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...

OBJECTIVE To examine the diagnostic performance of shorter versions of Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT), including Alcohol Consumption (AUDIT-C), in identifying risky drinkers in primary care settings using conventional performance measures, supplemented by decision curve analysis and reclassification table. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING A cross-sectional study of adult males in ge...

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODSdA total of 1,225 patients with type 2 diabetes participated in this prospective observational study of two combined cohorts. Three clinical end points were studied: fatal cardiovascular events, all-cause mortality, and new-onset albuminuria. After a median follow-up of 3 or 10 years, Cox proportional hazard modeling was used to investigate the association betweenCT-p...

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that including preoperative electrocardiogram (ECG) characteristics with clinical variables significantly improves the new-onset postoperative atrial fibrillation prediction model. DESIGN Retrospective analysis. SETTING Single-center university hospital. PARTICIPANTS Five hundred twenty-six patients, ≥ 18 years of age, who underwent coronary artery bypass ...

BACKGROUND The Charlson index is a widely used measure of comorbidity. The objective was to compare Charlson index scores calculated using administrative data to those calculated using case-note review (CNR) in relation to all-cause mortality and initiation of renal replacement therapy (RRT) in the Grampian Laboratory Outcomes Mortality and Morbidity Study (GLOMMS-1) chronic kidney disease coho...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Microwave radiometry allows noninvasive in vivo measuring of internal temperature of tissues reflecting inflammation. In the present study, we evaluated the predictive accuracy of this method for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS Consecutive patients (n=287) scheduled for coronary angiography were included in the study. In carotid arteries of both ...

BACKGROUND Mortality among patients with heart failure is high. Though individual biomarkers have been investigated to determine their value in mortality risk prediction, the role of a multimarker strategy requires further evaluation. METHODS AND RESULTS Olmsted County residents presenting with heart failure from July 2004 to September 2007 were recruited to undergo biomarker measurement. We ...

BACKGROUND Management decisions for thromboprophylaxis in atrial fibrillation need to balance the risk of stroke against serious hemorrhage. The objective of the present analysis is to compare the Hypertension, Abnormal renal/liver function, Stroke, Bleeding history or predisposition, Labile international normalized ratio, Elderly (>65 years), Drugs/alcohol concomitantly (HAS-BLED) score agains...