Age and Comorbidities Are Associated With Therapeutic Inertia Among Older Adults With Uncontrolled Blood Pressure.

BACKGROUND: Lack of initiation or escalation of blood pressure (BP) lowering medication when BP is uncontrolled, termed therapeutic inertia (TI), increases with age and may be influenced by comorbidities. METHODS: We examined the association of age and comorbidities with TI in 22,665 visits with a systolic BP ≥140 mm Hg and/or diastolic BP ≥90 mm Hg among 7,415 adults age ≥65 years receiving care in clinics that implemented a hypertension quality improvement program. Generalized linear mixed models were used to determine the association of comorbidity number with TI by age group (65-74 and ≥75 years) after covariate adjustment. RESULTS: Baseline mean age was 75.0 years (SD 7.8); 41.4% were male. TI occurred in 79.0% and 83.7% of clinic visits in age groups 65-74 and ≥75 years, respectively. In age group 65-74 years, prevalence ratio of TI with 2, 3-4, and ≥5 comorbidities compared with zero comorbidities was 1.07 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04, 1.12), 1.08 (95% CI: 1.05, 1.12), and 1.15 (95% CI: 1.10, 1.20), respectively. The number of comorbidities was not associated with TI prevalence in age group ≥75 years. After implementation of the improvement program, TI declined from 80.3% to 77.2% in age group 65-74 years and from 85.0% to 82.0% in age group ≥75 years (P < 0.001 for both groups). CONCLUSIONS: TI was common among older adults but not associated with comorbidities after age ≥75 years. A hypertension improvement program had limited impact on TI in older patients.

Associations of hiatus hernia with CT-based interstitial lung changes: the MESA Lung Study.

BACKGROUND: Hiatus hernia (HH) is prevalent in adults with pulmonary fibrosis. We hypothesised that HH would be associated with markers of lung inflammation and fibrosis among community-dwelling adults and stronger among MUC5B (rs35705950) risk allele carriers. METHODS: In the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, HH was assessed from cardiac and full-lung computed tomography (CT) scans performed at Exam 1 (2000-2002, n=3342) and Exam 5 (2010-2012, n=3091), respectively. Percentage of high attenuation areas (HAAs; percentage of voxels with attenuation between -600 and -250 HU) was measured from cardiac and lung scans. Interstitial lung abnormalities (ILAs) were examined from Exam 5 scans (n=2380). Regression models were used to examine the associations of HH with HAAs, ILAs and serum matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7), and adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, smoking, height, weight and scanner parameters for HAA analysis. RESULTS: HH detected from Exam 5 scans was associated with a mean percentage difference in HAAs of 2.23% (95% CI 0.57-3.93%) and an increase of 0.48% (95% CI 0.07-0.89%) per year, particularly in MUC5B risk allele carriers (p-value for interaction=0.02). HH was associated with ILAs among those <80 years of age (OR for ILAs 1.78, 95% CI 1.14-2.80) and higher serum MMP-7 level among smokers (p-value for smoking interaction=0.04). CONCLUSIONS: HH was associated with more HAAs over time, particularly among MUC5B risk allele carriers, and ILAs in younger adults, and may be a risk factor in the early stages of interstitial lung disease.

Mapping Alveolar Oxygen Partial Pressure in COPD Using Hyperpolarized Helium-3: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) COPD Study.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema are characterized by functional and structural damage which increases the spaces for gaseous diffusion and impairs oxygen exchange. Here we explore the potential for hyperpolarized (HP) 3He MRI to characterize lung structure and function in a large-scale population-based study. Participants (n = 54) from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) COPD Study, a nested case-control study of COPD among participants with 10+ packyears underwent HP 3He MRI measuring pAO2, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), and ventilation. HP MRI measures were compared to full-lung CT and pulmonary function testing. High ADC values (>0.4 cm2/s) correlated with emphysema and heterogeneity in pAO2 measurements. Strong correlations were found between the heterogeneity of global pAO2 as summarized by its standard deviation (SD) (p < 0.0002) and non-physiologic pAO2 values (p < 0.0001) with percent emphysema on CT. A regional study revealed a strong association between pAO2 SD and visual emphysema severity (p < 0.003) and an association with the paraseptal emphysema subtype (p < 0.04) after adjustment for demographics and smoking status. HP noble gas pAO2 heterogeneity and the fraction of non-physiological pAO2 results increase in mild to moderate COPD. Measurements of pAO2 are sensitive to regional emphysematous damage detected by CT and may be used to probe pulmonary emphysema subtypes. HP noble gas lung MRI provides non-invasive information about COPD severity and lung function without ionizing radiation.

Pulmonary Blood Volume Among Older Adults in the Community: The MESA Lung Study.

BACKGROUND: The pulmonary vasculature is essential for gas exchange and impacts both pulmonary and cardiac function. However, it is difficult to assess and its characteristics in the general population are unknown. We measured pulmonary blood volume (PBV) noninvasively using contrast enhanced, dual-energy computed tomography to evaluate its relationship to age and symptoms among older adults in the community. METHODS: The MESA (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis) is an ongoing community-based, multicenter cohort. All participants attending the most recent MESA exam were selected for contrast enhanced dual-energy computed tomography except those with estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min per 1.73 m2. PBV was calculated by material decomposition of dual-energy computed tomography images. Multivariable models included age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, height, weight, smoking status, pack-years, and scanner model. RESULTS: The mean age of the 727 participants was 71 (range 59-94) years, and 55% were male. The race/ethnicity distribution was 41% White, 29% Black, 17% Hispanic, and 13% Asian. The mean±SD PBV in the youngest age quintile was 547±180 versus 433±194 mL in the oldest quintile (P<0.001), with an approximately linear decrement of 50 mL per 10 years of age ([95% CI, 32-67]; P<0.001). Findings were similar with multivariable adjustment. Lower PBV was associated independently with a greater dyspnea after a 6-minute walk (P=0.04) and greater composite dyspnea symptom scores (P=0.02). Greater PBV was also associated with greater height, weight, lung volume, Hispanic race/ethnicity, and nonsmoking history. CONCLUSIONS: Pulmonary blood volume was substantially lower with advanced age and was associated independently with greater symptoms scores in the elderly.

Quantification of lung ventilation defects on hyperpolarized MRI: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) COPD study.

PURPOSE: To develop an end-to-end deep learning (DL) framework to segment ventilation defects on pulmonary hyperpolarized MRI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) study is a nested longitudinal case-control study in older smokers. Between February 2016 and July 2017, 56 participants (age, mean ± SD, 74 ± 8 years; 34 men) underwent same breath-hold proton (1H) and helium (3He) MRI, which were annotated for non-ventilated, hypo-ventilated, and normal-ventilated lungs. In this retrospective DL study, 820 1H and 3He slices from 42/56 (75%) participants were randomly selected for training, with the remaining 14/56 (25%) for test. Full lung masks were segmented using a traditional U-Net on 1H MRI and were imported into a cascaded U-Net, which were used to segment ventilation defects on 3He MRI. Models were trained with conventional data augmentation (DA) and generative adversarial networks (GAN)-DA. RESULTS: Conventional-DA improved 1H and 3He MRI segmentation over the non-DA model (P = 0.007 to 0.03) but GAN-DA did not yield further improvement. The cascaded U-Net improved non-ventilated lung segmentation (P < 0.005). Dice similarity coefficients (DSC) between manually and DL-segmented full lung, non-ventilated, hypo-ventilated, and normal-ventilated regions were 0.965 ± 0.010, 0.840 ± 0.057, 0.715 ± 0.175, and 0.883 ± 0.060, respectively. We observed no statistically significant difference in DCSs between participants with and without COPD (P = 0.41, 0.06, and 0.18 for non-ventilated, hypo-ventilated, and normal-ventilated regions, respectively). CONCLUSION: The proposed cascaded U-Net framework generated fully-automated segmentation of ventilation defects on 3He MRI among older smokers with and without COPD that is consistent with our reference method.

Hiatal hernia prevalence and natural history on non-contrast CT in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence, risk factors and natural history of hiatal hernia (HH) on CT in the general population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) acquired full-lung CT on 3200 subjects, aged 53-94 years. Three blinded observers independently determined presence/absence and type (I-IV) of HH. Associations between HH and participant characteristics were assessed via unadjusted and multivariable-adjusted relative risk regression. HH natural history was assessed compared with prior MESA CT. RESULTS: Excellent interobserver agreement was found for presence (κ=0.86) and type of HH (κ=0.97). Among 316 HH identified (prevalence=9.9%), 223 (71%) were type I and 93 (29%) were type III. HH prevalence increased with age, from 2.4% in 6th decade to 16.6% in 9th decade (unadjusted prevalence ratio (PR)=1.1 (95% CI 1.04 to 1.1)). HH prevalence was greater in women (12.7%) than men (7.0%) (unadjusted PR=1.8 (95% CI 1.5 to 2.3)) and associated with proton pump inhibitor use (p<0.001). In 75 participants with HH with 10-year follow-up, median HH area increased from 9.9 cm2 to 17.9 cm2 (p=0.02) with a higher mean body mass index (BMI) in subjects with increasing HH size compared with HH decreasing in size: mean BMI=30.2±6.2 vs 26.8±7.2 (p=0.02). CONCLUSION: HH on non-contrast CT is prevalent in the general population, increasing with age, female gender and BMI. Its association with proton pump inhibitor use confirms a role in gastro-oesophageal reflux disease and HH progression is associated with increased BMI. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT00005487.

Aortic enlargement in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) COPD study.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of abdominal aortic aneurysm is high in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) population. Emphysema involves proteolytic destruction of elastic fibers. Therefore, emphysema may also contribute to thoracic aorta dilatation. This study assessed aorta dilation in smokers stratified by presence of COPD, emphysema and airway thickening. METHODS: Aorta diameters were measured on 3D magnetic resonance angiography in smokers recruited from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), the Emphysema and Cancer Action Project (EMCAP), and the local community. COPD was defined by standard spirometric criteria; emphysema was measured quantitatively on computed tomography and bronchitis was determined from medical history. RESULTS: Participants (n = 315, age 58-79) included 150 with COPD and 165 without COPD, of whom 56% and 19%, respectively, had emphysema. Subjects in the most severe quartile of emphysematous change showed the largest diameter at all four aorta locations compared to those in the least severe quartiles (all p < 0.001). Comparing subjects with and without COPD, aorta diameters were larger in participants with severe COPD in ascending and arch (both p < 0.001), and abdominal aorta (p = 0.001). Chronic bronchitis and bronchial wall thickness did not correlate with aorta diameter. In subjects with emphysema, subjects with coexistence of COPD showed larger aorta than those without COPD in ascending (p = 0.003), arch (p = 0.002), and abdominal aorta (p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed larger aorta diameter in subjects with COPD and severe emphysema compared to COPD related to chronic bronchitis or bronchial wall thickening.