Risk factors for cardiovascular events in patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia: protocol for a systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: Heterozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia (heFH) is the most common monogenic cause of premature atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The precise diagnosis of heFH is established by genetic testing. This systematic review will investigate the risk factors that predict cardiovascular events in patients with a genetic diagnosis of heFH. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Our literature search will cover publications from database inception until June 2023. We will undertake a search of CINAHL (trial), clinicalKey, Cochrane Library, DynaMed, Embase, Espacenet, Experiments (trial), Fisterra, ÍnDICEs CSIC, LILACS, LISTA, Medline, Micromedex, NEJM Resident 360, OpenDissertations, PEDro, Trip Database, PubPsych, Scopus, TESEO, UpToDate, Web of Science and the grey literature for eligible studies. We will screen the title, abstract and full-text papers for potential inclusion and assess the risk of bias. We will employ the Cochrane tool for randomised controlled trials and non-randomised clinical studies and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for assessing the risk of bias in observational studies. We will include full-text peer-reviewed publications, reports of a cohort/registry, case-control and cross-sectional studies, case report/series and surveys related to adults (≥18 years of age) with a genetic diagnostic heFH. The language of the searched studies will be restricted to English or Spanish. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach will be used to assess the quality of the evidence. Based on the data available, the authors will determine whether the data can be pooled in meta-analyses. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: All data will be extracted from published literature. Hence, ethical approval and patient informed consent are not required. The findings of the systematic review will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal and presentation at international conferences. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42022304273.

Validation of the Spanish version of the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST).

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) and its effectiveness as a screening tool for problematic alcohol, tobacco and other psychoactive substance use in groups of low, moderate, and high risk users. METHODS: A test battery including the ASSIST and several standardized screening, assessment, and diagnostic instruments was administered to 485 patients recruited in different primary health-care facilities and specialized addiction treatment units from Health Area 11 in Madrid. RESULTS: ASSIST cut-off scores show a good sensitivity and specificity for discrimination between substance use and abuse and between abuse and dependence. Concurrent validity was demonstrated by significant correlations between ASSIST scores and scores from the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI-Plus), the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), the Revised Fagerstrom Tolerance Questionnaire (RTQ) and the Severity of Dependence Scale (SDS). CONCLUSIONS: Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the ASSIST indicate that is a valid screening test for identifying substance use disorders in various health-care settings.