Understanding Treatment Response Heterogeneity Using Crossover Randomized Controlled Trials: A Primer for Exercise and Nutrition Scientists.

Crossover randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are common in exercise and nutrition sciences. Since researchers randomize participants to different sequences of the treatment and comparator/control conditions, crossover RCTs are powerful for detecting mean treatment effects under certain circumstances. We aim to review the information that can be derived from crossover RCTs about treatment response heterogeneity-a fundamental issue in precision medicine for tailoring treatments to individuals.

22q.11: a Risk Factor for Left Pulmonary Artery Hypoplasia in Congenital Heart Disease.

Background: Individuals with 22q11 deletion syndrome have a mutation in the TBX1 gene. This is associated with reduced left pulmonary artery/right pulmonary artery ratio in animal models and in humans with structurally normal hearts.

Method: A retrospective analysis was undertaken of patients who underwent surgical repair of Tetralogy of Fallot, truncus arteriosus, and interrupted aortic arch between 01/2007 and 12/2022.

Beyond the consult: Outcomes following pediatric VAD referral.

Background: Little is known about patients who are referred for ventricular assist device (VAD) therapy but not implanted. The purpose of this study is to describe their outcomes at 1-year post initial consultation.

Methods: Retrospective analysis for patients referred to our VAD services between 01/2019 and 12/2023.

Adherence to four dietary indices and the risk of all-cause and cause-specific dementia: Findings from the UK Biobank study.

Aims: Despite several modifiable risk factors for dementia being identified, diet is often excluded from consideration due to insufficient evidence. Although various healthy dietary indices have been associated with improved health outcomes, their link to dementia risk remains unclear. This study investigates the association between four dietary indices and dementia risk among UK Biobank participants.

White Paper on Nutrition Sensing and Ageing.

Ageing, which is defined as the progressive deterioration of physiological functions, is an inevitable part of the lifecycle. Nevertheless, its progress is believed to be influenced by modifiable factors, one of the most important being dietary intake. Like many other systems within the human body, detection of nutrients (defined as nutrition sensing), their metabolism, and the body's response to nutrients may change with ageing.

Evaluating the Prevalence of Optimal Neurodevelopmental Outcome at 2 Years in Children Previously on Ventricular Assist Device Support.

Background: Literature reporting neurodevelopmental outcomes for patients who undergo ventricular assist device (VAD) therapy is limited to posttransplant cohorts. This study aims to determine the prevalence of optimal neurodevelopmental outcome and factors associated with nonoptimal outcome in patients implanted with a VAD at ≤15 months of age.

Methods: Patients followed by the Complex Pediatric Therapies Follow-Up Program were included in a prospective-inception cohort study if born between January 2006 and December 2022 and implanted with a VAD at ≤15 months of age.

Healthy dietary patterns, cognition and dementia risk: current evidence and context.

Approximately 60 million individuals worldwide are currently living with dementia. As the median age of the world's population rises, the number of dementia cases is expected to increase markedly, and to affect ∼150 million individuals by 2050. This will create a huge and unsustainable economic and social burden across the globe.

Rejection and graft vasculopathy secondary to effects of Crohn's disease in a heart-transplanted child.

Patients require immunosuppression after heart transplantation. Conditions such as Crohn's disease can impact tacrolimus absorption and pharmacokinetics. Subtherapeutic tacrolimus levels can lead to rejection and development of donor-specific antibodies (DSA), resulting in the development of cardiac allograft vasculopathy.

Inter-individual differences in the blood pressure lowering effects of dietary nitrate: a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled replicate crossover trial.

Purpose: Dietary nitrate supplementation increases nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability and reduces blood pressure (BP). Inter-individual differences in these responses are suspected but have not been investigated using robust designs, e.g.

Next generation brain health: transforming global research and public health to promote prevention of dementia and reduce its risk in young adult populations.

Efforts to prevent dementia can benefit from precision interventions delivered to the right population at the right time; that is, when the potential to reduce risk is the highest. Young adults (aged 18-39 years) are a neglected population in dementia research and policy making despite being highly exposed to several known modifiable risk factors. The risk and protective factors that have the biggest effect on dementia outcomes in young adulthood, and how these associations differ across regions and groups, still remain unclear.

An Expert Consensus Statement on Biomarkers of Aging for Use in Intervention Studies.

Biomarkers of aging serve as important outcome measures in longevity-promoting interventions. However, there is limited consensus on which specific biomarkers are most appropriate for human intervention studies. This work aimed to address this need by establishing an expert consensus on biomarkers of aging for use in intervention studies via the Delphi method.

Foods, dietary patterns, and risk of vascular dementia: a systematic review.

Background: Vascular dementia (VaD) is the second most common cause of dementia globally and is associated with a significant economic and social burden. Diet could represent an important tractable risk factor for VaD. We synthesised current evidence on associations between consumption of specific foods or dietary patterns and VaD risk.

Knowledge and beliefs about dietary inorganic nitrate in a representative sample of adults from the United Kingdom.

Objective: Evaluate knowledge and beliefs about dietary nitrate among United Kingdom (UK)-based adults.

Design: An online questionnaire was administered to evaluate knowledge and beliefs about dietary nitrate. Overall knowledge of dietary nitrate was quantified using a twenty-one-point Nitrate Knowledge Index.

The daily experience of hunger in UK females with and without food insecurity.

Food insecurity (FI) is associated with increased mortality risk, depression, and obesity in females in high-income countries, but causal mechanisms remain unclear. FI is often assumed to lead to increased levels of hunger. However, quantitative evidence describing daily experiences of hunger in FI is lacking.

The association between selenium status and global and attention-specific cognition in very old adults in the Newcastle 85+ Study: cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses.

Background: Selenium has potential safeguarding properties against cognitive decline, because of its role in protecting DNA, proteins, and lipids in the brain from oxidative damage. However, acute and chronic overexposure to selenium can be neurotoxic.

Objective: The aim of this analysis was to explore the association between selenium status [serum selenium and selenoprotein P (SELENOP) concentrations and glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPx3) activity] and cognitive function in 85-y olds living in Northeast England at baseline and ≤5 y of follow-up.

The association between excess weight and COVID-19 outcomes: An umbrella review.

This umbrella review assessed the association between excess weight and COVID-19 outcomes. MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and CINAHL were systematically searched for reviews that assessed the association between excess weight and COVID-19 outcomes. A second-order meta-analysis was conducted on the available data for intensive care unit admission, invasive mechanical ventilation administration, disease severity, hospitalization, and mortality.

The Mediterranean diet is not associated with neuroimaging or cognition in middle-aged adults: a cross-sectional analysis of the PREVENT dementia programme.

Background And Purpose: The Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) has been associated with reduced dementia incidence in several studies. It is important to understand if diet is associated with brain health in midlife, when Alzheimer's disease and related dementias are known to begin.

Methods: This study used data from the PREVENT dementia programme.

Associations between Vegetable Nitrate Intake and Cardiovascular Disease Risk and Mortality: A Systematic Review.

Consumption of nitrate-rich vegetables increases nitric oxide bioavailability, lowers blood pressure, and improves endothelial function. These effects could also translate into reduced cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and mortality. This systematic review aimed to investigate the associations between habitual vegetable nitrate intake and CVD incidence and mortality.

Effects of the COVID-19 associated United Kingdom lockdown on physical activity in older adults at high risk of cardiovascular disease: a mixed methods perspective from the MedEx-UK multicenter trial.

Introduction: Physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour are linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, infections and dementia, as well as placing a significant economic burden on healthcare systems. The implementation of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown measures aimed at reducing virus transmission posed challenges to the opportunity to be physically active. This study investigates how the first UK COVID-19 lockdown affected objectively measured physical activity in older adults at higher risk of cardiovascular disease.

Higher plant-derived nitrate intake is associated with lower odds of frailty in a cross-sectional study of community-dwelling older women.

Purpose: Dietary nitrate intake is inversely related to numerous contributors towards frailty, including cardiovascular disease and poor physical function. Whether these findings extend to frailty remain unknown. We investigated if habitual nitrate intake, derived from plants or animal-based foods, was cross-sectionally associated with frailty in women.

Nutrition for dementia prevention: a state of the art update for clinicians.

Background And Objectives: Dementia prevalence continues to rise. It is therefore essential to provide feasible and effective recommendations to encourage healthy brain ageing and reduce dementia risk across the population. Appropriate nutrition represents a potential strategy to mitigate dementia risk and could be recommended by clinicians as part of mid-life health checks and other health initiatives to reduce dementia prevalence.

Effects of dietary nitrate supplementation on oral health and associated markers of systemic health: a systematic review.

Poor oral health can impact an individual's ability to eat and has been associated with an increased risk of non-communicable diseases. While the benefits of nitrate consumption on oral health were first proposed more than 20 years ago, no systematic review has been published examining effects of dietary nitrate on oral health. This systematic review investigated the effects of dietary nitrate on markers of oral health in randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Adherence to the Eatwell Guide and population and planetary health: A Rank Prize Forum report.

This report summarises a Forum conducted in June 2023 to explore the current state of the knowledge around the Eatwell Guide, which is the UK government's healthy eating tool, in relation to population and planetary health. The 1.5-day Forum highlighted the limited, albeit promising evidence linking higher adherence to the Eatwell Guide with favourable health outcomes, including reduced overall mortality risk, lower abdominal obesity in post-menopausal women and improved cardiometabolic health markers.

Associations between anxiety, depression, and weight status during and after pregnancy: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Previous work has found adverse mental health symptomology in women living with obesity, compared with those of healthy weight, around the time of pregnancy. This meta-analysis aimed to explore the association between anxiety, depression, and weight status in women living with obesity before, during, and after pregnancy. Bibliographic databases were systematically searched, and 14 studies were included, which aimed to assess the association between excess weight and anxiety or depression outcomes in women before, during, or after pregnancy.