CVD RISK IN RVO

Patients with retinal vein occlusion (RVO) are known from long term follow up to be at increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). In the majority of RVO patients there is no evidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) at the time of presentation. As the reduction of CHD is a primary goal for the Department of Health researchers took 107 unselected RVO patients, excluded 18 on the basis of age, missing data, or pre-existing CVD and calculated the risk of future CVD using the Framingham algorithm (

). The mean 10 year calculated cardiovascular disease risks (cCVDR) was significantly higher than the Framingham standardised risk for all RVOs (20.6% v 15.7%, p = 0.009). Such risk estimates will guide decision making in clinicians about preventative treatment for CVD in RVO patients.

LATE WEIGHT GAIN BRINGS RISK

A longitudinal study of aging men from the greater Boston (MA, USA) area has shown that a low and a high body mass index (BMI) in adult men are associated with asthma. The aim of the study (

) was to try and explain the interesting association between the rising prevalence of asthma and obesity in developing nations. The study involved a cohort of 61 adult men (with 244 matched controls) who developed asthma four years later, with the initial and change in BMI being examined upon the development of asthma. Men with an initially low BMI, but who put on weight in later life seemed to have a greater risk in developing asthma. These results implicate further mechanisms involved in the observational association of obesity and asthma.

SIDS SEARCH CONTINUES

Basic antenatal care is unlikely to detect sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and sudden intrauterine death (SIUD) determinants. SIDS has been reduced after much research and public campaigns but there is less understanding of SIUD, the largest cause of perinatal mortality in the developed world. Hospital …