@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 {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 {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} }