0000000000452638
AUTHOR
Robin P. F. Dullaart
Research update for articles published in EJCI in 2016
The association of an excessive blood pressure increase with exercise (i.e., an increase in systolic blood pressure with exercise ≥95th percentile) with lower risk of subsequent events in patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease has been consistently verified even in those with baseline hypertension. Nonetheless, this negative association, also confirmed in another study on a Japanese population, might depend on peak VO2, such that the prognostic value of blood pressure response might be limited in patients with preserved exercise capacity. In addition, a hypertensive response with exercise (defined as a systolic blood pressure ≥220 mmHg during the test) has also been associ…
Separating the Mechanism-Based and Off-Target Actions of Cholesteryl Ester Transfer Protein Inhibitors With CETP Gene Polymorphisms
Background— Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitors raise high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, but torcetrapib, the first-in-class inhibitor tested in a large outcome trial, caused an unexpected blood pressure elevation and increased cardiovascular events. Whether the hypertensive effect resulted from CETP inhibition or an off-target action of torcetrapib has been debated. We hypothesized that common single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the CETP gene could help distinguish mechanism-based from off-target actions of CETP inhibitors to inform on the validity of CETP as a therapeutic target. Methods and Results— We compared the effect of CETP single-nucleotide polymorphisms …
Prevalence and determinants of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in lifelines: A large Dutch population cohort
BACKGROUND & AIMS Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is an increasing health issue that develops rather unnoticed with obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome. We investigated prevalence, determinants and associated metabolic abnormalities of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in the largest population-based cohort to date. METHODS Biochemical characteristics, type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome were determined in the Lifelines Cohort Study (N = 167,729), a population-based cohort in the North of the Netherlands. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was defined as Fatty Liver Index (FLI)≥60. Exclusion criteria were age <18 years, immigrants, missing data to assess FL…