Prediction of primary cardiovascular events has been thoroughly investigated since the landmark Framingham risk score was introduced. However, prediction of secondary events after initial events of coronary artery disease (CAD) poses a new challenge. In a cohort of coronary angiography patients (n = 1760), we examined readily available hematological parameters from the UPOD (Utrecht Patient Ori...

CONTEXT There is increasing interest in reporting risk-standardized outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized with acute ischemic stroke, but whether it is necessary to include adjustment for initial stroke severity has not been well studied. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the degree to which hospital outcome ratings and potential eligibility for financial incentives are altered after including...

IMPORTANCE The association of natriuretic peptide measurement with all-cause mortality in a broad selection of acutely admitted patients has not yet been examined. OBJECTIVE To test the risk association between pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and short-term and long-term mortality and its predictive value in acutely hospitalised patients and compare this to N-terminal B-type natriuretic ...

BACKGROUND Microvascular disease is associated with a high risk of macrovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes, but the impact of macrovascular disease on the risk of microvascular events remains unknown. We sought to evaluate the respective effects of prior microvascular and macrovascular disease on the risk of major outcomes, including microvascular events, in these patients. METH...

PURPOSE Soluble ST2 (sST2) is an emerging prognostic biomarker in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). A recent study showed that sST2 predicted incident hypertension. High sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) has been a widely-used biomarker for risk-stratifying in CVD. We compared the abilities of sST2 and hsCRP to predict high risk coronary artery calcium score (CACS). MATERIALS AND...

BACKGROUND Reproductive factors provide an early window into a woman's coronary heart disease (CHD) risk; however, their contribution to CHD risk stratification is uncertain. METHODS AND RESULTS In the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study, we constructed Cox proportional hazards models for CHD including age, pregnancy status, number of live births, age at menarche, menstrual irregula...

BACKGROUND Currently, the only function of the resting electrocardiogram (ECG) in patients referred for exercise testing is to determine whether imaging is mandated. It is unknown if subtle ECG findings in those patients with clinically normal resting ECGs have prognostic significance. METHODS We performed a single-center cohort study of 18,964 patients without known cardiovascular disease wh...

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OBJECTIVE C-reactive protein (CRP) is associated with the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD); whether the effects are modified by diabetes status still is unclear. This study investigated these issues and assessed the added value of CRP to predictions. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Participants were drawn from representative samples of adults living in England and Scotland. Cox proportional h...

Aims Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia encountered in clinical practice, and its paroxysmal nature makes its detection challenging. In this trial, we evaluated a novel App for its accuracy to differentiate between patients in AF and patients in sinus rhythm (SR) using the plethysmographic sensor of an iPhone 4S and the integrated LED only. Methods and results For signal a...