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The incidence of DVT following varicose vein surgery was higher than previously thought, but these DVTs had minimal short- or long-term clinical significance.

Conclusion:The reduced rate of the progression of atherosclerosis with intensive statin therapy compared with moderate statin therapy in patients with coronary disease is related to reductions in levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and atherogenic proteins.Summary: The authors sought to determine whether evidence from recent trials that demonstrates better outcomes with intensive versus moderate statin therapy (N Engl J Med 2004;350:1495-504 and JAMA 2004; 291:1071-80) is related to reductions in levels of CRP as well as reductions in levels of atherogenic proteins. Patients were randomly allocated to moderate treatment with 40 mg of oral pravastatin per day or intensive treatment with 80 mg of atorvastatin per day. All patients had angiographically documented coronary disease and were followed with intravascular ultrasound initially and at 18 months to measure progression of atherosclerosis. CRP and lipoprotein levels were measured at baseline and follow-up.The mean low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol level decreased from 150.2mg/dL at baseline to 94.5 mg/dL in the group as a whole at 18 months (P Ͻ .001). CRP levels also decreased from 2.9 to 2.3 mg/dL (P Ͻ .001). There was a weak correlation between the reduction in LDL cholesterol levels and CRP levels (r ϭ 0.13, P ϭ .005). This reduction held for the group as a whole but was not significant in either treatment group alone. With univariant analysis, percent changes in CRP, LDL cholesterol, apolipoprotein B-100, and nonhigh density lipoprotein cholesterol were related to rates of progression of atherosclerosis. Adjusting for the reduction in lipid levels, decreases in CRP were independently and significantly correlated with rates of progression of atherosclerosis. Those patients with reductions in both CRP and LDL cholesterol greater than the median had significantly slower rates of progression than patients with reductions of both CRP and LDL cholesterol that were less than the median (P ϭ .001).Comment: This is another bit of evidence that statin-mediated reductions in LDL cholesterol and CRP are, for the most part, unrelated. Reductions in levels of atherogenic proteins in this study were not closely correlated with reductions in CRP levels. This study, along with a similar study in the same issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (2005;352: 20-8), suggests monitoring of both CRP and atherogenic protein levels in patients on statin therapy.

The paper contributes to a growing stream of research on consumer acculturation, examining the influence of acculturation on interpersonal trust in the banking sector. This study develops a conceptual model based on culture-based differences in cognitive and affective trust. The moderating effect of consumer acculturation level on cognitive trust, affective trust, and targets of commitment is considered among Chinese immigrants to New Zealand. Structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis are applied to assess the causal relationships among the model constructs. The paper offers new insights into the service relationships between acculturating consumers and their banking suppliers. The findings show that acculturation level moderates interpersonal trust towards the target of commitment. The implications for researchers and practitioners are explored and recommendations for future research are made.

The ranking of academic journals is a contentious issue in the current higher education environment. Across the world, peers judge academics for tenure and promotion on the basis of the quality or prestige of the journals in which they publish. This research proposes a new metric (i.e., the MAG score) to assess journal impact and ranking in the field of marketing using the vox populi approach. The findings show that the vox populi approach provides a more comprehensive measure of journal impact than other impact factor metrics from the perspective of academics.