Xiao Gu

Dr. Lester F. Soyka: E. M., a 13-year-old girl, was referred to the Massachusetts General Hospital because of uncontrolled hyper-tension. She was in apparent good health until four years ago when she had an episode of dysuria and pyuria diagnosed as cystitis and treated with Furadantin. She had two subsequent attacks three years ago and one year ago similarly treated. She seemed well until six weeks prior to admission when gross hematuria developed with no associated symptoms and no previous history of recent upper respiratory infection. Penicillin was started. In the next few days she developed headache, abdominal cramps, and anorexia. On admission to another hospital it was found that her blood pressure was 270/190, there was marked arteriolar spasm on funduscopy, and her urine was loaded with red and white blood cells with no casts. Intravenous and retrograde pyelography showed a shrunken …

Previous multiple-choice food-based food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) were not validated against weighed dietary records (WDRs) in Iran. This study investigated the validity and reproducibility of a multiple-choice semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (SQ-FFQ) in adults living in central Iran. Patients with diabetes and their spouses were asked to complete 3 SQ-FFQs by interview, and nine 3-day WDRs, over 9 months. They provided 2 blood samples to assess serum calcium, magnesium, zinc, and vitamin C levels. The Pearson and intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated to assess reproducibility and validity. The degree of misclassification was explored using a contingency table of quartiles which compare the information between third FFQ and WDRs. The method of triads was incorporated to assess validity coefficients between estimated intakes using third FFQ, WDRs, and biochemical …

BackgroundStudies with methodological advancements are warranted to confirm the relation of red meat consumption to the incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D).ObjectiveWe aimed to assess the relationships of intakes of total, processed, and unprocessed red meat to risk of T2D and to estimate the effects of substituting different protein sources for red meats on T2D risk.MethodsOur study included 216,695 participants (81% females) from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), NHS II, and Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS). Red meat intakes were assessed with semiquantitative food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) every 2 to 4 y since the study baselines. We used multivariable-adjusted proportional hazards models to estimate the associations between red meats and T2D.ResultsOver 5,483,981 person-years of follow-up, we documented 22,761 T2D cases. Intakes of total, processed, and unprocessed red …

Conclusions: The present results help characterize subjects’ socio-demographic characteristics according to the likelihood of being compliant with the Mediterranean diet. Given the worryingly low prevalence of adherence to Mediterranean dietary patterns, such information would be useful to target public health campaigns aimed at improving nutritional habits.

We read with interest the Burden of Proof (BoP) studies 1–5 in which the authors conducted meta-analyses of epidemiological studies to provide an overall conservative quantitative assessment for several important public health questions. For ease of interpretation, they transformed the overall assessment into a star rating (1–5 stars). Examples include five stars for smoking and lung cancer, two stars for low vegetable intake and ischemic heart disease (IHD) and two stars for unprocessed red meat and type 2 diabetes (T2D), colorectal cancer and IHD 6. They used this same method to assign just three stars to smoking in relation to IHD and one or two stars to other well-established relationships 1–4. However, we believe there are serious methodological issues with their meta-analyses 5; the star rating of evidence strength is overly simplistic and could cast doubt on existing recommendations and policies intended …

BackgroundDue to the increasing disease burden, strategies to predict and prevent heart failure (HF) are urgently needed.ObjectiveWe aimed to investigate whether the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) and the clinically abbreviated Prime Diet Quality Score (PDQS) are associated with the risk of overall HF, HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), and HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).MethodsOur study included 44,525 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS) who were free from cardiovascular disease and cancer at baseline. The AHEI and PDQS were computed based on dietary data repeatedly measured using semiquantitative FFQs. HF, HFpEF, and HFrEF were adjudicated based on review of medical records through 2008. Associations of diet quality with incident HF were estimated with multivariate-adjusted Cox proportional hazards models.ResultsDuring 929,911 …

ObjectivesWe evaluated the validity and reproducibility of a 149-item semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) in measuring food and food group intakes among 736 participants of the Women’s Lifestyle Validation Study (WLVS) and 649 participants of the Men’s Lifestyle Validation Study (MLVS).MethodsThe WLVS was conducted among a subset of the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and NHSII participants aged 45–80 years in 2010. Participants of the MLVS aged 46–82 years between 2011 and 2013 were recruited from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and members of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. We matched 10,128 foods with unique food codes collected from the 7-day dietary records (7DDRs) to the 149 foods listed on the FFQ based on the similarity of food descriptions. After the matching, we converted gram intakes of the 7DDR-measured foods into servings using the amounts specified …

ObjectivesDue to the increasing disease burden and the limited effectiveness of pharmacological therapies, strategies to predict and prevent heart failure (HF) are urgently needed. Healthy eating has been shown associated with lower risks of multiple cardiovascular diseases, while studies of dietary quality and HF incidence are still sparse. The Prime Diet Quality Score (PDQS) was developed to overcome the limitations of applying the well-established Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) in clinical settings. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether the AHEI, as well as the PDQS, is associated with the risk of HF and its subtypes, heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).MethodsOur study included 41,520 men who were free from cardiovascular disease and cancer at baseline from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS). The AHEI …