Articles: disease.
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Mayo Clinic proceedings · Aug 2023
Association Between Glucosamine Use and the Risk of Incident Heart Failure: The UK Biobank Cohort Study and Mendelian Randomization Analysis.
To evaluate the association between regular glucosamine intake and heart failure (HF) and to explore whether the association is mediated by relevant cardiovascular disease. ⋯ Regular glucosamine supplementation was associated with a lower risk of HF regardless of genetic risk status, and to a lesser extent, coronary heart disease and stroke mediated this effect. The results may inform novel pathway for prevention and intervention toward HF.
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Liver transplantation (LT) is being increasingly performed for alcohol-related liver disease (ALD). It is unclear whether the increasing frequency of LTs in ALD patients has a negative impact on deceased-donor (DDLT) allocation and whether the current policy of 6 months of abstinence before transplantation effectively prevents recidivism after transplantation or improves long-term outcomes. ⋯ LT achieves favorable outcomes for ALD patients. Six months of abstinence pretransplant did not predict the risk of recidivism after transplantation. The high incidence of de novo malignancies in these patients warrants a more comprehensive physical evaluation and better lifestyle modifications to improve long-term outcomes.
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Positive microbiological fungal culture from bronchoalveolar-lavage-fluid (BAL) for Aspergillus or tissue biopsy and the detection of high levels of Aspergillus Galactomannan (GM) are commonly considered standard for diagnosing Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis (IPA). However, Aspergillus infection induces both cellular and humoral immune responses, characterized by the production of specific immunoglobulins, which can be easily detected in serum and accurately measured. This study hypothesized that Aspergillus-specific IgE, IgG, including IgG
4 , assays could be adopted as a rapid preliminary screening tool in patients with suspected Aspergillus-related lung disease in order to help in the identification of patients who require more invasive procedures (bronchoscopy, biopsy). ⋯ In patients with suspected IPA, Aspergillus-specific immunoglobulins assay could be tested as a preliminary screening tool to support more invasive procedures, i.e. BAL. -
The assessment of individual cardiovascular disease risk (CVD) is essential for a cost-effective prevention of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. While almost half of the population have a very low CVD risk approximately 1/5th of the population have a CVD risk >20% over the next 10 years. ⋯ The calculation of total cardiovascular risk also permits to calculate an individual heart-age, which makes it easier for the individual patient to understand his own risk profile. Most current risk estimation systems can be accessed online under u-prevent.com/calculators.