Associations between birth parameters and skin autofluorescence advanced glycation end products and ankle-brachial index in young adulthood: the Malmö Offspring Study.

BACKGROUND: Low birth weight (LBW), advanced glycation end-products (AGE), and ankle-brachial index (ABI) have all been independently associated with risk of cardiovascular disease. Evidence is lacking on the effect of LBW on adult AGE, a marker of glucose metabolism, and ABI, a marker of peripheral atherosclerosis. The objective was to study these associations in a population-based cohort. METHODS: Data from the Malmö Offspring Study, Sweden, were used for 2012 participants (958 men, 1054 women) born between 1973 and 2000, linked to the Medical Birth Register. General linear regression analysis (with ß coefficients and 95% confidence intervals) was applied for associations between birth weight and skin auto-fluorescence (sf)AGE as well as mean ABI (right/left), before and after adjusting for gestational age, sex, glucose, lipids, smoking, BMI and SBP. RESULTS: The mean (SD) age of men was 29.3 (7.3) and of women 28.6 (7.3) years. There was an average 0.054 decrease in sfAGE value per 1 kg increase in birth weight (adjusted for gestational age and sex). Similarly, 1 kg increase in birth weight (adjusted for gestational age and confounders) was associated with an average 0.016 decrease in mean ABI. CONCLUSION: Birth weight, adjusted for gestational age and other confounding variables, is inversely associated with ABI in young adulthood, an age range when ABI may represent hemodynamic changes more than atherosclerosis, but for sfAGE, the association was attenuated upon further adjustment. These risk markers may, therefore, represent mediating pathways for early life factors affecting cardiovascular risk later in life.

Does early life programming influence arterial stiffness and central hemodynamics in adulthood?

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to investigate possible associations between birth weight and adult life carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) and augmentation pressure index (AIx). DESIGN AND METHOD: This study included 1598 participants, that is, 340 elderly individuals from the Malmö Birth Data Cohort (MBDC) and 1258 young-middle aged individuals from the Malmö Offspring Study (MOS) with full data on birth weight and gestational age. Participants underwent cfPWV and AIx measurements with Sphygmocor (AtCor, Australia). Analysis of data was performed with multiple linear regression models including adjustments for age, sex, gestational age and risk factors. Furthermore, comparisons were made between participants born prematurely or at term or born small-for-gestational age (SGA) or appropriate-for-gestational age (AGA). RESULTS: Birth weight was positively associated with cfPWV after full adjustment (ß = 0.057; P < 0.001), a finding that remained significant in the younger age group 18-27 years (ß = 0.138, P = 0.008). Furthermore, birth weight was inversely associated with AIx (ß = -0.058, P = 0.001). Participants born SGA had significantly higher AIx (P = 0.007) and MAP (P = 0.037) compared with AGA born. Preterm-born participants showed significantly higher SBP compared with term-born (P = 0.034). Finally, birth weight was inversely associated with MAP (ß = -0.058, P = 0.017) and SBP (ß = -0.047, P = 0.031), respectively. CONCLUSION: Birth weight is positively associated with cfPWV, shown strongest in the youngest individuals, a finding that could possibly be explained by increasing trends for maternal overweight/obesity in recent decades. Furthermore, birth weight is inversely associated with AIx, a risk marker of cardiovascular disease. This calls for screening of risk factors in subjects with adverse conditions at birth.

The effect of initial teaching on evaluation of left ventricular volumes by cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging: comparison between complete and intermediate beginners and experienced observers.

BACKGROUND: High reproducibility and low intra- and interobserver variability are important strengths of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR). In clinical practice a significant learning curve may however be observed. Basic CMR courses offer an average of 1.4 h dedicated to lecturing and demonstrating left ventricular (LV) function analysis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of initial teaching on complete and intermediate beginners' quantitative measurements of LV volumes and function by CMR. METHODS: Standard clinical cine CMR sequences were acquired in 15 patients. Five observers (two complete beginners, one intermediate, two experienced) measured LV volumes. Before initial evaluation beginners read the SCMR guidelines on CMR analysis. After initial evaluation, beginners participated in a two-hour teaching session including cases and hands-on training, representative for most basic CMR courses, after which it is uncertain to what extent different centres provide continued teaching and feedback in-house. Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) assessed delineations. Agreement, accuracy, precision, repeatability and reliability were assessed by Bland-Altman, coefficient of variation, and intraclass correlation coefficient methods. RESULTS: Endocardial DSC improved after teaching (+0.14 ± 0.17;p < 0.001) for complete beginners. Low intraobserver variability was found before and after teaching, however with wide limits of agreement. Beginners underestimated volumes by up to 44 ml (EDV), 27 ml (ESV) and overestimated LVM by up to 53 g before teaching, improving to an underestimation of up to 9 ml (EDV), 7 ml (ESV) and an overestimation of up to 30 g (LVM) after teaching. For the intermediate beginner, however, accuracy was quite high already before teaching. CONCLUSIONS: Initial teaching to complete beginners increases accuracy for assessment of LV volumes, however with high bias and low precision even after standardised teaching as offered in most basic CMR courses. Even though the intermediate beginner showed quite high accuracy already before teaching, precision did generally not improve after standardised teaching. To maintain CMR as a technique known for high accuracy and reproducibility and low intra- and inter-observer variability for quantitative measurements, internationally standardised training should be encouraged including high-quality feedback mechanisms. Objective measurements of training methods, training duration and, above all, quality of assessments are required.