Background:An inverse association between alcoholic beverage intake and risk of renal cell cancer has been suggested in recent studies.Methods:We examined the association between alcoholic beverages and renal cell cancer risk in a meta-analysis. We identified relevant studies by searching the database of PubMed, EMBASE, and MEDLINE published through August 2011. We combined the study-specific relative risks (RRs) using a random-effects model.Results:A total of 20 case–control studies, 3 cohort studies, and 1 pooled analysis of cohort studies were included in the meta-analysis. We observed that alcoholic beverage intake was associated with a lower risk of renal cell cancer in combined analysis of case–control and cohort studies; for total alcoholic beverage intake, combined RRs (95% confidence intervals) comparing top with bottom categories were 0.76 (0.68–0.85) in case–control studies, and 0.71 (0.63–0.78) in cohort studies (P for difference by study design=0.02). The inverse associations were observed for both men and women and for each specific type alcoholic beverage (beer, wine, and liquor). Also, we found that one drink per day of alcoholic beverage conferred the reduction in renal cell cancer risk, but further drinking above that level did not add benefit.Conclusion:The findings from our meta-analysis support the hypothesis that alcoholic beverage intake is inversely associated with a lower risk of renal cell cancer, with moderate consumption conferring the protection and higher consumption conferring no additional benefits.

This study aimed to quantitatively evaluate the predictive value of brachial pulse pressure and cardiovascular or all-cause mortality in the general population based on prospective observational studies by conducting a meta-analysis. Only prospective observational studies investigating baseline brachial pulse pressure and cardiovascular or all-cause mortality risk were selected from PubMed and Embase databases until July 2013. Fourteen studies involving 510,456 participants were analyzed. Pooled risk ratio (RR) of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality for the highest vs lowest brachial pulse pressure category was 1.80 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.49-2.17) and 1.32 (95% CI, 1.23-1.41), respectively. Pooled RR of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality per 10 mm Hg pulse pressure increment was 1.13 (95% CI, 1.10-1.17) and 1.09 (95% CI, 1.07-1.11), respectively. Wide brachial pulse pressure is associated with greater risk of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. However , more well-designed studies specifically on age and sex are needed to further confirm these findings. J Clin Hyper-tens (Greenwich). 2014;16:678-685. ª 2014 Wiley Periodicals , Inc. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality and a primary contributor to the burden of disease worldwide. 1 Hypertension is one of the modi-fiable risk factors for CVD mortality and accounts for up to 30% of deaths in the world. 2 Brachial pulse pressure (PP) is defined as the difference between systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) at the brachial level. Increasing attention has focused on the role of different blood pressure (BP) components as predictors for CVD and death. 3,4 Some evidence suggests that wide PP is a risk factor for cardiovascular (CV) or all-cause mortality. 5-16 However, conflicting reports still exist. 17-19 These inconsistent results could be partly explained by PP simply being associated with mortality, not a causative factor. PP is higher after age 50 mainly because the trend of DBP gets lower and SBP gets higher with age. 20,21 Moreover, there is a lack of accurate information concerning the real risk of mortality in the various study populations. Apart from PP, other BP components such as SBP, DBP, and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were also used to predict mortality in the same studies. 6,8-10,12,14,16,17 Large artery stiffness contributes to wide PP. 22 Wide PP is linked to higher levels of the inflammatory state. 23 These findings suggest that both wide PP and inflammatory state share the common risk factor for CVD and thereby increase the risk of mortality. To the best of our knowledge, no previous meta-analysis has been performed to estimate the magnitude between brachial PP and CV or all-cause mortality risk in the general population. Therefore, we conducted this meta-analysis using prospective observational studies to quantitatively assess the baseline brachial PP and risk of CV or all-cause mortality in the general population. MATERIALS AND METHODS Search Strategy This study was carrie...