Background: This study examines the predictive value of a novel systemic immuneinflammation index (SII, platelet × neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio) in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients. Methods: A total of 5602 CAD patients who had undergone a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) were enrolled. They were divided into two groups by baseline SII score (high SII vs low SII) to analyse the relationship between SII groups and the long-term outcome. The primary outcomes were major cardiovascular events (MACE) which includes nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI), nonfatal stroke and cardiac death. Secondary outcomes included a composite of MACE and hospitalization for congestive heart failure. Results: An optimal SII cut-off point of 694.3 × 10 9 was identified for MACE in the CAD training cohort (n = 373) and then verified in the second larger CAD cohort (n = 5602). Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that a higher SII score (≥694.3) was independently associated with increased risk of developing cardiac death (HR: 2.02; 95% CI: 1.43-2.86), nonfatal MI (HR: 1.42; 95% CI: 1.09-1.85), nonfatal stroke (HR: 1.96; 95% CI: 1.28-2.99), MACE (HR: 1.65; 95% CI: 1.36-2.01) and total major events (HR: 1.53; 95% CI: 1.32-1.77). In addition, the SII significantly improved risk stratification of MI, cardiac death, heart failure, MACE and total major events than conventional risk factors in CAD patients by the significant increase in the C-index (P < .001) and reclassification risk categories by significant NRI (P < .05) and IDI (P < .05). Conclusions: SII had a better prediction of major cardiovascular events than traditional risk factors in CAD patients after coronary intervention. K E Y W O R D Scoronary artery disease, inflammation, percutaneous coronary intervention 2 of 11 | YANG et Al.

ObjectivesPossible association between diabetes mellitus (DM) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been controversial. This study used a nationwide population-based dataset to investigate the relationship between DM and subsequent AD incidence.MethodsData were collected from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database, which released a cohort dataset of 1,000,000 randomly sampled people and confirmed it to be representative of the Taiwanese population. We identified 71,433 patients newly diagnosed with diabetes (age 58.74±14.02 years) since January 1997. Using propensity score, we matched them with 71,311 non-diabetic subjects by time of enrollment, age, gender, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and previous stroke history. All the patients were followed up to December 31, 2007. The endpoint of the study was occurrence of AD.ResultsOver a maximum 11 years of follow-up, diabetic patients experienced a higher incidence of AD than non-diabetic subjects (0.48% vs. 0.37%, p<0.001). After Cox proportional hazard regression model analysis, DM (hazard ratio [HR], 1.76; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.50–2.07, p<0.001), age (HR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.10–1.12, p<0.001), female gender (HR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.06–1.46, p = 0.008), hypertension (HR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.07–1.59, p = 0.01), previous stroke history (HR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.28–2.50, p<0.001), and urbanization status (metropolis, HR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.07–1.63, p = 0.009) were independently associated with the increased risk of AD. Neither monotherapy nor combination therapy with oral antidiabetic medications were associated with the risk of AD after adjusting for underlying risk factors and the duration of DM since diagnosis. However, combination therapy with insulin was found to be associated with greater risk of AD (HR, 2.17; 95% CI, 1.04–4.52, p = 0.039).ConclusionNewly diagnosed DM was associated with increased risk of AD. Use of hypoglycemic agents did not ameliorate the risk.

OBJECTIVEThe plasma adiponectin level, a potential upstream and internal facet of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, has a reasonably high heritability. Whether other novel genes influence the variation in adiponectin level and the roles of these genetic variants on subsequent clinical outcomes has not been thoroughly investigated. Therefore, we aimed not only to identify genetic variants modulating plasma adiponectin levels but also to investigate whether these variants are associated with adiponectin-related metabolic traits and cardiovascular diseases.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODSWe conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with high molecular weight forms of adiponectin levels by genotyping 382 young-onset hypertensive (YOH) subjects with Illumina HumanHap550 SNP chips. The culpable single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) variants responsible for lowered adiponectin were then confirmed in another 559 YOH subjects, and the association of these SNP variants with the risk of metabolic syndrome (MS), type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and ischemic stroke was examined in an independent community–based prospective cohort, the CardioVascular Disease risk FACtors Two-township Study (CVDFACTS, n = 3,350).RESULTSThe SNP (rs4783244) most significantly associated with adiponectin levels was located in intron 1 of the T-cadherin (CDH13) gene in the first stage (P = 7.57 × 10−9). We replicated and confirmed the association between rs4783244 and plasma adiponectin levels in an additional 559 YOH subjects (P = 5.70 × 10−17). This SNP was further associated with the risk of MS (odds ratio [OR] = 1.42, P = 0.027), T2DM in men (OR = 3.25, P = 0.026), and ischemic stroke (OR = 2.13, P = 0.002) in the CVDFACTS.CONCLUSIONSThese findings indicated the role of T-cadherin in modulating adiponectin levels and the involvement of CDH13 or adiponectin in the development of cardiometabolic diseases.

ObjectivesThe epidemiology of idiopathic central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) is not well understood in an Asian population. The present study aimed to investigate the incidence and risk factors for corticosteroid-unrelated CSCR using Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database.Methods and ResultsFrom 2001 to 2006, a total of 786 patients (500 [63.6%] males) who were newly diagnosed with CSCR, aged from 20 to 64 years and had no history of corticosteroid prescription were identified as incident cases of idiopathic CSCR. 3606 age-, gender-, and enrollment time-matched subjects were randomly selected as the control group. The mean annual incidence was 0.21‰ (0.27‰ for males, and 0.15‰ for females; P<0.001), with a male/female ratio of 1.74. The peak incidence was in the 35- to 39-year-old age group (0.30‰), followed by the 40- to 44-year-old age group (0.26‰). Males had a significantly higher mean annual incidence than female only in the middle age groups. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) for potential risk factors of idiopathic CSCR. Only exposure to anti-anxiety drugs (OR, 1.63; 95% confidence interval, 1.09–2.44) was found to be independently associated with idiopathic CSCR among males. No risk factors of idiopathic CSCR were found for females.ConclusionsThis study provides the nationwide, population-based data on the incidence of idiopathic CSCR in adult Asians, and suggests that exposure to anti-anxiety drugs is an independent risk factor for idiopathic CSCR among males.