| 1. |
- Albeck, Michael J, et al.
(författare)
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A controlled comparison of myelography, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging in clinically suspected lumbar disc herniation
- 1995
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Ingår i: Spine. - 0362-2436. ; 20:4, s. 443-448
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- STUDY DESIGN. A controlled prospective blinded study. OBJECTIVES. To compare the diagnostic power of myelography, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of low lumbar disc herniation. METHODS. Eighty patients with monoradicular sciatica were examined by myelography, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging, and all underwent subsequent surgery. The images were evaluated twice in a blinded fashion, and the diagnostic power of the modalities was expressed by a decision-analytic regret function. RESULTS. In 57 patients (71%) a disc herniation at the expected level was disclosed at surgery. The largest amount of diagnostic information was gained from computed tomography, followed by magnetic resonance imaging and myelography. Both computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging were significantly informative, whereas this was not the case for myelography. CONCLUSION. The results indicate that computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging should be the first choice for imaging in patients with suspected lumbar disc herniation.
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| 2. |
- Bjerre, Mette, et al.
(författare)
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Serum osteoprotegerin as a long-term predictor for patients with stable coronary artery disease and its association with diabetes and statin treatment : A CLARICOR trial 10-year follow-up substudy
- 2020
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Ingår i: Atherosclerosis. - : Elsevier BV. - 0021-9150 .- 1879-1484. ; 301, s. 8-14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Elevated circulating levels of osteoprotegerin (OPG) are known to add to the prediction of cardiovascular mortality. Our objective was to clarify the long-term risk associated with serum OPG and the possible influence of diabetes and statins on OPG levels in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD).METHODS: We assessed the placebo-treated group (n = 1998) from the CLARICOR trial (NCT00121550), a cohort with stable CAD. At entry, 15% of the participants had diabetes and 41% received statins. Serum OPG levels were measured in blood drawn at randomization. Participants were followed through public registers for 10 years.RESULTS: OPG levels correlated positively with diabetes status, age, CRP and female sex, but negatively with the use of statins. CAD participants with diabetes had significantly elevated serum OPG levels compared to participants without diabetes, p < 0.0001. The participants without diabetes treated with statins presented with significantly lower serum OPG levels than the corresponding non-statin-users (p < 0.0001). However, statin use showed no association with OPG levels in the participants with diabetes. High OPG levels at entry showed long-term associations with all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events (hazard ratio associated with factor 10 OPG increase 15.9 (95% CI 11.0-22.9) and 6.38 (4.60-8.90), p = 0.0001, even after adjustment for standard predictors (3.16 (1.90-5.25) and 2.29 (1.53-3.44), p < 0.0001).CONCLUSIONS: Circulating OPG holds long-term independent predictive ability for all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events in CAD participants. OPG levels were associated with diabetes, age, and female sex and statin treatment was associated with lower OPG levels in the absence of diabetes.
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| 3. |
- Carlsson, Axel C, et al.
(författare)
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10-Year Associations between Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptors 1 and 2 and Cardiovascular Events in Patients with Stable Coronary Heart Disease : A CLARICOR (Effect of Clarithromycin on Mortality and Morbidity in Patients With Ischemic Heart Disease) Trial Substudy.
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of the American Heart Association. - 2047-9980 .- 2047-9980. ; 7:9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: We aimed to assess the associations and predictive powers between the soluble receptors for tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α (TNFR1 and TNFR2) and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with stable coronary heart disease.METHODS AND RESULTS: CLARICOR (Effect of Clarithromycin on Mortality and Morbidity in Patients With Ischemic Heart Disease) is a randomized clinical trial comparing clarithromycin with placebo in patients with stable coronary heart disease. The primary outcome was a composite of nonfatal acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina pectoris, cerebrovascular disease, and all-cause mortality. Patients were followed up for 10 years; discovery sample, those assigned placebo (1204 events in n=1998); and replication sample, those assigned clarithromycin (1220 events in n=1979). We used Cox regression adjusted for C-reactive protein level, established cardiovascular risk factors, kidney function, and cardiovascular drugs. After adjustments, higher serum levels of TNFR1 and TNFR2 were associated with the composite outcome in the discovery sample (hazard ratio per SD increase, 1.13; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-1.22; P=0.001 for TNFR1; hazard ratio, 1.16; 95% confidence interval, 1.08-1.24; P<0.001 for TNFR2). The associations were similar in the replication sample. The associations with the composite outcome were mainly driven by acute myocardial infarction, cardiovascular mortality, and noncardiovascular mortality. The addition of TNFR1 and TNFR2 to established cardiovascular risk factors improved prediction only modestly (<1%).CONCLUSIONS: Increased concentrations of circulating TNFR1 and TNFR2 were associated with increased risks of cardiovascular events and mortality in patients with stable coronary heart disease. Yet, the utility of measuring TNFR1 and TNFR2 to improve risk prediction in these patients appears limited.CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00121550.
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| 4. |
- Ruge, Toralph, et al.
(författare)
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Circulating endostatin as a risk factor for cardiovascular events in patients with stable coronary heart disease : A CLARICOR trial sub-study
- 2019
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Ingår i: Atherosclerosis. - : Elsevier BV. - 0021-9150 .- 1879-1484. ; 284, s. 202-208
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Raised levels of serum endostatin, a biologically active fragment of collagen XVIII, have been observed in patients with ischemic heart disease but association with incident cardiovascular events in patients with stable coronary heart disease is uncertain.METHODS: The CLARICOR-trial is a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of stable coronary heart disease patients evaluating 14-day treatment with clarithromycin. The primary outcome was a composite of acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina pectoris, cerebrovascular disease or all-cause mortality. In the present sub-study using 10-year follow-up data, we investigated associations between serum endostatin at entry (randomization) and the composite outcome and its components during follow-up. The placebo group was used as discovery sample (1204 events, n = 1998) and the clarithromycin-treated group as replication sample (1220 events, n = 1979).RESULTS: In Cox regression models adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors, glomerular filtration rate, and current pharmacological treatment, higher serum endostatin was associated with an increased risk of the composite outcome in the discovery sample (hazard ratio per standard deviation increase 1.11, 95% CI 1.03-1.19, p = 0.004), but slightly weaker and not statistically significant in the replication sample (hazard ratio 1.06, 95% CI 1.00-1.14, p = 0.06). In contrast, strong and consistent associations were found between endostatin and cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in all multivariable models and sub-samples. Addition of endostatin to a model with established cardiovascular risk factors provided no substantial improvement of risk prediction (<1%).CONCLUSIONS: Raised levels of serum endostatin might be associated with cardiovascular events in patients with stable coronary heart disease. The clinical utility of endostatin measurements remains to be established.
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| 5. |
- Schroder, Jakob, et al.
(författare)
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Prognosis And Reclassification By YKL-40 In Stable Coronary Artery Disease
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of the American Heart Association. - 2047-9980 .- 2047-9980. ; 9:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundThe inflammatory biomarker YKL‐40 has previously been studied as a potential risk marker in cardiovascular disease. We aimed to assess the prognostic reclassification potential of serum YKL‐40 in patients with stable coronary artery disease.Methods and ResultsThe main study population was the placebo group of the CLARICOR (Effect of Clarithromycin on Mortality and Morbidity in Patients With Ischemic Heart Disease) trial. The primary outcome was a composite of acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina pectoris, cerebrovascular disease, and all‐cause mortality. We used Cox proportional hazards regression models adjusted for C‐reactive protein level and baseline cardiovascular risk factors. Improvement in prediction by adding serum YKL‐40 to the risk factors was calculated using the Cox‐Breslow method and c‐statistic. A total of 2200 patients were randomized to placebo, with a follow‐up duration of 10 years. YKL‐40 was associated with an increased risk of the composite outcome (hazard ratio per unit increase in (YKL‐40) 1.13, 95% CI 1.03–1.24, P=0.013) and all‐cause mortality (hazard ratio 1.32, 95% CI 1.17–1.49, P<0.0001). Considering whether a composite‐outcome event was more likely to have, or not have, occurred to date, we found 68.4% of such predictions to be correct when based on the standard predictors, and 68.5% when serum YKL‐40 was added as a predictor. Equivalent results were obtained with c‐statistics.ConclusionsHigher serum YKL‐40 was independently associated with an increased risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes and mortality. Addition of YKL‐40 did not improve risk prediction in patients with stable coronary artery disease.
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| 6. |
- Winkel, Per, et al.
(författare)
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A screening method to spot biomarkers that may warn of serious events in a chronic disease - illustrated by cardiological CLARICOR trial data
- 2021
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Ingår i: Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine. - : Walter de Gruyter. - 1434-6621 .- 1437-4331. ; 59:11, s. 1852-1860
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVES: To develop a crude screening method for detecting biomarkers which frequently exhibit a rise (or fall) in level prior to a serious event (e.g. a stroke) in patients with a chronic disease, signalling that the biomarker may have an alarm-raising or prognostic potential. The subsequent assessment of the marker's clinical utility requires costly, difficult longitudinal studies. Therefore, initial screening of candidate-biomarkers is desirable.METHODS: The method exploits a cohort of patients with biomarkers measured at entry and with recording of first serious event during follow-up. Copying those individual records onto a common timeline where a specific event occurs on the same day (Day 0) for all patients, the baseline biomarker level, when plotted against the patient's entry time on the revised timeline, will have a positive (negative) regression slope if biomarker levels generally rise (decline) the closer one gets to the event. As an example, we study 1,958 placebo-treated patients with stable coronary artery disease followed for nine years in the CLARICOR trial (NCT00121550), examining 11 newer biomarkers.RESULTS: Rising average serum levels of cardiac troponin T and of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide were seen prior to a fatal cardiovascular outcome. C-reactive protein rose prior to non-cardiovascular death. Glomerular filtration rate, seven lipoproteins, and nine newer cardiological biomarkers did not show convincing changes.CONCLUSIONS: For early detection of biomarkers with an alarm-raising potential in chronic diseases, we proposed the described easy procedure. Using only baseline biomarker values and clinical course of participants with coronary heart disease, we identified the same cardiovascular biomarkers as those previously found containing prognostic information using longitudinal or survival analysis.
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| 7. |
- Winkel, Per, et al.
(författare)
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Prognostic value of 12 novel cardiological biomarkers in stable coronary artery disease : A 10-year follow-up of the placebo group of the Copenhagen CLARICOR trial
- 2020
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Ingår i: BMJ Open. - : BMJ. - 2044-6055. ; 10:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: To assess if 12 novel circulating biomarkers, when added to 'standard predictors' available in general practice, could improve the 10-year prediction of cardiovascular events and mortality in patients with stable coronary heart disease.DESIGN: The patients participated as placebo receiving patients in the randomised clarithromycin for patients with stable coronary artery disease (CLARICOR) trial at a random time in their disease trajectory.SETTING: Five Copenhagen University cardiology departments and a coordinating centre.PARTICIPANTS: 1998 participants with stable coronary artery disease.OUTCOMES: Death and composite of myocardial infarction, unstable angina pectoris, cerebrovascular disease and death.RESULTS: When only 'standard predictors' were included, 83.4% of all-cause death predictions and 68.4% of composite outcome predictions were correct. Log(calprotectin) and log(cathepsin-S) were not associated (p≥0.01) with the outcomes, not even as single predictors. Adding the remaining 10 biomarkers (high-sensitive assay cardiac troponin T; neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin; osteoprotegerin; N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide; tumour necrosis factor receptor 1 and 2; pregnancy-associated plasma protein A; endostatin; YKL40; cathepsin-B), which were all individually significantly associated with the prediction of the two outcomes, increased the figures to 84.7% and 69.7%.CONCLUSION: When 'standard predictors' routinely available in general practices are used for risk assessment in consecutively sampled patients with stable coronary artery disease, the addition of 10 novel biomarkers to the prediction model improved the correct prediction of all-cause death and the composite outcome by <1.5%.TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT00121550.
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| 8. |
- Winkel, Per, et al.
(författare)
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Prognostic value of routinely available data in patients with stable coronary heart disease. A 10-year follow-up of patients sampled at random times during their disease course
- 2018
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Ingår i: Open heart. - : BMJ. - 2053-3624. ; 5:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective To characterise the long-term prognosis of patients with stable coronary artery heart disease by means of ‘standard predictors’ defined as demographic, clinical and biochemical quantities routinely available in general practices and ascertained at an interview not prompted by renewed cardiac complaints.Methods This is an observational study based on data from 2199 Copenhagen placebo patients from the ‘clarithromycin for patients with stable coronary heart disease’ trial of patients with stable coronary heart disease. In the trial, we compared the effects of 14 days of clarithromycin treatment versus placebo. The predictors were based on the interview forms and blood samples collected at entry, along with demographic information from hospital files.We studied ‘standard predictors’ of a composite outcome (myocardial infarction, unstable angina, cerebrovascular disease or all-cause death) and of all-cause death. Using Cox regression, we compared predictions of status at 3, 6 and 9 years without and with the use of ‘standard predictors’ and used receiver operating characteristic statistic.Results Few ‘standard predictors’ were associated (p<0.01) with the composite outcome or with all-cause death. When no ‘standard predictors’ were included, 63.2% of the model-based predictions of the composite outcome and 79.9% of death predictions were correct. Including all ‘standard predictors’ in the model increased the figures to 68.4% and 83.4%, respectively. C indices were low, except when all-cause death was assessed as a single outcome where C was 0.79.Conclusion ‘Standard predictors’ routinely available in general practices contribute only modestly to risk assessment in consecutively sampled patients with stable coronary heart disease as ascertained at a contact not prompted by renewed cardiac complaints. Novel biomarkers may improve the assessment.Trial registration number NCT00121550.
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| 9. |
- Wuopio, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Cathepsin B and S as markers for cardiovascular risk and all-cause mortality in patients with stable coronary heart disease during 10 years : a CLARICOR trial sub-study.
- 2018
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Ingår i: Atherosclerosis. - : Elsevier BV. - 0021-9150 .- 1879-1484. ; 278, s. 97-102
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The lysosomal cysteine proteases cathepsin B and S have been implicated in the atherosclerotic process. The present paper investigates the association between serum levels of cathepsin B and S and cardiovascular events and mortality in patients with stable coronary heart disease.METHODS: The CLARICOR trial is a randomised, placebo-controlled trial investigating the effect of clarithromycin versus placebo in patients with stable coronary heart disease. The outcome was time to either a cardiovascular event or all-cause mortality. The placebo group was used as discovery sample and the clarithromycin group as replication sample: n = 1998, n = 1979; mean age (years) 65, 65; 31%, 30% women; follow-up for 10 years; number of composite outcomes n = 1204, n = 1220; respectively. We used a pre-defined multivariable Cox regression model adjusting for inflammation, established cardiovascular risk factors, kidney function, and use of cardiovascular drugs.RESULTS: Cathepsin B was associated with an increased risk of the composite outcome in both samples after multivariable adjustment (discovery: multivariable ratio (HR) per standard deviation increase 1.12, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.05-1.19, p < 0.001, replication; HR 1.14, 95% CI 1.07-1.21, p < 0.001). There was no significant association between cathepsin S and the composite outcome in either the discovery or replication sample after multivariable adjustment (p>0.45). Secondary analyses suggest that cathepsin B was predominantly associated with mortality rather than specific cardiovascular events.CONCLUSIONS: Cathepsin B, but not serum cathepsin S, was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events in patients with stable coronary heart disease. The clinical implications of our findings remain to be established.
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