| 11. |
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| 12. |
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| 13. |
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| 14. |
- Byass, Peter, et al.
(author)
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An integrated approach to processing WHO-2016 verbal autopsy data: the InterVA-5 model
- 2019
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In: BMC Med. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1741-7015. ; 17
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Verbal autopsy is an increasingly important methodology for assigning causes to otherwise uncertified deaths, which amount to around 50% of global mortality and cause much uncertainty for health planning. The World Health Organization sets international standards for the structure of verbal autopsy interviews and for cause categories that can reasonably be derived from verbal autopsy data. In addition, computer models are needed to efficiently process large quantities of verbal autopsy interviews to assign causes of death in a standardised manner. Here, we present the InterVA-5 model, developed to align with the WHO-2016 verbal autopsy standard. This is a harmonising model that can process input data from WHO-2016, as well as earlier WHO-2012 and Tariff-2 formats, to generate standardised cause-specific mortality profiles for diverse contexts. The software development involved building on the earlier InterVA-4 model, and the expanded knowledge base required for InterVA-5 was informed by analyses from a training dataset drawn from the Population Health Metrics Research Collaboration verbal autopsy reference dataset, as well as expert input. Results: The new model was evaluated against a test dataset of 6130 cases from the Population Health Metrics Research Collaboration and 4009 cases from the Afghanistan National Mortality Survey dataset. Both of these sources contained around three quarters of the input items from the WHO-2016, WHO-2012 and Tariff-2 formats. Cause-specific mortality fractions across all applicable WHO cause categories were compared between causes assigned in participating tertiary hospitals and InterVA-5 in the test dataset, with concordance correlation coefficients of 0.92 for children and 0.86 for adults. The InterVA-5 model's capacity to handle different input formats was evaluated in the Afghanistan dataset, with concordance correlation coefficients of 0.97 and 0.96 between the WHO-2016 and the WHO-2012 format for children and adults respectively, and 0.92 and 0.87 between the WHO-2016 and the Tariff-2 format respectively. Conclusions: Despite the inherent difficulties of determining "truth" in assigning cause of death, these findings suggest that the InterVA-5 model performs well and succeeds in harmonising across a range of input formats. As more primary data collected under WHO-2016 become available, it is likely that InterVA-5 will undergo minor re-versioning in the light of practical experience. The model is an important resource for measuring and evaluating cause-specific mortality globally.
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| 15. |
- Carlsson, Sigrid, 1982, et al.
(author)
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Spotlight on prostate cancer: the latest evidence and current controversies.
- 2015
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In: BMC medicine. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1741-7015. ; 13
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Recent decades have seen dramatic changes in the management of prostate cancer based on novel research findings. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening has been introduced, and then recently modified to include new strategies and biomarkers. Management of advanced disease has been transformed by the rapid introduction of new agents. We have moved from a "one-size-fits-all" approach in prostate cancer management to multidisciplinary strategies tailored to the individual patient and his specific cancer. This editorial marks the launch of the article collection Spotlight on prostate cancer (http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmed/series/SPR), and here, guest editors Sigrid Carlsson and Andrew Vickers give an overview of the past, present, and future of prostate cancer research and management.
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| 16. |
- Carlsson, Sigrid, 1982, et al.
(author)
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Who and when should we screen for prostate cancer? Interviews with key opinion leaders.
- 2015
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In: BMC medicine. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1741-7015. ; 13
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Prostate cancer screening using prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is highly controversial. In this Q & A, Guest Editors for BMC Medicine's 'Spotlight on Prostate Cancer' article collection, Sigrid Carlsson and Andrew Vickers, invite some of the world's key opinion leaders to discuss who, and when, to screen for prostate cancer. In response to the points of view from the invited experts, the Guest Editors summarize the experts' views and give their own personal opinions on PSA screening.
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| 17. |
- Davegårdh, Cajsa, et al.
(author)
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Abnormal epigenetic changes during differentiation of human skeletal muscle stem cells from obese subjects
- 2017
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In: BMC Medicine. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1741-7015. ; 15:1, s. 1-27
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Human skeletal muscle stem cells are important for muscle regeneration. However, the combined genome-wide DNA methylation and expression changes taking place during adult myogenesis have not been described in detail and novel myogenic factors may be discovered. Additionally, obesity is associated with low relative muscle mass and diminished metabolism. Epigenetic alterations taking place during myogenesis might contribute to these defects. Methods: We used Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip Kit (Illumina) and HumanHT-12 Expression BeadChip (Illumina) to analyze genome-wide DNA methylation and transcription before versus after differentiation of primary human myoblasts from 14 non-obese and 14 obese individuals. Functional follow-up experiments were performed using siRNA mediated gene silencing in primary human myoblasts and a transgenic mouse model. Results: We observed genome-wide changes in DNA methylation and expression patterns during differentiation of primary human muscle stem cells (myoblasts). We identified epigenetic and transcriptional changes of myogenic transcription factors (MYOD1, MYOG, MYF5, MYF6, PAX7, MEF2A, MEF2C, and MEF2D), cell cycle regulators, metabolic enzymes and genes previously not linked to myogenesis, including IL32, metallothioneins, and pregnancy-specific beta-1-glycoproteins. Functional studies demonstrated IL-32 as a novel target that regulates human myogenesis, insulin sensitivity and ATP levels in muscle cells. Furthermore, IL32 transgenic mice had reduced insulin response and muscle weight. Remarkably, approximately 3.7 times more methylation changes (147,161 versus 39,572) were observed during differentiation of myoblasts from obese versus non-obese subjects. In accordance, DNMT1 expression increased during myogenesis only in obese subjects. Interestingly, numerous genes implicated in metabolic diseases and epigenetic regulation showed differential methylation and expression during differentiation only in obese subjects. Conclusions: Our study identifies IL-32 as a novel myogenic regulator, provides a comprehensive map of the dynamic epigenome during differentiation of human muscle stem cells and reveals abnormal epigenetic changes in obesity.
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| 18. |
- Disney-Hogg, Linden, et al.
(author)
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Impact of atopy on risk of glioma : a Mendelian randomisation study
- 2018
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In: BMC Medicine. - : BioMed Central. - 1741-7015. ; 16
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: An inverse relationship between allergies with glioma risk has been reported in several but not all epidemiological observational studies. We performed an analysis of genetic variants associated with atopy to assess the relationship with glioma risk using Mendelian randomisation (MR), an approach unaffected by biases from temporal variability and reverse causation that might have affected earlier investigations.Methods: Two-sample MR was undertaken using genome-wide association study data. We used single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with atopic dermatitis, asthma and hay fever, IgE levels, and self-reported allergy as instrumental variables. We calculated MR estimates for the odds ratio (OR) for each risk factor with glioma using SNP-glioma estimates from 12,488 cases and 18,169 controls, using inverse-variance weighting (IVW), maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), weighted median estimate (WME) and mode-based estimate (MBE) methods. Violation of MR assumptions due to directional pleiotropy were sought using MR-Egger regression and HEIDI-outlier analysis.Results: Under IVW, MLE, WME and MBE methods, associations between glioma risk with asthma and hay fever, self-reported allergy and IgE levels were non-significant. An inverse relationship between atopic dermatitis and glioma risk was found by IVW (OR 0.96, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.93-1.00, P = 0.041) and MLE (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.94-0.99, P = 0.003), but not by WME (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.91-1.01, P = 0.114) or MBE (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.92-1.02, P = 0.194).Conclusions: Our investigation does not provide strong evidence for relationship between atopy and the risk of developing glioma, but findings do not preclude a small effect in relation to atopic dermatitis. Our analysis also serves to illustrate the value of using several MR methods to derive robust conclusions.
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| 19. |
- Erlandsson, Malin, 1972, et al.
(author)
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Low serum IGF1 is associated with hypertension and predicts early cardiovascular events in women with rheumatoid arthritis
- 2019
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In: BMC Med. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1741-7015. ; 17:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- ObjectivesSince low insulin-like growth factor (IGF) 1 is often linked to inflammation, we analyze whether serum levels of IGF1 are associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a longitudinal observational study.MethodsA CVD risk was estimated (eCVR) in 184 female RA patients (mean age 52years) and in 132 female patients after ischemic stroke (mean age 56years) with no rheumatic disease, using the Framingham algorithm. The median level of IGF1 divided the cohorts in IGF1(high) and IGF1(low) groups. A 5-year prospective follow-up for new CVD events was completed in all RA patients. The Mantel-Cox analysis and event-free survival curves were prepared. Unsupervised clustering of proteins within the IGF1 signaling pathway was employed to identify their association with eCVR.ResultsLow IGF1 resulted in a higher eCVR in RA patients (7.2% and 3.3%, p=0.0063) and in stroke (9.3% and 7.1%, p=0.033). RA had higher rate for new CVD events at prospective follow-up (OR 4.96, p=0.028). Hypertension was the major risk factor associated with low IGF1 in RA and stroke. In hypertension, IGF1 was no longer responsible for intracellular activation and lost its correlation to IRS1/2 adaptor proteins. The clustering analysis confirmed that combination of low IGF1 and IRS1/2 with high IL6, insulin, and glucose predisposed to high eCVR and emphasized the functional role of serum IGF1.ConclusionsLow serum IGF1 precedes and predicts development of early CVD events in female RA patients. Hypertension and aberrant IGF1 receptor signaling are highlighted as the important contributors to IGF1-related CVD events.
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| 20. |
- Fages, Anne, et al.
(author)
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Metabolomic profiles of hepatocellular carcinoma in a European prospective cohort.
- 2015
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In: BMC Medicine. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1741-7015. ; 13:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most prevalent form of liver cancer, is difficult to diagnose and has limited treatment options with a low survival rate. Aside from a few key risk factors, such as hepatitis, high alcohol consumption, smoking, obesity, and diabetes, there is incomplete etiologic understanding of the disease and little progress in identification of early risk biomarkers.
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