Ideal Cardiovascular Health is Inversely Associated with Subclinical Atherosclerosis: A Prospective Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Ideal cardiovascular health (CVH) could predict a lower risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. This study was conducted to investigate the association between ideal CVH and subclinical atherosclerosis in a population cohort of Chinese adults aged ⪖ 40 years. METHODS: This study was designed as a cross-sectional analysis of 8,395 participants who had complete data at baseline and a prospective analysis of 4,879 participants who had complete data at 4.3 years of follow-up. Ideal CVH metrics were defined according to the American Heart Association. Subclinical atherosclerosis was evaluated by plaques in carotid arteries, carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), and urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR). RESULTS: Both the prevalence and incidence of atherosclerosis measures were found to be decreased with increasing numbers of ideal CVH metrics at baseline (all P values for trend < 0.01). The levels of CIMT and UACR at follow-up showed an inverse and significant association with the numbers of ideal CVH metrics at baseline (both P values for trend < 0.05) but a borderline significant association with baPWV (P for trend = 0.0505). Taking participants with 0-1 ideal metric as reference, we found that participants with 5-6 ideal metrics had significantly lower risks of developing carotid plaques (odds ratio, OR = 0.46; 95% confidence interval, CI 0.27-0.79), increased CIMT (OR = 0.60; 95% CI 0.42-0.84), and increased baPWV (OR = 0.57; 95% CI 0.34-0.97) after full adjustments. A significant interactive effect of age and CVH was detected on CIMT and baPWV progression (both P values for interaction < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The numbers of ideal CVH metrics showed a significant and inverse association with the risk of developing subclinical atherosclerosis in middle-aged and elderly Chinese adults, whereas its dose-response effect was attenuated in individuals aged ≥ 60 years and partially weakened in male participants.

Clinicopathological significance of steroidogenic factor-1 expression in ovarian cancer versus ovarian sex cord stromal tumor.

The significance of steroidogenic factor-1 (SF-1) in human ovarian tumor has not been fully investigated. The purposes of this study are to provide a meta-analysis for SF-1 and to determine whether SF-1 is associated with ovarian tumor progression and clinicopathological characteristics. A detailed literature search was made for related research publications written in English. Methodological quality of the studies was also evaluated. The data were extracted and assessed by two reviewers independently. Analysis of pooled data was performed, and odds ratio (OR) and corresponding confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated and summarized respectively. Final analysis from seven eligible studies was performed. Aberrant SF-1 expression was significantly lower in ovarian cancer compared to that of normal ovarian tissue (OR = 0.02, 95% CI = 0.00-0.16, p = 0.0002). However, SF-1 protein expression was not significantly different between benign and malignant ovarian tumors (p = 0.35). Interestingly, aberrant SF-1 expression was significantly higher in ovarian sex cord stromal tumors than that of ovarian cancer (OR = 0.00, 95% CI = 0.00-0.01, p < 0.00001). The results of this meta-analysis suggest that SF-1 may play an important role in ovarian cancer initiation and progression. Moreover, SF-1 expression may serve as a marker in the differential diagnosis between ovarian sex cord stromal tumors and ovarian cancer.