Father's environment before conception and asthma risk in his children: a multi-generation analysis of the Respiratory Health In Northern Europe study.

Background: Whereas it is generally accepted that maternal environment plays a key role in child health, emerging evidence suggests that paternal environment before conception also impacts child health. We aimed to investigate the association between children's asthma risk and parental smoking and welding exposures prior to conception. Methods: In a longitudinal, multi-country study, parents of 24 168 offspring aged 2-51 years provided information on their life-course smoking habits, occupational exposure to welding and metal fumes, and offspring's asthma before/after age 10 years and hay fever. Logistic regressions investigated the relevant associations controlled for age, study centre, parental characteristics (age, asthma, education) and clustering by family. Results: Non-allergic early-onset asthma (asthma without hay fever, present in 5.8%) was more common in the offspring with fathers who smoked before conception {odds ratio [OR] = 1.68 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.18-2.41]}, whereas mothers' smoking before conception did not predict offspring asthma. The risk was highest if father started smoking before age 15 years [3.24 (1.67-6.27)], even if he stopped more than 5 years before conception [2.68 (1.17-6.13)]. Fathers' pre-conception welding was independently associated with non-allergic asthma in his offspring [1.80 (1.29-2.50)]. There was no effect if the father started welding or smoking after birth. The associations were consistent across countries. Conclusions: Environmental exposures in young men appear to influence the respiratory health of their offspring born many years later. Influences during susceptible stages of spermatocyte development might be important and needs further investigation in humans. We hypothesize that protecting young men from harmful exposures may lead to improved respiratory health in future generations.

Characterization of liver lesions with mangafodipir trisodium-enhanced MR imaging: multicenter study comparing MR and dual-phase spiral CT.

PURPOSE: To evaluate whether mangafodipir trisodium (Mn-DPDP)-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging surpasses dual-phase spiral computed tomography (CT) in differentiating focal liver lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred forty-five patients who had or were suspected of having focal liver lesions were included in a multicenter study and underwent dual-phase spiral CT and enhanced MR imaging. Image interpretations performed by independent experienced radiologists were compared with the final diagnosis that was based on all available clinical information (including histopathologic findings in 77 patients) and that was determined with consensus. Differences in classifications by using either enhanced MR imaging or dual-phase spiral CT were analyzed with the McNemar test, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to compare the diagnostic performance of enhanced MR imaging and dual-phase spiral CT. RESULTS: Lesion classification was correct in 108 (74%) patients with enhanced MR imaging and in 83 (57%) with dual-phase spiral CT (P =.001). Lesions were correctly classified as either malignant or benign in 123 (85%) patients with enhanced MR imaging and in 98 (68%) with dual-phase spiral CT (P =.001). Classification of lesions as either hepatocellular or nonhepatocellular was correct in 130 (90%) patients with enhanced MR imaging and in 93 (64%) with dual-phase spiral CT (P =.001). These differences remained when analyses were restricted to histopathologically confirmed diagnoses. Comparison of the ROC curves illustrated that enhanced MR imaging performance surpassed that of dual-phase spiral CT. CONCLUSION: Mn-DPDP-enhanced MR imaging is superior to dual-phase spiral CT in classification of focal liver lesions.