Inflammation in the Prediction of Type 2 Diabetes and Hypertension in Healthy Adults.

BACKGROUND: While inflammation is associated with obesity and insulin resistance, their inter-relationships in the development of type 2 diabetes or hypertension are not clear. AIM OF THE STUDY: To evaluate inflammatory markers in prediction of type 2 diabetes and hypertension. METHODS: The study population of this retrospective cohort study consisted of individuals who participated in a comprehensive health screening program with measurement of white blood cell count and C-reactive protein from 2002-2010 (N = 96,606) in nondiabetic and normotensive Koreans. Median follow up time were 3.7 years for incident type 2 diabetes and 3.3 years for hypertension. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards models were performed to assess risk for type 2 diabetes or hypertension by white blood cell or C-reactive protein quartiles with adjustment of various possible confounding factors including insulin resistance. RESULTS: During the follow-up period, 1448 (1.5%) developed type 2 diabetes and 10,405 (10.8%) developed hypertension. Among men, comparison of adjusted hazard ratios (HR) for incident type 2 diabetes in the highest versus lowest white blood cell or C-reactive protein quartiles were 1.48 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.20-1.83] and 1.30 (95% CI, 1.07-1.57), respectively. Among women, white blood cell but not C-reactive protein was significantly associated with type 2 diabetes [HR 1.79 (95% CI 1.24-2.57)]. White blood cell and C-reactive protein quartiles were also modestly associated with incident hypertension in both sexes. CONCLUSIONS: Although white blood cell and C-reactive protein are associated with adiposity and insulin resistance, these inflammatory markers also independently predict type 2 diabetes and/or hypertension.

Association between serum uric acid and cardiovascular mortality and all-cause mortality: a cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies have reported the association among serum uric acid (SUA) levels and cardiovascular and all-cause mortality; however, the results have been inconsistent. The aim of this study was to investigate whether SUA is independently associated with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in relatively healthy Korean adults. METHODS: A total of 396 951 individuals were enrolled for the study between 2002 and 2012. About 39 991 participants were excluded for various reasons. All-cause and cardiovascular mortality data were collected. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality according to baseline uric acid quintiles, and the third, middle SUA quintile was the reference group. RESULTS: A total of 356 960 participants were considered to be eligible for the analysis, and median follow-up duration was 5.88 years. The lowest and highest quintiles of SUA were less than 5.2 and more than 7.1 mg/dl in men, and less than 3.5 and more than 5.0 mg/dl in women, respectively. A total of 2082 deaths (312 from cardiovascular disease and 1770 from other causes) occurred during follow-up. In the highest SUA group, adjusted hazard ratios for all-cause mortality were 1.24 (1.01, 1.51) in men and 1.04 (0.76, 1.42) in women, and for cardiovascular mortality were 1.15 (0.72, 1.83) in men and 1.69 (0.70, 4.04) in women after adjustment for various possible confounding factors. CONCLUSION: In the current large relatively healthy population-based observational study, SUA showed no significant association with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.

Absence of association between gallstone and coronary artery calcification.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Gallstone has been suggested to be associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Coronary artery calcification (CAC) is an excellent value to predict future CVD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between gallstone and CAC. METHODS: Data were analyzed from an occupational cohort of 46,893 subjects (37,557 men and 9336 women) between 2011 and 2014. Participants with cancer or CVD histories or missing data at baseline were excluded from the study. Gallstone was diagnosed by ultrasound-documentation. Multivariate logistic analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between gallstone and CAC. RESULTS: The total population who had gallstone was 1426 (3.1%). In multivariate analysis, odds ratios (OR) for gallstone were not different according to CAC score groups in men and women. In addition, gallstone was not associated with higher OR for CAC in men and women. CONCLUSIONS: Gallstone was not associated with CAC in both Korean men and women.

C-reactive protein and risk of atrial fibrillation in East Asians.

AIMS: Inflammation has been suggested to play a role in the pathogenesis of atrial fibrillation (AF). It is uncertain whether C-reactive protein, a robust inflammatory marker, is associated with AF incidence in Asians with lower levels of C-reactive protein compared with western population. This study aimed to determine the association between C-reactive protein and risk of AF in a large population of Koreans. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 402 946 Koreans were enrolled in a health screening programme from January 2002 to December 2013. Among them, 210 208 subjects were analysed during the mean follow-up of 4.59 years (1 062 513 person-years). Atrial fibrillation was identified by electrocardiography at every visits. Atrial fibrillation was identified in 561 subjects (0.1%) at baseline. The median (inter-quartile) baseline C-reactive protein levels were higher in subject with AF than in those without AF [0.9 mg/L (0.4-0.9) vs. 0.4 mg/L (0.2-1.0), P < 0.001]. Subjects in the highest quartile of C-reactive protein had more AF than those in the lowest quartile [adjusted odds ratio (OR) 2.02, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.45-2.81; P< 0.001]. During a mean follow-up of 4.59 years, AF developed in 261 subjects (0.1%). The highest quartile of baseline C-reactive protein had a 1.68-fold (95% CI 1.06-2.67) increased risk of AF than the lowest quartile in multivariate Cox regression analysis. CONCLUSION: Baseline C-reactive protein levels are significantly associated with the prevalence of AF and the risk of AF in Korean populations even C-reactive protein concentrations are substantially lower than reported in white populations.

High-sensitivity C-reactive protein is associated with the presence of coronary artery calcium in subjects with normal blood pressure but not in subjects with hypertension.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: An association has been described between high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in some studies but not in others. This finding may be explained by a differential impact of inflammation according to the absence or presence of certain co-existing risk factors. Because hypertension may be an effect modifier of inflammation on CVD, our aim was to investigate the relationship between hs-CRP and pre-clinical atherosclerosis in subjects with normal blood pressure and hypertension. METHODS: Data were analyzed from 14,584 Korean subjects. Subjects were stratified according to: a) 6030 (41.3%) patients with normal blood pressure (<120/80 mmHg), b) 5630 (38.6%) patients with pre-hypertension (120-139 mmHg and 80-89 mmHg) and c) 2924 (20.0%) patients with hypertension (≥140/90 mmHg). Prevalence and odds ratio for the association between increased hs-CRP (>2 mg/L) and presence of CAC (coronary artery calcium) were calculated. RESULTS: In both normal and pre-hypertensive groups, the prevalence of CAC >0 was higher in subjects with increased hs-CRP concentrations (>2 mg/L). Adjusting for age, sex, cerebrovascular accident, coronary heart disease and diabetes mellitus, lifestyle, obesity, fasting glucose, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations, there was a significant association between higher hs-CRP levels (>2 mg/L) and CAC score in the normal group (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.11-2.16; p = 0.010); a borderline significant association in the pre-hypertensive group (OR 1.33, 95% CI 0.99-1.76; p = 0.054); and no association in the hypertensive group (OR 1.01, 95% CI 0.76-1.33; p = 0.94). CONCLUSIONS: Higher hs-CRP levels (>2 mg/L) are associated with pre-clinical atherosclerosis in subjects with normal blood pressure but not hypertension.

Metabolically healthy obese subjects are at risk of fatty liver but not of pre-clinical atherosclerosis.

BACKGROUNDS AND AIMS: Whether obesity increases risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and fatty liver because of the co-existence of other risk factors is uncertain. We investigated odds ratios (ORs) for: a) a measure of pre-clinical atherosclerosis and b) fatty liver, in metabolically healthy obese (MHO) subjects, metabolically abnormal obese (MAO) subjects and metabolically abnormal non obese subjects (MANO), using a metabolically healthy non obese (MHNO) group as the reference. METHODS AND RESULTS: 14,384 South Koreans from an occupational cohort underwent cardiac computed tomography (CT) estimation of CAC score, liver ultrasound determination of fatty liver, and measurement of cardiovascular risk factors. Pre-clinical atherosclerosis was defined by a CAC score >0. We used logistic regression to determine ORs for CAC >0, and fatty liver in MHO, MAO and MANO subjects (reference group MHNO). There was no increase in OR for CAC score >0 (OR = 0.93, [95% CIs 0.67,1.31], p = 0.68), in the MHO group, whereas there was an increase in the ORs for CAC score >0 in the MAO, and MANO groups (OR = 1.64 [95% CI 1.36,1.98], p < 0.001) and (OR = 1.38 [95% CI 1.17,1.64], p < 0.001), respectively. In contrast, for fatty liver, there was an increase in OR in each group (OR = 3.63 [95% CI 3.06, 4.31] p < 0.001); (OR = 5.89 [5.18,6.70] p < 0.001); and (OR = 1.83 [95% CI 1.69,2.08]) in the MHO, MAO group and MANO groups respectively. CONCLUSION: MHO subjects are at risk of fatty liver but attenuated risk of pre-clinical atherosclerosis. Both MAO and MANO subjects are at risk of fatty liver and pre-clinical atherosclerosis.

Recurrent mesalazine-induced myopericarditis in a patient with ulcerative colitis.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is considered as a dysregulated immune mediated disease. Pericarditis in IBD is a very rare disease both as an extra-intestinal manifestation of IBD and an adverse reaction of therapeutic drug for IBD such as mesalazine or sulfasalazine. A 26-year-old IBD male patient who had been taking mesalazine regularly for about 1 month was referred to our hospital because of fever, chest discomfort, and abnormal electrocardiographic findings. The patients was diagnosed as acute myopericarditis, and recovered after cessation of mesalazine using steroid and aspirin. When mesalazine was re-medicated some days after discharge, he suffered from myopericarditis again. Subsequently, myopericarditis was resolved just after cessation of mesalazine again. These findings suggest that the development of myopericarditis is caused by mesalazine.