Few studies have examined and compared spousal concordance in different populations. This study aimed to quantify and compare spousal similarities in cardiometabolic risk factors and diseases between ...Dutch and Japanese populations.
This cross-sectional study included 28,265 Dutch Lifelines Cohort Study spouse pairs (2006–2013) and 5,391 Japanese Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization (ToMMo) Cohort Study pairs (2013–2016). Spousal similarities in cardiometabolic risk factors were evaluated using Pearson's correlation or logistic regression analyses adjusted for spousal age.
The husbands' and wives’ average ages in the Lifelines and ToMMo cohorts were 50.0 and 47.7 years and 63.2 and 60.4 years, respectively. Significant spousal similarities occurred with all cardiometabolic risk factors and diseases of interest in both cohorts. The age-adjusted correlation coefficients ranged from 0.032 to 0.263, with the strongest correlations observed in anthropometric traits. Spousal odds ratios 95% confidence interval for the Lifelines vs. ToMMo cohort ranged from 1.45 (1.36–1.55) vs. 1.20 (1.05–1.38) for hypertension to 6.86 (6.30–7.48) vs. 4.60 (3.52–6.02) for current smoking. An increasing trend in spousal concordance with age was observed for sufficient physical activity in both cohorts. For current smoking, those aged 20–39 years showed the strongest concordance between pairs in both cohorts. The Dutch pairs showed stronger similarities in anthropometric traits and lifestyle habits (smoking and drinking) than their Japanese counterparts.
Spouses showed similarities in several cardiometabolic risk factors among Dutch and Japanese populations, with regional and cultural influences on spousal similarities.
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•Spousal concordance was observed for several cardiometabolic risk factors.•Men had increased hypertension risk if their wives had the same disease.•Interventions targeting spouses, rather than individuals, may be more effective.
Major reasons for long-term care insurance certification in Japan are stroke, dementia, and fracture. These diseases are reported to be associated with calcium intake. This study examined the ...association between calcium intake and impaired activities of daily living (ADL) using the data from NIPPON DATA90, consisting of representative sample of the Japanese population.
A population-based nested case-control study was performed. A baseline survey was conducted in 1990, followed by ADL surveys of individuals ≥65 years old in 2000. Individuals with impaired ADL and selected age- and sex-matched controls were then identified. We obtained 132 pairs. Calcium intake was energy-adjusted using the residual method. The association between calcium intake and impaired ADL was examined using conditional logistic regression models. To assess the accuracy of the estimates, we conducted bootstrap analyses.
The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for impaired ADL compared with the group with a calcium intake of <476 mg/day were 0.72 (95% confidence interval CI, 0.37-1.40) for the 476-606 mg/day group and 0.44 (95% CI, 0.21-0.94) for the ≥607 mg/day group in 2000 (P for linear trend = 0.03). After the bootstrap analyses, the inverse relationship unchanged (median OR per 100-mg rise in calcium intake, 0.87 1,000 resamplings; 95% CI, 0.76-0.97).
After bootstrap analyses, calcium intake was inversely associated with impaired ADL 10 years after the baseline survey.
Arterial stiffness might be related to trunk flexibility in middle-aged and older participants, but it is also affected by age, sex, and blood pressure. This cross-sectional observational study ...investigated whether trunk flexibility is related to arterial stiffness after considering the major confounding factors of age, sex, and blood pressure. We further investigated whether a simple diagnostic test of flexibility could be helpful to screen for increased arterial stiffening.
According to age and sex, we assigned 1150 adults (male, n = 536; female, n = 614; age, 18-89 y) to groups with either high- or poor-flexibility based on the sit-and-reach test. Arterial stiffness was assessed by cardio-ankle vascular index.
In all categories of men and in older women, arterial stiffness was higher in poor-flexibility than in high-flexibility (P<0.05). This difference remained significant after normalizing arterial stiffness for confounding factors such as blood pressure, but it was not found among young and middle-aged women. Stepwise multiple-regression analysis also supported the notion of the sex differences in flexibility-arterial stiffness relationship. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed that cut-off values for sit-and-reach among men and women were 33.2 (area under the curve AUC, 0.711; 95% confidence interval CI, 0.666-0.756; sensitivity, 61.7%; specificity, 69.7%) and 39.2 (AUC, 0.639; 95% CI, 0.592-0.686; sensitivity, 61.1%; specificity, 62.0%) cm, respectively.
Our results indicate that flexibility-arterial stiffness relationship is not affected by BP, which is a major confounding factor. In addition, sex differences are observed in this relationship; poor trunk flexibility increases arterial stiffness in young, middle-aged, and older men, whereas the relationship in women is found only in the elderly. Also, the sit-and-reach test can offer a simple method of predicting arterial stiffness at home or elsewhere.
Acute (immediate) or regular (mid- or long-term) stretching increases arterial compliance and reduces arterial stiffness. Stretching is widely known to induce arterial functional factor changes, but ...it is unclear whether stretching alters arterial structural factors. Ultrasound shear wave elastography can quantify the distribution of tissue elastic properties as an index of arterial structural factors. This study thus aimed to examine the effects of acute cervical stretching on arterial wall tissue elastic properties.
Seventeen healthy young adults participated in two different trials for 15 min in random order on separate days: a resting and sitting trial (CON) and a supervised cervical stretching trial (CS). In CS, subjects performed 10 different stretches. At each site, the stretch was held for 30 s followed by a 10-s relaxation period. In CON, subjects rested on a chair for 15 min.
After the experiment, carotid arterial compliance, assessed by combined ultrasound imaging and applanation tonometry, was significantly increased in CS, but not in CON. However, there was no significant change in tissue elasticity properties of the arterial wall in either trial, as assessed by ultrasound shear wave elastography.
Acute cervical stretching significantly increased carotid artery compliance in young participants, but did not reduce elastic tissue properties (
, arterial structural factors) of the carotid artery wall. These results strongly suggest that changes in structural factors have little relation to stretching-induced acute increases in arterial compliance.
In esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) comprising 90% of cases with esophageal cancer, endoscopic resection (ER) is recommended for patients with negligible risk of ESCC-related mortality. In ...fact, a main cause of death in patients underwent ER is not ESCC. We thus aimed to clarify the predictors for early and late mortality among patients underwent ER of ESCC between 2005 and 2018 at our institution. In this retrospective cohort study, we investigated the prognosis and predictors of early and late mortality with the cut-off value of 3 years. We enrolled 407 patients with a median 69 months follow-up. The 5-year overall survival and disease-specific survival, an indicator of ESCC-related mortality, were 83.4% and 98.4%, respectively. In multivariate Cox analyses, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG-PS), consisting of six grades by a patient’s level of activity, ≥ 2 was a predictor for early and late morality hazard ratio (HR), 7.21 (P = 0.007) and 15.62 (P = 0.021), respectively. Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), which is an index for predicting mortality by comorbid conditions, ≥ 2 was also a predictor for both mortality HR, 2.97 (P = 0.017) and 1.90 (P = 0.019), respectively. However, age was a predictor only for late mortality HR, 3.08 (P = 0.010) in 80-84 years and 8.38 (P < 0.001) in ≥ 85 years. Considering the predictive ability for early mortality, we propose that ECOG-PS and/or CCI are better indices compared with age in deciding treatment strategy after ER for ESCC.
Staphylococcus virus ΦSA012 has a wide host range and efficient lytic activity. Here, we assessed the biological stability of ΦSA012 against temperature, freeze-thawing, and pH to clinically apply ...the phage. In addition, inoculation of ΦSA012 through i.p. and i.v. injections into mice revealed that phages were reached the limit of detection in serum and accumulated notably spleens without inflammation at 48 h post-inoculation. Furthermore, inoculation of ΦSA012 through s.c. injections in mice significantly induced IgG, which possesses neutralizing activity against ΦSA012 and other Staphylococcus viruses, ΦSA039 and ΦMR003, but not Pseudomonas viruses ΦS12-3 and ΦR18 or Escherichia viruses T1, T4, and T7 in vitro. Immunoelectron microscopic analysis showed that purified anti-phage IgG recognizes the long-tail fiber of staphylococcus viruses. Although S. aureus inoculation resulted in a 25% survival rate in a mouse i.p. model, ΦSA012 inoculation (i.p.) improved the survival rate to 75%; however, the survival rate of ΦSA012-immunized mice decreased to less than non-immunized mice with phage i.v. injection at a MOI of 100. These results indicated that ΦSA012 possesses promise for use against staphylococcal infections but we should carefully address the appropriate dose and periods of phage administration. Our findings facilitate understandings of staphylococcus viruses for phage therapy.
Selecting diverse molecules from unexplored areas of chemical space is one of the most important tasks for discovering novel molecules and reactions. This paper proposes a new approach for selecting ...a subset of diverse molecules from a given molecular list by using two existing techniques studied in machine learning and mathematical optimization: graph neural networks (GNNs) for learning vector representation of molecules and a diverse-selection framework called submodular function maximization. Our method, called SubMo-GNN, first trains a GNN with property prediction tasks, and then the trained GNN transforms molecular graphs into molecular vectors, which capture both properties and structures of molecules. Finally, to obtain a subset of diverse molecules, we define a submodular function, which quantifies the diversity of molecular vectors, and find a subset of molecular vectors with a large submodular function value. This can be done efficiently by using the greedy algorithm, and the diversity of selected molecules measured by the submodular function value is mathematically guaranteed to be at least 63% of that of an optimal selection. We also introduce a new evaluation criterion to measure the diversity of selected molecules based on molecular properties. Computational experiments confirm that our SubMo-GNN successfully selects diverse molecules from the QM9 dataset regarding the property-based criterion, while performing comparably to existing methods regarding standard structure-based criteria. We also demonstrate that SubMo-GNN with a GNN trained on the QM9 dataset can select diverse molecules even from other MoleculeNet datasets whose domains are different from the QM9 dataset. The proposed method enables researchers to obtain diverse sets of molecules for discovering new molecules and novel chemical reactions, and the proposed diversity criterion is useful for discussing the diversity of molecular libraries from a new property-based perspective.
Aim: Impaired lung function is associated with atherosclerotic vascular events. Carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) is a marker for subclinical atherosclerosis. However, few studies have examined ...the association between lung function and cIMT among never smokers or individuals stratified by age. We investigated the association between lung function and cIMT in the Japanese population.Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 3,716 men and 8,765 women aged 20 years or older living in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. Lung function was evaluated using forced expiratory volume at 1 s (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) was measured using spirometry. The maximum common carotid artery was measured using high-resolution B-mode ultrasound. An analysis of covariance was used to assess associations between lung function and cIMT and adjusted for potential confounders. A linear trend test was conducted by scoring the categories from 1 (lowest) to 4 (highest) and entering the score as a continuous term in the regression model.Results: After adjusting for potential confounders including passive smoking, lower FEV1 and FVC were associated with higher cIMT in both men and women (P＜0.001 for linear trend). This association was confirmed even when we restricted our study to never smokers. Furthermore, even when we stratified by age, an inverse association between lung function and cIMT was confirmed in middle-aged (40–64 years) and elderly participants (65–74 years).Conclusions: Lower lung function was associated with higher cIMT in the Japanese population independent of age and smoking. Assessment of atherosclerosis or lung function may be required for individuals with lower lung function or atherosclerosis.
The sodium-to-potassium (Na/K) ratio is known to be associated with blood pressure (BP). However, no reference value has been established since the urinary Na/K (uNa/K) ratio is known to have diurnal ...and day-to-day variations. Therefore, we investigated the number of days required to yield a better association between the morning uNa/K ratio and home BP (HBP) and determined a morning uNa/K ratio value that can be used as a reference value in participants who are not taking antihypertensive medication. This was a cross-sectional study using data from the Tohoku Medical Megabank Project Cohort Study. A total of 3122 participants borrowed HBP and uNa/K ratio monitors for 10 consecutive days. We assessed the relationship between the morning uNa/K ratio from 1 day to 10 days and home hypertension (HBP ≥ 135/85 mmHg) using multiple logistic regression models. Although a 1-day measurement of the morning uNa/K ratio was positively associated with home hypertension, multiple measurements of the morning uNa/K ratio were strongly related to home hypertension. The average morning uNa/K ratio was relatively stable after 3 days (adjusted odds ratio of home hypertension per unit increase in the uNa/K ratio for more than 3 days: 1.19-1.23). In conclusion, there was no threshold for the uNa/K ratio, and the morning uNa/K ratio was linearly associated with home hypertension. The Na/K ratio 2.0 calculated from the Dietary Reference Intakes for Japanese might be a good indication. Regarding the stability of the association between the morning uNa/K ratio and BP, more than 3 days of measurements is desirable.
Although Escherichia coli is a commensal bacterium of the bovine vaginal microbiota, it is an important pathogenic bacterium that causes diseases of the reproductive tract and sub-fertility. Recent ...studies have focused on virulence factors (VFs) of intrauterine E. coli; however, actual endometrial VFs have not been clearly identified. The purpose of this study was to identify the VFs of E. coli associated with clinical metritis and endometritis. Thirty-two strains of E. coli and four mixed Trueperella pyogenes (TP) strains were detected in the uterus of 19 Holstein dairy cows with obvious clinical signs (between 8 and 66 days postpartum). The presence of six E. coli VFs (fimH, fyuA, kpsMTII, hra1, csgA, and astA) was examined by PCR, and clinical signs and reproductive performance (mixed TP, the percentage of polymorphonuclear neutrophils PMN%, days to uterine involution, etc.) were evaluated. Four VFs (fimH, hra1, csgA, and astA) were detected in all E. coli strains, whereas fyuA and kpsMTII were detected in 94% and 50% of strains, respectively. Cows with E. coli strains harboring kpsMTII exhibited significantly severe clinical scores (vaginal discharge score, PMN%, uterine involution), suggesting that kpsMTII is a key VF for progression of clinical metritis and endometritis. In the present study, we clearly identified six VFs associated with clinical metritis and endometritis. In addition, E. coli strains with kpsMTII probably play a crucial role in the progression of clinical metritis and endometritis.
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