Coronary artery calcium score and coronary heart disease events in a large cohort of asymptomatic men and women

Coronary artery calcium (CAC), a measure of subclinical coronary heart disease (CHD), may be useful in identifying asymptomatic persons at risk of CHD events. The current study included 10,746 adults who were 22-96 years of age, were free of known CHD, and had their CAC quantified by electron-beam tomography at baseline as part of a preventive medical examination at the Cooper Clinic (Dallas, Texas) during 1995-2000. During a mean follow-up of 3.5 years, 81 hard events (CHD death, nonfatal myocardial infarction) and 287 total events (hard events plus coronary revascularization) occurred. Age-adjusted rates (per 1,000 person-years) of hard events were computed according to four CAC categories: no detectable CAC and incremental sex-specific thirds of detectable CAC; these rates were, respectively, 0.4, 1.5, 4.8, and 8.7 (trend p<0.0001) for men and 0.7, 2.3, 3.1, and 6.3 (trend p=0.02) for women. CAC levels also were positively associated with rates of total CHD events for women and men (trend p<0.0001 each). The association between CAC and CHD events remained significant after adjustment for CHD risk factors. CAC was associated with CHD events in persons with no baseline CHD risk factors and in younger (aged <40 years) and older (aged >65 years) study participants. These findings show that CAC is associated with an increased risk of CHD events in asymptomatic women and men.     

The presentation and use of height and weight data for comparing the nutritional status of groups of children under the age of 10 years.

This paper presents recommendations for the analysis and presentation of height and weight data from surveillance or surveys involving nutrition and anthropometry in young children up to the age of 10 years. These recommendations are only for the analysis of data collected on a cross-sectional basis. The basic indices recommended are height for age and weight for height, each considered either in terms of centiles or in a cross-classification scheme using standard deviation scores. It is hoped that these methods of analysis and presentation will prove widely acceptable, so that international comparisons will be made easier.     

Epidemiologic studies of coronary heart disease and stroke in Japanese men living in Japan, Hawaii and California: distribution of biochemical risk factors.

Distributions of serum cholesterol, glucose, uric acid and triglycerides are examined among Japanese men living in Japan, Hawaii and California. Laboratory methods are described in detail and efforts to assure comparability of these methods. In every age group studied, the mean, median and percentile for each of the biochemical variables are lower for men in Japan than in Hawaii and California.     

Attained growth status of selected groups of Israeli children

Analyses of available growth data from different groups of Israeli children revealed wide differences in attained growth in groups of children whose parents immigrated from different countries. By means of analyses of variance, it was shown that these differences in growth are most likely due to differences in the socioeconomic level of the family, rather than being related to parental country of origin. The data also suggest that nutrition problems among Israeli children, although not very severe, reflect a moderate degree of maldistribution of available food resources in different socioeconomic and cultural subgroups. The data also support the applicability and usefulness of a reference population data base drawn from children in the United States, in evaluating the attained growth status of children in different population groups.