Prediction of life expectancy in individuals in the United Kingdom using current cohort tables.

This paper provides updated cohort tables of life expectancy for individuals in the United Kingdom. Using 2008-based projections from the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) cohort and period expectation of life tables (the Ogden tables); predicted future life expectancies were calculated for quintiles of age from 0-90 years in men and women with mortality ratios between 100% and 1000%. Period tables have been included to illustrate the differences between period and cohort life expectancy in men and women at various ages. These tables are not intended to predict specific life expectancy in individuals but may indicate the mean life expectancy of a cohort of similarly affected people in the UK.

Falling mortality rates in Type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Wirral Peninsula: a longitudinal and retrospective cohort population-based study.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the life expectancy and mortality rates in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus when compared with the UK general population; to measure the years of life lost. DESIGN: Longitudinal and retrospective cohort study. SETTING: The Wirral Peninsula in the northwest of England. PARTICIPANTS: Total of 13,620 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus on the Wirral Diabetes Register. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: All-cause mortality, from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2007. RESULTS: Over the 8-year period of the study, there were a total of 16,692.5 person-years lived and 3888 deaths; 2041 (52.5%) males and 1847 (47.5%) females with corresponding mean ages at death of 75.6±10.3 years and 80.2±10.2 years, respectively. Although prevalence rates increased linearly (from 1.06% in 2000 to 4.39% in 2007) a decrease in mortality rates (from 117 to 46 per 1000 population) in both sexes was observed. This coincided with a progressive fall in cardiovascular risk factors in this population. A survival time curve of life lived until death showed that males had 8.0 years reduction in life span and females' life span was reduced by 9.6 years when compared with UK general population. In both sexes, life expectancy was reduced by between 2 and 11 years dependent on the age of diagnosis, with males showing a greater degree of reduction. CONCLUSION: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is associated with a significant reduction in life expectancy, more markedly in men, and in those diagnosed before age 70 years. However, annual mortality rates have fallen progressively in our population and may contribute to longer survival and life expectancy in future years.

Frequent occurrence of an intron 4 mutation in multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1.

MEN1 is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by parathyroid, pituitary, and pancreatic tumors. The MEN1 gene is located on chromosome 11q13 and encodes a 610-amino acid protein. MEN1 mutations are of diverse types and are scattered throughout the coding region, such that almost every MEN1 family will have its individual mutation. To further characterize such mutations we ascertained 34 unrelated MEN1 probands and undertook DNA sequence analysis. This identified 17 different mutations in 24 probands (2 nonsense, 2 missense, 2 in-frame deletions, 5 frameshift deletions, 1 frameshift deletional-insertion, 3 frameshift insertions, 1 donor splice site mutation, and a g-->a transition that resulted in a novel acceptor splice site in intron 4). The intron 4 mutation was found in 7 unrelated families, and the tumors in these families varied considerably, indicating a lack of genotype-phenotype correlation. However, this intron 4 mutation is the most frequently occurring germline MEN1 mutation ( approximately 10% of all mutations), and together with 5 others at codons 83-84, 118-119, 209-211, 418, and 516, accounts for 36.6% of all mutations, a finding that indicates an approach for identifying the widely diverse MEN1 mutations.