Abstract-Few prospective studies have examined the association between high-normal blood pressure and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Asia. We examined the impact of high-normal blood pressure on the incidence of CVD in a general urban population cohort in Japan. We studied 5494 Japanese individuals (ages 30 to 79 years without CVD at baseline) after completing a baseline survey who received follow-up through

Background: An atrial fibrillation (AF) risk score for a non-Western general population has not been established. Methods and Results:A total of 6,898 participants (30-79 years old) initially free of AF have been prospectively followed for incident AF since 1989. AF was diagnosed when AF or atrial flutter was present on ECG at a biannual health examination; was indicated as a current illness; or was in the medical records during follow-up. Cox proportional hazard ratios were analyzed after adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors at baseline. During the 95,180 person-years of follow-up, 311 incident AF events occurred. We developed a scoring system for each risk factor as follows: 0/−5, 3/0, 7/5, and 9/9 points for men/women in their 30 s-40 s, 50 s, 60 s, and 70 s, respectively; 2 points for systolic hypertension, overweight, excessive drinking, or coronary artery disease; 1 point for current smoking; −1 point for moderate non-high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol; 4 points for arrhythmia; and 8, 6, and 2 points for subjects with cardiac murmur in their 30 s-40 s, 50 s, and 60 s, respectively (C-statistic 0.749; 95% confidence interval, 0.724−0.774). Individuals with score ≤2, 10-11, or ≥16 points had, respectively, ≤1%, 9%, and 27% observed probability of developing AF in 10 years. Conclusions:We developed a 10-year risk score for incident AF using traditional risk factors that are easily obtained in routine outpatient clinics/health examinations without ECG.

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Aim:The Framingham risk score (FRS) is one of the standard tools used to predict the incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD). No previous study has investigated its efficacy for a Japanese population cohort. The purpose of this study was to develop new coronary prediction algorithms for the Japanese population in the manner of the FRS, and to compare them with the original FRS. Methods: Our coronary prediction algorithms for Japanese were based on a large population-based cohort study (Suita study). The study population comprised 5,521 healthy Japanese. They were followed-up for 11.8 years on average, and 213 cases of CHD were observed. Multiple Cox proportional hazard model by stepwise selection was used to construct the prediction model.

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