Association between toenail scandium levels and risk of acute myocardial infarction in European men: The EURAMIC and Heavy Metals Study

The association between scandium status and risk of acute myocardial infarction (MI) was examined in a multicentre case control study in 10 centres from Europe and Israel. Scandium in toenails was assessed in 684 cases and 724 controls less than 70 years of age. Mean concentrations of toenail scandium were 6.74 μg/kg in cases and 7.75 μg/kg in...

Vitamines en visvetzuren ter preventie van hart- en vaatziekten: Gezondmakers uit potjes en flesjes T2 = Health from jars and bottles. Vitamins and fish oil fatty acids for prevention of cardiovascular diseases

A high dietary intake of antioxidants ascorbic acid, tocopherol and beta-carotene and 1 or 2 servings of fish per week is associated with a lower risk of coronary heart diseases, but the 'evidence' for a preventive effect still has not been produced. A raised homocysteine level can be lowered with folate, possibly in combination with pyridoxine...

Concentration changes during venous occlusion of proteins with affinity for extracellular matrix in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus A sign of vascular damage in patients with diabetic nephropathy?

Objective: To investigate protein concentration changes during venous occlusion of proteins with reported affinity for extracellular matrix (plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1, antithrombin III, fibronectin and von Willebrand factor) in comparison with proteins with no reported affinity (albumin, tissue-type plasminogen activator,...

Job stress, absenteeism and coronary heart disease European cooperative study (the JACE study): Design of a multicentre prospective study

Background: The motives, objectives and design of a multicentre prospective study on job stress, absenteeism and coronary heart disease in Europe (the JACE study) is presented in this paper. Some specific gaps in the reviewed literature are explicitly tapped into by the JACE study. Its objectives are i) to compare the distributions of the...

LDL oxidation and extent of coronary atherosclerosis

Accumulated evidence indicates that oxidative modification of LDL plays an important role in the atherogenic process. Therefore, we investigated the relation between coronary atherosclerosis and susceptibility of LDL to oxidation in a case-control study in men between 45 and 80 years of age. Case subjects and hospital control subjects were...

Production of C-reactive protein and risk of coronary events in stable and unstable angina

Background. Inflammation is an important feature of atherosclerotic lesions, and increased production of the acute-phase reactant, C-reactive protein (CRP), is associated with a poor prognosis in severe unstable angina. We have investigated the existence and possible significance of the acute-phase responses of CRP and another sensitive reactant...

Effect of 17β-estradiol on plasma lipids and LDL oxidation in postmenopausal women with type II diabetes mellitus

In type II diabetes mellitus the altered hormonal state after menopause may represent an additional cardiovascular risk factor. Estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) is associated with a decreased cardiovascular risk, at least in nondiabetic post-menopausal women. We studied the effect of ERT on plasma lipids and lipoproteins and on LDL oxidation...

Tissue plasminogen activator and risk of myocardial infarction: The Rotterdam study

Background: Impaired fibrinolytic capacity, as assessed by euglobulin clot lysis time or plasma concentration of fibrinolytic parameters, has been associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction (MI). We studied the association of a polymorphism in the gene for TPA and of plasma concentrations of TPA (antigen and activity) with the...

Factor VII polymorphisms in populations with different risks of cardiovascular disease

Increased plasma factor VII coagulant activity (FVII:C) has been associated with the risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD). Differences in plasma FVII:C among individuals are associated with three common polymorphisms in the FVII gene. Therefore, we investigated FVII polymorphisms in four populations that differ in their risk of developing...

Fibrinolytic factors and the risk of myocardial infarction or sudden death in patients with angina pectoris

Background: Disturbances of the fibrinolytic system that lead to decreased removal of fibrin deposits may be important risk factors for coronary thrombosis. There is as yet no consensus on the prognostic value of fibrinolytic parameters, which may be attributed in part to the choice of confounding variables controlled for. Methods and Results:...

Consumption of reduced-fat products, haemostatic parameters and oral glucose tolerance test

A high fat intake has been associated with the high prevalence of coronary heart disease (CHD) in most Western countries. Consumption of reduced-fat products might reduce fat intake and beneficially affect markers of CHD risk. Therefore, the effects of 6 months of realistic consumption of reduced-fat products on energy and fat intake,...

Interindividual and intraindividual variability in plasma fibrinogen, TPA antigen, PAI activity, and CRP in healthy, young volunteers and patients with angina pectoris

We compared intraindividual and interindividual variability in the plasma levels of fibrinogen, tissue-type plasminogen activator (TPA) antigen, plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI) activity, and C-reactive protein (CRP) in 20 healthy, young individuals and 26 patients with stable angina pectoris (AP) who were at higher risk for cardiovascular...

Gender-related association between β-fibrinogen genotype and plasma fibrinogen levels and linkage disequilibrium at the fibrinogen locus in Greenland Inuit

Elevated plasma fibrinogen levels represent an increased risk for cardiovascular diseased, but the mechanism explaining this association is still not clear. Genetic differences may play a role, because it has been shown that individuals who carry the rare alleles of polymorphisms in the genes for the Bβ-chain (Bcl I and G/A 455) and the Aα-chain...