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SummaryThe incidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) as diagnosed by the 125I fibrinogen test (125IFT) was determined in a series of 300 newly admitted medical and 201 surgical patients. 6 medical patients died before 125IFT screening could be completed. The incidence of DVT was l4% in medical patients and 18% in surgical patients. Increasing age, a malignant condition and a past history of thromboembolism all increased the risk of DVT. Increasing levels of cigarette smoking were found to be associated with a reduced incidence of DVT. Although statistical significance was achieved at only the 10% level for this finding it is in agreement with the results from studies on patients with myocardial infarction. The protective effect of cigarette smoking was observed at all ages, and in both medical and surgical patients.

ObjectiveTroponin and B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) concentrations are associated with cardiovascular risk in stable patients. Understanding their determinants and identifying modifiable clinical targets may improve outcomes. We aimed to establish clinical and cardiac determinants of these biomarkers.MethodsThis was a prespecified substudy from the randomised Scottish Computed Tomography of the Heart trial, which enrolled patients 18–75 years with suspected stable angina between 2010 and 2014 (NCT01149590). We included patients from six centres in whom high-sensitivity troponin I and BNP were measured (Singulex Erenna). Patients with troponin >99th centile upper reference limit (10.2 ng/L) or BNP ≥400 ng/L were excluded to avoid inclusion of patients with myocardial injury or heart failure. Multivariable linear regression models were constructed with troponin and BNP as dependent variables.ResultsIn total, 885 patients were included; 881 (99%) and 847 (96%) had troponin and BNP concentrations above the limit of detection, respectively. Participants had a slight male preponderance (n=513; 56.1%), and the median age was 59.0 (IQR 51.0–65.0) years. The median troponin and BNP concentrations were 1.4 (IQR 0.90–2.1) ng/L and 29.1 (IQR 14.0–54.0) ng/L, respectively. Age and atherosclerotic burden were independent predictors of both biomarkers. Male sex, left ventricular mass and systolic blood pressure were independent predictors of increased troponin. In contrast, female sex and left ventricular volume were independent predictors of increased BNP.ConclusionsTroponin and BNP are associated with coronary atherosclerosis but have important sex differences and distinct and contrasting associations with CT-determined left ventricular mass and volume.Clinical Trial registrationNCT01149590; Post-results.

Background: Generating estimates of health indicators at the global, regional, and country levels is increasingly in demand in order to meet reporting requirements for global and country targets, such as the sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, such estimates are sensitive to availability of input data, underlying analytic assumptions, variability in statistical techniques, and often have important limitations. From a user perspective, there is often a lack of transparency and replicability. In order to define best practices in reporting data and methods used to calculate health estimates, the Guidelines for Accurate and Transparent Health Estimates Reporting (GATHER) working group developed a minimum checklist of 18 items that must be reported within each study publishing health estimates, so that users may make an assessment of the quality of the estimate. Objective: We conducted a scoping review to assess the state of reporting amongst a cross-sectional sample of studies published prior to the publication of GATHER. Methods: We generated a sample of UN reports and journal articles through a combination of a Medline search and hand-searching published health estimates. From these studies we extracted the percentage of studies correctly reporting each item on the checklist, the proportion of items reported per study (the GATHER performance score), and how this score varied depending on study type. Results: The average proportion of items reported per study was 0.47, and the poorest-performing items related to documentation and availability of input data, availability of the statistical code used and the subsequent output data, and a complete detailed description of all the steps of the data analysis. Conclusions: Methods for health estimates are not currently fully reported, and the implementation of the GATHER guidelines will improve the availability of information required to make an assessment of study quality.