Featured Research
Assessment of executive function declines in presymptomatic and mildly symptomatic familial frontotemporal dementia: NIH-EXAMINER as a potential clinical trial endpoint
Identifying clinical measures that track disease in the earliest stages of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is important for clinical trials. Familial FTLD provides a unique paradigm to study early FTLD. Executive dysfunction is a clinically relevant hallmark of FTLD and may be a marker of disease progression.
Mendelian randomization evaluation of causal effects of fibrinogen on incident coronary heart disease
Fibrinogen is an essential hemostatic factor and cardiovascular disease risk factor. Early attempts at evaluating the causal effect of fibrinogen on coronary heart disease and myocardial infraction using Mendelian randomization used single variant approaches, and did not take advantage of recent genome-wide association studies or multi-variant, pleiotropy robust mendelian randomization methodologies. This study evaluated evidence for a causal effect of fibrinogen on both coronary heart disease and myocardial infraction using mendelian randomization.
Global DNA methylation and histone posttranslational modifications in human and nonhuman primate brain in association with prenatal alcohol exposure
Based upon experimental animal studies, the neurodevelopmental abnormalities associated with prenatal alcohol exposure (PNAE)/fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) have been attributed, at least in part, to epigenetic modifications. However, there are no direct analyses of human brain tissue. Immunohistochemical detection of global epigenetic markers was performed during this study on temporal lobe samples of autopsied fetuses and infants with documented PNAE.
Full-fat dairy food intake is associated with a lower risk of incident diabetes among American Indians with low total dairy food intake
Diet plays a key role in development of diabetes, and there has been recent interest in better understanding the association of dairy food intake with diabetes. This study examined the associations of full-fat and low-fat dairy food intake with incident diabetes among American Indians-a population with a high burden of diabetes.
Proceedings of the fourth international molecular pathological epidemiology (MPE) meeting
An important premise of epidemiology is that individuals with the same disease share similar underlying etiologies and clinical outcomes. In the past few decades, our knowledge of disease pathogenesis has improved, and disease classification systems have evolved to the point where no complex disease processes are considered homogenous. As a result, pathology and epidemiology have been integrated into the single, unified field of molecular pathological epidemiology (MPE).
Use of statin medications following diagnosis in relation to survival among women with ovarian cancer
It has been suggested that the likelihood of survival among women with ovarian cancer could be increased by post-diagnosis statin use. This study examines the potential association between post-diagnosis statin use and cancer-specific mortality among women with ovarian cancer.
Successes and failures of the live-attenuated influenza vaccine: can we do better?
The effectiveness of the live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) can vary widely, ranging from 0 - 50%. The reasons for these discrepancies remain largely unclear. This study used mathematical models to explore how the efficacy of LAIV is affected by the degree of mismatch with the currently circulating influenza strain and interference with pre-existing immunity.
A pooled analysis of breastfeeding and breast cancer risk by hormone receptor status in parous hispanic women
Data on breastfeeding and breast cancer risk are sparse and inconsistent for Hispanic women. Pooling data for nearly 6,000 parous Hispanic women from four population-based studies conducted between 1995 and 2007 in the United States and Mexico, this study examined the association of breastfeeding with risk of breast cancer overall and subtypes defined by estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) status, and the joint effects of breastfeeding, parity, and age at first birth.
The role of functional status on the relationship between blood pressure and cognitive decline: the Cardiovascular Health Study
The objective of this study was to examine whether self-reported functional status modified the association between blood pressure (BP) and cognitive decline among older adults. Elevated BP appears to be associated with a decrease in cognitive scores among functioning older adults, and modest improvements in cognitive function among poorly functioning elders.
Validity of natural language processing for ascertainment of EGFR and ALK test results in SEER cases of stage iv non-small-cell lung cancer
SEER registries do not report results of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) mutation tests. To facilitate population-based research in molecularly defined subgroups of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), this study assessed the validity of natural language processing for the ascertainment of EGFR and ALK testing from electronic pathology reports of NSCLC cases included in two SEER registries: the Cancer Surveillance System and the Kentucky Cancer Registry.
