Wim and Kraja, Aldi and Loukola, Anu and Tang, Wenbo and Liu, Yongmei and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Justesen, Johanne M and Linneberg, Allan and Lange, Leslie A and Rawal, Rajesh and Karrasch, Stefan and Huffman, Jennifer E and Smith, Blair H and Davies, Gail and Burkart, Kristin M and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Bonten, Tobias N and Enroth, Stefan and Lind, Lars and Brusselle, Guy G and Kumar, Ashish and Stubbe, Beate and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Wyss, Annah B and Psaty, Bruce M and Heckbert, Susan R and Hao, Ke and Rantanen, Taina and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Lohman, Kurt and Skaaby, Tea and Pisinger, Charlotta and Hansen, Torben and Schulz, Holger and Polasek, Ozren and Campbell, Archie and Starr, John M and Rich, Stephen S and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Johansson, Asa and Ingelsson, Erik and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Weiss, Stefan and Raitakari, Olli T and Gudnason, Vilmundur and North, Kari E and Gharib, Sina A and Sin, Don D and Taylor, Kent D and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Kaprio, Jaakko and Harris, Tamara B and Pederson, Oluf and Vestergaard, Henrik and Wilson, James G and Strauch, Konstantin and Hayward, Caroline and Kerr, Shona and Deary, Ian J and Barr, R Graham and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Gyllensten, Ulf and Morris, Andrew P and Ikram, M Arfan and Probst-Hensch, Nicole and Gl{\"a}ser, Sven and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Strachan, David P and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Morrison, Alanna C and Hall, Ian P and Tobin, Martin D and London, Stephanie J} } @article {7917, title = {Modifiable Predictors of Ventricular Ectopy in the Community.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {7}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Nov 20}, pages = {e010078}, abstract = {

Background Premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) predict heart failure and death. Data regarding modifiable risk factors for PVCs are scarce. Methods and Results We studied 1424 Cardiovascular Health Study participants randomly assigned to 24-hour Holter monitoring. Demographics, comorbidities, habits, and echocardiographic measurements were examined as predictors of PVC frequency and, among 845 participants, change in PVC frequency 5~years later. Participants exhibited a median of 0.6 (interquartile range, 0.1-7.1) PVCs per hour. Of the more directly modifiable characteristics and after multivariable adjustment, every SD increase in systolic blood pressure was associated with 9\% more PVCs (95\% confidence interval [CI], 2\%-17\%; P=0.01), regularly performing no or low-intensity exercise compared with more physical activity was associated with ≈15\% more PVCs (95\% CI, 3-25\%; P=0.02), and those with a history of smoking exhibited an average of 18\% more PVCs (95\% CI, 3-36\%; P=0.02) than did never smokers. After 5~years, PVC frequency increased from a median of 0.5 (IQR, 0.1-4.7) to 1.2 (IQR, 0.1-13.8) per hour ( P<0.0001). Directly modifiable predictors of 5-year increase in PVCs, described as the odds per each quintile increase in PVCs, included increased diastolic blood pressure (odds ratio per SD increase, 1.16; 95\% CI, 1.02-1.31; P=0.02) and a history of smoking (OR, 1.31; 95\% CI, 1.02-1.68; P=0.04). Conclusions Enhancing physical activity, smoking cessation, and aggressive control of blood pressure may represent fruitful strategies to mitigate PVC frequency and PVC-associated adverse outcomes.

}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.118.010078}, author = {Kerola, Tuomas and Dewland, Thomas A and Vittinghoff, Eric and Heckbert, Susan R and Stein, Phyllis K and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {7558, title = {Multiancestry association study identifies new asthma risk loci that colocalize with immune-cell enhancer marks.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {50}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Jan}, pages = {42-53}, abstract = {

We examined common variation in asthma risk by conducting a meta-analysis of worldwide asthma genome-wide association studies (23,948 asthma cases, 118,538 controls) of individuals from ethnically diverse populations. We identified five new asthma loci, found two new associations at two known asthma loci, established asthma associations at two loci previously implicated in the comorbidity of asthma plus hay fever, and confirmed nine known loci. Investigation of pleiotropy showed large overlaps in genetic variants with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The enrichment in enhancer marks at asthma risk loci, especially in immune cells, suggested a major role of these loci in the regulation of immunologically related mechanisms.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-017-0014-7}, author = {Demenais, Florence and Margaritte-Jeannin, Patricia and Barnes, Kathleen C and Cookson, William O C and Altm{\"u}ller, Janine and Ang, Wei and Barr, R Graham and Beaty, Terri H and Becker, Allan B and Beilby, John and Bisgaard, Hans and Bjornsdottir, Unnur Steina and Bleecker, Eugene and B{\o}nnelykke, Klaus and Boomsma, Dorret I and Bouzigon, Emmanuelle and Brightling, Christopher E and Brossard, Myriam and Brusselle, Guy G and Burchard, Esteban and Burkart, Kristin M and Bush, Andrew and Chan-Yeung, Moira and Chung, Kian Fan and Couto Alves, Alexessander and Curtin, John A and Custovic, Adnan and Daley, Denise and de Jongste, Johan C and Del-Rio-Navarro, Blanca E and Donohue, Kathleen M and Duijts, Liesbeth and Eng, Celeste and Eriksson, Johan G and Farrall, Martin and Fedorova, Yuliya and Feenstra, Bjarke and Ferreira, Manuel A and Freidin, Maxim B and Gajdos, Zofia and Gauderman, Jim and Gehring, Ulrike and Geller, Frank and Genuneit, Jon and Gharib, Sina A and Gilliland, Frank and Granell, Raquel and Graves, Penelope E and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Haahtela, Tari and Heckbert, Susan R and Heederik, Dick and Heinrich, Joachim and Heli{\"o}vaara, Markku and Henderson, John and Himes, Blanca E and Hirose, Hiroshi and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Hofman, Albert and Holt, Patrick and Hottenga, Jouke and Hudson, Thomas J and Hui, Jennie and Imboden, Medea and Ivanov, Vladimir and Jaddoe, Vincent W V and James, Alan and Janson, Christer and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Jarvis, Deborah and Jones, Graham and Jonsdottir, Ingileif and Jousilahti, Pekka and Kabesch, Michael and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kantor, David B and Karunas, Alexandra S and Khusnutdinova, Elza and Koppelman, Gerard H and Kozyrskyj, Anita L and Kreiner, Eskil and Kubo, Michiaki and Kumar, Rajesh and Kumar, Ashish and Kuokkanen, Mikko and Lahousse, Lies and Laitinen, Tarja and Laprise, Catherine and Lathrop, Mark and Lau, Susanne and Lee, Young-Ae and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Letort, S{\'e}bastien and Levin, Albert M and Li, Guo and Liang, Liming and Loehr, Laura R and London, Stephanie J and Loth, Daan W and Manichaikul, Ani and Marenholz, Ingo and Martinez, Fernando J and Matheson, Melanie C and Mathias, Rasika A and Matsumoto, Kenji and Mbarek, Hamdi and McArdle, Wendy L and Melbye, Mads and Mel{\'e}n, Erik and Meyers, Deborah and Michel, Sven and Mohamdi, Hamida and Musk, Arthur W and Myers, Rachel A and Nieuwenhuis, Maartje A E and Noguchi, Emiko and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Ogorodova, Ludmila M and Palmer, Cameron D and Palotie, Aarno and Park, Julie E and Pennell, Craig E and Pershagen, G{\"o}ran and Polonikov, Alexey and Postma, Dirkje S and Probst-Hensch, Nicole and Puzyrev, Valery P and Raby, Benjamin A and Raitakari, Olli T and Ramasamy, Adaikalavan and Rich, Stephen S and Robertson, Colin F and Romieu, Isabelle and Salam, Muhammad T and Salomaa, Veikko and Schl{\"u}nssen, Vivi and Scott, Robert and Selivanova, Polina A and Sigsgaard, Torben and Simpson, Angela and Siroux, Val{\'e}rie and Smith, Lewis J and Solodilova, Maria and Standl, Marie and Stefansson, Kari and Strachan, David P and Stricker, Bruno H and Takahashi, Atsushi and Thompson, Philip J and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tiesler, Carla M T and Torgerson, Dara G and Tsunoda, Tatsuhiko and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van der Valk, Ralf J P and Vaysse, Amaury and Vedantam, Sailaja and von Berg, Andrea and von Mutius, Erika and Vonk, Judith M and Waage, Johannes and Wareham, Nick J and Weiss, Scott T and White, Wendy B and Wickman, Magnus and Widen, Elisabeth and Willemsen, Gonneke and Williams, L Keoki and Wouters, Inge M and Yang, James J and Zhao, Jing Hua and Moffatt, Miriam F and Ober, Carole and Nicolae, Dan L} } @article {7683, title = {Multiancestry genome-wide association study of 520,000 subjects identifies 32 loci associated with stroke and stroke subtypes.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {50}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Apr}, pages = {524-537}, abstract = {

Stroke has multiple etiologies, but the underlying genes and pathways are largely unknown. We conducted a multiancestry genome-wide-association meta-analysis in 521,612 individuals (67,162 cases and 454,450 controls) and discovered 22 new stroke risk loci, bringing the total to 32. We further found shared genetic variation with related vascular traits, including blood pressure, cardiac traits, and venous thromboembolism, at individual loci (n = 18), and~using genetic risk scores and linkage-disequilibrium-score regression. Several loci exhibited distinct association and pleiotropy patterns for etiological stroke subtypes. Eleven new susceptibility loci indicate mechanisms not previously implicated in stroke pathophysiology, with prioritization of risk variants and genes accomplished through bioinformatics analyses using extensive functional datasets. Stroke risk loci were significantly enriched in drug targets for antithrombotic therapy.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-018-0058-3}, author = {Malik, Rainer and Chauhan, Ganesh and Traylor, Matthew and Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Okada, Yukinori and Mishra, Aniket and Rutten-Jacobs, Loes and Giese, Anne-Katrin and van der Laan, Sander W and Gretarsdottir, Solveig and Anderson, Christopher D and Chong, Michael and Adams, Hieab H H and Ago, Tetsuro and Almgren, Peter and Amouyel, Philippe and Ay, Hakan and Bartz, Traci M and Benavente, Oscar R and Bevan, Steve and Boncoraglio, Giorgio B and Brown, Robert D and Butterworth, Adam S and Carrera, Caty and Carty, Cara L and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Wei-Min and Cole, John W and Correa, Adolfo and Cotlarciuc, Ioana and Cruchaga, Carlos and Danesh, John and de Bakker, Paul I W and DeStefano, Anita L and den Hoed, Marcel and Duan, Qing and Engelter, Stefan T and Falcone, Guido J and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Grewal, Raji P and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gustafsson, Stefan and Haessler, Jeffrey and Harris, Tamara B and Hassan, Ahamad and Havulinna, Aki S and Heckbert, Susan R and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Howard, George and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Hyacinth, Hyacinth I and Ikram, M Arfan and Ingelsson, Erik and Irvin, Marguerite R and Jian, Xueqiu and Jimenez-Conde, Jordi and Johnson, Julie A and Jukema, J Wouter and Kanai, Masahiro and Keene, Keith L and Kissela, Brett M and Kleindorfer, Dawn O and Kooperberg, Charles and Kubo, Michiaki and Lange, Leslie A and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lee, Jin-Moo and Lemmens, Robin and Leys, Didier and Lewis, Cathryn M and Lin, Wei-Yu and Lindgren, Arne G and Lorentzen, Erik and Magnusson, Patrik K and Maguire, Jane and Manichaikul, Ani and McArdle, Patrick F and Meschia, James F and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mosley, Thomas H and Nalls, Michael A and Ninomiya, Toshiharu and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Martin J and Psaty, Bruce M and Pulit, Sara L and Rannikmae, Kristiina and Reiner, Alexander P and Rexrode, Kathryn M and Rice, Kenneth and Rich, Stephen S and Ridker, Paul M and Rost, Natalia S and Rothwell, Peter M and Rotter, Jerome I and Rundek, Tatjana and Sacco, Ralph L and Sakaue, Saori and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Salomaa, Veikko and Sapkota, Bishwa R and Schmidt, Reinhold and Schmidt, Carsten O and Schminke, Ulf and Sharma, Pankaj and Slowik, Agnieszka and Sudlow, Cathie L M and Tanislav, Christian and Tatlisumak, Turgut and Taylor, Kent D and Thijs, Vincent N S and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tiedt, Steffen and Trompet, Stella and Tzourio, Christophe and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Walters, Matthew and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Wilson, James G and Wiggins, Kerri L and Yang, Qiong and Yusuf, Salim and Bis, Joshua C and Pastinen, Tomi and Ruusalepp, Arno and Schadt, Eric E and Koplev, Simon and Bj{\"o}rkegren, Johan L M and Codoni, Veronica and Civelek, Mete and Smith, Nicholas L and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David A and Christophersen, Ingrid E and Roselli, Carolina and Lubitz, Steven A and Ellinor, Patrick T and Tai, E Shyong and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kato, Norihiro and He, Jiang and van der Harst, Pim and Elliott, Paul and Chambers, John C and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Johnson, Andrew D and Sanghera, Dharambir K and Melander, Olle and Jern, Christina and Strbian, Daniel and Fernandez-Cadenas, Israel and Longstreth, W T and Rolfs, Arndt and Hata, Jun and Woo, Daniel and Rosand, Jonathan and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Hopewell, Jemma C and Saleheen, Danish and Stefansson, Kari and Worrall, Bradford B and Kittner, Steven J and Seshadri, Sudha and Fornage, Myriam and Markus, Hugh S and Howson, Joanna M M and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Debette, Stephanie and Dichgans, Martin and Malik, Rainer and Chauhan, Ganesh and Traylor, Matthew and Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Okada, Yukinori and Mishra, Aniket and Rutten-Jacobs, Loes and Giese, Anne-Katrin and van der Laan, Sander W and Gretarsdottir, Solveig and Anderson, Christopher D and Chong, Michael and Adams, Hieab H H and Ago, Tetsuro and Almgren, Peter and Amouyel, Philippe and Ay, Hakan and Bartz, Traci M and Benavente, Oscar R and Bevan, Steve and Boncoraglio, Giorgio B and Brown, Robert D and Butterworth, Adam S and Carrera, Caty and Carty, Cara L and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Wei-Min and Cole, John W and Correa, Adolfo and Cotlarciuc, Ioana and Cruchaga, Carlos and Danesh, John and de Bakker, Paul I W and DeStefano, Anita L and Hoed, Marcel den and Duan, Qing and Engelter, Stefan T and Falcone, Guido J and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Grewal, Raji P and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gustafsson, Stefan and Haessler, Jeffrey and Harris, Tamara B and Hassan, Ahamad and Havulinna, Aki S and Heckbert, Susan R and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Howard, George and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Hyacinth, Hyacinth I and Ikram, M Arfan and Ingelsson, Erik and Irvin, Marguerite R and Jian, Xueqiu and Jimenez-Conde, Jordi and Johnson, Julie A and Jukema, J Wouter and Kanai, Masahiro and Keene, Keith L and Kissela, Brett M and Kleindorfer, Dawn O and Kooperberg, Charles and Kubo, Michiaki and Lange, Leslie A and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lee, Jin-Moo and Lemmens, Robin and Leys, Didier and Lewis, Cathryn M and Lin, Wei-Yu and Lindgren, Arne G and Lorentzen, Erik and Magnusson, Patrik K and Maguire, Jane and Manichaikul, Ani and McArdle, Patrick F and Meschia, James F and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mosley, Thomas H and Nalls, Michael A and Ninomiya, Toshiharu and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Martin J and Psaty, Bruce M and Pulit, Sara L and Rannikmae, Kristiina and Reiner, Alexander P and Rexrode, Kathryn M and Rice, Kenneth and Rich, Stephen S and Ridker, Paul M and Rost, Natalia S and Rothwell, Peter M and Rotter, Jerome I and Rundek, Tatjana and Sacco, Ralph L and Sakaue, Saori and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Salomaa, Veikko and Sapkota, Bishwa R and Schmidt, Reinhold and Schmidt, Carsten O and Schminke, Ulf and Sharma, Pankaj and Slowik, Agnieszka and Sudlow, Cathie L M and Tanislav, Christian and Tatlisumak, Turgut and Taylor, Kent D and Thijs, Vincent N S and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tiedt, Steffen and Trompet, Stella and Tzourio, Christophe and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Walters, Matthew and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Wilson, James G and Wiggins, Kerri L and Yang, Qiong and Yusuf, Salim and Amin, Najaf and Aparicio, Hugo S and Arnett, Donna K and Attia, John and Beiser, Alexa S and Berr, Claudine and Buring, Julie E and Bustamante, Mariana and Caso, Valeria and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Choi, Seung Hoan and Chowhan, Ayesha and Cullell, Natalia and Dartigues, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and Delavaran, Hossein and Delgado, Pilar and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Engstr{\"o}m, Gunnar and Ford, Ian and Gurpreet, Wander S and Hamsten, Anders and Heitsch, Laura and Hozawa, Atsushi and Ibanez, Laura and Ilinca, Andreea and Ingelsson, Martin and Iwasaki, Motoki and Jackson, Rebecca D and Jood, Katarina and Jousilahti, Pekka and Kaffashian, Sara and Kalra, Lalit and Kamouchi, Masahiro and Kitazono, Takanari and Kjartansson, Olafur and Kloss, Manja and Koudstaal, Peter J and Krupinski, Jerzy and Labovitz, Daniel L and Laurie, Cathy C and Levi, Christopher R and Li, Linxin and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Lioutas, Vasileios and Liu, Yong Mei and Lopez, Oscar L and Makoto, Hirata and Martinez-Majander, Nicolas and Matsuda, Koichi and Minegishi, Naoko and Montaner, Joan and Morris, Andrew P and Mui{\~n}o, Elena and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Norrving, Bo and Ogishima, Soichi and Parati, Eugenio A and Peddareddygari, Leema Reddy and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pera, Joanna and Perola, Markus and Pezzini, Alessandro and Pileggi, Silvana and Rabionet, Raquel and Riba-Llena, Iolanda and Ribas{\'e}s, Marta and Romero, Jose R and Roquer, Jaume and Rudd, Anthony G and Sarin, Antti-Pekka and Sarju, Ralhan and Sarnowski, Chloe and Sasaki, Makoto and Satizabal, Claudia L and Satoh, Mamoru and Sattar, Naveed and Sawada, Norie and Sibolt, Gerli and Sigurdsson, {\'A}sgeir and Smith, Albert and Sobue, Kenji and Soriano-T{\'a}rraga, Carolina and Stanne, Tara and Stine, O Colin and Stott, David J and Strauch, Konstantin and Takai, Takako and Tanaka, Hideo and Tanno, Kozo and Teumer, Alexander and Tomppo, Liisa and Torres-Aguila, Nuria P and Touze, Emmanuel and Tsugane, Shoichiro and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Valdimarsson, Einar M and van der Lee, Sven J and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Wakai, Kenji and Weir, David and Williams, Stephen R and Wolfe, Charles D A and Wong, Quenna and Xu, Huichun and Yamaji, Taiki and Sanghera, Dharambir K and Melander, Olle and Jern, Christina and Strbian, Daniel and Fernandez-Cadenas, Israel and Longstreth, W T and Rolfs, Arndt and Hata, Jun and Woo, Daniel and Rosand, Jonathan and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Hopewell, Jemma C and Saleheen, Danish and Stefansson, Kari and Worrall, Bradford B and Kittner, Steven J and Seshadri, Sudha and Fornage, Myriam and Markus, Hugh S and Howson, Joanna M M and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Debette, Stephanie and Dichgans, Martin} } @article {7811, title = {Multi-ethnic genome-wide association study for atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {50}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Sep}, pages = {1225-1233}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects more than 33 million individuals worldwide and has a complex heritability. We conducted the largest meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for AF to date, consisting of more than half a million individuals, including 65,446 with AF. In total, we identified 97 loci significantly associated with AF, including 67 that were novel in a combined-ancestry analysis, and 3 that were novel in a European-specific analysis. We sought to identify AF-associated genes at the GWAS loci by performing RNA-sequencing and expression quantitative trait locus analyses in 101 left atrial samples, the most relevant tissue for AF. We also performed transcriptome-wide analyses that identified 57 AF-associated genes, 42 of which overlap with GWAS loci. The identified loci implicate genes enriched within cardiac developmental, electrophysiological, contractile and structural pathways. These results extend our understanding of the biological pathways underlying AF and may facilitate the development of therapeutics for AF.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-018-0133-9}, author = {Roselli, Carolina and Chaffin, Mark D and Weng, Lu-Chen and Aeschbacher, Stefanie and Ahlberg, Gustav and Albert, Christine M and Almgren, Peter and Alonso, Alvaro and Anderson, Christopher D and Aragam, Krishna G and Arking, Dan E and Barnard, John and Bartz, Traci M and Benjamin, Emelia J and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and Bis, Joshua C and Bloom, Heather L and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin B and Brody, Jennifer A and Calkins, Hugh and Campbell, Archie and Cappola, Thomas P and Carlquist, John and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Lin Y and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Choi, Eue-Keun and Choi, Seung Hoan and Christophersen, Ingrid E and Chung, Mina K and Cole, John W and Conen, David and Cook, James and Crijns, Harry J and Cutler, Michael J and Damrauer, Scott M and Daniels, Brian R and Darbar, Dawood and Delgado, Graciela and Denny, Joshua C and Dichgans, Martin and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Dudink, Elton A and Dudley, Samuel C and Esa, Nada and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Eskola, Markku and Fatkin, Diane and Felix, Stephan B and Ford, Ian and Franco, Oscar H and Geelhoed, Bastiaan and Grewal, Raji P and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Guo, Xiuqing and Gupta, Namrata and Gustafsson, Stefan and Gutmann, Rebecca and Hamsten, Anders and Harris, Tamara B and Hayward, Caroline and Heckbert, Susan R and Hernesniemi, Jussi and Hocking, Lynne J and Hofman, Albert and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Huang, Jie and Huang, Paul L and Huffman, Jennifer and Ingelsson, Erik and Ipek, Esra Gucuk and Ito, Kaoru and Jimenez-Conde, Jordi and Johnson, Renee and Jukema, J Wouter and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kane, John P and Kastrati, Adnan and Kathiresan, Sekar and Katschnig-Winter, Petra and Kavousi, Maryam and Kessler, Thorsten and Kietselaer, Bas L and Kirchhof, Paulus and Kleber, Marcus E and Knight, Stacey and Krieger, Jose E and Kubo, Michiaki and Launer, Lenore J and Laurikka, Jari and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Leineweber, Kirsten and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Li, Man and Lim, Hong Euy and Lin, Henry J and Lin, Honghuang and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and London, Barry and Loos, Ruth J F and Low, Siew-Kee and Lu, Yingchang and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Macfarlane, Peter W and Magnusson, Patrik K and Mahajan, Anubha and Malik, Rainer and Mansur, Alfredo J and Marcus, Gregory M and Margolin, Lauren and Margulies, Kenneth B and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and McManus, David D and Melander, Olle and Mohanty, Sanghamitra and Montgomery, Jay A and Morley, Michael P and Morris, Andrew P and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Natale, Andrea and Nazarian, Saman and Neumann, Benjamin and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Niemeijer, Maartje N and Nikus, Kjell and Nilsson, Peter and Noordam, Raymond and Oellers, Heidi and Olesen, Morten S and Orho-Melander, Marju and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Pak, Hui-Nam and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pera, Joanna and Pereira, Alexandre and Porteous, David and Psaty, Bruce M and Pulit, Sara L and Pullinger, Clive R and Rader, Daniel J and Refsgaard, Lena and Ribas{\'e}s, Marta and Ridker, Paul M and Rienstra, Michiel and Risch, Lorenz and Roden, Dan M and Rosand, Jonathan and Rosenberg, Michael A and Rost, Natalia and Rotter, Jerome I and Saba, Samir and Sandhu, Roopinder K and Schnabel, Renate B and Schramm, Katharina and Schunkert, Heribert and Schurman, Claudia and Scott, Stuart A and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, Ilkka and Shaffer, Christian and Shah, Svati and Shalaby, Alaa A and Shim, Jaemin and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Siland, Joylene E and Sinisalo, Juha and Sinner, Moritz F and Slowik, Agnieszka and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Blair H and Smith, J Gustav and Smith, Jonathan D and Smith, Nicholas L and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stricker, Bruno H and Sun, Albert and Sun, Han and Svendsen, Jesper H and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Tanriverdi, Kahraman and Taylor, Kent D and Teder-Laving, Maris and Teumer, Alexander and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Trompet, Stella and Tucker, Nathan R and Tveit, Arnljot and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van der Harst, Pim and Van Gelder, Isabelle C and Van Wagoner, David R and Verweij, Niek and Vlachopoulou, Efthymia and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wang, Biqi and Weeke, Peter E and Weijs, Bob and Weiss, Raul and Weiss, Stefan and Wells, Quinn S and Wiggins, Kerri L and Wong, Jorge A and Woo, Daniel and Worrall, Bradford B and Yang, Pil-Sung and Yao, Jie and Yoneda, Zachary T and Zeller, Tanja and Zeng, Lingyao and Lubitz, Steven A and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {7819, title = {Multiethnic meta-analysis identifies ancestry-specific and cross-ancestry loci for pulmonary function.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {9}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Jul 30}, pages = {2976}, abstract = {

Nearly 100 loci have been identified for pulmonary function, almost exclusively in studies of European ancestry populations. We extend previous research by meta-analyzing genome-wide association studies of 1000 Genomes imputed variants in relation to pulmonary function in a multiethnic population of 90,715 individuals of European (N = 60,552), African (N = 8429), Asian (N = 9959), and Hispanic/Latino (N = 11,775) ethnicities. We identify over 50 additional loci at genome-wide significance in ancestry-specific or multiethnic meta-analyses. Using recent fine-mapping methods incorporating functional annotation, gene expression, and differences in linkage disequilibrium between ethnicities, we further shed light on potential causal variants and genes at known and newly identified loci. Several of the novel genes encode proteins with predicted or established drug targets, including KCNK2 and CDK12. Our study highlights the utility of multiethnic and integrative genomics approaches to extend existing knowledge of the genetics of lung function and clinical relevance of implicated loci.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-05369-0}, author = {Wyss, Annah B and Sofer, Tamar and Lee, Mi Kyeong and Terzikhan, Natalie and Nguyen, Jennifer N and Lahousse, Lies and Latourelle, Jeanne C and Smith, Albert Vernon and Bartz, Traci M and Feitosa, Mary F and Gao, Wei and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Tang, Wenbo and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Duan, Qing and de Jong, Kim and Wojczynski, Mary K and Wang, Xin-Qun and Noordam, Raymond and Hartwig, Fernando Pires and Jackson, Victoria E and Wang, Tianyuan and Obeidat, Ma{\textquoteright}en and Hobbs, Brian D and Huan, Tianxiao and Gui, Hongsheng and Parker, Margaret M and Hu, Donglei and Mogil, Lauren S and Kichaev, Gleb and Jin, Jianping and Graff, Mariaelisa and Harris, Tamara B and Kalhan, Ravi and Heckbert, Susan R and Paternoster, Lavinia and Burkart, Kristin M and Liu, Yongmei and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Wilson, James G and Vonk, Judith M and Sanders, Jason L and Barr, R Graham and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Menezes, Ana Maria Baptista and Adams, Hieab H H and van den Berge, Maarten and Joehanes, Roby and Levin, Albert M and Liberto, Jennifer and Launer, Lenore J and Morrison, Alanna C and Sitlani, Colleen M and Celed{\'o}n, Juan C and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Scott, Rodney J and Christensen, Kaare and Rotter, Jerome I and Bonten, Tobias N and Wehrmeister, Fernando C{\'e}sar and Boss{\'e}, Yohan and Xiao, Shujie and Oh, Sam and Franceschini, Nora and Brody, Jennifer A and Kaplan, Robert C and Lohman, Kurt and McEvoy, Mark and Province, Michael A and Rosendaal, Frits R and Taylor, Kent D and Nickle, David C and Williams, L Keoki and Burchard, Esteban G and Wheeler, Heather E and Sin, Don D and Gudnason, Vilmundur and North, Kari E and Fornage, Myriam and Psaty, Bruce M and Myers, Richard H and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George and Hansen, Torben and Laurie, Cathy C and Cassano, Patricia A and Sung, Joohon and Kim, Woo Jin and Attia, John R and Lange, Leslie and Boezen, H Marike and Thyagarajan, Bharat and Rich, Stephen S and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Horta, Bernardo Lessa and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Im, Hae Kyung and Cho, Michael H and Brusselle, Guy G and Gharib, Sina A and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Manichaikul, Ani and London, Stephanie J} } @article {7675, title = {Multiethnic Meta-Analysis Identifies RAI1 as a Possible Obstructive Sleep Apnea-related Quantitative Trait Locus in Men.}, journal = {Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol}, volume = {58}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Mar}, pages = {391-401}, abstract = {

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common heritable disorder displaying marked sexual dimorphism in disease prevalence and progression. Previous genetic association studies have identified a few genetic loci associated with OSA and related quantitative traits, but they have only focused on single ethnic groups, and a large proportion of the heritability remains unexplained. The apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) is a commonly used quantitative measure characterizing OSA severity. Because OSA differs by sex, and the pathophysiology of obstructive events differ in rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM (NREM) sleep, we hypothesized that additional genetic association signals would be identified by analyzing the NREM/REM-specific AHI and by conducting sex-specific analyses in multiethnic samples. We performed genome-wide association tests for up to 19,733 participants of African, Asian, European, and Hispanic/Latino American ancestry in 7 studies. We identified rs12936587 on chromosome 17 as a possible quantitative trait locus for NREM AHI in men (N = 6,737; P = 1.7 {\texttimes} 10) but not in women (P = 0.77). The association with NREM AHI was replicated in a physiological research study (N = 67; P = 0.047). This locus overlapping the RAI1 gene and encompassing genes PEMT1, SREBF1, and RASD1 was previously reported to be associated with coronary artery disease, lipid metabolism, and implicated in Potocki-Lupski syndrome and Smith-Magenis syndrome, which are characterized by abnormal sleep phenotypes. We also identified gene-by-sex interactions in suggestive association regions, suggesting that genetic variants for AHI appear to vary by sex, consistent with the clinical observations of strong sexual dimorphism.

}, issn = {1535-4989}, doi = {10.1165/rcmb.2017-0237OC}, author = {Chen, Han and Cade, Brian E and Gleason, Kevin J and Bjonnes, Andrew C and Stilp, Adrienne M and Sofer, Tamar and Conomos, Matthew P and Ancoli-Israel, Sonia and Arens, Raanan and Azarbarzin, Ali and Bell, Graeme I and Below, Jennifer E and Chun, Sung and Evans, Daniel S and Ewert, Ralf and Frazier-Wood, Alexis C and Gharib, Sina A and Haba-Rubio, Jos{\'e} and Hagen, Erika W and Heinzer, Raphael and Hillman, David R and Johnson, W Craig and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Lane, Jacqueline M and Larkin, Emma K and Lee, Seung Ku and Liang, Jingjing and Loredo, Jose S and Mukherjee, Sutapa and Palmer, Lyle J and Papanicolaou, George J and Penzel, Thomas and Peppard, Paul E and Post, Wendy S and Ramos, Alberto R and Rice, Ken and Rotter, Jerome I and Sands, Scott A and Shah, Neomi A and Shin, Chol and Stone, Katie L and Stubbe, Beate and Sul, Jae Hoon and Tafti, Mehdi and Taylor, Kent D and Teumer, Alexander and Thornton, Timothy A and Tranah, Gregory J and Wang, Chaolong and Wang, Heming and Warby, Simon C and Wellman, D Andrew and Zee, Phyllis C and Hanis, Craig L and Laurie, Cathy C and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Patel, Sanjay R and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Sunyaev, Shamil R and Saxena, Richa and Lin, Xihong and Redline, Susan} } @article {7792, title = {Novel genetic associations for blood pressure identified via gene-alcohol interaction in up to 570K individuals across multiple ancestries.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {13}, year = {2018}, month = {2018}, pages = {e0198166}, abstract = {

Heavy alcohol consumption is an established risk factor for hypertension; the mechanism by which alcohol consumption impact blood pressure (BP) regulation remains unknown. We hypothesized that a genome-wide association study accounting for gene-alcohol consumption interaction for BP might identify additional BP loci and contribute to the understanding of alcohol-related BP regulation. We conducted a large two-stage investigation incorporating joint testing of main genetic effects and single nucleotide variant (SNV)-alcohol consumption interactions. In Stage 1, genome-wide discovery meta-analyses in ≈131K individuals across several ancestry groups yielded 3,514 SNVs (245 loci) with suggestive evidence of association (P < 1.0 x 10-5). In Stage 2, these SNVs were tested for independent external replication in ≈440K individuals across multiple ancestries. We identified and replicated (at Bonferroni correction threshold) five novel BP loci (380 SNVs in 21 genes) and 49 previously reported BP loci (2,159 SNVs in 109 genes) in European ancestry, and in multi-ancestry meta-analyses (P < 5.0 x 10-8). For African ancestry samples, we detected 18 potentially novel BP loci (P < 5.0 x 10-8) in Stage 1 that warrant further replication. Additionally, correlated meta-analysis identified eight novel BP loci (11 genes). Several genes in these loci (e.g., PINX1, GATA4, BLK, FTO and GABBR2) have been previously reported to be associated with alcohol consumption. These findings provide insights into the role of alcohol consumption in the genetic architecture of hypertension.

}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0198166}, author = {Feitosa, Mary F and Kraja, Aldi T and Chasman, Daniel I and Sung, Yun J and Winkler, Thomas W and Ntalla, Ioanna and Guo, Xiuqing and Franceschini, Nora and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Sim, Xueling and Vojinovic, Dina and Marten, Jonathan and Musani, Solomon K and Li, Changwei and Bentley, Amy R and Brown, Michael R and Schwander, Karen and Richard, Melissa A and Noordam, Raymond and Aschard, Hugues and Bartz, Traci M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Fisher, Virginia and Hartwig, Fernando P and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Lohman, Kurt K and Manning, Alisa K and Rankinen, Tuomo and Smith, Albert V and Tajuddin, Salman M and Wojczynski, Mary K and Alver, Maris and Boissel, Mathilde and Cai, Qiuyin and Campbell, Archie and Chai, Jin Fang and Chen, Xu and Divers, Jasmin and Gao, Chuan and Goel, Anuj and Hagemeijer, Yanick and Harris, Sarah E and He, Meian and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Jackson, Anne U and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kasturiratne, Anuradhani and Komulainen, Pirjo and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Laguzzi, Federica and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Matoba, Nana and Nolte, Ilja M and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Riaz, Muhammad and Rueedi, Rico and Robino, Antonietta and Said, M Abdullah and Scott, Robert A and Sofer, Tamar and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Tayo, Bamidele O and van der Most, Peter J and Varga, Tibor V and Vitart, Veronique and Wang, Yajuan and Ware, Erin B and Warren, Helen R and Weiss, Stefan and Wen, Wanqing and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhang, Weihua and Zhao, Jing Hua and Afaq, Saima and Amin, Najaf and Amini, Marzyeh and Arking, Dan E and Aung, Tin and Boerwinkle, Eric and Borecki, Ingrid and Broeckel, Ulrich and Brown, Morris and Brumat, Marco and Burke, Gregory L and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Charumathi, Sabanayagam and Ida Chen, Yii-Der and Connell, John M and Correa, Adolfo and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and de Silva, H Janaka and Deng, Xuan and Ding, Jingzhong and Duan, Qing and Eaton, Charles B and Ehret, Georg and Eppinga, Ruben N and Evangelou, Evangelos and Faul, Jessica D and Felix, Stephan B and Forouhi, Nita G and Forrester, Terrence and Franco, Oscar H and Friedlander, Yechiel and Gandin, Ilaria and Gao, He and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Gigante, Bruna and Gu, C Charles and Gu, Dongfeng and Hagenaars, Saskia P and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Harris, Tamara B and He, Jiang and Heikkinen, Sami and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Hirata, Makoto and Howard, Barbara V and Ikram, M Arfan and John, Ulrich and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Khor, Chiea Chuen and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Koh, Woon-Puay and Krieger, Jose E and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Kubo, Michiaki and Kuusisto, Johanna and Lakka, Timo A and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lehne, Benjamin and Lewis, Cora E and Li, Yize and Lin, Shiow and Liu, Jianjun and Liu, Jingmin and Loh, Marie and Louie, Tin and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and McKenzie, Colin A and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Milaneschi, Yuri and Milani, Lili and Mohlke, Karen L and Momozawa, Yukihide and Nalls, Mike A and Nelson, Christopher P and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Norris, Jill M and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Perls, Thomas and Pedersen, Nancy L and Peters, Annette and Peyser, Patricia A and Poulter, Neil and Raffel, Leslie J and Raitakari, Olli T and Roll, Kathryn and Rose, Lynda M and Rosendaal, Frits R and Rotter, Jerome I and Schmidt, Carsten O and Schreiner, Pamela J and Schupf, Nicole and Scott, William R and Sever, Peter S and Shi, Yuan and Sidney, Stephen and Sims, Mario and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Jennifer A and Snieder, Harold and Starr, John M and Strauch, Konstantin and Stringham, Heather M and Tan, Nicholas Y Q and Tang, Hua and Taylor, Kent D and Teo, Yik Ying and Tham, Yih Chung and Turner, Stephen T and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vollenweider, Peter and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wang, Lihua and Wang, Ya Xing and Wei, Wen Bin and Williams, Christine and Yao, Jie and Yu, Caizheng and Yuan, Jian-Min and Zhao, Wei and Zonderman, Alan B and Becker, Diane M and Boehnke, Michael and Bowden, Donald W and Chambers, John C and Deary, Ian J and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Farrall, Martin and Franks, Paul W and Freedman, Barry I and Froguel, Philippe and Gasparini, Paolo and Gieger, Christian and Jonas, Jost Bruno and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kato, Norihiro and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Laakso, Markku and Laurie, Cathy C and Leander, Karin and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Study, Lifelines Cohort and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Polasek, Ozren and Porteous, David J and Rauramaa, Rainer and Samani, Nilesh J and Scott, James and Shu, Xiao-Ou and van der Harst, Pim and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wareham, Nicholas J and Watkins, Hugh and Weir, David R and Wickremasinghe, Ananda R and Wu, Tangchun and Zheng, Wei and Bouchard, Claude and Christensen, Kaare and Evans, Michele K and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Horta, Bernardo L and Kardia, Sharon L R and Liu, Yongmei and Pereira, Alexandre C and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and van Dam, Rob M and Gauderman, W James and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Fornage, Myriam and Rotimi, Charles N and Cupples, L Adrienne and Kelly, Tanika N and Fox, Ervin R and Hayward, Caroline and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Tai, E Shyong and Wong, Tien Yin and Kooperberg, Charles and Palmas, Walter and Rice, Kenneth and Morrison, Alanna C and Elliott, Paul and Caulfield, Mark J and Munroe, Patricia B and Rao, Dabeeru C and Province, Michael A and Levy, Daniel} } @article {7776, title = {Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Genome-wide Interaction Analyses Reveal DPP10-Pulmonary Function Association.}, journal = {Am J Respir Crit Care Med}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Sep 10}, abstract = {

RATIONALE: Omega-3 poly-unsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) have anti-inflammatory properties that could benefit adults with comprised pulmonary health.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate n-3 PUFA associations with spirometric measures of pulmonary function tests (PFTs) and determine underlying genetic susceptibility.

METHODS: Associations of n-3 PUFA biomarkers (alpha-linolenic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, docosapentaenoic acid [DPA], and docosahexaenoic acid [DHA]) were evaluated with PFTs (forced expiratory volume in the first second [FEV], forced vital capacity [FVC], and [FEV/FVC]) in meta-analyses across seven cohorts from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium (N=16,134 of European or African ancestry). PFT-associated n-3 PUFAs were carried forward to genome-wide interaction analyses in the four largest cohorts (N=11,962) and replicated in one cohort (N=1,687). Cohort-specific results were combined using joint 2 degree-of-freedom (2df) meta-analyses of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associations and their interactions with n-3 PUFAs.

RESULTS: DPA and DHA were positively associated with FEV1 and FVC (P<0.025), with evidence for effect modification by smoking and by sex. Genome-wide analyses identified a novel association of rs11693320-an intronic DPP10 SNP-with FVC when incorporating an interaction with DHA, and the finding was replicated (P=9.4{\texttimes}10 across discovery and replication cohorts). The rs11693320-A allele (frequency~80\%) was associated with lower FVC (P=2.1{\texttimes}10; β= -161.0mL), and the association was attenuated by higher DHA levels (P=2.1{\texttimes}10; β=36.2mL).

CONCLUSIONS: We corroborated beneficial effects of n-3 PUFAs on pulmonary function. By modeling genome-wide n-3 PUFA interactions, we identified a novel DPP10 SNP association with FVC that was not detectable in much larger studies ignoring this interaction.

}, issn = {1535-4970}, doi = {10.1164/rccm.201802-0304OC}, author = {Xu, Jiayi and Gaddis, Nathan C and Bartz, Traci M and Hou, Ruixue and Manichaikul, Ani W and Pankratz, Nathan and Smith, Albert V and Sun, Fangui and Terzikhan, Natalie and Markunas, Christina A and Patchen, Bonnie K and Schu, Matthew and Beydoun, May A and Brusselle, Guy G and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Zhou, Xia and Wood, Alexis C and Graff, Mariaelisa and Harris, Tamara B and Ikram, M Arfan and Jacobs, David R and Launer, Lenore J and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Psaty, Bruce M and Ramachandran, Vasan S and Rohde, Rebecca R and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Seshadri, Sudha and Smith, Lewis J and Tiemeier, Henning and Tsai, Michael Y and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Voruganti, V Saroja and Xu, Hanfei and Zilh{\~a}o, Nuno R and Fornage, Myriam and Zillikens, M Carola and London, Stephanie J and Barr, R Graham and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Gharib, Sina A and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Lahousse, Lies and North, Kari E and Steffen, Lyn M and Cassano, Patricia A and Hancock, Dana B} } @article {7815, title = {PR interval genome-wide association meta-analysis identifies 50 loci associated with atrial and atrioventricular electrical activity.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {9}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Jul 25}, pages = {2904}, abstract = {

Electrocardiographic PR interval measures atrio-ventricular depolarization and conduction, and abnormal PR interval is a risk factor for atrial fibrillation and heart block. Our genome-wide association study of over 92,000 European-descent individuals identifies 44 PR interval loci (34 novel). Examination of these loci reveals known and previously not-yet-reported biological processes involved in cardiac atrial electrical activity. Genes in these loci are over-represented in cardiac disease processes including heart block and atrial fibrillation. Variants in over half of the 44 loci were associated with atrial or blood transcript expression levels, or were in high linkage disequilibrium with missense variants. Six additional loci were identified either by meta-analysis of ~105,000 African and European-descent individuals and/or by pleiotropic analyses combining PR interval with heart rate, QRS interval, and atrial fibrillation. These findings implicate developmental pathways, and identify transcription factors, ion-channel genes, and cell-junction/cell-signaling proteins in atrio-ventricular conduction, identifying potential targets for drug development.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-04766-9}, author = {van Setten, Jessica and Brody, Jennifer A and Jamshidi, Yalda and Swenson, Brenton R and Butler, Anne M and Campbell, Harry and Del Greco, Fabiola M and Evans, Daniel S and Gibson, Quince and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Kerr, Kathleen F and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and M{\"u}ller, Christian and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Nolte, Ilja M and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Robino, Antonietta and Smith, Albert V and Steri, Maristella and Tanaka, Toshiko and Teumer, Alexander and Trompet, Stella and Ulivi, Sheila and Verweij, Niek and Yin, Xiaoyan and Arnar, David O and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Bader, Joel S and Barnard, John and Bis, Josh and Blankenberg, Stefan and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bradford, Yuki and Buckley, Brendan M and Chung, Mina K and Crawford, Dana and den Hoed, Marcel and Denny, Josh C and Dominiczak, Anna F and Ehret, Georg B and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Ellinor, Patrick T and Felix, Stephan B and Franco, Oscar H and Franke, Lude and Harris, Tamara B and Holm, Hilma and Ilaria, Gandin and Iorio, Annamaria and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kolcic, Ivana and Kors, Jan A and Lakatta, Edward G and Launer, Lenore J and Lin, Honghuang and Lin, Henry J and Loos, Ruth J F and Lubitz, Steven A and Macfarlane, Peter W and Magnani, Jared W and Leach, Irene Mateo and Meitinger, Thomas and Mitchell, Braxton D and M{\"u}nzel, Thomas and Papanicolaou, George J and Peters, Annette and Pfeufer, Arne and Pramstaller, Peter P and Raitakari, Olli T and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Samani, Nilesh J and Schlessinger, David and Silva Aldana, Claudia T and Sinner, Moritz F and Smith, Jonathan D and Snieder, Harold and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Spector, Timothy D and Stott, David J and Strauch, Konstantin and Tarasov, Kirill V and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Van Wagoner, David R and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Waldenberger, Melanie and Jan Westra, Harm and Wild, Philipp S and Zeller, Tanja and Alonso, Alvaro and Avery, Christy L and Bandinelli, Stefania and Benjamin, Emelia J and Cucca, Francesco and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Ferrucci, Luigi and Gasparini, Paolo and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hayward, Caroline and Heckbert, Susan R and Hicks, Andrew A and Jukema, J Wouter and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Liu, Yongmei and Munroe, Patricia B and Parsa, Afshin and Polasek, Ozren and Psaty, Bruce M and Roden, Dan M and Schnabel, Renate B and Sinagra, Gianfranco and Stefansson, Kari and Stricker, Bruno H and van der Harst, Pim and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Wilson, James F and Gharib, Sina A and de Bakker, Paul I W and Isaacs, Aaron and Arking, Dan E and Sotoodehnia, Nona} } @article {7846, title = {Predictive value for cardiovascular events of common carotid intima media thickness and its rate of change in individuals at high cardiovascular risk - Results from the PROG-IMT collaboration.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {13}, year = {2018}, month = {2018}, pages = {e0191172}, abstract = {

AIMS: Carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) predicts cardiovascular (CVD) events, but the predictive value of CIMT change is debated. We assessed the relation between CIMT change and events in individuals at high cardiovascular risk.

METHODS AND RESULTS: From 31 cohorts with two CIMT scans (total n = 89070) on average 3.6 years apart and clinical follow-up, subcohorts were drawn: (A) individuals with at least 3 cardiovascular risk factors without previous CVD events, (B) individuals with carotid plaques without previous CVD events, and (C) individuals with previous CVD events. Cox regression models were fit to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) of the combined endpoint (myocardial infarction, stroke or vascular death) per standard deviation (SD) of CIMT change, adjusted for CVD risk factors. These HRs were pooled across studies. In groups A, B and C we observed 3483, 2845 and 1165 endpoint events, respectively. Average common CIMT was 0.79mm (SD 0.16mm), and annual common CIMT change was 0.01mm (SD 0.07mm), both in group A. The pooled HR per SD of annual common CIMT change (0.02 to 0.43mm) was 0.99 (95\% confidence interval: 0.95-1.02) in group A, 0.98 (0.93-1.04) in group B, and 0.95 (0.89-1.04) in group C. The HR per SD of common CIMT (average of the first and the second CIMT scan, 0.09 to 0.75mm) was 1.15 (1.07-1.23) in group A, 1.13 (1.05-1.22) in group B, and 1.12 (1.05-1.20) in group C.

CONCLUSIONS: We confirm that common CIMT is associated with future CVD events in individuals at high risk. CIMT change does not relate to future event risk in high-risk individuals.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Female, Humans, Intersectoral Collaboration, Male, Middle Aged, Prognosis, Risk Factors}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0191172}, author = {Lorenz, Matthias W and Gao, Lu and Ziegelbauer, Kathrin and Norata, Giuseppe Danilo and Empana, Jean Philippe and Schmidtmann, Irene and Lin, Hung-Ju and McLachlan, Stela and Bokemark, Lena and Ronkainen, Kimmo and Amato, Mauro and Schminke, Ulf and Srinivasan, Sathanur R and Lind, Lars and Okazaki, Shuhei and Stehouwer, Coen D A and Willeit, Peter and Polak, Joseph F and Steinmetz, Helmuth and Sander, Dirk and Poppert, Holger and Desvarieux, Mo{\"\i}se and Ikram, M Arfan and Johnsen, Stein Harald and Staub, Daniel and Sirtori, Cesare R and Iglseder, Bernhard and Beloqui, Oscar and Engstr{\"o}m, Gunnar and Friera, Alfonso and Rozza, Francesco and Xie, Wuxiang and Parraga, Grace and Grigore, Liliana and Plichart, Matthieu and Blankenberg, Stefan and Su, Ta-Chen and Schmidt, Caroline and Tuomainen, Tomi-Pekka and Veglia, Fabrizio and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Nijpels, Giel and Willeit, Johann and Sacco, Ralph L and Franco, Oscar H and Uthoff, Heiko and Hedblad, Bo and Suarez, Carmen and Izzo, Raffaele and Zhao, Dong and Wannarong, Thapat and Catapano, Alberico and Ducimetiere, Pierre and Espinola-Klein, Christine and Chien, Kuo-Liong and Price, Jackie F and Bergstr{\"o}m, G{\"o}ran and Kauhanen, Jussi and Tremoli, Elena and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Berenson, Gerald and Kitagawa, Kazuo and Dekker, Jacqueline M and Kiechl, Stefan and Sitzer, Matthias and Bickel, Horst and Rundek, Tatjana and Hofman, Albert and Mathiesen, Ellisiv B and Castelnuovo, Samuela and Landecho, Manuel F and Rosvall, Maria and Gabriel, Rafael and de Luca, Nicola and Liu, Jing and Baldassarre, Damiano and Kavousi, Maryam and de Groot, Eric and Bots, Michiel L and Yanez, David N and Thompson, Simon G} } @article {8375, title = {Protein and glycomic plasma markers for early detection of adenoma and colon cancer.}, journal = {Gut}, volume = {67}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 03}, pages = {473-484}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To discover and confirm blood-based colon cancer early-detection markers.

DESIGN: We created a high-density antibody microarray to detect differences in protein levels in plasma from individuals diagnosed with colon cancer <3 years after blood was drawn (ie, prediagnostic) and cancer-free, matched controls. Potential markers were tested on plasma samples from people diagnosed with adenoma or cancer, compared with controls. Components of an optimal 5-marker panel were tested via immunoblotting using a third sample set, Luminex assay in a large fourth sample set and immunohistochemistry (IHC) on tissue microarrays.

RESULTS: In the prediagnostic samples, we found 78 significantly (t-test) increased proteins, 32 of which were confirmed in the diagnostic samples. From these 32, optimal 4-marker panels of BAG family molecular chaperone regulator 4 (BAG4), interleukin-6 receptor subunit beta (IL6ST), von Willebrand factor (VWF) and CD44 or epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) were established. Each panel member and the panels also showed increases in the diagnostic adenoma and cancer samples in independent third and fourth sample sets via immunoblot and Luminex, respectively. IHC results showed increased levels of BAG4, IL6ST and CD44 in adenoma and cancer tissues. Inclusion of EGFR and CD44 sialyl Lewis-A and Lewis-X content increased the panel performance. The protein/glycoprotein panel was statistically significantly higher in colon cancer samples, characterised by a range of area under the curves from 0.90 (95\% CI 0.82 to 0.98) to 0.86 (95\% CI 0.83 to 0.88), for the larger second and fourth sets, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: A panel including BAG4, IL6ST, VWF, EGFR and CD44 protein/glycomics performed well for detection of early stages of colon cancer and should be further examined in larger studies.

}, keywords = {Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Adenoma, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Biomarkers, Tumor, CA-19-9 Antigen, Case-Control Studies, Colonic Neoplasms, Cytokine Receptor gp130, Early Detection of Cancer, ErbB Receptors, Female, Humans, Hyaluronan Receptors, Lewis X Antigen, Male, Middle Aged, Oligosaccharides, Protein Array Analysis, von Willebrand Factor}, issn = {1468-3288}, doi = {10.1136/gutjnl-2016-312794}, author = {Rho, Jung-Hyun and Ladd, Jon J and Li, Christopher I and Potter, John D and Zhang, Yuzheng and Shelley, David and Shibata, David and Coppola, Domenico and Yamada, Hiroyuki and Toyoda, Hidenori and Tada, Toshifumi and Kumada, Takashi and Brenner, Dean E and Hanash, Samir M and Lampe, Paul D} } @article {7847, title = {Rare loss of function variants in candidate genes and risk of colorectal cancer.}, journal = {Hum Genet}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Sep 28}, abstract = {

Although ~ 25\% of colorectal cancer or polyp (CRC/P) cases show familial aggregation, current germline genetic testing identifies a causal genotype in the 16 major genes associated with high penetrance CRC/P in only 20\% of these cases. As there are likely other genes underlying heritable CRC/P, we evaluated the association of variation at novel loci with CRC/P. We evaluated 158 a priori selected candidate genes by comparing the number of rare potentially disruptive variants (PDVs) found in 84 CRC/P cases without an identified CRC/P risk-associated variant and 2440 controls. We repeated this analysis using an additional 73 CRC/P cases. We also compared the frequency of PDVs in select genes among CRC/P cases with two publicly available data sets. We found a significant enrichment of PDVs in cases vs. controls: 20\% of cases vs. 11.5\% of controls with >= 1 PDV (OR = 1.9, p = 0.01) in the original set of cases. Among the second cohort of CRC/P cases, 18\% had a PDV, significantly different from 11.5\% (p = 0.02). Logistic regression, adjusting for ancestry and multiple testing, indicated association between CRC/P and PDVs in NTHL1 (p = 0.0001), BRCA2 (p = 0.01) and BRIP1 (p = 0.04). However, there was no significant difference in the frequency of PDVs at each of these genes between all 157 CRC/P cases and two publicly available data sets. These results suggest an increased presence of PDVs in CRC/P cases and support further investigation of the association of NTHL1, BRCA2 and BRIP1 variation with CRC/P.

}, issn = {1432-1203}, doi = {10.1007/s00439-018-1938-4}, author = {Rosenthal, Elisabeth A and Shirts, Brian H and Amendola, Laura M and Horike-Pyne, Martha and Robertson, Peggy D and Hisama, Fuki M and Bennett, Robin L and Dorschner, Michael O and Nickerson, Deborah A and Stanaway, Ian B and Nassir, Rami and Vickers, Kathy T and Li, Christopher and Grady, William M and Peters, Ulrike and Jarvik, Gail P} } @article {7668, title = {Refining the accuracy of validated target identification through coding variant fine-mapping in type 2 diabetes.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {50}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Apr}, pages = {559-571}, abstract = {

We aggregated coding variant data for 81,412 type 2 diabetes cases and 370,832 controls of diverse ancestry, identifying 40 coding variant association signals (P < 2.2 {\texttimes} 10); of these, 16 map outside known risk-associated loci. We make two important observations. First, only five of these signals are driven by low-frequency variants: even for these, effect sizes are modest (odds ratio <=1.29). Second, when we used large-scale genome-wide association data to fine-map the associated variants in their regional context, accounting for the global enrichment of complex trait associations in coding sequence, compelling evidence for coding variant causality was obtained for only 16 signals. At 13 others, the associated coding variants clearly represent {\textquoteright}false leads{\textquoteright} with potential to generate erroneous mechanistic inference. Coding variant associations offer a direct route to biological insight for complex diseases and identification of validated therapeutic targets; however, appropriate mechanistic inference requires careful specification of their causal contribution to disease predisposition.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-018-0084-1}, author = {Mahajan, Anubha and Wessel, Jennifer and Willems, Sara M and Zhao, Wei and Robertson, Neil R and Chu, Audrey Y and Gan, Wei and Kitajima, Hidetoshi and Taliun, Daniel and Rayner, N William and Guo, Xiuqing and Lu, Yingchang and Li, Man and Jensen, Richard A and Hu, Yao and Huo, Shaofeng and Lohman, Kurt K and Zhang, Weihua and Cook, James P and Prins, Bram Peter and Flannick, Jason and Grarup, Niels and Trubetskoy, Vassily Vladimirovich and Kravic, Jasmina and Kim, Young Jin and Rybin, Denis V and Yaghootkar, Hanieh and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Meidtner, Karina and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Varga, Tibor V and Marten, Jonathan and Li, Jin and Smith, Albert Vernon and An, Ping and Ligthart, Symen and Gustafsson, Stefan and Malerba, Giovanni and Demirkan, Ayse and Tajes, Juan Fernandez and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Wuttke, Matthias and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Preuss, Michael and Bielak, Lawrence F and Graff, Marielisa and Highland, Heather M and Justice, Anne E and Liu, Dajiang J and Marouli, Eirini and Peloso, Gina Marie and Warren, Helen R and Afaq, Saima and Afzal, Shoaib and Ahlqvist, Emma and Almgren, Peter and Amin, Najaf and Bang, Lia B and Bertoni, Alain G and Bombieri, Cristina and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Brandslund, Ivan and Brody, Jennifer A and Burtt, Noel P and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Cho, Yoon Shin and Christensen, Cramer and Eastwood, Sophie V and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Fischer, Krista and Gambaro, Giovanni and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Grove, Megan L and de Haan, Hugoline G and Hackinger, Sophie and Hai, Yang and Han, Sohee and Tybj{\ae}rg-Hansen, Anne and Hivert, Marie-France and Isomaa, Bo and J{\"a}ger, Susanne and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and K{\"a}r{\"a}j{\"a}m{\"a}ki, AnneMari and Kim, Bong-Jo and Kim, Sung Soo and Koistinen, Heikki A and Kovacs, Peter and Kriebel, Jennifer and Kronenberg, Florian and L{\"a}ll, Kristi and Lange, Leslie A and Lee, Jung-Jin and Lehne, Benjamin and Li, Huaixing and Lin, Keng-Hung and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Jun and Loh, Marie and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Mamakou, Vasiliki and McKean-Cowdin, Roberta and Nadkarni, Girish and Neville, Matt and Nielsen, Sune F and Ntalla, Ioanna and Peyser, Patricia A and Rathmann, Wolfgang and Rice, Kenneth and Rich, Stephen S and Rode, Line and Rolandsson, Olov and Sch{\"o}nherr, Sebastian and Selvin, Elizabeth and Small, Kerrin S and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Surendran, Praveen and Taylor, Kent D and Teslovich, Tanya M and Thorand, Barbara and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Tin, Adrienne and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Varbo, Anette and Witte, Daniel R and Wood, Andrew R and Yajnik, Pranav and Yao, Jie and Yengo, Loic and Young, Robin and Amouyel, Philippe and Boeing, Heiner and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin P and Chowdhury, Rajiv and Collins, Francis S and Dedoussis, George and Dehghan, Abbas and Deloukas, Panos and Ferrario, Marco M and Ferrieres, Jean and Florez, Jose C and Frossard, Philippe and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Heckbert, Susan R and Howson, Joanna M M and Ingelsson, Martin and Kathiresan, Sekar and Kee, Frank and Kuusisto, Johanna and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lindgren, Cecilia M and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and Meitinger, Thomas and Melander, Olle and Mohlke, Karen L and Moitry, Marie and Morris, Andrew D and Murray, Alison D and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Orho-Melander, Marju and Owen, Katharine R and Perola, Markus and Peters, Annette and Province, Michael A and Rasheed, Asif and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadineira, Fernando and Rosendaal, Frits R and Rosengren, Anders H and Salomaa, Veikko and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Sladek, Rob and Smith, Blair H and Strauch, Konstantin and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Varma, Rohit and Willer, Cristen J and Bl{\"u}her, Matthias and Butterworth, Adam S and Chambers, John Campbell and Chasman, Daniel I and Danesh, John and van Duijn, Cornelia and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Franco, Oscar H and Franks, Paul W and Froguel, Philippe and Grallert, Harald and Groop, Leif and Han, Bok-Ghee and Hansen, Torben and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hayward, Caroline and Ingelsson, Erik and Kardia, Sharon L R and Karpe, Fredrik and Kooner, Jaspal Singh and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Kuulasmaa, Kari and Laakso, Markku and Lin, Xu and Lind, Lars and Liu, Yongmei and Loos, Ruth J F and Marchini, Jonathan and Metspalu, Andres and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Palmer, Colin N A and Pankow, James S and Pedersen, Oluf and Psaty, Bruce M and Rauramaa, Rainer and Sattar, Naveed and Schulze, Matthias B and Soranzo, Nicole and Spector, Timothy D and Stefansson, Kari and Stumvoll, Michael and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wilson, James G and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Scott, Robert A and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Frayling, Timothy M and Goodarzi, Mark O and Meigs, James B and Boehnke, Michael and Saleheen, Danish and Morris, Andrew P and Rotter, Jerome I and McCarthy, Mark I} } @article {7915, title = {Relationship of Estimated GFR and Albuminuria to Concurrent Laboratory Abnormalities: An Individual Participant Data Meta-analysis in a Global Consortium.}, journal = {Am J Kidney Dis}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Oct 19}, abstract = {

RATIONALE \& OBJECTIVE: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is complicated by abnormalities that reflect disruption in filtration, tubular, and endocrine functions of the kidney. Our aim was to explore the relationship of specific laboratory result abnormalities and hypertension with the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and albuminuria CKD staging framework.

STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional individual participant-level analyses in a global consortium.

SETTING \& STUDY POPULATIONS: 17 CKD and 38 general population and high-risk cohorts.

SELECTION CRITERIA FOR STUDIES: Cohorts in the CKD Prognosis Consortium with data for eGFR and albuminuria, as well as a measurement of hemoglobin, bicarbonate, phosphorus, parathyroid hormone, potassium, or calcium, or hypertension.

DATA EXTRACTION: Data were obtained and analyzed between July 2015 and January~2018.

ANALYTICAL APPROACH: We modeled the association of eGFR and albuminuria with hemoglobin, bicarbonate, phosphorus, parathyroid hormone, potassium, and calcium values using linear regression and with hypertension and categorical definitions of each abnormality using logistic regression. Results were pooled using random-effects meta-analyses.

RESULTS: The CKD cohorts (n=254,666 participants) were 27\% women and 10\% black, with a mean age of 69 (SD, 12) years. The general population/high-risk cohorts (n=1,758,334) were 50\% women and 2\% black, with a mean age of 50 (16) years. There was a strong graded association between lower eGFR and all laboratory result abnormalities (ORs ranging from 3.27 [95\% CI, 2.68-3.97] to 8.91 [95\% CI, 7.22-10.99] comparing eGFRs of 15 to 29 with eGFRs of 45 to 59mL/min/1.73m), whereas albuminuria had equivocal or weak associations with abnormalities (ORs ranging from 0.77 [95\% CI, 0.60-0.99] to 1.92 [95\% CI, 1.65-2.24] comparing urinary albumin-creatinine ratio > 300 vs~< 30mg/g).

LIMITATIONS: Variations in study era, health care delivery system, typical diet, and laboratory assays.

CONCLUSIONS: Lower eGFR was strongly associated with higher odds of multiple laboratory result abnormalities. Knowledge of risk associations might help guide management in the heterogeneous group of patients with CKD.

}, issn = {1523-6838}, doi = {10.1053/j.ajkd.2018.08.013}, author = {Inker, Lesley A and Grams, Morgan E and Levey, Andrew S and Coresh, Josef and Cirillo, Massimo and Collins, John F and Gansevoort, Ron T and Gutierrez, Orlando M and Hamano, Takayuki and Heine, Gunnar H and Ishikawa, Shizukiyo and Jee, Sun Ha and Kronenberg, Florian and Landray, Martin J and Miura, Katsuyuki and Nadkarni, Girish N and Peralta, Carmen A and Rothenbacher, Dietrich and Schaeffner, Elke and Sedaghat, Sanaz and Shlipak, Michael G and Zhang, Luxia and van Zuilen, Arjan D and Hallan, Stein I and Kovesdy, Csaba P and Woodward, Mark and Levin, Adeera} } @article {7664, title = {Risk thresholds for alcohol consumption: combined analysis of individual-participant data for 599 912 current drinkers in 83 prospective studies.}, journal = {Lancet}, volume = {391}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 04 14}, pages = {1513-1523}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Low-risk limits recommended for alcohol consumption vary substantially across different national guidelines. To define thresholds associated with lowest risk for all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease, we studied individual-participant data from 599 912 current drinkers without previous cardiovascular disease.

METHODS: We did a combined analysis of individual-participant data from three large-scale data sources in 19 high-income countries (the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration, EPIC-CVD, and the UK Biobank). We characterised dose-response associations and calculated hazard ratios (HRs) per 100 g per week of alcohol (12{\textperiodcentered}5 units per week) across 83 prospective studies, adjusting at least for study or centre, age, sex, smoking, and diabetes. To be eligible for the analysis, participants had to have information recorded about their alcohol consumption amount and status (ie, non-drinker vs current drinker), plus age, sex, history of diabetes and smoking status, at least 1 year of follow-up after baseline, and no baseline history of cardiovascular disease. The main analyses focused on current drinkers, whose baseline alcohol consumption was categorised into eight predefined groups according to the amount in grams consumed per week. We assessed alcohol consumption in relation to all-cause mortality, total cardiovascular disease, and several cardiovascular disease subtypes. We corrected HRs for estimated long-term variability in alcohol consumption using 152 640 serial alcohol assessments obtained some years apart (median interval 5{\textperiodcentered}6 years [5th-95th percentile 1{\textperiodcentered}04-13{\textperiodcentered}5]) from 71 011 participants from 37 studies.

FINDINGS: In the 599 912 current drinkers included in the analysis, we recorded 40 310 deaths and 39 018 incident cardiovascular disease events during 5{\textperiodcentered}4 million person-years of follow-up. For all-cause mortality, we recorded a positive and curvilinear association with the level of alcohol consumption, with the minimum mortality risk around or below 100 g per week. Alcohol consumption was roughly linearly associated with a higher risk of stroke (HR per 100 g per week higher consumption 1{\textperiodcentered}14, 95\% CI, 1{\textperiodcentered}10-1{\textperiodcentered}17), coronary disease excluding myocardial infarction (1{\textperiodcentered}06, 1{\textperiodcentered}00-1{\textperiodcentered}11), heart failure (1{\textperiodcentered}09, 1{\textperiodcentered}03-1{\textperiodcentered}15), fatal hypertensive disease (1{\textperiodcentered}24, 1{\textperiodcentered}15-1{\textperiodcentered}33); and fatal aortic aneurysm (1{\textperiodcentered}15, 1{\textperiodcentered}03-1{\textperiodcentered}28). By contrast, increased alcohol consumption was log-linearly associated with a lower risk of myocardial infarction (HR 0{\textperiodcentered}94, 0{\textperiodcentered}91-0{\textperiodcentered}97). In comparison to those who reported drinking >0-<=100 g per week, those who reported drinking >100-<=200 g per week, >200-<=350 g per week, or >350 g per week had lower life expectancy at age 40 years of approximately 6 months, 1-2 years, or 4-5 years, respectively.

INTERPRETATION: In current drinkers of alcohol in high-income countries, the threshold for lowest risk of all-cause mortality was about 100 g/week. For cardiovascular disease subtypes other than myocardial infarction, there were no clear risk thresholds below which lower alcohol consumption stopped being associated with lower disease risk. These data support limits for alcohol consumption that are lower than those recommended in most current guidelines.

FUNDING: UK Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation, National Institute for Health Research, European Union Framework 7, and European Research Council.

}, issn = {1474-547X}, doi = {10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30134-X}, author = {Wood, Angela M and Kaptoge, Stephen and Butterworth, Adam S and Willeit, Peter and Warnakula, Samantha and Bolton, Thomas and Paige, Ellie and Paul, Dirk S and Sweeting, Michael and Burgess, Stephen and Bell, Steven and Astle, William and Stevens, David and Koulman, Albert and Selmer, Randi M and Verschuren, W M Monique and Sato, Shinichi and Nj{\o}lstad, Inger and Woodward, Mark and Salomaa, Veikko and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Yeap, Bu B and Fletcher, Astrid and Melander, Olle and Kuller, Lewis H and Balkau, Beverley and Marmot, Michael and Koenig, Wolfgang and Casiglia, Edoardo and Cooper, Cyrus and Arndt, Volker and Franco, Oscar H and Wennberg, Patrik and Gallacher, John and de la C{\'a}mara, Agustin G{\'o}mez and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Dahm, Christina C and Dale, Caroline E and Bergmann, Manuela M and Crespo, Carlos J and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Kaaks, Rudolf and Simons, Leon A and Lagiou, Pagona and Schoufour, Josje D and Boer, Jolanda M A and Key, Timothy J and Rodriguez, Beatriz and Moreno-Iribas, Conchi and Davidson, Karina W and Taylor, James O and Sacerdote, Carlotta and Wallace, Robert B and Quiros, J Ramon and Tumino, Rosario and Blazer, Dan G and Linneberg, Allan and Daimon, Makoto and Panico, Salvatore and Howard, Barbara and Skeie, Guri and Strandberg, Timo and Weiderpass, Elisabete and Nietert, Paul J and Psaty, Bruce M and Kromhout, Daan and Salamanca-Fernandez, Elena and Kiechl, Stefan and Krumholz, Harlan M and Grioni, Sara and Palli, Domenico and Huerta, Jos{\'e} M and Price, Jackie and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Arriola, Larraitz and Arima, Hisatomi and Travis, Ruth C and Panagiotakos, Demosthenes B and Karakatsani, Anna and Trichopoulou, Antonia and K{\"u}hn, Tilman and Grobbee, Diederick E and Barrett-Connor, Elizabeth and van Schoor, Natasja and Boeing, Heiner and Overvad, Kim and Kauhanen, Jussi and Wareham, Nick and Langenberg, Claudia and Forouhi, Nita and Wennberg, Maria and Despr{\'e}s, Jean-Pierre and Cushman, Mary and Cooper, Jackie A and Rodriguez, Carlos J and Sakurai, Masaru and Shaw, Jonathan E and Knuiman, Matthew and Voortman, Trudy and Meisinger, Christa and Tj{\o}nneland, Anne and Brenner, Hermann and Palmieri, Luigi and Dallongeville, Jean and Brunner, Eric J and Assmann, Gerd and Trevisan, Maurizio and Gillum, Richard F and Ford, Ian and Sattar, Naveed and Lazo, Mariana and Thompson, Simon G and Ferrari, Pietro and Leon, David A and Smith, George Davey and Peto, Richard and Jackson, Rod and Banks, Emily and Di Angelantonio, Emanuele and Danesh, John} } @article {7670, title = {Serum Androgens and Risk of Atrial Fibrillation in Older Men: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Clin Cardiol}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Apr 19}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Decline in serum androgens is common among older men and has been associated with cardiovascular disease, although its role in risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) has not been well defined.

HYPOTHESIS: Low serum androgens are associated with an increased risk of AF.

METHODS: We examined the prospective associations between testosterone, its more active metabolite dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG) with risk of AF among 1019 otherwise healthy men of average age 76.3{\textpm}4.9 years in the Cardiovascular Health Study.

RESULTS: After median follow-up of 9.5 years, 304 (30\%) men developed AF. We detected a nonlinear association with risk of incident AF in both free and total DHT, in which subjects with the lowest levels had a higher risk of incident AF. After adjustment for demographics, clinical risk factors, left atrial diameter, and serum NT-proBNP levels, men with free DHT less than 0.16 ng/dL were at increased risk compared with men with higher levels (HR 1.48, CI 1.01-2.17, p<0.05). Sensitivity analyses confirmed that the increased risk was not cutpoint-specific, with a significant association noted up to cutpoints less than ~0.2 ng/dL. We also detected a complex nonlinear association between SHBG and incident AF, in which subjects in the middle quintile (52.9 - 65.3 nmol/L) had increased risk.

CONCLUSION: Among older men, low free DHT is associated with an increased risk of incident atrial fibrillation. Further studies are needed to explore mechanisms for this association.

}, issn = {1932-8737}, doi = {10.1002/clc.22965}, author = {Rosenberg, Michael A and Shores, Molly M and Matsumoto, Alvin M and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Lange, Leslie A and Kronmal, Richard A and Heckbert, Susan R and Mukamal, Kenneth J} } @article {7787, title = {Sleep characteristics that predict atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Heart Rhythm}, volume = {15}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Sep}, pages = {1289-1295}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The relationship between sleep disruption, independent of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and atrial fibrillation (AF) is unknown.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether poor sleep itself is a risk factor for AF.

METHODS: We first performed an analysis of participants in the Health eHeart Study and validated those findings in the longitudinal Cardiovascular Health Study, including a subset of patients undergoing polysomnography. To determine whether the observed relationships readily translated to medical practice, we examined 2005-2009 data from the California Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project.

RESULTS: Among 4553 Health eHeart participants, the 526 with AF exhibited more frequent nighttime awakening (odd ratio [OR] 1.47; 95\% confidence interval [CI] 1.14-1.89; P = .003). In 5703 Cardiovascular Health Study participants followed for a median 11.6 years, frequent nighttime awakening predicted a 33\% greater risk of AF (hazard ratio [HR] 1.33; 95\% CI 1.17-1.51; P <.001). In patients with polysomnography (N = 1127), every standard deviation percentage decrease in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep was associated with a 18\% higher risk of developing AF (HR 1.18; 95\% CI 1.00-1.38; P = .047). Among 14,330,651 California residents followed for a median 3.9 years, an insomnia diagnosis predicted a 36\% increased risk of new AF (HR 1.36; 95\% CI 1.30-1.42; P <.001).

CONCLUSION: Sleep disruption consistently predicted AF before and after adjustment for OSA and other potential confounders across several different populations. Sleep quality itself may be important in the pathogenesis of AF, potentially representing a novel target for prevention.

}, issn = {1556-3871}, doi = {10.1016/j.hrthm.2018.05.008}, author = {Christensen, Matthew A and Dixit, Shalini and Dewland, Thomas A and Whitman, Isaac R and Nah, Gregory and Vittinghoff, Eric and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Redline, Susan and Robbins, John A and Newman, Anne B and Patel, Sanjay R and Magnani, Jared W and Psaty, Bruce M and Olgin, Jeffrey E and Pletcher, Mark J and Heckbert, Susan R and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {8257, title = {Strong impact of natural-selection-free heterogeneity in genetics of age-related phenotypes.}, journal = {Aging (Albany NY)}, volume = {10}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 03 29}, pages = {492-514}, abstract = {

A conceptual difficulty in genetics of age-related phenotypes that make individuals vulnerable to disease in post-reproductive life is genetic heterogeneity attributed to an undefined role of evolution in establishing their molecular mechanisms. Here, we performed univariate and pleiotropic genome-wide meta-analyses of 20 age-related phenotypes leveraging longitudinal information in a sample of 33,431 individuals and dealing with the natural-selection-free genetic heterogeneity. We identified 142 non-proxy single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with phenotype-specific (18 SNPs) and pleiotropic (124 SNPs) associations at genome-wide level. Univariate meta-analysis identified two novel (11.1\%) and replicated 16 SNPs whereas pleiotropic meta-analysis identified 115 novel (92.7\%) and nine replicated SNPs. Pleiotropic associations for most novel (93.9\%) and all replicated SNPs were strongly impacted by the natural-selection-free genetic heterogeneity in its unconventional form of antagonistic heterogeneity, implying antagonistic directions of genetic effects for directly correlated phenotypes. Our results show that the common genome-wide approach is well adapted to handle homogeneous univariate associations within Mendelian framework whereas most associations with age-related phenotypes are more complex and well beyond that framework. Dissecting the natural-selection-free genetic heterogeneity is critical for gaining insights into genetics of age-related phenotypes and has substantial and unexplored yet potential for improving efficiency of genome-wide analysis.

}, keywords = {Aging, Computational Biology, Gene Expression Regulation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1945-4589}, doi = {10.18632/aging.101407}, author = {Kulminski, Alexander M and Huang, Jian and Loika, Yury and Arbeev, Konstantin G and Bagley, Olivia and Yashkin, Arseniy and Duan, Matt and Culminskaya, Irina} } @article {7788, title = {Study of 300,486 individuals identifies 148 independent genetic loci influencing general cognitive function.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {9}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 May 29}, pages = {2098}, abstract = {

General cognitive function is a prominent and relatively stable human trait that is associated with many important life outcomes. We combine cognitive and genetic data from the CHARGE and COGENT consortia, and UK Biobank (total N = 300,486; age 16-102) and find 148 genome-wide significant independent loci (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10) associated with general cognitive function. Within the novel genetic loci are variants associated with neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders, physical and psychiatric illnesses, and brain structure. Gene-based analyses find 709 genes associated with general cognitive function. Expression levels across the cortex are associated with general cognitive function. Using polygenic scores, up to 4.3\% of variance in general cognitive function is predicted in independent samples. We detect significant genetic overlap between general cognitive function, reaction time, and many health variables including eyesight, hypertension, and longevity. In conclusion we identify novel genetic loci and pathways contributing to the heritability of general cognitive function.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-04362-x}, author = {Davies, Gail and Lam, Max and Harris, Sarah E and Trampush, Joey W and Luciano, Michelle and Hill, W David and Hagenaars, Saskia P and Ritchie, Stuart J and Marioni, Riccardo E and Fawns-Ritchie, Chloe and Liewald, David C M and Okely, Judith A and Ahola-Olli, Ari V and Barnes, Catriona L K and Bertram, Lars and Bis, Joshua C and Burdick, Katherine E and Christoforou, Andrea and DeRosse, Pamela and Djurovic, Srdjan and Espeseth, Thomas and Giakoumaki, Stella and Giddaluru, Sudheer and Gustavson, Daniel E and Hayward, Caroline and Hofer, Edith and Ikram, M Arfan and Karlsson, Robert and Knowles, Emma and Lahti, Jari and Leber, Markus and Li, Shuo and Mather, Karen A and Melle, Ingrid and Morris, Derek and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Palviainen, Teemu and Payton, Antony and Pazoki, Raha and Petrovic, Katja and Reynolds, Chandra A and Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Scholz, Markus and Smith, Jennifer A and Smith, Albert V and Terzikhan, Natalie and Thalamuthu, Anbupalam and Trompet, Stella and van der Lee, Sven J and Ware, Erin B and Windham, B Gwen and Wright, Margaret J and Yang, Jingyun and Yu, Jin and Ames, David and Amin, Najaf and Amouyel, Philippe and Andreassen, Ole A and Armstrong, Nicola J and Assareh, Amelia A and Attia, John R and Attix, Deborah and Avramopoulos, Dimitrios and Bennett, David A and B{\"o}hmer, Anne C and Boyle, Patricia A and Brodaty, Henry and Campbell, Harry and Cannon, Tyrone D and Cirulli, Elizabeth T and Congdon, Eliza and Conley, Emily Drabant and Corley, Janie and Cox, Simon R and Dale, Anders M and Dehghan, Abbas and Dick, Danielle and Dickinson, Dwight and Eriksson, Johan G and Evangelou, Evangelos and Faul, Jessica D and Ford, Ian and Freimer, Nelson A and Gao, He and Giegling, Ina and Gillespie, Nathan A and Gordon, Scott D and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Griswold, Michael E and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Hartmann, Annette M and Hatzimanolis, Alex and Heiss, Gerardo and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Joshi, Peter K and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kardia, Sharon L R and Karlsson, Ida and Kleineidam, Luca and Knopman, David S and Kochan, Nicole A and Konte, Bettina and Kwok, John B and Le Hellard, Stephanie and Lee, Teresa and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Li, Shu-Chen and Liu, Tian and Koini, Marisa and London, Edythe and Longstreth, Will T and Lopez, Oscar L and Loukola, Anu and Luck, Tobias and Lundervold, Astri J and Lundquist, Anders and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Martin, Nicholas G and Montgomery, Grant W and Murray, Alison D and Need, Anna C and Noordam, Raymond and Nyberg, Lars and Ollier, William and Papenberg, Goran and Pattie, Alison and Polasek, Ozren and Poldrack, Russell A and Psaty, Bruce M and Reppermund, Simone and Riedel-Heller, Steffi G and Rose, Richard J and Rotter, Jerome I and Roussos, Panos and Rovio, Suvi P and Saba, Yasaman and Sabb, Fred W and Sachdev, Perminder S and Satizabal, Claudia L and Schmid, Matthias and Scott, Rodney J and Scult, Matthew A and Simino, Jeannette and Slagboom, P Eline and Smyrnis, Nikolaos and Soumar{\'e}, A{\"\i}cha and Stefanis, Nikos C and Stott, David J and Straub, Richard E and Sundet, Kjetil and Taylor, Adele M and Taylor, Kent D and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Tzourio, Christophe and Uitterlinden, Andre and Vitart, Veronique and Voineskos, Aristotle N and Kaprio, Jaakko and Wagner, Michael and Wagner, Holger and Weinhold, Leonie and Wen, K Hoyan and Widen, Elisabeth and Yang, Qiong and Zhao, Wei and Adams, Hieab H H and Arking, Dan E and Bilder, Robert M and Bitsios, Panos and Boerwinkle, Eric and Chiba-Falek, Ornit and Corvin, Aiden and De Jager, Philip L and Debette, Stephanie and Donohoe, Gary and Elliott, Paul and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Gill, Michael and Glahn, David C and H{\"a}gg, Sara and Hansell, Narelle K and Hariri, Ahmad R and Ikram, M Kamran and Jukema, J Wouter and Vuoksimaa, Eero and Keller, Matthew C and Kremen, William S and Launer, Lenore and Lindenberger, Ulman and Palotie, Aarno and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pendleton, Neil and Porteous, David J and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Raitakari, Olli T and Ramirez, Alfredo and Reinvang, Ivar and Rudan, Igor and Schmidt, Reinhold and Schmidt, Helena and Schofield, Peter W and Schofield, Peter R and Starr, John M and Steen, Vidar M and Trollor, Julian N and Turner, Steven T and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Villringer, Arno and Weinberger, Daniel R and Weir, David R and Wilson, James F and Malhotra, Anil and McIntosh, Andrew M and Gale, Catharine R and Seshadri, Sudha and Mosley, Thomas H and Bressler, Jan and Lencz, Todd and Deary, Ian J} } @article {7576, title = {Sugar-sweetened beverage intake associations with fasting glucose and insulin concentrations are not modified by selected genetic variants in a ChREBP-FGF21 pathway: a meta-analysis.}, journal = {Diabetologia}, volume = {61}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Feb}, pages = {317-330}, abstract = {

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) are a major dietary contributor to fructose intake. A molecular pathway involving the carbohydrate responsive element-binding protein (ChREBP) and the metabolic hormone fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) may influence sugar metabolism and, thereby, contribute to fructose-induced metabolic disease. We hypothesise that common variants in 11 genes involved in fructose metabolism and the ChREBP-FGF21 pathway may interact with SSB intake to exacerbate positive associations between higher SSB intake and glycaemic traits.

METHODS: Data from 11 cohorts (six discovery and five replication) in the CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) Consortium provided association and interaction results from 34,748 adults of European descent. SSB intake (soft drinks, fruit punches, lemonades or other fruit drinks) was derived from food-frequency questionnaires and food diaries. In fixed-effects meta-analyses, we quantified: (1) the associations between SSBs and glycaemic traits (fasting glucose and fasting insulin); and (2) the interactions between SSBs and 18 independent SNPs related to the ChREBP-FGF21 pathway.

RESULTS: In our combined meta-analyses of discovery and replication cohorts, after adjustment for age, sex, energy intake, BMI and other dietary covariates, each additional serving of SSB intake was associated with higher fasting glucose (β~{\textpm}~SE 0.014~{\textpm}~0.004 [mmol/l], p~=~1.5~{\texttimes}~10-3) and higher fasting insulin (0.030~{\textpm}~0.005 [log e pmol/l], p~=~2.0~{\texttimes}~10-10). No significant interactions on glycaemic traits were observed between SSB intake and selected SNPs. While a suggestive interaction was observed in the discovery cohorts with a SNP (rs1542423) in the β-Klotho (KLB) locus on fasting insulin (0.030~{\textpm}~0.011 log e pmol/l, uncorrected p~=~0.006), results in the replication cohorts and combined meta-analyses were non-significant.

CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: In this large meta-analysis, we observed that SSB intake was associated with higher fasting glucose and insulin. Although a suggestive interaction with a genetic variant in the ChREBP-FGF21 pathway was observed in the discovery cohorts, this observation was not confirmed in the replication analysis.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: Trials related to this study were registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00005131 (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities), NCT00005133 (Cardiovascular Health Study), NCT00005121 (Framingham Offspring Study), NCT00005487 (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis) and NCT00005152 (Nurses{\textquoteright} Health Study).

}, issn = {1432-0428}, doi = {10.1007/s00125-017-4475-0}, author = {McKeown, Nicola M and Dashti, Hassan S and Ma, Jiantao and Haslam, Danielle E and Kiefte-de Jong, Jessica C and Smith, Caren E and Tanaka, Toshiko and Graff, Mariaelisa and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Rybin, Denis and Sonestedt, Emily and Frazier-Wood, Alexis C and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Li, Yanping and Wang, Carol A and Leermakers, Elisabeth T M and Mikkil{\"a}, Vera and Young, Kristin L and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Cupples, L Adrienne and Schulz, Christina-Alexandra and Chen, Tzu-An and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Huang, Tao and Oddy, Wendy H and Raitakari, Olli and Rice, Kenneth and Meigs, James B and Ericson, Ulrika and Steffen, Lyn M and Rosendaal, Frits R and Hofman, Albert and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Psaty, Bruce M and Brunkwall, Louise and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Viikari, Jorma and Siscovick, David S and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, Ilkka and North, Kari E and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Orho-Melander, Marju and Rich, Stephen S and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Qi, Lu and Pennell, Craig E and Franco, Oscar H and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Herman, Mark A} } @article {7676, title = {Systemic inflammation as a predictor of brain aging: Contributions of physical activity, metabolic risk, and genetic risk.}, journal = {Neuroimage}, volume = {172}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 May 15}, pages = {118-129}, abstract = {

Inflammatory processes may contribute to risk for Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD) and age-related brain degeneration. Metabolic and genetic risk factors, and physical activity may, in turn, influence these inflammatory processes. Some of these risk factors are modifiable, and interact with each other. Understanding how these processes together relate to brain aging will help to inform future interventions to treat or prevent cognitive decline. We used brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan 335 older adult humans (mean age 77.3 {\textpm} 3.4 years) who remained non-demented for the duration of the 9-year longitudinal study. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) in a subset of 226 adults to evaluate whether measures of baseline peripheral inflammation (serum C-reactive protein levels; CRP), mediated the baseline contributions of genetic and metabolic risk, and physical activity, to regional cortical thickness in AD-relevant brain regions at study year 9. We found that both baseline metabolic risk and AD risk variant apolipoprotein E ε4 (APOE4), modulated baseline serum CRP. Higher baseline CRP levels, in turn, predicted thinner regional cortex at year 9, and mediated an effect between higher metabolic risk and thinner cortex in those regions. A higher polygenic risk score composed of variants in immune-associated AD risk genes (other than APOE) was associated with thinner regional cortex. However, CRP levels did not mediate this effect, suggesting that other mechanisms may be responsible for the elevated AD risk. We found interactions between genetic and environmental factors and structural brain health. Our findings support the role of metabolic risk and peripheral inflammation in age-related brain decline.

}, issn = {1095-9572}, doi = {10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.12.027}, author = {Corlier, Fabian and Hafzalla, George and Faskowitz, Joshua and Kuller, Lewis H and Becker, James T and Lopez, Oscar L and Thompson, Paul M and Braskie, Meredith N} } @article {7814, title = {Temporal Trends in the Incidence of~and~Mortality Associated With Heart~Failure With Preserved and Reduced Ejection Fraction.}, journal = {JACC Heart Fail}, volume = {6}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Aug}, pages = {678-685}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to determine temporal trends in the incidence of and mortality associated with heart failure (HF) and its subtypes (heart failure with reduced ejection fraction [HFrEF] and heart rate with preserved ejection fraction [HFpEF]) in the community.

BACKGROUND: Major shifts in cardiovascular disease risk factor prevalence and advances in therapies may have influenced HF incidence and mortality.

METHODS: In the FHS (Framingham Heart Study) and CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study), for participants who were~>=60 years of age and free of HF (n~= 15,217; 60\% women; 2,524 incident HF cases; 115,703 person-years of follow-up), we estimated adjusted incidence rate ratios of HF, HFrEF, and HFpEF from 1990 to 1999 and 2000 to 2009. We compared the cumulative incidence of and mortality associated with HFrEF versus HFpEF within and between decades.

RESULTS: Across the 2 decades, HF incidence rate ratio was similar (p~= 0.13). The incidence rate ratio of HFrEF declined (p~= 0.0029), whereas HFpEF increased (p~< 0.001). Although HFrEF incidence declined more in men than in women, men had a higher incidence of HFrEF than women in each decade (p~< 0.001). The incidence of HFpEF significantly increased over time in both men and women (p~< 0.001 and p~= 0.02, respectively). During follow-up after HF, 1,701 individuals died (67.4\%; HFrEF, n~= 557 [33\%]; HFpEF, n~= 474 [29\%]). There were no significant differences in mortality~rates (overall, cardiovascular disease, and noncardiovascular disease) across decades within HF subtypes or between HFrEF and HFpEF within decade.

CONCLUSIONS: In several U.S. community-based samples from 1990 to 2009, we observed divergent trends of decreasing HFrEF and increasing HFpEF incidence, with stable overall HF incidence and high risk for mortality. Our~findings highlight the need to elucidate factors contributing to these observations.

}, issn = {2213-1787}, doi = {10.1016/j.jchf.2018.03.006}, author = {Tsao, Connie W and Lyass, Asya and Enserro, Danielle and Larson, Martin G and Ho, Jennifer E and Kizer, Jorge R and Gottdiener, John S and Psaty, Bruce M and Vasan, Ramachandran S} } @article {7679, title = {Trans-ethnic analysis of metabochip data identifies two new loci associated with BMI.}, journal = {Int J Obes (Lond)}, volume = {42}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Mar}, pages = {384-390}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Body mass index (BMI) is commonly used to assess obesity, which is associated with numerous diseases and negative health outcomes. BMI has been shown to be a heritable, polygenic trait, with close to 100 loci previously identified and replicated in multiple populations. We aim to replicate known BMI loci and identify novel associations in a trans-ethnic study population.

SUBJECTS: Using eligible participants from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology consortium, we conducted a trans-ethnic meta-analysis of 102 514 African Americans, Hispanics, Asian/Native Hawaiian, Native Americans and European Americans. Participants were genotyped on over 200 000 SNPs on the Illumina Metabochip custom array, or imputed into the 1000 Genomes Project (Phase I). Linear regression of the natural log of BMI, adjusting for age, sex, study site (if applicable), and ancestry principal components, was conducted for each race/ethnicity within each study cohort. Race/ethnicity-specific, and combined meta-analyses used fixed-effects models.

RESULTS: We replicated 15 of 21 BMI loci included on the Metabochip, and identified two novel BMI loci at 1q41 (rs2820436) and 2q31.1 (rs10930502) at the Metabochip-wide significance threshold (P<2.5 {\texttimes} 10). Bioinformatic functional investigation of SNPs at these loci suggests a possible impact on pathways that regulate metabolism and adipose tissue.

CONCLUSION: Conducting studies in genetically diverse populations continues to be a valuable strategy for replicating known loci and uncovering novel BMI associations.

}, issn = {1476-5497}, doi = {10.1038/ijo.2017.304}, author = {Gong, J and Nishimura, K K and Fernandez-Rhodes, L and Haessler, J and Bien, S and Graff, M and Lim, U and Lu, Y and Gross, M and Fornage, M and Yoneyama, S and Isasi, C R and B{\r u}{\v z}kov{\'a}, P and Daviglus, M and Lin, D-Y and Tao, R and Goodloe, R and Bush, W S and Farber-Eger, E and Boston, J and Dilks, H H and Ehret, G and Gu, C C and Lewis, C E and Nguyen, K-D H and Cooper, R and Leppert, M and Irvin, M R and Bottinger, E P and Wilkens, L R and Haiman, C A and Park, L and Monroe, K R and Cheng, I and Stram, D O and Carlson, C S and Jackson, R and Kuller, L and Houston, D and Kooperberg, C and Buyske, S and Hindorff, L A and Crawford, D C and Loos, R J F and Le Marchand, L and Matise, T C and North, K E and Peters, U} } @article {7681, title = {Trans-ethnic Evaluation Identifies Novel Low Frequency Loci Associated with 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations.}, journal = {J Clin Endocrinol Metab}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Jan 09}, abstract = {

Context: Vitamin D inadequacy is common in the adult population of the United States. While the genetic determinants underlying vitamin D inadequacy have been studied in people of European ancestry, less is known in Hispanic or African ancestry populations.

Objective: The TRANSCEN-D (TRANS-ethniC Evaluation of vitamiN D GWAS) consortium was assembled to replicate genetic associations with 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations from the meta-analyses of European ancestry (SUNLIGHT) and to identify novel genetic variants related to vitamin D concentrations in African and Hispanic ancestries.

Design: Ancestry-specific (Hispanic and African) and trans-ethnic (Hispanic, African and European) meta-analyses were performed using the METAL software.

Patients or Other Participants: In total, 8,541 African-American and 3,485 Hispanic-American (from North America) participants from twelve cohorts, and 16,124 European participants from SUNLIGHT were included in the study.

Main Outcome Measure(s): Blood concentrations of 25(OH)D were measured for all participants.

Results: Ancestry-specific analyses in African and Hispanic Americans replicated SNPs in GC (2 and 4 SNPs, respectively). A potentially novel SNP (rs79666294) near the KIF4B gene was identified in the African-American cohort. Trans-ethnic evaluation replicated GC and DHCR7 region SNPs. Additionally, the trans-ethnic analyses revealed novel SNPs rs719700 and rs1410656 near the ANO6/ARID2 and HTR2A genes, respectively.

Conclusions: Ancestry-specific and trans-ethnic GWAS of 25(OH)D confirmed findings in GC and DHCR7 for African and Hispanic American samples and revealed novel findings near KIF4B, ANO6/ARID2, and HTR2A. The biological mechanisms that link these regions with 25(OH)D metabolism require further investigation.

}, issn = {1945-7197}, doi = {10.1210/jc.2017-01802}, author = {Hong, Jaeyoung and Hatchell, Kathryn E and Bradfield, Jonathan P and Andrew, Bjonnes and Alessandra, Chesi and Chao-Qiang, Lai and Langefeld, Carl D and Lu, Lingyi and Lu, Yingchang and Lutsey, Pamela L and Musani, Solomon K and Nalls, Mike A and Robinson-Cohen, Cassianne and Roizen, Jeffery D and Saxena, Richa and Tucker, Katherine L and Ziegler, Julie T and Arking, Dan E and Bis, Joshua C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin P and Bowden, Donald W and Gilsanz, Vincente and Houston, Denise K and Kalkwarf, Heidi J and Kelly, Andrea and Lappe, Joan M and Liu, Yongmei and Michos, Erin D and Oberfield, Sharon E and Palmer, Nicholette D and Rotter, Jerome I and Sapkota, Bishwa and Shepherd, John A and Wilson, James G and Basu, Saonli and de Boer, Ian H and Divers, Jasmin and Freedman, Barry I and Grant, Struan F A and Hakanarson, Hakon and Harris, Tamara B and Kestenbaum, Bryan R and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Loos, Ruth J F and Norris, Jill M and Norwood, Arnita F and Ordovas, Jose M and Pankow, James S and Psaty, Bruce M and Sanhgera, Dharambir K and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Zemel, Babette S and Meigs, James and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Florez, Jose C and Wang, Thomas and Liu, Ching-Ti and Engelman, Corinne D and Billings, Liana K} } @article {7931, title = {Validation of the REGARDS Severe Sepsis Risk Score.}, journal = {J Clin Med}, volume = {7}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Dec 11}, abstract = {

There are no validated systems for characterizing long-term risk of severe sepsis in community-dwelling adults. We tested the ability of the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke-Severe Sepsis Risk Score (REGARDS-SSRS) to predict 10-year severe sepsis risk in separate cohorts of community-dwelling adults. We internally tested the REGARDS-SSRS on the REGARDS-Medicare subcohort. We then externally validated the REGARDS-SSRS using (1) the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and (2) the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) cohorts. Participants included community-dwelling adults: REGARDS-Medicare, age >=65 years, = 9522; CHS, age >=65 years, = 5888; ARIC, age 45$^{-}$64 years, = 11,584. The primary exposure was 10-year severe sepsis risk, predicted by the REGARDS-SSRS from participant sociodemographics, health behaviors, chronic medical conditions and select biomarkers. The primary outcome was first severe sepsis hospitalizations, defined as the concurrent presence of ICD-9 discharge diagnoses for a serious infection and organ dysfunction. Median SSRS in the cohorts were: REGARDS-Medicare 11 points (IQR 7$^{-}$16), CHS 10 (IQR 6$^{-}$15), ARIC 7 (IQR 5$^{-}$10). Severe sepsis incidence rates were: REGARDS-Medicare 30.7 per 1000 person-years (95\% CI: 29.2$^{-}$32.2); CHS 11.9 (10.9$^{-}$12.9); ARIC 6.8 (6.3$^{-}$7.3). SSRS discrimination for first severe sepsis events were: REGARDS-Medicare C-statistic 0.704 (95\% CI: 0.691$^{-}$0.718), CHS 0.696 (0.675$^{-}$0.716), ARIC 0.697 (0.677$^{-}$0.716). The REGARDS-SRSS may potentially play a role in identifying community-dwelling adults at high severe sepsis risk.

}, issn = {2077-0383}, doi = {10.3390/jcm7120536}, author = {Wang, Henry E and Donnelly, John P and Yende, Sachin and Levitan, Emily B and Shapiro, Nathan I and Dai, Yuling and Zhao, Hong and Heiss, Gerardo and Odden, Michelle and Newman, Anne and Safford, Monika} } @article {7785, title = {Whole exome sequencing study identifies novel rare and common Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s-Associated variants involved in immune response and transcriptional regulation.}, journal = {Mol Psychiatry}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Aug 14}, abstract = {

The Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP) undertook whole exome sequencing in 5,740 late-onset Alzheimer disease (AD) cases and 5,096 cognitively normal controls primarily of European ancestry (EA), among whom 218 cases and 177 controls were Caribbean Hispanic (CH). An age-, sex- and APOE based risk score and family history were used to select cases most likely to harbor novel AD risk variants and controls least likely to develop AD by age 85 years. We tested ~1.5 million single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and 50,000 insertion-deletion polymorphisms (indels) for association to AD, using multiple models considering individual variants as well as gene-based tests aggregating rare, predicted functional, and loss of function variants. Sixteen single variants and 19 genes that met criteria for significant or suggestive associations after multiple-testing correction were evaluated for replication in four independent samples; three with whole exome sequencing (2,778 cases, 7,262 controls) and one with genome-wide genotyping imputed to the Haplotype Reference Consortium panel (9,343 cases, 11,527 controls). The top findings in the discovery sample were also followed-up in the ADSP whole-genome sequenced family-based dataset (197 members of 42 EA families and 501 members of 157 CH families). We identified novel and predicted functional genetic variants in genes previously associated with AD. We also detected associations in three novel genes: IGHG3 (p = 9.8 {\texttimes} 10), an immunoglobulin gene whose antibodies interact with β-amyloid, a long non-coding RNA AC099552.4 (p = 1.2 {\texttimes} 10), and a zinc-finger protein ZNF655 (gene-based p = 5.0 {\texttimes} 10). The latter two suggest an important role for transcriptional regulation in AD pathogenesis.

}, issn = {1476-5578}, doi = {10.1038/s41380-018-0112-7}, author = {Bis, Joshua C and Jian, Xueqiu and Kunkle, Brian W and Chen, Yuning and Hamilton-Nelson, Kara L and Bush, William S and Salerno, William J and Lancour, Daniel and Ma, Yiyi and Renton, Alan E and Marcora, Edoardo and Farrell, John J and Zhao, Yi and Qu, Liming and Ahmad, Shahzad and Amin, Najaf and Amouyel, Philippe and Beecham, Gary W and Below, Jennifer E and Campion, Dominique and Charbonnier, Camille and Chung, Jaeyoon and Crane, Paul K and Cruchaga, Carlos and Cupples, L Adrienne and Dartigues, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and Debette, Stephanie and Deleuze, Jean-Francois and Fulton, Lucinda and Gabriel, Stacey B and Genin, Emmanuelle and Gibbs, Richard A and Goate, Alison and Grenier-Boley, Benjamin and Gupta, Namrata and Haines, Jonathan L and Havulinna, Aki S and Helisalmi, Seppo and Hiltunen, Mikko and Howrigan, Daniel P and Ikram, M Arfan and Kaprio, Jaakko and Konrad, Jan and Kuzma, Amanda and Lander, Eric S and Lathrop, Mark and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lin, Honghuang and Mattila, Kari and Mayeux, Richard and Muzny, Donna M and Nasser, Waleed and Neale, Benjamin and Nho, Kwangsik and Nicolas, Ga{\"e}l and Patel, Devanshi and Pericak-Vance, Margaret A and Perola, Markus and Psaty, Bruce M and Quenez, Olivier and Rajabli, Farid and Redon, Richard and Reitz, Christiane and Remes, Anne M and Salomaa, Veikko and Sarnowski, Chloe and Schmidt, Helena and Schmidt, Michael and Schmidt, Reinhold and Soininen, Hilkka and Thornton, Timothy A and Tosto, Giuseppe and Tzourio, Christophe and van der Lee, Sven J and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Vardarajan, Badri and Wang, Weixin and Wijsman, Ellen and Wilson, Richard K and Witten, Daniela and Worley, Kim C and Zhang, Xiaoling and Bellenguez, C{\'e}line and Lambert, Jean-Charles and Kurki, Mitja I and Palotie, Aarno and Daly, Mark and Boerwinkle, Eric and Lunetta, Kathryn L and DeStefano, Anita L and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Martin, Eden R and Schellenberg, Gerard D and Seshadri, Sudha and Naj, Adam C and Fornage, Myriam and Farrer, Lindsay A} } @article {7661, title = {Whole genome sequencing of Caribbean Hispanic families with late-onset Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.}, journal = {Ann Clin Transl Neurol}, volume = {5}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Apr}, pages = {406-417}, abstract = {

Objective: To identify rare causal variants underlying known loci that segregate with late-onset Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (LOAD) in multiplex families.

Methods: We analyzed whole genome sequences (WGS) from 351 members of 67 Caribbean Hispanic (CH) families from Dominican Republic and New York multiply affected by LOAD. Members of 67 CH and additional 47 Caucasian families underwent WGS as a part of the Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP). All members of 67 CH families, an additional 48 CH families and an independent CH case-control cohort were subsequently genotyped for validation. Patients met criteria for LOAD, and controls were determined to be dementia free. We investigated rare variants segregating within families and gene-based associations with disease within LOAD GWAS loci.

Results: A variant in p.R434W, segregated significantly with LOAD in two large families (OR = 5.77, 95\% CI: 1.07-30.9, = 0.041). In addition, missense mutations in and under previously reported linkage peaks at 7q14.3 and 11q12.3 segregated completely in one family and in follow-up genotyping both were nominally significant ( < 0.05). We also identified rare variants in a number of genes associated with LOAD in prior genome wide association studies, including ( = 0.049), ( = 0.0098) and ( = 0.040).

Conclusions and Relevance: Rare variants in multiple genes influence the risk of LOAD disease in multiplex families. These results suggest that rare variants may underlie loci identified in genome wide association studies.

}, issn = {2328-9503}, doi = {10.1002/acn3.537}, author = {Vardarajan, Badri N and Barral, Sandra and Jaworski, James and Beecham, Gary W and Blue, Elizabeth and Tosto, Giuseppe and Reyes-Dumeyer, Dolly and Medrano, Martin and Lantigua, Rafael and Naj, Adam and Thornton, Timothy and DeStefano, Anita and Martin, Eden and Wang, Li-San and Brown, Lisa and Bush, William and van Duijn, Cornelia and Goate, Allison and Farrer, Lindsay and Haines, Jonathan L and Boerwinkle, Eric and Schellenberg, Gerard and Wijsman, Ellen and Pericak-Vance, Margaret A and Mayeux, Richard and Wang, Li-San} } @article {8049, title = {Admixture mapping identifies novel loci for obstructive sleep apnea in Hispanic/Latino Americans.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {28}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 02 15}, pages = {675-687}, abstract = {

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common disorder associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality. Its prevalence and severity vary across ancestral background. Although OSA traits are heritable, few genetic associations have been identified. To identify genetic regions associated with OSA and improve statistical power, we applied admixture mapping on three primary OSA traits [the apnea hypopnea index (AHI), overnight average oxyhemoglobin saturation (SaO2) and percentage time SaO2~<~90\%] and a secondary trait (respiratory event duration) in a Hispanic/Latino American population study of 11~575 individuals with significant variation in ancestral background. Linear mixed models were performed using previously inferred African, European and Amerindian local genetic ancestry markers. Global African ancestry was associated with a lower AHI, higher SaO2 and shorter event duration. Admixture mapping analysis of the primary OSA traits identified local African ancestry at the chromosomal region 2q37 as genome-wide significantly associated with AHI (P~<~5.7~{\texttimes}~10-5), and European and Amerindian ancestries at 18q21 suggestively associated with both AHI and percentage time SaO2~<~90\% (P~<~10-3). Follow-up joint ancestry-SNP association analyses identified novel variants in ferrochelatase (FECH), significantly associated with AHI and percentage time SaO2~<~90\% after adjusting for multiple tests (P~<~8~{\texttimes}~10-6). These signals contributed to the admixture mapping associations and were replicated in independent cohorts. In this first admixture mapping study of OSA, novel associations with variants in the iron/heme metabolism pathway suggest a role for iron in influencing respiratory traits underlying OSA.

}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddy387}, author = {Wang, Heming and Cade, Brian E and Sofer, Tamar and Sands, Scott A and Chen, Han and Browning, Sharon R and Stilp, Adrienne M and Louie, Tin L and Thornton, Timothy A and Johnson, W Craig and Below, Jennifer E and Conomos, Matthew P and Evans, Daniel S and Gharib, Sina A and Guo, Xiuqing and Wood, Alexis C and Mei, Hao and Yaffe, Kristine and Loredo, Jose S and Ramos, Alberto R and Barrett-Connor, Elizabeth and Ancoli-Israel, Sonia and Zee, Phyllis C and Arens, Raanan and Shah, Neomi A and Taylor, Kent D and Tranah, Gregory J and Stone, Katie L and Hanis, Craig L and Wilson, James G and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Patel, Sanjay R and Rice, Ken and Post, Wendy S and Rotter, Jerome I and Sunyaev, Shamil R and Cai, Jianwen and Lin, Xihong and Purcell, Shaun M and Laurie, Cathy C and Saxena, Richa and Redline, Susan and Zhu, Xiaofeng} } @article {8045, title = {Advanced glycation end product carboxymethyl-lysine and risk of incident peripheral artery disease in older adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Diab Vasc Dis Res}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 May 08}, pages = {1479164119847481}, abstract = {

Carboxymethyl-lysine is an advanced glycation end product that is detectable in the serum. Higher carboxymethyl-lysine levels have been associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and cardiovascular mortality. We determined whether high carboxymethyl-lysine levels are also associated with the risk of peripheral artery disease in Cardiovascular Health Study participants who were all aged 65 years and older at baseline. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards models were used to determine the association of baseline carboxymethyl-lysine levels with incident peripheral artery disease in 3267 individuals followed for a median length of 10.0 years. A total of 157 cases of incident peripheral artery disease occurred during follow-up. No significant relationship between carboxymethyl-lysine and risk of peripheral artery disease was found (hazard ratio per standard deviation increment = 1.03; 95\% confidence interval = 0.87, 1.23).

}, issn = {1752-8984}, doi = {10.1177/1479164119847481}, author = {Garg, Parveen K and Biggs, Mary L and Barzilay, Joshua and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Hirsch, Calvin and Ix, Joachim H and Kizer, Jorge R and Tracy, Russell P and Newman, Anne B and Siscovick, David S and Mukamal, Kenneth J} } @article {7971, title = {Alcohol consumption and leukocyte telomere length.}, journal = {Sci Rep}, volume = {9}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Feb 05}, pages = {1404}, abstract = {

The relationship between alcohol consumption and mortality generally exhibits a U-shaped curve. The longevity observed with moderate alcohol consumption may be explained by other confounding factors, and, if such a relationship is present, the mechanism is not well understood. Indeed, the optimal amount of alcohol consumption for health has yet to be determined. Leukocyte telomere length is an emerging quantifiable marker of biological age and health, and a shorter telomere length is a predictor of increased mortality. Because leukocyte telomere length is a quantifiable and objectively measurable biomarker of aging, we sought to identify the amount of alcohol consumption associated with the longest telomere length and least telomere length attrition. Among over 2,000 participants from two distinct cohort studies, we found no pattern of alcohol consumption that was associated with longer telomere length or less telomere length attrition over time. Binge drinking may reduce telomere length. Using telomere length as a marker of age and health, these data fail to demonstrate any benefits of alcohol consumption, even when consumed in moderation.

}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-019-38904-0}, author = {Dixit, Shalini and Whooley, Mary A and Vittinghoff, Eric and Roberts, Jason D and Heckbert, Susan R and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Lin, Jue and Leung, Cindy and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {8271, title = {{Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease progression and risk factors: A standardized comparison between six large data sets}, journal = {Alzheimers Dement (N Y)}, volume = {5}, year = {2019}, pages = {515{\textendash}523}, abstract = {There exist a large number of cohort studies that have been used to identify genetic and biological risk factors for developing Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD). However, there is a disagreement between studies as to how strongly these risk factors affect the rate of progression through diagnostic groups toward AD. We have calculated the probability of transitioning through diagnostic groups in six studies and considered how uncertainty around the strength of the effect of these risk factors affects estimates of the distribution of individuals in each diagnostic group in an AD clinical trial simulator. In this work, we identify the optimal choice of widely collected variables for comparing data sets and calculating probabilities of progression toward AD. We use the estimated transition probabilities to inform stochastic simulations of AD progression that are based on a Markov model and compare predicted incidence rates to those in a community-based study, the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, author = {Evans, S. and McRae-McKee, K. and Hadjichrysanthou, C. and Wong, M. M. and Ames, D. and Lopez, O. and de Wolf, F. and Anderson, R. M.} } @article {7973, title = {Assessment of the Relationship Between Genetic Determinants of Thyroid Function and Atrial Fibrillation: A Mendelian Randomization Study.}, journal = {JAMA Cardiol}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Jan 23}, abstract = {

Importance: Increased free thyroxine (FT4) and decreased thyrotropin are associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) in observational studies, but direct involvement is unclear.

Objective: To evaluate the potential direct involvement of thyroid traits on AF.

Design, Setting, and Participants: Study-level mendelian randomization (MR) included 11 studies, and summary-level MR included 55 114 AF cases and 482 295 referents, all of European ancestry.

Exposures: Genomewide significant variants were used as instruments for standardized FT4 and thyrotropin levels within the reference range, standardized triiodothyronine (FT3):FT4 ratio, hypothyroidism, standardized thyroid peroxidase antibody levels, and hyperthyroidism. Mendelian randomization used genetic risk scores in study-level analysis or individual single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 2-sample MR for the summary-level data.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Prevalent and incident AF.

Results: The study-level analysis included 7679 individuals with AF and 49 233 referents (mean age [standard error], 62 [3] years; 15 859 men [29.7\%]). In study-level random-effects meta-analysis, the pooled hazard ratio of FT4 levels (nanograms per deciliter) for incident AF was 1.55 (95\% CI, 1.09-2.20; P = .02; I2 = 76\%) and the pooled odds ratio (OR) for prevalent AF was 2.80 (95\% CI, 1.41-5.54; P = .003; I2 = 64\%) in multivariable-adjusted analyses. The FT4 genetic risk score was associated with an increase in FT4 by 0.082 SD (standard error, 0.007; P < .001) but not with incident AF (risk ratio, 0.84; 95\% CI, 0.62-1.14; P = .27) or prevalent AF (OR, 1.32; 95\% CI, 0.64-2.73; P = .46). Similarly, in summary-level inverse-variance weighted random-effects MR, gene-based FT4 within the reference range was not associated with AF (OR, 1.01; 95\% CI, 0.89-1.14; P = .88). However, gene-based increased FT3:FT4 ratio, increased thyrotropin within the reference range, and hypothyroidism were associated with AF with inverse-variance weighted random-effects OR of 1.33 (95\% CI, 1.08-1.63; P = .006), 0.88 (95\% CI, 0.84-0.92; P < .001), and 0.94 (95\% CI, 0.90-0.99; P = .009), respectively, and robust to tests of horizontal pleiotropy. However, the subset of hypothyroidism single-nucleotide polymorphisms involved in autoimmunity and thyroid peroxidase antibodies levels were not associated with AF. Gene-based hyperthyroidism was associated with AF with MR-Egger OR of 1.31 (95\% CI, 1.05-1.63; P = .02) with evidence of horizontal pleiotropy (P = .045).

Conclusions and Relevance: Genetically increased FT3:FT4 ratio and hyperthyroidism, but not FT4 within the reference range, were associated with increased AF, and increased thyrotropin within the reference range and hypothyroidism were associated with decreased AF, supporting a pathway involving the pituitary-thyroid-cardiac axis.

}, issn = {2380-6591}, doi = {10.1001/jamacardio.2018.4635}, author = {Ellervik, Christina and Roselli, Carolina and Christophersen, Ingrid E and Alonso, Alvaro and Pietzner, Maik and Sitlani, Collen M and Trompet, Stella and Arking, Dan E and Geelhoed, Bastiaan and Guo, Xiuqing and Kleber, Marcus E and Lin, Henry J and Lin, Honghuang and Macfarlane, Peter and Selvin, Elizabeth and Shaffer, Christian and Smith, Albert V and Verweij, Niek and Weiss, Stefan and Cappola, Anne R and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Heckbert, Susan and Mooijaart, Simon and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and Roden, Dan and Stott, David J and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Benjamin, Emelia J and Delgado, Graciela and Ellinor, Patrick and Homuth, Georg and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Jukema, Johan W and Lubitz, Steven A and Mora, Samia and Rienstra, Michiel and Rotter, Jerome I and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Taylor, Kent D and van der Harst, Pim and Albert, Christine M and Chasman, Daniel I} } @article {8521, title = {{Association of dietary folate and vitamin B-12 intake with genome-wide DNA methylation in blood: a large-scale epigenome-wide association analysis in 5841 individuals}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {110}, year = {2019}, month = {08}, pages = {437{\textendash}450}, abstract = {Folate and vitamin B-12 are essential micronutrients involved in the donation of methyl groups in cellular metabolism. However, associations between intake of these nutrients and genome-wide DNA methylation levels have not been studied comprehensively in humans.\ The aim of this study was to assess whether folate and/or vitamin B-12 intake are asssociated with genome-wide changes in DNA methylation in leukocytes.\ A large-scale epigenome-wide association study of folate and vitamin B-12 intake was performed on DNA from 5841 participants from 10 cohorts using Illumina 450k arrays. Folate and vitamin B-12 intakes were calculated from food-frequency questionnaires (FFQs). Continuous and categorical (low compared with high intake) linear regression mixed models were applied per cohort, controlling for confounders. A meta-analysis was performed to identify significant differentially methylated positions (DMPs) and regions (DMRs), and a pathway analysis was performed on the DMR annotated genes.\ The categorical model resulted in 6 DMPs, which are all negatively associated with folate intake, annotated to FAM64A, WRAP73, FRMD8, CUX1, and LCN8 genes, which have a role in cellular processes including centrosome localization, cell proliferation, and tumorigenesis. Regional analysis showed 74 folate-associated DMRs, of which 73 were negatively associated with folate intake. The most significant folate-associated DMR was a 400-base pair (bp) spanning region annotated to the LGALS3BP gene. In the categorical model, vitamin B-12 intake was associated with 29 DMRs annotated to 48 genes, of which the most significant was a 1100-bp spanning region annotated to the calcium-binding tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated gene (CABYR). Vitamin B-12 intake was not associated with DMPs.\ We identified novel epigenetic loci that are associated with folate and vitamin B-12 intake. Interestingly, we found a negative association between folate and DNA methylation. Replication of these methylation loci is necessary in future studies.}, author = {Mandaviya, P. R. and Joehanes, R. and Brody, J. and Castillo-Fernandez, J. E. and Dekkers, K. F. and Do, A. N. and Graff, M. and H?nninen, I. K. and Tanaka, T. and de Jonge, E. A. L. and Kiefte-de Jong, J. C. and Absher, D. M. and Aslibekyan, S. and de Rijke, Y. B. and Fornage, M. and Hernandez, D. G. and Hurme, M. A. and Ikram, M. A. and Jacques, P. F. and Justice, A. E. and Kiel, D. P. and Lemaitre, R. N. and Mendelson, M. M. and Mikkil?, V. and Moore, A. Z. and Pallister, T. and Raitakari, O. T. and Schalkwijk, C. G. and Sha, J. and Slagboom, E. P. E. and Smith, C. E. and Stehouwer, C. D. A. and Tsai, P. C. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and van der Kallen, C. J. H. and van Heemst, D. and Arnett, D. K. and Bandinelli, S. and Bell, J. T. and Heijmans, B. T. and Lehtim?ki, T. and Levy, D. and North, K. E. and Sotoodehnia, N. and van Greevenbroek, M. M. J. and van Meurs, J. B. J. and Heil, S. G.} } @article {7989, title = {Association of variants in HTRA1 and NOTCH3 with MRI-defined extremes of cerebral small vessel disease in older subjects.}, journal = {Brain}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Mar 11}, abstract = {

We report a composite extreme phenotype design using distribution of white matter hyperintensities and brain infarcts in a population-based cohort of older persons for gene-mapping of cerebral small vessel disease. We demonstrate its application in the 3C-Dijon whole exome sequencing (WES) study (n = 1924, nWESextremes = 512), with both single variant and gene-based association tests. We used other population-based cohort studies participating in the CHARGE consortium for replication, using whole exome sequencing (nWES = 2,868, nWESextremes = 956) and genome-wide genotypes (nGW = 9924, nGWextremes = 3308). We restricted our study to candidate genes known to harbour mutations for Mendelian small vessel disease: NOTCH3, HTRA1, COL4A1, COL4A2 and TREX1. We identified significant associations of a common intronic variant in HTRA1, rs2293871 using single variant association testing (Pdiscovery = 8.21 {\texttimes} 10-5, Preplication = 5.25 {\texttimes} 10-3, Pcombined = 4.72 {\texttimes} 10-5) and of NOTCH3 using gene-based tests (Pdiscovery = 1.61 {\texttimes} 10-2, Preplication = 3.99 {\texttimes} 10-2, Pcombined = 5.31 {\texttimes} 10-3). Follow-up analysis identified significant association of rs2293871 with small vessel ischaemic stroke, and two blood expression quantitative trait loci of HTRA1 in linkage disequilibrium. Additionally, we identified two participants in the 3C-Dijon cohort (0.4\%) carrying heterozygote genotypes at known pathogenic variants for familial small vessel disease within NOTCH3 and HTRA1. In conclusion, our proof-of-concept study provides strong evidence that using a novel composite MRI-derived phenotype for extremes of small vessel disease can facilitate the identification of genetic variants underlying small vessel disease, both common variants and those with rare and low frequency. The findings demonstrate shared mechanisms and a continuum between genes underlying Mendelian small vessel disease and those contributing to the common, multifactorial form of the disease.

}, issn = {1460-2156}, doi = {10.1093/brain/awz024}, author = {Mishra, Aniket and Chauhan, Ganesh and Violleau, Marie-Helene and Vojinovic, Dina and Jian, Xueqiu and Bis, Joshua C and Li, Shuo and Saba, Yasaman and Grenier-Boley, Benjamin and Yang, Qiong and Bartz, Traci M and Hofer, Edith and Soumar{\'e}, A{\"\i}cha and Peng, Fen and Duperron, Marie-Gabrielle and Foglio, Mario and Mosley, Thomas H and Schmidt, Reinhold and Psaty, Bruce M and Launer, Lenore J and Boerwinkle, Eric and Zhu, Yicheng and Mazoyer, Bernard and Lathrop, Mark and Bellenguez, C{\'e}line and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Ikram, M Arfan and Schmidt, Helena and Longstreth, W T and Fornage, Myriam and Seshadri, Sudha and Joutel, Anne and Tzourio, Christophe and Debette, Stephanie} } @article {8198, title = {Associations of autozygosity with a broad range of human phenotypes.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {10}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Oct 31}, pages = {4957}, abstract = {

In many species, the offspring of related parents suffer reduced reproductive success, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. In humans, the importance of this effect has remained unclear, partly because reproduction between close relatives is both rare and frequently associated with confounding social factors. Here, using genomic inbreeding coefficients (F) for >1.4 million individuals, we show that F is significantly associated (p < 0.0005) with apparently deleterious changes in 32 out of 100 traits analysed. These changes are associated with runs of homozygosity (ROH), but not with common variant homozygosity, suggesting that genetic variants associated with inbreeding depression are predominantly rare. The effect on fertility is striking: F equivalent to the offspring of first cousins is associated with a 55\% decrease [95\% CI 44-66\%] in the odds of having children. Finally, the effects of F are confirmed within full-sibling pairs, where the variation in F is independent of all environmental confounding.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-019-12283-6}, author = {Clark, David W and Okada, Yukinori and Moore, Kristjan H S and Mason, Dan and Pirastu, Nicola and Gandin, Ilaria and Mattsson, Hannele and Barnes, Catriona L K and Lin, Kuang and Zhao, Jing Hua and Deelen, Patrick and Rohde, Rebecca and Schurmann, Claudia and Guo, Xiuqing and Giulianini, Franco and Zhang, Weihua and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Karlsson, Robert and Bao, Yanchun and Bartz, Traci M and Baumbach, Clemens and Biino, Ginevra and Bixley, Matthew J and Brumat, Marco and Chai, Jin-Fang and Corre, Tanguy and Cousminer, Diana L and Dekker, Annelot M and Eccles, David A and van Eijk, Kristel R and Fuchsberger, Christian and Gao, He and Germain, Marine and Gordon, Scott D and de Haan, Hugoline G and Harris, Sarah E and Hofer, Edith and Huerta-Chagoya, Alicia and Igartua, Catherine and Jansen, Iris E and Jia, Yucheng and Kacprowski, Tim and Karlsson, Torgny and Kleber, Marcus E and Li, Shengchao Alfred and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Mahajan, Anubha and Matsuda, Koichi and Meidtner, Karina and Meng, Weihua and Montasser, May E and van der Most, Peter J and Munz, Matthias and Nutile, Teresa and Palviainen, Teemu and Prasad, Gauri and Prasad, Rashmi B and Priyanka, Tallapragada Divya Sri and Rizzi, Federica and Salvi, Erika and Sapkota, Bishwa R and Shriner, Daniel and Skotte, Line and Smart, Melissa C and Smith, Albert Vernon and van der Spek, Ashley and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Strawbridge, Rona J and Tajuddin, Salman M and Trompet, Stella and Turman, Constance and Verweij, Niek and Viberti, Clara and Wang, Lihua and Warren, Helen R and Wootton, Robyn E and Yanek, Lisa R and Yao, Jie and Yousri, Noha A and Zhao, Wei and Adeyemo, Adebowale A and Afaq, Saima and Aguilar-Salinas, Carlos Alberto and Akiyama, Masato and Albert, Matthew L and Allison, Matthew A and Alver, Maris and Aung, Tin and Azizi, Fereidoun and Bentley, Amy R and Boeing, Heiner and Boerwinkle, Eric and Borja, Judith B and de Borst, Gert J and Bottinger, Erwin P and Broer, Linda and Campbell, Harry and Chanock, Stephen and Chee, Miao-Li and Chen, Guanjie and Chen, Yii-der I and Chen, Zhengming and Chiu, Yen-Feng and Cocca, Massimiliano and Collins, Francis S and Concas, Maria Pina and Corley, Janie and Cugliari, Giovanni and van Dam, Rob M and Damulina, Anna and Daneshpour, Maryam S and Day, Felix R and Delgado, Graciela E and Dhana, Klodian and Doney, Alexander S F and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Doumatey, Ayo P and Dzimiri, Nduna and Ebenesersd{\'o}ttir, S Sunna and Elliott, Joshua and Elliott, Paul and Ewert, Ralf and Felix, Janine F and Fischer, Krista and Freedman, Barry I and Girotto, Giorgia and Goel, Anuj and G{\"o}gele, Martin and Goodarzi, Mark O and Graff, Mariaelisa and Granot-Hershkovitz, Einat and Grodstein, Francine and Guarrera, Simonetta and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Guity, Kamran and Gunnarsson, Bjarni and Guo, Yu and Hagenaars, Saskia P and Haiman, Christopher A and Halevy, Avner and Harris, Tamara B and Hedayati, Mehdi and van Heel, David A and Hirata, Makoto and H{\"o}fer, Imo and Hsiung, Chao Agnes and Huang, Jinyan and Hung, Yi-Jen and Ikram, M Arfan and Jagadeesan, Anuradha and Jousilahti, Pekka and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kanai, Masahiro and Kerrison, Nicola D and Kessler, Thorsten and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Khor, Chiea Chuen and de Kleijn, Dominique P V and Koh, Woon-Puay and Kolcic, Ivana and Kraft, Peter and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernhard K and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Kuusisto, Johanna and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lawlor, Deborah A and Lee, I-Te and Lee, Wen-Jane and Lerch, Markus M and Li, Liming and Liu, Jianjun and Loh, Marie and London, Stephanie J and Loomis, Stephanie and Lu, Yingchang and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Manichaikul, Ani W and Manunta, Paolo and M{\'a}sson, G{\'\i}sli and Matoba, Nana and Mei, Xue W and Meisinger, Christa and Meitinger, Thomas and Mezzavilla, Massimo and Milani, Lili and Millwood, Iona Y and Momozawa, Yukihide and Moore, Amy and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and Moreno-Macias, Hortensia and Mori, Trevor A and Morrison, Alanna C and Muka, Taulant and Murakami, Yoshinori and Murray, Alison D and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Nalls, Mike A and Nauck, Matthias and Neville, Matt J and Nolte, Ilja M and Ong, Ken K and Orozco, Lorena and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and P{\'a}lsson, Gunnar and Pankow, James S and Pattaro, Cristian and Pattie, Alison and Polasek, Ozren and Poulter, Neil and Pramstaller, Peter P and Quintana-Murci, Lluis and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Ralhan, Sarju and Rao, Dabeeru C and van Rheenen, Wouter and Rich, Stephen S and Ridker, Paul M and Rietveld, Cornelius A and Robino, Antonietta and van Rooij, Frank J A and Ruggiero, Daniela and Saba, Yasaman and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Sala, Cinzia Felicita and Salomaa, Veikko and Sandow, Kevin and Schmidt, Helena and Scott, Laura J and Scott, William R and Sedaghati-Khayat, Bahareh and Sennblad, Bengt and van Setten, Jessica and Sever, Peter J and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Shi, Yuan and Shrestha, Smeeta and Shukla, Sharvari Rahul and Sigurdsson, Jon K and Sikka, Timo Tonis and Singh, Jai Rup and Smith, Blair H and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Stanton, Alice and Starr, John M and Stefansdottir, Lilja and Straker, Leon and Sulem, Patrick and Sveinbjornsson, Gardar and Swertz, Morris A and Taylor, Adele M and Taylor, Kent D and Terzikhan, Natalie and Tham, Yih-Chung and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tillander, Annika and Tracy, Russell P and Tusi{\'e}-Luna, Teresa and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Vaccargiu, Simona and Vangipurapu, Jagadish and Veldink, Jan H and Vitart, Veronique and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Vuoksimaa, Eero and Wakil, Salma M and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wander, Gurpreet S and Wang, Ya Xing and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wild, Sarah and Yajnik, Chittaranjan S and Yuan, Jian-Min and Zeng, Lingyao and Zhang, Liang and Zhou, Jie and Amin, Najaf and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Bakker, Stephan J L and Becker, Diane M and Lehne, Benjamin and Bennett, David A and van den Berg, Leonard H and Berndt, Sonja I and Bharadwaj, Dwaipayan and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bochud, Murielle and Boehnke, Mike and Bouchard, Claude and Bradfield, Jonathan P and Brody, Jennifer A and Campbell, Archie and Carmi, Shai and Caulfield, Mark J and Cesarini, David and Chambers, John C and Chandak, Giriraj Ratan and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Ciullo, Marina and Cornelis, Marilyn and Cusi, Daniele and Smith, George Davey and Deary, Ian J and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Ellinghaus, David and Erdmann, Jeanette and Eriksson, Johan G and Evangelou, Evangelos and Evans, Michele K and Faul, Jessica D and Feenstra, Bjarke and Feitosa, Mary and Foisy, Sylvain and Franke, Andre and Friedlander, Yechiel and Gasparini, Paolo and Gieger, Christian and Gonzalez, Clicerio and Goyette, Philippe and Grant, Struan F A and Griffiths, Lyn R and Groop, Leif and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hakonarson, Hakon and Hamsten, Anders and van der Harst, Pim and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Hicks, Andrew A and Hochner, Hagit and Huikuri, Heikki and Hunt, Steven C and Jaddoe, Vincent W V and De Jager, Philip L and Johannesson, Magnus and Johansson, Asa and Jonas, Jost B and Jukema, J Wouter and Junttila, Juhani and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kardia, Sharon L R and Karpe, Fredrik and Kumari, Meena and Laakso, Markku and van der Laan, Sander W and Lahti, Jari and Laudes, Matthias and Lea, Rodney A and Lieb, Wolfgang and Lumley, Thomas and Martin, Nicholas G and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Matullo, Giuseppe and McCarthy, Mark I and Medland, Sarah E and Merriman, Tony R and Metspalu, Andres and Meyer, Brian F and Mohlke, Karen L and Montgomery, Grant W and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis and Munroe, Patricia B and North, Kari E and Nyholt, Dale R and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffery R and Ober, Carole and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Palmas, Walter and Palmer, Colin and Pasterkamp, Gerard G and Patin, Etienne and Pennell, Craig E and Perusse, Louis and Peyser, Patricia A and Pirastu, Mario and Polderman, Tinca J C and Porteous, David J and Posthuma, Danielle and Psaty, Bruce M and Rioux, John D and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rotimi, Charles and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and den Ruijter, Hester M and Sanghera, Dharambir K and Sattar, Naveed and Schmidt, Reinhold and Schulze, Matthias B and Schunkert, Heribert and Scott, Robert A and Shuldiner, Alan R and Sim, Xueling and Small, Neil and Smith, Jennifer A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Tai, E-Shyong and Teumer, Alexander and Timpson, Nicholas J and Toniolo, Daniela and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and Vollenweider, Peter and Wang, Carol A and Weir, David R and Whitfield, John B and Wijmenga, Cisca and Wong, Tien-Yin and Wright, John and Yang, Jingyun and Yu, Lei and Zemel, Babette S and Zonderman, Alan B and Perola, Markus and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Kooner, Jaspal S and Chasman, Daniel I and Loos, Ruth J F and Franceschini, Nora and Franke, Lude and Haley, Chris S and Hayward, Caroline and Walters, Robin G and Perry, John R B and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Helgason, Agnar and Stefansson, Kari and Joshi, Peter K and Kubo, Michiaki and Wilson, James F} } @article {8270, title = {{Associations of circulating very-long-chain saturated fatty acids and incident type 2 diabetes: a pooled analysis of prospective cohort studies}, journal = {Am. J. Clin. Nutr.}, volume = {109}, year = {2019}, month = {04}, pages = {1216{\textendash}1223}, abstract = {Saturated fatty acids (SFAs) of different chain lengths have unique metabolic and biological effects, and a small number of recent studies suggest that higher circulating concentrations of the very-long-chain SFAs (VLSFAs) arachidic acid (20:0), behenic acid (22:0), and lignoceric acid (24:0) are associated with a lower risk of diabetes. Confirmation of these findings in a large and diverse population is needed.\ We investigated the associations of circulating VLSFAs 20:0, 22:0, and 24:0 with incident type 2 diabetes in prospective studies.\ Twelve studies that are part of the Fatty Acids and Outcomes Research Consortium participated in the analysis. Using Cox or logistic regression within studies and an inverse-variance-weighted meta-analysis across studies, we examined the associations of VLSFAs 20:0, 22:0, and 24:0 with incident diabetes among 51,431 participants.\ There were 14,276 cases of incident diabetes across participating studies. Higher circulating concentrations of 20:0, 22:0, and 24:0 were each associated with a lower risk of incident diabetes. Pooling across cohorts, the RR (95\% CI) for incident diabetes comparing the 90th percentile to the 10th percentile was 0.78 (0.70, 0.87) for 20:0, 0.84 (0.77, 0.91) for 22:0, and 0.75 (0.69, 0.83) for 24:0 after adjustment for demographic, lifestyle, adiposity, and other health factors. Results were fully attenuated in exploratory models that adjusted for circulating 16:0 and triglycerides.\ Results from this pooled analysis indicate that higher concentrations of circulating VLSFAs 20:0, 22:0, and 24:0 are each associated with a lower risk of diabetes.}, author = {Fretts, A. M. and Imamura, F. and Marklund, M. and Micha, R. and Wu, J. H. Y. and Murphy, R. A. and Chien, K. L. and McKnight, B. and Tintle, N. and Forouhi, N. G. and Qureshi, W. T. and Virtanen, J. K. and Wong, K. and Wood, A. C. and Lankinen, M. and Rajaobelina, K. and Harris, T. B. and Djouss?, L. and Harris, B. and Wareham, N. J. and Steffen, L. M. and Laakso, M. and Veenstra, J. and Samieri, C. and Brouwer, I. A. and Yu, C. I. and Koulman, A. and Steffen, B. T. and Helmer, C. and Sotoodehnia, N. and Siscovick, D. and Gudnason, V. and Wagenknecht, L. and Voutilainen, S. and Tsai, M. Y. and Uusitupa, M. and Kalsbeek, A. and Berr, C. and Mozaffarian, D. and Lemaitre, R. N.} } @article {8044, title = {Associations of variants In the hexokinase 1 and interleukin 18 receptor regions with oxyhemoglobin saturation during sleep.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {15}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 04}, pages = {e1007739}, abstract = {

Sleep disordered breathing (SDB)-related overnight hypoxemia is associated with cardiometabolic disease and other comorbidities. Understanding the genetic bases for variations in nocturnal hypoxemia may help understand mechanisms influencing oxygenation and SDB-related mortality. We conducted genome-wide association tests across 10 cohorts and 4 populations to identify genetic variants associated with three correlated measures of overnight oxyhemoglobin saturation: average and minimum oxyhemoglobin saturation during sleep and the percent of sleep with oxyhemoglobin saturation under 90\%. The discovery sample consisted of 8,326 individuals. Variants with p < 1 {\texttimes} 10(-6) were analyzed in a replication group of 14,410 individuals. We identified 3 significantly associated regions, including 2 regions in multi-ethnic analyses (2q12, 10q22). SNPs in the 2q12 region associated with minimum SpO2 (rs78136548 p = 2.70 {\texttimes} 10(-10)). SNPs at 10q22 were associated with all three traits including average SpO2 (rs72805692 p = 4.58 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). SNPs in both regions were associated in over 20,000 individuals and are supported by prior associations or functional evidence. Four additional significant regions were detected in secondary sex-stratified and combined discovery and replication analyses, including a region overlapping Reelin, a known marker of respiratory complex neurons.These are the first genome-wide significant findings reported for oxyhemoglobin saturation during sleep, a phenotype of high clinical interest. Our replicated associations with HK1 and IL18R1 suggest that variants in inflammatory pathways, such as the biologically-plausible NLRP3 inflammasome, may contribute to nocturnal hypoxemia.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cell Adhesion Molecules, Neuronal, Computational Biology, Extracellular Matrix Proteins, Female, Gene Regulatory Networks, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hexokinase, Humans, Hypoxia, Interleukin-18 Receptor alpha Subunit, Male, Middle Aged, Nerve Tissue Proteins, NLR Family, Pyrin Domain-Containing 3 Protein, Oxygen, Oxyhemoglobins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Serine Endopeptidases, Sleep, Sleep Apnea Syndromes, Young Adult}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1007739}, author = {Cade, Brian E and Chen, Han and Stilp, Adrienne M and Louie, Tin and Ancoli-Israel, Sonia and Arens, Raanan and Barfield, Richard and Below, Jennifer E and Cai, Jianwen and Conomos, Matthew P and Evans, Daniel S and Frazier-Wood, Alexis C and Gharib, Sina A and Gleason, Kevin J and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Hillman, David R and Johnson, W Craig and Lederer, David J and Lee, Jiwon and Loredo, Jose S and Mei, Hao and Mukherjee, Sutapa and Patel, Sanjay R and Post, Wendy S and Purcell, Shaun M and Ramos, Alberto R and Reid, Kathryn J and Rice, Ken and Shah, Neomi A and Sofer, Tamar and Taylor, Kent D and Thornton, Timothy A and Wang, Heming and Yaffe, Kristine and Zee, Phyllis C and Hanis, Craig L and Palmer, Lyle J and Rotter, Jerome I and Stone, Katie L and Tranah, Gregory J and Wilson, James G and Sunyaev, Shamil R and Laurie, Cathy C and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Saxena, Richa and Lin, Xihong and Redline, Susan} } @article {8047, title = {Biomarkers of Dietary Omega-6 Fatty Acids and Incident Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {139}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 May 21}, pages = {2422-2436}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Global dietary recommendations for and cardiovascular effects of linoleic acid, the major dietary omega-6 fatty acid, and its major metabolite, arachidonic acid, remain controversial. To address this uncertainty and inform international recommendations, we evaluated how in vivo circulating and tissue levels of linoleic acid (LA) and arachidonic acid (AA) relate to incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) across multiple international studies.

METHODS: We performed harmonized, de novo, individual-level analyses in a global consortium of 30 prospective observational studies from 13 countries. Multivariable-adjusted associations of circulating and adipose tissue LA and AA biomarkers with incident total CVD and subtypes (coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, cardiovascular mortality) were investigated according to a prespecified analytic plan. Levels of LA and AA, measured as the percentage of total fatty acids, were evaluated linearly according to their interquintile range (ie, the range between the midpoint of the first and fifth quintiles), and categorically by quintiles. Study-specific results were pooled using inverse-variance-weighted meta-analysis. Heterogeneity was explored by age, sex, race, diabetes mellitus, statin use, aspirin use, omega-3 levels, and fatty acid desaturase 1 genotype (when available).

RESULTS: In 30 prospective studies with medians of follow-up ranging 2.5 to 31.9 years, 15 198 incident cardiovascular events occurred among 68 659 participants. Higher levels of LA were significantly associated with lower risks of total CVD, cardiovascular mortality, and ischemic stroke, with hazard ratios per interquintile range of 0.93 (95\% CI, 0.88-0.99), 0.78 (0.70-0.85), and 0.88 (0.79-0.98), respectively, and nonsignificantly with lower coronary heart disease risk (0.94; 0.88-1.00). Relationships were similar for LA evaluated across quintiles. AA levels were not associated with higher risk of cardiovascular outcomes; in a comparison of extreme quintiles, higher levels were associated with lower risk of total CVD (0.92; 0.86-0.99). No consistent heterogeneity by population subgroups was identified in the observed relationships.

CONCLUSIONS: In pooled global analyses, higher in vivo circulating and tissue levels of LA and possibly AA were associated with lower risk of major cardiovascular events. These results support a favorable role for LA in CVD prevention.

}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.118.038908}, author = {Marklund, Matti and Wu, Jason H Y and Imamura, Fumiaki and Del Gobbo, Liana C and Fretts, Amanda and de Goede, Janette and Shi, Peilin and Tintle, Nathan and Wennberg, Maria and Aslibekyan, Stella and Chen, Tzu-An and de Oliveira Otto, Marcia C and Hirakawa, Yoichiro and Eriksen, Helle H{\o}jmark and Kr{\"o}ger, Janine and Laguzzi, Federica and Lankinen, Maria and Murphy, Rachel A and Prem, Kiesha and Samieri, Cecilia and Virtanen, Jyrki and Wood, Alexis C and Wong, Kerry and Yang, Wei-Sin and Zhou, Xia and Baylin, Ana and Boer, Jolanda M A and Brouwer, Ingeborg A and Campos, Hannia and Chaves, Paulo H M and Chien, Kuo-Liong and de Faire, Ulf and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and El-Abbadi, Naglaa and Forouhi, Nita G and Michael Gaziano, J and Geleijnse, Johanna M and Gigante, Bruna and Giles, Graham and Guallar, Eliseo and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara and Harris, William S and Helmer, Catherine and Hellenius, Mai-Lis and Hodge, Allison and Hu, Frank B and Jacques, Paul F and Jansson, Jan-H{\r a}kan and Kalsbeek, Anya and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Koh, Woon-Puay and Laakso, Markku and Leander, Karin and Lin, Hung-Ju and Lind, Lars and Luben, Robert and Luo, Juhua and McKnight, Barbara and Mursu, Jaakko and Ninomiya, Toshiharu and Overvad, Kim and Psaty, Bruce M and Rimm, Eric and Schulze, Matthias B and Siscovick, David and Skjelbo Nielsen, Michael and Smith, Albert V and Steffen, Brian T and Steffen, Lyn and Sun, Qi and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Tsai, Michael Y and Tunstall-Pedoe, Hugh and Uusitupa, Matti I J and van Dam, Rob M and Veenstra, Jenna and Monique Verschuren, W M and Wareham, Nick and Willett, Walter and Woodward, Mark and Yuan, Jian-Min and Micha, Renata and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Riserus, Ulf} } @article {8507, title = {Blood Leukocyte DNA Methylation Predicts Risk of Future Myocardial Infarction and Coronary Heart Disease.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {140}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 08 20}, pages = {645-657}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation is implicated in coronary heart disease (CHD), but current evidence is based on small, cross-sectional studies. We examined blood DNA methylation in relation to incident CHD across multiple prospective cohorts.

METHODS: Nine population-based cohorts from the United States and Europe profiled epigenome-wide blood leukocyte DNA methylation using the Illumina Infinium 450k microarray, and prospectively ascertained CHD events including coronary insufficiency/unstable angina, recognized myocardial infarction, coronary revascularization, and coronary death. Cohorts conducted race-specific analyses adjusted for age, sex, smoking, education, body mass index, blood cell type proportions, and technical variables. We conducted fixed-effect meta-analyses across cohorts.

RESULTS: Among 11 461 individuals (mean age 64 years, 67\% women, 35\% African American) free of CHD at baseline, 1895 developed CHD during a mean follow-up of 11.2 years. Methylation levels at 52 CpG (cytosine-phosphate-guanine) sites were associated with incident CHD or myocardial infarction (false discovery rate<0.05). These CpGs map to genes with key roles in calcium regulation (ATP2B2, CASR, GUCA1B, HPCAL1), and genes identified in genome- and epigenome-wide studies of serum calcium (CASR), serum calcium-related risk of CHD (CASR), coronary artery calcified plaque (PTPRN2), and kidney function (CDH23, HPCAL1), among others. Mendelian randomization analyses supported a causal effect of DNA methylation on incident CHD; these CpGs map to active regulatory regions proximal to long non-coding RNA transcripts.

CONCLUSION: Methylation of blood-derived DNA is associated with risk of future CHD across diverse populations and may serve as an informative tool for gaining further insight on the development of CHD.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Cohort Studies, Coronary Disease, CpG Islands, DNA Methylation, Europe, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Incidence, Leukocytes, Male, Middle Aged, Myocardial Infarction, Population Groups, Prognosis, Prospective Studies, Risk, United States}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.118.039357}, author = {Agha, Golareh and Mendelson, Michael M and Ward-Caviness, Cavin K and Joehanes, Roby and Huan, Tianxiao and Gondalia, Rahul and Salfati, Elias and Brody, Jennifer A and Fiorito, Giovanni and Bressler, Jan and Chen, Brian H and Ligthart, Symen and Guarrera, Simonetta and Colicino, Elena and Just, Allan C and Wahl, Simone and Gieger, Christian and Vandiver, Amy R and Tanaka, Toshiko and Hernandez, Dena G and Pilling, Luke C and Singleton, Andrew B and Sacerdote, Carlotta and Krogh, Vittorio and Panico, Salvatore and Tumino, Rosario and Li, Yun and Zhang, Guosheng and Stewart, James D and Floyd, James S and Wiggins, Kerri L and Rotter, Jerome I and Multhaup, Michael and Bakulski, Kelly and Horvath, Steven and Tsao, Philip S and Absher, Devin M and Vokonas, Pantel and Hirschhorn, Joel and Fallin, M Daniele and Liu, Chunyu and Bandinelli, Stefania and Boerwinkle, Eric and Dehghan, Abbas and Schwartz, Joel D and Psaty, Bruce M and Feinberg, Andrew P and Hou, Lifang and Ferrucci, Luigi and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Matullo, Giuseppe and Peters, Annette and Fornage, Myriam and Assimes, Themistocles L and Whitsel, Eric A and Levy, Daniel and Baccarelli, Andrea A} } @article {8109, title = {A catalog of genetic loci associated with kidney function from analyses of a million individuals.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {51}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 06}, pages = {957-972}, abstract = {

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is responsible for a public health burden with multi-systemic complications. Through trans-ancestry meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and independent replication (n = 1,046,070), we identified 264 associated loci (166 new). Of these, 147 were likely to be relevant for kidney function on the basis of associations with the alternative kidney function marker blood urea nitrogen (n = 416,178). Pathway and enrichment analyses, including mouse models with renal phenotypes, support the kidney as the main target organ. A genetic risk score for lower eGFR was associated with clinically diagnosed CKD in 452,264 independent individuals. Colocalization analyses of associations with eGFR among 783,978 European-ancestry individuals and gene expression across 46 human tissues, including tubulo-interstitial and glomerular kidney compartments, identified 17 genes differentially expressed in kidney. Fine-mapping highlighted missense driver variants in 11 genes and kidney-specific regulatory variants. These results provide a comprehensive priority list of molecular targets for translational research.

}, keywords = {Chromosome Mapping, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Inheritance Patterns, Kidney Function Tests, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Quantitative Trait, Heritable, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic, Uromodulin}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-019-0407-x}, author = {Wuttke, Matthias and Li, Yong and Li, Man and Sieber, Karsten B and Feitosa, Mary F and Gorski, Mathias and Tin, Adrienne and Wang, Lihua and Chu, Audrey Y and Hoppmann, Anselm and Kirsten, Holger and Giri, Ayush and Chai, Jin-Fang and Sveinbjornsson, Gardar and Tayo, Bamidele O and Nutile, Teresa and Fuchsberger, Christian and Marten, Jonathan and Cocca, Massimiliano and Ghasemi, Sahar and Xu, Yizhe and Horn, Katrin and Noce, Damia and van der Most, Peter J and Sedaghat, Sanaz and Yu, Zhi and Akiyama, Masato and Afaq, Saima and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Almgren, Peter and Amin, Najaf and Arnl{\"o}v, Johan and Bakker, Stephan J L and Bansal, Nisha and Baptista, Daniela and Bergmann, Sven and Biggs, Mary L and Biino, Ginevra and Boehnke, Michael and Boerwinkle, Eric and Boissel, Mathilde and Bottinger, Erwin P and Boutin, Thibaud S and Brenner, Hermann and Brumat, Marco and Burkhardt, Ralph and Butterworth, Adam S and Campana, Eric and Campbell, Archie and Campbell, Harry and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Carroll, Robert J and Catamo, Eulalia and Chambers, John C and Chee, Miao-Ling and Chee, Miao-Li and Chen, Xu and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Cheng, Yurong and Christensen, Kaare and Cifkova, Renata and Ciullo, Marina and Concas, Maria Pina and Cook, James P and Coresh, Josef and Corre, Tanguy and Sala, Cinzia Felicita and Cusi, Daniele and Danesh, John and Daw, E Warwick and de Borst, Martin H and De Grandi, Alessandro and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and de Vries, Aiko P J and Degenhardt, Frauke and Delgado, Graciela and Demirkan, Ayse and Di Angelantonio, Emanuele and Dittrich, Katalin and Divers, Jasmin and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Ehret, Georg and Elliott, Paul and Endlich, Karlhans and Evans, Michele K and Felix, Janine F and Foo, Valencia Hui Xian and Franco, Oscar H and Franke, Andre and Freedman, Barry I and Freitag-Wolf, Sandra and Friedlander, Yechiel and Froguel, Philippe and Gansevoort, Ron T and Gao, He and Gasparini, Paolo and Gaziano, J Michael and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Gieger, Christian and Girotto, Giorgia and Giulianini, Franco and G{\"o}gele, Martin and Gordon, Scott D and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Haller, Toomas and Hamet, Pavel and Harris, Tamara B and Hartman, Catharina A and Hayward, Caroline and Hellwege, Jacklyn N and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Hicks, Andrew A and Hofer, Edith and Huang, Wei and Hutri-K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Nina and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Ikram, M Arfan and Indridason, Olafur S and Ingelsson, Erik and Ising, Marcus and Jaddoe, Vincent W V and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Jonas, Jost B and Joshi, Peter K and Josyula, Navya Shilpa and Jung, Bettina and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kammerer, Candace M and Kanai, Masahiro and Kastarinen, Mika and Kerr, Shona M and Khor, Chiea-Chuen and Kiess, Wieland and Kleber, Marcus E and Koenig, Wolfgang and Kooner, Jaspal S and K{\"o}rner, Antje and Kovacs, Peter and Kraja, Aldi T and Krajcoviechova, Alena and Kramer, Holly and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernhard K and Kronenberg, Florian and Kubo, Michiaki and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Kuokkanen, Mikko and Kuusisto, Johanna and La Bianca, Martina and Laakso, Markku and Lange, Leslie A and Langefeld, Carl D and Lee, Jeannette Jen-Mai and Lehne, Benjamin and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lieb, Wolfgang and Lim, Su-Chi and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Liu, Jun and Liu, Jianjun and Loeffler, Markus and Loos, Ruth J F and Lucae, Susanne and Lukas, Mary Ann and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Mahajan, Anubha and Martin, Nicholas G and Martins, Jade and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Mascalzoni, Deborah and Matsuda, Koichi and Meisinger, Christa and Meitinger, Thomas and Melander, Olle and Metspalu, Andres and Mikaelsdottir, Evgenia K and Milaneschi, Yuri and Miliku, Kozeta and Mishra, Pashupati P and Mohlke, Karen L and Mononen, Nina and Montgomery, Grant W and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Nadkarni, Girish N and Nalls, Mike A and Nauck, Matthias and Nikus, Kjell and Ning, Boting and Nolte, Ilja M and Noordam, Raymond and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey and O{\textquoteright}Donoghue, Michelle L and Olafsson, Isleifur and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Orho-Melander, Marju and Ouwehand, Willem H and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Palmer, Nicholette D and Palsson, Runolfur and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Perls, Thomas and Perola, Markus and Pirastu, Mario and Pirastu, Nicola and Pistis, Giorgio and Podgornaia, Anna I and Polasek, Ozren and Ponte, Belen and Porteous, David J and Poulain, Tanja and Pramstaller, Peter P and Preuss, Michael H and Prins, Bram P and Province, Michael A and Rabelink, Ton J and Raffield, Laura M and Raitakari, Olli T and Reilly, Dermot F and Rettig, Rainer and Rheinberger, Myriam and Rice, Kenneth M and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rizzi, Federica and Roberts, David J and Robino, Antonietta and Rossing, Peter and Rudan, Igor and Rueedi, Rico and Ruggiero, Daniela and Ryan, Kathleen A and Saba, Yasaman and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Salomaa, Veikko and Salvi, Erika and Saum, Kai-Uwe and Schmidt, Helena and Schmidt, Reinhold and Sch{\"o}ttker, Ben and Schulz, Christina-Alexandra and Schupf, Nicole and Shaffer, Christian M and Shi, Yuan and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Blair H and Soranzo, Nicole and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Strauch, Konstantin and Stringham, Heather M and Stumvoll, Michael and Svensson, Per O and Szymczak, Silke and Tai, E-Shyong and Tajuddin, Salman M and Tan, Nicholas Y Q and Taylor, Kent D and Teren, Andrej and Tham, Yih-Chung and Thiery, Joachim and Thio, Chris H L and Thomsen, Hauke and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Toniolo, Daniela and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Tremblay, Johanne and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaccargiu, Simona and van Dam, Rob M and van der Harst, Pim and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Velez Edward, Digna R and Verweij, Niek and Vogelezang, Suzanne and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Vollenweider, Peter and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wallentin, Lars and Wang, Ya Xing and Wang, Chaolong and Waterworth, Dawn M and Bin Wei, Wen and White, Harvey and Whitfield, John B and Wild, Sarah H and Wilson, James F and Wojczynski, Mary K and Wong, Charlene and Wong, Tien-Yin and Xu, Liang and Yang, Qiong and Yasuda, Masayuki and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Zhang, Weihua and Zonderman, Alan B and Rotter, Jerome I and Bochud, Murielle and Psaty, Bruce M and Vitart, Veronique and Wilson, James G and Dehghan, Abbas and Parsa, Afshin and Chasman, Daniel I and Ho, Kevin and Morris, Andrew P and Devuyst, Olivier and Akilesh, Shreeram and Pendergrass, Sarah A and Sim, Xueling and B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and Okada, Yukinori and Edwards, Todd L and Snieder, Harold and Stefansson, Kari and Hung, Adriana M and Heid, Iris M and Scholz, Markus and Teumer, Alexander and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Pattaro, Cristian} } @article {7972, title = {Common Genetic Variation in Relation to Brachial Vascular Dimensions and Flow-Mediated Vasodilation.}, journal = {Circ Genom Precis Med}, volume = {12}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Feb}, pages = {e002409}, issn = {2574-8300}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGEN.118.002409}, author = {D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Hamburg, Naomi M and M{\"u}ller, Christian and Smith, Nicholas L and Gustafsson, Stefan and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Teumer, Alexander and Zeller, Tanja and Li, Xiaohui and Lind, Lars and Raitakari, Olli T and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Blankenberg, Stefan and McKnight, Barbara and Morris, Andrew P and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Wild, Philipp S and Nauck, Matthias and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and M{\"u}nzel, Thomas and Mitchell, Gary F and Psaty, Bruce M and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Larson, Martin G and Felix, Stephan B and Ingelsson, Erik and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Herrington, David and Benjamin, Emelia J and Schnabel, Renate B} } @article {7974, title = {Disentangling the genetics of lean mass.}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {109}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Feb 01}, pages = {276-287}, abstract = {

Background: Lean body mass (LM) plays an important role in mobility and metabolic function. We previously identified five loci associated with LM adjusted for fat mass in kilograms. Such an adjustment may reduce the power to identify genetic signals having an association with both lean mass and fat mass.

Objectives: To determine the impact of different fat mass adjustments on genetic architecture of LM and identify additional LM loci.

Methods: We performed genome-wide association analyses for whole-body LM (20 cohorts of European ancestry with n~=~38,292) measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) or bioelectrical impedance analysis, adjusted for sex, age, age2, and height with or without fat mass adjustments (Model 1 no fat adjustment; Model 2 adjustment for fat mass as a percentage of body mass; Model 3 adjustment for fat mass in kilograms).

Results: Seven single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in separate loci, including one novel LM locus (TNRC6B), were successfully replicated in an additional 47,227 individuals from 29 cohorts. Based on the strengths of the associations in Model 1 vs Model 3, we divided the LM loci into those with an effect on both lean mass and fat mass in the same direction and refer to those as "sumo wrestler" loci (FTO and MC4R). In contrast, loci with an impact specifically on LM were termed "body builder" loci (VCAN and ADAMTSL3). Using existing available genome-wide association study databases, LM increasing alleles of SNPs in sumo wrestler loci were associated with an adverse metabolic profile, whereas LM increasing alleles of SNPs in "body builder" loci were associated with metabolic protection.

Conclusions: In conclusion, we identified one novel LM locus (TNRC6B). Our results suggest that a genetically determined increase in lean mass might exert either harmful or protective effects on metabolic traits, depending on its relation to fat mass.

}, issn = {1938-3207}, doi = {10.1093/ajcn/nqy272}, author = {Karasik, David and Zillikens, M Carola and Hsu, Yi-Hsiang and Aghdassi, Ali and {\r A}kesson, Kristina and Amin, Najaf and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Bennett, David A and Bertram, Lars and Bochud, Murielle and Borecki, Ingrid B and Broer, Linda and Buchman, Aron S and Byberg, Liisa and Campbell, Harry and Campos-Obando, Natalia and Cauley, Jane A and Cawthon, Peggy M and Chambers, John C and Chen, Zhao and Cho, Nam H and Choi, Hyung Jin and Chou, Wen-Chi and Cummings, Steven R and de Groot, Lisette C P G M and De Jager, Phillip L and Demuth, Ilja and Diatchenko, Luda and Econs, Michael J and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Enneman, Anke W and Eriksson, Joel and Eriksson, Johan G and Estrada, Karol and Evans, Daniel S and Feitosa, Mary F and Fu, Mao and Gieger, Christian and Grallert, Harald and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Lenore, Launer J and Hayward, Caroline and Hofman, Albert and Homuth, Georg and Huffman, Kim M and Husted, Lise B and Illig, Thomas and Ingelsson, Erik and Ittermann, Till and Jansson, John-Olov and Johnson, Toby and Biffar, Reiner and Jordan, Joanne M and Jula, Antti and Karlsson, Magnus and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Klopp, Norman and Kloth, Jacqueline S L and Koller, Daniel L and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kraus, William E and Kritchevsky, Stephen and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Kuulasmaa, Teemu and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Lahti, Jari and Lang, Thomas and Langdahl, Bente L and Lerch, Markus M and Lewis, Joshua R and Lill, Christina and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia and Liu, Yongmei and Livshits, Gregory and Ljunggren, Osten and Loos, Ruth J F and Lorentzon, Mattias and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Luben, Robert N and Malkin, Ida and McGuigan, Fiona E and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Meitinger, Thomas and Melhus, H{\r a}kan and Mellstr{\"o}m, Dan and Micha{\"e}lsson, Karl and Mitchell, Braxton D and Morris, Andrew P and Mosekilde, Leif and Nethander, Maria and Newman, Anne B and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffery R and Oostra, Ben A and Orwoll, Eric S and Palotie, Aarno and Peacock, Munro and Perola, Markus and Peters, Annette and Prince, Richard L and Psaty, Bruce M and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Ralston, Stuart H and Ripatti, Samuli and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Robbins, John A and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Salomaa, Veikko and Satterfield, Suzanne and Schipf, Sabine and Shin, Chan Soo and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Shad B and Soranzo, Nicole and Spector, Timothy D and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Stefansson, Kari and Steinhagen-Thiessen, Elisabeth and Stolk, Lisette and Streeten, Elizabeth A and Styrkarsdottir, Unnur and Swart, Karin M A and Thompson, Patricia and Thomson, Cynthia A and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tikkanen, Emmi and Tranah, Gregory J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and van Schoor, Natasja M and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Vollenweider, Peter and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Wactawski-Wende, Jean and Walker, Mark and J Wareham, Nicholas and Waterworth, Dawn and Weedon, Michael N and Wichmann, H-Erich and Widen, Elisabeth and Williams, Frances M K and Wilson, James F and Wright, Nicole C and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Yu, Lei and Zhang, Weihua and Zhao, Jing Hua and Zhou, Yanhua and Nielson, Carrie M and Harris, Tamara B and Demissie, Serkalem and Kiel, Douglas P and Ohlsson, Claes} } @article {8526, title = {{Equalization of four cardiovascular risk algorithms after systematic recalibration: individual-participant meta-analysis of 86 prospective studies}, journal = {Eur Heart J}, volume = {40}, year = {2019}, month = {02}, pages = {621{\textendash}631}, abstract = {There is debate about the optimum algorithm for cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk estimation. We conducted head-to-head comparisons of four algorithms recommended by primary prevention guidelines, before and after {\textquoteright}recalibration{\textquoteright}, a method that adapts risk algorithms to take account of differences in the risk characteristics of the populations being studied.\ Using individual-participant data on 360 737 participants without CVD at baseline in 86 prospective studies from 22 countries, we compared the Framingham risk score (FRS), Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE), pooled cohort equations (PCE), and Reynolds risk score (RRS). We calculated measures of risk discrimination and calibration, and modelled clinical implications of initiating statin therapy in people judged to be at {\textquoteright}high{\textquoteright} 10 year CVD risk. Original risk algorithms were recalibrated using the risk factor profile and CVD incidence of target populations. The four algorithms had similar risk discrimination. Before recalibration, FRS, SCORE, and PCE over-predicted CVD risk on average by 10\%, 52\%, and 41\%, respectively, whereas RRS under-predicted by 10\%. Original versions of algorithms classified 29-39\% of individuals aged {\^a}{\textperthousand}{\textyen}40 years as high risk. By contrast, recalibration reduced this proportion to 22-24\% for every algorithm. We estimated that to prevent one CVD event, it would be necessary to initiate statin therapy in 44-51 such individuals using original algorithms, in contrast to 37-39 individuals with recalibrated algorithms.\ Before recalibration, the clinical performance of four widely used CVD risk algorithms varied substantially. By contrast, simple recalibration nearly equalized their performance and improved modelled targeting of preventive action to clinical need.}, author = {Pennells, L. and Kaptoge, S. and Wood, A. and Sweeting, M. and Zhao, X. and White, I. and Burgess, S. and Willeit, P. and Bolton, T. and Moons, K. G. M. and van der Schouw, Y. T. and Selmer, R. and Khaw, K. T. and Gudnason, V. and Assmann, G. and Amouyel, P. and Salomaa, V. and Kivimaki, M. and Nordestgaard, B. G. and Blaha, M. J. and Kuller, L. H. and Brenner, H. and Gillum, R. F. and Meisinger, C. and Ford, I. and Knuiman, M. W. and Rosengren, A. and Lawlor, D. A. and V?lzke, H. and Cooper, C. and Mar?n Iba?ez, A. and Casiglia, E. and Kauhanen, J. and Cooper, J. A. and Rodriguez, B. and Sundstr?m, J. and Barrett-Connor, E. and Dankner, R. and Nietert, P. J. and Davidson, K. W. and Wallace, R. B. and Blazer, D. G. and Bj?rkelund, C. and Donfrancesco, C. and Krumholz, H. M. and Nissinen, A. and Davis, B. R. and Coady, S. and Whincup, P. H. and J?rgensen, T. and Ducimetiere, P. and Trevisan, M. and Engstr?m, G. and Crespo, C. J. and Meade, T. W. and Visser, M. and Kromhout, D. and Kiechl, S. and Daimon, M. and Price, J. F. and G?mez de la C?mara, A. and Wouter Jukema, J. and Lamarche, B. and Onat, A. and Simons, L. A. and Kavousi, M. and Ben-Shlomo, Y. and Gallacher, J. and Dekker, J. M. and Arima, H. and Shara, N. and Tipping, R. W. and Roussel, R. and Brunner, E. J. and Koenig, W. and Sakurai, M. and Pavlovic, J. and Gansevoort, R. T. and Nagel, D. and Goldbourt, U. and Barr, E. L. M. and Palmieri, L. and Nj?lstad, I. and Sato, S. and Monique Verschuren, W. M. and Varghese, C. V. and Graham, I. and Onuma, O. and Greenland, P. and Woodward, M. and Ezzati, M. and Psaty, B. M. and Sattar, N. and Jackson, R. and Ridker, P. M. and Cook, N. R. and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, R. B. and Thompson, S. G. and Danesh, J. and Di Angelantonio, E. and Tipping, R. W. and Simpson, L. M. and Pressel, S. L. and Couper, D. J. and Nambi, V. and Matsushita, K. and Folsom, A. R. and Shaw, J. E. and Magliano, D. J. and Zimmet, P. Z. and Knuiman, M. W. and Whincup, P. H. and Wannamethee, S. G. and Willeit, J. and Santer, P. and Egger, G. and Casas, J. P. and Amuzu, A. and Ben-Shlomo, Y. and Gallacher, J. and Tikhonoff, V. and Casiglia, E. and Sutherland, S. E. and Nietert, P. J. and Cushman, M. and Psaty, B. M. and S?gaard, A. J. and H?heim, L. L. and Ariansen, I. and Tybj?rg-Hansen, A. and Jensen, G. B. and Schnohr, P. and Giampaoli, S. and Vanuzzo, D. and Panico, S. and Palmieri, L. and Balkau, B. and Bonnet, F. and Marre, M. and de la C?mara, A. G. and Rubio Herrera, M. A. and Friedlander, Y. and McCallum, J. and McLachlan, S. and Guralnik, J. and Phillips, C. L. and Khaw, K. T. and Wareham, N. and Sch?ttker, B. and Saum, K. U. and Holleczek, B. and Nissinen, A. and Tolonen, H. and Giampaoli, S. and Donfrancesco, C. and Vartiainen, E. and Jousilahti, P. and Harald, K. and D?Agostino, R. B. and Massaro, J. M. and Pencina, M. and Vasan, R. and Kayama, T. and Kato, T. and Oizumi, T. and Jespersen, J. and M?ller, L. and Bladbjerg, E. M. and Chetrit, A. and Rosengren, A. and Wilhelmsen, L. and Bj?rkelund, C. and Lissner, L. and Nagel, D. and Dennison, E. and Kiyohara, Y. and Ninomiya, T. and Doi, Y. and Rodriguez, B. and Nijpels, G. and Stehouwer, C. D. A. and Sato, S. and Kazumasa, Y. and Iso, H. and Goldbourt, U. and Salomaa, V. and Vartiainen, E. and Kurl, S. and Tuomainen, T. P. and Salonen, J. T. and Visser, M. and Deeg, D. J. H. and Meade, T. W. and Nilsson, P. M. and Hedblad, B. and Melander, O. and De Boer, I. H. and DeFilippis, A. P. and Verschuren, W. M. M. and Sattar, N. and Watt, G. and Meisinger, C. and Koenig, W. and Rosengren, A. and Kuller, L. H. and Tverdal, A. and Gillum, R. F. and Cooper, J. A. and Kirkland, S. and Shimbo, D. and Shaffer, J. and Sato, S. and Kazumasa, Y. and Iso, H. and Ducimetiere, P. and Bakker, S. J. L. and van der Harst, P. and Hillege, H. L. and Crespo, C. J. and Amouyel, P. and Dallongeville, J. and Assmann, G. and Schulte, H. and Trompet, S. and Smit, R. A. J. and Stott, D. J. and van der Schouw, Y. T. and Despr?s, J. P. and Cantin, B. and Dagenais, G. R. and Laughlin, G. and Wingard, D. and Trevisan, M. and Aspelund, T. and Eiriksdottir, G. and Gudmundsson, E. F. and Ikram, A. and van Rooij, F. J. A. and Franco, O. H. and Rueda-Ochoa, O. L. and Muka, T. and Glisic, M. and Tunstall-Pedoe, H. and V?lzke, H. and Howard, B. V. and Zhang, Y. and Jolly, S. and Gallacher, J. and Davey-Smith, G. and Can, G. and Y?ksel, H. and Nakagawa, H. and Morikawa, Y. and Miura, K. and Nj?lstad, I. and Ingelsson, M. and Giedraitis, V. and Ridker, P. M. and Gaziano, J. M. and Kivimaki, M. and Shipley, M. and Brunner, E. J. and Arndt, V. and Brenner, H. and Cook, N. and Ridker, P. M. and Ford, I. and Sattar, N. and Iba?ez, A. M. and Geleijnse, J. M.} } @article {8515, title = {{Exome sequencing of 20,791 cases of type 2 diabetes and 24,440 controls}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {570}, year = {2019}, month = {06}, pages = {71{\textendash}76}, abstract = {Protein-coding genetic variants that strongly affect disease risk can yield relevant clues to disease pathogenesis. Here we report exome-sequencing analyses of 20,791 individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and 24,440 non-diabetic control participants from 5 ancestries. We identify gene-level associations of rare variants (with minor allele frequencies of less than 0.5\%) in 4 genes at exome-wide significance, including a series of more than 30 SLC30A8 alleles that conveys protection against T2D, and in 12 gene sets, including those corresponding to T2D drug targets (P = 6.1 {\~A}{\textemdash} 10-3) and candidate genes from knockout mice (P = 5.2 {\~A}{\textemdash} 10-3). Within our study, the strongest T2D gene-level signals for rare variants explain at most 25\% of the heritability of the strongest common single-variant signals, and the gene-level effect sizes of the rare variants that we observed in established T2D drug targets will require 75,000-185,000 sequenced cases to achieve exome-wide significance. We propose a method to interpret these modest rare-variant associations and to incorporate these associations into future target or gene prioritization efforts.}, author = {Flannick, J. and Mercader, J. M. and Fuchsberger, C. and Udler, M. S. and Mahajan, A. and Wessel, J. and Teslovich, T. M. and Caulkins, L. and Koesterer, R. and Barajas-Olmos, F. and Blackwell, T. W. and Boerwinkle, E. and Brody, J. A. and Centeno-Cruz, F. and Chen, L. and Chen, S. and Contreras-Cubas, C. and C?rdova, E. and Correa, A. and Cortes, M. and DeFronzo, R. A. and Dolan, L. and Drews, K. L. and Elliott, A. and Floyd, J. S. and Gabriel, S. and Garay-Sevilla, M. E. and Garc?a-Ortiz, H. and Gross, M. and Han, S. and Heard-Costa, N. L. and Jackson, A. U. and J?rgensen, M. E. and Kang, H. M. and Kelsey, M. and Kim, B. J. and Koistinen, H. A. and Kuusisto, J. and Leader, J. B. and Linneberg, A. and Liu, C. T. and Liu, J. and Lyssenko, V. and Manning, A. K. and Marcketta, A. and Malacara-Hernandez, J. M. and Mart?nez-Hern?ndez, A. and Matsuo, K. and Mayer-Davis, E. and Mendoza-Caamal, E. and Mohlke, K. L. and Morrison, A. C. and Ndungu, A. and Ng, M. C. Y. and O{\textquoteright}Dushlaine, C. and Payne, A. J. and Pihoker, C. and Post, W. S. and Preuss, M. and Psaty, B. M. and Vasan, R. S. and Rayner, N. W. and Reiner, A. P. and Revilla-Monsalve, C. and Robertson, N. R. and Santoro, N. and Schurmann, C. and So, W. Y. and Sober?n, X. and Stringham, H. M. and Strom, T. M. and Tam, C. H. T. and Thameem, F. and Tomlinson, B. and Torres, J. M. and Tracy, R. P. and van Dam, R. M. and Vujkovic, M. and Wang, S. and Welch, R. P. and Witte, D. R. and Wong, T. Y. and Atzmon, G. and Barzilai, N. and Blangero, J. and Bonnycastle, L. L. and Bowden, D. W. and Chambers, J. C. and Chan, E. and Cheng, C. Y. and Cho, Y. S. and Collins, F. S. and de Vries, P. S. and Duggirala, R. and Glaser, B. and Gonzalez, C. and Gonzalez, M. E. and Groop, L. and Kooner, J. S. and Kwak, S. H. and Laakso, M. and Lehman, D. M. and Nilsson, P. and Spector, T. D. and Tai, E. S. and Tuomi, T. and Tuomilehto, J. and Wilson, J. G. and Aguilar-Salinas, C. A. and Bottinger, E. and Burke, B. and Carey, D. J. and Chan, J. C. N. and Dupuis, J. and Frossard, P. and Heckbert, S. R. and Hwang, M. Y. and Kim, Y. J. and Kirchner, H. L. and Lee, J. Y. and Lee, J. and Loos, R. J. F. and Ma, R. C. W. and Morris, A. D. and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, C. J. and Palmer, C. N. A. and Pankow, J. and Park, K. S. and Rasheed, A. and Saleheen, D. and Sim, X. and Small, K. S. and Teo, Y. Y. and Haiman, C. and Hanis, C. L. and Henderson, B. E. and Orozco, L. and Tusi?-Luna, T. and Dewey, F. E. and Baras, A. and Gieger, C. and Meitinger, T. and Strauch, K. and Lange, L. and Grarup, N. and Hansen, T. and Pedersen, O. and Zeitler, P. and Dabelea, D. and Abecasis, G. and Bell, G. I. and Cox, N. J. and Seielstad, M. and Sladek, R. and Meigs, J. B. and Rich, S. S. and Rotter, J. I. and Altshuler, D. and Burtt, N. P. and Scott, L. J. and Morris, A. P. and Florez, J. C. and McCarthy, M. I. and Boehnke, M.} } @article {9374, title = {{Exome-Derived Adiponectin-Associated Variants Implicate Obesity and Lipid Biology}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {105}, year = {2019}, month = {Jul}, pages = {15{\textendash}28}, abstract = {) with at least one obesity or lipid trait. Candidate genes include PRKAR2A, PTH1R, and HDAC9, which have been suggested to play roles in adipocyte differentiation or bone marrow adipose tissue. Taken together, these findings provide further insights into the processes that influence circulating adiponectin levels.}, author = {Spracklen, C. N. and Karaderi, T. and Yaghootkar, H. and Schurmann, C. and Fine, R. S. and Kutalik, Z. and Preuss, M. H. and Lu, Y. and Wittemans, L. B. L. and Adair, L. S. and Allison, M. and Amin, N. and Auer, P. L. and Bartz, T. M. and her, M. and Boehnke, M. and Borja, J. B. and Bork-Jensen, J. and Broer, L. and Chasman, D. I. and Chen, Y. I. and Chirstofidou, P. and Demirkan, A. and van Duijn, C. M. and Feitosa, M. F. and Garcia, M. E. and Graff, M. and Grallert, H. and Grarup, N. and Guo, X. and Haesser, J. and Hansen, T. and Harris, T. B. and Highland, H. M. and Hong, J. and Ikram, M. A. and Ingelsson, E. and Jackson, R. and Jousilahti, P. and nen, M. and Kizer, J. R. and Kovacs, P. and Kriebel, J. and Laakso, M. and Lange, L. A. and ki, T. and Li, J. and Li-Gao, R. and Lind, L. and Luan, J. and inen, L. P. and MacGregor, S. and Mackey, D. A. and Mahajan, A. and Mangino, M. and {\"o}, S. and McCarthy, M. I. and McKnight, B. and Medina-Gomez, C. and Meigs, J. B. and Molnos, S. and Mook-Kanamori, D. and Morris, A. P. and de Mutsert, R. and Nalls, M. A. and Nedeljkovic, I. and North, K. E. and Pennell, C. E. and Pradhan, A. D. and Province, M. A. and Raitakari, O. T. and Raulerson, C. K. and Reiner, A. P. and Ridker, P. M. and Ripatti, S. and Roberston, N. and Rotter, J. I. and Salomaa, V. and rate, A. A. and Sitlani, C. M. and Spector, T. D. and Strauch, K. and Stumvoll, M. and Taylor, K. D. and Thuesen, B. and njes, A. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and Venturini, C. and Walker, M. and Wang, C. A. and Wang, S. and Wareham, N. J. and Willems, S. M. and Willems van Dijk, K. and Wilson, J. G. and Wu, Y. and Yao, J. and Young, K. L. and Langenberg, C. and Frayling, T. M. and inen, T. O. and Lindgren, C. M. and Loos, R. J. F. and Mohlke, K. L.} } @article {9391, title = {{Exome-Derived Adiponectin-Associated Variants Implicate Obesity and Lipid Biology}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {105}, year = {2019}, month = {Sep}, pages = {670{\textendash}671}, author = {Spracklen, C. N. and Karaderi, T. and Yaghootkar, H. and Schurmann, C. and Fine, R. S. and Kutalik, Z. and Preuss, M. H. and Lu, Y. and Wittemans, L. B. L. and Adair, L. S. and Allison, M. and Amin, N. and Auer, P. L. and Bartz, T. M. and her, M. and Boehnke, M. and Borja, J. B. and Bork-Jensen, J. and Broer, L. and Chasman, D. I. and Chen, Y. I. and Chirstofidou, P. and Demirkan, A. and van Duijn, C. M. and Feitosa, M. F. and Garcia, M. E. and Graff, M. and Grallert, H. and Grarup, N. and Guo, X. and Haesser, J. and Hansen, T. and Harris, T. B. and Highland, H. M. and Hong, J. and Ikram, M. A. and Ingelsson, E. and Jackson, R. and Jousilahti, P. and nen, M. and Kizer, J. R. and Kovacs, P. and Kriebel, J. and Laakso, M. and Lange, L. A. and ki, T. and Li, J. and Li-Gao, R. and Lind, L. and Luan, J. and inen, L. P. and MacGregor, S. and Mackey, D. A. and Mahajan, A. and Mangino, M. and {\"o}, S. and McCarthy, M. I. and McKnight, B. and Medina-Gomez, C. and Meigs, J. B. and Molnos, S. and Mook-Kanamori, D. and Morris, A. P. and de Mutsert, R. and Nalls, M. A. and Nedeljkovic, I. and North, K. E. and Pennell, C. E. and Pradhan, A. D. and Province, M. A. and Raitakari, O. T. and Raulerson, C. K. and Reiner, A. P. and Ridker, P. M. and Ripatti, S. and Roberston, N. and Rotter, J. I. and Salomaa, V. and rate, A. A. and Sitlani, C. M. and Spector, T. D. and Strauch, K. and Stumvoll, M. and Taylor, K. D. and Thuesen, B. and njes, A. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and Venturini, C. and Walker, M. and Wang, C. A. and Wang, S. and Wareham, N. J. and Willems, S. M. and Willems van Dijk, K. and Wilson, J. G. and Wu, Y. and Yao, J. and Young, K. L. and Langenberg, C. and Frayling, T. M. and inen, T. O. and Lindgren, C. M. and Loos, R. J. F. and Mohlke, K. L.} } @article {8206, title = {Genetic architecture of subcortical brain structures in 38,851 individuals.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {51}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Nov}, pages = {1624-1636}, abstract = {

Subcortical brain structures are integral to motion, consciousness, emotions and learning. We identified common genetic variation related to the volumes of the nucleus accumbens, amygdala, brainstem, caudate nucleus, globus pallidus, putamen and thalamus, using genome-wide association analyses in almost 40,000 individuals from CHARGE, ENIGMA and UK Biobank. We show that variability in subcortical volumes is heritable, and identify 48 significantly associated loci (40 novel at the time of analysis). Annotation of these loci by utilizing gene expression, methylation and neuropathological data identified 199 genes putatively implicated in neurodevelopment, synaptic signaling, axonal transport, apoptosis, inflammation/infection and susceptibility to neurological disorders. This set of genes is significantly enriched for Drosophila orthologs associated with neurodevelopmental phenotypes, suggesting evolutionarily conserved mechanisms. Our findings uncover novel biology and potential drug targets underlying brain development and disease.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-019-0511-y}, author = {Satizabal, Claudia L and Adams, Hieab H H and Hibar, Derrek P and White, Charles C and Knol, Maria J and Stein, Jason L and Scholz, Markus and Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Jahanshad, Neda and Roshchupkin, Gennady V and Smith, Albert V and Bis, Joshua C and Jian, Xueqiu and Luciano, Michelle and Hofer, Edith and Teumer, Alexander and van der Lee, Sven J and Yang, Jingyun and Yanek, Lisa R and Lee, Tom V and Li, Shuo and Hu, Yanhui and Koh, Jia Yu and Eicher, John D and Desrivi{\`e}res, Sylvane and Arias-Vasquez, Alejandro and Chauhan, Ganesh and Athanasiu, Lavinia and Renter{\'\i}a, Miguel E and Kim, Sungeun and Hoehn, David and Armstrong, Nicola J and Chen, Qiang and Holmes, Avram J and den Braber, Anouk and Kloszewska, Iwona and Andersson, Micael and Espeseth, Thomas and Grimm, Oliver and Abramovic, Lucija and Alhusaini, Saud and Milaneschi, Yuri and Papmeyer, Martina and Axelsson, Tomas and Ehrlich, Stefan and Roiz-Santia{\~n}ez, Roberto and Kraemer, Bernd and H{\r a}berg, Asta K and Jones, Hannah J and Pike, G Bruce and Stein, Dan J and Stevens, Allison and Bralten, Janita and Vernooij, Meike W and Harris, Tamara B and Filippi, Irina and Witte, A Veronica and Guadalupe, Tulio and Wittfeld, Katharina and Mosley, Thomas H and Becker, James T and Doan, Nhat Trung and Hagenaars, Saskia P and Saba, Yasaman and Cuellar-Partida, Gabriel and Amin, Najaf and Hilal, Saima and Nho, Kwangsik and Mirza-Schreiber, Nazanin and Arfanakis, Konstantinos and Becker, Diane M and Ames, David and Goldman, Aaron L and Lee, Phil H and Boomsma, Dorret I and Lovestone, Simon and Giddaluru, Sudheer and Le Hellard, Stephanie and Mattheisen, Manuel and Bohlken, Marc M and Kasperaviciute, Dalia and Schmaal, Lianne and Lawrie, Stephen M and Agartz, Ingrid and Walton, Esther and Tordesillas-Gutierrez, Diana and Davies, Gareth E and Shin, Jean and Ipser, Jonathan C and Vinke, Louis N and Hoogman, Martine and Jia, Tianye and Burkhardt, Ralph and Klein, Marieke and Crivello, Fabrice and Janowitz, Deborah and Carmichael, Owen and Haukvik, Unn K and Aribisala, Benjamin S and Schmidt, Helena and Strike, Lachlan T and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Risacher, Shannon L and P{\"u}tz, Benno and Fleischman, Debra A and Assareh, Amelia A and Mattay, Venkata S and Buckner, Randy L and Mecocci, Patrizia and Dale, Anders M and Cichon, Sven and Boks, Marco P and Matarin, Mar and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Calhoun, Vince D and Chakravarty, M Mallar and Marquand, Andre F and Macare, Christine and Kharabian Masouleh, Shahrzad and Oosterlaan, Jaap and Amouyel, Philippe and Hegenscheid, Katrin and Rotter, Jerome I and Schork, Andrew J and Liewald, David C M and de Zubicaray, Greig I and Wong, Tien Yin and Shen, Li and S{\"a}mann, Philipp G and Brodaty, Henry and Roffman, Joshua L and de Geus, Eco J C and Tsolaki, Magda and Erk, Susanne and van Eijk, Kristel R and Cavalleri, Gianpiero L and van der Wee, Nic J A and McIntosh, Andrew M and Gollub, Randy L and Bulayeva, Kazima B and Bernard, Manon and Richards, Jennifer S and Himali, Jayandra J and Loeffler, Markus and Rommelse, Nanda and Hoffmann, Wolfgang and Westlye, Lars T and Vald{\'e}s Hern{\'a}ndez, Maria C and Hansell, Narelle K and van Erp, Theo G M and Wolf, Christiane and Kwok, John B J and Vellas, Bruno and Heinz, Andreas and Olde Loohuis, Loes M and Delanty, Norman and Ho, Beng-Choon and Ching, Christopher R K and Shumskaya, Elena and Singh, Baljeet and Hofman, Albert and van der Meer, Dennis and Homuth, Georg and Psaty, Bruce M and Bastin, Mark E and Montgomery, Grant W and Foroud, Tatiana M and Reppermund, Simone and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Simmons, Andrew and Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas and Cahn, Wiepke and Whelan, Christopher D and van Donkelaar, Marjolein M J and Yang, Qiong and Hosten, Norbert and Green, Robert C and Thalamuthu, Anbupalam and Mohnke, Sebastian and Hulshoff Pol, Hilleke E and Lin, Honghuang and Jack, Clifford R and Schofield, Peter R and M{\"u}hleisen, Thomas W and Maillard, Pauline and Potkin, Steven G and Wen, Wei and Fletcher, Evan and Toga, Arthur W and Gruber, Oliver and Huentelman, Matthew and Davey Smith, George and Launer, Lenore J and Nyberg, Lars and J{\"o}nsson, Erik G and Crespo-Facorro, Benedicto and Koen, Nastassja and Greve, Douglas N and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Weinberger, Daniel R and Steen, Vidar M and Fedko, Iryna O and Groenewold, Nynke A and Niessen, Wiro J and Toro, Roberto and Tzourio, Christophe and Longstreth, William T and Ikram, M Kamran and Smoller, Jordan W and van Tol, Marie-Jose and Sussmann, Jessika E and Paus, Tom{\'a}{\v s} and Lema{\^\i}tre, Herv{\'e} and Schroeter, Matthias L and Mazoyer, Bernard and Andreassen, Ole A and Holsboer, Florian and Depondt, Chantal and Veltman, Dick J and Turner, Jessica A and Pausova, Zdenka and Schumann, Gunter and van Rooij, Daan and Djurovic, Srdjan and Deary, Ian J and McMahon, Katie L and M{\"u}ller-Myhsok, Bertram and Brouwer, Rachel M and Soininen, Hilkka and Pandolfo, Massimo and Wassink, Thomas H and Cheung, Joshua W and Wolfers, Thomas and Martinot, Jean-Luc and Zwiers, Marcel P and Nauck, Matthias and Melle, Ingrid and Martin, Nicholas G and Kanai, Ryota and Westman, Eric and Kahn, Ren{\'e} S and Sisodiya, Sanjay M and White, Tonya and Saremi, Arvin and van Bokhoven, Hans and Brunner, Han G and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Wright, Margaret J and van {\textquoteright}t Ent, Dennis and N{\"o}then, Markus M and Ophoff, Roel A and Buitelaar, Jan K and Fern{\'a}ndez, Guill{\'e}n and Sachdev, Perminder S and Rietschel, Marcella and van Haren, Neeltje E M and Fisher, Simon E and Beiser, Alexa S and Francks, Clyde and Saykin, Andrew J and Mather, Karen A and Romanczuk-Seiferth, Nina and Hartman, Catharina A and DeStefano, Anita L and Heslenfeld, Dirk J and Weiner, Michael W and Walter, Henrik and Hoekstra, Pieter J and Nyquist, Paul A and Franke, Barbara and Bennett, David A and Grabe, Hans J and Johnson, Andrew D and Chen, Christopher and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Lopez, Oscar L and Fornage, Myriam and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Schmidt, Reinhold and DeCarli, Charles and De Jager, Philip L and Villringer, Arno and Debette, Stephanie and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Medland, Sarah E and Shulman, Joshua M and Thompson, Paul M and Seshadri, Sudha and Ikram, M Arfan} } @article {7977, title = {Genetic meta-analysis of diagnosed Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease identifies new risk loci and implicates Aβ, tau, immunity and lipid processing.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {51}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Mar}, pages = {414-430}, abstract = {

Risk for late-onset Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (LOAD), the most prevalent dementia, is partially driven by genetics. To identify LOAD risk loci, we performed a large genome-wide association meta-analysis of clinically diagnosed LOAD (94,437 individuals). We confirm 20 previous LOAD risk loci and identify five new genome-wide loci (IQCK, ACE, ADAM10, ADAMTS1, and WWOX), two of which (ADAM10, ACE) were identified in a recent genome-wide association (GWAS)-by-familial-proxy of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s or dementia. Fine-mapping of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region confirms the neurological and immune-mediated disease haplotype HLA-DR15 as a risk factor for LOAD. Pathway analysis implicates immunity, lipid metabolism, tau binding proteins, and amyloid precursor protein (APP) metabolism, showing that genetic variants affecting APP and Aβ processing are associated not only with early-onset autosomal dominant Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease but also with LOAD. Analyses of risk genes and pathways show enrichment for rare variants (P = 1.32 {\texttimes} 10), indicating that additional rare variants remain to be identified. We also identify important genetic correlations between LOAD and traits such as family history of dementia and education.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-019-0358-2}, author = {Kunkle, Brian W and Grenier-Boley, Benjamin and Sims, Rebecca and Bis, Joshua C and Damotte, Vincent and Naj, Adam C and Boland, Anne and Vronskaya, Maria and van der Lee, Sven J and Amlie-Wolf, Alexandre and Bellenguez, C{\'e}line and Frizatti, Aura and Chouraki, Vincent and Martin, Eden R and Sleegers, Kristel and Badarinarayan, Nandini and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Hamilton-Nelson, Kara L and Moreno-Grau, Sonia and Olaso, Robert and Raybould, Rachel and Chen, Yuning and Kuzma, Amanda B and Hiltunen, Mikko and Morgan, Taniesha and Ahmad, Shahzad and Vardarajan, Badri N and Epelbaum, Jacques and Hoffmann, Per and Boada, Merce and Beecham, Gary W and Garnier, Jean-Guillaume and Harold, Denise and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Valladares, Otto and Moutet, Marie-Laure and Gerrish, Amy and Smith, Albert V and Qu, Liming and Bacq, Delphine and Denning, Nicola and Jian, Xueqiu and Zhao, Yi and Del Zompo, Maria and Fox, Nick C and Choi, Seung-Hoan and Mateo, Ignacio and Hughes, Joseph T and Adams, Hieab H and Malamon, John and Sanchez-Garcia, Florentino and Patel, Yogen and Brody, Jennifer A and Dombroski, Beth A and Naranjo, Maria Candida Deniz and Daniilidou, Makrina and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Mukherjee, Shubhabrata and Wallon, David and Uphill, James and Aspelund, Thor and Cantwell, Laura B and Garzia, Fabienne and Galimberti, Daniela and Hofer, Edith and Butkiewicz, Mariusz and Fin, Bertrand and Scarpini, Elio and Sarnowski, Chloe and Bush, Will S and Meslage, St{\'e}phane and Kornhuber, Johannes and White, Charles C and Song, Yuenjoo and Barber, Robert C and Engelborghs, Sebastiaan and Sordon, Sabrina and Voijnovic, Dina and Adams, Perrie M and Vandenberghe, Rik and Mayhaus, Manuel and Cupples, L Adrienne and Albert, Marilyn S and De Deyn, Peter P and Gu, Wei and Himali, Jayanadra J and Beekly, Duane and Squassina, Alessio and Hartmann, Annette M and Orellana, Adelina and Blacker, Deborah and Rodriguez-Rodriguez, Eloy and Lovestone, Simon and Garcia, Melissa E and Doody, Rachelle S and Munoz-Fernadez, Carmen and Sussams, Rebecca and Lin, Honghuang and Fairchild, Thomas J and Benito, Yolanda A and Holmes, Clive and Karamuji{\'c}-{\v C}omi{\'c}, Hata and Frosch, Matthew P and Thonberg, H{\r a}kan and Maier, Wolfgang and Roschupkin, Gena and Ghetti, Bernardino and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Kawalia, Amit and Li, Shuo and Huebinger, Ryan M and Kilander, Lena and Moebus, Susanne and Hernandez, Isabel and Kamboh, M Ilyas and Brundin, RoseMarie and Turton, James and Yang, Qiong and Katz, Mindy J and Concari, Letizia and Lord, Jenny and Beiser, Alexa S and Keene, C Dirk and Helisalmi, Seppo and Kloszewska, Iwona and Kukull, Walter A and Koivisto, Anne Maria and Lynch, Aoibhinn and Tarraga, Lluis and Larson, Eric B and Haapasalo, Annakaisa and Lawlor, Brian and Mosley, Thomas H and Lipton, Richard B and Solfrizzi, Vincenzo and Gill, Michael and Longstreth, W T and Montine, Thomas J and Frisardi, Vincenza and Diez-Fairen, Monica and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Petersen, Ronald C and Deramecourt, Vincent and Alvarez, Ignacio and Salani, Francesca and Ciaramella, Antonio and Boerwinkle, Eric and Reiman, Eric M and Fi{\'e}vet, Nathalie and Rotter, Jerome I and Reisch, Joan S and Hanon, Olivier and Cupidi, Chiara and Andre Uitterlinden, A G and Royall, Donald R and Dufouil, Carole and Maletta, Raffaele Giovanni and de Rojas, Itziar and Sano, Mary and Brice, Alexis and Cecchetti, Roberta and George-Hyslop, Peter St and Ritchie, Karen and Tsolaki, Magda and Tsuang, Debby W and Dubois, Bruno and Craig, David and Wu, Chuang-Kuo and Soininen, Hilkka and Avramidou, Despoina and Albin, Roger L and Fratiglioni, Laura and Germanou, Antonia and Apostolova, Liana G and Keller, Lina and Koutroumani, Maria and Arnold, Steven E and Panza, Francesco and Gkatzima, Olymbia and Asthana, Sanjay and Hannequin, Didier and Whitehead, Patrice and Atwood, Craig S and Caffarra, Paolo and Hampel, Harald and Quintela, In{\'e}s and Carracedo, Angel and Lannfelt, Lars and Rubinsztein, David C and Barnes, Lisa L and Pasquier, Florence and Fr{\"o}lich, Lutz and Barral, Sandra and McGuinness, Bernadette and Beach, Thomas G and Johnston, Janet A and Becker, James T and Passmore, Peter and Bigio, Eileen H and Schott, Jonathan M and Bird, Thomas D and Warren, Jason D and Boeve, Bradley F and Lupton, Michelle K and Bowen, James D and Proitsi, Petra and Boxer, Adam and Powell, John F and Burke, James R and Kauwe, John S K and Burns, Jeffrey M and Mancuso, Michelangelo and Buxbaum, Joseph D and Bonuccelli, Ubaldo and Cairns, Nigel J and McQuillin, Andrew and Cao, Chuanhai and Livingston, Gill and Carlson, Chris S and Bass, Nicholas J and Carlsson, Cynthia M and Hardy, John and Carney, Regina M and Bras, Jose and Carrasquillo, Minerva M and Guerreiro, Rita and Allen, Mariet and Chui, Helena C and Fisher, Elizabeth and Masullo, Carlo and Crocco, Elizabeth A and DeCarli, Charles and Bisceglio, Gina and Dick, Malcolm and Ma, Li and Duara, Ranjan and Graff-Radford, Neill R and Evans, Denis A and Hodges, Angela and Faber, Kelley M and Scherer, Martin and Fallon, Kenneth B and Riemenschneider, Matthias and Fardo, David W and Heun, Reinhard and Farlow, Martin R and K{\"o}lsch, Heike and Ferris, Steven and Leber, Markus and Foroud, Tatiana M and Heuser, Isabella and Galasko, Douglas R and Giegling, Ina and Gearing, Marla and H{\"u}ll, Michael and Geschwind, Daniel H and Gilbert, John R and Morris, John and Green, Robert C and Mayo, Kevin and Growdon, John H and Feulner, Thomas and Hamilton, Ronald L and Harrell, Lindy E and Drichel, Dmitriy and Honig, Lawrence S and Cushion, Thomas D and Huentelman, Matthew J and Hollingworth, Paul and Hulette, Christine M and Hyman, Bradley T and Marshall, Rachel and Jarvik, Gail P and Meggy, Alun and Abner, Erin and Menzies, Georgina E and Jin, Lee-Way and Leonenko, Ganna and Real, Luis M and Jun, Gyungah R and Baldwin, Clinton T and Grozeva, Detelina and Karydas, Anna and Russo, Giancarlo and Kaye, Jeffrey A and Kim, Ronald and Jessen, Frank and Kowall, Neil W and Vellas, Bruno and Kramer, Joel H and Vardy, Emma and LaFerla, Frank M and J{\"o}ckel, Karl-Heinz and Lah, James J and Dichgans, Martin and Leverenz, James B and Mann, David and Levey, Allan I and Pickering-Brown, Stuart and Lieberman, Andrew P and Klopp, Norman and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Wichmann, H-Erich and Lyketsos, Constantine G and Morgan, Kevin and Marson, Daniel C and Brown, Kristelle and Martiniuk, Frank and Medway, Christopher and Mash, Deborah C and N{\"o}then, Markus M and Masliah, Eliezer and Hooper, Nigel M and McCormick, Wayne C and Daniele, Antonio and McCurry, Susan M and Bayer, Anthony and McDavid, Andrew N and Gallacher, John and McKee, Ann C and van den Bussche, Hendrik and Mesulam, Marsel and Brayne, Carol and Miller, Bruce L and Riedel-Heller, Steffi and Miller, Carol A and Miller, Joshua W and Al-Chalabi, Ammar and Morris, John C and Shaw, Christopher E and Myers, Amanda J and Wiltfang, Jens and O{\textquoteright}Bryant, Sid and Olichney, John M and Alvarez, Victoria and Parisi, Joseph E and Singleton, Andrew B and Paulson, Henry L and Collinge, John and Perry, William R and Mead, Simon and Peskind, Elaine and Cribbs, David H and Rossor, Martin and Pierce, Aimee and Ryan, Natalie S and Poon, Wayne W and Nacmias, Benedetta and Potter, Huntington and Sorbi, Sandro and Quinn, Joseph F and Sacchinelli, Eleonora and Raj, Ashok and Spalletta, Gianfranco and Raskind, Murray and Caltagirone, Carlo and Boss{\`u}, Paola and Orfei, Maria Donata and Reisberg, Barry and Clarke, Robert and Reitz, Christiane and Smith, A David and Ringman, John M and Warden, Donald and Roberson, Erik D and Wilcock, Gordon and Rogaeva, Ekaterina and Bruni, Amalia Cecilia and Rosen, Howard J and Gallo, Maura and Rosenberg, Roger N and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Sager, Mark A and Mecocci, Patrizia and Saykin, Andrew J and Pastor, Pau and Cuccaro, Michael L and Vance, Jeffery M and Schneider, Julie A and Schneider, Lori S and Slifer, Susan and Seeley, William W and Smith, Amanda G and Sonnen, Joshua A and Spina, Salvatore and Stern, Robert A and Swerdlow, Russell H and Tang, Mitchell and Tanzi, Rudolph E and Trojanowski, John Q and Troncoso, Juan C and Van Deerlin, Vivianna M and Van Eldik, Linda J and Vinters, Harry V and Vonsattel, Jean Paul and Weintraub, Sandra and Welsh-Bohmer, Kathleen A and Wilhelmsen, Kirk C and Williamson, Jennifer and Wingo, Thomas S and Woltjer, Randall L and Wright, Clinton B and Yu, Chang-En and Yu, Lei and Saba, Yasaman and Pilotto, Alberto and Bullido, Mar{\'\i}a J and Peters, Oliver and Crane, Paul K and Bennett, David and Bosco, Paola and Coto, Eliecer and Boccardi, Virginia and De Jager, Phil L and Lleo, Alberto and Warner, Nick and Lopez, Oscar L and Ingelsson, Martin and Deloukas, Panagiotis and Cruchaga, Carlos and Graff, Caroline and Gwilliam, Rhian and Fornage, Myriam and Goate, Alison M and S{\'a}nchez-Juan, Pascual and Kehoe, Patrick G and Amin, Najaf and Ertekin-Taner, Nilifur and Berr, Claudine and Debette, Stephanie and Love, Seth and Launer, Lenore J and Younkin, Steven G and Dartigues, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and Corcoran, Chris and Ikram, M Arfan and Dickson, Dennis W and Nicolas, Ga{\"e}l and Campion, Dominique and Tschanz, JoAnn and Schmidt, Helena and Hakonarson, Hakon and Clarimon, Jordi and Munger, Ron and Schmidt, Reinhold and Farrer, Lindsay A and Van Broeckhoven, Christine and C O{\textquoteright}Donovan, Michael and DeStefano, Anita L and Jones, Lesley and Haines, Jonathan L and Deleuze, Jean-Francois and Owen, Michael J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Mayeux, Richard and Escott-Price, Valentina and Psaty, Bruce M and Ramirez, Alfredo and Wang, Li-San and Ruiz, Agustin and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Holmans, Peter A and Seshadri, Sudha and Williams, Julie and Amouyel, Phillippe and Schellenberg, Gerard D and Lambert, Jean-Charles and Pericak-Vance, Margaret A} } @article {8204, title = {Genome Wide Meta-Analysis identifies common genetic signatures shared by heart function and Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.}, journal = {Sci Rep}, volume = {9}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Nov 13}, pages = {16665}, abstract = {

Echocardiography has become an indispensable tool for the study of heart performance, improving the monitoring of individuals with cardiac diseases. Diverse genetic factors associated with echocardiographic measures have been previously reported. The impact of several apoptotic genes in heart development identified in experimental models prompted us to assess their potential association with human cardiac function. This study aimed at investigating the possible association of variants of apoptotic genes with echocardiographic traits and to identify new genetic markers associated with cardiac function. Genome wide data from different studies were obtained from public repositories. After quality control and imputation, a meta-analysis of individual association study results was performed. Our results confirmed the role of caspases and other apoptosis related genes with cardiac phenotypes. Moreover, enrichment analysis showed an over-representation of genes, including some apoptotic regulators, associated with Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease. We further explored this unexpected observation which was confirmed by genetic correlation analyses. Our findings show the association of apoptotic gene variants with echocardiographic indicators of heart function and reveal a novel potential genetic link between echocardiographic measures in healthy populations and cognitive decline later on in life. These findings may have important implications for preventative strategies combating Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.

}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-019-52724-2}, author = {S{\'a}ez, M E and Gonz{\'a}lez-P{\'e}rez, A and Hern{\'a}ndez-Olasagarre, B and Be{\`a}, A and Moreno-Grau, S and de Rojas, I and Mont{\'e}-Rubio, G and Orellana, A and Valero, S and Comella, J X and Sanch{\'\i}s, D and Ruiz, A} } @article {8530, title = {{Genome-wide association meta-analyses and fine-mapping elucidate pathways influencing albuminuria}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {10}, year = {2019}, month = {09}, pages = {4130}, abstract = {Increased levels of the urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) are associated with higher risk of kidney disease progression and cardiovascular events, but underlying mechanisms are incompletely understood. Here, we conduct trans-ethnic (n = 564,257) and European-ancestry specific meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies of UACR, including ancestry- and diabetes-specific analyses, and identify 68 UACR-associated loci. Genetic correlation analyses and risk score associations in an independent electronic medical records database (n = 192,868) reveal connections with proteinuria, hyperlipidemia, gout, and hypertension. Fine-mapping and trans-Omics analyses with gene expression in 47 tissues and plasma protein levels implicate genes potentially operating through differential expression in kidney (including TGFB1, MUC1, PRKCI, and OAF), and allow coupling of UACR associations to altered plasma OAF concentrations. Knockdown of OAF and PRKCI orthologs in Drosophila nephrocytes reduces albumin endocytosis. Silencing fly PRKCI further impairs slit diaphragm formation. These results generate a priority list of genes and pathways for translational research to reduce albuminuria.}, author = {Teumer, A. and Li, Y. and Ghasemi, S. and Prins, B. P. and Wuttke, M. and Hermle, T. and Giri, A. and Sieber, K. B. and Qiu, C. and Kirsten, H. and Tin, A. and Chu, A. Y. and Bansal, N. and Feitosa, M. F. and Wang, L. and Chai, J. F. and Cocca, M. and Fuchsberger, C. and Gorski, M. and Hoppmann, A. and Horn, K. and Li, M. and Marten, J. and Noce, D. and Nutile, T. and Sedaghat, S. and Sveinbjornsson, G. and Tayo, B. O. and van der Most, P. J. and Xu, Y. and Yu, Z. and Gerstner, L. and ?rnl?v, J. and Bakker, S. J. L. and Baptista, D. and Biggs, M. L. and Boerwinkle, E. and Brenner, H. and Burkhardt, R. and Carroll, R. J. and Chee, M. L. and Chee, M. L. and Chen, M. and Cheng, C. Y. and Cook, J. P. and Coresh, J. and Corre, T. and Danesh, J. and de Borst, M. H. and De Grandi, A. and de Mutsert, R. and de Vries, A. P. J. and Degenhardt, F. and Dittrich, K. and Divers, J. and Eckardt, K. U. and Ehret, G. and Endlich, K. and Felix, J. F. and Franco, O. H. and Franke, A. and Freedman, B. I. and Freitag-Wolf, S. and Gansevoort, R. T. and Giedraitis, V. and G?gele, M. and Grundner-Culemann, F. and Gudbjartsson, D. F. and Gudnason, V. and Hamet, P. and Harris, T. B. and Hicks, A. A. and Holm, H. and Foo, V. H. X. and Hwang, S. J. and Ikram, M. A. and Ingelsson, E. and Jaddoe, V. W. V. and Jakobsdottir, J. and Josyula, N. S. and Jung, B. and K?h?nen, M. and Khor, C. C. and Kiess, W. and Koenig, W. and K?rner, A. and Kovacs, P. and Kramer, H. and Kr?mer, B. K. and Kronenberg, F. and Lange, L. A. and Langefeld, C. D. and Lee, J. J. and Lehtim?ki, T. and Lieb, W. and Lim, S. C. and Lind, L. and Lindgren, C. M. and Liu, J. and Loeffler, M. and Lyytik?inen, L. P. and Mahajan, A. and Maranville, J. C. and Mascalzoni, D. and McMullen, B. and Meisinger, C. and Meitinger, T. and Miliku, K. and Mook-Kanamori, D. O. and M?ller-Nurasyid, M. and Mychaleckyj, J. C. and Nauck, M. and Nikus, K. and Ning, B. and Noordam, R. and Connell, J. O. and Olafsson, I. and Palmer, N. D. and Peters, A. and Podgornaia, A. I. and Ponte, B. and Poulain, T. and Pramstaller, P. P. and Rabelink, T. J. and Raffield, L. M. and Reilly, D. F. and Rettig, R. and Rheinberger, M. and Rice, K. M. and Rivadeneira, F. and Runz, H. and Ryan, K. A. and Sabanayagam, C. and Saum, K. U. and Sch?ttker, B. and Shaffer, C. M. and Shi, Y. and Smith, A. V. and Strauch, K. and Stumvoll, M. and Sun, B. B. and Szymczak, S. and Tai, E. S. and Tan, N. Y. Q. and Taylor, K. D. and Teren, A. and Tham, Y. C. and Thiery, J. and Thio, C. H. L. and Thomsen, H. and Thorsteinsdottir, U. and T?njes, A. and Tremblay, J. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and van der Harst, P. and Verweij, N. and Vogelezang, S. and V?lker, U. and Waldenberger, M. and Wang, C. and Wilson, O. D. and Wong, C. and Wong, T. Y. and Yang, Q. and Yasuda, M. and Akilesh, S. and Bochud, M. and B?ger, C. A. and Devuyst, O. and Edwards, T. L. and Ho, K. and Morris, A. P. and Parsa, A. and Pendergrass, S. A. and Psaty, B. M. and Rotter, J. I. and Stefansson, K. and Wilson, J. G. and Susztak, K. and Snieder, H. and Heid, I. M. and Scholz, M. and Butterworth, A. S. and Hung, A. M. and Pattaro, C. and K?ttgen, A.} } @article {8534, title = {{A genome-wide association study identifies genetic loci associated with specific lobar brain volumes}, journal = {Commun Biol}, volume = {2}, year = {2019}, pages = {285}, abstract = {Brain lobar volumes are heritable but genetic studies are limited. We performed genome-wide association studies of frontal, occipital, parietal and temporal lobe volumes in 16,016 individuals, and replicated our findings in 8,789 individuals. We identified six genetic loci associated with specific lobar volumes independent of intracranial volume. Two loci, associated with occipital (6q22.32) and temporal lobe volume (12q14.3), were previously reported to associate with intracranial and hippocampal volume, respectively. We identified four loci previously unknown to affect brain volumes: 3q24 for parietal lobe volume, and 1q22, 4p16.3 and 14q23.1 for occipital lobe volume. The associated variants were located in regions enriched for histone modifications (DAAM1 and THBS3), or close to genes causing Mendelian brain-related diseases (ZIC4 and FGFRL1). No genetic overlap between lobar volumes and neurological or psychiatric diseases was observed. Our findings reveal part of the complex genetics underlying brain development and suggest a role for regulatory regions in determining brain volumes.}, author = {van der Lee, S. J. and Knol, M. J. and Chauhan, G. and Satizabal, C. L. and Smith, A. V. and Hofer, E. and Bis, J. C. and Hibar, D. P. and Hilal, S. and van den Akker, E. B. and Arfanakis, K. and Bernard, M. and Yanek, L. R. and Amin, N. and Crivello, F. and Cheung, J. W. and Harris, T. B. and Saba, Y. and Lopez, O. L. and Li, S. and van der Grond, J. and Yu, L. and Paus, T. and Roshchupkin, G. V. and Amouyel, P. and Jahanshad, N. and Taylor, K. D. and Yang, Q. and Mathias, R. A. and Boehringer, S. and Mazoyer, B. and Rice, K. and Cheng, C. Y. and Maillard, P. and van Heemst, D. and Wong, T. Y. and Niessen, W. J. and Beiser, A. S. and Beekman, M. and Zhao, W. and Nyquist, P. A. and Chen, C. and Launer, L. J. and Psaty, B. M. and Ikram, M. K. and Vernooij, M. W. and Schmidt, H. and Pausova, Z. and Becker, D. M. and De Jager, P. L. and Thompson, P. M. and van Duijn, C. M. and Bennett, D. A. and Slagboom, P. E. and Schmidt, R. and Longstreth, W. T. and Ikram, M. A. and Seshadri, S. and Debette, S. and Gudnason, V. and Adams, H. H. H. and DeCarli, C.} } @article {7988, title = {A genome-wide association study identifies new loci for factor VII and implicates factor VII in ischemic stroke etiology.}, journal = {Blood}, volume = {133}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Feb 28}, pages = {967-977}, abstract = {

Factor VII (FVII) is an important component of the coagulation cascade. Few genetic loci regulating FVII activity and/or levels have been discovered to date. We conducted a meta-analysis of 9 genome-wide association studies of plasma FVII levels (7 FVII activity and 2 FVII antigen) among 27 495 participants of European and African ancestry. Each study performed ancestry-specific association analyses. Inverse variance weighted meta-analysis was performed within each ancestry group and then combined for a -ancestry meta-analysis. Our primary analysis included the 7 studies that measured FVII activity, and a secondary analysis included all 9 studies. We provided functional genomic validation for newly identified significant loci by silencing candidate genes in a human liver cell line (HuH7) using small-interfering RNA and then measuring messenger RNA and FVII protein expression. Lastly, we used meta-analysis results to perform Mendelian randomization analysis to estimate the causal effect of FVII activity on coronary artery disease, ischemic stroke (IS), and venous thromboembolism. We identified 2 novel ( and ) and 6 known loci associated with FVII activity, explaining 19.0\% of the phenotypic variance. Adding FVII antigen data to the meta-analysis did not result in the discovery of further loci. Silencing in HuH7 cells upregulated FVII, whereas silencing downregulated FVII. Mendelian randomization analyses suggest that FVII activity has a positive causal effect on the risk of IS. Variants at and contribute to FVII activity by regulating expression levels. FVII activity appears to contribute to the etiology of IS in the general population.

}, issn = {1528-0020}, doi = {10.1182/blood-2018-05-849240}, author = {de Vries, Paul S and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Huffman, Jennifer E and Marten, Jonathan and Song, Ci and Pankratz, Nathan and Bartz, Traci M and de Haan, Hugoline G and Delgado, Graciela E and Eicher, John D and Martinez-Perez, Angel and Ward-Caviness, Cavin K and Brody, Jennifer A and Chen, Ming-Huei and de Maat, Moniek P M and Fr{\r a}nberg, Mattias and Gill, Dipender and Kleber, Marcus E and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Soria, Jos{\'e} Manuel and Tang, Weihong and Tofler, Geoffrey H and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Hylckama Vlieg, Astrid and Seshadri, Sudha and Boerwinkle, Eric and Davies, Neil M and Giese, Anne-Katrin and Ikram, M Kamran and Kittner, Steven J and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and Reiner, Alex P and Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Taylor, Kent D and Fornage, Myriam and Hamsten, Anders and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Rosendaal, Frits R and Souto, Juan Carlos and Dehghan, Abbas and Johnson, Andrew D and Morrison, Alanna C and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Smith, Nicholas L} } @article {8518, title = {{Genome-Wide Association Study of Apparent Treatment-Resistant Hypertension in the CHARGE Consortium: The CHARGE Pharmacogenetics Working Group}, journal = {Am J Hypertens}, volume = {32}, year = {2019}, month = {11}, pages = {1146{\textendash}1153}, abstract = {{Only a handful of genetic discovery efforts in apparent treatment-resistant hypertension (aTRH) have been described.\ We conducted a case-control genome-wide association study of aTRH among persons treated for hypertension, using data from 10 cohorts of European ancestry (EA) and 5 cohorts of African ancestry (AA). Cases were treated with 3 different antihypertensive medication classes and had blood pressure (BP) above goal (systolic BP {\^a}{\textperthousand}{\textyen} 140 mm Hg and/or diastolic BP {\^a}{\textperthousand}{\textyen} 90 mm Hg) or 4 or more medication classes regardless of BP control (nEA = 931}, author = {Irvin, M. R. and Sitlani, C. M. and Floyd, J. S. and Psaty, B. M. and Bis, J. C. and Wiggins, K. L. and Whitsel, E. A. and Sturmer, T. and Stewart, J. and Raffield, L. and Sun, F. and Liu, C. T. and Xu, H. and Cupples, A. L. and Tanner, R. M. and Rossing, P. and Smith, A. and Zilh?o, N. R. and Launer, L. J. and Noordam, R. and Rotter, J. I. and Yao, J. and Li, X. and Guo, X. and Limdi, N. and Sundaresan, A. and Lange, L. and Correa, A. and Stott, D. J. and Ford, I. and Jukema, J. W. and Gudnason, V. and Mook-Kanamori, D. O. and Trompet, S. and Palmas, W. and Warren, H. R. and Hellwege, J. N. and Giri, A. and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, C. and Hung, A. M. and Edwards, T. L. and Ahluwalia, T. S. and Arnett, D. K. and Avery, C. L.} } @article {9372, title = {Genome-Wide Association Study of Apparent Treatment-Resistant Hypertension in the CHARGE Consortium: The CHARGE Pharmacogenetics Working Group.}, journal = {Am J Hypertens}, volume = {32}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Nov 15}, pages = {1146-1153}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Only a handful of genetic discovery efforts in apparent treatment-resistant hypertension (aTRH) have been described.

METHODS: We conducted a case-control genome-wide association study of aTRH among persons treated for hypertension, using data from 10 cohorts of European ancestry (EA) and 5 cohorts of African ancestry (AA). Cases were treated with 3 different antihypertensive medication classes and had blood pressure (BP) above goal (systolic BP >= 140 mm Hg and/or diastolic BP >= 90 mm Hg) or 4 or more medication classes regardless of BP control (nEA = 931, nAA = 228). Both a normotensive control group and a treatment-responsive control group were considered in separate analyses. Normotensive controls were untreated (nEA = 14,210, nAA = 2,480) and had systolic BP/diastolic BP < 140/90 mm Hg. Treatment-responsive controls (nEA = 5,266, nAA = 1,817) had BP at goal (<140/90 mm Hg), while treated with one antihypertensive medication class. Individual cohorts used logistic regression with adjustment for age, sex, study site, and principal components for ancestry to examine the association of single-nucleotide polymorphisms with case-control status. Inverse variance-weighted fixed-effects meta-analyses were carried out using METAL.

RESULTS: The known hypertension locus, CASZ1, was a top finding among EAs (P = 1.1 {\texttimes} 10-8) and in the race-combined analysis (P = 1.5 {\texttimes} 10-9) using the normotensive control group (rs12046278, odds ratio = 0.71 (95\% confidence interval: 0.6-0.8)). Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in this locus were robustly replicated in the Million Veterans Program (MVP) study in consideration of a treatment-responsive control group. There were no statistically significant findings for the discovery analyses including treatment-responsive controls.

CONCLUSION: This genomic discovery effort for aTRH identified CASZ1 as an aTRH risk locus.

}, keywords = {Aged, Antihypertensive Agents, Black or African American, Blood Pressure, Case-Control Studies, DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases, DNA Methyltransferase 3A, DNA-Binding Proteins, Drug Resistance, Dystrophin-Associated Proteins, Europe, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Middle Aged, Myosin Heavy Chains, Myosin Type V, Neuropeptides, Pharmacogenetics, Pharmacogenomic Variants, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Transcription Factors, United States, White People}, issn = {1941-7225}, doi = {10.1093/ajh/hpz150}, author = {Irvin, Marguerite R and Sitlani, Colleen M and Floyd, James S and Psaty, Bruce M and Bis, Joshua C and Wiggins, Kerri L and Whitsel, Eric A and St{\"u}rmer, Til and Stewart, James and Raffield, Laura and Sun, Fangui and Liu, Ching-Ti and Xu, Hanfei and Cupples, Adrienne L and Tanner, Rikki M and Rossing, Peter and Smith, Albert and Zilh{\~a}o, Nuno R and Launer, Lenore J and Noordam, Raymond and Rotter, Jerome I and Yao, Jie and Li, Xiaohui and Guo, Xiuqing and Limdi, Nita and Sundaresan, Aishwarya and Lange, Leslie and Correa, Adolfo and Stott, David J and Ford, Ian and Jukema, J Wouter and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Trompet, Stella and Palmas, Walter and Warren, Helen R and Hellwege, Jacklyn N and Giri, Ayush and O{\textquoteright}donnell, Christopher and Hung, Adriana M and Edwards, Todd L and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Arnett, Donna K and Avery, Christy L} } @article {8508, title = {Genomewide Association Study of Statin-Induced Myopathy in Patients Recruited Using the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink.}, journal = {Clin Pharmacol Ther}, volume = {106}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 12}, pages = {1353-1361}, abstract = {

Statins can be associated with myopathy. We have undertaken a genomewide association study (GWAS) to discover and validate genetic risk factors for statin-induced myopathy in a "real-world" setting. One hundred thirty-five patients with statin myopathy recruited via the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink were genotyped using the Illumina OmniExpress Exome version 1.0 Bead Chip and compared with the Wellcome Trust Case-Control Consortium (n~=~2,501). Nominally statistically significant single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) signals in the GWAS (P~<~5~{\texttimes}~10 ) were further evaluated in several independent cohorts (comprising 332 cases and 449 drug-tolerant controls). Only one (rs4149056/c.521C>T in the SLCO1B1 gene) SNP was genomewide significant in the severe myopathy (creatine kinase~>~10~{\texttimes}~upper limit of normal or rhabdomyolysis) group (P~=~2.55~{\texttimes}~10 ; odds ratio 5.15; 95\% confidence interval 3.13-8.45). The association with SLCO1B1 was present for several statins and replicated in the independent validation cohorts. The data highlight the role of SLCO1B1 c.521C>T SNP as a replicable genetic risk factor for statin myopathy. No other novel genetic risk factors with a similar effect size were identified.

}, keywords = {Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems, Case-Control Studies, Databases, Factual, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors, Liver-Specific Organic Anion Transporter 1, Muscular Diseases, Pharmacogenomic Variants, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Reproducibility of Results, Risk Factors, Severity of Illness Index, United Kingdom}, issn = {1532-6535}, doi = {10.1002/cpt.1557}, author = {Carr, Daniel F and Francis, Ben and Jorgensen, Andrea L and Zhang, Eunice and Chinoy, Hector and Heckbert, Susan R and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Floyd, James S and Psaty, Bruce M and Molokhia, Mariam and Lapeyre-Mestre, Maryse and Conforti, Anita and Alfirevic, Ana and van Staa, Tjeerd and Pirmohamed, Munir} } @article {8527, title = {{Genome-Wide Association Transethnic Meta-Analyses Identifies Novel Associations Regulating Coagulation Factor VIII and von Willebrand Factor Plasma Levels}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {139}, year = {2019}, month = {01}, pages = {620{\textendash}635}, abstract = {Factor VIII (FVIII) and its carrier protein von Willebrand factor (VWF) are associated with risk of arterial and venous thrombosis and with hemorrhagic disorders. We aimed to identify and functionally test novel genetic associations regulating plasma FVIII and VWF.\ We meta-analyzed genome-wide association results from 46 354 individuals of European, African, East Asian, and Hispanic ancestry. All studies performed linear regression analysis using an additive genetic model and associated {\^a}{\textperthousand}{\textasciicircum}35 million imputed variants with natural log-transformed phenotype levels. In vitro gene silencing in cultured endothelial cells was performed for candidate genes to provide additional evidence on association and function. Two-sample Mendelian randomization analyses were applied to test the causal role of FVIII and VWF plasma levels on the risk of arterial and venous thrombotic events.\ We identified 13 novel genome-wide significant ( P{\^a}{\textperthousand}¤2.5{\~A}{\textemdash}10-8) associations, 7 with FVIII levels ( FCHO2/TMEM171/TNPO1, HLA, SOX17/RP1, LINC00583/NFIB, RAB5C-KAT2A, RPL3/TAB1/SYNGR1, and ARSA) and 11 with VWF levels ( PDHB/PXK/KCTD6, SLC39A8, FCHO2/TMEM171/TNPO1, HLA, GIMAP7/GIMAP4, OR13C5/NIPSNAP, DAB2IP, C2CD4B, RAB5C-KAT2A, TAB1/SYNGR1, and ARSA), beyond 10 previously reported associations with these phenotypes. Functional validation provided further evidence of association for all loci on VWF except ARSA and DAB2IP. Mendelian randomization suggested causal effects of plasma FVIII activity levels on venous thrombosis and coronary artery disease risk and plasma VWF levels on ischemic stroke risk.\ The meta-analysis identified 13 novel genetic loci regulating FVIII and VWF plasma levels, 10 of which we validated functionally. We provide some evidence for a causal role of these proteins in thrombotic events.}, author = {Sabater-Lleal, M. and Huffman, J. E. and de Vries, P. S. and Marten, J. and Mastrangelo, M. A. and Song, C. and Pankratz, N. and Ward-Caviness, C. K. and Yanek, L. R. and Trompet, S. and Delgado, G. E. and Guo, X. and Bartz, T. M. and Martinez-Perez, A. and Germain, M. and de Haan, H. G. and Ozel, A. B. and Polasek, O. and Smith, A. V. and Eicher, J. D. and Reiner, A. P. and Tang, W. and Davies, N. M. and Stott, D. J. and Rotter, J. I. and Tofler, G. H. and Boerwinkle, E. and de Maat, M. P. M. and Kleber, M. E. and Welsh, P. and Brody, J. A. and Chen, M. H. and Vaidya, D. and Soria, J. M. and Suchon, P. and van Hylckama Vlieg, A. and Desch, K. C. and Kolcic, I. and Joshi, P. K. and Launer, L. J. and Harris, T. B. and Campbell, H. and Rudan, I. and Becker, D. M. and Li, J. Z. and Rivadeneira, F. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and Hofman, A. and Franco, O. H. and Cushman, M. and Psaty, B. M. and Morange, P. E. and McKnight, B. and Chong, M. R. and Fernandez-Cadenas, I. and Rosand, J. and Lindgren, A. and Gudnason, V. and Wilson, J. F. and Hayward, C. and Ginsburg, D. and Fornage, M. and Rosendaal, F. R. and Souto, J. C. and Becker, L. C. and Jenny, N. S. and M?rz, W. and Jukema, J. W. and Dehghan, A. and Tr?gou?t, D. A. and Morrison, A. C. and Johnson, A. D. and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, C. J. and Strachan, D. P. and Lowenstein, C. J. and Smith, N. L.} } @article {8260, title = {Genome-wide meta-analysis of variant-by-diuretic interactions as modulators of lipid traits in persons of European and African ancestry.}, journal = {Pharmacogenomics J}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Dec 06}, abstract = {

Hypertension (HTN) is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Metabolic abnormalities, including adverse cholesterol and triglycerides (TG) profiles, are frequent comorbid findings with HTN and contribute to cardiovascular disease. Diuretics, which are used to treat HTN and heart failure, have been associated with worsening of fasting lipid concentrations. Genome-wide meta-analyses with 39,710 European-ancestry (EA) individuals and 9925 African-ancestry (AA) individuals were performed to identify genetic variants that modify the effect of loop or thiazide diuretic use on blood lipid concentrations. Both longitudinal and cross sectional data were used to compute cohort-specific interaction results, which were then combined through meta-analysis in each ancestry. These ancestry-specific results were further combined through trans-ancestry meta-analysis. Analysis of EA data identified two genome-wide significant (p < 5 {\texttimes} 10) loci with single nucleotide variant (SNV)-loop diuretic interaction on TG concentrations (including COL11A1). Analysis of AA data identified one genome-wide significant locus adjacent to BMP2 with SNV-loop diuretic interaction on TG concentrations. Trans-ancestry analysis strengthened evidence of association for SNV-loop diuretic interaction at two loci (KIAA1217 and BAALC). There were few significant SNV-thiazide diuretic interaction associations on TG concentrations and for either diuretic on cholesterol concentrations. Several promising loci were identified that may implicate biologic pathways that contribute to adverse metabolic side effects from diuretic therapy.

}, issn = {1473-1150}, doi = {10.1038/s41397-019-0132-y}, author = {de Las Fuentes, L and Sung, Y J and Sitlani, C M and Avery, C L and Bartz, T M and Keyser, C de and Evans, D S and Li, X and Musani, S K and Ruiter, R and Smith, A V and Sun, F and Trompet, S and Xu, H and Arnett, D K and Bis, J C and Broeckel, U and Busch, E L and Chen, Y-D I and Correa, A and Cummings, S R and Floyd, J S and Ford, I and Guo, X and Harris, T B and Ikram, M A and Lange, L and Launer, L J and Reiner, A P and Schwander, K and Smith, N L and Sotoodehnia, N and Stewart, J D and Stott, D J and St{\"u}rmer, T and Taylor, K D and Uitterlinden, A and Vasan, R S and Wiggins, K L and Cupples, L A and Gudnason, V and Heckbert, S R and Jukema, J W and Liu, Y and Psaty, B M and Rao, D C and Rotter, J I and Stricker, B and Wilson, J G and Whitsel, E A} } @article {8200, title = {Genomic and transcriptomic association studies identify 16 novel susceptibility loci for venous thromboembolism.}, journal = {Blood}, volume = {134}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Nov 07}, pages = {1645-1657}, abstract = {

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality. To advance our understanding of the biology contributing to VTE, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of VTE and a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) based on imputed gene expression from whole blood and liver. We meta-analyzed GWAS data from 18 studies for 30 234 VTE cases and 172 122 controls and assessed the association between 12 923 718 genetic variants and VTE. We generated variant prediction scores of gene expression from whole blood and liver tissue and assessed them for association with VTE. Mendelian randomization analyses were conducted for traits genetically associated with novel VTE loci. We identified 34 independent genetic signals for VTE risk from GWAS meta-analysis, of which 14 are newly reported associations. This included 11 newly associated genetic loci (C1orf198, PLEK, OSMR-AS1, NUGGC/SCARA5, GRK5, MPHOSPH9, ARID4A, PLCG2, SMG6, EIF5A, and STX10) of which 6 replicated, and 3 new independent signals in 3 known genes. Further, TWAS identified 5 additional genetic loci with imputed gene expression levels differing between cases and controls in whole blood (SH2B3, SPSB1, RP11-747H7.3, RP4-737E23.2) and in liver (ERAP1). At some GWAS loci, we found suggestive evidence that the VTE association signal for novel and previously known regions colocalized with expression quantitative trait locus signals. Mendelian randomization analyses suggested that blood traits may contribute to the underlying risk of VTE. To conclude, we identified 16 novel susceptibility loci for VTE; for some loci, the association signals are likely mediated through gene expression of nearby genes.

}, issn = {1528-0020}, doi = {10.1182/blood.2019000435}, author = {Lindstr{\"o}m, Sara and Wang, Lu and Smith, Erin N and Gordon, William and van Hylckama Vlieg, Astrid and de Andrade, Mariza and Brody, Jennifer A and Pattee, Jack W and Haessler, Jeffrey and Brumpton, Ben M and Chasman, Daniel I and Suchon, Pierre and Chen, Ming-Huei and Turman, Constance and Germain, Marine and Wiggins, Kerri L and MacDonald, James and Braekkan, Sigrid K and Armasu, Sebastian M and Pankratz, Nathan and Jackson, Rebecca D and Nielsen, Jonas B and Giulianini, Franco and Puurunen, Marja K and Ibrahim, Manal and Heckbert, Susan R and Damrauer, Scott M and Natarajan, Pradeep and Klarin, Derek and de Vries, Paul S and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Huffman, Jennifer E and Bammler, Theo K and Frazer, Kelly A and McCauley, Bryan M and Taylor, Kent and Pankow, James S and Reiner, Alexander P and Gabrielsen, Maiken E and Deleuze, Jean-Francois and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Chris J and Kim, Jihye and McKnight, Barbara and Kraft, Peter and Hansen, John-Bjarne and Rosendaal, Frits R and Heit, John A and Psaty, Bruce M and Tang, Weihong and Kooperberg, Charles and Hveem, Kristian and Ridker, Paul M and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and Johnson, Andrew D and Kabrhel, Christopher and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Smith, Nicholas L} } @article {7981, title = {Genomics of 1 million parent lifespans implicates novel pathways and common diseases and distinguishes survival chances.}, journal = {Elife}, volume = {8}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Jan 15}, abstract = {

We use a genome-wide association of 1 million parental lifespans of genotyped subjects and data on mortality risk factors to validate previously unreplicated findings near , , , , , and 13q21.31, and identify and replicate novel findings near , , and . We also validate previous findings near 5q33.3/ and , whilst finding contradictory evidence at other loci. Gene set and cell-specific analyses show that expression in foetal brain cells and adult dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is enriched for lifespan variation, as are gene pathways involving lipid proteins and homeostasis, vesicle-mediated transport, and synaptic function. Individual genetic variants that increase dementia, cardiovascular disease, and lung cancer - but not other cancers - explain the most variance. Resulting polygenic scores show a mean lifespan difference of around five years of life across the deciles.

Editorial note: This article has been through an editorial process in which the authors decide how to respond to the issues raised during peer review. The Reviewing Editor{\textquoteright}s assessment is that all the issues have been addressed (see decision letter).

}, issn = {2050-084X}, doi = {10.7554/eLife.39856}, author = {Timmers, Paul Rhj and Mounier, Ninon and L{\"a}ll, Kristi and Fischer, Krista and Ning, Zheng and Feng, Xiao and Bretherick, Andrew D and Clark, David W and Agbessi, M and Ahsan, H and Alves, I and Andiappan, A and Awadalla, P and Battle, A and Bonder, M J and Boomsma, D and Christiansen, M and Claringbould, A and Deelen, P and van Dongen, J and Esko, T and Fav{\'e}, M and Franke, L and Frayling, T and Gharib, S A and Gibson, G and Hemani, G and Jansen, R and Kalnapenkis, A and Kasela, S and Kettunen, J and Kim, Y and Kirsten, H and Kovacs, P and Krohn, K and Kronberg-Guzman, J and Kukushkina, V and Kutalik, Z and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, M and Lee, B and Lehtim{\"a}ki, T and Loeffler, M and Marigorta, U and Metspalu, A and van Meurs, J and Milani, L and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, M and Nauck, M and Nivard, M and Penninx, B and Perola, M and Pervjakova, N and Pierce, B and Powell, J and Prokisch, H and Psaty, B M and Raitakari, O and Ring, S and Ripatti, S and Rotzschke, O and Ru{\"e}ger, S and Saha, A and Scholz, M and Schramm, K and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, I and Stumvoll, M and Sullivan, P and Teumer, A and Thiery, J and Tong, L and T{\"o}njes, A and Verlouw, J and Visscher, P M and V{\~o}sa, U and V{\"o}lker, U and Yaghootkar, H and Yang, J and Zeng, B and Zhang, F and Agbessi, M and Ahsan, H and Alves, I and Andiappan, A and Awadalla, P and Battle, A and Bonder, M J and Boomsma, D and Christiansen, M and Claringbould, A and Deelen, P and van Dongen, J and Esko, T and Fav{\'e}, M and Franke, L and Frayling, T and Gharib, S A and Gibson, G and Hemani, G and Jansen, R and Kalnapenkis, A and Kasela, S and Kettunen, J and Kim, Y and Kirsten, H and Kovacs, P and Krohn, K and Kronberg-Guzman, J and Kukushkina, V and Kutalik, Z and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, M and Lee, B and Lehtim{\"a}ki, T and Loeffler, M and Marigorta, U and Metspalu, A and van Meurs, J and Milani, L and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, M and Nauck, M and Nivard, M and Penninx, B and Perola, M and Pervjakova, N and Pierce, B and Powell, J and Prokisch, H and Psaty, B M and Raitakari, O and Ring, S and Ripatti, S and Rotzschke, O and Ru{\"e}ger, S and Saha, A and Scholz, M and Schramm, K and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, I and Stumvoll, M and Sullivan, P and Teumer, A and Thiery, J and Tong, L and T{\"o}njes, A and Verlouw, J and Visscher, P M and V{\~o}sa, U and V{\"o}lker, U and Yaghootkar, H and Yang, J and Zeng, B and Zhang, F and Shen, Xia and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Wilson, James F and Joshi, Peter K} } @article {8278, title = {Heterogeneous Exposure Associations in Observational Cohort Studies: The Example of Blood Pressure in Older Adults.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Oct 08}, abstract = {

Heterogeneous exposure associations (HEAs) can be defined as differences in the association of a exposure with an outcome among subgroups that differ by a set of characteristics. This manuscript intends to foster discussion of HEAs in the epidemiological literature, and present a variant of the random forest algorithm that can be used to identify HEAs. We demonstrate the use of this algorithm in the setting of the association of systolic blood pressure and death in older adults. The training set included pooled data from the baseline examination of the Cardiovascular Health Study (1989-1993), the Health, Aging, and Body Composition study (1997-1998), and the Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging (1998-1999). The test set included data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2002). The hazard ratios ranged from 1.25 (95\% CI: 1.13, 1.37) per 10 mmHg higher systolic blood pressure in men aged <=67 years with diastolic blood pressure >80 mmHg, to 1.00 (0.96, 1.03) in women with creatinine <0.7 mg/dL and a history of hypertension. HEAs have the potential to improve our understanding of disease mechanisms in diverse populations, and guide the design of randomized controlled trials to control exposures in heterogeneous populations.

}, issn = {1476-6256}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kwz218}, author = {Odden, Michelle C and Rawlings, Andreea M and Khodadadi, Abtin and Fern, Xiaoli and Shlipak, Michael G and Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten and Covinsky, Kenneth and Kanaya, Alka M and Lee, Anne and Haan, Mary N and Newman, Anne B and Psaty, Bruce M and Peralta, Carmen A} } @article {8531, title = {{The impact of APOE genotype on survival: Results of 38,537 participants from six population-based cohorts (E2-CHARGE)}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {14}, year = {2019}, pages = {e0219668}, abstract = {Apolipoprotein E is a glycoprotein best known as a mediator and regulator of lipid transport and uptake. The APOE-{\^I}{\textmu}4 allele has long been associated with increased risks of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease and mortality, but the effect of the less prevalent APOE-{\^I}{\textmu}2 allele on diseases in the elderly and survival remains elusive.\ We aggregated data of 38,537 individuals of European ancestry (mean age 65.5 years; 55.6\% women) from six population-based cohort studies (Rotterdam Study, AGES-Reykjavik Study, Cardiovascular Health Study, Health-ABC Study, and the family-based Framingham Heart Study and Long Life Family Study) to determine the association of APOE, and in particular APOE-{\^I}{\textmu}2, with survival in the population.\ During a mean follow-up of 11.7 years, 17,021 individuals died. Compared with homozygous APOE-{\^I}{\textmu}3 carriers, APOE-{\^I}{\textmu}2 carriers were at lower risk of death (hazard ratio,95\% confidence interval: 0.94,0.90-0.99; P = 1.1*10-2), whereas APOE-{\^I}{\textmu}4 carriers were at increased risk of death (HR 1.17,1.12-1.21; P = 2.8*10-16). APOE was associated with mortality risk in a dose-dependent manner, with risk estimates lowest for homozygous APOE-{\^I}{\textmu}2 (HR 0.89,0.74-1.08), and highest for homozygous APOE-{\^I}{\textmu}4 (HR 1.52,1.37-1.70). After censoring for dementia, effect estimates remained similar for APOE-{\^I}{\textmu}2 (HR 0.95,0.90-1.01), but attenuated for APOE-{\^I}{\textmu}4 (HR 1.07,1.01-1.12). Results were broadly similar across cohorts, and did not differ by age or sex. APOE genotype was associated with baseline lipid fractions (e.g. mean difference(95\%CI) in LDL(mg/dL) for {\^I}{\textmu}2 versus {\^I}{\textmu}33: -17.1(-18.1-16.0), and {\^I}{\textmu}4 versus {\^I}{\textmu}33: +5.7(4.8;6.5)), but the association between APOE and mortality was unaltered after adjustment for baseline LDL or cardiovascular disease. Given the European ancestry of the study population, results may not apply to other ethnicities.\ Compared with APOE-{\^I}{\textmu}3, APOE-{\^I}{\textmu}2 is associated with prolonged survival, whereas mortality risk is increased for APOE-{\^I}{\textmu}4 carriers. Further collaborative efforts are needed to unravel the role of APOE and in particular APOE-{\^I}{\textmu}2 in health and disease.}, author = {Wolters, F. J. and Yang, Q. and Biggs, M. L. and Jakobsdottir, J. and Li, S. and Evans, D. S. and Bis, J. C. and Harris, T. B. and Vasan, R. S. and Zilhao, N. R. and Ghanbari, M. and Ikram, M. A. and Launer, L. and Psaty, B. M. and Tranah, G. J. and Kulminski, A. M. and Gudnason, V. and Seshadri, S.} } @article {8205, title = {Impact of Rare and Common Genetic Variants on Diabetes Diagnosis by Hemoglobin A1c in Multi-Ancestry Cohorts: The Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine Program.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {105}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Oct 03}, pages = {706-718}, abstract = {

Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is widely used to diagnose diabetes and assess glycemic control in individuals with diabetes. However, nonglycemic determinants, including genetic variation, may influence how accurately HbA1c reflects underlying glycemia. Analyzing the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) sequence data in 10,338 individuals from five studies and four ancestries (6,158 Europeans, 3,123 African-Americans, 650 Hispanics, and 407 East Asians), we confirmed five regions associated with HbA1c (GCK in Europeans and African-Americans, HK1 in Europeans and Hispanics, FN3K and/or FN3KRP in Europeans, and G6PD in African-Americans and Hispanics) and we identified an African-ancestry-specific low-frequency variant (rs1039215 in HBG2 and HBE1, minor allele frequency (MAF) = 0.03). The most associated G6PD variant (rs1050828-T, p.Val98Met, MAF = 12\% in African-Americans, MAF = 2\% in Hispanics) lowered HbA1c (-0.88\% in hemizygous males, -0.34\% in heterozygous females) and explained 23\% of HbA1c variance in African-Americans and 4\% in Hispanics. Additionally, we identified a rare distinct G6PD coding variant (rs76723693, p.Leu353Pro, MAF = 0.5\%; -0.98\% in hemizygous males, -0.46\% in heterozygous females) and detected significant association with HbA1c when aggregating rare missense variants in G6PD. We observed similar magnitude and direction of effects for rs1039215 (HBG2) and rs76723693 (G6PD) in the two largest TOPMed African American cohorts, and we replicated the rs76723693 association in the UK Biobank African-ancestry participants. These variants in G6PD and HBG2 were monomorphic in the European and Asian samples. African or Hispanic ancestry individuals carrying G6PD variants may be underdiagnosed for diabetes when screened with HbA1c. Thus, assessment of these variants should be considered for incorporation into precision medicine approaches for diabetes diagnosis.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2019.08.010}, author = {Sarnowski, Chloe and Leong, Aaron and Raffield, Laura M and Wu, Peitao and de Vries, Paul S and DiCorpo, Daniel and Guo, Xiuqing and Xu, Huichun and Liu, Yongmei and Zheng, Xiuwen and Hu, Yao and Brody, Jennifer A and Goodarzi, Mark O and Hidalgo, Bertha A and Highland, Heather M and Jain, Deepti and Liu, Ching-Ti and Naik, Rakhi P and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Perry, James A and Porneala, Bianca C and Selvin, Elizabeth and Wessel, Jennifer and Psaty, Bruce M and Curran, Joanne E and Peralta, Juan M and Blangero, John and Kooperberg, Charles and Mathias, Rasika and Johnson, Andrew D and Reiner, Alexander P and Mitchell, Braxton D and Cupples, L Adrienne and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Correa, Adolfo and Morrison, Alanna C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Manning, Alisa K and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Meigs, James B} } @article {7979, title = {A large-scale exome array analysis of venous thromboembolism.}, journal = {Genet Epidemiol}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Jan 19}, abstract = {

Although recent Genome-Wide Association Studies have identified novel associations for common variants, there has been no comprehensive exome-wide search for low-frequency variants that affect the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). We conducted a meta-analysis of 11 studies comprising 8,332 cases and 16,087 controls of European ancestry and 382 cases and 1,476 controls of African American ancestry genotyped with the Illumina HumanExome BeadChip. We used the seqMeta package in R to conduct single variant and gene-based rare variant tests. In the single variant analysis, we limited our analysis to the 64,794 variants with at least 40 minor alleles across studies (minor allele frequency [MAF] ~0.08\%). We confirmed associations with previously identified VTE loci, including ABO, F5, F11, and FGA. After adjusting for multiple testing, we observed no novel significant findings in single variant or gene-based analysis. Given our sample size, we had greater than 80\% power to detect minimum odds ratios greater than 1.5 and 1.8 for a single variant with MAF of 0.01 and 0.005, respectively. Larger studies and sequence data may be needed to identify novel low-frequency and rare variants associated with VTE risk.

}, issn = {1098-2272}, doi = {10.1002/gepi.22187}, author = {Lindstr{\"o}m, Sara and Brody, Jennifer A and Turman, Constance and Germain, Marine and Bartz, Traci M and Smith, Erin N and Chen, Ming-Huei and Puurunen, Marja and Chasman, Daniel and Hassler, Jeffrey and Pankratz, Nathan and Basu, Saonli and Guan, Weihua and Gyorgy, Beata and Ibrahim, Manal and Empana, Jean-Philippe and Olaso, Robert and Jackson, Rebecca and Braekkan, Sigrid K and McKnight, Barbara and Deleuze, Jean-Francois and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Cristopher J and Jouven, Xavier and Frazer, Kelly A and Psaty, Bruce M and Wiggins, Kerri L and Taylor, Kent and Reiner, Alexander P and Heckbert, Susan R and Kooperberg, Charles and Ridker, Paul and Hansen, John-Bjarne and Tang, Weihong and Johnson, Andrew D and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David A and Kraft, Peter and Smith, Nicholas L and Kabrhel, Christopher} } @article {8050, title = {Mendelian randomization evaluation of causal effects of fibrinogen on incident coronary heart disease.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {14}, year = {2019}, month = {2019}, pages = {e0216222}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Fibrinogen is an essential hemostatic factor and cardiovascular disease risk factor. Early attempts at evaluating the causal effect of fibrinogen on coronary heart disease (CHD) and myocardial infraction (MI) using Mendelian randomization (MR) used single variant approaches, and did not take advantage of recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) or multi-variant, pleiotropy robust MR methodologies.

METHODS AND FINDINGS: We evaluated evidence for a causal effect of fibrinogen on both CHD and MI using MR. We used both an allele score approach and pleiotropy robust MR models. The allele score was composed of 38 fibrinogen-associated variants from recent GWAS. Initial analyses using the allele score used a meta-analysis of 11 European-ancestry prospective cohorts, free of CHD and MI at baseline, to examine incidence CHD and MI. We also applied 2 sample MR methods with data from a prevalent CHD and MI GWAS. Results are given in terms of the hazard ratio (HR) or odds ratio (OR), depending on the study design, and associated 95\% confidence interval (CI). In single variant analyses no causal effect of fibrinogen on CHD or MI was observed. In multi-variant analyses using incidence CHD cases and the allele score approach, the estimated causal effect (HR) of a 1 g/L higher fibrinogen concentration was 1.62 (CI = 1.12, 2.36) when using incident cases and the allele score approach. In 2 sample MR analyses that accounted for pleiotropy, the causal estimate (OR) was reduced to 1.18 (CI = 0.98, 1.42) and 1.09 (CI = 0.89, 1.33) in the 2 most precise (smallest CI) models, out of 4 models evaluated. In the 2 sample MR analyses for MI, there was only very weak evidence of a causal effect in only 1 out of 4 models.

CONCLUSIONS: A small causal effect of fibrinogen on CHD is observed using multi-variant MR approaches which account for pleiotropy, but not single variant MR approaches. Taken together, results indicate that even with large sample sizes and multi-variant approaches MR analyses still cannot exclude the null when estimating the causal effect of fibrinogen on CHD, but that any potential causal effect is likely to be much smaller than observed in epidemiological studies.

}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0216222}, author = {Ward-Caviness, Cavin K and de Vries, Paul S and Wiggins, Kerri L and Huffman, Jennifer E and Yanek, Lisa R and Bielak, Lawrence F and Giulianini, Franco and Guo, Xiuqing and Kleber, Marcus E and Kacprowski, Tim and Gro{\ss}, Stefan and Petersman, Astrid and Davey Smith, George and Hartwig, Fernando P and Bowden, Jack and Hemani, Gibran and M{\"u}ller-Nuraysid, Martina and Strauch, Konstantin and Koenig, Wolfgang and Waldenberger, Melanie and Meitinger, Thomas and Pankratz, Nathan and Boerwinkle, Eric and Tang, Weihong and Fu, Yi-Ping and Johnson, Andrew D and Song, Ci and de Maat, Moniek P M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Franco, Oscar H and Brody, Jennifer A and McKnight, Barbara and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Psaty, Bruce M and Mathias, Rasika A and Becker, Diane M and Peyser, Patricia A and Smith, Jennifer A and Bielinski, Suzette J and Ridker, Paul M and Taylor, Kent D and Yao, Jie and Tracy, Russell and Delgado, Graciela and Trompet, Stella and Sattar, Naveed and Jukema, J Wouter and Becker, Lewis C and Kardia, Sharon L R and Rotter, Jerome I and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Chasman, Daniel I and Dehghan, Abbas and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Smith, Nicholas L and Peters, Annette and Morrison, Alanna C} } @article {8510, title = {{A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies multiple longevity genes}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {10}, year = {2019}, month = {08}, pages = {3669}, abstract = {Human longevity is heritable, but genome-wide association (GWA) studies have had limited success. Here, we perform two meta-analyses of GWA studies of a rigorous longevity phenotype definition including 11,262/3484 cases surviving at or beyond the age corresponding to the 90th/99th survival percentile, respectively, and 25,483 controls whose age at death or at last contact was at or below the age corresponding to the 60th survival percentile. Consistent with previous reports, rs429358 (apolipoprotein E (ApoE) {\^I}{\textmu}4) is associated with lower odds of surviving to the 90th and 99th percentile age, while rs7412 (ApoE {\^I}{\textmu}2) shows the opposite. Moreover, rs7676745, located near GPR78, associates with lower odds of surviving to the 90th percentile age. Gene-level association analysis reveals a role for tissue-specific expression of multiple genes in longevity. Finally, genetic correlation of the longevity GWA results with that of several disease-related phenotypes points to a shared genetic architecture between health and longevity.}, author = {Deelen, J. and Evans, D. S. and Arking, D. E. and Tesi, N. and Nygaard, M. and Liu, X. and Wojczynski, M. K. and Biggs, M. L. and van der Spek, A. and Atzmon, G. and Ware, E. B. and Sarnowski, C. and Smith, A. V. and Sepp?l?, I. and Cordell, H. J. and Dose, J. and Amin, N. and Arnold, A. M. and Ayers, K. L. and Barzilai, N. and Becker, E. J. and Beekman, M. and Blanch?, H. and Christensen, K. and Christiansen, L. and Collerton, J. C. and Cubaynes, S. and Cummings, S. R. and Davies, K. and Debrabant, B. and Deleuze, J. F. and Duncan, R. and Faul, J. D. and Franceschi, C. and Galan, P. and Gudnason, V. and Harris, T. B. and Huisman, M. and Hurme, M. A. and Jagger, C. and Jansen, I. and Jylh?, M. and K?h?nen, M. and Karasik, D. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Kingston, A. and Kirkwood, T. B. L. and Launer, L. J. and Lehtim?ki, T. and Lieb, W. and Lyytik?inen, L. P. and Martin-Ruiz, C. and Min, J. and Nebel, A. and Newman, A. B. and Nie, C. and Nohr, E. A. and Orwoll, E. S. and Perls, T. T. and Province, M. A. and Psaty, B. M. and Raitakari, O. T. and Reinders, M. J. T. and Robine, J. M. and Rotter, J. I. and Sebastiani, P. and Smith, J. and S?rensen, T. I. A. and Taylor, K. D. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and van der Flier, W. and van der Lee, S. J. and van Duijn, C. M. and van Heemst, D. and Vaupel, J. W. and Weir, D. and Ye, K. and Zeng, Y. and Zheng, W. and Holstege, H. and Kiel, D. P. and Lunetta, K. L. and Slagboom, P. E. and Murabito, J. M.} } @article {9310, title = {{A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies multiple longevity genes}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {10}, year = {2019}, month = {Aug}, pages = {3669}, abstract = {2) shows the opposite. Moreover, rs7676745, located near GPR78, associates with lower odds of surviving to the 90th percentile age. Gene-level association analysis reveals a role for tissue-specific expression of multiple genes in longevity. Finally, genetic correlation of the longevity GWA results with that of several disease-related phenotypes points to a shared genetic architecture between health and longevity.}, author = {Deelen, J. and Evans, D. S. and Arking, D. E. and Tesi, N. and Nygaard, M. and Liu, X. and Wojczynski, M. K. and Biggs, M. L. and van der Spek, A. and Atzmon, G. and Ware, E. B. and Sarnowski, C. and Smith, A. V. and {\"a}, I. and Cordell, H. J. and Dose, J. and Amin, N. and Arnold, A. M. and Ayers, K. L. and Barzilai, N. and Becker, E. J. and Beekman, M. and {\'e}, H. and Christensen, K. and Christiansen, L. and Collerton, J. C. and Cubaynes, S. and Cummings, S. R. and Davies, K. and Debrabant, B. and Deleuze, J. F. and Duncan, R. and Faul, J. D. and Franceschi, C. and Galan, P. and Gudnason, V. and Harris, T. B. and Huisman, M. and Hurme, M. A. and Jagger, C. and Jansen, I. and {\"a}, M. and nen, M. and Karasik, D. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Kingston, A. and Kirkwood, T. B. L. and Launer, L. J. and ki, T. and Lieb, W. and inen, L. P. and Martin-Ruiz, C. and Min, J. and Nebel, A. and Newman, A. B. and Nie, C. and Nohr, E. A. and Orwoll, E. S. and Perls, T. T. and Province, M. A. and Psaty, B. M. and Raitakari, O. T. and Reinders, M. J. T. and Robine, J. M. and Rotter, J. I. and Sebastiani, P. and Smith, J. and rensen, T. I. A. and Taylor, K. D. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and van der Flier, W. and van der Lee, S. J. and van Duijn, C. M. and van Heemst, D. and Vaupel, J. W. and Weir, D. and Ye, K. and Zeng, Y. and Zheng, W. and Holstege, H. and Kiel, D. P. and Lunetta, K. L. and Slagboom, P. E. and Murabito, J. M.} } @article {8517, title = {{Meta-Analysis of Genomewide Association Studies Reveals Genetic Variants for Hip Bone Geometry}, journal = {J Bone Miner Res}, volume = {34}, year = {2019}, month = {07}, pages = {1284{\textendash}1296}, abstract = {Hip geometry is an important predictor of fracture. We performed a meta-analysis of GWAS studies in adults to identify genetic variants that are associated with proximal femur geometry phenotypes. We analyzed four phenotypes: (i) femoral neck length; (ii) neck-shaft angle; (iii) femoral neck width, and (iv) femoral neck section modulus, estimated from DXA scans using algorithms of hip structure analysis. In the Discovery stage, 10 cohort studies were included in the fixed-effect meta-analysis, with up to 18,719 men and women ages 16 to 93 years. Association analyses were performed with {\^a}{\textasciicircum}{\textonequarter}2.5 million polymorphisms under an additive model adjusted for age, body mass index, and height. Replication analyses of meta-GWAS significant loci (at adjusted genomewide significance [GWS], threshold p {\^a}{\textperthousand}¤ 2.6 {\~A}{\textemdash} 10-8 ) were performed in seven additional cohorts in silico. We looked up SNPs associated in our analysis, for association with height, bone mineral density (BMD), and fracture. In meta-analysis (combined Discovery and Replication stages), GWS associations were found at 5p15 (IRX1 and ADAMTS16); 5q35 near FGFR4; at 12p11 (in CCDC91); 11q13 (near LRP5 and PPP6R3 (rs7102273)). Several hip geometry signals overlapped with BMD, including LRP5 (chr. 11). Chr. 11 SNP rs7102273 was associated with any-type fracture (p = 7.5 {\~A}{\textemdash} 10-5 ). We used bone transcriptome data and discovered several significant eQTLs, including rs7102273 and PPP6R3 expression (p = 0.0007), and rs6556301 (intergenic, chr.5 near FGFR4) and PDLIM7 expression (p = 0.005). In conclusion, we found associations between several genes and hip geometry measures that explained 12\% to 22\% of heritability at different sites. The results provide a defined set of genes related to biological pathways relevant to BMD and etiology of bone fragility. {\^A}{\textcopyright} 2019 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.}, author = {Hsu, Y. H. and Estrada, K. and Evangelou, E. and Ackert-Bicknell, C. and Akesson, K. and Beck, T. and Brown, S. J. and Capellini, T. and Carbone, L. and Cauley, J. and Cheung, C. L. and Cummings, S. R. and Czerwinski, S. and Demissie, S. and Econs, M. and Evans, D. and Farber, C. and Gautvik, K. and Harris, T. and Kammerer, C. and Kemp, J. and Koller, D. L. and Kung, A. and Lawlor, D. and Lee, M. and Lorentzon, M. and McGuigan, F. and Medina-Gomez, C. and Mitchell, B. and Newman, A. and Nielson, C. and Ohlsson, C. and Peacock, M. and Reppe, S. and Richards, J. B. and Robbins, J. and Sigurdsson, G. and Spector, T. D. and Stefansson, K. and Streeten, E. and Styrkarsdottir, U. and Tobias, J. and Trajanoska, K. and Uitterlinden, A. and Vandenput, L. and Wilson, S. G. and Yerges-Armstrong, L. and Young, M. and Zillikens, M. C. and Rivadeneira, F. and Kiel, D. P. and Karasik, D.} } @article {7970, title = {Multi-Ancestry Genome-Wide Association Study of Lipid Levels Incorporating Gene-Alcohol Interactions.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Jan 29}, abstract = {

An individual{\textquoteright}s lipid profile is influenced by genetic variants and alcohol consumption, but the contribution of interactions between these exposures has not been studied. We therefore incorporated gene-alcohol interactions into a multi-ancestry genome-wide association study of levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides. We included 45 studies in Stage 1 (genome-wide discovery) and 66 studies in Stage 2 (focused follow-up), for a total of 394,584 individuals from five ancestry groups. Genetic main and interaction effects were jointly assessed by a 2 degrees of freedom (DF) test, and a 1 DF test was used to assess the interaction effects alone. Variants at 495 loci were at least suggestively associated (P~<~1~{\texttimes}~10-6) with lipid levels in Stage 1 and were evaluated in Stage 2, followed by combined analyses of Stage 1 and Stage 2. In the combined analysis of Stage 1 and Stage 2, 147 independent loci were associated with lipid levels at P~<~5~{\texttimes}~10-8 using 2 DF tests, of which 18 were novel. No genome-wide significant associations were found testing the interaction effect alone. The novel loci included several genes (PCSK5, VEGFB, and A1CF) with a putative role in lipid metabolism based on existing evidence from cellular and experimental models.

}, issn = {1476-6256}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kwz005}, author = {de Vries, Paul S and Brown, Michael R and Bentley, Amy R and Sung, Yun J and Winkler, Thomas W and Ntalla, Ioanna and Schwander, Karen and Kraja, Aldi T and Guo, Xiuqing and Franceschini, Nora and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Sim, Xueling and Vojinovic, Dina and Huffman, Jennifer E and Musani, Solomon K and Li, Changwei and Feitosa, Mary F and Richard, Melissa A and Noordam, Raymond and Aschard, Hugues and Bartz, Traci M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Deng, Xuan and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Lohman, Kurt K and Manning, Alisa K and Rankinen, Tuomo and Smith, Albert V and Tajuddin, Salman M and Evangelou, Evangelos and Graff, Mariaelisa and Alver, Maris and Boissel, Mathilde and Chai, Jin Fang and Chen, Xu and Divers, Jasmin and Gandin, Ilaria and Gao, Chuan and Goel, Anuj and Hagemeijer, Yanick and Harris, Sarah E and Hartwig, Fernando P and He, Meian and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Jackson, Anne U and Kasturiratne, Anuradhani and Komulainen, Pirjo and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Laguzzi, Federica and Lee, Joseph H and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Matoba, Nana and Nolte, Ilja M and Pietzner, Maik and Riaz, Muhammad and Said, M Abdullah and Scott, Robert A and Sofer, Tamar and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Tayo, Bamidele O and van der Most, Peter J and Varga, Tibor V and Wang, Yajuan and Ware, Erin B and Wen, Wanqing and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhang, Weihua and Zhao, Jing Hua and Afaq, Saima and Amin, Najaf and Amini, Marzyeh and Arking, Dan E and Aung, Tin and Ballantyne, Christie and Boerwinkle, Eric and Broeckel, Ulrich and Campbell, Archie and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Charumathi, Sabanayagam and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Connell, John M and de Faire, Ulf and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and de Silva, H Janaka and Ding, Jingzhong and Dominiczak, Anna F and Duan, Qing and Eaton, Charles B and Eppinga, Ruben N and Faul, Jessica D and Fisher, Virginia and Forrester, Terrence and Franco, Oscar H and Friedlander, Yechiel and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Giulianini, Franco and Grabe, Hans J and Grove, Megan L and Gu, C Charles and Harris, Tamara B and Heikkinen, Sami and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Hirata, Makoto and Hixson, James E and Howard, Barbara V and Ikram, M Arfan and Jacobs, David R and Johnson, Craig and Jonas, Jost Bruno and Kammerer, Candace M and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Khor, Chiea Chuen and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Koh, Woon-Puay and Koistinen, Heikki A and Kolcic, Ivana and Kooperberg, Charles and Krieger, Jose E and Kritchevsky, Steve B and Kubo, Michiaki and Kuusisto, Johanna and Lakka, Timo A and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lehne, Benjamin and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Li, Yize and Liang, Jingjing and Liu, Jianjun and Liu, Kiang and Loh, Marie and Louie, Tin and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Manichaikul, Ani W and McKenzie, Colin A and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Milaneschi, Yuri and Milani, Lili and Mohlke, Karen L and Mosley, Thomas H and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Nalls, Mike A and Nauck, Matthias and Nelson, Christopher P and Sotoodehnia, Nona and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pazoki, Raha and Pedersen, Nancy L and Peters, Annette and Peyser, Patricia A and Polasek, Ozren and Poulter, Neil and Raffel, Leslie J and Raitakari, Olli T and Reiner, Alex P and Rice, Treva K and Rich, Stephen S and Robino, Antonietta and Robinson, Jennifer G and Rose, Lynda M and Rudan, Igor and Schmidt, Carsten O and Schreiner, Pamela J and Scott, William R and Sever, Peter and Shi, Yuan and Sidney, Stephen and Sims, Mario and Smith, Blair H and Smith, Jennifer A and Snieder, Harold and Starr, John M and Strauch, Konstantin and Tan, Nicholas and Taylor, Kent D and Teo, Yik Ying and Tham, Yih Chung and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Heemst, Diana and Vuckovic, Dragana and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wang, Lihua and Wang, Yujie and Wang, Zhe and Wei, Wen Bin and Williams, Christine and Wilson, Gregory and Wojczynski, Mary K and Yao, Jie and Yu, Bing and Yu, Caizheng and Yuan, Jian-Min and Zhao, Wei and Zonderman, Alan B and Becker, Diane M and Boehnke, Michael and Bowden, Donald W and Chambers, John C and Deary, Ian J and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Farrall, Martin and Franks, Paul W and Freedman, Barry I and Froguel, Philippe and Gasparini, Paolo and Gieger, Christian and Horta, Bernardo L and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kato, Norihiro and Kooner, Jaspal S and Laakso, Markku and Leander, Karin and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Penninx, Brenda and Pereira, Alexandre C and Rauramaa, Rainer and Samani, Nilesh J and Scott, James and Shu, Xiao-Ou and van der Harst, Pim and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wang, Ya Xing and Wareham, Nicholas J and Watkins, Hugh and Weir, David R and Wickremasinghe, Ananda R and Zheng, Wei and Elliott, Paul and North, Kari E and Bouchard, Claude and Evans, Michele K and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Yongmei and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and van Dam, Rob M and Kardia, Sharon L R and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Rotimi, Charles N and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Fornage, Myriam and Kelly, Tanika N and Fox, Ervin R and Hayward, Caroline and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Tai, E Shyong and Wong, Tien Yin and Liu, Jingmin and Rotter, Jerome I and Gauderman, W James and Province, Michael A and Munroe, Patricia B and Rice, Kenneth and Chasman, Daniel I and Cupples, L Adrienne and Rao, Dabeeru C and Morrison, Alanna C} } @article {8005, title = {Multi-ancestry genome-wide gene-smoking interaction study of 387,272 individuals identifies new loci associated with serum lipids.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {51}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Apr}, pages = {636-648}, abstract = {

The concentrations of high- and low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides are influenced by smoking, but it is unknown whether genetic associations with lipids may be modified by smoking. We conducted a multi-ancestry genome-wide gene-smoking interaction study in 133,805 individuals with follow-up in an additional 253,467 individuals. Combined meta-analyses identified 13 new loci associated with lipids, some of which were detected only because association differed by smoking status. Additionally, we demonstrate the importance of including diverse populations, particularly in studies of interactions with lifestyle factors, where genomic and lifestyle differences by ancestry may contribute to novel findings.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-019-0378-y}, author = {Bentley, Amy R and Sung, Yun J and Brown, Michael R and Winkler, Thomas W and Kraja, Aldi T and Ntalla, Ioanna and Schwander, Karen and Chasman, Daniel I and Lim, Elise and Deng, Xuan and Guo, Xiuqing and Liu, Jingmin and Lu, Yingchang and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Sim, Xueling and Vojinovic, Dina and Huffman, Jennifer E and Musani, Solomon K and Li, Changwei and Feitosa, Mary F and Richard, Melissa A and Noordam, Raymond and Baker, Jenna and Chen, Guanjie and Aschard, Hugues and Bartz, Traci M and Ding, Jingzhong and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Manning, Alisa K and Rankinen, Tuomo and Smith, Albert V and Tajuddin, Salman M and Zhao, Wei and Graff, Mariaelisa and Alver, Maris and Boissel, Mathilde and Chai, Jin Fang and Chen, Xu and Divers, Jasmin and Evangelou, Evangelos and Gao, Chuan and Goel, Anuj and Hagemeijer, Yanick and Harris, Sarah E and Hartwig, Fernando P and He, Meian and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Hung, Yi-Jen and Jackson, Anne U and Kasturiratne, Anuradhani and Komulainen, Pirjo and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Leander, Karin and Lin, Keng-Hung and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Matoba, Nana and Nolte, Ilja M and Pietzner, Maik and Prins, Bram and Riaz, Muhammad and Robino, Antonietta and Said, M Abdullah and Schupf, Nicole and Scott, Robert A and Sofer, Tamar and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Tayo, Bamidele O and van der Most, Peter J and Varga, Tibor V and Wang, Tzung-Dau and Wang, Yajuan and Ware, Erin B and Wen, Wanqing and Xiang, Yong-Bing and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhang, Weihua and Zhao, Jing Hua and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Afaq, Saima and Amin, Najaf and Amini, Marzyeh and Arking, Dan E and Arzumanyan, Zorayr and Aung, Tin and Ballantyne, Christie and Barr, R Graham and Bielak, Lawrence F and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin P and Broeckel, Ulrich and Brown, Morris and Cade, Brian E and Campbell, Archie and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Charumathi, Sabanayagam and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Christensen, Kaare and Concas, Maria Pina and Connell, John M and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and de Silva, H Janaka and de Vries, Paul S and Doumatey, Ayo and Duan, Qing and Eaton, Charles B and Eppinga, Ruben N and Faul, Jessica D and Floyd, James S and Forouhi, Nita G and Forrester, Terrence and Friedlander, Yechiel and Gandin, Ilaria and Gao, He and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Gharib, Sina A and Gigante, Bruna and Giulianini, Franco and Grabe, Hans J and Gu, C Charles and Harris, Tamara B and Heikkinen, Sami and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Hirata, Makoto and Hixson, James E and Ikram, M Arfan and Jia, Yucheng and Joehanes, Roby and Johnson, Craig and Jonas, Jost Bruno and Justice, Anne E and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Khor, Chiea Chuen and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Koh, Woon-Puay and Kolcic, Ivana and Kooperberg, Charles and Krieger, Jose E and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Kubo, Michiaki and Kuusisto, Johanna and Lakka, Timo A and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lehne, Benjamin and Lewis, Cora E and Li, Yize and Liang, Jingjing and Lin, Shiow and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Jianjun and Liu, Kiang and Loh, Marie and Lohman, Kurt K and Louie, Tin and Luzzi, Anna and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Mahajan, Anubha and Manichaikul, Ani W and McKenzie, Colin A and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Milaneschi, Yuri and Milani, Lili and Mohlke, Karen L and Momozawa, Yukihide and Morris, Andrew P and Murray, Alison D and Nalls, Mike A and Nauck, Matthias and Nelson, Christopher P and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Papanicolau, George J and Pedersen, Nancy L and Peters, Annette and Peyser, Patricia A and Polasek, Ozren and Poulter, Neil and Raitakari, Olli T and Reiner, Alex P and Renstrom, Frida and Rice, Treva K and Rich, Stephen S and Robinson, Jennifer G and Rose, Lynda M and Rosendaal, Frits R and Rudan, Igor and Schmidt, Carsten O and Schreiner, Pamela J and Scott, William R and Sever, Peter and Shi, Yuan and Sidney, Stephen and Sims, Mario and Smith, Jennifer A and Snieder, Harold and Starr, John M and Strauch, Konstantin and Stringham, Heather M and Tan, Nicholas Y Q and Tang, Hua and Taylor, Kent D and Teo, Yik Ying and Tham, Yih Chung and Tiemeier, Henning and Turner, Stephen T and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Heemst, Diana and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wang, Heming and Wang, Lan and Wang, Lihua and Wei, Wen Bin and Williams, Christine A and Wilson, Gregory and Wojczynski, Mary K and Yao, Jie and Young, Kristin and Yu, Caizheng and Yuan, Jian-Min and Zhou, Jie and Zonderman, Alan B and Becker, Diane M and Boehnke, Michael and Bowden, Donald W and Chambers, John C and Cooper, Richard S and de Faire, Ulf and Deary, Ian J and Elliott, Paul and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Farrall, Martin and Franks, Paul W and Freedman, Barry I and Froguel, Philippe and Gasparini, Paolo and Gieger, Christian and Horta, Bernardo L and Juang, Jyh-Ming Jimmy and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kammerer, Candace M and Kato, Norihiro and Kooner, Jaspal S and Laakso, Markku and Laurie, Cathy C and Lee, I-Te and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Pereira, Alexandre C and Rauramaa, Rainer and Redline, Susan and Samani, Nilesh J and Scott, James and Shu, Xiao-Ou and van der Harst, Pim and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wang, Jun-Sing and Wang, Ya Xing and Wareham, Nicholas J and Watkins, Hugh and Weir, David R and Wickremasinghe, Ananda R and Wu, Tangchun and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Zheng, Wei and Bouchard, Claude and Evans, Michele K and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Kardia, Sharon L R and Liu, Yongmei and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and van Dam, Rob M and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Fornage, Myriam and Province, Michael A and Kelly, Tanika N and Fox, Ervin R and Hayward, Caroline and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Tai, E Shyong and Wong, Tien Yin and Loos, Ruth J F and Franceschini, Nora and Rotter, Jerome I and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Bierut, Laura J and Gauderman, W James and Rice, Kenneth and Munroe, Patricia B and Morrison, Alanna C and Rao, Dabeeru C and Rotimi, Charles N and Cupples, L Adrienne} } @article {8281, title = {{A multi-ancestry genome-wide study incorporating gene-smoking interactions identifies multiple new loci for pulse pressure and mean arterial pressure}, journal = {Hum. Mol. Genet.}, year = {2019}, month = {Apr}, abstract = {Elevated blood pressure (BP), a leading cause of global morbidity and mortality, is influenced by both genetic and lifestyle factors. Cigarette smoking is one such lifestyle factor. Across five ancestries, we performed a genome-wide gene-smoking interaction study of mean arterial pressure (MAP) and pulse pressure (PP) in 129 913 individuals in stage 1 and follow-up analysis in 480 178 additional individuals in stage 2. We report here 136 loci significantly associated with MAP and/or PP. Of these, 61 were previously published through main-effect analysis of BP traits, 37 were recently reported by us for systolic BP and/or diastolic BP through gene-smoking interaction analysis and 38 were newly identified (P < 5 {\~A}{\textemdash} 10-8, false discovery rate < 0.05). We also identified nine new signals near known loci. Of the 136 loci, 8 showed significant interaction with smoking status. They include CSMD1 previously reported for insulin resistance and BP in the spontaneously hypertensive rats. Many of the 38 new loci show biologic plausibility for a role in BP regulation. SLC26A7 encodes a chloride/bicarbonate exchanger expressed in the renal outer medullary collecting duct. AVPR1A is widely expressed, including in vascular smooth muscle cells, kidney, myocardium and brain. FHAD1 is a long non-coding RNA overexpressed in heart failure. TMEM51 was associated with contractile function in cardiomyocytes. CASP9 plays a central role in cardiomyocyte apoptosis. Identified only in African ancestry were 30 novel loci. Our findings highlight the value of multi-ancestry investigations, particularly in studies of interaction with lifestyle factors, where genomic and lifestyle differences may contribute to novel findings.}, author = {Sung, Y. J. and de Las Fuentes, L. and Winkler, T. W. and Chasman, D. I. and Bentley, A. R. and Kraja, A. T. and Ntalla, I. and Warren, H. R. and Guo, X. and Schwander, K. and Manning, A. K. and Brown, M. R. and Aschard, H. and Feitosa, M. F. and Franceschini, N. and Lu, Y. and Cheng, C. Y. and Sim, X. and Vojinovic, D. and Marten, J. and Musani, S. K. and Kilpel?inen, T. O. and Richard, M. A. and Aslibekyan, S. and Bartz, T. M. and Dorajoo, R. and Li, C. and Liu, Y. and Rankinen, T. and Smith, A. V. and Tajuddin, S. M. and Tayo, B. O. and Zhao, W. and Zhou, Y. and Matoba, N. and Sofer, T. and Alver, M. and Amini, M. and Boissel, M. and Chai, J. F. and Chen, X. and Divers, J. and Gandin, I. and Gao, C. and Giulianini, F. and Goel, A. and Harris, S. E. and Hartwig, F. P. and He, M. and Horimoto, A. R. V. R. and Hsu, F. C. and Jackson, A. U. and Kammerer, C. M. and Kasturiratne, A. and Komulainen, P. and K?hnel, B. and Leander, K. and Lee, W. J. and Lin, K. H. and Luan, J. and Lyytik?inen, L. P. and McKenzie, C. A. and Nelson, C. P. and Noordam, R. and Scott, R. A. and Sheu, W. H. H. and Stan??kov?, A. and Takeuchi, F. and van der Most, P. J. and Varga, T. V. and Waken, R. J. and Wang, H. and Wang, Y. and Ware, E. B. and Weiss, S. and Wen, W. and Yanek, L. R. and Zhang, W. and Zhao, J. H. and Afaq, S. and Alfred, T. and Amin, N. and Arking, D. E. and Aung, T. and Barr, R. G. and Bielak, L. F. and Boerwinkle, E. and Bottinger, E. P. and Braund, P. S. and Brody, J. A. and Broeckel, U. and Cade, B. and Campbell, A. and Canouil, M. and Chakravarti, A. and Cocca, M. and Collins, F. S. and Connell, J. M. and de Mutsert, R. and de Silva, H. J. and D?rr, M. and Duan, Q. and Eaton, C. B. and Ehret, G. and Evangelou, E. and Faul, J. D. and Forouhi, N. G. and Franco, O. H. and Friedlander, Y. and Gao, H. and Gigante, B. and Gu, C. C. and Gupta, P. and Hagenaars, S. P. and Harris, T. B. and He, J. and Heikkinen, S. and Heng, C. K. and Hofman, A. and Howard, B. V. and Hunt, S. C. and Irvin, M. R. and Jia, Y. and Katsuya, T. and Kaufman, J. and Kerrison, N. D. and Khor, C. C. and Koh, W. P. and Koistinen, H. A. and Kooperberg, C. B. and Krieger, J. E. and Kubo, M. and Kutalik, Z. and Kuusisto, J. and Lakka, T. A. and Langefeld, C. D. and Langenberg, C. and Launer, L. J. and Lee, J. H. and Lehne, B. and Levy, D. and Lewis, C. E. and Li, Y. and Lim, S. H. and Liu, C. T. and Liu, J. and Liu, J. and Liu, Y. and Loh, M. and Lohman, K. K. and Louie, T. and M?gi, R. and Matsuda, K. and Meitinger, T. and Metspalu, A. and Milani, L. and Momozawa, Y. and Mosley, T. H. and Nalls, M. A. and Nasri, U. and O{\textquoteright}Connell, J. R. and Ogunniyi, A. and Palmas, W. R. and Palmer, N. D. and Pankow, J. S. and Pedersen, N. L. and Peters, A. and Peyser, P. A. and Polasek, O. and Porteous, D. and Raitakari, O. T. and Renstr?m, F. and Rice, T. K. and Ridker, P. M. and Robino, A. and Robinson, J. G. and Rose, L. M. and Rudan, I. and Sabanayagam, C. and Salako, B. L. and Sandow, K. and Schmidt, C. O. and Schreiner, P. J. and Scott, W. R. and Sever, P. and Sims, M. and Sitlani, C. M. and Smith, B. H. and Smith, J. A. and Snieder, H. and Starr, J. M. and Strauch, K. and Tang, H. and Taylor, K. D. and Teo, Y. Y. and Tham, Y. C. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and Waldenberger, M. and Wang, L. and Wang, Y. X. and Wei, W. B. and Wilson, G. and Wojczynski, M. K. and Xiang, Y. B. and Yao, J. and Yuan, J. M. and Zonderman, A. B. and Becker, D. M. and Boehnke, M. and Bowden, D. W. and Chambers, J. C. and Chen, Y. I. and Weir, D. R. and de Faire, U. and Deary, I. J. and Esko, T. and Farrall, M. and Forrester, T. and Freedman, B. I. and Froguel, P. and Gasparini, P. and Gieger, C. and Horta, B. L. and Hung, Y. J. and Jonas, J. B. and Kato, N. and Kooner, J. S. and Laakso, M. and Lehtim?ki, T. and Liang, K. W. and Magnusson, P. K. E. and Oldehinkel, A. J. and Pereira, A. C. and Perls, T. and Rauramaa, R. and Redline, S. and Rettig, R. and Samani, N. J. and Scott, J. and Shu, X. O. and van der Harst, P. and Wagenknecht, L. E. and Wareham, N. J. and Watkins, H. and Wickremasinghe, A. R. and Wu, T. and Kamatani, Y. and Laurie, C. C. and Bouchard, C. and Cooper, R. S. and Evans, M. K. and Gudnason, V. and Hixson, J. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Kritchevsky, S. B. and Psaty, B. M. and van Dam, R. M. and Arnett, D. K. and Mook-Kanamori, D. O. and Fornage, M. and Fox, E. R. and Hayward, C. and van Duijn, C. M. and Tai, E. S. and Wong, T. Y. and Loos, R. J. F. and Reiner, A. P. and Rotimi, C. N. and Bierut, L. J. and Zhu, X. and Cupples, L. A. and Province, M. A. and Rotter, J. I. and Franks, P. W. and Rice, K. and Elliott, P. and Caulfield, M. J. and Gauderman, W. J. and Munroe, P. B. and Rao, D. C. and Morrison, A. C.} } @article {8202, title = {Multi-ancestry sleep-by-SNP interaction analysis in 126,926 individuals reveals lipid loci stratified by sleep duration.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {10}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Nov 12}, pages = {5121}, abstract = {

Both short and long sleep are associated with an adverse lipid profile, likely through different biological pathways. To elucidate the biology of sleep-associated adverse lipid profile, we conduct multi-ancestry genome-wide sleep-SNP interaction analyses on three lipid traits (HDL-c, LDL-c and triglycerides). In the total study sample (discovery + replication) of 126,926 individuals from 5 different ancestry groups, when considering either long or short total sleep time interactions in joint analyses, we identify 49 previously unreported lipid loci, and 10 additional previously unreported lipid loci in a restricted sample of European-ancestry cohorts. In addition, we identify new gene-sleep interactions for known lipid loci such as LPL and PCSK9. The previously unreported lipid loci have a modest explained variance in lipid levels: most notable, gene-short-sleep interactions explain 4.25\% of the variance in triglyceride level. Collectively, these findings contribute to our understanding of the biological mechanisms involved in sleep-associated adverse lipid profiles.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-019-12958-0}, author = {Noordam, Raymond and Bos, Maxime M and Wang, Heming and Winkler, Thomas W and Bentley, Amy R and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and de Vries, Paul S and Sung, Yun Ju and Schwander, Karen and Cade, Brian E and Manning, Alisa and Aschard, Hugues and Brown, Michael R and Chen, Han and Franceschini, Nora and Musani, Solomon K and Richard, Melissa and Vojinovic, Dina and Aslibekyan, Stella and Bartz, Traci M and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and Feitosa, Mary and Horimoto, Andrea R and Ilkov, Marjan and Kho, Minjung and Kraja, Aldi and Li, Changwei and Lim, Elise and Liu, Yongmei and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Rankinen, Tuomo and Tajuddin, Salman M and van der Spek, Ashley and Wang, Zhe and Marten, Jonathan and Laville, Vincent and Alver, Maris and Evangelou, Evangelos and Graff, Maria E and He, Meian and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Marques-Vidal, Pedro and Nolte, Ilja M and Palmer, Nicholette D and Rauramaa, Rainer and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Snieder, Harold and Weiss, Stefan and Wen, Wanqing and Yanek, Lisa R and Adolfo, Correa and Ballantyne, Christie and Bielak, Larry and Biermasz, Nienke R and Boerwinkle, Eric and Dimou, Niki and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Gao, Chuan and Gharib, Sina A and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Haba-Rubio, Jos{\'e} and Harris, Tamara B and Heikkinen, Sami and Heinzer, Raphael and Hixson, James E and Homuth, Georg and Ikram, M Arfan and Komulainen, Pirjo and Krieger, Jose E and Lee, Jiwon and Liu, Jingmin and Lohman, Kurt K and Luik, Annemarie I and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Martin, Lisa W and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Milaneschi, Yuri and Nalls, Mike A and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff and Peters, Annette and Peyser, Patricia and Raitakari, Olli T and Reiner, Alex P and Rensen, Patrick C N and Rice, Treva K and Rich, Stephen S and Roenneberg, Till and Rotter, Jerome I and Schreiner, Pamela J and Shikany, James and Sidney, Stephen S and Sims, Mario and Sitlani, Colleen M and Sofer, Tamar and Strauch, Konstantin and Swertz, Morris A and Taylor, Kent D and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wallance, Robert B and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Yu, Caizheng and Zonderman, Alan B and Becker, Diane M and Elliott, Paul and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Gieger, Christian and Grabe, Hans J and Lakka, Timo A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and North, Kari E and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Vollenweider, Peter and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wu, Tangchun and Xiang, Yong-Bing and Zheng, Wei and Arnett, Donna K and Bouchard, Claude and Evans, Michele K and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Kardia, Sharon and Kelly, Tanika N and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Loos, Ruth J F and Pereira, Alexandre C and Province, Mike and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotimi, Charles and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Amin, Najaf and Cupples, L Adrienne and Fornage, Myriam and Fox, Ervin F and Guo, Xiuqing and Gauderman, W James and Rice, Kenneth and Kooperberg, Charles and Munroe, Patricia B and Liu, Ching-Ti and Morrison, Alanna C and Rao, Dabeeru C and van Heemst, Diana and Redline, Susan} } @article {7976, title = {Multi-ancestry study of blood lipid levels identifies four loci interacting with physical activity.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {10}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 01 22}, pages = {376}, abstract = {

Many genetic loci affect circulating lipid levels, but it remains unknown whether lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, modify these genetic effects. To identify lipid loci interacting with physical activity, we performed genome-wide analyses of circulating HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in up to 120,979 individuals of European, African, Asian, Hispanic, and Brazilian ancestry, with follow-up of suggestive associations in an additional 131,012 individuals. We find four loci, in/near CLASP1, LHX1, SNTA1, and CNTNAP2, that are associated with circulating lipid levels through interaction with physical activity; higher levels of physical activity enhance the HDL cholesterol-increasing effects of the CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 loci and attenuate the LDL cholesterol-increasing effect of the CNTNAP2 locus. The CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 regions harbor genes linked to muscle function and lipid metabolism. Our results elucidate the role of physical activity interactions in the genetic contribution to blood lipid levels.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Brazil, Calcium-Binding Proteins, Cholesterol, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exercise, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Hispanic Americans, Humans, LIM-Homeodomain Proteins, Lipid Metabolism, Lipids, Male, Membrane Proteins, Microtubule-Associated Proteins, Middle Aged, Muscle Proteins, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Transcription Factors, Triglycerides, Young Adult}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-08008-w}, author = {Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Bentley, Amy R and Noordam, Raymond and Sung, Yun Ju and Schwander, Karen and Winkler, Thomas W and Jakupovi{\'c}, Hermina and Chasman, Daniel I and Manning, Alisa and Ntalla, Ioanna and Aschard, Hugues and Brown, Michael R and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and Franceschini, Nora and Guo, Xiuqing and Vojinovic, Dina and Aslibekyan, Stella and Feitosa, Mary F and Kho, Minjung and Musani, Solomon K and Richard, Melissa and Wang, Heming and Wang, Zhe and Bartz, Traci M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Campbell, Archie and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Fisher, Virginia and Hartwig, Fernando P and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Li, Changwei and Lohman, Kurt K and Marten, Jonathan and Sim, Xueling and Smith, Albert V and Tajuddin, Salman M and Alver, Maris and Amini, Marzyeh and Boissel, Mathilde and Chai, Jin Fang and Chen, Xu and Divers, Jasmin and Evangelou, Evangelos and Gao, Chuan and Graff, Mariaelisa and Harris, Sarah E and He, Meian and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Jackson, Anne U and Zhao, Jing Hua and Kraja, Aldi T and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Laguzzi, Federica and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Nolte, Ilja M and Rauramaa, Rainer and Riaz, Muhammad and Robino, Antonietta and Rueedi, Rico and Stringham, Heather M and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and van der Most, Peter J and Varga, Tibor V and Verweij, Niek and Ware, Erin B and Wen, Wanqing and Li, Xiaoyin and Yanek, Lisa R and Amin, Najaf and Arnett, Donna K and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brumat, Marco and Cade, Brian and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Concas, Maria Pina and Connell, John and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and de Silva, H Janaka and de Vries, Paul S and Demirkan, Ayse and Ding, Jingzhong and Eaton, Charles B and Faul, Jessica D and Friedlander, Yechiel and Gabriel, Kelley P and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Giulianini, Franco and Gu, Chi Charles and Gu, Dongfeng and Harris, Tamara B and He, Jiang and Heikkinen, Sami and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Hunt, Steven C and Ikram, M Arfan and Jonas, Jost B and Koh, Woon-Puay and Komulainen, Pirjo and Krieger, Jose E and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Kuusisto, Johanna and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Leander, Karin and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Lewis, Cora E and Liang, Jingjing and Liu, Jianjun and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Manichaikul, Ani and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Milaneschi, Yuri and Mohlke, Karen L and Mosley, Thomas H and Murray, Alison D and Nalls, Mike A and Nang, Ei-Ei Khaing and Nelson, Christopher P and Nona, Sotoodehnia and Norris, Jill M and Nwuba, Chiamaka Vivian and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff and Palmer, Nicholette D and Papanicolau, George J and Pazoki, Raha and Pedersen, Nancy L and Peters, Annette and Peyser, Patricia A and Polasek, Ozren and Porteous, David J and Poveda, Alaitz and Raitakari, Olli T and Rich, Stephen S and Risch, Neil and Robinson, Jennifer G and Rose, Lynda M and Rudan, Igor and Schreiner, Pamela J and Scott, Robert A and Sidney, Stephen S and Sims, Mario and Smith, Jennifer A and Snieder, Harold and Sofer, Tamar and Starr, John M and Sternfeld, Barbara and Strauch, Konstantin and Tang, Hua and Taylor, Kent D and Tsai, Michael Y and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van der Ende, M Yldau and van Heemst, Diana and Voortman, Trudy and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wennberg, Patrik and Wilson, Gregory and Xiang, Yong-Bing and Yao, Jie and Yu, Caizheng and Yuan, Jian-Min and Zhao, Wei and Zonderman, Alan B and Becker, Diane M and Boehnke, Michael and Bowden, Donald W and de Faire, Ulf and Deary, Ian J and Elliott, Paul and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Freedman, Barry I and Froguel, Philippe and Gasparini, Paolo and Gieger, Christian and Kato, Norihiro and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Samani, Nilesh J and Shu, Xiao-Ou and van der Harst, Pim and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Vollenweider, Peter and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wang, Ya X and Wareham, Nicholas J and Weir, David R and Wu, Tangchun and Zheng, Wei and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Evans, Michele K and Franks, Paul W and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hayward, Caroline and Horta, Bernardo L and Kelly, Tanika N and Liu, Yongmei and North, Kari E and Pereira, Alexandre C and Ridker, Paul M and Tai, E Shyong and van Dam, Rob M and Fox, Ervin R and Kardia, Sharon L R and Liu, Ching-Ti and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Province, Michael A and Redline, Susan and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Rotter, Jerome I and Kooperberg, Charles B and Gauderman, W James and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Kenneth and Munroe, Patricia B and Fornage, Myriam and Cupples, L Adrienne and Rotimi, Charles N and Morrison, Alanna C and Rao, Dabeeru C and Loos, Ruth J F} } @article {7990, title = {Multiethnic Genome-Wide Association Study of Diabetic Retinopathy Using Liability Threshold Modeling of Duration of Diabetes and Glycemic Control.}, journal = {Diabetes}, volume = {68}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Feb}, pages = {441-456}, abstract = {

To identify genetic variants associated with diabetic retinopathy (DR), we performed a large multiethnic genome-wide association study. Discovery included eight European cohorts ( = 3,246) and seven African American cohorts ( = 2,611). We meta-analyzed across cohorts using inverse-variance weighting, with and without liability threshold modeling of glycemic control and duration of diabetes. Variants with a value <1 {\texttimes} 10 were investigated in replication cohorts that included 18,545 European, 16,453 Asian, and 2,710 Hispanic subjects. After correction for multiple testing, the C allele of rs142293996 in an intron of nuclear VCP-like () was associated with DR in European discovery cohorts ( = 2.1 {\texttimes} 10), but did not reach genome-wide significance after meta-analysis with replication cohorts. We applied the Disease Association Protein-Protein Link Evaluator (DAPPLE) to our discovery results to test for evidence of risk being spread across underlying molecular pathways. One protein-protein interaction network built from genes in regions associated with proliferative DR was found to have significant connectivity ( = 0.0009) and corroborated with gene set enrichment analyses. These findings suggest that genetic variation in as well as variation within a protein-protein interaction network that includes genes implicated in inflammation, may influence risk for DR.

}, issn = {1939-327X}, doi = {10.2337/db18-0567}, author = {Pollack, Samuela and Igo, Robert P and Jensen, Richard A and Christiansen, Mark and Li, Xiaohui and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Ng, Maggie C Y and Smith, Albert V and Rossin, Elizabeth J and Segr{\`e}, Ayellet V and Davoudi, Samaneh and Tan, Gavin S and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Kuo, Jane Z and Dimitrov, Latchezar M and Stanwyck, Lynn K and Meng, Weihua and Hosseini, S Mohsen and Imamura, Minako and Nousome, Darryl and Kim, Jihye and Hai, Yang and Jia, Yucheng and Ahn, Jeeyun and Leong, Aaron and Shah, Kaanan and Park, Kyu Hyung and Guo, Xiuqing and Ipp, Eli and Taylor, Kent D and Adler, Sharon G and Sedor, John R and Freedman, Barry I and Lee, I-Te and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Kubo, Michiaki and Takahashi, Atsushi and Hadjadj, Samy and Marre, Michel and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and McKean-Cowdin, Roberta and Varma, Rohit and McCarthy, Mark I and Groop, Leif and Ahlqvist, Emma and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Agardh, Elisabet and Morris, Andrew and Doney, Alex S F and Colhoun, Helen M and Toppila, Iiro and Sandholm, Niina and Groop, Per-Henrik and Maeda, Shiro and Hanis, Craig L and Penman, Alan and Chen, Ching J and Hancock, Heather and Mitchell, Paul and Craig, Jamie E and Chew, Emily Y and Paterson, Andrew D and Grassi, Michael A and Palmer, Colin and Bowden, Donald W and Yaspan, Brian L and Siscovick, David and Cotch, Mary Frances and Wang, Jie Jin and Burdon, Kathryn P and Wong, Tien Y and Klein, Barbara E K and Klein, Ronald and Rotter, Jerome I and Iyengar, Sudha K and Price, Alkes L and Sobrin, Lucia} } @article {8514, title = {{New alcohol-related genes suggest shared genetic mechanisms with neuropsychiatric disorders}, journal = {Nat Hum Behav}, volume = {3}, year = {2019}, month = {09}, pages = {950{\textendash}961}, abstract = {Excessive alcohol consumption is one of the main causes of death and disability worldwide. Alcohol consumption is a heritable complex trait. Here we conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of alcohol consumption (g d-1) from the UK Biobank, the Alcohol Genome-Wide Consortium and the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Plus consortia, collecting data from 480,842 people of European descent to decipher the genetic architecture of alcohol intake. We identified 46 new common loci and investigated their potential functional importance using magnetic resonance imaging data and gene expression studies. We identify genetic pathways associated with alcohol consumption and suggest genetic mechanisms that are shared with neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.}, author = {Evangelou, E. and Gao, H. and Chu, C. and Ntritsos, G. and Blakeley, P. and Butts, A. R. and Pazoki, R. and Suzuki, H. and Koskeridis, F. and Yiorkas, A. M. and Karaman, I. and Elliott, J. and Luo, Q. and Aeschbacher, S. and Bartz, T. M. and Baumeister, S. E. and Braund, P. S. and Brown, M. R. and Brody, J. A. and Clarke, T. K. and Dimou, N. and Faul, J. D. and Homuth, G. and Jackson, A. U. and Kentistou, K. A. and Joshi, P. K. and Lemaitre, R. N. and Lind, P. A. and Lyytik?inen, L. P. and Mangino, M. and Milaneschi, Y. and Nelson, C. P. and Nolte, I. M. and Per?l?, M. M. and Polasek, O. and Porteous, D. and Ratliff, S. M. and Smith, J. A. and Stan??kov?, A. and Teumer, A. and Tuominen, S. and Th?riault, S. and Vangipurapu, J. and Whitfield, J. B. and Wood, A. and Yao, J. and Yu, B. and Zhao, W. and Arking, D. E. and Auvinen, J. and Liu, C. and M?nnikk?, M. and Risch, L. and Rotter, J. I. and Snieder, H. and Veijola, J. and Blakemore, A. I. and Boehnke, M. and Campbell, H. and Conen, D. and Eriksson, J. G. and Grabe, H. J. and Guo, X. and van der Harst, P. and Hartman, C. A. and Hayward, C. and Heath, A. C. and Jarvelin, M. R. and K?h?nen, M. and Kardia, S. L. R. and K?hne, M. and Kuusisto, J. and Laakso, M. and Lahti, J. and Lehtim?ki, T. and McIntosh, A. M. and Mohlke, K. L. and Morrison, A. C. and Martin, N. G. and Oldehinkel, A. J. and Penninx, B. W. J. H. and Psaty, B. M. and Raitakari, O. T. and Rudan, I. and Samani, N. J. and Scott, L. J. and Spector, T. D. and Verweij, N. and Weir, D. R. and Wilson, J. F. and Levy, D. and Tzoulaki, I. and Bell, J. D. and Matthews, P. M. and Rothenfluh, A. and Desrivi?res, S. and Schumann, G. and Elliott, P.} } @article {8008, title = {NT -pro BNP as a Mediator of the Racial Difference in Incident Atrial Fibrillation and Heart Failure.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {8}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Apr 02}, pages = {e010868}, abstract = {

Background Blacks harbor more cardiovascular risk factors than whites, but experience less atrial fibrillation ( AF ). Conversely, whites may have a lower risk of heart failure ( CHF ). N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide ( NT -pro BNP) levels are higher in whites, predict incident AF , and have diuretic effects in the setting of increased ventricular diastolic pressures, potentially providing a unifying explanation for these racial differences. Methods and Results We used data from the CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study) to determine the degree to which baseline NT -pro BNP levels mediate the relationships between race and incident AF and CHF by comparing beta estimates between models with and without NT -pro BNP . The ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) study was used to assess reproducibility. Among 4731 CHS (770 black) and 12~418 ARIC (3091 black) participants, there were 1277 and 1253 incident AF events, respectively. Whites had higher baseline NT -pro BNP ( CHS : 40\% higher than blacks; 95\% CI , 29-53; ARIC : 39\% higher; 95\% CI , 33-46) and had a greater risk of incident AF compared with blacks ( CHS : adjusted hazard ratio, 1.60; 95\% CI , 1.31-1.93; ARIC : hazard ratio, 1.93; 95\% CI , 1.57-2.27). NT -pro BNP levels explained a significant proportion of the racial difference in AF risk ( CHS : 36.2\%; 95\% CI , 23.2-69.2\%; ARIC : 24.6\%; 95\% CI , 14.8-39.6\%). Contrary to our hypothesis, given an increased risk of CHF among whites in CHS (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.20; 95\% CI , 1.05-1.47) and the absence of a significant association between race and CHF in ARIC (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.07; 95\% CI , 0.94-1.23), CHF -related mediation analyses were not performed. Conclusions A substantial portion of the relationship between race and AF was statistically explained by baseline NT -pro BNP levels. No consistent relationship between race and CHF was observed.

}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.118.010868}, author = {Whitman, Isaac R and Vittinghoff, Eric and deFilippi, Christopher R and Gottdiener, John S and Alonso, Alvaro and Psaty, Bruce M and Heckbert, Susan R and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Arking, Dan E and Selvin, Elizabeth and Chen, Lin Y and Dewland, Thomas A and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {8532, title = {{Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Genome-Wide Interaction Analyses Reveal DPP10-Pulmonary Function Association}, journal = {Am J Respir Crit Care Med}, volume = {199}, year = {2019}, month = {03}, pages = {631{\textendash}642}, abstract = {Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) have anti-inflammatory properties that could benefit adults with comprised pulmonary health.\ To investigate n-3 PUFA associations with spirometric measures of pulmonary function tests (PFTs) and determine underlying genetic susceptibility.\ Associations of n-3 PUFA biomarkers ({\^I}{\textpm}-linolenic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, docosapentaenoic acid [DPA], and docosahexaenoic acid [DHA]) were evaluated with PFTs (FEV1, FVC, and FEV1/FVC) in meta-analyses across seven cohorts from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium (N = 16,134 of European or African ancestry). PFT-associated n-3 PUFAs were carried forward to genome-wide interaction analyses in the four largest cohorts (N = 11,962) and replicated in one cohort (N = 1,687). Cohort-specific results were combined using joint 2 degree-of-freedom (2df) meta-analyses of SNP associations and their interactions with n-3 PUFAs.\ DPA and DHA were positively associated with FEV1 and FVC (P < 0.025), with evidence for effect modification by smoking and by sex. Genome-wide analyses identified a novel association of rs11693320-an intronic DPP10 SNP-with FVC when incorporating an interaction with DHA, and the finding was replicated (P2df = 9.4 {\~A}{\textemdash} 10-9 across discovery and replication cohorts). The rs11693320-A allele (frequency, {\^a}{\textasciicircum}{\textonequarter}80\%) was associated with lower FVC (PSNP = 2.1 {\~A}{\textemdash} 10-9; {\^I}{\texttwosuperior}SNP = -161.0 ml), and the association was attenuated by higher DHA levels (PSNP{\~A}{\textemdash}DHA interaction = 2.1 {\~A}{\textemdash} 10-7; {\^I}{\texttwosuperior}SNP{\~A}{\textemdash}DHA interaction = 36.2 ml).\ We corroborated beneficial effects of n-3 PUFAs on pulmonary function. By modeling genome-wide n-3 PUFA interactions, we identified a novel DPP10 SNP association with FVC that was not detectable in much larger studies ignoring this interaction.}, author = {Xu, J. and Gaddis, N. C. and Bartz, T. M. and Hou, R. and Manichaikul, A. W. and Pankratz, N. and Smith, A. V. and Sun, F. and Terzikhan, N. and Markunas, C. A. and Patchen, B. K. and Schu, M. and Beydoun, M. A. and Brusselle, G. G. and Eiriksdottir, G. and Zhou, X. and Wood, A. C. and Graff, M. and Harris, T. B. and Ikram, M. A. and Jacobs, D. R. and Launer, L. J. and Lemaitre, R. N. and O{\textquoteright}Connor, G. T. and Oelsner, E. C. and Psaty, B. M. and Vasan, R. S. and Rohde, R. R. and Rich, S. S. and Rotter, J. I. and Seshadri, S. and Smith, L. J. and Tiemeier, H. and Tsai, M. Y. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and Voruganti, V. S. and Xu, H. and Zilh?o, N. R. and Fornage, M. and Zillikens, M. C. and London, S. J. and Barr, R. G. and Dupuis, J. and Gharib, S. A. and Gudnason, V. and Lahousse, L. and North, K. E. and Steffen, L. M. and Cassano, P. A. and Hancock, D. B.} } @article {8102, title = {Pharmacogenomics of statin-related myopathy: Meta-analysis of rare variants from whole-exome sequencing.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {14}, year = {2019}, month = {2019}, pages = {e0218115}, abstract = {

AIMS: Statin-related myopathy (SRM), which includes rhabdomyolysis, is an uncommon but important adverse drug reaction because the number of people prescribed statins world-wide is large. Previous association studies of common genetic variants have had limited success in identifying a genetic basis for this adverse drug reaction. We conducted a multi-site whole-exome sequencing study to investigate whether rare coding variants confer an increased risk of SRM.

METHODS AND RESULTS: SRM 3-5 cases (N = 505) and statin treatment-tolerant controls (N = 2047) were recruited from multiple sites in North America and Europe. SRM 3-5 was defined as symptoms consistent with muscle injury and an elevated creatine phosphokinase level >4 times upper limit of normal without another likely cause of muscle injury. Whole-exome sequencing and variant calling was coordinated from two analysis centres, and results of single-variant and gene-based burden tests were meta-analysed. No genome-wide significant associations were identified. Given the large number of cases, we had 80\% power to identify a variant with minor allele frequency of 0.01 that increases the risk of SRM 6-fold at genome-wide significance.

CONCLUSIONS: In this large whole-exome sequencing study of severe statin-related muscle injury conducted to date, we did not find evidence that rare coding variants are responsible for this adverse drug reaction. Larger sample sizes would be required to identify rare variants with small effects, but it is unclear whether such findings would be clinically actionable.

}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0218115}, author = {Floyd, James S and Bloch, Katarzyna M and Brody, Jennifer A and Maroteau, Cyrielle and Siddiqui, Moneeza K and Gregory, Richard and Carr, Daniel F and Molokhia, Mariam and Liu, Xiaoming and Bis, Joshua C and Ahmed, Ammar and Liu, Xuan and Hallberg, P{\"a}r and Yue, Qun-Ying and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Brisson, Diane and Wiggins, Kerri L and Morrison, Alanna C and Khoury, Etienne and McKeigue, Paul and Stricker, Bruno H and Lapeyre-Mestre, Maryse and Heckbert, Susan R and Gallagher, Arlene M and Chinoy, Hector and Gibbs, Richard A and Bondon-Guitton, Emmanuelle and Tracy, Russell and Boerwinkle, Eric and Gaudet, Daniel and Conforti, Anita and van Staa, Tjeerd and Sitlani, Colleen M and Rice, Kenneth M and Maitland-van der Zee, Anke-Hilse and Wadelius, Mia and Morris, Andrew P and Pirmohamed, Munir and Palmer, Colin A N and Psaty, Bruce M and Alfirevic, Ana} } @article {8105, title = {Plasma Ceramides and Sphingomyelins in Relation to Heart Failure Risk.}, journal = {Circ Heart Fail}, volume = {12}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Jul}, pages = {e005708}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Ceramides exhibit multiple biological activities that may influence the pathophysiology of heart failure. These activities may be influenced by the saturated fatty acid carried by the ceramide (Cer). However, the associations of different circulating Cer species, and their sphingomyelin (SM) precursors, with heart failure have received limited attention.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied the associations of plasma Cer and SM species with incident heart failure in the Cardiovascular Health Study. We examined 8 species: Cer and SM with palmitic acid (Cer-16 and SM-16), species with arachidic acid (Cer-20 and SM-20), species with behenic acid (Cer-22 and SM-22), and species with lignoceric acid (Cer-24 and SM-24). During a median follow-up of 9.4 years, we identified 1179 cases of incident heart failure among 4249 study participants. In Cox regression analyses adjusted for risk factors, higher levels of Cer-16 and SM-16 were associated with higher risk of incident heart failure (hazard ratio for one SD increase:1.25 [95\% CI, 1.16-1.36] and 1.28 [1.18-1.40], respectively). In contrast, higher levels of Cer-22 were associated with lower risk of heart failure in multivariable analyses further adjusted for Cer-16 (hazard ratio, 0.85 [0.78-0.92]); and higher levels of SM-20, SM-22 and SM-24 were associated with lower risk of heart failure in analyses further adjusted for SM-16 (hazard ratios, 0.83 [0.77-0.90], 0.81 [0.75-0.88], and 0.83 [0.77-0.90], respectively). No statistically significant interactions with age, sex, black race, body mass index, or baseline coronary heart disease were detected. Similar associations were observed for heart failure with preserved (n=529) or reduced (n=348) ejection fraction.

CONCLUSIONS: This study shows associations of higher plasma levels of Cer-16 and SM-16 with increased risk of heart failure and higher levels of Cer-22, SM-20, SM-22, and SM-24 with decreased risk of heart failure.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifier: NCT00005133.

}, issn = {1941-3297}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.118.005708}, author = {Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Jensen, Paul N and Hoofnagle, Andrew and McKnight, Barbara and Fretts, Amanda M and King, Irena B and Siscovick, David S and Psaty, Bruce M and Heckbert, Susan R and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Sotoodehnia, Nona} } @article {8006, title = {Predictors of atrial ectopy and their relationship to atrial fibrillation risk.}, journal = {Europace}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Mar 06}, abstract = {

AIMS: Premature atrial contractions (PACs) are known to trigger and predict atrial fibrillation (AF). We sought to identify the determinants of PACs and the degree to which PACs mediate the effects of established risk factors for AF.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Predictors of baseline PAC frequency were examined using a Holter Study among 1392 participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a community-based cohort of individuals aged >=65 years. Participants were then followed for their first diagnosis of AF. Independent predictors of PACs were identified, and the extent to which PACs might mediate the relationship between those predictors and AF was determined. The median hourly frequency of PACs was 2.7 (interquartile range 0.8-12.1). After multivariable adjustment, increasing age, increasing height, decreasing body mass index, and a history of myocardial infarction were each associated with more PACs. Regarding modifiable predictors, participants using beta-blockers had 21\% less [95\% confidence interval (95\% CI) 9-30\%, P = 0.001] and those performing at least moderate intensity exercise vs. lower intensity exercisers had 10\% less (95\% CI 1-18\%, P = 0.03) PACs. Higher PAC frequency explained 34\% (95\% CI 22-57\%, P < 0.0001) of the relationship between increasing age and AF risk and 27\% (95\% CI 10-75\%, P = 0.004) of the relationship between taller height and AF risk.

CONCLUSION: Enhancing physical activity and use of beta-blockers may represent fruitful strategies to mitigate PAC frequency. A substantial proportion of the excess risk of AF due to increasing age and taller height may be explained by an increase in PAC frequency.

}, issn = {1532-2092}, doi = {10.1093/europace/euz008}, author = {Kerola, Tuomas and Dewland, Thomas A and Vittinghoff, Eric and Heckbert, Susan R and Stein, Phyllis K and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {8101, title = {PTCD1 Is Required for Mitochondrial Oxidative-Phosphorylation: Possible Genetic Association with Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease.}, journal = {J Neurosci}, volume = {39}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Jun 12}, pages = {4636-4656}, abstract = {

In addition to amyloid-β plaques and tau tangles, mitochondrial dysfunction is implicated in the pathology of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD). Neurons heavily rely on mitochondrial function, and deficits in brain energy metabolism are detected early in AD; however, direct human genetic evidence for mitochondrial involvement in AD pathogenesis is limited. We analyzed whole-exome sequencing data of 4549 AD cases and 3332 age-matched controls and discovered that rare protein altering variants in the gene pentatricopeptide repeat-containing protein 1 () show a trend for enrichment in cases compared with controls. We show here that PTCD1 is required for normal mitochondrial rRNA levels, proper assembly of the mitochondrial ribosome and hence for mitochondrial translation and assembly of the electron transport chain. Loss of PTCD1 function impairs oxidative phosphorylation and forces cells to rely on glycolysis for energy production. Cells expressing the AD-linked variant of PTCD1 fail to sustain energy production under increased metabolic stress. In neurons, reduced PTCD1 expression leads to lower ATP levels and impacts spontaneous synaptic activity. Thus, our study uncovers a possible link between a protein required for mitochondrial function and energy metabolism and AD risk. Mitochondria are the main source of cellular energy and mitochondrial dysfunction is implicated in the pathology of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative disorders. Here, we identify a variant in the gene that is enriched in AD patients and demonstrate that PTCD1 is required for ATP generation through oxidative phosphorylation. PTCD1 regulates the level of 16S rRNA, the backbone of the mitoribosome, and is essential for mitochondrial translation and assembly of the electron transport chain. Cells expressing the AD-associated variant fail to maintain adequate ATP production during metabolic stress, and reduced PTCD1 activity disrupts neuronal energy homeostasis and dampens spontaneous transmission. Our work provides a mechanistic link between a protein required for mitochondrial function and genetic AD risk.

}, issn = {1529-2401}, doi = {10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0116-19.2019}, author = {Fleck, Daniel and Phu, Lilian and Verschueren, Erik and Hinkle, Trent and Reichelt, Mike and Bhangale, Tushar and Haley, Benjamin and Wang, Yuanyuan and Graham, Robert and Kirkpatrick, Donald S and Sheng, Morgan and Bingol, Baris} } @article {8523, title = {{Quality of dietary fat and genetic risk of type 2 diabetes: individual participant data meta-analysis}, journal = {BMJ}, volume = {366}, year = {2019}, month = {07}, pages = {l4292}, abstract = {{To investigate whether the genetic burden of type 2 diabetes modifies the association between the quality of dietary fat and the incidence of type 2 diabetes.\ Individual participant data meta-analysis.\ Eligible prospective cohort studies were systematically sourced from studies published between January 1970 and February 2017 through electronic searches in major medical databases (Medline, Embase, and Scopus) and discussion with investigators.\ Data from cohort studies or multicohort consortia with available genome-wide genetic data and information about the quality of dietary fat and the incidence of type 2 diabetes in participants of European descent was sought. Prospective cohorts that had accrued five or more years of follow-up were included. The type 2 diabetes genetic risk profile was characterized by a 68-variant polygenic risk score weighted by published effect sizes. Diet was recorded by using validated cohort-specific dietary assessment tools. Outcome measures were summary adjusted hazard ratios of incident type 2 diabetes for polygenic risk score, isocaloric replacement of carbohydrate (refined starch and sugars) with types of fat, and the interaction of types of fat with polygenic risk score.\ Of 102 305 participants from 15 prospective cohort studies, 20 015 type 2 diabetes cases were documented after a median follow-up of 12 years (interquartile range 9.4-14.2). The hazard ratio of type 2 diabetes per increment of 10 risk alleles in the polygenic risk score was 1.64 (95\% confidence interval 1.54 to 1.75}, author = {Merino, J. and Guasch-Ferr?, M. and Ellervik, C. and Dashti, H. S. and Sharp, S. J. and Wu, P. and Overvad, K. and Sarnowski, C. and Kuokkanen, M. and Lemaitre, R. N. and Justice, A. E. and Ericson, U. and Braun, K. V. E. and Mahendran, Y. and Frazier-Wood, A. C. and Sun, D. and Chu, A. Y. and Tanaka, T. and Luan, J. and Hong, J. and Tj?nneland, A. and Ding, M. and Lundqvist, A. and Mukamal, K. and Rohde, R. and Schulz, C. A. and Franco, O. H. and Grarup, N. and Chen, Y. I. and Bazzano, L. and Franks, P. W. and Buring, J. E. and Langenberg, C. and Liu, C. T. and Hansen, T. and Jensen, M. K. and S??ksj?rvi, K. and Psaty, B. M. and Young, K. L. and Hindy, G. and Sandholt, C. H. and Ridker, P. M. and Ordovas, J. M. and Meigs, J. B. and Pedersen, O. and Kraft, P. and Perola, M. and North, K. E. and Orho-Melander, M. and Voortman, T. and Toft, U. and Rotter, J. I. and Qi, L. and Forouhi, N. G. and Mozaffarian, D. and S?rensen, T. I. A. and Stampfer, M. J. and M?nnist?, S. and Selvin, E. and Imamura, F. and Salomaa, V. and Hu, F. B. and Wareham, N. J. and Dupuis, J. and Smith, C. E. and Kilpel?inen, T. O. and Chasman, D. I. and Florez, J. C.} } @article {7932, title = {A rare missense variant of CASP7 is associated with familial late-onset Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.}, journal = {Alzheimers Dement}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Jan 03}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: The genetic architecture of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD) is only partially understood.

METHODS: We conducted an association study for AD using whole sequence data from 507 genetically enriched AD cases (i.e., cases having close relatives affected by AD) and 4917 cognitively healthy controls of European ancestry (EA) and 172 enriched cases and 179 controls of Caribbean Hispanic ancestry. Confirmation of top findings from stage 1 was sought in two family-based genome-wide association study data sets and in a whole genome-sequencing data set comprising members from 42 EA and 115 Caribbean Hispanic families.

RESULTS: We identified associations in EAs with variants in 12 novel loci. The most robust finding is a rare CASP7 missense variant (rs116437863; P~=~2.44~{\texttimes}~10) which improved when combined with results from stage 2 data sets (P~=~1.92~{\texttimes}~10).

DISCUSSION: Our study demonstrated that an enriched case design can strengthen genetic signals, thus allowing detection of associations that would otherwise be missed in a traditional case-control study.

}, issn = {1552-5279}, doi = {10.1016/j.jalz.2018.10.005}, author = {Zhang, Xiaoling and Zhu, Congcong and Beecham, Gary and Vardarajan, Badri N and Ma, Yiyi and Lancour, Daniel and Farrell, John J and Chung, Jaeyoon and Mayeux, Richard and Haines, Jonathan L and Schellenberg, Gerard D and Pericak-Vance, Margaret A and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Farrer, Lindsay A} } @article {8519, title = {{Relationship of Estimated GFR and Albuminuria to Concurrent Laboratory Abnormalities: An Individual Participant Data Meta-analysis in a Global Consortium}, journal = {Am J Kidney Dis}, volume = {73}, year = {2019}, month = {02}, pages = {206{\textendash}217}, abstract = {Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is complicated by abnormalities that reflect disruption in filtration, tubular, and endocrine functions of the kidney. Our aim was to explore the relationship of specific laboratory result abnormalities and hypertension with the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and albuminuria CKD staging framework.\ Cross-sectional individual participant-level analyses in a global consortium.\ 17 CKD and 38 general population and high-risk cohorts.\ Cohorts in the CKD Prognosis Consortium with data for eGFR and albuminuria, as well as a measurement of hemoglobin, bicarbonate, phosphorus, parathyroid hormone, potassium, or calcium, or hypertension.\ Data were obtained and analyzed between July 2015 and January 2018.\ We modeled the association of eGFR and albuminuria with hemoglobin, bicarbonate, phosphorus, parathyroid hormone, potassium, and calcium values using linear regression and with hypertension and categorical definitions of each abnormality using logistic regression. Results were pooled using random-effects meta-analyses.\ The CKD cohorts (n=254,666 participants) were 27\% women and 10\% black, with a mean age of 69 (SD, 12) years. The general population/high-risk cohorts (n=1,758,334) were 50\% women and 2\% black, with a mean age of 50 (16) years. There was a strong graded association between lower eGFR and all laboratory result abnormalities (ORs ranging from 3.27 [95\% CI, 2.68-3.97] to 8.91 [95\% CI, 7.22-10.99] comparing eGFRs of 15 to 29 with eGFRs of 45 to 59mL/min/1.73m2), whereas albuminuria had equivocal or weak associations with abnormalities (ORs ranging from 0.77 [95\% CI, 0.60-0.99] to 1.92 [95\% CI, 1.65-2.24] comparing urinary albumin-creatinine ratio > 300 vs < 30mg/g).\ Variations in study era, health care delivery system, typical diet, and laboratory assays.\ Lower eGFR was strongly associated with higher odds of multiple laboratory result abnormalities. Knowledge of risk associations might help guide management in the heterogeneous group of patients with CKD.}, author = {Inker, L. A. and Grams, M. E. and Levey, A. S. and Coresh, J. and Cirillo, M. and Collins, J. F. and Gansevoort, R. T. and Gutierrez, O. M. and Hamano, T. and Heine, G. H. and Ishikawa, S. and Jee, S. H. and Kronenberg, F. and Landray, M. J. and Miura, K. and Nadkarni, G. N. and Peralta, C. A. and Rothenbacher, D. and Schaeffner, E. and Sedaghat, S. and Shlipak, M. G. and Zhang, L. and van Zuilen, A. D. and Hallan, S. I. and Kovesdy, C. P. and Woodward, M. and Levin, A. and Astor, B. and Appel, L. and Greene, T. and Chen, T. and Chalmers, J. and Woodward, M. and Arima, H. and Perkovic, V. and Yatsuya, H. and Tamakoshi, K. and Li, Y. and Hirakawa, Y. and Coresh, J. and Matsushita, K. and Grams, M. and Sang, Y. and Polkinghorne, K. and Chadban, S. and Atkins, R. and Levin, A. and Djurdjev, O. and Zhang, L. and Liu, L. and Zhao, M. and Wang, F. and Wang, J. and Schaeffner, E. and Ebert, N. and Martus, P. and Levin, A. and Djurdjev, O. and Tang, M. and Heine, G. and Emrich, I. and Seiler, S. and Zawada, A. and Nally, J. and Navaneethan, S. and Schold, J. and Zhang, L. and Zhao, M. and Wang, F. and Wang, J. and Shlipak, M. and Sarnak, M. and Katz, R. and Hiramoto, J. and Iso, H. and Yamagishi, K. and Umesawa, M. and Muraki, I. and Fukagawa, M. and Maruyama, S. and Hamano, T. and Hasegawa, T. and Fujii, N. and Wheeler, D. and Emberson, J. and Townend, J. and Landray, M. and Brenner, H. and Sch?ttker, B. and Saum, K. U. and Rothenbacher, D. and Fox, C. and Hwang, S. J. and K?ttgen, A. and Kronenberg, F. and Schneider, M. P. and Eckardt, K. U. and Green, J. and Kirchner, H. L. and Chang, A. R. and Ho, K. and Ito, S. and Miyazaki, M. and Nakayama, M. and Yamada, G. and Cirillo, M. and Irie, F. and Sairenchi, T. and Ishikawa, S. and Yano, Y. and Kotani, K. and Nakamura, T. and Jee, S. H. and Kimm, H. and Mok, Y. and Chodick, G. and Shalev, V. and Wetzels, J. F. M. and Blankestijn, P. J. and van Zuilen, A. D. and van den Brand, J. and Sarnak, M. and Inker, L. and Peralta, C. and Hiramoto, J. and Katz, R. and Sarnak, M. and Kronenberg, F. and Kollerits, B. and Ritz, E. and Nitsch, D. and Roderick, P. and Fletcher, A. and Bottinger, E. and Nadkarni, G. N. and Ellis, S. B. and Nadukuru, R. and Sang, Y. and Ueshima, H. and Okayama, A. and Miura, K. and Tanaka, S. and Ueshima, H. and Okamura, T. and Miura, K. and Tanaka, S. and Miura, K. and Okayama, A. and Kadota, A. and Tanaka, S. and Kenealy, T. and Elley, C. R. and Collins, J. F. and Drury, P. L. and Ohkubo, T. and Asayama, K. and Metoki, H. and Kikuya, M. and Nakayama, M. and Nelson, R. G. and Knowler, W. C. and Gansevoort, R. T. and Bakker, S. J. and Hak, E. and Heerspink, H. J. L. and Brunskill, N. and Major, R. and Shepherd, D. and Medcalf, J. and Jassal, S. K. and Bergstrom, J. and Ix, J. H. and Barrett-Connor, E. and Kovesdy, C. and Kalantar-Zadeh, K. and Sumida, K. and Gutierrez, O. M. and Muntner, P. and Warnock, D. and McClellan, W. and Heerspink, H. J. L. and de Zeeuw, D. and Brenner, B. and Sedaghat, S. and Ikram, M. A. and Hoorn, E. J. and Dehghan, A. and Carrero, J. J. and Gasparini, A. and Wettermark, B. and Elinder, C. G. and Wong, T. Y. and Sabanayagam, C. and Cheng, C. Y. and Visseren, F. L. J. and Evans, M. and Segelmark, M. and Stendahl, M. and Sch?n, S. and Tangri, N. and Sud, M. and Naimark, D. and Wen, C. P. and Tsao, C. K. and Tsai, M. K. and Chen, C. H. and Konta, T. and Hirayama, A. and Ichikawa, K. and Lannfelt, L. and Larsson, A. and ?rnl?v, J. and Bilo, H. J. G. and Landman, G. W. D. and van Hateren, K. J. J. and Kleefstra, N. and Coresh Chair, J. and Gansevoort, R. T. and Grams, M. E. and Hallan, S. and Kovesdy, C. P. and Levey, A. S. and Matsushita, K. and Shalev, V. and Woodward, M. and Ballew, S. H. and Chen, J. and Coresh, J. and Grams, M. E. and Kwak, L. and Matsushita, K. and Sang, Y. and Surapaneni, A. and Woodward, M.} } @article {8199, title = {Sequencing Analysis at 8p23 Identifies Multiple Rare Variants in DLC1 Associated with Sleep-Related Oxyhemoglobin Saturation Level.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {105}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Nov 07}, pages = {1057-1068}, abstract = {

Average arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation during sleep (AvSpOS) is a clinically relevant measure of physiological stress associated with sleep-disordered breathing, and this measure predicts incident cardiovascular disease and mortality. Using high-depth whole-genome sequencing data from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) project and focusing on genes with linkage evidence on chromosome 8p23, we observed that six coding and 51 noncoding variants in a gene that encodes the GTPase-activating protein (DLC1) are significantly associated with AvSpOS and replicated in independent subjects. The combined DLC1 association evidence of discovery and replication cohorts reaches genome-wide significance in European Americans (p = 7.9~{\texttimes} 10). A risk score for these variants, built on an independent dataset, explains 0.97\% of the AvSpOS variation and contributes to the linkage evidence. The 51 noncoding variants are enriched in regulatory features in a human lung fibroblast cell line and contribute to DLC1 expression variation. Mendelian randomization analysis using these variants indicates a significant causal effect of DLC1 expression in fibroblasts on AvSpOS. Multiple sources of information, including genetic variants, gene expression, and methylation, consistently suggest that DLC1 is a gene associated with AvSpOS.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2019.10.002}, author = {Liang, Jingjing and Cade, Brian E and He, Karen Y and Wang, Heming and Lee, Jiwon and Sofer, Tamar and Williams, Stephanie and Li, Ruitong and Chen, Han and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Evans, Daniel S and Guo, Xiuqing and Gharib, Sina A and Hale, Lauren and Hillman, David R and Lutsey, Pamela L and Mukherjee, Sutapa and Ochs-Balcom, Heather M and Palmer, Lyle J and Rhodes, Jessica and Purcell, Shaun and Patel, Sanjay R and Saxena, Richa and Stone, Katie L and Tang, Weihong and Tranah, Gregory J and Boerwinkle, Eric and Lin, Xihong and Liu, Yongmei and Psaty, Bruce M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Cho, Michael H and Manichaikul, Ani and Silverman, Edwin K and Barr, R Graham and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Wilson, James G and Redline, Susan and Zhu, Xiaofeng} } @article {8275, title = {Serial Plasma Phospholipid Fatty Acids in the De Novo Lipogenesis Pathway and Total Mortality, Cause-Specific Mortality, and Cardiovascular Diseases in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {8}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Nov 19}, pages = {e012881}, abstract = {

Background Synthesized fatty acids (FAs) from de novo lipogenesis may affect cardiometabolic health, but longitudinal associations between serially measured de novo lipogenesis-related fatty acid biomarkers and mortality or cardiovascular disease (CVD) are not well established. Methods and Results We investigated longitudinal associations between de novo lipogenesis-related fatty acids with all-cause mortality, cause-specific mortality, and incident CVD among 3869 older US adults, mean (SD) age 75 (5) years and free of prevalent CVD at baseline. Levels of plasma phospholipid palmitic (16:0), palmitoleic (16:1n-7), stearic (18:0), oleic acid (18:1n-9), and other risk factors were serially measured at baseline, 6~years, and 13~years. All-cause mortality, cause-specific mortality, and incident fatal and nonfatal CVD were centrally adjudicated. Risk was assessed in multivariable-adjusted Cox models with time-varying FAs and covariates. During 13~years, median follow-up (maximum 22.4~years), participants experienced 3227 deaths (1131 CVD, 2096 non-CVD) and 1753 incident CVD events. After multivariable adjustment, higher cumulative levels of 16:0, 16:1n-7, and 18:1n-9 were associated with higher all-cause mortality, with extreme-quintile hazard ratios (95\% CIs) of 1.35 (1.17-1.56), 1.40 (1.21-1.62), and 1.56 (1.35-1.80), respectively, whereas higher levels of 18:0 were associated with lower mortality (hazard ratio=0.76; 95\% CI=0.66-0.88). Associations were generally similar for CVD mortality versus non-CVD mortality, as well as total incident CVD. Changes in levels of 16:0 were positively, and 18:0 inversely, associated with all-cause mortality (hazard ratio=1.23, 95\% CI=1.08-1.41; and hazard ratio=0.78, 95\% CI=0.68-0.90). Conclusions Higher long-term levels of 16:0, 16:1n-7, and 18:1n-9 and changes in 16:0 were positively, whereas long-term levels and changes in 18:0 were inversely, associated with all-cause mortality in older adults.

}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.119.012881}, author = {Lai, Heidi T M and de Oliveira Otto, Marcia C and Lee, Yujin and Wu, Jason H Y and Song, Xiaoling and King, Irena B and Psaty, Bruce M and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and McKnight, Barbara and Siscovick, David S and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {8292, title = {Statin-induced LDL cholesterol response and type 2 diabetes: a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization study.}, journal = {Pharmacogenomics J}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Dec 05}, abstract = {

It remains unclear whether the increased risk of new-onset type 2 diabetes (T2D) seen in statin users is due to low LDL-C concentrations, or due to the statin-induced proportional change in LDL-C. In addition, genetic instruments have not been proposed before to examine whether liability to T2D might cause greater proportional statin-induced LDL-C lowering. Using summary-level statistics from the Genomic Investigation of Statin Therapy (GIST, n = 40,914) and DIAGRAM (n = 159,208) consortia, we found a positive genetic correlation between LDL-C statin response and T2D using LD score regression (r = 0.36, s.e. = 0.13). However, mendelian randomization analyses did not provide support for statin response having a causal effect on T2D risk (OR 1.00 (95\% CI: 0.97, 1.03) per 10\% increase in statin response), nor that liability to T2D has a causal effect on statin-induced LDL-C response (0.20\% increase in response (95\% CI: -0.40, 0.80) per doubling of odds of liability to T2D). Although we found no evidence to suggest that proportional statin response influences T2D risk, a definitive assessment should be made in populations comprised exclusively of statin users, as the presence of nonstatin users in the DIAGRAM dataset may have substantially diluted our effect estimate.

}, issn = {1473-1150}, doi = {10.1038/s41397-019-0125-x}, author = {Smit, Roelof A J and Trompet, Stella and Leong, Aaron and Goodarzi, Mark O and Postmus, Iris and Warren, Helen and Theusch, Elizabeth and Barnes, Michael R and Arsenault, Benoit J and Li, Xiaohui and Feng, QiPing and Chasman, Daniel I and Cupples, L Adrienne and Hitman, Graham A and Krauss, Ronald M and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Cessie, Saskia le and Stein, C Michael and Jukema, J Wouter} } @article {8207, title = {Target genes, variants, tissues and transcriptional pathways influencing human serum urate levels.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {51}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Oct}, pages = {1459-1474}, abstract = {

Elevated serum urate levels cause gout and correlate with cardiometabolic diseases via poorly understood mechanisms. We performed a trans-ancestry genome-wide association study of serum urate in 457,690 individuals, identifying 183 loci (147 previously unknown) that improve the prediction of gout in an independent cohort of 334,880 individuals. Serum urate showed significant genetic correlations with many cardiometabolic traits, with genetic causality analyses supporting a substantial role for pleiotropy. Enrichment analysis, fine-mapping of urate-associated loci and colocalization with gene expression in 47 tissues implicated the kidney and liver as the main target organs and prioritized potentially causal genes and variants, including the transcriptional master regulators in the liver and kidney, HNF1A and HNF4A. Experimental validation showed that HNF4A transactivated the promoter of ABCG2, encoding a major urate transporter, in kidney cells, and that HNF4A p.Thr139Ile is a functional variant. Transcriptional coregulation within and across organs may be a general mechanism underlying the observed pleiotropy between urate and cardiometabolic traits.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-019-0504-x}, author = {Tin, Adrienne and Marten, Jonathan and Halperin Kuhns, Victoria L and Li, Yong and Wuttke, Matthias and Kirsten, Holger and Sieber, Karsten B and Qiu, Chengxiang and Gorski, Mathias and Yu, Zhi and Giri, Ayush and Sveinbjornsson, Gardar and Li, Man and Chu, Audrey Y and Hoppmann, Anselm and O{\textquoteright}Connor, Luke J and Prins, Bram and Nutile, Teresa and Noce, Damia and Akiyama, Masato and Cocca, Massimiliano and Ghasemi, Sahar and van der Most, Peter J and Horn, Katrin and Xu, Yizhe and Fuchsberger, Christian and Sedaghat, Sanaz and Afaq, Saima and Amin, Najaf and Arnl{\"o}v, Johan and Bakker, Stephan J L and Bansal, Nisha and Baptista, Daniela and Bergmann, Sven and Biggs, Mary L and Biino, Ginevra and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin P and Boutin, Thibaud S and Brumat, Marco and Burkhardt, Ralph and Campana, Eric and Campbell, Archie and Campbell, Harry and Carroll, Robert J and Catamo, Eulalia and Chambers, John C and Ciullo, Marina and Concas, Maria Pina and Coresh, Josef and Corre, Tanguy and Cusi, Daniele and Felicita, Sala Cinzia and de Borst, Martin H and De Grandi, Alessandro and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and de Vries, Aiko P J and Delgado, Graciela and Demirkan, Ayse and Devuyst, Olivier and Dittrich, Katalin and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Ehret, Georg and Endlich, Karlhans and Evans, Michele K and Gansevoort, Ron T and Gasparini, Paolo and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Gieger, Christian and Girotto, Giorgia and G{\"o}gele, Martin and Gordon, Scott D and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Haller, Toomas and Hamet, Pavel and Harris, Tamara B and Hayward, Caroline and Hicks, Andrew A and Hofer, Edith and Holm, Hilma and Huang, Wei and Hutri-K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Nina and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Ikram, M Arfan and Lewis, Raychel M and Ingelsson, Erik and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Jonsdottir, Ingileif and Jonsson, Helgi and Joshi, Peter K and Josyula, Navya Shilpa and Jung, Bettina and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kanai, Masahiro and Kerr, Shona M and Kiess, Wieland and Kleber, Marcus E and Koenig, Wolfgang and Kooner, Jaspal S and K{\"o}rner, Antje and Kovacs, Peter and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernhard K and Kronenberg, Florian and Kubo, Michiaki and Kuhnel, Brigitte and La Bianca, Martina and Lange, Leslie A and Lehne, Benjamin and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Liu, Jun and Loeffler, Markus and Loos, Ruth J F and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Mahajan, Anubha and Martin, Nicholas G and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Mascalzoni, Deborah and Matsuda, Koichi and Meisinger, Christa and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Milaneschi, Yuri and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Wilson, Otis D and Gaziano, J Michael and Mishra, Pashupati P and Mohlke, Karen L and Mononen, Nina and Montgomery, Grant W and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Nadkarni, Girish N and Nalls, Mike A and Nauck, Matthias and Nikus, Kjell and Ning, Boting and Nolte, Ilja M and Noordam, Raymond and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Olafsson, Isleifur and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Perls, Thomas and Peters, Annette and Pirastu, Mario and Pirastu, Nicola and Pistis, Giorgio and Polasek, Ozren and Ponte, Belen and Porteous, David J and Poulain, Tanja and Preuss, Michael H and Rabelink, Ton J and Raffield, Laura M and Raitakari, Olli T and Rettig, Rainer and Rheinberger, Myriam and Rice, Kenneth M and Rizzi, Federica and Robino, Antonietta and Rudan, Igor and Krajcoviechova, Alena and Cifkova, Renata and Rueedi, Rico and Ruggiero, Daniela and Ryan, Kathleen A and Saba, Yasaman and Salvi, Erika and Schmidt, Helena and Schmidt, Reinhold and Shaffer, Christian M and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Blair H and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Strauch, Konstantin and Stumvoll, Michael and Sulem, Patrick and Tajuddin, Salman M and Teren, Andrej and Thiery, Joachim and Thio, Chris H L and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Toniolo, Daniela and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Tremblay, Johanne and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaccargiu, Simona and van der Harst, Pim and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Verweij, Niek and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Vollenweider, Peter and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Waldenberger, Melanie and Whitfield, John B and Wild, Sarah H and Wilson, James F and Yang, Qiong and Zhang, Weihua and Zonderman, Alan B and Bochud, Murielle and Wilson, James G and Pendergrass, Sarah A and Ho, Kevin and Parsa, Afshin and Pramstaller, Peter P and Psaty, Bruce M and B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and Snieder, Harold and Butterworth, Adam S and Okada, Yukinori and Edwards, Todd L and Stefansson, Kari and Susztak, Katalin and Scholz, Markus and Heid, Iris M and Hung, Adriana M and Teumer, Alexander and Pattaro, Cristian and Woodward, Owen M and Vitart, Veronique and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna} } @article {7914, title = {Trans-ethnic association study of blood pressure determinants in over 750,000 individuals.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {51}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Jan}, pages = {51-62}, abstract = {

In this trans-ethnic multi-omic study, we reinterpret the genetic architecture of blood pressure to identify genes, tissues, phenomes and medication contexts of blood pressure homeostasis. We discovered 208 novel common blood pressure SNPs and 53 rare variants in genome-wide association studies of systolic, diastolic and pulse pressure in up to 776,078 participants from the Million Veteran Program (MVP) and collaborating studies, with analysis of the blood pressure clinical phenome in MVP. Our transcriptome-wide association study detected 4,043 blood pressure associations with genetically predicted gene expression of 840 genes in 45 tissues, and mouse renal single-cell RNA sequencing identified upregulated blood pressure genes in kidney tubule cells.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-018-0303-9}, author = {Giri, Ayush and Hellwege, Jacklyn N and Keaton, Jacob M and Park, Jihwan and Qiu, Chengxiang and Warren, Helen R and Torstenson, Eric S and Kovesdy, Csaba P and Sun, Yan V and Wilson, Otis D and Robinson-Cohen, Cassianne and Roumie, Christianne L and Chung, Cecilia P and Birdwell, Kelly A and Damrauer, Scott M and DuVall, Scott L and Klarin, Derek and Cho, Kelly and Wang, Yu and Evangelou, Evangelos and Cabrera, Claudia P and Wain, Louise V and Shrestha, Rojesh and Mautz, Brian S and Akwo, Elvis A and Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Debette, Stephanie and Boehnke, Michael and Scott, Laura J and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Zhao, Jing-Hua and Willems, Sara M and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Shah, Nabi and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Almgren, Peter and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Verweij, Niek and Boutin, Thibaud S and Mangino, Massimo and Ntalla, Ioanna and Feofanova, Elena and Surendran, Praveen and Cook, James P and Karthikeyan, Savita and Lahrouchi, Najim and Liu, Chunyu and Sep{\'u}lveda, Nuno and Richardson, Tom G and Kraja, Aldi and Amouyel, Philippe and Farrall, Martin and Poulter, Neil R and Laakso, Markku and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Sever, Peter and Scott, Robert A and Langenberg, Claudia and Wareham, Nicholas J and Conen, David and Palmer, Colin Neil Alexander and Attia, John and Chasman, Daniel I and Ridker, Paul M and Melander, Olle and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis Owen and Harst, Pim van der and Cucca, Francesco and Schlessinger, David and Hayward, Caroline and Spector, Tim D and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Hennig, Branwen J and Timpson, Nicholas J and Wei, Wei-Qi and Smith, Joshua C and Xu, Yaomin and Matheny, Michael E and Siew, Edward E and Lindgren, Cecilia and Herzig, Karl-Heinz and Dedoussis, George and Denny, Joshua C and Psaty, Bruce M and Howson, Joanna M M and Munroe, Patricia B and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Caulfield, Mark J and Elliott, Paul and Gaziano, J Michael and Concato, John and Wilson, Peter W F and Tsao, Philip S and Velez Edwards, Digna R and Susztak, Katalin and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Hung, Adriana M and Edwards, Todd L} } @article {8108, title = {Trends in Blood Pressure and High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin-T with Cardiovascular Disease: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Am J Hypertens}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Jun 21}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: High-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) is individually associated with incident hypertension (HTN) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. We hypothesize that the increases in hs-cTnT with increases in blood pressure will be related to higher incidence of CVD.

METHODS: The Cardiovascular Health Study is a longitudinal cohort of older adults. Those with hs-cTnT data and CVD risk factors at baseline and follow-up (2-3 years later) were stratified based on systolic blood pressure (SBP) (optimal: <120 mmHg, intermediate: 120-139 mmHg, elevated: >=140 mmHg) and hs-cTnT (undetectable: <5 ng/L, detectable: 5-13 ng/L, elevated: >=14 ng/L) categories. SBP and hs-cTnT were classified as increased or decreased if they changed categories between exams, and stable if they did not. Cox regression evaluated incident CVD events over an average 9 year follow-up.

RESULTS: Among 2219 adults, 510 (23.0 \%) had decreased hs-cTnT, 1,279 (57.6 \%) had stable hs-cTnT, and 430 (19.4 \%) had increased hs-cTnT. Those with increased hs-cTnT had a higher CVD risk with stable SBP (HR: 1.28 [1.04-1.57], p=0.02) or decreased SBP (HR: 1.57 [1.08-2.28], p=0.02) compared to those within the same SBP group but a stable hs-cTnT. In those with lower SBP at follow-up, there was an inverse relation between DBP and risk of CVD events in those with increased hs-cTnT (HR: 0.44 per 10 mmHg increase, p<0.01).

CONCLUSION: An increase in hs-cTnT over time is associated with a higher risk of CVD even when the blood pressure is stable or decreases over time.

}, issn = {1941-7225}, doi = {10.1093/ajh/hpz102}, author = {Tehrani, David M and Fan, Wenjun and Nambi, Vijay and Gardin, Julius and Hirsch, Calvin H and Amsterdam, Ezra and deFilippi, Christopher R and Polonsky, Tamar and Wong, Nathan D} } @article {8208, title = {Use of a pooled cohort to impute cardiovascular disease risk factors across the adult life course.}, journal = {Int J Epidemiol}, volume = {48}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 06 01}, pages = {1004-1013}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: In designing prevention strategies, it may be useful to understand how early and midlife cardiovascular disease risk factor (CVDRF) exposures affect outcomes that primarily occur in mid to late life. Few single US cohorts have followed participants from early adulthood to late life.

METHODS: We pooled four prospective cohorts that represent segments of the adult life course, and studied 15~001 White and Black adults aged 18 to 95 years at enrollment. We imputed early and midlife exposure to body mass index (BMI), glucose, lipids and blood pressure (BP). CVDRF trajectories were estimated using linear mixed models. Using the best linear unbiased predictions, we obtained person-specific estimates of CVDRF trajectories beginning at age 20 until each participant{\textquoteright}s end of follow-up. We then calculated for each CVDRF, summary measures of early and midlife exposure as time-weighted averages (TWAs).

RESULTS: In the pooled cohort, 33.7\% were Black and 54.8\% were female. CVDRF summary measures worsened in midlife compared with early life and varied by sex and race. In particular, systolic and diastolic BP were consistently higher over the adult life course among men, and BMI was higher among Blacks, particularly Black women. Simulation studies suggested acceptable imputation accuracy, especially for the younger cohorts. Correlations of true and imputed CVDRF summary measures ranged from 0.53 to 0.99, and agreement ranged from 67\% to 99\%.

CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that imputed CVDRFs may be accurate enough to be useful in assessing the effects of early and midlife exposures on later life outcomes.

}, issn = {1464-3685}, doi = {10.1093/ije/dyy264}, author = {Zeki Al Hazzouri, Adina and Vittinghoff, Eric and Zhang, Yiyi and Pletcher, Mark J and Moran, Andrew E and Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten and Golden, Sherita H and Yaffe, Kristine} } @article {8619, title = {Accelerometer-Measured Sedentary Patterns are Associated with Incident Falls in Older Women.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Nov 30}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Falls cause significant problems for older adults. Sedentary time is associated with lower physical function and could increase the risk for falls.

DESIGN: Prospective study.

SETTING: Sites across the United States.

PARTICIPANTS: Older women (N = 5,545, mean age 79 years) from the Women{\textquoteright} Health Initiative Objective Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Health study.

MEASUREMENTS: Accelerometers worn at the hip for up to 1 week collected measures of daily sedentary time and the mean sedentary bout duration, a commonly used metric for sedentary accumulation patterns. For up to 13 months after accelerometer wear, women reported daily whether they had fallen on monthly calendars.

RESULTS: In fully adjusted models, the incident rate ratios (95\% confidence interval) for quartiles 1 (lowest), 2, 3, and 4 of sedentary time respectively were 1.0 (ref.), 1.07 (0.93-1.24), 1.07 (0.91-1.25), and 1.14 (0.96-1.35; P-trend = .65) and for mean sedentary bout duration was 1.0 (ref.), 1.05 (0.92-1.21), 1.02 (0.88-1.17), and 1.17 (1.01-1.37; P-trend = .01), respectively. Women with a history of two or more falls had stronger associations between sedentary time and falls incidence compared with women with a history of no or one fall (P for interaction = .046).

CONCLUSIONS: Older women in the highest quartile of mean sedentary bout duration had a significantly increased risk of falling. Women with a history of frequent falling may be at higher risk for falling if they have high sedentary time. Interventions testing whether shortening total sedentary time and/or sedentary bouts lowers fall risk are needed to confirm these observational findings.

}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/jgs.16923}, author = {Rosenberg, Dori E and Rillamas-Sun, Eileen and Bellettiere, John and LaMonte, Michael and Buchner, David M and Di, Chongzhi and Hunt, Julie and Marshall, Stephen and Stefanick, Marcia and Zhang, Yuzheng and LaCroix, Andrea Z} } @article {8396, title = {Alzheimer Disease Pathology-Associated Polymorphism in a Complex Variable Number of Tandem Repeat Region Within the MUC6 Gene, Near the AP2A2 Gene.}, journal = {J Neuropathol Exp Neurol}, volume = {79}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 01 01}, pages = {3-21}, abstract = {

We found evidence of late-onset Alzheimer disease (LOAD)-associated genetic polymorphism within an exon of Mucin 6 (MUC6) and immediately downstream from another gene: Adaptor Related Protein Complex 2 Subunit Alpha 2 (AP2A2). PCR analyses on genomic DNA samples confirmed that the size of the MUC6 variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) region was highly polymorphic. In a cohort of autopsied subjects with quantitative digital pathology data (n = 119), the size of the polymorphic region was associated with the severity of pTau pathology in neocortex. In a separate replication cohort of autopsied subjects (n = 173), more pTau pathology was again observed in subjects with longer VNTR regions (p = 0.031). Unlike MUC6, AP2A2 is highly expressed in human brain. AP2A2 expression was lower in a subset analysis of brain samples from persons with longer versus shorter VNTR regions (p = 0.014 normalizing with AP2B1 expression). Double-label immunofluorescence studies showed that AP2A2 protein often colocalized with neurofibrillary tangles in LOAD but was not colocalized with pTau proteinopathy in progressive supranuclear palsy, or with TDP-43 proteinopathy. In summary, polymorphism in a repeat-rich region near AP2A2 was associated with neocortical pTau proteinopathy (because of the unique repeats, prior genome-wide association studies were probably unable to detect this association), and AP2A2 was often colocalized with neurofibrillary tangles in LOAD.

}, keywords = {Adaptor Protein Complex 2, Adaptor Protein Complex alpha Subunits, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Autopsy, Cohort Studies, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Male, Minisatellite Repeats, Mucin-6, Neurofibrillary Tangles, Polymorphism, Genetic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, TDP-43 Proteinopathies}, issn = {1554-6578}, doi = {10.1093/jnen/nlz116}, author = {Katsumata, Yuriko and Fardo, David W and Bachstetter, Adam D and Artiushin, Sergey C and Wang, Wang-Xia and Wei, Angela and Brzezinski, Lena J and Nelson, Bela G and Huang, Qingwei and Abner, Erin L and Anderson, Sonya and Patel, Indumati and Shaw, Benjamin C and Price, Douglas A and Niedowicz, Dana M and Wilcock, Donna W and Jicha, Gregory A and Neltner, Janna H and Van Eldik, Linda J and Estus, Steven and Nelson, Peter T} } @article {8398, title = {Association Between Blood Pressure and Later-Life Cognition Among Black and White Individuals.}, journal = {JAMA Neurol}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Apr 13}, abstract = {

Importance: Black individuals are more likely than white individuals to develop dementia. Whether higher blood pressure (BP) levels in black individuals explain differences between black and white individuals in dementia risk is uncertain.

Objective: To determine whether cumulative BP levels explain racial differences in cognitive decline.

Design, Setting, and Participants: Individual participant data from 5 cohorts (January 1971 to December 2017) were pooled from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study, Cardiovascular Health Study, Framingham Offspring Study, and Northern Manhattan Study. Outcomes were standardized as t scores (mean [SD], 50 [10]); a 1-point difference represented a 0.1-SD difference in cognition. The median (interquartile range) follow-up was 12.4 (5.9-21.0) years. Analysis began September 2018.

Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was change in global cognition, and secondary outcomes were change in memory and executive function.

Exposures: Race (black vs white).

Results: Among 34 349 participants, 19 378 individuals who were free of stroke and dementia and had longitudinal BP, cognitive, and covariate data were included in the analysis. The mean (SD) age at first cognitive assessment was 59.8 (10.4) years and ranged from 5 to 95 years. Of 19 378 individuals, 10 724 (55.3\%) were female and 15 526 (80.1\%) were white. Compared with white individuals, black individuals had significantly faster declines in global cognition (-0.03 points per year faster [95\% CI, -0.05 to -0.01]; P = .004) and memory (-0.08 points per year faster [95\% CI, -0.11 to -0.06]; P < .001) but significantly slower declines in executive function (0.09 points per year slower [95\% CI, 0.08-0.10]; P < .001). Time-dependent cumulative mean systolic BP level was associated with significantly faster declines in global cognition (-0.018 points per year faster per each 10-mm Hg increase [95\% CI, -0.023 to -0.014]; P < .001), memory (-0.028 points per year faster per each 10-mm Hg increase [95\% CI, -0.035 to -0.021]; P < .001), and executive function (-0.01 points per year faster per each 10-mm Hg increase [95\% CI, -0.014 to -0.007]; P < .001). After adjusting for cumulative mean systolic BP, differences between black and white individuals in cognitive slopes were attenuated for global cognition (-0.01 points per year [95\% CI, -0.03 to 0.01]; P = .56) and memory (-0.06 points per year [95\% CI, -0.08 to -0.03]; P < .001) but not executive function (0.10 points per year [95\% CI, 0.09-0.11]; P < .001).

Conclusions and Relevance: These results suggest that black individuals{\textquoteright} higher cumulative BP levels may contribute to racial differences in later-life cognitive decline.

}, issn = {2168-6157}, doi = {10.1001/jamaneurol.2020.0568}, author = {Levine, Deborah A and Gross, Alden L and Brice{\~n}o, Emily M and Tilton, Nicholas and Kabeto, Mohammed U and Hingtgen, Stephanie M and Giordani, Bruno J and Sussman, Jeremy B and Hayward, Rodney A and Burke, James F and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Manly, Jennifer J and Moran, Andrew E and Kulick, Erin R and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Walker, Keenan A and Yano, Yuichiro and Gaskin, Darrell J and Sidney, Stephen and Yaffe, Kristine and Sacco, Ralph L and Wright, Clinton B and Roger, Veronique L and Allen, Norrina Bai and Galecki, Andrzej T} } @article {8287, title = {Association of CD14 with incident dementia and markers of brain aging and injury.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {94}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 01 21}, pages = {e254-e266}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that the inflammatory marker plasma soluble CD14 (sCD14) associates with incident dementia and related endophenotypes in 2 community-based cohorts.

METHODS: Our samples included the prospective community-based Framingham Heart Study (FHS) and Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) cohorts. Plasma sCD14 was measured at baseline and related to the incidence of dementia, domains of cognitive function, and MRI-defined brain volumes. Follow-up for dementia occurred over a mean of 10 years (SD 4) in the FHS and a mean of 6 years (SD 3) in the CHS.

RESULTS: We studied 1,588 participants from the FHS (mean age 69 {\textpm} 6 years, 47\% male, 131 incident events) and 3,129 participants from the CHS (mean age 72 {\textpm} 5 years, 41\% male, 724 incident events) for the risk of incident dementia. Meta-analysis across the 2 cohorts showed that each SD unit increase in sCD14 was associated with a 12\% increase in the risk of incident dementia (95\% confidence interval 1.03-1.23; = 0.01) following adjustments for age, sex, ε4 status, and vascular risk factors. Higher levels of sCD14 were associated with various cognitive and MRI markers of accelerated brain aging in both cohorts and with a greater progression of brain atrophy and a decline in executive function in the FHS.

CONCLUSION: sCD14 is an inflammatory marker related to brain atrophy, cognitive decline, and incident dementia.

}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000008682}, author = {Pase, Matthew P and Himali, Jayandra J and Beiser, Alexa S and DeCarli, Charles and McGrath, Emer R and Satizabal, Claudia L and Aparicio, Hugo J and Adams, Hieab H H and Reiner, Alexander P and Longstreth, W T and Fornage, Myriam and Tracy, Russell P and Lopez, Oscar and Psaty, Bruce M and Levy, Daniel and Seshadri, Sudha and Bis, Joshua C} } @article {8631, title = {Association of Genetic Variation With Keratoconus.}, journal = {JAMA Ophthalmol}, volume = {138}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 02 01}, pages = {174-181}, abstract = {

Importance: Keratoconus is a condition in which the cornea progressively thins and protrudes in a conical shape, severely affecting refraction and vision. It is a major indication for corneal transplant. To discover new genetic loci associated with keratoconus and better understand the causative mechanism of this disease, we performed a genome-wide association study on patients with keratoconus.

Objective: To identify genetic susceptibility regions for keratoconus in the human genome.

Design, Setting, and Participants: This study was conducted with data from eye clinics in Australia, the United States, and Northern Ireland. The discovery cohort of individuals with keratoconus and control participants from Australia was genotyped using the Illumina HumanCoreExome single-nucleotide polymorphism array. After quality control and data cleaning, genotypes were imputed against the 1000 Genomes Project reference panel (phase III; version 5), and association analyses were completed using PLINK version 1.90. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms with P < 1.00 {\texttimes} 10-6 were assessed for replication in 3 additional cohorts. Control participants were drawn from the cohorts of the Blue Mountains Eye Study and a previous study of glaucoma. Replication cohorts were from a previous keratoconus genome-wide association study data set from the United States, a cohort of affected and control participants from Australia and Northern Ireland, and a case-control cohort from Victoria, Australia. Data were collected from January 2006 to March 2019.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Associations between keratoconus and 6 252 612 genetic variants were estimated using logistic regression after adjusting for ancestry using the first 3 principal components.

Results: The discovery cohort included 522 affected individuals and 655 control participants, while the replication cohorts included 818 affected individuals (222 from the United States, 331 from Australia and Northern Ireland, and 265 from Victoria, Australia) and 3858 control participants (2927 from the United States, 229 from Australia and Northern Ireland, and 702 from Victoria, Australia). Two novel loci reached genome-wide significance (defined as P < 5.00 {\texttimes} 10-8), with a P value of 7.46 {\texttimes} 10-9 at rs61876744 in patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing 2 gene (PNPLA2) on chromosome 11 and a P value of 6.35 {\texttimes} 10-12 at rs138380, 2.2 kb upstream of casein kinase I isoform epsilon gene (CSNK1E) on chromosome 22. One additional locus was identified with a P value less than 1.00 {\texttimes} 10-6 in mastermind-like transcriptional coactivator 2 (MAML2) on chromosome 11 (P = 3.91 {\texttimes} 10-7). The novel locus in PNPLA2 reached genome-wide significance in an analysis of all 4 cohorts (P = 2.45 {\texttimes} 10-8).

Conclusions and Relevance: In this relatively large keratoconus genome-wide association study, we identified a genome-wide significant locus for keratoconus in the region of PNPLA2 on chromosome 11.

}, keywords = {Adult, Female, Fuchs{\textquoteright} Endothelial Dystrophy, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Keratoconus, Lipase, Logistic Models, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {2168-6173}, doi = {10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2019.5293}, author = {McComish, Bennet J and Sahebjada, Srujana and Bykhovskaya, Yelena and Willoughby, Colin E and Richardson, Andrea J and Tenen, Abi and Charlesworth, Jac C and Macgregor, Stuart and Mitchell, Paul and Lucas, Sionne E M and Mills, Richard A and Mackey, David A and Li, Xiaohui and Wang, Jie Jin and Jensen, Richard A and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Kent D and Hewitt, Alex W and Rabinowitz, Yaron S and Baird, Paul N and Craig, Jamie E and Burdon, Kathryn P} } @article {8282, title = {Association of Leukocyte Telomere Length With Mortality Among Adult Participants in 3 Longitudinal Studies.}, journal = {JAMA Netw Open}, volume = {3}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Feb 05}, pages = {e200023}, abstract = {

Importance: Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is a trait associated with risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, the 2 major disease categories that largely define longevity in the United States. However, it remains unclear whether LTL is associated with the human life span.

Objective: To examine whether LTL is associated with the life span of contemporary humans.

Design, Setting, and Participants: This cohort study included 3259 adults of European ancestry from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), Framingham Heart Study (FHS), and Women{\textquoteright}s Health Initiative (WHI). Leukocyte telomere length was measured in 1992 and 1997 in the CHS, from 1995 to 1998 in the FHS, and from 1993 to 1998 in the WHI. Data analysis was conducted from February 2017 to December 2019.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Death and LTL, measured by Southern blots of the terminal restriction fragments, were the main outcomes. Cause of death was adjudicated by end point committees.

Results: The analyzed sample included 3259 participants (2342 [71.9\%] women), with a median (range) age of 69.0 (50.0-98.0) years at blood collection. The median (range) follow-up until death was 10.9 (0.2-23.0) years in CHS, 19.7 (3.4-23.0) years in FHS, and 16.6 (0.5-20.0) years in WHI. During follow-up, there were 1525 deaths (482 [31.6\%] of cardiovascular disease; 373 [24.5\%] of cancer, and 670 [43.9\%] of other or unknown causes). Short LTL, expressed in residual LTL, was associated with increased mortality risk. Overall, the hazard ratio for all-cause mortality for a 1-kilobase decrease in LTL was 1.34 (95\% CI, 1.21-1.47). This association was stronger for noncancer causes of death (cardiovascular death: hazard ratio, 1.28; 95\% CI, 1.08-1.52; cancer: hazard ratio, 1.13; 95\% CI, 0.93-1.36; and other causes: hazard ratio, 1.53; 95\% CI, 1.32-1.77).

Conclusions and Relevance: The results of this study indicate that LTL is associated with a natural life span limit in contemporary humans.

}, issn = {2574-3805}, doi = {10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.0023}, author = {Arbeev, Konstantin G and Verhulst, Simon and Steenstrup, Troels and Kark, Jeremy D and Bagley, Olivia and Kooperberg, Charles and Reiner, Alexander P and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Levy, Daniel and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Christensen, Kaare and Yashin, Anatoliy I and Aviv, Abraham} } @article {8285, title = {The association of prediagnosis social support with survival after heart failure in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Ann Epidemiol}, volume = {42}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Feb}, pages = {73-77}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: Although social support has been shown to be associated with survival among persons with cardiovascular disease, little research has focused on whether social support, measured before the onset of heart failure, can enhance survival after diagnosis. The objective of this study was to assess the association between prediagnosis social support and postdiagnosis survival among older adults with heart failure.

METHODS: We obtained the data from the Cardiovascular Health Study, which included noninstitutionalized adults aged 65 years or older from four sites in the United States with primary enrollment in 1989-1990. We used two measures of social support, the Lubben Social Network Scale and the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List. The analytic data set included 529 participants with a social support measure within two years before diagnosis of heart failure.

RESULTS: After adjustment for demographic covariates, cardiovascular risk factors, and general health status, mortality rates were lower among participants in the highest tertile of social network scores (HR 0.74, 95\% CI: 0.59, 0.93) and the middle tertile (HR 0.73 [0.58, 0.90]), compared with the lowest tertile. Results with interpersonal support were null.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that prediagnosis structural social support may modestly buffer heart failure patients from mortality.

}, issn = {1873-2585}, doi = {10.1016/j.annepidem.2019.12.013}, author = {Kaiser, Paulina and Allen, Norrina and Delaney, Joseph A C and Hirsch, Calvin H and Carnethon, Mercedes and Arnold, Alice M and Odden, Michelle C} } @article {8290, title = {Burden of rare exome sequence variants in PROC gene is associated with venous thromboembolism: a population-based study.}, journal = {J Thromb Haemost}, volume = {18}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Feb}, pages = {445-453}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Rare coding mutations underlying deficiencies of antithrombin and proteins C and S contribute to familial venous thromboembolism (VTE). It is uncertain whether rare variants play a role in the etiology of VTE in the general population.

OBJECTIVES: We conducted a deep whole-exome sequencing (WES) study to investigate the associations between rare coding variants and the risk of VTE in two population-based prospective cohorts.

PATIENTS/METHODS: Whole-exome sequencing was performed in the Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology (LITE), which combines the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study (316 incident VTE events among 3159 African Americans [AAs] and 458 incident VTEs among 7772 European Americans [EAs]) and the Cardiovascular Healthy Study (CHS; 60 incident VTEs among 1751 EAs). We performed gene-based tests of rare variants (allele frequency~<~1\%, exome-wide significance P~<~1.47~{\texttimes}~10 ) separately in each study and ancestry group, and meta-analyzed the results for the EAs in ARIC and CHS.

RESULTS: In the meta-analysis of EAs, we identified one gene, PROC, in which the burden of rare, coding variants was significantly associated with increased risk of VTE (HR~=~5.42 [3.11, 9.42] for carriers versus non-carriers, P~=~2.27~{\texttimes}~10 ). In ARIC EAs, carriers of the PROC rare variants had on average 0.75 standard deviation (SD) lower concentrations of plasma protein C and 0.28 SD higher D-dimer (P~<~.05) than non-carriers. Adjustment for low protein C status did not eliminate the association of PROC burden with VTE. In AAs, rare coding PROC variants were not associated with VTE.

CONCLUSIONS: Rare coding variants in PROC contribute to increased VTE risk in EAs in this general population sample.

}, issn = {1538-7836}, doi = {10.1111/jth.14676}, author = {Tang, Weihong and Stimson, Mary Rachel and Basu, Saonli and Heckbert, Susan R and Cushman, Mary and Pankow, James S and Folsom, Aaron R and Pankratz, Nathan} } @article {8634, title = {{Cerebral small vessel disease genomics and its implications across the lifespan}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {11}, year = {2020}, month = {12}, pages = {6285}, abstract = {White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are the most common brain-imaging feature of cerebral small vessel disease (SVD), hypertension being the main known risk factor. Here, we identify 27 genome-wide loci for WMH-volume in a cohort of 50,970 older individuals, accounting for modification/confounding by hypertension. Aggregated WMH risk variants were associated with altered white matter integrity (p = 2.5{\~A}{\textemdash}10-7) in brain images from 1,738 young healthy adults, providing insight into the lifetime impact of SVD genetic risk. Mendelian randomization suggested causal association of increasing WMH-volume with stroke, Alzheimer-type dementia, and of increasing blood pressure (BP) with larger WMH-volume, notably also in persons without clinical hypertension. Transcriptome-wide colocalization analyses showed association of WMH-volume with expression of 39 genes, of which four encode known drug targets. Finally, we provide insight into BP-independent biological pathways underlying SVD and suggest potential for genetic stratification of high-risk individuals and for genetically-informed prioritization of drug targets for prevention trials.}, author = {Sargurupremraj, M. and Suzuki, H. and Jian, X. and Sarnowski, C. and Evans, T. E. and Bis, J. C. and Eiriksdottir, G. and Sakaue, S. and Terzikhan, N. and Habes, M. and Zhao, W. and Armstrong, N. J. and Hofer, E. and Yanek, L. R. and Hagenaars, S. P. and Kumar, R. B. and van den Akker, E. B. and McWhirter, R. E. and Trompet, S. and Mishra, A. and Saba, Y. and Satizabal, C. L. and Beaudet, G. and Petit, L. and Tsuchida, A. and Zago, L. and Schilling, S. and Sigurdsson, S. and Gottesman, R. F. and Lewis, C. E. and Aggarwal, N. T. and Lopez, O. L. and Smith, J. A. and Vald?s Hern?ndez, M. C. and van der Grond, J. and Wright, M. J. and Knol, M. J. and D?rr, M. and Thomson, R. J. and Bordes, C. and Le Grand, Q. and Duperron, M. G. and Smith, A. V. and Knopman, D. S. and Schreiner, P. J. and Evans, D. A. and Rotter, J. I. and Beiser, A. S. and Maniega, S. M. and Beekman, M. and Trollor, J. and Stott, D. J. and Vernooij, M. W. and Wittfeld, K. and Niessen, W. J. and Soumar?, A. and Boerwinkle, E. and Sidney, S. and Turner, S. T. and Davies, G. and Thalamuthu, A. and V?lker, U. and van Buchem, M. A. and Bryan, R. N. and Dupuis, J. and Bastin, M. E. and Ames, D. and Teumer, A. and Amouyel, P. and Kwok, J. B. and B?low, R. and Deary, I. J. and Schofield, P. R. and Brodaty, H. and Jiang, J. and Tabara, Y. and Setoh, K. and Miyamoto, S. and Yoshida, K. and Nagata, M. and Kamatani, Y. and Matsuda, F. and Psaty, B. M. and Bennett, D. A. and De Jager, P. L. and Mosley, T. H. and Sachdev, P. S. and Schmidt, R. and Warren, H. R. and Evangelou, E. and Tr?gou?t, D. A. and Ikram, M. A. and Wen, W. and DeCarli, C. and Srikanth, V. K. and Jukema, J. W. and Slagboom, E. P. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Okada, Y. and Mazoyer, B. and Wardlaw, J. M. and Nyquist, P. A. and Mather, K. A. and Grabe, H. J. and Schmidt, H. and van Duijn, C. M. and Gudnason, V. and Longstreth, W. T. and Launer, L. J. and Lathrop, M. and Seshadri, S. and Tzourio, C. and Adams, H. H. and Matthews, P. M. and Fornage, M. and Debette, S. and Amouyel, P. and de Andrade, M. and Basu, S. and Berr, C. and Brody, J. A. and Chasman, D. I. and Dartigues, J. F. and Folsom, A. R. and Germain, M. and de Haan, H. and Heit, J. and Houwing-Duitermaat, J. and Kabrhel, C. and Kraft, P. and Legal, G. and Lindstr?m, S. and Monajemi, R. and Morange, P. E. and Psaty, B. M. and Reitsma, P. H. and Ridker, P. M. and Rose, L. M. and Rosendaal, F. R. and Saut, N. and Slagboom, E. and Smadja, D. and Smith, N. L. and Suchon, P. and Tang, W. and Taylor, K. D. and Tr?gou?t, D. A. and Tzourio, C. and de Visser, M. C. H. and van Hylckama Vlieg, A. and Weng, L. C. and Wiggins, K. L. and Gormley, P. and Anttila, V. and Winsvold, B. S. and Palta, P. and Esko, T. and Pers, T. H. and Farh, K. H. and Cuenca-Leon, E. and Muona, M. and Furlotte, N. A. and Kurth, T. and Ingason, A. and McMahon, G. and Ligthart, L. and Terwindt, G. M. and Kallela, M. and Freilinger, T. M. and Ran, C. and Gordon, S. G. and Stam, A. H. and Steinberg, S. and Borck, G. and Koiranen, M. and Quaye, L. and Adams, H. H. H. and Lehtim?ki, T. and Sarin, A. P. and Wedenoja, J. and Hinds, D. A. and Buring, J. E. and Sch?rks, M. and Ridker, P. M. and Gudlaug Hrafnsdottir, M. and Stefansson, H. and Ring, S. M. and Hottenga, J. J. and Penninx, B. W. J. H. and F?rkkil?, M. and Artto, V. and Kaunisto, M. and Veps?l?inen, S. and Malik, R. and Heath, A. C. and Madden, P. A. F. and Martin, N. G. and Montgomery, G. W. and Kurki, M. and Kals, M. and M?gi, R. and P?rn, K. and H?m?l?inen, E. and Huang, H. and Byrnes, A. E. and Franke, L. and Huang, J. and Stergiakouli, E. and Lee, P. H. and Sandor, C. and Webber, C. and Cader, Z. and Muller-Myhsok, B. and Schreiber, S. and Meitinger, T. and Eriksson, J. G. and Salomaa, V. and Heikkil?, K. and Loehrer, E. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and Hofman, A. and van Duijn, C. M. and Cherkas, L. and Pedersen, L. M. and Stubhaug, A. and Nielsen, C. S. and M?nnikk?, M. and Mihailov, E. and Milani, L. and G?bel, H. and Esserlind, A. L. and Francke Christensen, A. and Folkmann Hansen, T. and Werge, T. and Kaprio, J. and Aromaa, A. J. and Raitakari, O. and Ikram, M. A. and Spector, T. and J?rvelin, M. R. and Metspalu, A. and Kubisch, C. and Strachan, D. P. and Ferrari, M. D. and Belin, A. C. and Dichgans, M. and Wessman, M. and van den Maagdenberg, A. M. J. M. and Zwart, J. A. and Boomsma, D. I. and Davey Smith, G. and Stefansson, K. and Eriksson, N. and Daly, M. J. and Neale, B. M. and Olesen, J. and Chasman, D. I. and Nyholt, D. R. and Palotie, A.} } @article {8486, title = {Characterization of cardiac mechanics and incident atrial fibrillation in participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {JCI Insight}, volume = {5}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Oct 02}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Left atrial (LA) and left ventricular (LV) remodeling are associated with atrial fibrillation (AF). The prospective associations of impairment in cardiac mechanical function, as assessed by speckle-tracking echocardiography, with incident AF are less clear.

METHODS: In the Cardiovascular Health Study, a community-based cohort of older adults, participants free of AF with echocardiograms of adequate quality for speckle tracking were included. We evaluated the associations of indices of cardiac mechanics (LA reservoir strain, LV longitudinal strain, and LV early diastolic strain rate) with incident AF.

RESULTS: Of 4341 participants with strain imaging, participants with lower LA reservoir strain were older, had more cardiometabolic risk factors, and had lower renal function at baseline. Over a median follow-up of 10 years, 497 (11.4\%) participants developed AF. Compared with the highest quartile of LA reservoir strain, the lowest quartile of LA reservoir strain was associated with higher risk of AF after covariate adjustment, including LA volume and LV longitudinal strain (heart rate [HR], 1.80; 95\% CI, 1.31-2.45; P < 0.001). The association of LA reservoir strain and AF was stronger in subgroups with higher blood pressure, NT-proBNP, and LA volumes. There were no associations of LV longitudinal strain and LV early diastolic strain rate with incident AF after adjustment for LA reservoir strain.

CONCLUSION: Lower LA reservoir strain was associated with incident AF, independent of LV mechanics, and with stronger associations in high-risk subgroups. These findings suggest that LA mechanical dysfunction precedes the development of AF. Therapies targeting LA mechanical dysfunction may prevent progression to AF.

FUNDING: This research was supported by contracts HHSN268201200036C, HHSN268200800007C, HHSN268201800001C, N01HC55222, N01HC85079, N01HC85080, N01HC85081, N01HC85082, N01HC85083, and N01HC85086 and grants KL2TR001424, R01HL107577, U01HL080295, and U01HL130114 from the NIH{\textquoteright}s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), with additional contribution from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Additional support was provided by R01AG023629 from the National Institute on Aging (NIA). A full list of principal CHS investigators and institutions can be found at CHS-NHLBI.org.

}, issn = {2379-3708}, doi = {10.1172/jci.insight.141656}, author = {Patel, Ravi B and Delaney, Joseph A and Hu, Mo and Patel, Harnish and Cheng, Jeanette and Gottdiener, John and Kizer, Jorge R and Marcus, Gregory M and Turakhia, Mintu P and Deo, Rajat and Heckbert, Susan R and Psaty, Bruce M and Shah, Sanjiv J} } @article {8400, title = {Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and related phenotypes: polygenic risk scores in population-based and case-control cohorts.}, journal = {Lancet Respir Med}, volume = {8}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 07}, pages = {696-708}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genetic factors influence chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) risk, but the individual variants that have been identified have small effects. We hypothesised that a polygenic risk score using additional variants would predict COPD and associated phenotypes.

METHODS: We constructed a polygenic risk score using a genome-wide association study of lung function (FEV and FEV/forced vital capacity [FVC]) from the UK Biobank and SpiroMeta. We tested this polygenic risk score in nine cohorts of multiple ethnicities for an association with moderate-to-severe COPD (defined as FEV/FVC <0{\textperiodcentered}7 and FEV <80\% of predicted). Associations were tested using logistic regression models, adjusting for age, sex, height, smoking pack-years, and principal components of genetic ancestry. We assessed predictive performance of models by area under the curve. In a subset of studies, we also studied quantitative and qualitative CT imaging phenotypes that reflect parenchymal and airway pathology, and patterns of reduced lung growth.

FINDINGS: The polygenic risk score was associated with COPD in European (odds ratio [OR] per SD 1{\textperiodcentered}81 [95\% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}74-1{\textperiodcentered}88] and non-European (1{\textperiodcentered}42 [1{\textperiodcentered}34-1{\textperiodcentered}51]) populations. Compared with the first decile, the tenth decile of the polygenic risk score was associated with COPD, with an OR of 7{\textperiodcentered}99 (6{\textperiodcentered}56-9{\textperiodcentered}72) in European ancestry and 4{\textperiodcentered}83 (3{\textperiodcentered}45-6{\textperiodcentered}77) in non-European ancestry cohorts. The polygenic risk score was superior to previously described genetic risk scores and, when combined with clinical risk factors (ie, age, sex, and smoking pack-years), showed improved prediction for COPD compared with a model comprising clinical risk factors alone (AUC 0{\textperiodcentered}80 [0{\textperiodcentered}79-0{\textperiodcentered}81] vs 0{\textperiodcentered}76 [0{\textperiodcentered}75-0{\textperiodcentered}76]). The polygenic risk score was associated with CT imaging phenotypes, including wall area percent, quantitative and qualitative measures of emphysema, local histogram emphysema patterns, and destructive emphysema subtypes. The polygenic risk score was associated with a reduced lung growth pattern.

INTERPRETATION: A risk score comprised of genetic variants can identify a small subset of individuals at markedly increased risk for moderate-to-severe COPD, emphysema subtypes associated with cigarette smoking, and patterns of reduced lung growth.

FUNDING: US National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust.

}, keywords = {Adult, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Female, Forced Expiratory Volume, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive, Risk Factors, Vital Capacity}, issn = {2213-2619}, doi = {10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30101-6}, author = {Moll, Matthew and Sakornsakolpat, Phuwanat and Shrine, Nick and Hobbs, Brian D and DeMeo, Dawn L and John, Catherine and Guyatt, Anna L and McGeachie, Michael J and Gharib, Sina A and Obeidat, Ma{\textquoteright}en and Lahousse, Lies and Wijnant, Sara R A and Brusselle, Guy and Meyers, Deborah A and Bleecker, Eugene R and Li, Xingnan and Tal-Singer, Ruth and Manichaikul, Ani and Rich, Stephen S and Won, Sungho and Kim, Woo Jin and Do, Ah Ra and Washko, George R and Barr, R Graham and Psaty, Bruce M and Bartz, Traci M and Hansel, Nadia N and Barnes, Kathleen and Hokanson, John E and Crapo, James D and Lynch, David and Bakke, Per and Gulsvik, Amund and Hall, Ian P and Wain, Louise and Weiss, Scott T and Silverman, Edwin K and Dudbridge, Frank and Tobin, Martin D and Cho, Michael H} } @article {8632, title = {Coagulation factor VIII, white matter hyperintensities and cognitive function: Results from the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {15}, year = {2020}, month = {2020}, pages = {e0242062}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between high FVIII clotting activity (FVIII:C), MRI-defined white matter hyperintensities (WMH) and cognitive function over time.

METHODS: Data from the population-based Cardiovascular Health Study (n = 5,888, aged >=65) were used. FVIII:C was measured in blood samples taken at baseline. WMH burden was assessed on two cranial MRI scans taken roughly 5 years apart. Cognitive function was assessed annually using the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MSE) and Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST). We used ordinal logistic regression models adjusted for demographic and cardiovascular factors in cross-sectional and longitudinal WMH analyses, and adjusted linear regression and linear mixed models in the analyses of cognitive function.

RESULTS: After adjustment for confounding, higher levels of FVIII:C were not strongly associated with the burden of WMH on the initial MRI scan (OR>p75 = 1.20, 95\% CI 0.99-1.45; N = 2,735) nor with WMH burden worsening over time (OR>p75 = 1.18, 95\% CI 0.87-1.59; N = 1,527). High FVIII:C showed no strong association with cognitive scores cross-sectionally (3MSE>p75 β = -0.06, 95\%CI -0.45 to 0.32, N = 4,005; DSST>p75 β = -0.69, 95\%CI -1.52 to 0.13, N = 3,954) or over time (3MSE>p75 β = -0.07,95\% CI -0.58 to 0.44, N = 2,764; DSST>p75 β = -0.22, 95\% CI -0.97 to 0.53, N = 2,306) after confounding adjustment.

INTERPRETATION: The results from this cohort study of older adult participants indicate no strong relationships between higher FVIII:C levels and WMH burden or cognitive function in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses.

}, keywords = {Aged, Blood Coagulation, Cognition, Cross-Sectional Studies, Factor VIII, Female, Humans, Logistic Models, Longitudinal Studies, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Mental Status and Dementia Tests, Up-Regulation, White Matter}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0242062}, author = {Rohmann, Jessica L and Longstreth, W T and Cushman, Mary and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Heckbert, Susan R and Rice, Kenneth and Rosendaal, Frits R and Sitlani, Colleen M and Psaty, Bruce M and Siegerink, Bob} } @article {8636, title = {{Discovery of rare variants associated with blood pressure regulation through meta-analysis of 1.3 million individuals}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {52}, year = {2020}, month = {12}, pages = {1314{\textendash}1332}, abstract = {Genetic studies of blood pressure (BP) to date have mainly analyzed common variants (minor allele frequency > 0.05). In a meta-analysis of up to 1.3 million participants, we discovered 106 new BP-associated genomic regions and 87 rare (minor allele frequency {\^a}{\textperthousand}¤ 0.01) variant BP associations (P < 5 {\~A}{\textemdash} 10-8), of which 32 were in new BP-associated loci and 55 were independent BP-associated single-nucleotide variants within known BP-associated regions. Average effects of rare variants (44\% coding) were 8 times larger than common variant effects and indicate potential candidate causal genes at new and known loci (for example, GATA5 and PLCB3). BP-associated variants (including rare and common) were enriched in regions of active chromatin in fetal tissues, potentially linking fetal development with BP regulation in later life. Multivariable Mendelian randomization suggested possible inverse effects of elevated systolic and diastolic BP on large artery stroke. Our study demonstrates the utility of rare-variant analyses for identifying candidate genes and the results highlight potential therapeutic targets.}, author = {Surendran, P. and Feofanova, E. V. and Lahrouchi, N. and Ntalla, I. and Karthikeyan, S. and Cook, J. and Chen, L. and Mifsud, B. and Yao, C. and Kraja, A. T. and Cartwright, J. H. and Hellwege, J. N. and Giri, A. and Tragante, V. and Thorleifsson, G. and Liu, D. J. and Prins, B. P. and Stewart, I. D. and Cabrera, C. P. and Eales, J. M. and Akbarov, A. and Auer, P. L. and Bielak, L. F. and Bis, J. C. and Braithwaite, V. S. and Brody, J. A. and Daw, E. W. and Warren, H. R. and Drenos, F. and Nielsen, S. F. and Faul, J. D. and Fauman, E. B. and Fava, C. and Ferreira, T. and Foley, C. N. and Franceschini, N. and Gao, H. and Giannakopoulou, O. and Giulianini, F. and Gudbjartsson, D. F. and Guo, X. and Harris, S. E. and Havulinna, A. S. and Helgadottir, A. and Huffman, J. E. and Hwang, S. J. and Kanoni, S. and Kontto, J. and Larson, M. G. and Li-Gao, R. and Lindstr?m, J. and Lotta, L. A. and Lu, Y. and Luan, J. and Mahajan, A. and Malerba, G. and Masca, N. G. D. and Mei, H. and Menni, C. and Mook-Kanamori, D. O. and Mosen-Ansorena, D. and M?ller-Nurasyid, M. and Par?, G. and Paul, D. S. and Perola, M. and Poveda, A. and Rauramaa, R. and Richard, M. and Richardson, T. G. and Sep?lveda, N. and Sim, X. and Smith, A. V. and Smith, J. A. and Staley, J. R. and Stan?kov?, A. and Sulem, P. and Th?riault, S. and Thorsteinsdottir, U. and Trompet, S. and Varga, T. V. and Velez Edwards, D. R. and Veronesi, G. and Weiss, S. and Willems, S. M. and Yao, J. and Young, R. and Yu, B. and Zhang, W. and Zhao, J. H. and Zhao, W. and Zhao, W. and Evangelou, E. and Aeschbacher, S. and Asllanaj, E. and Blankenberg, S. and Bonnycastle, L. L. and Bork-Jensen, J. and Brandslund, I. and Braund, P. S. and Burgess, S. and Cho, K. and Christensen, C. and Connell, J. and Mutsert, R. and Dominiczak, A. F. and D?rr, M. and Eiriksdottir, G. and Farmaki, A. E. and Gaziano, J. M. and Grarup, N. and Grove, M. L. and Hallmans, G. and Hansen, T. and Have, C. T. and Heiss, G. and J?rgensen, M. E. and Jousilahti, P. and Kajantie, E. and Kamat, M. and K?r?j?m?ki, A. and Karpe, F. and Koistinen, H. A. and Kovesdy, C. P. and Kuulasmaa, K. and Laatikainen, T. and Lannfelt, L. and Lee, I. T. and Lee, W. J. and Linneberg, A. and Martin, L. W. and Moitry, M. and Nadkarni, G. and Neville, M. J. and Palmer, C. N. A. and Papanicolaou, G. J. and Pedersen, O. and Peters, J. and Poulter, N. and Rasheed, A. and Rasmussen, K. L. and Rayner, N. W. and M?gi, R. and Renstr?m, F. and Rettig, R. and Rossouw, J. and Schreiner, P. J. and Sever, P. S. and Sigurdsson, E. L. and Skaaby, T. and Sun, Y. V. and Sundstrom, J. and Thorgeirsson, G. and Esko, T. and Trabetti, E. and Tsao, P. S. and Tuomi, T. and Turner, S. T. and Tzoulaki, I. and Vaartjes, I. and Vergnaud, A. C. and Willer, C. J. and Wilson, P. W. F. and Witte, D. R. and Yonova-Doing, E. and Zhang, H. and Aliya, N. and Almgren, P. and Amouyel, P. and Asselbergs, F. W. and Barnes, M. R. and Blakemore, A. I. and Boehnke, M. and Bots, M. L. and Bottinger, E. P. and Buring, J. E. and Chambers, J. C. and Chen, Y. I. and Chowdhury, R. and Conen, D. and Correa, A. and Davey Smith, G. and Boer, R. A. and Deary, I. J. and Dedoussis, G. and Deloukas, P. and Di Angelantonio, E. and Elliott, P. and Felix, S. B. and Ferri?res, J. and Ford, I. and Fornage, M. and Franks, P. W. and Franks, S. and Frossard, P. and Gambaro, G. and Gaunt, T. R. and Groop, L. and Gudnason, V. and Harris, T. B. and Hayward, C. and Hennig, B. J. and Herzig, K. H. and Ingelsson, E. and Tuomilehto, J. and J?rvelin, M. R. and Jukema, J. W. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Kee, F. and Kooner, J. S. and Kooperberg, C. and Launer, L. J. and Lind, L. and Loos, R. J. F. and Majumder, A. A. S. and Laakso, M. and McCarthy, M. I. and Melander, O. and Mohlke, K. L. and Murray, A. D. and Nordestgaard, B. G. and Orho-Melander, M. and Packard, C. J. and Padmanabhan, S. and Palmas, W. and Polasek, O. and Porteous, D. J. and Prentice, A. M. and Province, M. A. and Relton, C. L. and Rice, K. and Ridker, P. M. and Rolandsson, O. and Rosendaal, F. R. and Rotter, J. I. and Rudan, I. and Salomaa, V. and Samani, N. J. and Sattar, N. and Sheu, W. H. and Smith, B. H. and Soranzo, N. and Spector, T. D. and Starr, J. M. and Sebert, S. and Taylor, K. D. and Lakka, T. A. and Timpson, N. J. and Tobin, M. D. and van der Harst, P. and van der Meer, P. and Ramachandran, V. S. and Verweij, N. and Virtamo, J. and V?lker, U. and Weir, D. R. and Zeggini, E. and Charchar, F. J. and Wareham, N. J. and Langenberg, C. and Tomaszewski, M. and Butterworth, A. S. and Caulfield, M. J. and Danesh, J. and Edwards, T. L. and Holm, H. and Hung, A. M. and Lindgren, C. M. and Liu, C. and Manning, A. K. and Morris, A. P. and Morrison, A. C. and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, C. J. and Psaty, B. M. and Saleheen, D. and Stefansson, K. and Boerwinkle, E. and Chasman, D. I. and Levy, D. and Newton-Cheh, C. and Munroe, P. B. and Howson, J. M. M. and de Boer, R. A. and van der Harst, P. and van der Meer, P. and Verweij, N. and Butterworth, A. S. and Danesh, J. and Langenberg, C. and Deloukas, P. and McCarthy, M. I. and Franks, P. W. and Rolandsson, O. and Wareham, N. J. and Prins, B. P. and Zeggini, E. and Hellwege, J. N. and Giri, A. and Edwards, D. R. V. and Cho, K. and Gaziano, J. M. and Kovesdy, C. P. and Sun, Y. V. and Tsao, P. S. and Wilson, P. W. F. and Edwards, T. L. and Hung, A. M. and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, C. J.} } @article {8453, title = {{Dynamic incorporation of multiple in silico functional annotations empowers rare variant association analysis of large whole-genome sequencing studies at scale}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {52}, year = {2020}, month = {Sep}, pages = {969{\textendash}983}, abstract = {Large-scale whole-genome sequencing studies have enabled the analysis of rare variants (RVs) associated with complex phenotypes. Commonly used RV association tests have limited scope to leverage variant functions. We propose STAAR (variant-set test for association using annotation information), a scalable and powerful RV association test method that effectively incorporates both variant categories and multiple complementary annotations using a dynamic weighting scheme. For the latter, we introduce {\textquoteright}annotation principal components{\textquoteright}, multidimensional summaries of in silico variant annotations. STAAR accounts for population structure and relatedness and is scalable for analyzing very large cohort and biobank whole-genome sequencing studies of continuous and dichotomous traits. We applied STAAR to identify RVs associated with four lipid traits in 12,316 discovery and 17,822 replication samples from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine Program. We discovered and replicated new RV associations, including disruptive missense RVs of NPC1L1 and an intergenic region near APOC1P1 associated with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.}, author = {Li, X. and Li, Z. and Zhou, H. and Gaynor, S. M. and Liu, Y. and Chen, H. and Sun, R. and Dey, R. and Arnett, D. K. and Aslibekyan, S. and Ballantyne, C. M. and Bielak, L. F. and Blangero, J. and Boerwinkle, E. and Bowden, D. W. and Broome, J. G. and Conomos, M. P. and Correa, A. and Cupples, L. A. and Curran, J. E. and Freedman, B. I. and Guo, X. and Hindy, G. and Irvin, M. R. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Kathiresan, S. and Khan, A. T. and Kooperberg, C. L. and Laurie, C. C. and Liu, X. S. and Mahaney, M. C. and Manichaikul, A. W. and Martin, L. W. and Mathias, R. A. and McGarvey, S. T. and Mitchell, B. D. and Montasser, M. E. and Moore, J. E. and Morrison, A. C. and O{\textquoteright}Connell, J. R. and Palmer, N. D. and Pampana, A. and Peralta, J. M. and Peyser, P. A. and Psaty, B. M. and Redline, S. and Rice, K. M. and Rich, S. S. and Smith, J. A. and Tiwari, H. K. and Tsai, M. Y. and Vasan, R. S. and Wang, F. F. and Weeks, D. E. and Weng, Z. and Wilson, J. G. and Yanek, L. R. and Neale, B. M. and Sunyaev, S. R. and Abecasis, G. R. and Rotter, J. I. and Willer, C. J. and Peloso, G. M. and Natarajan, P. and Lin, X. and Abe, N. and Abecasis, G. R. and Aguet, F. and Albert, C. and Almasy, L. and Alonso, A. and Ament, S. and Anderson, P. and Anugu, P. and Applebaum-Bowden, D. and Ardlie, K. and Arking, D. and Arnett, D. K. and Ashley-Koch, A. and Aslibekyan, S. and Assimes, T. and Auer, P. and Avramopoulos, D. and Barnard, J. and Barnes, K. and Barr, R. G. and Barron-Casella, E. and Barwick, L. and Beaty, T. and Beck, G. and Becker, D. and Becker, L. and Beer, R. and Beitelshees, A. and Benjamin, E. and Benos, T. and Bezerra, M. and Bielak, L. F. and Bis, J. and Blackwell, T. and Blangero, J. and Boerwinkle, E. and Bowden, D. W. and Bowler, R. and Brody, J. and Broeckel, U. and Broome, J. G. and Bunting, K. and Burchard, E. and Bustamante, C. and Buth, E. and Cade, B. and Cardwell, J. and Carey, V. and Carty, C. and Casaburi, R. and Casella, J. and Castaldi, P. and Chaffin, M. and Chang, C. and Chang, Y. C. and Chasman, D. and Chavan, S. and Chen, B. J. and Chen, W. M. and Chen, Y. I. and Cho, M. and Choi, S. H. and Chuang, L. M. and Chung, M. and Chung, R. H. and Clish, C. and Comhair, S. and Conomos, M. P. and Cornell, E. and Correa, A. and Crandall, C. and Crapo, J. and Cupples, L. A. and Curran, J. E. and Curtis, J. and Custer, B. and Damcott, C. and Darbar, D. and Das, S. and David, S. and Davis, C. and Daya, M. and de Andrade, M. and Fuentes, L. L. and DeBaun, M. and Deka, R. and DeMeo, D. and Devine, S. and Duan, Q. and Duggirala, R. and Durda, J. P. and Dutcher, S. and Eaton, C. and Ekunwe, L. and El Boueiz, A. and Ellinor, P. and Emery, L. and Erzurum, S. and Farber, C. and Fingerlin, T. and Flickinger, M. and Fornage, M. and Franceschini, N. and Frazar, C. and Fu, M. and Fullerton, S. M. and Fulton, L. and Gabriel, S. and Gan, W. and Gao, S. and Gao, Y. and Gass, M. and Gelb, B. and Geng, X. P. and Geraci, M. and Germer, S. and Gerszten, R. and Ghosh, A. and Gibbs, R. and Gignoux, C. and Gladwin, M. and Glahn, D. and Gogarten, S. and Gong, D. W. and Goring, H. and Graw, S. and Grine, D. and Gu, C. C. and Guan, Y. and Guo, X. and Gupta, N. and Haessler, J. and Hall, M. and Harris, D. and Hawley, N. L. and He, J. and Heckbert, S. and Hernandez, R. and Herrington, D. and Hersh, C. and Hidalgo, B. and Hixson, J. and Hobbs, B. and Hokanson, J. and Hong, E. and Hoth, K. and Hsiung, C. A. and Hung, Y. J. and Huston, H. and Hwu, C. M. and Irvin, M. R. and Jackson, R. and Jain, D. and Jaquish, C. and Jhun, M. A. and Johnsen, J. and Johnson, A. and Johnson, C. and Johnston, R. and Jones, K. and Kang, H. M. and Kaplan, R. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Kathiresan, S. and Kelly, S. and Kenny, E. and Kessler, M. and Khan, A. T. and Kim, W. and Kinney, G. and Konkle, B. and Kooperberg, C. L. and Kramer, H. and Lange, C. and Lange, E. and Lange, L. and Laurie, C. C. and Laurie, C. and LeBoff, M. and Lee, J. and Lee, S. S. and Lee, W. J. and LeFaive, J. and Levine, D. and Levy, D. and Lewis, J. and Li, X. and Li, Y. and Lin, H. and Lin, H. and Lin, K. H. and Lin, X. and Liu, S. and Liu, Y. and Liu, Y. and Loos, R. J. F. and Lubitz, S. and Lunetta, K. and Luo, J. and Mahaney, M. C. and Make, B. and Manichaikul, A. W. and Manson, J. and Margolin, L. and Martin, L. W. and Mathai, S. and Mathias, R. A. and May, S. and McArdle, P. and McDonald, M. L. and McFarland, S. and McGarvey, S. T. and McGoldrick, D. and McHugh, C. and Mei, H. and Mestroni, L. and Meyers, D. A. and Mikulla, J. and Min, N. and Minear, M. and Minster, R. L. and Mitchell, B. D. and Moll, M. and Montasser, M. E. and Montgomery, C. and Moscati, A. and Musani, S. and Mwasongwe, S. and Mychaleckyj, J. C. and Nadkarni, G. and Naik, R. and Naseri, T. and Natarajan, P. and Nekhai, S. and Nelson, S. C. and Neltner, B. and Nickerson, D. and North, K. and O{\textquoteright}Connell, J. R. and O{\textquoteright}Connor, T. and Ochs-Balcom, H. and Paik, D. and Palmer, N. D. and Pankow, J. and Papanicolaou, G. and Parsa, A. and Peralta, J. M. and Perez, M. and Perry, J. and Peters, U. and Peyser, P. A. and Phillips, L. S. and Pollin, T. and Post, W. and Becker, J. P. and Boorgula, M. P. and Preuss, M. and Psaty, B. M. and Qasba, P. and Qiao, D. and Qin, Z. and Rafaels, N. and Raffield, L. and Vasan, R. S. and Rao, D. C. and Rasmussen-Torvik, L. and Ratan, A. and Redline, S. and Reed, R. and Regan, E. and Reiner, A. and Reupena, M. S. and Rice, K. M. and Rich, S. S. and Roden, D. and Roselli, C. and Rotter, J. I. and Ruczinski, I. and Russell, P. and Ruuska, S. and Ryan, K. and Sabino, E. C. and Saleheen, D. and Salimi, S. and Salzberg, S. and Sandow, K. and Sankaran, V. G. and Scheller, C. and Schmidt, E. and Schwander, K. and Schwartz, D. and Sciurba, F. and Seidman, C. and Seidman, J. and Sheehan, V. and Sherman, S. L. and Shetty, A. and Shetty, A. and Sheu, W. H. and Shoemaker, M. B. and Silver, B. and Silverman, E. and Smith, J. A. and Smith, J. and Smith, N. and Smith, T. and Smoller, S. and Snively, B. and Snyder, M. and Sofer, T. and Sotoodehnia, N. and Stilp, A. M. and Storm, G. and Streeten, E. and Su, J. L. and Sung, Y. J. and Sylvia, J. and Szpiro, A. and Sztalryd, C. and Taliun, D. and Tang, H. and Taub, M. and Taylor, K. D. and Taylor, M. and Taylor, S. and Telen, M. and Thornton, T. A. and Threlkeld, M. and Tinker, L. and Tirschwell, D. and Tishkoff, S. and Tiwari, H. K. and Tong, C. and Tracy, R. and Tsai, M. Y. and Vaidya, D. and Van Den Berg, D. and VandeHaar, P. and Vrieze, S. and Walker, T. and Wallace, R. and Walts, A. and Wang, F. F. and Wang, H. and Watson, K. and Weeks, D. E. and Weir, B. and Weiss, S. and Weng, L. C. and Wessel, J. and Willer, C. J. and Williams, K. and Williams, L. K. and Wilson, C. and Wilson, J. G. and Wong, Q. and Wu, J. and Xu, H. and Yanek, L. R. and Yang, I. and Yang, R. and Zaghloul, N. and Zekavat, M. and Zhang, Y. and Zhao, S. X. and Zhao, W. and Zhi, D. and Zhou, X. and Zhu, X. and Zody, M. and Zoellner, S. and Abdalla, M. and Abecasis, G. R. and Arnett, D. K. and Aslibekyan, S. and Assimes, T. and Atkinson, E. and Ballantyne, C. M. and Beitelshees, A. and Bielak, L. F. and Bis, J. and Bodea, C. and Boerwinkle, E. and Bowden, D. W. and Brody, J. and Cade, B. and Carlson, J. and Chang, I. S. and Chen, Y. I. and Chun, S. and Chung, R. H. and Conomos, M. P. and Correa, A. and Cupples, L. A. and Damcott, C. and de Vries, P. and Do, R. and Elliott, A. and Fu, M. and Ganna, A. and Gong, D. W. and Graham, S. and Haas, M. and Haring, B. and He, J. and Heckbert, S. and Himes, B. and Hixson, J. and Irvin, M. R. and Jain, D. and Jarvik, G. and Jhun, M. A. and Jiang, J. and Jun, G. and Kalyani, R. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Kathiresan, S. and Khera, A. and Klarin, D. and Kooperberg, C. L. and Kral, B. and Lange, L. and Laurie, C. C. and Laurie, C. and Lemaitre, R. and Li, Z. and Li, X. and Lin, X. and Mahaney, M. C. and Manichaikul, A. W. and Martin, L. W. and Mathias, R. A. and Mathur, R. and McGarvey, S. T. and McHugh, C. and McLenithan, J. and Mikulla, J. and Mitchell, B. D. and Montasser, M. E. and Moran, A. and Morrison, A. C. and Nakao, T. and Natarajan, P. and Nickerson, D. and North, K. and O{\textquoteright}Connell, J. R. and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, C. and Palmer, N. D. and Pampana, A. and Patel, A. and Peloso, G. M. and Perry, J. and Peters, U. and Peyser, P. A. and Pirruccello, J. and Pollin, T. and Preuss, M. and Psaty, B. M. and Rao, D. C. and Redline, S. and Reed, R. and Reiner, A. and Rich, S. S. and Rosenthal, S. and Rotter, J. I. and Schoenberg, J. and Selvaraj, M. S. and Sheu, W. H. and Smith, J. A. and Sofer, T. and Stilp, A. M. and Sunyaev, S. R. and Surakka, I. and Sztalryd, C. and Tang, H. and Taylor, K. D. and Tsai, M. Y. and Uddin, M. M. and Urbut, S. and Verbanck, M. and Von Holle, A. and Wang, H. and Wang, F. F. and Wiggins, K. and Willer, C. J. and Wilson, J. G. and Wolford, B. and Xu, H. and Yanek, L. R. and Zaghloul, N. and Zekavat, M. and Zhang, J.} } @article {8455, title = {{Fatty acids in the de novo lipogenesis pathway and incidence of type 2 diabetes: A pooled analysis of prospective cohort studies}, journal = {PLoS Med}, volume = {17}, year = {2020}, month = {06}, pages = {e1003102}, abstract = {De novo lipogenesis (DNL) is the primary metabolic pathway synthesizing fatty acids from carbohydrates, protein, or alcohol. Our aim was to examine associations of in vivo levels of selected fatty acids (16:0, 16:1n7, 18:0, 18:1n9) in DNL with incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D).\ Seventeen cohorts from 12 countries (7 from Europe, 7 from the United States, 1 from Australia, 1 from Taiwan; baseline years = 1970-1973 to 2006-2010) conducted harmonized individual-level analyses of associations of DNL-related fatty acids with incident T2D. In total, we evaluated 65,225 participants (mean ages = 52.3-75.5 years; \% women = 20.4\%-62.3\% in 12 cohorts recruiting both sexes) and 15,383 incident cases of T2D over the 9-year follow-up on average. Cohort-specific association of each of 16:0, 16:1n7, 18:0, and 18:1n9 with incident T2D was estimated, adjusted for demographic factors, socioeconomic characteristics, alcohol, smoking, physical activity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, menopausal status, and adiposity. Cohort-specific associations were meta-analyzed with an inverse-variance-weighted approach. Each of the 4 fatty acids positively related to incident T2D. Relative risks (RRs) per cohort-specific range between midpoints of the top and bottom quintiles of fatty acid concentrations were 1.53 (1.41-1.66; p < 0.001) for 16:0, 1.40 (1.33-1.48; p < 0.001) for 16:1n-7, 1.14 (1.05-1.22; p = 0.001) for 18:0, and 1.16 (1.07-1.25; p < 0.001) for 18:1n9. Heterogeneity was seen across cohorts (I2 = 51.1\%-73.1\% for each fatty acid) but not explained by lipid fractions and global geographical regions. Further adjusted for triglycerides (and 16:0 when appropriate) to evaluate associations independent of overall DNL, the associations remained significant for 16:0, 16:1n7, and 18:0 but were attenuated for 18:1n9 (RR = 1.03, 95\% confidence interval (CI) = 0.94-1.13). These findings had limitations in potential reverse causation and residual confounding by imprecisely measured or unmeasured factors.\ Concentrations of fatty acids in the DNL were positively associated with T2D incidence. Our findings support further work to investigate a possible role of DNL and individual fatty acids in the development of T2D.}, author = {Imamura, F. and Fretts, A. M. and Marklund, M. and Ardisson Korat, A. V. and Yang, W. S. and Lankinen, M. and Qureshi, W. and Helmer, C. and Chen, T. A. and Virtanen, J. K. and Wong, K. and Bassett, J. K. and Murphy, R. and Tintle, N. and Yu, C. I. and Brouwer, I. A. and Chien, K. L. and Chen, Y. Y. and Wood, A. C. and Del Gobbo, L. C. and Djousse, L. and Geleijnse, J. M. and Giles, G. G. and de Goede, J. and Gudnason, V. and Harris, W. S. and Hodge, A. and Hu, F. and Koulman, A. and Laakso, M. and Lind, L. and Lin, H. J. and McKnight, B. and Rajaobelina, K. and Riserus, U. and Robinson, J. G. and Samieri, C. and Senn, M. and Siscovick, D. S. and Soedamah-Muthu, S. S. and Sotoodehnia, N. and Sun, Q. and Tsai, M. Y. and Tuomainen, T. P. and Uusitupa, M. and Wagenknecht, L. E. and Wareham, N. J. and Wu, J. H. Y. and Micha, R. and Lemaitre, R. N. and Mozaffarian, D. and Forouhi, N. G.} } @article {8381, title = {Gene-educational attainment interactions in a multi-ancestry genome-wide meta-analysis identify novel blood pressure loci.}, journal = {Mol Psychiatry}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 May 05}, abstract = {

Educational attainment is widely used as a surrogate for socioeconomic status (SES). Low SES is a risk factor for hypertension and high blood pressure (BP). To identify novel BP loci, we performed multi-ancestry meta-analyses accounting for gene-educational attainment interactions using two variables, "Some College" (yes/no) and "Graduated College" (yes/no). Interactions were evaluated using both a 1 degree of freedom (DF) interaction term and a 2DF joint test of genetic and interaction effects. Analyses were performed for systolic BP, diastolic BP, mean arterial pressure, and pulse pressure. We pursued genome-wide interrogation in Stage 1 studies (N = 117 438) and follow-up on promising variants in Stage 2 studies (N = 293 787) in five ancestry groups. Through combined meta-analyses of Stages 1 and 2, we identified 84 known and 18 novel BP loci at genome-wide significance level (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10). Two novel loci were identified based on the 1DF test of interaction with educational attainment, while the remaining 16 loci were identified through the 2DF joint test of genetic and interaction effects. Ten novel loci were identified in individuals of African ancestry. Several novel loci show strong biological plausibility since they involve physiologic systems implicated in BP regulation. They include genes involved in the central nervous system-adrenal signaling axis (ZDHHC17, CADPS, PIK3C2G), vascular structure and function (GNB3, CDON), and renal function (HAS2 and HAS2-AS1, SLIT3). Collectively, these findings suggest a role of educational attainment or SES in further dissection of the genetic architecture of BP.

}, issn = {1476-5578}, doi = {10.1038/s41380-020-0719-3}, author = {de Las Fuentes, Lisa and Sung, Yun Ju and Noordam, Raymond and Winkler, Thomas and Feitosa, Mary F and Schwander, Karen and Bentley, Amy R and Brown, Michael R and Guo, Xiuqing and Manning, Alisa and Chasman, Daniel I and Aschard, Hugues and Bartz, Traci M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Campbell, Archie and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Hartwig, Fernando P and Horimoto, A R V R and Li, Changwei and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Liu, Yongmei and Marten, Jonathan and Musani, Solomon K and Ntalla, Ioanna and Rankinen, Tuomo and Richard, Melissa and Sim, Xueling and Smith, Albert V and Tajuddin, Salman M and Tayo, Bamidele O and Vojinovic, Dina and Warren, Helen R and Xuan, Deng and Alver, Maris and Boissel, Mathilde and Chai, Jin-Fang and Chen, Xu and Christensen, Kaare and Divers, Jasmin and Evangelou, Evangelos and Gao, Chuan and Girotto, Giorgia and Harris, Sarah E and He, Meian and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Laguzzi, Federica and Li, Xiaoyin and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Nolte, Ilja M and Poveda, Alaitz and Rauramaa, Rainer and Riaz, Muhammad and Rueedi, Rico and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Snieder, Harold and Sofer, Tamar and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Verweij, Niek and Ware, Erin B and Weiss, Stefan and Yanek, Lisa R and Amin, Najaf and Arking, Dan E and Arnett, Donna K and Bergmann, Sven and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brody, Jennifer A and Broeckel, Ulrich and Brumat, Marco and Burke, Gregory and Cabrera, Claudia P and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chee, Miao Li and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Cocca, Massimiliano and Connell, John and de Silva, H Janaka and de Vries, Paul S and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Faul, Jessica D and Fisher, Virginia and Forrester, Terrence and Fox, Ervin F and Friedlander, Yechiel and Gao, He and Gigante, Bruna and Giulianini, Franco and Gu, Chi Charles and Gu, Dongfeng and Harris, Tamara B and He, Jiang and Heikkinen, Sami and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Hunt, Steven and Ikram, M Arfan and Irvin, Marguerite R and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kavousi, Maryam and Khor, Chiea Chuen and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Koh, Woon-Puay and Komulainen, Pirjo and Kraja, Aldi T and Krieger, J E and Langefeld, Carl D and Li, Yize and Liang, Jingjing and Liewald, David C M and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Jianjun and Lohman, Kurt K and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and McKenzie, Colin A and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Milaneschi, Yuri and Milani, Lili and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Nalls, Mike A and Nelson, Christopher P and Norris, Jill M and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff and Ogunniyi, Adesola and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pedersen, Nancy L and Perls, Thomas and Peters, Annette and Petersmann, Astrid and Peyser, Patricia A and Polasek, Ozren and Porteous, David J and Raffel, Leslie J and Rice, Treva K and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Rueda-Ochoa, Oscar-Leonel and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Salako, Babatunde L and Schreiner, Pamela J and Shikany, James M and Sidney, Stephen S and Sims, Mario and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Jennifer A and Starr, John M and Strauch, Konstantin and Swertz, Morris A and Teumer, Alexander and Tham, Yih Chung and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaidya, Dhananjay and van der Ende, M Yldau and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wang, Lihua and Wang, Ya-Xing and Wei, Wen-Bin and Weir, David R and Wen, Wanqing and Yao, Jie and Yu, Bing and Yu, Caizheng and Yuan, Jian-Min and Zhao, Wei and Zonderman, Alan B and Becker, Diane M and Bowden, Donald W and Deary, Ian J and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Freedman, Barry I and Froguel, Philippe and Gasparini, Paolo and Gieger, Christian and Jonas, Jost Bruno and Kammerer, Candace M and Kato, Norihiro and Lakka, Timo A and Leander, Karin and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Marques-Vidal, Pedro and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Samani, Nilesh J and van der Harst, Pim and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wu, Tangchun and Zheng, Wei and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Bouchard, Claude and Cooper, Richard S and Correa, Adolfo and Evans, Michele K and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hayward, Caroline and Horta, Bernardo L and Kelly, Tanika N and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Levy, Daniel and Palmas, Walter R and Pereira, A C and Province, Michael M and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and Rotimi, Charles N and Tai, E Shyong and van Dam, Rob M and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Wong, Tien Yin and Rice, Kenneth and Gauderman, W James and Morrison, Alanna C and North, Kari E and Kardia, Sharon L R and Caulfield, Mark J and Elliott, Paul and Munroe, Patricia B and Franks, Paul W and Rao, Dabeeru C and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {8397, title = {Genetic and regulatory architecture of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease in the region.}, journal = {Alzheimers Dement (Amst)}, volume = {12}, year = {2020}, month = {2020}, pages = {e12008}, abstract = {

Introduction: Apolipoprotein E () ε2 and ε4 alleles encoded by rs7412 and rs429358 polymorphisms, respectively, are landmark contra and pro "risk" factors for Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD).

Methods: We examined differences in linkage disequilibrium (LD) structures between (1) AD-affected and unaffected subjects and (2) older AD-unaffected and younger subjects in the 19q13.3 region harboring rs7412 and rs429358.

Results: AD is associated with sex-nonspecific heterogeneous patterns of decreased and increased LD of rs7412 and rs429358, respectively, with other polymorphisms from five genes in this region in AD-affected subjects. The LD patterns in older AD-unaffected subjects resembled those in younger individuals. Polarization of the ε4- and ε2 allele-related heterogeneous LD clusters differentiated cell types and implicated specific tissues in AD pathogenesis.

Discussion: Protection and predisposition to AD is characterized by an interplay of rs7412 and rs429358, with multiple polymorphisms in the 19q13.3 region in a tissue-specific manner, which is not driven by common evolutionary forces.

}, issn = {2352-8729}, doi = {10.1002/dad2.12008}, author = {Kulminski, Alexander M and Shu, Leonardo and Loika, Yury and He, Liang and Nazarian, Alireza and Arbeev, Konstantin and Ukraintseva, Svetlana and Yashin, Anatoliy and Culminskaya, Irina} } @article {8506, title = {The genetic architecture of the human cerebral cortex}, journal = {Science}, volume = {367}, year = {2020}, month = {Aug-03-2021}, pages = {eaay6690}, issn = {0036-8075}, doi = {10.1126/science.aay6690}, url = {https://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aay6690https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1126/science.aay6690https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1126/science.aay6690}, author = {Grasby, Katrina L. and Jahanshad, Neda and Painter, Jodie N. and Colodro-Conde, Luc{\'\i}a and Bralten, Janita and Hibar, Derrek P. and Lind, Penelope A. and Pizzagalli, Fabrizio and Ching, Christopher R. K. and McMahon, Mary Agnes B. and Shatokhina, Natalia and Zsembik, Leo C. P. and Thomopoulos, Sophia I. and Zhu, Alyssa H. and Strike, Lachlan T. and Agartz, Ingrid and Alhusaini, Saud and Almeida, Marcio A. A. and Aln{\ae}s, Dag and Amlien, Inge K. and Andersson, Micael and Ard, Tyler and Armstrong, Nicola J. and Ashley-Koch, Allison and Atkins, Joshua R. and Bernard, Manon and Brouwer, Rachel M. and Buimer, Elizabeth E. L. and B{\"u}low, Robin and B{\"u}rger, Christian and Cannon, Dara M. and Chakravarty, Mallar and Chen, Qiang and Cheung, Joshua W. and Couvy-Duchesne, Baptiste and Dale, Anders M. and Dalvie, Shareefa and de Araujo, T{\^a}nia K. and de Zubicaray, Greig I. and de Zwarte, Sonja M. C. and den Braber, Anouk and Doan, Nhat Trung and Dohm, Katharina and Ehrlich, Stefan and Engelbrecht, Hannah-Ruth and Erk, Susanne and Fan, Chun Chieh and Fedko, Iryna O. and Foley, Sonya F. and Ford, Judith M. and Fukunaga, Masaki and Garrett, Melanie E. and Ge, Tian and Giddaluru, Sudheer and Goldman, Aaron L. and Green, Melissa J. and Groenewold, Nynke A. and Grotegerd, Dominik and Gurholt, Tiril P. and Gutman, Boris A. and Hansell, Narelle K. and Harris, Mathew A. and Harrison, Marc B. and Haswell, Courtney C. and Hauser, Michael and Herms, Stefan and Heslenfeld, Dirk J. and Ho, New Fei and Hoehn, David and Hoffmann, Per and Holleran, Laurena and Hoogman, Martine and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Ikeda, Masashi and Janowitz, Deborah and Jansen, Iris E. and Jia, Tianye and Jockwitz, Christiane and Kanai, Ryota and Karama, Sherif and Kasperaviciute, Dalia and Kaufmann, Tobias and Kelly, Sinead and Kikuchi, Masataka and Klein, Marieke and Knapp, Michael and Knodt, Annchen R. and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernd and Lam, Max and Lancaster, Thomas M. and Lee, Phil H. and Lett, Tristram A. and Lewis, Lindsay B. and Lopes-Cendes, Iscia and Luciano, Michelle and Macciardi, Fabio and Marquand, Andre F. and Mathias, Samuel R. and Melzer, Tracy R. and Milaneschi, Yuri and Mirza-Schreiber, Nazanin and Moreira, Jose C. V. and M{\"u}hleisen, Thomas W. and M{\"u}ller-Myhsok, Bertram and Najt, Pablo and Nakahara, Soichiro and Nho, Kwangsik and Olde Loohuis, Loes M. and Orfanos, Dimitri Papadopoulos and Pearson, John F. and Pitcher, Toni L. and P{\"u}tz, Benno and Quid{\'e}, Yann and Ragothaman, Anjanibhargavi and Rashid, Faisal M. and Reay, William R. and Redlich, Ronny and Reinbold, C{\'e}line S. and Repple, Jonathan and Richard, Genevi{\`e}ve and Riedel, Brandalyn C. and Risacher, Shannon L. and Rocha, Cristiane S. and Mota, Nina Roth and Salminen, Lauren and Saremi, Arvin and Saykin, Andrew J. and Schlag, Fenja and Schmaal, Lianne and Schofield, Peter R. and Secolin, Rodrigo and Shapland, Chin Yang and Shen, Li and Shin, Jean and Shumskaya, Elena and S{\o}nderby, Ida E. and Sprooten, Emma and Tansey, Katherine E. and Teumer, Alexander and Thalamuthu, Anbupalam and Tordesillas-Gutierrez, Diana and Turner, Jessica A. and Uhlmann, Anne and Vallerga, Costanza Ludovica and van der Meer, Dennis and van Donkelaar, Marjolein M. J. and van Eijk, Liza and van Erp, Theo G. M. and van Haren, Neeltje E. M. and van Rooij, Daan and van Tol, Marie-Jose and Veldink, Jan H. and Verhoef, Ellen and Walton, Esther and Wang, Mingyuan and Wang, Yunpeng and Wardlaw, Joanna M. and Wen, Wei and Westlye, Lars T. and Whelan, Christopher D. and Witt, Stephanie H. and Wittfeld, Katharina and Wolf, Christiane and Wolfers, Thomas and Wu, Jing Qin and Yasuda, Clarissa L. and Zaremba, Dario and Zhang, Zuo and Zwiers, Marcel P. and Artiges, Eric and Assareh, Amelia A. and Ayesa-Arriola, Rosa and Belger, Aysenil and Brandt, Christine L. and Brown, Gregory G. and Cichon, Sven and Curran, Joanne E. and Davies, Gareth E. and Degenhardt, Franziska and Dennis, Michelle F. and Dietsche, Bruno and Djurovic, Srdjan and Doherty, Colin P. and Espiritu, Ryan and Garijo, Daniel and Gil, Yolanda and Gowland, Penny A. and Green, Robert C. and H{\"a}usler, Alexander N. and Heindel, Walter and Ho, Beng-Choon and Hoffmann, Wolfgang U. and Holsboer, Florian and Homuth, Georg and Hosten, Norbert and Jack, Clifford R. and Jang, MiHyun and Jansen, Andreas and Kimbrel, Nathan A. and Kolsk{\r a}r, Knut and Koops, Sanne and Krug, Axel and Lim, Kelvin O. and Luykx, Jurjen J. and Mathalon, Daniel H. and Mather, Karen A. and Mattay, Venkata S. and Matthews, Sarah and Mayoral Van Son, Jaqueline and McEwen, Sarah C. and Melle, Ingrid and Morris, Derek W. and Mueller, Bryon A. and Nauck, Matthias and Nordvik, Jan E. and N{\"o}then, Markus M. and O{\textquoteright}Leary, Daniel S. and Opel, Nils and Martinot, Marie-Laure Paill{\`e}re and Pike, G. Bruce and Preda, Adrian and Quinlan, Erin B. and Rasser, Paul E. and Ratnakar, Varun and Reppermund, Simone and Steen, Vidar M. and Tooney, Paul A. and Torres, F{\'a}bio R. and Veltman, Dick J. and Voyvodic, James T. and Whelan, Robert and White, Tonya and Yamamori, Hidenaga and Adams, Hieab H. H. and Bis, Joshua C. and Debette, Stephanie and DeCarli, Charles and Fornage, Myriam and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hofer, Edith and Ikram, M. Arfan and Launer, Lenore and Longstreth, W. T. and Lopez, Oscar L. and Mazoyer, Bernard and Mosley, Thomas H. and Roshchupkin, Gennady V. and Satizabal, Claudia L. and Schmidt, Reinhold and Seshadri, Sudha and Yang, Qiong and Alvim, Marina K. M. and Ames, David and Anderson, Tim J. and Andreassen, Ole A. and Arias-Vasquez, Alejandro and Bastin, Mark E. and Baune, Bernhard T. and Beckham, Jean C. and Blangero, John and Boomsma, Dorret I. and Brodaty, Henry and Brunner, Han G. and Buckner, Randy L. and Buitelaar, Jan K. and Bustillo, Juan R. and Cahn, Wiepke and Cairns, Murray J. and Calhoun, Vince and Carr, Vaughan J. and Caseras, Xavier and Caspers, Svenja and Cavalleri, Gianpiero L. and Cendes, Fernando and Corvin, Aiden and Crespo-Facorro, Benedicto and Dalrymple-Alford, John C. and Dannlowski, Udo and de Geus, Eco J. C. and Deary, Ian J. and Delanty, Norman and Depondt, Chantal and Desrivi{\`e}res, Sylvane and Donohoe, Gary and Espeseth, Thomas and Fern{\'a}ndez, Guill{\'e}n and Fisher, Simon E. and Flor, Herta and Forstner, Andreas J. and Francks, Clyde and Franke, Barbara and Glahn, David C. and Gollub, Randy L. and Grabe, Hans J. and Gruber, Oliver and H{\r a}berg, Asta K. and Hariri, Ahmad R. and Hartman, Catharina A. and Hashimoto, Ryota and Heinz, Andreas and Henskens, Frans A. and Hillegers, Manon H. J. and Hoekstra, Pieter J. and Holmes, Avram J. and Hong, L. Elliot and Hopkins, William D. and Hulshoff Pol, Hilleke E. and Jernigan, Terry L. and J{\"o}nsson, Erik G. and Kahn, Ren{\'e} S. and Kennedy, Martin A. and Kircher, Tilo T. J. and Kochunov, Peter and Kwok, John B. J. and Le Hellard, Stephanie and Loughland, Carmel M. and Martin, Nicholas G. and Martinot, Jean-Luc and McDonald, Colm and McMahon, Katie L. and Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas and Michie, Patricia T. and Morey, Rajendra A. and Mowry, Bryan and Nyberg, Lars and Oosterlaan, Jaap and Ophoff, Roel A. and Pantelis, Christos and Paus, Tom{\'a}{\v s} and Pausova, Zdenka and Penninx, Brenda W. J. H. and Polderman, Tinca J. C. and Posthuma, Danielle and Rietschel, Marcella and Roffman, Joshua L. and Rowland, Laura M. and Sachdev, Perminder S. and S{\"a}mann, Philipp G. and Schall, Ulrich and Schumann, Gunter and Scott, Rodney J. and Sim, Kang and Sisodiya, Sanjay M. and Smoller, Jordan W. and Sommer, Iris E. and St Pourcain, Beate and Stein, Dan J. and Toga, Arthur W. and Trollor, Julian N. and Van der Wee, Nic J. A. and van {\textquoteright}t Ent, Dennis and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Walter, Henrik and Weber, Bernd and Weinberger, Daniel R. and Wright, Margaret J. and Zhou, Juan and Stein, Jason L. and Thompson, Paul M. and Medland, Sarah E.} } @article {8484, title = {{Genetic correlations and genome-wide associations of cortical structure in general population samples of 22,824 adults}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {11}, year = {2020}, month = {09}, pages = {4796}, abstract = {Cortical thickness, surface area and volumes vary with age and cognitive function, and in neurological and psychiatric diseases. Here we report heritability, genetic correlations and genome-wide associations of these cortical measures across the whole cortex, and in 34 anatomically predefined regions. Our discovery sample comprises 22,824 individuals from 20 cohorts within the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium and the UK Biobank. We identify genetic heterogeneity between cortical measures and brain regions, and 160 genome-wide significant associations pointing to wnt/{\^I}{\texttwosuperior}-catenin, TGF-{\^I}{\texttwosuperior} and sonic hedgehog pathways. There is enrichment for genes involved in anthropometric traits, hindbrain development, vascular and neurodegenerative disease and psychiatric conditions. These data are a rich resource for studies of the biological mechanisms behind cortical development and aging.}, author = {Hofer, E. and Roshchupkin, G. V. and Adams, H. H. H. and Knol, M. J. and Lin, H. and Li, S. and Zare, H. and Ahmad, S. and Armstrong, N. J. and Satizabal, C. L. and Bernard, M. and Bis, J. C. and Gillespie, N. A. and Luciano, M. and Mishra, A. and Scholz, M. and Teumer, A. and Xia, R. and Jian, X. and Mosley, T. H. and Saba, Y. and Pirpamer, L. and Seiler, S. and Becker, J. T. and Carmichael, O. and Rotter, J. I. and Psaty, B. M. and Lopez, O. L. and Amin, N. and van der Lee, S. J. and Yang, Q. and Himali, J. J. and Maillard, P. and Beiser, A. S. and DeCarli, C. and Karama, S. and Lewis, L. and Harris, M. and Bastin, M. E. and Deary, I. J. and Veronica Witte, A. and Beyer, F. and Loeffler, M. and Mather, K. A. and Schofield, P. R. and Thalamuthu, A. and Kwok, J. B. and Wright, M. J. and Ames, D. and Trollor, J. and Jiang, J. and Brodaty, H. and Wen, W. and Vernooij, M. W. and Hofman, A. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and Niessen, W. J. and Wittfeld, K. and B?low, R. and V?lker, U. and Pausova, Z. and Bruce Pike, G. and Maingault, S. and Crivello, F. and Tzourio, C. and Amouyel, P. and Mazoyer, B. and Neale, M. C. and Franz, C. E. and Lyons, M. J. and Panizzon, M. S. and Andreassen, O. A. and Dale, A. M. and Logue, M. and Grasby, K. L. and Jahanshad, N. and Painter, J. N. and Colodro-Conde, L. and Bralten, J. and Hibar, D. P. and Lind, P. A. and Pizzagalli, F. and Stein, J. L. and Thompson, P. M. and Medland, S. E. and Sachdev, P. S. and Kremen, W. S. and Wardlaw, J. M. and Villringer, A. and van Duijn, C. M. and Grabe, H. J. and Longstreth, W. T. and Fornage, M. and Paus, T. and Debette, S. and Arfan Ikram, M. and Schmidt, H. and Schmidt, R. and Seshadri, S. and Grasby, K. L. and Jahanshad, N. and Painter, J. N. and Colodro-Conde, L. and Bralten, J. and Hibar, D. P. and Lind, P. A. and Pizzagalli, F. and Ching, C. R. K. and McMahon, M. A. B. and Shatokhina, N. and Zsembik, L. C. P. and Agartz, I. and Alhusaini, S. and Almeida, M. A. A. and Aln?s, D. and Amlien, I. K. and Andersson, M. and Ard, T. and Armstrong, N. J. and Ashley-Koch, A. and Bernard, M. and Brouwer, R. M. and Buimer, E. E. L. and B?low, R. and B?rger, C. and Cannon, D. M. and Chakravarty, M. and Chen, Q. and Cheung, J. W. and Couvy-Duchesne, B. and Dale, A. M. and Dalvie, S. and de Araujo, T. K. and de Zubicaray, G. I. and de Zwarte, S. M. C. and den Braber, A. and Doan, N. T. and Dohm, K. and Ehrlich, S. and Engelbrecht, H. R. and Erk, S. and Fan, C. C. and Fedko, I. O. and Foley, S. F. and Ford, J. M. and Fukunaga, M. and Garrett, M. E. and Ge, T. and Giddaluru, S. and Goldman, A. L. and Groenewold, N. A. and Grotegerd, D. and Gurholt, T. P. and Gutman, B. A. and Hansell, N. K. and Harris, M. A. and Harrison, M. B. and Haswell, C. C. and Hauser, M. and Herms, S. and Heslenfeld, D. J. and Ho, N. F. and Hoehn, D. and Hoffmann, P. and Holleran, L. and Hoogman, M. and Hottenga, J. J. and Ikeda, M. and Janowitz, D. and Jansen, I. E. and Jia, T. and Jockwitz, C. and Kanai, R. and Karama, S. and Kasperaviciute, D. and Kaufmann, T. and Kelly, S. and Kikuchi, M. and Klein, M. and Knapp, M. and Knodt, A. R. and Kr?mer, B. and Lam, M. and Lancaster, T. M. and Lee, P. H. and Lett, T. A. and Lewis, L. B. and Lopes-Cendes, I. and Luciano, M. and Macciardi, F. and Marquand, A. F. and Mathias, S. R. and Melzer, T. R. and Milaneschi, Y. and Mirza-Schreiber, N. and Moreira, J. C. V. and M?hleisen, T. W. and M?ller-Myhsok, B. and Najt, P. and Nakahara, S. and Nho, K. and Olde Loohuis, L. M. and Orfanos, D. P. and Pearson, J. F. and Pitcher, T. L. and P?tz, B. and Ragothaman, A. and Rashid, F. M. and Redlich, R. and Reinbold, C. S. and Repple, J. and Richard, G. and Riedel, B. C. and Risacher, S. L. and Rocha, C. S. and Mota, N. R. and Salminen, L. and Saremi, A. and Saykin, A. J. and Schlag, F. and Schmaal, L. and Schofield, P. R. and Secolin, R. and Shapland, C. Y. and Shen, L. and Shin, J. and Shumskaya, E. and S?nderby, I. E. and Sprooten, E. and Strike, L. T. and Tansey, K. E. and Teumer, A. and Thalamuthu, A. and Thomopoulos, S. I. and Tordesillas-Guti?rrez, D. and Turner, J. A. and Uhlmann, A. and Vallerga, C. L. and van der Meer, D. and van Donkelaar, M. M. J. and van Eijk, L. and van Erp, T. G. M. and van Haren, N. E. M. and van Rooij, D. and van Tol, M. J. and Veldink, J. H. and Verhoef, E. and Walton, E. and Wang, M. and Wang, Y. and Wardlaw, J. M. and Wen, W. and Westlye, L. T. and Whelan, C. D. and Witt, S. H. and Wittfeld, K. and Wolf, C. and Wolfers, T. and Yasuda, C. L. and Zaremba, D. and Zhang, Z. and Zhu, A. H. and Zwiers, M. P. and Artiges, E. and Assareh, A. A. and Ayesa-Arriola, R. and Belger, A. and Brandt, C. L. and Brown, G. G. and Cichon, S. and Curran, J. E. and Davies, G. E. and Degenhardt, F. and Dietsche, B. and Djurovic, S. and Doherty, C. P. and Espiritu, R. and Garijo, D. and Gil, Y. and Gowland, P. A. and Green, R. C. and H?usler, A. N. and Heindel, W. and Ho, B. C. and Hoffmann, W. U. and Holsboer, F. and Homuth, G. and Hosten, N. and Jack, C. R. and Jang, M. and Jansen, A. and Kolsk?r, K. and Koops, S. and Krug, A. and Lim, K. O. and Luykx, J. J. and Mathalon, D. H. and Mather, K. A. and Mattay, V. S. and Matthews, S. and Son, J. M. V. and McEwen, S. C. and Melle, I. and Morris, D. W. and Mueller, B. A. and Nauck, M. and Nordvik, J. E. and N?then, M. M. and O{\textquoteright}Leary, D. S. and Opel, N. and Martinot, M. -P. and Pike, G. B. and Preda, A. and Quinlan, E. B. and Ratnakar, V. and Reppermund, S. and Steen, V. M. and Torres, F. R. and Veltman, D. J. and Voyvodic, J. T. and Whelan, R. and White, T. and Yamamori, H. and Alvim, M. K. M. and Ames, D. and Anderson, T. J. and Andreassen, O. A. and Arias-Vasquez, A. and Bastin, M. E. and Baune, B. T. and Blangero, J. and Boomsma, D. I. and Brodaty, H. and Brunner, H. G. and Buckner, R. L. and Buitelaar, J. K. and Bustillo, J. R. and Cahn, W. and Calhoun, V. and Caseras, X. and Caspers, S. and Cavalleri, G. L. and Cendes, F. and Corvin, A. and Crespo-Facorro, B. and Dalrymple-Alford, J. C. and Dannlowski, U. and de Geus, E. J. C. and Deary, I. J. and Delanty, N. and Depondt, C. and Desrivi?res, S. and Donohoe, G. and Espeseth, T. and Fern?ndez, G. and Fisher, S. E. and Flor, H. and Forstner, A. J. and Francks, C. and Franke, B. and Glahn, D. C. and Gollub, R. L. and Grabe, H. J. and Gruber, O. and H?berg, A. K. and Hariri, A. R. and Hartman, C. A. and Hashimoto, R. and Heinz, A. and Hillegers, M. H. J. and Hoekstra, P. J. and Holmes, A. J. and Hong, L. E. and Hopkins, W. D. and Hulshoff Pol, H. E. and Jernigan, T. L. and J?nsson, E. G. and Kahn, R. S. and Kennedy, M. A. and Kircher, T. T. J. and Kochunov, P. and Kwok, J. B. J. and Hellard, S. L. and Martin, N. G. and Martinot, J. - and McDonald, C. and McMahon, K. L. and Meyer-Lindenberg, A. and Morey, R. A. and Nyberg, L. and Oosterlaan, J. and Ophoff, R. A. and Paus, T. and Pausova, Z. and Penninx, B. W. J. H. and Polderman, T. J. C. and Posthuma, D. and Rietschel, M. and Roffman, J. L. and Rowland, L. M. and Sachdev, P. S. and S?mann, P. G. and Schumann, G. and Sim, K. and Sisodiya, S. M. and Smoller, J. W. and Sommer, I. E. and Pourcain, B. S. and Stein, D. J. and Toga, A. W. and Trollor, J. N. and Van der Wee, N. J. A. and van {\textquoteright}t Ent, D. and V?lzke, H. and Walter, H. and Weber, B. and Weinberger, D. R. and Wright, M. J. and Zhou, J. and Stein, J. L. and Thompson, P. M. and Medland, S. E.} } @article {8452, title = {{Genetic Determinants of Electrocardiographic P-wave Duration and Relation to Atrial Fibrillation}, journal = {Circ Genom Precis Med}, year = {2020}, month = {Aug}, abstract = {Background - The P-wave duration (PWD) is an electrocardiographic (ECG) measurement that represents cardiac conduction in the atria. Shortened or prolonged PWD is associated with atrial fibrillation (AF). We used exome chip data to examine the associations between common and rare variants with PWD. Methods - Fifteen studies comprising 64,440 individuals (56,943 European, 5,681 African, 1,186 Hispanic, 630 Asian), and 230,000 variants were used to examine associations with maximum PWD across the 12-lead ECG. Meta-analyses summarized association results for common variants; gene-based burden and SKAT tests examined low-frequency variant-PWD associations. Additionally, we examined the associations between PWD loci and AF using previous AF GWAS. Results - We identified 21 common and low-frequency genetic loci (14 novel) associated with maximum PWD, including several AF loci (TTN, CAND2, SCN10A, PITX2, CAV1, SYNPO2L, SOX5, TBX5, MYH6, RPL3L). The top variants at known sarcomere genes (TTN, MYH6) were associated with longer PWD and increased AF risk. However, top variants at other loci (e.g., PITX2 and SCN10A) were associated with longer PWD but lower AF risk. Conclusions - Our results highlight multiple novel genetic loci associated with PWD, and underscore the shared mechanisms of atrial conduction and AF. Prolonged PWD may be an endophenotype for several different genetic mechanisms of AF.}, author = {Weng, L. C. and Hall, A. W. and Choi, S. H. and Jurgens, S. J. and Haessler, J. and Bihlmeyer, N. A. and Grarup, N. and Lin, H. and Teumer, A. and Li-Gao, R. and Yao, J. and Guo, X. and Brody, J. A. and M?ller-Nurasyid, M. and Schramm, K. and Verweij, N. and van den Berg, M. E. and van Setten, J. and Isaacs, A. and Ram?rez, J. and Warren, H. R. and Padmanabhan, S. and Kors, J. A. and de Boer, R. A. and van der Meer, P. and Sinner, M. F. and Waldenberger, M. and Psaty, B. M. and Taylor, K. D. and V?lker, U. and Kanters, J. K. and Li, M. and Alonso, A. and Perez, M. V. and Vaartjes, I. and Bots, M. L. and Huang, P. L. and Heckbert, S. R. and Lin, H. J. and Kornej, J. and Munroe, P. B. and van Duijn, C. M. and Asselbergs, F. W. and Stricker, B. H. and van der Harst, P. and K??b, S. and Peters, A. and Sotoodehnia, N. and Rotter, J. I. and Mook-Kanamori, D. O. and D?rr, M. and Felix, S. B. and Linneberg, A. and Hansen, T. and Arking, D. E. and Kooperberg, C. and Benjamin, E. J. and Lunetta, K. L. and Ellinor, P. T. and Lubitz, S. A.} } @article {8625, title = {Genetic loci associated with prevalent and incident myocardial infarction and coronary heart disease in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {15}, year = {2020}, month = {2020}, pages = {e0230035}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies have identified multiple genomic loci associated with coronary artery disease, but most are common variants in non-coding regions that provide limited information on causal genes and etiology of the disease. To overcome the limited scope that common variants provide, we focused our investigation on low-frequency and rare sequence variations primarily residing in coding regions of the genome.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Using samples of individuals of European ancestry from ten cohorts within the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium, both cross-sectional and prospective analyses were conducted to examine associations between genetic variants and myocardial infarction (MI), coronary heart disease (CHD), and all-cause mortality following these events. For prevalent events, a total of 27,349 participants of European ancestry, including 1831 prevalent MI cases and 2518 prevalent CHD cases were used. For incident cases, a total of 55,736 participants of European ancestry were included (3,031 incident MI cases and 5,425 incident CHD cases). There were 1,860 all-cause deaths among the 3,751 MI and CHD cases from six cohorts that contributed to the analysis of all-cause mortality. Single variant and gene-based analyses were performed separately in each cohort and then meta-analyzed for each outcome. A low-frequency intronic variant (rs988583) in PLCL1 was significantly associated with prevalent MI (OR = 1.80, 95\% confidence interval: 1.43, 2.27; P = 7.12 {\texttimes} 10-7). We conducted gene-based burden tests for genes with a cumulative minor allele count (cMAC) >= 5 and variants with minor allele frequency (MAF) < 5\%. TMPRSS5 and LDLRAD1 were significantly associated with prevalent MI and CHD, respectively, and RC3H2 and ANGPTL4 were significantly associated with incident MI and CHD, respectively. No loci were significantly associated with all-cause mortality following a MI or CHD event.

CONCLUSION: This study identified one known locus (ANGPTL4) and four new loci (PLCL1, RC3H2, TMPRSS5, and LDLRAD1) associated with cardiovascular disease risk that warrant further investigation.

}, keywords = {Aging, Coronary Artery Disease, Cross-Sectional Studies, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Myocardial Infarction, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prospective Studies}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0230035}, author = {Hahn, Julie and Fu, Yi-Ping and Brown, Michael R and Bis, Joshua C and de Vries, Paul S and Feitosa, Mary F and Yanek, Lisa R and Weiss, Stefan and Giulianini, Franco and Smith, Albert Vernon and Guo, Xiuqing and Bartz, Traci M and Becker, Diane M and Becker, Lewis C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brody, Jennifer A and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Franco, Oscar H and Grove, Megan and Harris, Tamara B and Hofman, Albert and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Kral, Brian G and Launer, Lenore J and Markus, Marcello R P and Rice, Kenneth M and Rich, Stephen S and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rotter, Jerome I and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Taylor, Kent D and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Yao, Jie and Chasman, Daniel I and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Mathias, Rasika A and Post, Wendy and Psaty, Bruce M and Dehghan, Abbas and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Morrison, Alanna C} } @article {8491, title = {Genetic Studies of Leptin Concentrations Implicate Leptin in the Regulation of Early Adiposity.}, journal = {Diabetes}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Sep 11}, abstract = {

Leptin influences food intake by informing the brain about the status of body fat stores. Rare mutations associated with congenital leptin deficiency cause severe early-onset obesity that can be mitigated by administering leptin. However, the role of genetic regulation of leptin in polygenic obesity remains poorly understood. We performed an exome-based analysis in up to 57,232 individuals of diverse ancestries to identify genetic variants that influence adiposity-adjusted leptin concentrations. We identify five novel variants, including four missense variants, in , and , and one intergenic variant near The missense variant Val94Met (rs17151919) in was common in individuals of African ancestry only and its association with lower leptin concentrations was specific to this ancestry (P=2x10, n=3,901). Using analyses, we show that the Met94 allele decreases leptin secretion. We also show that the Met94 allele is associated with higher BMI in young African-ancestry children but not in adults, suggesting leptin regulates early adiposity.

}, issn = {1939-327X}, doi = {10.2337/db20-0070}, author = {Yaghootkar, Hanieh and Zhang, Yiying and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Karaderi, Tugce and Huang, Lam Opal and Bradfield, Jonathan and Schurmann, Claudia and Fine, Rebecca S and Preuss, Michael H and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Wittemans, Laura Bl and Lu, Yingchang and Metz, Sophia and Willems, Sara M and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Grarup, Niels and Wang, Shuai and Molnos, Sophie and Sandoval-Z{\'a}rate, Am{\'e}rica A and Nalls, Mike A and Lange, Leslie A and Haesser, Jeffrey and Guo, Xiuqing and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Feitosa, Mary F and Sitlani, Colleen M and Venturini, Cristina and Mahajan, Anubha and Kacprowski, Tim and Wang, Carol A and Chasman, Daniel I and Amin, Najaf and Broer, Linda and Robertson, Neil and Young, Kristin L and Allison, Matthew and Auer, Paul L and Bl{\"u}her, Matthias and Borja, Judith B and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Carrasquilla, Germ{\'a}n D and Christofidou, Paraskevi and Demirkan, Ayse and Doege, Claudia A and Garcia, Melissa E and Graff, Mariaelisa and Guo, Kaiying and Hakonarson, Hakon and Hong, Jaeyoung and Ida Chen, Yii-Der and Jackson, Rebecca and Jakupovi{\'c}, Hermina and Jousilahti, Pekka and Justice, Anne E and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kizer, Jorge R and Kriebel, Jennifer and LeDuc, Charles A and Li, Jin and Lind, Lars and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Mackey, David and Mangino, Massimo and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and Martin Carli, Jayne F and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Morris, Andrew P and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Nauck, Matthias and Nedeljkovic, Ivana and Pennell, Craig E and Pradhan, Arund D and Psaty, Bruce M and Raitakari, Olli T and Scott, Robert A and Skaaby, Tea and Strauch, Konstantin and Taylor, Kent D and Teumer, Alexander and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wu, Ying and Yao, Jie and Walker, Mark and North, Kari E and Kovacs, Peter and Ikram, M Arfan and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Ridker, Paul M and Lye, Stephen and Homuth, Georg and Ingelsson, Erik and Spector, Tim D and McKnight, Barbara and Province, Michael A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Adair, Linda S and Rotter, Jerome I and Reiner, Alexander P and Wilson, James G and Harris, Tamara B and Ripatti, Samuli and Grallert, Harald and Meigs, James B and Salomaa, Veikko and Hansen, Torben and Willems van Dijk, Ko and Wareham, Nicholas J and Grant, Struan Fa and Langenberg, Claudia and Frayling, Timothy M and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Mohlke, Karen L and Leibel, Rudolph L and Loos, Ruth Jf and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O} } @article {8289, title = {{Genome-wide association and Mendelian randomisation analysis provide insights into the pathogenesis of heart failure}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {11}, year = {2020}, month = {01}, pages = {163}, abstract = {Heart failure (HF) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. A small proportion of HF cases are attributable to monogenic cardiomyopathies and existing genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have yielded only limited insights, leaving the observed heritability of HF largely unexplained. We report results from a GWAS meta-analysis of HF comprising 47,309 cases and 930,014 controls. Twelve independent variants at 11 genomic loci are associated with HF, all of which demonstrate one or more associations with coronary artery disease (CAD), atrial fibrillation, or reduced left ventricular function, suggesting shared genetic aetiology. Functional analysis of non-CAD-associated loci implicate genes involved in cardiac development (MYOZ1, SYNPO2L), protein homoeostasis (BAG3), and cellular senescence (CDKN1A). Mendelian randomisation analysis supports causal roles for several HF risk factors, and demonstrates CAD-independent effects for atrial fibrillation, body mass index, and hypertension. These findings extend our knowledge of the pathways underlying HF and may inform new therapeutic strategies.}, author = {Shah, S. and Henry, A. and Roselli, C. and Lin, H. and Sveinbj?rnsson, G. and Fatemifar, G. and Hedman, ?. K. and Wilk, J. B. and Morley, M. P. and Chaffin, M. D. and Helgadottir, A. and Verweij, N. and Dehghan, A. and Almgren, P. and Andersson, C. and Aragam, K. G. and ?rnl?v, J. and Backman, J. D. and Biggs, M. L. and Bloom, H. L. and Brandimarto, J. and Brown, M. R. and Buckbinder, L. and Carey, D. J. and Chasman, D. I. and Chen, X. and Chen, X. and Chung, J. and Chutkow, W. and Cook, J. P. and Delgado, G. E. and Denaxas, S. and Doney, A. S. and D?rr, M. and Dudley, S. C. and Dunn, M. E. and Engstr?m, G. and Esko, T. and Felix, S. B. and Finan, C. and Ford, I. and Ghanbari, M. and Ghasemi, S. and Giedraitis, V. and Giulianini, F. and Gottdiener, J. S. and Gross, S. and Gu?bjartsson, D. F. and Gutmann, R. and Haggerty, C. M. and van der Harst, P. and Hyde, C. L. and Ingelsson, E. and Jukema, J. W. and Kavousi, M. and Khaw, K. T. and Kleber, M. E. and K?ber, L. and Koekemoer, A. and Langenberg, C. and Lind, L. and Lindgren, C. M. and London, B. and Lotta, L. A. and Lovering, R. C. and Luan, J. and Magnusson, P. and Mahajan, A. and Margulies, K. B. and M?rz, W. and Melander, O. and Mordi, I. R. and Morgan, T. and Morris, A. D. and Morris, A. P. and Morrison, A. C. and Nagle, M. W. and Nelson, C. P. and Niessner, A. and Niiranen, T. and O{\textquoteright}Donoghue, M. L. and Owens, A. T. and Palmer, C. N. A. and Parry, H. M. and Perola, M. and Portilla-Fernandez, E. and Psaty, B. M. and Rice, K. M. and Ridker, P. M. and Romaine, S. P. R. and Rotter, J. I. and Salo, P. and Salomaa, V. and van Setten, J. and Shalaby, A. A. and Smelser, D. T. and Smith, N. L. and Stender, S. and Stott, D. J. and Svensson, P. and Tammesoo, M. L. and Taylor, K. D. and Teder-Laving, M. and Teumer, A. and Thorgeirsson, G. and Thorsteinsdottir, U. and Torp-Pedersen, C. and Trompet, S. and Tyl, B. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and Veluchamy, A. and V?lker, U. and Voors, A. A. and Wang, X. and Wareham, N. J. and Waterworth, D. and Weeke, P. E. and Weiss, R. and Wiggins, K. L. and Xing, H. and Yerges-Armstrong, L. M. and Yu, B. and Zannad, F. and Zhao, J. H. and Hemingway, H. and Samani, N. J. and McMurray, J. J. V. and Yang, J. and Visscher, P. M. and Newton-Cheh, C. and Malarstig, A. and Holm, H. and Lubitz, S. A. and Sattar, N. and Holmes, M. V. and Cappola, T. P. and Asselbergs, F. W. and Hingorani, A. D. and Kuchenbaecker, K. and Ellinor, P. T. and Lang, C. C. and Stefansson, K. and Smith, J. G. and Vasan, R. S. and Swerdlow, D. I. and Lumbers, R. T. and Abecasis, G. and Backman, J. and Bai, X. and Balasubramanian, S. and Banerjee, N. and Baras, A. and Barnard, L. and Beechert, C. and Blumenfeld, A. and Cantor, M. and Chai, Y. and Chung, J. and Coppola, G. and Damask, A. and Dewey, F. and Economides, A. and Eom, G. and Forsythe, C. and Fuller, E. D. and Gu, Z. and Gurski, L. and Guzzardo, P. M. and Habegger, L. and Hahn, Y. and Hawes, A. and van Hout, C. and Jones, M. B. and Khalid, S. and Lattari, M. and Li, A. and Lin, N. and Liu, D. and Lopez, A. and Manoochehri, K. and Marchini, J. and Marcketta, A. and Maxwell, E. K. and McCarthy, S. and Mitnaul, L. J. and O{\textquoteright}Dushlaine, C. and Overton, J. D. and Padilla, M. S. and Paulding, C. and Penn, J. and Pradhan, M. and Reid, J. G. and Schleicher, T. D. and Schurmann, C. and Shuldiner, A. and Staples, J. C. and Sun, D. and Toledo, K. and Ulloa, R. H. and Widom, L. and Wolf, S. E. and Yadav, A. and Ye, B.} } @article {8454, title = {{Genome-Wide Association Study Meta-Analysis of Stroke in 22 000 Individuals of African Descent Identifies Novel Associations With Stroke}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {51}, year = {2020}, month = {Aug}, pages = {2454{\textendash}2463}, abstract = {Stroke is a complex disease with multiple genetic and environmental risk factors. Blacks endure a nearly 2-fold greater risk of stroke and are 2{\~A}{\textemdash} to 3{\~A}{\textemdash} more likely to die from stroke than European Americans.\ The COMPASS (Consortium of Minority Population Genome-Wide Association Studies of Stroke) has conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of stroke in >22 000 individuals of African ancestry (3734 cases, 18 317 controls) from 13 cohorts.\ In meta-analyses, we identified one single nucleotide polymorphism (rs55931441) near the HNF1A gene that reached genome-wide significance (P=4.62{\~A}{\textemdash}10-8) and an additional 29 variants with suggestive evidence of association (P<1{\~A}{\textemdash}10-6), representing 24 unique loci. For validation, a look-up analysis for a 100 kb region flanking the COMPASS single nucleotide polymorphism was performed in SiGN (Stroke Genetics Network) Europeans, SiGN Hispanics, and METASTROKE (Europeans). Using a stringent Bonferroni correction P value of 2.08{\~A}{\textemdash}10-3 (0.05/24 unique loci), we were able to validate associations at the HNF1A locus in both SiGN (P=8.18{\~A}{\textemdash}10-4) and METASTROKE (P=1.72{\~A}{\textemdash}10-3) European populations. Overall, 16 of 24 loci showed evidence for validation across multiple populations. Previous studies have reported associations between variants in the HNF1A gene and lipids, C-reactive protein, and risk of coronary artery disease and stroke. Suggestive associations with variants in the SFXN4 and TMEM108 genes represent potential novel ischemic stroke loci.\ These findings represent the most thorough investigation of genetic determinants of stroke in individuals of African descent, to date.}, author = {Keene, K. L. and Hyacinth, H. I. and Bis, J. C. and Kittner, S. J. and Mitchell, B. D. and Cheng, Y. C. and Pare, G. and Chong, M. and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, M. and Meschia, J. F. and Chen, W. M. and Sale, M. M. and Rich, S. S. and Nalls, M. A. and Zonderman, A. B. and Evans, M. K. and Wilson, J. G. and Correa, A. and Markus, H. S. and Traylor, M. and Lewis, C. M. and Carty, C. L. and Reiner, A. and Haessler, J. and Langefeld, C. D. and Gottesman, R. and Mosley, T. H. and Woo, D. and Yaffe, K. and Liu, Y. and Longstreth, W. T. and Psaty, B. M. and Kooperberg, C. and Lange, L. A. and Sacco, R. and Rundek, T. and Lee, J. M. and Cruchaga, C. and Furie, K. L. and Arnett, D. K. and Benavente, O. R. and Grewal, R. P. and Peddareddygari, L. R. and Dichgans, M. and Malik, R. and Worrall, B. B. and Fornage, M.} } @article {8405, title = {Incorporating sampling weights into robust estimation of Cox proportional hazards regression model, with illustration in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.}, journal = {BMC Med Res Methodol}, volume = {20}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 03 14}, pages = {62}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Cox proportional hazards regression models are used to evaluate associations between exposures of interest and time-to-event outcomes in observational data. When exposures are measured on only a sample of participants, as they are in a case-cohort design, the sampling weights must be incorporated into the regression model to obtain unbiased estimating equations.

METHODS: Robust Cox methods have been developed to better estimate associations when there are influential outliers in the exposure of interest, but these robust methods do not incorporate sampling weights. In this paper, we extend these robust methods, which already incorporate influence weights, so that they also accommodate sampling weights.

RESULTS: Simulations illustrate that in the presence of influential outliers, the association estimate from the weighted robust method is closer to the true value than the estimate from traditional weighted Cox regression. As expected, in the absence of outliers, the use of robust methods yields a small loss of efficiency. Using data from a case-cohort study that is nested within the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) longitudinal cohort study, we illustrate differences between traditional and robust weighted Cox association estimates for the relationships between immune cell traits and risk of stroke.

CONCLUSIONS: Robust weighted Cox regression methods are a new tool to analyze time-to-event data with sampling, e.g. case-cohort data, when exposures of interest contain outliers.

}, issn = {1471-2288}, doi = {10.1186/s12874-020-00945-9}, author = {Sitlani, Colleen M and Lumley, Thomas and McKnight, Barbara and Rice, Kenneth M and Olson, Nels C and Doyle, Margaret F and Huber, Sally A and Tracy, Russell P and Psaty, Bruce M and C Delaney, Joseph A} } @article {8621, title = {Inherited causes of clonal haematopoiesis in 97,691 whole genomes.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {586}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 10}, pages = {763-768}, abstract = {

Age is the dominant risk factor for most chronic human diseases, but the mechanisms through which ageing confers this risk are largely unknown. The age-related acquisition of somatic mutations that lead to clonal expansion in regenerating haematopoietic stem cell populations has recently been associated with both haematological cancer and coronary heart disease-this phenomenon is~termed clonal haematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP). Simultaneous analyses of germline and somatic whole-genome sequences provide the opportunity to identify root causes of CHIP. Here we analyse high-coverage whole-genome sequences from 97,691 participants of diverse ancestries in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Trans-omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) programme, and identify 4,229 individuals with CHIP. We identify associations with blood cell, lipid and inflammatory traits that are specific to different CHIP~driver genes. Association of a genome-wide set of germline genetic variants enabled the identification of three genetic loci associated with CHIP status, including one locus at TET2 that was specific to individuals of African ancestry. In silico-informed in vitro evaluation of the TET2 germline locus enabled the identification of a causal variant that disrupts a TET2 distal enhancer, resulting in increased self-renewal of haematopoietic stem cells. Overall, we observe that germline genetic variation shapes haematopoietic stem cell function, leading to CHIP through mechanisms that are specific to clonal haematopoiesis as well as shared mechanisms that lead to somatic mutations across tissues.

}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-020-2819-2}, author = {Bick, Alexander G and Weinstock, Joshua S and Nandakumar, Satish K and Fulco, Charles P and Bao, Erik L and Zekavat, Seyedeh M and Szeto, Mindy D and Liao, Xiaotian and Leventhal, Matthew J and Nasser, Joseph and Chang, Kyle and Laurie, Cecelia and Burugula, Bala Bharathi and Gibson, Christopher J and Lin, Amy E and Taub, Margaret A and Aguet, Francois and Ardlie, Kristin and Mitchell, Braxton D and Barnes, Kathleen C and Moscati, Arden and Fornage, Myriam and Redline, Susan and Psaty, Bruce M and Silverman, Edwin K and Weiss, Scott T and Palmer, Nicholette D and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Burchard, Esteban G and Kardia, Sharon L R and He, Jiang and Kaplan, Robert C and Smith, Nicholas L and Arnett, Donna K and Schwartz, David A and Correa, Adolfo and de Andrade, Mariza and Guo, Xiuqing and Konkle, Barbara A and Custer, Brian and Peralta, Juan M and Gui, Hongsheng and Meyers, Deborah A and McGarvey, Stephen T and Chen, Ida Yii-Der and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Peyser, Patricia A and Broome, Jai G and Gogarten, Stephanie M and Wang, Fei Fei and Wong, Quenna and Montasser, May E and Daya, Michelle and Kenny, Eimear E and North, Kari E and Launer, Lenore J and Cade, Brian E and Bis, Joshua C and Cho, Michael H and Lasky-Su, Jessica and Bowden, Donald W and Cupples, L Adrienne and Mak, Angel C Y and Becker, Lewis C and Smith, Jennifer A and Kelly, Tanika N and Aslibekyan, Stella and Heckbert, Susan R and Tiwari, Hemant K and Yang, Ivana V and Heit, John A and Lubitz, Steven A and Johnsen, Jill M and Curran, Joanne E and Wenzel, Sally E and Weeks, Daniel E and Rao, Dabeeru C and Darbar, Dawood and Moon, Jee-Young and Tracy, Russell P and Buth, Erin J and Rafaels, Nicholas and Loos, Ruth J F and Durda, Peter and Liu, Yongmei and Hou, Lifang and Lee, Jiwon and Kachroo, Priyadarshini and Freedman, Barry I and Levy, Daniel and Bielak, Lawrence F and Hixson, James E and Floyd, James S and Whitsel, Eric A and Ellinor, Patrick T and Irvin, Marguerite R and Fingerlin, Tasha E and Raffield, Laura M and Armasu, Sebastian M and Wheeler, Marsha M and Sabino, Ester C and Blangero, John and Williams, L Keoki and Levy, Bruce D and Sheu, Wayne Huey-Herng and Roden, Dan M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Manson, JoAnn E and Mathias, Rasika A and Desai, Pinkal and Taylor, Kent D and Johnson, Andrew D and Auer, Paul L and Kooperberg, Charles and Laurie, Cathy C and Blackwell, Thomas W and Smith, Albert V and Zhao, Hongyu and Lange, Ethan and Lange, Leslie and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Wilson, James G and Scheet, Paul and Kitzman, Jacob O and Lander, Eric S and Engreitz, Jesse M and Ebert, Benjamin L and Reiner, Alexander P and Jaiswal, Siddhartha and Abecasis, Goncalo and Sankaran, Vijay G and Kathiresan, Sekar and Natarajan, Pradeep} } @article {8403, title = {Innate and adaptive immune cell subsets as risk factors for coronary heart disease in two population-based cohorts.}, journal = {Atherosclerosis}, volume = {300}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 05}, pages = {47-53}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Cell-mediated immunity is implicated in atherosclerosis. We evaluated whether innate and adaptive immune cell subsets in peripheral blood are risk factors for coronary heart disease.

METHODS: A nested case-cohort study (n~=~2155) was performed within the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) and the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). Cases of incident myocardial infarction (MI) and incident angina (n~=~880 total cases) were compared with a cohort random sample (n~=~1275). Immune cell phenotypes (n~=~34, including CD14 monocytes, natural killer cells, γδ T cells, CD4, CD8 and CD19 lymphocyte subsets) were measured from cryopreserved cells by flow cytometry. Cox proportional hazards models with adjustment for cardiovascular disease risk factors were used to evaluate associations of cell phenotypes with incident MI and a composite phenotype of incident MI or incident angina (MI-angina) over a median 9.3 years of follow-up. Th1, Th2, Th17, T regulatory (CD4CD25CD127), naive (CD4CD45RA), memory (CD4CD45RO), and CD4CD28 cells were specified as primary hypotheses. In secondary analyses, 27 additional cell phenotypes were investigated.

RESULTS: After correction for multiple testing, there were no statistically significant associations of CD4 naive, memory, CD28, or T helper cell subsets with MI or MI-angina in MESA, CHS, or combined-cohort meta analyses. Null associations were also observed for monocyte subsets, natural killer cells, γδ T cells, CD19 B cell and differentiated CD4 and CD8 cell subsets.

CONCLUSIONS: The proportions of peripheral blood monocyte and lymphocyte subsets are not strongly related to the future occurrence of MI or angina in adults free of autoimmune disease.

}, issn = {1879-1484}, doi = {10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2020.03.011}, author = {Olson, Nels C and Sitlani, Colleen M and Doyle, Margaret F and Huber, Sally A and Landay, Alan L and Tracy, Russell P and Psaty, Bruce M and Delaney, Joseph A} } @article {8487, title = {Intact and C-Terminal FGF23 Assays-Do Kidney Function, Inflammation, and Low Iron Influence Relationships With Outcomes?}, journal = {J Clin Endocrinol Metab}, volume = {105}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Dec 01}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Higher fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF23) concentrations are associated with heart failure and mortality in diverse populations, but the strengths of associations differ markedly depending up on which assay is used.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to evaluate whether iron deficiency, inflammation, or kidney function account for differences in the strengths of associations between these 2 FGF23 assays with clinical outcomes.

DESIGN: Case cohort study from the Cardiovascular Health Study.

SETTING: A total of 844 community-dwelling individuals aged 65 years or older with and without chronic kidney disease were followed for 10 years.

OUTCOMES: Outcomes included death, incident heart failure (HF), and incident myocardial infarction (MI). Exposure was baseline intact and C-terminal FGF23. Using modified Cox models, adjusting sequentially we tested whether observed associations of each assay with outcomes were attenuated by iron status, inflammation, kidney function, or their combinations.

RESULTS: FGF23 measured by either assay was associated with mortality in unadjusted analysis (intact FGF23 hazard ratio [HR] per 2-fold higher 1.45; 95\% CI, 1.25-1.68; C-terminal FGF23 HR 1.38; 95\% CI, 1.26-1.50). Adjustment for kidney function completely attenuated associations of intact FGF23 with mortality (HR 1.00; 95\% CI, 0.85-1.17), but had much less influence on the association of C-terminal FGF23, for which results remained significant after adjustment (HR 1.15; 95\% CI, 1.04-1.28). Attenuation was much less with adjustment for iron status or inflammation. Results were similar for the HF end point. Neither C-terminal or intact FGF23 was associated with MI risk.

CONCLUSIONS: The relationship of FGF23 with clinical end points is markedly different depending on the type of FGF23 assay used. The associations of biologically active FGF23 with clinical end points may be confounded by kidney disease, and thus much weaker than previously thought.

}, issn = {1945-7197}, doi = {10.1210/clinem/dgaa665}, author = {Sharma, Shilpa and Katz, Ronit and Bullen, Alexander L and Chaves, Paulo H M and de Leeuw, Peter W and Kroon, Abraham A and Houben, Alfons J H M and Shlipak, Michael G and Ix, Joachim H} } @article {8395, title = {Level and change in N-terminal pro B-type Natriuretic Peptide and kidney function and survival to age 90.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 May 17}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Many traditional cardiovascular risk factors do not predict survival to very old age. Studies have shown associations of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-pro-BNP) with cardiovascular disease and mortality in older populations. This study aimed to evaluate the associations of the level and change in eGFR and NT-pro-BNP with longevity to age 90 years.

METHODS: The population included participants (n=3,645) in the Cardiovascular Health Study, aged between 67-75 at baseline. The main exposures were eGFR, calculated with the Berlin Initiative Study equation (BIS2), and NT-pro-BNP, and the main outcome was survival to age 90. Mixed models were used to estimate level and change of the main exposures.

RESULTS: There was an association between baseline level and change of both eGFR and NT-pro-BNP and survival to 90, and this association persisted after adjustment for covariates. Each 10 ml/min per 1.73 m2 higher eGFR level was associated with an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 1.23 (95\% CI: 1.13, 1.34) of survival to 90, and a 0.5 ml/min/ 1.73 m2 slower decline in eGFR was associated with an OR of 1.51 (95\% CI: 1.31, 1.74). A 2-fold higher level of NT-pro-BNP level had an adjusted OR of 0.67 (95\% CI: 0.61, 0.73), and a 1.05-fold increase per year in NT-pro-BNP had an OR of 0.53 (95\% CI: 0.43, 0.65) for survival to age 90.

CONCLUSION: eGFR and NT-pro-BNP appear to be important risk factors for longevity to age 90.

}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glaa124}, author = {H{\"a}berle, Astrid D and Biggs, Mary L and Cushman, Mary and Psaty, Bruce M and Newman, Anne B and Shlipak, Michael G and Gottdiener, John and Wu, Chenkai and Gardin, Julius M and Bansal, Nisha and Odden, Michelle C} } @article {8410, title = {Mendelian randomization analysis does not support causal associations of birth weight with hypertension risk and blood pressure in adulthood.}, journal = {Eur J Epidemiol}, volume = {35}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Jul}, pages = {685-697}, abstract = {

Epidemiology studies suggested that low birthweight was associated with a higher risk of hypertension in later life. However, little is known about the causality of such associations. In our study, we evaluated the causal association of low birthweight with adulthood hypertension following a standard analytic protocol using the study-level data of 183,433 participants from 60 studies (CHARGE-BIG consortium), as well as that with blood pressure using publicly available summary-level genome-wide association data from EGG consortium of 153,781 participants, ICBP consortium and UK Biobank cohort together of 757,601 participants. We used seven SNPs as the instrumental variable in the study-level analysis and 47 SNPs in the summary-level analysis. In the study-level analyses, decreased birthweight was associated with a higher risk of hypertension in adults (the odds ratio per 1 standard deviation (SD) lower birthweight, 1.22; 95\% CI 1.16 to 1.28), while no association was found between genetically instrumented birthweight and hypertension risk (instrumental odds ratio for causal effect per 1 SD lower birthweight, 0.97; 95\% CI 0.68 to 1.41). Such results were consistent with that from the summary-level analyses, where the genetically determined low birthweight was not associated with blood pressure measurements either. One SD lower genetically determined birthweight was not associated with systolic blood pressure (β = - 0.76, 95\% CI - 2.45 to 1.08~mmHg), 0.06~mmHg lower diastolic blood pressure (β = - 0.06, 95\% CI - 0.93 to 0.87~mmHg), or pulse pressure (β = - 0.65, 95\% CI - 1.38 to 0.69~mmHg, all p > 0.05). Our findings suggest that the inverse association of birthweight with hypertension risk from observational studies was not supported by large Mendelian randomization analyses.

}, issn = {1573-7284}, doi = {10.1007/s10654-020-00638-z}, author = {Zheng, Yan and Huang, Tao and Wang, Tiange and Mei, Zhendong and Sun, Zhonghan and Zhang, Tao and Ellervik, Christina and Chai, Jin-Fang and Sim, Xueling and van Dam, Rob M and Tai, E-Shyong and Koh, Woon-Puay and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Saw, Seang-Mei and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Wong, Tien Yin and Gupta, Preeti and Rossing, Peter and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Vinding, Rebecca K and Bisgaard, Hans and B{\o}nnelykke, Klaus and Wang, Yujie and Graff, Mariaelisa and Voortman, Trudy and van Rooij, Frank J A and Hofman, Albert and van Heemst, Diana and Noordam, Raymond and Estampador, Angela C and Varga, Tibor V and Enzenbach, Cornelia and Scholz, Markus and Thiery, Joachim and Burkhardt, Ralph and Orho-Melander, Marju and Schulz, Christina-Alexandra and Ericson, Ulrika and Sonestedt, Emily and Kubo, Michiaki and Akiyama, Masato and Zhou, Ang and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Hansen, Torben and Kleber, Marcus E and Delgado, Graciela and McCarthy, Mark and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Felix, Janine F and Jaddoe, Vincent W V and Wu, Ying and Mohlke, Karen L and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Wang, Carol A and Pennell, Craig E and Schunkert, Heribert and Kessler, Thorsten and Zeng, Lingyao and Willenborg, Christina and Peters, Annette and Lieb, Wolfgang and Grote, Veit and Rzehak, Peter and Koletzko, Berthold and Erdmann, Jeanette and Munz, Matthias and Wu, Tangchun and He, Meian and Yu, Caizheng and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Froguel, Philippe and Corella, Dolores and Moreno, Luis A and Lai, Chao-Qiang and Pitk{\"a}nen, Niina and Boreham, Colin A and Ridker, Paul M and Rosendaal, Frits R and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Power, Chris and Paternoster, Lavinia and S{\o}rensen, Thorkild I A and Tj{\o}nneland, Anne and Overvad, Kim and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Lee, Nanette R and Raitakari, Olli T and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Viikari, Jorma and Langhendries, Jean-Paul and Escribano, Joaquin and Verduci, Elvira and Dedoussis, George and K{\"o}nig, Inke and Balkau, Beverley and Coltell, Oscar and Dallongeville, Jean and Meirhaeghe, Aline and Amouyel, Philippe and Gottrand, Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric and Pahkala, Katja and Niinikoski, Harri and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Mackey, David A and Gruszfeld, Dariusz and Tucker, Katherine L and Fumeron, Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric and Estruch, Ramon and Ordovas, Jose M and Arnett, Donna K and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Psaty, Bruce M and North, Kari E and Chasman, Daniel I and Qi, Lu} } @article {8624, title = {Meta-analysis uncovers genome-wide significant variants for rapid kidney function decline.}, journal = {Kidney Int}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Oct 30}, abstract = {

Rapid decline of glomerular filtration rate estimated from creatinine (eGFRcrea) is associated with severe clinical endpoints. In contrast to cross-sectionally assessed eGFRcrea, the genetic basis for rapid eGFRcrea decline is largely unknown. To help define this, we meta-analyzed 42 genome-wide association studies from the Chronic Kidney Diseases Genetics Consortium and United Kingdom Biobank to identify genetic loci for rapid eGFRcrea decline. Two definitions of eGFRcrea decline were used: 3 mL/min/1.73m/year or more ("Rapid3"; encompassing 34,874 cases, 107,090 controls) and eGFRcrea decline 25\% or more and eGFRcrea under 60 mL/min/1.73m at follow-up among those with eGFRcrea 60 mL/min/1.73m or more at baseline ("CKDi25"; encompassing 19,901 cases, 175,244 controls). Seven independent variants were identified across six loci for Rapid3 and/or CKDi25: consisting of five variants at four loci with genome-wide significance (near UMOD-PDILT (2), PRKAG2, WDR72, OR2S2) and two variants among 265 known eGFRcrea variants (near GATM, LARP4B). All these loci were novel for Rapid3 and/or CKDi25 and our bioinformatic follow-up prioritized variants and genes underneath these loci. The OR2S2 locus is novel for any eGFRcrea trait including interesting candidates. For the five genome-wide significant lead variants, we found supporting effects for annual change in blood urea nitrogen or cystatin-based eGFR, but not for GATM or LARP4B. Individuals at high compared to those at low genetic risk (8-14 vs 0-5 adverse alleles) had a 1.20-fold increased risk of acute kidney injury (95\% confidence interval 1.08-1.33). Thus, our identified loci for rapid kidney function decline may help prioritize therapeutic targets and identify mechanisms and individuals at risk for sustained deterioration of kidney function.

}, issn = {1523-1755}, doi = {10.1016/j.kint.2020.09.030}, author = {Gorski, Mathias and Jung, Bettina and Li, Yong and Matias-Garcia, Pamela R and Wuttke, Matthias and Coassin, Stefan and Thio, Chris H L and Kleber, Marcus E and Winkler, Thomas W and Wanner, Veronika and Chai, Jin-Fang and Chu, Audrey Y and Cocca, Massimiliano and Feitosa, Mary F and Ghasemi, Sahar and Hoppmann, Anselm and Horn, Katrin and Li, Man and Nutile, Teresa and Scholz, Markus and Sieber, Karsten B and Teumer, Alexander and Tin, Adrienne and Wang, Judy and Tayo, Bamidele O and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Almgren, Peter and Bakker, Stephan J L and Banas, Bernhard and Bansal, Nisha and Biggs, Mary L and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin P and Brenner, Hermann and Carroll, Robert J and Chalmers, John and Chee, Miao-Li and Chee, Miao-Ling and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Coresh, Josef and de Borst, Martin H and Degenhardt, Frauke and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Endlich, Karlhans and Franke, Andre and Freitag-Wolf, Sandra and Gampawar, Piyush and Gansevoort, Ron T and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Gieger, Christian and Hamet, Pavel and Ho, Kevin and Hofer, Edith and Holleczek, Bernd and Xian Foo, Valencia Hui and Hutri-K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Nina and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Ikram, M Arfan and Josyula, Navya Shilpa and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Khor, Chiea-Chuen and Koenig, Wolfgang and Kramer, Holly and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernhard K and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Lange, Leslie A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lieb, Wolfgang and Loos, Ruth J F and Lukas, Mary Ann and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Meisinger, Christa and Meitinger, Thomas and Melander, Olle and Milaneschi, Yuri and Mishra, Pashupati P and Mononen, Nina and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Nadkarni, Girish N and Nauck, Matthias and Nikus, Kjell and Ning, Boting and Nolte, Ilja M and O{\textquoteright}Donoghue, Michelle L and Orho-Melander, Marju and Pendergrass, Sarah A and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Preuss, Michael H and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Raitakari, Olli T and Rettig, Rainer and Rheinberger, Myriam and Rice, Kenneth M and Rosenkranz, Alexander R and Rossing, Peter and Rotter, Jerome I and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Schmidt, Helena and Schmidt, Reinhold and Sch{\"o}ttker, Ben and Schulz, Christina-Alexandra and Sedaghat, Sanaz and Shaffer, Christian M and Strauch, Konstantin and Szymczak, Silke and Taylor, Kent D and Tremblay, Johanne and Chaker, Layal and van der Harst, Pim and van der Most, Peter J and Verweij, Niek and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wallentin, Lars and Waterworth, Dawn M and White, Harvey D and Wilson, James G and Wong, Tien-Yin and Woodward, Mark and Yang, Qiong and Yasuda, Masayuki and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Zhang, Yan and Snieder, Harold and Wanner, Christoph and B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Kronenberg, Florian and Pattaro, Cristian and Heid, Iris M} } @article {8494, title = {{Mitochondrial DNA copy number and incident atrial fibrillation}, journal = {BMC Med}, volume = {18}, year = {2020}, month = {Sep}, pages = {246}, abstract = {Mechanistic studies suggest that mitochondria DNA (mtDNA) dysfunction may be associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). The association between mtDNA copy number (mtDNA-CN) and incident AF in the general population, however, remains unknown.\ We conducted prospective analyses of 19,709 participants from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC), the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), and the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). mtDNA-CN from the peripheral blood was calculated from probe intensities on the Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) Array 6.0 in ARIC and MESA and from multiplexed real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) in CHS. Incident AF cases were identified through electrocardiograms, review of hospital discharge codes, Medicare claims, and death certificates.\ The median follow-up time was 21.4 years in ARIC, 12.9 years in MESA, and 11.0 years in CHS, during which 4021 participants developed incident atrial fibrillation (1761 in ARIC, 790 in MESA, and 1470 in CHS). In fully adjusted models, participants with the lowest quintile of mitochondria DNA copy number had an overall 13\% increased risk (95\% CI 1 to 27\%) of incident atrial fibrillation compared to those with the highest quintile. Dose-response spline analysis also showed an inverse association between mitochondria DNA copy number and hazard for atrial fibrillation for all three cohorts. These associations were consistent across subgroups.\ Mitochondria DNA copy number was inversely associated with the risk of AF independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors. These findings implicate mitochondria DNA copy number as a novel risk factor for atrial fibrillation. Further research is warranted to understand the underlying mechanisms and to evaluate the role of mitochondria DNA copy number in the management of atrial fibrillation risk.}, author = {Zhao, D. and Bartz, T. M. and Sotoodehnia, N. and Post, W. S. and Heckbert, S. R. and Alonso, A. and Longchamps, R. J. and Castellani, C. A. and Hong, Y. S. and Rotter, J. I. and Lin, H. J. and O{\textquoteright}Rourke, B. and Pankratz, N. and Lane, J. A. and Yang, S. Y. and Guallar, E. and Arking, D. E.} } @article {8368, title = {Multi-ancestry GWAS of the electrocardiographic PR interval identifies 202 loci underlying cardiac conduction.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {11}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 May 21}, pages = {2542}, abstract = {

The electrocardiographic PR interval reflects atrioventricular conduction, and is associated with conduction abnormalities, pacemaker implantation, atrial fibrillation (AF), and cardiovascular mortality. Here we report a multi-ancestry (N = 293,051) genome-wide association meta-analysis for the PR interval, discovering 202 loci of which 141 have not previously been reported. Variants at identified loci increase the percentage of heritability explained, from 33.5\% to 62.6\%. We observe enrichment for cardiac muscle developmental/contractile and cytoskeletal genes, highlighting key regulation processes for atrioventricular conduction. Additionally, 8 loci not previously reported harbor genes underlying inherited arrhythmic syndromes and/or cardiomyopathies suggesting a role for these genes in cardiovascular pathology in the general population. We show that polygenic predisposition to PR interval duration is an endophenotype for cardiovascular disease, including distal conduction disease, AF, and atrioventricular pre-excitation. These findings advance our understanding of the polygenic basis of cardiac conduction, and the genetic relationship between PR interval duration and cardiovascular disease.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-020-15706-x}, author = {Ntalla, Ioanna and Weng, Lu-Chen and Cartwright, James H and Hall, Amelia Weber and Sveinbjornsson, Gardar and Tucker, Nathan R and Choi, Seung Hoan and Chaffin, Mark D and Roselli, Carolina and Barnes, Michael R and Mifsud, Borbala and Warren, Helen R and Hayward, Caroline and Marten, Jonathan and Cranley, James J and Concas, Maria Pina and Gasparini, Paolo and Boutin, Thibaud and Kolcic, Ivana and Polasek, Ozren and Rudan, Igor and Araujo, Nathalia M and Lima-Costa, Maria Fernanda and Ribeiro, Antonio Luiz P and Souza, Renan P and Tarazona-Santos, Eduardo and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Ingelsson, Erik and Mahajan, Anubha and Morris, Andrew P and del Greco M, Fabiola and Foco, Luisa and G{\"o}gele, Martin and Hicks, Andrew A and Cook, James P and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Nelson, Christopher P and Riaz, Muhammad B and Samani, Nilesh J and Sinagra, Gianfranco and Ulivi, Sheila and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Mishra, Pashupati P and Mononen, Nina and Nikus, Kjell and Caulfield, Mark J and Dominiczak, Anna and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Montasser, May E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff R and Ryan, Kathleen and Shuldiner, Alan R and Aeschbacher, Stefanie and Conen, David and Risch, Lorenz and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Hutri-K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Nina and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Raitakari, Olli T and Barnes, Catriona L K and Campbell, Harry and Joshi, Peter K and Wilson, James F and Isaacs, Aaron and Kors, Jan A and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Huang, Paul L and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Smith, Albert V and Bottinger, Erwin P and Loos, Ruth J F and Nadkarni, Girish N and Preuss, Michael H and Correa, Adolfo and Mei, Hao and Wilson, James and Meitinger, Thomas and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Peters, Annette and Waldenberger, Melanie and Mangino, Massimo and Spector, Timothy D and Rienstra, Michiel and van de Vegte, Yordi J and van der Harst, Pim and Verweij, Niek and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Schramm, Katharina and Sinner, Moritz F and Strauch, Konstantin and Cutler, Michael J and Fatkin, Diane and London, Barry and Olesen, Morten and Roden, Dan M and Benjamin Shoemaker, M and Gustav Smith, J and Biggs, Mary L and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Kenneth and Sotoodehnia, Nona and De Grandi, Alessandro and Fuchsberger, Christian and Pattaro, Cristian and Pramstaller, Peter P and Ford, Ian and Wouter Jukema, J and Macfarlane, Peter W and Trompet, Stella and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Felix, Stephan B and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Weiss, Stefan and Havulinna, Aki S and Jula, Antti and S{\"a}{\"a}ksj{\"a}rvi, Katri and Salomaa, Veikko and Guo, Xiuqing and Heckbert, Susan R and Lin, Henry J and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Kent D and Yao, Jie and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Maan, Arie C and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Noordam, Raymond and Cucca, Francesco and Ding, Jun and Lakatta, Edward G and Qian, Yong and Tarasov, Kirill V and Levy, Daniel and Lin, Honghuang and Newton-Cheh, Christopher H and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Murray, Alison D and Porteous, David J and Smith, Blair H and Stricker, Bruno H and Uitterlinden, Andre and van den Berg, Marten E and Haessler, Jeffrey and Jackson, Rebecca D and Kooperberg, Charles and Peters, Ulrike and Reiner, Alexander P and Whitsel, Eric A and Alonso, Alvaro and Arking, Dan E and Boerwinkle, Eric and Ehret, Georg B and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Avery, Christy L and Gogarten, Stephanie M and Kerr, Kathleen F and Laurie, Cathy C and Seyerle, Amanda A and Stilp, Adrienne and Assa, Solmaz and Abdullah Said, M and Yldau van der Ende, M and Lambiase, Pier D and Orini, Michele and Ramirez, Julia and Van Duijvenboden, Stefan and Arnar, David O and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Holm, Hilma and Sulem, Patrick and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorolfsdottir, Rosa B and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Benjamin, Emelia J and Tinker, Andrew and Stefansson, Kari and Ellinor, Patrick T and Jamshidi, Yalda and Lubitz, Steven A and Munroe, Patricia B} } @article {8284, title = {Plasma Ceramides and Sphingomyelins in Relation to Atrial Fibrillation Risk: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {9}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Feb 18}, pages = {e012853}, abstract = {

Background Ceramides exhibit multiple biological activities that may influence the pathophysiological characteristics of atrial fibrillation (AF). Whether the length of the saturated fatty acid carried by the ceramide or their sphingomyelin precursors are associated with AF risk is not known. Methods and Results Among 4206 CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study) participants (mean age, 76~years; 40\% men) who were free of prevalent AF at baseline, we identified 1198 incident AF cases over a median 8.7~years of follow-up. We examined 8 sphingolipid species: ceramide and sphingomyelin species with palmitic acid and species with very-long-chain saturated fatty acids: arachidic; behenic; and lignoceric. In adjusted Cox regression analyses, ceramides and sphingomyelins with very-long-chain saturated fatty acids were associated with reduced AF risk (ie, per 2-fold higher ceramide with behenic acid hazard ratio, 0.71; 95\% CI, 0.59-0.86; sphingomyelin with behenic acid hazard ratio, 0.60; 95\% CI, 0.46-0.77). In contrast, ceramides and sphingomyelins with palmitic acid were associated with increased AF risk (ceramide with palmitic acid hazard ratio, 1.31; 95\% CI, 1.03-1.66; sphingomyelin with palmitic acid hazard ratio, 1.73; 95\% CI, 1.18-2.55). Associations were attenuated with adjustment for NT-proBNP (N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide), but did not differ significantly by age, sex, race, body mass index, or history of coronary heart disease. Conclusions Our findings suggest that several ceramide and sphingomyelin species are associated with incident AF, and that these associations differ on the basis of the fatty acid. Ceramides and sphingomyelins with palmitic acid were associated with increased AF risk, whereas ceramides and sphingomyelins with very-long-chain saturated fatty acids were associated with reduced AF risk.

}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.119.012853}, author = {Jensen, Paul N and Fretts, Amanda M and Hoofnagle, Andrew N and Sitlani, Colleen M and McKnight, Barbara and King, Irena B and Siscovick, David S and Psaty, Bruce M and Heckbert, Susan R and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Lemaitre, Rozenn N} } @article {8490, title = {The Polygenic and Monogenic Basis of Blood Traits and Diseases.}, journal = {Cell}, volume = {182}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Sep 03}, pages = {1214-1231.e11}, abstract = {

Blood cells play essential roles in human health, underpinning physiological processes such as immunity, oxygen transport, and clotting, which when perturbed cause a significant global health burden. Here we integrate data from UK Biobank and a large-scale international collaborative effort, including data for 563,085 European ancestry participants, and discover 5,106 new genetic variants independently associated with 29 blood cell phenotypes covering a range of variation impacting hematopoiesis. We holistically characterize the genetic architecture of hematopoiesis, assess the relevance of the omnigenic model to blood cell phenotypes, delineate relevant hematopoietic cell states influenced by regulatory genetic variants and gene networks, identify novel splice-altering variants mediating the associations, and assess the polygenic prediction potential for blood traits and clinical disorders at the interface of complex and Mendelian genetics. These results show the power of large-scale blood cell trait GWAS to interrogate clinically meaningful variants across a wide allelic spectrum of human variation.

}, issn = {1097-4172}, doi = {10.1016/j.cell.2020.08.008}, author = {Vuckovic, Dragana and Bao, Erik L and Akbari, Parsa and Lareau, Caleb A and Mousas, Abdou and Jiang, Tao and Chen, Ming-Huei and Raffield, Laura M and Tardaguila, Manuel and Huffman, Jennifer E and Ritchie, Scott C and Megy, Karyn and Ponstingl, Hannes and Penkett, Christopher J and Albers, Patrick K and Wigdor, Emilie M and Sakaue, Saori and Moscati, Arden and Manansala, Regina and Lo, Ken Sin and Qian, Huijun and Akiyama, Masato and Bartz, Traci M and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Beswick, Andrew and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Bottinger, Erwin P and Brody, Jennifer A and van Rooij, Frank J A and Chitrala, Kumaraswamy N and Wilson, Peter W F and Choquet, Helene and Danesh, John and Di Angelantonio, Emanuele and Dimou, Niki and Ding, Jingzhong and Elliott, Paul and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Evans, Michele K and Felix, Stephan B and Floyd, James S and Broer, Linda and Grarup, Niels and Guo, Michael H and Guo, Qi and Greinacher, Andreas and Haessler, Jeff and Hansen, Torben and Howson, Joanna M M and Huang, Wei and Jorgenson, Eric and Kacprowski, Tim and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kanai, Masahiro and Karthikeyan, Savita and Koskeridis, Fotios and Lange, Leslie A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Yongmei and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Manichaikul, Ani and Matsuda, Koichi and Mohlke, Karen L and Mononen, Nina and Murakami, Yoshinori and Nadkarni, Girish N and Nikus, Kjell and Pankratz, Nathan and Pedersen, Oluf and Preuss, Michael and Psaty, Bruce M and Raitakari, Olli T and Rich, Stephen S and Rodriguez, Benjamin A T and Rosen, Jonathan D and Rotter, Jerome I and Schubert, Petra and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Surendran, Praveen and Tang, Hua and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Ghanbari, Mohsen and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Watkins, Nicholas A and Weiss, Stefan and Cai, Na and Kundu, Kousik and Watt, Stephen B and Walter, Klaudia and Zonderman, Alan B and Cho, Kelly and Li, Yun and Loos, Ruth J F and Knight, Julian C and Georges, Michel and Stegle, Oliver and Evangelou, Evangelos and Okada, Yukinori and Roberts, David J and Inouye, Michael and Johnson, Andrew D and Auer, Paul L and Astle, William J and Reiner, Alexander P and Butterworth, Adam S and Ouwehand, Willem H and Lettre, Guillaume and Sankaran, Vijay G and Soranzo, Nicole} } @article {8499, title = {Pre-diabetes, diabetes and predictors of incident angina among older women and men in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Diab Vasc Dis Res}, volume = {17}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Jan-Feb}, pages = {1479164119888476}, abstract = {

Diabetes mellitus and angina pectoris are important conditions in older persons. The utility of pre-diabetes mellitus, diabetes mellitus and other risk factors as predictors of incident angina pectoris among older adults has not been characterized. We examined incident angina pectoris rates by sex and diabetes mellitus status in 4511 adults aged ⩾65 years without coronary heart disease at baseline from the Cardiovascular Health Study. Cox regression examined predictors of incident angina pectoris, including pre-diabetes mellitus or diabetes mellitus adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics and other risk factors, over 12.2 {\textpm} 6.9 years of follow-up. Overall, 39.1\% of participants had pre-diabetes mellitus, 14.0\% had diabetes mellitus and 532 (11.8\%) had incident angina pectoris. Incident angina pectoris rates per 1000 person-years in those with neither condition, pre-diabetes mellitus, and diabetes mellitus were 7.9, 9.0 and 12.3 in women and 10.3, 11.2 and 14.5 in men, respectively. Pre-diabetes mellitus and diabetes mellitus were not independently associated with incident AP; however, key predictors of AP were male sex, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, triglycerides, systolic blood pressure, antihypertensive medication and difficulty performing at least one instrumental activity of daily living (all < 0.05 to < 0.01). In our cohort of older adult participants, while the incidence of AP is greater in those with diabetes mellitus, neither diabetes mellitus nor pre-diabetes mellitus independently predicted incident angina pectoris.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Angina Pectoris, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Humans, Incidence, Male, Prediabetic State, Prognosis, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Time Factors, United States}, issn = {1752-8984}, doi = {10.1177/1479164119888476}, author = {Mathenge, Njambi and Fan, Wenjun and Wong, Nathan D and Hirsch, Calvin and Delaney, Chris Joseph and Amsterdam, Ezra A and Koch, Bruce and Calara, Rico and Gardin, Julius M} } @article {8377, title = {Putative Cut-Points in Sarcopenia Components and Incident Adverse Health Outcomes: An SDOC Analysis.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {68}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Jul}, pages = {1429-1437}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: Analyses performed by the Sarcopenia Definitions and Outcomes Consortium (SDOC) identified cut-points in several metrics of grip strength for consideration in a definition of sarcopenia. We describe the associations between the SDOC-identified metrics of low grip strength (absolute or standardized to body size/composition); low dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) lean mass as previously defined in the literature (appendicular lean mass [ALM]/ht ); and slowness (walking speed <.8 m/s) with subsequent adverse outcomes (falls, hip fractures, mobility limitation, and mortality).

DESIGN: Individual-level, sex-stratified pooled analysis. We calculated odds ratios (ORs) or hazard ratios (HRs) for incident falls, mobility limitation, hip fractures, and mortality. Follow-up time ranged from 1 year for falls to 8.8 {\textpm} 2.3 years for mortality.

SETTING: Eight prospective observational cohort studies.

PARTICIPANTS: A total of 13,421 community-dwelling men and 4,828 community-dwelling women. MEASUREMENTS Grip strength by hand dynamometry, gait speed, and lean mass by DXA.

RESULTS: Low grip strength (absolute or standardized to body size/composition) was associated with incident outcomes, usually independently of slowness, in both men and women. ORs and HRs generally ranged from 1.2 to 3.0 for those below vs above the cut-point. DXA lean mass was not consistently associated with these outcomes. When considered together, those who had both muscle weakness by absolute grip strength (<35.5 kg in men and <20 kg in women) and slowness were consistently more likely to have a fall, hip fracture, mobility limitation, or die than those without either slowness or muscle weakness.

CONCLUSION: Older men and women with both muscle weakness and slowness have a higher likelihood of adverse health outcomes. These results support the inclusion of grip strength and walking speed as components in a summary definition of sarcopenia. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:1429-1437, 2020.

}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/jgs.16517}, author = {Cawthon, Peggy M and Manini, Todd and Patel, Sheena M and Newman, Anne and Travison, Thomas and Kiel, Douglas P and Santanasto, Adam J and Ensrud, Kristine E and Xue, Qian-Li and Shardell, Michelle and Duchowny, Kate and Erlandson, Kristine M and Pencina, Karol M and Fielding, Roger A and Magaziner, Jay and Kwok, Timothy and Karlsson, Magnus and Ohlsson, Claes and Mellstr{\"o}m, Dan and Hirani, Vasant and Ribom, Eva and Correa-de-Araujo, Rosaly and Bhasin, Shalender} } @article {8241, title = {Serial Biomarkers of De Novo Lipogenesis Fatty Acids and Incident Heart Failure in Older Adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {9}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Feb 18}, pages = {e014119}, abstract = {

Background De novo lipogenesis (DNL) is an endogenous pathway that converts excess dietary starch, sugar, protein, and alcohol into specific fatty acids (FAs). Although elevated DNL is linked to several metabolic abnormalities, little is known about how long-term habitual levels and changes in levels of FAs in the DNL pathway relate to incident heart failure (HF). Methods and Results We investigated whether habitual levels and changes in serial measures of FAs in the DNL pathway were associated with incident HF among 4249 participants free of HF at baseline. Plasma phospholipid FAs were measured at baseline, 6~years, and 13~years using gas chromatography, and risk factors for HF were measured using standardized methods. Incident HF was centrally adjudicated using medical records. We prospectively evaluated associations with HF risk of (1) habitual FA levels, using cumulative updating to assess long-term exposure, and (2) changes in FA levels over time. During 22.1~years of follow-up, 1304 HF cases occurred. After multivariable adjustment, habitual levels and changes in levels of palmitic acid (16:0) were positively associated with incident HF (interquintile hazard ratio [95\% CI]=1.17 [1.00-1.36] and 1.26 [1.03-1.55], respectively). Changes in levels of 7-hexadecenoic acid (16:1n-9) and vaccenic acid (18:1n-7) were each positively associated with risk of HF (1.36 [1.13-1.62], and 1.43 [1.18-1.72], respectively). Habitual levels and changes in levels of myristic acid (14:0), palmitoleic acid (16:1n-7), stearic acid (18:0), and oleic acid (18:1n-9) were not associated with incident HF. Conclusions Both habitual levels and changes in levels of 16:0 were positively associated with incident HF in older adults. Changes in 16:1n-9 and 18:1n-7 were also positively associated with incident HF. These findings support a potential role of DNL or these DNL-related FAs in the development of HF.

}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.119.014119}, author = {Lee, Yujin and Lai, Heidi T M and de Oliveira Otto, Marcia C and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and McKnight, Barbara and King, Irena B and Song, Xiaoling and Huggins, Gordon S and Vest, Amanda R and Siscovick, David S and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {8488, title = {Sex-Specific Associations of Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Biomarkers With Incident Heart~Failure.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {76}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Sep 22}, pages = {1455-1465}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Whether cardiovascular (CV) disease risk factors and biomarkers associate differentially with heart failure (HF) risk in men and women is unclear.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate sex-specific associations of CV risk factors and biomarkers with incident HF.

METHODS: The analysis was performed using data from 4 community-based cohorts with 12.5 years of follow-up. Participants (recruited between 1989 and 2002) were free of HF at baseline. Biomarker measurements included natriuretic peptides, cardiac troponins, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, D-dimer, fibrinogen, C-reactive protein, sST2, galectin-3, cystatin-C, and urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio.

RESULTS: Among 22,756 participants (mean age 60 {\textpm} 13 years, 53\% women), HF occurred in 2,095 participants (47\% women). Age, smoking, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, body mass index, atrial fibrillation, myocardial infarction, left ventricular hypertrophy, and left bundle branch block were strongly associated with HF in both sexes (p~<~0.001), and the combined clinical model had good discrimination in men (C-statistic~=~0.80) and in women (C-statistic~=~0.83). The majority of biomarkers were strongly and similarly associated with HF in both sexes. The clinical model improved modestly after adding natriuretic peptides in men (ΔC-statistic~=~0.006; likelihood ratio chi-square~=~146; p~<~0.001), and after adding cardiac troponins in women (ΔC-statistic~=~0.003; likelihood ratio chi-square~=~73; p~<~0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: CV risk factors are strongly and similarly associated with incident HF in both sexes, highlighting the similar importance of risk factor control in reducing HF risk in the community. There are subtle sex-related differences in the predictive value of individual biomarkers, but the overall improvement in HF risk estimation when included in~a~clinical HF risk prediction model is limited in both sexes.

}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2020.07.044}, author = {Suthahar, Navin and Lau, Emily S and Blaha, Michael J and Paniagua, Samantha M and Larson, Martin G and Psaty, Bruce M and Benjamin, Emelia J and Allison, Matthew A and Bartz, Traci M and Januzzi, James L and Levy, Daniel and Meems, Laura M G and Bakker, Stephan J L and Lima, Jo{\~a}o A C and Cushman, Mary and Lee, Douglas S and Wang, Thomas J and deFilippi, Christopher R and Herrington, David M and Nayor, Matthew and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Gardin, Julius M and Kizer, Jorge R and Bertoni, Alain G and Allen, Norrina B and Gansevoort, Ron T and Shah, Sanjiv J and Gottdiener, John S and Ho, Jennifer E and de Boer, Rudolf A} } @article {8481, title = {Trans-ethnic and Ancestry-Specific Blood-Cell Genetics in 746,667 Individuals from 5 Global Populations.}, journal = {Cell}, volume = {182}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Sep 03}, pages = {1198-1213.e14}, abstract = {

Most loci identified by GWASs have been found in populations of European ancestry (EUR). In trans-ethnic meta-analyses for 15 hematological traits in 746,667 participants, including 184,535 non-EUR individuals, we identified 5,552 trait-variant associations at p~< 5~{\texttimes} 10, including 71 novel associations not found in EUR populations. We also identified 28 additional novel variants in ancestry-specific, non-EUR meta-analyses, including an IL7 missense variant in South Asians associated with lymphocyte count in~vivo and IL-7 secretion levels in~vitro. Fine-mapping prioritized variants annotated as functional and generated 95\% credible sets that were 30\% smaller when using the trans-ethnic as opposed to the EUR-only results. We explored the clinical significance and predictive value of trans-ethnic variants in multiple populations and compared genetic architecture and the effect of natural selection on these blood phenotypes between populations. Altogether, our results for hematological traits highlight the value of a more global representation of populations in genetic studies.

}, issn = {1097-4172}, doi = {10.1016/j.cell.2020.06.045}, author = {Chen, Ming-Huei and Raffield, Laura M and Mousas, Abdou and Sakaue, Saori and Huffman, Jennifer E and Moscati, Arden and Trivedi, Bhavi and Jiang, Tao and Akbari, Parsa and Vuckovic, Dragana and Bao, Erik L and Zhong, Xue and Manansala, Regina and Laplante, V{\'e}ronique and Chen, Minhui and Lo, Ken Sin and Qian, Huijun and Lareau, Caleb A and Beaudoin, M{\'e}lissa and Hunt, Karen A and Akiyama, Masato and Bartz, Traci M and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Beswick, Andrew and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Bottinger, Erwin P and Brody, Jennifer A and van Rooij, Frank J A and Chitrala, Kumaraswamynaidu and Cho, Kelly and Choquet, Helene and Correa, Adolfo and Danesh, John and Di Angelantonio, Emanuele and Dimou, Niki and Ding, Jingzhong and Elliott, Paul and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Evans, Michele K and Floyd, James S and Broer, Linda and Grarup, Niels and Guo, Michael H and Greinacher, Andreas and Haessler, Jeff and Hansen, Torben and Howson, Joanna M M and Huang, Qin Qin and Huang, Wei and Jorgenson, Eric and Kacprowski, Tim and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kanai, Masahiro and Karthikeyan, Savita and Koskeridis, Fotis and Lange, Leslie A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lerch, Markus M and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Yongmei and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Manichaikul, Ani and Martin, Hilary C and Matsuda, Koichi and Mohlke, Karen L and Mononen, Nina and Murakami, Yoshinori and Nadkarni, Girish N and Nauck, Matthias and Nikus, Kjell and Ouwehand, Willem H and Pankratz, Nathan and Pedersen, Oluf and Preuss, Michael and Psaty, Bruce M and Raitakari, Olli T and Roberts, David J and Rich, Stephen S and Rodriguez, Benjamin A T and Rosen, Jonathan D and Rotter, Jerome I and Schubert, Petra and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Surendran, Praveen and Tang, Hua and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Trembath, Richard C and Ghanbari, Mohsen and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Watkins, Nicholas A and Zonderman, Alan B and Wilson, Peter W F and Li, Yun and Butterworth, Adam S and Gauchat, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and Chiang, Charleston W K and Li, Bingshan and Loos, Ruth J F and Astle, William J and Evangelou, Evangelos and van Heel, David A and Sankaran, Vijay G and Okada, Yukinori and Soranzo, Nicole and Johnson, Andrew D and Reiner, Alexander P and Auer, Paul L and Lettre, Guillaume} } @article {8446, title = {Whole Blood DNA Methylation Signatures of Diet Are Associated With Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and All-Cause Mortality.}, journal = {Circ Genom Precis Med}, volume = {13}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Aug}, pages = {e002766}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation patterns associated with habitual diet have not been well studied.

METHODS: Diet quality was characterized using a Mediterranean-style diet score and the Alternative Healthy Eating Index score. We conducted ethnicity-specific and trans-ethnic epigenome-wide association analyses for diet quality and leukocyte-derived DNA methylation at over 400 000 CpGs (cytosine-guanine dinucleotides) in 5 population-based cohorts including 6662 European ancestry, 2702 African ancestry, and 360 Hispanic ancestry participants. For diet-associated CpGs identified in epigenome-wide analyses, we conducted Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to examine their relations to cardiovascular disease risk factors and examined their longitudinal associations with all-cause mortality.

RESULTS: We identified 30 CpGs associated with either Mediterranean-style diet score or Alternative Healthy Eating Index, or both, in European ancestry participants. Among these CpGs, 12 CpGs were significantly associated with all-cause mortality (Bonferroni corrected <1.6{\texttimes}10). Hypermethylation of cg18181703 () was associated with higher scores of both Mediterranean-style diet score and Alternative Healthy Eating Index and lower risk for all-cause mortality (=5.7{\texttimes}10). Ten additional diet-associated CpGs were nominally associated with all-cause mortality (<0.05). MR analysis revealed 8 putatively causal associations for 6 CpGs with 4 cardiovascular disease risk factors (body mass index, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations, and type 2 diabetes mellitus; Bonferroni corrected MR <4.5{\texttimes}10). For example, hypermethylation of cg11250194 () was associated with lower triglyceride concentrations (MR, =1.5{\texttimes}10).and hypermethylation of cg02079413 (; ) was associated with body mass index (corrected MR, =1{\texttimes}10).

CONCLUSIONS: Habitual diet quality was associated with differential peripheral leukocyte DNA methylation levels of 30 CpGs, most of which were also associated with multiple health outcomes, in European ancestry individuals. These findings demonstrate that integrative genomic analysis of dietary information may reveal molecular targets for disease prevention and treatment.

}, issn = {2574-8300}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGEN.119.002766}, author = {Ma, Jiantao and Rebholz, Casey M and Braun, Kim V E and Reynolds, Lindsay M and Aslibekyan, Stella and Xia, Rui and Biligowda, Niranjan G and Huan, Tianxiao and Liu, Chunyu and Mendelson, Michael M and Joehanes, Roby and Hu, Emily A and Vitolins, Mara Z and Wood, Alexis C and Lohman, Kurt and Ochoa-Rosales, Carolina and van Meurs, Joyce and Uitterlinden, Andre and Liu, Yongmei and Elhadad, Mohamed A and Heier, Margit and Waldenberger, Melanie and Peters, Annette and Colicino, Elena and Whitsel, Eric A and Baldassari, Antoine and Gharib, Sina A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Brody, Jennifer A and Sitlani, Colleen M and Tanaka, Toshiko and Hill, W David and Corley, Janie and Deary, Ian J and Zhang, Yan and Sch{\"o}ttker, Ben and Brenner, Hermann and Walker, Maura E and Ye, Shumao and Nguyen, Steve and Pankow, Jim and Demerath, Ellen W and Zheng, Yinan and Hou, Lifang and Liang, Liming and Lichtenstein, Alice H and Hu, Frank B and Fornage, Myriam and Voortman, Trudy and Levy, Daniel} } @article {8833, title = {Adverse cardiac mechanics and incident coronary heart disease in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Heart}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Jul 13}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: Speckle-tracking echocardiography enables detection of abnormalities in cardiac mechanics with higher sensitivity than conventional measures of left ventricular (LV) dysfunction and may provide insight into the pathogenesis of coronary heart disease (CHD). We investigated the relationship of LV longitudinal strain, LV early diastolic strain rate (SR) and left atrial (LA) reservoir strain with long-term CHD incidence in community-dwelling older adults.

METHODS: The association of all three strain measures with incidence of non-fatal and fatal CHD (primary outcome of revascularisation, non-fatal and fatal myocardial infarction) was examined in the population-based Cardiovascular Health Study using multivariable Cox proportional hazards models. Follow-up was truncated at 10 years.

RESULTS: We included 3313 participants (mean (SD) age 72.6 (5.5) years). During a median follow-up of 10.0 (25th-75th percentile 7.7-10.0) years, 439 CHD events occurred. LV longitudinal strain (HR=1.25 per SD decrement, 95\% CI 1.09 to 1.43) and LV early diastolic SR (HR=1.31 per SD decrement, 95\% CI 1.14 to 1.50) were associated with a significantly greater risk of incident CHD after adjustment for potential confounders. By contrast, LA reservoir strain was not associated with incident CHD (HR=1.06 per SD decrement, 95\% CI 0.94 to 1.19). Additional adjustment for biochemical and echocardiographic measures of myocardial stress, dysfunction and remodelling did not meaningfully alter these associations.

CONCLUSION: We found an association between echocardiographic measures of subclinically altered LV mechanics and incident CHD. These findings inform the underlying biology of subclinical LV dysfunction and CHD. Early detection of asymptomatic myocardial dysfunction may offer an opportunity for prevention and early intervention.

}, issn = {1468-201X}, doi = {10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319296}, author = {Massera, Daniele and Hu, Mo and Delaney, Joseph A and Bartz, Traci M and Bach, Megan E and Dvorak, Stephen J and deFilippi, Christopher R and Psaty, Bruce M and Gottdiener, John S and Kizer, Jorge R and Shah, Sanjiv J} } @article {8786, title = {Association Between Intracerebral Hemorrhage and Subsequent Arterial Ischemic Events in Participants From 4 Population-Based Cohort Studies.}, journal = {JAMA Neurol}, volume = {78}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Jul 01}, pages = {809-816}, abstract = {

Importance: Intracerebral hemorrhage and arterial ischemic disease share risk factors, to our knowledge, but the association between the 2 conditions remains unknown.

Objective: To evaluate whether intracerebral hemorrhage was associated with an increased risk of incident ischemic stroke and myocardial infarction.

Design, Setting, and Participants: An analysis was conducted of pooled longitudinal participant-level data from 4 population-based cohort studies in the United States: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), the Northern Manhattan Study (NOMAS), and the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study. Patients were enrolled from 1987 to 2007, and the last available follow-up was December 31, 2018. Data were analyzed from September 1, 2019, to March 31, 2020.

Exposure: Intracerebral hemorrhage, as assessed by an adjudication committee based on predefined clinical and radiologic criteria.

Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was an arterial ischemic event, defined as a composite of ischemic stroke or myocardial infarction, centrally adjudicated within each study. Secondary outcomes were ischemic stroke and myocardial infarction. Participants with prevalent intracerebral hemorrhage, ischemic stroke, or myocardial infarction at their baseline study visit were excluded. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to examine the association between intracerebral hemorrhage and subsequent arterial ischemic events after adjustment for baseline age, sex, race/ethnicity, vascular comorbidities, and antithrombotic medications.

Results: Of 55 131 participants, 47 866 (27 639 women [57.7\%]; mean [SD] age, 62.2 [10.2] years) were eligible for analysis. During a median follow-up of 12.7 years (interquartile range, 7.7-19.5 years), there were 318 intracerebral hemorrhages and 7648 arterial ischemic events. The incidence of an arterial ischemic event was 3.6 events per 100 person-years (95\% CI, 2.7-5.0 events per 100 person-years) after intracerebral hemorrhage vs 1.1 events per 100 person-years (95\% CI, 1.1-1.2 events per 100 person-years) among those without intracerebral hemorrhage. In adjusted models, intracerebral hemorrhage was associated with arterial ischemic events (hazard ratio [HR], 2.3; 95\% CI, 1.7-3.1), ischemic stroke (HR, 3.1; 95\% CI, 2.1-4.5), and myocardial infarction (HR, 1.9; 95\% CI, 1.2-2.9). In sensitivity analyses, intracerebral hemorrhage was associated with arterial ischemic events when updating covariates in a time-varying manner (HR, 2.2; 95\% CI, 1.6-3.0); when using incidence density matching (odds ratio, 2.3; 95\% CI, 1.3-4.2); when including participants with prevalent intracerebral hemorrhage, ischemic stroke, or myocardial infarction (HR, 2.2; 95\% CI, 1.6-2.9); and when using death as a competing risk (subdistribution HR, 1.6; 95\% CI, 1.1-2.1).

Conclusions and Relevance: This study found that intracerebral hemorrhage was associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke and myocardial infarction. These findings suggest that intracerebral hemorrhage may be a novel risk marker for arterial ischemic events.

}, issn = {2168-6157}, doi = {10.1001/jamaneurol.2021.0925}, author = {Murthy, Santosh B and Zhang, Cenai and Diaz, Ivan and Levitan, Emily B and Koton, Silvia and Bartz, Traci M and DeRosa, Janet T and Strobino, Kevin and Colantonio, Lisandro D and Iadecola, Costantino and Safford, Monika M and Howard, Virginia J and Longstreth, W T and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Sacco, Ralph L and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Howard, George and Kamel, Hooman} } @article {8988, title = {Association of low-frequency and rare coding variants with information processing speed.}, journal = {Transl Psychiatry}, volume = {11}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 12 04}, pages = {613}, abstract = {

Measures of information processing speed vary between individuals and decline with age. Studies of aging twins suggest heritability may be as high as 67\%. The Illumina HumanExome Bead Chip genotyping array was used to examine the association of rare coding variants with performance on the Digit-Symbol Substitution Test (DSST) in community-dwelling adults participating in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium. DSST scores were available for 30,576 individuals of European ancestry from nine cohorts and for 5758 individuals of African ancestry from four cohorts who were older than 45 years and free of dementia and clinical stroke. Linear regression models adjusted for age and gender were used for analysis of single genetic variants, and the T5, T1, and T01 burden tests that aggregate the number of rare alleles by gene were also applied. Secondary analyses included further adjustment for education. Meta-analyses to combine cohort-specific results were carried out separately for each ancestry group. Variants in RNF19A reached the threshold for statistical significance (p = 2.01 {\texttimes} 10) using the T01 test in individuals of European descent. RNF19A belongs to the class of E3 ubiquitin ligases that confer substrate specificity when proteins are ubiquitinated and targeted for degradation through the 26S proteasome. Variants in SLC22A7 and OR51A7 were suggestively associated with DSST scores after adjustment for education for African-American participants and in the European cohorts, respectively. Further functional characterization of its substrates will be required to confirm the role of RNF19A in cognitive function.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aging, Cognition, Genome-Wide Association Study, Geroscience, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases}, issn = {2158-3188}, doi = {10.1038/s41398-021-01736-6}, author = {Bressler, Jan and Davies, Gail and Smith, Albert V and Saba, Yasaman and Bis, Joshua C and Jian, Xueqiu and Hayward, Caroline and Yanek, Lisa and Smith, Jennifer A and Mirza, Saira S and Wang, Ruiqi and Adams, Hieab H H and Becker, Diane and Boerwinkle, Eric and Campbell, Archie and Cox, Simon R and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Fawns-Ritchie, Chloe and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Grove, Megan L and Guo, Xiuqing and Hofer, Edith and Kardia, Sharon L R and Knol, Maria J and Koini, Marisa and Lopez, Oscar L and Marioni, Riccardo E and Nyquist, Paul and Pattie, Alison and Polasek, Ozren and Porteous, David J and Rudan, Igor and Satizabal, Claudia L and Schmidt, Helena and Schmidt, Reinhold and Sidney, Stephen and Simino, Jeannette and Smith, Blair H and Turner, Stephen T and van der Lee, Sven J and Ware, Erin B and Whitmer, Rachel A and Yaffe, Kristine and Yang, Qiong and Zhao, Wei and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Launer, Lenore J and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Psaty, Bruce M and Fornage, Myriam and Arfan Ikram, M and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Seshadri, Sudha and Mosley, Thomas H and Deary, Ian J} } @article {8997, title = {Association of mitochondrial DNA copy number with cardiometabolic diseases.}, journal = {Cell Genom}, volume = {1}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Oct 13}, abstract = {

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is present in multiple copies in human cells. We evaluated cross-sectional associations of whole blood mtDNA copy number (CN) with several cardiometabolic disease traits in 408,361 participants of multiple ancestries in TOPMed and UK Biobank. Age showed a threshold association with mtDNA CN: among younger participants (<65 years of age), each additional 10 years of age was associated with 0.03 standard deviation (s.d.) higher level of mtDNA CN ( = 0.0014) versus a 0.14 s.d. lower level of mtDNA CN ( = 1.82 {\texttimes} 10) among older participants (>=65 years). At lower mtDNA CN levels, we found age-independent associations with increased odds of obesity ( = 5.6 {\texttimes} 10), hypertension ( = 2.8 {\texttimes} 10), diabetes ( = 3.6 {\texttimes} 10), and hyperlipidemia ( = 6.3 {\texttimes} 10). The observed decline in mtDNA CN after 65 years of age may be a key to understanding age-related diseases.

}, issn = {2666-979X}, doi = {10.1016/j.xgen.2021.100006}, author = {Liu, Xue and Longchamps, Ryan J and Wiggins, Kerri L and Raffield, Laura M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Zhao, Wei and Pitsillides, Achilleas and Blackwell, Thomas W and Yao, Jie and Guo, Xiuqing and Kurniansyah, Nuzulul and Thyagarajan, Bharat and Pankratz, Nathan and Rich, Stephen S and Taylor, Kent D and Peyser, Patricia A and Heckbert, Susan R and Seshadri, Sudha and Cupples, L Adrienne and Boerwinkle, Eric and Grove, Megan L and Larson, Nicholas B and Smith, Jennifer A and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Sofer, Tamar and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Fornage, Myriam and Ding, Jun and Correa, Adolfo and Abecasis, Goncalo and Psaty, Bruce M and Wilson, James G and Levy, Daniel and Rotter, Jerome I and Bis, Joshua C and Satizabal, Claudia L and Arking, Dan E and Liu, Chunyu} } @article {8794, title = {Association of mitochondrial variants and haplogroups identified by whole exome sequencing with Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.}, journal = {Alzheimers Dement}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Jun 20}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: Findings regarding the association between mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variants and Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD) are inconsistent.

METHODS: We developed a pipeline for accurate assembly and variant calling in mitochondrial genomes embedded within whole exome sequences (WES) from 10,831 participants from the Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP). Association of AD risk was evaluated with each mtDNA variant and variants located in 1158 nuclear genes related to mitochondrial function using the SCORE test. Gene-based tests were performed using SKAT-O.

RESULTS: Analysis of 4220 mtDNA variants revealed study-wide significant association of AD with a rare MT-ND4L missense variant (rs28709356; minor allele frequency =~0.002; P~=~7.3 {\texttimes} 10 ) as well as with MT-ND4L in a gene-based test (P~=~6.71 {\texttimes} 10 ). Significant association was also observed with a MT-related nuclear gene, TAMM41, in a gene-based test (P~=~2.7 {\texttimes} 10 ). The expression of TAMM41 was lower in AD cases than controls (P~=~.00046) or mild cognitive impairment cases (P~=~.03).

DISCUSSION: Significant findings in MT-ND4L and TAMM41 provide evidence for a role of mitochondria in AD.

}, issn = {1552-5279}, doi = {10.1002/alz.12396}, author = {Zhang, Xiaoling and Farrell, John J and Tong, Tong and Hu, Junming and Zhu, Congcong and Wang, Li-San and Mayeux, Richard and Haines, Jonathan L and Pericak-Vance, Margaret A and Schellenberg, Gerard D and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Farrer, Lindsay A} } @article {8922, title = {Association of Trimethylamine N-Oxide and Related Metabolites in Plasma and Incident Type 2 Diabetes: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {JAMA Netw Open}, volume = {4}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Aug 02}, pages = {e2122844}, abstract = {

Importance: Although rodent studies suggest that trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) influences glucose homeostasis and risk of type 2 diabetes, evidence in humans is limited.

Objective: To examine the associations of serial measures of plasma TMAO and related metabolite concentrations with incident type 2 diabetes, fasting plasma insulin and glucose levels, and the Gutt insulin sensitivity index (ISI).

Design, Setting, and Participants: This prospective cohort design assessed the association of plasma TMAO and related metabolite concentrations with diabetes outcome, whereas a cross-sectional design assessed the association with insulin and glucose levels and Gutt ISI. The participants were a cohort of older US adults from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). Data from June 1989 to May 1990, from November 1992 to June 1993, and from June 1995 to June 1997 were included, with follow-up through June 2010. Levels of TMAO and related metabolites were measured in CHS plasma samples. Data were analyzed from July 2019 to September 2020.

Exposures: Plasma concentrations of TMAO, carnitine, betaine, choline, crotonobetaine, and γ-butyrobetaine, measured by high-performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Linear regression for associations of TMAO and related metabolites with insulin and glucose levels and Gutt ISI, and proportional hazards regression for associations with diabetes.

Results: The study included 4442 participants without diabetes at baseline (mean [SD] age, 73 [6] years at entry; 2710 [61\%] women). In multivariable analyses, plasma TMAO, carnitine, crotonobetaine, and γ-butyrobetaine concentrations were positively associated with fasting insulin level (insulin mean geometric ratio comparing fifth with first quintiles of metabolite concentration: 1.07 [95\% CI, 1.04-1.10] for TMAO; 1.07 [95\% CI, 1.03-1.10] for carnitine; 1.05 [95\% CI, 1.02-1.08] for crotonobetaine; and 1.06 [95\% CI, 1.02-1.09] for γ-butyrobetaine). In contrast, betaine and choline concentrations were associated with greater insulin sensitivity (mean difference in Gutt ISI comparing fifth with first quintiles: 6.46 [95\% CI, 4.32-8.60] and 2.27 [95\% CI, 0.16-4.38], respectively). Incident diabetes was identified in 661 participants during a median 12.1 (interquartile range, 6.9-17.1) years of follow-up. In multivariable analyses, TMAO and metabolites were not significantly associated with type 2 diabetes risk (hazard ratios of diabetes comparing fifth with first quintile: 1.20 [95\% CI, 0.94-1.55] for TMAO; 0.96 [95\% CI, 0.74-1.24] for choline; 0.88 [95\% CI, 0.67-1.15] for betaine; 1.07 [95\% CI, 0.83-1.37] for carnitine; 0.79 [95\% CI, 0.60-1.04] for γ-butyrobetaine; and 1.06 [95\% CI, 0.83-1.35] for crotonobetaine).

Conclusions and Relevance: Plasma TMAO and related metabolites were not significantly associated with type 2 diabetes among older adults. The metabolites TMAO, carnitine, γ-butyrobetaine, and crotonobetaine may be associated with insulin resistance, and betaine and choline may be associated with greater insulin sensitivity, but temporality of the associations was not established.

}, issn = {2574-3805}, doi = {10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.22844}, author = {Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Jensen, Paul N and Wang, Zeneng and Fretts, Amanda M and McKnight, Barbara and Nemet, Ina and Biggs, Mary L and Sotoodehnia, Nona and de Oliveira Otto, Marcia C and Psaty, Bruce M and Siscovick, David S and Hazen, Stanley L and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {8616, title = {Associations between neighborhood greenspace and brain imaging measures in non-demented older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Jan 03}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: Greater neighborhood greenspace has been associated with brain health, including better cognition and lower odds of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease in older adults. We investigated associations between neighborhood greenspace and brain-based magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures and potential effect modification by sex or apolipoprotein E genotype (APOE), a risk factor for Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.

METHODS: We obtained a sample of non-demented participants 65~years or older (n = 1125) from the longitudinal, population-based Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). Greenspace data were derived from the National Land Cover Dataset. Adjusted multivariable linear regression estimated associations between neighborhood greenspace five years prior to the MRI and left and right hippocampal volume and 10-point grades of ventricular size and burden of white matter hyperintensity. Interaction terms tested effect modification by APOE genotype and sex. CHS data (1989-1999) were obtained/analyzed in 2020.

RESULTS: Participants were on average 79~years old [standard deviation (SD) = 4], 58\% were female, and 11\% were non-white race. Mean neighborhood greenspace was 38\% (SD = 28\%). Greater proportion of greenspace in the neighborhood five years before MRI was borderline associated with lower ventricle grade (estimate: -~0.30; 95\% confidence interval: -~0.61, 0.00). We observed no associations between greenspace and the other MRI outcome measures and no evidence of effect modification by APOE genotype and sex.

CONCLUSION: This study suggests a possible association between greater greenspace and less ventricular enlargement, a measure reflecting global brain atrophy. If confirmed in other longitudinal cohort studies, interventions and policies to improve community greenspaces may help to maintain brain health in older age.

}, issn = {1433-9285}, doi = {10.1007/s00127-020-02000-w}, author = {Besser, Lilah M and Lovasi, Gina S and Michael, Yvonne L and Garg, Parveen and Hirsch, Jana A and Siscovick, David and Hurvitz, Phil and Biggs, Mary L and Galvin, James E and Bartz, Traci M and Longstreth, W T} } @article {8707, title = {Associations of Serum Nonesterified Fatty Acids With Coronary Heart Disease Mortality and Nonfatal Myocardial Infarction: The CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study) Cohort.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {10}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Mar 16}, pages = {e019135}, abstract = {

Background Significant associations have been reported between serum total nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) concentrations and coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality and incident nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) in some prospective cohort studies. Little is known about whether individual or subclasses (saturated, polyunsaturated [n-6 and n-3], and fatty acids) of serum NEFAs relate to CHD mortality and nonfatal MI. Methods and Results CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study) participants (N=1681) who had no history of MI, angina, or revascularization or were free of MI at baseline (1996-1997) were included. NEFAs were quantified using gas chromatography. Cox regression analysis was used to evaluate associations of 5 subclasses and individual NEFAs with CHD composite (CHD mortality and nonfatal MI), CHD mortality, and incident nonfatal MI. During a median follow-up of 11.7~years, 266 cases of CHD death and 271 cases of nonfatal MI occurred. In the fully adjusted model, no significant associations were identified between individual NEFA and CHD composite. Exploratory analyses indicated that lauric acid (12:0) was negatively associated (hazard ratio [HR], 0.76; 95\% CI, 0.59-0.98; =0.0328) and dihomo-γ-linolenic acid (20:3n-6) was positively associated with CHD mortality (HR, 1.34; 95\% CI, 1.02-1.76; =0.0351). Elaidic acid (18:1n-7) was positively associated with incident nonfatal MI (HR, 1.46; 95\% CI, 1.01-2.12; =0.0445). No significant associations were observed for NEFA subclass and any outcomes. Conclusions In CHS participants, 2 NEFAs, dihomo-γ-linolenic and elaidic acids, were positively associated with CHD mortality and nonfatal MI, respectively, suggesting potential susceptibility biomarkers for risks of CHD mortality and nonfatal MI.

}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.120.019135}, author = {Huang, Neil K and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Matthan, Nirupa R and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Hirsch, Calvin H and Kizer, Jorge R and Longstreth, W T and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Lichtenstein, Alice H} } @article {8838, title = {BinomiRare: A robust test for association of a rare genetic variant with a binary outcome for mixed models and any case-control proportion.}, journal = {HGG Adv}, volume = {2}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Jul 08}, abstract = {

Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and whole-exome sequencing studies have become increasingly available and are being used to identify rare genetic variants associated with health and disease outcomes. Investigators routinely use mixed models to account for genetic relatedness or other clustering variables (e.g., family or household) when testing genetic associations. However, no existing tests of the association of a rare variant with a binary outcome in the presence of correlated data control the type 1 error where there are (1) few individuals harboring the rare allele, (2) a small proportion of cases relative to controls, and (3) covariates to adjust for. Here, we address all three issues in developing a framework for testing rare variant association with a binary trait in individuals harboring at least one risk allele. In this framework, we estimate outcome probabilities under the null hypothesis and then use them, within the individuals with at least one risk allele, to test variant associations. We extend the BinomiRare test, which was previously proposed for independent observations, and develop the Conway-Maxwell-Poisson (CMP) test and study their properties in simulations. We show that the BinomiRare test always controls the type 1 error, while the CMP test sometimes does not. We then use the BinomiRare test to test the association of rare genetic variants in target genes with small-vessel disease (SVD) stroke, short sleep, and venous thromboembolism (VTE), in whole-genome sequence data from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program.

}, issn = {2666-2477}, doi = {10.1016/j.xhgg.2021.100040}, author = {Sofer, Tamar and Lee, Jiwon and Kurniansyah, Nuzulul and Jain, Deepti and Laurie, Cecelia A and Gogarten, Stephanie M and Conomos, Matthew P and Heavner, Ben and Hu, Yao and Kooperberg, Charles and Haessler, Jeffrey and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Cupples, L Adrienne and Coombes, Brandon J and Seyerle, Amanda and Gharib, Sina A and Chen, Han and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Zhang, Man and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Psaty, Bruce M and Longstreth, W T and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Kent D and Rich, Stephen S and Guo, Xiuqing and Boerwinkle, Eric and Morrison, Alanna C and Pankow, James S and Johnson, Andrew D and Pankratz, Nathan and Reiner, Alex P and Redline, Susan and Smith, Nicholas L and Rice, Kenneth M and Schifano, Elizabeth D} } @article {8777, title = {Blood n-3 fatty acid levels and total and cause-specific mortality from 17 prospective studies.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 04 22}, pages = {2329}, abstract = {

The health effects of omega-3 fatty acids have been controversial. Here we report the results of a de novo pooled analysis conducted with data from 17 prospective cohort studies examining the associations between blood omega-3 fatty acid levels and risk for all-cause mortality. Over a median of 16 years of follow-up, 15,720 deaths occurred among 42,466 individuals. We found that, after multivariable adjustment for relevant risk factors, risk for death from all causes was significantly lower (by 15-18\%, at least p < 0.003) in the highest vs the lowest quintile for circulating long chain (20-22 carbon) omega-3 fatty acids (eicosapentaenoic, docosapentaenoic, and docosahexaenoic acids). Similar relationships were seen for death from cardiovascular disease, cancer and other causes. No associations were seen with the 18-carbon omega-3, alpha-linolenic acid. These findings suggest that higher circulating levels of marine n-3 PUFA are associated with a lower risk of premature death.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cause of Death, Fatty Acids, Omega-3, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Mortality, Premature, Prospective Studies, Protective Factors, Risk Factors}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-021-22370-2}, author = {Harris, William S and Tintle, Nathan L and Imamura, Fumiaki and Qian, Frank and Korat, Andres V Ardisson and Marklund, Matti and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Bassett, Julie K and Carmichael, Pierre-Hugues and Chen, Yun-Yu and Hirakawa, Yoichiro and K{\"u}pers, Leanne K and Laguzzi, Federica and Lankinen, Maria and Murphy, Rachel A and Samieri, Cecilia and Senn, Mackenzie K and Shi, Peilin and Virtanen, Jyrki K and Brouwer, Ingeborg A and Chien, Kuo-Liong and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Forouhi, Nita G and Geleijnse, Johanna M and Giles, Graham G and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Helmer, Catherine and Hodge, Allison and Jackson, Rebecca and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Laakso, Markku and Lai, Heidi and Laurin, Danielle and Leander, Karin and Lindsay, Joan and Micha, Renata and Mursu, Jaako and Ninomiya, Toshiharu and Post, Wendy and Psaty, Bruce M and Riserus, Ulf and Robinson, Jennifer G and Shadyab, Aladdin H and Snetselaar, Linda and Sala-Vila, Aleix and Sun, Yangbo and Steffen, Lyn M and Tsai, Michael Y and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wood, Alexis C and Wu, Jason H Y and Hu, Frank and Sun, Qi and Siscovick, David S and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {8793, title = {Body mass index in early adulthood and dementia in late life: Findings from a pooled cohort.}, journal = {Alzheimers Dement}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 May 13}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: To examine the independent association of body mass index (BMI) in early adulthood with dementia incidence among men and women.

METHODS: We studied 5104 older adults from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and the Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) study. We imputed early adulthood and midlife BMI using a pooled parent cohort with complete adult lifespan coverage and previously established methods. Dementia was ascertained using criteria such as neuropsychological test battery, medical records, and dementia-related drug use. Pooled logistic regression (PLR) models were used.

RESULTS: Compared to women with normal BMI in early adulthood, the odds of dementia were higher among both overweight (odds ratio [OR]~=~1.8; 95\% confidence interval [CI]~=~1.31 to 2.54) and obese (OR~=~2.45; 95\% CI~=~1.47 to 4.06) women, independent of mid- and late-life BMI. Similar relationship was observed in men.

CONCLUSIONS: With the growing obesity epidemic among US adults, efforts aimed at reducing dementia may need to begin obesity prevention and treatment early in the life course.

}, issn = {1552-5279}, doi = {10.1002/alz.12367}, author = {Zeki Al Hazzouri, Adina and Vittinghoff, Eric and Hoang, Tina and Golden, Sherita H and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Zhang, Adina and Grasset, Leslie and Yaffe, Kristine} } @article {8834, title = {Cardiovascular damage phenotypes and all-cause and CVD mortality in older adults.}, journal = {Ann Epidemiol}, volume = {63}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Jul 30}, pages = {35-40}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: The association between CVD risk factors and mortality is well established, however, current tools for addressing subgroups have focused on the overall burden of disease. The identification of risky combinations of characteristics may lead to a better understanding of physiologic pathways that underlie morbidity and mortality in older adults.

METHODS: Participants included 5067 older adults from the Cardiovascular Health Study, followed for up to 6 years. Using latent class analysis (LCA), we created CV damage phenotypes based on probabilities of abnormal brain infarctions, major echocardiogram abnormalities, N-terminal probrain natriuretic peptide, troponin T, interleukin-6, c reactive-protein, galectin-3, cystatin C. We assigned class descriptions based on the probability of having an abnormality among risk factors, such that a healthy phenotype would have low probabilities in all risk factors. Participants were assigned to phenotypes based on the maximum probability of membership. We used Cox-proportional hazards regression to evaluate the association between the categorical CV damage phenotype and all-cause and CVD-mortality.

RESULTS: The analysis yielded 5 CV damage phenotypes consistent with the following descriptions: healthy (59\%), cardio-renal (11\%), cardiac (15\%), multisystem morbidity (6\%), and inflammatory (9\%). All four phenotypes were statistically associated with a greater risk of all-cause mortality when compared with the healthy phenotype. The multisystem morbidity phenotype had the greatest risk of all-cause death (HR: 4.02; 95\% CI: 3.44, 4.70), and CVD-mortality (HR: 4.90, 95\% CI: 3.95, 6.06).

CONCLUSIONS: Five CV damage phenotypes emerged from CVD risk factor measures. CV damage across multiple systems confers a greater mortality risk compared to damage in any single domain.

}, issn = {1873-2585}, doi = {10.1016/j.annepidem.2021.07.012}, author = {Miller, Lindsay M and Wu, Chenkai and Hirsch, Calvin H and Lopez, Oscar L and Cushman, Mary and Odden, Michelle C} } @article {8792, title = {Cardiovascular Risk Factors Across the Life Course and Cognitive Decline: A Pooled Cohort Study.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {96}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 04 27}, pages = {e2212-e2219}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) are associated with increased risk of cognitive decline, but little is known about how early adult CVRFs and those across the life course might influence late-life cognition. To test the hypothesis that CVRFs across the adult life course are associated with late-life cognitive changes, we pooled data from 4 prospective cohorts (n = 15,001, ages 18-95).

METHODS: We imputed trajectories of body mass index (BMI), fasting glucose (FG), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and total cholesterol (TC) for older adults. We used linear mixed models to determine the association of early adult, midlife, and late-life CVRFs with late-life decline on global cognition (Modified Mini-Mental State Examination [3MS]) and processing speed (Digit Symbol Substitution Test [DSST]), adjusting for demographics, education, and cohort.

RESULTS: Elevated BMI, FG, and SBP (but not TC) at each time period were associated with greater late-life decline. Early life CVRFs were associated with the greatest change, an approximate doubling of mean 10-year decline (an additional 3-4 points for 3MS or DSST). Late-life CVRFs were associated with declines in early late life (<80 years) but with gains in very late life (>=80 years). After adjusting for CVRF exposures at all time periods, the associations for early adult and late-life CVRFs persisted.

CONCLUSIONS: We found that imputed CVRFs across the life course, especially in early adulthood, were associated with greater late-life cognitive decline. Our results suggest that CVRF treatment in early adulthood could benefit late-life cognition, but that treatment in very late life may not be as helpful for these outcomes.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cognition, Cognitive Dysfunction, Cohort Studies, Female, Heart Disease Risk Factors, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Factors, Young Adult}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000011747}, author = {Yaffe, Kristine and Vittinghoff, Eric and Hoang, Tina and Matthews, Karen and Golden, Sherita H and Zeki Al Hazzouri, Adina} } @article {8711, title = {Chromosome Xq23 is associated with lower atherogenic lipid concentrations and favorable cardiometabolic indices.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 04 12}, pages = {2182}, abstract = {

Autosomal genetic analyses of blood lipids have yielded key insights for coronary heart disease (CHD). However, X chromosome genetic variation is understudied for blood lipids in large sample sizes. We now analyze genetic and blood lipid data in a high-coverage whole X chromosome sequencing study of 65,322 multi-ancestry participants and perform replication among 456,893 European participants. Common alleles on chromosome Xq23 are strongly associated with reduced total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides (min P = 8.5 {\texttimes} 10), with similar effects for males and females. Chromosome Xq23 lipid-lowering alleles are associated with reduced odds for CHD among 42,545 cases and 591,247 controls (P = 1.7 {\texttimes} 10), and reduced odds for diabetes mellitus type 2 among 54,095 cases and 573,885 controls (P = 1.4 {\texttimes} 10). Although we observe an association with increased BMI, waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI is reduced, bioimpedance analyses indicate increased gluteofemoral fat, and abdominal MRI analyses indicate reduced visceral adiposity. Co-localization analyses strongly correlate increased CHRDL1 gene expression, particularly in adipose tissue, with reduced concentrations of blood lipids.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-021-22339-1}, author = {Natarajan, Pradeep and Pampana, Akhil and Graham, Sarah E and Ruotsalainen, Sanni E and Perry, James A and de Vries, Paul S and Broome, Jai G and Pirruccello, James P and Honigberg, Michael C and Aragam, Krishna and Wolford, Brooke and Brody, Jennifer A and Antonacci-Fulton, Lucinda and Arden, Moscati and Aslibekyan, Stella and Assimes, Themistocles L and Ballantyne, Christie M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Cade, Brian E and Do, Ron and Doddapaneni, Harsha and Emery, Leslie S and Hung, Yi-Jen and Irvin, Marguerite R and Khan, Alyna T and Lange, Leslie and Lee, Jiwon and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Martin, Lisa W and Metcalf, Ginger and Montasser, May E and Moon, Jee-Young and Muzny, Donna and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Peralta, Juan M and Peyser, Patricia A and Stilp, Adrienne M and Tsai, Michael and Wang, Fei Fei and Weeks, Daniel E and Yanek, Lisa R and Wilson, James G and Abecasis, Goncalo and Arnett, Donna K and Becker, Lewis C and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowden, Donald W and Chang, Yi-Cheng and Chen, Yii-der I and Choi, Won Jung and Correa, Adolfo and Curran, Joanne E and Daly, Mark J and Dutcher, Susan K and Ellinor, Patrick T and Fornage, Myriam and Freedman, Barry I and Gabriel, Stacey and Germer, Soren and Gibbs, Richard A and He, Jiang and Hveem, Kristian and Jarvik, Gail P and Kaplan, Robert C and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kenny, Eimear and Kim, Ryan W and Kooperberg, Charles and Laurie, Cathy C and Lee, Seonwook and Lloyd-Jones, Don M and Loos, Ruth J F and Lubitz, Steven A and Mathias, Rasika A and Martinez, Karine A Viaud and McGarvey, Stephen T and Mitchell, Braxton D and Nickerson, Deborah A and North, Kari E and Palotie, Aarno and Park, Cheol Joo and Psaty, Bruce M and Rao, D C and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alexander P and Seo, Daekwan and Seo, Jeong-Sun and Smith, Albert V and Tracy, Russell P and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Kathiresan, Sekar and Cupples, L Adrienne and Rotter, Jerome I and Morrison, Alanna C and Rich, Stephen S and Ripatti, Samuli and Willer, Cristen and Peloso, Gina M} } @article {8910, title = {Circulating Ceramides and Sphingomyelins and Risk of Mortality: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Clin Chem}, volume = {67}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Nov 26}, pages = {1650-1659}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Recent studies suggest that associations of ceramides (Cer) and sphingomyelins (SM) with health outcomes differ according to the fatty acid acylated to the sphingoid backbone. The purpose of this study was to assess associations of Cer and SM species with mortality.

METHODS: The study population included participants from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a community-based cohort of adults aged >=65 years who were followed from 1992-2015 (n = 4612). Associations of plasma Cer and SM species carrying long-chain (i.e., 16:0) and very-long-chain (i.e., 20:0, 22:0, 24:0) saturated fatty acids with mortality were assessed using Cox proportional hazards models.

RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 10.2 years, 4099 deaths occurred. High concentrations of Cer and SM carrying fatty acid 16:0 were each associated with an increased risk of mortality. Conversely, high concentrations of several ceramide and sphingomyelin species carrying longer fatty acids were each associated with a decreased risk of mortality. The hazard ratios for total mortality per 2-fold difference in each Cer and SM species were: 1.89 (95\% CI), 1.65-2.17 for Cer-16, 0.79 (95\% CI, 0.70-0.88) for Cer-22, 0.74 (95\% CI, 0.65-0.84) for Cer-24, 2.51 (95\% CI, 2.01-3.14) for SM-16, 0.68 (95\% CI, 0.58-0.79) for SM-20, 0.57 (95\% CI, 0.49-0.67) for SM-22, and 0.66 (0.57-0.75) for SM-24. We found no association of Cer-20 with risk of death.

CONCLUSIONS: Associations of Cer and SM with the risk of death differ according to the length of their acylated saturated fatty acid. Future studies are needed to explore mechanisms underlying these relationships.

}, issn = {1530-8561}, doi = {10.1093/clinchem/hvab182}, author = {Fretts, Amanda M and Jensen, Paul N and Hoofnagle, Andrew N and McKnight, Barbara and Sitlani, Colleen M and Siscovick, David S and King, Irena B and Psaty, Bruce M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Lemaitre, Rozenn N} } @article {8987, title = {Depressive Symptoms Imputed Across the Life Course Are Associated with Cognitive Impairment and Cognitive Decline.}, journal = {J Alzheimers Dis}, volume = {83}, year = {2021}, month = {2021}, pages = {1379-1389}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Depressive symptoms may increase risk for dementia, but findings are controversial because late-life depression may be a prodromal dementia symptom. Life course data on depression and dementia risk may clarify this association; however, data is limited.

OBJECTIVE: To impute adult depressive symptoms trajectories across adult life stages and estimate the association with cognitive impairment and decline.

METHODS: Using a pooled study of 4 prospective cohorts (ages 20-89), we imputed adult life course depressive symptoms trajectories based on Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-10 (CESD-10) and calculated time-weighted averages for early adulthood (ages 20-49), mid-life (ages 50-69), and late-life (ages 70-89) for 6,122 older participants. Adjusted pooled logistic and mixed-effects models estimated associations of imputed depressive symptoms with two cognitive outcomes: cognitive impairment defined by established criteria and a composite cognitive score.

RESULTS: In separate models, elevated depressive symptoms in each life stage were associated with cognitive outcomes: early adulthood OR for cognitive impairment = 1.59 (95\%CI: 1.35,1.87); mid-life OR = 1.94 (95\%CI:1.16, 3.26); and late-life OR = 1.77 (95\%CI:1.42, 2.21). When adjusted for depressive symptoms in the other life-stages, elevated depressive symptoms in early adulthood (OR = 1.73; 95\%CI: 1.42,2.11) and late-life (OR = 1.43; 95\%CI: 1.08,1.89) remained associated with cognitive impairment and were also associated with faster rates of cognitive decline (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: Imputing depressive symptom trajectories from pooled cohorts may help expand data across the life course. Our findings suggest early adulthood depressive symptoms may be a risk factor for cognitive impairment independent of mid- or late-life depressive symptoms.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Cognitive Dysfunction, Cohort Studies, Dementia, Depression, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Prodromal Symptoms, Risk Factors}, issn = {1875-8908}, doi = {10.3233/JAD-210588}, author = {Brenowitz, Willa D and Zeki Al Hazzouri, Adina and Vittinghoff, Eric and Golden, Sherita H and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Yaffe, Kristine} } @article {8774, title = {Determinants of penetrance and variable expressivity in monogenic metabolic conditions across 77,184 exomes.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 06 09}, pages = {3505}, abstract = {

Hundreds of thousands of genetic variants have been reported to cause severe monogenic diseases, but the probability that a variant carrier develops the disease (termed penetrance) is unknown for virtually all of them. Additionally, the clinical utility of common polygenetic variation remains uncertain. Using exome sequencing from 77,184 adult individuals (38,618 multi-ancestral individuals from a type 2 diabetes case-control study and 38,566 participants from the UK Biobank, for whom genotype array data were also available), we apply clinical standard-of-care gene variant curation for eight monogenic metabolic conditions. Rare variants causing monogenic diabetes and dyslipidemias display effect sizes significantly larger than the top 1\% of the corresponding polygenic scores. Nevertheless, penetrance estimates for monogenic variant carriers average 60\% or lower for most conditions. We assess epidemiologic and genetic factors contributing to risk prediction in monogenic variant carriers, demonstrating that inclusion of polygenic variation significantly improves biomarker estimation for two monogenic dyslipidemias.

}, keywords = {Adult, Biological Variation, Population, Biomarkers, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Dyslipidemias, Exome, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Humans, Multifactorial Inheritance, Penetrance, Risk Assessment}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-021-23556-4}, author = {Goodrich, Julia K and Singer-Berk, Moriel and Son, Rachel and Sveden, Abigail and Wood, Jordan and England, Eleina and Cole, Joanne B and Weisburd, Ben and Watts, Nick and Caulkins, Lizz and Dornbos, Peter and Koesterer, Ryan and Zappala, Zachary and Zhang, Haichen and Maloney, Kristin A and Dahl, Andy and Aguilar-Salinas, Carlos A and Atzmon, Gil and Barajas-Olmos, Francisco and Barzilai, Nir and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bottinger, Erwin and Bowden, Donald W and Centeno-Cruz, Federico and Chambers, John C and Chami, Nathalie and Chan, Edmund and Chan, Juliana and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Cho, Yoon Shin and Contreras-Cubas, Cecilia and C{\'o}rdova, Emilio and Correa, Adolfo and DeFronzo, Ralph A and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Garay-Sevilla, Ma Eugenia and Garc{\'\i}a-Ortiz, Humberto and Gieger, Christian and Glaser, Benjamin and Gonz{\'a}lez-Villalpando, Clicerio and Gonzalez, Ma Elena and Grarup, Niels and Groop, Leif and Gross, Myron and Haiman, Christopher and Han, Sohee and Hanis, Craig L and Hansen, Torben and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Henderson, Brian E and Hernandez, Juan Manuel Malacara and Hwang, Mi Yeong and Islas-Andrade, Sergio and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and Kang, Hyun Min and Kim, Bong-Jo and Kim, Young Jin and Koistinen, Heikki A and Kooner, Jaspal Singh and Kuusisto, Johanna and Kwak, Soo-Heon and Laakso, Markku and Lange, Leslie and Lee, Jong-Young and Lee, Juyoung and Lehman, Donna M and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Jianjun and Loos, Ruth J F and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Ma, Ronald C W and Mart{\'\i}nez-Hern{\'a}ndez, Ang{\'e}lica and Meigs, James B and Meitinger, Thomas and Mendoza-Caamal, Elvia and Mohlke, Karen L and Morris, Andrew D and Morrison, Alanna C and Ng, Maggie C Y and Nilsson, Peter M and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Orozco, Lorena and Palmer, Colin N A and Park, Kyong Soo and Post, Wendy S and Pedersen, Oluf and Preuss, Michael and Psaty, Bruce M and Reiner, Alexander P and Revilla-Monsalve, Cristina and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Saleheen, Danish and Schurmann, Claudia and Sim, Xueling and Sladek, Rob and Small, Kerrin S and So, Wing Yee and Spector, Timothy D and Strauch, Konstantin and Strom, Tim M and Tai, E Shyong and Tam, Claudia H T and Teo, Yik Ying and Thameem, Farook and Tomlinson, Brian and Tracy, Russell P and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tusi{\'e}-Luna, Teresa and van Dam, Rob M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wilson, James G and Witte, Daniel R and Wong, Tien-Yin and Burtt, Noel P and Zaitlen, Noah and McCarthy, Mark I and Boehnke, Michael and Pollin, Toni I and Flannick, Jason and Mercader, Josep M and O{\textquoteright}Donnell-Luria, Anne and Baxter, Samantha and Florez, Jose C and MacArthur, Daniel G and Udler, Miriam S} } @article {8705, title = {Discovery and fine-mapping of height loci via high-density imputation of GWASs in individuals of African ancestry.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {108}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Apr 01}, pages = {564-582}, abstract = {

Although many loci have been associated with height in European ancestry populations, very few have been identified in African ancestry individuals. Furthermore, many of the known loci have yet to be generalized to and fine-mapped within a large-scale African ancestry sample. We performed sex-combined and sex-stratified meta-analyses in up to 52,764 individuals with height and genome-wide genotyping data from the African Ancestry Anthropometry Genetics Consortium (AAAGC). We additionally combined our African ancestry meta-analysis results with published European genome-wide association study (GWAS) data. In the African ancestry analyses, we identified three novel loci (SLC4A3, NCOA2, ECD/FAM149B1) in sex-combined results and two loci (CRB1, KLF6) in women only. In the African plus European sex-combined GWAS, we identified an additional three novel loci (RCCD1, G6PC3, CEP95) which were equally driven by AAAGC and European results. Among 39 genome-wide significant signals at known loci, conditioning index SNPs from European studies identified 20 secondary signals. Two of the 20 new secondary signals and none of the 8 novel loci had minor allele frequencies (MAF) < 5\%. Of 802 known European height signals, 643 displayed directionally consistent associations with height, of which 205 were nominally significant (p < 0.05) in the African ancestry sex-combined sample. Furthermore, 148 of 241 loci contained <=20 variants in the credible sets that jointly account for 99\% of the posterior probability of driving the associations. In summary, trans-ethnic meta-analyses revealed novel signals and further improved fine-mapping of putative causal variants in loci shared between African and European ancestry populations.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.02.011}, author = {Graff, Mariaelisa and Justice, Anne E and Young, Kristin L and Marouli, Eirini and Zhang, Xinruo and Fine, Rebecca S and Lim, Elise and Buchanan, Victoria and Rand, Kristin and Feitosa, Mary F and Wojczynski, Mary K and Yanek, Lisa R and Shao, Yaming and Rohde, Rebecca and Adeyemo, Adebowale A and Aldrich, Melinda C and Allison, Matthew A and Ambrosone, Christine B and Ambs, Stefan and Amos, Christopher and Arnett, Donna K and Atwood, Larry and Bandera, Elisa V and Bartz, Traci and Becker, Diane M and Berndt, Sonja I and Bernstein, Leslie and Bielak, Lawrence F and Blot, William J and Bottinger, Erwin P and Bowden, Donald W and Bradfield, Jonathan P and Brody, Jennifer A and Broeckel, Ulrich and Burke, Gregory and Cade, Brian E and Cai, Qiuyin and Caporaso, Neil and Carlson, Chris and Carpten, John and Casey, Graham and Chanock, Stephen J and Chen, Guanjie and Chen, Minhui and Chen, Yii-der I and Chen, Wei-Min and Chesi, Alessandra and Chiang, Charleston W K and Chu, Lisa and Coetzee, Gerry A and Conti, David V and Cooper, Richard S and Cushman, Mary and Demerath, Ellen and Deming, Sandra L and Dimitrov, Latchezar and Ding, Jingzhong and Diver, W Ryan and Duan, Qing and Evans, Michele K and Falusi, Adeyinka G and Faul, Jessica D and Fornage, Myriam and Fox, Caroline and Freedman, Barry I and Garcia, Melissa and Gillanders, Elizabeth M and Goodman, Phyllis and Gottesman, Omri and Grant, Struan F A and Guo, Xiuqing and Hakonarson, Hakon and Haritunians, Talin and Harris, Tamara B and Harris, Curtis C and Henderson, Brian E and Hennis, Anselm and Hernandez, Dena G and Hirschhorn, Joel N and McNeill, Lorna Haughton and Howard, Timothy D and Howard, Barbara and Hsing, Ann W and Hsu, Yu-Han H and Hu, Jennifer J and Huff, Chad D and Huo, Dezheng and Ingles, Sue A and Irvin, Marguerite R and John, Esther M and Johnson, Karen C and Jordan, Joanne M and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Kang, Sun J and Kardia, Sharon L and Keating, Brendan J and Kittles, Rick A and Klein, Eric A and Kolb, Suzanne and Kolonel, Laurence N and Kooperberg, Charles and Kuller, Lewis and Kutlar, Abdullah and Lange, Leslie and Langefeld, Carl D and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Leonard, Hampton and Lettre, Guillaume and Levin, Albert M and Li, Yun and Li, Jin and Liu, Yongmei and Liu, Youfang and Liu, Simin and Lohman, Kurt and Lotay, Vaneet and Lu, Yingchang and Maixner, William and Manson, JoAnn E and McKnight, Barbara and Meng, Yan and Monda, Keri L and Monroe, Kris and Moore, Jason H and Mosley, Thomas H and Mudgal, Poorva and Murphy, Adam B and Nadukuru, Rajiv and Nalls, Mike A and Nathanson, Katherine L and Nayak, Uma and N{\textquoteright}diaye, Amidou and Nemesure, Barbara and Neslund-Dudas, Christine and Neuhouser, Marian L and Nyante, Sarah and Ochs-Balcom, Heather and Ogundiran, Temidayo O and Ogunniyi, Adesola and Ojengbede, Oladosu and Okut, Hayrettin and Olopade, Olufunmilayo I and Olshan, Andrew and Padhukasahasram, Badri and Palmer, Julie and Palmer, Cameron D and Palmer, Nicholette D and Papanicolaou, George and Patel, Sanjay R and Pettaway, Curtis A and Peyser, Patricia A and Press, Michael F and Rao, D C and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alex P and Rhie, Suhn K and Rodriguez-Gil, Jorge L and Rotimi, Charles N and Rotter, Jerome I and Ruiz-Narvaez, Edward A and Rybicki, Benjamin A and Salako, Babatunde and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Sanderson, Maureen and Schadt, Eric and Schreiner, Pamela J and Schurmann, Claudia and Schwartz, Ann G and Shriner, Daniel A and Signorello, Lisa B and Singleton, Andrew B and Siscovick, David S and Smith, Jennifer A and Smith, Shad and Speliotes, Elizabeth and Spitz, Margaret and Stanford, Janet L and Stevens, Victoria L and Stram, Alex and Strom, Sara S and Sucheston, Lara and Sun, Yan V and Tajuddin, Salman M and Taylor, Herman and Taylor, Kira and Tayo, Bamidele O and Thun, Michael J and Tucker, Margaret A and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Van Den Berg, David J and Vedantam, Sailaja and Vitolins, Mara and Wang, Zhaoming and Ware, Erin B and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Weir, David R and Wiencke, John K and Williams, Scott M and Williams, L Keoki and Wilson, James G and Witte, John S and Wrensch, Margaret and Wu, Xifeng and Yao, Jie and Zakai, Neil and Zanetti, Krista and Zemel, Babette S and Zhao, Wei and Zhao, Jing Hua and Zheng, Wei and Zhi, Degui and Zhou, Jie and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Ziegler, Regina G and Zmuda, Joe and Zonderman, Alan B and Psaty, Bruce M and Borecki, Ingrid B and Cupples, L Adrienne and Liu, Ching-Ti and Haiman, Christopher A and Loos, Ruth and Ng, Maggie C Y and North, Kari E} } @article {9001, title = {Epigenetic Age and the Risk of Incident Atrial Fibrillation.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {144}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 12 14}, pages = {1899-1911}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The most prominent risk factor for atrial fibrillation (AF) is chronological age; however, underlying mechanisms are unexplained. Algorithms using epigenetic modifications to the human genome effectively predict chronological age. Chronological and epigenetic predicted ages may diverge in a phenomenon referred to as epigenetic age acceleration (EAA), which may reflect accelerated biological aging. We sought to evaluate for associations between epigenetic age measures and incident AF.

METHODS: Measures for 4 epigenetic clocks (Horvath, Hannum, DNA methylation [DNAm] PhenoAge, and DNAm GrimAge) and an epigenetic predictor of PAI-1 (plasminogen activator inhibitor-1) levels (ie, DNAm PAI-1) were determined for study participants from 3 population-based cohort studies. Cox models evaluated for associations with incident AF and results were combined via random-effects meta-analyses. Two-sample summary-level Mendelian randomization analyses evaluated for associations between genetic instruments of the EAA measures and AF.

RESULTS: Among 5600 participants (mean age, 65.5 years; female, 60.1\%; Black, 50.7\%), there were 905 incident AF cases during a mean follow-up of 12.9 years. Unadjusted analyses revealed all 4 epigenetic clocks and the DNAm PAI-1 predictor were associated with statistically significant higher hazards of incident AF, though the magnitudes of their point estimates were smaller relative to the associations observed for chronological age. The pooled EAA estimates for each epigenetic measure, with the exception of Horvath EAA, were associated with incident AF in models adjusted for chronological age, race, sex, and smoking variables. After multivariable adjustment for additional known AF risk factors that could also potentially function as mediators, pooled EAA measures for 2 clocks remained statistically significant. Five-year increases in EAA measures for DNAm GrimAge and DNAm PhenoAge were associated with 19\% (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.19 [95\% CI, 1.09-1.31]; <0.01) and 15\% (adjusted HR, 1.15 [95\% CI, 1.05-1.25]; <0.01) higher hazards of incident AF, respectively. Mendelian randomization analyses for the 5 EAA measures did not reveal statistically significant associations with AF.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study identified adjusted associations between EAA measures and incident AF, suggesting that biological aging plays an important role independent of chronological age, though a potential underlying causal relationship remains unclear. These aging processes may be modifiable and not constrained by the immutable factor of time.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aging, Atrial Fibrillation, DNA Methylation, Epigenesis, Genetic, Epigenomics, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Models, Cardiovascular, Models, Genetic}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.056456}, author = {Roberts, Jason D and Vittinghoff, Eric and Lu, Ake T and Alonso, Alvaro and Wang, Biqi and Sitlani, Colleen M and Mohammadi-Shemirani, Pedrum and Fornage, Myriam and Kornej, Jelena and Brody, Jennifer A and Arking, Dan E and Lin, Honghuang and Heckbert, Susan R and Prokic, Ivana and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Skanes, Allan C and Bartz, Traci M and Perez, Marco V and Taylor, Kent D and Lubitz, Steven A and Ellinor, Patrick T and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Pankow, James S and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Benjamin, Emelia J and Horvath, Steve and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {8783, title = {{Epigenome-wide association meta-analysis of DNA methylation with coffee and tea consumption}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {05}, pages = {2830}, abstract = {10.1038/s41467-021-22752-6Coffee and tea are extensively consumed beverages worldwide which have received considerable attention regarding health. Intake of these beverages is consistently linked to, among others, reduced risk of diabetes and liver diseases; however, the mechanisms of action remain elusive. Epigenetics is suggested as a mechanism mediating the effects of dietary and lifestyle factors on disease onset. Here we report the results from epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) on coffee and tea consumption in 15,789 participants of European and African-American ancestries from 15 cohorts. EWAS meta-analysis of coffee consumption reveals 11 CpGs surpassing the epigenome-wide significance threshold (P-value <1.1{\texttimes}10-7), which annotated to the AHRR, F2RL3, FLJ43663, HDAC4, GFI1 and PHGDH genes. Among them, cg14476101 is significantly associated with expression of the PHGDH and risk of fatty liver disease. Knockdown of PHGDH expression in liver cells shows a correlation with expression levels of genes associated with circulating lipids, suggesting a role of PHGDH in hepatic-lipid metabolism. EWAS meta-analysis on tea consumption reveals no significant association, only two CpGs annotated to CACNA1A and PRDM16 genes show suggestive association (P-value <5.0{\texttimes}10-6). These findings indicate that coffee-associated changes in DNA methylation levels may explain the mechanism of action of coffee consumption in conferring risk of diseases.}, author = {Karabegovi{\'c}, I. and Portilla-Fernandez, E. and Li, Y. and Ma, J. and Maas, S. C. E. and Sun, D. and Hu, E. A. and K{\"u}hnel, B. and Zhang, Y. and Ambatipudi, S. and Fiorito, G. and Huang, J. and Castillo-Fernandez, J. E. and Wiggins, K. L. and de Klein, N. and Grioni, S. and Swenson, B. R. and Polidoro, S. and Treur, J. L. and Cuenin, C. and Tsai, P. C. and Costeira, R. and Chajes, V. and Braun, K. and Verweij, N. and Kretschmer, A. and Franke, L. and van Meurs, J. B. J. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and de Knegt, R. J. and Ikram, M. A. and Dehghan, A. and Peters, A. and Sch{\"o}ttker, B. and Gharib, S. A. and Sotoodehnia, N. and Bell, J. T. and Elliott, P. and Vineis, P. and Relton, C. and Herceg, Z. and Brenner, H. and Waldenberger, M. and Rebholz, C. M. and Voortman, T. and Pan, Q. and Fornage, M. and Levy, D. and Kayser, M. and Ghanbari, M.} } @article {9006, title = {Epigenome-wide association study of serum urate reveals insights into urate co-regulation and the SLC2A9 locus.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 12 09}, pages = {7173}, abstract = {

Elevated serum urate levels, a complex trait and major risk factor for incident gout, are~correlated with cardiometabolic traits via incompletely understood mechanisms. DNA methylation in whole blood captures genetic and environmental influences and is assessed in transethnic meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) of serum urate (discovery, n = 12,474, replication, n = 5522). The 100 replicated, epigenome-wide significant (p < 1.1E-7) CpGs explain 11.6\% of the serum urate variance. At SLC2A9, the serum urate locus with the largest effect in genome-wide association studies (GWAS), five CpGs are associated with SLC2A9 gene expression. Four CpGs at SLC2A9 have significant causal effects on serum urate levels and/or gout, and two of these partly mediate the effects of urate-associated GWAS variants. In other genes, including SLC7A11 and PHGDH, 17 urate-associated CpGs are associated with conditions defining metabolic syndrome, suggesting that these CpGs may represent a blood DNA methylation signature of cardiometabolic risk factors. This study demonstrates that EWAS can provide new insights into GWAS loci and the correlation of serum urate with other complex traits.

}, keywords = {Amino Acid Transport System y+, Cohort Studies, CpG Islands, DNA Methylation, Epigenome, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glucose Transport Proteins, Facilitative, Gout, Humans, Male, Uric Acid}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-021-27198-4}, author = {Tin, Adrienne and Schlosser, Pascal and Matias-Garcia, Pamela R and Thio, Chris H L and Joehanes, Roby and Liu, Hongbo and Yu, Zhi and Weihs, Antoine and Hoppmann, Anselm and Grundner-Culemann, Franziska and Min, Josine L and Kuhns, Victoria L Halperin and Adeyemo, Adebowale A and Agyemang, Charles and Arnl{\"o}v, Johan and Aziz, Nasir A and Baccarelli, Andrea and Bochud, Murielle and Brenner, Hermann and Bressler, Jan and Breteler, Monique M B and Carmeli, Cristian and Chaker, Layal and Coresh, Josef and Corre, Tanguy and Correa, Adolfo and Cox, Simon R and Delgado, Graciela E and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Ekici, Arif B and Endlich, Karlhans and Floyd, James S and Fraszczyk, Eliza and Gao, Xu and G{\`a}o, Xin and Gelber, Allan C and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Ghasemi, Sahar and Gieger, Christian and Greenland, Philip and Grove, Megan L and Harris, Sarah E and Hemani, Gibran and Henneman, Peter and Herder, Christian and Horvath, Steve and Hou, Lifang and Hurme, Mikko A and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kasela, Silva and Kleber, Marcus E and Koenig, Wolfgang and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kronenberg, Florian and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Ladd-Acosta, Christine and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lind, Lars and Liu, Dan and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Lorkowski, Stefan and Lu, Ake T and Marioni, Riccardo E and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and McCartney, Daniel L and Meeks, Karlijn A C and Milani, Lili and Mishra, Pashupati P and Nauck, Matthias and Nowak, Christoph and Peters, Annette and Prokisch, Holger and Psaty, Bruce M and Raitakari, Olli T and Ratliff, Scott M and Reiner, Alex P and Sch{\"o}ttker, Ben and Schwartz, Joel and Sedaghat, Sanaz and Smith, Jennifer A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stocker, Hannah R and Stringhini, Silvia and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Swenson, Brenton R and van Meurs, Joyce B J and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Venema, Andrea and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Winkelmann, Juliane and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Zhao, Wei and Zheng, Yinan and Loh, Marie and Snieder, Harold and Waldenberger, Melanie and Levy, Daniel and Akilesh, Shreeram and Woodward, Owen M and Susztak, Katalin and Teumer, Alexander and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna} } @article {8791, title = {FGL1 as a modulator of plasma D-dimer levels: Exome-wide marker analysis of plasma tPA, PAI-1, and D-dimer.}, journal = {J Thromb Haemost}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Apr 20}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Use of targeted exome-arrays with common, rare variants and functionally enriched variation has led to discovery of new genes contributing to population variation in risk factors. Plasminogen activator-inhibitor 1 (PAI-1), tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), and the plasma product D-dimer are important components of the fibrinolytic system. There have been few large-scale genome-wide or exome-wide studies of PAI-1, tPA, and D-dimer.

OBJECTIVES: We sought to discover new genetic loci contributing to variation in these traits using an exome-array approach.

METHODS: Cohort-level analyses and fixed effects meta-analyses of PAI-1 (n~=~15~603), tPA (n~=~6876,) and D-dimer (n~=~19~306) from 12 cohorts of European ancestry with diverse study design were conducted, including single-variant analyses and gene-based burden testing.

RESULTS: Five variants located in NME7, FGL1, and the fibrinogen locus, all associated with D-dimer levels, achieved genome-wide significance (P~<~5~{\texttimes}~10 ). Replication was sought for these 5 variants, as well as 45 well-imputed variants with P~<~1~{\texttimes}~10 in the discovery using an independent cohort. Replication was observed for three out of the five significant associations, including a novel and uncommon (0.013 allele frequency) coding variant p.Trp256Leu in FGL1 (fibrinogen-like-1) with increased plasma D-dimer levels. Additionally, a candidate-gene approach revealed a suggestive association for a coding variant (rs143202684-C) in SERPINB2, and suggestive associations with consistent effect in the replication analysis include an intronic variant (rs11057830-A) in SCARB1 associated with increased D-dimer levels.

CONCLUSION: This work provides new evidence for a role of FGL1 in hemostasis.

}, issn = {1538-7836}, doi = {10.1111/jth.15345}, author = {Thibord, Florian and Song, Ci and Pattee, Jack and Rodriguez, Benjamin A T and Chen, Ming-Huei and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Kleber, Marcus E and Delgado, Graciela E and Guo, Xiuqing and Yao, Jie and Taylor, Kent D and Ozel, Ayse Bilge and Brody, Jennifer A and McKnight, Barbara and Gyorgy, Beata and Simonsick, Eleanor and Leonard, Hampton L and Carrasquilla, Germ{\'a}n D and Guindo-Martinez, Marta and Silveira, Angela and Temprano-Sagrera, Gerard and Yanek, Lisa R and Becker, Diane M and Mathias, Rasika A and Becker, Lewis C and Raffield, Laura M and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Grarup, Niels and Pedersen, Oluf and Hansen, Torben and Linneberg, Allan and Hamsten, Anders and Watkins, Hugh and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Nalls, Mike A and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and Psaty, Bruce M and Tracy, Russel P and Smith, Nicholas L and Desch, Karl C and Cushman, Mary and Rotter, Jerome I and de Vries, Paul S and Pankratz, Nathan D and Folsom, Aaron R and Morrison, Alanna C and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Tang, Weihong and Johnson, Andrew D} } @article {8835, title = {Genetic insights into biological mechanisms governing human ovarian ageing.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {596}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Aug}, pages = {393-397}, abstract = {

Reproductive longevity is essential for fertility and influences healthy ageing in women, but insights into its underlying biological mechanisms and treatments to preserve it are limited. Here we identify 290 genetic determinants of ovarian ageing, assessed using normal variation in age at natural menopause (ANM) in about 200,000 women of European ancestry. These common alleles were associated with clinical extremes of ANM; women in the top 1\% of genetic susceptibility have an equivalent risk of premature ovarian insufficiency to those carrying monogenic FMR1 premutations. The identified loci implicate a broad range of DNA damage response (DDR) processes and include loss-of-function variants in key DDR-associated genes. Integration with experimental models demonstrates that these DDR processes act across the life-course to shape the ovarian reserve and its rate of depletion. Furthermore, we demonstrate that experimental manipulation of DDR pathways highlighted by human genetics increases fertility and extends reproductive life in mice. Causal inference analyses using the identified genetic variants indicate that extending reproductive life in women improves bone health and reduces risk of type 2 diabetes, but increases the risk of hormone-sensitive cancers. These findings provide insight into the mechanisms that govern ovarian ageing, when they act, and how they might be targeted by therapeutic approaches to extend fertility and prevent disease.

}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-021-03779-7}, author = {Ruth, Katherine S and Day, Felix R and Hussain, Jazib and Mart{\'\i}nez-Marchal, Ana and Aiken, Catherine E and Azad, Ajuna and Thompson, Deborah J and Knoblochova, Lucie and Abe, Hironori and Tarry-Adkins, Jane L and Gonzalez, Javier Martin and Fontanillas, Pierre and Claringbould, Annique and Bakker, Olivier B and Sulem, Patrick and Walters, Robin G and Terao, Chikashi and Turon, Sandra and Horikoshi, Momoko and Lin, Kuang and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Sankar, Aditya and Hertz, Emil Peter Thrane and Timshel, Pascal N and Shukla, Vallari and Borup, Rehannah and Olsen, Kristina W and Aguilera, Paula and Ferrer-Roda, M{\`o}nica and Huang, Yan and Stankovic, Stasa and Timmers, Paul R H J and Ahearn, Thomas U and Alizadeh, Behrooz Z and Naderi, Elnaz and Andrulis, Irene L and Arnold, Alice M and Aronson, Kristan J and Augustinsson, Annelie and Bandinelli, Stefania and Barbieri, Caterina M and Beaumont, Robin N and Becher, Heiko and Beckmann, Matthias W and Benonisdottir, Stefania and Bergmann, Sven and Bochud, Murielle and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bojesen, Stig E and Bolla, Manjeet K and Boomsma, Dorret I and Bowker, Nicholas and Brody, Jennifer A and Broer, Linda and Buring, Julie E and Campbell, Archie and Campbell, Harry and Castelao, Jose E and Catamo, Eulalia and Chanock, Stephen J and Chenevix-Trench, Georgia and Ciullo, Marina and Corre, Tanguy and Couch, Fergus J and Cox, Angela and Crisponi, Laura and Cross, Simon S and Cucca, Francesco and Czene, Kamila and Smith, George Davey and de Geus, Eco J C N and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and De Vivo, Immaculata and Demerath, Ellen W and Dennis, Joe and Dunning, Alison M and Dwek, Miriam and Eriksson, Mikael and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Fasching, Peter A and Faul, Jessica D and Ferrucci, Luigi and Franceschini, Nora and Frayling, Timothy M and Gago-Dominguez, Manuela and Mezzavilla, Massimo and Garc{\'\i}a-Closas, Montserrat and Gieger, Christian and Giles, Graham G and Grallert, Harald and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gu{\'e}nel, Pascal and Haiman, Christopher A and H{\r a}kansson, Niclas and Hall, Per and Hayward, Caroline and He, Chunyan and He, Wei and Heiss, Gerardo and H{\o}ffding, Miya K and Hopper, John L and Hottenga, Jouke J and Hu, Frank and Hunter, David and Ikram, Mohammad A and Jackson, Rebecca D and Joaquim, Micaella D R and John, Esther M and Joshi, Peter K and Karasik, David and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kartsonaki, Christiana and Karlsson, Robert and Kitahara, Cari M and Kolcic, Ivana and Kooperberg, Charles and Kraft, Peter and Kurian, Allison W and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and La Bianca, Martina and Lachance, Genevieve and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Laven, Joop S E and Lawlor, Deborah A and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Li, Jingmei and Lindblom, Annika and Lindstr{\"o}m, Sara and Lindstrom, Tricia and Linet, Martha and Liu, Yongmei and Liu, Simin and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Mangino, Massimo and Mannermaa, Arto and Marco, Brumat and Marten, Jonathan and Martin, Nicholas G and Mbarek, Hamdi and McKnight, Barbara and Medland, Sarah E and Meisinger, Christa and Meitinger, Thomas and Menni, Cristina and Metspalu, Andres and Milani, Lili and Milne, Roger L and Montgomery, Grant W and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Mulas, Antonella and Mulligan, Anna M and Murray, Alison and Nalls, Mike A and Newman, Anne and Noordam, Raymond and Nutile, Teresa and Nyholt, Dale R and Olshan, Andrew F and Olsson, H{\r a}kan and Painter, Jodie N and Patel, Alpa V and Pedersen, Nancy L and Perjakova, Natalia and Peters, Annette and Peters, Ulrike and Pharoah, Paul D P and Polasek, Ozren and Porcu, Eleonora and Psaty, Bruce M and Rahman, Iffat and Rennert, Gad and Rennert, Hedy S and Ridker, Paul M and Ring, Susan M and Robino, Antonietta and Rose, Lynda M and Rosendaal, Frits R and Rossouw, Jacques and Rudan, Igor and Rueedi, Rico and Ruggiero, Daniela and Sala, Cinzia F and Saloustros, Emmanouil and Sandler, Dale P and Sanna, Serena and Sawyer, Elinor J and Sarnowski, Chloe and Schlessinger, David and Schmidt, Marjanka K and Schoemaker, Minouk J and Schraut, Katharina E and Scott, Christopher and Shekari, Saleh and Shrikhande, Amruta and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Blair H and Smith, Jennifer A and Sorice, Rossella and Southey, Melissa C and Spector, Tim D and Spinelli, John J and Stampfer, Meir and St{\"o}ckl, Doris and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Strauch, Konstantin and Styrkarsdottir, Unnur and Swerdlow, Anthony J and Tanaka, Toshiko and Teras, Lauren R and Teumer, Alexander and {\TH}orsteinsdottir, Unnur and Timpson, Nicholas J and Toniolo, Daniela and Traglia, Michela and Troester, Melissa A and Truong, Th{\'e}r{\`e}se and Tyrrell, Jessica and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Ulivi, Sheila and Vachon, Celine M and Vitart, Veronique and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Vollenweider, Peter and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Wang, Qin and Wareham, Nicholas J and Weinberg, Clarice R and Weir, David R and Wilcox, Amber N and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilson, James F and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Wolk, Alicja and Wood, Andrew R and Zhao, Wei and Zygmunt, Marek and Chen, Zhengming and Li, Liming and Franke, Lude and Burgess, Stephen and Deelen, Patrick and Pers, Tune H and Gr{\o}ndahl, Marie Louise and Andersen, Claus Yding and Pujol, Anna and Lopez-Contreras, Andres J and Daniel, Jeremy A and Stefansson, Kari and Chang-Claude, Jenny and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Chasman, Daniel I and Easton, Douglas F and Visser, Jenny A and Ozanne, Susan E and Namekawa, Satoshi H and Solc, Petr and Murabito, Joanne M and Ong, Ken K and Hoffmann, Eva R and Murray, Anna and Roig, Ignasi and Perry, John R B} } @article {8657, title = {{Genome-Wide Association Study of Circulating Interleukin 6 Levels Identifies Novel Loci}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, year = {2021}, month = {Jan}, abstract = {Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional cytokine with both pro- and anti-inflammatory properties with a heritability estimate of up to 61\%. The circulating levels of IL-6 in blood have been associated with an increased risk of complex disease pathogenesis. We conducted a two-staged, discovery, and replication meta genome-wide association study (GWAS) of circulating serum IL-6 levels comprising up to 67 428 (ndiscovery = 52 654 and nreplication = 14 774) individuals of European ancestry. The inverse variance fixed-effects based discovery meta-analysis, followed by replication led to the identification of two independent loci, IL1F10/IL1RN rs6734238 on Chromosome (Chr) 2q14, (pcombined = 1.8 {\texttimes} 10-11), HLA-DRB1/DRB5 rs660895 on Chr6p21 (pcombined = 1.5 {\texttimes} 10-10) in the combined meta-analyses of all samples. We also replicated the IL6R rs4537545 locus on Chr1q21 (pcombined = 1.2 {\texttimes} 10-122). Our study identifies novel loci for circulating IL-6 levels uncovering new immunological and inflammatory pathways that may influence IL-6 pathobiology.}, author = {Ahluwalia, T. S. and Prins, B. P. and Abdollahi, M. and Armstrong, N. J. and Aslibekyan, S. and Bain, L. and Jefferis, B. and Baumert, J. and Beekman, M. and Ben-Shlomo, Y. and Bis, J. C. and Mitchell, B. D. and de Geus, E. and Delgado, G. E. and Marek, D. and Eriksson, J. and Kajantie, E. and Kanoni, S. and Kemp, J. P. and Lu, C. and Marioni, R. E. and McLachlan, S. and Milaneschi, Y. and Nolte, I. M. and Petrelis, A. M. and Porcu, E. and Sabater-Lleal, M. and Naderi, E. and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, I. and Shah, T. and Singhal, G. and Standl, M. and Teumer, A. and Thalamuthu, A. and Thiering, E. and Trompet, S. and Ballantyne, C. M. and Benjamin, E. J. and Casas, J. P. and Toben, C. and Dedoussis, G. and Deelen, J. and Durda, P. and Engmann, J. and Feitosa, M. F. and Grallert, H. and Hammarstedt, A. and Harris, S. E. and Homuth, G. and Hottenga, J. J. and Jalkanen, S. and Jamshidi, Y. and Jawahar, M. C. and Jess, T. and Kivimaki, M. and Kleber, M. E. and Lahti, J. and Liu, Y. and Marques-Vidal, P. and Mellstr{\"o}m, D. and Mooijaart, S. P. and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, M. and Penninx, B. and Revez, J. A. and Rossing, P. and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, K. and Sattar, N. and Scharnagl, H. and Sennblad, B. and Silveira, A. and Pourcain, B. S. and Timpson, N. J. and Trollor, J. and van Dongen, J. and van Heemst, D. and Visvikis-Siest, S. and Vollenweider, P. and V{\"o}lker, U. and Waldenberger, M. and Willemsen, G. and Zabaneh, D. and Morris, R. W. and Arnett, D. K. and Baune, B. T. and Boomsma, D. I. and Chang, Y. C. and Deary, I. J. and Deloukas, P. and Eriksson, J. G. and Evans, D. M. and Ferreira, M. A. and Gaunt, T. and Gudnason, V. and Hamsten, A. and Heinrich, J. and Hingorani, A. and Humphries, S. E. and Jukema, J. W. and Koeing, W. and Kumari, M. and Kutalik, Z. and Lawlor, D. A. and Lehtim{\"a}ki, T. and M{\"a}rz, W. and Mather, K. and Naitza, S. and Nauck, M. and Ohlsson, C. and Price, J. F. and Raitakari, O. and Rice, K. and Sachdev, P. S. and Slagboom, E. and S{\o}rensen, T. I. A. and Spector, T. and Stacey, D. and Stathopoulou, M. G. and Tanaka, T. and Wannamethee, S. G. and Whincup, P. and Rotter, J. I. and Dehghan, A. and Boerwinkle, E. and Psaty, B. M. and Snieder, H. and Alizadeh, B. Z.} } @article {8660, title = {{Genome-wide meta-analysis of muscle weakness identifies 15 susceptibility loci in older men and women}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {01}, pages = {654}, abstract = {Low muscle strength is an important heritable indicator of poor health linked to morbidity and mortality in older people. In a genome-wide association study meta-analysis of 256,523 Europeans aged 60 years and over from 22 cohorts we identify 15 loci associated with muscle weakness (European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People definition: n = 48,596 cases, 18.9\% of total), including 12 loci not implicated in previous analyses of continuous measures of grip strength. Loci include genes reportedly involved in autoimmune disease (HLA-DQA1 p = 4 {\texttimes} 10-17), arthritis (GDF5 p = 4 {\texttimes} 10-13), cell cycle control and cancer protection, regulation of transcription, and others involved in the development and maintenance of the musculoskeletal system. Using Mendelian randomization we report possible overlapping causal pathways, including diabetes susceptibility, haematological parameters, and the immune system. We conclude that muscle weakness in older adults has distinct mechanisms from continuous strength, including several pathways considered to be hallmarks of ageing.}, author = {Jones, G. and Trajanoska, K. and Santanasto, A. J. and Stringa, N. and Kuo, C. L. and Atkins, J. L. and Lewis, J. R. and Duong, T. and Hong, S. and Biggs, M. L. and Luan, J. and Sarnowski, C. and Lunetta, K. L. and Tanaka, T. and Wojczynski, M. K. and Cvejkus, R. and Nethander, M. and Ghasemi, S. and Yang, J. and Zillikens, M. C. and Walter, S. and Sicinski, K. and Kague, E. and Ackert-Bicknell, C. L. and Arking, D. E. and Windham, B. G. and Boerwinkle, E. and Grove, M. L. and Graff, M. and Spira, D. and Demuth, I. and Van der Velde, N. and de Groot, L. C. P. G. M. and Psaty, B. M. and Odden, M. C. and Fohner, A. E. and Langenberg, C. and Wareham, N. J. and Bandinelli, S. and van Schoor, N. M. and Huisman, M. and Tan, Q. and Zmuda, J. and Mellstr{\"o}m, D. and Karlsson, M. and Bennett, D. A. and Buchman, A. S. and De Jager, P. L. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and V{\"o}lker, U. and Kocher, T. and Teumer, A. and Rodrigu{\'e}z-Ma{\~n}as, L. and Garc{\'\i}a, F. J. and Carnicero, J. A. and Herd, P. and Bertram, L. and Ohlsson, C. and Murabito, J. M. and Melzer, D. and Kuchel, G. A. and Ferrucci, L. and Karasik, D. and Rivadeneira, F. and Kiel, D. P. and Pilling, L. C.} } @article {8925, title = {{The genomics of heart failure: design and rationale of the HERMES consortium}, journal = {ESC Heart Fail}, year = {2021}, month = {Sep}, abstract = {The HERMES (HEart failure Molecular Epidemiology for Therapeutic targetS) consortium aims to identify the genomic and molecular basis of heart failure.\ under an additive genetic model.\ HERMES is a global collaboration aiming to (i) identify the genetic determinants of heart failure; (ii) generate insights into the causal pathways leading to heart failure and enable genetic approaches to target prioritization; and (iii) develop genomic tools for disease stratification and risk prediction.}, author = {Lumbers, R. T. and Shah, S. and Lin, H. and Czuba, T. and Henry, A. and Swerdlow, D. I. and Malarstig, A. and Andersson, C. and Verweij, N. and Holmes, M. V. and {\"A}rnl{\"o}v, J. and Svensson, P. and Hemingway, H. and Sallah, N. and Almgren, P. and Aragam, K. G. and Asselin, G. and Backman, J. D. and Biggs, M. L. and Bloom, H. L. and Boersma, E. and Brandimarto, J. and Brown, M. R. and Brunner-La Rocca, H. P. and Carey, D. J. and Chaffin, M. D. and Chasman, D. I. and Chazara, O. and Chen, X. and Chen, X. and Chung, J. H. and Chutkow, W. and Cleland, J. G. F. and Cook, J. P. and de Denus, S. and Dehghan, A. and Delgado, G. E. and Denaxas, S. and Doney, A. S. and D{\"o}rr, M. and Dudley, S. C. and Engstr{\"o}m, G. and Esko, T. and Fatemifar, G. and Felix, S. B. and Finan, C. and Ford, I. and Fougerousse, F. and Fouodjio, R. and Ghanbari, M. and Ghasemi, S. and Giedraitis, V. and Giulianini, F. and Gottdiener, J. S. and Gross, S. and Gu{\dh}bjartsson, D. F. and Gui, H. and Gutmann, R. and Haggerty, C. M. and van der Harst, P. and Hedman, {\r A}. K. and Helgadottir, A. and Hillege, H. and Hyde, C. L. and Jacob, J. and Jukema, J. W. and Kamanu, F. and Kardys, I. and Kavousi, M. and Khaw, K. T. and Kleber, M. E. and K{\o}ber, L. and Koekemoer, A. and Kraus, B. and Kuchenbaecker, K. and Langenberg, C. and Lind, L. and Lindgren, C. M. and London, B. and Lotta, L. A. and Lovering, R. C. and Luan, J. and Magnusson, P. and Mahajan, A. and Mann, D. and Margulies, K. B. and Marston, N. A. and M{\"a}rz, W. and McMurray, J. J. V. and Melander, O. and Melloni, G. and Mordi, I. R. and Morley, M. P. and Morris, A. D. and Morris, A. P. and Morrison, A. C. and Nagle, M. W. and Nelson, C. P. and Newton-Cheh, C. and Niessner, A. and Niiranen, T. and Nowak, C. and O{\textquoteright}Donoghue, M. L. and Owens, A. T. and Palmer, C. N. A. and Pare, G. and Perola, M. and Perreault, L. L. and Portilla-Fernandez, E. and Psaty, B. M. and Rice, K. M. and Ridker, P. M. and Romaine, S. P. R. and Roselli, C. and Rotter, J. I. and Ruff, C. T. and Sabatine, M. S. and Salo, P. and Salomaa, V. and van Setten, J. and Shalaby, A. A. and Smelser, D. T. and Smith, N. L. and Stefansson, K. and Stender, S. and Stott, D. J. and Sveinbjornsson, G. and Tammesoo, M. L. and Tardif, J. C. and Taylor, K. D. and Teder-Laving, M. and Teumer, A. and Thorgeirsson, G. and Thorsteinsdottir, U. and Torp-Pedersen, C. and Trompet, S. and Tuckwell, D. and Tyl, B. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and Vaura, F. and Veluchamy, A. and Visscher, P. M. and V{\"o}lker, U. and Voors, A. A. and Wang, X. and Wareham, N. J. and Weeke, P. E. and Weiss, R. and White, H. D. and Wiggins, K. L. and Xing, H. and Yang, J. and Yang, Y. and Yerges-Armstrong, L. M. and Yu, B. and Zannad, F. and Zhao, F. and Wilk, J. B. and Holm, H. and Sattar, N. and Lubitz, S. A. and Lanfear, D. E. and Shah, S. and Dunn, M. E. and Wells, Q. S. and Asselbergs, F. W. and Hingorani, A. D. and Dub{\'e}, M. P. and Samani, N. J. and Lang, C. C. and Cappola, T. P. and Ellinor, P. T. and Vasan, R. S. and Smith, J. G.} } @article {8706, title = {Hemostatic factor levels and cognitive decline in older adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Thromb Haemost}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Mar 16}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Hemostasis is a key factor in cerebrovascular disease, but the association of hemostatic factors with cognitive decline is unclear.

OBJECTIVE: To prospectively evaluate associations of 20 hemostatic factor levels with changes in cognition during >=8~years of follow-up in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) of older adults.

METHODS: We included participants of an existing CHS cross-sectional substudy (n~=~400) with hemostatic factors measured in 1989-1990. Between 1989-1990 and 1998-1999, cognitive function was measured using the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MSE) and Digit Symbol Substitution Tests. Mixed-effects linear regression models estimated change in cognitive function over time, adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical factors and APOE genotype, using Bonferroni adjustment. We also derived principal components to account for the interrelationship among factors.

RESULTS: Of 20 factors evaluated individually, only higher levels of plasmin-α -antiplasmin complex (PAP), tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI), and lower factor X (FXc) levels were associated with faster cognitive decline, estimated by annual change in 3MSE points (1 standard deviation PAP β~=~-0.65, 95\% confidence interval [CI]: -1.08 to -0.21; TFPI β~=~-0.55, 95\% CI: -0.90 to -0.19; FXc β~=~0.52, 95\% CI: 0.21-0.84). One of four principal components, loading positively on D-dimer, prothrombin fragment 1.2 (F1.2), and PAP was significantly associated with change in 3MSE.

CONCLUSIONS: Levels of PAP, TPFI, and FXc and a combination of factors driven by PAP, D-dimer, and F1.2 were associated with cognitive decline. Whether these findings can be used to improve dementia prevention or prediction requires further study.

}, issn = {1538-7836}, doi = {10.1111/jth.15300}, author = {Harrington, Laura B and Ehlert, Alexa N and Thacker, Evan L and Jenny, Nancy S and Lopez, Oscar and Cushman, Mary and Fitzpatrick, Annette and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Jensen, Majken K} } @article {9007, title = {Identification of Functional Genetic Determinants of Cardiac Troponin T and I in a Multiethnic Population and Causal Associations With Atrial Fibrillation.}, journal = {Circ Genom Precis Med}, volume = {14}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 12}, pages = {e003460}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Elevated cardiac troponin levels in blood are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and mortality. Cardiac troponin levels are heritable, but their genetic architecture remains elusive.

METHODS: We conducted a transethnic genome-wide association analysis on high-sensitivity cTnT (cardiac troponin T; hs-cTnT) and high-sensitivity cTnI (cardiac troponin I; hs-cTnI) levels in 24 617 and 14 336 participants free of coronary heart disease and heart failure from 6 population-based cohorts, followed by a series of bioinformatic analyses to decipher the genetic architecture of hs-cTnT and hs-cTnI.

RESULTS: We identified 4 genome-wide significant loci for hs-cTnT including a novel locus rs3737882 in and 3 previously reported loci at , , and . One known locus at was replicated for hs-cTnI. One copy of C allele for rs3737882 was associated with a 6\% increase in hs-cTnT levels (minor allele frequency, 0.18; =2.80{\texttimes}10). We observed pleiotropic loci located at and . The proportions of variances explained by single-nucleotide polymorphisms were 10.15\% and 7.74\% for hs-cTnT and hs-cTnI, respectively. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms were colocalized with expression in heart tissues and hs-cTnT and with expression in artery, heart tissues, and whole blood and both troponins. Mendelian randomization analyses showed that genetically increased hs-cTnT and hs-cTnI levels were associated with higher odds of atrial fibrillation (odds ratio, 1.38 [95\% CI, 1.25-1.54] for hs-cTnT and 1.21 [95\% CI, 1.06-1.37] for hs-cTnI).

CONCLUSIONS: We identified a novel genetic locus associated with hs-cTnT in a multiethnic population and found that genetically regulated troponin levels were associated with atrial fibrillation.

}, issn = {2574-8300}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGEN.121.003460}, author = {Yang, Yunju and Bartz, Traci M and Brown, Michael R and Guo, Xiuqing and Zilh{\~a}o, Nuno R and Trompet, Stella and Weiss, Stefan and Yao, Jie and Brody, Jennifer A and deFilippi, Christopher R and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Lin, Henry J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Ballantyne, Christie M and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Jukema, J Wouter and Petersmann, Astrid and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Boerwinkle, Eric and Fornage, Myriam and Jun, Goo and Yu, Bing} } @article {8836, title = {Identification of novel and rare variants associated with handgrip strength using whole genome sequence data from the NHLBI Trans-Omics in Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {16}, year = {2021}, month = {2021}, pages = {e0253611}, abstract = {

Handgrip strength is a widely used measure of muscle strength and a predictor of a range of morbidities including cardiovascular diseases and all-cause mortality. Previous genome-wide association studies of handgrip strength have focused on common variants primarily in persons of European descent. We aimed to identify rare and ancestry-specific genetic variants associated with handgrip strength by conducting whole-genome sequence association analyses using 13,552 participants from six studies representing diverse population groups from the Trans-Omics in Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program. By leveraging multiple handgrip strength measures performed in study participants over time, we increased our effective sample size by 7-12\%. Single-variant analyses identified ten handgrip strength loci among African-Americans: four rare variants, five low-frequency variants, and one common variant. One significant and four suggestive genes were identified associated with handgrip strength when aggregating rare and functional variants; all associations were ancestry-specific. We additionally leveraged the different ancestries available in the UK Biobank to further explore the ancestry-specific association signals from the single-variant association analyses. In conclusion, our study identified 11 new loci associated with handgrip strength with rare and/or ancestry-specific genetic variations, highlighting the added value of whole-genome sequencing in diverse samples. Several of the associations identified using single-variant or aggregate analyses lie in genes with a function relevant to the brain or muscle or were reported to be associated with muscle or age-related traits. Further studies in samples with sequence data and diverse ancestries are needed to confirm these findings.

}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0253611}, author = {Sarnowski, Chloe and Chen, Han and Biggs, Mary L and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Bressler, Jan and Irvin, Marguerite R and Ryan, Kathleen A and Karasik, David and Arnett, Donna K and Cupples, L Adrienne and Fardo, David W and Gogarten, Stephanie M and Heavner, Benjamin D and Jain, Deepti and Kang, Hyun Min and Kooperberg, Charles and Mainous, Arch G and Mitchell, Braxton D and Morrison, Alanna C and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Kenneth and Smith, Albert V and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Windham, B Gwen and Kiel, Douglas P and Murabito, Joanne M and Lunetta, Kathryn L} } @article {8778, title = {Identification of putative causal loci in whole-genome sequencing data via knockoff statistics.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 05 25}, pages = {3152}, abstract = {

The analysis of whole-genome sequencing studies is challenging due to the large number of rare variants in noncoding regions and the lack of natural units for testing. We propose a statistical method to detect and localize rare and common risk variants in whole-genome sequencing studies based on a recently developed knockoff framework. It can (1) prioritize causal variants over associations due to linkage disequilibrium thereby improving interpretability; (2) help distinguish the signal due to rare variants from shadow effects of significant common variants nearby; (3) integrate multiple knockoffs for improved power, stability, and reproducibility; and (4) flexibly incorporate state-of-the-art and future association tests to achieve the benefits proposed here. In applications to whole-genome sequencing data from the Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP) and COPDGene samples from NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program we show that our method compared with conventional association tests can lead to substantially more discoveries.

}, keywords = {Algorithms, Causality, Computer Simulation, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Datasets as Topic, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Markov Chains, Models, Genetic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Reproducibility of Results, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-021-22889-4}, author = {He, Zihuai and Liu, Linxi and Wang, Chen and Le Guen, Yann and Lee, Justin and Gogarten, Stephanie and Lu, Fred and Montgomery, Stephen and Tang, Hua and Silverman, Edwin K and Cho, Michael H and Greicius, Michael and Ionita-Laza, Iuliana} } @article {8665, title = {Individual non-esterified fatty acids and incident atrial fibrillation late in life.}, journal = {Heart}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Jan 22}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Obesity and dysmetabolism are major risk factors for atrial fibrillation (AF). Expansion of fat depots is associated with increased circulating total non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs), elevated levels of which are associated with incident AF. We undertook comprehensive serum measurement of individual NEFA to identify specific associations with new-onset AF late in life.

METHODS: The present study focused on participants with available serum and free of AF selected from the Cardiovascular Health Study, a community-based longitudinal investigation of older US adults. Thirty-five individual NEFAs were measured by gas chromatography. Cox regression was used to evaluate the association of individual NEFAs with incident AF.

RESULTS: The study sample included 1872 participants (age 77.7{\textpm}4.4). During median follow-up of 11.3 years, 715 cases of incident AF occurred. After concurrent adjustment of all NEFAs and full adjustment for potential confounders, higher serum concentration of nervonic acid (24:1 n-9), a long-chain monounsaturated fatty acid, was associated with higher risk of AF (HR per SD: 1.18, 95\% CI 1.08 to 1.29; p<0.001). Conversely, higher serum concentration of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) (18:3 n-6), a polyunsaturated n-6 fatty acid, was associated with lower risk of AF (HR per SD: 0.81, 95\% CI 0.71 to 0.94; p=0.004). None of the remaining NEFAs was significantly associated with AF.

CONCLUSIONS: Among older adults, serum levels of non-esterified nervonic acid were positively associated, while serum levels of non-esterified GLA were inversely associated, with incident AF. If confirmed, these results could offer new strategies for AF prevention and early intervention in this segment of the population at highest risk.

}, issn = {1468-201X}, doi = {10.1136/heartjnl-2020-317929}, author = {Pellegrini, Cara N and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Lichtenstein, Alice H and Matthan, Nirupa R and Ix, Joachim H and Siscovick, David S and Heckbert, Susan R and Tracy, Russell P and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Kizer, Jorge R} } @article {8831, title = {Longitudinal Plasma Measures of Trimethylamine N-Oxide and Risk of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Events in Community-Based Older Adults.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Aug 16}, pages = {e020646}, abstract = {

Background Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) is a gut microbiota-dependent metabolite of dietary choline, L-carnitine, and phosphatidylcholine-rich foods. On the basis of experimental studies and patients with prevalent disease, elevated plasma TMAO may increase risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). TMAO is also renally cleared and may interact with and causally contribute to renal dysfunction. Yet, how serial TMAO levels relate to incident and recurrent ASCVD in community-based populations and the potential mediating or modifying role of renal function are not established. Methods and Results We investigated associations of serial measures of plasma TMAO, assessed at baseline and 7~years, with incident and recurrent ASCVD in a community-based cohort of 4131 (incident) and 1449 (recurrent) older US adults. TMAO was measured using stable isotope dilution liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (laboratory coefficient of variation, <6\%). Incident ASCVD (myocardial infarction, fatal coronary heart disease, stroke, sudden cardiac death, or other atherosclerotic death) was centrally adjudicated using medical records. Risk was assessed by multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression, including time-varying demographics, lifestyle factors, medical history, laboratory measures, and dietary habits. Potential mediating effects and interaction by estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) were assessed. During prospective follow-up, 1766 incident and 897 recurrent ASCVD events occurred. After multivariable adjustment, higher levels of TMAO were associated with a higher risk of incident ASCVD, with extreme quintile hazard ratio (HR) compared with the lowest quintile=1.21 (95\% CI, 1.02-1.42; -trend=0.029). This relationship appeared mediated or confounded by eGFR (eGFR-adjusted HR, 1.07; 95\% CI, 0.90-1.27), as well as modified by eGFR (-interaction <0.001). High levels of TMAO were associated with higher incidence of ASCVD in the presence of impaired renal function (eGFR <60~mL/min per 1.73~m: HR, 1.56 [95\% CI, 1.13-2.14]; -trend=0.007), but not normal or mildly reduced renal function (eGFR >=60~mL/min per 1.73~m: HR, 1.03 [95\% CI, 0.85-1.25]; -trend=0.668). Among individuals with prior ASCVD, TMAO associated with higher risk of recurrent ASCVD (HR, 1.25 [95\% CI, 1.01-1.56]; -trend=0.009), without significant modification by eGFR. Conclusions In this large community-based cohort of older US adults, serial measures of TMAO were associated with higher risk of incident ASCVD, with apparent modification by presence of impaired renal function and with higher risk of recurrent ASCVD.

}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.120.020646}, author = {Lee, Yujin and Nemet, Ina and Wang, Zeneng and Lai, Heidi T M and de Oliveira Otto, Marcia C and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Fretts, Amanda M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Budoff, Matthew and DiDonato, Joseph A and McKnight, Barbara and Tang, W H Wilson and Psaty, Bruce M and Siscovick, David S and Hazen, Stanley L and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {9002, title = {Meta-analyses identify DNA methylation associated with kidney function and damage.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 12 09}, pages = {7174}, abstract = {

Chronic kidney disease is a major public health burden. Elevated urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio is a measure of kidney damage, and used to diagnose and stage chronic kidney disease. To extend the knowledge on regulatory mechanisms related to kidney function and disease, we conducted a blood-based epigenome-wide association study for estimated glomerular filtration rate (n = 33,605) and urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (n = 15,068) and detected 69 and seven CpG sites where DNA methylation was associated with the respective trait. The majority of these findings showed directionally consistent associations with the respective clinical outcomes chronic kidney disease and moderately increased albuminuria. Associations of DNA methylation with kidney function, such as CpGs at JAZF1, PELI1 and CHD2 were validated in kidney tissue. Methylation at PHRF1, LDB2, CSRNP1 and IRF5 indicated causal effects on kidney function. Enrichment analyses revealed pathways related to hemostasis and blood cell migration for estimated glomerular filtration rate, and immune cell activation and response for urinary albumin-to-creatinineratio-associated CpGs.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, CpG Islands, DNA Methylation, Female, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Interferon Regulatory Factors, Kidney, Kidney Function Tests, LIM Domain Proteins, Male, Membrane Proteins, Middle Aged, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic, Transcription Factors}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-021-27234-3}, author = {Schlosser, Pascal and Tin, Adrienne and Matias-Garcia, Pamela R and Thio, Chris H L and Joehanes, Roby and Liu, Hongbo and Weihs, Antoine and Yu, Zhi and Hoppmann, Anselm and Grundner-Culemann, Franziska and Min, Josine L and Adeyemo, Adebowale A and Agyemang, Charles and Arnl{\"o}v, Johan and Aziz, Nasir A and Baccarelli, Andrea and Bochud, Murielle and Brenner, Hermann and Breteler, Monique M B and Carmeli, Cristian and Chaker, Layal and Chambers, John C and Cole, Shelley A and Coresh, Josef and Corre, Tanguy and Correa, Adolfo and Cox, Simon R and de Klein, Niek and Delgado, Graciela E and Domingo-Relloso, Arce and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Ekici, Arif B and Endlich, Karlhans and Evans, Kathryn L and Floyd, James S and Fornage, Myriam and Franke, Lude and Fraszczyk, Eliza and Gao, Xu and G{\`a}o, Xin and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Ghasemi, Sahar and Gieger, Christian and Greenland, Philip and Grove, Megan L and Harris, Sarah E and Hemani, Gibran and Henneman, Peter and Herder, Christian and Horvath, Steve and Hou, Lifang and Hurme, Mikko A and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kasela, Silva and Kleber, Marcus E and Koenig, Wolfgang and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kramer, Holly and Kronenberg, Florian and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lind, Lars and Liu, Dan and Liu, Yongmei and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Lohman, Kurt and Lorkowski, Stefan and Lu, Ake T and Marioni, Riccardo E and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and McCartney, Daniel L and Meeks, Karlijn A C and Milani, Lili and Mishra, Pashupati P and Nauck, Matthias and Navas-Acien, Ana and Nowak, Christoph and Peters, Annette and Prokisch, Holger and Psaty, Bruce M and Raitakari, Olli T and Ratliff, Scott M and Reiner, Alex P and Rosas, Sylvia E and Sch{\"o}ttker, Ben and Schwartz, Joel and Sedaghat, Sanaz and Smith, Jennifer A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stocker, Hannah R and Stringhini, Silvia and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Swenson, Brenton R and Tellez-Plaza, Maria and van Meurs, Joyce B J and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Venema, Andrea and Verweij, Niek and Walker, Rosie M and Wielscher, Matthias and Winkelmann, Juliane and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Zhao, Wei and Zheng, Yinan and Loh, Marie and Snieder, Harold and Levy, Daniel and Waldenberger, Melanie and Susztak, Katalin and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Teumer, Alexander} } @article {8789, title = {Meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies of carotid intima-media thickness.}, journal = {Eur J Epidemiol}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Jun 06}, abstract = {

Common carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) is an index of subclinical atherosclerosis that is associated with ischemic stroke and coronary artery disease (CAD). We undertook a cross-sectional epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) of measures of cIMT in 6400 individuals. Mendelian randomization analysis was applied to investigate the potential causal role of DNA methylation in the link between atherosclerotic cardiovascular risk factors and cIMT or clinical cardiovascular disease. The CpG site cg05575921 was associated with cIMT (beta = -0.0264, p value = 3.5 {\texttimes} 10) in the discovery panel and was replicated in replication panel (beta = -0.07, p value = 0.005). This CpG is located at chr5:81649347 in the intron 3 of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor repressor gene (AHRR). Our results indicate that DNA methylation at cg05575921 might be in the pathway between smoking, cIMT and stroke. Moreover, in a region-based analysis, 34 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were identified of which a DMR upstream of ALOX12 showed the strongest association with cIMT (p value = 1.4 {\texttimes} 10). In conclusion, our study suggests that DNA methylation may play a role in the link between cardiovascular risk factors, cIMT and clinical cardiovascular disease.

}, issn = {1573-7284}, doi = {10.1007/s10654-021-00759-z}, author = {Portilla-Fern{\'a}ndez, Eliana and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Wilson, Rory and Maddock, Jane and Hill, W David and Teumer, Alexander and Mishra, Pashupati P and Brody, Jennifer A and Joehanes, Roby and Ligthart, Symen and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Kavousi, Maryam and Roks, Anton J M and Danser, A H Jan and Levy, Daniel and Peters, Annette and Ghasemi, Sahar and Schminke, Ulf and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Grabe, Hans J and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Hurme, Mikko A and Bartz, Traci M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Bis, Joshua C and Thiery, Joachim and Koenig, Wolfgang and Ong, Ken K and Bell, Jordana T and Meisinger, Christine and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Starr, John M and Seissler, Jochen and Then, Cornelia and Rathmann, Wolfgang and Ikram, M Arfan and Psaty, Bruce M and Raitakari, Olli T and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Deary, Ian J and Wong, Andrew and Waldenberger, Melanie and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Dehghan, Abbas} } @article {9005, title = {Multi-Ancestry Genome-wide Association Study Accounting for Gene-Psychosocial Factor Interactions Identifies Novel Loci for Blood Pressure Traits.}, journal = {HGG Adv}, volume = {2}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Jan 14}, abstract = {

Psychological and social factors are known to influence blood pressure (BP) and risk of hypertension and associated cardiovascular diseases. To identify novel BP loci, we carried out genome-wide association meta-analyses of systolic, diastolic, pulse, and mean arterial BP taking into account the interaction effects of genetic variants with three psychosocial factors: depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and social support. Analyses were performed using a two-stage design in a sample of up to 128,894 adults from 5 ancestry groups. In the combined meta-analyses of Stages 1 and 2, we identified 59 loci (p value <5e-8), including nine novel BP loci. The novel associations were observed mostly with pulse pressure, with fewer observed with mean arterial pressure. Five novel loci were identified in African ancestry, and all but one showed patterns of interaction with at least one psychosocial factor. Functional annotation of the novel loci supports a major role for genes implicated in the immune response (), synaptic function and neurotransmission (), as well as genes previously implicated in neuropsychiatric or stress-related disorders (). These findings underscore the importance of considering psychological and social factors in gene discovery for BP, especially in non-European populations.

}, issn = {2666-2477}, doi = {10.1016/j.xhgg.2020.100013}, author = {Sun, Daokun and Richard, Melissa and Musani, Solomon K and Sung, Yun Ju and Winkler, Thomas W and Schwander, Karen and Chai, Jin Fang and Guo, Xiuqing and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Vojinovic, Dina and Aschard, Hugues and Bartz, Traci M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Brown, Michael R and Chitrala, Kumaraswamy and Hartwig, Fernando P and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Liu, Yongmei and Manning, Alisa K and Noordam, Raymond and Smith, Albert V and Harris, Sarah E and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Nolte, Ilja M and Rauramaa, Rainer and van der Most, Peter J and Wang, Rujia and Ware, Erin B and Weiss, Stefan and Wen, Wanqing and Yanek, Lisa R and Arking, Dan E and Arnett, Donna K and Barac, Ana and Boerwinkle, Eric and Broeckel, Ulrich and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Cupples, L Adrienne and Davigulus, Martha L and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and de Vries, Paul S and Delaney, Joseph A C and Roux, Ana V Diez and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Faul, Jessica D and Fretts, Amanda M and Gallo, Linda C and Grabe, Hans J{\"o}rgen and Gu, C Charles and Harris, Tamara B and Hartman, Catharina C A and Heikkinen, Sami and Ikram, M Arfan and Isasi, Carmen and Johnson, W Craig and Jonas, Jost Bruno and Kaplan, Robert C and Komulainen, Pirjo and Krieger, Jose E and Levy, Daniel and Liu, Jianjun and Lohman, Kurt and Luik, Annemarie I and Martin, Lisa W and Meitinger, Thomas and Milaneschi, Yuri and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff R and Palmas, Walter R and Peters, Annette and Peyser, Patricia A and Pulkki-R{\r a}back, Laura and Raffel, Leslie J and Reiner, Alex P and Rice, Kenneth and Robinson, Jennifer G and Rosendaal, Frits R and Schmidt, Carsten Oliver and Schreiner, Pamela J and Schwettmann, Lars and Shikany, James M and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Sidney, Stephen and Sims, Mario and Smith, Jennifer A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Strauch, Konstantin and Tai, E Shyong and Taylor, Kent and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wee, Hwee-Lin and Wei, Wen-Bin and Wilson, Gregory and Xuan, Deng and Yao, Jie and Zeng, Donglin and Zhao, Wei and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Zonderman, Alan B and Becker, Diane M and Deary, Ian J and Gieger, Christian and Lakka, Timo A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and North, Kari E and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Snieder, Harold and Wang, Ya-Xing and Weir, David R and Zheng, Wei and Evans, Michele K and Gauderman, W James and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Horta, Bernardo L and Liu, Ching-Ti and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Morrison, Alanna C and Pereira, Alexandre C and Psaty, Bruce M and Amin, Najaf and Fox, Ervin R and Kooperberg, Charles and Sim, Xueling and Bierut, Laura and Rotter, Jerome I and Kardia, Sharon L R and Franceschini, Nora and Rao, Dabeeru C and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {8714, title = {Multi-ancestry genome-wide gene-sleep interactions identify novel loci for blood pressure.}, journal = {Mol Psychiatry}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Apr 15}, abstract = {

Long and short sleep duration are associated with elevated blood pressure (BP), possibly through effects on molecular pathways that influence neuroendocrine and vascular systems. To gain new insights into the genetic basis of sleep-related BP variation, we performed genome-wide gene by short or long sleep duration interaction analyses on four BP traits (systolic BP, diastolic BP, mean arterial pressure, and pulse pressure) across five ancestry groups in two stages using 2 degree of freedom (df) joint test followed by 1df test of interaction effects. Primary multi-ancestry analysis in 62,969 individuals in stage 1 identified three novel gene by sleep interactions that were replicated in an additional 59,296 individuals in stage 2 (stage 1 + 2 P < 5 {\texttimes} 10), including rs7955964 (FIGNL2/ANKRD33) that increases BP among long sleepers, and rs73493041 (SNORA26/C9orf170) and rs10406644 (KCTD15/LSM14A) that increase BP among short sleepers (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10). Secondary ancestry-specific analysis identified another novel gene by long sleep interaction at rs111887471 (TRPC3/KIAA1109) in individuals of African ancestry (P = 2 {\texttimes} 10). Combined stage 1 and 2 analyses additionally identified significant gene by long sleep interactions at 10 loci including MKLN1 and RGL3/ELAVL3 previously associated with BP, and significant gene by short sleep interactions at 10 loci including C2orf43 previously associated with BP (P < 10). 2df test also identified novel loci for BP after modeling sleep that has known functions in sleep-wake regulation, nervous and cardiometabolic systems. This study indicates that sleep and primary mechanisms regulating BP may interact to elevate BP level, suggesting novel insights into sleep-related BP regulation.

}, issn = {1476-5578}, doi = {10.1038/s41380-021-01087-0}, author = {Wang, Heming and Noordam, Raymond and Cade, Brian E and Schwander, Karen and Winkler, Thomas W and Lee, Jiwon and Sung, Yun Ju and Bentley, Amy R and Manning, Alisa K and Aschard, Hugues and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Ilkov, Marjan and Brown, Michael R and Horimoto, Andrea R and Richard, Melissa and Bartz, Traci M and Vojinovic, Dina and Lim, Elise and Nierenberg, Jovia L and Liu, Yongmei and Chitrala, Kumaraswamynaidu and Rankinen, Tuomo and Musani, Solomon K and Franceschini, Nora and Rauramaa, Rainer and Alver, Maris and Zee, Phyllis C and Harris, Sarah E and van der Most, Peter J and Nolte, Ilja M and Munroe, Patricia B and Palmer, Nicholette D and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Weiss, Stefan and Wen, Wanqing and Hall, Kelly A and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Launer, Lenore J and de Vries, Paul S and Arking, Dan E and Chen, Han and Boerwinkle, Eric and Krieger, Jose E and Schreiner, Pamela J and Sidney, Stephen and Shikany, James M and Rice, Kenneth and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Gharib, Sina A and Bis, Joshua C and Luik, Annemarie I and Ikram, M Arfan and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Amin, Najaf and Xu, Hanfei and Levy, Daniel and He, Jiang and Lohman, Kurt K and Zonderman, Alan B and Rice, Treva K and Sims, Mario and Wilson, Gregory and Sofer, Tamar and Rich, Stephen S and Palmas, Walter and Yao, Jie and Guo, Xiuqing and Rotter, Jerome I and Biermasz, Nienke R and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Martin, Lisa W and Barac, Ana and Wallace, Robert B and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Komulainen, Pirjo and Heikkinen, Sami and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Milani, Lili and Metspalu, Andres and Starr, John M and Milaneschi, Yuri and Waken, R J and Gao, Chuan and Waldenberger, Melanie and Peters, Annette and Strauch, Konstantin and Meitinger, Thomas and Roenneberg, Till and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Mukherjee, Sutapa and Hillman, David R and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Gieger, Christian and Grabe, Hans J and Zheng, Wei and Palmer, Lyle J and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Morrison, Alanna C and Pereira, Alexandre C and Fornage, Myriam and Psaty, Bruce M and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Liu, Ching-Ti and Kelly, Tanika N and Evans, Michele K and Bouchard, Claude and Fox, Ervin R and Kooperberg, Charles and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Lakka, Timo A and Esko, T{\~o}nu and North, Kari E and Deary, Ian J and Snieder, Harold and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Gauderman, W James and Rao, Dabeeru C and Redline, Susan and van Heemst, Diana} } @article {8781, title = {{A multi-ethnic epigenome-wide association study of leukocyte DNA methylation and blood lipids}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {06}, pages = {3987}, abstract = {10.1038/s41467-021-23899-yHere we examine the association between DNA methylation in circulating leukocytes and blood lipids in a multi-ethnic sample of 16,265 subjects. We identify 148, 35, and 4 novel associations among Europeans, African Americans, and Hispanics, respectively, and an additional 186 novel associations through a trans-ethnic meta-analysis. We observe a high concordance in the direction of effects across racial/ethnic groups, a high correlation of effect sizes between high-density lipoprotein and triglycerides, a modest overlap of associations with epigenome-wide association studies of other cardio-metabolic traits, and a largely non-overlap with lipid loci identified to date through genome-wide association studies. Thirty CpGs reached significance in at least 2 racial/ethnic groups including 7 that showed association with the expression of an annotated gene. CpGs annotated to CPT1A showed evidence of being influenced by triglycerides levels. DNA methylation levels of circulating leukocytes show robust and consistent association with blood lipid levels across multiple racial/ethnic groups.}, author = {Jhun, M. A. and Mendelson, M. and Wilson, R. and Gondalia, R. and Joehanes, R. and Salfati, E. and Zhao, X. and Braun, K. V. E. and Do, A. N. and Hedman, {\r A}. K. and Zhang, T. and Carnero-Montoro, E. and Shen, J. and Bartz, T. M. and Brody, J. A. and Montasser, M. E. and O{\textquoteright}Connell, J. R. and Yao, C. and Xia, R. and Boerwinkle, E. and Grove, M. and Guan, W. and Liliane, P. and Singmann, P. and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, M. and Meitinger, T. and Gieger, C. and Peters, A. and Zhao, W. and Ware, E. B. and Smith, J. A. and Dhana, K. and van Meurs, J. and Uitterlinden, A. and Ikram, M. A. and Ghanbari, M. and Zhi, D. and Gustafsson, S. and Lind, L. and Li, S. and Sun, D. and Spector, T. D. and Chen, Y. I. and Damcott, C. and Shuldiner, A. R. and Absher, D. M. and Horvath, S. and Tsao, P. S. and Kardia, S. and Psaty, B. M. and Sotoodehnia, N. and Bell, J. T. and Ingelsson, E. and Chen, W. and Dehghan, A. and Arnett, D. K. and Waldenberger, M. and Hou, L. and Whitsel, E. A. and Baccarelli, A. and Levy, D. and Fornage, M. and Irvin, M. R. and Assimes, T. L.} } @article {8832, title = {Multiethnic Genome-Wide Association Study of Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes.}, journal = {Circ Genom Precis Med}, volume = {14}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Aug}, pages = {e003258}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery calcification (CAC) and carotid artery intima-media thickness (cIMT) are measures of subclinical atherosclerosis in asymptomatic individuals and strong risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is an independent cardiovascular disease risk factor that accelerates atherosclerosis.

METHODS: We performed meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies in up to 2500 T2D individuals of European ancestry (EA) and 1590 T2D individuals of African ancestry with or without exclusion of prevalent cardiovascular disease, for CAC measured by cardiac computed tomography, and 3608 individuals of EA and 838 individuals of African ancestry with T2D for cIMT measured by ultrasonography within the CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) Consortium.

RESULTS: We replicated 2 loci (rs9369640 and rs9349379 near and rs10757278 near ) for CAC and one locus for cIMT (rs7412 and rs445925 near ) that were previously reported in the general EA populations. We identified one novel CAC locus (rs8000449 near at 13q13.3) at =2.0{\texttimes}10 in EA. No additional loci were identified with the meta-analyses of EA and African ancestry. The expression quantitative trait loci analysis with nearby expressed genes derived from arterial wall and metabolic tissues from the Genotype-Tissue Expression project pinpoints , encoding a matricellular protein involved in bone formation and bone matrix organization, as the potential candidate gene at this locus. In addition, we found significant associations (<3.1{\texttimes}10) for 3 previously reported coronary artery disease loci for these subclinical atherosclerotic phenotypes (rs2891168 near and rs11170820 near for CAC, and rs7412 near for cIMT).

CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide potential biological mechanisms that could link CAC and cIMT to increased cardiovascular disease risk in individuals with T2D.

}, issn = {2574-8300}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGEN.120.003258}, author = {Lu, Yingchang and Dimitrov, Latchezar and Chen, Shyh-Huei and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Feitosa, Mary F and Lu, Lingyi and Kavousi, Maryam and Raffield, Laura M and Smith, Albert V and Wang, Lihua and Weiss, Stefan and Yao, Jie and Zhu, Jiaxi and Gudmundsson, Elias F and Gudmundsdottir, Valborg and Bos, Daniel and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Ikram, M Arfan and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Taylor, Kent D and Budoff, Matthew J and Gislason, Gauti K and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and An, Ping and Franceschini, Nora and Freedman, Barry I and Fu, Yi-Ping and Guo, Xiuqing and Heiss, Gerardo and Kardia, Sharon L R and Wilson, James G and Langefeld, Carl D and Schminke, Ulf and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Lange, Leslie A and Peyser, Patricia A and Gudnason, Vilmundur G and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Bowden, Donald W and Ng, Maggie C Y} } @article {8908, title = {is mutated in clonal hematopoiesis and myelodysplastic syndromes and impacts RNA splicing.}, journal = {Blood Cancer Discov}, volume = {2}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Sep}, pages = {500-517}, abstract = {

Clonal hematopoiesis results from somatic mutations in cancer driver genes in hematopoietic stem cells. We sought to identify novel drivers of clonal expansion using an unbiased analysis of sequencing data from 84,683 persons and identified common mutations in the 5-methylcytosine reader, , as well as in , , and . We also identified these mutations at low frequency in myelodysplastic syndrome patients. edited mouse hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells exhibited a competitive advantage and increased genome-wide intron retention. mutations potentially link DNA methylation and RNA splicing, the two most commonly mutated pathways in clonal hematopoiesis and MDS.

}, issn = {2643-3249}, doi = {10.1158/2643-3230.BCD-20-0224}, author = {Beauchamp, Ellen M and Leventhal, Matthew and Bernard, Elsa and Hoppe, Emma R and Todisco, Gabriele and Creignou, Maria and Gall{\`\i}, Anna and Castellano, Cecilia A and McConkey, Marie and Tarun, Akansha and Wong, Waihay and Schenone, Monica and Stanclift, Caroline and Tanenbaum, Benjamin and Malolepsza, Edyta and Nilsson, Bj{\"o}rn and Bick, Alexander G and Weinstock, Joshua S and Miller, Mendy and Niroula, Abhishek and Dunford, Andrew and Taylor-Weiner, Amaro and Wood, Timothy and Barbera, Alex and Anand, Shankara and Psaty, Bruce M and Desai, Pinkal and Cho, Michael H and Johnson, Andrew D and Loos, Ruth and MacArthur, Daniel G and Lek, Monkol and Neuberg, Donna S and Lage, Kasper and Carr, Steven A and Hellstrom-Lindberg, Eva and Malcovati, Luca and Papaemmanuil, Elli and Stewart, Chip and Getz, Gad and Bradley, Robert K and Jaiswal, Siddhartha and Ebert, Benjamin L} } @article {9458, title = {n-3 Fatty Acid Biomarkers and Incident Type 2 Diabetes: An Individual Participant-Level Pooling Project of 20 Prospective Cohort Studies}, journal = {Diabetes Care}, volume = {44}, year = {2021}, month = {May}, pages = {1133{\textendash}1142}, abstract = {-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) with T2D risk through an individual participant-level pooled analysis.\ For our analysis we incorporated data from a global consortium of 20 prospective studies from 14 countries. We included 65,147 participants who had blood measurements of ALA, EPA, DPA, or DHA and were free of diabetes at baseline. De novo harmonized analyses were performed in each cohort following a prespecified protocol, and cohort-specific associations were pooled using inverse variance-weighted meta-analysis.\ 0.001). ALA was not associated with T2D (HR 0.97 [95\% CI 0.92, 1.02]) per interquintile range. Associations were robust across prespecified subgroups as well as in sensitivity analyses.\ Higher circulating biomarkers of seafood-derived n-3 fatty acids, including EPA, DPA, DHA, and their sum, were associated with lower risk of T2D in a global consortium of prospective studies. The biomarker of plant-derived ALA was not significantly associated with T2D risk.}, author = {Qian, F. and Ardisson Korat, A. V. and Imamura, F. and Marklund, M. and Tintle, N. and Virtanen, J. K. and Zhou, X. and Bassett, J. K. and Lai, H. and Hirakawa, Y. and Chien, K. L. and Wood, A. C. and Lankinen, M. and Murphy, R. A. and Samieri, C. and Pertiwi, K. and de Mello, V. D. and Guan, W. and Forouhi, N. G. and Wareham, N. and Hu, I. C. F. B. and Riserus, U. and Lind, L. and Harris, W. S. and Shadyab, A. H. and Robinson, J. G. and Steffen, L. M. and Hodge, A. and Giles, G. G. and Ninomiya, T. and Uusitupa, M. and Tuomilehto, J. and m, J. and Laakso, M. and Siscovick, D. S. and Helmer, C. and Geleijnse, J. M. and Wu, J. H. Y. and Fretts, A. and Lemaitre, R. N. and Micha, R. and Mozaffarian, D. and Sun, Q.} } @article {8658, title = {Natural killer cells, gamma delta T cells and classical monocytes are associated with systolic blood pressure in the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis (MESA).}, journal = {BMC Cardiovasc Disord}, volume = {21}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Jan 22}, pages = {45}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is a major source of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Recent evidence from mouse models, genetic, and cross-sectional human studies suggest increased proportions of selected immune cell subsets may be associated with levels of systolic blood pressure (SBP).

METHODS: We assayed immune cells from cryopreserved samples collected at the baseline examination (2000-2002) from 1195 participants from the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis (MESA). We used linear mixed models, with adjustment for age, sex, race/ethnicity, smoking, exercise, body mass index, education, diabetes, and cytomegalovirus titers, to estimate the associations between 30 immune cell subsets (4 of which were a priori hypotheses) and repeated measures of SBP (baseline and up to four follow-up measures) over 10~years. The analysis provides estimates of the association with blood pressure level.

RESULTS: The mean age of the MESA participants at baseline was 64 {\textpm} 10~years and 53\% were male. A one standard deviation (1-SD) increment in the proportion of γδ T cells was associated with 2.40~mmHg [95\% confidence interval (CI) 1.34-3.42] higher average systolic blood pressure; and for natural killer cells, a 1-SD increment was associated with 1.88~mmHg (95\% CI 0.82-2.94) higher average level of systolic blood pressure. A 1-SD increment in classical monocytes (CD14CD16) was associated with 2.01 mmHG (95\% CI 0.79-3.24) lower average systolic blood pressure. There were no associations of CD4 T helper cell subsets with average systolic blood pressure.

CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that the innate immune system plays a role in levels of SBP whereas there were no associations with adaptive immune cells.

}, issn = {1471-2261}, doi = {10.1186/s12872-021-01857-2}, author = {Delaney, Joseph A C and Olson, Nels C and Sitlani, Colleen M and Fohner, Alison E and Huber, Sally A and Landay, Alan L and Heckbert, Susan R and Tracy, Russell P and Psaty, Bruce M and Feinstein, Matt and Doyle, Margaret F} } @article {8708, title = {Ophthalmic conditions associated with dementia risk: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Alzheimers Dement}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Mar 31}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: Ophthalmic conditions and dementia appear to overlap and may share common pathways, but research has not differentiated dementia subtypes.

METHODS: Diagnoses of cataracts, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy (DR), and glaucoma were based on medical histories and International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes for 3375 participants from the Cardiovascular Health Study. Dementia, including Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD), was classified using standardized research criteria.

RESULTS: Cataracts were associated with AD (hazard ratio [HR]~=~1.34; 95\% confidence interval [CI]~=~1.01-1.80) and VaD/mixed dementia (HR~=~1.41; 95\% CI~=~1.02-1.95). AMD was associated with AD only (HR~=~1.87; 95\% CI~=~1.13-3.09), whereas DR was associated with VaD/mixed dementia only (HR~=~2.63; 95\% CI~=~1.10-6.27).

DISCUSSION: Differential associations between specific ophthalmic conditions and dementia subtypes may elucidate pathophysiologic pathways. Lack of association between glaucoma and dementia was most surprising from these analyses.

}, issn = {1552-5279}, doi = {10.1002/alz.12313}, author = {Hwang, Phillip H and Longstreth, Will T and Thielke, Stephen M and Francis, Courtney E and Carone, Marco and Kuller, Lewis H and Fitzpatrick, Annette L} } @article {8980, title = {The Pharmacogenetics of Statin Therapy on Clinical Events: No Evidence that Genetic Variation Affects Statin Response on Myocardial Infarction.}, journal = {Front Pharmacol}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {2021}, pages = {679857}, abstract = {

The pharmacogenetic effect on cardiovascular disease reduction in response to statin treatment has only been assessed in small studies. In a pharmacogenetic genome wide association study (GWAS) analysis within the Genomic Investigation of Statin Therapy (GIST) consortium, we investigated whether genetic variation was associated with the response of statins on cardiovascular disease risk reduction. The investigated endpoint was incident myocardial infarction (MI) defined as coronary heart disease death and definite and suspect non-fatal MI. For imputed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), regression analysis was performed on expected allelic dosage and meta-analysed with a fixed-effects model, inverse variance weighted meta-analysis. All SNPs with -values <5.0 {\texttimes} 10 in stage 1 GWAS meta-analysis were selected for further investigation in stage-2. As a secondary analysis, we extracted SNPs from the Stage-1 GWAS meta-analysis results based on predefined hypotheses to possibly modifying the effect of statin therapy on MI. In stage-1 meta-analysis (eight studies, = 10,769, 4,212 cases), we observed no genome-wide significant results ( < 5.0 {\texttimes} 10). A total of 144 genetic variants were followed-up in the second stage (three studies, = 1,525, 180 cases). In the combined meta-analysis, no genome-wide significant hits were identified. Moreover, none of the look-ups of SNPs known to be associated with either CHD or with statin response to cholesterol levels reached Bonferroni level of significance within our stage-1 meta-analysis. This GWAS analysis did not provide evidence that genetic variation affects statin response on cardiovascular risk reduction. It does not appear likely that genetic testing for predicting effects of statins on clinical events will become a useful tool in clinical practice.

}, issn = {1663-9812}, doi = {10.3389/fphar.2021.679857}, author = {Trompet, Stella and Postmus, Iris and Warren, Helen R and Noordam, Raymond and Smit, Roelof A J and Theusch, Elizabeth and Li, Xiaohui and Arsenault, Benoit and Chasman, Daniel I and Hitman, Graham A and Munroe, Patricia B and Rotter, Jerome I and Psaty, Bruce M and Caulfield, Mark J and Krauss, Ron M and Cupples, Adrienne L and Jukema, Wouter J} } @article {8909, title = {Plasma Ceramides containing Saturated Fatty Acids are Associated with Risk of Type 2 Diabetes.}, journal = {J Lipid Res}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Sep 20}, pages = {100119}, abstract = {

Recent studies suggest that the type of saturated fatty acid bound to sphingolipids influences the biological activity of those sphingolipids. However, it is unknown whether associations of sphingolipids with diabetes may differ by the identity of bound lipid species. Here we investigated associations of 15 ceramide and sphingomyelin species (i.e., all sphingolipids, measured with coefficient of variation less than 20\%) with incident type 2 diabetes in the Cardiovascular Health Study (n = 3,645), a large cohort study of cardiovascular disease (CVD) among elderly adults who were followed from 1989-2015. Diabetes incidence was defined as fasting glucose >=126 mg/dL or non-fasting glucose >=200 mg/dL; reported use of insulin or oral hypoglycemic medication; or documentation of diabetes diagnosis through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services records. Associations of each sphingolipid with incident diabetes were assessed using a Cox proportional hazards regression model. We found that higher circulating levels of ceramide with acylated palmitic acid (Cer-16), stearic acid containing ceramide (Cer-18), arachidic acid containing ceramide (Cer-20), and behenic acid containing ceramide (Cer-22) were each associated with a higher risk of diabetes. The hazard ratios for incident diabetes per 1 SD higher log levels of each ceramide species were: 1.21 (95\% CI 1.09-1.34) for Cer-16, 1.23 (95\% CI 1.10-1.37) for Cer-18, 1.14 (95\% CI 1.02-1.26) for Cer-20, and 1.18 (95\% CI 1.06-1.32) for Cer-22. In conclusion, higher levels of Cer-16, Cer-18, Cer-20, and Cer-22 were associated with a higher risk of diabetes.

}, issn = {1539-7262}, doi = {10.1016/j.jlr.2021.100119}, author = {Fretts, Amanda M and Jensen, Paul N and Hoofnagle, Andrew N and McKnight, Barbara and Howard, Barbara V and Umans, Jason and Sitlani, Colleen M and Siscovick, David S and King, Irena B and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Lemaitre, Rozenn N} } @article {8992, title = {{The power of genetic diversity in genome-wide association studies of lipids}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {600}, year = {2021}, month = {Dec}, pages = {675{\textendash}679}, abstract = {application of polygenic scores in clinical practice.}, author = {Graham, S. E. and Clarke, S. L. and Wu, K. H. and Kanoni, S. and Zajac, G. J. M. and Ramdas, S. and Surakka, I. and Ntalla, I. and Vedantam, S. and Winkler, T. W. and Locke, A. E. and Marouli, E. and Hwang, M. Y. and Han, S. and Narita, A. and Choudhury, A. and Bentley, A. R. and Ekoru, K. and Verma, A. and Trivedi, B. and Martin, H. C. and Hunt, K. A. and Hui, Q. and Klarin, D. and Zhu, X. and Thorleifsson, G. and Helgadottir, A. and Gudbjartsson, D. F. and Holm, H. and Olafsson, I. and Akiyama, M. and Sakaue, S. and Terao, C. and Kanai, M. and Zhou, W. and Brumpton, B. M. and Rasheed, H. and Ruotsalainen, S. E. and Havulinna, A. S. and Veturi, Y. and Feng, Q. and Rosenthal, E. A. and Lingren, T. and Pacheco, J. A. and Pendergrass, S. A. and Haessler, J. and Giulianini, F. and Bradford, Y. and Miller, J. E. and Campbell, A. and Lin, K. and Millwood, I. Y. and Hindy, G. and Rasheed, A. and Faul, J. D. and Zhao, W. and Weir, D. R. and Turman, C. and Huang, H. and Graff, M. and Mahajan, A. and Brown, M. R. and Zhang, W. and Yu, K. and Schmidt, E. M. and Pandit, A. and Gustafsson, S. and Yin, X. and Luan, J. and Zhao, J. H. and Matsuda, F. and Jang, H. M. and Yoon, K. and Medina-Gomez, C. and Pitsillides, A. and Hottenga, J. J. and Willemsen, G. and Wood, A. R. and Ji, Y. and Gao, Z. and Haworth, S. and Mitchell, R. E. and Chai, J. F. and Aadahl, M. and Yao, J. and Manichaikul, A. and Warren, H. R. and Ramirez, J. and Bork-Jensen, J. and K{\r a}rhus, L. L. and Goel, A. and Sabater-Lleal, M. and Noordam, R. and Sidore, C. and Fiorillo, E. and McDaid, A. F. and Marques-Vidal, P. and Wielscher, M. and Trompet, S. and Sattar, N. and M{\o}llehave, L. T. and Thuesen, B. H. and Munz, M. and Zeng, L. and Huang, J. and Yang, B. and Poveda, A. and Kurbasic, A. and Lamina, C. and Forer, L. and Scholz, M. and Galesloot, T. E. and Bradfield, J. P. and Daw, E. W. and Zmuda, J. M. and Mitchell, J. S. and Fuchsberger, C. and Christensen, H. and Brody, J. A. and Feitosa, M. F. and Wojczynski, M. K. and Preuss, M. and Mangino, M. and Christofidou, P. and Verweij, N. and Benjamins, J. W. and Engmann, J. and Kember, R. L. and Slieker, R. C. and Lo, K. S. and Zilhao, N. R. and Le, P. and Kleber, M. E. and Delgado, G. E. and Huo, S. and Ikeda, D. D. and Iha, H. and Yang, J. and Liu, J. and Leonard, H. 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P. and Vaccargiu, S. and van der Most, P. J. and Pitk{\"a}nen, N. and Cade, B. E. and Lee, J. and van der Laan, S. W. and Chitrala, K. N. and Weiss, S. and Zimmermann, M. E. and Lee, J. Y. and Choi, H. S. and Nethander, M. and Freitag-Wolf, S. and Southam, L. and Rayner, N. W. and Wang, C. A. and Lin, S. Y. and Wang, J. S. and Couture, C. and Lyytik{\"a}inen, L. P. and Nikus, K. and Cuellar-Partida, G. and Vestergaard, H. and Hildalgo, B. and Giannakopoulou, O. and Cai, Q. and Obura, M. O. and van Setten, J. and Li, X. and Schwander, K. and Terzikhan, N. and Shin, J. H. and Jackson, R. D. and Reiner, A. P. and Martin, L. W. and Chen, Z. and Li, L. and Highland, H. M. and Young, K. L. and Kawaguchi, T. and Thiery, J. and Bis, J. C. and Nadkarni, G. N. and Launer, L. J. and Li, H. and Nalls, M. A. and Raitakari, O. T. and Ichihara, S. and Wild, S. H. and Nelson, C. P. and Campbell, H. and J{\"a}ger, S. and Nabika, T. and Al-Mulla, F. and Niinikoski, H. and Braund, P. S. and Kolcic, I. and Kovacs, P. and Giardoglou, T. and Katsuya, T. and Bhatti, K. F. and de Kleijn, D. and de Borst, G. J. and Kim, E. K. and Adams, H. H. H. and Ikram, M. A. and Zhu, X. and Asselbergs, F. W. and Kraaijeveld, A. O. and Beulens, J. W. J. and Shu, X. O. and Rallidis, L. S. and Pedersen, O. and Hansen, T. and Mitchell, P. and Hewitt, A. W. and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, M. and P{\'e}russe, L. and Bouchard, C. and Tonjes, A. and Chen, Y. I. and Pennell, C. E. and Mori, T. A. and Lieb, W. and Franke, A. and Ohlsson, C. and Mellstr{\"o}m, D. and Cho, Y. S. and Lee, H. and Yuan, J. M. and Koh, W. P. and Rhee, S. Y. and Woo, J. T. and Heid, I. M. and Stark, K. J. and V{\"o}lzke, H. and Homuth, G. and Evans, M. K. and Zonderman, A. B. and Polasek, O. and Pasterkamp, G. and Hoefer, I. E. and Redline, S. and Pahkala, K. and Oldehinkel, A. J. and Snieder, H. and Biino, G. and Schmidt, R. and Schmidt, H. and Chen, Y. E. and Bandinelli, S. and Dedoussis, G. and Thanaraj, T. A. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Kato, N. and Schulze, M. B. and Girotto, G. and Jung, B. and B{\"o}ger, C. A. and Joshi, P. K. and Bennett, D. A. and De Jager, P. L. and Lu, X. and Mamakou, V. and Brown, M. and Caulfield, M. J. and Munroe, P. B. and Guo, X. and Ciullo, M. and Jonas, J. B. and Samani, N. J. and Kaprio, J. and Pajukanta, P. and Adair, L. S. and Bechayda, S. A. and de Silva, H. J. and Wickremasinghe, A. R. and Krauss, R. M. and Wu, J. Y. and Zheng, W. and den Hollander, A. I. and Bharadwaj, D. and Correa, A. and Wilson, J. G. and Lind, L. and Heng, C. K. and Nelson, A. E. and Golightly, Y. M. and Wilson, J. F. and Penninx, B. and Kim, H. L. and Attia, J. and Scott, R. J. and Rao, D. C. and Arnett, D. K. and Walker, M. and Koistinen, H. A. and Chandak, G. R. and Yajnik, C. S. and Mercader, J. M. and Tusi{\'e}-Luna, T. and Aguilar-Salinas, C. A. and Villalpando, C. G. and Orozco, L. and Fornage, M. and Tai, E. S. and van Dam, R. M. and Lehtim{\"a}ki, T. and Chaturvedi, N. and Yokota, M. and Liu, J. and Reilly, D. F. and McKnight, A. J. and Kee, F. and J{\"o}ckel, K. H. and McCarthy, M. I. and Palmer, C. N. A. and Vitart, V. and Hayward, C. and Simonsick, E. and van Duijn, C. M. and Lu, F. and Qu, J. and Hishigaki, H. and Lin, X. and M{\"a}rz, W. and Parra, E. J. and Cruz, M. and Gudnason, V. and Tardif, J. C. and Lettre, G. and {\textquoteright}t Hart, L. M. and Elders, P. J. M. and Damrauer, S. M. and Kumari, M. and Kivimaki, M. and van der Harst, P. and Spector, T. D. and Loos, R. J. F. and Province, M. A. and Psaty, B. M. and Brandslund, I. and Pramstaller, P. P. and Christensen, K. and Ripatti, S. and Wid{\'e}n, E. and Hakonarson, H. and Grant, S. F. A. and Kiemeney, L. A. L. M. and de Graaf, J. and Loeffler, M. and Kronenberg, F. and Gu, D. and Erdmann, J. and Schunkert, H. and Franks, P. W. and Linneberg, A. and Jukema, J. W. and Khera, A. V. and M{\"a}nnikk{\"o}, M. and Jarvelin, M. R. and Kutalik, Z. and Cucca, F. and Mook-Kanamori, D. O. and van Dijk, K. W. and Watkins, H. and Strachan, D. P. and Grarup, N. and Sever, P. and Poulter, N. and Rotter, J. I. and Dantoft, T. M. and Karpe, F. and Neville, M. J. and Timpson, N. J. and Cheng, C. Y. and Wong, T. Y. and Khor, C. C. and Sabanayagam, C. and Peters, A. and Gieger, C. and Hattersley, A. T. and Pedersen, N. L. and Magnusson, P. K. E. and Boomsma, D. I. and de Geus, E. J. C. and Cupples, L. A. and van Meurs, J. B. J. and Ghanbari, M. and Gordon-Larsen, P. and Huang, W. and Kim, Y. J. and Tabara, Y. and Wareham, N. J. and Langenberg, C. and Zeggini, E. and Kuusisto, J. and Laakso, M. and Ingelsson, E. and Abecasis, G. and Chambers, J. C. and Kooner, J. S. and de Vries, P. S. and Morrison, A. C. and North, K. E. and Daviglus, M. and Kraft, P. and Martin, N. G. and Whitfield, J. B. and Abbas, S. and Saleheen, D. and Walters, R. G. and Holmes, M. V. and Black, C. and Smith, B. H. and Justice, A. E. and Baras, A. and Buring, J. E. and Ridker, P. M. and Chasman, D. I. and Kooperberg, C. and Wei, W. Q. and Jarvik, G. P. and Namjou, B. and Hayes, M. G. and Ritchie, M. D. and Jousilahti, P. and Salomaa, V. and Hveem, K. and {\r A}svold, B. O. and Kubo, M. and Kamatani, Y. and Okada, Y. and Murakami, Y. and Thorsteinsdottir, U. and Stefansson, K. and Ho, Y. L. and Lynch, J. A. and Rader, D. J. and Tsao, P. S. and Chang, K. M. and Cho, K. and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, C. J. and Gaziano, J. M. and Wilson, P. and Rotimi, C. N. and Hazelhurst, S. and Ramsay, M. and Trembath, R. C. and van Heel, D. A. and Tamiya, G. and Yamamoto, M. and Kim, B. J. and Mohlke, K. L. and Frayling, T. M. and Hirschhorn, J. N. and Kathiresan, S. and Boehnke, M. and Natarajan, P. and Peloso, G. M. and Brown, C. D. and Morris, A. P. and Assimes, T. L. and Deloukas, P. and Sun, Y. V. and Willer, C. J.} } @article {8923, title = {Premature ventricular complexes and development of heart failure in a community-based population.}, journal = {Heart}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Sep 07}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: A higher premature ventricular complex (PVC) frequency is associated with incident congestive heart failure (CHF) and death. While certain PVC characteristics may contribute to that risk, the current literature stems from patients in medical settings and is therefore prone to referral bias. This study aims to identify PVC characteristics associated with incident CHF in a community-based setting.

METHODS: The Cardiovascular Health Study is a cohort of community-dwelling individuals who underwent prospective evaluation and follow-up. We analysed 24-hour Holter data to assess PVC characteristics and used multivariable logistic and Cox proportional hazards models to identify predictors of a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) decline and incident CHF, respectively.

RESULTS: Of 871 analysed participants, 316 participants exhibited at least 10 PVCs during the 24-hour recording. For participants with PVCs, the average age was 72{\textpm}5 years, 41\% were women and 93\% were white. Over a median follow-up of 11 years, 34\% developed CHF. After adjusting for demographics, cardiovascular comorbidities, antiarrhythmic drug use and PVC frequency, a greater heterogeneity of the PVC coupling interval was associated with an increased risk of LVEF decline and incident CHF. Of note, neither PVC duration nor coupling interval duration exhibited a statistically significant relationship with either outcome.

CONCLUSIONS: In this first community-based study to identify Holter-based features of PVCs that are associated with LVEF reduction and incident CHF, the fact that coupling interval heterogeneity was an independent risk factor suggests that the mechanism of PVC generation may influence the risk of heart failure.

}, issn = {1468-201X}, doi = {10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319473}, author = {Limpitikul, Worawan B and Dewland, Thomas A and Vittinghoff, Eric and Soliman, Elsayed and Nah, Gregory and Fang, Christina and Siscovick, David S and Psaty, Bruce M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Heckbert, Susan and Stein, Phyllis K and Gottdiener, John and Hu, Xiao and Hempfling, Ralf and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {8919, title = {Pre-Statistical Considerations for Harmonization of Cognitive Instruments: Harmonization of ARIC, CARDIA, CHS, FHS, MESA, and NOMAS.}, journal = {J Alzheimers Dis}, volume = {83}, year = {2021}, month = {2021}, pages = {1803-1813}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Meta-analyses of individuals{\textquoteright} cognitive data are increasing to investigate the biomedical, lifestyle, and sociocultural factors that influence cognitive decline and dementia risk. Pre-statistical harmonization of cognitive instruments is a critical methodological step for accurate cognitive data harmonization, yet specific approaches for this process are unclear.

OBJECTIVE: To describe pre-statistical harmonization of cognitive instruments for an individual-level meta-analysis in the blood pressure and cognition (BP COG) study.

METHODS: We identified cognitive instruments from six cohorts (the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, Cardiovascular Health Study, Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, Framingham Offspring Study, Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and Northern Manhattan Study) and conducted an extensive review of each item{\textquoteright}s administration and scoring procedures, and score distributions.

RESULTS: We included 153 cognitive instrument items from 34 instruments across the six cohorts. Of these items, 42\%were common across >=2 cohorts. 86\%of common items showed differences across cohorts. We found administration, scoring, and coding differences for seemingly equivalent items. These differences corresponded to variability across cohorts in score distributions and ranges. We performed data augmentation to adjust for differences.

CONCLUSION: Cross-cohort administration, scoring, and procedural differences for cognitive instruments are frequent and need to be assessed to address potential impact on meta-analyses and cognitive data interpretation. Detecting and accounting for these differences is critical for accurate attributions of cognitive health across cohort studies.

}, issn = {1875-8908}, doi = {10.3233/JAD-210459}, author = {Brice{\~n}o, Emily M and Gross, Alden L and Giordani, Bruno J and Manly, Jennifer J and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Sidney, Stephen and Hingtgen, Stephanie and Sacco, Ralph L and Wright, Clinton B and Fitzpatrick, Annette and Fohner, Alison E and Mosley, Thomas H and Yaffe, Kristine and Levine, Deborah A} } @article {8917, title = {{Rare and low-frequency exonic variants and gene-by-smoking interactions in pulmonary function}, journal = {Sci Rep}, volume = {11}, year = {2021}, month = {09}, pages = {19365}, abstract = {. This study investigates the utility of assessing gene-by-smoking interactions and underscores their effects on potential pulmonary function.}, author = {Yang, T. and Jackson, V. E. and Smith, A. V. and Chen, H. and Bartz, T. M. and Sitlani, C. M. and Psaty, B. M. and Gharib, S. A. and O{\textquoteright}Connor, G. T. and Dupuis, J. and Xu, J. and Lohman, K. and Liu, Y. and Kritchevsky, S. B. and Cassano, P. A. and Flexeder, C. and Gieger, C. and Karrasch, S. and Peters, A. and Schulz, H. and Harris, S. E. and Starr, J. M. and Deary, I. J. and Manichaikul, A. and Oelsner, E. C. and Barr, R. G. and Taylor, K. D. and Rich, S. S. and Bonten, T. N. and Mook-Kanamori, D. O. and Noordam, R. and Li-Gao, R. and Jarvelin, M. R. and Wielscher, M. and Terzikhan, N. and Lahousse, L. and Brusselle, G. and Weiss, S. and Ewert, R. and Gl{\"a}ser, S. and Homuth, G. and Shrine, N. and Hall, I. P. and Tobin, M. and London, S. J. and Wei, P. and Morrison, A. C.} } @article {8829, title = {{Rare Coding Variants Associated With Electrocardiographic Intervals Identify Monogenic Arrhythmia Susceptibility Genes: A Multi-Ancestry Analysis}, journal = {Circ Genom Precis Med}, volume = {14}, year = {2021}, month = {Aug}, pages = {e003300}, abstract = {Alterations in electrocardiographic (ECG) intervals are well-known markers for arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death (SCD) risk. While the genetics of arrhythmia syndromes have been studied, relations between electrocardiographic intervals and rare genetic variation at a population level are poorly understood.\ Using a discovery sample of 29 000 individuals with whole-genome sequencing from Trans-Omics in Precision Medicine and replication in nearly 100 000 with whole-exome sequencing from the UK Biobank and MyCode, we examined associations between low-frequency and rare coding variants with 5 routinely measured electrocardiographic traits (RR, P-wave, PR, and QRS intervals and corrected QT interval).\ ), a marker of SCD risk. Incomplete penetrance of such deleterious variation was common as over 70\% of carriers had normal electrocardiographic intervals.\ Our findings indicate that large-scale high-depth sequence data and electrocardiographic analysis identifies monogenic arrhythmia susceptibility genes and rare variants with large effects. Known pathogenic variation in conventional arrhythmia and SCD genes exhibited incomplete penetrance and accounted for only a small fraction of marked electrocardiographic interval prolongation.}, author = {Choi, S. H. and Jurgens, S. J. and Haggerty, C. M. and Hall, A. W. and Halford, J. L. and Morrill, V. N. and Weng, L. C. and Lagerman, B. and Mirshahi, T. and Pettinger, M. and Guo, X. and Lin, H. J. and Alonso, A. and Soliman, E. Z. and Kornej, J. and Lin, H. and Moscati, A. and Nadkarni, G. N. and Brody, J. A. and Wiggins, K. L. and Cade, B. E. and Lee, J. and Austin-Tse, C. and Blackwell, T. and Chaffin, M. D. and Lee, C. J. and Rehm, H. L. and Roselli, C. and Redline, S. and Mitchell, B. D. and Sotoodehnia, N. and Psaty, B. M. and Heckbert, S. R. and Loos, R. J. F. and Vasan, R. S. and Benjamin, E. J. and Correa, A. and Boerwinkle, E. and Arking, D. E. and Rotter, J. I. and Rich, S. S. and Whitsel, E. A. and Perez, M. and Kooperberg, C. and Fornwalt, B. K. and Lunetta, K. L. and Ellinor, P. T. and Lubitz, S. A.} } @article {8666, title = {Sequencing of 53,831 diverse genomes from the NHLBI TOPMed Program.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {590}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 02}, pages = {290-299}, abstract = {

The Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) programme seeks to elucidate the genetic architecture and biology of heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders, with the ultimate goal of improving diagnosis, treatment and prevention of these diseases. The initial phases of the programme focused on whole-genome sequencing of individuals with rich phenotypic data and diverse backgrounds. Here we describe the TOPMed goals and design as well as the available resources and early insights obtained from the sequence data. The resources include a variant browser, a genotype imputation server, and genomic and phenotypic data that are available through dbGaP (Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes). In the first 53,831 TOPMed samples, we detected more than 400~million single-nucleotide and insertion or deletion variants after alignment with the reference genome. Additional previously undescribed variants were detected through assembly of unmapped reads and customized analysis in highly variable loci. Among the more than 400~million detected variants, 97\% have frequencies of less than 1\% and 46\% are singletons that are present in only one individual (53\% among unrelated individuals). These rare variants provide insights into mutational processes and recent human evolutionary history. The extensive catalogue of genetic variation in TOPMed studies provides unique opportunities for exploring the contributions of rare and noncoding sequence variants to phenotypic variation. Furthermore, combining TOPMed haplotypes with modern imputation methods improves the power and reach of genome-wide association studies to include variants down to a frequency of approximately 0.01\%.

}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-021-03205-y}, author = {Taliun, Daniel and Harris, Daniel N and Kessler, Michael D and Carlson, Jedidiah and Szpiech, Zachary A and Torres, Raul and Taliun, Sarah A Gagliano and Corvelo, Andr{\'e} and Gogarten, Stephanie M and Kang, Hyun Min and Pitsillides, Achilleas N and LeFaive, Jonathon and Lee, Seung-Been and Tian, Xiaowen and Browning, Brian L and Das, Sayantan and Emde, Anne-Katrin and Clarke, Wayne E and Loesch, Douglas P and Shetty, Amol C and Blackwell, Thomas W and Smith, Albert V and Wong, Quenna and Liu, Xiaoming and Conomos, Matthew P and Bobo, Dean M and Aguet, Francois and Albert, Christine and Alonso, Alvaro and Ardlie, Kristin G and Arking, Dan E and Aslibekyan, Stella and Auer, Paul L and Barnard, John and Barr, R Graham and Barwick, Lucas and Becker, Lewis C and Beer, Rebecca L and Benjamin, Emelia J and Bielak, Lawrence F and Blangero, John and Boehnke, Michael and Bowden, Donald W and Brody, Jennifer A and Burchard, Esteban G and Cade, Brian E and Casella, James F and Chalazan, Brandon and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Cho, Michael H and Choi, Seung Hoan and Chung, Mina K and Clish, Clary B and Correa, Adolfo and Curran, Joanne E and Custer, Brian and Darbar, Dawood and Daya, Michelle and de Andrade, Mariza and DeMeo, Dawn L and Dutcher, Susan K and Ellinor, Patrick T and Emery, Leslie S and Eng, Celeste and Fatkin, Diane and Fingerlin, Tasha and Forer, Lukas and Fornage, Myriam and Franceschini, Nora and Fuchsberger, Christian and Fullerton, Stephanie M and Germer, Soren and Gladwin, Mark T and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Guo, Xiuqing and Hall, Michael E and He, Jiang and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Heckbert, Susan R and Irvin, Marguerite R and Johnsen, Jill M and Johnson, Andrew D and Kaplan, Robert and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kelly, Tanika and Kelly, Shannon and Kenny, Eimear E and Kiel, Douglas P and Klemmer, Robert and Konkle, Barbara A and Kooperberg, Charles and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Lange, Leslie A and Lasky-Su, Jessica and Levy, Daniel and Lin, Xihong and Lin, Keng-Han and Liu, Chunyu and Loos, Ruth J F and Garman, Lori and Gerszten, Robert and Lubitz, Steven A and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Mak, Angel C Y and Manichaikul, Ani and Manning, Alisa K and Mathias, Rasika A and McManus, David D and McGarvey, Stephen T and Meigs, James B and Meyers, Deborah A and Mikulla, Julie L and Minear, Mollie A and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mohanty, Sanghamitra and Montasser, May E and Montgomery, Courtney and Morrison, Alanna C and Murabito, Joanne M and Natale, Andrea and Natarajan, Pradeep and Nelson, Sarah C and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pankratz, Nathan and Peloso, Gina M and Peyser, Patricia A and Pleiness, Jacob and Post, Wendy S and Psaty, Bruce M and Rao, D C and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alexander P and Roden, Dan and Rotter, Jerome I and Ruczinski, Ingo and Sarnowski, Chloe and Schoenherr, Sebastian and Schwartz, David A and Seo, Jeong-Sun and Seshadri, Sudha and Sheehan, Vivien A and Sheu, Wayne H and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Smith, Nicholas L and Smith, Jennifer A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stilp, Adrienne M and Tang, Weihong and Taylor, Kent D and Telen, Marilyn and Thornton, Timothy A and Tracy, Russell P and Van Den Berg, David J and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Viaud-Martinez, Karine A and Vrieze, Scott and Weeks, Daniel E and Weir, Bruce S and Weiss, Scott T and Weng, Lu-Chen and Willer, Cristen J and Zhang, Yingze and Zhao, Xutong and Arnett, Donna K and Ashley-Koch, Allison E and Barnes, Kathleen C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Gabriel, Stacey and Gibbs, Richard and Rice, Kenneth M and Rich, Stephen S and Silverman, Edwin K and Qasba, Pankaj and Gan, Weiniu and Papanicolaou, George J and Nickerson, Deborah A and Browning, Sharon R and Zody, Michael C and Z{\"o}llner, Sebastian and Wilson, James G and Cupples, L Adrienne and Laurie, Cathy C and Jaquish, Cashell E and Hernandez, Ryan D and O{\textquoteright}Connor, Timothy D and Abecasis, Goncalo R} } @article {8993, title = {Serum Nonesterified Fatty Acids and Incident Stroke: The CHS.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {10}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 11 16}, pages = {e022725}, abstract = {

Background Significant associations between total nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) concentrations and incident stroke have been reported in some prospective cohort studies. We evaluated the associations between incident stroke and serum concentrations of nonesterified saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and fatty acids. Methods and Results CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study) participants (N=2028) who were free of stroke at baseline (1996-1997) and had an archived fasting serum sample were included in this study. A total of 35 NEFAs were quantified using gas chromatography. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to evaluate associations of 5 subclasses (nonesterified saturated, monounsaturated, omega (n)-6 polyunsaturated, n-3 polyunsaturated, and fatty acids) of NEFAs and individual NEFAs with incident stroke. Sensitivity analysis was conducted by excluding cases with hemorrhagic stroke (n=45). A total of 338 cases of incident stroke occurred during the median 10.5-year follow-up period. Total n-3 (hazard ratio [HR], 0.77 [95\% CI, 0.61-0.97]) and n-6 (HR, 1.32 [95\% CI, 1.01-1.73]) subclasses of NEFA were negatively and positively associated with incident stroke, respectively. Among individual NEFAs, dihomo-γ-linolenic acid (20:3n-6) was associated with higher risk (HR, 1.29 [95\% CI, 1.02-1.63]), whereas -7-hexadecenoic acid (16:1n-9) and arachidonic acid (20:4n-6) were associated with a lower risk (HR, 0.67 [95\% CI, 0.47-0.97]; HR, 0.81 [95\% CI. 0.65-1.00], respectively) of incident stroke per standard deviation increment. After the exclusion of cases with hemorrhagic stroke, these associations did not remain significant. Conclusions A total of 2 NEFA subclasses and 3 individual NEFAs were associated with incident stroke. Of these, the NEFA n-3 subclass and dihomo-γ-linolenic acid are diet derived and may be potential biomarkers for total stroke risk.

}, keywords = {8,11,14-Eicosatrienoic Acid, Fatty Acids, Nonesterified, Fatty Acids, Omega-3, Hemorrhagic Stroke, Humans, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Stroke, Trans Fatty Acids}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.121.022725}, author = {Huang, Neil K and Biggs, Mary L and Matthan, Nirupa R and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Longstreth, W T and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Siscovick, David S and Lichtenstein, Alice H} } @article {8911, title = {Serum Non-Esterified Fatty Acids, Carotid Artery Intima-Media Thickness and Flow-Mediated Dilation in Older Adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS).}, journal = {Nutrients}, volume = {13}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Aug 31}, abstract = {

Elevated common carotid artery intima-media thickness (carotid IMT) and diminished flow-mediated dilation (FMD) are early subclinical indicators of atherosclerosis. Serum total non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) concentrations have been positively associated with subclinical atherosclerosis. The relations between individual NEFA, carotid IMT and FMD have as yet to be assessed. We investigated the associations between fasting serum individual NEFA, carotid IMT and FMD among Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) participants with ( = 255 for carotid IMT, 301 for FMD) or without ( = 1314 for carotid IMT, 1462 for FMD) known atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Using archived samples (fasting) collected from 1996-1997 (baseline), 35 individual NEFAs were measured using gas chromatography. Carotid IMT and estimated plaque thickness (mean of maximum internal carotid IMT) were determined in 1998-1999. FMD was measured in 1997-1998. Linear regression adjusted by the Holm-Bonferroni method was used to assess relations between individual NEFA, carotid IMT and FMD. In multivariable adjusted linear regression models per SD increment, the non-esterified fatty acid conjugated linoleic acid (-18:2 CLA) was positively associated with carotid IMT [β (95\% CI): 44.8 (19.2, 70.4), = 0.025] among participants with, but not without, ASCVD [2.16 (-6.74, 11.5), = 1.000]. Non-esterified -palmitoleic acid (16:1n-7) was positively associated with FMD [19.7 (8.34, 31.0), = 0.024] among participants without, but not with ASCVD. No significant associations between NEFAs and estimated plaque thickness were observed. In older adults, serum non-esterified CLA and palmitoleic acid were positively associated with carotid IMT and FMD, respectively, suggesting potential modifiable biomarkers for arteriopathy.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atherosclerosis, Biomarkers, Brachial Artery, Carotid Artery, Common, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Dilatation, Fatty Acids, Monounsaturated, Fatty Acids, Nonesterified, Female, Humans, Linoleic Acid, Male, Regional Blood Flow, Risk Factors, Ultrasonography}, issn = {2072-6643}, doi = {10.3390/nu13093052}, author = {Huang, Neil K and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Matthan, Nirupa R and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Kizer, Jorge R and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Polak, Joseph F and Lichtenstein, Alice H} } @article {8709, title = {Sex Differences in Cognitive Decline Among US Adults.}, journal = {JAMA Netw Open}, volume = {4}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 02 01}, pages = {e210169}, abstract = {

Importance: Sex differences in dementia risk are unclear, but some studies have found greater risk for women.

Objective: To determine associations between sex and cognitive decline in order to better understand sex differences in dementia risk.

Design, Setting, and Participants: This cohort study used pooled analysis of individual participant data from 5 cohort studies for years 1971 to 2017: Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study, Cardiovascular Health Study, Framingham Offspring Study, and Northern Manhattan Study. Linear mixed-effects models were used to estimate changes in each continuous cognitive outcome over time by sex. Data analysis was completed from March 2019 to October 2020.

Exposure: Sex.

Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was change in global cognition. Secondary outcomes were change in memory and executive function. Outcomes were standardized as t scores (mean [SD], 50 [10]); a 1-point difference represents a 0.1-SD difference in cognition.

Results: Among 34 349 participants, 26 088 who self-reported Black or White race, were free of stroke and dementia, and had covariate data at or before the first cognitive assessment were included for analysis. Median (interquartile range) follow-up was 7.9 (5.3-20.5) years. There were 11 775 (44.7\%) men (median [interquartile range] age, 58 [51-66] years at first cognitive assessment; 2229 [18.9\%] Black) and 14 313 women (median [interquartile range] age, 58 [51-67] years at first cognitive assessment; 3636 [25.4\%] Black). Women had significantly higher baseline performance than men in global cognition (2.20 points higher; 95\% CI, 2.04 to 2.35 points; P < .001), executive function (2.13 points higher; 95\% CI, 1.98 to 2.29 points; P < .001), and memory (1.89 points higher; 95\% CI, 1.72 to 2.06 points; P < .001). Compared with men, women had significantly faster declines in global cognition (-0.07 points/y faster; 95\% CI, -0.08 to -0.05 points/y; P < .001) and executive function (-0.06 points/y faster; 95\% CI, -0.07 to -0.05 points/y; P < .001). Men and women had similar declines in memory (-0.004 points/y faster; 95\% CI, -0.023 to 0.014; P = .61).

Conclusions and Relevance: The results of this cohort study suggest that women may have greater cognitive reserve but faster cognitive decline than men, which could contribute to sex differences in late-life dementia.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cognitive Dysfunction, Cognitive Reserve, Cohort Studies, Executive Function, Humans, Memory, Middle Aged, Risk, Sex Factors, Time Factors, United States}, issn = {2574-3805}, doi = {10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.0169}, author = {Levine, Deborah A and Gross, Alden L and Brice{\~n}o, Emily M and Tilton, Nicholas and Giordani, Bruno J and Sussman, Jeremy B and Hayward, Rodney A and Burke, James F and Hingtgen, Stephanie and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Manly, Jennifer J and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Gaskin, Darrell J and Sidney, Stephen and Sacco, Ralph L and Tom, Sarah E and Wright, Clinton B and Yaffe, Kristine and Galecki, Andrzej T} } @article {8663, title = {{Sex-dimorphic genetic effects and novel loci for fasting glucose and insulin variability}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {01}, pages = {24}, abstract = {Differences between sexes contribute to variation in the levels of fasting glucose and insulin. Epidemiological studies established a higher prevalence of impaired fasting glucose in men and impaired glucose tolerance in women, however, the genetic component underlying this phenomenon is not established. We assess sex-dimorphic (73,089/50,404 women and 67,506/47,806 men) and sex-combined (151,188/105,056 individuals) fasting glucose/fasting insulin genetic effects via genome-wide association study meta-analyses in individuals of European descent without diabetes. Here we report sex dimorphism in allelic effects on fasting insulin at IRS1 and ZNF12 loci, the latter showing higher RNA expression in whole blood in women compared to men. We also observe sex-homogeneous effects on fasting glucose at seven novel loci. Fasting insulin in women shows stronger genetic correlations than in men with waist-to-hip ratio and anorexia nervosa. Furthermore, waist-to-hip ratio is causally related to insulin resistance in women, but not in men. These results position dissection of metabolic and glycemic health sex dimorphism as a steppingstone for understanding differences in genetic effects between women and men in related phenotypes.}, author = {Lagou, V. and M{\"a}gi, R. and Hottenga, J. J. and Grallert, H. and Perry, J. R. B. and Bouatia-Naji, N. and Marullo, L. and Rybin, D. and Jansen, R. and Min, J. L. and Dimas, A. S. and Ulrich, A. and Zudina, L. and G{\r a}din, J. R. and Jiang, L. and Faggian, A. and Bonnefond, A. and Fadista, J. and Stathopoulou, M. G. and Isaacs, A. and Willems, S. M. and Navarro, P. and Tanaka, T. and Jackson, A. U. and Montasser, M. E. and O{\textquoteright}Connell, J. R. and Bielak, L. F. and Webster, R. J. and Saxena, R. and Stafford, J. M. and Pourcain, B. S. and Timpson, N. J. and Salo, P. and Shin, S. Y. and Amin, N. and Smith, A. V. and Li, G. and Verweij, N. and Goel, A. and Ford, I. and Johnson, P. C. D. and Johnson, T. and Kapur, K. and Thorleifsson, G. and Strawbridge, R. J. and Rasmussen-Torvik, L. J. and Esko, T. and Mihailov, E. and Fall, T. and Fraser, R. M. and Mahajan, A. and Kanoni, S. and Giedraitis, V. and Kleber, M. E. and Silbernagel, G. and Meyer, J. and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, M. and Ganna, A. and Sarin, A. P. and Yengo, L. and Shungin, D. and Luan, J. and Horikoshi, M. and An, P. and Sanna, S. and Boettcher, Y. and Rayner, N. W. and Nolte, I. M. and Zemunik, T. and Iperen, E. V. and Kovacs, P. and Hastie, N. D. and Wild, S. H. and McLachlan, S. and Campbell, S. and Polasek, O. and Carlson, O. and Egan, J. and Kiess, W. and Willemsen, G. and Kuusisto, J. and Laakso, M. and Dimitriou, M. and Hicks, A. A. and Rauramaa, R. and Bandinelli, S. and Thorand, B. and Liu, Y. and Miljkovic, I. and Lind, L. and Doney, A. and Perola, M. and Hingorani, A. and Kivimaki, M. and Kumari, M. and Bennett, A. J. and Groves, C. J. and Herder, C. and Koistinen, H. A. and Kinnunen, L. and Faire, U. and Bakker, S. J. L. and Uusitupa, M. and Palmer, C. N. A. and Jukema, J. W. and Sattar, N. and Pouta, A. and Snieder, H. and Boerwinkle, E. and Pankow, J. S. and Magnusson, P. K. and Krus, U. and Scapoli, C. and de Geus, E. J. C. N. and Bl{\"u}her, M. and Wolffenbuttel, B. H. R. and Province, M. A. and Abecasis, G. R. and Meigs, J. B. and Hovingh, G. K. and Lindstr{\"o}m, J. and Wilson, J. F. and Wright, A. F. and Dedoussis, G. V. and Bornstein, S. R. and Schwarz, P. E. H. and Tonjes, A. and Winkelmann, B. R. and Boehm, B. O. and M{\"a}rz, W. and Metspalu, A. and Price, J. F. and Deloukas, P. and K{\"o}rner, A. and Lakka, T. A. and Keinanen-Kiukaanniemi, S. M. and Saaristo, T. E. and Bergman, R. N. and Tuomilehto, J. and Wareham, N. J. and Langenberg, C. and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, S. and Franks, P. W. and Hayward, C. and Vitart, V. and Kaprio, J. and Visvikis-Siest, S. and Balkau, B. and Altshuler, D. and Rudan, I. and Stumvoll, M. and Campbell, H. and van Duijn, C. M. and Gieger, C. and Illig, T. and Ferrucci, L. and Pedersen, N. L. and Pramstaller, P. P. and Boehnke, M. and Frayling, T. M. and Shuldiner, A. R. and Peyser, P. A. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Palmer, L. J. and Penninx, B. W. and Meneton, P. and Harris, T. B. and Navis, G. and Harst, P. V. and Smith, G. D. and Forouhi, N. G. and Loos, R. J. F. and Salomaa, V. and Soranzo, N. and Boomsma, D. I. and Groop, L. and Tuomi, T. and Hofman, A. and Munroe, P. B. and Gudnason, V. and Siscovick, D. S. and Watkins, H. and Lecoeur, C. and Vollenweider, P. and Franco-Cereceda, A. and Eriksson, P. and Jarvelin, M. R. and Stefansson, K. and Hamsten, A. and Nicholson, G. and Karpe, F. and Dermitzakis, E. T. and Lindgren, C. M. and McCarthy, M. I. and Froguel, P. and Kaakinen, M. A. and Lyssenko, V. and Watanabe, R. M. and Ingelsson, E. and Florez, J. C. and Dupuis, J. and Barroso, I. and Morris, A. P. and Prokopenko, I.} } @article {8618, title = {{Sex-dimorphic genetic effects and novel loci for fasting glucose and insulin variability}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {01}, pages = {24}, abstract = {Differences between sexes contribute to variation in the levels of fasting glucose and insulin. Epidemiological studies established a higher prevalence of impaired fasting glucose in men and impaired glucose tolerance in women, however, the genetic component underlying this phenomenon is not established. We assess sex-dimorphic (73,089/50,404 women and 67,506/47,806 men) and sex-combined (151,188/105,056 individuals) fasting glucose/fasting insulin genetic effects via genome-wide association study meta-analyses in individuals of European descent without diabetes. Here we report sex dimorphism in allelic effects on fasting insulin at IRS1 and ZNF12 loci, the latter showing higher RNA expression in whole blood in women compared to men. We also observe sex-homogeneous effects on fasting glucose at seven novel loci. Fasting insulin in women shows stronger genetic correlations than in men with waist-to-hip ratio and anorexia nervosa. Furthermore, waist-to-hip ratio is causally related to insulin resistance in women, but not in men. These results position dissection of metabolic and glycemic health sex dimorphism as a steppingstone for understanding differences in genetic effects between women and men in related phenotypes.}, author = {Lagou, V. and M?gi, R. and Hottenga, J. J. and Grallert, H. and Perry, J. R. B. and Bouatia-Naji, N. and Marullo, L. and Rybin, D. and Jansen, R. and Min, J. L. and Dimas, A. S. and Ulrich, A. and Zudina, L. and G?din, J. R. and Jiang, L. and Faggian, A. and Bonnefond, A. and Fadista, J. and Stathopoulou, M. G. and Isaacs, A. and Willems, S. M. and Navarro, P. and Tanaka, T. and Jackson, A. U. and Montasser, M. E. and O{\textquoteright}Connell, J. R. and Bielak, L. F. and Webster, R. J. and Saxena, R. and Stafford, J. M. and Pourcain, B. S. and Timpson, N. J. and Salo, P. and Shin, S. Y. and Amin, N. and Smith, A. V. and Li, G. and Verweij, N. and Goel, A. and Ford, I. and Johnson, P. C. D. and Johnson, T. and Kapur, K. and Thorleifsson, G. and Strawbridge, R. J. and Rasmussen-Torvik, L. J. and Esko, T. and Mihailov, E. and Fall, T. and Fraser, R. M. and Mahajan, A. and Kanoni, S. and Giedraitis, V. and Kleber, M. E. and Silbernagel, G. and Meyer, J. and M?ller-Nurasyid, M. and Ganna, A. and Sarin, A. P. and Yengo, L. and Shungin, D. and Luan, J. and Horikoshi, M. and An, P. and Sanna, S. and Boettcher, Y. and Rayner, N. W. and Nolte, I. M. and Zemunik, T. and Iperen, E. V. and Kovacs, P. and Hastie, N. D. and Wild, S. H. and McLachlan, S. and Campbell, S. and Polasek, O. and Carlson, O. and Egan, J. and Kiess, W. and Willemsen, G. and Kuusisto, J. and Laakso, M. and Dimitriou, M. and Hicks, A. A. and Rauramaa, R. and Bandinelli, S. and Thorand, B. and Liu, Y. and Miljkovic, I. and Lind, L. and Doney, A. and Perola, M. and Hingorani, A. and Kivimaki, M. and Kumari, M. and Bennett, A. J. and Groves, C. J. and Herder, C. and Koistinen, H. A. and Kinnunen, L. and Faire, U. and Bakker, S. J. L. and Uusitupa, M. and Palmer, C. N. A. and Jukema, J. W. and Sattar, N. and Pouta, A. and Snieder, H. and Boerwinkle, E. and Pankow, J. S. and Magnusson, P. K. and Krus, U. and Scapoli, C. and de Geus, E. J. C. N. and Bl?her, M. and Wolffenbuttel, B. H. R. and Province, M. A. and Abecasis, G. R. and Meigs, J. B. and Hovingh, G. K. and Lindstr?m, J. and Wilson, J. F. and Wright, A. F. and Dedoussis, G. V. and Bornstein, S. R. and Schwarz, P. E. H. and T?njes, A. and Winkelmann, B. R. and Boehm, B. O. and M?rz, W. and Metspalu, A. and Price, J. F. and Deloukas, P. and K?rner, A. and Lakka, T. A. and Keinanen-Kiukaanniemi, S. M. and Saaristo, T. E. and Bergman, R. N. and Tuomilehto, J. and Wareham, N. J. and Langenberg, C. and M?nnist?, S. and Franks, P. W. and Hayward, C. and Vitart, V. and Kaprio, J. and Visvikis-Siest, S. and Balkau, B. and Altshuler, D. and Rudan, I. and Stumvoll, M. and Campbell, H. and van Duijn, C. M. and Gieger, C. and Illig, T. and Ferrucci, L. and Pedersen, N. L. and Pramstaller, P. P. and Boehnke, M. and Frayling, T. M. and Shuldiner, A. R. and Peyser, P. A. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Palmer, L. J. and Penninx, B. W. and Meneton, P. and Harris, T. B. and Navis, G. and Harst, P. V. and Smith, G. D. and Forouhi, N. G. and Loos, R. J. F. and Salomaa, V. and Soranzo, N. and Boomsma, D. I. and Groop, L. and Tuomi, T. and Hofman, A. and Munroe, P. B. and Gudnason, V. and Siscovick, D. S. and Watkins, H. and Lecoeur, C. and Vollenweider, P. and Franco-Cereceda, A. and Eriksson, P. and Jarvelin, M. R. and Stefansson, K. and Hamsten, A. and Nicholson, G. and Karpe, F. and Dermitzakis, E. T. and Lindgren, C. M. and McCarthy, M. I. and Froguel, P. and Kaakinen, M. A. and Lyssenko, V. and Watanabe, R. M. and Ingelsson, E. and Florez, J. C. and Dupuis, J. and Barroso, I. and Morris, A. P. and Prokopenko, I.} } @article {8785, title = {Silent Myocardial Infarction and Subsequent Ischemic Stroke in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Neurology}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 May 24}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that silent MI is a risk factor for ischemic stroke, we evaluated the association between silent MI and subsequent ischemic stroke in the Cardiovascular Health Study.

METHODS: The Cardiovascular Health Study prospectively enrolled community-dwelling individuals >=65 years of age. We included participants without prevalent stroke or baseline evidence of MI. Our exposures were silent and clinically apparent, overt MI. Silent MI was defined as new evidence of Q-wave MI, without clinical symptoms of MI, on ECGs performed during annual study visits from 1989-1999. The primary outcome was incident ischemic stroke. Secondary outcomes were ischemic stroke subtypes: non-lacunar, lacunar, and other/unknown. Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to model the association between time-varying MI status (silent, overt, or no MI) and stroke after adjustment for baseline demographics and vascular risk factors.

RESULTS: Among 4,224 participants, 362 (8.6\%) had an incident silent MI, 421 (10.0\%) an incident overt MI, and 377 (8.9\%) an incident ischemic stroke during a median follow-up of 9.8 years. After adjustment for demographics and comorbidities, silent MI was independently associated with subsequent ischemic stroke (HR, 1.51; 95\% CI, 1.03-2.21). Overt MI was associated with ischemic stroke both in the short term (HR, 80; 95\% CI, 53-119) and long term (HR, 1.60; 95\% CI, 1.04-2.44). In secondary analyses, the association between silent MI and stroke was limited to non-lacunar ischemic stroke (HR 2.40; 95\% CI, 1.36-4.22).

CONCLUSION: In a community-based sample, we found an association between silent MI and ischemic stroke.

}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000012249}, author = {Merkler, Alexander E and Bartz, Traci M and Kamel, Hooman and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Howard, Virginia and Psaty, Bruce M and Okin, Peter M and Safford, Monika M and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Longstreth, W T} } @article {8840, title = {Statins and cognitive decline in the Cardiovascular Health Study: A comparison of different analytical approaches.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Jul 31}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Despite their well-established benefits for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, robust evidence on the effects of statins on cognition is largely inconclusive. We apply various study designs and analytical approaches to mimic randomized controlled trial (RCT) effects from observational data.

METHODS: We used observational data from 5,580 participants enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study from 1989/90 to 1999/2000. We conceptualized the cohort as an overlapping sequence of non-randomized trials. We compared multiple selection (eligible population, prevalent users, new-users) and analytic approaches (multivariable adjustment, inverse probability treatment weights, propensity score matching) to evaluate the association between statin use and 5-year change in global cognitive function, assessed using the Modified Mini-Mental State (3MS) examination.

RESULTS: When comparing prevalent users to non-users (N=2,772), statin use was associated with slower cognitive decline over 5 years (adjusted annual change in 3MSE = 0.34 points/year; 95\% CI:0.05;0.63). Compared to prevalent user design, estimates from new user designs (e.g. comparing eligible statin initiators to non-initiators) were attenuated showing either null or negative association, though not significant. For example, in a propensity score-matched sample of statin-eligible individuals (N=454), annual 3MS change comparing statin initiators to non-initiators was -0.21 points/year (95\% CI:-0.81;0.39).

CONCLUSIONS: The association of statin use and cognitive decline is attenuated towards the null when using rigorous analytical approaches that more closely mimic RCTs. Point estimates, even within the same study, may vary depending on the analytical methods used. Further studies that leverage natural or quasi experiments around statin use are needed to replicate our findings.

}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glab220}, author = {Zeki Al Hazzouri, Adina and Jawadekar, Neal and Grasset, Leslie and Kaiser, Paulina and Kezios, Katrina and Calonico, Sebastian and Glymour, M Maria and Hirsch, Calvin and Arnold, Alice M and Varadhan, Ravi and Opoodden, Michelle C} } @article {8830, title = {Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption May Modify Associations Between Genetic Variants in the CHREBP (Carbohydrate Responsive Element Binding Protein) Locus and HDL-C (High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol) and Triglyceride Concentrations.}, journal = {Circ Genom Precis Med}, volume = {14}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Aug}, pages = {e003288}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: ChREBP (carbohydrate responsive element binding protein) is a transcription factor that responds to sugar consumption. Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption and genetic variants in the locus have separately been linked to HDL-C (high-density lipoprotein cholesterol) and triglyceride concentrations. We hypothesized that SSB consumption would modify the association between genetic variants in the locus and dyslipidemia.

METHODS: Data from 11 cohorts from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium (N=63 599) and the UK Biobank (N=59 220) were used to quantify associations of SSB consumption, genetic variants, and their interaction on HDL-C and triglyceride concentrations using linear regression models. A total of 1606 single nucleotide polymorphisms within or near were considered. SSB consumption was estimated from validated questionnaires, and participants were grouped by their estimated intake.

RESULTS: In a meta-analysis, rs71556729 was significantly associated with higher HDL-C concentrations only among the highest SSB consumers (β, 2.12 [95\% CI, 1.16-3.07] mg/dL per allele; <0.0001), but not significantly among the lowest SSB consumers (=0.81; <0.0001). Similar results were observed for 2 additional variants (rs35709627 and rs71556736). For triglyceride, rs55673514 was positively associated with triglyceride concentrations only among the highest SSB consumers (β, 0.06 [95\% CI, 0.02-0.09] ln-mg/dL per allele, =0.001) but not the lowest SSB consumers (=0.84; =0.0005).

CONCLUSIONS: Our results identified genetic variants in the locus that may protect against SSB-associated reductions in HDL-C and other variants that may exacerbate SSB-associated increases in triglyceride concentrations. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT00005133, NCT00005121, NCT00005487, and NCT00000479.

}, issn = {2574-8300}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGEN.120.003288}, author = {Haslam, Danielle E and Peloso, Gina M and Guirette, Melanie and Imamura, Fumiaki and Bartz, Traci M and Pitsillides, Achilleas N and Wang, Carol A and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Westra, Jason M and Pitk{\"a}nen, Niina and Young, Kristin L and Graff, Mariaelisa and Wood, Alexis C and Braun, Kim V E and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kiefte-de Jong, Jessica C and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Tintle, Nathan and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and North, Kari and Helminen, Mika and Mossavar-Rahmani, Yasmin and Snetselaar, Linda and Martin, Lisa W and Viikari, Jorma S and Oddy, Wendy H and Pennell, Craig E and Rosendall, Frits R and Ikram, M Arfan and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Psaty, Bruce M and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Kent D and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Raitakari, Olli T and Livingston, Kara A and Voortman, Trudy and Forouhi, Nita G and Wareham, Nick J and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Rich, Steven S and Manson, JoAnn E and Mora, Samia and Ridker, Paul M and Merino, Jordi and Meigs, James B and Dashti, Hassan S and Chasman, Daniel I and Lichtenstein, Alice H and Smith, Caren E and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Herman, Mark A and McKeown, Nicola M} } @article {8839, title = {Supplemental Association of Clonal Hematopoiesis With Incident Heart~Failure.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {78}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 07 06}, pages = {42-52}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Age-related clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP), defined as clonally expanded leukemogenic sequence variations (particularly in DNMT3A, TET2, ASXL1, and JAK2) in asymptomatic individuals, is associated with cardiovascular events, including recurrent heart failure (HF).

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to evaluate whether CHIP is associated with incident HF.

METHODS: CHIP status was obtained from whole exome or genome sequencing of blood DNA in participants without prevalent HF or hematological malignancy from 5 cohorts. Cox proportional hazards models were performed within each cohort, adjusting for demographic and clinical risk factors, followed by fixed-effect meta-analyses. Large CHIP clones (defined as variant allele frequency >10\%), HF with or without baseline coronary heart disease, and left ventricular ejection fraction were evaluated in secondary analyses.

RESULTS: Of 56,597 individuals (59\% women, mean age 58 years at baseline), 3,406 (6\%) had CHIP, and 4,694 developed HF (8.3\%) over up to 20 years of follow-up. CHIP was prospectively associated with a 25\% increased risk of HF in meta-analysis (hazard ratio: 1.25; 95\% confidence interval: 1.13-1.38) with consistent associations across cohorts. ASXL1, TET2, and JAK2 sequence variations were each associated with an increased risk of HF, whereas DNMT3A sequence variations were not associated with HF. Secondary analyses suggested large CHIP was associated with a greater risk of HF (hazard ratio: 1.29; 95\% confidence interval: 1.15-1.44), and the associations for CHIP on HF with and without prior coronary heart disease were homogenous. ASXL1 sequence variations were associated with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction.

CONCLUSIONS: CHIP, particularly sequence variations in ASXL1, TET2, and JAK2, represents a new risk factor for HF.

}, keywords = {Aged, Clonal Hematopoiesis, Correlation of Data, Demography, DNA-Binding Proteins, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Janus Kinase 2, Male, Middle Aged, Mutation, Proportional Hazards Models, Proto-Oncogene Proteins, Repressor Proteins, Risk Factors, Stroke Volume, Ventricular Dysfunction, Left, Whole Exome Sequencing}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2021.04.085}, author = {Yu, Bing and Roberts, Mary B and Raffield, Laura M and Zekavat, Seyedeh Maryam and Nguyen, Ngoc Quynh H and Biggs, Mary L and Brown, Michael R and Griffin, Gabriel and Desai, Pinkal and Correa, Adolfo and Morrison, Alanna C and Shah, Amil M and Niroula, Abhishek and Uddin, Md Mesbah and Honigberg, Michael C and Ebert, Benjamin L and Psaty, Bruce M and Whitsel, Eric A and Manson, JoAnn E and Kooperberg, Charles and Bick, Alexander G and Ballantyne, Christie M and Reiner, Alex P and Natarajan, Pradeep and Eaton, Charles B} } @article {8713, title = {A System for Phenotype Harmonization in the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Apr 16}, abstract = {

Genotype-phenotype association studies often combine phenotype data from multiple studies to increase power. Harmonization of the data usually requires substantial effort due to heterogeneity in phenotype definitions, study design, data collection procedures, and data set organization. Here we describe a centralized system for phenotype harmonization that includes input from phenotype domain and study experts, quality control, documentation, reproducible results, and data sharing mechanisms. This system was developed for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute{\textquoteright}s Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine program, which is generating genomic and other omics data for >80 studies with extensive phenotype data. To date, 63 phenotypes have been harmonized across thousands of participants from up to 17 studies per phenotype (participants recruited 1948-2012). We discuss challenges in this undertaking and how they were addressed. The harmonized phenotype data and associated documentation have been submitted to National Institutes of Health data repositories for controlled-access by the scientific community. We also provide materials to facilitate future harmonization efforts by the community, which include (1) the code used to generate the 63 harmonized phenotypes, enabling others to reproduce, modify or extend these harmonizations to additional studies; and (2) results of labeling thousands of phenotype variables with controlled vocabulary terms.

}, issn = {1476-6256}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kwab115}, author = {Stilp, Adrienne M and Emery, Leslie S and Broome, Jai G and Buth, Erin J and Khan, Alyna T and Laurie, Cecelia A and Wang, Fei Fei and Wong, Quenna and Chen, Dongquan and D{\textquoteright}Augustine, Catherine M and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Hohensee, Chancellor R and Johnson, William Craig and Juarez, Lucia D and Liu, Jingmin and Mutalik, Karen M and Raffield, Laura M and Wiggins, Kerri L and de Vries, Paul S and Kelly, Tanika N and Kooperberg, Charles and Natarajan, Pradeep and Peloso, Gina M and Peyser, Patricia A and Reiner, Alex P and Arnett, Donna K and Aslibekyan, Stella and Barnes, Kathleen C and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Cade, Brian E and Chen, Ming-Huei and Correa, Adolfo and Cupples, L Adrienne and de Andrade, Mariza and Ellinor, Patrick T and Fornage, Myriam and Franceschini, Nora and Gan, Weiniu and Ganesh, Santhi K and Graffelman, Jan and Grove, Megan L and Guo, Xiuqing and Hawley, Nicola L and Hsu, Wan-Ling and Jackson, Rebecca D and Jaquish, Cashell E and Johnson, Andrew D and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kelly, Shannon and Lee, Jiwon and Mathias, Rasika A and McGarvey, Stephen T and Mitchell, Braxton D and Montasser, May E and Morrison, Alanna C and North, Kari E and Nouraie, Seyed Mehdi and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Pankratz, Nathan and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Smith, Jennifer A and Taylor, Kent D and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Weeks, Daniel E and Weiss, Scott T and Wilson, Carla G and Yanek, Lisa R and Psaty, Bruce M and Heckbert, Susan R and Laurie, Cathy C} } @article {8712, title = {Total carotenoid intake is associated with reduced loss of grip strength and gait speed over time in adults: The Framingham Offspring Study.}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {113}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 02 02}, pages = {437-445}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Lower antioxidant serum concentrations have been linked to declines in lean mass and physical function in older adults. Yet population data on the effect of dietary antioxidants on loss of muscle strength and physical function are lacking.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine the association of antioxidant intake [vitamin C, vitamin E, and total and individual carotenoids (α-carotene, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, lycopene, and lutein~+~zeaxanthin)] with annualized change in grip strength and gait speed in adults from the Framingham Offspring study.

METHODS: This prospective cohort study included participants with a valid FFQ at the index examination and up to 2 prior examinations and at >=2 measures of primary outcomes: grip strength (n~=~2452) and/or gait speed (n~=~2422) measured over 3 subsequent examinations. Annualized change in grip strength (kg/y) and change in gait speed (m/s/y) over the follow-up period were used. Linear regression was used to calculate β coefficients and P values, adjusting for covariates.

RESULTS: Mean {\textpm} SD age of participants was 61 {\textpm} 9 y (range: 33-88 y). Median intakes (IQR, mg/d) of vitamin C, vitamin E, and total carotenoid across available examinations were 209.2 (133.1-394.2), 27.1 (7.4-199.0), and 15.3 (10.4-21.3), respectively. The mean follow-up time was \~{}12 {\textpm} 2 y (range: 4.5-15.4 y). In the sex-combined sample, higher intakes of total carotenoids, lycopene, and lutein~+~zeaxanthin were associated with increased annualized change in grip strength [β (SE) per 10-mg higher intake/d, range: 0.0316 (0.0146) to 0.1223 (0.0603) kg/y)]. All antioxidants except for vitamin C were associated with faster gait speed [β (SE) per 10-mg higher intake/d, range: 0.00008 (0.00004) to 0.0187 (0.0081) m/s/y].

CONCLUSIONS: Higher antioxidant intake was associated with increase in grip strength and faster gait speed in this cohort of adults. This finding highlights the need for a randomized controlled trial of dietary antioxidants and their effect on muscle strength and physical function.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Carotenoids, Cohort Studies, Diet, Female, Hand Strength, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, Walking Speed}, issn = {1938-3207}, doi = {10.1093/ajcn/nqaa288}, author = {Sahni, Shivani and Dufour, Alyssa B and Fielding, Roger A and Newman, Anne B and Kiel, Douglas P and Hannan, Marian T and Jacques, Paul F} } @article {8772, title = {{The trans-ancestral genomic architecture of glycemic traits}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {53}, year = {2021}, month = {06}, pages = {840{\textendash}860}, abstract = {10.1038/s41588-021-00852-9Glycemic traits are used to diagnose and monitor type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic health. To date, most genetic studies of glycemic traits have focused on individuals of European ancestry. Here we aggregated genome-wide association studies comprising up to 281,416 individuals without diabetes (30\% non-European ancestry) for whom fasting glucose, 2-h glucose after an oral glucose challenge, glycated hemoglobin and fasting insulin data were available. Trans-ancestry and single-ancestry meta-analyses identified 242 loci (99 novel; P < 5 {\texttimes} 10-8), 80\% of which had no significant evidence of between-ancestry heterogeneity. Analyses restricted to individuals of European ancestry with equivalent sample size would have led to 24 fewer new loci. Compared with single-ancestry analyses, equivalent-sized trans-ancestry fine-mapping reduced the number of estimated variants in 99\% credible sets by a median of 37.5\%. Genomic-feature, gene-expression and gene-set analyses revealed distinct biological signatures for each trait, highlighting different underlying biological pathways. Our results increase our understanding of diabetes pathophysiology by using trans-ancestry studies for improved power and resolution.}, author = {Chen, J. and Spracklen, C. N. and Marenne, G. and Varshney, A. and Corbin, L. J. and Luan, J. and Willems, S. M. and Wu, Y. and Zhang, X. and Horikoshi, M. and Boutin, T. S. and M{\"a}gi, R. and Waage, J. and Li-Gao, R. and Chan, K. H. K. and Yao, J. and Anasanti, M. D. and Chu, A. Y. and Claringbould, A. and Heikkinen, J. and Hong, J. and Hottenga, J. J. and Huo, S. and Kaakinen, M. A. and Louie, T. and M{\"a}rz, W. and Moreno-Macias, H. and Ndungu, A. and Nelson, S. C. and Nolte, I. M. and North, K. E. and Raulerson, C. K. and Ray, D. and Rohde, R. and Rybin, D. and Schurmann, C. and Sim, X. and Southam, L. and Stewart, I. D. and Wang, C. A. and Wang, Y. and Wu, P. and Zhang, W. and Ahluwalia, T. S. and Appel, E. V. R. and Bielak, L. F. and Brody, J. A. and Burtt, N. P. and Cabrera, C. P. and Cade, B. E. and Chai, J. F. and Chai, X. and Chang, L. C. and Chen, C. H. and Chen, B. H. and Chitrala, K. N. and Chiu, Y. F. and de Haan, H. G. and Delgado, G. E. and Demirkan, A. and Duan, Q. and Engmann, J. and Fatumo, S. A. and Gay{\'a}n, J. and Giulianini, F. and Gong, J. H. and Gustafsson, S. and Hai, Y. and Hartwig, F. P. and He, J. and Heianza, Y. and Huang, T. and Huerta-Chagoya, A. and Hwang, M. Y. and Jensen, R. A. and Kawaguchi, T. and Kentistou, K. A. and Kim, Y. J. and Kleber, M. E. and Kooner, I. K. and Lai, S. and Lange, L. A. and Langefeld, C. D. and Lauzon, M. and Li, M. and Ligthart, S. and Liu, J. and Loh, M. and Long, J. and Lyssenko, V. and Mangino, M. and Marzi, C. and Montasser, M. E. and Nag, A. and Nakatochi, M. and Noce, D. and Noordam, R. and Pistis, G. and Preuss, M. and Raffield, L. and Rasmussen-Torvik, L. J. and Rich, S. S. and Robertson, N. R. and Rueedi, R. and Ryan, K. and Sanna, S. and Saxena, R. and Schraut, K. E. and Sennblad, B. and Setoh, K. and Smith, A. V. and Spars{\o}, T. and Strawbridge, R. J. and Takeuchi, F. and Tan, J. and Trompet, S. and van den Akker, E. and van der Most, P. J. and Verweij, N. and Vogel, M. and Wang, H. and Wang, C. and Wang, N. and Warren, H. R. and Wen, W. and Wilsgaard, T. and Wong, A. and Wood, A. R. and Xie, T. and Zafarmand, M. H. and Zhao, J. H. and Zhao, W. and Amin, N. and Arzumanyan, Z. and Astrup, A. and Bakker, S. J. L. and Baldassarre, D. and Beekman, M. and Bergman, R. N. and Bertoni, A. and Bl{\"u}her, M. and Bonnycastle, L. L. and Bornstein, S. R. and Bowden, D. W. and Cai, Q. and Campbell, A. and Campbell, H. and Chang, Y. C. and de Geus, E. J. C. and Dehghan, A. and Du, S. and Eiriksdottir, G. and Farmaki, A. E. and Fr{\r a}nberg, M. and Fuchsberger, C. and Gao, Y. and Gjesing, A. P. and Goel, A. and Han, S. and Hartman, C. A. and Herder, C. and Hicks, A. A. and Hsieh, C. H. and Hsueh, W. A. and Ichihara, S. and Igase, M. and Ikram, M. A. and Johnson, W. C. and J{\o}rgensen, M. E. and Joshi, P. K. and Kalyani, R. R. and Kandeel, F. R. and Katsuya, T. and Khor, C. C. and Kiess, W. and Kolcic, I. and Kuulasmaa, T. and Kuusisto, J. and L{\"a}ll, K. and Lam, K. and Lawlor, D. A. and Lee, N. R. and Lemaitre, R. N. and Li, H. and Lin, S. Y. and Lindstr{\"o}m, J. and Linneberg, A. and Liu, J. and Lorenzo, C. and Matsubara, T. and Matsuda, F. and Mingrone, G. and Mooijaart, S. and Moon, S. and Nabika, T. and Nadkarni, G. N. and Nadler, J. L. and Nelis, M. and Neville, M. J. and Norris, J. M. and Ohyagi, Y. and Peters, A. and Peyser, P. A. and Polasek, O. and Qi, Q. and Raven, D. and Reilly, D. F. and Reiner, A. and Rivideneira, F. and Roll, K. and Rudan, I. and Sabanayagam, C. and Sandow, K. and Sattar, N. and Sch{\"u}rmann, A. and Shi, J. and Stringham, H. M. and Taylor, K. D. and Teslovich, T. M. and Thuesen, B. and Timmers, P. R. H. J. and Tremoli, E. and Tsai, M. Y. and Uitterlinden, A. and van Dam, R. M. and van Heemst, D. and van Hylckama Vlieg, A. and Van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, J. V. and Vangipurapu, J. and Vestergaard, H. and Wang, T. and Willems van Dijk, K. and Zemunik, T. and Abecasis, G. R. and Adair, L. S. and Aguilar-Salinas, C. A. and Alarc{\'o}n-Riquelme, M. E. and An, P. and Aviles-Santa, L. and Becker, D. M. and Beilin, L. J. and Bergmann, S. and Bisgaard, H. and Black, C. and Boehnke, M. and Boerwinkle, E. and B{\"o}hm, B. O. and B{\o}nnelykke, K. and Boomsma, D. I. and Bottinger, E. P. and Buchanan, T. A. and Canouil, M. and Caulfield, M. J. and Chambers, J. C. and Chasman, D. I. and Chen, Y. I. and Cheng, C. Y. and Collins, F. S. and Correa, A. and Cucca, F. and de Silva, H. J. and Dedoussis, G. and Elmst{\r a}hl, S. and Evans, M. K. and Ferrannini, E. and Ferrucci, L. and Florez, J. C. and Franks, P. W. and Frayling, T. M. and Froguel, P. and Gigante, B. and Goodarzi, M. O. and Gordon-Larsen, P. and Grallert, H. and Grarup, N. and Grimsgaard, S. and Groop, L. and Gudnason, V. and Guo, X. and Hamsten, A. and Hansen, T. and Hayward, C. and Heckbert, S. R. and Horta, B. L. and Huang, W. and Ingelsson, E. and James, P. S. and Jarvelin, M. R. and Jonas, J. B. and Jukema, J. W. and Kaleebu, P. and Kaplan, R. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Kato, N. and Keinanen-Kiukaanniemi, S. M. and Kim, B. J. and Kivimaki, M. and Koistinen, H. A. and Kooner, J. S. and K{\"o}rner, A. and Kovacs, P. and Kuh, D. and Kumari, M. and Kutalik, Z. and Laakso, M. and Lakka, T. A. and Launer, L. J. and Leander, K. and Li, H. and Lin, X. and Lind, L. and Lindgren, C. and Liu, S. and Loos, R. J. F. and Magnusson, P. K. E. and Mahajan, A. and Metspalu, A. and Mook-Kanamori, D. O. and Mori, T. A. and Munroe, P. B. and Nj{\o}lstad, I. and O{\textquoteright}Connell, J. R. and Oldehinkel, A. J. and Ong, K. K. and Padmanabhan, S. and Palmer, C. N. A. and Palmer, N. D. and Pedersen, O. and Pennell, C. E. and Porteous, D. J. and Pramstaller, P. P. and Province, M. A. and Psaty, B. M. and Qi, L. and Raffel, L. J. and Rauramaa, R. and Redline, S. and Ridker, P. M. and Rosendaal, F. R. and Saaristo, T. E. and Sandhu, M. and Saramies, J. and Schneiderman, N. and Schwarz, P. and Scott, L. J. and Selvin, E. and Sever, P. and Shu, X. O. and Slagboom, P. E. and Small, K. S. and Smith, B. H. and Snieder, H. and Sofer, T. and S{\o}rensen, T. I. A. and Spector, T. D. and Stanton, A. and Steves, C. J. and Stumvoll, M. and Sun, L. and Tabara, Y. and Tai, E. S. and Timpson, N. J. and Tonjes, A. and Tuomilehto, J. and Tusie, T. and Uusitupa, M. and van der Harst, P. and van Duijn, C. and Vitart, V. and Vollenweider, P. and Vrijkotte, T. G. M. and Wagenknecht, L. E. and Walker, M. and Wang, Y. X. and Wareham, N. J. and Watanabe, R. M. and Watkins, H. and Wei, W. B. and Wickremasinghe, A. R. and Willemsen, G. and Wilson, J. F. and Wong, T. Y. and Wu, J. Y. and Xiang, A. H. and Yanek, L. R. and Yengo, L. and Yokota, M. and Zeggini, E. and Zheng, W. and Zonderman, A. B. and Rotter, J. I. and Gloyn, A. L. and McCarthy, M. I. and Dupuis, J. and Meigs, J. B. and Scott, R. A. and Prokopenko, I. and Leong, A. and Liu, C. T. and Parker, S. C. J. and Mohlke, K. L. and Langenberg, C. and Wheeler, E. and Morris, A. P. and Barroso, I. and de Haan, H. G. and van den Akker, E. and van der Most, P. J. and de Geus, E. J. C. and van Dam, R. M. and van Heemst, D. and van Hylckama Vlieg, A. and van Willems van Dijk, K. and de Silva, H. J. and van der Harst, P. and van Duijn, C.} } @article {8989, title = {What Cut-Point in Gait Speed Best Discriminates Community-Dwelling Older Adults With Mobility Complaints From Those Without? A Pooled Analysis From the Sarcopenia Definitions and Outcomes Consortium.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {76}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 09 13}, pages = {e321-e327}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Cut-points to define slow walking speed have largely been derived from expert opinion.

METHODS: Study participants (13 589 men and 5043 women aged >=65years) had walking speed (m/s) measured over 4-6 m (mean {\textpm} SD: 1.20 {\textpm} 0.27 m/s in men and 0.94 {\textpm} 0.24 m/s in women.) Mobility limitation was defined as any self-reported difficulty with walking approximately 1/4 mile (prevalence: 12.6\% men, 26.4\% women). Sex-stratified classification and regression tree (CART) models with 10-fold cross-validation identified walking speed cut-points that optimally discriminated those who reported mobility limitation from those who did not.

RESULTS: Among 5043 women, CART analysis identified 2 cut-points, classifying 4144 (82.2\%) with walking speed >=0.75 m/s, which we labeled as "fast"; 478 (9.5\%) as "intermediate" (walking speed >=0.62 m/s but <0.75 m/s); and 421 (8.3\%) as "slow" (walking speed <0.62 m/s). Among 13 589 men, CART analysis identified 3 cut-points, classifying 10 001 (73.6\%) with walking speed >=1.00 m/s ("very fast"); 2901 (21.3\%) as "fast" (walking speed >=0.74 m/s but <1.00 m/s); 497 (3.7\%) as "intermediate" (walking speed >=0.57 m/s but <0.74 m/s); and 190 (1.4\%) as "slow" (walking speed <0.57 m/s). Prevalence of self-reported mobility limitation was lowest in the "fast" or "very fast" (11\% for men and 19\% for women) and highest in the "slow" (60.5\% in men and 71.0\% in women). Rounding the 2 slower cut-points to 0.60 m/s and 0.75 m/s reclassified very few participants.

CONCLUSIONS: Cut-points in walking speed of approximately 0.60 m/s and 0.75 m/s discriminate those with self-reported mobility limitation from those without.

}, keywords = {Aged, Female, Gait, Humans, Independent Living, Male, Mobility Limitation, Sarcopenia, Walking, Walking Speed}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glab183}, author = {Cawthon, Peggy M and Patel, Sheena M and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Newman, Anne B and Santanasto, Adam and Kiel, Douglas P and Travison, Thomas G and Lane, Nancy and Cummings, Steven R and Orwoll, Eric S and Duchowny, Kate A and Kwok, Timothy and Hirani, Vasant and Schousboe, John and Karlsson, Magnus K and Mellstr{\"o}m, Dan and Ohlsson, Claes and Ljunggren, Osten and Xue, Qian-Li and Shardell, Michelle and Jordan, Joanne M and Pencina, Karol M and Fielding, Roger A and Magaziner, Jay and Correa-de-Araujo, Rosaly and Bhasin, Shalender and Manini, Todd M} } @article {8664, title = {Whole genome sequence analyses of eGFR in 23,732 people representing multiple ancestries in the NHLBI trans-omics for precision medicine (TOPMed) consortium.}, journal = {EBioMedicine}, volume = {63}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Jan}, pages = {103157}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genetic factors that influence kidney traits have been understudied for low frequency and ancestry-specific variants.

METHODS: We combined whole genome sequencing (WGS) data from 23,732 participants from 10 NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program multi-ethnic studies to identify novel loci for estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Participants included European, African, East Asian, and Hispanic ancestries. We applied linear mixed models using a genetic relationship matrix estimated from the WGS data and adjusted for age, sex, study, and ethnicity.

FINDINGS: When testing single variants, we identified three novel loci driven by low frequency variants more commonly observed in non-European ancestry (PRKAA2, rs180996919, minor allele frequency [MAF] 0.04\%, P~=~6.1~{\texttimes}~10; METTL8, rs116951054, MAF 0.09\%, P~=~4.5~{\texttimes}~10; and MATK, rs539182790, MAF 0.05\%, P~=~3.4~{\texttimes}~10). We also replicated two known loci for common variants (rs2461702, MAF=0.49, P~=~1.2~{\texttimes}~10, nearest gene GATM, and rs71147340, MAF=0.34, P~=~3.3~{\texttimes}~10, CDK12). Testing aggregated variants within a gene identified the MAF gene. A statistical approach based on local ancestry helped to identify replication samples for ancestry-specific variants.

INTERPRETATION: This study highlights challenges in studying variants influencing kidney traits that are low frequency in populations and more common in non-European ancestry.

}, issn = {2352-3964}, doi = {10.1016/j.ebiom.2020.103157}, author = {Lin, Bridget M and Grinde, Kelsey E and Brody, Jennifer A and Breeze, Charles E and Raffield, Laura M and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Thornton, Timothy A and Perry, James A and Baier, Leslie J and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and Guo, Xiuqing and Heavner, Benjamin D and Hanson, Robert L and Hung, Yi-Jen and Qian, Huijun and Hsiung, Chao A and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Irvin, Margaret R and Jain, Deepti and Kelly, Tanika N and Kobes, Sayuko and Lange, Leslie and Lash, James P and Li, Yun and Liu, Xiaoming and Mi, Xuenan and Musani, Solomon K and Papanicolaou, George J and Parsa, Afshin and Reiner, Alex P and Salimi, Shabnam and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Shuldiner, Alan R and Taylor, Kent D and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Jennifer A and Tin, Adrienne and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Wallace, Robert B and Yamamoto, Kenichi and Sakaue, Saori and Matsuda, Koichi and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Momozawa, Yukihide and Yanek, Lisa R and Young, Betsi A and Zhao, Wei and Okada, Yukinori and Abecasis, Gonzalo and Psaty, Bruce M and Arnett, Donna K and Boerwinkle, Eric and Cai, Jianwen and Yii-Der Chen, Ida and Correa, Adolfo and Cupples, L Adrienne and He, Jiang and Kardia, Sharon Lr and Kooperberg, Charles and Mathias, Rasika A and Mitchell, Braxton D and Nickerson, Deborah A and Turner, Steve T and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Rotter, Jerome I and Levy, Daniel and Kramer, Holly J and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Rich, Stephen S and Lin, Dan-Yu and Browning, Sharon R and Franceschini, Nora} } @article {8913, title = {Whole genome sequence analysis of platelet traits in the NHLBI trans-omics for precision medicine initiative.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Sep 06}, abstract = {

Platelets play a key role in thrombosis and hemostasis. Platelet count (PLT) and mean platelet volume (MPV) are highly heritable quantitative traits, with hundreds of genetic signals previously identified, mostly in European ancestry populations. We here utilize whole genome sequencing from NHLBI{\textquoteright}s Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine Initiative (TOPMed) in a large multi-ethnic sample to further explore common and rare variation contributing to PLT (n = 61 200) and MPV (n = 23 485). We identified and replicated secondary signals at MPL (rs532784633) and PECAM1 (rs73345162), both more common in African ancestry populations. We also observed rare variation in Mendelian platelet related disorder genes influencing variation in platelet traits in TOPMed cohorts (not enriched for blood disorders). For example, association of GP9 with lower PLT and higher MPV was partly driven by a pathogenic Bernard-Soulier syndrome variant (rs5030764, p.Asn61Ser), and the signals at TUBB1 and CD36 were partly driven by loss of function variants not annotated as pathogenic in ClinVar (rs199948010 and rs571975065). However, residual signal remained for these gene-based signals after adjusting for lead variants, suggesting that additional variants in Mendelian genes with impacts in general population cohorts remain to be identified. Gene-based signals were also identified at several GWAS identified loci for genes not annotated for Mendelian platelet disorders (PTPRH, TET2, CHEK2), with somatic variation driving the result at TET2. These results highlight the value of whole genome sequencing in populations of diverse genetic ancestry to identify novel regulatory and coding signals, even for well-studied traits like platelet traits.

}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddab252}, author = {Little, Amarise and Hu, Yao and Sun, Quan and Jain, Deepti and Broome, Jai and Chen, Ming-Huei and Thibord, Florian and McHugh, Caitlin and Surendran, Praveen and Blackwell, Thomas W and Brody, Jennifer A and Bhan, Arunoday and Chami, Nathalie and Vries, Paul S and Ekunwe, Lynette and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Hobbs, Brian D and Manichaikul, Ani and Moon, Jee-Young and Preuss, Michael H and Ryan, Kathleen and Wang, Zhe and Wheeler, Marsha and Yanek, Lisa R and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Almasy, Laura and Beaty, Terri H and Becker, Lewis C and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Butterworth, Adam S and Choquet, Helene and Correa, Adolfo and Curran, Joanne E and Faraday, Nauder and Fornage, Myriam and Glahn, David C and Hou, Lifang and Jorgenson, Eric and Kooperberg, Charles and Lewis, Joshua P and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Loos, Ruth J F and Min, Nancy and Mitchell, Braxton D and Morrison, Alanna C and Nickerson, Debbie and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Pankratz, Nathan and Psaty, Bruce M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Nicholas L and Tang, Hua and Tracy, Russell P and Conomos, Matthew P and Laurie, Cecelia A and Mathias, Rasika A and Li, Yun and Auer, Paul L and Thornton, Timothy and Reiner, Alexander P and Johnson, Andrew D and Raffield, Laura M} } @article {8920, title = {Whole-genome association analyses of sleep-disordered breathing phenotypes in the NHLBI TOPMed program.}, journal = {Genome Med}, volume = {13}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 08 26}, pages = {136}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Sleep-disordered breathing is a common disorder associated with significant morbidity. The genetic architecture of sleep-disordered breathing remains poorly understood. Through the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program, we performed the first whole-genome sequence analysis of sleep-disordered breathing.

METHODS: The study sample was comprised of 7988 individuals of diverse ancestry. Common-variant and pathway analyses included an additional 13,257 individuals. We examined five complementary traits describing different aspects of sleep-disordered breathing: the apnea-hypopnea index, average oxyhemoglobin desaturation per event, average and minimum oxyhemoglobin saturation across the sleep episode, and the percentage of sleep with oxyhemoglobin saturation < 90\%. We adjusted for age, sex, BMI, study, and family structure using MMSKAT and EMMAX mixed linear model approaches. Additional bioinformatics analyses were performed with MetaXcan, GIGSEA, and ReMap.

RESULTS: We identified a multi-ethnic set-based rare-variant association (p = 3.48 {\texttimes} 10) on chromosome X with ARMCX3. Additional rare-variant associations include ARMCX3-AS1, MRPS33, and C16orf90. Novel common-variant loci were identified in the NRG1 and SLC45A2 regions, and previously associated loci in the IL18RAP and ATP2B4 regions were associated with novel phenotypes. Transcription factor binding site enrichment identified associations with genes implicated with respiratory and craniofacial traits. Additional analyses identified significantly associated pathways.

CONCLUSIONS: We have identified the first gene-based rare-variant associations with objectively measured sleep-disordered breathing traits. Our results increase the understanding of the genetic architecture of sleep-disordered breathing and highlight associations in genes that modulate lung development, inflammation, respiratory rhythmogenesis, and HIF1A-mediated hypoxic response.

}, issn = {1756-994X}, doi = {10.1186/s13073-021-00917-8}, author = {Cade, Brian E and Lee, Jiwon and Sofer, Tamar and Wang, Heming and Zhang, Man and Chen, Han and Gharib, Sina A and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Guo, Xiuqing and Lane, Jacqueline M and Liang, Jingjing and Lin, Xihong and Mei, Hao and Patel, Sanjay R and Purcell, Shaun M and Saxena, Richa and Shah, Neomi A and Evans, Daniel S and Hanis, Craig L and Hillman, David R and Mukherjee, Sutapa and Palmer, Lyle J and Stone, Katie L and Tranah, Gregory J and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Boerwinkle, Eric A and Correa, Adolfo and Cupples, L Adrienne and Kaplan, Robert C and Nickerson, Deborah A and North, Kari E and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Tracy, Russell P and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wilson, James G and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Redline, Susan} } @article {8779, title = {Whole-genome sequencing association analysis of quantitative red blood cell phenotypes: The NHLBI TOPMed program.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {108}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 05 06}, pages = {874-893}, abstract = {

Whole-genome sequencing (WGS), a powerful tool for detecting novel coding and non-coding disease-causing variants, has largely been applied to clinical diagnosis of inherited disorders. Here we leveraged WGS data in up to 62,653 ethnically diverse participants from the NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program and assessed statistical association of variants with seven red blood cell (RBC) quantitative traits. We discovered 14 single variant-RBC trait associations at 12 genomic loci, which have not been reported previously. Several of the RBC trait-variant associations (RPN1, ELL2, MIDN, HBB, HBA1, PIEZO1, and G6PD) were replicated in independent GWAS datasets imputed to the TOPMed reference panel. Most of these discovered variants are rare/low frequency, and several are observed disproportionately among non-European Ancestry (African, Hispanic/Latino, or East Asian) populations. We identified a 3~bp indel p.Lys2169del (g.88717175_88717177TCT[4]) (common only in the Ashkenazi Jewish population) of PIEZO1, a gene responsible for the Mendelian red cell disorder hereditary xerocytosis (MIM: 194380), associated with higher mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC). In stepwise conditional analysis and in gene-based rare variant aggregated association analysis, we identified several of the variants in HBB, HBA1, TMPRSS6, and G6PD that represent the carrier state for known coding, promoter, or splice site loss-of-function variants that cause inherited RBC disorders. Finally, we applied base and nuclease editing to demonstrate that the sentinel variant rs112097551 (nearest gene RPN1) acts through a cis-regulatory element that exerts long-range control of the gene RUVBL1 which is essential for hematopoiesis. Together, these results demonstrate the utility of WGS in ethnically diverse population-based samples and gene editing for expanding knowledge of the genetic architecture of quantitative hematologic traits and suggest a continuum between complex trait and Mendelian red cell disorders.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 16, Datasets as Topic, Erythrocytes, Female, Gene Editing, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, HEK293 Cells, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.), Phenotype, Quality Control, Reproducibility of Results, United States}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.04.003}, author = {Hu, Yao and Stilp, Adrienne M and McHugh, Caitlin P and Rao, Shuquan and Jain, Deepti and Zheng, Xiuwen and Lane, John and M{\'e}ric de Bellefon, S{\'e}bastian and Raffield, Laura M and Chen, Ming-Huei and Yanek, Lisa R and Wheeler, Marsha and Yao, Yao and Ren, Chunyan and Broome, Jai and Moon, Jee-Young and de Vries, Paul S and Hobbs, Brian D and Sun, Quan and Surendran, Praveen and Brody, Jennifer A and Blackwell, Thomas W and Choquet, Helene and Ryan, Kathleen and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Wang, Zhe and Chami, Nathalie and Preuss, Michael H and Min, Nancy and Ekunwe, Lynette and Lange, Leslie A and Cushman, Mary and Faraday, Nauder and Curran, Joanne E and Almasy, Laura and Kundu, Kousik and Smith, Albert V and Gabriel, Stacey and Rotter, Jerome I and Fornage, Myriam and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Smith, Nicholas L and North, Kari E and Boerwinkle, Eric and Becker, Lewis C and Lewis, Joshua P and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Hou, Lifang and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Morrison, Alanna C and Beaty, Terri H and Kaplan, Robert and Correa, Adolfo and Blangero, John and Jorgenson, Eric and Psaty, Bruce M and Kooperberg, Charles and Walton, Russell T and Kleinstiver, Benjamin P and Tang, Hua and Loos, Ruth J F and Soranzo, Nicole and Butterworth, Adam S and Nickerson, Debbie and Rich, Stephen S and Mitchell, Braxton D and Johnson, Andrew D and Auer, Paul L and Li, Yun and Mathias, Rasika A and Lettre, Guillaume and Pankratz, Nathan and Laurie, Cathy C and Laurie, Cecelia A and Bauer, Daniel E and Conomos, Matthew P and Reiner, Alexander P} } @article {8914, title = {Whole-genome sequencing in diverse subjects identifies genetic correlates of leukocyte traits: The NHLBI TOPMed program.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {108}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 10 07}, pages = {1836-1851}, abstract = {

Many common and rare variants associated with hematologic traits have been discovered through imputation on large-scale reference panels. However, the majority of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have been conducted in Europeans, and determining causal variants has proved challenging. We performed a GWAS of total leukocyte, neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, eosinophil, and basophil counts generated from 109,563,748 variants in the autosomes and the X chromosome in the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program, which included data from 61,802 individuals of diverse ancestry. We discovered and replicated 7 leukocyte trait associations, including (1) the association between a chromosome X, pseudo-autosomal region (PAR), noncoding variant located between cytokine receptor genes (CSF2RA and CLRF2) and lower eosinophil count; and (2) associations between single variants found predominantly among African Americans at the S1PR3 (9q22.1) and HBB (11p15.4) loci and monocyte and lymphocyte counts, respectively. We further provide evidence indicating that the newly discovered eosinophil-lowering chromosome X PAR variant might be associated with reduced susceptibility to common allergic diseases such as atopic dermatitis and asthma. Additionally, we found a burden of very rare FLT3 (13q12.2) variants associated with monocyte counts. Together, these results emphasize the utility of whole-genome sequencing in diverse samples in identifying associations missed by European-ancestry-driven GWASs.

}, keywords = {Asthma, Biomarkers, Dermatitis, Atopic, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Leukocytes, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.), Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prognosis, Proteome, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive, Quantitative Trait Loci, United Kingdom, United States, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.08.007}, author = {Mikhaylova, Anna V and McHugh, Caitlin P and Polfus, Linda M and Raffield, Laura M and Boorgula, Meher Preethi and Blackwell, Thomas W and Brody, Jennifer A and Broome, Jai and Chami, Nathalie and Chen, Ming-Huei and Conomos, Matthew P and Cox, Corey and Curran, Joanne E and Daya, Michelle and Ekunwe, Lynette and Glahn, David C and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Highland, Heather M and Hobbs, Brian D and Ilboudo, Yann and Jain, Deepti and Lange, Leslie A and Miller-Fleming, Tyne W and Min, Nancy and Moon, Jee-Young and Preuss, Michael H and Rosen, Jonathon and Ryan, Kathleen and Smith, Albert V and Sun, Quan and Surendran, Praveen and de Vries, Paul S and Walter, Klaudia and Wang, Zhe and Wheeler, Marsha and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhong, Xue and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Almasy, Laura and Barnes, Kathleen C and Beaty, Terri H and Becker, Lewis C and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Butterworth, Adam S and Chavan, Sameer and Cho, Michael H and Choquet, Helene and Correa, Adolfo and Cox, Nancy and DeMeo, Dawn L and Faraday, Nauder and Fornage, Myriam and Gerszten, Robert E and Hou, Lifang and Johnson, Andrew D and Jorgenson, Eric and Kaplan, Robert and Kooperberg, Charles and Kundu, Kousik and Laurie, Cecelia A and Lettre, Guillaume and Lewis, Joshua P and Li, Bingshan and Li, Yun and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Loos, Ruth J F and Manichaikul, Ani and Meyers, Deborah A and Mitchell, Braxton D and Morrison, Alanna C and Ngo, Debby and Nickerson, Deborah A and Nongmaithem, Suraj and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Ortega, Victor E and Pankratz, Nathan and Perry, James A and Psaty, Bruce M and Rich, Stephen S and Soranzo, Nicole and Rotter, Jerome I and Silverman, Edwin K and Smith, Nicholas L and Tang, Hua and Tracy, Russell P and Thornton, Timothy A and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Zein, Joe and Mathias, Rasika A and Reiner, Alexander P and Auer, Paul L} } @article {9042, title = {Assessing the contribution of rare variants to complex trait heritability from whole-genome sequence data.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {54}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Mar}, pages = {263-273}, abstract = {

Analyses of data from genome-wide association studies on unrelated individuals have shown that, for human traits and diseases, approximately one-third to two-thirds of heritability is captured by common SNPs. However, it is not known whether the remaining heritability is due to the imperfect tagging of causal variants by common SNPs, in particular whether the causal variants are rare, or whether it is overestimated due to bias in inference from pedigree data. Here we estimated heritability for height and body mass index (BMI) from whole-genome sequence data on 25,465 unrelated individuals of European ancestry. The estimated heritability was 0.68 (standard error 0.10) for height and 0.30 (standard error 0.10) for body mass index. Low minor allele frequency variants in low linkage disequilibrium (LD) with neighboring variants were enriched for heritability, to a greater extent for protein-altering variants, consistent with negative selection. Our results imply that rare variants, in particular those in regions of low linkage disequilibrium, are a major source of the still missing heritability of complex traits and disease.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-021-00997-7}, author = {Wainschtein, Pierrick and Jain, Deepti and Zheng, Zhili and Cupples, L Adrienne and Shadyab, Aladdin H and McKnight, Barbara and Shoemaker, Benjamin M and Mitchell, Braxton D and Psaty, Bruce M and Kooperberg, Charles and Liu, Ching-Ti and Albert, Christine M and Roden, Dan and Chasman, Daniel I and Darbar, Dawood and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Arnett, Donna K and Regan, Elizabeth A and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rotter, Jerome I and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Yanek, Lisa R and de Andrade, Mariza and Allison, Matthew A and McDonald, Merry-Lynn N and Chung, Mina K and Fornage, Myriam and Chami, Nathalie and Smith, Nicholas L and Ellinor, Patrick T and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Mathias, Rasika A and Loos, Ruth J F and Rich, Stephen S and Lubitz, Steven A and Heckbert, Susan R and Redline, Susan and Guo, Xiuqing and Chen, Y -D Ida and Laurie, Cecelia A and Hernandez, Ryan D and McGarvey, Stephen T and Goddard, Michael E and Laurie, Cathy C and North, Kari E and Lange, Leslie A and Weir, Bruce S and Yengo, Loic and Yang, Jian and Visscher, Peter M} } @article {9175, title = {Association of immune cell subsets with incident heart failure in two population-based cohorts.}, journal = {ESC Heart Fail}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Sep 12}, abstract = {

AIMS: Circulating inflammatory markers are associated with incident heart failure (HF), but prospective data on associations of immune cell subsets with incident HF are lacking. We determined the associations of immune cell subsets with incident HF as well as HF subtypes [with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF)].

METHODS AND RESULTS: Peripheral blood immune cell subsets were measured in adults from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) and Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). Cox proportional hazard models adjusted for demographics, HF risk factors, and cytomegalovirus serostatus were used to evaluate the association of the immune cell subsets with incident HF. The average age of the MESA cohort at the time of immune cell measurements was 63.0~{\textpm}~10.4~years with 51\% women, and in the CHS cohort, it was 79.6~{\textpm}~4.4~years with 62\% women. In the meta-analysis of CHS and MESA, a higher proportion of CD4+ T helper (Th) 1 cells (per one standard deviation) was associated with a lower risk of incident HF [hazard ratio (HR) 0.91, (95\% CI 0.83-0.99), P~=~0.03]. Specifically, higher proportion of CD4+ Th1 cells was significantly associated with a lower risk of HFrEF [HR 0.73, (95\% CI 0.62-0.85), <0.001] after correction for multiple testing. No association was observed with HFpEF. No other cell subsets were associated with incident HF.

CONCLUSIONS: We observed that higher proportions of CD4+ Th1 cells were associated with a lower risk of incident HFrEF in two distinct population-based cohorts, with similar effect sizes in both cohorts demonstrating replicability. Although unexpected, the consistency of this finding across cohorts merits further investigation.

}, issn = {2055-5822}, doi = {10.1002/ehf2.14140}, author = {Sinha, Arjun and Sitlani, Colleen M and Doyle, Margaret F and Fohner, Alison E and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Floyd, James S and Huber, Sally A and Olson, Nels C and Njoroge, Joyce N and Kizer, Jorge R and Delaney, Joseph A and Shah, Sanjiv S and Tracy, Russell P and Psaty, Bruce and Feinstein, Matthew} } @article {9091, title = {Association of Trimethylamine N-Oxide and Metabolites With Mortality in Older Adults.}, journal = {JAMA Netw Open}, volume = {5}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 05 02}, pages = {e2213242}, abstract = {

Importance: Little is known about the association of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a novel plasma metabolite derived from L-carnitine and phosphatidylcholine, and related metabolites (ie, choline, betaine, carnitine, and butyrobetaine) with risk of death among older adults in the general population.

Objective: To investigate the associations of serial measures of plasma TMAO and related metabolites with risk of total and cause-specific death (ie, deaths from cardiovascular diseases [CVDs] and non-CVDs) among older adults in the US.

Design, Setting, and Participants: This prospective cohort study involved 5333 participants from the Cardiovascular Health Study-a community-based longitudinal cohort of adults aged 65 years or older-who were followed up from June 1, 1989, to December 31, 2015. Participants were from 4 communities in the US (Forsyth County, North Carolina; Sacramento County, California; Washington County, Maryland; and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania). Data were analyzed from March 17 to June 23, 2021.

Exposures: Plasma TMAO, choline, betaine, carnitine, and butyrobetaine levels were measured using stored samples from baseline (June 1, 1989, to May 31, 1990, or November 1, 1992, to June 31, 1993) and follow-up examination (June 1, 1996, to May 31, 1997). Measurements were performed through stable-isotope dilution liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry using high-performance liquid chromatography with online electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Deaths (total and cause specific) were adjudicated by a centralized Cardiovascular Health Study events committee based on information from medical records, laboratory and diagnostic reports, death certificates, and/or interviews with next of kin. The associations of each metabolite with mortality were assessed using Cox proportional hazards regression models.

Results: Among 5333 participants in the analytic sample, the mean (SD) age was 73 (6) years; 2149 participants (40.3\%) were male, 3184 (59.7\%) were female, 848 (15.9\%) were African American, 4450 (83.4\%) were White, and 35 (0.01\%) were of other races (12 were American Indian or Alaska Native, 4 were Asian or Pacific Islander, and 19 were of other races or ethnicities). During a median follow-up of 13.2 years (range, 0-26.9 years), 4791 deaths occurred. After adjustment for potential confounders, the hazard ratios for death from any cause (ie, total mortality) comparing extreme quintiles (fifth vs first) of plasma concentrations were 1.30 (95\% CI, 1.17-1.44) for TMAO, 1.19 (95\% CI, 1.08-1.32) for choline, 1.26 (95\% CI, 1.15-1.40) for carnitine, and 1.26 (95\% CI, 1.13-1.40) for butyrobetaine. Plasma betaine was not associated with risk of death. The extent of risk estimates was similar for CVD and non-CVD mortality.

Conclusions and Relevance: In this cohort study, plasma concentrations of TMAO and related metabolites were positively associated with risk of death. These findings suggest that circulating TMAO is an important novel risk factor associated with death among older adults.

}, keywords = {Aged, Betaine, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carnitine, Choline, Cohort Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Methylamines, Prospective Studies}, issn = {2574-3805}, doi = {10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.13242}, author = {Fretts, Amanda M and Hazen, Stanley L and Jensen, Paul and Budoff, Matthew and Sitlani, Colleen M and Wang, Meng and de Oliveira Otto, Marcia C and DiDonato, Joseph A and Lee, Yujin and Psaty, Bruce M and Siscovick, David S and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Tang, W H Wilson and Lai, Heidi and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {9098, title = {An association test of the spatial distribution of rare missense variants within protein structures identifies Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease-related patterns}, journal = {Genome Res}, volume = {32}, year = {2022}, month = {04}, pages = {778{\textendash}790}, abstract = {is a novel AD risk gene that has a cluster of variants primarily shared by case subjects around the Sec6 domain. This cluster is also validated in an independent replication data set and a validation data set with a larger sample size.}, author = {Jin, B. and Capra, J. A. and Benchek, P. and Wheeler, N. and Naj, A. C. and Hamilton-Nelson, K. L. and Farrell, J. J. and Leung, Y. Y. and Kunkle, B. and Vadarajan, B. and Schellenberg, G. D. and Mayeux, R. and Wang, L. S. and Farrer, L. A. and Pericak-Vance, M. A. and Martin, E. R. and Haines, J. L. and Crawford, D. C. and Bush, W. S.} } @article {9043, title = {Body Composition and Incident Heart Failure in Older Adults: Results From 2 Prospective Cohorts.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {11}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 01 04}, pages = {e023707}, abstract = {

Background Aging is associated with central fat redistribution and skeletal muscle decline, yet the relationships of tissue compartments with heart failure (HF) remain incompletely characterized. We assessed the contribution of body composition to incident HF in elders. Methods and Results Participants from 2 older cohorts who completed dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) and, in one cohort, computed tomography were included. We evaluated associations with incident HF for DEXA principal components (PCs) and total lean, appendicular lean, total fat and trunk fat mass; and for computed tomography measures of abdominal visceral and subcutaneous fat, thigh muscle, intermuscular fat area and thigh muscle density. DEXA analysis included 3621, and computed tomography analysis 2332 participants. During median follow-up of 11.8~years, 927 participants developed HF. DEXA principal components showed no relationship with HF. After adjustment for height, weight, and cardiovascular risk factors, total lean mass was near significantly associated with higher HF (hazard ratio [HR], 1.25 per SD [1.00-1.56]), whereas total fat mass and thigh muscle density were significantly related to lower HF (HR, 0.82 [0.68-0.99] and HR, 0.87 [0.78-0.97], respectively). Patterns were similar for HF subtypes. The relationships with HF for total lean and fat mass were attenuated after adjusting for intercurrent atrial fibrillation or excluding high natriuretic peptide levels. Conclusions Total lean mass was positively associated, while total fat mass and thigh muscle density were inversely associated, with incident HF. These findings highlight the limitations of DEXA for assessment of HF risk in elders and support the preeminence of computed tomography-measured skeletal muscle quality over mass as a determinant of HF incidence.

}, keywords = {Absorptiometry, Photon, Aged, Aging, Body Composition, Body Mass Index, Heart Failure, Humans, Muscle, Skeletal, Prospective Studies}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.121.023707}, author = {Zhang, Lili and Bartz, Traci M and Santanasto, Adam and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Forman, Daniel E and Hirsch, Calvin H and Newman, Anne B and Gottdiener, John S and Kizer, Jorge R} } @article {9252, title = {CD133 as a Biomarker for an Autoantibody-to-ImmunoPET Paradigm for the Early Detection of Small Cell Lung Cancer.}, journal = {J Nucl Med}, volume = {63}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Nov}, pages = {1701-1707}, abstract = {

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a deadly neuroendocrine tumor for which there are no screening methods sensitive enough to facilitate early, effective intervention. We propose targeting the neuroendocrine tumor neoantigen CD133 via antibody-based early detection and PET (immunoPET) to facilitate earlier and more accurate detection of SCLC. RNA sequencing datasets, immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry, and Western blots were used to quantify CD133 expression in healthy and SCLC patients. CD133 was imaged using near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) immunoimaging, and Zr immunoPET. Anti(α)-CD133 autoantibody levels were measured in SCLC patient plasma using antibody microarrays. Across 6 publicly available datasets, CD133 messenger RNA was found to be higher in SCLC tumors than in other tissues, including healthy or normal adjacent lung and non-SCLC samples. Critically, the upregulation of CD133 messenger RNA in SCLC was associated with a significant increase (hazard ratio, 2.62) in death. CD133 protein was expressed in primary human SCLC, in SCLC patient-derived xenografts, and in both SCLC cell lines tested (H82 and H69). Using an H82 xenograft mouse model, we first imaged CD133 expression with NIRF. Both and NIRF clearly showed that a fluorophore-tagged αCD133 homed to lung tumors. Next, we validated the noninvasive visualization of subcutaneous and orthotopic H82 xenografts via immunoPET. An αCD133 antibody labeled with the positron-emitting radiometal Zr demonstrated significant accumulation in tumor tissue while producing minimal uptake in healthy organs. Finally, plasma αCD133 autoantibodies were found in subjects from cohort studies up to 1 year before SCLC diagnosis. In light of these findings, we conclude that the presence of αCD133 autoantibodies in a blood sample followed by CD133-targeted Zr-immunoPET could be an effective early detection screening strategy for SCLC.

}, keywords = {Animals, Autoantibodies, Biomarkers, Cell Line, Tumor, Disease Models, Animal, Early Detection of Cancer, Humans, Lung Neoplasms, Mice, Mice, Nude, Neuroendocrine Tumors, Positron-Emission Tomography, RNA, Messenger, Small Cell Lung Carcinoma}, issn = {1535-5667}, doi = {10.2967/jnumed.121.263511}, author = {Kunihiro, Andrew G and Sarrett, Samantha M and Lastwika, Kristin J and Solan, Joell L and Pisarenko, Tatyana and Kein{\"a}nen, Outi and Rodriguez, Cindy and Taverne, Lydia R and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Li, Christopher I and Houghton, A McGarry and Zeglis, Brian M and Lampe, Paul D} } @article {9256, title = {Circulating Androgen Concentrations and Risk of Incident Heart Failure in Older Men: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {11}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Nov}, pages = {e026953}, abstract = {

Background Circulating androgen concentrations in men decline with age and have been linked to diabetes and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). A similar relationship has been reported for low total testosterone and incident heart failure (HF) but remains unstudied for free testosterone or the more potent androgen dihydrotestosterone (DHT). We hypothesized that total/free testosterone are inversely related, sex hormone-binding globulin is positively related, and total/free DHT bear a U-shaped relationship with incident HF. Methods and Results In a sample of men from the CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study) without atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease or HF, serum testosterone and DHT concentrations were measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, and sex hormone-binding globulin by immunoassay. Free testosterone or DHT was calculated from total testosterone or total DHT, sex hormone-binding globulin, and albumin. We used Cox regression to estimate relative risks of HF after adjustment for potential confounders. In 1061 men (aged 76{\textpm}5 years) followed for a median of 9.6 years, there were 368 HF events. After adjustment, lower calculated free testosterone was significantly associated with higher risk of HF (hazard ratio [HR], 1.14 [95\% CI, 1.01-1.28]). Risk estimates for total testosterone (HR, 1.12 [95\% CI, 0.99-1.26]), total DHT (HR, 1.10 [95\% CI, 0.97-1.24]), calculated free dihydrotestosterone (HR, 1.09 [95\% CI, 0.97-1.23]), and sex hormone-binding globulin (HR, 1.07 [95\% CI, 0.95-1.21]) were directionally similar but not statistically significant. Conclusions Calculated free testosterone was inversely associated with incident HF, suggesting a contribution of testosterone deficiency to HF incidence among older men. Additional research is necessary to determine whether testosterone replacement therapy might be an effective strategy to lower HF risk in older men.

}, keywords = {Aged, Androgens, Cardiovascular Diseases, Dihydrotestosterone, Estradiol, Heart Failure, Humans, Male, Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin, Testosterone}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.122.026953}, author = {Njoroge, Joyce N and Tressel, William and Biggs, Mary L and Matsumoto, Alvin M and Smith, Nicholas L and Rosenberg, Emily and Hirsch, Calvin H and Gottdiener, John S and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Kizer, Jorge R} } @article {9245, title = {Circulating Soluble CD163, Associations With Cardiovascular Outcomes and Mortality, and Identification of Genetic Variants in Older Individuals: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {11}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Nov}, pages = {e024374}, abstract = {

Background Monocytes/macrophages participate in cardiovascular disease. CD163 (cluster of differentiation 163) is a monocyte/macrophage receptor, and the shed sCD163 (soluble CD163) reflects monocyte/macrophage activation. We examined the association of sCD163 with incident cardiovascular disease events and performed a genome-wide association study to identify sCD163-associated variants. Methods and Results We measured plasma sCD163 in 5214 adults (aged >=65 years, 58.7\% women, 16.2\% Black) of the CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study). We used Cox regression models (associations of sCD163 with incident events and mortality); median follow-up was 26 years. Genome-wide association study analyses were stratified on race. Adjusted for age, sex, and race and ethnicity, sCD163 levels were associated with all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 1.08 [95\% CI, 1.04-1.12] per SD increase), cardiovascular disease mortality (HR, 1.15 [95\% CI, 1.09-1.21]), incident coronary heart disease (HR, 1.10 [95\% CI, 1.04-1.16]), and incident heart failure (HR, 1.18 [95\% CI, 1.12-1.25]). When further adjusted (eg, cardiovascular disease risk factors), only incident coronary heart disease lost significance. In European American individuals, genome-wide association studies identified 38 variants on chromosome 2 near (top result rs62165726, =3.3{\texttimes}10),19 variants near chromosome 17 gene (rs55714927, =1.5{\texttimes}10), and 18 variants near chromosome 11 gene . These regions replicated in the European ancestry ADDITION-PRO cohort, a longitudinal cohort study nested in the Danish arm of the Anglo-Danish-Dutch~study~of~Intensive~Treatment~Intensive Treatment In peOple with screeNdetcted Diabetes in Primary Care. In Black individuals, we identified 9 variants on chromosome 6 (rs3129781 =7.1{\texttimes}10) in the region, and 3 variants (rs115391969 =4.3{\texttimes}10) near the chromosome 16 gene Conclusions Monocyte function, as measured by sCD163, may be predictive of overall and cardiovascular-specific mortality and incident heart failure.

}, keywords = {Aged, Antigens, CD, Antigens, Differentiation, Myelomonocytic, Asialoglycoprotein Receptor, Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heart Failure, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.121.024374}, author = {Durda, Peter and Raffield, Laura M and Lange, Ethan M and Olson, Nels C and Jenny, Nancy Swords and Cushman, Mary and Deichgraeber, Pia and Grarup, Niels and Jonsson, Anna and Hansen, Torben and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Psaty, Bruce M and Reiner, Alex P and Tracy, Russell P and Lange, Leslie A} } @article {8986, title = {Clonal Hematopoiesis Is Associated With Higher Risk of Stroke.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {53}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Mar}, pages = {788-797}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) is a novel age-related risk factor for cardiovascular disease-related morbidity and mortality. The association of CHIP with risk of incident ischemic stroke was reported previously in an exploratory analysis including a small number of incident stroke cases without replication and lack of stroke subphenotyping. The purpose of this study was to discover whether CHIP is a risk factor for ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke.

METHODS: We utilized plasma genome sequence data of blood DNA to identify CHIP in 78 752 individuals from 8 prospective cohorts and biobanks. We then assessed the association of CHIP and commonly mutated individual CHIP driver genes (, , and ) with any stroke, ischemic stroke, and hemorrhagic stroke.

RESULTS: CHIP was associated with an increased risk of total stroke (hazard ratio, 1.14 [95\% CI, 1.03-1.27]; =0.01) after adjustment for age, sex, and race. We observed associations with CHIP with risk of hemorrhagic stroke (hazard ratio, 1.24 [95\% CI, 1.01-1.51]; =0.04) and with small vessel ischemic stroke subtypes. In gene-specific association results, showed the strongest association with total stroke and ischemic stroke, whereas and were each associated with increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke.

CONCLUSIONS: CHIP is associated with an increased risk of stroke, particularly with hemorrhagic and small vessel ischemic stroke. Future studies clarifying the relationship between CHIP and subtypes of stroke are needed.

}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.121.037388}, author = {Bhattacharya, Romit and Zekavat, Seyedeh M and Haessler, Jeffrey and Fornage, Myriam and Raffield, Laura and Uddin, Md Mesbah and Bick, Alexander G and Niroula, Abhishek and Yu, Bing and Gibson, Christopher and Griffin, Gabriel and Morrison, Alanna C and Psaty, Bruce M and Longstreth, William T and Bis, Joshua C and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Tracy, Russell P and Correa, Adolfo and Seshadri, Sudha and Johnson, Andrew and Collins, Jason M and Hayden, Kathleen M and Madsen, Tracy E and Ballantyne, Christie M and Jaiswal, Siddhartha and Ebert, Benjamin L and Kooperberg, Charles and Manson, JoAnn E and Whitsel, Eric A and Natarajan, Pradeep and Reiner, Alexander P} } @article {9251, title = {Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential and Kidney Function Decline in the General Population.}, journal = {Am J Kidney Dis}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Oct 11}, abstract = {

RATIONALE \& OBJECTIVE: Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP), defined by the age-related ontogenesis of expanded leukemogenic variants indicative of a genetically distinct clonal leukocyte population, is associated with risk of hematologic malignancy and cardiovascular disease. In experimental models, recapitulation of CHIP promotes kidney interstitial fibrosis with direct tissue infiltration of donor macrophages. We tested the hypothesis that CHIP is associated with kidney function decline in the general population.

STUDY DESIGN: Cohort study.

SETTING \& PARTICIPANTS: 12,004 individuals from 3 community-based cohorts in the TOPMed Consortium.

EXPOSURE: CHIP status from whole-genome sequences obtained from DNA extracted from peripheral blood.

OUTCOME: Risk of 30\% decline in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and percent eGFR decline per year during the follow-up period.

ANALYTICAL APPROACH: Cox proportional hazards models for 30\% eGFR decline end point and generalized estimating equations for annualized relative change in eGFR with meta-analysis. Study-specific estimates were combined using fixed-effect meta-analysis.

RESULTS: The median baseline eGFR was 84mL/min/1.73m. The prevalence of CHIP was 6.6\%, 9.0\%, and 12.2\% in persons aged 50-60, 60-70, and>70 years, respectively. Over a median follow-up period of 8 years, for the 30\% eGFR outcome 205 events occurred among 1,002 CHIP carriers (2.1 events per 100 person-years) and 2,041 events in persons without CHIP (1.7 events per 100 person-years). In meta-analysis, CHIP was associated with greater risk of a 30\% eGFR decline (17\% [95\% CI, 1\%-36\%] higher; P=0.04). Differences were not observed between those with baseline eGFR above or below 60mL/min/1.73m, of age above or below 60 years, or with or without diabetes.

LIMITATIONS: Small number of participants with moderate-to-advanced kidney disease and restricted set of CHIP driver variants.

CONCLUSIONS: We report an association between CHIP and eGFR decline in 3 general population cohorts without known kidney disease. Further studies are needed to investigate this novel condition and its potential impact among individuals with overt kidney disease.

}, issn = {1523-6838}, doi = {10.1053/j.ajkd.2022.08.014}, author = {Kestenbaum, Bryan and Bick, Alexander G and Vlasschaert, Caitlyn and Rauh, Michael J and Lanktree, Matthew B and Franceschini, Nora and Shoemaker, Moore B and Harris, Raymond C and Psaty, Bruce M and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Natarajan, Pradeep and Robinson-Cohen, Cassianne} } @article {9181, title = {{Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential, DNA methylation, and risk for coronary artery disease}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {13}, year = {2022}, month = {Sep}, pages = {5350}, abstract = {Age-related changes to the genome-wide DNA methylation (DNAm) pattern observed in blood are well-documented. Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP), characterized by the age-related acquisition and expansion of leukemogenic mutations in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), is associated with blood cancer and coronary artery disease (CAD). Epigenetic regulators DNMT3A and TET2 are the two most frequently mutated CHIP genes. Here, we present results from an epigenome-wide association study for CHIP in 582 Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) participants, with replication in 2655 Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study participants. We show that DNMT3A and TET2 CHIP have distinct and directionally opposing genome-wide DNAm association patterns consistent with their regulatory roles, albeit both promoting self-renewal of HSCs. Mendelian randomization analyses indicate that a subset of DNAm alterations associated with these two leading CHIP genes may promote the risk for CAD.}, author = {Uddin, M. D. M. and Nguyen, N. Q. H. and Yu, B. and Brody, J. A. and Pampana, A. and Nakao, T. and Fornage, M. and Bressler, J. and Sotoodehnia, N. and Weinstock, J. S. and Honigberg, M. C. and Nachun, D. and Bhattacharya, R. and Griffin, G. K. and Chander, V. and Gibbs, R. A. and Rotter, J. I. and Liu, C. and Baccarelli, A. A. and Chasman, D. I. and Whitsel, E. A. and Kiel, D. P. and Murabito, J. M. and Boerwinkle, E. and Ebert, B. L. and Jaiswal, S. and Floyd, J. S. and Bick, A. G. and Ballantyne, C. M. and Psaty, B. M. and Natarajan, P. and Conneely, K. N.} } @article {9246, title = {Correlations between complex human phenotypes vary by genetic background, gender, and environment.}, journal = {Cell Rep Med}, volume = {3}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Dec 20}, pages = {100844}, abstract = {

We develop a closed-form Haseman-Elston estimator for genetic and environmental correlation coefficients between complex phenotypes, which we term HEc, that is as precise as GCTA yet \~{}20{\texttimes} faster. We estimate genetic and environmental correlations between over 7,000 phenotype pairs in subgroups from the Trans-Omics in Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. We demonstrate substantial differences in both heritabilities and genetic correlations for multiple phenotypes and phenotype pairs between individuals of self-reported Black, Hispanic/Latino, and White backgrounds. We similarly observe differences in many of the genetic and environmental correlations between genders. To estimate the contribution of genetics to the observed phenotypic correlation, we introduce "fractional genetic correlation" as the fraction of phenotypic correlation explained by genetics. Finally, we quantify the enrichment of correlations between phenotypic domains, each of which is comprised of multiple phenotypes. Altogether, we demonstrate that the observed correlations between complex human phenotypes depend on the genetic background of the individuals, their gender, and their environment.

}, keywords = {Female, Genetic Background, Humans, Male, Phenotype}, issn = {2666-3791}, doi = {10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100844}, author = {Elgart, Michael and Goodman, Matthew O and Isasi, Carmen and Chen, Han and Morrison, Alanna C and de Vries, Paul S and Xu, Huichun and Manichaikul, Ani W and Guo, Xiuqing and Franceschini, Nora and Psaty, Bruce M and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Fornage, Myriam and Correa, Adolfo and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Hernandez, Ryan and Kaplan, Robert C and Redline, Susan and Sofer, Tamar} } @article {9194, title = {Cross-Ancestry Investigation of Venous Thromboembolism Genomic Predictors.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {146}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Oct 18}, pages = {1225-1242}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a life-threatening vascular event with environmental and genetic determinants. Recent VTE genome-wide association studies (GWAS) meta-analyses involved nearly 30 000 VTE cases and identified up to 40 genetic loci associated with VTE risk, including loci not previously suspected to play a role in hemostasis. The aim of our research was to expand discovery of new genetic loci associated with VTE by using cross-ancestry genomic resources.

METHODS: We present new cross-ancestry meta-analyzed GWAS results involving up to 81 669 VTE cases from 30 studies, with replication of novel loci in independent populations and loci characterization through in silico genomic interrogations.

RESULTS: In our genetic discovery effort that included 55 330 participants with VTE (47 822 European, 6320 African, and 1188 Hispanic ancestry), we identified 48 novel associations, of which 34 were replicated after correction for multiple testing. In our combined discovery-replication analysis (81 669 VTE participants) and ancestry-stratified meta-analyses (European, African, and Hispanic), we identified another 44 novel associations, which are new candidate VTE-associated loci requiring replication. In total, across all GWAS meta-analyses, we identified 135 independent genomic loci significantly associated with VTE risk. A genetic risk score of the significantly associated loci in Europeans identified a 6-fold increase in risk for those in the top 1\% of scores compared with those with average scores. We also identified 31 novel transcript associations in transcriptome-wide association studies and 8 novel candidate genes with protein quantitative-trait locus Mendelian randomization analyses. In silico interrogations of hemostasis and hematology traits and a large phenome-wide association analysis of the 135 GWAS loci provided insights to biological pathways contributing to VTE, with some loci contributing to VTE through well-characterized coagulation pathways and others providing new data on the role of hematology traits, particularly platelet function. Many of the replicated loci are outside of known or currently hypothesized pathways to thrombosis.

CONCLUSIONS: Our cross-ancestry GWAS meta-analyses identified new loci associated with VTE. These findings highlight new pathways to thrombosis and provide novel molecules that may be useful in the development of improved antithrombosis treatments.

}, keywords = {Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Thrombosis, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.059675}, author = {Thibord, Florian and Klarin, Derek and Brody, Jennifer A and Chen, Ming-Huei and Levin, Michael G and Chasman, Daniel I and Goode, Ellen L and Hveem, Kristian and Teder-Laving, Maris and Martinez-Perez, Angel and A{\"\i}ssi, Dylan and Daian-Bacq, Delphine and Ito, Kaoru and Natarajan, Pradeep and Lutsey, Pamela L and Nadkarni, Girish N and de Vries, Paul S and Cuellar-Partida, Gabriel and Wolford, Brooke N and Pattee, Jack W and Kooperberg, Charles and Braekkan, Sigrid K and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Saut, No{\'e}mie and Sept, Corriene and Germain, Marine and Judy, Renae L and Wiggins, Kerri L and Ko, Darae and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Taylor, Kent D and Giulianini, Franco and de Andrade, Mariza and N{\o}st, Therese H and Boland, Anne and Empana, Jean-Philippe and Koyama, Satoshi and Gilliland, Thomas and Do, Ron and Huffman, Jennifer E and Wang, Xin and Zhou, Wei and Manuel Soria, Jose and Carlos Souto, Juan and Pankratz, Nathan and Haessler, Jeffery and Hindberg, Kristian and Rosendaal, Frits R and Turman, Constance and Olaso, Robert and Kember, Rachel L and Bartz, Traci M and Lynch, Julie A and Heckbert, Susan R and Armasu, Sebastian M and Brumpton, Ben and Smadja, David M and Jouven, Xavier and Komuro, Issei and Clapham, Katharine R and Loos, Ruth J F and Willer, Cristen J and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Pankow, James S and Reiner, Alexander P and Morelli, Vania M and Ridker, Paul M and Vlieg, Astrid van Hylckama and Deleuze, Jean-Francois and Kraft, Peter and Rader, Daniel J and Min Lee, Kyung and Psaty, Bruce M and Heidi Skogholt, Anne and Emmerich, Joseph and Suchon, Pierre and Rich, Stephen S and Vy, Ha My T and Tang, Weihong and Jackson, Rebecca D and Hansen, John-Bjarne and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and Kabrhel, Christopher and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Damrauer, Scott M and Johnson, Andrew D and Smith, Nicholas L} } @article {9182, title = {Dietary Meat, Trimethylamine N-Oxide-Related Metabolites, and Incident Cardiovascular Disease Among Older Adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol}, volume = {42}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 09}, pages = {e273-e288}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Effects of animal source foods (ASF) on atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and underlying mechanisms remain controversial. We investigated prospective associations of different ASF with incident ASCVD and potential mediation by gut microbiota-generated trimethylamine N-oxide, its L-carnitine-derived intermediates γ-butyrobetaine and crotonobetaine, and traditional ASCVD risk pathways.

METHODS: Among 3931 participants from a community-based US cohort aged 65+ years, ASF intakes and trimethylamine N-oxide-related metabolites were measured serially over time. Incident ASCVD (myocardial infarction, fatal coronary heart disease, stroke, other atherosclerotic death) was adjudicated over 12.5 years median follow-up. Cox proportional hazards models with time-varying exposures and covariates examined ASF-ASCVD associations; and additive hazard models, mediation proportions by different risk pathways.

RESULTS: After multivariable-adjustment, higher intakes of unprocessed red meat, total meat, and total ASF associated with higher ASCVD risk, with hazard ratios (95\% CI) per interquintile range of 1.15 (1.01-1.30), 1.22 (1.07-1.39), and 1.18 (1.03-1.34), respectively. Trimethylamine N-oxide-related metabolites together significantly mediated these associations, with mediation proportions (95\% CI) of 10.6\% (1.0-114.5), 7.8\% (1.0-32.7), and 9.2\% (2.2-44.5), respectively. Processed meat intake associated with a nonsignificant trend toward higher ASCVD (1.11 [0.98-1.25]); intakes of fish, poultry, and eggs were not significantly associated. Among other risk pathways, blood glucose, insulin, and C-reactive protein, but not blood pressure or blood cholesterol, each significantly mediated the total meat-ASCVD association.

CONCLUSIONS: In this large, community-based cohort, higher meat intake associated with incident ASCVD, partly mediated by microbiota-derived metabolites of L-carnitine, abundant in red meat. These novel findings support biochemical links between dietary meat, gut microbiome pathways, and ASCVD.

}, keywords = {Animals, Atherosclerosis, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carnitine, Humans, Meat, Methylamines, Risk Factors}, issn = {1524-4636}, doi = {10.1161/ATVBAHA.121.316533}, author = {Wang, Meng and Wang, Zeneng and Lee, Yujin and Lai, Heidi T M and de Oliveira Otto, Marcia C and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Fretts, Amanda and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Budoff, Matthew and DiDonato, Joseph A and McKnight, Barbara and Tang, W H Wilson and Psaty, Bruce M and Siscovick, David S and Hazen, Stanley L and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {9112, title = {Differential and shared genetic effects on kidney function between diabetic and non-diabetic individuals.}, journal = {Commun Biol}, volume = {5}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Jun 13}, pages = {580}, abstract = {

Reduced glomerular filtration rate (GFR) can progress to kidney failure. Risk factors include genetics and diabetes mellitus (DM), but little is known about their interaction. We conducted genome-wide association meta-analyses for estimated GFR based on serum creatinine (eGFR), separately for individuals with or without DM (n = 178,691, n = 1,296,113). Our genome-wide searches identified (i) seven eGFR loci with significant DM/noDM-difference, (ii) four additional novel loci with suggestive difference and (iii) 28 further novel loci (including CUBN) by allowing for potential difference. GWAS on eGFR among DM individuals identified 2 known and 27 potentially responsible loci for diabetic kidney disease. Gene prioritization highlighted 18 genes that may inform reno-protective drug development. We highlight the existence of DM-only and noDM-only effects, which can inform about the target group, if respective genes are advanced as drug targets. Largely shared effects suggest that most drug interventions to alter eGFR should be effective in DM and noDM.

}, keywords = {Creatinine, Diabetes Mellitus, Diabetic Nephropathies, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Kidney}, issn = {2399-3642}, doi = {10.1038/s42003-022-03448-z}, author = {Winkler, Thomas W and Rasheed, Humaira and Teumer, Alexander and Gorski, Mathias and Rowan, Bryce X and Stanzick, Kira J and Thomas, Laurent F and Tin, Adrienne and Hoppmann, Anselm and Chu, Audrey Y and Tayo, Bamidele and Thio, Chris H L and Cusi, Daniele and Chai, Jin-Fang and Sieber, Karsten B and Horn, Katrin and Li, Man and Scholz, Markus and Cocca, Massimiliano and Wuttke, Matthias and van der Most, Peter J and Yang, Qiong and Ghasemi, Sahar and Nutile, Teresa and Li, Yong and Pontali, Giulia and G{\"u}nther, Felix and Dehghan, Abbas and Correa, Adolfo and Parsa, Afshin and Feresin, Agnese and de Vries, Aiko P J and Zonderman, Alan B and Smith, Albert V and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and De Grandi, Alessandro and Rosenkranz, Alexander R and Franke, Andre and Teren, Andrej and Metspalu, Andres and Hicks, Andrew A and Morris, Andrew P and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Morgan, Anna and Podgornaia, Anna I and Peters, Annette and K{\"o}rner, Antje and Mahajan, Anubha and Campbell, Archie and Freedman, Barry I and Spedicati, Beatrice and Ponte, Belen and Sch{\"o}ttker, Ben and Brumpton, Ben and Banas, Bernhard and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernhard K and Jung, Bettina and {\r A}svold, Bj{\o}rn Olav and Smith, Blair H and Ning, Boting and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Vanderwerff, Brett R and Psaty, Bruce M and Kammerer, Candace M and Langefeld, Carl D and Hayward, Caroline and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Robinson-Cohen, Cassianne and Hartman, Catharina A and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Wang, Chaolong and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Lanzani, Chiara and Khor, Chiea-Chuen and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Fuchsberger, Christian and Gieger, Christian and Shaffer, Christian M and Schulz, Christina-Alexandra and Willer, Cristen J and Chasman, Daniel I and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Ruggiero, Daniela and Toniolo, Daniela and Czamara, Darina and Porteous, David J and Waterworth, Dawn M and Mascalzoni, Deborah and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Reilly, Dermot F and Daw, E Warwick and Hofer, Edith and Boerwinkle, Eric and Salvi, Erika and Bottinger, Erwin P and Tai, E-Shyong and Catamo, Eulalia and Rizzi, Federica and Guo, Feng and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Guilianini, Franco and Sveinbjornsson, Gardar and Ehret, Georg and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Biino, Ginevra and Girotto, Giorgia and Pistis, Giorgio and Nadkarni, Girish N and Delgado, Graciela E and Montgomery, Grant W and Snieder, Harold and Campbell, Harry and White, Harvey D and Gao, He and Stringham, Heather M and Schmidt, Helena and Li, Hengtong and Brenner, Hermann and Holm, Hilma and Kirsten, Holgen and Kramer, Holly and Rudan, Igor and Nolte, Ilja M and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Olafsson, Isleifur and Martins, Jade and Cook, James P and Wilson, James F and Halbritter, Jan and Felix, Janine F and Divers, Jasmin and Kooner, Jaspal S and Lee, Jeannette Jen-Mai and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey and Rotter, Jerome I and Liu, Jianjun and Xu, Jie and Thiery, Joachim and Arnl{\"o}v, Johan and Kuusisto, Johanna and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Tremblay, Johanne and Chambers, John C and Whitfield, John B and Gaziano, John M and Marten, Jonathan and Coresh, Josef and Jonas, Jost B and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Christensen, Kaare and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Mohlke, Karen L and Endlich, Karlhans and Dittrich, Katalin and Ryan, Kathleen A and Rice, Kenneth M and Taylor, Kent D and Ho, Kevin and Nikus, Kjell and Matsuda, Koichi and Strauch, Konstantin and Miliku, Kozeta and Hveem, Kristian and Lind, Lars and Wallentin, Lars and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Raffield, Laura M and Phillips, Lawrence S and Launer, Lenore J and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Lange, Leslie A and Citterio, Lorena and Klaric, Lucija and Ikram, M Arfan and Ising, Marcus and Kleber, Marcus E and Francescatto, Margherita and Concas, Maria Pina and Ciullo, Marina and Piratsu, Mario and Orho-Melander, Marju and Laakso, Markku and Loeffler, Markus and Perola, Markus and de Borst, Martin H and G{\"o}gele, Martin and Bianca, Martina La and Lukas, Mary Ann and Feitosa, Mary F and Biggs, Mary L and Wojczynski, Mary K and Kavousi, Maryam and Kanai, Masahiro and Akiyama, Masato and Yasuda, Masayuki and Nauck, Matthias and Waldenberger, Melanie and Chee, Miao-Li and Chee, Miao-Ling and Boehnke, Michael and Preuss, Michael H and Stumvoll, Michael and Province, Michael A and Evans, Michele K and O{\textquoteright}Donoghue, Michelle L and Kubo, Michiaki and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kastarinen, Mika and Nalls, Mike A and Kuokkanen, Mikko and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Bochud, Murielle and Josyula, Navya Shilpa and Martin, Nicholas G and Tan, Nicholas Y Q and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pirastu, Nicola and Schupf, Nicole and Verweij, Niek and Hutri-K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Nina and Mononen, Nina and Bansal, Nisha and Devuyst, Olivier and Melander, Olle and Raitakari, Olli T and Polasek, Ozren and Manunta, Paolo and Gasparini, Paolo and Mishra, Pashupati P and Sulem, Patrick and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Elliott, Paul and Ridker, Paul M and Hamet, Pavel and Svensson, Per O and Joshi, Peter K and Kovacs, Peter and Pramstaller, Peter P and Rossing, Peter and Vollenweider, Peter and van der Harst, Pim and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Sim, Ralene Z H and Burkhardt, Ralph and Tao, Ran and Noordam, Raymond and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Schmidt, Reinhold and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Rueedi, Rico and van Dam, Rob M and Carroll, Robert J and Gansevoort, Ron T and Loos, Ruth J F and Felicita, Sala Cinzia and Sedaghat, Sanaz and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Freitag-Wolf, Sandra and Pendergrass, Sarah A and Graham, Sarah E and Gordon, Scott D and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Kerr, Shona M and Vaccargiu, Simona and Patil, Snehal B and Hallan, Stein and Bakker, Stephan J L and Lim, Su-Chi and Lucae, Susanne and Vogelezang, Suzanne and Bergmann, Sven and Corre, Tanguy and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Boutin, Thibaud S and Meitinger, Thomas and Wong, Tien-Yin and Bergler, Tobias and Rabelink, Ton J and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Haller, Toomas and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Foo, Valencia Hui Xian and Salomaa, Veikko and Vitart, Veronique and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Jaddoe, Vincent W V and Huang, Wei and Zhang, Weihua and Wei, Wen Bin and Kiess, Wieland and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Koenig, Wolfgang and Lieb, Wolfgang and G{\`a}o, Xin and Sim, Xueling and Wang, Ya Xing and Friedlander, Yechiel and Tham, Yih-Chung and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Okada, Yukinori and Milaneschi, Yuri and Yu, Zhi and Stark, Klaus J and Stefansson, Kari and B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and Hung, Adriana M and Kronenberg, Florian and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Pattaro, Cristian and Heid, Iris M} } @article {9111, title = {{DNA methylation signature of chronic low-grade inflammation and its role in cardio-respiratory diseases}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {13}, year = {2022}, month = {05}, pages = {2408}, abstract = {We performed a multi-ethnic Epigenome Wide Association study on 22,774 individuals to describe the DNA methylation signature of chronic low-grade inflammation as measured by C-Reactive protein (CRP). We find 1,511 independent differentially methylated loci associated with CRP. These CpG sites show correlation structures across chromosomes, and are primarily situated in euchromatin, depleted in CpG islands. These genomic loci are predominantly situated in transcription factor binding sites and genomic enhancer regions. Mendelian randomization analysis suggests altered CpG methylation is a consequence of increased blood CRP levels. Mediation analysis reveals obesity and smoking as important underlying driving factors for changed CpG methylation. Finally, we find that an activated CpG signature significantly increases the risk for cardiometabolic diseases and COPD.}, author = {Wielscher, M. and Mandaviya, P. R. and Kuehnel, B. and Joehanes, R. and Mustafa, R. and Robinson, O. and Zhang, Y. and Bodinier, B. and Walton, E. and Mishra, P. P. and Schlosser, P. and Wilson, R. and Tsai, P. C. and Palaniswamy, S. and Marioni, R. E. and Fiorito, G. and Cugliari, G. and Karhunen, V. and Ghanbari, M. and Psaty, B. M. and Loh, M. and Bis, J. C. and Lehne, B. and Sotoodehnia, N. and Deary, I. J. and Chadeau-Hyam, M. and Brody, J. A. and Cardona, A. and Selvin, E. and Smith, A. K. and Miller, A. H. and Torres, M. A. and Marouli, E. and G{\`a}o, X. and van Meurs, J. B. J. and Graf-Schindler, J. and Rathmann, W. and Koenig, W. and Peters, A. and Weninger, W. and Farlik, M. and Zhang, T. and Chen, W. and Xia, Y. and Teumer, A. and Nauck, M. and Grabe, H. J. and Doerr, M. and Lehtim{\"a}ki, T. and Guan, W. and Milani, L. and Tanaka, T. and Fisher, K. and Waite, L. L. and Kasela, S. and Vineis, P. and Verweij, N. and van der Harst, P. and Iacoviello, L. and Sacerdote, C. and Panico, S. and Krogh, V. and Tumino, R. and Tzala, E. and Matullo, G. and Hurme, M. A. and Raitakari, O. T. and Colicino, E. and Baccarelli, A. A. and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, M. and Herzig, K. H. and Li, S. and Conneely, K. N. and Kooner, J. S. and K{\"o}ttgen, A. and Heijmans, B. T. and Deloukas, P. and Relton, C. and Ong, K. K. and Bell, J. T. and Boerwinkle, E. and Elliott, P. and Brenner, H. and Beekman, M. and Levy, D. and Waldenberger, M. and Chambers, J. C. and Dehghan, A. and Jarvelin, M. R.} } @article {9259, title = {Dysregulated carbohydrate and lipid metabolism and risk of atrial fibrillation in advanced old age.}, journal = {Heart}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Dec 22}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Obesity and dysmetabolism are major risk factors for atrial fibrillation (AF). Fasting and postload levels of glucose and non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs) reflect different facets of metabolic regulation. We sought to study their respective contributions to AF risk concurrently.

METHODS: We assessed levels of fasting and postload glucose and NEFA in the Cardiovascular Health Study to identify associations with AF incidence and, secondarily, with ECG parameters of AF risk available at baseline. Linear and Cox regressions were performed.

RESULTS: The study included 1876 participants (age 77.7{\textpm}4.4). During the median follow-up of 11.4 years, 717 cases of incident AF occurred. After adjustment for potential confounders, postload glucose showed an association with incident AF (HR per SD increment of postload glucose=1.11, 95\% CI 1.02 to 1.21, p=0.017). Both glucose measures, but not NEFA, were positively associated with higher P wave terminal force in V1 (PTFV1); the association remained significant only for postload glucose when the two measures were entered together (β per SD increment=138 μV{\textperiodcentered}ms, 95\% CI 15 to 260, p=0.028). Exploratory analyses showed significant interaction by sex for fasting NEFA (p=0.044) and postload glucose (p=0.015) relative to AF, with relationships stronger in women. For postload glucose, the association with incident AF was observed among women but not among men.

CONCLUSIONS: Among older adults, postload glucose was positively associated with incident AF, with consistent findings for PTFV1. In exploratory analyses, the relationship with AF appeared specific to women. These findings require further study but suggest that interventions to address postprandial dysglycaemia late in life might reduce AF.

}, issn = {1468-201X}, doi = {10.1136/heartjnl-2022-321633}, author = {Pellegrini, Cara N and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Oesterle, Adam and Heckbert, Susan R and Tracy, Russell P and Siscovick, David S and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Kizer, Jorge R} } @article {9167, title = {Endophenotype effect sizes support variant pathogenicity in monogenic disease susceptibility genes.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {13}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 08 30}, pages = {5106}, abstract = {

Accurate and efficient classification of variant pathogenicity is critical for research and clinical care. Using data from three large studies, we demonstrate that population-based associations between rare variants and quantitative endophenotypes for three monogenic diseases (low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol for familial hypercholesterolemia, electrocardiographic QTc interval for long QT syndrome, and glycosylated hemoglobin for maturity-onset diabetes of the young) provide evidence for variant pathogenicity. Effect sizes are associated with pathogenic ClinVar assertions (P < 0.001 for each trait) and discriminate pathogenic from non-pathogenic variants (area under the curve 0.82-0.84 across endophenotypes). An effect size threshold of >= 0.5 times the endophenotype standard deviation nominates up to 35\% of rare variants of uncertain significance or not in ClinVar in disease susceptibility genes with pathogenic potential. We propose that variant associations with quantitative endophenotypes for monogenic diseases can provide evidence supporting pathogenicity.

}, keywords = {Disease Susceptibility, Endophenotypes, Humans, Long QT Syndrome, Virulence}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-022-32009-5}, author = {Halford, Jennifer L and Morrill, Valerie N and Choi, Seung Hoan and Jurgens, Sean J and Melloni, Giorgio and Marston, Nicholas A and Weng, Lu-Chen and Nauffal, Victor and Hall, Amelia W and Gunn, Sophia and Austin-Tse, Christina A and Pirruccello, James P and Khurshid, Shaan and Rehm, Heidi L and Benjamin, Emelia J and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brody, Jennifer A and Correa, Adolfo and Fornwalt, Brandon K and Gupta, Namrata and Haggerty, Christopher M and Harris, Stephanie and Heckbert, Susan R and Hong, Charles C and Kooperberg, Charles and Lin, Henry J and Loos, Ruth J F and Mitchell, Braxton D and Morrison, Alanna C and Post, Wendy and Psaty, Bruce M and Redline, Susan and Rice, Kenneth M and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Schnatz, Peter F and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Wong, Eugene K and Sabatine, Marc S and Ruff, Christian T and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Ellinor, Patrick T and Lubitz, Steven A} } @article {9184, title = {Epigenetic and integrative cross-omics analyses of cerebral white matter hyperintensities on MRI.}, journal = {Brain}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Aug 09}, abstract = {

Cerebral white matter hyperintensities on MRI are markers of cerebral small vessel disease, a major risk factor for dementia and stroke. Despite the successful identification of multiple genetic variants associated with this highly heritable condition, its genetic architecture remains incompletely understood. More specifically, the role of DNA methylation has received little attention. We investigated the association between white matter hyperintensity burden and DNA methylation in blood at approximately 450,000 CpG sites in 9,732 middle-aged to older adults from 14 community-based studies. Single-CpG and region-based association analyses were carried out. Functional annotation and integrative cross-omics analyses were performed to identify novel genes underlying the relationship between DNA methylation and white matter hyperintensities. We identified 12 single-CpG and 46 region-based DNA methylation associations with white matter hyperintensity burden. Our top discovery single CpG, cg24202936 (P = 7.6 {\texttimes} 10-8), was associated with F2 expression in blood (P = 6.4 {\texttimes} 10-5), and colocalized with FOLH1 expression in brain (posterior probability =0.75). Our top differentially methylated regions were in PRMT1 and in CCDC144NL-AS1, which were also represented in single-CpG associations (cg17417856 and cg06809326, respectively). Through Mendelian randomization analyses cg06809326 was putatively associated with white matter hyperintensity burden (P = 0.03) and expression of CCDC144NL-AS1 possibly mediated this association. Differentially methylated region analysis, joint epigenetic association analysis, and multi-omics colocalization analysis consistently identified a role of DNA methylation near SH3PXD2A, a locus previously identified in genome-wide association studies of white matter hyperintensities. Gene set enrichment analyses revealed functions of the identified DNA methylation loci in the blood-brain barrier and in the immune response. Integrative cross-omics analysis identified 19 key regulatory genes in two networks related to extracellular matrix organization, and lipid and lipoprotein metabolism. A drug repositioning analysis indicated antihyperlipidemic agents, more specifically peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha, as possible target drugs for white matter hyperintensities. Our epigenome-wide association study and integrative cross-omics analyses implicate novel genes influencing white matter hyperintensity burden, which converged on pathways related to the immune response and to a compromised blood brain barrier possibly due to disrupted cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions. The results also suggest that antihyperlipidemic therapy may contribute to lowering risk for white matter hyperintensities possibly through protection against blood brain barrier disruption.

}, issn = {1460-2156}, doi = {10.1093/brain/awac290}, author = {Yang, Yunju and Knol, Maria J and Wang, Ruiqi and Mishra, Aniket and Liu, Dan and Luciano, Michelle and Teumer, Alexander and Armstrong, Nicola and Bis, Joshua C and Jhun, Min A and Li, Shuo and Adams, Hieab H H and Aziz, Nasir Ahmad and Bastin, Mark E and Bourgey, Mathieu and Brody, Jennifer A and Frenzel, Stefan and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Hosten, Norbert and Hou, Lifang and Kardia, Sharon L R and Lohner, Valerie and Marquis, Pascale and Maniega, Susana Mu{\~n}oz and Satizabal, Claudia L and Sorond, Farzaneh A and Vald{\'e}s Hern{\'a}ndez, Maria C and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Vernooij, Meike W and Wittfeld, Katharina and Yang, Qiong and Zhao, Wei and Boerwinkle, Eric and Levy, Daniel and Deary, Ian J and Jiang, Jiyang and Mather, Karen A and Mosley, Thomas H and Psaty, Bruce M and Sachdev, Perminder S and Smith, Jennifer A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and DeCarli, Charles S and Breteler, Monique M B and Arfan Ikram, M and Grabe, Hans J and Wardlaw, Joanna and Longstreth, W T and Launer, Lenore J and Seshadri, Sudha and Debette, Stephanie and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {9234, title = {Epilepsy, Vascular Risk Factors, and Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {99}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Nov 22}, pages = {e2346-e2358}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Recent studies have shown that global cognitive ability tends to decline faster over time in older adults (>=65 years) with epilepsy compared with older adults without epilepsy. Scarce data exist about the role of vascular risk factors (VRFs) on cognitive course in epilepsy. We assessed whether the associations of individual VRFs with cognitive trajectory differed depending on the presence of prevalent epilepsy.

METHODS: The Cardiovascular Health Study is a population-based longitudinal cohort study of 5,888 US adults aged >=65 years. Cognitive function was assessed annually with modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MS; global cognitive ability) and Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST; information processing speed). We used linear mixed models to estimate the individual and joint associations of epilepsy and VRFs with cognitive decline by modeling epilepsy {\texttimes} VRF interactions one by one, each adjusted for all other VRFs considered, including demographics, health behaviors, clinical characteristics, and comorbid diagnoses. From these models, we estimated excess mean cognitive decline due to interaction of epilepsy with each VRF.

RESULTS: We observed excess mean decline in global cognitive ability (3MS) due to interactions of epilepsy with hypertension (6.6 points greater mean 8-year decline than expected if no interaction; 95\% CI 1.3-12.0) and with abstaining from alcohol (5.8 points greater than expected; 95\% CI 0.3-11.3). We also observed excess mean decline in information processing speed (DSST) due to interactions of epilepsy with prior stroke (18.1 points greater mean 9-year decline than expected; 95\% CI 7.6-28.5), with abstaining from alcohol (6.1 points greater than expected; 95\% CI 2.5-9.8), and with higher triglyceride levels (2.4 points greater than expected per SD; 95\% CI 0.4-4.3).

DISCUSSION: Associations of some VRFs with cognitive decline in older adults are stronger in the presence of epilepsy, suggesting a need for greater attention to vascular protection for preserving brain health in older adults with epilepsy.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cognition, Cognitive Dysfunction, Epilepsy, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Neuropsychological Tests, Risk Factors}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000201187}, author = {Choi, Hyunmi and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Longstreth, W T and Boehme, Amelia K and Hafen, Rebekah and Hoyt, Emma J and Thacker, Evan L} } @article {9113, title = {eSCAN: scan regulatory regions for aggregate association testing using whole-genome sequencing data.}, journal = {Brief Bioinform}, volume = {23}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 01 17}, abstract = {

Multiple statistical methods for aggregate association testing have been developed for whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data. Many aggregate variants in a given genomic window and ignore existing knowledge to define test regions, resulting in many identified regions not clearly linked to genes, and thus, limiting biological understanding. Functional information from new technologies (such as Hi-C and its derivatives), which can help link enhancers to their effector genes, can be leveraged to predefine variant sets for aggregate testing in WGS data. Here, we propose the eSCAN (scan the enhancers) method for genome-wide assessment of enhancer regions in sequencing studies, combining the advantages of dynamic window selection in SCANG (SCAN the Genome), a previously developed method, with the advantages of incorporating putative regulatory regions from annotation. eSCAN, by searching in putative enhancers, increases statistical power and aids mechanistic interpretation, as demonstrated by extensive simulation studies. We also apply eSCAN for blood cell traits using NHLBI Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine WGS data. Results from real data analysis show that eSCAN is able to capture more significant signals, and these signals are of shorter length (indicating higher resolution fine-mapping capability) and drive association of larger regions detected by other methods.

}, keywords = {Genome, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {1477-4054}, doi = {10.1093/bib/bbab497}, author = {Yang, Yingxi and Sun, Quan and Huang, Le and Broome, Jai G and Correa, Adolfo and Reiner, Alexander and Raffield, Laura M and Yang, Yuchen and Li, Yun} } @article {9257, title = {Fasting and Post-Load Glucose and Non-Esterified Fatty Acids and Risk of Heart Failure and its Subtypes in Older Adults.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Nov 14}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Glucose and non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) are myocardial fuels whose fasting and post-prandial levels are under different homeostatic regulation. The relationships of fasting and post-load glucose and NEFA with incident heart failure (HF) remain incompletely defined.

METHODS: Serum glucose and NEFA were measured during fasting and 2 hours post oral glucose tolerance test, performed in Cardiovascular Health Study participants not receiving hypoglycemic medication. Participants with prevalent HF or lacking relevant data were excluded. Outcomes were incident HF (primary), and HF with preserved (HFpEF) and reduced (HFrEF) ejection fraction (secondary).

RESULTS: Among 2238 participants (age 78{\textpm}4) with median follow-up of 9.9 years, there were 737 HF events. After adjustment for demographic and lifestyle factors, both fasting (HR=1.11 per SD [95\% CI=1.01-1.23], p=0.040) and post-load (HR=1.14 per SD [1.05-1.24], p=0.002) glucose were significantly associated with incident HF. No association was seen for fasting or post-load NEFA. Upon mutual adjustment, only post-load glucose (HR=1.11 [1.003-1.22], p=0.044), but not fasting glucose (HR=1.06 [0.94-1.20], p=0.340), remained associated with HF. Further adjustment for cardiovascular disease and other risk factors in the causal pathway did not affect the association for post-load glucose, but eliminated that for fasting glucose. Associations for fasting and post-load glucose appeared stronger with higher adiposity, and were observed specifically for HFrEF, but not HFpEF.

CONCLUSIONS: Fasting and post-load glucose, but not NEFA, were associated with incident HF. The association was especially robust for post-load glucose, suggesting that pathways involved in post-prandial dysglycemia could offer new targets for HF prevention late in life.

}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glac229}, author = {Oesterle, Adam and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Pellegrini, Cara and Hirsch, Calvin and Tracy, Russell P and Siscovick, David S and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Mukamal, Ken J and Kizer, Jorge R} } @article {9106, title = {{Gene-mapping study of extremes of cerebral small vessel disease reveals TRIM47 as a strong candidate}, journal = {Brain}, volume = {145}, year = {2022}, month = {Jun}, pages = {1992{\textendash}2007}, abstract = {Cerebral small vessel disease is a leading cause of stroke and a major contributor to cognitive decline and dementia, but our understanding of specific genes underlying the cause of sporadic cerebral small vessel disease is limited. We report a genome-wide association study and a whole-exome association study on a composite extreme phenotype of cerebral small vessel disease derived from its most common MRI features: white matter hyperintensities and lacunes. Seventeen population-based cohorts of older persons with MRI measurements and genome-wide genotyping (n = 41 326), whole-exome sequencing (n = 15 965), or exome chip (n = 5249) data contributed 13 776 and 7079 extreme small vessel disease samples for the genome-wide association study and whole-exome association study, respectively. The genome-wide association study identified significant association of common variants in 11 loci with extreme small vessel disease, of which the chr12q24.11 locus was not previously reported to be associated with any MRI marker of cerebral small vessel disease. The whole-exome association study identified significant associations of extreme small vessel disease with common variants in the 5{\textquoteright} UTR region of EFEMP1 (chr2p16.1) and one probably damaging common missense variant in TRIM47 (chr17q25.1). Mendelian randomization supports the causal association of extensive small vessel disease severity with increased risk of stroke and Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease. Combined evidence from summary-based Mendelian randomization studies and profiling of human loss-of-function allele carriers showed an inverse relation between TRIM47 expression in the brain and blood vessels and extensive small vessel disease severity. We observed significant enrichment of Trim47 in isolated brain vessel preparations compared to total brain fraction in mice, in line with the literature showing Trim47 enrichment in brain endothelial cells at single cell level. Functional evaluation of TRIM47 by small interfering RNAs-mediated knockdown in human brain endothelial cells showed increased endothelial permeability, an important hallmark of cerebral small vessel disease pathology. Overall, our comprehensive gene-mapping study and preliminary functional evaluation suggests a putative role of TRIM47 in the pathophysiology of cerebral small vessel disease, making it an important candidate for extensive in vivo explorations and future translational work.}, author = {Mishra, A. and Dupla{\`a}, C. and Vojinovic, D. and Suzuki, H. and Sargurupremraj, M. and Zilhao, N. R. and Li, S. and Bartz, T. M. and Jian, X. and Zhao, W. and Hofer, E. and Wittfeld, K. and Harris, S. E. and van der Auwera-Palitschka, S. and Luciano, M. and Bis, J. C. and Adams, H. H. H. and Satizabal, C. L. and Gottesman, R. F. and Gampawar, P. G. and B{\"u}low, R. and Weiss, S. and Yu, M. and Bastin, M. E. and Lopez, O. L. and Vernooij, M. W. and Beiser, A. S. and V{\"o}lker, U. and Kacprowski, T. and Soumare, A. and Smith, J. A. and Knopman, D. S. and Morris, Z. and Zhu, Y. and Rotter, J. I. and Dufouil, C. and Vald{\'e}s Hern{\'a}ndez, M. and Mu{\~n}oz Maniega, S. and Lathrop, M. and Boerwinkle, E. and Schmidt, R. and Ihara, M. and Mazoyer, B. and Yang, Q. and Joutel, A. and Tournier-Lasserve, E. and Launer, L. J. and Deary, I. J. and Mosley, T. H. and Amouyel, P. and DeCarli, C. S. and Psaty, B. M. and Tzourio, C. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Grabe, H. J. and Teumer, A. and van Duijn, C. M. and Schmidt, H. and Wardlaw, J. M. and Ikram, M. A. and Fornage, M. and Gudnason, V. and Seshadri, S. and Matthews, P. M. and Longstreth, W. T. and Couffinhal, T. and Debette, S.} } @article {9186, title = {{Genetic analyses of the electrocardiographic QT interval and its components identify additional loci and pathways}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {13}, year = {2022}, month = {09}, pages = {5144}, abstract = {250,000 individuals) we identify 177, 156 and 121 independent loci for QT, JT and QRS, respectively, including a male-specific X-chromosome locus. Using gene-based rare-variant methods, we identify associations with Mendelian disease genes. Enrichments are observed in established pathways for QT and JT, and previously unreported genes indicated in insulin-receptor signalling and cardiac energy metabolism. In contrast for QRS, connective tissue components and processes for cell growth and extracellular matrix interactions are significantly enriched. We demonstrate polygenic risk score associations with atrial fibrillation, conduction disease and sudden cardiac death. Prioritization of druggable genes highlight potential therapeutic targets for arrhythmia. Together, these results substantially advance our understanding of the genetic architecture of ventricular depolarization and repolarization.}, author = {Young, W. J. and Lahrouchi, N. and Isaacs, A. and Duong, T. and Foco, L. and Ahmed, F. and Brody, J. A. and Salman, R. and Noordam, R. and Benjamins, J. W. and Haessler, J. and Lyytik{\"a}inen, L. P. and Repetto, L. and Concas, M. P. and van den Berg, M. E. and Weiss, S. and Baldassari, A. R. and Bartz, T. M. and Cook, J. P. and Evans, D. S. and Freudling, R. and Hines, O. and Isaksen, J. L. and Lin, H. and Mei, H. and Moscati, A. and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, M. and Nursyifa, C. and Qian, Y. and Richmond, A. and Roselli, C. and Ryan, K. A. and Tarazona-Santos, E. and Th{\'e}riault, S. and van Duijvenboden, S. and Warren, H. R. and Yao, J. and Raza, D. and Aeschbacher, S. and Ahlberg, G. and Alonso, A. and Andreasen, L. and Bis, J. C. and Boerwinkle, E. and Campbell, A. and Catamo, E. and Cocca, M. and Cutler, M. J. and Darbar, D. and De Grandi, A. and De Luca, A. and Ding, J. and Ellervik, C. and Ellinor, P. T. and Felix, S. B. and Froguel, P. and Fuchsberger, C. and G{\"o}gele, M. and Graff, C. and Graff, M. and Guo, X. and Hansen, T. and Heckbert, S. R. and Huang, P. L. and Huikuri, H. V. and Hutri-K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, N. and Ikram, M. A. and Jackson, R. D. and Junttila, J. and Kavousi, M. and Kors, J. A. and Leal, T. P. and Lemaitre, R. N. and Lin, H. J. and Lind, L. and Linneberg, A. and Liu, S. and Macfarlane, P. W. and Mangino, M. and Meitinger, T. and Mezzavilla, M. and Mishra, P. P. and Mitchell, R. N. and Mononen, N. and Montasser, M. E. and Morrison, A. C. and Nauck, M. and Nauffal, V. and Navarro, P. and Nikus, K. and Pare, G. and Patton, K. K. and Pelliccione, G. and Pittman, A. and Porteous, D. J. and Pramstaller, P. P. and Preuss, M. H. and Raitakari, O. T. and Reiner, A. P. and Ribeiro, A. L. P. and Rice, K. M. and Risch, L. and Schlessinger, D. and Schotten, U. and Schurmann, C. and Shen, X. and Shoemaker, M. B. and Sinagra, G. and Sinner, M. F. and Soliman, E. Z. and Stoll, M. and Strauch, K. and Tarasov, K. and Taylor, K. D. and Tinker, A. and Trompet, S. and Uitterlinden, A. and V{\"o}lker, U. and V{\"o}lzke, H. and Waldenberger, M. and Weng, L. C. and Whitsel, E. A. and Wilson, J. G. and Avery, C. L. and Conen, D. and Correa, A. and Cucca, F. and D{\"o}rr, M. and Gharib, S. A. and Girotto, G. and Grarup, N. and Hayward, C. and Jamshidi, Y. and Jarvelin, M. R. and Jukema, J. W. and K{\"a}{\"a}b, S. and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, M. and Kanters, J. K. and Kooperberg, C. and Lehtim{\"a}ki, T. and Lima-Costa, M. F. and Liu, Y. and Loos, R. J. F. and Lubitz, S. A. and Mook-Kanamori, D. O. and Morris, A. P. and O{\textquoteright}Connell, J. R. and Olesen, M. S. and Orini, M. and Padmanabhan, S. and Pattaro, C. and Peters, A. and Psaty, B. M. and Rotter, J. I. and Stricker, B. and van der Harst, P. and van Duijn, C. M. and Verweij, N. and Wilson, J. F. and Arking, D. E. and Ramirez, J. and Lambiase, P. D. and Sotoodehnia, N. and Mifsud, B. and Newton-Cheh, C. and Munroe, P. B.} } @article {9312, title = {{Genetic and clinical determinants of abdominal aortic diameter: genome-wide association studies, exome array data and Mendelian randomization study}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {31}, year = {2022}, month = {Oct}, pages = {3566{\textendash}3579}, abstract = {0.0001), known risk factors for AAA, consistent with a causal association with AAD. Our findings point to new biology as well as highlighting gene regions in mechanisms that have previously been implicated in the genetics of other vascular diseases.}, author = {Portilla-Fernandez, E. and Klarin, D. and Hwang, S. J. and Biggs, M. L. and Bis, J. C. and Weiss, S. and Rospleszcz, S. and Natarajan, P. and Hoffmann, U. and Rogers, I. S. and Truong, Q. A. and lker, U. and rr, M. and low, R. and Criqui, M. H. and Allison, M. and Ganesh, S. K. and Yao, J. and Waldenberger, M. and Bamberg, F. and Rice, K. M. and Essers, J. and Kapteijn, D. M. C. and van der Laan, S. W. and de Knegt, R. J. and Ghanbari, M. and Felix, J. F. and Ikram, M. A. and Kavousi, M. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and Roks, A. J. M. and Danser, A. H. J. and Tsao, P. S. and Damrauer, S. M. and Guo, X. and Rotter, J. I. and Psaty, B. M. and Kathiresan, S. and lzke, H. and Peters, A. and Johnson, C. and Strauch, K. and Meitinger, T. and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, C. J. and Dehghan, A.} } @article {9093, title = {Genetic loci and prioritization of genes for kidney function decline derived from a meta-analysis of 62 longitudinal genome-wide association studies.}, journal = {Kidney Int}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Jun 16}, abstract = {

Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) reflects kidney function. Progressive eGFR-decline can lead to kidney failure, necessitating dialysis or transplantation. Hundreds of loci from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for eGFR help explain population cross section variability. Since the contribution of these or other loci to eGFR-decline remains largely unknown, we derived GWAS for annual eGFR-decline and meta-analyzed 62 longitudinal studies with eGFR assessed twice over time in all 343,339 individuals and in high-risk groups. We also explored different covariate adjustment. Twelve genome-wide significant independent variants for eGFR-decline unadjusted or adjusted for eGFR-baseline (11 novel, one known for this phenotype), including nine variants robustly associated across models were identified. All loci for eGFR-decline were known for cross-sectional eGFR and thus distinguished a subgroup of eGFR loci. Seven of the nine variants showed variant-by-age interaction on eGFR cross section (further about 350,000 individuals), which linked genetic associations for eGFR-decline with age-dependency of genetic cross-section associations. Clinically important were two to four-fold greater genetic effects on eGFR-decline in high-risk subgroups. Five variants associated also with chronic kidney disease progression mapped to genes with functional in-silico evidence (UMOD, SPATA7, GALNTL5, TPPP). An unfavorable versus favorable nine-variant genetic profile showed increased risk odds ratios of 1.35 for kidney failure (95\% confidence intervals 1.03-1.77) and 1.27 for acute kidney injury (95\% confidence intervals 1.08-1.50) in over 2000 cases each, with matched controls). Thus, we provide a large data resource, genetic loci, and prioritized genes for kidney function decline, which help inform drug development pipelines revealing important insights into the age-dependency of kidney function genetics.

}, issn = {1523-1755}, doi = {10.1016/j.kint.2022.05.021}, author = {Gorski, Mathias and Rasheed, Humaira and Teumer, Alexander and Thomas, Laurent F and Graham, Sarah E and Sveinbjornsson, Gardar and Winkler, Thomas W and G{\"u}nther, Felix and Stark, Klaus J and Chai, Jin-Fang and Tayo, Bamidele O and Wuttke, Matthias and Li, Yong and Tin, Adrienne and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Arnl{\"o}v, Johan and {\r A}svold, Bj{\o}rn Olav and Bakker, Stephan J L and Banas, Bernhard and Bansal, Nisha and Biggs, Mary L and Biino, Ginevra and B{\"o}hnke, Michael and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin P and Brenner, Hermann and Brumpton, Ben and Carroll, Robert J and Chaker, Layal and Chalmers, John and Chee, Miao-Li and Chee, Miao-Ling and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Chu, Audrey Y and Ciullo, Marina and Cocca, Massimiliano and Cook, James P and Coresh, Josef and Cusi, Daniele and de Borst, Martin H and Degenhardt, Frauke and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Endlich, Karlhans and Evans, Michele K and Feitosa, Mary F and Franke, Andre and Freitag-Wolf, Sandra and Fuchsberger, Christian and Gampawar, Piyush and Gansevoort, Ron T and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Ghasemi, Sahar and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Gieger, Christian and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Hallan, Stein and Hamet, Pavel and Hishida, Asahi and Ho, Kevin and Hofer, Edith and Holleczek, Bernd and Holm, Hilma and Hoppmann, Anselm and Horn, Katrin and Hutri-K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Nina and Hveem, Kristian and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Ikram, M Arfan and Josyula, Navya Shilpa and Jung, Bettina and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Karabegovi{\'c}, Irma and Khor, Chiea-Chuen and Koenig, Wolfgang and Kramer, Holly and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernhard K and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Lange, Leslie A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Li, Man and Lieb, Wolfgang and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Loos, Ruth J F and Lukas, Mary Ann and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Mahajan, Anubha and Matias-Garcia, Pamela R and Meisinger, Christa and Meitinger, Thomas and Melander, Olle and Milaneschi, Yuri and Mishra, Pashupati P and Mononen, Nina and Morris, Andrew P and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Nadkarni, Girish N and Naito, Mariko and Nakatochi, Masahiro and Nalls, Mike A and Nauck, Matthias and Nikus, Kjell and Ning, Boting and Nolte, Ilja M and Nutile, Teresa and O{\textquoteright}Donoghue, Michelle L and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey and Olafsson, Isleifur and Orho-Melander, Marju and Parsa, Afshin and Pendergrass, Sarah A and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Pirastu, Mario and Preuss, Michael H and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Raitakari, Olli T and Rheinberger, Myriam and Rice, Kenneth M and Rizzi, Federica and Rosenkranz, Alexander R and Rossing, Peter and Rotter, Jerome I and Ruggiero, Daniela and Ryan, Kathleen A and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Salvi, Erika and Schmidt, Helena and Schmidt, Reinhold and Scholz, Markus and Sch{\"o}ttker, Ben and Schulz, Christina-Alexandra and Sedaghat, Sanaz and Shaffer, Christian M and Sieber, Karsten B and Sim, Xueling and Sims, Mario and Snieder, Harold and Stanzick, Kira J and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Stocker, Hannah and Strauch, Konstantin and Stringham, Heather M and Sulem, Patrick and Szymczak, Silke and Taylor, Kent D and Thio, Chris H L and Tremblay, Johanne and Vaccargiu, Simona and van der Harst, Pim and van der Most, Peter J and Verweij, Niek and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wakai, Kenji and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wallentin, Lars and Wallner, Stefan and Wang, Judy and Waterworth, Dawn M and White, Harvey D and Willer, Cristen J and Wong, Tien-Yin and Woodward, Mark and Yang, Qiong and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Zimmermann, Martina and Zonderman, Alan B and Bergler, Tobias and Stefansson, Kari and B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and Pattaro, Cristian and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Kronenberg, Florian and Heid, Iris M} } @article {9452, title = {Genome Wide Association Studies of Variant-by-Thiazide Interaction on Lipids Identifies a Novel Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Locus.}, journal = {Circ Res}, volume = {131}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Jul 22}, pages = {277-279}, keywords = {Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Diuretics, Genome-Wide Association Study, Sodium Chloride Symporter Inhibitors, Thiazides, Triglycerides}, issn = {1524-4571}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.122.321120}, author = {Downie, Carolina G and Highland, Heather M and Lee, Moa P and Raffield, Laura M and Preuss, Michael and Whitsel, Eric A and Psaty, Bruce M and Sitlani, Colleen M and Graff, Mariaelisa and Avery, Christy L} } @article {9313, title = {Genome-wide analyses identify as a susceptibility locus for premature atrial contraction frequency.}, journal = {iScience}, volume = {25}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Oct 21}, pages = {105210}, abstract = {

Premature atrial contractions (PACs) are frequently observed on electrocardiograms and are associated with increased risks of atrial fibrillation (AF), stroke, and mortality. In this study, we aimed to identify genetic susceptibility loci for PAC frequency. We performed a genome-wide association study meta-analysis with PAC frequency obtained from ambulatory cardiac monitoring in 4,831 individuals of European ancestry. We identified a genome-wide significant locus at the gene. The lead variant, rs7373862, located in an intron of , was associated with an increase of 0.12 [95\% CI 0.08-0.16] standard deviations of the normalized PAC frequency per risk allele. Among genetic variants previously associated with AF, there was a significant enrichment in concordance of effect for PAC frequency (n~= 73/106, p~= 5.1~{\texttimes}~10). However, several AF risk loci, including , were not associated with PAC frequency. These findings suggest the existence of both shared and distinct genetic mechanisms for PAC frequency and AF.

}, issn = {2589-0042}, doi = {10.1016/j.isci.2022.105210}, author = {Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Imboden, Medea and Biggs, Mary L and Austin, Thomas R and Aeschbacher, Stefanie and Schaffner, Emmanuel and Brody, Jennifer A and Bartz, Traci M and Risch, Martin and Grossmann, Kirsten and Lin, Henry J and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Post, Wendy S and Risch, Lorenz and Krieger, Jose E and Pereira, Alexandre C and Heckbert, Susan R and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Probst-Hensch, Nicole M and Conen, David} } @article {9169, title = {Genome-wide meta-analyses reveal novel loci for verbal short-term memory and learning.}, journal = {Mol Psychiatry}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Aug 16}, abstract = {

Understanding the genomic basis of memory processes may help in combating neurodegenerative disorders. Hence, we examined the associations of common genetic variants with verbal short-term memory and verbal learning in adults without dementia or stroke (N = 53,637). We identified novel loci in the intronic region of CDH18, and at 13q21 and 3p21.1, as well as an expected signal in the APOE/APOC1/TOMM40 region. These results replicated in an independent sample. Functional and bioinformatic analyses supported many of these loci and further implicated POC1. We showed that polygenic score for verbal learning associated with brain activation in right parieto-occipital region during working memory task. Finally, we showed genetic correlations of these memory traits with several neurocognitive and health outcomes. Our findings suggest a role of several genomic loci in verbal memory processes.

}, issn = {1476-5578}, doi = {10.1038/s41380-022-01710-8}, author = {Lahti, Jari and Tuominen, Samuli and Yang, Qiong and Pergola, Giulio and Ahmad, Shahzad and Amin, Najaf and Armstrong, Nicola J and Beiser, Alexa and Bey, Katharina and Bis, Joshua C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bressler, Jan and Campbell, Archie and Campbell, Harry and Chen, Qiang and Corley, Janie and Cox, Simon R and Davies, Gail and De Jager, Philip L and Derks, Eske M and Faul, Jessica D and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Fohner, Alison E and Ford, Ian and Fornage, Myriam and Gerring, Zachary and Grabe, Hans J and Grodstein, Francine and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Simonsick, Eleanor and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Joshi, Peter K and Kajantie, Eero and Kaprio, Jaakko and Karell, Pauliina and Kleineidam, Luca and Knol, Maria J and Kochan, Nicole A and Kwok, John B and Leber, Markus and Lam, Max and Lee, Teresa and Li, Shuo and Loukola, Anu and Luck, Tobias and Marioni, Riccardo E and Mather, Karen A and Medland, Sarah and Mirza, Saira S and Nalls, Mike A and Nho, Kwangsik and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Adrienne and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Painter, Jodie and Pattie, Alison and Reppermund, Simone and Risacher, Shannon L and Rose, Richard J and Sadashivaiah, Vijay and Scholz, Markus and Satizabal, Claudia L and Schofield, Peter W and Schraut, Katharina E and Scott, Rodney J and Simino, Jeannette and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Jennifer A and Stott, David J and Surakka, Ida and Teumer, Alexander and Thalamuthu, Anbupalam and Trompet, Stella and Turner, Stephen T and van der Lee, Sven J and Villringer, Arno and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wilson, Robert S and Wittfeld, Katharina and Vuoksimaa, Eero and Xia, Rui and Yaffe, Kristine and Yu, Lei and Zare, Habil and Zhao, Wei and Ames, David and Attia, John and Bennett, David A and Brodaty, Henry and Chasman, Daniel I and Goldman, Aaron L and Hayward, Caroline and Ikram, M Arfan and Jukema, J Wouter and Kardia, Sharon L R and Lencz, Todd and Loeffler, Markus and Mattay, Venkata S and Palotie, Aarno and Psaty, Bruce M and Ramirez, Alfredo and Ridker, Paul M and Riedel-Heller, Steffi G and Sachdev, Perminder S and Saykin, Andrew J and Scherer, Martin and Schofield, Peter R and Sidney, Stephen and Starr, John M and Trollor, Julian and Ulrich, William and Wagner, Michael and Weir, David R and Wilson, James F and Wright, Margaret J and Weinberger, Daniel R and Debette, Stephanie and Eriksson, Johan G and Mosley, Thomas H and Launer, Lenore J and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Deary, Ian J and Seshadri, Sudha and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri} } @article {9103, title = {{Genome-wide studies reveal factors associated with circulating uromodulin and its relationships to complex diseases}, journal = {JCI Insight}, volume = {7}, year = {2022}, month = {05}, abstract = {Uromodulin (UMOD) is a major risk gene for monogenic and complex forms of kidney disease. The encoded kidney-specific protein uromodulin is highly abundant in urine and related to chronic kidney disease, hypertension, and pathogen defense. To gain insights into potential systemic roles, we performed genome-wide screens of circulating uromodulin using complementary antibody-based and aptamer-based assays. We detected 3 and 10 distinct significant loci, respectively. Integration of antibody-based results at the UMOD locus with functional genomics data (RNA-Seq, ATAC-Seq, Hi-C) of primary human kidney tissue highlighted an upstream variant with differential accessibility and transcription in uromodulin-synthesizing kidney cells as underlying the observed cis effect. Shared association patterns with complex traits, including chronic kidney disease and blood pressure, placed the PRKAG2 locus in the same pathway as UMOD. Experimental validation of the third antibody-based locus, B4GALNT2, showed that the p.Cys466Arg variant of the encoded N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase had a loss-of-function effect leading to higher serum uromodulin levels. Aptamer-based results pointed to enzymes writing glycan marks present on uromodulin and to their receptors in the circulation, suggesting that this assay permits investigating uromodulin{\textquoteright}s complex glycosylation rather than its quantitative levels. Overall, our study provides insights into circulating uromodulin and its emerging functions.}, author = {Li, Y. and Cheng, Y. and Consolato, F. and Schiano, G. and Chong, M. R. and Pietzner, M. and Nguyen, N. Q. H. and Scherer, N. and Biggs, M. L. and Kleber, M. E. and Haug, S. and G{\"o}{\c c}men, B. and Pigeyre, M. and Sekula, P. and Steinbrenner, I. and Schlosser, P. and Joseph, C. B. and Brody, J. A. and Grams, M. E. and Hayward, C. and Schultheiss, U. T. and Kr{\"a}mer, B. K. and Kronenberg, F. and Peters, A. and Seissler, J. and Steubl, D. and Then, C. and Wuttke, M. and M{\"a}rz, W. and Eckardt, K. U. and Gieger, C. and Boerwinkle, E. and Psaty, B. M. and Coresh, J. and Oefner, P. J. and Pare, G. and Langenberg, C. and Scherberich, J. E. and Yu, B. and Akilesh, S. and Devuyst, O. and Rampoldi, L. and K{\"o}ttgen, A.} } @article {9247, title = {Immune cell subpopulations as risk factors for atrial fibrillation: The Cardiovascular Health Study and Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.}, journal = {Heart Rhythm}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Oct 18}, issn = {1556-3871}, doi = {10.1016/j.hrthm.2022.10.012}, author = {Floyd, James S and Sitlani, Colleen M and Doyle, Margaret F and Feinstein, Matthew J and Olson, Nels C and Heckbert, Susan R and Huber, Sally A and Tracy, Russell P and Psaty, Bruce M and Delaney, Joseph A C} } @article {9250, title = {{Implicating genes, pleiotropy, and sexual dimorphism at blood lipid loci through multi-ancestry meta-analysis}, journal = {Genome Biol}, volume = {23}, year = {2022}, month = {Dec}, pages = {268}, abstract = {Genetic variants within nearly 1000 loci are known to contribute to modulation of blood lipid levels. However, the biological pathways underlying these associations are frequently unknown, limiting understanding of these findings and hindering downstream translational efforts such as drug target discovery.\ 1,654,960) of blood lipids to prioritize putative causal genes for 2286 lipid associations using six gene prediction approaches. Using phenome-wide association (PheWAS) scans, we identify relationships of genetically predicted lipid levels to other diseases and conditions. We confirm known pleiotropic associations with cardiovascular phenotypes and determine novel associations, notably with cholelithiasis risk. We perform sex-stratified GWAS meta-analysis of lipid levels and show that 3-5\% of autosomal lipid-associated loci demonstrate sex-biased effects. Finally, we report 21 novel lipid loci identified on the X chromosome. Many of the sex-biased autosomal and X chromosome lipid loci show pleiotropic associations with sex hormones, emphasizing the role of hormone regulation in lipid metabolism.\ Taken together, our findings provide insights into the biological mechanisms through which associated variants lead to altered lipid levels and potentially cardiovascular disease risk.}, author = {Kanoni, S. and Graham, S. E. and Wang, Y. and Surakka, I. and Ramdas, S. and Zhu, X. and Clarke, S. L. and Bhatti, K. F. and Vedantam, S. and Winkler, T. W. and Locke, A. E. and Marouli, E. and Zajac, G. J. M. and Wu, K. H. and Ntalla, I. and Hui, Q. and Klarin, D. and Hilliard, A. T. and Wang, Z. and Xue, C. and Thorleifsson, G. and Helgadottir, A. and Gudbjartsson, D. F. and Holm, H. and Olafsson, I. and Hwang, M. Y. and Han, S. and Akiyama, M. and Sakaue, S. and Terao, C. and Kanai, M. and Zhou, W. and Brumpton, B. M. and Rasheed, H. and Havulinna, A. S. and Veturi, Y. and Pacheco, J. A. and Rosenthal, E. A. and Lingren, T. and Feng, Q. and Kullo, I. J. and Narita, A. and Takayama, J. and Martin, H. C. and Hunt, K. A. and Trivedi, B. and Haessler, J. and Giulianini, F. and Bradford, Y. and Miller, J. E. and Campbell, A. and Lin, K. and Millwood, I. Y. and Rasheed, A. and Hindy, G. and Faul, J. D. and Zhao, W. and Weir, D. R. and Turman, C. and Huang, H. and Graff, M. and Choudhury, A. and Sengupta, D. and Mahajan, A. and Brown, M. R. and Zhang, W. and Yu, K. and Schmidt, E. M. and Pandit, A. and Gustafsson, S. and Yin, X. and Luan, J. and Zhao, J. H. and Matsuda, F. and Jang, H. M. and Yoon, K. and Medina-Gomez, C. and Pitsillides, A. and Hottenga, J. J. and Wood, A. R. and Ji, Y. and Gao, Z. and Haworth, S. and Yousri, N. A. and Mitchell, R. E. and Chai, J. F. and Aadahl, M. and Bjerregaard, A. A. and Yao, J. and Manichaikul, A. and Hwu, C. M. and Hung, Y. J. and Warren, H. R. and Ramirez, J. and Bork-Jensen, J. and rhus, L. L. and Goel, A. and Sabater-Lleal, M. and Noordam, R. and Mauro, P. and Matteo, F. and McDaid, A. F. and Marques-Vidal, P. and Wielscher, M. and Trompet, S. and Sattar, N. and llehave, L. T. and Munz, M. and Zeng, L. and Huang, J. and Yang, B. and Poveda, A. and Kurbasic, A. and Lamina, C. and Forer, L. and Scholz, M. and Galesloot, T. E. and Bradfield, J. P. and Ruotsalainen, S. E. and Daw, E. and Zmuda, J. M. and Mitchell, J. S. and Fuchsberger, C. and Christensen, H. and Brody, J. A. and Vazquez-Moreno, M. and Feitosa, M. F. and Wojczynski, M. K. and Wang, Z. and Preuss, M. H. and Mangino, M. and Christofidou, P. and Verweij, N. and Benjamins, J. W. and Engmann, J. and Tsao, N. L. and Verma, A. and Slieker, R. C. and Lo, K. S. and Zilhao, N. R. and Le, P. and Kleber, M. E. and Delgado, G. E. and Huo, S. and Ikeda, D. D. and Iha, H. and Yang, J. and Liu, J. and Demirkan, A. and Leonard, H. L. and Marten, J. and Frank, M. and Schmidt, B. and Smyth, L. J. and adas-Garre, M. and Wang, C. and Nakatochi, M. and Wong, A. and nen, N. and Sim, X. and Xia, R. and Huerta-Chagoya, A. and Fernandez-Lopez, J. C. and Lyssenko, V. and Nongmaithem, S. S. and Bayyana, S. and Stringham, H. M. and Irvin, M. R. and Oldmeadow, C. and Kim, H. N. and Ryu, S. and Timmers, P. R. H. J. and Arbeeva, L. and Dorajoo, R. and Lange, L. A. and Prasad, G. and s-Motta, L. and Pauper, M. and Long, J. and Li, X. and Theusch, E. and Takeuchi, F. and Spracklen, C. N. and Loukola, A. and Bollepalli, S. and Warner, S. C. and Wang, Y. X. and Wei, W. B. and Nutile, T. and Ruggiero, D. and Sung, Y. J. and Chen, S. and Liu, F. and Yang, J. and Kentistou, K. A. and Banas, B. and Nardone, G. G. and Meidtner, K. and Bielak, L. F. and Smith, J. A. and Hebbar, P. and Farmaki, A. E. and Hofer, E. and Lin, M. and Concas, M. P. and Vaccargiu, S. and van der Most, P. J. and nen, N. and Cade, B. E. and van der Laan, S. W. and Chitrala, K. N. and Weiss, S. and Bentley, A. R. and Doumatey, A. P. and Adeyemo, A. A. and Lee, J. Y. and Petersen, E. R. B. and Nielsen, A. A. and Choi, H. S. and Nethander, M. and Freitag-Wolf, S. and Southam, L. and Rayner, N. W. and Wang, C. A. and Lin, S. Y. and Wang, J. S. and Couture, C. and inen, L. P. and Nikus, K. and Cuellar-Partida, G. and Vestergaard, H. and Hidalgo, B. and Giannakopoulou, O. and Cai, Q. and Obura, M. O. and van Setten, J. and Li, X. and Liang, J. and Tang, H. and Terzikhan, N. and Shin, J. H. and Jackson, R. D. and Reiner, A. P. and Martin, L. W. and Chen, Z. and Li, L. and Kawaguchi, T. and Thiery, J. and Bis, J. C. and Launer, L. J. and Li, H. and Nalls, M. A. and Raitakari, O. T. and Ichihara, S. and Wild, S. H. and Nelson, C. P. and Campbell, H. and ger, S. and Nabika, T. and Al-Mulla, F. and Niinikoski, H. and Braund, P. S. and Kolcic, I. and Kovacs, P. and Giardoglou, T. and Katsuya, T. and de Kleijn, D. and de Borst, G. J. and Kim, E. K. and Adams, H. H. H. and Ikram, M. A. and Zhu, X. and Asselbergs, F. W. and Kraaijeveld, A. O. and Beulens, J. W. J. and Shu, X. O. and Rallidis, L. S. and Pedersen, O. and Hansen, T. and Mitchell, P. and Hewitt, A. W. and nen, M. and russe, L. and Bouchard, C. and njes, A. and Chen, Y. I. and Pennell, C. E. and Mori, T. A. and Lieb, W. and Franke, A. and Ohlsson, C. and m, D. and Cho, Y. S. and Lee, H. and Yuan, J. M. and Koh, W. P. and Rhee, S. Y. and Woo, J. T. and Heid, I. M. and Stark, K. J. and Zimmermann, M. E. and lzke, H. and Homuth, G. and Evans, M. K. and Zonderman, A. B. and Polasek, O. and Pasterkamp, G. and Hoefer, I. E. and Redline, S. and Pahkala, K. and Oldehinkel, A. J. and Snieder, H. and Biino, G. and Schmidt, R. and Schmidt, H. and Bandinelli, S. and Dedoussis, G. and Thanaraj, T. A. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Peyser, P. A. and Kato, N. and Schulze, M. B. and Girotto, G. and ger, C. A. and Jung, B. and Joshi, P. K. and Bennett, D. A. and De Jager, P. L. and Lu, X. and Mamakou, V. and Brown, M. and Caulfield, M. J. and Munroe, P. B. and Guo, X. and Ciullo, M. and Jonas, J. B. and Samani, N. J. and Kaprio, J. and Pajukanta, P. and -Luna, T. and Aguilar-Salinas, C. A. and Adair, L. S. and Bechayda, S. A. and de Silva, H. J. and Wickremasinghe, A. R. and Krauss, R. M. and Wu, J. Y. and Zheng, W. and Hollander, A. I. and Bharadwaj, D. and Correa, A. and Wilson, J. G. and Lind, L. and Heng, C. K. and Nelson, A. E. and Golightly, Y. M. and Wilson, J. F. and Penninx, B. and Kim, H. L. and Attia, J. and Scott, R. J. and Rao, D. C. and Arnett, D. K. and Hunt, S. C. and Walker, M. and Koistinen, H. A. and Chandak, G. R. and Mercader, J. M. and Costanzo, M. C. and Jang, D. and Burtt, N. P. and Villalpando, C. G. and Orozco, L. and Fornage, M. and Tai, E. and van Dam, R. M. and ki, T. and Chaturvedi, N. and Yokota, M. and Liu, J. and Reilly, D. F. and McKnight, A. J. and Kee, F. and ckel, K. H. and McCarthy, M. I. and Palmer, C. N. A. and Vitart, V. and Hayward, C. and Simonsick, E. and van Duijn, C. M. and Jin, Z. B. and Qu, J. and Hishigaki, H. and Lin, X. and rz, W. and Gudnason, V. and Tardif, J. C. and Lettre, G. and Hart, L. M. {\textquoteright} and Elders, P. J. M. and Damrauer, S. M. and Kumari, M. and Kivimaki, M. and van der Harst, P. and Spector, T. D. and Loos, R. J. F. and Province, M. A. and Parra, E. J. and Cruz, M. and Psaty, B. M. and Brandslund, I. and Pramstaller, P. P. and Rotimi, C. N. and Christensen, K. and Ripatti, S. and n, E. and Hakonarson, H. and Grant, S. F. A. and Kiemeney, L. A. L. M. and de Graaf, J. and Loeffler, M. and Kronenberg, F. and Gu, D. and Erdmann, J. and Schunkert, H. and Franks, P. W. and Linneberg, A. and Jukema, J. W. and Khera, A. V. and {\"o}, M. and Jarvelin, M. R. and Kutalik, Z. and Francesco, C. and Mook-Kanamori, D. O. and van Dijk, K. W. and Watkins, H. and Strachan, D. P. and Grarup, N. and Sever, P. and Poulter, N. and Chuang, L. M. and Rotter, J. I. and Dantoft, T. M. and Karpe, F. and Neville, M. J. and Timpson, N. J. and Cheng, C. Y. and Wong, T. Y. and Khor, C. C. and Li, H. and Sabanayagam, C. and Peters, A. and Gieger, C. and Hattersley, A. T. and Pedersen, N. L. and Magnusson, P. K. E. and Boomsma, D. I. and Willemsen, A. H. M. and Cupples, L. and van Meurs, J. B. J. and Ghanbari, M. and Gordon-Larsen, P. and Huang, W. and Kim, Y. J. and Tabara, Y. and Wareham, N. J. and Langenberg, C. and Zeggini, E. and Kuusisto, J. and Laakso, M. and Ingelsson, E. and Abecasis, G. and Chambers, J. C. and Kooner, J. S. and de Vries, P. S. and Morrison, A. C. and Hazelhurst, S. and Ramsay, M. and North, K. E. and Daviglus, M. and Kraft, P. and Martin, N. G. and Whitfield, J. B. and Abbas, S. and Saleheen, D. and Walters, R. G. and Holmes, M. V. and Black, C. and Smith, B. H. and Baras, A. and Justice, A. E. and Buring, J. E. and Ridker, P. M. and Chasman, D. I. and Kooperberg, C. and Tamiya, G. and Yamamoto, M. and van Heel, D. A. and Trembath, R. C. and Wei, W. Q. and Jarvik, G. P. and Namjou, B. and Hayes, M. G. and Ritchie, M. D. and Jousilahti, P. and Salomaa, V. and Hveem, K. and svold, B. O. and Kubo, M. and Kamatani, Y. and Okada, Y. and Murakami, Y. and Kim, B. J. and Thorsteinsdottir, U. and Stefansson, K. and Zhang, J. and Chen, Y. and Ho, Y. L. and Lynch, J. A. and Rader, D. J. and Tsao, P. S. and Chang, K. M. and Cho, K. and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, C. J. and Gaziano, J. M. and Wilson, P. W. F. and Frayling, T. M. and Hirschhorn, J. N. and Kathiresan, S. and Mohlke, K. L. and Sun, Y. V. and Morris, A. P. and Boehnke, M. and Brown, C. D. and Natarajan, P. and Deloukas, P. and Willer, C. J. and Assimes, T. L. and Peloso, G. M.} } @article {9099, title = {Insights From a Large-Scale Whole-Genome Sequencing Study of Systolic Blood Pressure, Diastolic Blood Pressure, and Hypertension.}, journal = {Hypertension}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Jun 02}, pages = {101161HYPERTENSIONAHA12219324}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The availability of whole-genome sequencing data in large studies has enabled the assessment of coding and noncoding variants across the allele frequency spectrum for their associations with blood pressure.

METHODS: We conducted a multiancestry whole-genome sequencing analysis of blood pressure among 51 456 Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine and Centers for Common Disease Genomics program participants (stage-1). Stage-2 analyses leveraged array data from UK Biobank (N=383 145), Million Veteran Program (N=318 891), and Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (N=10 643) participants, along with whole-exome sequencing data from UK Biobank (N=199 631) participants.

RESULTS: Two blood pressure signals achieved genome-wide significance in meta-analyses of stage-1 and stage-2 single variant findings (<5{\texttimes}10). Among them, a rare intergenic variant at novel locus, , was associated with lower systolic blood pressure in stage-1 (beta [SE]=-32.6 [6.0]; =4.99{\texttimes}10) but not stage-2 analysis (=0.11). Furthermore, a novel common variant at the known locus was suggestively associated with diastolic blood pressure in stage-1 (beta [SE]=-0.36 [0.07]; =4.18{\texttimes}10) and attained genome-wide significance in stage-2 (beta [SE]=-0.29 [0.03]; =7.28{\texttimes}10). Nineteen additional signals suggestively associated with blood pressure in meta-analysis of single and aggregate rare variant findings (<1{\texttimes}10 and <1{\texttimes}10, respectively).

DISCUSSION: We report one promising but unconfirmed rare variant for blood pressure and, more importantly, contribute insights for future blood pressure sequencing studies. Our findings suggest promise of aggregate analyses to complement single variant analysis strategies and the need for larger, diverse samples, and family studies to enable robust rare variant identification.

}, issn = {1524-4563}, doi = {10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.122.19324}, author = {Kelly, Tanika N and Sun, Xiao and He, Karen Y and Brown, Michael R and Taliun, Sarah A Gagliano and Hellwege, Jacklyn N and Irvin, Marguerite R and Mi, Xuenan and Brody, Jennifer A and Franceschini, Nora and Guo, Xiuqing and Hwang, Shih-Jen and de Vries, Paul S and Gao, Yan and Moscati, Arden and Nadkarni, Girish N and Yanek, Lisa R and Elfassy, Tali and Smith, Jennifer A and Chung, Ren-Hua and Beitelshees, Amber L and Patki, Amit and Aslibekyan, Stella and Blobner, Brandon M and Peralta, Juan M and Assimes, Themistocles L and Palmas, Walter R and Liu, Chunyu and Bress, Adam P and Huang, Zhijie and Becker, Lewis C and Hwa, Chii-Min and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Carlson, Jenna C and Warren, Helen R and Das, Sayantan and Giri, Ayush and Martin, Lisa W and Craig Johnson, W and Fox, Ervin R and Bottinger, Erwin P and Razavi, Alexander C and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Chuang, Lee-Ming and Chang, Yen-Pei C and Naseri, Take and Jain, Deepti and Kang, Hyun Min and Hung, Adriana M and Srinivasasainagendra, Vinodh and Snively, Beverly M and Gu, Dongfeng and Montasser, May E and Reupena, Muagututi{\textquoteright}a Sefuiva and Heavner, Benjamin D and LeFaive, Jonathon and Hixson, James E and Rice, Kenneth M and Wang, Fei Fei and Nielsen, Jonas B and Huang, Jianfeng and Khan, Alyna T and Zhou, Wei and Nierenberg, Jovia L and Laurie, Cathy C and Armstrong, Nicole D and Shi, Mengyao and Pan, Yang and Stilp, Adrienne M and Emery, Leslie and Wong, Quenna and Hawley, Nicola L and Minster, Ryan L and Curran, Joanne E and Munroe, Patricia B and Weeks, Daniel E and North, Kari E and Tracy, Russell P and Kenny, Eimear E and Shimbo, Daichi and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Rich, Stephen S and Reiner, Alex P and Blangero, John and Redline, Susan and Mitchell, Braxton D and Rao, Dabeeru C and Ida Chen, Yii-Der and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kaplan, Robert C and Mathias, Rasika A and He, Jiang and Psaty, Bruce M and Fornage, Myriam and Loos, Ruth J F and Correa, Adolfo and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rotter, Jerome I and Kooperberg, Charles and Edwards, Todd L and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Levy, Daniel and Arnett, Donna K and Morrison, Alanna C} } @article {9094, title = {Integrative analysis of clinical and epigenetic biomarkers of mortality.}, journal = {Aging Cell}, volume = {21}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Jun}, pages = {e13608}, abstract = {

DNA methylation (DNAm) has been reported to be associated with many diseases and with mortality. We hypothesized that the integration of DNAm with clinical risk factors would improve mortality prediction. We performed an epigenome-wide association study of whole blood DNAm in relation to mortality in 15 cohorts (n~=~15,013). During a mean follow-up of 10~years, there were 4314 deaths from all causes including 1235 cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths and 868 cancer deaths. Ancestry-stratified meta-analysis of all-cause mortality identified 163 CpGs in European ancestry (EA) and 17 in African ancestry (AA) participants at p~<~1~{\texttimes}~10 , of which 41 (EA) and 16 (AA) were also associated with CVD death, and 15 (EA) and 9 (AA) with cancer death. We built DNAm-based prediction models for all-cause mortality that predicted mortality risk after adjusting for clinical risk factors. The mortality prediction model trained by integrating DNAm with clinical risk factors showed an improvement in prediction of cancer death with 5\% increase in the C-index in a replication cohort, compared with the model including clinical risk factors alone. Mendelian randomization identified 15 putatively causal CpGs in relation to longevity, CVD, or cancer risk. For example, cg06885782 (in KCNQ4) was positively associated with risk for prostate cancer (Beta~=~1.2, P ~=~4.1~{\texttimes}~10 ) and negatively associated with longevity (Beta~=~-1.9, P ~=~0.02). Pathway analysis revealed that genes associated with mortality-related CpGs are enriched for immune- and cancer-related pathways. We identified replicable DNAm signatures of mortality and demonstrated the potential utility of CpGs as informative biomarkers for prediction of mortality risk.

}, keywords = {Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, DNA Methylation, Epigenesis, Genetic, Epigenomics, Humans, Male, Neoplasms}, issn = {1474-9726}, doi = {10.1111/acel.13608}, author = {Huan, Tianxiao and Nguyen, Steve and Colicino, Elena and Ochoa-Rosales, Carolina and Hill, W David and Brody, Jennifer A and Soerensen, Mette and Zhang, Yan and Baldassari, Antoine and Elhadad, Mohamed Ahmed and Toshiko, Tanaka and Zheng, Yinan and Domingo-Relloso, Arce and Lee, Dong Heon and Ma, Jiantao and Yao, Chen and Liu, Chunyu and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Joehanes, Roby and Fornage, Myriam and Bressler, Jan and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Debrabant, Birgit and Mengel-From, Jonas and Hjelmborg, Jacob and Christensen, Kaare and Vokonas, Pantel and Schwartz, Joel and Gahrib, Sina A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Sitlani, Colleen M and Kunze, Sonja and Gieger, Christian and Peters, Annette and Waldenberger, Melanie and Deary, Ian J and Ferrucci, Luigi and Qu, Yishu and Greenland, Philip and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Hou, Lifang and Bandinelli, Stefania and Voortman, Trudy and Hermann, Brenner and Baccarelli, Andrea and Whitsel, Eric and Pankow, James S and Levy, Daniel} } @article {9176, title = {Large-scale genome-wide association study of coronary artery disease in genetically diverse populations.}, journal = {Nat Med}, volume = {28}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 08}, pages = {1679-1692}, abstract = {

We report a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of coronary artery disease (CAD) incorporating nearly a quarter of a million cases, in which existing studies are integrated with data from cohorts of white, Black and Hispanic individuals from the Million Veteran Program. We document near equivalent heritability of CAD across multiple ancestral groups, identify 95 novel loci, including nine on the X chromosome, detect eight loci of genome-wide significance in Black and Hispanic individuals, and demonstrate that two common haplotypes at the 9p21 locus are responsible for risk stratification in all populations except those of African origin, in which these haplotypes are virtually absent. Moreover, in the largest GWAS for angiographically derived coronary atherosclerosis performed to date, we find 15 loci of genome-wide significance that robustly overlap with established loci for clinical CAD. Phenome-wide association analyses of novel loci and polygenic risk scores (PRSs) augment signals related to insulin resistance, extend pleiotropic associations of these loci to include smoking and family history, and precisely document the markedly reduced transferability of existing PRSs to Black individuals. Downstream integrative analyses reinforce the critical roles of vascular endothelial, fibroblast, and smooth muscle cells in CAD susceptibility, but also point to a shared biology between atherosclerosis and oncogenesis. This study highlights the value of diverse populations in further characterizing the genetic architecture of CAD.

}, keywords = {Coronary Artery Disease, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-170X}, doi = {10.1038/s41591-022-01891-3}, author = {Tcheandjieu, Catherine and Zhu, Xiang and Hilliard, Austin T and Clarke, Shoa L and Napolioni, Valerio and Ma, Shining and Lee, Kyung Min and Fang, Huaying and Chen, Fei and Lu, Yingchang and Tsao, Noah L and Raghavan, Sridharan and Koyama, Satoshi and Gorman, Bryan R and Vujkovic, Marijana and Klarin, Derek and Levin, Michael G and Sinnott-Armstrong, Nasa and Wojcik, Genevieve L and Plomondon, Mary E and Maddox, Thomas M and Waldo, Stephen W and Bick, Alexander G and Pyarajan, Saiju and Huang, Jie and Song, Rebecca and Ho, Yuk-Lam and Buyske, Steven and Kooperberg, Charles and Haessler, Jeffrey and Loos, Ruth J F and Do, Ron and Verbanck, Marie and Chaudhary, Kumardeep and North, Kari E and Avery, Christy L and Graff, Mariaelisa and Haiman, Christopher A and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Wilkens, Lynne R and Bis, Joshua C and Leonard, Hampton and Shen, Botong and Lange, Leslie A and Giri, Ayush and Dikilitas, Ozan and Kullo, Iftikhar J and Stanaway, Ian B and Jarvik, Gail P and Gordon, Adam S and Hebbring, Scott and Namjou, Bahram and Kaufman, Kenneth M and Ito, Kaoru and Ishigaki, Kazuyoshi and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Verma, Shefali S and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Kember, Rachel L and Baras, Aris and Lotta, Luca A and Kathiresan, Sekar and Hauser, Elizabeth R and Miller, Donald R and Lee, Jennifer S and Saleheen, Danish and Reaven, Peter D and Cho, Kelly and Gaziano, J Michael and Natarajan, Pradeep and Huffman, Jennifer E and Voight, Benjamin F and Rader, Daniel J and Chang, Kyong-Mi and Lynch, Julie A and Damrauer, Scott M and Wilson, Peter W F and Tang, Hua and Sun, Yan V and Tsao, Philip S and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Assimes, Themistocles L} } @article {9157, title = {Longitudinal Associations of Plasma TMAO and Related Metabolites with Cognitive Impairment and Dementia in Older Adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Alzheimers Dis}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Sep 02}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Animal studies suggest that gut microbiome metabolites such as trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) may influence cognitive function and dementia risk. However potential health effects of TMAO and related metabolites remain unclear.

OBJECTIVE: We examined prospective associations of TMAO, γ-butyrobetaine, crotonobetaine, carnitine, choline, and betaine with risk of cognitive impairment and dementia among older adults aged 65 years and older in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS).

METHODS: TMAO and metabolites were measured in stored plasma specimens collected at baseline. Incident cognitive impairment was assessed using the 100-point Modified Mini-Mental State Examination administered serially up to 7 times. Clinical dementia was identified using neuropsychological tests adjudicated by CHS Cognition Study investigators, and by ICD-9 codes from linked Medicare data. Associations of each metabolite with cognitive outcomes were assessed using Cox proportional hazards models.

RESULTS: Over a median of 13 years of follow-up, 529 cases of cognitive impairment, and 522 of dementia were identified. After multivariable adjustment for relevant risk factors, no associations were seen with TMAO, carnitine, choline, or betaine. In contrast, higher crotonobetaine was associated with 20-32\% higher risk of cognitive impairment and dementia per interquintile range (IQR), while γ-butyrobetaine was associated with \~{}25\% lower risk of the same cognitive outcomes per IQR.||Conclusion:These findings suggest that γ-butyrobetaine, crotonobetaine, two gut microbe and host metabolites, are associated with risk of cognitive impairment and dementia. Our results indicate a need for mechanistic studies evaluating potential effects of these metabolites, and their interconversion on brain health, especially later in life.

}, issn = {1875-8908}, doi = {10.3233/JAD-220477}, author = {de Oliveira Otto, Marcia C and Li, Xinmin S and Wang, Zeneng and Siscovick, David and Newman, Anne B and Lai, Heidi Tsz Mung and Nemet, Ina and Lee, Yujin and Wang, Meng and Fretts, Amanda and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Tang, W H Wilson and Lopez, Oscar and Hazen, Stanley L and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {9095, title = {Longitudinal Changes in Hearing and Visual Impairments and Risk of Dementia in Older Adults in the United States.}, journal = {JAMA Netw Open}, volume = {5}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 05 02}, pages = {e2210734}, abstract = {

Importance: Hearing and vision problems are individually associated with increased dementia risk, but the impact of having concurrent hearing and vision deficits, ie, dual sensory impairment (DSI), on risk of dementia, including its major subtypes Alzheimer disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD), is not well known.

Objective: To evaluate whether DSI is associated with incident dementia in older adults.

Design, Setting, and Participants: This prospective cohort study from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) was conducted between 1992 and 1999, with as many as 8 years of follow-up. The multicenter, population-based sample was recruited from Medicare eligibility files in 4 US communities with academic medical centers. Of 5888 participants aged 65 years and older in CHS, 3602 underwent cranial magnetic resonance imaging and completed the modified Mini-Mental State Examination in 1992 to 1994 as part of the CHS Cognition Study. A total of 227 participants were excluded due to prevalent dementia, leaving a total of 3375 participants without dementia at study baseline. The study hypothesis was that DSI would be associated with increased risk of dementia compared with no sensory impairment. The association between the duration of DSI with risk of dementia was also evaluated. Data analysis was conducted from November 2019 to February 2020.

Exposures: Hearing and vision impairments were collected via self-report at baseline and as many as 5 follow-up visits.

Main Outcomes and Measures: All-cause dementia, AD, and VaD, classified by a multidisciplinary committee using standardized criteria.

Results: A total of 2927 participants with information on hearing and vision at all available study visits were included in the analysis (mean [SD] age, 74.6 [4.8] years; 1704 [58.2\%] women; 455 [15.5\%] African American or Black; 2472 [85.5\%] White). Compared with no sensory impairment, DSI was associated with increased risk of all-cause dementia (hazard ratio [HR], 2.60; 95\% CI, 1.66-2.06; P < .001), AD (HR, 3.67; 95\% CI, 2.04-6.60; P < .001) but not VaD (HR, 2.03; 95\% CI, 1.00-4.09; P = .05).

Conclusions and Relevance: In this cohort study, DSI was associated with increased risk of dementia, particularly AD. Evaluation of hearing and vision in older adults may help to identify those at high risk of developing dementia.

}, keywords = {Aged, Alzheimer Disease, Cohort Studies, Female, Hearing, Hearing Loss, Humans, Male, Medicare, Prospective Studies, United States, Vision Disorders}, issn = {2574-3805}, doi = {10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.10734}, author = {Hwang, Phillip H and Longstreth, W T and Thielke, Stephen M and Francis, Courtney E and Carone, Marco and Kuller, Lewis H and Fitzpatrick, Annette L} } @article {9090, title = {Monocyte subsets, T cell activation profiles, and stroke in men and women: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Atherosclerosis}, volume = {351}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 06}, pages = {18-25}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Despite mechanistic data implicating unresolving inflammation in stroke pathogenesis, data regarding circulating immune cell phenotypes - key determinants of inflammation propagation versus resolution - and incident stroke are lacking. Therefore, we aimed to comprehensively define associations of circulating immune phenotypes and activation profiles with incident stroke.

METHODS: We investigated circulating leukocyte phenotypes and activation profiles with incident adjudicated stroke in 2104 diverse adults from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) followed over a median of 16.6 years. Cryopreserved cells from the MESA baseline examination were thawed and myeloid and lymphoid lineage cell subsets were measured using polychromatic flow cytometry and intracellular cytokine activation staining. We analyzed multivariable-adjusted associations of cell phenotypes, as a proportion of parent cell subsets, with incident stroke (overall) and ischemic stroke using Cox regression models.

RESULTS: We observed associations of intermediate monocytes, early-activated CD4 T cells, and both CD4 and CD8 T cells producing interleukin-4 after cytokine stimulation (T and T, respectively) with higher risk for incident stroke; effect sizes ranged from 35\% to 62\% relative increases in risk for stroke. Meanwhile, differentiated and memory T cell phenotypes were associated with lower risk for incident stroke. In sex-stratified analyses, positive and negative associations were especially strong among men but null among women.

CONCLUSIONS: Circulating IL-4 producing T cells and intermediate monocytes were significantly associated with incident stroke over nearly two decades of follow-up. These associations were stronger among men and not among women. Further translational studies are warranted to define more precise targets for prognosis and intervention.

}, keywords = {Atherosclerosis, CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes, CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes, Cytokines, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Inflammation, Interleukin-4, Ischemic Stroke, Lymphocyte Activation, Male, Monocytes, Stroke, T-Lymphocyte Subsets}, issn = {1879-1484}, doi = {10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2022.05.007}, author = {Feinstein, Matthew J and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Olson, Nels C and Doyle, Margaret F and Sitlani, Colleen M and Fohner, Alison E and Huber, Sally A and Floyd, James and Sinha, Arjun and Thorp, Edward B and Landay, Alan and Freiberg, Matthew S and Longstreth, William T and Tracy, Russell P and Psaty, Bruce M and Delaney, Joseph Ac} } @article {9038, title = {Monogenic and Polygenic Contributions to QTc Prolongation in the Population.}, journal = {Circulation}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Apr 07}, abstract = {

Rare sequence variation in genes underlying cardiac repolarization and common polygenic variation influence QT interval duration. However, current clinical genetic testing of individuals with unexplained QT prolongation is restricted to examination of monogenic rare variants. The recent emergence of large-scale biorepositories with sequence data enables examination of the joint contribution of rare and common variation to the QT interval in the population. We performed a genome wide association study (GWAS) of the QTc in 84,630 United Kingdom Biobank (UKB) participants and created a polygenic risk score (PRS). Among 26,976 participants with whole genome sequencing and electrocardiogram data in the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program, we identified 160 carriers of putative pathogenic rare variants in 10 genes known to be associated with the QT interval. We examined QTc associations with the PRS and with rare variants in TOPMed. Fifty-four independent loci were identified by GWAS in the UKB. Twenty-one loci were novel, of which 12 were replicated in TOPMed. The PRS comprising 1,110,494 common variants was significantly associated with the QTc in TOPMed (ΔQTc/ = 1.4 ms, 95\% CI 1.3 -1.5; p-value=1.1{\texttimes}10). Carriers of putative pathogenic rare variants had longer QTc than non-carriers (ΔQTc=10.9 ms [7.4-14.4]). 23.7\% of individuals with QTc>480 ms carried either a monogenic rare variant or had a PRS in the top decile (3.4\% monogenic, 21\% top decile of PRS). QTc duration in the population is influenced by both rare variants in genes underlying cardiac repolarization and polygenic risk, with a sizeable contribution from polygenic risk. Comprehensive assessment of the genetic determinants of QTc prolongation includes incorporation of both polygenic and monogenic risk.

}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.057261}, author = {Nauffal, Victor and Morrill, Valerie N and Jurgens, Sean J and Choi, Seung Hoan and Hall, Amelia W and Weng, Lu-Chen and Halford, Jennifer L and Austin-Tse, Christina and Haggerty, Christopher M and Harris, Stephanie L and Wong, Eugene K and Alonso, Alvaro and Arking, Dan E and Benjamin, Emelia J and Boerwinkle, Eric and Min, Yuan-I and Correa, Adolfo and Fornwalt, Brandon K and Heckbert, Susan R and Kooperberg, Charles and Lin, Henry J and Loos, Ruth J F and Rice, Kenneth M and Gupta, Namrata and Blackwell, Thomas W and Mitchell, Braxton D and Morrison, Alanna C and Psaty, Bruce M and Post, Wendy S and Redline, Susan and Rehm, Heidi L and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Ellinor, Patrick T and Lubitz, Steven A} } @article {9104, title = {Multi-ancestry genetic study of type 2 diabetes highlights the power of diverse populations for discovery and translation.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {54}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 May}, pages = {560-572}, abstract = {

We assembled an ancestrally diverse collection of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in 180,834 affected individuals and 1,159,055 controls (48.9\% non-European descent) through the Diabetes Meta-Analysis of Trans-Ethnic association studies (DIAMANTE) Consortium. Multi-ancestry GWAS meta-analysis identified 237 loci attaining stringent genome-wide significance (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10), which were delineated to 338 distinct association signals. Fine-mapping of these signals was enhanced by the increased sample size and expanded population diversity of the multi-ancestry meta-analysis, which localized 54.4\% of T2D associations to a single variant with >50\% posterior probability. This improved fine-mapping enabled systematic assessment of candidate causal genes and molecular mechanisms through which T2D associations are mediated, laying the foundations for functional investigations. Multi-ancestry genetic risk scores enhanced transferability of T2D prediction across diverse populations. Our study provides a step toward more effective clinical translation of T2D GWAS to improve global health for all, irrespective of genetic background.

}, keywords = {Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Ethnicity, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-022-01058-3}, author = {Mahajan, Anubha and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Zhang, Weihua and Ng, Maggie C Y and Petty, Lauren E and Kitajima, Hidetoshi and Yu, Grace Z and R{\"u}eger, Sina and Speidel, Leo and Kim, Young Jin and Horikoshi, Momoko and Mercader, Josep M and Taliun, Daniel and Moon, Sanghoon and Kwak, Soo-Heon and Robertson, Neil R and Rayner, Nigel W and Loh, Marie and Kim, Bong-Jo and Chiou, Joshua and Miguel-Escalada, Irene and Della Briotta Parolo, Pietro and Lin, Kuang and Bragg, Fiona and Preuss, Michael H and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Nano, Jana and Guo, Xiuqing and Lamri, Amel and Nakatochi, Masahiro and Scott, Robert A and Lee, Jung-Jin and Huerta-Chagoya, Alicia and Graff, Mariaelisa and Chai, Jin-Fang and Parra, Esteban J and Yao, Jie and Bielak, Lawrence F and Tabara, Yasuharu and Hai, Yang and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Cook, James P and Kals, Mart and Grarup, Niels and Schmidt, Ellen M and Pan, Ian and Sofer, Tamar and Wuttke, Matthias and Sarnowski, Chloe and Gieger, Christian and Nousome, Darryl and Trompet, Stella and Long, Jirong and Sun, Meng and Tong, Lin and Chen, Wei-Min and Ahmad, Meraj and Noordam, Raymond and Lim, Victor J Y and Tam, Claudia H T and Joo, Yoonjung Yoonie and Chen, Chien-Hsiun and Raffield, Laura M and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Prins, Bram Peter and Nicolas, Aude and Yanek, Lisa R and Chen, Guanjie and Jensen, Richard A and Tajuddin, Salman and Kabagambe, Edmond K and An, Ping and Xiang, Anny H and Choi, Hyeok Sun and Cade, Brian E and Tan, Jingyi and Flanagan, Jack and Abaitua, Fernando and Adair, Linda S and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Aguilar-Salinas, Carlos A and Akiyama, Masato and Anand, Sonia S and Bertoni, Alain and Bian, Zheng and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Brandslund, Ivan and Brody, Jennifer A and Brummett, Chad M and Buchanan, Thomas A and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chan, Juliana C N and Chang, Li-Ching and Chee, Miao-Li and Chen, Ji and Chen, Shyh-Huei and Chen, Yuan-Tsong and Chen, Zhengming and Chuang, Lee-Ming and Cushman, Mary and Das, Swapan K and de Silva, H Janaka and Dedoussis, George and Dimitrov, Latchezar and Doumatey, Ayo P and Du, Shufa and Duan, Qing and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Emery, Leslie S and Evans, Daniel S and Evans, Michele K and Fischer, Krista and Floyd, James S and Ford, Ian and Fornage, Myriam and Franco, Oscar H and Frayling, Timothy M and Freedman, Barry I and Fuchsberger, Christian and Genter, Pauline and Gerstein, Hertzel C and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Gonz{\'a}lez-Villalpando, Clicerio and Gonzalez-Villalpando, Maria Elena and Goodarzi, Mark O and Gordon-Larsen, Penny and Gorkin, David and Gross, Myron and Guo, Yu and Hackinger, Sophie and Han, Sohee and Hattersley, Andrew T and Herder, Christian and Howard, Annie-Green and Hsueh, Willa and Huang, Mengna and Huang, Wei and Hung, Yi-Jen and Hwang, Mi Yeong and Hwu, Chii-Min and Ichihara, Sahoko and Ikram, Mohammad Arfan and Ingelsson, Martin and Islam, Md Tariqul and Isono, Masato and Jang, Hye-Mi and Jasmine, Farzana and Jiang, Guozhi and Jonas, Jost B and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kandeel, Fouad R and Kasturiratne, Anuradhani and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Kaur, Varinderpal and Kawaguchi, Takahisa and Keaton, Jacob M and Kho, Abel N and Khor, Chiea-Chuen and Kibriya, Muhammad G and Kim, Duk-Hwan and Kohara, Katsuhiko and Kriebel, Jennifer and Kronenberg, Florian and Kuusisto, Johanna and L{\"a}ll, Kristi and Lange, Leslie A and Lee, Myung-Shik and Lee, Nanette R and Leong, Aaron and Li, Liming and Li, Yun and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Ligthart, Symen and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Jianjun and Locke, Adam E and Louie, Tin and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Luk, Andrea O and Luo, Xi and Lv, Jun and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Mamakou, Vasiliki and Mani, K Radha and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Morris, Andrew D and Nadkarni, Girish N and Nadler, Jerry L and Nalls, Michael A and Nayak, Uma and Nongmaithem, Suraj S and Ntalla, Ioanna and Okada, Yukinori and Orozco, Lorena and Patel, Sanjay R and Pereira, Mark A and Peters, Annette and Pirie, Fraser J and Porneala, Bianca and Prasad, Gauri and Preissl, Sebastian and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Reiner, Alexander P and Roden, Michael and Rohde, Rebecca and Roll, Kathryn and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Sander, Maike and Sandow, Kevin and Sattar, Naveed and Sch{\"o}nherr, Sebastian and Schurmann, Claudia and Shahriar, Mohammad and Shi, Jinxiu and Shin, Dong Mun and Shriner, Daniel and Smith, Jennifer A and So, Wing Yee and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Stilp, Adrienne M and Strauch, Konstantin and Suzuki, Ken and Takahashi, Atsushi and Taylor, Kent D and Thorand, Barbara and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tomlinson, Brian and Torres, Jason M and Tsai, Fuu-Jen and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tusi{\'e}-Luna, Teresa and Udler, Miriam S and Valladares-Salgado, Adan and van Dam, Rob M and van Klinken, Jan B and Varma, Rohit and Vujkovic, Marijana and Wacher-Rodarte, Niels and Wheeler, Eleanor and Whitsel, Eric A and Wickremasinghe, Ananda R and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Witte, Daniel R and Yajnik, Chittaranjan S and Yamamoto, Ken and Yamauchi, Toshimasa and Yengo, Loic and Yoon, Kyungheon and Yu, Canqing and Yuan, Jian-Min and Yusuf, Salim and Zhang, Liang and Zheng, Wei and Raffel, Leslie J and Igase, Michiya and Ipp, Eli and Redline, Susan and Cho, Yoon Shin and Lind, Lars and Province, Michael A and Hanis, Craig L and Peyser, Patricia A and Ingelsson, Erik and Zonderman, Alan B and Psaty, Bruce M and Wang, Ya-Xing and Rotimi, Charles N and Becker, Diane M and Matsuda, Fumihiko and Liu, Yongmei and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Yokota, Mitsuhiro and Rich, Stephen S and Kooperberg, Charles and Pankow, James S and Engert, James C and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Froguel, Philippe and Wilson, James G and Sheu, Wayne H H and Kardia, Sharon L R and Wu, Jer-Yuarn and Hayes, M Geoffrey and Ma, Ronald C W and Wong, Tien-Yin and Groop, Leif and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Chandak, Giriraj R and Collins, Francis S and Bharadwaj, Dwaipayan and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Ahsan, Habibul and Motala, Ayesha A and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Park, Kyong-Soo and Jukema, J Wouter and Cruz, Miguel and McKean-Cowdin, Roberta and Grallert, Harald and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Bottinger, Erwin P and Dehghan, Abbas and Tai, E-Shyong and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Kato, Norihiro and Laakso, Markku and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Koh, Woon-Puay and Palmer, Colin N A and Liu, Simin and Abecasis, Goncalo and Kooner, Jaspal S and Loos, Ruth J F and North, Kari E and Haiman, Christopher A and Florez, Jose C and Saleheen, Danish and Hansen, Torben and Pedersen, Oluf and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Langenberg, Claudia and Wareham, Nicholas J and Maeda, Shiro and Kadowaki, Takashi and Lee, Juyoung and Millwood, Iona Y and Walters, Robin G and Stefansson, Kari and Myers, Simon R and Ferrer, Jorge and Gaulton, Kyle J and Meigs, James B and Mohlke, Karen L and Gloyn, Anna L and Bowden, Donald W and Below, Jennifer E and Chambers, John C and Sim, Xueling and Boehnke, Michael and Rotter, Jerome I and McCarthy, Mark I and Morris, Andrew P} } @article {9100, title = {A multi-ethnic polygenic risk score is associated with hypertension prevalence and progression throughout adulthood.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {13}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Jun 21}, pages = {3549}, abstract = {

In a multi-stage analysis of 52,436 individuals aged 17-90 across diverse cohorts and biobanks, we train, test, and evaluate a polygenic risk score (PRS) for hypertension risk and progression. The PRS is trained using genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for systolic, diastolic blood pressure, and hypertension, respectively. For each trait, PRS is selected by optimizing the coefficient of variation (CV) across estimated effect sizes from multiple potential PRS using the same GWAS, after which the 3 trait-specific PRSs are combined via an unweighted sum called "PRSsum", forming the HTN-PRS. The HTN-PRS is associated with both prevalent and incident hypertension at 4-6 years of follow up. This association is further confirmed in age-stratified analysis. In an independent biobank of 40,201 individuals, the HTN-PRS is confirmed to be predictive of increased risk for coronary artery disease, ischemic stroke, type 2 diabetes, and chronic kidney disease.

}, keywords = {Adult, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Multifactorial Inheritance, Prevalence, Risk Factors}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-022-31080-2}, author = {Kurniansyah, Nuzulul and Goodman, Matthew O and Kelly, Tanika N and Elfassy, Tali and Wiggins, Kerri L and Bis, Joshua C and Guo, Xiuqing and Palmas, Walter and Taylor, Kent D and Lin, Henry J and Haessler, Jeffrey and Gao, Yan and Shimbo, Daichi and Smith, Jennifer A and Yu, Bing and Feofanova, Elena V and Smit, Roelof A J and Wang, Zhe and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Liu, Simin and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Manson, JoAnn E and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Rich, Stephen S and Loos, Ruth J F and Redline, Susan and Correa, Adolfo and Kooperberg, Charles and Fornage, Myriam and Kaplan, Robert C and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Arnett, Donna K and Morrison, Alanna C and Franceschini, Nora and Levy, Daniel and Sofer, Tamar} } @article {9254, title = {Multi-Scalar Data Integration Links Glomerular Angiopoietin-Tie Signaling Pathway Activation With Progression of Diabetic Kidney Disease.}, journal = {Diabetes}, volume = {71}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Dec 01}, pages = {2664-2676}, abstract = {

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is the leading cause of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). Prognostic biomarkers reflective of underlying molecular mechanisms are critically needed for effective management of DKD. A three-marker panel was derived from a proteomics analysis of plasma samples by an unbiased machine learning approach from participants (N = 58) in the Clinical Phenotyping and Resource Biobank study. In combination with standard clinical parameters, this panel improved prediction of the composite outcome of ESKD or a 40\% decline in glomerular filtration rate. The panel was validated in an independent group (N = 68), who also had kidney transcriptomic profiles. One marker, plasma angiopoietin 2 (ANGPT2), was significantly associated with outcomes in cohorts from the Cardiovascular Health Study (N = 3,183) and the Chinese Cohort Study of Chronic Kidney Disease (N = 210). Glomerular transcriptional angiopoietin/Tie (ANG-TIE) pathway scores, derived from the expression of 154 ANG-TIE signaling mediators, correlated positively with plasma ANGPT2 levels and kidney outcomes. Higher receptor expression in glomeruli and higher ANG-TIE pathway scores in endothelial cells corroborated potential functional effects in the kidney from elevated plasma ANGPT2 levels. Our work suggests that ANGPT2 is a promising prognostic endothelial biomarker with likely functional impact on glomerular pathogenesis in DKD.

}, keywords = {Angiopoietin-1, Angiopoietin-2, Angiopoietins, Biomarkers, Cohort Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Diabetic Nephropathies, Disease Progression, Endothelial Cells, Humans, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Receptor, TIE-2, Signal Transduction}, issn = {1939-327X}, doi = {10.2337/db22-0169}, author = {Liu, Jiahao and Nair, Viji and Zhao, Yi-Yang and Chang, Dong-Yuan and Limonte, Christine and Bansal, Nisha and Fermin, Damian and Eichinger, Felix and Tanner, Emily C and Bellovich, Keith A and Steigerwalt, Susan and Bhat, Zeenat and Hawkins, Jennifer J and Subramanian, Lalita and Rosas, Sylvia E and Sedor, John R and Vasquez, Miguel A and Waikar, Sushrut S and Bitzer, Markus and Pennathur, Subramaniam and Brosius, Frank C and de Boer, Ian and Chen, Min and Kretzler, Matthias and Ju, Wenjun} } @article {9035, title = {New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease and related dementias.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {54}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Apr}, pages = {412-436}, abstract = {

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/{\textquoteright}proxy{\textquoteright} AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele.

}, keywords = {Alzheimer Disease, Cognitive Dysfunction, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, tau Proteins}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-022-01024-z}, author = {Bellenguez, C{\'e}line and K{\"u}{\c c}{\"u}kali, Fahri and Jansen, Iris E and Kleineidam, Luca and Moreno-Grau, Sonia and Amin, Najaf and Naj, Adam C and Campos-Martin, Rafael and Grenier-Boley, Benjamin and Andrade, Victor and Holmans, Peter A and Boland, Anne and Damotte, Vincent and van der Lee, Sven J and Costa, Marcos R and Kuulasmaa, Teemu and Yang, Qiong and de Rojas, Itziar and Bis, Joshua C and Yaqub, Amber and Prokic, Ivana and Chapuis, Julien and Ahmad, Shahzad and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Aarsland, Dag and Garcia-Gonzalez, Pablo and Abdelnour, Carla and Alarc{\'o}n-Mart{\'\i}n, Emilio and Alcolea, Daniel and Alegret, Montserrat and Alvarez, Ignacio and Alvarez, Victoria and Armstrong, Nicola J and Tsolaki, Anthoula and Antunez, Carmen and Appollonio, Ildebrando and Arcaro, Marina and Archetti, Silvana and Pastor, Alfonso Arias and Arosio, Beatrice and Athanasiu, Lavinia and Bailly, Henri and Banaj, Nerisa and Baquero, Miquel and Barral, Sandra and Beiser, Alexa and Pastor, Ana Bel{\'e}n and Below, Jennifer E and Benchek, Penelope and Benussi, Luisa and Berr, Claudine and Besse, C{\'e}line and Bessi, Valentina and Binetti, Giuliano and Bizarro, Alessandra and Blesa, Rafael and Boada, Merce and Boerwinkle, Eric and Borroni, Barbara and Boschi, Silvia and Boss{\`u}, Paola and Br{\r a}then, Geir and Bressler, Jan and Bresner, Catherine and Brodaty, Henry and Brookes, Keeley J and Brusco, Luis Ignacio and Buiza-Rueda, Dolores and B{\^u}rger, Katharina and Burholt, Vanessa and Bush, William S and Calero, Miguel and Cantwell, Laura B and Chene, Genevi{\`e}ve and Chung, Jaeyoon and Cuccaro, Michael L and Carracedo, Angel and Cecchetti, Roberta and Cervera-Carles, Laura and Charbonnier, Camille and Chen, Hung-Hsin and Chillotti, Caterina and Ciccone, Simona and Claassen, Jurgen A H R and Clark, Christopher and Conti, Elisa and Corma-G{\'o}mez, Ana{\"\i}s and Costantini, Emanuele and Custodero, Carlo and Daian, Delphine and Dalmasso, Maria Carolina and Daniele, Antonio and Dardiotis, Efthimios and Dartigues, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and de Deyn, Peter Paul and de Paiva Lopes, Katia and de Witte, Lot D and Debette, Stephanie and Deckert, J{\"u}rgen and Del Ser, Teodoro and Denning, Nicola and DeStefano, Anita and Dichgans, Martin and Diehl-Schmid, Janine and Diez-Fairen, Monica and Rossi, Paolo Dionigi and Djurovic, Srdjan and Duron, Emmanuelle and D{\"u}zel, Emrah and Dufouil, Carole and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Engelborghs, Sebastiaan and Escott-Price, Valentina and Espinosa, Ana and Ewers, Michael and Faber, Kelley M and Fabrizio, Tagliavini and Nielsen, Sune Fallgaard and Fardo, David W and Farotti, Lucia and Fenoglio, Chiara and Fern{\'a}ndez-Fuertes, Marta and Ferrari, Raffaele and Ferreira, Catarina B and Ferri, Evelyn and Fin, Bertrand and Fischer, Peter and Fladby, Tormod and Flie{\ss}bach, Klaus and Fongang, Bernard and Fornage, Myriam and Fortea, Juan and Foroud, Tatiana M and Fostinelli, Silvia and Fox, Nick C and Franco-Mac{\'\i}as, Emlio and Bullido, Mar{\'\i}a J and Frank-Garc{\'\i}a, Ana and Froelich, Lutz and Fulton-Howard, Brian and Galimberti, Daniela and Garc{\'\i}a-Alberca, Jose Maria and Garcia-Gonzalez, Pablo and Garcia-Madrona, Sebastian and Garcia-Ribas, Guillermo and Ghidoni, Roberta and Giegling, Ina and Giorgio, Giaccone and Goate, Alison M and Goldhardt, Oliver and Gomez-Fonseca, Duber and Gonz{\'a}lez-Perez, Antonio and Graff, Caroline and Grande, Giulia and Green, Emma and Grimmer, Timo and Gr{\"u}nblatt, Edna and Grunin, Michelle and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Guetta-Baranes, Tamar and Haapasalo, Annakaisa and Hadjigeorgiou, Georgios and Haines, Jonathan L and Hamilton-Nelson, Kara L and Hampel, Harald and Hanon, Olivier and Hardy, John and Hartmann, Annette M and Hausner, Lucrezia and Harwood, Janet and Heilmann-Heimbach, Stefanie and Helisalmi, Seppo and Heneka, Michael T and Hernandez, Isabel and Herrmann, Martin J and Hoffmann, Per and Holmes, Clive and Holstege, Henne and Vilas, Raquel Huerto and Hulsman, Marc and Humphrey, Jack and Biessels, Geert Jan and Jian, Xueqiu and Johansson, Charlotte and Jun, Gyungah R and Kastumata, Yuriko and Kauwe, John and Kehoe, Patrick G and Kilander, Lena and St{\r a}hlbom, Anne Kinhult and Kivipelto, Miia and Koivisto, Anne and Kornhuber, Johannes and Kosmidis, Mary H and Kukull, Walter A and Kuksa, Pavel P and Kunkle, Brian W and Kuzma, Amanda B and Lage, Carmen and Laukka, Erika J and Launer, Lenore and Lauria, Alessandra and Lee, Chien-Yueh and Lehtisalo, Jenni and Lerch, Ondrej and Lleo, Alberto and Longstreth, William and Lopez, Oscar and de Munain, Adolfo Lopez and Love, Seth and L{\"o}wemark, Malin and Luckcuck, Lauren and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Ma, Yiyi and Mac{\'\i}as, Juan and MacLeod, Catherine A and Maier, Wolfgang and Mangialasche, Francesca and Spallazzi, Marco and Marqui{\'e}, Marta and Marshall, Rachel and Martin, Eden R and Montes, Angel Mart{\'\i}n and Rodr{\'\i}guez, Carmen Mart{\'\i}nez and Masullo, Carlo and Mayeux, Richard and Mead, Simon and Mecocci, Patrizia and Medina, Miguel and Meggy, Alun and Mehrabian, Shima and Mendoza, Silvia and Men{\'e}ndez-Gonz{\'a}lez, Manuel and Mir, Pablo and Moebus, Susanne and Mol, Merel and Molina-Porcel, Laura and Montrreal, Laura and Morelli, Laura and Moreno, Fermin and Morgan, Kevin and Mosley, Thomas and N{\"o}then, Markus M and Muchnik, Carolina and Mukherjee, Shubhabrata and Nacmias, Benedetta and Ngandu, Tiia and Nicolas, Ga{\"e}l and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and Olaso, Robert and Orellana, Adelina and Orsini, Michela and Ortega, Gemma and Padovani, Alessandro and Paolo, Caffarra and Papenberg, Goran and Parnetti, Lucilla and Pasquier, Florence and Pastor, Pau and Peloso, Gina and P{\'e}rez-Cord{\'o}n, Alba and P{\'e}rez-Tur, Jordi and Pericard, Pierre and Peters, Oliver and Pijnenburg, Yolande A L and Pineda, Juan A and Pi{\~n}ol-Ripoll, Gerard and Pisanu, Claudia and Polak, Thomas and Popp, Julius and Posthuma, Danielle and Priller, Josef and Puerta, Raquel and Quenez, Olivier and Quintela, In{\'e}s and Thomassen, Jesper Qvist and R{\'a}bano, Alberto and Rainero, Innocenzo and Rajabli, Farid and Ramakers, Inez and Real, Luis M and Reinders, Marcel J T and Reitz, Christiane and Reyes-Dumeyer, Dolly and Ridge, Perry and Riedel-Heller, Steffi and Riederer, Peter and Roberto, Natalia and Rodriguez-Rodriguez, Eloy and Rongve, Arvid and Allende, Irene Rosas and Rosende-Roca, Mait{\'e}e and Royo, Jose Luis and Rubino, Elisa and Rujescu, Dan and S{\'a}ez, Mar{\'\i}a Eugenia and Sakka, Paraskevi and Saltvedt, Ingvild and Sanabria, {\'A}ngela and S{\'a}nchez-Arjona, Mar{\'\i}a Bernal and Sanchez-Garcia, Florentino and Juan, Pascual S{\'a}nchez and S{\'a}nchez-Valle, Raquel and Sando, Sigrid B and Sarnowski, Chloe and Satizabal, Claudia L and Scamosci, Michela and Scarmeas, Nikolaos and Scarpini, Elio and Scheltens, Philip and Scherbaum, Norbert and Scherer, Martin and Schmid, Matthias and Schneider, Anja and Schott, Jonathan M and Selb{\ae}k, Geir and Seripa, Davide and Serrano, Manuel and Sha, Jin and Shadrin, Alexey A and Skrobot, Olivia and Slifer, Susan and Snijders, Gijsje J L and Soininen, Hilkka and Solfrizzi, Vincenzo and Solomon, Alina and Song, Yeunjoo and Sorbi, Sandro and Sotolongo-Grau, Oscar and Spalletta, Gianfranco and Spottke, Annika and Squassina, Alessio and Stordal, Eystein and Tartan, Juan Pablo and Tarraga, Lluis and Tes{\'\i}, Niccolo and Thalamuthu, Anbupalam and Thomas, Tegos and Tosto, Giuseppe and Traykov, Latchezar and Tremolizzo, Lucio and Tybj{\ae}rg-Hansen, Anne and Uitterlinden, Andre and Ullgren, Abbe and Ulstein, Ingun and Valero, Sergi and Valladares, Otto and Broeckhoven, Christine Van and Vance, Jeffery and Vardarajan, Badri N and van der Lugt, Aad and Dongen, Jasper Van and van Rooij, Jeroen and van Swieten, John and Vandenberghe, Rik and Verhey, Frans and Vidal, Jean-S{\'e}bastien and Vogelgsang, Jonathan and Vyhnalek, Martin and Wagner, Michael and Wallon, David and Wang, Li-San and Wang, Ruiqi and Weinhold, Leonie and Wiltfang, Jens and Windle, Gill and Woods, Bob and Yannakoulia, Mary and Zare, Habil and Zhao, Yi and Zhang, Xiaoling and Zhu, Congcong and Zulaica, Miren and Farrer, Lindsay A and Psaty, Bruce M and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Raj, Towfique and Sachdev, Perminder and Mather, Karen and Jessen, Frank and Ikram, M Arfan and de Mendon{\c c}a, Alexandre and Hort, Jakub and Tsolaki, Magda and Pericak-Vance, Margaret A and Amouyel, Philippe and Williams, Julie and Frikke-Schmidt, Ruth and Clarimon, Jordi and Deleuze, Jean-Francois and Rossi, Giacomina and Seshadri, Sudha and Andreassen, Ole A and Ingelsson, Martin and Hiltunen, Mikko and Sleegers, Kristel and Schellenberg, Gerard D and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Sims, Rebecca and van der Flier, Wiesje M and Ruiz, Agustin and Ramirez, Alfredo and Lambert, Jean-Charles} } @article {8982, title = {{Obesity Partially Mediates the Diabetogenic Effect of Lowering LDL Cholesterol}, journal = {Diabetes Care}, volume = {45}, year = {2022}, month = {Jan}, pages = {232{\textendash}240}, abstract = {LDL cholesterol (LDLc)-lowering drugs modestly increase body weight and type 2 diabetes risk, but the extent to which the diabetogenic effect of lowering LDLc is mediated through increased BMI is unknown.\ We conducted summary-level univariable and multivariable Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses in 921,908 participants to investigate the effect of lowering LDLc on type 2 diabetes risk and the proportion of this effect mediated through BMI. We used data from 92,532 participants from 14 observational studies to replicate findings in individual-level MR analyses.\ A 1-SD decrease in genetically predicted LDLc was associated with increased type 2 diabetes odds (odds ratio [OR] 1.12 [95\% CI 1.01, 1.24]) and BMI (β = 0.07 SD units [95\% CI 0.02, 0.12]) in univariable MR analyses. The multivariable MR analysis showed evidence of an indirect effect of lowering LDLc on type 2 diabetes through BMI (OR 1.04 [95\% CI 1.01, 1.08]) with a proportion mediated of 38\% of the total effect (P = 0.03). Total and indirect effect estimates were similar across a number of sensitivity analyses. Individual-level MR analyses confirmed the indirect effect of lowering LDLc on type 2 diabetes through BMI with an estimated proportion mediated of 8\% (P = 0.04).\ These findings suggest that the diabetogenic effect attributed to lowering LDLc is partially mediated through increased BMI. Our results could help advance understanding of adipose tissue and lipids in type 2 diabetes pathophysiology and inform strategies to reduce diabetes risk among individuals taking LDLc-lowering medications.}, author = {Wu, P. and Moon, J. Y. and Daghlas, I. and Franco, G. and Porneala, B. C. and Ahmadizar, F. and Richardson, T. G. and Isaksen, J. L. and Hindy, G. and Yao, J. and Sitlani, C. M. and Raffield, L. M. and Yanek, L. R. and Feitosa, M. F. and Cuadrat, R. R. C. and Qi, Q. and Arfan Ikram, M. and Ellervik, C. and Ericson, U. and Goodarzi, M. O. and Brody, J. A. and Lange, L. and Mercader, J. M. and Vaidya, D. and An, P. and Schulze, M. B. and Masana, L. and Ghanbari, M. and Olesen, M. S. and Cai, J. and Guo, X. and Floyd, J. S. and J{\"a}ger, S. and Province, M. A. and Kalyani, R. R. and Psaty, B. M. and Orho-Melander, M. and Ridker, P. M. and Kanters, J. K. and Uitterlinden, A. and Davey Smith, G. and Gill, D. and Kaplan, R. C. and Kavousi, M. and Raghavan, S. and Chasman, D. I. and Rotter, J. I. and Meigs, J. B. and Florez, J. C. and Dupuis, J. and Liu, C. T. and Merino, J.} } @article {9171, title = {Plasma epoxyeicosatrienoic acids and diabetes-related cardiovascular disease: The cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {EBioMedicine}, volume = {83}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Sep}, pages = {104189}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) are metabolites of arachidonic acid that may impact atherosclerosis, and animal experimental studies suggest EETs protect cardiac function. Plasma EETs are mostly esterified to phospholipids and part of an active pool. To address the limited information about EETs and CVD in humans, we conducted a prospective study of total plasma EETs (free~+~esterified) and diabetes-related CVD in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS).

METHODS: We measured 4 EET species and their metabolites, dihydroxyepoxyeicosatrienoic acids (DHETs), in plasma samples from 892 CHS participants with type 2 diabetes. We determined the association of EETs and DHETs with incident myocardial infarction (MI) and ischemic stroke using Cox regression.

FINDINGS: During follow-up (median 7.5 years), we identified 150 MI and 134 ischemic strokes. In primary, multivariable analyses, elevated levels of each EET species were associated with non-significant lower risk of incident MI (for example, hazard ratio for 1 SD higher 14,15-EET: 0.86, 95\% CI: 0.72-1.02; p=0.08). The EETs-MI associations became significant in analyses further adjusted for DHETs (hazard ratio for 1 SD higher 14,15-EET adjusted for 14,15-DHET: 0.76, 95\% CI: 0.63-0.91; p=0.004). Elevated EET levels were associated with higher risk of ischemic stroke in primary but not secondary analyses. Three DHET species were associated with higher risk of ischemic stroke in all analyses.

INTERPRETATION: Findings from this prospective study complement the extensive studies in animal models showing EETs protect cardiac function and provide new information in humans. Replication is needed to confirm the associations.

FUNDING: US National Institutes of Health.

}, keywords = {Animals, Arachidonic Acids, Cardiovascular Diseases, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Eicosanoids, Humans, Ischemic Stroke, Prospective Studies}, issn = {2352-3964}, doi = {10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104189}, author = {Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Jensen, Paul N and Zeigler, Maxwell and Fretts, Amanda M and Umans, Jason G and Howard, Barbara V and Sitlani, Colleen M and McKnight, Barbara and Gharib, Sina A and King, Irena B and Siscovick, David S and Psaty, Bruce M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Totah, Rheem A} } @article {9037, title = {Polygenic transcriptome risk scores for COPD and lung function improve cross-ethnic portability of prediction in the NHLBI TOPMed program.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Mar 31}, abstract = {

While polygenic risk scores (PRSs) enable early identification of genetic risk for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), predictive performance is limited when the discovery and target populations are not well matched. Hypothesizing that the biological mechanisms of disease are shared across ancestry groups, we introduce a PrediXcan-derived polygenic transcriptome risk score (PTRS) to improve cross-ethnic portability of risk prediction. We constructed the PTRS using summary statistics from application of PrediXcan on large-scale GWASs of lung function (forced expiratory volume in 1~s [FEV] and its ratio to forced vital capacity [FEV/FVC]) in the UK Biobank. We examined prediction performance and cross-ethnic portability of PTRS through smoking-stratified analyses both on 29,381 multi-ethnic participants from TOPMed population/family-based cohorts and on 11,771 multi-ethnic participants from TOPMed COPD-enriched studies. Analyses were carried out for two dichotomous COPD traits (moderate-to-severe and severe COPD) and two quantitative lung function traits (FEV and FEV/FVC). While the proposed PTRS showed weaker associations with disease than PRS for European ancestry, the PTRS showed stronger association with COPD than PRS for African Americans (e.g., odds ratio [OR]~= 1.24 [95\% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08-1.43] for PTRS versus 1.10 [0.96-1.26] for PRS among heavy smokers with >= 40 pack-years of smoking) for moderate-to-severe COPD. Cross-ethnic portability of the PTRS was significantly higher than the PRS (paired t test p~<~2.2~{\texttimes}~10 with portability gains ranging from 5\% to 28\%) for both dichotomous COPD traits and across all smoking strata. Our study demonstrates the value of PTRS for improved cross-ethnic portability compared to PRS in predicting COPD risk.

}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2022.03.007}, author = {Hu, Xiaowei and Qiao, Dandi and Kim, Wonji and Moll, Matthew and Balte, Pallavi P and Lange, Leslie A and Bartz, Traci M and Kumar, Rajesh and Li, Xingnan and Yu, Bing and Cade, Brian E and Laurie, Cecelia A and Sofer, Tamar and Ruczinski, Ingo and Nickerson, Deborah A and Muzny, Donna M and Metcalf, Ginger A and Doddapaneni, Harshavardhan and Gabriel, Stacy and Gupta, Namrata and Dugan-Perez, Shannon and Cupples, L Adrienne and Loehr, Laura R and Jain, Deepti and Rotter, Jerome I and Wilson, James G and Psaty, Bruce M and Fornage, Myriam and Morrison, Alanna C and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Washko, George and Rich, Stephen S and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Bleecker, Eugene and Kaplan, Robert C and Kalhan, Ravi and Redline, Susan and Gharib, Sina A and Meyers, Deborah and Ortega, Victor and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and London, Stephanie J and Lappalainen, Tuuli and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Silverman, Edwin K and Barr, R Graham and Thornton, Timothy A and Wheeler, Heather E and Cho, Michael H and Im, Hae Kyung and Manichaikul, Ani} } @article {9166, title = {{A population-based meta-analysis of circulating GFAP for cognition and dementia risk}, journal = {Ann Clin Transl Neurol}, volume = {9}, year = {2022}, month = {Oct}, pages = {1574{\textendash}1585}, abstract = {Expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), a marker of reactive astrocytosis, colocalizes with neuropathology in the brain. Blood levels of GFAP have been associated with cognitive decline and dementia status. However, further examinations at a population-based level are necessary to broaden generalizability to community settings.\ Circulating GFAP levels were assayed using a Simoa HD-1 analyzer in 4338 adults without prevalent dementia from four longitudinal community-based cohort studies. The associations between GFAP levels with general cognition, total brain volume, and hippocampal volume were evaluated with separate linear regression models in each cohort with adjustment for age, sex, education, race, diabetes, systolic blood pressure, antihypertensive medication, body mass index, apolipoprotein E ε4 status, site, and time between GFAP blood draw and the outcome. Associations with incident all-cause and Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease dementia were evaluated with adjusted Cox proportional hazard models. Meta-analysis was performed on the estimates derived from each cohort using random-effects models.\ 0.05). However, each standard deviation unit increase in log-transformed GFAP levels was significantly associated with a 2.5-fold higher risk of incident all-cause dementia (Hazard Ratio [HR]: 2.47 (95\% CI: 1.52-4.01)) and Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease dementia (HR: 2.54 [95\% CI: 1.42-4.53]) over up to 15-years of follow-up.\ Results support the potential role of circulating GFAP levels for aiding dementia risk prediction and improving clinical trial stratification in community settings.}, author = {Gonzales, M. M. and Wiedner, C. and Wang, C. P. and Liu, Q. and Bis, J. C. and Li, Z. and Himali, J. J. and Ghosh, S. and Thomas, E. A. and Parent, D. M. and Kautz, T. F. and Pase, M. P. and Aparicio, H. J. and Djousse, L. and Mukamal, K. J. and Psaty, B. M. and Longstreth, W. T. and Mosley, T. H. and Gudnason, V. and Mbangdadji, D. and Lopez, O. L. and Yaffe, K. and Sidney, S. and Bryan, R. N. and Nasrallah, I. M. and DeCarli, C. S. and Beiser, A. S. and Launer, L. J. and Fornage, M. and Tracy, R. P. and Seshadri, S. and Satizabal, C. L.} } @article {9086, title = {Proteomics and Population Biology in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS): design of a study with mentored access and active data sharing.}, journal = {Eur J Epidemiol}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Jul 05}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: In the last decade, genomic studies have identified and replicated thousands of genetic associations with measures of health and disease and contributed to the understanding of the etiology of a variety of health conditions. Proteins are key biomarkers in clinical medicine and often drug-therapy targets. Like genomics, proteomics can advance our understanding of biology.

METHODS AND RESULTS: In the setting of the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a cohort study of older adults, an aptamer-based method that has high sensitivity for low-abundance proteins was used to assay 4979 proteins in frozen, stored plasma from 3188 participants (61\% women, mean age 74~years). CHS provides active support, including central analysis, for seven phenotype-specific working groups (WGs). Each CHS WG is led by one or two senior investigators and includes 10 to 20 early or mid-career scientists. In this setting of mentored access, the proteomic data and analytic methods are widely shared with the WGs and investigators so that they may evaluate associations between baseline levels of circulating proteins and the incidence of a variety of health outcomes in prospective cohort analyses. We describe the design of CHS, the CHS Proteomics Study, characteristics of participants, quality control measures, and structural characteristics of the data provided to CHS WGs. We additionally highlight plans for validation and replication of novel proteomic associations.

CONCLUSION: The CHS Proteomics Study offers an opportunity for collaborative data sharing to improve our understanding of the etiology of a variety of health conditions in older adults.

}, issn = {1573-7284}, doi = {10.1007/s10654-022-00888-z}, author = {Austin, Thomas R and McHugh, Caitlin P and Brody, Jennifer A and Bis, Joshua C and Sitlani, Colleen M and Bartz, Traci M and Biggs, Mary L and Bansal, Nisha and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Carr, Steven A and deFilippi, Christopher R and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Fink, Howard A and Floyd, James S and Fohner, Alison E and Gerszten, Robert E and Heckbert, Susan R and Katz, Daniel H and Kizer, Jorge R and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Longstreth, W T and McKnight, Barbara and Mei, Hao and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Newman, Anne B and Ngo, Debby and Odden, Michelle C and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Shojaie, Ali and Simon, Noah and Smith, George Davey and Davies, Neil M and Siscovick, David S and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Tracy, Russell P and Wiggins, Kerri L and Zheng, Jie and Psaty, Bruce M} } @article {9455, title = {PUFA ω-3 and ω-6 biomarkers and sleep: a pooled analysis of cohort studies on behalf of the Fatty Acids and Outcomes Research Consortium (FORCE).}, journal = {Am J Clin Nutr}, volume = {115}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Mar 04}, pages = {864-876}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: n-3 and n-6 PUFAs have physiologic roles in sleep processes, but little is known regarding circulating n-3 and n-6 PUFA and sleep parameters.

OBJECTIVES: We sought to assess associations between biomarkers of n-3 and n-6 PUFA intake with self-reported sleep duration and difficulty falling sleeping in the Fatty Acids and Outcome Research Consortium.

METHODS: Harmonized, de novo, individual-level analyses were performed and pooled across 12 cohorts. Participants were 35-96 y old and from 5 nations. Circulating measures included α-linolenic acid (ALA), EPA, docosapentaenoic acid (DPA), DHA, EPA~+~DPA~+~DHA, linoleic acid, and arachidonic acid. Sleep duration (10 cohorts, n~=~18,791) was categorized as short (<=6 h), 7-8 h (reference), or long (>=9 h). Difficulty falling asleep (8 cohorts, n~=~12,500) was categorized as yes or no. Associations between PUFAs, sleep duration, and difficulty falling sleeping were assessed by cross-sectional multinomial logistic regression using standardized protocols and covariates. Cohort-specific multivariable-adjusted ORs per quintile of PUFAs were pooled with inverse-variance weighted meta-analysis.

RESULTS: In pooled analysis adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics and health status, participants with higher very long-chain n-3 PUFAs were less likely to have long sleep duration. In the top compared with the bottom quintiles, the multivariable-adjusted ORs (95\% CIs) for long sleep were 0.78 (95\% CI: 0.65, 0.95) for DHA and 0.76 (95\% CI: 0.63, 0.93) for EPA~+~DPA~+~DHA. Significant associations for ALA and n-6 PUFA with short sleep duration or difficulty falling sleeping were not identified.

CONCLUSIONS: Participants with higher concentrations of very long-chain n-3 PUFAs were less likely to have long sleep duration. While objective biomarkers reduce recall bias and misclassification, the cross-sectional design limits assessment of the temporal nature of this relation. These novel findings across 12 cohorts highlight the need for experimental and biological assessments of very long-chain n-3 PUFAs and sleep duration.

}, keywords = {Biomarkers, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, Fatty Acids, Fatty Acids, Omega-3, Humans, Outcome Assessment, Health Care, Sleep}, issn = {1938-3207}, doi = {10.1093/ajcn/nqab408}, author = {Murphy, Rachel A and Tintle, Nathan and Harris, William S and Darvishian, Maryam and Marklund, Matti and Virtanen, Jyrki K and Hantunen, Sari and de Mello, Vanessa D and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Bolt, Matthew A and Brouwer, Ingeborg A and Wood, Alexis C and Senn, Mackenzie and Redline, Susan and Tsai, Michael Y and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Lindberg, Eva and Shadyab, Aladdin H and Liu, Buyun and Carnethon, Mercedes and Uusitupa, Matti and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Riserus, Ulf and Lind, Lars and van Dam, Rob M and Koh, Woon-Puay and Shi, Peilin and Siscovick, David and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {8975, title = {Rare coding variants in 35 genes associate with circulating lipid levels-A multi-ancestry analysis of 170,000 exomes.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {109}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 01 06}, pages = {81-96}, abstract = {

Large-scale gene sequencing studies for complex traits have the potential to identify causal genes with therapeutic implications. We performed gene-based association testing of blood lipid levels with rare (minor allele frequency < 1\%) predicted damaging coding variation by using sequence data from >170,000 individuals from multiple ancestries: 97,493 European, 30,025 South Asian, 16,507 African, 16,440 Hispanic/Latino, 10,420 East Asian, and 1,182 Samoan. We identified 35 genes associated with circulating lipid levels; some of these genes have not been previously associated with lipid levels when using rare coding variation from population-based samples. We prioritize 32 genes in array-based genome-wide association study (GWAS) loci based on aggregations of rare coding variants; three (EVI5, SH2B3, and PLIN1) had no prior association of rare coding variants with lipid levels. Most of our associated genes showed evidence of association among multiple ancestries. Finally, we observed an enrichment of gene-based associations for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol drug target genes and for genes closest to GWAS index single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Our results demonstrate that gene-based associations can be beneficial for drug target development and provide evidence that the gene closest to the array-based GWAS index SNP is often the functional gene for blood lipid levels.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Blood Glucose, Case-Control Studies, Computational Biology, Databases, Genetic, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Exome, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genetics, Population, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lipid Metabolism, Lipids, Liver, Molecular Sequence Annotation, Multifactorial Inheritance, Open Reading Frames, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.11.021}, author = {Hindy, George and Dornbos, Peter and Chaffin, Mark D and Liu, Dajiang J and Wang, Minxian and Selvaraj, Margaret Sunitha and Zhang, David and Park, Joseph and Aguilar-Salinas, Carlos A and Antonacci-Fulton, Lucinda and Ardissino, Diego and Arnett, Donna K and Aslibekyan, Stella and Atzmon, Gil and Ballantyne, Christie M and Barajas-Olmos, Francisco and Barzilai, Nir and Becker, Lewis C and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bottinger, Erwin and Bowden, Donald W and Bown, Matthew J and Brody, Jennifer A and Broome, Jai G and Burtt, Noel P and Cade, Brian E and Centeno-Cruz, Federico and Chan, Edmund and Chang, Yi-Cheng and Chen, Yii-der I and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Choi, Won Jung and Chowdhury, Rajiv and Contreras-Cubas, Cecilia and C{\'o}rdova, Emilio J and Correa, Adolfo and Cupples, L Adrienne and Curran, Joanne E and Danesh, John and de Vries, Paul S and DeFronzo, Ralph A and Doddapaneni, Harsha and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Dutcher, Susan K and Ellinor, Patrick T and Emery, Leslie S and Florez, Jose C and Fornage, Myriam and Freedman, Barry I and Fuster, Valentin and Garay-Sevilla, Ma Eugenia and Garc{\'\i}a-Ortiz, Humberto and Germer, Soren and Gibbs, Richard A and Gieger, Christian and Glaser, Benjamin and Gonzalez, Clicerio and Gonzalez-Villalpando, Maria Elena and Graff, Mariaelisa and Graham, Sarah E and Grarup, Niels and Groop, Leif C and Guo, Xiuqing and Gupta, Namrata and Han, Sohee and Hanis, Craig L and Hansen, Torben and He, Jiang and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Hung, Yi-Jen and Hwang, Mi Yeong and Irvin, Marguerite R and Islas-Andrade, Sergio and Jarvik, Gail P and Kang, Hyun Min and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kelly, Tanika and Kenny, Eimear E and Khan, Alyna T and Kim, Bong-Jo and Kim, Ryan W and Kim, Young Jin and Koistinen, Heikki A and Kooperberg, Charles and Kuusisto, Johanna and Kwak, Soo Heon and Laakso, Markku and Lange, Leslie A and Lee, Jiwon and Lee, Juyoung and Lee, Seonwook and Lehman, Donna M and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Jianjun and Loos, Ruth J F and Lubitz, Steven A and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Ma, Ronald C W and Martin, Lisa Warsinger and Mart{\'\i}nez-Hern{\'a}ndez, Ang{\'e}lica and Mathias, Rasika A and McGarvey, Stephen T and McPherson, Ruth and Meigs, James B and Meitinger, Thomas and Melander, Olle and Mendoza-Caamal, Elvia and Metcalf, Ginger A and Mi, Xuenan and Mohlke, Karen L and Montasser, May E and Moon, Jee-Young and Moreno-Macias, Hortensia and Morrison, Alanna C and Muzny, Donna M and Nelson, Sarah C and Nilsson, Peter M and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Orho-Melander, Marju and Orozco, Lorena and Palmer, Colin N A and Palmer, Nicholette D and Park, Cheol Joo and Park, Kyong Soo and Pedersen, Oluf and Peralta, Juan M and Peyser, Patricia A and Post, Wendy S and Preuss, Michael and Psaty, Bruce M and Qi, Qibin and Rao, D C and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alexander P and Revilla-Monsalve, Cristina and Rich, Stephen S and Samani, Nilesh and Schunkert, Heribert and Schurmann, Claudia and Seo, Daekwan and Seo, Jeong-Sun and Sim, Xueling and Sladek, Rob and Small, Kerrin S and So, Wing Yee and Stilp, Adrienne M and Tai, E Shyong and Tam, Claudia H T and Taylor, Kent D and Teo, Yik Ying and Thameem, Farook and Tomlinson, Brian and Tsai, Michael Y and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tusi{\'e}-Luna, Teresa and Udler, Miriam S and van Dam, Rob M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Viaud Martinez, Karine A and Wang, Fei Fei and Wang, Xuzhi and Watkins, Hugh and Weeks, Daniel E and Wilson, James G and Witte, Daniel R and Wong, Tien-Yin and Yanek, Lisa R and Kathiresan, Sekar and Rader, Daniel J and Rotter, Jerome I and Boehnke, Michael and McCarthy, Mark I and Willer, Cristen J and Natarajan, Pradeep and Flannick, Jason A and Khera, Amit V and Peloso, Gina M} } @article {9168, title = {Rare genetic variants explain missing heritability in smoking.}, journal = {Nat Hum Behav}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Aug 04}, abstract = {

Common genetic variants explain less variation in complex phenotypes than inferred from family-based studies, and there is a debate on the source of this {\textquoteright}missing heritability{\textquoteright}. We investigated the contribution of rare genetic variants to tobacco use with whole-genome sequences from up to 26,257 unrelated individuals of European ancestries and 11,743 individuals of African ancestries. Across four smoking traits, single-nucleotide-polymorphism-based heritability ([Formula: see text]) was estimated from 0.13 to 0.28 (s.e., 0.10-0.13) in European ancestries, with 35-74\% of it attributable to rare variants with minor allele frequencies between 0.01\% and 1\%. These heritability estimates are 1.5-4 times higher than past estimates based on common variants alone and accounted for 60\% to 100\% of our pedigree-based estimates of narrow-sense heritability ([Formula: see text], 0.18-0.34). In the African ancestry samples, [Formula: see text] was estimated from 0.03 to 0.33 (s.e., 0.09-0.14) across the four smoking traits. These results suggest that rare variants are important contributors to the heritability of smoking.

}, issn = {2397-3374}, doi = {10.1038/s41562-022-01408-5}, author = {Jang, Seon-Kyeong and Evans, Luke and Fialkowski, Allison and Arnett, Donna K and Ashley-Koch, Allison E and Barnes, Kathleen C and Becker, Diane M and Bis, Joshua C and Blangero, John and Bleecker, Eugene R and Boorgula, Meher Preethi and Bowden, Donald W and Brody, Jennifer A and Cade, Brian E and Jenkins, Brenda W Campbell and Carson, April P and Chavan, Sameer and Cupples, L Adrienne and Custer, Brian and Damrauer, Scott M and David, Sean P and de Andrade, Mariza and Dinardo, Carla L and Fingerlin, Tasha E and Fornage, Myriam and Freedman, Barry I and Garrett, Melanie E and Gharib, Sina A and Glahn, David C and Haessler, Jeffrey and Heckbert, Susan R and Hokanson, John E and Hou, Lifang and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Hyman, Matthew C and Judy, Renae and Justice, Anne E and Kaplan, Robert C and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kelly, Shannon and Kim, Wonji and Kooperberg, Charles and Levy, Daniel and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Loos, Ruth J F and Manichaikul, Ani W and Gladwin, Mark T and Martin, Lisa Warsinger and Nouraie, Mehdi and Melander, Olle and Meyers, Deborah A and Montgomery, Courtney G and North, Kari E and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Palmer, Nicholette D and Payton, Marinelle and Peljto, Anna L and Peyser, Patricia A and Preuss, Michael and Psaty, Bruce M and Qiao, Dandi and Rader, Daniel J and Rafaels, Nicholas and Redline, Susan and Reed, Robert M and Reiner, Alexander P and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Schwartz, David A and Shadyab, Aladdin H and Silverman, Edwin K and Smith, Nicholas L and Smith, J Gustav and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Jennifer A and Tang, Weihong and Taylor, Kent D and Telen, Marilyn J and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Gordeuk, Victor R and Wang, Zhe and Wiggins, Kerri L and Yanek, Lisa R and Yang, Ivana V and Young, Kendra A and Young, Kristin L and Zhang, Yingze and Liu, Dajiang J and Keller, Matthew C and Vrieze, Scott} } @article {9263, title = {{A saturated map of common genetic variants associated with human height}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {610}, year = {2022}, month = {Oct}, pages = {704{\textendash}712}, abstract = {) account for 40\% (45\%) of phenotypic variance in populations of European ancestry but only around 10-20\% (14-24\%) in populations of other ancestries. Effect sizes, associated regions and gene prioritization are similar across ancestries, indicating that reduced prediction accuracy is likely to be explained by linkage disequilibrium and differences in allele frequency within associated regions. Finally, we show that the relevant biological pathways are detectable with smaller sample sizes than are needed to implicate causal genes and variants. Overall, this study provides a comprehensive map of specific genomic regions that contain the vast majority of common height-associated variants. Although this map is saturated for populations of European ancestry, further research is needed to achieve equivalent saturation in other ancestries.}, author = {Yengo, L. and Vedantam, S. and Marouli, E. and Sidorenko, J. and Bartell, E. and Sakaue, S. and Graff, M. and Eliasen, A. U. and Jiang, Y. and Raghavan, S. and Miao, J. and Arias, J. D. and Graham, S. E. and Mukamel, R. E. and Spracklen, C. N. and Yin, X. and Chen, S. H. and Ferreira, T. and Highland, H. H. and Ji, Y. and Karaderi, T. and Lin, K. and ll, K. and Malden, D. E. and Medina-Gomez, C. and Machado, M. and Moore, A. and eger, S. and Sim, X. and Vrieze, S. and Ahluwalia, T. S. and Akiyama, M. and Allison, M. A. and Alvarez, M. and Andersen, M. K. and Ani, A. and Appadurai, V. and Arbeeva, L. and Bhaskar, S. and Bielak, L. F. and Bollepalli, S. and Bonnycastle, L. L. and Bork-Jensen, J. and Bradfield, J. P. and Bradford, Y. and Braund, P. S. and Brody, J. A. and Burgdorf, K. S. and Cade, B. E. and Cai, H. and Cai, Q. and Campbell, A. and adas-Garre, M. and Catamo, E. and Chai, J. F. and Chai, X. and Chang, L. C. and Chang, Y. C. and Chen, C. H. and Chesi, A. and Choi, S. H. and Chung, R. H. and Cocca, M. and Concas, M. P. and Couture, C. and Cuellar-Partida, G. and Danning, R. and Daw, E. W. and Degenhard, F. and Delgado, G. E. and Delitala, A. and Demirkan, A. and Deng, X. and Devineni, P. and Dietl, A. and Dimitriou, M. and Dimitrov, L. and Dorajoo, R. and Ekici, A. B. and Engmann, J. E. and Fairhurst-Hunter, Z. and Farmaki, A. E. and Faul, J. D. and Fernandez-Lopez, J. C. and Forer, L. and Francescatto, M. and Freitag-Wolf, S. and Fuchsberger, C. and Galesloot, T. E. and Gao, Y. and Gao, Z. and Geller, F. and Giannakopoulou, O. and Giulianini, F. and Gjesing, A. P. and Goel, A. and Gordon, S. D. and Gorski, M. and Grove, J. and Guo, X. and Gustafsson, S. and Haessler, J. and Hansen, T. F. and Havulinna, A. S. and Haworth, S. J. and He, J. and Heard-Costa, N. and Hebbar, P. and Hindy, G. and Ho, Y. A. and Hofer, E. and Holliday, E. and Horn, K. and Hornsby, W. E. and Hottenga, J. J. and Huang, H. and Huang, J. and Huerta-Chagoya, A. and Huffman, J. E. and Hung, Y. J. and Huo, S. and Hwang, M. Y. and Iha, H. and Ikeda, D. D. and Isono, M. and Jackson, A. U. and ger, S. and Jansen, I. E. and Johansson, I. and Jonas, J. B. and Jonsson, A. and rgensen, T. and Kalafati, I. P. and Kanai, M. and Kanoni, S. and rhus, L. L. and Kasturiratne, A. and Katsuya, T. and Kawaguchi, T. and Kember, R. L. and Kentistou, K. A. and Kim, H. N. and Kim, Y. J. and Kleber, M. E. and Knol, M. J. and Kurbasic, A. and Lauzon, M. and Le, P. and Lea, R. and Lee, J. Y. and Leonard, H. L. and Li, S. A. and Li, X. and Li, X. and Liang, J. and Lin, H. and Lin, S. Y. and Liu, J. and Liu, X. and Lo, K. S. and Long, J. and Lor{\'e}s-Motta, L. and Luan, J. and Lyssenko, V. and inen, L. P. and Mahajan, A. and Mamakou, V. and Mangino, M. and Manichaikul, A. and Marten, J. and Mattheisen, M. and Mavarani, L. and McDaid, A. F. and Meidtner, K. and Melendez, T. L. and Mercader, J. M. and Milaneschi, Y. and Miller, J. E. and Millwood, I. Y. and Mishra, P. P. and Mitchell, R. E. and llehave, L. T. and Morgan, A. and Mucha, S. and Munz, M. and Nakatochi, M. and Nelson, C. P. and Nethander, M. and Nho, C. W. and Nielsen, A. A. and Nolte, I. M. and Nongmaithem, S. S. and Noordam, R. and Ntalla, I. and Nutile, T. and Pandit, A. and Christofidou, P. and rna, K. and Pauper, M. and Petersen, E. R. B. and Petersen, L. V. and nen, N. and ek, O. and Poveda, A. and Preuss, M. H. and Pyarajan, S. and Raffield, L. M. and Rakugi, H. and Ramirez, J. and Rasheed, A. and Raven, D. and Rayner, N. W. and Riveros, C. and Rohde, R. and Ruggiero, D. and Ruotsalainen, S. E. and Ryan, K. A. and Sabater-Lleal, M. and Saxena, R. and Scholz, M. and Sendamarai, A. and Shen, B. and Shi, J. and Shin, J. H. and Sidore, C. and Sitlani, C. M. and Slieker, R. C. and Smit, R. A. J. and Smith, A. V. and Smith, J. A. and Smyth, L. J. and Southam, L. and Steinthorsdottir, V. and Sun, L. and Takeuchi, F. and Tallapragada, D. S. P. and Taylor, K. D. and Tayo, B. O. and Tcheandjieu, C. and Terzikhan, N. and Tesolin, P. and Teumer, A. and Theusch, E. and Thompson, D. J. and Thorleifsson, G. and Timmers, P. R. H. 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M. and Gonzalez-Villalpando, C. and Gordon-Larsen, P. and Grallert, H. and Grant, S. F. A. and Grarup, N. and Griffiths, L. and Gudnason, V. and Haiman, C. and Hakonarson, H. and Hansen, T. and Hartman, C. A. and Hattersley, A. T. and Hayward, C. and Heckbert, S. R. and Heng, C. K. and Hengstenberg, C. and Hewitt, A. W. and Hishigaki, H. and Hoyng, C. B. and Huang, P. L. and Huang, W. and Hunt, S. C. and Hveem, K. and nen, E. and Iacono, W. G. and Ichihara, S. and Ikram, M. A. and Isasi, C. R. and Jackson, R. D. and Jarvelin, M. R. and Jin, Z. B. and ckel, K. H. and Joshi, P. K. and Jousilahti, P. and Jukema, J. W. and nen, M. and Kamatani, Y. and Kang, K. D. and Kaprio, J. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Karpe, F. and Kato, N. and Kee, F. and Kessler, T. and Khera, A. V. and Khor, C. C. and Kiemeney, L. A. L. M. and Kim, B. J. and Kim, E. K. and Kim, H. L. and Kirchhof, P. and Kivimaki, M. and Koh, W. P. and Koistinen, H. A. and Kolovou, G. D. and Kooner, J. S. and Kooperberg, C. and ttgen, A. and Kovacs, P. and Kraaijeveld, A. and Kraft, P. and Krauss, R. M. and Kumari, M. and Kutalik, Z. and Laakso, M. and Lange, L. A. and Langenberg, C. and Launer, L. J. and Le Marchand, L. and Lee, H. and Lee, N. R. and ki, T. and Li, H. and Li, L. and Lieb, W. and Lin, X. and Lind, L. and Linneberg, A. and Liu, C. T. and Liu, J. and Loeffler, M. and London, B. and Lubitz, S. A. and Lye, S. J. and Mackey, D. A. and gi, R. and Magnusson, P. K. E. and Marcus, G. M. and Vidal, P. M. and Martin, N. G. and rz, W. and Matsuda, F. and McGarrah, R. W. and McGue, M. and McKnight, A. J. and Medland, S. E. and m, D. and Metspalu, A. and Mitchell, B. D. and Mitchell, P. and Mook-Kanamori, D. O. and Morris, A. D. and Mucci, L. A. and Munroe, P. B. and Nalls, M. A. and Nazarian, S. and Nelson, A. E. and Neville, M. J. and Newton-Cheh, C. and Nielsen, C. S. and then, M. M. and Ohlsson, C. and Oldehinkel, A. J. and Orozco, L. and Pahkala, K. and Pajukanta, P. and Palmer, C. N. A. and Parra, E. J. and Pattaro, C. and Pedersen, O. and Pennell, C. E. and Penninx, B. W. J. H. and P{\'e}russe, L. and Peters, A. and Peyser, P. A. and Porteous, D. J. and Posthuma, D. and Power, C. and Pramstaller, P. P. and Province, M. A. and Qi, Q. and Qu, J. and Rader, D. J. and Raitakari, O. T. and Ralhan, S. and Rallidis, L. S. and Rao, D. C. and Redline, S. and Reilly, D. F. and Reiner, A. P. and Rhee, S. Y. and Ridker, P. M. and Rienstra, M. and Ripatti, S. and Ritchie, M. D. and Roden, D. M. and Rosendaal, F. R. and Rotter, J. I. and Rudan, I. and Rutters, F. and Sabanayagam, C. and Saleheen, D. and Salomaa, V. and Samani, N. J. and Sanghera, D. K. and Sattar, N. and Schmidt, B. and Schmidt, H. and Schmidt, R. and Schulze, M. B. and Schunkert, H. and Scott, L. J. and Scott, R. J. and Sever, P. and Shiroma, E. J. and Shoemaker, M. B. and Shu, X. O. and Simonsick, E. M. and Sims, M. and Singh, J. R. and Singleton, A. B. and Sinner, M. F. and Smith, J. G. and Snieder, H. and Spector, T. D. and Stampfer, M. J. and Stark, K. J. and Strachan, D. P. and {\textquoteright}t Hart, L. M. and Tabara, Y. and Tang, H. and Tardif, J. C. and Thanaraj, T. A. and Timpson, N. J. and njes, A. and Tremblay, A. and Tuomi, T. and Tuomilehto, J. and -Luna, M. T. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and van Dam, R. M. and van der Harst, P. and Van der Velde, N. and van Duijn, C. M. and van Schoor, N. M. and Vitart, V. and lker, U. and Vollenweider, P. and lzke, H. and Wacher-Rodarte, N. H. and Walker, M. and Wang, Y. X. and Wareham, N. J. and Watanabe, R. M. and Watkins, H. and Weir, D. R. and Werge, T. M. and Wid{\'e}n, E. and Wilkens, L. R. and Willemsen, G. and Willett, W. C. and Wilson, J. F. and Wong, T. Y. and Woo, J. T. and Wright, A. F. and Wu, J. Y. and Xu, H. and Yajnik, C. S. and Yokota, M. and Yuan, J. M. and Zeggini, E. and Zemel, B. S. and Zheng, W. and Zhu, X. and Zmuda, J. M. and Zonderman, A. B. and Zwart, J. A. and Chasman, D. I. and Cho, Y. S. and Heid, I. M. and McCarthy, M. I. and Ng, M. C. Y. and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, C. J. and Rivadeneira, F. and Thorsteinsdottir, U. and Sun, Y. V. and Tai, E. S. and Boehnke, M. and Deloukas, P. and Justice, A. E. and Lindgren, C. M. and Loos, R. J. F. and Mohlke, K. L. and North, K. E. and Stefansson, K. and Walters, R. G. and Winkler, T. W. and Young, K. L. and Loh, P. R. and Yang, J. and Esko, T. and Assimes, T. L. and Auton, A. and Abecasis, G. R. and Willer, C. J. and Locke, A. E. and Berndt, S. I. and Lettre, G. and Frayling, T. M. and Okada, Y. and Wood, A. R. and Visscher, P. M. and Hirschhorn, J. N. and Partida, G. C. and Sun, Y. and Croteau-Chonka, D. and Vonk, J. M. and Chanock, S. and Le Marchand, L.} } @article {9172, title = {Stroke genetics informs drug discovery and risk prediction across ancestries.}, journal = {Nature}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Sep 30}, abstract = {

Previous genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of stroke~-~the second leading cause of death worldwide~-~were conducted predominantly in populations of European ancestry. Here, in cross-ancestry GWAS meta-analyses of 110,182 patients who have had a stroke (five ancestries, 33\% non-European) and 1,503,898 control individuals, we identify association signals for stroke and its subtypes at 89 (61 new) independent loci: 60 in primary inverse-variance-weighted analyses and 29 in secondary meta-regression and multitrait analyses. On the basis of internal cross-ancestry validation and an independent follow-up in 89,084 additional cases of stroke (30\% non-European) and 1,013,843 control individuals, 87\% of the primary stroke risk loci and 60\% of the secondary stroke risk loci were replicated (P < 0.05). Effect sizes were highly correlated across ancestries. Cross-ancestry fine-mapping, in silico mutagenesis analysis, and transcriptome-wide and proteome-wide association analyses revealed putative causal genes (such as SH3PXD2A and FURIN) and variants (such as at GRK5 and NOS3). Using a three-pronged approach, we provide genetic evidence for putative drug effects, highlighting F11, KLKB1, PROC, GP1BA, LAMC2 and VCAM1 as possible targets, with drugs already under investigation for stroke for F11 and PROC. A polygenic score integrating cross-ancestry and ancestry-specific stroke GWASs with vascular-risk factor GWASs (integrative polygenic scores) strongly predicted ischaemic stroke in populations of European, East Asian and African ancestry. Stroke genetic risk scores were predictive of ischaemic stroke independent of clinical risk factors in 52,600 clinical-trial participants with cardiometabolic disease. Our results provide insights to inform biology, reveal potential drug targets and derive genetic risk prediction tools across ancestries.

}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-022-05165-3}, author = {Mishra, Aniket and Malik, Rainer and Hachiya, Tsuyoshi and J{\"u}rgenson, Tuuli and Namba, Shinichi and Posner, Daniel C and Kamanu, Frederick K and Koido, Masaru and Le Grand, Quentin and Shi, Mingyang and He, Yunye and Georgakis, Marios K and Caro, Ilana and Krebs, Kristi and Liaw, Yi-Ching and Vaura, Felix C and Lin, Kuang and Winsvold, Bendik Slagsvold and Srinivasasainagendra, Vinodh and Parodi, Livia and Bae, Hee-Joon and Chauhan, Ganesh and Chong, Michael R and Tomppo, Liisa and Akinyemi, Rufus and Roshchupkin, Gennady V and Habib, Naomi and Jee, Yon Ho and Thomassen, Jesper Qvist and Abedi, Vida and C{\'a}rcel-M{\'a}rquez, Jara and Nygaard, Marianne and Leonard, Hampton L and Yang, Chaojie and Yonova-Doing, Ekaterina and Knol, Maria J and Lewis, Adam J and Judy, Renae L and Ago, Tetsuro and Amouyel, Philippe and Armstrong, Nicole D and Bakker, Mark K and Bartz, Traci M and Bennett, David A and Bis, Joshua C and Bordes, Constance and B{\o}rte, Sigrid and Cain, Anael and Ridker, Paul M and Cho, Kelly and Chen, Zhengming and Cruchaga, Carlos and Cole, John W and De Jager, Phil L and de Cid, Rafael and Endres, Matthias and Ferreira, Leslie E and Geerlings, Mirjam I and Gasca, Natalie C and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hata, Jun and He, Jing and Heath, Alicia K and Ho, Yuk-Lam and Havulinna, Aki S and Hopewell, Jemma C and Hyacinth, Hyacinth I and Inouye, Michael and Jacob, Mina A and Jeon, Christina E and Jern, Christina and Kamouchi, Masahiro and Keene, Keith L and Kitazono, Takanari and Kittner, Steven J and Konuma, Takahiro and Kumar, Amit and Lacaze, Paul and Launer, Lenore J and Lee, Keon-Joo and Lepik, Kaido and Li, Jiang and Li, Liming and Manichaikul, Ani and Markus, Hugh S and Marston, Nicholas A and Meitinger, Thomas and Mitchell, Braxton D and Montellano, Felipe A and Morisaki, Takayuki and Mosley, Thomas H and Nalls, Mike A and Nordestgaard, B{\o}rge G and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Martin J and Okada, Yukinori and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Ovbiagele, Bruce and Peters, Annette and Psaty, Bruce M and Rich, Stephen S and Rosand, Jonathan and Sabatine, Marc S and Sacco, Ralph L and Saleheen, Danish and Sandset, Else Charlotte and Salomaa, Veikko and Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Sasaki, Makoto and Satizabal, Claudia L and Schmidt, Carsten O and Shimizu, Atsushi and Smith, Nicholas L and Sloane, Kelly L and Sutoh, Yoichi and Sun, Yan V and Tanno, Kozo and Tiedt, Steffen and Tatlisumak, Turgut and Torres-Aguila, Nuria P and Tiwari, Hemant K and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Trompet, Stella and Tuladhar, Anil Man and Tybj{\ae}rg-Hansen, Anne and van Vugt, Marion and Vibo, Riina and Verma, Shefali S and Wiggins, Kerri L and Wennberg, Patrik and Woo, Daniel and Wilson, Peter W F and Xu, Huichun and Yang, Qiong and Yoon, Kyungheon and Millwood, Iona Y and Gieger, Christian and Ninomiya, Toshiharu and Grabe, Hans J and Jukema, J Wouter and Rissanen, Ina L and Strbian, Daniel and Kim, Young Jin and Chen, Pei-Hsin and Mayerhofer, Ernst and Howson, Joanna M M and Irvin, Marguerite R and Adams, Hieab and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Christensen, Kaare and Ikram, Mohammad A and Rundek, Tatjana and Worrall, Bradford B and Lathrop, G Mark and Riaz, Moeen and Simonsick, Eleanor M and K{\~o}rv, Janika and Fran{\c c}a, Paulo H C and Zand, Ramin and Prasad, Kameshwar and Frikke-Schmidt, Ruth and de Leeuw, Frank-Erik and Liman, Thomas and Haeusler, Karl Georg and Ruigrok, Ynte M and Heuschmann, Peter Ulrich and Longstreth, W T and Jung, Keum Ji and Bastarache, Lisa and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Damrauer, Scott M and Chasman, Daniel I and Rotter, Jerome I and Anderson, Christopher D and Zwart, John-Anker and Niiranen, Teemu J and Fornage, Myriam and Liaw, Yung-Po and Seshadri, Sudha and Fernandez-Cadenas, Israel and Walters, Robin G and Ruff, Christian T and Owolabi, Mayowa O and Huffman, Jennifer E and Milani, Lili and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Dichgans, Martin and Debette, Stephanie} } @article {9101, title = {Targeted Genome Sequencing Identifies Multiple Rare Variants in Caveolin-1 Associated with Obstructive Sleep Apnea.}, journal = {Am J Respir Crit Care Med}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Jul 13}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common disorder associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and premature mortality. There is strong clinical and epi-demiologic evidence supporting the importance of genetic factors influencing OSA, but limited data implicating specific genes.

METHODS: Leveraging high depth genomic sequencing data from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program and imputed genotype data from multiple population-based studies, we performed linkage analysis in the Cleve-land Family Study (CFS) followed by multi-stage gene-based association analyses in independent cohorts to search for rare variants contributing to OSA severity as assessed by the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) in a total of 7,708 individuals of European ancestry.

RESULTS: Linkage analysis in CFS identified a suggestive linkage peak on chromosome 7q31 (LOD=2.31). Gene-based analysis identified 21 non-coding rare variants in Caveolin-1 (CAV1) associated with lower AHI after accounting for multiple comparisons (p=7.4{\texttimes}10-8). These non-coding variants together significantly contributed to the linkage evidence (p<10-3). Follow-up anal-ysis revealed significant associations between these variants and increased CAV1 expression, and increased CAV1 expression in peripheral monocytes was associated with lower AHI (p=0.024) and higher minimum overnight oxygen saturation (p=0.007).

CONCLUSION: Rare variants in CAV1, a membrane scaffolding protein essential in multiple cellular and metabolic functions, are associated with higher CAV1 gene expression and lower OSA severity, suggesting a novel target for modulating OSA severity.

}, issn = {1535-4970}, doi = {10.1164/rccm.202203-0618OC}, author = {Liang, Jingjing and Wang, Heming and Cade, Brian E and Kurniansyah, Nuzulul and He, Karen Y and Lee, Jiwon and Sands, Scott A and Brody, Jennifer and Chen, Han and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Evans, Daniel S and Guo, Xiuqing and Gharib, Sina A and Hale, Lauren and Hillman, David R and Lutsey, Pamela L and Mukherjee, Sutapa and Ochs-Balcom, Heather M and Palmer, Lyle J and Purcell, Shaun and Saxena, Richa and Patel, Sanjay R and Stone, Katie L and Tranah, Gregory J and Boerwinkle, Eric and Lin, Xihong and Liu, Yongmei and Psaty, Bruce M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Manichaikul, Ani and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Sofer, Tamar and Redline, Susan and Zhu, Xiaofeng} } @article {9460, title = {{Trans Fatty Acid Biomarkers and Incident Type 2 Diabetes: Pooled Analysis of 12 Prospective Cohort Studies in the Fatty Acids and Outcomes Research Consortium (FORCE)}, journal = {Diabetes Care}, volume = {45}, year = {2022}, month = {Apr}, pages = {854{\textendash}863}, abstract = {Trans fatty acids (TFAs) have harmful biologic effects that could increase the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D), but evidence remains uncertain. We aimed to investigate the prospective associations of TFA biomarkers and T2D by conducting an individual participant-level pooled analysis.\ 18 years without prevalent diabetes. Each cohort conducted de novo harmonized analyses using a prespecified protocol, and findings were pooled using inverse-variance weighted meta-analysis. Heterogeneity was explored by prespecified between-study and within-study characteristics.\ 0.1).\ Circulating individual trans-18:2 TFA biomarkers were not associated with risk of T2D, while trans-16:1n-9, total trans-18:1, and total trans-18:2 were inversely associated. Findings may reflect the influence of mixed TFA sources (industrial vs. natural ruminant), a general decline in TFA exposure due to policy changes during this period, or the relatively limited range of TFA levels.}, author = {Lai, H. T. M. and Imamura, F. and Korat, A. V. A. and Murphy, R. A. and Tintle, N. and Bassett, J. K. and Chen, J. and ger, J. and Chien, K. L. and Senn, M. and Wood, A. C. and Forouhi, N. G. and Schulze, M. B. and Harris, W. S. and Vasan, R. S. and Hu, F. and Giles, G. G. and Hodge, A. and Djousse, L. and Brouwer, I. A. and Qian, F. and Sun, Q. and Wu, J. H. Y. and Marklund, M. and Lemaitre, R. N. and Siscovick, D. S. and Fretts, A. M. and Shadyab, A. H. and Manson, J. E. and Howard, B. V. and Robinson, J. G. and Wallace, R. B. and Wareham, N. J. and Chen, Y. I. and Rotter, J. I. and Tsai, M. Y. and Micha, R. and Mozaffarian, D.} } @article {9089, title = {Trimethylamine N-oxide and hip fracture and bone mineral density in older adults: The cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Bone}, volume = {161}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 08}, pages = {116431}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Gut microbiota-derived metabolite trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) may adversely affect bone by inducing oxidative stress. Whether this translates into increased fracture risk in older adults is uncertain.

OBJECTIVE: Determine the associations of plasma TMAO with hip fracture and bone mineral density (BMD) in older adults.

DESIGN AND SETTING: Cox hazard models and linear regression stratified by sex examined the associations of TMAO with hip fracture and BMD in the longitudinal cohort of the Cardiovascular Health Study.

PARTICIPANTS: 5019~U.S. adults aged >=65~years.

EXPOSURE: Plasma TMAO.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Incident hip fractures; total hip BMD dual x-ray absorptiometry in a subset (n~=~1400).

RESULTS: Six hundred sixty-six incident hip fractures occurred during up to 26~years of follow-up (67,574 person-years). After multivariable adjustment, TMAO was not significantly associated with hip fracture (women: hazard ratio (HR) [95\% confidence interval (CI)] of 1.00[0.92,1.09] per TMAO doubling; men: 1.12[0.95,1.33]). TMAO was also not associated with total hip BMD (women: BMD difference [95\% CI] of 0.42~g/cm*100 [-0.34,1.17] per TMAO doubling; men: 0.19[-1.04,1.42]). In exploratory analyses, we found an interaction between body mass index (BMI) and the association of TMAO with hip fracture (P~<~0.01). Higher TMAO was significantly associated with risk of hip fracture in adults with overweight or obesity (BMI~>=~25) (HR [95\% CI]:1.17[1.05,1.31]), but not normal or underweight.

CONCLUSIONS: Among older US men and women, TMAO was not significantly associated with risk of hip fracture or BMD overall. Exploratory analyses suggested a significant association between higher TMAO and hip fracture when BMI was elevated, which merits further study.

}, keywords = {Absorptiometry, Photon, Aged, Bone Density, Female, Hip Fractures, Humans, Male, Methylamines, Risk Factors}, issn = {1873-2763}, doi = {10.1016/j.bone.2022.116431}, author = {Elam, Rachel E and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Barzilay, Joshua I and Wang, Zeneng and Nemet, Ina and Budoff, Matthew J and Cauley, Jane A and Fink, Howard A and Lee, Yujin and Robbins, John A and Wang, Meng and Hazen, Stanley L and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Carbone, Laura D} } @article {9109, title = {The Value of Rare Genetic Variation in the Prediction of Common Obesity in European Ancestry Populations.}, journal = {Front Endocrinol (Lausanne)}, volume = {13}, year = {2022}, month = {2022}, pages = {863893}, abstract = {

Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) aggregate the effects of genetic variants across the genome and are used to predict risk of complex diseases, such as obesity. Current PRSs only include common variants (minor allele frequency (MAF) >=1\%), whereas the contribution of rare variants in PRSs to predict disease remains unknown. Here, we examine whether augmenting the standard common variant PRS (PRS) with a rare variant PRS (PRS) improves prediction of obesity. We used genome-wide genotyped and imputed data on 451,145 European-ancestry participants of the UK Biobank, as well as whole exome sequencing (WES) data on 184,385 participants. We performed single variant analyses (for both common and rare variants) and gene-based analyses (for rare variants) for association with BMI (kg/m), obesity (BMI >= 30 kg/m), and extreme obesity (BMI >= 40 kg/m). We built PRSs and PRSs using a range of methods (Clumping+Thresholding [C+T], PRS-CS, lassosum, gene-burden test). We selected the best-performing PRSs and assessed their performance in 36,757 European-ancestry unrelated participants with whole genome sequencing (WGS) data from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. The best-performing PRS explained 10.1\% of variation in BMI, and 18.3\% and 22.5\% of the susceptibility to obesity and extreme obesity, respectively, whereas the best-performing PRS explained 1.49\%, and 2.97\% and 3.68\%, respectively. The PRS was associated with an increased risk of obesity and extreme obesity (OR = 1.37 per SD, = 1.7x10; OR = 1.55 per SD, = 3.8x10), which was attenuated, after adjusting for PRS (OR = 1.08 per SD, = 9.8x10; OR= 1.09 per SD, = 0.02). When PRS and PRS are combined, the increase in explained variance attributed to PRS was small (incremental Nagelkerke R = 0.24\% for obesity and 0.51\% for extreme obesity). Consistently, combining PRS to PRS provided little improvement to the prediction of obesity (PRS AUC = 0.591; PRS AUC = 0.708; PRS AUC = 0.710). In summary, while rare variants show convincing association with BMI, obesity and extreme obesity, the PRS provides limited improvement over PRS in the prediction of obesity risk, based on these large populations.

}, keywords = {Gene Frequency, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Obesity, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {1664-2392}, doi = {10.3389/fendo.2022.863893}, author = {Wang, Zhe and Choi, Shing Wan and Chami, Nathalie and Boerwinkle, Eric and Fornage, Myriam and Redline, Susan and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Psaty, Bruce M and Kim, Wonji and McDonald, Merry-Lynn N and Regan, Elizabeth A and Silverman, Edwin K and Liu, Ching-Ti and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Kalyani, Rita R and Mathias, Rasika A and Yanek, Lisa R and Arnett, Donna K and Justice, Anne E and North, Kari E and Kaplan, Robert and Heckbert, Susan R and de Andrade, Mariza and Guo, Xiuqing and Lange, Leslie A and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Ellinor, Patrick T and Lubitz, Steven A and Blangero, John and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Darbar, Dawood and Gladwin, Mark T and Albert, Christine M and Chasman, Daniel I and Jackson, Rebecca D and Kooperberg, Charles and Reiner, Alexander P and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Loos, Ruth J F} } @article {9107, title = {Whole exome sequencing of 14 389 individuals from the ESP and CHARGE consortia identifies novel rare variation associated with hemostatic factors.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 May 12}, abstract = {

Plasma levels of fibrinogen, coagulation factors VII and VIII, and von Willebrand factor (vWF) are four intermediate phenotypes that are heritable and have been associated with the risk of clinical thrombotic events. To identify rare and low-frequency variants associated with these hemostatic factors, we conducted whole exome sequencing in 10 860 individuals of European ancestry (EA) and 3529 African Americans (AAs) from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute{\textquoteright}s Exome Sequencing Project (ESP). Gene-based tests demonstrated significant associations with rare variation (minor allele frequency < 5\%) in FGG (with fibrinogen, p = 9.1x10-13), F7 (with factor VII, p = 1.3x10-72; seven novel variants), and VWF (with factor VIII and vWF; p = 3.2x10-14; one novel variant). These eight novel rare variant associations were independent of the known common variants at these loci and tended to have much larger effect sizes. In addition, one of the rare novel variants in F7 was significantly associated with an increased risk of venous thromboembolism in AAs (Ile200Ser; rs141219108; p = 4.2x10-5). After restricting gene-based analyses to only loss-of-function variants, a novel significant association was detected and replicated between factor VIII levels and a stop-gain mutation exclusive to African Americans (rs3211938) in CD36. This variant has previously been linked to dyslipidemia but not with levels of a hemostatic factor. These efforts represent the largest integration of whole exome sequence data from two national projects to identify genetic variation associated with plasma hemostatic factors.

}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddac100}, author = {Pankratz, Nathan and Wei, Peng and Brody, Jennifer A and Chen, Ming-Huei and Vries, Paul S and Huffman, Jennifer E and Stimson, Mary Rachel and Auer, Paul L and Boerwinkle, Eric and Cushman, Mary and Maat, Moniek P M and Folsom, Aaron R and Franco, Oscar H and Gibbs, Richard A and Haagenson, Kelly K and Hofman, Albert and Johnsen, Jill M and Kovar, Christie L and Kraaij, Robert and McKnight, Barbara and Metcalf, Ginger A and Muzny, Donna and Psaty, Bruce M and Tang, Weihong and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rooij, Jeroen G J and Dehghan, Abbas and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Reiner, Alex P and Morrison, Alanna C and Smith, Nicholas L} } @article {9158, title = {Whole genome sequence association analysis of fasting glucose and fasting insulin levels in diverse cohorts from the NHLBI TOPMed program.}, journal = {Commun Biol}, volume = {5}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 07 28}, pages = {756}, abstract = {

The genetic determinants of fasting glucose (FG) and fasting insulin (FI) have been studied mostly through genome arrays, resulting in over 100 associated variants. We extended this work with high-coverage whole genome sequencing analyses from fifteen cohorts in NHLBI{\textquoteright}s Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. Over 23,000 non-diabetic individuals from five race-ethnicities/populations (African, Asian, European, Hispanic and Samoan) were included. Eight variants were significantly associated with FG or FI across previously identified regions MTNR1B, G6PC2, GCK, GCKR and FOXA2. We additionally characterize suggestive associations with FG or FI near previously identified SLC30A8, TCF7L2, and ADCY5 regions as well as APOB, PTPRT, and ROBO1. Functional annotation resources including the Diabetes Epigenome Atlas were compiled for each signal (chromatin states, annotation principal components, and others) to elucidate variant-to-function hypotheses. We provide a catalog of nucleotide-resolution genomic variation spanning intergenic and intronic regions creating a foundation for future sequencing-based investigations of glycemic traits.

}, keywords = {Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Fasting, Glucose, Humans, Insulin, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (U.S.), Nerve Tissue Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Precision Medicine, Receptors, Immunologic, United States}, issn = {2399-3642}, doi = {10.1038/s42003-022-03702-4}, author = {DiCorpo, Daniel and Gaynor, Sheila M and Russell, Emily M and Westerman, Kenneth E and Raffield, Laura M and Majarian, Timothy D and Wu, Peitao and Sarnowski, Chloe and Highland, Heather M and Jackson, Anne and Hasbani, Natalie R and de Vries, Paul S and Brody, Jennifer A and Hidalgo, Bertha and Guo, Xiuqing and Perry, James A and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Lent, Samantha and Montasser, May E and Cade, Brian E and Jain, Deepti and Wang, Heming and D{\textquoteright}Oliveira Albanus, Ricardo and Varshney, Arushi and Yanek, Lisa R and Lange, Leslie and Palmer, Nicholette D and Almeida, Marcio and Peralta, Juan M and Aslibekyan, Stella and Baldridge, Abigail S and Bertoni, Alain G and Bielak, Lawrence F and Chen, Chung-Shiuan and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Choi, Won Jung and Goodarzi, Mark O and Floyd, James S and Irvin, Marguerite R and Kalyani, Rita R and Kelly, Tanika N and Lee, Seonwook and Liu, Ching-Ti and Loesch, Douglas and Manson, JoAnn E and Minster, Ryan L and Naseri, Take and Pankow, James S and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Reiner, Alexander P and Reupena, Muagututi{\textquoteright}a Sefuiva and Selvin, Elizabeth and Smith, Jennifer A and Weeks, Daniel E and Xu, Huichun and Yao, Jie and Zhao, Wei and Parker, Stephen and Alonso, Alvaro and Arnett, Donna K and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Correa, Adolfo and Cupples, L Adrienne and Curran, Joanne E and Duggirala, Ravindranath and He, Jiang and Heckbert, Susan R and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kim, Ryan W and Kooperberg, Charles and Liu, Simin and Mathias, Rasika A and McGarvey, Stephen T and Mitchell, Braxton D and Morrison, Alanna C and Peyser, Patricia A and Psaty, Bruce M and Redline, Susan and Shuldiner, Alan R and Taylor, Kent D and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Viaud-Martinez, Karine A and Florez, Jose C and Wilson, James G and Sladek, Robert and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Lin, Xihong and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Meigs, James B and Wessel, Jennifer and Manning, Alisa K} } @article {9261, title = {Whole genome sequencing identifies structural variants contributing to hematologic traits in the NHLBI TOPMed program.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {13}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Dec 08}, pages = {7592}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies have identified thousands of single nucleotide variants and small indels that contribute to variation in hematologic traits. While structural variants are known to cause rare blood or hematopoietic disorders, the genome-wide contribution of structural variants to quantitative blood cell trait variation is unknown. Here we utilized whole genome sequencing data in ancestrally diverse participants of the NHLBI Trans Omics for Precision Medicine program (N = 50,675) to detect structural variants associated with hematologic traits. Using single variant tests, we assessed the association of common and rare structural variants with red cell-, white cell-, and platelet-related quantitative traits and observed 21 independent signals (12 common and 9 rare) reaching genome-wide significance. The majority of these associations (N = 18) replicated in independent datasets. In genome-editing experiments, we provide evidence that a deletion associated with lower monocyte counts leads to disruption of an S1PR3 monocyte enhancer and decreased S1PR3 expression.

}, keywords = {Blood Cells, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-022-35354-7}, author = {Wheeler, Marsha M and Stilp, Adrienne M and Rao, Shuquan and Halldorsson, Bjarni V and Beyter, Doruk and Wen, Jia and Mihkaylova, Anna V and McHugh, Caitlin P and Lane, John and Jiang, Min-Zhi and Raffield, Laura M and Jun, Goo and Sedlazeck, Fritz J and Metcalf, Ginger and Yao, Yao and Bis, Joshua B and Chami, Nathalie and de Vries, Paul S and Desai, Pinkal and Floyd, James S and Gao, Yan and Kammers, Kai and Kim, Wonji and Moon, Jee-Young and Ratan, Aakrosh and Yanek, Lisa R and Almasy, Laura and Becker, Lewis C and Blangero, John and Cho, Michael H and Curran, Joanne E and Fornage, Myriam and Kaplan, Robert C and Lewis, Joshua P and Loos, Ruth J F and Mitchell, Braxton D and Morrison, Alanna C and Preuss, Michael and Psaty, Bruce M and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Tang, Hua and Tracy, Russell P and Boerwinkle, Eric and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Blackwell, Thomas W and Smith, Albert V and Johnson, Andrew D and Mathias, Rasika A and Nickerson, Deborah A and Conomos, Matthew P and Li, Yun and {\TH}orsteinsdottir, Unnur and Magn{\'u}sson, Magn{\'u}s K and Stefansson, Kari and Pankratz, Nathan D and Bauer, Daniel E and Auer, Paul L and Reiner, Alex P} } @article {9258, title = {Whole-Exome Sequencing Study Identifies Four Novel Gene Loci Associated with Diabetic Kidney Disease.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Nov 29}, abstract = {

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is recognized as an important public health challenge. However, its genomic mechanisms are poorly understood. To identify rare variants for DKD, we conducted a whole-exome sequencing (WES) study leveraging large cohorts well-phenotyped for chronic kidney disease (CKD) and diabetes. Our two-stage whole-exome sequencing study included 4372 European and African ancestry participants from the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) and Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) studies (stage-1) and 11 487 multi-ancestry Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) participants (stage-2). Generalized linear mixed models, which accounted for genetic relatedness and adjusted for age, sex, and ancestry, were used to test associations between single variants and DKD. Gene-based aggregate rare variant analyses were conducted using an optimized sequence kernel association test (SKAT-O) implemented within our mixed model framework. We identified four novel exome-wide significant DKD-related loci through initiating diabetes. In single variant analyses, participants carrying a rare, in-frame insertion in the DIS3L2 gene (rs141560952) exhibited a 193-fold increased odds (95\% confidence interval: 33.6, 1105) of DKD compared with non-carriers (P = 3.59 {\texttimes} 10-9). Likewise, each copy of a low-frequency KRT6B splice-site variant (rs425827) conferred a 5.31-fold higher odds (95\% confidence interval: 3.06, 9.21) of DKD (P = 2.72 {\texttimes} 10-9). Aggregate gene-based analyses further identified ERAP2 (P = 4.03 {\texttimes} 10-8) and NPEPPS (P = 1.51 {\texttimes} 10-7), which are both expressed in the kidney and implicated in renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system modulated immune response. In the largest WES study of DKD, we identified novel rare variant loci attaining exome-wide significance. These findings provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying DKD.

}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddac290}, author = {Pan, Yang and Sun, Xiao and Mi, Xuenan and Huang, Zhijie and Hsu, Yenchih and Hixson, James E and Munzy, Donna and Metcalf, Ginger and Franceschini, Nora and Tin, Adrienne and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Francis, Michael and Brody, Jennifer A and Kestenbaum, Bryan and Sitlani, Colleen M and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Kramer, Holly and Lange, Leslie A and Guo, Xiuqing and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Irvin, Marguerite R and Smith, Jennifer A and Yanek, Lisa R and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Fornage, Myriam and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Hou, Lifang and Mathias, Rasika A and Mitchell, Braxton D and Peyser, Patricia A and Kardia, Sharon L R and Arnett, Donna K and Correa, Adolfo and Raffield, Laura M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Cupple, L Adrienne and Levy, Daniel and Kaplan, Robert C and North, Kari E and Rotter, Jerome I and Kooperberg, Charles and Reiner, Alexander P and Psaty, Bruce M and Tracy, Russell P and Gibbs, Richard A and Morrison, Alanna C and Feldman, Harold and Boerwinkle, Eric and He, Jiang and Kelly, Tanika N} } @article {8996, title = {{Whole-Genome Sequencing Association Analyses of Stroke and Its Subtypes in Ancestrally Diverse Populations From Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine Project}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {53}, year = {2022}, month = {Mar}, pages = {875{\textendash}885}, abstract = {Stroke is the leading cause of death and long-term disability worldwide. Previous genome-wide association studies identified 51 loci associated with stroke (mostly ischemic) and its subtypes among predominantly European populations. Using whole-genome sequencing in ancestrally diverse populations from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program, we aimed to identify novel variants, especially low-frequency or ancestry-specific variants, associated with all stroke, ischemic stroke and its subtypes (large artery, cardioembolic, and small vessel), and hemorrhagic stroke and its subtypes (intracerebral and subarachnoid).\ Whole-genome sequencing data were available for 6833 stroke cases and 27 116 controls, including 22 315 European, 7877 Black, 2616 Hispanic/Latino, 850 Asian, 54 Native American, and 237 other ancestry participants. In TOPMed, we performed single variant association analysis examining 40 million common variants and aggregated association analysis focusing on rare variants. We also combined TOPMed European populations with over 28 000 additional European participants from the UK BioBank genome-wide array data through meta-analysis.\ .\ We represent the first association analysis for stroke and its subtypes using whole-genome sequencing data from ancestrally diverse populations. While our findings suggest the potential benefits of combining whole-genome sequencing data with populations of diverse genetic backgrounds to identify possible low-frequency or ancestry-specific variants, they also highlight the need to increase genome coverage and sample sizes.}, author = {Hu, Y. and Haessler, J. W. and Manansala, R. and Wiggins, K. L. and Moscati, A. and Beiser, A. and Heard-Costa, N. L. and Sarnowski, C. and Raffield, L. M. and Chung, J. and Marini, S. and Anderson, C. D. and Rosand, J. and Xu, H. and Sun, X. and Kelly, T. N. and Wong, Q. and Lange, L. A. and Rotter, J. I. and Correa, A. and Vasan, R. S. and Seshadri, S. and Rich, S. S. and Do, R. and Loos, R. J. F. and Longstreth, W. T. and Bis, J. C. and Psaty, B. M. and Tirschwell, D. L. and Assimes, T. L. and Silver, B. and Liu, S. and Jackson, R. and Wassertheil-Smoller, S. and Mitchell, B. D. and Fornage, M. and Auer, P. L. and Reiner, A. P. and Kooperberg, C.} } @article {9387, title = {Aberrant activation of TCL1A promotes stem cell expansion in clonal haematopoiesis.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {616}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Apr}, pages = {755-763}, abstract = {

Mutations in a diverse set of driver genes increase the fitness of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), leading to clonal haematopoiesis. These lesions are precursors for blood cancers, but the basis of their fitness advantage remains largely unknown, partly owing to a paucity of large cohorts in which the clonal expansion rate has been assessed by longitudinal sampling. Here, to circumvent this limitation, we developed a method to infer the expansion rate from data from a single time point. We applied this method to 5,071 people with clonal haematopoiesis. A genome-wide association study revealed that a common inherited polymorphism in the TCL1A promoter was associated with a slower expansion rate in clonal haematopoiesis overall, but the effect varied by driver gene. Those carrying this protective allele exhibited markedly reduced growth rates or prevalence of clones with driver mutations in TET2, ASXL1, SF3B1 and SRSF2, but~this effect was not seen in~clones with~driver mutations in DNMT3A. TCL1A was not expressed in normal or DNMT3A-mutated HSCs, but the introduction of mutations in TET2 or ASXL1 led to the expression of TCL1A protein and the expansion of HSCs in vitro. The protective allele restricted TCL1A expression and expansion of mutant HSCs, as did experimental~knockdown of TCL1A expression. Forced expression of TCL1A promoted the expansion of human HSCs in vitro and mouse HSCs in vivo. Our results indicate that the fitness advantage of several commonly mutated driver genes in clonal haematopoiesis may be mediated by TCL1A activation.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Animals, Clonal Hematopoiesis, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hematopoiesis, Hematopoietic Stem Cells, Humans, Mice, Mutation, Promoter Regions, Genetic}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-023-05806-1}, author = {Weinstock, Joshua S and Gopakumar, Jayakrishnan and Burugula, Bala Bharathi and Uddin, Md Mesbah and Jahn, Nikolaus and Belk, Julia A and Bouzid, Hind and Daniel, Bence and Miao, Zhuang and Ly, Nghi and Mack, Taralynn M and Luna, Sofia E and Prothro, Katherine P and Mitchell, Shaneice R and Laurie, Cecelia A and Broome, Jai G and Taylor, Kent D and Guo, Xiuqing and Sinner, Moritz F and von Falkenhausen, Aenne S and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Shuldiner, Alan R and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Lewis, Joshua P and Boerwinkle, Eric and Barnes, Kathleen C and Chami, Nathalie and Kenny, Eimear E and Loos, Ruth J F and Fornage, Myriam and Hou, Lifang and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Redline, Susan and Cade, Brian E and Psaty, Bruce M and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Silverman, Edwin K and Yun, Jeong H and Qiao, Dandi and Palmer, Nicholette D and Freedman, Barry I and Bowden, Donald W and Cho, Michael H and DeMeo, Dawn L and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Yanek, Lisa R and Becker, Lewis C and Kardia, Sharon L R and Peyser, Patricia A and He, Jiang and Rienstra, Michiel and van der Harst, Pim and Kaplan, Robert and Heckbert, Susan R and Smith, Nicholas L and Wiggins, Kerri L and Arnett, Donna K and Irvin, Marguerite R and Tiwari, Hemant and Cutler, Michael J and Knight, Stacey and Muhlestein, J Brent and Correa, Adolfo and Raffield, Laura M and Gao, Yan and de Andrade, Mariza and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Tracy, Russell P and Konkle, Barbara A and Johnsen, Jill M and Wheeler, Marsha M and Smith, J Gustav and Melander, Olle and Nilsson, Peter M and Custer, Brian S and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Curran, Joanne E and Blangero, John and McGarvey, Stephen and Williams, L Keoki and Xiao, Shujie and Yang, Mao and Gu, C Charles and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Lee, Wen-Jane and Marcus, Gregory M and Kane, John P and Pullinger, Clive R and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Darbar, Dawood and Roden, Dan M and Albert, Christine and Kooperberg, Charles and Zhou, Ying and Manson, JoAnn E and Desai, Pinkal and Johnson, Andrew D and Mathias, Rasika A and Blackwell, Thomas W and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Smith, Albert V and Kang, Hyun M and Satpathy, Ansuman T and Natarajan, Pradeep and Kitzman, Jacob O and Whitsel, Eric A and Reiner, Alexander P and Bick, Alexander G and Jaiswal, Siddhartha} } @article {9708, title = {Antithrombin, Protein C, and Protein S: Genome and Transcriptome-Wide Association Studies Identify 7 Novel Loci Regulating Plasma Levels.}, journal = {Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol}, volume = {43}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jul}, pages = {e254-e269}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Antithrombin, PC (protein C), and PS (protein S) are circulating natural anticoagulant proteins that regulate hemostasis and of which partial deficiencies are causes of venous thromboembolism. Previous genetic association studies involving antithrombin, PC, and PS were limited by modest sample sizes or by being restricted to candidate genes. In the setting of the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium, we meta-analyzed across ancestries the results from 10 genome-wide association studies of plasma levels of antithrombin, PC, PS free, and PS total.

METHODS: Study participants were of European and African ancestries, and genotype data were imputed to TOPMed, a dense multiancestry reference panel. Each of the 10 studies conducted a genome-wide association studies for each phenotype and summary results were meta-analyzed, stratified by ancestry. Analysis of antithrombin included 25 243 European ancestry and 2688 African ancestry participants, PC analysis included 16 597 European ancestry and 2688 African ancestry participants, PSF and PST analysis included 4113 and 6409 European ancestry participants. We also conducted transcriptome-wide association analyses and multiphenotype analysis to discover additional associations. Novel genome-wide association studies and transcriptome-wide association analyses findings were validated by in vitro functional experiments. Mendelian randomization was performed to assess the causal relationship between these proteins and cardiovascular outcomes.

RESULTS: Genome-wide association studies meta-analyses identified 4 newly associated loci: 3 with antithrombin levels (, , and ) and 1 with PS levels (-). transcriptome-wide association analyses identified 3 newly associated genes: 1 with antithrombin level (), 1 with PC (), and 1 with PS (). In addition, we replicated 7 independent loci reported in previous studies. Functional experiments provided evidence for the involvement of , , and genes in antithrombin regulation.

CONCLUSIONS: The use of larger sample sizes, diverse populations, and a denser imputation reference panel allowed the detection of 7 novel genomic loci associated with plasma antithrombin, PC, and PS levels.

}, keywords = {Anticoagulants, Antithrombin III, Antithrombins, Genome-Wide Association Study, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Protein C, Protein S, Transcriptome}, issn = {1524-4636}, doi = {10.1161/ATVBAHA.122.318213}, author = {Ji, Yuekai and Temprano-Sagrera, Gerard and Holle, Lori A and Bebo, Allison and Brody, Jennifer A and Le, Ngoc-Quynh and Kangro, Kadri and Brown, Michael R and Martinez-Perez, Angel and Sitlani, Colleen M and Suchon, Pierre and Kleber, Marcus E and Emmert, David B and Bilge Ozel, Ayse and Dobson, Dre{\textquoteright}Von A and Tang, Weihong and Llobet, Dolors and Tracy, Russell P and Deleuze, Jean-Francois and Delgado, Graciela E and G{\"o}gele, Martin and Wiggins, Kerri L and Souto, Juan Carlos and Pankow, James S and Taylor, Kent D and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Moissl, Angela P and Fuchsberger, Christian and Rosendaal, Frits R and Morrison, Alanna C and Soria, Jos{\'e} Manuel and Cushman, Mary and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Hicks, Andrew A and Desch, Karl C and Johnson, Andrew D and de Vries, Paul S and Wolberg, Alisa S and Smith, Nicholas L and Sabater-Lleal, Maria} } @article {9377, title = {Association Between Acute Myocardial Infarction and Cognition.}, journal = {JAMA Neurol}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 May 30}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: The magnitude of cognitive change after incident myocardial infarction (MI) is unclear.

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether incident MI is associated with changes in cognitive function after adjusting for pre-MI cognitive trajectories.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cohort study included adults without MI, dementia, or stroke and with complete covariates from the following US population-based cohort studies conducted from 1971 to 2019: Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study, Cardiovascular Health Study, Framingham Offspring Study, Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and Northern Manhattan Study. Data were analyzed from July 2021 to January 2022.

EXPOSURES: Incident MI.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The main outcome was change in global cognition. Secondary outcomes were changes in memory and executive function. Outcomes were standardized as mean (SD) T scores of 50 (10); a 1-point difference represented a 0.1-SD difference in cognition. Linear mixed-effects models estimated changes in cognition at the time of MI (change in the intercept) and the rate of cognitive change over the years after MI (change in the slope), controlling for pre-MI cognitive trajectories and participant factors, with interaction terms for race and sex.

RESULTS: The study included 30 465 adults (mean [SD] age, 64 [10] years; 56\% female), of whom 1033 had 1 or more MI event, and 29 432 did not have an MI event. Median follow-up was 6.4 years (IQR, 4.9-19.7 years). Overall, incident MI was not associated with an acute decrease in global cognition (-0.18 points; 95\% CI, -0.52 to 0.17 points), executive function (-0.17 points; 95\% CI, -0.53 to 0.18 points), or memory (0.62 points; 95\% CI, -0.07 to 1.31 points). However, individuals with incident MI vs those without MI demonstrated faster declines in global cognition (-0.15 points per year; 95\% CI, -0.21 to -0.10 points per year), memory (-0.13 points per year; 95\% CI, -0.22 to -0.04 points per year), and executive function (-0.14 points per year; 95\% CI, -0.20 to -0.08 points per year) over the years after MI compared with pre-MI slopes. The interaction analysis suggested that race and sex modified the degree of change in the decline in global cognition after MI (race {\texttimes} post-MI slope interaction term, P = .02; sex {\texttimes} post-MI slope interaction term, P = .04), with a smaller change in the decline over the years after MI in Black individuals than in White individuals (difference in slope change, 0.22 points per year; 95\% CI, 0.04-0.40 points per year) and in females than in males (difference in slope change, 0.12 points per year; 95\% CI, 0.01-0.23 points per year).

CONCLUSIONS: This cohort study using pooled data from 6 cohort studies found that incident MI was not associated with a decrease in global cognition, memory, or executive function at the time of the event compared with no MI but was associated with faster declines in global cognition, memory, and executive function over time. These findings suggest that prevention of MI may be important for long-term brain health.

}, issn = {2168-6157}, doi = {10.1001/jamaneurol.2023.1331}, author = {Johansen, Michelle C and Ye, Wen and Gross, Alden and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Han, Dehua and Whitney, Rachael and Brice{\~n}o, Emily M and Giordani, Bruno J and Shore, Supriya and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Manly, Jennifer J and Sacco, Ralph L and Fohner, Alison and Griswold, Michael and Psaty, Bruce M and Sidney, Stephen and Sussman, Jeremy and Yaffe, Kristine and Moran, Andrew E and Heckbert, Susan and Hughes, Timothy M and Galecki, Andrzej and Levine, Deborah A} } @article {9502, title = {Association Between Whole Blood-Derived Mitochondrial DNA Copy Number, Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol, and Cardiovascular Disease Risk.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Oct 07}, pages = {e029090}, abstract = {

Background The relationship between mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNA CN) and cardiovascular disease remains elusive. Methods and Results We performed cross-sectional and prospective association analyses of blood-derived mtDNA CN and cardiovascular disease outcomes in 27 316 participants in 8 cohorts of multiple racial and ethnic groups with whole-genome sequencing. We also performed Mendelian randomization to explore causal relationships of mtDNA CN with coronary heart disease (CHD) and cardiometabolic risk factors (obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia). <0.01 was used for significance. We validated most of the previously reported associations between mtDNA CN and cardiovascular disease outcomes. For example, 1-SD unit lower level of mtDNA CN was associated with 1.08 (95\% CI, 1.04-1.12; <0.001) times the hazard for developing incident CHD, adjusting for covariates. Mendelian randomization analyses showed no causal effect from a lower level of mtDNA CN to a higher CHD risk (β=0.091; =0.11) or in the reverse direction (β=-0.012; =0.076). Additional bidirectional Mendelian randomization analyses revealed that low-density lipoprotein cholesterol had a causal effect on mtDNA CN (β=-0.084; <0.001), but the reverse direction was not significant (=0.059). No causal associations were observed between mtDNA CN and obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, in either direction. Multivariable Mendelian randomization analyses showed no causal effect of CHD on mtDNA CN, controlling for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level (=0.52), whereas there was a strong direct causal effect of higher low-density lipoprotein cholesterol on lower mtDNA CN, adjusting for CHD status (β=-0.092; <0.001). Conclusions Our findings indicate that high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol may underlie the complex relationships between mtDNA CN and vascular atherosclerosis.

}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.122.029090}, author = {Liu, Xue and Sun, Xianbang and Zhang, Yuankai and Jiang, Wenqing and Lai, Meng and Wiggins, Kerri L and Raffield, Laura M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Zhao, Wei and Pitsillides, Achilleas and Haessler, Jeffrey and Zheng, Yinan and Blackwell, Thomas W and Yao, Jie and Guo, Xiuqing and Qian, Yong and Thyagarajan, Bharat and Pankratz, Nathan and Rich, Stephen S and Taylor, Kent D and Peyser, Patricia A and Heckbert, Susan R and Seshadri, Sudha and Boerwinkle, Eric and Grove, Megan L and Larson, Nicholas B and Smith, Jennifer A and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Fornage, Myriam and Ding, Jun and Carson, April P and Abecasis, Goncalo and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Reiner, Alexander and Kooperberg, Charles and Hou, Lifang and Psaty, Bruce M and Wilson, James G and Levy, Daniel and Rotter, Jerome I and Bis, Joshua C and Satizabal, Claudia L and Arking, Dan E and Liu, Chunyu} } @article {9478, title = {Association of Immune Cell Subsets with Incident Hip Fracture: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Calcif Tissue Int}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Aug 31}, abstract = {

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the association of innate and adaptive immune cell subsets in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) with hip fracture. To conduct this study, we used data from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a U.S. multicenter observational cohort of community-dwelling men and women aged >= 65 years. Twenty-five immune cell phenotypes were measured by flow cytometry from cryopreserved PBMCs of CHS participants collected in 1998-1999. The natural killer (NK), γδ T, T helper 17 (Th17), and differentiated/senescent CD4CD28 T cell subsets were pre-specified as primary subsets of interest. Hip fracture incidence was assessed prospectively by review of hospitalization records. Multivariable Cox hazard models evaluated associations of immune cell phenotypes with incident hip fracture in sex-stratified and combined analyses. Among 1928 persons, 259 hip fractures occurred over a median 9.7 years of follow-up. In women, NK cells were inversely associated with hip fracture [hazard ratio (HR) 0.77, 95\% confidence interval (CI) 0.60-0.99 per one standard deviation higher value] and Th17 cells were positively associated with hip fracture [HR 1.18, 95\% CI 1.01-1.39]. In men, γδ T cells were inversely associated with hip fracture [HR 0.60, 95\% CI 0.37-0.98]. None of the measured immune cell phenotypes were significantly associated with hip fracture incidence in combined analyses. In this large prospective cohort of older adults, potentially important sex differences in the associations of immune cell phenotypes and hip fracture were identified. However, immune cell phenotypes had no association with hip fracture in analyses combining men and women.

}, issn = {1432-0827}, doi = {10.1007/s00223-023-01126-8}, author = {Elam, Rachel E and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Delaney, Joseph A C and Fink, Howard A and Barzilay, Joshua I and Carbone, Laura D and Saha, Rick and Robbins, John A and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Valderr{\'a}bano, Rodrigo J and Psaty, Bruce M and Tracy, Russell P and Olson, Nels C and Huber, Sally A and Doyle, Margaret F and Landay, Alan L and Cauley, Jane A} } @article {9323, title = {Association of Mitochondrial DNA Copy Number With Brain MRI Markers and Cognitive Function: A Meta-analysis of Community-Based Cohorts.}, journal = {Neurology}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Mar 16}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Previous studies suggest lower mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number (CN) is associated with neurodegenerative diseases. However, whether mtDNA CN in whole blood is related to endophenotypes of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD) and AD related dementia (AD/ADRD) needs further investigation. We assessed the association of mtDNA CN with cognitive function and MRI measures in community-based samples of middle-aged to older adults.

METHODS: We included dementia-free participants from nine diverse community-based cohorts with whole-genome sequencing in the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. Circulating mtDNA CN was estimated as twice the ratio of the average coverage of mtDNA to nuclear DNA. Brain MRI markers included total brain, hippocampal, and white matter hyperintensity volumes. General cognitive function was derived from distinct cognitive domains. We performed cohort-specific association analyses of mtDNA CN with AD/ADRD endophenotypes assessed within {\textpm}5 years (i.e., cross-sectional analyses) or 5 to 20 years after blood draw (i.e., prospective analyses) adjusting for potential confounders. We further explored associations stratified by sex and age (<60 vs. >=60 years). Fixed-effects or sample size-weighted meta-analyses were performed to combine results. Finally, we performed Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses to assess causality.

RESULTS: We included up to 19,152 participants (mean age 59 years, 57\% women). Higher mtDNA CN was cross-sectionally associated with better general cognitive function (Beta=0.04; 95\% CI 0.02, 0.06) independent of age, sex, batch effects, race/ethnicity, time between blood draw and cognitive evaluation, cohort-specific variables, and education. Additional adjustment for blood cell counts or cardiometabolic traits led to slightly attenuated results. We observed similar significant associations with cognition in prospective analyses, although of reduced magnitude. We found no significant associations between mtDNA CN and brain MRI measures in meta-analyses. MR analyses did not reveal a causal relation between mtDNA CN in blood and cognition.

DISCUSSION: Higher mtDNA CN in blood is associated with better current and future general cognitive function in large and diverse communities across the US. Although MR analyses did not support a causal role, additional research is needed to assess causality. Circulating mtDNA CN could serve nevertheless as a biomarker of current and future cognitive function in the community.

}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000207157}, author = {Zhang, Yuankai and Liu, Xue and Wiggins, Kerri L and Kurniansyah, Nuzulul and Guo, Xiuqing and Rodrigue, Amanda L and Zhao, Wei and Yanek, Lisa R and Ratliff, Scott M and Pitsillides, Achilleas and Aguirre Pati{\~n}o, Juan Sebastian and Sofer, Tamar and Arking, Dan E and Austin, Thomas R and Beiser, Alexa S and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bressler, Jan and Curran, Joanne E and Hou, Lifang and Hughes, Timothy M and Kardia, Sharon L and Launer, Lenore and Levy, Daniel and Mosley, Tom H and Nasrallah, Ilya M and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Seshadri, Sudha and Tarraf, Wassim and Gonz{\'a}lez, Kevin A and Ramachandran, Vasan and Yaffe, Kristine and Nyquist, Paul A and Psaty, Bruce M and DeCarli, Charles S and Smith, Jennifer A and Glahn, David C and Gonz{\'a}lez, Hector M and Bis, Joshua C and Fornage, Myriam and Heckbert, Susan R and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Liu, Chunyu and Satizabal, Claudia L} } @article {9291, title = {Association of Obesity With Cognitive Decline in Black and White Americans.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {100}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jan 10}, pages = {e220-e231}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There are disparities in the prevalence of obesity by race, and the relationship between obesity and cognitive decline is unclear. The objective of this study was to determine whether obesity is independently associated with cognitive decline and whether the association between obesity and cognitive decline differs in Black and White adults. We hypothesized that obesity is associated with greater cognitive decline compared with normal weight and that the effect of obesity on cognitive decline is more pronounced in Black adults compared with their White counterparts.

METHODS: We pooled data from 28,867 participants free of stroke and dementia (mean, SD: age 61 [10.7] years at the first cognitive assessment, 55\% female, 24\% Black, and 29\% obese) from 6 cohorts. The primary outcome was the annual change in global cognition. We performed linear mixed-effects models with and without time-varying cumulative mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) and fasting plasma glucose (FPG). Global cognition was set to a t-score metric (mean 50, SD 10) at a participant{\textquoteright}s first cognitive assessment; a 1-point difference represents a 0.1 SD difference in global cognition across the 6 cohorts. The median follow-up was 6.5 years (25th percentile, 75th percentile: 5.03, 20.15).

RESULTS: Obese participants had lower baseline global cognition than normal-weight participants (difference in intercepts, -0.36 [95\% CI, -0.46 to -0.17]; < 0.001). This difference in baseline global cognition was attenuated but was borderline significant after accounting for SBP and FPG (adjusted differences in intercepts, -0.19 [95\% CI, -0.39 to 0.002]; = 0.05). There was no difference in the rate of decline in global cognition between obese and normal-weight participants (difference in slope, 0.009 points/year [95\% CI, -0.009 to 0.03]; = 0.32). After accounting for SBP and FPG, obese participants had a slower decline in global cognition (adjusted difference in slope, 0.03 points/year slower [95\% CI, 0.01 to 0.05]; < 0.001). There was no evidence that race modified the association between body mass index and global cognitive decline ( = 0.34).

DISCUSSION: These results suggest that obesity is associated with lower initial cognitive scores and may potentially attenuate declines in cognition after accounting for BP and FPG.

}, keywords = {Aged, Black or African American, Cognition, Cognitive Dysfunction, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Risk Factors, United States, White}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000201367}, author = {Quaye, Emmanuel and Galecki, Andrzej T and Tilton, Nicholas and Whitney, Rachael and Brice{\~n}o, Emily M and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Griswold, Michael and Gross, Alden L and Heckbert, Susan R and Hughes, Timothy M and Longstreth, W T and Sacco, Ralph L and Sidney, Stephen and Windham, B Gwen and Yaffe, Kristine and Levine, Deborah A} } @article {9456, title = {Association of omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids with incident chronic kidney disease: pooled analysis of 19 cohorts.}, journal = {BMJ}, volume = {380}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jan 18}, pages = {e072909}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prospective associations of circulating levels of omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (n-3 PUFA) biomarkers (including plant derived α linolenic acid and seafood derived eicosapentaenoic acid, docosapentaenoic acid, and docosahexaenoic acid) with incident chronic kidney disease (CKD).

DESIGN: Pooled analysis.

DATA SOURCES: A consortium of 19 studies from 12 countries identified up to May 2020.

STUDY SELECTION: Prospective studies with measured n-3 PUFA biomarker data and incident CKD based on estimated glomerular filtration rate.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Each participating cohort conducted de novo analysis with prespecified and consistent exposures, outcomes, covariates, and models. The results were pooled across cohorts using inverse variance weighted meta-analysis.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcome of incident CKD was defined as new onset estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m. In a sensitivity analysis, incident CKD was defined as new onset estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m and <75\% of baseline rate.

RESULTS: 25 570 participants were included in the primary outcome analysis and 4944 (19.3\%) developed incident CKD during follow-up (weighted median 11.3 years). In multivariable adjusted models, higher levels of total seafood n-3 PUFAs were associated with a lower incident CKD risk (relative risk per interquintile range 0.92, 95\% confidence interval 0.86 to 0.98; P=0.009, I=9.9\%). In categorical analyses, participants with total seafood n-3 PUFA level in the highest fifth had 13\% lower risk of incident CKD compared with those in the lowest fifth (0.87, 0.80 to 0.96; P=0.005, I=0.0\%). Plant derived α linolenic acid levels were not associated with incident CKD (1.00, 0.94 to 1.06; P=0.94, I=5.8\%). Similar results were obtained in the sensitivity analysis. The association appeared consistent across subgroups by age (>=60 <60 years), estimated glomerular filtration rate (60-89 >=90 mL/min/1.73 m), hypertension, diabetes, and coronary heart disease at baseline.

CONCLUSIONS: Higher seafood derived n-3 PUFA levels were associated with lower risk of incident CKD, although this association was not found for plant derived n-3 PUFAs. These results support a favourable role for seafood derived n-3 PUFAs in preventing CKD.

}, keywords = {alpha-Linolenic Acid, Fatty Acids, Omega-3, Fatty Acids, Unsaturated, Humans, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic, Risk Factors}, issn = {1756-1833}, doi = {10.1136/bmj-2022-072909}, author = {Ong, Kwok Leung and Marklund, Matti and Huang, Liping and Rye, Kerry-Anne and Hui, Nicholas and Pan, Xiong-Fei and Rebholz, Casey M and Kim, Hyunju and Steffen, Lyn M and van Westing, Anniek C and Geleijnse, Johanna M and Hoogeveen, Ellen K and Chen, Yun-Yu and Chien, Kuo-Liong and Fretts, Amanda M and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Imamura, Fumiaki and Forouhi, Nita G and Wareham, Nicholas J and Birukov, Anna and J{\"a}ger, Susanne and Kuxhaus, Olga and Schulze, Matthias B and de Mello, Vanessa Derenji and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uusitupa, Matti and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Tintle, Nathan and Harris, William S and Yamasaki, Keisuke and Hirakawa, Yoichiro and Ninomiya, Toshiharu and Tanaka, Toshiko and Ferrucci, Luigi and Bandinelli, Stefania and Virtanen, Jyrki K and Voutilainen, Ari and Jayasena, Tharusha and Thalamuthu, Anbupalam and Poljak, Anne and Bustamante, Sonia and Sachdev, Perminder S and Senn, Mackenzie K and Rich, Stephen S and Tsai, Michael Y and Wood, Alexis C and Laakso, Markku and Lankinen, Maria and Yang, Xiaowei and Sun, Liang and Li, Huaixing and Lin, Xu and Nowak, Christoph and Arnl{\"o}v, Johan and Riserus, Ulf and Lind, Lars and Le Goff, M{\'e}lanie and Samieri, Cecilia and Helmer, Catherine and Qian, Frank and Micha, Renata and Tin, Adrienne and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and de Boer, Ian H and Siscovick, David S and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Wu, Jason HY} } @article {9285, title = {Association of Rare Protein-Truncating DNA Variants in APOB or PCSK9 With Low-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Level and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease.}, journal = {JAMA Cardiol}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Feb 01}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: Protein-truncating variants (PTVs) in apolipoprotein B (APOB) and proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) are associated with significantly lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol concentrations. The association of these PTVs with coronary heart disease (CHD) warrants further characterization in large, multiracial prospective cohort studies.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association of PTVs in APOB and PCSK9 with LDL cholesterol concentrations and CHD risk.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This studied included participants from 5 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) studies and the UK Biobank. NHLBI study participants aged 5 to 84 years were recruited between 1971 and 2002 across the US and underwent whole-genome sequencing. UK Biobank participants aged 40 to 69 years were recruited between 2006 and 2010 in the UK and underwent whole-exome sequencing. Data were analyzed from June 2021 to October 2022.

EXPOSURES: PTVs in APOB and PCSK9.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Estimated untreated LDL cholesterol levels and CHD.

RESULTS: Among 19 073 NHLBI participants (10 598 [55.6\%] female; mean [SD] age, 52 [17] years), 139 (0.7\%) carried an APOB or PCSK9 PTV, which was associated with 49 mg/dL (95\% CI, 43-56) lower estimated untreated LDL cholesterol level. Over a median (IQR) follow-up of 21.5 (13.9-29.4) years, incident CHD was observed in 12 of 139 carriers (8.6\%) vs 3029 of 18 934 noncarriers (16.0\%), corresponding to an adjusted hazard ratio of 0.51 (95\% CI, 0.28-0.89; P = .02). Among 190 464 UK Biobank participants (104 831 [55.0\%] female; mean [SD] age, 57 [8] years), 662 (0.4\%) carried a PTV, which was associated with 45 mg/dL (95\% CI, 42-47) lower estimated untreated LDL cholesterol level. Estimated CHD risk by age 75 years was 3.7\% (95\% CI, 2.0-5.3) in carriers vs 7.0\% (95\% CI, 6.9-7.2) in noncarriers, corresponding to an adjusted hazard ratio of 0.51 (95\% CI, 0.32-0.81; P = .004).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Among 209 537 individuals in this study, 0.4\% carried an APOB or PCSK9 PTV that was associated with less exposure to LDL cholesterol and a 49\% lower risk of CHD.

}, issn = {2380-6591}, doi = {10.1001/jamacardio.2022.5271}, author = {Dron, Jacqueline S and Patel, Aniruddh P and Zhang, Yiyi and Jurgens, Sean J and Maamari, Dimitri J and Wang, Minxian and Boerwinkle, Eric and Morrison, Alanna C and de Vries, Paul S and Fornage, Myriam and Hou, Lifang and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Psaty, Bruce M and Tracy, Russell P and Bis, Joshua C and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Levy, Daniel and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Rich, Stephen S and Guo, Xiuqing and Taylor, Kent D and Gibbs, Richard A and Rotter, Jerome I and Willer, Cristen J and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Moran, Andrew E and Peloso, Gina M and Natarajan, Pradeep and Khera, Amit V} } @article {9388, title = {Association of Severe Hypercholesterolemia and Familial Hypercholesterolemia Genotype With Risk of Coronary Heart Disease.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {147}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 May 16}, pages = {1556-1559}, keywords = {Coronary Disease, Genotype, Humans, Hypercholesterolemia, Hyperlipoproteinemia Type II}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.123.064168}, author = {Zhang, Yiyi and Dron, Jacqueline S and Bellows, Brandon K and Khera, Amit V and Liu, Junxiu and Balte, Pallavi P and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Amr, Sami Samir and Lebo, Matthew S and Nagy, Anna and Peloso, Gina M and Natarajan, Pradeep and Rotter, Jerome I and Willer, Cristen and Boerwinkle, Eric and Ballantyne, Christie M and Lutsey, Pamela L and Fornage, Myriam and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Hou, Lifang and Psaty, Bruce M and Bis, Joshua C and Floyd, James S and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Carson, April P and Hall, Michael E and Rich, Stephen S and Guo, Xiuqing and Kazi, Dhruv S and de Ferranti, Sarah D and Moran, Andrew E} } @article {9381, title = {{Associations Between Vascular Risk Factor Levels and Cognitive Decline Among Stroke Survivors}, journal = {JAMA Netw Open}, volume = {6}, year = {2023}, month = {May}, pages = {e2313879}, abstract = {Incident stroke is associated with accelerated cognitive decline. Whether poststroke vascular risk factor levels are associated with faster cognitive decline is uncertain.\ To evaluate associations of poststroke systolic blood pressure (SBP), glucose, and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels with cognitive decline.\ Individual participant data meta-analysis of 4 US cohort studies (conducted 1971-2019). Linear mixed-effects models estimated changes in cognition after incident stroke. Median (IQR) follow-up was 4.7 (2.6-7.9) years. Analysis began August 2021 and was completed March 2023.\ Time-dependent cumulative mean poststroke SBP, glucose, and LDL cholesterol levels.\ The primary outcome was change in global cognition. Secondary outcomes were change in executive function and memory. Outcomes were standardized as t scores (mean [SD], 50 [10]); a 1-point difference represents a 0.1-SD difference in cognition.\ .002) but not executive function or memory declines.\ In this cohort study, higher poststroke glucose levels were associated with faster global cognitive decline. We found no evidence that poststroke LDL cholesterol and SBP levels were associated with cognitive decline.}, author = {Levine, D. A. and Chen, B. and Galecki, A. T. and Gross, A. L. and o, E. M. and Whitney, R. T. and Ploutz-Snyder, R. J. and Giordani, B. J. and Sussman, J. B. and Burke, J. F. and Lazar, R. M. and Howard, V. J. and Aparicio, H. J. and Beiser, A. S. and Elkind, M. S. V. and Gottesman, R. F. and Koton, S. and Pendlebury, S. T. and Sharma, A. and Springer, M. V. and Seshadri, S. and Romero, J. R. and Hayward, R. A.} } @article {9479, title = {Carriers of rare damaging genetic variants are at lower risk of atherosclerotic disease.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Aug 16}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The CCL2/CCR2 axis governs monocyte trafficking and recruitment to atherosclerotic lesions. Human genetic analyses and population-based studies support an association between circulating CCL2 levels and atherosclerosis. Still, it remains unknown whether pharmacological targeting of CCR2, the main CCL2 receptor, would provide protection against human atherosclerotic disease.

METHODS: In whole-exome sequencing data from 454,775 UK Biobank participants (40-69 years), we identified predicted loss-of-function (LoF) or damaging missense (REVEL score >0.5) variants within the gene. We prioritized variants associated with lower monocyte count (p<0.05) and tested associations with vascular risk factors and risk of atherosclerotic disease over a mean follow-up of 14 years. The results were replicated in a pooled cohort of three independent datasets (TOPMed, deCODE and Penn Medicine BioBank; total n=441,445) and the effect of the most frequent damaging variant was experimentally validated.

RESULTS: A total of 45 predicted LoF or damaging missense variants were identified in the gene, 4 of which were also significantly associated with lower monocyte count, but not with other white blood cell counts. Heterozygous carriers of these variants were at a lower risk of a combined atherosclerosis outcome, showed a lower burden of atherosclerosis across four vascular beds, and were at a lower lifetime risk of coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction. There was no evidence of association with vascular risk factors including LDL-cholesterol, blood pressure, glycemic status, or C-reactive protein. Using a cAMP assay, we found that cells transfected with the most frequent damaging variant (3:46358273:T:A, M249K, 547 carriers, frequency: 0.14\%) show a decrease in signaling in response to CCL2. The associations of the M249K variant with myocardial infarction were consistent across cohorts (OR : 0.62 95\%CI: 0.39-0.96; OR : 0.64 95\%CI: 0.34-1.19; OR : 0.64 95\%CI: 0.45-0.90). In a phenome-wide association study, we found no evidence for higher risk of common infections or mortality among carriers of damaging variants.

CONCLUSIONS: Heterozygous carriers of damaging variants have a lower burden of atherosclerosis and lower lifetime risk of myocardial infarction. In conjunction with previous evidence from experimental and epidemiological studies, our findings highlight the translational potential of CCR2-targeting as an atheroprotective approach.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.08.14.23294063}, author = {Georgakis, Marios K and Malik, Rainer and Hasbani, Natalie R and Shakt, Gabrielle and Morrison, Alanna C and Tsao, Noah L and Judy, Renae and Mitchell, Braxton D and Xu, Huichun and Montasser, May E and Do, Ron and Kenny, Eimear E and Loos, Ruth J F and Terry, James G and Carr, John Jeffrey and Bis, Joshua C and Psaty, Bruce M and Longstreth, W T and Young, Kendra A and Lutz, Sharon M and Cho, Michael H and Broome, Jai and Khan, Alyna T and Wang, Fei Fei and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Seshadri, Sudha and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Palmer, Nicholette D and Freedman, Barry I and Bowden, Donald W and Yanek, Lisa R and Kral, Brian G and Becker, Lewis C and Peyser, Patricia A and Bielak, Lawrence F and Ammous, Farah and Carson, April P and Hall, Michael E and Raffield, Laura M and Rich, Stephen S and Post, Wendy S and Tracy, Russel P and Taylor, Kent D and Guo, Xiuqing and Mahaney, Michael C and Curran, Joanne E and Blangero, John and Clarke, Shoa L and Haessler, Jeffrey W and Hu, Yao and Assimes, Themistocles L and Kooperberg, Charles and Damrauer, Scott M and Rotter, Jerome I and de Vries, Paul S and Dichgans, Martin} } @article {9240, title = {Circulating differentiated and senescent lymphocyte subsets and incident diabetes risk in older adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Endocrinol Diabetes Metab}, volume = {6}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jan}, pages = {e384}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: Cellular senescence is a feature of aging implicated in the pathophysiology of diabetes mellitus (DM). Whether senescent lymphocytes are associated with the future occurrence of DM is uncertain.

METHODS: We used cryopreserved peripheral blood mononuclear cells collected from 1860 Cardiovascular Health Study participants (average age 80.2 years) and flow cytometry immunophenotyping to evaluate the longitudinal relationships of naive (CD45RA ), memory (CD45RO ), senescent (CD28 ), and T effector memory RA (TEMRA) (CD28 CD57 CD45RA ) CD4 and CD8 T cells, and memory B cells (CD19 CD27 ), with the risk of incident DM. In exploratory analyses we evaluated the relationships of 13 additional innate lymphocyte and CD4 and CD8 subsets with incident DM risk.

RESULTS: Over a median follow-up time of 8.9 years, 155 cases of incident DM occurred. In Cox models adjusted for demographic variables (age, sex, race, study site and flow cytometry analytical batch) or diabetes risk factors (demographic variables plus education, body mass index, smoking status, alcohol use, systolic blood pressure, hypertension medication use and physical activity), no significant associations were observed for any CD4 , CD8 or CD19 cell phenotypes with incident DM.

CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest the frequencies of naive, memory and senescent T cells and memory B cells are not strongly associated with incident DM risk in older adults.

}, keywords = {CD28 Antigens, CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes, Cellular Senescence, Diabetes Mellitus, Leukocytes, Mononuclear, Lymphocyte Subsets}, issn = {2398-9238}, doi = {10.1002/edm2.384}, author = {Olson, Nels C and Doyle, Margaret F and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Huber, Sally A and de Boer, Ian H and Sitlani, Colleen M and Tracy, Russell P and Psaty, Bruce M and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Delaney, Joseph A} } @article {9477, title = {Circulating Omega-3 and Omega-6 Fatty Acids, Cognitive Decline, and Dementia in Older Adults.}, journal = {J Alzheimers Dis}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Aug 23}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Comprising nearly 35\% of brain lipids, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are essential for optimal brain function. However, the role of PUFA on cognitive health outcomes later in life is largely unknown.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated prospective associations of plasma phospholipid omega-3 (ALA [18 : 3], EPA [20 : 5], DPA [22 : 5], DHA [22 : 6]) and omega-6 (LA [18 : 2], AA [20 : 4]) PUFA with cognitive decline, risk of cognitive impairment and dementia among adults aged>=65 years in the Cardiovascular Health Study.

METHODS: Circulating fatty acid concentrations were measured serially at baseline (1992/1993), 6 years, and 13 years later. Cognitive decline and impairment were assessed using the 100-point Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MSE) up to 7 times. Clinical dementia was identified using adjudicated neuropsychological tests, and ICD-9 codes.

RESULTS: Among 3,564 older adults free of stroke and dementia at baseline, cognitive function declined annually by approximately -0.5 3MSE points; 507 participants developed cognitive impairment and 499 dementia over up to 23 years of follow-up. In multivariable models, higher circulating arachidonic acid (AA) concentrations were associated with slower cognitive decline and lower dementia risk, with associations growing stronger with greater length of follow-up (hazard ratio [HR,95\% CI] of dementia per interquintile range, 0.74 [0.56-0.97] at 5 years, and 0.53 [0.37-0.77] at 15 years). Circulating docosapentaenoic (DPA) concentrations were associated with slower cognitive decline and lower risk of cognitive impairment (extreme-quintile HR, 0.72 [95\% CI: 0.55, 0.95]). Findings were generally null or inconsistent for other omega-3 or omega-6 PUFA.

CONCLUSION: Circulating AA and DPA, but not other PUFA, are associated with slower rate of cognitive decline and lower risk of dementia or cognitive impairment later in life.

}, issn = {1875-8908}, doi = {10.3233/JAD-230083}, author = {de Oliveira Otto, Marcia C and Wu, Jason H Y and Thacker, Evan L and Lai, Heidi Tsz Mung and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Padhye, Nikhil and Song, Xiaoling and King, Irena B and Lopez, Oscar and Siscovick, David S and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {9506, title = {Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential (CHIP) and Incident Type 2 Diabetes Risk.}, journal = {Diabetes Care}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Sep 27}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) is an aging-related accumulation of somatic mutations in hematopoietic stem cells, leading to clonal expansion. CHIP presence has been implicated in atherosclerotic coronary heart disease (CHD) and all-cause mortality, but its association with incident type 2 diabetes (T2D) is unknown. We hypothesized that CHIP is associated with elevated risk of T2D.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: CHIP was derived from whole-genome sequencing of blood DNA in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) prospective cohorts. We performed analysis for 17,637 participants from six cohorts, without prior T2D, cardiovascular disease, or cancer. We evaluated baseline CHIP versus no CHIP prevalence with incident T2D, including associations with DNMT3A, TET2, ASXL1, JAK2, and TP53 variants. We estimated multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95\% confidence intervals (CIs) with adjustment for age, sex, BMI, smoking, alcohol, education, self-reported race/ethnicity, and combined cohorts{\textquoteright} estimates via fixed-effects meta-analysis.

RESULTS: Mean (SD) age was 63.4 (11.5) years, 76\% were female, and CHIP prevalence was 6.0\% (n = 1,055) at baseline. T2D was diagnosed in n = 2,467 over mean follow-up of 9.8 years. Participants with CHIP had 23\% (CI = 1.04, 1.45) higher risk of T2D than those with no CHIP. Specifically, higher risk was for TET2 (HR 1.48; CI = 1.05, 2.08) and ASXL1 (HR 1.76; CI = 1.03, 2.99) mutations; DNMT3A was nonsignificant (HR 1.15; CI = 0.93, 1.43). Statistical power was limited for JAK2 and TP53 analyses.

CONCLUSIONS: CHIP was associated with higher incidence of T2D. CHIP mutations located on genes implicated in CHD and mortality were also related to T2D, suggesting shared aging-related pathology.

}, issn = {1935-5548}, doi = {10.2337/dc23-0805}, author = {Tobias, Deirdre K and Manning, Alisa K and Wessel, Jennifer and Raghavan, Sridharan and Westerman, Kenneth E and Bick, Alexander G and DiCorpo, Daniel and Whitsel, Eric A and Collins, Jason and Correa, Adolfo and Cupples, L Adrienne and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Goodarzi, Mark O and Guo, Xiuqing and Howard, Barbara and Lange, Leslie A and Liu, Simin and Raffield, Laura M and Reiner, Alex P and Rich, Stephen S and Taylor, Kent D and Tinker, Lesley and Wilson, James G and Wu, Peitao and Carson, April P and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Fornage, Myriam and Psaty, Bruce M and Kooperberg, Charles and Rotter, Jerome I and Meigs, James and Manson, JoAnn E} } @article {9386, title = {Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential is Associated with Acute Kidney Injury.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 May 17}, abstract = {

Age is a predominant risk factor for acute kidney injury (AKI), yet the biological mechanisms underlying this risk are largely unknown and to date no genetic mechanisms for AKI have been established. Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) is a recently recognized biological mechanism conferring risk of several chronic aging diseases including cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease and liver disease. In CHIP, blood stem cells acquire mutations in myeloid cancer driver genes such as and and the myeloid progeny of these mutated cells contribute to end-organ damage through inflammatory dysregulation. We sought to establish whether CHIP causes acute kidney injury (AKI). To address this question, we first evaluated associations with incident AKI events in three population-based epidemiology cohorts (N = 442,153). We found that CHIP was associated with a greater risk of AKI (adjusted HR 1.26, 95\% CI: 1.19-1.34, p<0.0001), which was more pronounced in patients with AKI requiring dialysis (adjusted HR 1.65, 95\% CI: 1.24-2.20, p=0.001). The risk was particularly high in the subset of individuals where CHIP was driven by mutations in genes other than (HR: 1.49, 95\% CI: 1.37-1.61, p<0.0001). We then examined the association between CHIP and recovery from AKI in the ASSESS-AKI cohort and identified that non- CHIP was more common among those with a non-resolving pattern of injury (HR 2.3, 95\% CI: 1.14-4.64, p = 0.03). To gain mechanistic insight, we evaluated the role of -CHIP to AKI in ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) and unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) mouse models. In both models, we observed more severe AKI and greater post-AKI kidney fibrosis in -CHIP mice. Kidney macrophage infiltration was markedly increased in -CHIP mice and -CHIP mutant renal macrophages displayed greater pro-inflammatory responses. In summary, this work establishes CHIP as a genetic mechanism conferring risk of AKI and impaired kidney function recovery following AKI via an aberrant inflammatory response in CHIP derived renal macrophages.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.05.16.23290051}, author = {Vlasschaert, Caitlyn and Robinson-Cohen, Cassianne and Kestenbaum, Bryan and Silver, Samuel A and Chen, Jian-Chun and Akwo, Elvis and Bhatraju, Pavan K and Zhang, Ming-Zhi and Cao, Shirong and Jiang, Ming and Wang, Yinqiu and Niu, Aolei and Siew, Edward and Kramer, Holly J and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Franceschini, Nora and Psaty, Bruce M and Tracy, Russell P and Alonso, Alvaro and Arking, Dan E and Coresh, Josef and Ballantyne, Christie M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Grams, Morgan and Lanktree, Matthew B and Rauh, Michael J and Harris, Raymond C and Bick, Alexander G} } @article {9480, title = {CogDrisk, ANU-ADRI, CAIDE, and LIBRA Risk Scores for Estimating Dementia Risk.}, journal = {JAMA Netw Open}, volume = {6}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Aug 01}, pages = {e2331460}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: While the Australian National University-Alzheimer Disease Risk Index (ANU-ADRI), Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging, and Dementia (CAIDE), and Lifestyle for Brain Health (LIBRA) dementia risk tools have been widely used, a large body of new evidence has emerged since their publication. Recently, Cognitive Health and Dementia Risk Index (CogDrisk) and CogDrisk for Alzheimer disease (CogDrisk-AD) risk tools have been developed for the assessment of dementia and AD risk, respectively, using contemporary evidence; comparison of the relative performance of these risk tools is limited.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the performance of CogDrisk, ANU-ADRI, CAIDE, LIBRA, and modified LIBRA (LIBRA with age and sex estimates from ANU-ADRI) in estimating dementia and AD risks (with CogDrisk-AD and ANU-ADRI).

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This population-based cohort study obtained data from the Rush Memory and Aging Project (MAP), the Cardiovascular Health Study Cognition Study (CHS-CS), and the Health and Retirement Study-Aging, Demographics and Memory Study (HRS-ADAMS). Participants who were free of dementia at baseline were included. The factors were component variables in the risk tools that included self-reported baseline demographics, medical risk factors, and lifestyle habits. The study was conducted between November 2021 and March 2023, and statistical analysis was performed from January to June 2023.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Risk scores were calculated based on available factors in each of these cohorts. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was calculated to measure the performance of each risk score. Multiple imputation was used to assess whether missing data may have affected estimates for dementia risk.

RESULTS: Among the 6107 participants in 3 validation cohorts included for this study, 2184 participants without dementia at baseline were available from MAP (mean [SD] age, 80.0 [7.6] years; 1606 [73.5\%] female), 548 participants without dementia at baseline were available from HRS-ADAMS (mean [SD] age, 79.5 [6.3] years; 288 [52.5\%] female), and 3375 participants without dementia at baseline were available from CHS-CS (mean [SD] age, 74.8 [4.9] years; 1994 [59.1\%] female). In all 3 cohorts, a similar AUC for dementia was obtained using CogDrisk, ANU-ADRI, and modified LIBRA (MAP cohort: CogDrisk AUC, 0.65 [95\% CI, 0.61-0.69]; ANU-ADRI AUC, 0.65 [95\% CI, 0.61-0.69]; modified LIBRA AUC, 0.65 [95\% CI, 0.61-0.69]; HRS-ADAMS cohort: CogDrisk AUC, 0.75 [95\% CI, 0.71-0.79]; ANU-ADRI AUC, 0.74 [95\% CI, 0.70-0.78]; modified LIBRA AUC, 0.75 [95\% CI, 0.71-0.79]; CHS-CS cohort: CogDrisk AUC, 0.70 [95\% CI, 0.67-0.72]; ANU-ADRI AUC, 0.69 [95\% CI, 0.66-0.72]; modified LIBRA AUC, 0.70 [95\% CI, 0.68-0.73]). The CAIDE and LIBRA also provided similar but lower AUCs than the 3 aforementioned tools (eg, MAP cohort: CAIDE AUC, 0.50 [95\% CI, 0.46-0.54]; LIBRA AUC, 0.53 [95\% CI, 0.48-0.57]). The performance of CogDrisk-AD and ANU-ADRI in estimating AD risks was also similar.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: CogDrisk and CogDrisk-AD performed similarly to ANU-ADRI in estimating dementia and AD risks. These results suggest that CogDrisk and CogDrisk-AD, with a greater range of modifiable risk factors compared with other risk tools in this study, may be more informative for risk reduction.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Australia, Cohort Studies, Female, Heart Disease Risk Factors, Humans, Male, Risk Factors}, issn = {2574-3805}, doi = {10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.31460}, author = {Huque, Md Hamidul and Kootar, Scherazad and Eramudugolla, Ranmalee and Han, S Duke and Carlson, Michelle C and Lopez, Oscar L and Bennett, David A and Peters, Ruth and Anstey, Kaarin J} } @article {9505, title = {Complexities of cerebral small vessel disease, blood pressure, and dementia relationship: new insights from genetics.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Aug 13}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: There is increasing recognition that vascular disease, which can be treated, is a key contributor to dementia risk. However, the contribution of specific markers of vascular disease is unclear and, as a consequence, optimal prevention strategies remain unclear.

OBJECTIVE: To disentangle the causal relation of several key vascular traits to dementia risk: (i) white matter hyperintensity (WMH) burden, a highly prevalent imaging marker of covert cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD); (ii) clinical stroke; and (iii) blood pressure (BP), the leading risk factor for cSVD and stroke, for which efficient therapies exist. To account for potential epidemiological biases inherent to late-onset conditions like dementia.

DESIGN SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: This study first explored the association of genetically determined WMH, BP levels and stroke risk with AD using summary-level data from large genome-wide association studies (GWASs) in a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) framework. Second, leveraging individual-level data from large longitudinal population-based cohorts and biobanks with prospective dementia surveillance, the association of weighted genetic risk scores (wGRSs) for WMH, BP, and stroke with incident all-cause-dementia was explored using Cox-proportional hazard and multi-state models. The data analysis was performed from July 26, 2020, through July 24, 2022.

EXPOSURES: Genetically determined levels of WMH volume and BP (systolic, diastolic and pulse blood pressures) and genetic liability to stroke.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The summary-level MR analyses focused on the outcomes from GWAS of clinically diagnosed AD (n-cases=21,982) and GWAS additionally including self-reported parental history of dementia as a proxy for AD diagnosis (AD , n-cases=53,042). For the longitudinal analyses, individual-level data of 157,698 participants with 10,699 incident all-cause-dementia were studied, exploring AD, vascular or mixed dementia in secondary analyses.

RESULTS: In the two-sample MR analyses, WMH showed strong evidence for a causal association with increased risk of AD (OR, 1.16; 95\%CI:1.05-1.28; P=.003) and AD (OR, 1.28; 95\%CI:1.07-1.53; P=.008), after accounting for genetically determined pulse pressure for the latter. Genetically predicted BP traits showed evidence for a protective association with both clinically defined AD and AD , with evidence for confounding by shared genetic instruments. In longitudinal analyses the wGRSs for WMH, but not BP or stroke, showed suggestive association with incident all-cause-dementia (HR, 1.02; 95\%CI:1.00-1.04; P=.06). BP and stroke wGRSs were strongly associated with mortality but there was no evidence for selective survival bias during follow-up. In secondary analyses, polygenic scores with more liberal instrument definition showed association of both WMH and stroke with all-cause-dementia, AD, and vascular or mixed dementia; associations of stroke, but not WMH, with dementia outcomes were markedly attenuated after adjusting for interim stroke.

CONCLUSION: These findings provide converging evidence that WMH is a leading vascular contributor to dementia risk, which may better capture the brain damage caused by BP (and other etiologies) than BP itself and should be targeted in priority for dementia prevention in the population.

KEY POINTS: Do instrumental variable analyses leveraging genetic information provide evidence for a causal association of various vascular traits with Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD) and all-cause-dementia? How do these associations compare for white matter hyperintensity (WMH) burden, a highly prevalent marker of covert cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD), stroke, and blood pressure traits, the strongest known risk factor for cSVD and stroke? Using Mendelian randomization (MR) leveraging large, published genome-wide association studies, this study showed a putative causal association of larger WMH burden with increased AD risk after accounting for pulse pressure effects, and some evidence for association of lower BP with AD risk with possible confounding by shared genetic instruments. Longitudinal analyses on individual-level data also supported association of genetically determined WMH with incident all-cause-dementia and AD, independently of interim stroke. This study using complementary genetic epidemiology approaches, identified increasing WMH burden to be associated with dementia and AD risk, suggesting the association as specific for cSVD and independent of BP and stroke.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.08.08.23293761}, author = {Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Soumar{\'e}, A{\"\i}cha and Bis, Joshua C and Surakka, Ida and J{\"u}rgenson, Tuuli and Joly, Pierre and Knol, Maria J and Wang, Ruiqi and Yang, Qiong and Satizabal, Claudia L and Gudjonsson, Alexander and Mishra, Aniket and Bouteloup, Vincent and Phuah, Chia-Ling and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Cruchaga, Carlos and Dufouil, Carole and Chene, Genevi{\`e}ve and Lopez, Oscar and Psaty, Bruce M and Tzourio, Christophe and Amouyel, Philippe and Adams, Hieab H and Jacqmin-Gadda, H{\'e}l{\`e}ne and Ikram, Mohammad Arfan and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Milani, Lili and Winsvold, Bendik S and Hveem, Kristian and Matthews, Paul M and Longstreth, W T and Seshadri, Sudha and Launer, Lenore J and Debette, Stephanie} } @article {9382, title = {Effect of 2022 ACC/AHA/HFSA Criteria on Stages of Heart~Failure in a Pooled Community Cohort.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {81}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jun 13}, pages = {2231-2242}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The 2022 American College of Cardiology (ACC)/American Heart Association (AHA)/Heart~Failure Society of America (HFSA) clinical practice guideline proposed an updated definition for heart failure (HF) stages.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to compare prevalence and prognosis of HF stages according to classification/definition originally described in 2013 and 2022 ACC/AHA/HFSA definitions.

METHODS: Study participants from 3 longitudinal cohorts (the MESA [Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis], CHS [Cardiovascular Health Study], and the FHS [Framingham Heart Study]), were categorized into 4 HF stages according to the 2013 and 2022 criteria. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to assess predictors of progression to symptomatic HF and adverse clinical outcomes associated with each HF stage.

RESULTS: Among 11,618 study participants, according to the 2022 staging, 1,943 (16.7\%) were healthy, 4,348 (37.4\%) were in stage A (at risk), 5,019 (43.2\%) were in stage B (pre-HF), and 308 (2.7\%) were in stage C/D (symptomatic HF). Compared to the classification/definition originally described in 2013, the 2022 ACC/AHA/HFSA approach resulted in a higher proportion of individuals with stage B HF (increase from 15.9\% to 43.2\%); this shift disproportionately involved women as well as Hispanic and Black individuals. Despite the 2022 criteria designating a greater proportion of individuals as stage B, the relative risk of progression to symptomatic HF remained similar (HR: 10.61; 95\%~CI: 9.00-12.51; P~< 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: New standards for HF staging resulted in a substantial shift of community-based individuals from stage A to stage B. Those with stage B HF in the new system were at high risk for progression to symptomatic HF.

}, keywords = {American Heart Association, Atherosclerosis, Cardiology, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Prognosis, United States}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2023.04.007}, author = {Mohebi, Reza and Wang, Dongyu and Lau, Emily S and Parekh, Juhi K and Allen, Norrina and Psaty, Bruce M and Benjamin, Emelia J and Levy, Daniel and Wang, Thomas J and Shah, Sanjiv J and Gottdiener, John S and Januzzi, James L and Ho, Jennifer E} } @article {9485, title = {Elevated Plasma Levels of Ketone Bodies Are Associated With All-Cause Mortality and Incidence of Heart Failure in Older Adults: The CHS.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {12}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Sep 05}, pages = {e029960}, abstract = {

Background Chronic disease, such as heart failure, influences cellular metabolism and shapes circulating metabolites. The relationships between key energy metabolites and chronic diseases in aging are not well understood. This study aims to determine the relationship between main components of energy metabolism with all-cause mortality and incident heart failure. Methods and Results We analyzed the association between plasma metabolite levels with all-cause mortality and incident heart failure among US older adults in the CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study). We followed 1758 participants without heart failure at baseline with hazard ratios (HRs) of analyte levels and metabolic profiles characterized by high levels of ketone bodies for all-cause mortality and incident heart failure. Multivariable Cox analyses revealed a dose-response relationship of 50\% increase in all-cause mortality between lowest and highest quintiles of ketone body concentrations (HR, 1.5 [95\% CI, 1.0-1.9]; =0.007). Ketone body levels remained associated with incident heart failure after adjusting for cardiovascular disease confounders (HR, 1.2 [95\% CI, 1.0-1.3]; =0.02). Using K-means cluster analysis, we identified a cluster with higher levels of ketone bodies, citrate, interleukin-6, and B-type natriuretic peptide but lower levels of pyruvate, body mass index, and estimated glomerular filtration rate. The cluster with elevated ketone body levels was associated with higher all-cause mortality (HR, 1.7 [95\% CI, 1.1-2.7]; =0.01). Conclusions Higher concentrations of ketone bodies predict incident heart failure and all-cause mortality in an older US population, independent of metabolic and cardiovascular confounders. This association suggests a potentially important relationship between ketone body metabolism and aging.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aging, Cardiovascular Diseases, Heart Failure, Humans, Incidence, Ketone Bodies}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.123.029960}, author = {Niezen, Sebastian and Connelly, Margery A and Hirsch, Calvin and Kizer, Jorge R and Benitez, Maria E and Minchenberg, Scott and Perez-Matos, Maria Camila and Jiang, Zhenghui Gordon and Mukamal, Kenneth J} } @article {9379, title = {Evaluating the use of blood pressure polygenic risk scores across race/ethnic background groups.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {14}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jun 02}, pages = {3202}, abstract = {

We assess performance and limitations of polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for multiple blood pressure (BP) phenotypes in diverse population groups. We compare "clumping-and-thresholding" (PRSice2) and LD-based (LDPred2) methods to construct PRSs from each of multiple GWAS, as well as multi-PRS approaches that sum PRSs with and without weights, including PRS-CSx. We use datasets from the MGB Biobank, TOPMed study, UK biobank, and from All of Us to train, assess, and validate PRSs in groups defined by self-reported race/ethnic background (Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latino, and White). For both SBP and DBP, the PRS-CSx based PRS, constructed as a weighted sum of PRSs developed from multiple independent GWAS, perform best across all race/ethnic backgrounds. Stratified analysis in All of Us shows that PRSs are better predictive of BP in females compared to males, individuals without obesity, and middle-aged (40-60 years) compared to older and younger individuals.

}, keywords = {Blood Pressure, Ethnicity, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Multifactorial Inheritance, Population Health, Risk Factors}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-023-38990-9}, author = {Kurniansyah, Nuzulul and Goodman, Matthew O and Khan, Alyna T and Wang, Jiongming and Feofanova, Elena and Bis, Joshua C and Wiggins, Kerri L and Huffman, Jennifer E and Kelly, Tanika and Elfassy, Tali and Guo, Xiuqing and Palmas, Walter and Lin, Henry J and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Gao, Yan and Young, Kendra and Kinney, Gregory L and Smith, Jennifer A and Yu, Bing and Liu, Simin and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Manson, JoAnn E and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Lee, I-Te and Gu, C Charles and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Z{\"o}llner, Sebastian and Fornage, Myriam and Kooperberg, Charles and Correa, Adolfo and Psaty, Bruce M and Arnett, Donna K and Isasi, Carmen R and Rich, Stephen S and Kaplan, Robert C and Redline, Susan and Mitchell, Braxton D and Franceschini, Nora and Levy, Daniel and Rotter, Jerome I and Morrison, Alanna C and Sofer, Tamar} } @article {9482, title = {Evaluation of plasma sphingolipids as mediators of the relationship between kidney disease and cardiovascular events.}, journal = {EBioMedicine}, volume = {95}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Aug 24}, pages = {104765}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Sphingolipids are a family of circulating lipids with regulatory and signaling roles that are strongly associated with both eGFR and cardiovascular disease. Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at high risk for cardiovascular events, and have different plasma concentrations of certain plasma sphingolipids compared to patients with normal kidney function. We hypothesize that circulating sphingolipids partially mediate the associations between eGFR and cardiovascular events.

METHODS: We measured the circulating concentrations of 8 sphingolipids, including 4 ceramides and 4 sphingomyelins with the fatty acids 16:0, 20:0, 22:0, and 24:0, in plasma from 3,463 participants in a population-based cohort (Cardiovascular Health Study) without prevalent cardiovascular disease. We tested the adjusted mediation effects by these sphingolipids of the associations between eGFR and incident cardiovascular disease via quasi-Bayesian Monte Carlo method with 2,000 simulations, using a Bonferroni correction for significance.

FINDINGS: The mean ({\textpm}SD) eGFR was 70 ({\textpm}16) mL/min/1.73~m; 62\% of participants were women. Lower eGFR was associated with higher plasma ceramide-16:0 and sphingomyelin-16:0, and lower ceramides and sphingomyelins-20:0 and -22:0. Lower eGFR was associated with risk of incident heart failure and ischemic stroke, but not myocardial infarction. Five of eight sphingolipids partially mediated the association between eGFR and heart failure. The sphingolipids associated with the greatest proportion mediated were ceramide-16:0 (proportion mediated 13\%, 95\% CI 8-22\%) and sphingomyelin-16:0 (proportion mediated 10\%, 95\% CI 5-17\%). No sphingolipids mediated the association between eGFR and ischemic stroke.

INTERPRETATION: Plasma sphingolipids partially mediated the association between lower eGFR and incident heart failure. Altered sphingolipids metabolism may be a novel mechanism for heart failure in patients with CKD.

FUNDING: This study was supported by T32 DK007467 and a KidneyCure Ben J. Lipps Research Fellowship (Dr.~Lidgard). Sphingolipid measurements were supported by R01 HL128575 (Dr. Lemaitre) and R01 HL111375 (Dr.~Hoofnagle) from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

}, issn = {2352-3964}, doi = {10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104765}, author = {Lidgard, Benjamin and Bansal, Nisha and Zelnick, Leila R and Hoofnagle, Andrew N and Fretts, Amanda M and Longstreth, William T and Shlipak, Michael G and Siscovick, David S and Umans, Jason G and Lemaitre, Rozenn N} } @article {9487, title = {Factors Associated With Circulating Sex Hormones in Men : Individual Participant Data Meta-analyses.}, journal = {Ann Intern Med}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Aug 29}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Various factors modulate circulating testosterone in men, affecting interpretation of testosterone measurements.

PURPOSE: To clarify factors associated with variations in sex hormone concentrations.

DATA SOURCES: Systematic literature searches (to July 2019).

STUDY SELECTION: Prospective cohort studies of community-dwelling men with total testosterone measured using mass spectrometry.

DATA EXTRACTION: Individual participant data (IPD) (9 studies; ~= 21 074) and aggregate data (2 studies; ~= 4075). Sociodemographic, lifestyle, and health factors and concentrations of total testosterone, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), luteinizing hormone (LH), dihydrotestosterone, and estradiol were extracted.

DATA SYNTHESIS: Two-stage random-effects IPD meta-analyses found a nonlinear association of testosterone with age, with negligible change among men aged 17 to 70 years (change per SD increase about the midpoint, -0.27 nmol/L [-7.8 ng/dL] [CI, -0.71 to 0.18 nmol/L {-20.5 to 5.2 ng/dL}]) and decreasing testosterone levels with age for men older than 70 years (-1.55 nmol/L [-44.7 ng/dL] [CI, -2.05 to -1.06 nmol/L {-59.1 to -30.6 ng/dL}]). Testosterone was inversely associated with body mass index (BMI) (change per SD increase, -2.42 nmol/L [-69.7 ng/dL] [CI, -2.70 to -2.13 nmol/L {-77.8 to -61.4 ng/dL}]). Testosterone concentrations were lower for men who were married (mean difference, -0.57 nmol/L [-16.4 ng/dL] [CI, -0.89 to -0.26 nmol/L {-25.6 to -7.5 ng/dL}]); undertook at most 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week (-0.51 nmol/L [-14.7 ng/dL] [CI, -0.90 to -0.13 nmol/L {-25.9 to -3.7 ng/dL}]); were former smokers (-0.34 nmol/L [-9.8 ng/dL] [CI, -0.55 to -0.12 nmol/L {-15.9 to -3.5 ng/dL}]); or had hypertension (-0.53 nmol/L [-15.3 ng/dL] [CI, -0.82 to -0.24 nmol/L {-23.6 to -6.9 ng/dL}]), cardiovascular disease (-0.35 nmol/L [-10.1 ng/dL] [CI, -0.55 to -0.15 nmol/L {-15.9 to -4.3 ng/dL}]), cancer (-1.39 nmol/L [-40.1 ng/dL] [CI, -1.79 to -0.99 nmol/L {-51.6 to -28.5 ng/dL}]), or diabetes (-1.43 nmol/L [-41.2 ng/dL] [CI, -1.65 to -1.22 nmol/L {-47.6 to -35.2 ng/dL}]). Sex hormone-binding globulin was directly associated with age and inversely associated with BMI. Luteinizing hormone was directly associated with age in men older than 70 years.

LIMITATION: Cross-sectional analysis, heterogeneity between studies and in timing of blood sampling, and imputation for missing data.

CONCLUSION: Multiple factors are associated with variation in male testosterone, SHBG, and LH concentrations. Reduced testosterone and increased LH concentrations may indicate impaired testicular function after age 70 years. Interpretation of individual testosterone measurements should account particularly for age older than 70 years, obesity, diabetes, and cancer.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: Medical Research Future Fund, Government of Western Australia, and Lawley Pharmaceuticals. (PROSPERO: CRD42019139668).

}, issn = {1539-3704}, doi = {10.7326/M23-0342}, author = {Marriott, Ross J and Murray, Kevin and Adams, Robert J and Antonio, Leen and Ballantyne, Christie M and Bauer, Douglas C and Bhasin, Shalender and Biggs, Mary L and Cawthon, Peggy M and Couper, David J and Dobs, Adrian S and Flicker, Leon and Handelsman, David J and Hankey, Graeme J and Hannemann, Anke and Haring, Robin and Hsu, Benjumin and Karlsson, Magnus and Martin, Sean A and Matsumoto, Alvin M and Mellstr{\"o}m, Dan and Ohlsson, Claes and O{\textquoteright}Neill, Terence W and Orwoll, Eric S and Quartagno, Matteo and Shores, Molly M and Steveling, Antje and Tivesten, {\r A}sa and Travison, Thomas G and Vanderschueren, Dirk and Wittert, Gary A and Wu, Frederick C W and Yeap, Bu B} } @article {9535, title = {Gene-educational attainment interactions in a multi-population genome-wide meta-analysis identify novel lipid loci.}, journal = {Front Genet}, volume = {14}, year = {2023}, month = {2023}, pages = {1235337}, abstract = {

Educational attainment, widely used in epidemiologic studies as a surrogate for socioeconomic status, is a predictor of cardiovascular health outcomes. A two-stage genome-wide meta-analysis of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), and triglyceride (TG) levels was performed while accounting for gene-educational attainment interactions in up to 226,315 individuals from five population groups. We considered two educational attainment variables: "Some College" (yes/no, for any education beyond high school) and "Graduated College" (yes/no, for completing a 4-year college degree). Genome-wide significant ( < 5 {\texttimes} 10) and suggestive ( < 1 {\texttimes} 10) variants were identified in Stage 1 (in up to 108,784 individuals) through genome-wide analysis, and those variants were followed up in Stage 2 studies (in up to 117,531 individuals). In combined analysis of Stages 1 and 2, we identified 18 novel lipid loci (nine for LDL, seven for HDL, and two for TG) by two degree-of-freedom (2 DF) joint tests of main and interaction effects. Four loci showed significant interaction with educational attainment. Two loci were significant only in cross-population analyses. Several loci include genes with known or suggested roles in adipose (), brain (), and liver () biology, highlighting the potential importance of brain-adipose-liver communication in the regulation of lipid metabolism. An investigation of the potential druggability of genes in identified loci resulted in five gene targets shown to interact with drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including genes with roles in adipose and brain tissue. Genome-wide interaction analysis of educational attainment identified novel lipid loci not previously detected by analyses limited to main genetic effects.

}, issn = {1664-8021}, doi = {10.3389/fgene.2023.1235337}, author = {de Las Fuentes, Lisa and Schwander, Karen L and Brown, Michael R and Bentley, Amy R and Winkler, Thomas W and Sung, Yun Ju and Munroe, Patricia B and Miller, Clint L and Aschard, Hugo and Aslibekyan, Stella and Bartz, Traci M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Chai, Jin Fang and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Feitosa, Mary F and Guo, Xiuqing and Hartwig, Fernando P and Horimoto, Andrea and Kolcic, Ivana and Lim, Elise and Liu, Yongmei and Manning, Alisa K and Marten, Jonathan and Musani, Solomon K and Noordam, Raymond and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Rankinen, Tuomo and Richard, Melissa A and Ridker, Paul M and Smith, Albert V and Vojinovic, Dina and Zonderman, Alan B and Alver, Maris and Boissel, Mathilde and Christensen, Kaare and Freedman, Barry I and Gao, Chuan and Giulianini, Franco and Harris, Sarah E and He, Meian and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Laguzzi, Federica and Li, Xiaoyin and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Nolte, Ilja M and Poveda, Alaitz and Rauramaa, Rainer and Riaz, Muhammad and Robino, Antonietta and Sofer, Tamar and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Tayo, Bamidele O and van der Most, Peter J and Verweij, Niek and Ware, Erin B and Weiss, Stefan and Wen, Wanqing and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhan, Yiqiang and Amin, Najaf and Arking, Dan E and Ballantyne, Christie and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brody, Jennifer A and Broeckel, Ulrich and Campbell, Archie and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chai, Xiaoran and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chen, Xu and Chitrala, Kumaraswamy Naidu and Concas, Maria Pina and de Faire, Ulf and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and de Silva, H Janaka and de Vries, Paul S and Do, Ahn and Faul, Jessica D and Fisher, Virginia and Floyd, James S and Forrester, Terrence and Friedlander, Yechiel and Girotto, Giorgia and Gu, C Charles and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Heikkinen, Sami and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Homuth, Georg and Hunt, Steven and Ikram, M Arfan and Jacobs, David R and Kavousi, Maryam and Khor, Chiea Chuen and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Koh, Woon-Puay and Komulainen, Pirjo and Langefeld, Carl D and Liang, Jingjing and Liu, Kiang and Liu, Jianjun and Lohman, Kurt and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Manichaikul, Ani W and McKenzie, Colin A and Meitinger, Thomas and Milaneschi, Yuri and Nauck, Matthias and Nelson, Christopher P and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pereira, Alexandre C and Perls, Thomas and Peters, Annette and Polasek, Ozren and Raitakari, Olli T and Rice, Kenneth and Rice, Treva K and Rich, Stephen S and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Schreiner, Pamela J and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Sidney, Stephen and Sims, Mario and Smith, Jennifer A and Starr, John M and Strauch, Konstantin and Tai, E Shyong and Taylor, Kent D and Tsai, Michael Y and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Heemst, Diana and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wang, Ya-Xing and Wei, Wen-Bin and Wilson, Gregory and Xuan, Deng and Yao, Jie and Yu, Caizheng and Yuan, Jian-Min and Zhao, Wei and Becker, Diane M and Bonnefond, Am{\'e}lie and Bowden, Donald W and Cooper, Richard S and Deary, Ian J and Divers, Jasmin and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Franks, Paul W and Froguel, Philippe and Gieger, Christian and Jonas, Jost B and Kato, Norihiro and Lakka, Timo A and Leander, Karin and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Magnusson, Patrik K E and North, Kari E and Ntalla, Ioanna and Penninx, Brenda and Samani, Nilesh J and Snieder, Harold and Spedicati, Beatrice and van der Harst, Pim and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Weir, David R and Wojczynski, Mary K and Wu, Tangchun and Zheng, Wei and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Bouchard, Claude and Chasman, Daniel I and Evans, Michele K and Fox, Ervin R and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hayward, Caroline and Horta, Bernardo L and Kardia, Sharon L R and Krieger, Jose Eduardo and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Peyser, Patricia A and Province, Michael M and Psaty, Bruce M and Rudan, Igor and Sim, Xueling and Smith, Blair H and van Dam, Rob M and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Wong, Tien Yin and Arnett, Donna K and Rao, Dabeeru C and Gauderman, James and Liu, Ching-Ti and Morrison, Alanna C and Rotter, Jerome I and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {9322, title = {Genetic architecture of spatial electrical biomarkers for cardiac arrhythmia and relationship with cardiovascular disease.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {14}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Mar 14}, pages = {1411}, abstract = {

The 3-dimensional spatial and 2-dimensional frontal QRS-T angles are measures derived from the vectorcardiogram. They are independent risk predictors for arrhythmia, but the underlying biology is unknown. Using multi-ancestry genome-wide association studies we identify 61 (58 previously unreported) loci for the spatial QRS-T angle (N = 118,780) and 11 for the frontal QRS-T angle (N = 159,715). Seven out of the 61 spatial QRS-T angle loci have not been reported for other electrocardiographic measures. Enrichments are observed in pathways related to cardiac and vascular development, muscle contraction, and hypertrophy. Pairwise genome-wide association studies with classical ECG traits identify shared genetic influences with PR interval and QRS duration.~Phenome-wide scanning indicate associations with atrial fibrillation, atrioventricular block and arterial embolism~and~genetically determined QRS-T angle measures are associated with fascicular and bundle branch block (and also atrioventricular block for the frontal QRS-T angle). We identify potential biology involved in the QRS-T angle~and~their genetic relationships with cardiovascular traits and diseases, may inform future research and risk prediction.

}, keywords = {Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Atrioventricular Block, Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Electrocardiography, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Risk Factors}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-023-36997-w}, author = {Young, William J and Haessler, Jeffrey and Benjamins, Jan-Walter and Repetto, Linda and Yao, Jie and Isaacs, Aaron and Harper, Andrew R and Ramirez, Julia and Garnier, Sophie and Van Duijvenboden, Stefan and Baldassari, Antoine R and Concas, Maria Pina and Duong, ThuyVy and Foco, Luisa and Isaksen, Jonas L and Mei, Hao and Noordam, Raymond and Nursyifa, Casia and Richmond, Anne and Santolalla, Meddly L and Sitlani, Colleen M and Soroush, Negin and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Trompet, Stella and Aeschbacher, Stefanie and Ahmadizar, Fariba and Alonso, Alvaro and Brody, Jennifer A and Campbell, Archie and Correa, Adolfo and Darbar, Dawood and De Luca, Antonio and Deleuze, Jean-Francois and Ellervik, Christina and Fuchsberger, Christian and Goel, Anuj and Grace, Christopher and Guo, Xiuqing and Hansen, Torben and Heckbert, Susan R and Jackson, Rebecca D and Kors, Jan A and Lima-Costa, Maria Fernanda and Linneberg, Allan and Macfarlane, Peter W and Morrison, Alanna C and Navarro, Pau and Porteous, David J and Pramstaller, Peter P and Reiner, Alexander P and Risch, Lorenz and Schotten, Ulrich and Shen, Xia and Sinagra, Gianfranco and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Stoll, Monika and Tarazona-Santos, Eduardo and Tinker, Andrew and Trajanoska, Katerina and Villard, Eric and Warren, Helen R and Whitsel, Eric A and Wiggins, Kerri L and Arking, Dan E and Avery, Christy L and Conen, David and Girotto, Giorgia and Grarup, Niels and Hayward, Caroline and Jukema, J Wouter and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Olesen, Morten Salling and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Psaty, Bruce M and Pattaro, Cristian and Ribeiro, Antonio Luiz P and Rotter, Jerome I and Stricker, Bruno H and van der Harst, Pim and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Verweij, Niek and Wilson, James G and Orini, Michele and Charron, Philippe and Watkins, Hugh and Kooperberg, Charles and Lin, Henry J and Wilson, James F and Kanters, J{\o}rgen K and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Mifsud, Borbala and Lambiase, Pier D and Tereshchenko, Larisa G and Munroe, Patricia B} } @article {9286, title = {Genetic control of mRNA splicing as a potential mechanism for incomplete penetrance of rare coding variants.}, journal = {bioRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jan 31}, abstract = {

Exonic variants present some of the strongest links between genotype and phenotype. However, these variants can have significant inter-individual pathogenicity differences, known as variable penetrance. In this study, we propose a model where genetically controlled mRNA splicing modulates the pathogenicity of exonic variants. By first cataloging exonic inclusion from RNA-seq data in GTEx v8, we find that pathogenic alleles are depleted on highly included exons. Using a large-scale phased WGS data from the TOPMed consortium, we observe that this effect may be driven by common splice-regulatory genetic variants, and that natural selection acts on haplotype configurations that reduce the transcript inclusion of putatively pathogenic variants, especially when limiting to haploinsufficient genes. Finally, we test if this effect may be relevant for autism risk using families from the Simons Simplex Collection, but find that splicing of pathogenic alleles has a penetrance reducing effect here as well. Overall, our results indicate that common splice-regulatory variants may play a role in reducing the damaging effects of rare exonic variants.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.01.31.526505}, author = {Einson, Jonah and Glinos, Dafni and Boerwinkle, Eric and Castaldi, Peter and Darbar, Dawood and de Andrade, Mariza and Ellinor, Patrick and Fornage, Myriam and Gabriel, Stacey and Germer, Soren and Gibbs, Richard and Hersh, Craig P and Johnsen, Jill and Kaplan, Robert and Konkle, Barbara A and Kooperberg, Charles and Nassir, Rami and Loos, Ruth J F and Meyers, Deborah A and Mitchell, Braxton D and Psaty, Bruce and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Rich, Stephen S and Rienstra, Michael and Rotter, Jerome I and Saferali, Aabida and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Silverman, Edwin and Smith, Albert Vernon and Mohammadi, Pejman and Castel, Stephane E and Iossifov, Ivan and Lappalainen, Tuuli} } @article {9419, title = {The genetic determinants of recurrent somatic mutations in 43,693 blood genomes.}, journal = {Sci Adv}, volume = {9}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Apr 28}, pages = {eabm4945}, abstract = {

Nononcogenic somatic mutations are thought to be uncommon and inconsequential. To test this, we analyzed 43,693 National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine blood whole genomes from 37 cohorts and identified 7131 non-missense somatic mutations that are recurrently mutated in at least 50 individuals. These recurrent non-missense somatic mutations (RNMSMs) are not clearly explained by other clonal phenomena such as clonal hematopoiesis. RNMSM prevalence increased with age, with an average 50-year-old having 27 RNMSMs. Inherited germline variation associated with RNMSM acquisition. These variants were found in genes involved in adaptive immune function, proinflammatory cytokine production, and lymphoid lineage commitment. In addition, the presence of eight specific RNMSMs associated with blood cell traits at effect sizes comparable to Mendelian genetic mutations. Overall, we found that somatic mutations in blood are an unexpectedly common phenomenon with ancestry-specific determinants and human health consequences.

}, keywords = {Germ-Line Mutation, Hematopoiesis, Humans, Middle Aged, Mutation, Mutation, Missense, Phenotype}, issn = {2375-2548}, doi = {10.1126/sciadv.abm4945}, author = {Weinstock, Joshua S and Laurie, Cecelia A and Broome, Jai G and Taylor, Kent D and Guo, Xiuqing and Shuldiner, Alan R and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Lewis, Joshua P and Boerwinkle, Eric and Barnes, Kathleen C and Chami, Nathalie and Kenny, Eimear E and Loos, Ruth J F and Fornage, Myriam and Redline, Susan and Cade, Brian E and Gilliland, Frank D and Chen, Zhanghua and Gauderman, W James and Kumar, Rajesh and Grammer, Leslie and Schleimer, Robert P and Psaty, Bruce M and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Silverman, Edwin K and Yun, Jeong H and Qiao, Dandi and Weiss, Scott T and Lasky-Su, Jessica and DeMeo, Dawn L and Palmer, Nicholette D and Freedman, Barry I and Bowden, Donald W and Cho, Michael H and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Johnson, Andrew D and Yanek, Lisa R and Becker, Lewis C and Kardia, Sharon and He, Jiang and Kaplan, Robert and Heckbert, Susan R and Smith, Nicholas L and Wiggins, Kerri L and Arnett, Donna K and Irvin, Marguerite R and Tiwari, Hemant and Correa, Adolfo and Raffield, Laura M and Gao, Yan and de Andrade, Mariza and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Manichaikul, Ani W and Konkle, Barbara A and Johnsen, Jill M and Wheeler, Marsha M and Custer, Brian S and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Curran, Joanne E and Blangero, John and Gui, Hongsheng and Xiao, Shujie and Williams, L Keoki and Meyers, Deborah A and Li, Xingnan and Ortega, Victor and McGarvey, Stephen and Gu, C Charles and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Lee, Wen-Jane and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Darbar, Dawood and Roden, Dan and Albert, Christine and Kooperberg, Charles and Desai, Pinkal and Blackwell, Thomas W and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Smith, Albert V and Kang, Hyun M and Mathias, Rasika and Natarajan, Pradeep and Jaiswal, Siddhartha and Reiner, Alexander P and Bick, Alexander G} } @article {9465, title = {Genome-Wide Association Studies and fine-mapping of genomic loci for n-3 and n-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Hispanic American and African American Cohorts.}, journal = {Res Sq}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Feb 24}, abstract = {

Omega-3 (n-3) and omega-6 (n-6) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) play critical roles in human health. Prior genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of n-3 and n-6 PUFAs in European Americans from the CHARGE Consortium have documented strong genetic signals in/near the locus on chromosome 11. We performed a GWAS of four n-3 and four n-6 PUFAs in Hispanic American (n = 1454) and African American (n = 2278) participants from three CHARGE cohorts. Applying a genome-wide significance threshold of < 5 x 10 , we confirmed association of the signal and found evidence of two additional signals (in and ) within 200 kb of the originally reported signal. Outside of the region, we identified novel signals for arachidonic acid (AA) in Hispanic Americans located in/near genes including , , and spanning a > 9 Mb region on chromosome 11 (57.5Mb ~ 67.1Mb). Among these novel signals, we found associations unique to Hispanic Americans, including rs28364240, a missense variant for AA that is common in CHARGE Hispanic Americans but absent in other race/ancestry groups. Our study sheds light on the genetics of PUFAs and the value of investigating complex trait genetics across diverse ancestry populations.

}, doi = {10.21203/rs.3.rs-2073736/v1}, author = {Yang, Chaojie and Veenstra, Jenna and Bartz, Traci and Pahl, Matthew and Hallmark, Brian and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Westra, Jason and Steffen, Lyn and Brown, Christopher and Siscovick, David and Tsai, Michael and Wood, Alexis and Rich, Stephen and Smith, Caren and O{\textquoteright}Connor, Timothy and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Grant, Struan and Chilton, Floyd and Tintle, Nathan and Lemaitre, Rozenn and Manichaikul, Ani} } @article {9583, title = {Genome-Wide Interaction Analysis with DASH Diet Score Identified Novel Loci for Systolic Blood Pressure.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Nov 11}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: We examined interactions between genotype and a Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet score in relation to systolic blood pressure (SBP).

METHODS: We analyzed up to 9,420,585 biallelic imputed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in up to 127,282 individuals of six population groups (91\% of European population) from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium (CHARGE; n=35,660) and UK Biobank (n=91,622) and performed European population-specific and cross-population meta-analyses.

RESULTS: We identified three loci in European-specific analyses and an additional four loci in cross-population analyses at P for interaction < 5e-8. We observed a consistent interaction between rs117878928 at 15q25.1 (minor allele frequency = 0.03) and the DASH diet score (P for interaction = 4e-8; P for heterogeneity = 0.35) in European population, where the interaction effect size was 0.42{\textpm}0.09 mm Hg (P for interaction = 9.4e-7) and 0.20{\textpm}0.06 mm Hg (P for interaction = 0.001) in CHARGE and the UK Biobank, respectively. The 1 Mb region surrounding rs117878928 was enriched with -expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) variants (P = 4e-273) and -DNA methylation quantitative trait loci (mQTL) variants (P = 1e-300). While the closest gene for rs117878928 is , the highest narrow sense heritability accounted by SNPs potentially interacting with the DASH diet score in this locus was for gene at 15q25.1.

CONCLUSION: We demonstrated gene-DASH diet score interaction effects on SBP in several loci. Studies with larger diverse populations are needed to validate our findings.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.11.10.23298402}, author = {Guirette, Melanie and Lan, Jessie and McKeown, Nicola and Brown, Michael R and Chen, Han and de Vries, Paul S and Kim, Hyunju and Rebholz, Casey M and Morrison, Alanna C and Bartz, Traci M and Fretts, Amanda M and Guo, Xiuqing and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Liu, Ching-Ti and Noordam, Raymond and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Rosendaal, Frits R and Wang, Carol A and Beilin, Lawrence and Mori, Trevor A and Oddy, Wendy H and Pennell, Craig E and Chai, Jin Fang and Whitton, Clare and van Dam, Rob M and Liu, Jianjun and Tai, E Shyong and Sim, Xueling and Neuhouser, Marian L and Kooperberg, Charles and Tinker, Lesley and Franceschini, Nora and Huan, Tianxiao and Winkler, Thomas W and Bentley, Amy R and Gauderman, W James and Heerkens, Luc and Tanaka, Toshiko and van Rooij, Jeroen and Munroe, Patricia B and Warren, Helen R and Voortman, Trudy and Chen, Honglei and Rao, D C and Levy, Daniel and Ma, Jiantao} } @article {9534, title = {Hospital-Acquired Infection at Time of Stroke and Cognitive Decline: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Cerebrovasc Dis}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Oct 23}, abstract = {

Introduction Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) after stroke are associated with additional morbidity and mortality, but whether HAIs increase long-term cognitive decline in stroke patients is unknown. We hypothesized that older adults with incident stroke with HAI experience faster cognitive decline than those having stroke without HAI and those without stroke. Methods We performed a longitudinal analysis in the population-based prospective Cardiovascular Health Study. Medicare-eligible participants aged >65 years with and without incident stroke had cognition assessed annually. HAIs were assessed by hospital discharge codes. Global cognitive function was assessed annually by Modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MSE) and executive function by Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST). We used linear mixed models to estimate the mean decline and 95\% confidence intervals (95\% CI) for 3MSE and DSST scores by incident stroke and HAI status, adjusted for demographics and vascular risk factors. Results Among 5,443 participants >65 years without previous history of stroke, 393 participants had stroke with HAI (SI), 766 had a stroke only (SO), and 4,284 had no stroke (NS) throughout a maximum 9-year follow-up. For 3MSE, compared with NS participants, SO participants had a similar adjusted mean decline (additional 0.08 points/year, 95\%CI -0.15, 0.31), while SI participants had a more rapid decline (additional 0.28 points/year, 95\%CI 0.16, 0.40). Adjusted mean decline was 0.20 points/year faster (95\%CI -0.05, 0.45) among SI than SO participants. For DSST, compared with NS participants, SO participants had a faster adjusted mean decline (additional 0.17 points/year (95\%CI 0.003, 0.33), as did SI participants (additional 0.27 points/year (95\%CI 0.19, 0.35). Conclusion Stroke, when accompanied by HAI, leads to a faster long-term decline in cognitive ability than in those without stroke. The clinical and public health implications of the effect of infection on post-stroke cognitive decline warrant further attention.

}, issn = {1421-9786}, doi = {10.1159/000533568}, author = {Cole, Kyril L and Boehme, Amelia K and Thacker, Evan L and Longstreth, W T and Brown, Bruce L and Gale, Shawn D and Hedges, Dawson W and Anderson, Jacqueline K and Elkind, Mitchell S V} } @article {9546, title = {{Identification of circulating proteins associated with general cognitive function among middle-aged and older adults}, journal = {Commun Biol}, volume = {6}, year = {2023}, month = {Nov}, pages = {1117}, abstract = {2.0E-4). Proteins implicated as causes or consequences of AD susceptibility may provide new insight into the potential relationship between immunity and AD susceptibility as well as potential therapeutic targets.}, author = {Tin, A. and Fohner, A. E. and Yang, Q. and Brody, J. A. and Davies, G. and Yao, J. and Liu, D. and Caro, I. and Lindbohm, J. V. and Duggan, M. R. and Meirelles, O. and Harris, S. E. and Gudmundsdottir, V. and Taylor, A. M. and Henry, A. and Beiser, A. S. and Shojaie, A. and Coors, A. and Fitzpatrick, A. L. and Langenberg, C. and Satizabal, C. L. and Sitlani, C. M. and Wheeler, E. and Tucker-Drob, E. M. and Bressler, J. and Coresh, J. and Bis, J. C. and Candia, J. and Jennings, L. L. and Pietzner, M. and Lathrop, M. and Lopez, O. L. and Redmond, P. and Gerszten, R. E. and Rich, S. S. and Heckbert, S. R. and Austin, T. R. and Hughes, T. M. and Tanaka, T. and Emilsson, V. and Vasan, R. S. and Guo, X. and Zhu, Y. and Tzourio, C. and Rotter, J. I. and Walker, K. A. and Ferrucci, L. and ki, M. and Breteler, M. M. B. and Cox, S. R. and Debette, S. and Mosley, T. H. and Gudnason, V. G. and Launer, L. J. and Psaty, B. M. and Seshadri, S. and Fornage, M.} } @article {9791, title = {Large-scale exome array summary statistics resources for glycemic traits to aid effector gene prioritization.}, journal = {Wellcome Open Res}, volume = {8}, year = {2023}, month = {2023}, pages = {483}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies for glycemic traits have identified hundreds of loci associated with these biomarkers of glucose homeostasis. Despite this success, the challenge remains to link variant associations to genes, and underlying biological pathways.

METHODS: To identify coding variant associations which may pinpoint effector genes at both novel and previously established genome-wide association loci, we performed meta-analyses of exome-array studies for four glycemic traits: glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c, up to 144,060 participants), fasting glucose (FG, up to 129,665 participants), fasting insulin (FI, up to 104,140) and 2hr glucose post-oral glucose challenge (2hGlu, up to 57,878). In addition, we performed network and pathway analyses.

RESULTS: Single-variant and gene-based association analyses identified coding variant associations at more than 60 genes, which when combined with other datasets may be useful to nominate effector genes. Network and pathway analyses identified pathways related to insulin secretion, zinc transport and fatty acid metabolism. HbA1c associations were strongly enriched in pathways related to blood cell biology.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results provided novel glycemic trait associations and highlighted pathways implicated in glycemic regulation. Exome-array summary statistic results are being made available to the scientific community to enable further discoveries.

}, issn = {2398-502X}, doi = {10.12688/wellcomeopenres.18754.1}, author = {Willems, Sara M and Ng, Natasha H J and Fernandez, Juan and Fine, Rebecca S and Wheeler, Eleanor and Wessel, Jennifer and Kitajima, Hidetoshi and Marenne, Gaelle and Sim, Xueling and Yaghootkar, Hanieh and Wang, Shuai and Chen, Sai and Chen, Yuning and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Grarup, Niels and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Varga, Tibor V and Asimit, Jennifer L and Feng, Shuang and Strawbridge, Rona J and Kleinbrink, Erica L and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and An, Ping and Appel, Emil V and Arking, Dan E and Auvinen, Juha and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Brody, Jennifer A and Campbell, Archie and Chu, Audrey Y and Davies, Gail and Demirkan, Ayse and Floyd, James S and Giulianini, Franco and Guo, Xiuqing and Gustafsson, Stefan and Jackson, Anne U and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Jensen, Richard A and Kanoni, Stavroula and Keinanen-Kiukaanniemi, Sirkka and Li, Man and Lu, Yingchang and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Manning, Alisa K and Marten, Jonathan and Meidtner, Karina and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Muka, Taulant and Pistis, Giorgio and Prins, Bram and Rice, Kenneth M and Sanna, Serena and Smith, Albert Vernon and Smith, Jennifer A and Southam, Lorraine and Stringham, Heather M and Tragante, Vinicius and van der Laan, Sander W and Warren, Helen R and Yao, Jie and Yiorkas, Andrianos M and Zhang, Weihua and Zhao, Wei and Graff, Mariaelisa and Highland, Heather M and Justice, Anne E and Marouli, Eirini and Medina-G{\'o}mez, Carolina and Afaq, Saima and Alhejily, Wesam A and Amin, Najaf and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bots, Michiel L and Brandslund, Ivan and Chen, Ji and Danesh, John and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Dehghan, Abbas and Ebeling, Tapani and Elliott, Paul and Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni and Faul, Jessica D and Franks, Paul W and Franks, Steve and Fritsche, Andreas and Gjesing, Anette P and Goodarzi, Mark O and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Harris, Tamara B and Herzig, Karl-Heinz and Hivert, Marie-France and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and Jousilahti, Pekka and Kajantie, Eero and Karaleftheri, Maria and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kinnunen, Leena and Koistinen, Heikki A and Komulainen, Pirjo and Kovacs, Peter and Kuusisto, Johanna and Laakso, Markku and Lange, Leslie A and Launer, Lenore J and Leong, Aaron and Lindstr{\"o}m, Jaana and Manning Fox, Jocelyn E and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and Maruthur, Nisa M and Moilanen, Leena and Mulas, Antonella and Nalls, Mike A and Neville, Matthew and Pankow, James S and Pattie, Alison and Petersen, Eva R B and Puolijoki, Hannu and Rasheed, Asif and Redmond, Paul and Renstrom, Frida and Roden, Michael and Saleheen, Danish and Saltevo, Juha and Savonen, Kai and Sebert, Sylvain and Skaaby, Tea and Small, Kerrin S and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Stokholm, Jakob and Strauch, Konstantin and Tai, E-Shyong and Taylor, Kent D and Thuesen, Betina H and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Tsafantakis, Emmanouil and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uusitupa, Matti and V{\"a}{\"a}r{\"a}sm{\"a}ki, Marja and Vaartjes, Ilonca and Zoledziewska, Magdalena and Abecasis, Goncalo and Balkau, Beverley and Bisgaard, Hans and Blakemore, Alexandra I and Bl{\"u}her, Matthias and Boeing, Heiner and Boerwinkle, Eric and B{\o}nnelykke, Klaus and Bottinger, Erwin P and Caulfield, Mark J and Chambers, John C and Chasman, Daniel I and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Collins, Francis S and Coresh, Josef and Cucca, Francesco and de Borst, Gert J and Deary, Ian J and Dedoussis, George and Deloukas, Panos and den Ruijter, Hester M and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Evans, Michele K and Ferrannini, Ele and Franco, Oscar H and Grallert, Harald and Hansen, Torben and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hayward, Caroline and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Ikram, Arfan and Ingelsson, Erik and Karpe, Fredrik and Kaw, Kay-Tee and Kiess, Wieland and Kooner, Jaspal S and K{\"o}rner, Antje and Lakka, Timo and Langenberg, Claudia and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Linneberg, Allan and Lipovich, Leonard and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Jun and Liu, Yongmei and Loos, Ruth J F and MacDonald, Patrick E and Mohlke, Karen L and Morris, Andrew D and Munroe, Patricia B and Murray, Alison and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Palmer, Colin N A and Pasterkamp, Gerard and Pedersen, Oluf and Peyser, Patricia A and Polasek, Ozren and Porteous, David and Province, Michael A and Psaty, Bruce M and Rauramaa, Rainer and Ridker, Paul M and Rolandsson, Olov and Rorsman, Patrik and Rosendaal, Frits R and Rudan, Igor and Salomaa, Veikko and Schulze, Matthias B and Sladek, Robert and Smith, Blair H and Spector, Timothy D and Starr, John M and Stumvoll, Michael and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Walker, Mark and Wareham, Nick J and Weir, David R and Wilson, James G and Wong, Tien Yin and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Zonderman, Alan B and Rotter, Jerome I and Morris, Andrew P and Boehnke, Michael and Florez, Jose C and McCarthy, Mark I and Meigs, James B and Mahajan, Anubha and Scott, Robert A and Gloyn, Anna L and Barroso, In{\^e}s} } @article {9447, title = {loss-of-function variants: Compatible with longevity and associated with resistance to Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease pathology}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {Jul}, abstract = {4 or its protein product as a viable therapeutic option.}, author = {Chemparathy, A. and Guen, Y. L. and Chen, S. and Lee, E. G. and Leong, L. and Gorzynski, J. and Xu, G. and Belloy, M. and Kasireddy, N. and Tauber, A. P. and Williams, K. and Stewart, I. and Wingo, T. and Lah, J. and Jayadev, S. and Hales, C. and Peskind, E. and Child, D. D. and Keene, C. D. and Cong, L. and Ashley, E. and Yu, C. E. and Greicius, M. D.} } @article {9586, title = {Machine learning models for blood pressure phenotypes combining multiple polygenic risk scores.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Dec 14}, abstract = {

We construct non-linear machine learning (ML) prediction models for systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP) using demographic and clinical variables and polygenic risk scores (PRSs). We developed a two-model ensemble, consisting of a baseline model, where prediction is based on demographic and clinical variables only, and a genetic model, where we also include PRSs. We evaluate the use of a linear versus a non-linear model at both the baseline and the genetic model levels and assess the improvement in performance when incorporating multiple PRSs. We report the ensemble model{\textquoteright}s performance as percentage variance explained (PVE) on a held-out test dataset. A non-linear baseline model improved the PVEs from 28.1\% to 30.1\% (SBP) and 14.3\% to 17.4\% (DBP) compared with a linear baseline model. Including seven PRSs in the genetic model computed based on the largest available GWAS of SBP/DBP improved the genetic model PVE from 4.8\% to 5.1\% (SBP) and 4.7\% to 5\% (DBP) compared to using a single PRS. Adding additional 14 PRSs computed based on two independent GWASs further increased the genetic model PVE to 6.3\% (SBP) and 5.7\% (DBP). PVE differed across self-reported race/ethnicity groups, with primarily all non-White groups benefitting from the inclusion of additional PRSs.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.12.13.23299909}, author = {Hrytsenko, Yana and Shea, Benjamin and Elgart, Michael and Kurniansyah, Nuzulul and Lyons, Genevieve and Morrison, Alanna C and Carson, April P and Haring, Bernhard and Mitchel, Braxton D and Psaty, Bruce M and Jaeger, Byron C and Gu, C Charles and Kooperberg, Charles and Levy, Daniel and Lloyd-Jones, Donald and Choi, Eunhee and Brody, Jennifer A and Smith, Jennifer A and Rotter, Jerome I and Moll, Matthew and Fornage, Myriam and Simon, Noah and Castaldi, Peter and Casanova, Ramon and Chung, Ren-Hua and Kaplan, Robert and Loos, Ruth J F and Kardia, Sharon L R and Rich, Stephen S and Redline, Susan and Kelly, Tanika and O{\textquoteright}Connor, Timothy and Zhao, Wei and Kim, Wonji and Guo, Xiuqing and Der Ida Chen, Yii and Sofer, Tamar} } @article {9501, title = {Multi-ancestry genome-wide study identifies effector genes and druggable pathways for coronary artery calcification.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {55}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Oct}, pages = {1651-1664}, abstract = {

Coronary artery calcification (CAC), a measure of subclinical atherosclerosis, predicts future symptomatic coronary artery disease (CAD). Identifying genetic risk factors for CAC may point to new therapeutic avenues for prevention. Currently, there are only four known risk loci for CAC identified from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in the general population. Here we conducted the largest multi-ancestry GWAS meta-analysis of CAC to date, which comprised 26,909 individuals of European ancestry and 8,867 individuals of African ancestry. We identified 11 independent risk loci, of which eight were new for CAC and five had not been reported for CAD. These new CAC loci are related to bone mineralization, phosphate catabolism and hormone metabolic pathways. Several new loci harbor candidate causal genes supported by multiple lines of functional evidence and are regulators of smooth muscle cell-mediated calcification ex vivo and in vitro. Together, these findings help refine the genetic architecture of CAC and extend our understanding of the biological and potential druggable pathways underlying CAC.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-023-01518-4}, author = {Kavousi, Maryam and Bos, Maxime M and Barnes, Hanna J and Lino Cardenas, Christian L and Wong, Doris and Lu, Haojie and Hodonsky, Chani J and Landsmeer, Lennart P L and Turner, Adam W and Kho, Minjung and Hasbani, Natalie R and de Vries, Paul S and Bowden, Donald W and Chopade, Sandesh and Deelen, Joris and Benavente, Ernest Diez and Guo, Xiuqing and Hofer, Edith and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Lutz, Sharon M and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Slenders, Lotte and Smith, Albert V and Stanislawski, Maggie A and van Setten, Jessica and Wong, Quenna and Yanek, Lisa R and Becker, Diane M and Beekman, Marian and Budoff, Matthew J and Feitosa, Mary F and Finan, Chris and Hilliard, Austin T and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kovacic, Jason C and Kral, Brian G and Langefeld, Carl D and Launer, Lenore J and Malik, Shaista and Hoesein, Firdaus A A Mohamed and Mokry, Michal and Schmidt, Reinhold and Smith, Jennifer A and Taylor, Kent D and Terry, James G and van der Grond, Jeroen and van Meurs, Joyce and Vliegenthart, Rozemarijn and Xu, Jianzhao and Young, Kendra A and Zilh{\~a}o, Nuno R and Zweiker, Robert and Assimes, Themistocles L and Becker, Lewis C and Bos, Daniel and Carr, J Jeffrey and Cupples, L Adrienne and de Kleijn, Dominique P V and de Winther, Menno and den Ruijter, Hester M and Fornage, Myriam and Freedman, Barry I and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hingorani, Aroon D and Hokanson, John E and Ikram, M Arfan and I{\v s}gum, Ivana and Jacobs, David R and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Lange, Leslie A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Pasterkamp, Gerard and Raitakari, Olli T and Schmidt, Helena and Slagboom, P Eline and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vernooij, Meike W and Bis, Joshua C and Franceschini, Nora and Psaty, Bruce M and Post, Wendy S and Rotter, Jerome I and Bj{\"o}rkegren, Johan L M and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Bielak, Lawrence F and Peyser, Patricia A and Malhotra, Rajeev and van der Laan, Sander W and Miller, Clint L} } @article {9385, title = {Multi-ancestry genome-wide study in >2.5 million individuals reveals heterogeneity in mechanistic pathways of type 2 diabetes and complications.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Mar 31}, abstract = {

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a heterogeneous disease that develops through diverse pathophysiological processes. To characterise the genetic contribution to these processes across ancestry groups, we aggregate genome-wide association study (GWAS) data from 2,535,601 individuals (39.7\% non-European ancestry), including 428,452 T2D cases. We identify 1,289 independent association signals at genome-wide significance (P<5{\texttimes}10 ) that map to 611 loci, of which 145 loci are previously unreported. We define eight non-overlapping clusters of T2D signals characterised by distinct profiles of cardiometabolic trait associations. These clusters are differentially enriched for cell-type specific regions of open chromatin, including pancreatic islets, adipocytes, endothelial, and enteroendocrine cells. We build cluster-specific partitioned genetic risk scores (GRS) in an additional 137,559 individuals of diverse ancestry, including 10,159 T2D cases, and test their association with T2D-related vascular outcomes. Cluster-specific partitioned GRS are more strongly associated with coronary artery disease and end-stage diabetic nephropathy than an overall T2D GRS across ancestry groups, highlighting the importance of obesity-related processes in the development of vascular outcomes. Our findings demonstrate the value of integrating multi-ancestry GWAS with single-cell epigenomics to disentangle the aetiological heterogeneity driving the development and progression of T2D, which may offer a route to optimise global access to genetically-informed diabetes care.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.03.31.23287839}, author = {Suzuki, Ken and Hatzikotoulas, Konstantinos and Southam, Lorraine and Taylor, Henry J and Yin, Xianyong and Lorenz, Kim M and Mandla, Ravi and Huerta-Chagoya, Alicia and Rayner, Nigel W and Bocher, Ozvan and Ana Luiza de, S V Arruda and Sonehara, Kyuto and Namba, Shinichi and Lee, Simon S K and Preuss, Michael H and Petty, Lauren E and Schroeder, Philip and Vanderwerff, Brett and Kals, Mart and Bragg, Fiona and Lin, Kuang and Guo, Xiuqing and Zhang, Weihua and Yao, Jie and Kim, Young Jin and Graff, Mariaelisa and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Nano, Jana and Lamri, Amel and Nakatochi, Masahiro and Moon, Sanghoon and Scott, Robert A and Cook, James P and Lee, Jung-Jin and Pan, Ian and Taliun, Daniel and Parra, Esteban J and Chai, Jin-Fang and Bielak, Lawrence F and Tabara, Yasuharu and Hai, Yang and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Grarup, Niels and Sofer, Tamar and Wuttke, Matthias and Sarnowski, Chloe and Gieger, Christian and Nousome, Darryl and Trompet, Stella and Kwak, Soo-Heon and Long, Jirong and Sun, Meng and Tong, Lin and Chen, Wei-Min and Nongmaithem, Suraj S and Noordam, Raymond and Lim, Victor J Y and Tam, Claudia H T and Joo, Yoonjung Yoonie and Chen, Chien-Hsiun and Raffield, Laura M and Prins, Bram Peter and Nicolas, Aude and Yanek, Lisa R and Chen, Guanjie and Brody, Jennifer A and Kabagambe, Edmond and An, Ping and Xiang, Anny H and Choi, Hyeok Sun and Cade, Brian E and Tan, Jingyi and Alaine Broadaway, K and Williamson, Alice and Kamali, Zoha and Cui, Jinrui and Adair, Linda S and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Aguilar-Salinas, Carlos A and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Anand, Sonia S and Bertoni, Alain and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Brandslund, Ivan and Buchanan, Thomas A and Burant, Charles F and Butterworth, Adam S and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chan, Juliana C N and Chang, Li-Ching and Chee, Miao-Li and Chen, Ji and Chen, Shyh-Huei and Chen, Yuan-Tsong and Chen, Zhengming and Chuang, Lee-Ming and Cushman, Mary and Danesh, John and Das, Swapan K and Janaka de Silva, H and Dedoussis, George and Dimitrov, Latchezar and Doumatey, Ayo P and Du, Shufa and Duan, Qing and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Emery, Leslie S and Evans, Daniel S and Evans, Michele K and Fischer, Krista and Floyd, James S and Ford, Ian and Franco, Oscar H and Frayling, Timothy M and Freedman, Barry I and Genter, Pauline and Gerstein, Hertzel C and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Gonz{\'a}lez-Villalpando, Clicerio and Gonzalez-Villalpando, Maria Elena and Gordon-Larsen, Penny and Gross, Myron and Guare, Lindsay A and Hackinger, Sophie and Han, Sohee and Hattersley, Andrew T and Herder, Christian and Horikoshi, Momoko and Howard, Annie-Green and Hsueh, Willa and Huang, Mengna and Huang, Wei and Hung, Yi-Jen and Hwang, Mi Yeong and Hwu, Chii-Min and Ichihara, Sahoko and Ikram, Mohammad Arfan and Ingelsson, Martin and Islam, Md Tariqul and Isono, Masato and Jang, Hye-Mi and Jasmine, Farzana and Jiang, Guozhi and Jonas, Jost B and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Kandeel, Fouad R and Kasturiratne, Anuradhani and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Kaur, Varinderpal and Kawaguchi, Takahisa and Keaton, Jacob M and Kho, Abel N and Khor, Chiea-Chuen and Kibriya, Muhammad G and Kim, Duk-Hwan and Kronenberg, Florian and Kuusisto, Johanna and L{\"a}ll, Kristi and Lange, Leslie A and Lee, Kyung Min and Lee, Myung-Shik and Lee, Nanette R and Leong, Aaron and Li, Liming and Li, Yun and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Lithgart, Symen and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Jianjun and Locke, Adam E and Louie, Tin and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Luk, Andrea O and Luo, Xi and Lv, Jun and Lynch, Julie A and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Maeda, Shiro and Mamakou, Vasiliki and Mansuri, Sohail Rafik and Matsuda, Koichi and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Mo, Huan and Morris, Andrew D and Nadler, Jerry L and Nalls, Michael A and Nayak, Uma and Ntalla, Ioanna and Okada, Yukinori and Orozco, Lorena and Patel, Sanjay R and Patil, Snehal and Pei, Pei and Pereira, Mark A and Peters, Annette and Pirie, Fraser J and Polikowsky, Hannah G and Porneala, Bianca and Prasad, Gauri and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Reiner, Alexander P and Roden, Michael and Rohde, Rebecca and Roll, Katheryn and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Sandow, Kevin and Sankareswaran, Alagu and Sattar, Naveed and Sch{\"o}nherr, Sebastian and Shahriar, Mohammad and Shen, Botong and Shi, Jinxiu and Shin, Dong Mun and Shojima, Nobuhiro and Smith, Jennifer A and So, Wing Yee and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Stilp, Adrienne M and Strauch, Konstantin and Taylor, Kent D and Thorand, Barbara and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tomlinson, Brian and Tran, Tam C and Tsai, Fuu-Jen and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tusi{\'e}-Luna, Teresa and Udler, Miriam S and Valladares-Salgado, Adan and van Dam, Rob M and van Klinken, Jan B and Varma, Rohit and Wacher-Rodarte, Niels and Wheeler, Eleanor and Wickremasinghe, Ananda R and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Witte, Daniel R and Yajnik, Chittaranjan S and Yamamoto, Ken and Yamamoto, Kenichi and Yoon, Kyungheon and Yu, Canqing and Yuan, Jian-Min and Yusuf, Salim and Zawistowski, Matthew and Zhang, Liang and Zheng, Wei and Project, Biobank Japan and BioBank, Penn Medicine and Center, Regeneron Genetics and Consortium, eMERGE and Raffel, Leslie J and Igase, Michiya and Ipp, Eli and Redline, Susan and Cho, Yoon Shin and Lind, Lars and Province, Michael A and Fornage, Myriam and Hanis, Craig L and Ingelsson, Erik and Zonderman, Alan B and Psaty, Bruce M and Wang, Ya-Xing and Rotimi, Charles N and Becker, Diane M and Matsuda, Fumihiko and Liu, Yongmei and Yokota, Mitsuhiro and Kardia, Sharon L R and Peyser, Patricia A and Pankow, James S and Engert, James C and Bonnefond, Am{\'e}lie and Froguel, Philippe and Wilson, James G and Sheu, Wayne H H and Wu, Jer-Yuarn and Geoffrey Hayes, M and Ma, Ronald C W and Wong, Tien-Yin and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and Chandak, Giriraj R and Collins, Francis S and Bharadwaj, Dwaipayan and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Ahsan, Habibul and Motala, Ayesha A and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Park, Kyong-Soo and Jukema, J Wouter and Cruz, Miguel and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Rich, Stephen S and McKean-Cowdin, Roberta and Grallert, Harald and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Tai, E-Shyong and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Kato, Norihiro and Laakso, Markku and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Koh, Woon-Puay and Bowden, Donald W and Palmer, Colin N A and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kooperberg, Charles and Liu, Simin and North, Kari E and Saleheen, Danish and Hansen, Torben and Pedersen, Oluf and Wareham, Nicholas J and Lee, Juyoung and Kim, Bong-Jo and Millwood, Iona Y and Walters, Robin G and Stefansson, Kari and Goodarzi, Mark O and Mohlke, Karen L and Langenberg, Claudia and Haiman, Christopher A and Loos, Ruth J F and Florez, Jose C and Rader, Daniel J and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Z{\"o}llner, Sebastian and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Denny, Joshua C and Yamauchi, Toshimasa and Kadowaki, Takashi and Chambers, John C and Ng, Maggie C Y and Sim, Xueling and Below, Jennifer E and Tsao, Philip S and Chang, Kyong-Mi and McCarthy, Mark I and Meigs, James B and Mahajan, Anubha and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Mercader, Josep M and Boehnke, Michael and Rotter, Jerome I and Vujkovic, Marijana and Voight, Benjamin F and Morris, Andrew P and Zeggini, Eleftheria} } @article {9412, title = {Multi-ancestry transcriptome-wide association analyses yield insights into tobacco use biology and drug repurposing.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {55}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Feb}, pages = {291-300}, abstract = {

Most transcriptome-wide association studies (TWASs) so far focus on European ancestry and lack diversity. To overcome this limitation, we aggregated genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics, whole-genome sequences and expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) data from diverse ancestries. We developed a new approach, TESLA (multi-ancestry integrative study using an optimal linear combination of association statistics), to integrate an eQTL dataset with a multi-ancestry GWAS. By exploiting shared phenotypic effects between ancestries and accommodating potential effect heterogeneities, TESLA improves power over other TWAS methods. When applied to tobacco use phenotypes, TESLA identified 273 new genes, up to 55\% more compared with alternative TWAS methods. These hits and subsequent fine mapping using TESLA point to target genes with biological relevance. In silico drug-repurposing analyses highlight several drugs with known efficacy, including dextromethorphan and galantamine, and new drugs such as muscle relaxants that may be repurposed for treating nicotine addiction.

}, keywords = {Biology, Drug Repositioning, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Tobacco Use, Transcriptome}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-022-01282-x}, author = {Chen, Fang and Wang, Xingyan and Jang, Seon-Kyeong and Quach, Bryan C and Weissenkampen, J Dylan and Khunsriraksakul, Chachrit and Yang, Lina and Sauteraud, Renan and Albert, Christine M and Allred, Nicholette D D and Arnett, Donna K and Ashley-Koch, Allison E and Barnes, Kathleen C and Barr, R Graham and Becker, Diane M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Blangero, John and Boorgula, Meher Preethi and Chasman, Daniel I and Chavan, Sameer and Chen, Yii-der I and Chuang, Lee-Ming and Correa, Adolfo and Curran, Joanne E and David, Sean P and Fuentes, Lisa de Las and Deka, Ranjan and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Faul, Jessica D and Garrett, Melanie E and Gharib, Sina A and Guo, Xiuqing and Hall, Michael E and Hawley, Nicola L and He, Jiang and Hobbs, Brian D and Hokanson, John E and Hsiung, Chao A and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Hyde, Thomas M and Irvin, Marguerite R and Jaffe, Andrew E and Johnson, Eric O and Kaplan, Robert and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kaufman, Joel D and Kelly, Tanika N and Kleinman, Joel E and Kooperberg, Charles and Lee, I-Te and Levy, Daniel and Lutz, Sharon M and Manichaikul, Ani W and Martin, Lisa W and Marx, Olivia and McGarvey, Stephen T and Minster, Ryan L and Moll, Matthew and Moussa, Karine A and Naseri, Take and North, Kari E and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Peralta, Juan M and Peyser, Patricia A and Psaty, Bruce M and Rafaels, Nicholas and Raffield, Laura M and Reupena, Muagututi{\textquoteright}a Sefuiva and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Schwartz, David A and Shadyab, Aladdin H and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Sims, Mario and Smith, Jennifer A and Sun, Xiao and Taylor, Kent D and Telen, Marilyn J and Watson, Harold and Weeks, Daniel E and Weir, David R and Yanek, Lisa R and Young, Kendra A and Young, Kristin L and Zhao, Wei and Hancock, Dana B and Jiang, Bibo and Vrieze, Scott and Liu, Dajiang J} } @article {9241, title = {Multiple Prior Live Births are Associated with Cardiac Remodeling and Heart Failure Risk in Women.}, journal = {J Card Fail}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jan 10}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: Greater parity has been associated with cardiovascular disease risk, though effects on cardiac remodeling and heart failure risk remain unclear.

METHODS: We examined the association of number of live births and echocardiographic measures of cardiac structure and function in participants of the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) using multivariable linear regression. We next examined the association of parity with incident heart failure with preserved (HFpEF) or reduced (HFrEF) ejection fraction using a Fine-Gray subdistribution hazards model in a pooled analysis of n=12,635 participants of FHS, the Cardiovascular Health Study, the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and Prevention of Renal and Vascular Endstage Disease. Secondary analyses included major CVD, MI, and stroke.

RESULTS: Among n=3931 FHS participants (mean age 48 {\textpm} 13 years), higher number of live births was associated with worse LV fractional shortening (multivariable β -1.11 (0.31), p= 0.0005 in >= 5 live births vs nulliparous women) and worse cardiac mechanics including global circumferential strain and longitudinal and radial dyssynchrony (p< 0.01 for all comparing >= 5 live births vs nulliparity). When examining HF subtypes, women with >=5 live births were at higher risk of developing future HFrEF compared with nulliparous women (HR 1.93, 95\% CI 1.19-3.12, p=0.008); by contrast, a lower risk of HFpEF was observed (HR 0.58, 95\% CI 0.37-0.91, p=0.02).

CONCLUSIONS: Greater number of live births are associated with worse cardiac structure and function. While there was no association with overall HF, a higher number of live births was associated with greater risk for incident HFrEF.

}, issn = {1532-8414}, doi = {10.1016/j.cardfail.2022.12.014}, author = {Sarma, Amy A and Paniagua, Samantha M and Lau, Emily S and Wang, Dongyu and Liu, Elizabeth E and Larson, Martin G and Hamburg, Naomi M and Mitchell, Gary F and Kizer, Jorge and Psaty, Bruce M and Allen, Norrina B and Lely, A Titia and Gansevoort, Ronald T and Rosenberg, Emily and Mukamal, Kenneth and Benjamin, Emelia J and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Cheng, Susan and Levy, Daniel and de Boer, Rudolf A and Gottdiener, John S and Shah, Sanjiv J and Ho, Jennifer E} } @article {9238, title = {Neighborhood greenspace and cognition: The cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Health Place}, volume = {79}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jan 03}, pages = {102960}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: We examined whether greenspace measures (overall percent greenspace and forest, and number of greenspace types) were associated with clinically adjudicated dementia status.

METHODS: In a sample of non-demented older adults (n~=~2141, average age~=~75.3 years) from the Cardiovascular Health and Cognition Study, Cox proportional hazard and logistic regression analyses were used to estimate associations of baseline greenspace with risks of incident dementia and MCI, respectively, while adjusting for demographics, co-morbidities, and other neighborhood factors. We derived quartiles of percent greenness (greenspace), forest (percent tree canopy cover), and tertiles of greenspace diversity (number of greenspace types) for 5-km radial buffers around participant{\textquoteright}s residences at study entry (1989-1990) from the 1992 National Land Cover Dataset. Dementia status and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) over 10 years was clinically adjudicated.

RESULTS: We observed no significant association between overall percent greenspace and risk of mild cognitive impairment or dementia and mostly null results for forest and greenspace diversity. Forest greenspace was associated with lower odds of MCI (OR quartile 4 versus 1: 0.54, 95\% CI: 0.29-0.98) and greenspace diversity was associated with lower hazard of incident dementia (HR tertile 2 versus 1: 0.70, 95\% CI~=~0.50-0.99).

DISCUSSION: We found divergent results for different types of greenspace and mild cognitive impairment or dementia. Improved greenspace type and diversity measurement could better characterize the association between greenspace and cognition.

}, issn = {1873-2054}, doi = {10.1016/j.healthplace.2022.102960}, author = {Godina, Sara L and Rosso, Andrea L and Hirsch, Jana A and Besser, Lilah M and Lovasi, Gina S and Donovan, Geoffrey H and Garg, Parveen K and Platt, Jonathan M and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Lopez, Oscar L and Carlson, Michelle C and Michael, Yvonne L} } @article {9532, title = {Neighborhood greenspace and neighborhood income associated with white matter grade worsening: Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Alzheimers Dement (Amst)}, volume = {15}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Oct-Dec}, pages = {e12484}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: We examined whether a combined measure of neighborhood greenspace and neighborhood median income was associated with white matter hyperintensity (WMH) and ventricle size changes.

METHODS: The sample included 1260 cognitively normal >= 65-year-olds with two magnetic resonance images (MRI; ≈ 5 years apart). WMH and ventricular size were graded from 0 (least) to 9 (most) abnormal (worsening~=~increase of >=1 grade from initial to follow-up MRI scans). The four-category neighborhood greenspace-income measure was based on median neighborhood greenspace and income values at initial MRI. Multivariable logistic regression tested associations between neighborhood greenspace-income and MRI measures (worsening vs. not).

RESULTS: White matter grade worsening was more likely for those in lower greenspace-lower income neighborhoods than higher greenspace-higher income neighborhoods (odds ratio~=~1.73; 95\% confidence interval~=~1.19-2.51).

DISCUSSION: The combination of lower neighborhood income and lower greenspace may be a risk factor for worsening white matter grade on MRI. However, findings need to be replicated in more diverse cohorts.

HIGHLIGHTS: Population-based cohort of older adults (>= 65 years) with greenspace and MRI dataCombined measure of neighborhood greenspace and neighborhood income at initial MRIMRI outcomes included white matter hyperintensities (WMH) and ventricular sizeLongitudinal change in MRI outcomes measured approximately 5 years apartWorsening WMH over time more likely for lower greenspace-lower income neighborhoods.

}, issn = {2352-8729}, doi = {10.1002/dad2.12484}, author = {Besser, Lilah M and Lovasi, Gina S and Zambrano, Joyce Jimenez and Camacho, Simone and Dhanekula, Devi and Michael, Yvonne L and Garg, Parveen and Hirsch, Jana A and Siscovick, David and Hurvitz, Philip M and Biggs, Mary L and Galvin, James E and Bartz, Traci M and Longstreth, W T} } @article {9533, title = {Plasma Ceramides and Sphingomyelins and Sudden Cardiac Death in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {JAMA Netw Open}, volume = {6}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Nov 01}, pages = {e2343854}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: Sphingolipids, including ceramides and sphingomyelins, may influence the pathophysiology and risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) through multiple biological activities. Whether the length of the fatty acid acylated to plasma sphingolipid species is associated with SCD risk is not known.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the saturated fatty acid length of plasma ceramides and sphingomyelins influences the association with SCD risk.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: In this cohort study, multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to examine the association of sphingolipid species with SCD risk. The study population included 4612 participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study followed up prospectively for a median of 10.2 (IQR, 5.5-11.6) years. Baseline data were collected from January 1992 to December 1995 during annual examinations. Data were analyzed from February 11, 2020, to September 9, 2023.

EXPOSURES: Eight plasma sphingolipid species (4 ceramides and 4 sphingomyelins) with saturated fatty acids of 16, 20, 22, and 24 carbons.

MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURE: Association of plasma ceramides and sphingomyelins with saturated fatty acids of different lengths with SCD risk.

RESULTS: Among the 4612 CHS participants included in the analysis (mean [SD] age, 77 [5] years; 2724 [59.1\%] women; 6 [0.1\%] American Indian; 4 [0.1\%] Asian; 718 [15.6\%] Black; 3869 [83.9\%] White, and 15 [0.3\%] Other), 215 SCD cases were identified. In adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression analyses, plasma ceramides and sphingomyelins with palmitic acid (Cer-16 and SM-16) were associated with higher SCD risk per higher SD of log sphingolipid levels (hazard ratio [HR] for Cer-16, 1.34 [95\% CI, 1.12-1.59]; HR for SM-16, 1.37 [95\% CI, 1.12-1.67]). Associations did not differ by baseline age, sex, race, or body mass index. No significant association of SCD with sphingolipids with very-long-chain saturated fatty acids was observed after correction for multiple testing (HR for ceramide with arachidic acid, 1.06 [95\% CI, 0.90-1.24]; HR for ceramide with behenic acid, 0.92 [95\% CI, 0.77-1.10]; HR for ceramide with lignoceric acid, 0.92 [95\% CI, 0.77-1.09]; HR for sphingomyelin with arachidic acid, 0.83 [95\% CI, 0.71-0.98]; HR for sphingomyelin with behenic acid, 0.84 [95\% CI, 0.70-1.00]; HR for sphingomyelin with lignoceric acid, 0.86 [95\% CI, 0.72-1.03]).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The findings of this large, population-based cohort study of SCD identified that higher plasma levels of Cer-16 and SM-16 were associated with higher risk of SCD. Future studies are needed to examine the underlying mechanism of these associations.

}, keywords = {Aged, Ceramides, Cohort Studies, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, Eicosanoic Acids, Fatty Acids, Female, Humans, Male, Sphingolipids, Sphingomyelins}, issn = {2574-3805}, doi = {10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.43854}, author = {Bockus, Lee B and Jensen, Paul N and Fretts, Amanda M and Hoofnagle, Andrew N and McKnight, Barbara and Sitlani, Colleen M and Siscovick, David S and King, Irena B and Psaty, Bruce M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Lemaitre, Rozenn N} } @article {9331, title = {Plasma Proteomic Associations With Incident Ischemic Stroke in Older Adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Neurology}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Apr 04}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Plasma proteomics may elucidate novel insights into the pathophysiology of ischemic stroke (IS), identify biomarkers of IS risk, and guide development of nascent prevention strategies. We evaluated the relationship between the plasma proteome and IS risk in the population-based Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS).

METHODS: Eligible CHS participants were free of prevalent stroke and underwent quantification of 1298 plasma proteins using the aptamer-based SOMAScan assay platform from the 1992-1993 study visit. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to evaluate associations between a 1-standard deviation increase in the log-2 transformed estimated plasma protein concentrations and incident IS, adjusting for demographics, IS risk factors, and estimated glomerular filtration rate. For proteins independently associated with incident IS, a secondary stratified analysis evaluated associations in subgroups defined by sex and race. Exploratory analyses evaluated plasma proteomic associations with cardioembolic and non-cardioembolic IS as well as proteins associated with IS risk in participants with left atrial dysfunction but without atrial fibrillation.

RESULTS: Of 2983 eligible participants, the mean age was 74.3 ({\textpm} 4.8) years, 61.2\% were women, and 15.4\% were Black. Over a median follow-up of 12.6 years, 450 participants experienced an incident IS. N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP, adjusted HR 1.37, 95\% CI 1.23-1.53, P=2.08x10) and macrophage metalloelastase (MMP12, adjusted HR 1.30, 95\% CI 1.16-1.45, P=4.55x10) were independently associated with IS risk. These two associations were similar in men and women and in Black and non-Black participants. In exploratory analyses, NTproBNP was independently associated with incident cardioembolic IS, E-selectin with incident non-cardioembolic IS, and secreted frizzled-related protein 1 with IS risk in participants with left atrial dysfunction.

CONCLUSIONS: In a cohort of older adults, NTproBNP and MMP12 were independently associated with IS risk. We identified plasma proteomic determinants of incident cardioembolic and non-cardioembolic IS and found a novel protein associated with IS risk in those with left atrial dysfunction.

}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000207242}, author = {Kalani, Rizwan and Bartz, Traci M and Psaty, Bruce M and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Floyd, James S and Gerszten, Robert E and Shojaie, Ali and Heckbert, Susan R and Bis, Joshua C and Austin, Thomas R and Tirschwell, David L and Delaney, Joseph A C and Longstreth, W T} } @article {9330, title = {Plasma sphingolipids, lung function and COPD: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {ERJ Open Res}, volume = {9}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Mar}, abstract = {

RATIONALE: COPD is the third leading cause of death in the United States. Sphingolipids, structural membrane constituents that play a role in cellular stress and apoptosis signalling, may be involved in lung function.

METHODS: In the Cardiovascular Health Study, a prospective cohort of older adults, we cross-sectionally examined the association of plasma levels of 17 sphingolipid species with lung function and COPD. Multivariable linear regression and logistic regression were used to evaluate associations of sphingolipid concentrations with forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV) and odds of COPD, respectively.

RESULTS: Of the 17 sphingolipids evaluated, ceramide-18 (Cer-18) and sphingomyelin-18 (SM-18) were associated with lower FEV values (-0.061 L per two-fold higher Cer-18, p=0.001; -0.092 L per two-fold higher SM-18, p=0.002) after correction for multiple testing. Several other associations were significant at a 0.05 level, but did not reach statistical significance after correction for multiple testing. Specifically, Cer-18 and SM-18 were associated with higher odds of COPD (odds ratio per two-fold higher Cer-18 1.29, p=0.03 and SM-18 1.73, p=0.008). Additionally, Cer-16 and SM-16 were associated with lower FEV values, and Cer-14, SM-14 and SM-16 with a higher odds of COPD.

CONCLUSION: In this large cross-sectional study, specific ceramides and sphingomyelins were associated with reduced lung function in a population-based study. Future studies are needed to examine whether these biomarkers are associated with longitudinal change in FEV within individuals or with incident COPD.

}, issn = {2312-0541}, doi = {10.1183/23120541.00346-2022}, author = {Gharib, Arya R and Jensen, Paul N and Psaty, Bruce M and Hoofnagle, Andrew N and Siscovick, David and Gharib, Sina A and Sitlani, Colleen M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Lemaitre, Rozenn N} } @article {9451, title = {Plasma Trimethylamine--Oxide and Incident Ischemic Stroke: The Cardiovascular Health Study and the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {12}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Aug 15}, pages = {e8711}, abstract = {

Background The association of circulating trimethylamine--oxide (TMAO) with stroke has received limited attention. To address this gap, we examined the associations of serial measures of plasma TMAO with incident ischemic stroke. Methods and Results We used a prospective cohort design with data pooled from 2 cohorts. The settings were the CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study), a cohort of older adults, and the MESA (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis), both in the United States. We measured plasma concentrations of TMAO at baseline and again during the follow-up using high-performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. We assessed the association of plasma TMAO with incident ischemic stroke using proportional hazards regression adjusted for risk factors. The combined cohorts included 11 785 participants without a history of stroke, on average 73 (CHS) and 62 (MESA) years old at baseline, including 60\% (CHS) and 53\% (MESA) women. We identified 1031 total incident ischemic strokes during a median 15-year follow-up in the combined cohorts. In multivariable analyses, TMAO was significantly associated with incident ischemic stroke risk (hazard ratios comparing a doubling of TMAO: 1.11 [1.03-1.18], =0.004). The association was linear over the range of TMAO concentrations and appeared restricted to those without diagnosed coronary heart disease. An association with hemorrhagic stroke was not found. Conclusions Plasma TMAO levels are associated with incident ischemic stroke in a diverse population. Registration URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00005133.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atherosclerosis, Female, Humans, Ischemic Stroke, Methylamines, Oxides, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Stroke, United States}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.122.029230}, author = {Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Jensen, Paul N and Wang, Zeneng and Fretts, Amanda M and Sitlani, Colleen M and Nemet, Ina and Sotoodehnia, Nona and de Oliveira Otto, Marcia C and Zhu, Weifei and Budoff, Matt and Longstreth, W T and Psaty, Bruce M and Siscovick, David S and Hazen, Stanley L and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {9289, title = {Posttranslational modifications induce autoantibodies with risk prediction capability in patients with small cell lung cancer.}, journal = {Sci Transl Med}, volume = {15}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jan 11}, pages = {eadd8469}, abstract = {

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) elicits the generation of autoantibodies that result in unique paraneoplastic neurological syndromes. The mechanistic basis for the formation of such autoantibodies is largely unknown but is key to understanding their etiology. We developed a high-dimensional technique that enables detection of autoantibodies in complex with native antigens directly from patient plasma. Here, we used our platform to screen 1009 human plasma samples for 3600 autoantibody-antigen complexes, finding that plasma from patients with SCLC harbors, on average, fourfold higher disease-specific autoantibody signals compared with plasma from patients with other cancers. Across three independent SCLC cohorts, we identified a set of common but previously unknown autoantibodies that are produced in response to both intracellular and extracellular tumor antigens. We further characterized several disease-specific posttranslational modifications within extracellular proteins targeted by these autoantibodies, including citrullination, isoaspartylation, and cancer-specific glycosylation. Because most patients with SCLC have metastatic disease at diagnosis, we queried whether these autoantibodies could be used for SCLC early detection. We created a risk prediction model using five autoantibodies with an average area under the curve of 0.84 for the three cohorts that improved to 0.96 by incorporating cigarette smoke consumption in pack years. Together, our findings provide an innovative approach to identify circulating autoantibodies in SCLC with mechanistic insight into disease-specific immunogenicity and clinical utility.

}, keywords = {Autoantibodies, Humans, Lung Neoplasms, Protein Processing, Post-Translational, Small Cell Lung Carcinoma}, issn = {1946-6242}, doi = {10.1126/scitranslmed.add8469}, author = {Lastwika, Kristin J and Kunihiro, Andrew and Solan, Joell L and Zhang, Yuzheng and Taverne, Lydia R and Shelley, David and Rho, Jung-Hyun and Randolph, Timothy W and Li, Christopher I and Grogan, Eric L and Massion, Pierre P and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and MacPherson, David and Houghton, A McGarry and Lampe, Paul D} } @article {9239, title = {Powerful, scalable and resource-efficient meta-analysis of rare variant associations in large whole genome sequencing studies.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {55}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jan}, pages = {154-164}, abstract = {

Meta-analysis of whole genome sequencing/whole exome sequencing (WGS/WES) studies provides an attractive solution to the problem of collecting large sample sizes for discovering rare variants associated with complex phenotypes. Existing rare variant meta-analysis approaches are not scalable to biobank-scale WGS data. Here we present MetaSTAAR, a powerful and resource-efficient rare variant meta-analysis framework for large-scale WGS/WES studies. MetaSTAAR accounts for relatedness and population structure, can analyze both quantitative and dichotomous traits and boosts the power of rare variant tests by incorporating multiple variant functional annotations. Through meta-analysis of four lipid traits in 30,138 ancestrally diverse samples from 14 studies of the Trans Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program, we show that MetaSTAAR performs rare variant meta-analysis at scale and produces results comparable to using pooled data. Additionally, we identified several conditionally significant rare variant associations with lipid traits. We further demonstrate that MetaSTAAR is scalable to biobank-scale cohorts through meta-analysis of TOPMed WGS data and UK Biobank WES data of ~200,000 samples.

}, keywords = {Exome Sequencing, Genome-Wide Association Study, Lipids, Phenotype, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-022-01225-6}, author = {Li, Xihao and Quick, Corbin and Zhou, Hufeng and Gaynor, Sheila M and Liu, Yaowu and Chen, Han and Selvaraj, Margaret Sunitha and Sun, Ryan and Dey, Rounak and Arnett, Donna K and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowden, Donald W and Brody, Jennifer A and Cade, Brian E and Correa, Adolfo and Cupples, L Adrienne and Curran, Joanne E and de Vries, Paul S and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Freedman, Barry I and G{\"o}ring, Harald H H and Guo, Xiuqing and Haessler, Jeffrey and Kalyani, Rita R and Kooperberg, Charles and Kral, Brian G and Lange, Leslie A and Manichaikul, Ani and Martin, Lisa W and McGarvey, Stephen T and Mitchell, Braxton D and Montasser, May E and Morrison, Alanna C and Naseri, Take and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Peyser, Patricia A and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alexander P and Reupena, Muagututi{\textquoteright}a Sefuiva and Rice, Kenneth M and Rich, Stephen S and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Jennifer A and Taylor, Kent D and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Willer, Cristen J and Wilson, James G and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhao, Wei and Rotter, Jerome I and Natarajan, Pradeep and Peloso, Gina M and Li, Zilin and Lin, Xihong} } @article {9437, title = {Prediction of Multiple Individual Primary Cardiovascular Events Using Pooled Cohorts.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Aug 02}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: Most current clinical risk prediction scores for cardiovascular disease prevention use a composite outcome. Risk prediction scores for specific cardiovascular events could identify people who are at higher risk for some events than others informing personalized care and trial recruitment. We sought to predict risk for multiple different events, describe how those risks differ, and examine if these differences could improve treatment priorities.

METHODS: We used participant-level data from five cohort studies. We included participants between 40 and 79 years old who had no history of myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, or heart failure (HF). We made separate models to predict 10-year rates of first atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), first fatal or nonfatal MI, first fatal or nonfatal stroke, new-onset HF, fatal ASCVD, fatal MI, fatal stroke, and all-cause mortality using established ASCVD risk factors. To limit overfitting, we used elastic net regularization with alpha = 0.75. We assessed the models for calibration, discrimination, and for correlations between predicted risks for different events. We also estimated the potential impact of varying treatment based on patients who are high risk for some ASCVD events, but not others.

RESULTS: Our study included 24,505 people; 55.6\% were women, and 20.7\% were non-Hispanic Black. Our models had C-statistics between 0.75 for MI and 0.85 for HF, good calibration, and minimal overfitting. The models were least similar for fatal stroke and all MI (0.58). In 1,840 participants whose risk of MI but not stroke or all-cause mortality was in the top quartile, we estimate one blood pressure-lowering medication would have a 2.4\% chance of preventing any ASCVD event per 10 years. A moderate-strength statin would have a 2.1\% chance. In 1,039 participants who had top quartile risk of stroke but not MI or mortality, a blood pressure-lowering medication would have a 2.5\% chance of preventing an event, but a moderate-strength statin, 1.6\%.

CONCLUSION: We developed risk scores for eight key clinical events and found that cardiovascular risk varies somewhat for different clinical events. Future work could determine if tailoring decisions by risk of separate events can improve care.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.08.01.23293525}, author = {Sussman, Jeremy B and Whitney, Rachael T and Burke, James F and Hayward, Rodney A and Galecki, Andrzej and Sidney, Stephen and Allen, Norrina Bai and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Heckbert, Susan R and Longstreth, William T and Psaty, Bruce M and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Levine, Deborah A} } @article {9418, title = {Rare variants in long non-coding RNAs are associated with blood lipid levels in the TOPMed Whole Genome Sequencing Study.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jun 29}, abstract = {

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are known to perform important regulatory functions. Large-scale whole genome sequencing (WGS) studies and new statistical methods for variant set tests now provide an opportunity to assess the associations between rare variants in lncRNA genes and complex traits across the genome. In this study, we used high-coverage WGS from 66,329 participants of diverse ancestries with blood lipid levels (LDL-C, HDL-C, TC, and TG) in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program to investigate the role of lncRNAs in lipid variability. We aggregated rare variants for 165,375 lncRNA genes based on their genomic locations and conducted rare variant aggregate association tests using the STAAR (variant-Set Test for Association using Annotation infoRmation) framework. We performed STAAR conditional analysis adjusting for common variants in known lipid GWAS loci and rare coding variants in nearby protein coding genes. Our analyses revealed 83 rare lncRNA variant sets significantly associated with blood lipid levels, all of which were located in known lipid GWAS loci (in a {\textpm}500 kb window of a Global Lipids Genetics Consortium index variant). Notably, 61 out of 83 signals (73\%) were conditionally independent of common regulatory variations and rare protein coding variations at the same loci. We replicated 34 out of 61 (56\%) conditionally independent associations using the independent UK Biobank WGS data. Our results expand the genetic architecture of blood lipids to rare variants in lncRNA, implicating new therapeutic opportunities.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.06.28.23291966}, author = {Wang, Yuxuan and Selvaraj, Margaret Sunitha and Li, Xihao and Li, Zilin and Holdcraft, Jacob A and Arnett, Donna K and Bis, Joshua C and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowden, Donald W and Cade, Brian E and Carlson, Jenna C and Carson, April P and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Curran, Joanne E and de Vries, Paul S and Dutcher, Susan K and Ellinor, Patrick T and Floyd, James S and Fornage, Myriam and Freedman, Barry I and Gabriel, Stacey and Germer, Soren and Gibbs, Richard A and Guo, Xiuqing and He, Jiang and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Hildalgo, Bertha and Hou, Lifang and Irvin, Marguerite R and Joehanes, Roby and Kaplan, Robert C and Kardia, Sharon Lr and Kelly, Tanika N and Kim, Ryan and Kooperberg, Charles and Kral, Brian G and Levy, Daniel and Li, Changwei and Liu, Chunyu and Lloyd-Jone, Don and Loos, Ruth Jf and Mahaney, Michael C and Martin, Lisa W and Mathias, Rasika A and Minster, Ryan L and Mitchell, Braxton D and Montasser, May E and Morrison, Alanna C and Murabito, Joanne M and Naseri, Take and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Preuss, Michael H and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Rao, Dabeeru C and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alexander P and Rich, Stephen S and Ruepena, Muagututi{\textquoteright}a Sefuiva and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Smith, Jennifer A and Smith, Albert and Tiwari, Hemant K and Tsai, Michael Y and Viaud-Martinez, Karine A and Wang, Zhe and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhao, Wei and Rotter, Jerome I and Lin, Xihong and Natarajan, Pradeep and Peloso, Gina M} } @article {9417, title = {Sleep Architecture, Obstructive Sleep Apnea, and Cognitive Function in Adults.}, journal = {JAMA Netw Open}, volume = {6}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jul 03}, pages = {e2325152}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: Good sleep is essential for health, yet associations between sleep and dementia risk remain incompletely understood. The Sleep and Dementia Consortium was established to study associations between polysomnography (PSG)-derived sleep and the risk of dementia and related cognitive and brain magnetic resonance imaging endophenotypes.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate association of sleep architecture and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with cognitive function in the Sleep and Dementia Consortium.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: The Sleep and Dementia Consortium curated data from 5 population-based cohorts across the US with methodologically consistent, overnight, home-based type II PSG and neuropsychological assessments over 5 years of follow-up: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, Cardiovascular Health Study, Framingham Heart Study (FHS), Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study, and Study of Osteoporotic Fractures. Sleep metrics were harmonized centrally and then distributed to participating cohorts for cohort-specific analysis using linear regression; study-level estimates were pooled in random effects meta-analyses. Results were adjusted for demographic variables, the time between PSG and neuropsychological assessment (0-5 years), body mass index, antidepressant use, and sedative use. There were 5946 participants included in the pooled analyses without stroke or dementia. Data were analyzed from March 2020 to June 2023.

EXPOSURES: Measures of sleep architecture and OSA derived from in-home PSG.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The main outcomes were global cognitive composite z scores derived from principal component analysis, with cognitive domains investigated as secondary outcomes. Higher scores indicated better performance.

RESULTS: Across cohorts, 5946 adults (1875 females [31.5\%]; mean age range, 58-89 years) were included. The median (IQR) wake after sleep onset time ranged from 44 (27-73) to 101 (66-147) minutes, and the prevalence of moderate to severe OSA ranged from 16.9\% to 28.9\%. Across cohorts, higher sleep maintenance efficiency (pooled β per 1\% increase, 0.08; 95\% CI, 0.03 to 0.14; P < .01) and lower wake after sleep onset (pooled β per 1-min increase, -0.07; 95\% CI, -0.13 to -0.01 per 1-min increase; P = .02) were associated with better global cognition. Mild to severe OSA (apnea-hypopnea index [AHI] >=5) was associated with poorer global cognition (pooled β, -0.06; 95\% CI, -0.11 to -0.01; P = .01) vs AHI less than 5; comparable results were found for moderate to severe OSA (pooled β, -0.06; 95\% CI, -0.11 to -0.01; P = .02) vs AHI less than 5. Differences in sleep stages were not associated with cognition.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: This study found that better sleep consolidation and the absence of OSA were associated with better global cognition over 5 years of follow-up. These findings suggest that the role of interventions to improve sleep for maintaining cognitive function requires investigation.

}, issn = {2574-3805}, doi = {10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.25152}, author = {Pase, Matthew P and Harrison, Stephanie and Misialek, Jeffrey R and Kline, Christopher E and Cavuoto, Marina and Baril, Andree-Ann and Yiallourou, Stephanie and Bisson, Alycia and Himali, Dibya and Leng, Yue and Yang, Qiong and Seshadri, Sudha and Beiser, Alexa and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Redline, Susan and Lopez, Oscar and Lutsey, Pamela L and Yaffe, Kristine and Stone, Katie L and Purcell, Shaun M and Himali, Jayandra J} } @article {9317, title = {Social networks, social support, and life expectancy in older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Arch Gerontol Geriatr}, volume = {111}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Mar 03}, pages = {104981}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Social support and social networks have long been postulated to impact health outcomes but their impact on life expectancy and disability in older adults remains poorly quantified.

METHODS: As part of the Cardiovascular Health Study, we followed 5,749 adults aged 65 years and older from 4 US field centers for 25 years. We assessed the Lubben social network score [range 0-50] and a social support score [range 0-24] derived from the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL-12) in two consecutive years starting at study recruitment. We used remaining years of life (YOL) from study enrollment to death to approximate life expectancy. We defined years of active life (YAL) as the number of study years in which participants lived without any difficulties in activities of daily living. We used compression of disability to reflect the proportion of life lived able (YAL/YOL). We used linear regression to adjust for socio-demographics and comorbidity.

RESULTS: The mean (standard deviation [SD]) scores were 32.3~{\textpm}~6.8 points for social network score and 8.3~{\textpm}~2.4 points for social support score. For every 1-SD increase in social network score, adjusted participant life expectancy was 0.40 years higher (95\% CI 0.22-0.58; p<0.0001) and disability-free life expectancy 0.35 years higher (95\% CI 0.18-0.53; p<0.0001). The association with life expectancy was modified by participant age (p<0.001), but it remained significant even among participants aged >=75 years (3 months per SD; 95\% CI 0.1-6 months, p~=~0.04). Further adjustment for frailty did not attenuate the estimates. The social support scale was not significantly associated with YOL or YAL after adjustment for social network score, and neither measure was associated with compression of disability.

DISCUSSION: In older adults, higher social network scores are significantly associated with longer life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy.

}, issn = {1872-6976}, doi = {10.1016/j.archger.2023.104981}, author = {Bhatia, Roma and Hirsch, Calvin and Arnold, Alice M and Newman, Anne B and Mukamal, Kenneth J} } @article {9543, title = {A statistical framework for powerful multi-trait rare variant analysis in large-scale whole-genome sequencing studies.}, journal = {bioRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Nov 02}, abstract = {

Large-scale whole-genome sequencing (WGS) studies have improved our understanding of the contributions of coding and noncoding rare variants to complex human traits. Leveraging association effect sizes across multiple traits in WGS rare variant association analysis can improve statistical power over single-trait analysis, and also detect pleiotropic genes and regions. Existing multi-trait methods have limited ability to perform rare variant analysis of large-scale WGS data. We propose MultiSTAAR, a statistical framework and computationally-scalable analytical pipeline for functionally-informed multi-trait rare variant analysis in large-scale WGS studies. MultiSTAAR accounts for relatedness, population structure and correlation among phenotypes by jointly analyzing multiple traits, and further empowers rare variant association analysis by incorporating multiple functional annotations. We applied MultiSTAAR to jointly analyze three lipid traits (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides) in 61,861 multi-ethnic samples from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program. We discovered new associations with lipid traits missed by single-trait analysis, including rare variants within an enhancer of and an intergenic region on chromosome 1.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.10.30.564764}, author = {Li, Xihao and Chen, Han and Selvaraj, Margaret Sunitha and Van Buren, Eric and Zhou, Hufeng and Wang, Yuxuan and Sun, Ryan and McCaw, Zachary R and Yu, Zhi and Arnett, Donna K and Bis, Joshua C and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowden, Donald W and Brody, Jennifer A and Cade, Brian E and Carson, April P and Carlson, Jenna C and Chami, Nathalie and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Curran, Joanne E and de Vries, Paul S and Fornage, Myriam and Franceschini, Nora and Freedman, Barry I and Gu, Charles and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and He, Jiang and Hou, Lifang and Hung, Yi-Jen and Irvin, Marguerite R and Kaplan, Robert C and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kelly, Tanika and Konigsberg, Iain and Kooperberg, Charles and Kral, Brian G and Li, Changwei and Loos, Ruth J F and Mahaney, Michael C and Martin, Lisa W and Mathias, Rasika A and Minster, Ryan L and Mitchell, Braxton D and Montasser, May E and Morrison, Alanna C and Palmer, Nicholette D and Peyser, Patricia A and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alexander P and Rich, Stephen S and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Jennifer A and Taylor, Kent D and Tiwari, Hemant and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wang, Zhe and Yanek, Lisa R and Yu, Bing and Rice, Kenneth M and Rotter, Jerome I and Peloso, Gina M and Natarajan, Pradeep and Li, Zilin and Liu, Zhonghua and Lin, Xihong} } @article {9450, title = {Time-to-Event Genome-Wide Association Study for Incident Cardiovascular Disease in People with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jul 28}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) confers a two- to three-fold increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the mechanisms underlying increased CVD risk among people with T2D are only partially understood. We hypothesized that a genetic association study among people with T2D at risk for developing incident cardiovascular complications could provide insights into molecular genetic aspects underlying CVD.

METHODS: From 16 studies of the Cohorts for Heart \& Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium, we conducted a multi-ancestry time-to-event genome-wide association study (GWAS) for incident CVD among people with T2D using Cox proportional hazards models. Incident CVD was defined based on a composite of coronary artery disease (CAD), stroke, and cardiovascular death that occurred at least one year after the diagnosis of T2D. Cohort-level estimated effect sizes were combined using inverse variance weighted fixed effects meta-analysis. We also tested 204 known CAD variants for association with incident CVD among patients with T2D.

RESULTS: A total of 49,230 participants with T2D were included in the analyses (31,118 European ancestries and 18,112 non-European ancestries) which consisted of 8,956 incident CVD cases over a range of mean follow-up duration between 3.2 and 33.7 years (event rate 18.2\%). We identified three novel, distinct genetic loci for incident CVD among individuals with T2D that reached the threshold for genome-wide significance ( <5.0{\texttimes}10 ): rs147138607 (intergenic variant between and ) with a hazard ratio (HR) 1.23, 95\% confidence interval (CI) 1.15 - 1.32, =3.6{\texttimes}10 , rs11444867 (intergenic variant near ) with HR 1.89, 95\% CI 1.52 - 2.35, =9.9{\texttimes}10 , and rs335407 (intergenic variant between and ) HR 1.25, 95\% CI 1.16 - 1.35, =1.5{\texttimes}10 . Among 204 known CAD loci, 32 were associated with incident CVD in people with T2D with <0.05, and 5 were significant after Bonferroni correction ( <0.00024, 0.05/204). A polygenic score of these 204 variants was significantly associated with incident CVD with HR 1.14 (95\% CI 1.12 - 1.16) per 1 standard deviation increase ( =1.0{\texttimes}10 ).

CONCLUSIONS: The data point to novel and known genomic regions associated with incident CVD among individuals with T2D.

CLINICAL PERSPECTIVE: We conducted a large-scale multi-ancestry time-to-event GWAS to identify genetic variants associated with CVD among people with T2D. Three variants were significantly associated with incident CVD in people with T2D: rs147138607 (intergenic variant between and ), rs11444867 (intergenic variant near ), and rs335407 (intergenic variant between and ). A polygenic score composed of known CAD variants identified in the general population was significantly associated with the risk of CVD in people with T2D. There are genetic risk factors specific to T2D that could at least partially explain the excess risk of CVD in people with T2D.In addition, we show that people with T2D have enrichment of known CAD association signals which could also explain the excess risk of CVD.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.07.25.23293180}, author = {Kwak, Soo Heon and Hernandez-Cancela, Ryan B and DiCorpo, Daniel A and Condon, David E and Merino, Jordi and Wu, Peitao and Brody, Jennifer A and Yao, Jie and Guo, Xiuqing and Ahmadizar, Fariba and Meyer, Mariah and Sincan, Murat and Mercader, Josep M and Lee, Sujin and Haessler, Jeffrey and Vy, Ha My T and Lin, Zhaotong and Armstrong, Nicole D and Gu, Shaopeng and Tsao, Noah L and Lange, Leslie A and Wang, Ningyuan and Wiggins, Kerri L and Trompet, Stella and Liu, Simin and Loos, Ruth J F and Judy, Renae and Schroeder, Philip H and Hasbani, Natalie R and Bos, Maxime M and Morrison, Alanna C and Jackson, Rebecca D and Reiner, Alexander P and Manson, JoAnn E and Chaudhary, Ninad S and Carmichael, Lynn K and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Taylor, Kent D and Ghanbari, Mohsen and van Meurs, Joyce and Pitsillides, Achilleas N and Psaty, Bruce M and Noordam, Raymond and Do, Ron and Park, Kyong Soo and Jukema, J Wouter and Kavousi, Maryam and Correa, Adolfo and Rich, Stephen S and Damrauer, Scott M and Hajek, Catherine and Cho, Nam H and Irvin, Marguerite R and Pankow, James S and Nadkarni, Girish N and Sladek, Robert and Goodarzi, Mark O and Florez, Jose C and Chasman, Daniel I and Heckbert, Susan R and Kooperberg, Charles and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Malhotra, Rajeev and de Vries, Paul S and Liu, Ching-Ti and Rotter, Jerome I and Meigs, James B} } @article {9319, title = {Time-Varying Food Retail and Incident Disease in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Am J Prev Med}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Mar 05}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: Natural experiments can strengthen evidence linking neighborhood food retail presence to dietary intake patterns and cardiometabolic health outcomes, yet sample size and follow-up duration are typically not extensive. To complement natural experiment evidence, longitudinal data were used to estimate the impacts of neighborhood food retail presence on incident disease.

METHODS: The Cardiovascular Health Study recruited adults aged 65+ years in 1989-1993. Analyses conducted in 2021-2022 included those in good baseline health, with addresses updated annually through the year of death (restricted to 91\% who died during >2 decades of cohort follow-up). Baseline and annually updated presence of 2 combined food retail categories (supermarkets/produce markets and convenience/snack focused) was characterized using establishment-level data for 1-km and 5-km Euclidean buffers. Cox proportional hazards models estimated associations with time to each incident outcome (cardiovascular disease, diabetes), adjusting for individual and area-based confounders.

RESULTS: Among 2,939 participants, 36\% with baseline supermarket/produce market presence within 1 km had excess incident cardiovascular disease (hazard ratio=1.12; 95\% CI=1.01, 1.24); the association was attenuated and no longer statistically significant after adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics. Adjusted associations were robustly null for time-varying supermarket/produce market or convenience/fast food retail presence across analyses with outcomes of cardiovascular disease or diabetes incidence.

CONCLUSIONS: Food environment changes continue to be studied to provide an evidence base for policy decisions, and null findings in this longitudinal analysis add literature that casts doubt on the sufficiency of strategies targeting food retail presence alone of an elderly cohort for curtailing incident events of clinical importance.

}, issn = {1873-2607}, doi = {10.1016/j.amepre.2023.02.001}, author = {Lovasi, Gina S and Boise, Sarah and Jogi, Siddharth and Hurvitz, Philip M and Rundle, Andrew G and Diez, Julia and Hirsch, Jana A and Fitzpatrick, Annette and Biggs, Mary L and Siscovick, David S} } @article {9544, title = {A Type 1 Diabetes Polygenic Score Is Not Associated With Prevalent Type 2 Diabetes in Large Population Studies.}, journal = {J Endocr Soc}, volume = {7}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Oct 09}, pages = {bvad123}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Both type 1 diabetes (T1D) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) have significant genetic contributions to risk and understanding their overlap can offer clinical insight.

OBJECTIVE: We examined whether a T1D polygenic score (PS) was associated with a diagnosis of T2D in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium.

METHODS: We constructed a T1D PS using 79 known single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with T1D risk. We analyzed 13 792 T2D cases and 14 169 controls from CHARGE cohorts to determine the association between the T1D PS and T2D prevalence. We validated findings in an independent sample of 2256 T2D cases and 27 052 controls from the Mass General Brigham Biobank (MGB Biobank). As secondary analyses in 5228 T2D cases from CHARGE, we used multivariable regression models to assess the association of the T1D PS with clinical outcomes associated with T1D.

RESULTS: The T1D PS was not associated with T2D both in CHARGE ( = .15) and in the MGB Biobank ( = .87). The partitioned human leukocyte antigens only PS was associated with T2D in CHARGE (OR 1.02 per 1 SD increase in PS, 95\% CI 1.01-1.03, = .006) but not in the MGB Biobank. The T1D PS was weakly associated with insulin use (OR 1.007, 95\% CI 1.001-1.012, = .03) in CHARGE T2D cases but not with other outcomes.

CONCLUSION: In large biobank samples, a common variant PS for T1D was not consistently associated with prevalent T2D. However, possible heterogeneity in T2D cannot be ruled out and future studies are needed do subphenotyping.

}, issn = {2472-1972}, doi = {10.1210/jendso/bvad123}, author = {Srinivasan, Shylaja and Wu, Peitao and Mercader, Josep M and Udler, Miriam S and Porneala, Bianca C and Bartz, Traci M and Floyd, James S and Sitlani, Colleen and Guo, Xiquing and Haessler, Jeffrey and Kooperberg, Charles and Liu, Jun and Ahmad, Shahzad and van Duijn, Cornelia and Liu, Ching-Ti and Goodarzi, Mark O and Florez, Jose C and Meigs, James B and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Leong, Aaron} } @article {9537, title = {Type 2 Diabetes Modifies the Association of CAD Genomic Risk Variants With Subclinical Atherosclerosis.}, journal = {Circ Genom Precis Med}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Nov 28}, pages = {e004176}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D) have an increased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD), but questions remain about the underlying pathology. Identifying which CAD loci are modified by T2D in the development of subclinical atherosclerosis (coronary artery calcification [CAC], carotid intima-media thickness, or carotid plaque) may improve our understanding of the mechanisms leading to the increased CAD in T2D.

METHODS: We compared the common and rare variant associations of known CAD loci from the literature on CAC, carotid intima-media thickness, and carotid plaque in up to 29 670 participants, including up to 24 157 normoglycemic controls and 5513 T2D cases leveraging whole-genome sequencing data from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine program. We included first-order T2D interaction terms in each model to determine whether CAD loci were modified by T2D. The genetic main and interaction effects were assessed using a joint test to determine whether a CAD variant, or gene-based rare variant set, was associated with the respective subclinical atherosclerosis measures and then further determined whether these loci had a significant interaction test.

RESULTS: Using a Bonferroni-corrected significance threshold of <1.6{\texttimes}10, we identified 3 genes (, , and ) associated with CAC and 2 genes ( and ) associated with carotid intima-media thickness and carotid plaque, respectively, through gene-based rare variant set analysis. Both and also had significantly different associations for CAC in T2D cases versus controls. No significant interaction tests were identified through the candidate single-variant analysis.

CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight T2D as an important modifier of rare variant associations in CAD loci with CAC.

}, issn = {2574-8300}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGEN.123.004176}, author = {Hasbani, Natalie R and Westerman, Kenneth E and Heon Kwak, Soo and Chen, Han and Li, Xihao and DiCorpo, Daniel and Wessel, Jennifer and Bis, Joshua C and Sarnowski, Chloe and Wu, Peitao and Bielak, Lawrence F and Guo, Xiuqing and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Kinney, Gregory and Mahaney, Michael C and Montasser, May E and Palmer, Nicholette D and Raffield, Laura M and Terry, James G and Yanek, Lisa R and Bon, Jessica and Bowden, Donald W and Brody, Jennifer A and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Jacobs, David R and Kalyani, Rita R and Lange, Leslie A and Mitchell, Braxton D and Smith, Jennifer A and Taylor, Kent D and Carson, April and Curran, Joanne E and Fornage, Myriam and Freedman, Barry I and Gabriel, Stacey and Gibbs, Richard A and Gupta, Namrata and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kral, Brian G and Momin, Zeineen and Newman, Anne B and Post, Wendy S and Viaud-Martinez, Karine A and Young, Kendra A and Becker, Lewis C and Bertoni, Alain and Blangero, John and Carr, John J and Pratte, Katherine and Psaty, Bruce M and Rich, Stephen S and Wu, Joseph C and Malhotra, Rajeev and Peyser, Patricia A and Morrison, Alanna C and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Lin, Xihong and Rotter, Jerome I and Meigs, James B and Manning, Alisa K and de Vries, Paul S} } @article {9509, title = {Vaccination Against Pneumonia May Provide Genotype-Specific Protection Against Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease.}, journal = {J Alzheimers Dis}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Oct 03}, abstract = {

Vaccine repurposing that considers individual genotype may aid personalized prevention of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD). In this retrospective cohort study, we used Cardiovascular Health Study data to estimate associations of pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine and flu shots received between ages 65-75 with AD onset at age 75 or older, taking into account rs6859 polymorphism in NECTIN2 gene (AD risk factor). Pneumococcal vaccine, and total count of vaccinations against pneumonia and flu, were associated with lower odds of AD in carriers of rs6859 A allele, but not in non-carriers. We conclude that pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine is a promising candidate for genotype-tailored AD prevention.

}, issn = {1875-8908}, doi = {10.3233/JAD-230088}, author = {Ukraintseva, Svetlana and Duan, Matt and Simanek, Amanda M and Holmes, Rachel and Bagley, Olivia and Rajendrakumar, Aravind L and Yashkin, Arseniy P and Akushevich, Igor and Tropsha, Alexander and Whitson, Heather and Yashin, Anatoliy and Arbeev, Konstantin} } @article {9408, title = {Validation of the CogDrisk Instrument as Predictive of Dementia in Four General Community-Dwelling Populations.}, journal = {J Prev Alzheimers Dis}, volume = {10}, year = {2023}, month = {2023}, pages = {478-487}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Lack of external validation of dementia risk tools is a major limitation for generalizability and translatability of prediction scores in clinical practice and research.

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to validate a new dementia prediction risk tool called CogDrisk and a version, CogDrisk-AD for predicting Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD) using cohort studies.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND MEASUREMENTS: Four cohort studies were identified that included majority of the dementia risk factors from the CogDrisk tool. Participants who were free of dementia at baseline were included. The predictors were component variables in the CogDrisk tool that include self-reported demographics, medical risk factors and lifestyle habits. Risk scores for Any Dementia and AD were computed and Area Under the Curve (AUC) was assessed. To examine modifiable risk factors for dementia, the CogDrisk tool was tested by excluding age and sex estimates from the model.

RESULTS: The performance of the tool varied between studies. The overall AUC and 95\% CI for predicting dementia was 0.77 (0.57, 0.97) for the Swedish National study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen, 0.76 (0.70, 0.83) for the Health and Retirement Study - Aging, Demographics and Memory Study, 0.70 (0.67,0.72) for the Cardiovascular Health Study Cognition Study, and 0.66 (0.62,0.70) for the Rush Memory and Aging Project.

CONCLUSIONS: The CogDrisk and CogDrisk-AD performed well in the four studies. Overall, this tool can be used to assess individualized risk factors of dementia and AD in various population settings.

}, keywords = {Aging, Alzheimer Disease, Cohort Studies, Dementia, Humans, Independent Living}, issn = {2426-0266}, doi = {10.14283/jpad.2023.38}, author = {Kootar, S and Huque, M H and Eramudugolla, R and Rizzuto, D and Carlson, M C and Odden, M C and Lopez, O L and Qiu, C and Fratiglioni, L and Han, S D and Bennett, D A and Peters, R and Anstey, K J} } @article {9449, title = {Whole genome analysis of plasma fibrinogen reveals population-differentiated genetic regulators with putative liver roles.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jun 12}, abstract = {

UNLABELLED: Genetic studies have identified numerous regions associated with plasma fibrinogen levels in Europeans, yet missing heritability and limited inclusion of non-Europeans necessitates further studies with improved power and sensitivity. Compared with array-based genotyping, whole genome sequencing (WGS) data provides better coverage of the genome and better representation of non-European variants. To better understand the genetic landscape regulating plasma fibrinogen levels, we meta-analyzed WGS data from the NHLBI{\textquoteright}s Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program (n=32,572), with array-based genotype data from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium (n=131,340) imputed to the TOPMed or Haplotype Reference Consortium panel. We identified 18 loci that have not been identified in prior genetic studies of fibrinogen. Of these, four are driven by common variants of small effect with reported MAF at least 10\% higher in African populations. Three ( , and signals contain predicted deleterious missense variants. Two loci, and , each harbor two conditionally distinct, non-coding variants. The gene region encoding the protein chain subunits ( ), contains 7 distinct signals, including one novel signal driven by rs28577061, a variant common (MAF=0.180) in African reference panels but extremely rare (MAF=0.008) in Europeans. Through phenome-wide association studies in the VA Million Veteran Program, we found associations between fibrinogen polygenic risk scores and thrombotic and inflammatory disease phenotypes, including an association with gout. Our findings demonstrate the utility of WGS to augment genetic discovery in diverse populations and offer new insights for putative mechanisms of fibrinogen regulation.

KEY POINTS: Largest and most diverse genetic study of plasma fibrinogen identifies 54 regions (18 novel), housing 69 conditionally distinct variants (20 novel).Sufficient power achieved to identify signal driven by African population variant.Links to (1) liver enzyme, blood cell and lipid genetic signals, (2) liver regulatory elements, and (3) thrombotic and inflammatory disease.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.06.07.23291095}, author = {Huffman, Jennifer E and Nicolas, Jayna and Hahn, Julie and Heath, Adam S and Raffield, Laura M and Yanek, Lisa R and Brody, Jennifer A and Thibord, Florian and Almasy, Laura and Bartz, Traci M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bowler, Russell P and Carrasquilla, Germ{\'a}n D and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Ming-Huei and Emmert, David B and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Haessle, Jeffery and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Kleber, Marcus E and Le, Ngoc-Quynh and Lee, Jiwon and Lewis, Joshua P and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Malmberg, Anni and Mangino, Massimo and Marioni, Riccardo E and Martinez-Perez, Angel and Pankratz, Nathan and Polasek, Ozren and Richmond, Anne and Rodriguez, Benjamin At and Rotter, Jerome I and Steri, Maristella and Suchon, Pierre and Trompet, Stella and Weiss, Stefan and Zare, Marjan and Auer, Paul and Cho, Michael H and Christofidou, Paraskevi and Davies, Gail and de Geus, Eco and Deleuze, Jean-Francois and Delgado, Graciela E and Ekunwe, Lynette and Faraday, Nauder and G{\"o}gele, Martin and Greinacher, Andreas and He, Gao and Howard, Tom and Joshi, Peter K and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Lahti, Jari and Linneberg, Allan and Naitza, Silvia and Noordam, Raymond and Pa{\"u}ls-Verg{\'e}s, Ferran and Rich, Stephen S and Rosendaal, Frits R and Rudan, Igor and Ryan, Kathleen A and Souto, Juan Carlos and van Rooij, Frank Ja and Wang, Heming and Zhao, Wei and Becker, Lewis C and Beswick, Andrew and Brown, Michael R and Cade, Brian E and Campbell, Harry and Cho, Kelly and Crapo, James D and Curran, Joanne E and de Maat, Moniek Pm and Doyle, Margaret and Elliott, Paul and Floyd, James S and Fuchsberger, Christian and Grarup, Niels and Guo, Xiuqing and Harris, Sarah E and Hou, Lifang and Kolcic, Ivana and Kooperberg, Charles and Menni, Cristina and Nauck, Matthias and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Orr{\`u}, Valeria and Psaty, Bruce M and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Smith, Jennifer A and Soria, Jos{\'e} Manuel and Stott, David J and van Hylckama Vlieg, Astrid and Watkins, Hugh and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilson, Peter and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Blangero, John and Boomsma, Dorret and Cox, Simon R and Dehghan, Abbas and Eriksson, Johan G and Fiorillo, Edoardo and Fornage, Myriam and Hansen, Torben and Hayward, Caroline and Ikram, M Arfan and Jukema, J Wouter and Kardia, Sharon Lr and Lange, Leslie A and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Mathias, Rasika A and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and Pedersen, Oluf and Pramstaller, Peter P and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alexander and Ridker, Paul M and Silverman, Edwin K and Spector, Tim D and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wareham, Nick and Wilson, James F and Yao, Jie and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Johnson, Andrew D and Wolberg, Alisa S and de Vries, Paul S and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Morrison, Alanna C and Smith, Nicholas L} } @article {9321, title = {Whole Genome Analysis of Venous Thromboembolism: the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine Program.}, journal = {Circ Genom Precis Med}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Mar 24}, pages = {e003532}, abstract = {

Background Risk for venous thromboembolism has a strong genetic component. Whole genome sequencingfrom the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine program allowed us to look for new associations, particularly rare variants missed by standard genome-wide association studies. Methods The 3793 cases and 7834 controls (11.6\% of cases were Black, Hispanic/Latino, or Asian American) were analyzed using a single variant approach and an aggregate gene-based approach using our primary filter (included only loss-of-function and missense variants predicted to be deleterious) and our secondary filter (included all missense variants). Results Single variant analyses identified associations at 5 known loci. Aggregate gene-based analyses identified only (odds ratio, 6.2 for carriers of rare variants; =7.4{\texttimes}10) when using our primary filter. Employing our secondary variant filter led to a smaller effect size at (odds ratio, 3.8; =1.6{\texttimes}10), while excluding variants found only in rare isoforms led to a larger one (odds ratio, 7.5). Different filtering strategies improved the signal for 2 other known genes: became significant (minimum =1.8{\texttimes}10 with the secondary filter), while did not (minimum =4.4{\texttimes}10 with minor allele frequency <0.0005). Results were largely the same when restricting the analyses to include only unprovoked cases; however, one novel gene, , became significant (=4.4{\texttimes}10 using all missense variants with minor allele frequency <0.0005). Conclusions Here, we have demonstrated the importance of using multiple variant filtering strategies, as we detected additional genes when filtering variants based on their predicted deleteriousness, frequency, and presence on the most expressed isoforms. Our primary analyses did not identify new candidate loci; thus larger follow-up studies are needed to replicate the novel locus and to identify additional rare variation associated with venous thromboembolism.

}, issn = {2574-8300}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGEN.121.003532}, author = {Seyerle, Amanda A and Laurie, Cecelia A and Coombes, Brandon J and Jain, Deepti and Conomos, Matthew P and Brody, Jennifer and Chen, Ming-Huei and Gogarten, Stephanie M and Beutel, Kathleen M and Gupta, Namrata and Heckbert, Susan R and Jackson, Rebecca D and Johnson, Andrew D and Ko, Darae and Manson, JoAnn E and McKnight, Barbara and Metcalf, Ginger A and Morrison, Alanna C and Reiner, Alexander P and Sofer, Tamar and Tang, Weihong and Wiggins, Kerri L and Boerwinkle, Eric and Andrade, Mariza de and Gabriel, Stacey B and Gibbs, Richard A and Laurie, Cathy C and Psaty, Bruce M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Rice, Ken and Kooperberg, Charles and Pankow, James S and Smith, Nicholas L and Pankratz, Nathan} } @article {9581, title = {Whole genome sequence analysis of apparent treatment resistant hypertension status in participants from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine program.}, journal = {Front Genet}, volume = {14}, year = {2023}, month = {2023}, pages = {1278215}, abstract = {

Apparent treatment-resistant hypertension (aTRH) is characterized by the use of four or more antihypertensive (AHT) classes to achieve blood pressure (BP) control. In the current study, we conducted single-variant and gene-based analyses of aTRH among individuals from 12 Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine cohorts with whole-genome sequencing data. Cases were defined as individuals treated for hypertension (HTN) taking three different AHT classes, with average systolic BP >= 140 or diastolic BP >= 90~mmHg, or four or more medications regardless of BP ( = 1,705). A normotensive control group was defined as individuals with BP < 140/90~mmHg ( = 22,079), not on AHT medication. A second control group comprised individuals who were treatment responsive on one AHT medication with BP < 140/ 90~mmHg ( = 5,424). Logistic regression with kinship adjustment using the Scalable and Accurate Implementation of Generalized mixed models (SAIGE) was performed, adjusting for age, sex, and genetic ancestry. We assessed variants using SKAT-O in rare-variant analyses. Single-variant and gene-based tests were conducted in a pooled multi-ethnicity stratum, as well as self-reported ethnic/racial strata (European and African American). One variant in the known HTN locus, , was a top finding in the multi-ethnic analysis ( = 8.23E-07) for the normotensive control group [rs12476527, odds ratio (95\% confidence interval) = 0.80 (0.74-0.88)]. This variant was replicated in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center{\textquoteright}s DNA repository data. Aggregate gene-based signals included the genes and . Additional work validating these loci in larger, more diverse populations, is warranted to determine whether these regions influence the pathobiology of aTRH.

}, issn = {1664-8021}, doi = {10.3389/fgene.2023.1278215}, author = {Armstrong, Nicole D and Srinivasasainagendra, Vinodh and Ammous, Farah and Assimes, Themistocles L and Beitelshees, Amber L and Brody, Jennifer and Cade, Brian E and Ida Chen, Yii-Der and Chen, Han and de Vries, Paul S and Floyd, James S and Franceschini, Nora and Guo, Xiuqing and Hellwege, Jacklyn N and House, John S and Hwu, Chii-Min and Kardia, Sharon L R and Lange, Ethan M and Lange, Leslie A and McDonough, Caitrin W and Montasser, May E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Shuey, Megan M and Sun, Xiao and Tanner, Rikki M and Wang, Zhe and Zhao, Wei and Carson, April P and Edwards, Todd L and Kelly, Tanika N and Kenny, Eimear E and Kooperberg, Charles and Loos, Ruth J F and Morrison, Alanna C and Motsinger-Reif, Alison and Psaty, Bruce M and Rao, Dabeeru C and Redline, Susan and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Smith, Jennifer A and Smith, Albert V and Irvin, Marguerite R and Arnett, Donna K} } @article {9484, title = {WHOLE GENOME SEQUENCING ANALYSIS OF BODY MASS INDEX IDENTIFIES NOVEL AFRICAN ANCESTRY-SPECIFIC RISK ALLELE.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Aug 22}, abstract = {

Obesity is a major public health crisis associated with high mortality rates. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) investigating body mass index (BMI) have largely relied on imputed data from European individuals. This study leveraged whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from 88,873 participants from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program, of which 51\% were of non-European population groups. We discovered 18 BMI-associated signals ( < 5 {\texttimes} 10 ). Notably, we identified and replicated a novel low frequency single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in that was common in individuals of African descent. Using a diverse study population, we further identified two novel secondary signals in known BMI loci and pinpointed two likely causal variants in the and loci. Our work demonstrates the benefits of combining WGS and diverse cohorts in expanding current catalog of variants and genes confer risk for obesity, bringing us one step closer to personalized medicine.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.08.21.23293271}, author = {Zhang, Xinruo and Brody, Jennifer A and Graff, Mariaelisa and Highland, Heather M and Chami, Nathalie and Xu, Hanfei and Wang, Zhe and Ferrier, Kendra and Chittoor, Geetha and Josyula, Navya S and Li, Xihao and Li, Zilin and Allison, Matthew A and Becker, Diane M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Boorgula, Meher Preethi and Bowden, Donald W and Broome, Jai G and Buth, Erin J and Carlson, Christopher S and Chang, Kyong-Mi and Chavan, Sameer and Chiu, Yen-Feng and Chuang, Lee-Ming and Conomos, Matthew P and DeMeo, Dawn L and Du, Margaret and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Eng, Celeste and Fohner, Alison E and Freedman, Barry I and Garrett, Melanie E and Guo, Xiuqing and Haiman, Chris and Heavner, Benjamin D and Hidalgo, Bertha and Hixson, James E and Ho, Yuk-Lam and Hobbs, Brian D and Hu, Donglei and Hui, Qin and Hwu, Chii-Min and Jackson, Rebecca D and Jain, Deepti and Kalyani, Rita R and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kelly, Tanika N and Lange, Ethan M and LeNoir, Michael and Li, Changwei and Marchand, Loic Le and McDonald, Merry-Lynn N and McHugh, Caitlin P and Morrison, Alanna C and Naseri, Take and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pankow, James S and Perry, James A and Peters, Ulrike and Preuss, Michael H and Rao, D C and Regan, Elizabeth A and Reupena, Sefuiva M and Roden, Dan M and Rodriguez-Santana, Jose and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Jennifer A and Tiwari, Hemant K and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wang, Zeyuan and Weeks, Daniel E and Wessel, Jennifer and Wiggins, Kerri L and Wilkens, Lynne R and Wilson, Peter W F and Yanek, Lisa R and Yoneda, Zachary T and Zhao, Wei and Z{\"o}llner, Sebastian and Arnett, Donna K and Ashley-Koch, Allison E and Barnes, Kathleen C and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Burchard, Esteban G and Carson, April P and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Curran, Joanne E and Fornage, Myriam and Gordeuk, Victor R and He, Jiang and Heckbert, Susan R and Hou, Lifang and Irvin, Marguerite R and Kooperberg, Charles and Minster, Ryan L and Mitchell, Braxton D and Nouraie, Mehdi and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Reiner, Alexander P and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Smith, Nicholas L and Taylor, Kent D and Telen, Marilyn J and Weiss, Scott T and Zhang, Yingze and Costa, Nancy Heard- and Sun, Yan V and Lin, Xihong and Cupples, L Adrienne and Lange, Leslie A and Liu, Ching-Ti and Loos, Ruth J F and North, Kari E and Justice, Anne E} } @article {9500, title = {Whole Genome Sequencing Based Analysis of Inflammation Biomarkers in the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Consortium.}, journal = {bioRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Sep 12}, abstract = {

Inflammation biomarkers can provide valuable insight into the role of inflammatory processes in many diseases and conditions. Sequencing based analyses of such biomarkers can also serve as an exemplar of the genetic architecture of quantitative traits. To evaluate the biological insight, which can be provided by a multi-ancestry, whole-genome based association study, we performed a comprehensive analysis of 21 inflammation biomarkers from up to 38,465 individuals with whole-genome sequencing from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. We identified 22 distinct single-variant associations across 6 traits - E-selectin, intercellular adhesion molecule 1, interleukin-6, lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 activity and mass, and P-selectin - that remained significant after conditioning on previously identified associations for these inflammatory biomarkers. We further expanded upon known biomarker associations by pairing the single-variant analysis with a rare variant set-based analysis that further identified 19 significant rare variant set-based associations with 5 traits. These signals were distinct from both significant single variant association signals within TOPMed and genetic signals observed in prior studies, demonstrating the complementary value of performing both single and rare variant analyses when analyzing quantitative traits. We also confirm several previously reported signals from semi-quantitative proteomics platforms. Many of these signals demonstrate the extensive allelic heterogeneity and ancestry-differentiated variant-trait associations common for inflammation biomarkers, a characteristic we hypothesize will be increasingly observed with well-powered, large-scale analyses of complex traits.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.09.10.555215}, author = {Jiang, Min-Zhi and Gaynor, Sheila M and Li, Xihao and Van Buren, Eric and Stilp, Adrienne and Buth, Erin and Wang, Fei Fei and Manansala, Regina and Gogarten, Stephanie M and Li, Zilin and Polfus, Linda M and Salimi, Shabnam and Bis, Joshua C and Pankratz, Nathan and Yanek, Lisa R and Durda, Peter and Tracy, Russell P and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Mitchell, Braxton D and Lewis, Joshua P and Psaty, Bruce M and Pratte, Katherine A and Silverman, Edwin K and Kaplan, Robert C and Avery, Christy and North, Kari and Mathias, Rasika A and Faraday, Nauder and Lin, Honghuang and Wang, Biqi and Carson, April P and Norwood, Arnita F and Gibbs, Richard A and Kooperberg, Charles and Lundin, Jessica and Peters, Ulrike and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Hou, Lifang and Fornage, Myriam and Benjamin, Emelia J and Reiner, Alexander P and Bowler, Russell P and Lin, Xihong and Auer, Paul L and Raffield, Laura M} } @article {9707, title = {Whole-genome sequencing uncovers two loci for coronary artery calcification and identifies ARSE as a regulator of vascular calcification.}, journal = {Nat Cardiovasc Res}, volume = {2}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Dec}, pages = {1159-1172}, abstract = {

Coronary artery calcification (CAC) is a measure of atherosclerosis and a well-established predictor of coronary artery disease (CAD) events. Here we describe a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of CAC in 22,400 participants from multiple ancestral groups. We confirmed associations with four known loci and identified two additional loci associated with CAC ( and ), with evidence of significant associations in replication analyses for both novel loci. Functional assays of and in human vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) demonstrate that is a promoter of VSMC calcification and VSMC phenotype switching from a contractile to a calcifying or osteogenic phenotype. Furthermore, we show that the association of variants near with reduced CAC is likely explained by reduced expression with the G allele of enhancer variant rs5982944. Our study highlights ARSE as an important contributor to atherosclerotic vascular calcification, and a potential drug target for vascular calcific disease.

}, issn = {2731-0590}, doi = {10.1038/s44161-023-00375-y}, author = {de Vries, Paul S and Conomos, Matthew P and Singh, Kuldeep and Nicholson, Christopher J and Jain, Deepti and Hasbani, Natalie R and Jiang, Wanlin and Lee, Sujin and Lino Cardenas, Christian L and Lutz, Sharon M and Wong, Doris and Guo, Xiuqing and Yao, Jie and Young, Erica P and Tcheandjieu, Catherine and Hilliard, Austin T and Bis, Joshua C and Bielak, Lawrence F and Brown, Michael R and Musharoff, Shaila and Clarke, Shoa L and Terry, James G and Palmer, Nicholette D and Yanek, Lisa R and Xu, Huichun and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Wessel, Jennifer and Selvaraj, Margaret Sunitha and Li, Rebecca H and Sun, Xiao and Turner, Adam W and Stilp, Adrienne M and Khan, Alyna and Newman, Anne B and Rasheed, Asif and Freedman, Barry I and Kral, Brian G and McHugh, Caitlin P and Hodonsky, Chani and Saleheen, Danish and Herrington, David M and Jacobs, David R and Nickerson, Deborah A and Boerwinkle, Eric and Wang, Fei Fei and Heiss, Gerardo and Jun, Goo and Kinney, Greg L and Sigurslid, Haakon H and Doddapaneni, Harshavardhan and Hall, Ira M and Bensenor, Isabela M and Broome, Jai and Crapo, James D and Wilson, James G and Smith, Jennifer A and Blangero, John and Vargas, Jose D and Mosquera, Jose Verdezoto and Smith, Joshua D and Viaud-Martinez, Karine A and Ryan, Kathleen A and Young, Kendra A and Taylor, Kent D and Lange, Leslie A and Emery, Leslie S and Bittencourt, Marcio S and Budoff, Matthew J and Montasser, May E and Yu, Miao and Mahaney, Michael C and Mahamdeh, Mohammed S and Fornage, Myriam and Franceschini, Nora and Lotufo, Paulo A and Natarajan, Pradeep and Wong, Quenna and Mathias, Rasika A and Gibbs, Richard A and Do, Ron and Mehran, Roxana and Tracy, Russell P and Kim, Ryan W and Nelson, Sarah C and Damrauer, Scott M and Kardia, Sharon L R and Rich, Stephen S and Fuster, Valentin and Napolioni, Valerio and Zhao, Wei and Tian, Wenjie and Yin, Xianyong and Min, Yuan-I and Manning, Alisa K and Peloso, Gina and Kelly, Tanika N and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Morrison, Alanna C and Curran, Joanne E and Zapol, Warren M and Bowden, Donald W and Becker, Lewis C and Correa, Adolfo and Mitchell, Braxton D and Psaty, Bruce M and Carr, John Jeffrey and Pereira, Alexandre C and Assimes, Themistocles L and Stitziel, Nathan O and Hokanson, John E and Laurie, Cecelia A and Rotter, Jerome I and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Post, Wendy S and Peyser, Patricia A and Miller, Clint L and Malhotra, Rajeev} } @article {9859, title = {Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Sequencing Project Release 4 Whole Genome Sequencing Dataset}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2024}, month = {Dec}, abstract = {The Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP) is a national initiative to understand the genetic architecture of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease and Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) by sequencing whole genomes of affected participants and age-matched cognitive controls from diverse populations. The Genome Center for Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease (GCAD) processed whole-genome sequencing data from 36,361 ADSP participants, including 35,014 genetically unique participants of which 45\% are from non-European ancestry, across 17 cohorts in 14 countries in this fourth release (R4). This sequencing effort identified 387 million bi-allelic variants, 42 million short insertions/deletions, and 2.2 million structural variants. Annotations and quality control data are available for all variants and samples. Additionally, detailed phenotypes from 15,927 participants across 10 domains are also provided. A linkage disequilibrium panel was created using unrelated AD cases and controls. Researchers can access and analyze the genetic data via NIAGADS Data Sharing Service, the VariXam tool, or NIAGADS GenomicsDB.}, author = {Leung, Y. Y. and Lee, W. P. and Kuzma, A. B. and Nicaretta, H. and Valladares, O. and Gangadharan, P. and Qu, L. and Zhao, Y. and Ren, Y. and Cheng, P. L. and Kuksa, P. P. and Wang, H. and White, H. and Katanic, Z. and Bass, L. and Saravanan, N. and Greenfest-Allen, E. and Kirsch, M. and Cantwell, L. and Iqbal, T. and Wheeler, N. R. and Farrell, J. J. and Zhu, C. and Turner, S. L. and Gunasekaran, T. I. and Mena, P. R. and Jin, J. and Carter, L. and Zhang, X. and Vardarajan, B. N. and Toga, A. and Cuccaro, M. and Hohman, T. J. and Bush, W. S. and Naj, A. C. and Martin, E. and Dalgard, C. and Kunkle, B. W. and Farrer, L. A. and Mayeux, R. P. and Haines, J. L. and Pericak-Vance, M. A. and Schellenberg, G. D. and Wang, L. S.} } @article {9803, title = {Association of Coagulation Factor XI Level With Cardiovascular Events and Cardiac Function in Community-Dwelling Adults: From ARIC and CHS.}, journal = {Circulation}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Nov 21}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Coagulation factor XI (FXI) inhibitors are a promising and novel class of anticoagulants, but a recent animal study found that FXI inhibition exacerbated diastolic dysfunction and heart failure (HF). In the ARIC study (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities), we investigated whether plasma FXI level was associated with cardiovascular events and cardiac function.

METHODS: ARIC was our primary analytic cohort. We included 4471 participants (median age, 75 years; 57\% female; 17\% Black) who attended visit 5 (2011-2013) with Somalogic-quantified plasma FXI levels and echocardiographic cardiac function. Prevalent HF and atrial fibrillation (AF) cases were defined as having HF or AF diagnosed at or before each participant{\textquoteright}s visit 5 exam date. Incident HF and AF events were ascertained through 2021. Associations were assessed using Cox, logistic, and linear regression models. Primary prospective associations were also validated in the CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study) using an orthogonal FXI assay (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay).

RESULTS: At ARIC visit 5, there were 665 and 419 participants with prevalent HF and AF, respectively. During a median follow-up of 9 years, there were 580 and 788 incident HF and AF events, respectively. Lower FXI level was associated prospectively with higher incidence of HF (hazard ratio [HR], 1.36 [for each 1-unit decrement of log-transformed FXI level] [95\% CI, 1.01-1.83]) but not incident AF, and cross-sectionally with increased odds of AF (odds ratio [OR], 1.96 [95\% CI, 1.23-3.07]) but not HF. In age-stratified analyses, decreased FXI was associated with higher incidence of HF in participants >=75 years of age (HR, 1.57 [95\% CI, 1.08-2.28]) but not <75 years of age (HR, 1.11 [95\% CI, 0.68-1.79]). The inverse FXI-HF association was validated in CHS (HR, 1.18 [95\% CI, 1.02-1.36]). At ARIC visit 5, lower FXI level was also associated with higher prevalence of diastolic dysfunction and worse E/A ratio, left atrial (LA) volume index, LA function, and left ventricular mass index, but not left ventricular ejection fraction or global longitudinal strain.

CONCLUSIONS: Decreased FXI level is associated with greater incidence of HF, especially in older adults. It is also associated with prevalent AF, worse diastolic function, worse LA function, and greater LA size. More research is needed to assess potential unwanted effects of FXI inhibition on the risk of cardiovascular events and cardiac function.

}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.124.070278}, author = {Ji, Yuekai and Zhang, Michael J and Wang, Wendy and Norby, Faye L and Eaton, Anne A and Inciardi, Riccardo M and Alonso, Alvaro and Sedaghat, Sanaz and Ganz, Peter and Van{\textquoteright}t Hof, Jeremy and Solomon, Scott D and Chaves, Paulo H M and Heckbert, Susan R and Shah, Amil M and Chen, Lin Yee} } @article {9901, title = {Associations of neighbourhood food retail with disability and death in older adults: Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {BMJ Nutr Prev Health}, volume = {7}, year = {2024}, month = {2024}, pages = {e000646}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: A healthier diet is associated with lower chronic disease burden, but the impact of neighbourhood food environments on disability and death in older adults is not known.

METHODS: In the Cardiovascular Health Study, a cohort study of adults aged 65+, we calculated study years until death (years of life (YOL)), study years without activities of daily living (ADL) difficulty (years of able life; YoAL) and percent of study years without ADL difficulty (compression of disability). Linear regression quantified associations of food establishments within 5 km of baseline home address (as a z-score) with each outcome, adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics. Sensitivity analyses considered adjustment for risk factors and comorbidities, multiple imputation, alternate neighbourhood definitions (1-km radial buffer, census tract) and restriction on residential stability.

RESULTS: We included 4298 participants followed for up to 26 years. All food retail establishments were associated with 6 months higher YoAL per SD in the main model (beta, 0.50 years; 95\% CI 0.01, 0.98; p=0.046), with similar findings across sensitivity analyses except when restricting on residential stability. Supermarkets and produce markets were associated with compression of disability (beta, 2.31; 95\% CI, 0.04, 4.57) and when using 1-km buffers with YOL (beta, 0.23 years; 95\% CI 0.03, 0.43) and YoAL (beta, 0.21 years; 95\% CI 0.01, 0.41). Non-supermarket food stores were associated with YoAL (beta, 0.67 years; 95\% CI, 0.07, 1.27) and compression of disability (beta, 3.03; 95\% CI 0.44, 5.62), but significance was not consistent across sensitivity analyses. Fast-food restaurants did not reach statistical significance in any model.

CONCLUSION: All food retail was associated with YOL without impairment. Neighbourhood food retail access and type may both have roles in extending YOL and years of able life among older adults, but the findings were sensitive to decisions made during measurement and modelling.

}, issn = {2516-5542}, doi = {10.1136/bmjnph-2023-000646}, author = {Bhatia, Roma and Hernandez, Mark A and Platt, Jonathan and Newman, Anne B and Siscovick, David S and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Lovasi, Gina S} } @article {9789, title = {{Blood-derived mitochondrial DNA copy number is associated with Alzheimer disease, Alzheimer-related biomarkers and serum metabolites}, journal = {Alzheimers Res Ther}, volume = {16}, year = {2024}, month = {Oct}, pages = {234}, abstract = {Blood-derived mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNA-CN) is a proxy measurement of mitochondrial function in the peripheral and central systems. Abnormal mtDNA-CN not only indicates impaired mtDNA replication and transcription machinery but also dysregulated biological processes such as energy and lipid metabolism. However, the relationship between mtDNA-CN and Alzheimer disease (AD) is unclear.\ We performed two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) using publicly available summary statistics from GWAS for mtDNA-CN and AD to investigate the causal relationship between mtDNA-CN and AD. We estimated mtDNA-CN using whole-genome sequence data from blood and brain samples of 13,799 individuals from the Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Sequencing Project. Linear and Cox proportional hazards models adjusting for age, sex, and study phase were used to assess the association of mtDNA-CN with AD. The association of AD biomarkers and serum metabolites with mtDNA-CN in blood was evaluated in Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative using linear regression. We conducted a causal mediation analysis to test the natural indirect effects of mtDNA-CN change on AD risk through the significantly associated biomarkers and metabolites.\ 0.005).\ Our study indicates that mtDNA-CN measured in blood is predictive of AD and is associated with AD biomarkers including plasma NFL particularly in females. Further, we illustrate that decreased mtDNA-CN possibly increases AD risk through dysregulation of mitochondrial lipid metabolism and inflammation.}, author = {Tong, T. and Zhu, C. and Farrell, J. J. and Khurshid, Z. and Martin, E. R. and Pericak-Vance, M. A. and Wang, L. S. and Bush, W. S. and Schellenberg, G. D. and Haines, J. L. and Qiu, W. Q. and Lunetta, K. L. and Farrer, L. A. and Zhang, X.} } @article {9740, title = {Circulating Blood Plasma Profiling Reveals Proteomic Signature and a Causal Role for SVEP1 in Sudden Cardiac Death.}, journal = {Circ Genom Precis Med}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Sep 05}, pages = {e004494}, issn = {2574-8300}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGEN.123.004494}, author = {Duong, ThuyVy and Austin, Thomas R and Brody, Jennifer A and Shojaie, Ali and Battle, Alexis and Bader, Joel S and Hong, Yun Soo and Ballantyne, Christie M and Coresh, Josef and Gerszten, Robert E and Tracy, Russell P and Psaty, Bruce M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Arking, Dan E} } @article {9704, title = {Circulating sphingolipids and subclinical brain pathology: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Front Neurol}, volume = {15}, year = {2024}, month = {2024}, pages = {1385623}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Sphingolipids are implicated in neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation. We assessed the potential role of circulating ceramides and sphingomyelins in subclinical brain pathology by investigating their association with brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures and circulating biomarkers of brain injury, neurofilament light chain (NfL) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a large and intensively phenotyped cohort of older adults.

METHODS: Brain MRI was offered twice to CHS participants with a mean of 5 years between scans, and results were available from both time points in 2,116 participants (mean age 76 years; 40\% male; and 25\% ε4 allele carriers). We measured 8 ceramide and sphingomyelin species in plasma samples and examined the associations with several MRI, including worsening grades of white matter hyperintensities and ventricular size, number of brain infarcts, and measures of brain atrophy in a subset with quantitative measures. We also investigated the sphingolipid associations with serum NfL and GFAP.

RESULTS: In the fully adjusted model, higher plasma levels of ceramides and sphingomyelins with a long (16-carbon) saturated fatty acid were associated with higher blood levels of NfL [β = 0.05, false-discovery rate corrected () = 0.004 and β = 0.06, = < 0.001, respectively]. In contrast, sphingomyelins with very long (20- and 22-carbon) saturated fatty acids tended to have an inverse association with levels of circulating NfL. In secondary analyses, we found an interaction between ceramide d18:1/20:0 and sex ( for interaction = <0.001), such that ceramide d18:1/20:0 associated with higher odds for infarcts in women [OR = 1.26 (95\%CI: 1.07, 1.49), = 0.03]. We did not observe any associations with GFAP blood levels, white matter grade, ventricular grade, mean bilateral hippocampal volume, or total brain volume.

CONCLUSION: Overall, our comprehensive investigation supports the evidence that ceramides and sphingomyelins are associated with increased aging brain pathology and that the direction of association depends on the fatty acid attached to the sphingosine backbone.

}, issn = {1664-2295}, doi = {10.3389/fneur.2024.1385623}, author = {Moseholm, Kristine F and Horn, Jens W and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Longstreth, W T and Lopez, Oscar L and Hoofnagle, Andrew N and Jensen, Majken K and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Mukamal, Kenneth J} } @article {9743, title = {Circulating sphingolipids in relation to cognitive decline and incident dementia: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Alzheimers Dement (Amst)}, volume = {16}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jul-Sep}, pages = {e12623}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: Whether circulating levels of sphingolipids are prospectively associated with cognitive decline and dementia risk is uncertain.

METHODS: We measured 14 sphingolipid species in plasma samples from 4488 participants (mean age 76.2 years; 40\% male; and 25\% apolipoprotein E ( ε4 allele carriers). Cognitive decline was assessed annually across 6 years using modified Mini-Mental State Examination (3MSE) and Digital Symbol Substitution Test (DSST). Additionally, a subset of 3050 participants were followed for clinically adjudicated dementia.

RESULTS: Higher plasma levels of sphingomyelin-d18:1/16:0 (SM-16) were associated with a faster cognitive decline measured with 3MSE, in contrast, higher levels of sphingomyelin-d18:1/22:0 (SM-22) were associated with slower decline in cognition measured with DSST. In Cox regression, higher levels of SM-16 (hazard ration [HR]~=~1.24 [95\% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08-1.44]) and ceramide-d18:1/16:0 (Cer-16) (HR~=~1.26 [95\% CI: 1.10-1.45]) were associated with higher risk of incident dementia.

DISCUSSION: Several sphingolipid species appear to be involved in cognitive decline and dementia risk.

HIGHLIGHTS: Plasma levels of sphingolipids were associated with cognitive decline and dementia risk.Ceramides and sphingomyelins with palmitic acid were associated with faster annual cognitive decline and increased risk of dementia.The direction of association depended on the covalently bound saturated fatty acid chain length in analysis of cognitive decline.

}, issn = {2352-8729}, doi = {10.1002/dad2.12623}, author = {Moseholm, Kristine F and Cronj{\'e}, H{\'e}l{\'e}ne T and Koch, Manja and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Lopez, Oscar L and Otto, Marcia C de Oliveira and Longstreth, W T and Hoofnagle, Andrew N and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Jensen, Majken K} } @article {9857, title = {{Cohort Profile: Dementia Risk Prediction Project (DRPP)}, journal = {Int J Epidemiol}, volume = {53}, year = {2024}, month = {Feb}, author = {Krefman, A. E. and Stephen, J. and Carolan, P. and Sedaghat, S. and Mansolf, M. and Soumare, A. and Gross, A. L. and Aiello, A. E. and Singh-Manoux, A. and Ikram, M. A. and Helmer, C. and Tzourio, C. and Satizabal, C. and Levine, D. A. and Lloyd-Jones, D. and o, E. M. and Sorond, F. A. and Wolters, F. J. and Himali, J. and Launer, L. J. and Zhao, L. and Haan, M. and Lopez, O. L. and Debette, S. and Seshadri, S. and Judd, S. E. and Hughes, T. M. and Gudnason, V. and Scholtens, D. and Allen, N. B.} } @article {9972, title = {Cumulative Systolic Blood Pressure and Incident Stroke Type Variation by Race and Ethnicity.}, journal = {JAMA Netw Open}, volume = {7}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 May 01}, pages = {e248502}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: Stroke risk varies by systolic blood pressure (SBP), race, and ethnicity. The association between cumulative mean SBP and incident stroke type is unclear, and whether this association differs by race and ethnicity remains unknown.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between cumulative mean SBP and first incident stroke among 3 major stroke types-ischemic stroke (IS), intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), and subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH)-and explore how these associations vary by race and ethnicity.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Individual participant data from 6 US longitudinal cohorts (January 1, 1971, to December 31, 2019) were pooled. The analysis was performed from January 1, 2022, to January 2, 2024. The median follow-up was 21.6 (IQR, 13.6-31.8) years.

EXPOSURE: Time-dependent cumulative mean SBP.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was time from baseline visit to first incident stroke. Secondary outcomes consisted of time to first incident IS, ICH, and SAH.

RESULTS: Among 40 016 participants, 38 167 who were 18 years or older at baseline with no history of stroke and at least 1 SBP measurement before the first incident stroke were included in the analysis. Of these, 54.0\% were women; 25.0\% were Black, 8.9\% were Hispanic of any race, and 66.2\% were White. The mean (SD) age at baseline was 53.4 (17.0) years and the mean (SD) SBP at baseline was 136.9 (20.4) mm Hg. A 10-mm Hg higher cumulative mean SBP was associated with a higher risk of overall stroke (hazard ratio [HR], 1.20 [95\% CI, 1.18-1.23]), IS (HR, 1.20 [95\% CI, 1.17-1.22]), and ICH (HR, 1.31 [95\% CI, 1.25-1.38]) but not SAH (HR, 1.13 [95\% CI, 0.99-1.29]; P = .06). Compared with White participants, Black participants had a higher risk of IS (HR, 1.20 [95\% CI, 1.09-1.33]) and ICH (HR, 1.67 [95\% CI, 1.30-2.13]) and Hispanic participants of any race had a higher risk of SAH (HR, 3.81 [95\% CI, 1.29-11.22]). There was no consistent evidence that race and ethnicity modified the association of cumulative mean SBP with first incident stroke and stroke type.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The findings of this cohort study suggest that cumulative mean SBP was associated with incident stroke type, but the associations did not differ by race and ethnicity. Culturally informed stroke prevention programs should address modifiable risk factors such as SBP along with social determinants of health and structural inequities in society.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Black or African American, Blood Pressure, Cerebral Hemorrhage, Ethnicity, Female, Hispanic or Latino, Humans, Hypertension, Incidence, Ischemic Stroke, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Racial Groups, Risk Factors, Stroke, Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, United States, White, White People}, issn = {2574-3805}, doi = {10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.8502}, author = {Johnson, Kimson E and Li, Hanyu and Zhang, Min and Springer, Mellanie V and Galecki, Andrzej T and Whitney, Rachael T and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Hayward, Rodney A and Sidney, Stephen and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Longstreth, W T and Heckbert, Susan R and Gerber, Yariv and Sullivan, Kevin J and Levine, Deborah A} } @article {9637, title = {Development and Validation of the American Heart Association{\textquoteright}s PREVENT Equations.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {149}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Feb 06}, pages = {430-449}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Multivariable equations are recommended by primary prevention guidelines to assess absolute risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, current equations have several limitations. Therefore, we developed and validated the American Heart Association Predicting Risk of CVD EVENTs (PREVENT) equations among US adults 30 to 79 years of age without known CVD.

METHODS: The derivation sample included individual-level participant data from 25 data sets (N=3 281 919) between 1992 and 2017. The primary outcome was CVD (atherosclerotic CVD and heart failure). Predictors included traditional risk factors (smoking status, systolic blood pressure, cholesterol, antihypertensive or statin use, and diabetes) and estimated glomerular filtration rate. Models were sex-specific, race-free, developed on the age scale, and adjusted for competing risk of non-CVD death. Analyses were conducted in each data set and meta-analyzed. Discrimination was assessed using the Harrell C-statistic. Calibration was calculated as the slope of the observed versus predicted risk by decile. Additional equations to predict each CVD subtype (atherosclerotic CVD and heart failure) and include optional predictors (urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio and hemoglobin A1c), and social deprivation index were also developed. External validation was performed in 3 330 085 participants from 21 additional data sets.

RESULTS: Among 6 612 004 adults included, mean{\textpm}SD age was 53{\textpm}12 years, and 56\% were women. Over a mean{\textpm}SD follow-up of 4.8{\textpm}3.1 years, there were 211 515 incident total CVD events. The median C-statistics in external validation for CVD were 0.794 (interquartile interval, 0.763-0.809) in female and 0.757 (0.727-0.778) in male participants. The calibration slopes were 1.03 (interquartile interval, 0.81-1.16) and 0.94 (0.81-1.13) among female and male participants, respectively. Similar estimates for discrimination and calibration were observed for atherosclerotic CVD- and heart failure-specific models. The improvement in discrimination was small but statistically significant when urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio, hemoglobin A1c, and social deprivation index were added together to the base model to total CVD (ΔC-statistic [interquartile interval] 0.004 [0.004-0.005] and 0.005 [0.004-0.007] among female and male participants, respectively). Calibration improved significantly when the urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio was added to the base model among those with marked albuminuria (>300 mg/g; 1.05 [0.84-1.20] versus 1.39 [1.14-1.65]; =0.01).

CONCLUSIONS: PREVENT equations accurately and precisely predicted risk for incident CVD and CVD subtypes in a large, diverse, and contemporary sample of US adults by using routinely available clinical variables.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Albumins, American Heart Association, Atherosclerosis, Cardiovascular Diseases, Creatinine, Female, Glycated Hemoglobin, Heart Failure, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.123.067626}, author = {Khan, Sadiya S and Matsushita, Kunihiro and Sang, Yingying and Ballew, Shoshana H and Grams, Morgan E and Surapaneni, Aditya and Blaha, Michael J and Carson, April P and Chang, Alexander R and Ciemins, Elizabeth and Go, Alan S and Gutierrez, Orlando M and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Jassal, Simerjot K and Kovesdy, Csaba P and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Shlipak, Michael G and Palaniappan, Latha P and Sperling, Laurence and Virani, Salim S and Tuttle, Katherine and Neeland, Ian J and Chow, Sheryl L and Rangaswami, Janani and Pencina, Michael J and Ndumele, Chiadi E and Coresh, Josef} } @article {9703, title = {Epigenetic and proteomic signatures associate with clonal hematopoiesis expansion rate.}, journal = {Nat Aging}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jun 04}, abstract = {

Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP), whereby somatic mutations in hematopoietic stem cells confer a selective advantage and drive clonal expansion, not only correlates with age but also confers increased risk of morbidity and mortality. Here, we leverage genetically predicted traits to identify factors that determine CHIP clonal expansion rate. We used the passenger-approximated clonal expansion rate method to quantify the clonal expansion rate for 4,370 individuals in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) cohort and calculated polygenic risk scores for DNA methylation aging, inflammation-related measures and circulating protein levels. Clonal expansion rate was significantly associated with both genetically predicted and measured epigenetic clocks. No associations were identified with inflammation-related lab values or diseases and CHIP expansion rate overall. A proteome-wide search identified predicted circulating levels of myeloid zinc finger 1 and anti-M{\"u}llerian hormone as associated with an increased CHIP clonal expansion rate and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 1 and glycine N-methyltransferase as associated with decreased CHIP clonal expansion rate. Together, our findings identify epigenetic and proteomic patterns associated with the rate of hematopoietic clonal expansion.

}, issn = {2662-8465}, doi = {10.1038/s43587-024-00647-7}, author = {Mack, Taralynn M and Raddatz, Michael A and Pershad, Yash and Nachun, Daniel C and Taylor, Kent D and Guo, Xiuqing and Shuldiner, Alan R and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Kenny, Eimear E and Loos, Ruth J F and Redline, Susan and Cade, Brian E and Psaty, Bruce M and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Silverman, Edwin K and Yun, Jeong H and Cho, Michael H and DeMeo, Dawn L and Levy, Daniel and Johnson, Andrew D and Mathias, Rasika A and Yanek, Lisa R and Heckbert, Susan R and Smith, Nicholas L and Wiggins, Kerri L and Raffield, Laura M and Carson, April P and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Manichaikul, Ani W and Gu, C Charles and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Lee, Wen-Jane and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Roden, Dan M and Kooperberg, Charles and Auer, Paul L and Desai, Pinkal and Blackwell, Thomas W and Smith, Albert V and Reiner, Alexander P and Jaiswal, Siddhartha and Weinstock, Joshua S and Bick, Alexander G} } @article {9742, title = {Epigenome-wide DNA Methylation Association Study of CHIP Provides Insight into Perturbed Gene Regulation.}, journal = {Res Sq}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jul 16}, abstract = {

With age, hematopoietic stem cells can acquire somatic mutations in leukemogenic genes that confer a proliferative advantage in a phenomenon termed "clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential" (CHIP). How these mutations confer a proliferative advantage and result in increased risk for numerous age-related diseases remains poorly understood. We conducted a multiracial meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) of CHIP and its subtypes in four cohorts (N=8196) to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying CHIP and illuminate how these changes influence cardiovascular disease risk. The EWAS findings were functionally validated using human hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) models of CHIP. A total of 9615 CpGs were associated with any CHIP, 5990 with DNMT3A CHIP, 5633 with TET2 CHIP, and 6078 with ASXL1 CHIP (P <1{\texttimes}10). CpGs associated with CHIP subtypes overlapped moderately, and the genome-wide DNA methylation directions of effect were opposite for TET2 and DNMT3A CHIP, consistent with their opposing effects on global DNA methylation. There was high directional concordance between the CpGs shared from the meta-EWAS and human edited CHIP HSCs. Expression quantitative trait methylation analysis further identified transcriptomic changes associated with CHIP-associated CpGs. Causal inference analyses revealed 261 CHIP-associated CpGs associated with cardiovascular traits and all-cause mortality (FDR adjusted p-value <0.05). Taken together, our study sheds light on the epigenetic changes impacted by CHIP and their associations with age-related disease outcomes. The novel genes and pathways linked to the epigenetic features of CHIP may serve as therapeutic targets for preventing or treating CHIP-mediated diseases.

}, issn = {2693-5015}, doi = {10.21203/rs.3.rs-4656898/v1}, author = {Levy, Daniel and Kirmani, Sara and Huan, Tianxiao and Van Amburg, Joseph and Joehanes, Roby and Uddin, Md Mesbah and Nguyen, Ngoc Quynh and Yu, Bing and Brody, Jennifer and Fornage, Myriam and Bressler, Jan and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Ong, David and Puddu, Fabio and Floyd, James and Ballantyne, Christie and Psaty, Bruce and Raffield, Laura and Natarajan, Pradeep and Conneely, Karen and Carson, April and Lange, Leslie and Ferrier, Kendra and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Murabito, Joanne and Bick, Alexander} } @article {9851, title = {The expected polygenic risk score (ePRS) framework: an equitable metric for quantifying polygenetic risk via modeling of ancestral makeup.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Dec 20}, abstract = {

Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) depend on genetic ancestry due to differences in allele frequencies between ancestral populations. This leads to implementation challenges in diverse populations. We propose a framework to calibrate PRS based on ancestral makeup. We define a metric called "expected PRS" (ePRS), the expected value of a PRS based on one{\textquoteright}s global or local admixture patterns. We further define the "residual PRS" (rPRS), measuring the deviation of the PRS from the ePRS. Simulation studies confirm that it suffices to adjust for ePRS to obtain nearly unbiased estimates of the PRS-outcome association without further adjusting for PCs. Using the TOPMed dataset, the estimated effect size of the rPRS adjusting for the ePRS is similar to the estimated effect of the PRS adjusting for genetic PCs. Similarly, we applied the ePRS framework to six cardiovascular-related traits in the All of Us dataset, and the results are consistent with those from the TOPMed analysis. The ePRS framework can protect from population stratification in association analysis and provide an equitable strategy to quantify genetic risk across diverse populations.

}, doi = {10.1101/2024.03.05.24303738}, author = {Huang, Yu-Jyun and Kurniansyah, Nuzulul and Goodman, Matthew O and Spitzer, Brian W and Wang, Jiongming and Stilp, Adrienne and Laurie, Cecelia and de Vries, Paul S and Chen, Han and Min, Yuan-I and Sims, Mario and Peloso, Gina M and Guo, Xiuqing and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Raffield, Laura M and Smith, Jennifer A and Zhao, Wei and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Redline, Susan and Fornage, Myriam and Kaplan, Robert and Franceschini, Nora and Levy, Daniel and Morrison, Alanna C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Smith, Nicholas L and Kooperberg, Charles and Psaty, Bruce M and Z{\"o}llner, Sebastian and Sofer, Tamar} } @article {9620, title = {Familial Hypercholesterolemia Variant and Cardiovascular Risk in Individuals With Elevated Cholesterol.}, journal = {JAMA Cardiol}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jan 31}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a genetic disorder that often results in severely high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and high risk of premature coronary heart disease (CHD). However, the impact of FH variants on CHD risk among individuals with moderately elevated LDL-C is not well quantified.

OBJECTIVE: To assess CHD risk associated with FH variants among individuals with moderately (130-189 mg/dL) and severely (>=190 mg/dL) elevated LDL-C and to quantify excess CHD deaths attributable to FH variants in US adults.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A total of 21 426 individuals without preexisting CHD from 6 US cohort studies (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, Cardiovascular Health Study, Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort, Jackson Heart Study, and Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis) were included, 63 of whom had an FH variant. Data were collected from 1971 to 2018, and the median (IQR) follow-up was 18 (13-28) years. Data were analyzed from March to May 2023.

EXPOSURES: LDL-C, cumulative past LDL-C, FH variant status.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Cox proportional hazards models estimated associations between FH variants and incident CHD. The Cardiovascular Disease Policy Model projected excess CHD deaths associated with FH variants in US adults.

RESULTS: Of the 21 426 individuals without preexisting CHD (mean [SD] age 52.1 [15.5] years; 12 041 [56.2\%] female), an FH variant was found in 22 individuals with moderately elevated LDL-C (0.3\%) and in 33 individuals with severely elevated LDL-C (2.5\%). The adjusted hazard ratios for incident CHD comparing those with and without FH variants were 2.9 (95\% CI, 1.4-6.0) and 2.6 (95\% CI, 1.4-4.9) among individuals with moderately and severely elevated LDL-C, respectively. The association between FH variants and CHD was slightly attenuated when further adjusting for baseline LDL-C level, whereas the association was no longer statistically significant after adjusting for cumulative past LDL-C exposure. Among US adults 20 years and older with no history of CHD and LDL-C 130 mg/dL or higher, more than 417 000 carry an FH variant and were projected to experience more than 12 000 excess CHD deaths in those with moderately elevated LDL-C and 15 000 in those with severely elevated LDL-C compared with individuals without an FH variant.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this pooled cohort study, the presence of FH variants was associated with a 2-fold higher CHD risk, even when LDL-C was only moderately elevated. The increased CHD risk appeared to be largely explained by the higher cumulative LDL-C exposure in individuals with an FH variant compared to those without. Further research is needed to assess the value of adding genetic testing to traditional phenotypic FH screening.

}, issn = {2380-6591}, doi = {10.1001/jamacardio.2023.5366}, author = {Zhang, Yiyi and Dron, Jacqueline S and Bellows, Brandon K and Khera, Amit V and Liu, Junxiu and Balte, Pallavi P and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Amr, Sami Samir and Lebo, Matthew S and Nagy, Anna and Peloso, Gina M and Natarajan, Pradeep and Rotter, Jerome I and Willer, Cristen and Boerwinkle, Eric and Ballantyne, Christie M and Lutsey, Pamela L and Fornage, Myriam and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Hou, Lifang and Psaty, Bruce M and Bis, Joshua C and Floyd, James S and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Carson, April P and Hall, Michael E and Rich, Stephen S and Guo, Xiuqing and Kazi, Dhruv S and de Ferranti, Sarah D and Moran, Andrew E} } @article {9861, title = {Gene-Excessive Sleepiness Interactions Suggest Treatment Targets for Obstructive Sleep Apnea Subtype.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Oct 28}, abstract = {

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a multifactorial sleep disorder characterized by a strong genetic basis. Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is a symptom that is reported by a subset of OSA patients, persisting even after treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). It is recognized as a clinical subtype underlying OSA carrying alarming heightened cardiovascular risk. Thus, conceptualizing EDS as an exposure variable, we sought to investigate EDS{\textquoteright}s influence on genetic variation linked to apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), a diagnostic measure of OSA severity. This study serves as the first large-scale genome-wide gene x environment interaction analysis for AHI, investigating the interplay between its genetic markers and EDS across and within specific sex. Our work pools together whole genome sequencing data from seven cohorts, enabling a diverse dataset (four population backgrounds) of over 11,500 samples. Among the total 16 discovered genetic targets with interaction evidence with EDS, eight are previously unreported for OSA, including , , and identified in all sexes; , , and identified in males; and and identified in females. We discuss connections to insulin resistance, thiamine deficiency, and resveratrol use that may be worthy of therapeutic consideration for excessively sleepy OSA patients.

}, doi = {10.1101/2024.10.25.24316158}, author = {Nagarajan, Pavithra and Kurniansyah, Nuzulul and Lee, Jiwon and Gharib, Sina A and Xu, Yushan and Zhang, Yiyan and Spitzer, Brian and Faquih, Tariq and Zhou, Hufeng and Boerwinkle, Eric and Chen, Han and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Guo, Xiuqing and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Hidalgo, Bertha A and Levy, Daniel and Liu, Peter Y and Mei, Hao and Montalvan, Rebecca and Mukherjee, Sutapa and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Conner, George T and Palmer, Lyle J and Patel, Sanjay R and Psaty, Bruce M and Purcell, Shaun M and Raffield, Laura M and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Saxena, Richa and Smith, Albert V and Stone, Katie L and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Cade, Brian E and Sofer, Tamar and Redline, Susan and Wang, Heming} } @article {9644, title = {{A genetic association study of circulating coagulation Factor VIII and von Willebrand Factor levels}, journal = {Blood}, year = {2024}, month = {Feb}, abstract = {10-9) at seven new loci for FVIII (ST3GAL4, CLEC4M, B3GNT2, ASGR1, F12, KNG1, and TREM1/NCR2) and one for VWF (B3GNT2). VWF, ABO, and STAB2 were associated with FVIII and VWF in gene-based analyses. Multi-phenotype analysis of FVIII and VWF identified another three new loci, including PDIA3. Silencing of B3GNT2 and the previously reported CD36 gene decreased release of FVIII by HLECs, while silencing of B3GNT2, CD36, and PDIA3 decreased release of VWF by HVECs. Mendelian randomization supports causal association of higher FVIII and VWF with increased risk of thrombotic outcomes. Seven new loci were identified for FVIII and one for VWF, with evidence supporting causal associations of FVIII and VWF with thrombotic outcomes. B3GNT2, CD36, and PDIA3 modulate the release of FVIII and/or VWF in vitro.}, author = {de Vries, P. S. and Reventun, P. and Brown, M. R. and Heath, A. S. and Huffman, J. E. and Le, N. Q. and Bebo, A. and Brody, J. A. and Temprano-Sagrera, G. and Raffield, L. M. and Ozel, A. B. and Thibord, F. and Jain, D. and Lewis, J. P. and Rodriguez, B. A. T. and Pankratz, N. and Taylor, K. D. and Polasek, O. and Chen, M. H. and Yanek, L. R. and Carrasquilla, G. D. and Marioni, R. and Kleber, M. E. and t, D. A. and Yao, J. and Li-Gao, R. and Joshi, P. K. and Trompet, S. and Martinez-Perez, A. and Ghanbari, M. and Howard, T. E. and Reiner, A. P. and Arvanitis, M. and Ryan, K. A. and Bartz, T. M. and Rudan, I. and Faraday, N. and Linneberg, A. and Ekunwe, L. and Davies, G. and Delgado, G. E. and Suchon, P. and Guo, X. and Rosendaal, F. R. and Klaric, L. and Noordam, R. and van Rooij, F. and Curran, J. E. and Wheeler, M. M. and Osburn, W. O. and O{\textquoteright}Connell, J. R. and Boerwinkle, E. and Beswick, A. and Psaty, B. M. and Kolcic, I. and Souto, J. C. and Becker, L. C. and Hansen, T. and Doyle, M. F. and Harris, S. E. and Moissl, A. P. and Deleuze, J. F. and Rich, S. S. and van Hylckama Vlieg, A. and Campbell, H. and Stott, D. J. and Soria, J. M. and de Maat, M. P. M. and Almasy, L. and Brody, L. C. and Auer, P. L. and Mitchell, B. D. and Ben-Shlomo, Y. and Fornage, M. and Hayward, C. and Mathias, R. A. and inen, T. O. and Lange, L. A. and Cox, S. R. and rz, W. and Morange, P. E. and Rotter, J. I. and Mook-Kanamori, D. O. and Wilson, J. F. and van der Harst, P. and Jukema, J. W. and Ikram, M. A. and Blangero, J. and Kooperberg, C. and Desch, K. C. and Johnson, A. D. and Sabater-Lleal, M. and Lowenstein, C. J. and Smith, N. L. and Morrison, A. C.} } @article {9639, title = {{Genetic associations with dementia-related proteinopathy: Application of item response theory}, journal = {Alzheimers Dement}, year = {2024}, month = {Mar}, abstract = {Although dementia-related proteinopathy has a strong negative impact on public health, and is highly heritable, understanding of the related genetic architecture is incomplete.\ -synuclein, and TDP-43.\ -synuclein/Lewy bodies. Novel suggestive proteinopathy-linked alleles were also discovered, including several (SDHAF1, TMEM68, and ARHGEF28) with colocalization analyses and/or high degrees of biologic credibility.\ A novel methodology using GPCM enabled insights into gene candidates for driving misfolded proteinopathies.\ Latent factor scores for proteinopathies were estimated using a generalized partial credit model. The three latent continuous scores corresponded well with proteinopathy severity. Novel genes associated with proteinopathies were identified. Several genes had high degrees of biologic credibility for dementia risk factors.}, author = {Katsumata, Y. and Fardo, D. W. and Shade, L. M. P. and Wu, X. and Karanth, S. D. and Hohman, T. J. and Schneider, J. A. and Bennett, D. A. and Farfel, J. M. and Gauthreaux, K. and Mock, C. and Kukull, W. A. and Abner, E. L. and Nelson, P. T. and Carrillo, M. and Reiman, E. M. and Chen, K. and Masterman, D. and Green, R. C. and Ho, C. and Fleisher, A. and Saykin, A. J. and Nho, K. and Apostolova, L. G. and Risacher, S. L. and Jackson, J. and Forghanian-Arani, A. and Borowski, B. and Ward, C. and Schwarz, C. and Jack, C. R. and Jones, D. and Gunter, J. and Kantarci, K. and Senjem, M. and Vemuri, P. and Reid, R. and Petersen, R. and Hsiao, J. K. and Potter, W. and Masliah, E. and Hsiao, J. K. and Ryan, L. and Bernard, M. and Silverberg, N. and Kormos, A. and Conti, C. and Veitch, D. and Flenniken, D. and Sacrey, D. T. and Choe, M. and Ashford, M. and Chen, S. R. and Faber, K. and Nudelman, K. and Wilme, K. and Foroud, T. M. and Trojanowki, J. Q. and Shaw, L. M. and Korecka, M. and Figurski, M. and Khachaturian, Z. and Barnes, L. and Malone, I. and Fox, N. C. and Beckett, L. and Weiner, M. W. and Jagust, W. and Landau, S. and Jagust, W. and Knaack, A. and DeCarli, C. and Harvey, D. and Fletcher, E. and Beckett, L. and lez, H. and Jin, C. and Tosun-Turgut, D. and Neuhaus, J. and Fockler, J. and Nosheny, R. and Koeppe, R. A. and Trojanowki, J. Q. and Shaw, L. M. and Yushkevich, P. A. and Das, S. and Mathis, C. and Toga, A. W. and Zimmerman, C. and Gessert, D. and Shcrer, E. and Miller, G. and Coker, G. and Jimenez, G. and Salazar, J. and Pizzola, J. and Crawford, K. and Hergesheimer, L. and Donohue, M. and Rafii, M. and Adegoke, O. and Aisen, P. and Mahboubi, P. and Raman, R. and Walter, S. and Neu, S. and Moore, S. and Smith, S. and Clanton, T. and Cabrera, Y. and Donohue, M. and Jahanshad, N. and Thompson, P. and Thomopoulos, S. I. and Nir, T. M. and Crawford, K. and Montine, T. and Okonkwo, O. and Shen, L. and Perrin, R. and Franklin, E. and Householder, E. and Bernhardt, H. and Morris, J. C. and Taylor-Reinwald, L. and Cairns, N. J. and Perrin, R. J. and Biber, S. and Welsch, J. and Rosentreter, H. and Fair, B. and Young, A. and Hale, B. and Hockens, V. and Buckley, F. and Ida, A. and Xia, J. and Almeda, E. and Stephens, K. A. and Shibata, D. K. and Chan, K. C. G. and Longstreth, W. and Che, Y. C. and Culhane, J. and Miller, Z. and Yasuda, S. and Mooney, S. and Hubbard, J. and Keller, B. and Stark, Z. and Wu, J. and Mcleod, L. and Hewanadungodage, C. and Smith, B.} } @article {9706, title = {Genetic Complexities of Cerebral Small Vessel Disease, Blood Pressure, and Dementia.}, journal = {JAMA Netw Open}, volume = {7}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 May 01}, pages = {e2412824}, abstract = {

IMPORTANCE: Vascular disease is a treatable contributor to dementia risk, but the role of specific markers remains unclear, making prevention strategies uncertain.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the causal association between white matter hyperintensity (WMH) burden, clinical stroke, blood pressure (BP), and dementia risk, while accounting for potential epidemiologic biases.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This study first examined the association of genetically determined WMH burden, stroke, and BP levels with Alzheimer disease (AD) in a 2-sample mendelian randomization (2SMR) framework. Second, using population-based studies (1979-2018) with prospective dementia surveillance, the genetic association of WMH, stroke, and BP with incident all-cause dementia was examined. Data analysis was performed from July 26, 2020, through July 24, 2022.

EXPOSURES: Genetically determined WMH burden and BP levels, as well as genetic liability to stroke derived from genome-wide association studies (GWASs) in European ancestry populations.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The association of genetic instruments for WMH, stroke, and BP with dementia was studied using GWASs of AD (defined clinically and additionally meta-analyzed including both clinically diagnosed AD and AD defined based on parental history [AD-meta]) for 2SMR and incident all-cause dementia for longitudinal analyses.

RESULTS: In 2SMR (summary statistics-based) analyses using AD GWASs with up to 75 024 AD cases (mean [SD] age at AD onset, 75.5 [4.4] years; 56.9\% women), larger WMH burden showed evidence for a causal association with increased risk of AD (odds ratio [OR], 1.43; 95\% CI, 1.10-1.86; P = .007, per unit increase in WMH risk alleles) and AD-meta (OR, 1.19; 95\% CI, 1.06-1.34; P = .008), after accounting for pulse pressure for the former. Blood pressure traits showed evidence for a protective association with AD, with evidence for confounding by shared genetic instruments. In the longitudinal (individual-level data) analyses involving 10 699 incident all-cause dementia cases (mean [SD] age at dementia diagnosis, 74.4 [9.1] years; 55.4\% women), no significant association was observed between larger WMH burden and incident all-cause dementia (hazard ratio [HR], 1.02; 95\% CI, 1.00-1.04; P = .07). Although all exposures were associated with mortality, with the strongest association observed for systolic BP (HR, 1.04; 95\% CI, 1.03-1.06; P = 1.9 {\texttimes} 10-14), there was no evidence for selective survival bias during follow-up using illness-death models. In secondary analyses using polygenic scores, the association of genetic liability to stroke, but not genetically determined WMH, with dementia outcomes was attenuated after adjusting for interim stroke.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that WMH is a primary vascular factor associated with dementia risk, emphasizing its significance in preventive strategies for dementia. Future studies are warranted to examine whether this finding can be generalized to non-European populations.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Blood Pressure, Cerebral Small Vessel Diseases, Dementia, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Stroke}, issn = {2574-3805}, doi = {10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.12824}, author = {Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Soumar{\'e}, A{\"\i}cha and Bis, Joshua C and Surakka, Ida and J{\"u}rgenson, Tuuli and Joly, Pierre and Knol, Maria J and Wang, Ruiqi and Yang, Qiong and Satizabal, Claudia L and Gudjonsson, Alexander and Mishra, Aniket and Bouteloup, Vincent and Phuah, Chia-Ling and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Cruchaga, Carlos and Dufouil, Carole and Chene, Genevi{\`e}ve and Lopez, Oscar L and Psaty, Bruce M and Tzourio, Christophe and Amouyel, Philippe and Adams, Hieab H and Jacqmin-Gadda, H{\'e}l{\`e}ne and Ikram, Mohammad Arfan and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Milani, Lili and Winsvold, Bendik S and Hveem, Kristian and Matthews, Paul M and Longstreth, W T and Seshadri, Sudha and Launer, Lenore J and Debette, Stephanie} } @article {9749, title = {The Genetic Determinants and Genomic Consequences of Non-Leukemogenic Somatic Point Mutations.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Aug 26}, abstract = {

Clonal hematopoiesis (CH) is defined by the expansion of a lineage of genetically identical cells in blood. Genetic lesions that confer a fitness advantage, such as point mutations or mosaic chromosomal alterations (mCAs) in genes associated with hematologic malignancy, are frequent mediators of CH. However, recent analyses of both single cell-derived colonies of hematopoietic cells and population sequencing cohorts have revealed CH frequently occurs in the absence of known driver genetic lesions. To characterize CH without known driver genetic lesions, we used 51,399 deeply sequenced whole genomes from the NHLBI TOPMed sequencing initiative to perform simultaneous germline and somatic mutation analyses among individuals without leukemogenic point mutations (LPM), which we term CH-LPMneg. We quantified CH by estimating the total mutation burden. Because estimating somatic mutation burden without a paired-tissue sample is challenging, we developed a novel statistical method, the Genomic and Epigenomic informed Mutation (GEM) rate, that uses external genomic and epigenomic data sources to distinguish artifactual signals from true somatic mutations. We performed a genome-wide association study of GEM to discover the germline determinants of CH-LPMneg. After fine-mapping and variant-to-gene analyses, we identified seven genes associated with CH-LPMneg ( , , ), and one locus associated with a sex-associated mutation pathway ( . We performed a secondary analysis excluding individuals with mCAs, finding that the genetic architecture was largely unaffected by their inclusion. Functional analyses of and implicated altered HSC self-renewal and proliferation as the primary mediator of mutation burden in blood. We then performed comprehensive multi-tissue transcriptomic analyses, finding that the expression levels of 404 genes are associated with GEM. Finally, we performed phenotypic association meta-analyses across four cohorts, finding that GEM is associated with increased white blood cell count and increased risk for incident peripheral artery disease, but is not significantly associated with incident stroke or coronary disease events. Overall, we develop GEM for quantifying mutation burden from WGS without a paired-tissue sample and use GEM to discover the genetic, genomic, and phenotypic correlates of CH-LPMneg.

}, doi = {10.1101/2024.08.22.24312319}, author = {Weinstock, Joshua S and Chaudhry, Sharjeel A and Ioannou, Maria and Viskadourou, Maria and Reventun, Paula and Jakubek, Yasminka A and Alexander Liggett, L and Laurie, Cecelia and Broome, Jai G and Khan, Alyna and Taylor, Kent D and Guo, Xiuqing and Peyser, Patricia A and Boerwinkle, Eric and Chami, Nathalie and Kenny, Eimear E and Loos, Ruth J and Psaty, Bruce M and Russell, Tracy P and Brody, Jennifer A and Yun, Jeong H and Cho, Michael H and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Kardia, Sharon L and Smith, Jennifer A and Raffield, Laura M and Bidulescu, Aurelian and O{\textquoteright}Brien, Emily and de Andrade, Mariza and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Tracy, Russell P and Chen, Yii Der Ida and Gu, C Charles and Hsiung, Chao A and Kooperberg, Charles and Haring, Bernhard and Nassir, Rami and Mathias, Rasika and Reiner, Alex and Sankaran, Vijay and Lowenstein, Charles J and Blackwell, Thomas W and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Smith, Albert V and Kang, Hyun M and Natarajan, Pradeep and Jaiswal, Siddhartha and Bick, Alexander and Post, Wendy S and Scheet, Paul and Auer, Paul and Karantanos, Theodoros and Battle, Alexis and Arvanitis, Marios} } @article {9619, title = {Genetic drivers of heterogeneity in type 2 diabetes pathophysiology.}, journal = {Nature}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Feb 19}, abstract = {

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a heterogeneous disease that develops through diverse pathophysiological processes and molecular mechanisms that are often specific to cell type. Here, to characterize the genetic contribution to these processes across ancestry groups, we aggregate genome-wide association study data from 2,535,601 individuals (39.7\% not of European ancestry), including 428,452 cases of T2D. We identify 1,289 independent association signals at genome-wide significance (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10) that map to 611 loci, of which 145 loci are, to our knowledge, previously unreported. We define eight non-overlapping clusters of T2D signals that are characterized by distinct profiles of cardiometabolic trait associations. These clusters are differentially enriched for cell-type-specific regions of open chromatin, including pancreatic islets, adipocytes, endothelial cells and enteroendocrine cells. We build cluster-specific partitioned polygenic scores in a further 279,552 individuals of diverse ancestry, including 30,288 cases of T2D, and test their association with T2D-related vascular outcomes. Cluster-specific partitioned polygenic scores are associated with coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease and end-stage diabetic nephropathy across ancestry groups, highlighting the importance of obesity-related processes in the development of vascular outcomes. Our findings show the value of integrating multi-ancestry genome-wide association study data with single-cell epigenomics to disentangle the aetiological heterogeneity that drives the development and progression of T2D. This might offer a route to optimize global access to genetically informed diabetes care.

}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-024-07019-6}, author = {Suzuki, Ken and Hatzikotoulas, Konstantinos and Southam, Lorraine and Taylor, Henry J and Yin, Xianyong and Lorenz, Kim M and Mandla, Ravi and Huerta-Chagoya, Alicia and Melloni, Giorgio E M and Kanoni, Stavroula and Rayner, Nigel W and Bocher, Ozvan and Arruda, Ana Luiza and Sonehara, Kyuto and Namba, Shinichi and Lee, Simon S K and Preuss, Michael H and Petty, Lauren E and Schroeder, Philip and Vanderwerff, Brett and Kals, Mart and Bragg, Fiona and Lin, Kuang and Guo, Xiuqing and Zhang, Weihua and Yao, Jie and Kim, Young Jin and Graff, Mariaelisa and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Nano, Jana and Lamri, Amel and Nakatochi, Masahiro and Moon, Sanghoon and Scott, Robert A and Cook, James P and Lee, Jung-Jin and Pan, Ian and Taliun, Daniel and Parra, Esteban J and Chai, Jin-Fang and Bielak, Lawrence F and Tabara, Yasuharu and Hai, Yang and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Grarup, Niels and Sofer, Tamar and Wuttke, Matthias and Sarnowski, Chloe and Gieger, Christian and Nousome, Darryl and Trompet, Stella and Kwak, Soo-Heon and Long, Jirong and Sun, Meng and Tong, Lin and Chen, Wei-Min and Nongmaithem, Suraj S and Noordam, Raymond and Lim, Victor J Y and Tam, Claudia H T and Joo, Yoonjung Yoonie and Chen, Chien-Hsiun and Raffield, Laura M and Prins, Bram Peter and Nicolas, Aude and Yanek, Lisa R and Chen, Guanjie and Brody, Jennifer A and Kabagambe, Edmond and An, Ping and Xiang, Anny H and Choi, Hyeok Sun and Cade, Brian E and Tan, Jingyi and Broadaway, K Alaine and Williamson, Alice and Kamali, Zoha and Cui, Jinrui and Thangam, Manonanthini and Adair, Linda S and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Aguilar-Salinas, Carlos A and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Anand, Sonia S and Bertoni, Alain and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Brandslund, Ivan and Buchanan, Thomas A and Burant, Charles F and Butterworth, Adam S and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chan, Juliana C N and Chang, Li-Ching and Chee, Miao-Li and Chen, Ji and Chen, Shyh-Huei and Chen, Yuan-Tsong and Chen, Zhengming and Chuang, Lee-Ming and Cushman, Mary and Danesh, John and Das, Swapan K and de Silva, H Janaka and Dedoussis, George and Dimitrov, Latchezar and Doumatey, Ayo P and Du, Shufa and Duan, Qing and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Emery, Leslie S and Evans, Daniel S and Evans, Michele K and Fischer, Krista and Floyd, James S and Ford, Ian and Franco, Oscar H and Frayling, Timothy M and Freedman, Barry I and Genter, Pauline and Gerstein, Hertzel C and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Gonz{\'a}lez-Villalpando, Clicerio and Gonzalez-Villalpando, Maria Elena and Gordon-Larsen, Penny and Gross, Myron and Guare, Lindsay A and Hackinger, Sophie and Hakaste, Liisa and Han, Sohee and Hattersley, Andrew T and Herder, Christian and Horikoshi, Momoko and Howard, Annie-Green and Hsueh, Willa and Huang, Mengna and Huang, Wei and Hung, Yi-Jen and Hwang, Mi Yeong and Hwu, Chii-Min and Ichihara, Sahoko and Ikram, Mohammad Arfan and Ingelsson, Martin and Islam, Md Tariqul and Isono, Masato and Jang, Hye-Mi and Jasmine, Farzana and Jiang, Guozhi and Jonas, Jost B and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Kamanu, Frederick K and Kandeel, Fouad R and Kasturiratne, Anuradhani and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Kaur, Varinderpal and Kawaguchi, Takahisa and Keaton, Jacob M and Kho, Abel N and Khor, Chiea-Chuen and Kibriya, Muhammad G and Kim, Duk-Hwan and Kronenberg, Florian and Kuusisto, Johanna and L{\"a}ll, Kristi and Lange, Leslie A and Lee, Kyung Min and Lee, Myung-Shik and Lee, Nanette R and Leong, Aaron and Li, Liming and Li, Yun and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Ligthart, Symen and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Jianjun and Locke, Adam E and Louie, Tin and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Luk, Andrea O and Luo, Xi and Lv, Jun and Lynch, Julie A and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Maeda, Shiro and Mamakou, Vasiliki and Mansuri, Sohail Rafik and Matsuda, Koichi and Meitinger, Thomas and Melander, Olle and Metspalu, Andres and Mo, Huan and Morris, Andrew D and Moura, Filipe A and Nadler, Jerry L and Nalls, Michael A and Nayak, Uma and Ntalla, Ioanna and Okada, Yukinori and Orozco, Lorena and Patel, Sanjay R and Patil, Snehal and Pei, Pei and Pereira, Mark A and Peters, Annette and Pirie, Fraser J and Polikowsky, Hannah G and Porneala, Bianca and Prasad, Gauri and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Reiner, Alexander P and Roden, Michael and Rohde, Rebecca and Roll, Katheryn and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Sandow, Kevin and Sankareswaran, Alagu and Sattar, Naveed and Sch{\"o}nherr, Sebastian and Shahriar, Mohammad and Shen, Botong and Shi, Jinxiu and Shin, Dong Mun and Shojima, Nobuhiro and Smith, Jennifer A and So, Wing Yee and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Stilp, Adrienne M and Strauch, Konstantin and Taylor, Kent D and Thorand, Barbara and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tomlinson, Brian and Tran, Tam C and Tsai, Fuu-Jen and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tusi{\'e}-Luna, Teresa and Udler, Miriam S and Valladares-Salgado, Adan and van Dam, Rob M and van Klinken, Jan B and Varma, Rohit and Wacher-Rodarte, Niels and Wheeler, Eleanor and Wickremasinghe, Ananda R and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Witte, Daniel R and Yajnik, Chittaranjan S and Yamamoto, Ken and Yamamoto, Kenichi and Yoon, Kyungheon and Yu, Canqing and Yuan, Jian-Min and Yusuf, Salim and Zawistowski, Matthew and Zhang, Liang and Zheng, Wei and Raffel, Leslie J and Igase, Michiya and Ipp, Eli and Redline, Susan and Cho, Yoon Shin and Lind, Lars and Province, Michael A and Fornage, Myriam and Hanis, Craig L and Ingelsson, Erik and Zonderman, Alan B and Psaty, Bruce M and Wang, Ya-Xing and Rotimi, Charles N and Becker, Diane M and Matsuda, Fumihiko and Liu, Yongmei and Yokota, Mitsuhiro and Kardia, Sharon L R and Peyser, Patricia A and Pankow, James S and Engert, James C and Bonnefond, Am{\'e}lie and Froguel, Philippe and Wilson, James G and Sheu, Wayne H H and Wu, Jer-Yuarn and Hayes, M Geoffrey and Ma, Ronald C W and Wong, Tien-Yin and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and Chandak, Giriraj R and Collins, Francis S and Bharadwaj, Dwaipayan and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Ahsan, Habibul and Motala, Ayesha A and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Park, Kyong-Soo and Jukema, J Wouter and Cruz, Miguel and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Rich, Stephen S and McKean-Cowdin, Roberta and Grallert, Harald and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Tai, E-Shyong and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Kato, Norihiro and Laakso, Markku and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Koh, Woon-Puay and Bowden, Donald W and Palmer, Colin N A and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kooperberg, Charles and Liu, Simin and North, Kari E and Saleheen, Danish and Hansen, Torben and Pedersen, Oluf and Wareham, Nicholas J and Lee, Juyoung and Kim, Bong-Jo and Millwood, Iona Y and Walters, Robin G and Stefansson, Kari and Ahlqvist, Emma and Goodarzi, Mark O and Mohlke, Karen L and Langenberg, Claudia and Haiman, Christopher A and Loos, Ruth J F and Florez, Jose C and Rader, Daniel J and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Z{\"o}llner, Sebastian and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Marston, Nicholas A and Ruff, Christian T and van Heel, David A and Finer, Sarah and Denny, Joshua C and Yamauchi, Toshimasa and Kadowaki, Takashi and Chambers, John C and Ng, Maggie C Y and Sim, Xueling and Below, Jennifer E and Tsao, Philip S and Chang, Kyong-Mi and McCarthy, Mark I and Meigs, James B and Mahajan, Anubha and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Mercader, Josep M and Boehnke, Michael and Rotter, Jerome I and Vujkovic, Marijana and Voight, Benjamin F and Morris, Andrew P and Zeggini, Eleftheria} } @article {9666, title = {Genome-wide analysis in over 1 million individuals of European ancestry yields improved polygenic risk scores for blood pressure traits.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Apr 30}, abstract = {

Hypertension affects more than one billion people worldwide. Here we identify 113 novel loci, reporting a total of 2,103 independent genetic signals (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10) from the largest single-stage blood pressure (BP) genome-wide association study to date (n = 1,028,980 European individuals). These associations explain more than 60\% of single nucleotide polymorphism-based BP heritability. Comparing top versus bottom deciles of polygenic risk scores (PRSs) reveals clinically meaningful differences in BP (16.9 mmHg systolic BP, 95\% CI, 15.5-18.2 mmHg, P = 2.22 {\texttimes} 10) and more than a sevenfold higher odds of hypertension risk (odds ratio, 7.33; 95\% CI, 5.54-9.70; P = 4.13 {\texttimes} 10) in an independent dataset. Adding PRS into hypertension-prediction models increased the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) from 0.791 (95\% CI, 0.781-0.801) to 0.826 (95\% CI, 0.817-0.836, ∆AUROC, 0.035, P = 1.98 {\texttimes} 10). We compare the 2,103 loci results in non-European ancestries and show significant PRS associations in a large African-American sample. Secondary analyses implicate 500 genes previously unreported for BP. Our study highlights the role of increasingly large genomic studies for precision health research.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-024-01714-w}, author = {Keaton, Jacob M and Kamali, Zoha and Xie, Tian and Vaez, Ahmad and Williams, Ariel and Goleva, Slavina B and Ani, Alireza and Evangelou, Evangelos and Hellwege, Jacklyn N and Yengo, Loic and Young, William J and Traylor, Matthew and Giri, Ayush and Zheng, Zhili and Zeng, Jian and Chasman, Daniel I and Morris, Andrew P and Caulfield, Mark J and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Kooner, Jaspal S and Conen, David and Attia, John R and Morrison, Alanna C and Loos, Ruth J F and Kristiansson, Kati and Schmidt, Reinhold and Hicks, Andrew A and Pramstaller, Peter P and Nelson, Christopher P and Samani, Nilesh J and Risch, Lorenz and Gyllensten, Ulf and Melander, Olle and Riese, Harri{\"e}tte and Wilson, James F and Campbell, Harry and Rich, Stephen S and Psaty, Bruce M and Lu, Yingchang and Rotter, Jerome I and Guo, Xiuqing and Rice, Kenneth M and Vollenweider, Peter and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Langenberg, Claudia and Tobin, Martin D and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Ripatti, Samuli and Salomaa, Veikko and Girotto, Giorgia and Trompet, Stella and Jukema, J Wouter and van der Harst, Pim and Ridker, Paul M and Giulianini, Franco and Vitart, Veronique and Goel, Anuj and Watkins, Hugh and Harris, Sarah E and Deary, Ian J and van der Most, Peter J and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Keavney, Bernard D and Hayward, Caroline and Campbell, Archie and Boehnke, Michael and Scott, Laura J and Boutin, Thibaud and Mamasoula, Chrysovalanto and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Peters, Annette and Gieger, Christian and Lakatta, Edward G and Cucca, Francesco and Hui, Jennie and Knekt, Paul and Enroth, Stefan and de Borst, Martin H and Polasek, Ozren and Concas, Maria Pina and Catamo, Eulalia and Cocca, Massimiliano and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Hofer, Edith and Schmidt, Helena and Spedicati, Beatrice and Waldenberger, Melanie and Strachan, David P and Laan, Maris and Teumer, Alexander and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Cook, James P and Ruggiero, Daniela and Kolcic, Ivana and Boerwinkle, Eric and Traglia, Michela and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Raitakari, Olli T and Johnson, Andrew D and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Brown, Morris J and Dominiczak, Anna F and Sever, Peter J and Poulter, Neil and Chambers, John C and Elosua, Roberto and Siscovick, David and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Metspalu, Andres and Strawbridge, Rona J and Laakso, Markku and Hamsten, Anders and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and de Geus, Eco and Morris, Andrew D and Palmer, Colin N A and Nolte, Ilja M and Milaneschi, Yuri and Marten, Jonathan and Wright, Alan and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Howson, Joanna M M and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Spector, Tim and Nalls, Mike A and Simonsick, Eleanor M and Liu, Yongmei and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Butterworth, Adam S and Danesh, John N and Menni, Cristina and Wareham, Nicholas J and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Sun, Yan V and Wilson, Peter W F and Cho, Kelly and Visscher, Peter M and Denny, Joshua C and Levy, Daniel and Edwards, Todd L and Munroe, Patricia B and Snieder, Harold and Warren, Helen R} } @article {9576, title = {{Genome-wide association study of preserved ratio impaired spirometry (PRISm)}, journal = {Eur Respir J}, volume = {63}, year = {2024}, month = {Jan}, abstract = {{0.70. PRISm is associated with respiratory symptoms and comorbidities. Our objective was to discover novel genetic signals for PRISm and see if they provide insight into the pathogenesis of PRISm and associated comorbidities.\ We undertook a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of PRISm in UK Biobank participants (Stage 1), and selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) reaching genome-wide significance for replication in 13 cohorts (Stage 2). A combined meta-analysis of Stage 1 and Stage 2 was done to determine top SNPs. We used cross-trait linkage disequilibrium score regression to estimate genome-wide genetic correlation between PRISm and pulmonary and extrapulmonary traits. Phenome-wide association studies of top SNPs were performed.\ =0.12}, author = {Higbee, D. H. and Lirio, A. and Hamilton, F. and Granell, R. and Wyss, A. B. and London, S. J. and Bartz, T. M. and Gharib, S. A. and Cho, M. H. and Wan, E. and Silverman, E. and Crapo, J. D. and Lominchar, J. V. T. and Hansen, T. and Grarup, N. and Dantoft, T. and rhus, L. and Linneberg, A. and O{\textquoteright}Connor, G. T. and Dupuis, J. and Xu, H. and De Vries, M. M. and Hu, X. and Rich, S. S. and Barr, R. G. and Manichaikul, A. and Wijnant, S. R. A. and Brusselle, G. G. and Lahousse, L. and Li, X. and ndez Cordero, A. I. and Obeidat, M. and Sin, D. D. and Harris, S. E. and Redmond, P. and Taylor, A. M. and Cox, S. R. and Williams, A. T. and Shrine, N. and John, C. and Guyatt, A. L. and Hall, I. P. and Davey Smith, G. and Tobin, M. D. and Dodd, J. W.} } @article {9648, title = {The Gut Microbial Metabolite Trimethylamine N-oxide, Incident CKD, and Kidney Function Decline.}, journal = {J Am Soc Nephrol}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Apr 09}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) is a gut microbiota-derived metabolite of dietary phosphatidylcholine and carnitine. Experimentally, TMAO causes kidney injury and tubulointerstitial fibrosis. Little is known about prospective associations between TMAO and kidney outcomes, especially incident CKD. We hypothesized that higher plasma TMAO levels would be associated with higher risk of incident CKD and greater rate of kidney function decline.

METHODS: We included 10,564 participants from two community-based, prospective cohorts with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) >= 60 mL/min/1.73m2 to assess incident CKD. TMAO was measured using targeted mass spectrometry at baseline and one follow-up visit. Creatinine and Cystatin C were measured up to 4 times during follow-up and used to compute eGFR. Incident CKD was defined as an eGFR decline >= 30\% from baseline and a resulting eGFR<60 ml/min/1.73 m2. Time-varying Cox models assessed the association of serial TMAO measures with incident CKD, adjusting for sociodemographic, lifestyle, diet, and cardiovascular disease risk factors. Linear mixed models assessed the association with annualized eGFR change in 10,009 participants with at least one follow-up eGFR measure without exclusions for baseline eGFR levels.

RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 9.4 years (interquartile range: 9.1-11.6 years), 979 incident CKD events occurred. Higher TMAO levels associated with higher risk of incident CKD (2nd to 5th vs. 1st quintile HR[95\%CI]= 1.65 [1.22-2.23], 1.68 [1.26-2.25], 2.28 [1.72-3.02], and 2.24[1.68-2.98], respectively) and greater annualized eGFR decline ( 2nd to 5th vs. 1st quintile annualized eGFR change= -0.21 [-0.32, -0.09], -0.17 [-0.29, -0.05], -0.35 [-0.47, -0.22], and -0.43[-0.56, -0.30], respectively) with monotonic dose-response relationships. These associations were consistent across different racial/ethnic groups examined. The association with eGFR decline was similar to or larger than that seen for established CKD risk factors including diabetes, per 10 mmHg of higher systolic blood pressure, per 10 years of older age, and Black race.

CONCLUSIONS: In community-based US adults, higher serial measures of plasma TMAO were associated with higher risk of incident CKD and greater annualized kidney function decline.

}, issn = {1533-3450}, doi = {10.1681/ASN.0000000000000344}, author = {Wang, Meng and Tang, W H Wilson and Li, Xinmin S and de Oliveira Otto, Marcia C and Lee, Yujin and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Fretts, Amanda and Nemet, Ina and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Sitlani, Colleen M and Budoff, Matthew and DiDonato, Joseph A and Wang, Zeneng and Bansal, Nisha and Shlipak, Michael G and Psaty, Bruce M and Siscovick, David S and Sarnak, Mark J and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Hazen, Stanley L} } @article {9865, title = {Human Plasma Proteomic Profile of Clonal Hematopoiesis.}, journal = {bioRxiv}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Oct 31}, abstract = {

Plasma proteomic profiles associated with subclinical somatic mutations in blood cells may offer novel insights into downstream clinical consequences. Here, we explore such patterns in clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP), which is linked to several cancer and non-cancer outcomes, including coronary artery disease (CAD). Among 61,833 ancestrally diverse participants (3,881 with CHIP) from NHLBI TOPMed and UK Biobank with blood-based DNA sequencing and proteomic measurements (1,148 proteins by SomaScan in TOPMed and 2,917 proteins by Olink in UK Biobank), we identified 32 and 345 unique proteins from TOPMed and UK Biobank, respectively, associated with the most prevalent driver genes (, , and ). These associations showed substantial heterogeneity by driver genes, sex, and race, and were enriched for immune response and inflammation pathways. Mendelian randomization in humans, coupled with ELISA in hematopoietic -/- vs wild-type mice validation, disentangled causal proteomic perturbations from CHIP. Lastly, we identified plasma proteins shared between CHIP and CAD.

}, issn = {2692-8205}, doi = {10.1101/2023.07.25.550557}, author = {Yu, Zhi and Vromman, Am{\'e}lie and Nguyen, Ngoc Quynh H and Schuermans, Art and Rentz, Thiago and Vellarikkal, Shamsudheen K and Uddin, Md Mesbah and Niroula, Abhishek and Griffin, Gabriel and Honigberg, Michael C and Lin, Amy E and Gibson, Christopher J and Katz, Daniel H and Tahir, Usman and Fang, Shi and Haidermota, Sara and Ganesh, Shriienidhie and Antoine, Tajmara and Weinstock, Joshua and Austin, Thomas R and Ramachandran, Vasan S and Peloso, Gina M and Hornsby, Whitney and Ganz, Peter and Manson, JoAnn E and Haring, Bernhard and Kooperberg, Charles L and Reiner, Alexander P and Bis, Joshua C and Psaty, Bruce M and Min, Yuan-I and Correa, Adolfo and Lange, Leslie A and Post, Wendy S and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Wilson, James G and Ebert, Benjamin L and Yu, Bing and Ballantyne, Christie M and Coresh, Josef and Sankaran, Vijay G and Bick, Alexander G and Jaiswal, Siddhartha and Gerszten, Robert E and Libby, Peter and Gupta, Rajat M and Natarajan, Pradeep} } @article {9577, title = {Human whole-exome genotype data for Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {15}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jan 23}, pages = {684}, abstract = {

The heterogeneity of the whole-exome sequencing (WES) data generation methods present a challenge to a joint analysis. Here we present a bioinformatics strategy for joint-calling 20,504 WES samples collected across nine studies and sequenced using ten capture kits in fourteen sequencing centers in the Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Sequencing Project. The joint-genotype called variant-called format (VCF) file contains only positions within the union of capture kits. The VCF was then processed specifically to account for the batch effects arising from the use of different capture kits from different studies. We identified 8.2 million autosomal variants. 96.82\% of the variants are high-quality, and are located in 28,579 Ensembl transcripts. 41\% of the variants are intronic and 1.8\% of the variants are with CADD > 30, indicating they are of high predicted pathogenicity. Here we show our new strategy can generate high-quality data from processing these diversely generated WES samples. The improved ability to combine data sequenced in different batches benefits the whole genomics research community.

}, keywords = {Alzheimer Disease, Computational Biology, Data Accuracy, Exome, Genotype, Humans}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-024-44781-7}, author = {Leung, Yuk Yee and Naj, Adam C and Chou, Yi-Fan and Valladares, Otto and Schmidt, Michael and Hamilton-Nelson, Kara and Wheeler, Nicholas and Lin, Honghuang and Gangadharan, Prabhakaran and Qu, Liming and Clark, Kaylyn and Kuzma, Amanda B and Lee, Wan-Ping and Cantwell, Laura and Nicaretta, Heather and Haines, Jonathan and Farrer, Lindsay and Seshadri, Sudha and Brkanac, Zoran and Cruchaga, Carlos and Pericak-Vance, Margaret and Mayeux, Richard P and Bush, William S and DeStefano, Anita and Martin, Eden and Schellenberg, Gerard D and Wang, Li-San} } @article {9615, title = {Iron Deficiency and Incident Heart Failure in Older Community-Dwelling Individuals.}, journal = {ESC Heart Fail}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Feb 26}, abstract = {

AIMS: Among persons with prevalent heart failure (HF), iron deficiency has been linked to HF admissions, and intravenous iron replacement improves HF outcomes. Recent studies in persons with chronic kidney disease (CKD) demonstrate that iron deficiency is associated with incident HF. This study aimed to determine the relationship of iron status with incident HF in community-dwelling older adults irrespective of their kidney function.

METHODS: In this case-cohort study, 1,006 Cardiovascular Health Study participants (785 from the random sub-cohort [including 193 HF cases] and 221 additional HF cases [N~=~414 total HF cases]) aged >= 65~years without HF (41\% with CKD), we used weighted Cox models to evaluate associations of iron status with incident HF. Participants were categorized based on quartiles of transferrin saturation and ferritin as "iron replete" (27.3\%), "functional iron deficiency" (7.7\%), "iron deficiency" (11.8\%), "mixed iron deficiency" (5.6\%), "high iron" (9.3\%) and "non-classified" (38.1\%), consistent with prior studies.

RESULTS: Compared to older persons who were iron replete, those with iron deficiency were at higher risk of incident HF (HR 1.47; 1.02-2.11) in models adjusting for demographics, HF risk factors, and estimated glomerular filtration rate. Other iron categories did not associate with incident HF. The relationship of iron deficiency with incident HF did not differ by CKD status (interaction P value 0.2).

CONCLUSIONS: Among community-dwelling elders, iron deficiency is independently associated with incident HF, an association that was similar irrespective of CKD status. Our findings support conduct of clinical trials of iron replacement for prevention of HF in older adults with iron deficiency.

}, issn = {2055-5822}, doi = {10.1002/ehf2.14724}, author = {Sharma, Shilpa and Katz, Ronit and Chaves, Paulo H M and Hoofnagle, Andrew N and Kizer, Jorge R and Bansal, Nisha and Ganz, Tomas and Ix, Joachim H} } @article {9635, title = {Large-scale circulating proteome association study (CPAS) meta-analysis identifies circulating proteins and pathways predicting incident hip fractures.}, journal = {J Bone Miner Res}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jan 04}, abstract = {

Hip fractures are associated with significant disability, high cost, and mortality. However, the exact biological mechanisms underlying susceptibility to hip fractures remain incompletely understood. In an exploratory search of the underlying biology as reflected through the circulating proteome, we performed a comprehensive Circulating Proteome Association Study (CPAS) meta-analysis for incident hip fractures. Analyses included 6430 subjects from two prospective cohort studies (Cardiovascular Health Study and Tr{\o}ndelag Health Study) with circulating proteomics data (aptamer-based 5~K SomaScan version 4.0 assay; 4979 aptamers). Associations between circulating protein levels and incident hip fractures were estimated for each cohort using age and sex-adjusted Cox regression models. Participants experienced 643 incident hip fractures. Compared with the individual studies, inverse-variance weighted meta-analyses yielded more statistically significant associations, identifying 23 aptamers associated with incident hip fractures (conservative Bonferroni correction 0.05/4979, P < 1.0 {\texttimes} 10-5). The aptamers most strongly associated with hip fracture risk corresponded to two proteins of the growth hormone/insulin growth factor system (GHR and IGFBP2), as well as GDF15 and EGFR. High levels of several inflammation-related proteins (CD14, CXCL12, MMP12, ITIH3) were also associated with increased hip fracture risk. Ingenuity pathway analysis identified reduced LXR/RXR activation and increased acute phase response signaling to be overrepresented among those proteins associated with increased hip fracture risk. These analyses identified several circulating proteins and pathways consistently associated with incident hip fractures. These findings underscore the usefulness of the meta-analytic approach for comprehensive CPAS in a similar manner as has previously been observed for large-scale human genetic studies. Future studies should investigate the underlying biology of these potential novel drug targets.

}, issn = {1523-4681}, doi = {10.1093/jbmr/zjad011}, author = {Austin, Thomas R and Fink, Howard A and Jalal, Diana I and T{\"o}rnqvist, Anna E and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Barzilay, Joshua I and Lu, Tianyuan and Carbone, Laura and Gabrielsen, Maiken E and Grahnemo, Louise and Hveem, Kristian and Jonasson, Christian and Kizer, Jorge R and Langhammer, Arnulf and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Gerszten, Robert E and Nethander, Maria and Psaty, Bruce M and Robbins, John A and Sun, Yan V and Skogholt, Anne Heidi and {\r A}svold, Bj{\o}rn Olav and Valderr{\'a}bano, Rodrigo J and Zheng, Jie and Richards, J Brent and Coward, Eivind and Ohlsson, Claes} } @article {9790, title = {A Large-Scale Genome-Wide Study of Gene-Sleep Duration Interactions for Blood Pressure in 811,405 Individuals from Diverse Populations.}, journal = {Res Sq}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jul 17}, abstract = {

Although both short and long sleep duration are associated with elevated hypertension risk, our understanding of their interplay with biological pathways governing blood pressure remains limited. To address this, we carried out genome-wide cross-population gene-by-short-sleep and long-sleep duration interaction analyses for three blood pressure traits (systolic, diastolic, and pulse pressure) in 811,405 individuals from diverse population groups. We discover 22 novel gene-sleep duration interaction loci for blood pressure, mapped to 23 genes. Investigating these genes{\textquoteright} functional implications shed light on neurological, thyroidal, bone metabolism, and hematopoietic pathways that necessitate future investigation for blood pressure management that caters to sleep health lifestyle. Non-overlap between short sleep (12) and long sleep (10) interactions underscores the plausible nature of distinct influences of both sleep duration extremes in cardiovascular health. Several of our loci are specific towards a particular population background or sex, emphasizing the importance of addressing heterogeneity entangled in gene-environment interactions, when considering precision medicine design approaches for blood pressure management.

}, issn = {2693-5015}, doi = {10.21203/rs.3.rs-4163414/v1}, author = {Wang, Heming and Nagarajan, Pavithra and Winkler, Thomas and Bentley, Amy and Miller, Clint and Kraja, Aldi and Schwander, Karen and Lee, Songmi and Wang, Wenyi and Brown, Michael and Morrison, John and Giri, Ayush and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey and Bartz, Traci and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and Gudmundsdottir, Valborg and Guo, Xiuqing and Harris, Sarah and Huang, Zhijie and Kals, Mart and Kho, Minjung and Lefevre, Christophe and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Mangino, Massimo and Milaneschi, Y and Palmer, Nicholette and Rao, Varun and Rauramaa, Rainer and Shen, Botong and Stadler, Stefan and Sun, Quan and Tang, Jingxian and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and van der Graaf, Adriaan and van der Most, Peter and Wang, Yujie and Weiss, Stefan and Westerman, Kenneth and Yang, Qian and Yasuharu, Tabara and Zhao, Wei and Zhu, Wanying and Altschul, Drew and Ansari, Md Abu Yusuf and Anugu, Pramod and Argoty-Pantoja, Anna and Arzt, Michael and Aschard, Hugues and Attia, John and Bazzano, Lydia and Breyer, Max and Brody, Jennifer and Cade, Brian and Chen, Hung-Hsin and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chen, Zekai and de Vries, Paul and Dimitrov, Latchezar and Do, Ahn and Du, Jiawen and Dupont, Charles and Edwards, Todd and Evans, Michele and Faquih, Tariq and Felix, Stephan and Fisher-Hoch, Susan and Floyd, James and Graff, Mariaelisa and Charles Gu, C and Gu, Dongfeng and Hairston, Kristen and Hanley, Anthony and Heid, Iris and Heikkinen, Sami and Highland, Heather and Hood, Michelle and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Karvonen-Gutierrez, Carrie and Kawaguchi, Takahisa and Kazuya, Setoh and Tanika, Kelly and Komulainen, Pirjo and Levy, Daniel and Lin, Henry and Liu, Peter and Marques-Vidal, Pedro and McCormick, Joseph and Mei, Hao and Meigs, James and Menni, Cristina and Nam, Kisung and Nolte, Ilja and Pacheco, Natasha and Petty, Lauren and Polikowsky, Hannah and Province, Michael and Psaty, Bruce and Raffield, Laura and Raitakari, Olli and Rich, Stephen and Riha, Renata and Risch, Lorenz and Risch, Martin and Ruiz-Narvaez, Edward and Scott, Rodney and Sitlani, Colleen and Smith, Jennifer and Sofer, Tamar and Teder-Laving, Maris and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Vollenweider, Peter and Wang, Guanchao and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Wilson, Otis and Xia, Rui and Yao, Jie and Young, Kristin and Zhang, Ruiyuan and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Below, Jennifer and B{\"o}ger, Carsten and Conen, David and Cox, Simon and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Feitosa, Mary and Fox, Ervin and Franceschini, Nora and Gharib, Sina and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harlow, Sioban and He, Jiang and Holliday, Elizabeth and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Lakka, Timo and Lawlor, Deborah and Lee, Seunggeun and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Li, Changwei and Liu, Ching-Ti and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Matsuda, Fumihiko and Morrison, Alanna and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Peyser, Patricia and Rotter, Jerome and Snieder, Harold and Spector, T and Wagenknecht, Lynne and Wareham, Nicholas and Zonderman, Alan and North, Kari and Fornage, Myriam and Hung, Adriana and Manning, Alisa and Gauderman, W and Chen, Han and Munroe, Patricia and Rao, Dabeeru and van Heemst, Diana and Redline, Susan and Noordam, Raymond} } @article {9642, title = {A Large-Scale Genome-Wide Study of Gene-Sleep Duration Interactions for Blood Pressure in 811,405 Individuals from Diverse Populations.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Mar 08}, abstract = {

Although both short and long sleep duration are associated with elevated hypertension risk, our understanding of their interplay with biological pathways governing blood pressure remains limited. To address this, we carried out genome-wide cross-population gene-by-short-sleep and long-sleep duration interaction analyses for three blood pressure traits (systolic, diastolic, and pulse pressure) in 811,405 individuals from diverse population groups. We discover 22 novel gene-sleep duration interaction loci for blood pressure, mapped to genes involved in neurological, thyroidal, bone metabolism, and hematopoietic pathways. Non-overlap between short sleep (12) and long sleep (10) interactions underscores the plausibility of distinct influences of both sleep duration extremes in cardiovascular health. With several of our loci reflecting specificity towards population background or sex, our discovery sheds light on the importance of embracing granularity when addressing heterogeneity entangled in gene-environment interactions, and in therapeutic design approaches for blood pressure management.

}, doi = {10.1101/2024.03.07.24303870}, author = {Nagarajan, Pavithra and Winkler, Thomas W and Bentley, Amy R and Miller, Clint L and Kraja, Aldi T and Schwander, Karen and Lee, Songmi and Wang, Wenyi and Brown, Michael R and Morrison, John L and Giri, Ayush and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Bartz, Traci M and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and Gudmundsdottir, Valborg and Guo, Xiuqing and Harris, Sarah E and Huang, Zhijie and Kals, Mart and Kho, Minjung and Lefevre, Christophe and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Mangino, Massimo and Milaneschi, Yuri and Palmer, Nicholette D and Rao, Varun and Rauramaa, Rainer and Shen, Botong and Stadler, Stefan and Sun, Quan and Tang, Jingxian and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and van der Graaf, Adriaan and van der Most, Peter J and Wang, Yujie and Weiss, Stefan and Westerman, Kenneth E and Yang, Qian and Yasuharu, Tabara and Zhao, Wei and Zhu, Wanying and Altschul, Drew and Ansari, Md Abu Yusuf and Anugu, Pramod and Argoty-Pantoja, Anna D and Arzt, Michael and Aschard, Hugues and Attia, John R and Bazzanno, Lydia and Breyer, Max A and Brody, Jennifer A and Cade, Brian E and Chen, Hung-Hsin and Ida Chen, Yii-Der and Chen, Zekai and de Vries, Paul S and Dimitrov, Latchezar M and Do, Anh and Du, Jiawen and Dupont, Charles T and Edwards, Todd L and Evans, Michele K and Faquih, Tariq and Felix, Stephan B and Fisher-Hoch, Susan P and Floyd, James S and Graff, Mariaelisa and Gu, Charles and Gu, Dongfeng and Hairston, Kristen G and Hanley, Anthony J and Heid, Iris M and Heikkinen, Sami and Highland, Heather M and Hood, Michelle M and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Karvonen-Gutierrez, Carrie A and Kawaguchi, Takahisa and Kazuya, Setoh and Kelly, Tanika N and Komulainen, Pirjo and Levy, Daniel and Lin, Henry J and Liu, Peter Y and Marques-Vidal, Pedro and McCormick, Joseph B and Mei, Hao and Meigs, James B and Menni, Cristina and Nam, Kisung and Nolte, Ilja M and Pacheco, Natasha L and Petty, Lauren E and Polikowsky, Hannah G and Province, Michael A and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Raitakari, Olli T and Rich, Stephen S and Riha, Renata L and Risch, Lorenz and Risch, Martin and Ruiz-Narvaez, Edward A and Scott, Rodney J and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Jennifer A and Sofer, Tamar and Teder-Laving, Maris and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Vollenweider, Peter and Wang, Guanchao and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Wilson, Otis D and Xia, Rui and Yao, Jie and Young, Kristin L and Zhang, Ruiyuan and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Below, Jennifer E and B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and Conen, David and Cox, Simon R and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Feitosa, Mary F and Fox, Ervin R and Franceschini, Nora and Gharib, Sina A and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harlow, Sioban D and He, Jiang and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Lakka, Timo A and Lawlor, Deborah A and Lee, Seunggeun and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Li, Changwei and Liu, Ching-Ti and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Matsuda, Fumihiko and Morrison, Alanna C and Penninx, Brenda Wjh and Peyser, Patricia A and Rotter, Jerome I and Snieder, Harold and Spector, Tim D and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wareham, Nicholas J and Zonderman, Alan B and North, Kari E and Fornage, Myriam and Hung, Adriana M and Manning, Alisa K and Gauderman, James and Chen, Han and Munroe, Patricia B and Rao, Dabeeru C and van Heemst, Diana and Redline, Susan and Noordam, Raymond and Wang, Heming} } @article {9649, title = {Large-Scale Proteomics Identifies Novel Biomarkers and Circulating Risk Factors for Aortic Stenosis.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {83}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Feb 06}, pages = {577-591}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Limited data exist regarding risk factors for aortic stenosis (AS). The plasma proteome is a promising phenotype for discovery of novel biomarkers and potentially causative mechanisms.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to discover novel biomarkers with potentially causal associations with AS.

METHODS: We measured 4,877 plasma proteins (SomaScan aptamer-affinity assay) among ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities) study participants in mid-life (visit 3 [V3]; n~=~11,430; age 60 {\textpm} 6 years) and in late-life (V5; n~=~4,899; age 76 {\textpm} 5 years). We identified proteins cross-sectionally associated with aortic valve (AV) peak velocity (AVmax) and dimensionless index by echocardiography at V5 and with incident AV-related hospitalization after V3 with the use of multivariable linear and Cox proportional hazard regression. We assessed associations of candidate proteins with changes in AVmax over 6 years and with AV calcification with the use of cardiac computed tomography, replicated analysis in an independent sample, performed Mendelian randomization, and evaluated gene expression in explanted human AV tissue.

RESULTS: Fifty-two proteins cross-sectionally were associated with AVmax and dimensionless index at V5 and with risk of incident AV-related hospitalization after V3. Among 3,413 participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study, 6 of those proteins were significantly associated with adjudicated moderate or severe AS, including matrix metalloproteinase 12 (MMP12), complement C1q tumor necrosis factor-related protein 1 (C1QTNF1), and growth differentiation factor-15. MMP12 was also associated with greater increase in AVmax over 6 years, greater degree of AV calcification, and greater expression in calcific compared with normal or fibrotic AV tissue. C1QTNF1 had consistent potential causal effects on both AS and AVmax according to Mendelian randomization analysis.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings identify MMP12 as a potential novel circulating biomarker of AS risk and C1QTNF1 as a new putative target to prevent AS progression.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aortic Valve, Aortic Valve Stenosis, Biomarkers, Calcinosis, Humans, Matrix Metalloproteinase 12, Middle Aged, Proteomics, Risk Factors}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2023.11.021}, author = {Shelbaya, Khaled and Arthur, Victoria and Yang, Yimin and Dorbala, Pranav and Buckley, Leo and Claggett, Brian and Skali, Hicham and Dufresne, Line and Yang, Ta-Yu and Engert, James C and Thanassoulis, George and Floyd, James and Austin, Thomas R and Bortnick, Anna and Kizer, Jorge and Freitas, Renata C C and Singh, Sasha A and Aikawa, Elena and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Ballantyne, Christie and Yu, Bing and Coresh, Josef and Blaha, Michael J and Matsushita, Kunihiro and Shah, Amil M} } @article {9613, title = {Levels of procoagulant factors and peak thrombin generation in relation to dementia risk in older adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Thromb Res}, volume = {235}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Mar}, pages = {148-154}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: Markers of hemostasis such as procoagulant factors and peak thrombin generation are associated with cardiovascular outcomes, but their associations with dementia risk are unclear. We aimed to evaluate prospective associations of selected procoagulant factors and peak thrombin generation with dementia risk.

METHODS: We measured levels of 7 hemostatic factors (fibrinogen, factor VII coagulant activity [FVIIc], activated factor VII [FVIIa], factor VIIa-antithrombin [FVIIa-AT], factor XI antigen [FXI], peak thrombin generation, and platelet count) among participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a cohort of older adults free of dementia in 1992/1993 (n~=~3185). Dementia was adjudicated and classified by DSM-IV criteria through 1998/1999. Cox proportional hazards models estimated hazard ratios (HRs) for any dementia associated with 1-standard deviation (SD) differences, adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical factors and APOE genotype. Secondary analyses separately evaluated the risk of vascular dementia, Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease, and mixed dementia.

RESULTS: At baseline, participants had a median age of 73~years. Over 5.4~years of follow-up, we identified 448 dementia cases. There was no evidence of linear associations between levels of these hemostatic factors with any dementia risk (HRs per 1-SD difference ranged from 1.0 to 1.1; 95~\% confidence intervals included 1.0). Results of secondary analyses by dementia subtype were similar.

CONCLUSIONS: In this prospective study, there was no strong evidence of linear associations between levels of fibrinogen, FVIIc, FVIIa, FVIIa-AT, FXI, peak thrombin generation, or platelet count with dementia risk. Despite their associations with cardiovascular disease, higher levels of these biomarkers measured among older adults may not reflect dementia risk.

}, keywords = {Aged, Anticoagulants, Antithrombin III, Antithrombins, Dementia, Factor VIIa, Fibrinogen, Hemostatics, Humans, Prospective Studies, Thrombin}, issn = {1879-2472}, doi = {10.1016/j.thromres.2024.01.024}, author = {Harrington, Laura B and Ehlert, Alexa N and Thacker, Evan L and Jenny, Nancy S and Lopez, Oscar and Cushman, Mary and Olson, Nels C and Fitzpatrick, Annette and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Jensen, Majken K} } @article {9860, title = {Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Level Distributions Across Different Ages: Implications for Screening Children for Severe and Familial Hypercholesterolemia.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {150}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Nov 19}, pages = {1741-1744}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.124.069792}, author = {Liu, Junxiu and Bellows, Brandon K and Jacobs, David R and Woo, Jessica G and Urbina, Elaine M and Balte, Pallavi P and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Kazi, Dhruv S and Siscovick, David and Allen, Norrina B and Rana, Jamal S and Wilkins, John T and Hall, Michael E and Bazzano, Lydia A and Burns, Trudy L and Daniels, Stephen R and Dwyer, Terence and Juonala, Markus and Raitakari, Olli T and Sinaiko, Alan R and Steinberger, Julia and Venn, Alison J and Kartiosuo, Noora and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Magnussen, Costan G and Viikari, Jorma S A and de Ferranti, Sarah D and Moran, Andrew E and Zhang, Yiyi} } @article {9702, title = {Machine learning models for predicting blood pressure phenotypes by combining multiple polygenic risk scores.}, journal = {Sci Rep}, volume = {14}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 May 30}, pages = {12436}, abstract = {

We construct non-linear machine learning (ML) prediction models for systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP) using demographic and clinical variables and polygenic risk scores (PRSs). We developed a two-model ensemble, consisting of a baseline model, where prediction is based on demographic and clinical variables only, and a genetic model, where we also include PRSs. We evaluate the use of a linear versus a non-linear model at both the baseline and the genetic model levels and assess the improvement in performance when incorporating multiple PRSs. We report the ensemble model{\textquoteright}s performance as percentage variance explained (PVE) on a held-out test dataset. A non-linear baseline model improved the PVEs from 28.1 to 30.1\% (SBP) and 14.3\% to 17.4\% (DBP) compared with a linear baseline model. Including seven PRSs in the genetic model computed based on the largest available GWAS of SBP/DBP improved the genetic model PVE from 4.8 to 5.1\% (SBP) and 4.7 to 5\% (DBP) compared to using a single PRS. Adding additional 14 PRSs computed based on two independent GWASs further increased the genetic model PVE to 6.3\% (SBP) and 5.7\% (DBP). PVE differed across self-reported race/ethnicity groups, with primarily all non-White groups benefitting from the inclusion of additional PRSs. In summary, non-linear ML models improves BP prediction in models incorporating diverse populations.

}, keywords = {Blood Pressure, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Risk Score, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Machine Learning, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Genetic, Multifactorial Inheritance, Phenotype, Risk Factors}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-024-62945-9}, author = {Hrytsenko, Yana and Shea, Benjamin and Elgart, Michael and Kurniansyah, Nuzulul and Lyons, Genevieve and Morrison, Alanna C and Carson, April P and Haring, Bernhard and Mitchell, Braxton D and Psaty, Bruce M and Jaeger, Byron C and Gu, C Charles and Kooperberg, Charles and Levy, Daniel and Lloyd-Jones, Donald and Choi, Eunhee and Brody, Jennifer A and Smith, Jennifer A and Rotter, Jerome I and Moll, Matthew and Fornage, Myriam and Simon, Noah and Castaldi, Peter and Casanova, Ramon and Chung, Ren-Hua and Kaplan, Robert and Loos, Ruth J F and Kardia, Sharon L R and Rich, Stephen S and Redline, Susan and Kelly, Tanika and O{\textquoteright}Connor, Timothy and Zhao, Wei and Kim, Wonji and Guo, Xiuqing and Ida Chen, Yii-Der and Sofer, Tamar} } @article {9646, title = {Methylation patterns associated with C-reactive protein in racially and ethnically diverse populations.}, journal = {Epigenetics}, volume = {19}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Dec}, pages = {2333668}, abstract = {

Systemic low-grade inflammation is a feature of chronic disease. C-reactive protein (CRP) is a common biomarker of inflammation and used as an indicator of disease risk; however, the role of inflammation in disease is not completely understood. Methylation is an epigenetic modification in the DNA which plays a pivotal role in gene expression. In this study we evaluated differential DNA methylation patterns associated with blood CRP level to elucidate biological pathways and genetic regulatory mechanisms to improve the understanding of chronic inflammation. The racially and ethnically diverse participants in this study were included as 50\% White, 41\% Black or African American, 7\% Hispanic or Latino/a, and 2\% Native Hawaiian, Asian American, American Indian, or Alaska Native (total = 13,433) individuals. We replicated 113 CpG sites from 87 unique loci, of which five were novel (, , and cg03282312), across a discovery set of 1,150 CpG sites associated with CRP level ( < 1.2E-7). The downstream pathways affected by DNA methylation included the identification of and CpG-gene transcript pairs which contributed to the innate immune response gene enrichment pathway along with , , and . Gene enrichment analysis also identified the nuclear factor-kappaB transcription pathway. Using two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) we inferred methylation at three CpG sites as causal for CRP levels using both White and Black or African American MR instrument variables. Overall, we identified novel CpG sites and gene transcripts that could be valuable in understanding the specific cellular processes and pathogenic mechanisms involved in inflammation.

}, keywords = {C-Reactive Protein, CpG Islands, DNA, DNA Methylation, Epigenesis, Genetic, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Inflammation, Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins}, issn = {1559-2308}, doi = {10.1080/15592294.2024.2333668}, author = {Lundin, Jessica I and Peters, Ulrike and Hu, Yao and Ammous, Farah and Avery, Christy L and Benjamin, Emelia J and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Carlson, Chris and Cushman, Mary and Gignoux, Chris and Guo, Xiuqing and Haessler, Jeff and Haiman, Chris and Joehanes, Roby and Kasela, Silva and Kenny, Eimear and Lapalainien, Tuuli and Levy, Daniel and Liu, Chunyu and Liu, Yongmei and Loos, Ruth J F and Lu, Ake and Matise, Tara and North, Kari E and Park, Sungshim L and Ratliff, Scott M and Reiner, Alex and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Smith, Jennifer A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Tracy, Russell and Van den Berg, David and Xu, Huichun and Ye, Ting and Zhao, Wei and Raffield, Laura M and Kooperberg, Charles} } @article {9863, title = {{Multi-ancestry genome-wide association study reveals novel genetic signals for lung function decline}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2024}, month = {Nov}, abstract = {Accelerated decline in lung function contributes to the development of chronic respiratory disease. Despite evidence for a genetic component, few genetic associations with lung function decline have been identified.\ To evaluate genome-wide associations and putative downstream functionality of genetic variants with lung function decline in diverse general population cohorts.\ /FVC) in participants across six cohorts in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium and the UK Biobank. Genotypes were imputed to TOPMed (CHARGE cohorts) or Haplotype Reference Consortium (HRC) (UK Biobank) reference panels, and GWAS analyses used generalized estimating equation models with robust standard error. Models were stratified by cohort, ancestry, and sex, and adjusted for important lung function confounders and genotype principal components. Results were combined in cross-ancestry and ancestry-specific meta-analyses. Selected top variants were tested for replication in two independent COPD-enriched cohorts.\ ) with consistent associations across ancestries or decline phenotypes. Annotation class analysis revealed significant enrichment of several regulatory processes for corticosteroid biosynthesis and metabolism. Drug repurposing analysis identified 43 approved compounds targeting eight of the implicated 38 genes.\ Our multi-ancestry GWAS meta-analyses identified numerous genetic loci associated with lung function decline. These findings contribute knowledge to the genetic architecture of lung function decline, provide evidence for a role of endogenous corticosteroids in the etiology of lung function decline, and identify drug targets that merit further study for potential repurposing to slow lung function decline and treat lung disease.}, author = {Patchen, B. K. and Zhang, J. and Gaddis, N. and Bartz, T. M. and Chen, J. and Debban, C. and Leonard, H. and Nguyen, N. Q. and Seo, J. and Tern, C. and Allen, R. and DeMeo, D. L. and Fornage, M. and Melbourne, C. and Minto, M. and Moll, M. and O{\textquoteright}Connor, G. and Pottinger, T. and Psaty, B. M. and Rich, S. S. and Rotter, J. I. and Silverman, E. K. and Stratford, J. and Graham Barr, R. and Cho, M. H. and Gharib, S. A. and Manichaikul, A. and North, K. and Oelsner, E. C. and Simonsick, E. M. and Tobin, M. D. and Yu, B. and Choi, S. H. and Dupuis, J. and Cassano, P. A. and Hancock, D. B.} } @article {9903, title = {A multi-cohort genome-wide association study in African ancestry individuals reveals risk loci for primary open-angle glaucoma.}, journal = {Cell}, volume = {187}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jan 18}, pages = {464-480.e10}, abstract = {

Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, disproportionately affects individuals of African ancestry. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for POAG in 11,275 individuals of African ancestry (6,003 cases; 5,272 controls). We detected 46 risk loci associated with POAG at genome-wide significance. Replication and post-GWAS analyses, including functionally informed fine-mapping, multiple trait co-localization, and in silico validation, implicated two previously undescribed variants (rs1666698 mapping to DBF4P2; rs34957764 mapping to ROCK1P1) and one previously associated variant (rs11824032 mapping to ARHGEF12) as likely causal. For individuals of African ancestry, a polygenic risk score (PRS) for POAG from our mega-analysis (African ancestry individuals) outperformed a PRS from summary statistics of a much larger GWAS derived from European ancestry individuals. This study quantifies the genetic architecture similarities and differences between African and non-African ancestry populations for this blinding disease.

}, keywords = {Black People, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glaucoma, Open-Angle, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1097-4172}, doi = {10.1016/j.cell.2023.12.006}, author = {Verma, Shefali S and Gudiseva, Harini V and Chavali, Venkata R M and Salowe, Rebecca J and Bradford, Yuki and Guare, Lindsay and Lucas, Anastasia and Collins, David W and Vrathasha, Vrathasha and Nair, Rohini M and Rathi, Sonika and Zhao, Bingxin and He, Jie and Lee, Roy and Zenebe-Gete, Selam and Bowman, Anita S and McHugh, Caitlin P and Zody, Michael C and Pistilli, Maxwell and Khachatryan, Naira and Daniel, Ebenezer and Murphy, Windell and Henderer, Jeffrey and Kinzy, Tyler G and Iyengar, Sudha K and Peachey, Neal S and Taylor, Kent D and Guo, Xiuqing and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Zangwill, Linda and Girkin, Christopher and Ayyagari, Radha and Liebmann, Jeffrey and Chuka-Okosa, Chimd M and Williams, Susan E and Akafo, Stephen and Budenz, Donald L and Olawoye, Olusola O and Ramsay, Michele and Ashaye, Adeyinka and Akpa, Onoja M and Aung, Tin and Wiggs, Janey L and Ross, Ahmara G and Cui, Qi N and Addis, Victoria and Lehman, Amanda and Miller-Ellis, Eydie and Sankar, Prithvi S and Williams, Scott M and Ying, Gui-Shuang and Cooke Bailey, Jessica and Rotter, Jerome I and Weinreb, Robert and Khor, Chiea Chuen and Hauser, Michael A and Ritchie, Marylyn D and O{\textquoteright}Brien, Joan M} } @article {9578, title = {Multi-omics and pathway analyses of genome-wide associations implicate regulation and immunity in verbal declarative memory performance.}, journal = {Alzheimers Res Ther}, volume = {16}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jan 20}, pages = {14}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Uncovering the functional relevance underlying verbal declarative memory (VDM) genome-wide association study (GWAS) results may facilitate the development of interventions to reduce age-related memory decline and dementia.

METHODS: We performed multi-omics and pathway enrichment analyses of paragraph (PAR-dr) and word list (WL-dr) delayed recall GWAS from 29,076 older non-demented individuals of European descent. We assessed the relationship between single-variant associations and expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) in 44 tissues and methylation quantitative trait loci (meQTLs) in the hippocampus. We determined the relationship between gene associations and transcript levels in 53 tissues, annotation as immune genes, and regulation by transcription factors (TFs) and microRNAs. To identify significant pathways, gene set enrichment was tested in each cohort and meta-analyzed across cohorts. Analyses of differential expression in brain tissues were conducted for pathway component genes.

RESULTS: The single-variant associations of VDM showed significant linkage disequilibrium (LD) with eQTLs across all tissues and meQTLs within the hippocampus. Stronger WL-dr gene associations correlated with reduced expression in four brain tissues, including the hippocampus. More robust PAR-dr and/or WL-dr gene associations were intricately linked with immunity and were influenced by 31 TFs and 2 microRNAs. Six pathways, including type I diabetes, exhibited significant associations with both PAR-dr and WL-dr. These pathways included fifteen MHC genes intricately linked to VDM performance, showing diverse expression patterns based on cognitive status in brain tissues.

CONCLUSIONS: VDM genetic associations influence expression regulation via eQTLs and meQTLs. The involvement of TFs, microRNAs, MHC genes, and immune-related pathways contributes to VDM performance in older individuals.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cognition, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Memory, MicroRNAs, Multiomics, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1758-9193}, doi = {10.1186/s13195-023-01376-6}, author = {Mei, Hao and Simino, Jeannette and Li, Lianna and Jiang, Fan and Bis, Joshua C and Davies, Gail and Hill, W David and Xia, Charley and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Yang, Qiong and Lahti, Jari and Smith, Jennifer A and Kirin, Mirna and De Jager, Philip and Armstrong, Nicola J and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Kolcic, Ivana and Moran, Christopher and Teumer, Alexander and Sargurupremraj, Murali and Mahmud, Shamsed and Fornage, Myriam and Zhao, Wei and Satizabal, Claudia L and Polasek, Ozren and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Liewald, David C and Homuth, Georg and Callisaya, Michele and Mather, Karen A and Windham, B Gwen and Zemunik, Tatijana and Palotie, Aarno and Pattie, Alison and van der Auwera, Sandra and Thalamuthu, Anbupalam and Knopman, David S and Rudan, Igor and Starr, John M and Wittfeld, Katharina and Kochan, Nicole A and Griswold, Michael E and Vitart, Veronique and Brodaty, Henry and Gottesman, Rebecca and Cox, Simon R and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Chasman, Daniel I and Grodstein, Francine and Sachdev, Perminder S and Srikanth, Velandai and Hayward, Caroline and Wilson, James F and Eriksson, Johan G and Kardia, Sharon L R and Grabe, Hans J and Bennett, David A and Ikram, M Arfan and Deary, Ian J and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Launer, Lenore and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Seshadri, Sudha and Bressler, Jan and Debette, Stephanie and Mosley, Thomas H} } @article {9618, title = {{Multi-trait analysis characterizes the genetics of thyroid function and identifies causal associations with clinical implications}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {15}, year = {2024}, month = {Jan}, pages = {888}, abstract = {T3, whereas the FT4 associations represent the thyroid hormone metabolism. Polygenic risk score and Mendelian randomization analyses showed the effects of genetically determined variation in thyroid function on various clinical outcomes, including cardiovascular risk factors and diseases, autoimmune diseases, and cancer. In conclusion, our results improve the understanding of thyroid hormone physiology and highlight the pleiotropic effects of thyroid function on various diseases.}, author = {Sterenborg, R. B. T. M. and Steinbrenner, I. and Li, Y. and Bujnis, M. N. and Naito, T. and Marouli, E. and Galesloot, T. E. and Babajide, O. and Andreasen, L. and Astrup, A. and svold, B. O. and Bandinelli, S. and Beekman, M. and Beilby, J. P. and Bork-Jensen, J. and Boutin, T. and Brody, J. A. and Brown, S. J. and Brumpton, B. and Campbell, P. J. and Cappola, A. R. and Ceresini, G. and Chaker, L. and Chasman, D. I. and Concas, M. P. and Coutinho de Almeida, R. and Cross, S. M. and Cucca, F. and Deary, I. J. and Kjaergaard, A. D. and Echouffo Tcheugui, J. B. and Ellervik, C. and Eriksson, J. G. and Ferrucci, L. and Freudenberg, J. and Fuchsberger, C. and Gieger, C. and Giulianini, F. and gele, M. and Graham, S. E. and Grarup, N. and {\"a}, I. and Hansen, T. and Harding, B. N. and Harris, S. E. and {\o}, S. and Hayward, C. and Hui, J. and Ittermann, T. and Jukema, J. W. and Kajantie, E. and Kanters, J. K. and rhus, L. L. and Kiemeney, L. A. L. M. and Kloppenburg, M. and hnel, B. and Lahti, J. and Langenberg, C. and Lapauw, B. and Leese, G. and Li, S. and Liewald, D. C. M. and Linneberg, A. and Lominchar, J. V. T. and Luan, J. and Martin, N. G. and Matana, A. and Meima, M. E. and Meitinger, T. and Meulenbelt, I. and Mitchell, B. D. and llehave, L. T. and Mora, S. and Naitza, S. and Nauck, M. and Netea-Maier, R. T. and Noordam, R. and Nursyifa, C. and Okada, Y. and Onano, S. and Papadopoulou, A. and Palmer, C. N. A. and Pattaro, C. and Pedersen, O. and Peters, A. and Pietzner, M. and ek, O. and Pramstaller, P. P. and Psaty, B. M. and Punda, A. and Ray, D. and Redmond, P. and Richards, J. B. and Ridker, P. M. and Russ, T. C. and Ryan, K. A. and Olesen, M. S. and Schultheiss, U. T. and Selvin, E. and Siddiqui, M. K. and Sidore, C. and Slagboom, P. E. and rensen, T. I. A. and Soto-Pedre, E. and Spector, T. D. and Spedicati, B. and Srinivasan, S. and Starr, J. M. and Stott, D. J. and Tanaka, T. and Torlak, V. and Trompet, S. and Tuhkanen, J. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and van den Akker, E. B. and van den Eynde, T. and van der Klauw, M. M. and van Heemst, D. and Verroken, C. and Visser, W. E. and Vojinovic, D. and lzke, H. and Waldenberger, M. and Walsh, J. P. and Wareham, N. J. and Weiss, S. and Willer, C. J. and Wilson, S. G. and Wolffenbuttel, B. H. R. and Wouters, H. J. C. M. and Wright, M. J. and Yang, Q. and Zemunik, T. and Zhou, W. and Zhu, G. and llner, S. and Smit, J. W. A. and Peeters, R. P. and ttgen, A. and Teumer, A. and Medici, M.} } @article {9786, title = {NIAGADS: A Comprehensive National Data Repository for Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease and Related Dementia Genetics and Genomics Research}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2024}, month = {Oct}, abstract = {NIAGADS is the National Institute on Aging (NIA) designated national data repository for human genetics research on Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease and related dementia (ADRD). NIAGADS maintains a high-quality data collection for ADRD genetic/genomic research and supports genetics data production and analysis. NIAGADS hosts whole genome and exome sequence data from the Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP) and other genotype/phenotype data, encompassing 209,000 samples. NIAGADS shares these data with hundreds of research groups around the world via the Data Sharing Service, a FISMA moderate compliant cloud-based platform that fully supports the NIH Genome Data Sharing Policy. NIAGADS Open Access consists of multiple knowledge bases with genome-wide association summary statistics and rich annotations on the biological significance of genetic variants and genes across the human genome. NIAGADS stands as a keystone in promoting collaborations to advance the understanding and treatment of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.}, author = {Kuzma, A. and Valladares, O. and Greenfest-Allen, E. and Nicaretta, H. and Kirsch, M. and Ren, Y. and Katanic, Z. and White, H. and Wilk, A. and Bass, L. and Brettschneider, J. and Carter, L. and Cifello, J. and Chuang, W. H. and Clark, K. and Gangadharan, P. and Haut, J. and Ho, P. C. and Horng, W. and Iqbal, T. and Jin, Y. and Keskinen, P. and Rose, A. L. and Moon, M. K. and Manuel, J. and Qu, L. and Robbins, F. and Saravanan, N. and Sha, J. and Tate, S. and Zhao, Y. and Cantwell, L. and Gardner, J. and Chou, S. Y. and Tzeng, J. Y. and Bush, W. and Naj, A. and Kuksa, P. and Lee, W. P. and Leung, Y. Y. and Schellenberg, G. and Wang, L. S.} } @article {9700, title = {A plasma protein-based risk score to predict hip fractures.}, journal = {Nat Aging}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 May 27}, abstract = {

As there are effective treatments to reduce hip fractures, identification of patients at high risk of hip fracture is important to inform efficient intervention strategies. To obtain a new tool for hip fracture prediction, we developed a protein-based risk score in the Cardiovascular Health Study using an aptamer-based proteomic platform. The proteomic risk score predicted incident hip fractures and improved hip fracture discrimination in two Tr{\o}ndelag Health Study validation cohorts using the same aptamer-based platform. When transferred to an antibody-based proteomic platform in a UK Biobank validation cohort, the proteomic risk score was strongly associated with hip fractures (hazard ratio per s.d. increase, 1.64; 95\% confidence interval 1.53-1.77). The proteomic risk score, but not available polygenic risk scores for fractures or bone mineral density, improved the C-index beyond the fracture risk assessment tool (FRAX), which integrates information from clinical risk factors (C-index, FRAX 0.735 versus FRAX + proteomic risk score 0.776). The developed proteomic risk score constitutes a new tool for stratifying patients according to hip fracture risk; however, its improvement in hip fracture discrimination is modest and its clinical utility beyond FRAX with information on femoral neck bone mineral density remains to be determined.

}, issn = {2662-8465}, doi = {10.1038/s43587-024-00639-7}, author = {Austin, Thomas R and Nethander, Maria and Fink, Howard A and T{\"o}rnqvist, Anna E and Jalal, Diana I and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Barzilay, Joshua I and Carbone, Laura and Gabrielsen, Maiken E and Grahnemo, Louise and Lu, Tianyuan and Hveem, Kristian and Jonasson, Christian and Kizer, Jorge R and Langhammer, Arnulf and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Gerszten, Robert E and Psaty, Bruce M and Robbins, John A and Sun, Yan V and Skogholt, Anne Heidi and Kanis, John A and Johansson, Helena and {\r A}svold, Bj{\o}rn Olav and Valderr{\'a}bano, Rodrigo J and Zheng, Jie and Richards, J Brent and Coward, Eivind and Ohlsson, Claes} } @article {9781, title = {Plasma proteome-wide analysis of cerebral small vessel disease identifies novel biomarkers and disease pathways.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Oct 08}, abstract = {

Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD), as defined by neuroimaging characteristics such as white matter hyperintensities (WMHs), cerebral microhemorrhages (CMHs), and lacunar infarcts, is highly prevalent and has been associated with dementia risk and other clinical sequelae. Although conditions such as hypertension are known to contribute to SVD, little is known about the diverse set of subclinical biological processes and molecular mediators that may also influence the development and progression of SVD. To better understand the mechanisms underlying SVD and to identify novel SVD biomarkers, we used a large-scale proteomic platform to relate 4,877 plasma proteins to MRI-defined SVD characteristics within 1,508 participants of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study cohort. Our proteome-wide analysis of older adults (mean age: 76) identified 13 WMH-associated plasma proteins involved in synaptic function, endothelial integrity, and angiogenesis, two of which remained associated with late-life WMH volume when measured nearly 20 years earlier, during midlife. We replicated the relationship between 9 candidate proteins and WMH volume in one or more external cohorts; we found that 11 of the 13 proteins were associated with risk for future dementia; and we leveraged publicly available proteomic data from brain tissue to demonstrate that a subset of WMH-associated proteins was differentially expressed in the context of cerebral atherosclerosis, pathologically-defined Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease, and cognitive decline. Bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization analyses examined the causal relationships between candidate proteins and WMH volume, while pathway and network analyses identified discrete biological processes (lipid/cholesterol metabolism, NF-kB signaling, hemostasis) associated with distinct forms of SVD. Finally, we synthesized these findings to identify two plasma proteins, oligodendrocyte myelin glycoprotein (OMG) and neuronal pentraxin receptor (NPTXR), as top candidate biomarkers for elevated WMH volume and its clinical manifestations.

}, doi = {10.1101/2024.10.07.24314972}, author = {Gomez, Gabriela T and Shi, Liu and Fohner, Alison E and Chen, Jingsha and Yang, Yunju and Fornage, Myriam and Duggan, Michael R and Peng, Zhongsheng and Daya, Gulzar N and Tin, Adrienne and Schlosser, Pascal and Longstreth, W T and Kalani, Rizwan and Sharma, Malveeka and Psaty, Bruce M and Nevado-Holgado, Alejo J and Buckley, Noel J and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Lutsey, Pamela L and Jack, Clifford R and Sullivan, Kevin J and Mosley, Thomas and Hughes, Timothy M and Coresh, Josef and Walker, Keenan A} } @article {9573, title = {A polygenic risk score of atrial fibrillation improves prediction of lifetime risk for heart failure.}, journal = {ESC Heart Fail}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jan 22}, abstract = {

AIMS: Heart failure (HF) has shared genetic architecture with its risk factors: atrial fibrillation (AF), body mass index (BMI), coronary heart disease (CHD), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and type 2 diabetes (T2D). We aim to assess the association and risk prediction performance of risk-factor polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for incident HF and its subtypes in bi-racial populations.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Five PRSs were constructed for AF, BMI, CHD, SBP, and T2D in White participants of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. The associations between PRSs and incident HF and its subtypes were assessed using Cox models, and the risk prediction performance of PRSs was assessed using C statistics. Replication was performed in the ARIC study Black and Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) White participants. In 8624 ARIC study Whites, 1922 (31\% cumulative incidence) HF cases developed over 30~years of follow-up. PRSs of AF, BMI, and CHD were associated with incident HF (P~<~0.001), where PRS showed the strongest association [hazard ratio (HR): 1.47, 95\% confidence interval (CI): 1.41-1.53]. Only the addition of PRS to the ARIC study HF risk equation improved C statistics for 10~year risk prediction from 0.812 to 0.829 (∆C: 0.017, 95\% CI: 0.009-0.026). The PRS was associated with both incident HF with reduced ejection fraction (HR: 1.43, 95\% CI: 1.27-1.60) and incident HF with preserved ejection fraction (HR: 1.46, 95\% CI: 1.33-1.62). The associations between PRS and incident HF and its subtypes, as well as the improved risk prediction, were replicated in the ARIC study Blacks and the CHS Whites (P~<~0.050). Protein analyses revealed that N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide and other 98 proteins were associated with PRS .

CONCLUSIONS: The PRS was associated with incident HF and its subtypes and had significant incremental value over an established HF risk prediction equation.

}, issn = {2055-5822}, doi = {10.1002/ehf2.14665}, author = {Alkis, Taryn and Luo, Xi and Wall, Katherine and Brody, Jennifer and Bartz, Traci and Chang, Patricia P and Norby, Faye L and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Morrison, Alanna C and Ballantyne, Christie M and Coresh, Josef and Boerwinkle, Eric and Psaty, Bruce M and Shah, Amil M and Yu, Bing} } @article {9739, title = {Proteogenomics in cerebrospinal fluid and plasma reveals new biological fingerprint of cerebral small vessel disease.}, journal = {Res Sq}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jul 02}, abstract = {

Cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD) is a leading cause of stroke and dementia with no specific mechanism-based treatment. We used Mendelian randomization to combine a unique cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma pQTL resource with the latest European-ancestry GWAS of MRI-markers of cSVD (white matter hyperintensities, perivascular spaces). We describe a new biological fingerprint of 49 protein-cSVD associations, predominantly in the CSF. We implemented a multipronged follow-up, across fluids, platforms, and ancestries (Europeans and East-Asian), including testing associations of direct plasma protein measurements with MRI-cSVD. We highlight 16 proteins robustly associated in both CSF and plasma, with 24/4 proteins identified in CSF/plasma only. cSVD-proteins were enriched in extracellular matrix and immune response pathways, and in genes enriched in microglia and specific microglial states (integration with single-nucleus RNA sequencing). Immune-related proteins were associated with MRI-cSVD already at age twenty. Half of cSVD-proteins were associated with stroke, dementia, or both, and seven cSVD-proteins are targets for known drugs (used for other indications in directions compatible with beneficial therapeutic effects. This first cSVD proteogenomic signature opens new avenues for biomarker and therapeutic developments.

}, issn = {2693-5015}, doi = {10.21203/rs.3.rs-4535534/v1}, author = {Debette, Stephanie and Caro, Ilana and Western, Daniel and Namba, Shinichi and Sun, Na and Kawaguchi, Shuji and He, Yunye and Fujita, Masashi and Roshchupkin, Gennady and D{\textquoteright}Aoust, Tim and Duperron, Marie-Gabrielle and Sargurupremraj, Murali and Tsuchida, Ami and Koido, Masaru and Ahmadi, Marziehsadat and Yang, Chengran and Timsina, Jigyasha and Ibanez, Laura and Matsuda, Koichi and Suzuki, Yutaka and Oda, Yoshiya and Kanai, Akinori and Jandaghi, Pouria and Munter, Hans Markus and Auld, Dan and Astafeva, Iana and Puerta, Raquel and Rotter, Jerome and Psaty, Bruce and Bis, Joshua and Longstreth, Will and Couffinhal, Thierry and Garcia-Gonzalez, Pablo and Pytel, Vanesa and Marqui{\'e}, Marta and Cano, Amanda and Boada, Merce and Joliot, Marc and Lathrop, Mark and Le Grand, Quentin and Launer, Lenore and Wardlaw, Joanna and Heiman, Myriam and Ruiz, Agustin and Matthews, Paul and Seshadri, Sudha and Fornage, Myriam and Adams, Hieab and Mishra, Aniket and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Okada, Yukinori and Kellis, Manolis and De Jager, Philip and Tzourio, Christophe and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Matsuda, Fumihiko and Cruchaga, Carlos} } @article {9787, title = {Rare variant contribution to the heritability of coronary artery disease.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {15}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Oct 09}, pages = {8741}, abstract = {

Whole genome sequences (WGS) enable discovery of rare variants which may contribute to missing heritability of coronary artery disease (CAD). To measure their contribution, we apply the GREML-LDMS-I approach to WGS of 4949 cases and 17,494 controls of European ancestry from the NHLBI TOPMed program. We estimate CAD heritability at 34.3\% assuming a prevalence of 8.2\%. Ultra-rare (minor allele frequency <= 0.1\%) variants with low linkage disequilibrium (LD) score contribute ~50\% of the heritability. We also investigate CAD heritability enrichment using a diverse set of functional annotations: i) constraint; ii) predicted protein-altering impact; iii) cis-regulatory elements from a cell-specific chromatin atlas of the human coronary; and iv) annotation principal components representing a wide range of functional processes. We observe marked enrichment of CAD heritability for most functional annotations. These results reveal the predominant role of ultra-rare variants in low LD on the heritability of CAD. Moreover, they highlight several functional processes including cell type-specific regulatory mechanisms as key drivers of CAD genetic risk.

}, keywords = {Case-Control Studies, Coronary Artery Disease, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, White People, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-024-52939-6}, author = {Rocheleau, Ghislain and Clarke, Shoa L and Auguste, Ga{\"e}lle and Hasbani, Natalie R and Morrison, Alanna C and Heath, Adam S and Bielak, Lawrence F and Iyer, Kruthika R and Young, Erica P and Stitziel, Nathan O and Jun, Goo and Laurie, Cecelia and Broome, Jai G and Khan, Alyna T and Arnett, Donna K and Becker, Lewis C and Bis, Joshua C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowden, Donald W and Carson, April P and Ellinor, Patrick T and Fornage, Myriam and Franceschini, Nora and Freedman, Barry I and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Hou, Lifang and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Kenny, Eimear E and Kooperberg, Charles and Kral, Brian G and Loos, Ruth J F and Lutz, Sharon M and Manson, JoAnn E and Martin, Lisa W and Mitchell, Braxton D and Nassir, Rami and Palmer, Nicholette D and Post, Wendy S and Preuss, Michael H and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Regan, Elizabeth A and Rich, Stephen S and Smith, Jennifer A and Taylor, Kent D and Yanek, Lisa R and Young, Kendra A and Hilliard, Austin T and Tcheandjieu, Catherine and Peyser, Patricia A and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Rotter, Jerome I and Miller, Clint L and Assimes, Themistocles L and de Vries, Paul S and Do, Ron} } @article {9587, title = {Role of Polyunsaturated Fat in Modifying Cardiovascular Risk Associated With Family History of Cardiovascular Disease: Pooled De Novo Results From 15 Observational Studies.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {149}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jan 23}, pages = {305-316}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: It is unknown whether dietary intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) modifies the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk associated with a family history of CVD. We assessed interactions between biomarkers of low PUFA intake and a family history in relation to long-term CVD risk in a large consortium.

METHODS: Blood and tissue PUFA data from 40 885 CVD-free adults were assessed. PUFA levels <=25th percentile were considered to reflect low intake of linoleic, alpha-linolenic, and eicosapentaenoic/docosahexaenoic acids (EPA/DHA). Family history was defined as having >=1 first-degree relative who experienced a CVD event. Relative risks with 95\% CI of CVD were estimated using Cox regression and meta-analyzed. Interactions were assessed by analyzing product terms and calculating relative excess risk due to interaction.

RESULTS: After multivariable adjustments, a significant interaction between low EPA/DHA and family history was observed (product term pooled RR, 1.09 [95\% CI, 1.02-1.16]; =0.01). The pooled relative risk of CVD associated with the combined exposure to low EPA/DHA, and family history was 1.41 (95\% CI, 1.30-1.54), whereas it was 1.25 (95\% CI, 1.16-1.33) for family history alone and 1.06 (95\% CI, 0.98-1.14) for EPA/DHA alone, compared with those with neither exposure. The relative excess risk due to interaction results indicated no interactions.

CONCLUSIONS: A significant interaction between biomarkers of low EPA/DHA intake, but not the other PUFA, and a family history was observed. This novel finding might suggest a need to emphasize the benefit of consuming oily fish for individuals with a family history of CVD.

}, keywords = {Animals, Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Docosahexaenoic Acids, Fatty Acids, Omega-3, Risk Factors}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.123.065530}, author = {Laguzzi, Federica and {\r A}kesson, Agneta and Marklund, Matti and Qian, Frank and Gigante, Bruna and Bartz, Traci M and Bassett, Julie K and Birukov, Anna and Campos, Hannia and Hirakawa, Yoichiro and Imamura, Fumiaki and J{\"a}ger, Susanne and Lankinen, Maria and Murphy, Rachel A and Senn, Mackenzie and Tanaka, Toshiko and Tintle, Nathan and Virtanen, Jyrki K and Yamagishi, Kazumasa and Allison, Matthew and Brouwer, Ingeborg A and de Faire, Ulf and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Ferrucci, Luigi and Forouhi, Nita G and Geleijnse, Johanna M and Hodge, Allison M and Kimura, Hitomi and Laakso, Markku and Riserus, Ulf and van Westing, Anniek C and Bandinelli, Stefania and Baylin, Ana and Giles, Graham G and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Iso, Hiroyasu and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Ninomiya, Toshiharu and Post, Wendy S and Psaty, Bruce M and Salonen, Jukka T and Schulze, Matthias B and Tsai, Michael Y and Uusitupa, Matti and Wareham, Nicholas J and Oh, Seung-Won and Wood, Alexis C and Harris, William S and Siscovick, David and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Leander, Karin} } @article {9664, title = {{The Role of X Chromosome in Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Genetics}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2024}, month = {Apr}, abstract = {The X chromosome has remained enigmatic in Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD), yet it makes up 5\% of the genome and carries a high proportion of genes expressed in the brain, making it particularly appealing as a potential source of unexplored genetic variation in AD.\ Perform the first large-scale X chromosome-wide association study (XWAS) of AD. Primary analyses are non-stratified, while secondary analyses evaluate sex-stratified effects.\ Meta-analysis of genetic association studies in case-control, family-based, population-based, and longitudinal AD-related cohorts from the US Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC) and Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP), the UK Biobank (UKB), the Finnish health registry (FinnGen), and the US Million Veterans Program (MVP). Risk for AD evaluated through case-control logistic regression analyses. Data were analyzed between January 2023 and March 2024.\ Genetic data available from high-density single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarrays and whole-genome sequencing (WGS). Summary statistics for multi-tissue expression and protein quantitative trait loci (QTL) available from published studies, enabling follow-up genetic colocalization analyses.\ 1,629,863 eligible participants were selected from referred and volunteer samples, of which 477,596 were excluded for analysis exclusion criteria. Number of participants who declined to participate in original studies was not available.\ 5e-8) significance.\ genes.\ regulates pH homeostasis in Golgi secretory compartments and is anticipated to have downstream effects on amyloid beta accumulation. Overall, this study significantly advances our knowledge of AD genetics and may provide novel biological drug targets.}, author = {Belloy, M. E. and Guen, Y. L. and Stewart, I. and Herz, J. and Sherva, R. and Zhang, R. and Merritt, V. and Panizzon, M. S. and Hauger, R. L. and Gaziano, J. M. and Logue, M. and Napolioni, V. and Greicius, M. D.} } @article {9741, title = {Single-Ancestry versus Multi-Ancestry Polygenic Risk Scores for CKD in Black American Populations.}, journal = {J Am Soc Nephrol}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jul 29}, issn = {1533-3450}, doi = {10.1681/ASN.0000000000000437}, author = {Jones, Alana C and Patki, Amit and Srinivasasainagendra, Vinodh and Tiwari, Hemant K and Armstrong, Nicole D and Chaudhary, Ninad S and Limdi, Nita A and Hidalgo, Bertha A and Davis, Brittney and Cimino, James J and Khan, Atlas and Kiryluk, Krzysztof and Lange, Leslie A and Lange, Ethan M and Arnett, Donna K and Young, Bessie A and Diamantidis, Clarissa J and Franceschini, Nora and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Kramer, Holly J and Chen, Yii-der I and Psaty, Bruce M and Brody, Jennifer A and de Boer, Ian H and Bansal, Nisha and Bis, Joshua C and Irvin, Marguerite R} } @article {9864, title = {Sleep macro-architecture and dementia risk in adults: Meta-analysis of 5 cohorts from the Sleep and Dementia Consortium.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Nov 05}, abstract = {

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Poor sleep may play a role in the risk of dementia. However, few studies have investigated the association between polysomnography (PSG)-derived sleep architecture and dementia incidence. We examined the relationship between sleep macro-architecture and dementia incidence across five US-based cohort studies from the Sleep and Dementia Consortium (SDC).

METHODS: Percent of time spent in stages of sleep (N1, N2, N3, REM sleep), wake after sleep onset and sleep maintenance efficiency were derived from a single night home-based PSG. Dementia was ascertained in each cohort using its cohort-specific criteria. Each cohort performed Cox proportional hazard regressions for each sleep exposure and incident dementia, adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, anti-depressant use, sedative use, and status. Results were then pooled in random effects meta-analyses.

RESULTS: The pooled sample comprised 4,657 participants (30\% women) aged >=60 years (mean age was 74 years at sleep assessment). There were 998 (21.4\%) dementia cases (median follow-up time of 5 to 19 years). Pooled effects of the five cohorts showed no association between sleep architecture and incident dementia. When meta-analyses were restricted to the three cohorts which had dementia case ascertainment based on DSM-IV/V criteria (n=2,374), higher N3\% was marginally associated with an increased risk of dementia (HR: 1.06; 95\%CI: 1.00-1.12, per percent increase N3, p=0.050).

CONCLUSIONS: There were no consistent associations between sleep macro-architecture measured and the risk of incident dementia. Implementing more nuanced sleep metrics remains an important next step for uncovering more about sleep-dementia associations.

}, doi = {10.1101/2024.11.05.24316677}, author = {Yiallourou, Stephanie and Baril, Andree-Ann and Wiedner, Crystal and Misialek, Jeffrey R and Kline, Christopher E and Harrison, Stephanie and Cannon, Ethan and Yang, Qiong and Bernal, Rebecca and Bisson, Alycia and Himali, Dibya and Cavuoto, Marina and Weihs, Antoine and Beiser, Alexa and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Leng, Yue and Lopez, Oscar and Lutsey, Pamela L and Purcell, Shaun M and Redline, Susan and Seshadri, Sudha and Stone, Katie L and Yaffe, Kristine and Ancoli-Israel, Sonia and Xiao, Qian and Vaou, Eleni Okeanis and Himali, Jayandra J and Pase, Matthew P} } @article {9804, title = {Sociodemographic, lifestyle, and medical factors associated with calculated free testosterone concentrations in men: individual participant data meta-analyses.}, journal = {Eur J Endocrinol}, volume = {191}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Oct 29}, pages = {523-534}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Sociodemographic, lifestyle, and medical variables influence total testosterone (T) and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) concentrations. The relationship between these factors and "free" T remains unclear. We examined 21 sociodemographic, lifestyle, and medical predictors influencing calculated free T (cFT) in community-dwelling men across ages.

DESIGN: This is a cross-sectional analysis in 20 631 participants in the Androgens in Men Study.

METHODS: Individual participant data (IPD) were provided by 9 cohorts. Total T was determined using mass spectrometry, SHBG using immunoassays, and cFT using the Vermeulen formula. Associations were analyzed using 2-stage random effects IPD meta-analyses.

RESULTS: Cohort median ages ranged from 40 to 76 years and median cFT concentrations from 174.3 to 422.8 pmol/L. In men aged 17-99 years, there was a linear inverse association of cFT with age (-57.2 pmol/L [95\% confidence interval, -69.4, -44.9] per 1 SD increase in age). Calculated free T increased with increasing baseline body mass index (BMI) among men with BMI < 23.6 kg/m2, but decreased among men with BMI > 23.6 kg/m2 (-24.7 pmol/L [-29.1, -20.3] per 1 SD increase in the 25.4-29.6 kg/m2 BMI range). Calculated free T was lower in younger men, who were married or in a de facto relationship (-18.4 pmol/L [-27.6, -9.3]) and in men who formerly smoked (-5.7 pmol/L [-8.9, -2.6]), were in poor general health (-14.0 pmol/L [-20.1, -7.8]), and had diabetes (-19.6 pmol/L [-23.0, -16.3]), cardiovascular disease (-5.8 pmol/L [-8.3, -3.2]), or cancer (-19.2 pmol/L [-24.4, -14.1]).

CONCLUSIONS: Calculated free T was most prominently associated with age and BMI. The linear, inverse association with age, nonlinear association with BMI, and presence of diabetes, cancer, and sociodemographic factors should be considered when interpreting cFT values.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Body Mass Index, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, Humans, Life Style, Male, Middle Aged, Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin, Sociodemographic Factors, Socioeconomic Factors, Testosterone, Young Adult}, issn = {1479-683X}, doi = {10.1093/ejendo/lvae133}, author = {Narinx, Nick and Marriott, Ross J and Murray, Kevin and Adams, Robert J and Ballantyne, Christie M and Bauer, Douglas C and Bhasin, Shalender and Biggs, Mary L and Cawthon, Peggy M and Couper, David J and Dobs, Adrian S and Flicker, Leon and Hankey, Graeme J and Hannemann, Anke and Wilkening, Robin and Martin, Sean A and Matsumoto, Alvin M and Ohlsson, Claes and O{\textquoteright}Neill, Terence W and Orwoll, Eric S and Shores, Molly M and Steveling, Antje and Travison, Thomas G and Wittert, Gary A and Wu, Frederick C W and Antonio, Leen and Vanderschueren, Dirk and Yeap, Bu B} } @article {9667, title = {Time-to-Event Genome-Wide Association Study for Incident Cardiovascular Disease in People With Type 2 Diabetes.}, journal = {Diabetes Care}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Apr 23}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To identify genetic risk factors for incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) among people with type 2 diabetes (T2D).

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We conducted a multiancestry time-to-event genome-wide association study for incident CVD among people with T2D. We also tested 204 known coronary artery disease (CAD) variants for association with incident CVD.

RESULTS: Among 49,230 participants with T2D, 8,956 had incident CVD events (event rate 18.2\%). We identified three novel genetic loci for incident CVD: rs147138607 (near CACNA1E/ZNF648, hazard ratio [HR] 1.23, P = 3.6 {\texttimes} 10-9), rs11444867 (near HS3ST1, HR 1.89, P = 9.9 {\texttimes} 10-9), and rs335407 (near TFB1M/NOX3, HR 1.25, P = 1.5 {\texttimes} 10-8). Among 204 known CAD loci, 5 were associated with incident CVD in T2D (multiple comparison-adjusted P < 0.00024, 0.05/204). A standardized polygenic score of these 204 variants was associated with incident CVD with HR 1.14 (P = 1.0 {\texttimes} 10-16).

CONCLUSIONS: The data point to novel and known genomic regions associated with incident CVD among individuals with T2D.

}, issn = {1935-5548}, doi = {10.2337/dc23-2274}, author = {Kwak, Soo Heon and Hernandez-Cancela, Ryan B and DiCorpo, Daniel A and Condon, David E and Merino, Jordi and Wu, Peitao and Brody, Jennifer A and Yao, Jie and Guo, Xiuqing and Ahmadizar, Fariba and Meyer, Mariah and Sincan, Murat and Mercader, Josep M and Lee, Sujin and Haessler, Jeffrey and Vy, Ha My T and Lin, Zhaotong and Armstrong, Nicole D and Gu, Shaopeng and Tsao, Noah L and Lange, Leslie A and Wang, Ningyuan and Wiggins, Kerri L and Trompet, Stella and Liu, Simin and Loos, Ruth J F and Judy, Renae and Schroeder, Philip H and Hasbani, Natalie R and Bos, Maxime M and Morrison, Alanna C and Jackson, Rebecca D and Reiner, Alexander P and Manson, JoAnn E and Chaudhary, Ninad S and Carmichael, Lynn K and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Taylor, Kent D and Ghanbari, Mohsen and van Meurs, Joyce and Pitsillides, Achilleas N and Psaty, Bruce M and Noordam, Raymond and Do, Ron and Park, Kyong Soo and Jukema, J Wouter and Kavousi, Maryam and Correa, Adolfo and Rich, Stephen S and Damrauer, Scott M and Hajek, Catherine and Cho, Nam H and Irvin, Marguerite R and Pankow, James S and Nadkarni, Girish N and Sladek, Robert and Goodarzi, Mark O and Florez, Jose C and Chasman, Daniel I and Heckbert, Susan R and Kooperberg, Charles and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Malhotra, Rajeev and de Vries, Paul S and Liu, Ching-Ti and Rotter, Jerome I and Meigs, James B} } @article {9616, title = {Trajectory of Cognitive Function After Incident Heart Failure.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Feb 11}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The size/magnitude of cognitive changes after incident heart failure (HF) are unclear. We assessed whether incident HF is associated with changes in cognitive function after accounting for pre-HF cognitive trajectories and known determinants of cognition.

METHODS: This pooled cohort study included adults without HF, stroke, or dementia from six US population-based cohort studies from 1971-2019: Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study, Cardiovascular Health Study, Framingham Offspring Study, Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and Northern Manhattan Study. Linear mixed-effects models estimated changes in cognition at the time of HF (change in the intercept) and the rate of cognitive change over the years after HF (change in the slope), controlling for pre-HF cognitive trajectories and participant factors. Change in global cognition was the primary outcome. Change in executive function and memory were secondary outcomes. Cognitive outcomes were standardized to a -score metric (mean [SD], 50 [10]); a 1-point difference represented a 0.1-SD difference in cognition.

RESULTS: The study included 29,614 adults (mean [SD] age was 61.1 [10.5] years, 55\% female, 70.3\% White, 22.2\% Black 7.5\% Hispanic). During a median follow-up of 6.6 (Q1-Q3: 5-19.8) years, 1,407 (4.7\%) adults developed incident HF. Incident HF was associated with an acute decrease in global cognition (-1.08 points; 95\% CI -1.36, -0.80) and executive function (-0.65 points; 95\% CI -0.96, -0.34) but not memory (-0.51 points; 95\% CI -1.37, 0.35) at the time of the event. Greater acute decreases in global cognition after HF were seen in those with older age, female sex and White race. Individuals with incident HF, compared to HF-free individuals, demonstrated faster declines in global cognition (-0.15 points per year; 95\% CI, -0.21, -0.09) and executive function (-0.16 points per year; 95\% CI -0.23, -0.09) but not memory ( -0.11 points per year; 95\% CI -0.26, 0.04) compared with pre-HF slopes.

CONCLUSIONS: In this pooled cohort study, incident HF was associated with an acute decrease in global cognition and executive function at the time of the event and faster declines in global cognition and executive function over the following years.

}, doi = {10.1101/2024.02.09.24302608}, author = {Shore, Supriya and Li, Hanyu and Zhang, Min and Whitney, Rachael and Gross, Alden L and Bhatt, Ankeet S and Nallamothu, Brahmajee K and Giordani, Bruno and Brice{\~n}o, Emily M and Sussman, Jeremy B and Gutierrez, Jose and Yaffe, Kristine and Griswold, Michael and Johansen, Michelle C and Lopez, Oscar L and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Sidney, Stephen and Heckbert, Susan R and Rundek, Tatjana and Hughes, Timothy M and Longstreth, William T and Levine, Deborah A} } @article {9747, title = {Trimethylamine -Oxide and Related Gut Microbe-Derived Metabolites and Incident Heart Failure Development in Community-Based Populations.}, journal = {Circ Heart Fail}, volume = {17}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Aug}, pages = {e011569}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Growing evidence indicates that trimethylamine -oxide, a gut microbial metabolite of dietary choline and carnitine, promotes both cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease risk. It remains unclear how circulating concentrations of trimethylamine -oxide and its related dietary and gut microbe-derived metabolites (choline, betaine, carnitine, γ-butyrobetaine, and crotonobetaine) affect incident heart failure (HF).

METHODS: We evaluated 11 768 participants from the Cardiovascular Health Study and the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis with serial measures of metabolites. Cox proportional hazard models were used to examine the associations between metabolites and incident HF, adjusted for cardiovascular disease risk factors.

RESULTS: In all, 2102 cases of HF occurred over a median follow-up of 15.9 years. After adjusting for traditional risk factors, higher concentrations of trimethylamine -oxide (hazard ratio, 1.15 [95\% CI, 1.09-1.20]; <0.001), choline (hazard ratio, 1.44 [95\% CI, 1.26-1.64]; <0.001), and crotonobetaine (hazard ratio, 1.24 [95\% CI, 1.16-1.32]; <0.001) were associated with increased risk for incident HF. After further adjustment for renal function (potential confounder or mediator), these associations did not reach Bonferroni-corrected statistical significance (=0.01, 0.049, and 0.006, respectively). Betaine and carnitine were nominally associated with a higher incidence of HF (<0.05). In exploratory analyses, results were similar for subtypes of HF based on left ventricular ejection fraction, and associations appeared generally stronger among Black and Hispanic/Latino versus White adults, although there were no interactions for any metabolites with race.

CONCLUSIONS: In this pooled analysis of 2 well-phenotyped, diverse, community-based cohorts, circulating concentrations of gut microbe-derived metabolites such as trimethylamine -oxide, choline, and crotonobetaine were independently associated with a higher risk of developing HF.

REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/; Unique identifiers: NCT00005133 and NCT00005487.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Betaine, Biomarkers, Carnitine, Choline, Female, Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Heart Failure, Humans, Incidence, Male, Methylamines, Middle Aged, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {1941-3297}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.124.011569}, author = {Tang, W H Wilson and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Jensen, Paul N and Wang, Meng and Wang, Zeneng and Li, Xinmin S and Nemet, Ina and Lee, Yujin and Lai, Heidi T M and de Oliveira Otto, Marcia C and Fretts, Amanda M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and DiDonato, Joseph A and B{\"a}ckhed, Fredrik and Psaty, Bruce M and Siscovick, David S and Budoff, Matthew J and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Hazen, Stanley L} } @article {9579, title = {X-chromosome and kidney function: evidence from a multi-trait genetic analysis of 908,697 individuals reveals sex-specific and sex-differential findings in genes regulated by androgen response elements.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {15}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jan 18}, pages = {586}, abstract = {

X-chromosomal genetic variants are understudied but can yield valuable insights into sexually dimorphic human traits and diseases. We performed a sex-stratified cross-ancestry X-chromosome-wide association meta-analysis of seven kidney-related traits (n = 908,697), identifying 23 loci genome-wide significantly associated with two of the traits: 7 for uric acid and 16 for estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), including four novel eGFR loci containing the functionally plausible prioritized genes ACSL4, CLDN2, TSPAN6 and the female-specific DRP2. Further, we identified five novel sex-interactions, comprising male-specific effects at FAM9B and AR/EDA2R, and three sex-differential findings with larger genetic effect sizes in males at DCAF12L1 and MST4 and larger effect sizes in females at HPRT1. All prioritized genes in loci showing significant sex-interactions were located next to androgen response elements (ARE). Five ARE genes showed sex-differential expressions. This study contributes new insights into sex-dimorphisms of kidney traits along with new prioritized gene targets for further molecular research.

}, keywords = {Androgens, Chromosomes, Human, X, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Kidney, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Response Elements, Tetraspanins}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-024-44709-1}, author = {Scholz, Markus and Horn, Katrin and Pott, Janne and Wuttke, Matthias and K{\"u}hnapfel, Andreas and Nasr, M Kamal and Kirsten, Holger and Li, Yong and Hoppmann, Anselm and Gorski, Mathias and Ghasemi, Sahar and Li, Man and Tin, Adrienne and Chai, Jin-Fang and Cocca, Massimiliano and Wang, Judy and Nutile, Teresa and Akiyama, Masato and {\r A}svold, Bj{\o}rn Olav and Bansal, Nisha and Biggs, Mary L and Boutin, Thibaud and Brenner, Hermann and Brumpton, Ben and Burkhardt, Ralph and Cai, Jianwen and Campbell, Archie and Campbell, Harry and Chalmers, John and Chasman, Daniel I and Chee, Miao Ling and Chee, Miao Li and Chen, Xu and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Cifkova, Renata and Daviglus, Martha and Delgado, Graciela and Dittrich, Katalin and Edwards, Todd L and Endlich, Karlhans and Michael Gaziano, J and Giri, Ayush and Giulianini, Franco and Gordon, Scott D and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Hallan, Stein and Hamet, Pavel and Hartman, Catharina A and Hayward, Caroline and Heid, Iris M and Hellwege, Jacklyn N and Holleczek, Bernd and Holm, Hilma and Hutri-K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Nina and Hveem, Kristian and Isermann, Berend and Jonas, Jost B and Joshi, Peter K and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kanai, Masahiro and Kastarinen, Mika and Khor, Chiea Chuen and Kiess, Wieland and Kleber, Marcus E and K{\"o}rner, Antje and Kovacs, Peter and Krajcoviechova, Alena and Kramer, Holly and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernhard K and Kuokkanen, Mikko and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Lange, Leslie A and Lash, James P and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Li, Hengtong and Lin, Bridget M and Liu, Jianjun and Loeffler, Markus and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Martin, Nicholas G and Matsuda, Koichi and Milaneschi, Yuri and Mishra, Pashupati P and Mononen, Nina and Montgomery, Grant W and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Nauck, Matthias and Nikus, Kjell and Nolte, Ilja M and Noordam, Raymond and Okada, Yukinori and Olafsson, Isleifur and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Perola, Markus and Pirastu, Nicola and Polasek, Ozren and Porteous, David J and Poulain, Tanja and Psaty, Bruce M and Rabelink, Ton J and Raffield, Laura M and Raitakari, Olli T and Rasheed, Humaira and Reilly, Dermot F and Rice, Kenneth M and Richmond, Anne and Ridker, Paul M and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Salomaa, Veikko and Schneiderman, Neil and Sch{\"o}ttker, Ben and Sims, Mario and Snieder, Harold and Stark, Klaus J and Stefansson, Kari and Stocker, Hannah and Stumvoll, Michael and Sulem, Patrick and Sveinbjornsson, Gardar and Svensson, Per O and Tai, E-Shyong and Taylor, Kent D and Tayo, Bamidele O and Teren, Andrej and Tham, Yih-Chung and Thiery, Joachim and Thio, Chris H L and Thomas, Laurent F and Tremblay, Johanne and T{\"o}njes, Anke and van der Most, Peter J and Vitart, Veronique and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wang, Ya Xing and Wang, Chaolong and Wei, Wen Bin and Whitfield, John B and Wild, Sarah H and Wilson, James F and Winkler, Thomas W and Wong, Tien-Yin and Woodward, Mark and Sim, Xueling and Chu, Audrey Y and Feitosa, Mary F and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Hung, Adriana M and Teumer, Alexander and Franceschini, Nora and Parsa, Afshin and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Schlosser, Pascal and Pattaro, Cristian} } @article {9917, title = {Association Between Cigarette Smoking~and Subclinical Markers of Cardiovascular Harm.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {85}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Mar 18}, pages = {1018-1034}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Cigarette smoking is a strong risk factor for cardiovascular harm.

OBJECTIVES: The study sought to explore the detailed relationships between smoking intensity, pack-years, and~time since cessation with inflammation, thrombosis, and subclinical atherosclerosis markers of cardiovascular harm.

METHODS: We included 182,364 participants (mean age 58.2 years, 69.0\% female) from 22 cohorts of the Cross Cohort Collaboration with self-reported smoking status, including smoking intensity and/or pack-years, and concurrent subclinical marker measurements. Markers were categorized into 3 domains: inflammation (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, glycoprotein acetylation), thrombosis (fibrinogen, D-dimer), and subclinical atherosclerosis (coronary artery calcium, carotid intima-media thickness, carotid plaque, and ankle-brachial index). Utilizing multivariate regression models and restricted cubic splines, we assessed associations of smoking status, intensity, pack-years, time since cessation, and subclinical markers.

RESULTS: A total of 15.3\% of participants currently smoke (mean 16.7 cigarettes/day, mean 30.0 pack-years), and 34.6\% of participants formerly smoked (median 19.0 years since quitting, mean 22.4 pack-years). Participants with a history of smoking showed higher levels of all subclinical markers compared with those who have never smoked, with stronger associations observed in those currently smoke. Among participants who currently smoke, smoking intensity showed a clear dose-response relationship with all markers, except for D-dimer, specifically with incremental 1\% to 9\% higher levels of subclinical markers per 10 cigarettes. After 20 cigarettes, the patterns appeared to plateau for blood markers, while they continued to increase for atherosclerosis markers. Among those who have ever smoked, robust dose-response relationships were observed for pack-years with all subclinical markers, with incremental 1\% to 9\% higher levels per 10 pack-years. The dose-response effects persisted after 20 pack-years for all markers, though with a milder slope. Among participants who smoked formerly, there were substantially lower levels of biomarkers with longer time since quitting, and most markers were not different compared with those who have never smoked by 30 years, except for the coronary artery calcium score, which remained 19\% higher even beyond quitting after 30 years.

CONCLUSIONS: Smoking-relevant parameters show strong and dose-response relationships across 3 domains of subclinical markers of cardiovascular harm. The sensitivity of the tested subclinical markers to small increments in cigarette exposure suggests potential value in the regulation of new and existing tobacco products.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atherosclerosis, Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Cigarette Smoking, Cohort Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Factors}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2024.12.032}, author = {Yao, Zhiqi and Tasdighi, Erfan and Dardari, Zeina A and Jha, Kunal K and Osuji, Ngozi and Rajan, Tanuja and Boakye, Ellen and Rodriguez, Carlos J and Matsushita, Kunihiro and Simonsick, Eleanor M and Lima, Jo{\~a}o A C and Widome, Rachel and Cohen, Debbie L and Appel, Lawrence J and Khera, Amit and Hall, Michael E and Judd, Suzanne E and Cole, Shelley A and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Benjamin, Emelia J and Lotufo, Paulo A and Bensenor, Isabela M and El Khoudary, Samar R and Barinas-Mitchell, Emma and Janssen, Imke and Psaty, Bruce M and Eaton, Charles B and Lamonte, Michael J and Cawthon, Peggy M and Orwoll, Eric S and Irvin, Marguerite R and Bhatnagar, Aruni and DeFilippis, Andrew P and El-Shahaway, Omar and Blaha, Michael J} } @article {9941, title = {Cardiac Troponins and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Prediction: An Individual-Participant-Data Meta-Analysis.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {85}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Apr 15}, pages = {1471-1484}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The extent to which high-sensitivity cardiac troponin can predict cardiovascular disease (CVD) is uncertain.

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to quantify the potential advantage of adding information on cardiac troponins to conventional risk factors in the prevention of CVD.

METHODS: We meta-analyzed individual-participant data from 15 cohorts, comprising 62,150 participants without prior CVD. We calculated HRs, measures of risk discrimination, and reclassification after adding cardiac troponin T (cTnT) or I (cTnI) to conventional risk factors. The primary outcome was first-onset CVD (ie, coronary heart disease or stroke). We then modeled the implications of initiating statin therapy using incidence rates from 2.1 million individuals from the United Kingdom.

RESULTS: Among participants with cTnT or cTnI measurements, 8,133 and 3,749 incident CVD events occurred during a median follow-up of 11.8 and 9.8 years, respectively. HRs for CVD per 1-SD higher concentration were 1.31 (95\%~CI: 1.25-1.37) for cTnT and 1.26 (95\%~CI: 1.19-1.33) for cTnI. Addition of cTnT or cTnI to conventional risk factors was associated with C-index increases of 0.015 (95\%~CI: 0.012-0.018) and 0.012 (95\%~CI: 0.009-0.015) and continuous net reclassification improvements of 6\% and 5\% in cases and 22\% and 17\% in noncases. One additional CVD event would be prevented for every 408 and 473 individuals screened based on statin therapy in those whose CVD risk is reclassified from intermediate to high risk after cTnT or cTnI measurement, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: Measurement of cardiac troponin results in a modest improvement in the prediction of first-onset CVD that may translate into population health benefits if used at scale.

}, keywords = {Biomarkers, Cardiovascular Diseases, Female, Humans, Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Troponin I, Troponin T}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2025.02.016}, author = {Shah, Anoop S V and Keene, Spencer J and Pennells, Lisa and Kaptoge, Stephen and Kimenai, Dorien M and Walker, Matthew and Halley, Julianne D and Rocha, Sara and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Bakker, Stephan J L and Wannamethee, Sasiwarang G and Pareek, Manan and Eggers, Kai M and Jukema, J Wouter and Hankey, Graeme J and deLemos, James A and Ford, Ian and Omland, Torbj{\o}rn and Lyngbakken, Magnus Nakrem and Psaty, Bruce M and deFilippi, Christopher R and Wood, Angela M and Danesh, John and Welsh, Paul and Sattar, Naveed and Mills, Nicholas L and Di Angelantonio, Emanuele} } @article {9869, title = {Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Genetic Risk in Transthyretin V142I Carriers.}, journal = {JACC Heart Fail}, volume = {13}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Jan}, pages = {91-101}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Nearly 3\% to 4\% of Black individuals in the United States carry the transthyretin V142I variant, which increases their risk of heart failure. However, the role of cardiovascular (CV) risk factors (RFs) in influencing the risk of clinical outcomes among V142I variant carriers is unknown.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the impact of CV RFs on the risk of heart failure in V142I carriers.

METHODS: This study included self-identified Black individuals without prevalent heart failure from 6 TOPMed (Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine) cohorts, the REGARDS (Reasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke) study, and the All of Us Research Program. The cohort was stratified based on the V142I genotype and the number of CV RFs (hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and hypercholesterolemia). Adjusted Cox models were used to assess the association of heart failure with the V142I genotype and CV RF profile, taking noncarriers with a favorable CV RF profile as reference.

RESULTS: The cross-sectional analysis, including 1,625 V142I carriers among 48,365 Black individuals, found that the prevalence of CV RFs did not vary by V142I carrier status. In the longitudinal analysis, there were 587 (3.2\%) V142I carriers among 18,407 Black individuals (median age: 60 years [Q1-Q3: 52-68 years], 63.0\% female). Among carriers, the heart failure risk was attenuated with a favorable (0 or 1 RF) CV RF profile (adjusted HR: 2.26; 95\%~CI: 1.58-3.23) compared with an unfavorable (3 or 4 RFs) CV RF profile (adjusted HR: 4.14; 95\%~CI: 2.79-6.14).

CONCLUSIONS: A favorable CV RF profile lowers but does not abrogate V142I variant-associated heart failure risk. This study highlights the importance of having a favorable CV RF profile among V142I carriers for risk reduction of heart failure.

}, keywords = {Aged, Black or African American, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Genotype, Heart Disease Risk Factors, Heart Failure, Heterozygote, Humans, Hypercholesterolemia, Hypertension, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Prealbumin, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {2213-1787}, doi = {10.1016/j.jchf.2024.08.019}, author = {Shetty, Naman S and Gaonkar, Mokshad and Pampana, Akhil and Patel, Nirav and Morrison, Alanna C and Reiner, Alexander P and Carson, April P and Yu, Bing and Psaty, Bruce M and Kooperberg, Charles and Fatkin, Diane and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Kent D and Hou, Lifang and Irvin, Marguerite R and Hall, Michael E and Maurer, Mathew and Fornage, Myriam and Armstrong, Nicole D and Bart, Nicole and Goyal, Parag and Rich, Stephen S and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Li, Peng and Arora, Garima and Arora, Pankaj} } @article {9913, title = {Circulating non-esterified fatty acids, risk of dementia and cognitive decline: The cardiovascular health study and multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis.}, journal = {Neurobiol Aging}, volume = {148}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Apr}, pages = {71-79}, abstract = {

Circulating non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs) have toxic effects on a variety of organs central to cardiometabolic disease and can cross the blood-brain barrier. Whether NEFAs associate with cognitive decline or dementia remains unknown. Circulating total NEFA levels were measured in 3242 participants without dementia among older adults of the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) and related to adjudicated dementia over 6 years (n = 456 cases) and annually assessed cognitive decline. For confirmation, we related circulating NEFAs to cognition assessed 10 years later among 4361 participants in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). In CHS participants, each SD higher NEFA levels were associated with a hazard ratio (HR) for all-cause dementia of 1.11 (95 \% CI: 1.01; 1.22). Baseline NEFA levels were also associated with more rapid decline in cognition over 6 years of follow-up. In MESA, circulating NEFA measurements were associated with lower cognitive scores measured 10 years later.{\textquoteright}

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atherosclerosis, Cognition, Cognitive Dysfunction, Cohort Studies, Dementia, Fatty Acids, Nonesterified, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Risk, Risk Factors}, issn = {1558-1497}, doi = {10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2025.01.009}, author = {Moseholm, Kristine F and Jensen, Majken K and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Aroner, Sarah A and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Longstreth, W T and Lopez, Oscar and Siscovick, David S and Kizer, Jorge R and Ix, Joachim H and Hughes, Timothy M and Hayden, Kathleen M and Nomura, Sarah and Tsai, Michael Y and McClelland, Robyn and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Mukamal, Kenneth J} } @article {9918, title = {Clinical and Imaging Markers of Cardiac Function and Brain Health: A Meta-Analysis of Community-Based Studies.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {104}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Apr 22}, pages = {e213421}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cardiac dysfunction and heart failure are linked to cognitive impairment, but the underlying brain pathology remains undetermined. We investigated associations between cardiac function (measured by echocardiography or cardiac MRI), clinical heart failure, and structural markers on brain MRI, including volumes of gray and white matter (WM), the hippocampus, and white matter hyperintensities (WMHs).

METHODS: We leverage data from 7 prospective, community-based cohorts across Europe and the United States, all part of the Cross-Cohort Collaboration. The included cohorts were the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study, Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, Austrian Stroke Prevention Study, Cardiovascular Health Study, Framingham Heart Study, Rotterdam Study, and Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP-START and SHIP-TREND). Each cohort performed cross-sectional multivariable linear regression analyses, after which estimates were pooled through random-effects meta-analysis. Heterogeneity was assessed by the index (\%).

RESULTS: Among 10,889 participants (mean age: 66.8 years, range 52.0-76.0; 56.7\% women), markers of systolic dysfunction were consistently associated with smaller total brain volume (TBV) (e.g., adjusted standardized mean difference for moderate to severe dysfunction -0.19, 95\% CI -0.31 to -0.07, = 20\%). Impaired relaxation and restrictive diastolic dysfunction were also associated with smaller TBV (e.g., for impaired relaxation -0.08, 95\% CI -0.15 to -0.01, = 32\%) and hippocampal volume (-0.18, 95\% CI -0.33 to -0.03, = 0\%), with similar results for the E/A-ratio. Systolic and diastolic dysfunction was not consistently associated with volume of WMHs. Among 5 cohorts with available data, 302 (3.4\%) participants had clinical heart failure, which was associated with smaller brain volumes, particularly in the hippocampus (-0.13, 95\% CI -0.23 to -0.02, = 1\%).

DISCUSSION: In this large study among community-dwelling adults, subclinical cardiac dysfunction was associated with brain imaging markers of neurodegeneration. These findings encourage longitudinal investigations on the effect of maintaining cardiac function on brain health.

}, keywords = {Aged, Brain, Cohort Studies, Echocardiography, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, White Matter}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000213421}, author = {Yaqub, Amber and Bis, Joshua C and Frenzel, Stefan and Koini, Marisa and Mbangdadji, Djass and Peloso, Gina M and Talluri, Rajesh and Alonso, Alvaro and Bahls, Martin and B{\"u}low, Robin and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Felix, Stephan and Fohner, Alison and Friedrich, Nele and Hofer, Edith and Kavousi, Maryam and Launer, Lenore J and Le, Tran and Longstreth, Will and Mosley, Thomas H and Vernooij, Meike W and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Wittfeld, Katharina and Beiser, Alexa S and Grabe, Hans J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Ikram, Mohammad Arfan and Psaty, Bruce M and Schmidt, Reinhold and Simino, Jeannette and Seshadri, Sudha and Wolters, Frank J} } @article {9910, title = {Genome-wide association study meta-analysis provides insights into the etiology of heart failure and its subtypes.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Mar 04}, abstract = {

Heart failure (HF) is a major contributor to global morbidity and mortality. While distinct clinical subtypes, defined by etiology and left ventricular ejection fraction, are well recognized, their genetic determinants remain inadequately understood. In this study, we report a genome-wide association study of HF and its subtypes in a sample of 1.9 million individuals. A total of 153,174 individuals had HF, of whom 44,012 had a nonischemic etiology (ni-HF). A subset of patients with ni-HF were stratified based on left ventricular systolic function, where data were available, identifying 5,406 individuals with reduced ejection fraction and 3,841 with preserved ejection fraction. We identify 66 genetic loci associated with HF and its subtypes, 37 of which have not previously been reported. Using functionally informed gene prioritization methods, we predict effector genes for each identified locus, and map these to etiologic disease clusters through phenome-wide association analysis, network analysis and colocalization. Through heritability enrichment analysis, we highlight the role of extracardiac tissues in disease etiology. We then examine the differential associations of upstream risk factors with HF subtypes using Mendelian randomization. These findings extend our understanding of the mechanisms underlying HF etiology and may inform future approaches to prevention and treatment.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-024-02064-3}, author = {Henry, Albert and Mo, Xiaodong and Finan, Chris and Chaffin, Mark D and Speed, Doug and Issa, Hanane and Denaxas, Spiros and Ware, James S and Zheng, Sean L and M{\"a}larstig, Anders and Gratton, Jasmine and Bond, Isabelle and Roselli, Carolina and Miller, David and Chopade, Sandesh and Schmidt, A Floriaan and Abner, Erik and Adams, Lance and Andersson, Charlotte and Aragam, Krishna G and Arnl{\"o}v, Johan and Asselin, Geraldine and Raja, Anna Axelsson and Backman, Joshua D and Bartz, Traci M and Biddinger, Kiran J and Biggs, Mary L and Bloom, Heather L and Boersma, Eric and Brandimarto, Jeffrey and Brown, Michael R and Brunak, S{\o}ren and Bruun, Mie Topholm and Buckbinder, Leonard and Bundgaard, Henning and Carey, David J and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Xing and Cook, James P and Czuba, Tomasz and de Denus, Simon and Dehghan, Abbas and Delgado, Graciela E and Doney, Alexander S and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Dowsett, Joseph and Dudley, Samuel C and Engstr{\"o}m, Gunnar and Erikstrup, Christian and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Farber-Eger, Eric H and Felix, Stephan B and Finer, Sarah and Ford, Ian and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Ghasemi, Sahar and Ghouse, Jonas and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Giulianini, Franco and Gottdiener, John S and Gross, Stefan and Gu{\dh}bjartsson, Dan{\'\i}el F and Gui, Hongsheng and Gutmann, Rebecca and H{\"a}gg, Sara and Haggerty, Christopher M and Hedman, {\r A}sa K and Helgadottir, Anna and Hemingway, Harry and Hillege, Hans and Hyde, Craig L and Aagaard Jensen, Bitten and Jukema, J Wouter and Kardys, Isabella and Karra, Ravi and Kavousi, Maryam and Kizer, Jorge R and Kleber, Marcus E and K{\o}ber, Lars and Koekemoer, Andrea and Kuchenbaecker, Karoline and Lai, Yi-Pin and Lanfear, David and Langenberg, Claudia and Lin, Honghuang and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Liu, Peter P and London, Barry and Lowery, Brandon D and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lubitz, Steven A and Magnusson, Patrik and Margulies, Kenneth B and Marston, Nicholas A and Martin, Hilary and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Melander, Olle and Mordi, Ify R and Morley, Michael P and Morris, Andrew P and Morrison, Alanna C and Morton, Lori and Nagle, Michael W and Nelson, Christopher P and Niessner, Alexander and Niiranen, Teemu and Noordam, Raymond and Nowak, Christoph and O{\textquoteright}Donoghue, Michelle L and Ostrowski, Sisse Rye and Owens, Anjali T and Palmer, Colin N A and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Pedersen, Ole Birger and Perola, Markus and Pigeyre, Marie and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Kenneth M and Ridker, Paul M and Romaine, Simon P R and Rotter, Jerome I and Ruff, Christian T and Sabatine, Marc S and Sallah, Neneh and Salomaa, Veikko and Sattar, Naveed and Shalaby, Alaa A and Shekhar, Akshay and Smelser, Diane T and Smith, Nicholas L and S{\o}rensen, Erik and Srinivasan, Sundararajan and Stefansson, Kari and Sveinbj{\"o}rnsson, Gar{\dh}ar and Svensson, Per and Tammesoo, Mari-Liis and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Teder-Laving, Maris and Teumer, Alexander and Thorgeirsson, Gu{\dh}mundur and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Torp-Pedersen, Christian and Tragante, Vinicius and Trompet, Stella and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Ullum, Henrik and van der Harst, Pim and van Heel, David and van Setten, Jessica and van Vugt, Marion and Veluchamy, Abirami and Verschuuren, Monique and Verweij, Niek and Vissing, Christoffer Rasmus and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Voors, Adriaan A and Wallentin, Lars and Wang, Yunzhang and Weeke, Peter E and Wiggins, Kerri L and Williams, L Keoki and Yang, Yifan and Yu, Bing and Zannad, Faiez and Zheng, Chaoqun and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Cappola, Thomas P and Dub{\'e}, Marie-Pierre and Dunn, Michael E and Lang, Chim C and Samani, Nilesh J and Shah, Svati and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Smith, J Gustav and Holm, Hilma and Shah, Sonia and Ellinor, Patrick T and Hingorani, Aroon D and Wells, Quinn and Lumbers, R Thomas} } @article {9866, title = {Genomic and phenotypic correlates of mosaic loss of chromosome Y in blood.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {112}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Feb 06}, pages = {276-290}, abstract = {

Mosaic loss of Y (mLOY) is the most common somatic chromosomal alteration detected in human blood. The presence of mLOY is associated with altered blood cell counts and increased risk of Alzheimer disease, solid tumors, and other age-related diseases. We sought to gain a better understanding of genetic drivers and associated phenotypes of mLOY through analyses of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of a large set of genetically diverse males from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. We show that haplotype-based calling methods can be used with WGS data to successfully identify mLOY events. This approach enabled us to identify differences in mLOY frequencies across populations defined by genetic similarity, revealing a higher frequency of mLOY in the European (EUR) ancestry group compared to other ancestries. We identify multiple loci associated with mLOY susceptibility and show that subsets of human hematopoietic stem cells are enriched for the activity of mLOY susceptibility variants. Finally, we found that certain alleles on chromosome Y are more likely to be lost than others in detectable mLOY clones.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Chromosome Deletion, Chromosomes, Human, Y, Genomics, Haplotypes, Humans, Male, Mosaicism, Phenotype, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2024.12.014}, author = {Jakubek, Yasminka A and Ma, Xiaolong and Stilp, Adrienne M and Yu, Fulong and Bacon, Jason and Wong, Justin W and Aguet, Francois and Ardlie, Kristin and Arnett, Donna K and Barnes, Kathleen and Bis, Joshua C and Blackwell, Tom and Becker, Lewis C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowler, Russell P and Budoff, Matthew J and Carson, April P and Chen, Jiawen and Cho, Michael H and Coresh, Josef and Cox, Nancy J and de Vries, Paul S and DeMeo, Dawn L and Fardo, David W and Fornage, Myriam and Guo, Xiuqing and Hall, Michael E and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Hidalgo, Bertha and Irvin, Marguerite Ryan and Johnson, Andrew D and Jorgenson, Eric and Kenny, Eimear E and Kessler, Michael D and Levy, Daniel and Li, Yun and Lima, Jo{\~a}o A C and Liu, Yongmei and Locke, Adam E and Loos, Ruth J F and Machiela, Mitchell J and Mathias, Rasika A and Mitchell, Braxton D and Murabito, Joanne M and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and North, Kari E and Orchard, Peter and Parker, Stephen C J and Pershad, Yash and Peyser, Patricia A and Pratte, Katherine A and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Redline, Susan and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Shah, Sanjiv J and Smith, Jennifer A and Smith, Aaron P and Smith, Albert and Taub, Margaret A and Tiwari, Hemant K and Tracy, Russell and Tuftin, Bjoernar and Bick, Alexander G and Sankaran, Vijay G and Reiner, Alexander P and Scheet, Paul and Auer, Paul L} } @article {9870, title = {The impact of common and rare genetic variants on bradyarrhythmia development.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {57}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Jan}, pages = {53-64}, abstract = {

To broaden our understanding of bradyarrhythmias and conduction disease, we performed common variant genome-wide association analyses in up to 1.3 million individuals and rare variant burden testing in 460,000 individuals for sinus node dysfunction (SND), distal conduction disease (DCD) and pacemaker (PM) implantation. We identified 13, 31 and 21 common variant loci for SND, DCD and PM, respectively. Four well-known loci (SCN5A/SCN10A, CCDC141, TBX20 and CAMK2D) were shared for SND and DCD, while others were more specific for SND or DCD. SND and DCD showed a moderate genetic correlation (r = 0.63). Cardiomyocyte-expressed genes were enriched for contributions to DCD heritability. Rare-variant analyses implicated LMNA for all bradyarrhythmia phenotypes, SMAD6 and SCN5A for DCD and TTN, MYBPC3 and SCN5A for PM. These results show that variation in multiple genetic pathways (for example, ion channel function, cardiac developmental programs, sarcomeric structure and cellular homeostasis) appear critical to the development of bradyarrhythmias.

}, keywords = {Bradycardia, Cardiac Conduction System Disease, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Pacemaker, Artificial, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sick Sinus Syndrome}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-024-01978-2}, author = {Weng, Lu-Chen and R{\"a}m{\"o}, Joel T and Jurgens, Sean J and Khurshid, Shaan and Chaffin, Mark and Hall, Amelia Weber and Morrill, Valerie N and Wang, Xin and Nauffal, Victor and Sun, Yan V and Beer, Dominik and Lee, Simon and Nadkarni, Girish N and Duong, ThuyVy and Wang, Biqi and Czuba, Tomasz and Austin, Thomas R and Yoneda, Zachary T and Friedman, Daniel J and Clayton, Anne and Hyman, Matthew C and Judy, Renae L and Skanes, Allan C and Orland, Kate M and Treu, Timothy M and Oetjens, Matthew T and Alonso, Alvaro and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Lin, Honghuang and Lunetta, Kathryn L and van der Pals, Jesper and Issa, Tariq Z and Nafissi, Navid A and May, Heidi T and Leong-Sit, Peter and Roselli, Carolina and Choi, Seung Hoan and Khan, Habib R and Knight, Stacey and Karlsson Linn{\'e}r, Richard and Bezzina, Connie R and Ripatti, Samuli and Heckbert, Susan R and Gaziano, J Michael and Loos, Ruth J F and Psaty, Bruce M and Smith, J Gustav and Benjamin, Emelia J and Arking, Dan E and Rader, Daniel J and Shah, Svati H and Roden, Dan M and Damrauer, Scott M and Eckhardt, Lee L and Roberts, Jason D and Cutler, Michael J and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Haggerty, Christopher M and Cho, Kelly and Palotie, Aarno and Wilson, Peter W F and Ellinor, Patrick T and Lubitz, Steven A} } @article {9912, title = {A Large-Scale Genome-wide Association Study of Blood Pressure Accounting for Gene-Depressive Symptomatology Interactions in 564,680 Individuals from Diverse Populations.}, journal = {Res Sq}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Feb 17}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Gene-environment interactions may enhance our understanding of hypertension. Our previous study highlighted the importance of considering psychosocial factors in gene discovery for blood pressure (BP) but was limited in statistical power and population diversity. To address these challenges, we conducted a multi-population genome-wide association study (GWAS) of BP accounting for gene-depressive symptomatology (DEPR) interactions in a larger and more diverse sample.

RESULTS: Our study included 564,680 adults aged 18 years or older from 67 cohorts and 4 population backgrounds (African (5\%), Asian (7\%), European (85\%), and Hispanic (3\%)). We discovered seven novel gene-DEPR interaction loci for BP traits. These loci mapped to genes implicated in neurogenesis (), lipid metabolism (), neuronal apoptosis (), and synaptic activity (). We also identified evidence for gene-DEPR interaction at nine known BP loci, further suggesting links between mood disturbance and BP regulation. Of the 16 identified loci, 11 loci were derived from African, Asian, or Hispanic populations. Post-GWAS analyses prioritized 36 genes, including genes involved in synaptic functions () and neuronal signaling (). Integrative druggability analyses identified 11 druggable candidate gene targets, including genes implicated in pathways linked to mood disorders as well as gene products targeted by known antihypertensive drugs.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings emphasize the importance of considering gene-DEPR interactions on BP, particularly in non-European populations. Our prioritized genes and druggable targets highlight biological pathways connecting mood disorders and hypertension and suggest opportunities for BP drug repurposing and risk factor prevention, especially in individuals with DEPR.

}, issn = {2693-5015}, doi = {10.21203/rs.3.rs-6025759/v1}, author = {Lee, Songmi and Miller, Clint L and Bentley, Amy R and Brown, Michael R and Nagarajan, Pavithra and Noordam, Raymond and Morrison, John and Schwander, Karen and Westerman, Kenneth and Kho, Minjung and Kraja, Aldi T and de Vries, Paul S and Ammous, Farah and Aschard, Hughes and Bartz, Traci M and Do, Anh and Dupont, Charles T and Feitosa, Mary F and Gudmundsdottir, Valborg and Guo, Xiuqing and Harris, Sarah E and Hikino, Keiko and Huang, Zhijie and Lefevre, Christophe and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Milaneschi, Yuri and Nardone, Giuseppe Giovanni and Santin, Aurora and Schmidt, Helena and Shen, Botong and Sofer, Tamar and Sun, Quan and Tan, Ye An and Tang, Jingxian and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and van der Most, Peter J and Ware, Erin B and Weiss, Stefan and Ya Xing, Wang and Yu, Chenglong and Zhao, Wei and Ansari, Md Abu Yusuf and Anugu, Pramod and Attia, John R and Bazzano, Lydia A and Bis, Joshua C and Breyer, Max and Cade, Brian and Chen, Guanjie and Collins, Stacey and Corley, Janie and Davies, Gail and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Du, Jiawen and Edwards, Todd L and Faquih, Tariq and Faul, Jessica D and Fohner, Alison E and Fretts, Amanda M and Gangireddy, Srushti and Gepner, Adam and Graff, Mariaelisa and Hofer, Edith and Homuth, Georg and Hood, Michelle M and Jie, Xu and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kardia, Sharon Lr and Karvonen-Gutierrez, Carrie A and Launer, Lenore J and Levy, Daniel and Maheshwari, Maitreiyi and Martin, Lisa W and Matsuda, Koichi and McNeil, John J and Nolte, Ilja M and Okochi, Tomo and Raffield, Laura M and Raitakari, Olli T and Risch, Lorenz and Risch, Martin and Roux, Ana Diez and Ruiz-Narvaez, Edward A and Russ, Tom C and Saito, Takeo and Schreiner, Pamela J and Scott, Rodney J and Shikany, James and Smith, Jennifer A and Snieder, Harold and Spedicati, Beatrice and Tai, E Shyong and Taylor, Adele M and Taylor, Kent D and Tesolin, Paola and van Dam, Rob M and Wang, Rujia and Wenbin, Wei and Xie, Tian and Yao, Jie and Young, Kristin L and Zhang, Ruiyuan and Zonderman, Alan B and Concas, Maria Pina and Conen, David and Cox, Simon R and Evans, Michele K and Fox, Ervin R and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and Giri, Ayush and Girotto, Giorgia and Grabe, Hans J and Gu, Charles and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harlow, Sioban D and Holliday, Elizabeth and Jost, Jonas B and Lacaze, Paul and Lee, Seunggeun and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Li, Changwei and Liu, Ching-Ti and Morrison, Alanna C and North, Kari E and Penninx, Brenda Wjh and Peyser, Patricia A and Province, Michael M and Psaty, Bruce M and Redline, Susan and Rosendaal, Frits R and Rotimi, Charles N and Rotter, Jerome I and Schmidt, Reinhold and Sim, Xueling and Terao, Chikashi and Weir, David R and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Franceschini, Nora and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Jaquish, Cashell E and Wang, Heming and Manning, Alisa and Munroe, Patricia B and Rao, Dabeeru C and Chen, Han and Gauderman, W James and Bierut, Laura and Winkler, Thomas W and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {9900, title = {A large-scale genome-wide study of gene-sleep duration interactions for blood pressure in 811,405 individuals from diverse populations.}, journal = {Mol Psychiatry}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Apr 04}, abstract = {

Although both short and long sleep duration are associated with elevated hypertension risk, our understanding of their interplay with biological pathways governing blood pressure remains limited. To address this, we carried out genome-wide cross-population gene-by-short-sleep and long-sleep duration interaction analyses for three blood pressure traits (systolic, diastolic, and pulse pressure) in 811,405 individuals from diverse population groups. We discovered 22 novel gene-sleep duration interaction loci for blood pressure, mapped to 23 genes. Investigating these genes{\textquoteright} functional implications shed light on neurological, thyroidal, bone metabolism, and hematopoietic pathways that necessitate future investigation for blood pressure management that caters to sleep health lifestyle. Non-overlap between short sleep (12) and long sleep (10) interactions underscores the plausible nature of distinct influences of both sleep duration extremes in cardiovascular health. Several of our loci are specific towards a particular population background or sex, emphasizing the importance of addressing heterogeneity entangled in gene-environment interactions, when considering precision medicine design approaches for blood pressure management.

}, issn = {1476-5578}, doi = {10.1038/s41380-025-02954-w}, author = {Nagarajan, Pavithra and Winkler, Thomas W and Bentley, Amy R and Miller, Clint L and Kraja, Aldi T and Schwander, Karen and Lee, Songmi and Wang, Wenyi and Brown, Michael R and Morrison, John L and Giri, Ayush and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Bartz, Traci M and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and Gudmundsdottir, Valborg and Guo, Xiuqing and Harris, Sarah E and Huang, Zhijie and Kals, Mart and Kho, Minjung and Lefevre, Christophe and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Mangino, Massimo and Milaneschi, Yuri and Palmer, Nicholette D and Rao, Varun and Rauramaa, Rainer and Shen, Botong and Stadler, Stefan and Sun, Quan and Tang, Jingxian and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and van der Graaf, Adriaan and van der Most, Peter J and Wang, Yujie and Weiss, Stefan and Westerman, Kenneth E and Yang, Qian and Yasuharu, Tabara and Zhao, Wei and Zhu, Wanying and Altschul, Drew and Ansari, Md Abu Yusuf and Anugu, Pramod and Argoty-Pantoja, Anna D and Arzt, Michael and Aschard, Hugues and Attia, John R and Bazzanno, Lydia and Breyer, Max A and Brody, Jennifer A and Cade, Brian E and Chen, Hung-Hsin and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chen, Zekai and de Vries, Paul S and Dimitrov, Latchezar M and Do, Anh and Du, Jiawen and Dupont, Charles T and Edwards, Todd L and Evans, Michele K and Faquih, Tariq and Felix, Stephan B and Fisher-Hoch, Susan P and Floyd, James S and Graff, Mariaelisa and Gu, Charles and Gu, Dongfeng and Hairston, Kristen G and Hanley, Anthony J and Heid, Iris M and Heikkinen, Sami and Highland, Heather M and Hood, Michelle M and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Karvonen-Gutierrez, Carrie A and Kawaguchi, Takahisa and Kazuya, Setoh and Kelly, Tanika N and Komulainen, Pirjo and Levy, Daniel and Lin, Henry J and Liu, Peter Y and Marques-Vidal, Pedro and McCormick, Joseph B and Mei, Hao and Meigs, James B and Menni, Cristina and Nam, Kisung and Nolte, Ilja M and Pacheco, Natasha L and Petty, Lauren E and Polikowsky, Hannah G and Province, Michael A and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Raitakari, Olli T and Rich, Stephen S and Riha, Renata L and Risch, Lorenz and Risch, Martin and Ruiz-Narvaez, Edward A and Scott, Rodney J and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Jennifer A and Sofer, Tamar and Teder-Laving, Maris and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Vollenweider, Peter and Wang, Guanchao and Willems van Dijk, Ko and Wilson, Otis D and Xia, Rui and Yao, Jie and Young, Kristin L and Zhang, Ruiyuan and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Below, Jennifer E and B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and Conen, David and Cox, Simon R and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Feitosa, Mary F and Fox, Ervin R and Franceschini, Nora and Gharib, Sina A and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harlow, Sioban D and He, Jiang and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Lakka, Timo A and Lawlor, Deborah A and Lee, Seunggeun and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Li, Changwei and Liu, Ching-Ti and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Matsuda, Fumihiko and Morrison, Alanna C and Penninx, Brenda Wjh and Peyser, Patricia A and Rotter, Jerome I and Snieder, Harold and Spector, Tim D and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wareham, Nicholas J and Zonderman, Alan B and North, Kari E and Fornage, Myriam and Hung, Adriana M and Manning, Alisa K and Gauderman, James and Chen, Han and Munroe, Patricia B and Rao, Dabeeru C and van Heemst, Diana and Redline, Susan and Noordam, Raymond and Wang, Heming} } @article {9914, title = {Meta-analysis of genome-wide associations and polygenic risk prediction for atrial fibrillation in more than 180,000 cases.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {57}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Mar}, pages = {539-547}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common heart rhythm abnormality and is a leading cause of heart failure and stroke. This large-scale meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies increased the power to detect single-nucleotide variant associations and found more than 350 AF-associated genetic loci. We identified candidate genes related to muscle contractility, cardiac muscle development and cell-cell communication at 139 loci. Furthermore, we assayed chromatin accessibility using assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with sequencing and histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation in stem cell-derived atrial cardiomyocytes. We observed a marked increase in chromatin accessibility for our sentinel variants and prioritized genes in atrial cardiomyocytes. Finally, a polygenic risk score (PRS) based on our updated effect estimates improved AF risk prediction compared to the CHARGE-AF clinical risk score and a previously reported PRS for AF. The doubling of known risk loci will facilitate a greater understanding of the pathways underlying AF.

}, keywords = {Atrial Fibrillation, Chromatin, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Multifactorial Inheritance, Myocytes, Cardiac, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-024-02072-3}, author = {Roselli, Carolina and Surakka, Ida and Olesen, Morten S and Sveinbjornsson, Gardar and Marston, Nicholas A and Choi, Seung Hoan and Holm, Hilma and Chaffin, Mark and Gudbjartsson, Daniel and Hill, Matthew C and Aegisdottir, Hildur and Albert, Christine M and Alonso, Alvaro and Anderson, Christopher D and Arking, Dan E and Arnar, David O and Barnard, John and Benjamin, Emelia J and Braunwald, Eugene and Brumpton, Ben and Campbell, Archie and Chami, Nathalie and Chasman, Daniel I and Cho, Kelly and Choi, Eue-Keun and Christophersen, Ingrid E and Chung, Mina K and Conen, David and Crijns, Harry J and Cutler, Michael J and Czuba, Tomasz and Damrauer, Scott M and Dichgans, Martin and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Dudink, Elton and Duong, ThuyVy and Erikstrup, Christian and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Fatkin, Diane and Faul, Jessica D and Ferreira, Manuel and Freitag, Daniel F and Ganesh, Santhi K and Gaziano, J Michael and Geelhoed, Bastiaan and Ghouse, Jonas and Gieger, Christian and Giulianini, Franco and Graham, Sarah E and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Guo, Xiuqing and Haggerty, Christopher and Hayward, Caroline and Heckbert, Susan R and Hveem, Kristian and Ito, Kaoru and Johnson, Renee and Jukema, J Wouter and Jurgens, Sean J and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Kane, John P and Kany, Shinwan and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kavousi, Maryam and Khurshid, Shaan and Kamanu, Frederick K and Kirchhof, Paulus and Kleber, Marcus E and Knight, Stacey and Komuro, Issei and Krieger, Jose E and Launer, Lenore J and Li, Dadong and Lin, Honghuang and Lin, Henry J and Loos, Ruth J F and Lotta, Luca and Lubitz, Steven A and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Macfarlane, Peter W and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Malik, Rainer and Mantineo, Helene and Marcus, Gregory M and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and McManus, David D and Melander, Olle and Melloni, Giorgio E M and Meyre, Pascal B and Miyazawa, Kazuo and Mohanty, Sanghamitra and Monfort, Laia M and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Nafissi, Navid A and Natale, Andrea and Nazarian, Saman and Ostrowski, Sisse R and Pak, Hui-Nam and Pang, Shichao and Pedersen, Ole B and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pereira, Alexandre C and Pirruccello, James P and Preuss, Michael and Psaty, Bruce M and Pullinger, Clive R and Rader, Daniel J and R{\"a}m{\"o}, Joel T and Ridker, Paul M and Rienstra, Michiel and Risch, Lorenz and Roden, Dan M and Rotter, Jerome I and Sabatine, Marc S and Schunkert, Heribert and Shah, Svati H and Shim, Jaemin and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Simonson, Bridget and Sinner, Moritz F and Smit, Roelof A J and Smith, Jennifer A and Smith, Nicholas L and Smith, J Gustav and Soliman, Elsayed Z and S{\o}rensen, Erik and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Strbian, Daniel and Stricker, Bruno H and Teder-Laving, Maris and Sun, Yan V and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Thorolfsdottir, Rosa B and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tveit, Arnljot and van der Harst, Pim and van Meurs, Joyce and Wang, Biqi and Weiss, Stefan and Wells, Quinn S and Weng, Lu-Chen and Wilson, Peter W and Xiao, Ling and Yang, Pil-Sung and Yao, Jie and Yoneda, Zachary T and Zeller, Tanja and Zeng, Lingyao and Zhao, Wei and Zhou, Xiang and Z{\"o}llner, Sebastian and Ruff, Christian T and Bundgaard, Henning and Willer, Cristen and Stefansson, Kari and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {9911, title = {Methylome-wide association analyses of lipids and modifying effects of behavioral factors in diverse race and ethnicity participants.}, journal = {Clin Epigenetics}, volume = {17}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Apr 02}, pages = {54}, abstract = {

Circulating lipid concentrations are clinically associated with cardiometabolic diseases. The phenotypic variance explained by identified genetic variants remains limited, highlighting the importance of searching for additional factors beyond genetic sequence variants. DNA methylation has been linked to lipid concentrations in previous studies, although most of the studies harbored moderate sample sizes and exhibited underrepresentation of non-European ancestry populations. In addition, knowledge of nongenetic factors on lipid profiles is extremely limited. In the Population Architecture Using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Study, we performed methylome-wide association analysis on 9,561 participants from diverse race and ethnicity backgrounds for HDL-c, LDL-c, TC, and TG levels, and also tested interactions between smoking or alcohol intake and methylation in their association with lipid levels. We identified novel CpG sites at 16 loci (P < 1.18E-7) with successful replication on 3,215 participants. One additional novel locus was identified in the self-reported White participants (P = 4.66E-8). Although no additional CpG sites were identified in the genome-wide interaction analysis, 13 reported CpG sites showed significant heterogeneous association across smoking or alcohol intake strata. By mapping novel and reported CpG sites to genes, we identified enriched pathways directly linked to lipid metabolism as well as ones spanning various biological functions. These findings provide new insights into the regulation of lipid concentrations.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Alcohol Drinking, CpG Islands, DNA Methylation, Ethnicity, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lipids, Male, Middle Aged, Racial Groups, Smoking, White People}, issn = {1868-7083}, doi = {10.1186/s13148-025-01859-3}, author = {Hu, Yao and Haessler, Jeff and Lundin, Jessica I and Darst, Burcu F and Whitsel, Eric A and Grove, Megan and Guan, Weihua and Xia, Rui and Szeto, Mindy and Raffield, Laura M and Ratliff, Scott and Wang, Yuxuan and Wang, Xuzhi and Fohner, Alison E and Lynch, Megan T and Patel, Yesha M and Lani Park, S and Xu, Huichun and Mitchell, Braxton D and Bis, Joshua C and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Brody, Jennifer A and Psaty, Bruce M and Peloso, Gina M and Tsai, Michael Y and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Smith, Jennifer A and Kardia, Sharon L R and Reiner, Alex P and Lange, Leslie and Fornage, Myriam and Pankow, James S and Graff, Mariaelisa and North, Kari E and Kooperberg, Charles and Peters, Ulrike} } @article {9905, title = {Non-Esterified Fatty Acid Profiles and Cause-Specific Mortality: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Clin Endocrinol Metab}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Mar 24}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Total fasting non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA) levels have been associated with mortality. The corresponding associations with NEFA levels following an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and with individual fasting NEFA species are unclear.

OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the associations of post-load NEFA, fasting subclasses and individual NEFA with mortality.

DESIGN AND SETTING: The Cardiovascular Health Study is a population-based cohort study of community-dwelling adults over 64 years from four US communities that began in 1989-1990. Participants had total NEFA measured enzymatically before and two hours after an OGTT from archived serum samples collected in 1996-1997. Fasting individual NEFA were also measured using gas chromatography. Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) for mortality associated with fasting and post-load total NEFA, and fasting individual and fatty acid subclasses (saturated, monounsaturated, n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated, and trans).

RESULTS: The final population included 1996 participants with a mean age of 78 years. 60.5\% were female. Over a median 11-year follow-up period, 1678 participants died. Total fasting NEFA was associated with higher risk of all-cause mortality (aHR per standard deviation: 1.17, 95\% CI [1.10-1.23]). Total post-load NEFA was not associated with mortality. Among subclasses, only monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) was associated with total mortality (aHR 1.24, 95\% CI [1.09-1.41]). For individual NEFAs, nervonic acid (aHR 1.06, 95\% CI [1.01-1.12]), petroselaidic acid (aHR 1.21, 95\% CI [1.03-1.42]) and eicosapentaenoic acid (aHR 0.90, 95\% CI [0.82-0.99]) were associated with all-cause mortality.

CONCLUSION: Individual fasting NEFAs represent attractive candidates for medical and public health interventions aimed at improving survivorship in older adults and should be investigated further.

}, issn = {1945-7197}, doi = {10.1210/clinem/dgaf182}, author = {Bene-Alhasan, Yakubu and Shitole, Sanyog G and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Hirsch, Calvin H and Ix, Joachim H and Kizer, Jorge R and Siscovick, David S and Matthan, Nirupa R and Lichtenstein, Alice H and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Mukamal, Kenneth J} } @article {9906, title = {Plasma Proteomic Assessment of Calcific Aortic Valve Disease in Older Adults.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {14}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Mar 04}, pages = {e036336}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD), and ensuing severe aortic stenosis (AS), is the foremost valvular disorder of aging, yet preventive therapies are lacking. A better understanding of the molecular underpinnings of aortic valve calcification (AVC) is necessary to develop pharmacologic interventions.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We undertook large-scale plasma proteomics in a cohort study of adults >=65 years old, the CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study), to identify individual proteins associated with echocardiographic AVC and incident moderate/severe AS. Proteomics measurements were performed with the aptamer-based SomaLogic platform of ~5000 proteins. Significant proteins were validated in a second cohort, the AGES-RS (Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study), which assessed AVC and AS by computed tomography. The potential causal associations of replicated proteins were tested in 2-sample Mendelian randomization using identified cis protein quantitative trait loci in consortia having computed tomography-quantified AVC or AS as outcomes. Six proteins showed Bonferroni-corrected significant relationships with AVC in CHS. Three of these, CXCL-12 (C-X-C chemokine ligand 12), KLKB1 (kallikrein), and leptin, replicated in AGES-RS, of which the former 2 are novel. Only 1 protein, CXCL6, which showed a near-significant association with AS in the replication cohort, was significantly (positively) associated with incident AS. Mendelian randomization analysis was conducted for KLKB1, CXCL12, and CXCL6, which supported a causal relationship for higher KLKB1 with lower AVC (beta=-0.25, =0.009).

CONCLUSIONS: This study of older adults newly identified and largely replicated associations of 3 circulating proteins with calcific aortic valve disease, of which the relationship of plasma KLKB1 may have a causal basis. Additional investigation is necessary to determine if KLKB1 could be harnessed for calcific aortic valve disease therapeutics.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aortic Valve, Aortic Valve Stenosis, Biomarkers, Blood Proteins, Calcinosis, Chemokine CXCL12, Echocardiography, Female, Humans, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Proteomics, Severity of Illness Index}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.124.036336}, author = {Bortnick, Anna E and Austin, Thomas R and Hamerton, Emily and Gudmundsdottir, Valborg and Emilsson, Valur and Jennings, Lori L and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Owens, David S and Massera, Daniele and Dufresne, Line and Yang, Ta-Yu and Engert, James C and Thanassoulis, George and Tracy, Russell P and Gerszten, Robert E and Psaty, Bruce M and Kizer, Jorge R} } @article {9871, title = {Racial residential segregation is associated with ambient air pollution exposure after adjustment for multilevel sociodemographic factors: Evidence from eight US-based cohorts.}, journal = {Environ Epidemiol}, volume = {9}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Feb}, pages = {e367}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: We examined if racial residential segregation (RRS) - a fundamental cause of disease - is independently associated with air pollution after accounting for other neighborhood and individual-level sociodemographic factors, to better understand its potential role as a confounder of air pollution-health studies.

METHODS: We compiled data from eight large cohorts, restricting to non-Hispanic Black and White urban-residing participants observed at least once between 1999 and 2005. We used 2000 decennial census data to derive a spatial RRS measure (divergence index) and neighborhood socioeconomic status (NSES) index for participants{\textquoteright} residing Census tracts, in addition to participant baseline data, to examine associations between RRS and sociodemographic factors (NSES, education, race) and residential exposure to spatiotemporal model-predicted PM and NO levels. We fit random-effects meta-analysis models to pool estimates across adjusted cohort-specific multilevel models.

RESULTS: Analytic sample included eligible participants in CHS (N = 3,605), MESA (4,785), REGARDS (22,649), NHS (90,415), NHSII (91,654), HPFS (32,625), WHI-OS (77,680), and WHI-CT (56,639). In adjusted univariate models, a quartile higher RRS was associated with 3.73\% higher PM exposure (95\% CI: 2.14\%, 5.32\%), and an 11.53\% higher (95\% CI: 10.83\%, 12.22\%) NO exposure on average. In fully adjusted models, higher RRS was associated with 3.25\% higher PM exposure (95\% CI: 1.45\%, 5.05\%; < 0.05) and 10.22\% higher NO exposure (95\% CI: 6.69\%, 13.74\%; < 0.001) on average.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that RRS is associated with the differential distribution of poor air quality independent of NSES or individual race, suggesting it may be a relevant confounder to be considered in future air pollution epidemiology studies.

}, issn = {2474-7882}, doi = {10.1097/EE9.0000000000000367}, author = {Zewdie, Hiwot Y and Fahey, Carolyn A and Harrington, Anna L and Hart, Jaime E and Biggs, Mary L and McClure, Leslie A and Whitsel, Eric A and Kaufman, Joel D and Hajat, Anjum} } @article {9898, title = {Rare damaging CCR2 variants are associated with lower lifetime cardiovascular risk.}, journal = {Genome Med}, volume = {17}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Mar 21}, pages = {27}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Previous work has shown a role of CCL2, a key chemokine governing monocyte trafficking, in atherosclerosis. However, it remains unknown whether targeting CCR2, the cognate receptor of CCL2, provides protection against human atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

METHODS: Computationally predicted damaging or loss-of-function (REVEL > 0.5) variants within CCR2 were detected in whole-exome-sequencing data from 454,775 UK Biobank participants and tested for association with cardiovascular endpoints in gene-burden tests. Given the key role of CCR2 in monocyte mobilization, variants associated with lower monocyte count were prioritized for experimental validation. The response to CCL2 of human cells transfected with these variants was tested in migration and cAMP assays. Validated damaging variants were tested for association with cardiovascular endpoints, atherosclerosis burden, and vascular risk factors. Significant associations were replicated in six independent datasets (n = 1,062,595).

RESULTS: Carriers of 45 predicted damaging or loss-of-function CCR2 variants (n = 787 individuals) were at lower risk of myocardial infarction and coronary artery disease. One of these variants (M249K, n = 585, 0.15\% of European ancestry individuals) was associated with lower monocyte count and with both decreased downstream signaling and chemoattraction in response to CCL2. While M249K showed no association with conventional vascular risk factors, it was consistently associated with a lower risk of myocardial infarction (odds ratio [OR]: 0.66, 95\% confidence interval [CI]: 0.54-0.81, p = 6.1 {\texttimes} 10) and coronary artery disease (OR: 0.74, 95\%CI: 0.63-0.87, p = 2.9 {\texttimes} 10) in the UK Biobank and in six replication cohorts. In a phenome-wide association study, there was no evidence of a higher risk of infections among M249K carriers.

CONCLUSIONS: Carriers of an experimentally confirmed damaging CCR2 variant are at a lower lifetime risk of myocardial infarction and coronary artery disease without carrying a higher risk of infections. Our findings provide genetic support for the translational potential of CCR2-targeting as an atheroprotective approach.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Chemokine CCL2, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Monocytes, Receptors, CCR2}, issn = {1756-994X}, doi = {10.1186/s13073-025-01456-2}, author = {Georgakis, Marios K and Malik, Rainer and Bounkari, Omar El and Hasbani, Natalie R and Li, Jiang and Huffman, Jennifer E and Shakt, Gabrielle and Tack, Reinier W P and Kimball, Tamara N and Asare, Yaw and Morrison, Alanna C and Tsao, Noah L and Judy, Renae and Mitchell, Braxton D and Xu, Huichun and Montasser, May E and Do, Ron and Kenny, Eimear E and Loos, Ruth J F and Terry, James G and Carr, John Jeffrey and Bis, Joshua C and Psaty, Bruce M and Longstreth, W T and Young, Kendra A and Lutz, Sharon M and Cho, Michael H and Broome, Jai and Khan, Alyna T and Wang, Fei Fei and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Seshadri, Sudha and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Palmer, Nicholette D and Freedman, Barry I and Bowden, Donald W and Yanek, Lisa R and Kral, Brian G and Becker, Lewis C and Peyser, Patricia A and Bielak, Lawrence F and Ammous, Farah and Carson, April P and Hall, Michael E and Raffield, Laura M and Rich, Stephen S and Post, Wendy S and Tracy, Russel P and Taylor, Kent D and Guo, Xiuqing and Mahaney, Michael C and Curran, Joanne E and Blangero, John and Clarke, Shoa L and Haessler, Jeffrey W and Hu, Yao and Assimes, Themistocles L and Kooperberg, Charles and Bernhagen, J{\"u}rgen and Anderson, Christopher D and Damrauer, Scott M and Zand, Ramin and Rotter, Jerome I and de Vries, Paul S and Dichgans, Martin} } @article {9916, title = {Robust Automated Harmonization of Heterogeneous Data Through Ensemble Machine Learning: Algorithm Development and Validation Study.}, journal = {JMIR Med Inform}, volume = {13}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Jan 22}, pages = {e54133}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Cohort studies contain rich clinical data across large and diverse patient populations and are a common source of observational data for clinical research. Because large scale cohort studies are both time and resource intensive, one alternative is to harmonize data from existing cohorts through multicohort studies. However, given differences in variable encoding, accurate variable harmonization is difficult.

OBJECTIVE: We propose SONAR (Semantic and Distribution-Based Harmonization) as a method for harmonizing variables across cohort studies to facilitate multicohort studies.

METHODS: SONAR used semantic learning from variable descriptions and distribution learning from study participant data. Our method learned an embedding vector for each variable and used pairwise cosine similarity to score the similarity between variables. This approach was built off 3 National Institutes of Health cohorts, including the Cardiovascular Health Study, the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and the Women{\textquoteright}s Health Initiative. We also used gold standard labels to further refine the embeddings in a supervised manner.

RESULTS: The method was evaluated using manually curated gold standard labels from the 3 National Institutes of Health cohorts. We evaluated both the intracohort and intercohort variable harmonization performance. The supervised SONAR method outperformed existing benchmark methods for almost all intracohort and intercohort comparisons using area under the curve and top-k accuracy metrics. Notably, SONAR was able to significantly improve harmonization of concepts that were difficult for existing semantic methods to harmonize.

CONCLUSIONS: SONAR achieves accurate variable harmonization within and between cohort studies by harnessing the complementary strengths of semantic learning and variable distribution learning.

}, keywords = {Algorithms, Cohort Studies, Female, Humans, Machine Learning, Semantics}, issn = {2291-9694}, doi = {10.2196/54133}, author = {Yang, Doris and Zhou, Doudou and Cai, Steven and Gan, Ziming and Pencina, Michael and Avillach, Paul and Cai, Tianxi and Hong, Chuan} } @article {9940, title = {Selected social and lifestyle correlates of brain health markers: the Cross-Cohort Collaboration Consortium.}, journal = {Alzheimers Dement}, volume = {21}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Apr}, pages = {e70148}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: To investigate the associations of education level, marital status, and physical activity with dementia risk and brain MRI markers.

METHODS: Data from six community-based samples from the Cross-Cohort Collaboration Consortium were analyzed. Self-reported education level, marital status, and physical activity at age 60 to 75 years were harmonized. Subsamples of participants with brain MRI markers at time of exposure were selected. Associations with dementia risk and cross-sectional MRI markers were meta-analyzed.

RESULTS: Higher education level was associated with lower dementia risk (hazard ratio [HR]~=~0.65, 95\% confidence interval [CI]~=~0.59; 0.72~vs low level) but not significantly with brain MRI markers. Compared with being unmarried, being married was only associated with higher total brain and hippocampal volumes. Being physically active was associated with lower dementia risk (HR~=~0.73, 95\% CI~=~0.52; 1.04), as well as larger total brain volume and smaller white matter hyperintensity volume.

DISCUSSION: This study provides further evidence regarding the contribution of education level and physical activity to dementia resilience.

HIGHLIGHTS: Education level, marital status, and physical activity are thought to contribute to resilience against ADRD. We used random-effects meta-analysis to summarize results from six community-based samples from the CCC. In this cross-cohort meta-analysis, higher education level and being physically active were associated with lower risk of dementia. In cross-sectional analyses, being married was associated with larger TBV and HV, while being physically active was associated with larger TBV and lower WMHV.

}, keywords = {Aged, Brain, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, Dementia, Educational Status, Exercise, Female, Humans, Life Style, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Marital Status, Middle Aged, Risk Factors}, issn = {1552-5279}, doi = {10.1002/alz.70148}, author = {Grasset, Leslie and Bis, Joshua C and Frenzel, Stefan and Kojis, Daniel and Simino, Jeannette and Yaqub, Amber and Beiser, Alexa and Berr, Claudine and Bressler, Jan and B{\"u}low, Robin and DeCarli, Charles S and Fohner, Alison E and Harrington, Laura B and Helmer, Catherine and Ikram, M Arfan and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Lopez, Oscar L and Longstreth, W T and Neitzel, Julia and Odden, Michelle C and Palta, Priya and Schmidt, Carsten O and Talluri, Rajesh and Vernooij, Meike W and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Voortman, Trudy and Whalen, Quest and Wittfeld, Katharina and Grabe, Hans J and Mosley, Thomas H and Psaty, Bruce M and Wolters, Frank J and Seshadri, Sudha and Dufouil, Carole} } @article {9907, title = {Sequencing in over 50,000 cases identifies coding and structural variation underlying atrial fibrillation risk.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {57}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Mar}, pages = {548-562}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a prevalent and morbid abnormality of the heart rhythm with a strong genetic component. Here, we meta-analyzed genome and exome sequencing data from 36 studies that included 52,416 AF cases and 277,762 controls. In burden tests of rare coding variation, we identified novel associations between AF and the genes MYBPC3, LMNA, PKP2, FAM189A2 and KDM5B. We further identified associations between AF and rare structural variants owing to deletions in CTNNA3 and duplications of GATA4. We broadly replicated our findings in independent samples from MyCode, deCODE and UK Biobank. Finally, we found that CRISPR knockout of KDM5B in stem-cell-derived atrial cardiomyocytes led to a shortening of the action potential duration and widespread transcriptomic dysregulation of genes relevant to atrial homeostasis and conduction. Our results highlight the contribution of rare coding and structural variants to AF, including genetic links between AF and cardiomyopathies, and expand our understanding of the rare variant architecture for this common arrhythmia.

}, keywords = {Atrial Fibrillation, Case-Control Studies, Exome Sequencing, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Myocytes, Cardiac, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-025-02074-9}, author = {Choi, Seung Hoan and Jurgens, Sean J and Xiao, Ling and Hill, Matthew C and Haggerty, Christopher M and Sveinbj{\"o}rnsson, Gar{\dh}ar and Morrill, Valerie N and Marston, Nicholas A and Weng, Lu-Chen and Pirruccello, James P and Arnar, David O and Gudbjartsson, Daniel Fannar and Mantineo, Helene and von Falkenhausen, Aenne S and Natale, Andrea and Tveit, Arnljot and Geelhoed, Bastiaan and Roselli, Carolina and Van Wagoner, David R and Darbar, Dawood and Haase, Doreen and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Davogustto, Giovanni E and Jun, Goo and Calkins, Hugh and Anderson, Jeffrey L and Brody, Jennifer A and Halford, Jennifer L and Barnard, John and Hokanson, John E and Smith, Jonathan D and Bis, Joshua C and Young, Kendra and Johnson, Linda S B and Risch, Lorenz and Gula, Lorne J and Kwee, Lydia Coulter and Chaffin, Mark D and K{\"u}hne, Michael and Preuss, Michael and Gupta, Namrata and Nafissi, Navid A and Smith, Nicholas L and Nilsson, Peter M and van der Harst, Pim and Wells, Quinn S and Judy, Renae L and Schnabel, Renate B and Johnson, Renee and Smit, Roelof A J and Gabriel, Stacey and Knight, Stacey and Furukawa, Tetsushi and Blackwell, Thomas W and Nauffal, Victor and Wang, Xin and Min, Yuan-I and Yoneda, Zachary T and Laksman, Zachary W M and Bezzina, Connie R and Alonso, Alvaro and Psaty, Bruce M and Albert, Christine M and Arking, Dan E and Roden, Dan M and Chasman, Daniel I and Rader, Daniel J and Conen, David and McManus, David D and Fatkin, Diane and Benjamin, Emelia J and Boerwinkle, Eric and Marcus, Gregory M and Christophersen, Ingrid E and Smith, J Gustav and Roberts, Jason D and Raffield, Laura M and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Cho, Michael H and Cutler, Michael J and Rienstra, Michiel and Chung, Mina K and S Olesen, Morten and Sinner, Moritz F and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Kirchhof, Paulus and Loos, Ruth J F and Nazarian, Saman and Mohanty, Sanghamitra and Damrauer, Scott M and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Heckbert, Susan R and Redline, Susan and Shah, Svati H and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Ebana, Yusuke and Holm, Hilma and Stefansson, Kari and Ruff, Christian T and Sabatine, Marc S and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Lubitz, Steven A and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {9899, title = {A statistical framework for multi-trait rare variant analysis in large-scale whole-genome sequencing studies.}, journal = {Nat Comput Sci}, volume = {5}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Feb}, pages = {125-143}, abstract = {

Large-scale whole-genome sequencing (WGS) studies have improved our understanding of the contributions of coding and noncoding rare variants to complex human traits. Leveraging association effect sizes across multiple traits in WGS rare variant association analysis can improve statistical power over single-trait analysis, and also detect pleiotropic genes and regions. Existing multi-trait methods have limited ability to perform rare variant analysis of large-scale WGS data. We propose MultiSTAAR, a statistical framework and computationally scalable analytical pipeline for functionally informed multi-trait rare variant analysis in large-scale WGS studies. MultiSTAAR accounts for relatedness, population structure and correlation among phenotypes by jointly analyzing multiple traits, and further empowers rare variant association analysis by incorporating multiple functional annotations. We applied MultiSTAAR to jointly analyze three lipid traits in 61,838 multi-ethnic samples from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program. We discovered and replicated new associations with lipid traits missed by single-trait analysis.

}, keywords = {Genetic Variation, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lipids, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {2662-8457}, doi = {10.1038/s43588-024-00764-8}, author = {Li, Xihao and Chen, Han and Selvaraj, Margaret Sunitha and Van Buren, Eric and Zhou, Hufeng and Wang, Yuxuan and Sun, Ryan and McCaw, Zachary R and Yu, Zhi and Jiang, Min-Zhi and DiCorpo, Daniel and Gaynor, Sheila M and Dey, Rounak and Arnett, Donna K and Benjamin, Emelia J and Bis, Joshua C and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowden, Donald W and Brody, Jennifer A and Cade, Brian E and Carson, April P and Carlson, Jenna C and Chami, Nathalie and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Curran, Joanne E and de Vries, Paul S and Fornage, Myriam and Franceschini, Nora and Freedman, Barry I and Gu, Charles and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and He, Jiang and Hou, Lifang and Hung, Yi-Jen and Irvin, Marguerite R and Kaplan, Robert C and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kelly, Tanika N and Konigsberg, Iain and Kooperberg, Charles and Kral, Brian G and Li, Changwei and Li, Yun and Lin, Honghuang and Liu, Ching-Ti and Loos, Ruth J F and Mahaney, Michael C and Martin, Lisa W and Mathias, Rasika A and Mitchell, Braxton D and Montasser, May E and Morrison, Alanna C and Naseri, Take and North, Kari E and Palmer, Nicholette D and Peyser, Patricia A and Psaty, Bruce M and Redline, Susan and Reiner, Alexander P and Rich, Stephen S and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Jennifer A and Taylor, Kent D and Tiwari, Hemant K and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Viali, Satupa{\textquoteright}itea and Wang, Zhe and Wessel, Jennifer and Yanek, Lisa R and Yu, Bing and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Meigs, James B and Auer, Paul L and Raffield, Laura M and Manning, Alisa K and Rice, Kenneth M and Rotter, Jerome I and Peloso, Gina M and Natarajan, Pradeep and Li, Zilin and Liu, Zhonghua and Lin, Xihong} } @article {9942, title = {Whole genome sequencing analysis of body mass index identifies novel African ancestry-specific risk allele.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {16}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Apr 11}, pages = {3470}, abstract = {

Obesity is a major public health crisis associated with high mortality rates. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) investigating body mass index (BMI) have largely relied on imputed data from European individuals. This study leveraged whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from 88,873 participants from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program, of which 51\% were of non-European population groups. We discovered 18 BMI-associated signals (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10), including two secondary signals. Notably, we identified and replicated a novel low-frequency single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in MTMR3 that was common in individuals of African descent. Using a diverse study population, we further identified two novel secondary signals in known BMI loci and pinpointed two likely causal variants in the POC5 and DMD loci. Our work demonstrates the benefits of combining WGS and diverse cohorts in expanding current catalog of variants and genes confer risk for obesity, bringing us one step closer to personalized medicine.

}, keywords = {Adult, African People, Alleles, Body Mass Index, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Population Groups, Whole Genome Sequencing}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-025-58420-2}, author = {Zhang, Xinruo and Brody, Jennifer A and Graff, Mariaelisa and Highland, Heather M and Chami, Nathalie and Xu, Hanfei and Wang, Zhe and Ferrier, Kendra R and Chittoor, Geetha and Josyula, Navya Shilpa and Meyer, Mariah and Gupta, Shreyash and Li, Xihao and Li, Zilin and Allison, Matthew A and Becker, Diane M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Boorgula, Meher Preethi and Bowden, Donald W and Broome, Jai G and Buth, Erin J and Carlson, Christopher S and Chang, Kyong-Mi and Chavan, Sameer and Chiu, Yen-Feng and Chuang, Lee-Ming and Conomos, Matthew P and DeMeo, Dawn L and Du, Mengmeng and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Eng, Celeste and Fohner, Alison E and Freedman, Barry I and Garrett, Melanie E and Guo, Xiuqing and Haiman, Chris and Heavner, Benjamin D and Hidalgo, Bertha and Hixson, James E and Ho, Yuk-Lam and Hobbs, Brian D and Hu, Donglei and Hui, Qin and Hwu, Chii-Min and Jackson, Rebecca D and Jain, Deepti and Kalyani, Rita R and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kelly, Tanika N and Lange, Ethan M and LeNoir, Michael and Li, Changwei and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and McDonald, Merry-Lynn N and McHugh, Caitlin P and Morrison, Alanna C and Naseri, Take and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pankow, James S and Perry, James A and Peters, Ulrike and Preuss, Michael H and Rao, D C and Regan, Elizabeth A and Reupena, Sefuiva M and Roden, Dan M and Rodriguez-Santana, Jose and Sitlani, Colleen M and Smith, Jennifer A and Tiwari, Hemant K and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wang, Zeyuan and Weeks, Daniel E and Wessel, Jennifer and Wiggins, Kerri L and Wilkens, Lynne R and Wilson, Peter W F and Yanek, Lisa R and Yoneda, Zachary T and Zhao, Wei and Z{\"o}llner, Sebastian and Arnett, Donna K and Ashley-Koch, Allison E and Barnes, Kathleen C and Blangero, John and Boerwinkle, Eric and Burchard, Esteban G and Carson, April P and Chasman, Daniel I and Ida Chen, Yii-Der and Curran, Joanne E and Fornage, Myriam and Gordeuk, Victor R and He, Jiang and Heckbert, Susan R and Hou, Lifang and Irvin, Marguerite R and Kooperberg, Charles and Minster, Ryan L and Mitchell, Braxton D and Nouraie, Mehdi and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Reiner, Alexander P and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Benjamin Shoemaker, M and Smith, Nicholas L and Taylor, Kent D and Telen, Marilyn J and Weiss, Scott T and Zhang, Yingze and Heard-Costa, Nancy and Sun, Yan V and Lin, Xihong and Cupples, L Adrienne and Lange, Leslie A and Liu, Ching-Ti and Loos, Ruth J F and North, Kari E and Justice, Anne E} } @article {9909, title = {Whole Genome Variable Number Tandem Repeat Analysis in Alzheimer Disease.}, journal = {Neurol Genet}, volume = {11}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Apr}, pages = {e200241}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Investigation into different allelic variants may yield new associative genes to predict late-onset Alzheimer disease (LOAD). Variable number tandem repeats (VNTRs) are important polymorphic components of the genome; however, they have been previously overlooked because of their complex genotyping. New software can now determine differing lengths of VNTRs; however, this has not been tested in a large case-control population.

METHODS: We used VNTRseek to genotype over 200,000 tandem repeats in 9,501 cases and controls from the Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Disease Sequencing Project. We first identified limiting factors of this analysis and then examined the association of VNTRs with AD diagnosis in a subset of non-Hispanic White participants.

RESULTS: We found that VNTRs were highly associated with areas of the genome with a high number of previously identified variants. From our case-control analysis, we identified 9 VNTRs with a repeat allele length associated with LOAD including VNTRs on DSC3, NR2E3, CCNY, PKP4, GRAP, and MAP6.

DISCUSSION: We were able to show the feasibility of this new type of analysis in large-scale whole-genome sequencing data and identify promising VNTRs that are associated with LOAD.

}, issn = {2376-7839}, doi = {10.1212/NXG.0000000000200241}, author = {Heath, Alesha and McNerney, M Windy and Yesavage, Jerome} }