Atherosclerosis immunization

Cardiosource: "Inflammation is now recognized as playing a fundamental role in atherosclerosis and its acute thrombotic complications.1 Although not necessarily the primary event, inflammation and cytokine activation during plaque formation and destabilization may represent a common final pathway to various stimuli. To the degree that inflammatory pathways play an important pathogenic mechanism in atherogenesis and plaque destabilization, a whole new approach to treating atherosclerosis is being proposed: immunomodulation.

Twenty years ago, the first reports were published showing the presence of activated immune cells in human atherosclerotic lesions.2 This was followed shortly thereafter by evidence that vascular cells can present antigen to T cells and that vascular cells can produce as well as respond to immune cytokines.3, 4 Several disease-associated antigens subsequently were identified, including oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL)5 and heat shock protein (HSP)-60.6 This led to various hypotheses regarding the role of immune/inflammatory mechanisms in atherosclerosis.

Today, it is clear that immune cells dominate early atherosclerotic lesions and their effector molecules accelerate lesion progression, ultimately leading to inflammation that can elicit acute coronary syndromes. Thus, inflammation and immunity play a key role in a number of specific cardiovascular diseases (Slide 1), presenting a long list of po"

Governo: maior pesquisa sobre hipertensão e diabetes da América Latina

http://portal.saude.gov.br/portal/aplicacoes/noticias/noticias_detalhe.cfm?co_seq_noticia=22714
Um consórcio formado por sete conceituadas instituições de ensino superior foi selecionado - por meio de chamada pública - para o desenvolvimento daquela que será a maior pesquisa da América Latina voltada à investigação das reais causas da hipertensão e diabetes no Brasil. As universidades federais de Minas Gerais (UFMG), da Bahia (UFBA), do Espírito Santo (UFES), do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), além da Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), a Universidade de São Paulo (USP) e Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), começam, no próximo mês, o Estudo Multicêntrico Longitudinal em Doenças Cardiovasculares e Diabetes Mellitus (EMLDCD), também conhecido como Estudo Longitudinal de Saúde do Adulto (Elsa/Brasil).O objetivo do EMLDCD é fazer um retrato da população brasileira a partir do monitoramento de aproximadamente 15 mil pessoas pesquisadas. Elas serão recrutadas pelas instituições de pesquisa a partir de janeiro e acompanhados por 20 ou até 30 anos. A cada ano, os pacientes serão convocados para reexame da saúde. Para tanto, o governo federal - por meio dos ministérios da Saúde e da Ciência e Tecnologia, e também da Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (Finep) - investirá R$ 22,6 milhões na pesquisa, recursos que serão suficientes para o financiamento dos estudos nos anos de 2006, 2007 e 2008. Metade desses recursos vem do Fundo Nacional de Saúde (FNS) e a outra parte do Fundo Setorial CT-Saúde.

EPIDAT

EPIDAT: "Epidat 3.1: Análise epidemiolóxico de datos tabulados
Novidade: Epidat 3.1 disponible dende o 19 de xaneiro de 2006! Esta versión corrixe certos erros detectados na versión 3.0, e está disponible en varios idiomas.
Programa desenvolvido polo Servizo de Epidemioloxía da Dirección Xeral de Saúde Pública da Consellería de Sanidade (Xunta de Galicia) en colaboración coa Unidad de Análisis de Salud y Sistemas de Información Sanitaria da Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS-OMS), a través da carta de entendemento existente entre a Consellería de Sanidade e a OPS-OMS.


Nota
Epidat 3.1 és un programa de libre distribución, polo que, non só se permite, senon que se agradece a sua difusión e calquer tipo de crítica ou comentario que axude a mellorar futuras versions. "

CVD Risk reduction in Diabetes

This is a call for applications for Proposal Development Grants (PDGs) in the area of research related to cardiovascular risk reduction in diabetes, to be conducted in developing country settings. The Initiative for Cardiovascular Health Research in Developing Countries (IC Health) will provide upto 5 grants of USD 10,000 each to developing country investigators for developing detailed research project proposals, in prioritized areas indicated in the call for applications. These applications have to be submitted by 31st January 2006, in the format prescribed by IC Health.

Blood Glucose Predictive Role

Contribution from: Marcelo Gustavo Colominas [mgcolominas@hotmail.com]
American Journal of Epidemiology 2006;163(4):342-351
The Predictive Role of Blood Glucose for Mortality in Subjects with Cardiovascular Disease
Sidney C. Port1,2, Noel G. Boyle3, Willa A. Hsueh4, Manuel J. Quiñones4, Robert I. Jennrich2 and Mark O. Goodarzi5

Using the Framingham Heart Study data (United States, 1948–1978), the authors examined the association of blood glucose with 2-year all-cause, cardiovascular, and noncardiovascular mortality in subjects with documented cardiovascular disease. After adjustment for systolic blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, cigarette smoking, and use of antihypertensive agents, they found that glucose was a strong, independent predictor of mortality. However, the relations for men and women were qualitatively different. For men, adjusted mortality risk increased very rapidly through the normal range (from 4.12% at 3.89 mmol/liter (70 mg/dl) to 12.26% at 5.55 mmol/liter (100 mg/dl)) and was flat at 12.26% thereafter. For women, risk was flat at 3.65% through the normal range and then increased rapidly, reaching 8.34% at 6.99 mmol/liter (126 mg/d), but increased much more slowly thereafter. Exactly analogous relations held for cardiovascular mortality.
For men and women combined, noncardiovascular mortality increased from 1.82% at 3.89 mmol/liter to 2.06% at 5.55 mmol/liter to 2.29% at 6.99 mmol/liter (p for trend = 0.009). These findings suggest that although 5.55 mmol/liter (normal) may be a useful mortality risk division (albeit with different implications for the two sexes), 6.99 mmol/liter (diabetic) is not, especially for men.
blood glucose; cardiovascular diseases; mortality; risk factors
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abbreviations: AIC, Akaike's Information Criterion; CVD, cardiovascular disease
_________________
Marcelo G. Colominas
EyP-FAC
SCChaco

Death from Acute Rheumatic Fever in Rural Ethiopia

The Lancet: "In their Seminar, Jonathan Carapetis and colleagues (July 9, p 155)1 identify the need for more and better data on acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD), particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. In rural Ethiopia, the prevalence of RHD in schoolchildren is about 4.6 per 10002 and recent research showed a mean age at death of 25.9 years in hospital inpatients.3
Secondary prophylaxis with a regular injection of penicillin every 3 or 4 weeks is a proven and the most cost-effective approach to the control of ARF and RHD, since primary prophylaxis is difficult to establish and vaccine development is still years away. At Dabat Health Centre in the North Gondar Administrative Zone, Ethiopia, patients with ARF and RHD have been enrolled in a follow-up and secondary prevention programme since 1998. Patients are included after seeking health care because of symptomatic ARF or RHD."

Cardiovascular Diseases Calendar

ProCOR - Home Page: "ProCOR's CVD Calendar compiles events taking place globally that are relevant to the prevention of cardiovascular disease in developing countries.
To submit information about an event to the calendar, email details to info@procor.org.

CVD Calendar
� 2006
� 2007
� Links for additional events "