Obesity (Silver Spring)
August 2025
Objective: To examine the prospective associations of metal mixtures during pregnancy with midlife adiposity and explore metal-folate interactions.
Methods: In 500 participants from Project Viva, we measured six non-essential metals (arsenic, barium, cadmium, cesium, mercury, and lead) and five essential metals (copper, magnesium, manganese, selenium, and zinc) in red blood cells and folate in plasma collected during early pregnancy (mean gestational age: 10.0 weeks; mean age: 32.
Osteoporos Sarcopenia
March 2025
Objectives: Vertebral fractures are associated with disability and mortality, but most vertebral fractures are asymptomatic. The present study aimed to determine the incidence of and develop a predictive nomogram for asymptomatic vertebral fractures in Vietnamese adults.
Methods: This cohort study as a part of the Vietnam Osteoporosis Study involved 168 men and 287 women aged 50 years and older without a clinically diagnosed vertebral fracture.
Background: Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory condition characterised by pain and infertility. We conducted a prospective study to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying endometriosis development.
Methods: We examined the association between 1305 proteins measured by SomaScan proteomics and risk of endometriosis diagnosis in prospectively collected plasma from 200 laparoscopically-confirmed endometriosis cases and 200 risk-set sampling matched controls within the Nurses' Health Study II (NHSII) cohort.
Radiol Cardiothorac Imaging
April 2025
Purpose To develop and evaluate a free-breathing, highly accelerated, multisection, single-beat cine sequence for cardiac MRI. Materials and Methods This prospective study, conducted from July 2022 to December 2023, included participants with various cardiac conditions as well as healthy participants who were imaged using a 3-T MRI system. A single-beat sequence was implemented, collecting data for each section in one heartbeat.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To inform decision making around mammography-screening frequency and cessation, we previously used Fine-Gray competing-risk regression to develop and validate a model to estimate older women's 10-year risk of breast cancer and their competing risk of non-breast cancer (non-BC) death. Here, we aimed to understand the amount of incident breast cancer and non-BC death risk explained by our model among women ≥ 65y.
Methods: We included women ≥ 65y who completed the 2004 Nurses' Health Study questionnaire (NHS, n = 59,662) or who participated in the Women's Health Initiative-Extension Study (WHI-ES, n = 82,528).
Background: The long-term associations between metal mixtures in pregnancy and women's mid-life blood pressure (BP) and hypertension remain unclear.
Methods: In Project Viva (enrolled 1999-2002), we measured nonessential (arsenic, barium, cadmium, cesium, mercury, lead) and essential metals (copper, magnesium, manganese, selenium, zinc) in red blood cells, along with folate and vitamin B12 in plasma, collected during pregnancy. We measured mid-life BP from 2017 to 2021 (median age, 51.
Importance: Nocturnal hypertension while asleep is associated with substantial increases in risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and death. Whether hypertension while supine is a risk factor associated with CVD independent of seated hypertension remains unknown.
Objective: To investigate the association between supine hypertension and CVD outcomes and by hypertension treatment status.
Background: Risk stratification for sudden cardiac death (SCD) in patients with nonischemic cardiomyopathy (NICM) remains challenging.
Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the impact of epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) on SCD in NICM patients.
Methods: Our study cohort included 173 consecutive patients (age 53 ± 14 years, 73% men) scheduled for primary prevention implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) implantation who underwent preimplant cardiovascular magnetic resonance.
Background: Delirium after cardiac surgery is common, morbid, and costly, but may be prevented with risk stratification and targeted intervention. In this study, we aimed to identify protein biomarkers and develop a predictive model for postoperative delirium in older patients undergoing cardiac surgery.
Methods: SomaScan analysis of 1305 proteins in the plasma from 57 older adults undergoing cardiac surgery requiring cardiopulmonary bypass was conducted to define delirium-specific protein signatures at baseline (preoperative baseline timepoint [PREOP]) and postoperative day 2 (POD2).
Hypertension
February 2025
Background: Orthostatic hypertension is an emerging risk factor for adverse events. Recent consensus statements combine an increase in blood pressure upon standing with standing hypertension, but whether these 2 components have similar risk associations with cardiovascular disease (CVD) is unknown.
Methods: The ARIC study (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) measured supine and standing blood pressure during visit 1 (1987-1989).
Background: Reliable, noninvasive tools to diagnose at-risk metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) are urgently needed to improve management. We developed a risk stratification score incorporating proteomics-derived serum markers with clinical variables to identify high-risk patients with MASH (NAFLD activity score >4 and fibrosis score >2).
Methods: In this 3-phase proteomic study of biopsy-proven metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic fatty liver disease, we first developed a multi-protein predictor for discriminating NAFLD activity score >4 based on SOMAscan proteomics quantifying 1305 serum proteins from 57 US patients.
J Cardiovasc Magn Reson
June 2025
Background: Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging enables imaging of scar/fibrosis and is a cornerstone of most CMR imaging protocols. CMR imaging can benefit from image acceleration; however, image acceleration in LGE remains challenging due to its limited signal-to-noise ratio. In this study, we sought to evaluate a rapid two-dimensional (2D) LGE imaging protocol using a generative artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm with inline reconstruction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci
December 2024
Background: Although the pathogenesis of delirium is poorly understood, increasing evidence supports a role for inflammation. Previously, individual inflammatory biomarkers have been associated with delirium. Aggregating biomarkers into an index may provide more information than individual biomarkers in predicting certain health outcomes (eg, mortality); however, inflammatory indices have not yet been examined in delirium.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPreoperative risk biomarkers for delirium may aid in identifying high-risk patients and developing intervention therapies, which would minimize the health and economic burden of postoperative delirium. Previous studies have typically used single omics approaches to identify such biomarkers. Preoperative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from the Healthier Postoperative Recovery study of adults ≥ 63 years old undergoing elective major orthopedic surgery was used in a matched pair delirium case-no delirium control design.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Cardiovasc Magn Reson
December 2024
Background: Clinical significance of an integrated evaluation of epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) and the right ventricle (RV) in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is unknown.
Objectives: The authors investigated the potential of EAT and RV quantification for obesity-related pathophysiology and risk stratification in obese HFpEF patients using cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR).
Methods: A total of 150 patients (obese, body mass index ≥30 kg/m; n = 73, nonobese, body mass index <30 kg/m; n = 77) with a clinical diagnosis of HFpEF undergoing CMR were retrospectively identified.
Background: Guidelines recommend shared decision making when choosing treatment for severe aortic stenosis but implementation has lagged. We assessed the feasibility and impact of a novel decision aid for severe aortic stenosis at point-of-care.
Methods: This prospective multi-site pilot cohort study included adults with severe aortic stenosis and their clinicians.
J Natl Cancer Inst
August 2024
Objective: Proteomics may discover pathophysiological changes related to hepatocellular carcinoma, an aggressive and lethal type of cancer with low sensitivity for early stage diagnosis.
Design: We measured 1305 prediagnostic (median = 12.7 years) SomaScan proteins from 54 pairs of healthy individuals who subsequently developed hepatocellular carcinoma and matched non-hepatocellular carcinoma control individuals from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS).
Background: Disparities in opioid prescribing among racial and ethnic groups have been observed in outpatient and emergency department settings, but it is unknown whether similar disparities exist at discharge among hospitalized older adults.
Objective: To determine filled opioid prescription rates on hospital discharge by race/ethnicity among Medicare beneficiaries.
Design: Retrospective cohort study.
Introduction: We investigated the incidence of secondary bladder (BCa) and rectal cancers (RCa) after external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) for prostate cancer (PCa) compared to radical prostatectomy (RP) alone, and compared cancer-specific survival (CSS) of these secondary neoplasms to their primary counterparts.
Methods: This retrospective cohort study included men in the SEER cancer registry with a diagnosis of non-metastatic, clinically node-negative PCa treated with either RP or EBRT from 1995-2011 and allowed a minimum five-year lag period for the development of secondary BCa or RCa. Patients were divided into two eras, 1995-2002 and 2003-2011, to examine differences in incidence of secondary malignancies over time.
Background: Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) intervention is an established prophylactic measure. Identifying high-benefit patients poses challenges.
Purpose: To assess the prognostic value of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) parameters including myocardial deformation for risk stratification of ICD intervention in non-ischemic cardiomyopathy (NICM) while accounting for competing mortality risk.