Correlation between triplet repeat expansion and computed tomography measures of caudate nuclei atrophy in Huntington's disease

Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant, progressive disorder characterized by choreic movements, cognitive decline, and psychiatric manifestations. Eleven patients with HD were retrospectively selected from a larger group of 42 patients based on the similar, early onset of the disease (between 21 and 30 years) and the same duration of HD at the moment of computed tomography (CT) examination (5 years). A significant correlation between the number of CAG trinucleotides and the bicaudate index or the frontal horn index, two indices of caudate atrophy, was found in this group of patients. Our results, although in a small number of patients, suggest that the striatal degeneration, assessed by CT measures, is primarily regulated by the size of expanded CAG repeats.

Drinking habits and death. The Yugoslavia cardiovascular disease study

In a prospective study of more than 10000 Yugoslav men it was found that consumption of alcoholic beverages was inversely related to non-sudden death from coronary heart disease (CHD) and positively related to death from trauma. The consequence was an apparently U-shaped relation between alcohol consumption and death, the lowest mortality being among moderate drinkers. Excess mortality from trauma was evident only among men under 55 and only for those who reported at entry to the study that they had been drunk during the preceding week. Alcohol consumption as reported at entry was unrelated to subsequent mortality from liver cirrhosis or any form of cancer. An enlarged liver, however, was associated with higher death rates for liver cirrhosis. This raises the possibility that some of the men were heavy drinkers preceding their entry to the study but were no longer drinking heavily at the time of entry. Enlarged liver, however, was also related to hypertension and to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and thus was not a specific indicator of alcohol abuse in this population. Recent drunkenness but not frequency of drinking was related to death from trauma and liver cirrhosis and to sudden CHD death. In short, both the pattern of drinking and the usual level of alcohol consumption appear to be related to mortality in this population.

Serum cholesterol and mortality: the Yugoslavia Cardiovascular Disease Study

The relationship of level of baseline serum cholesterol to the seven-year incidence of death from all causes and from specific causes was examined in a cohort of 11,121 Yugoslav males aged 35--62 years at the time of their initial examination (1964--1965). Serum cholesterol was negatively related to mortality, i.e., those with a lower cholesterol experienced a higher mortality than those with a higher cholesterol. The negative relationship was significant (as assessed by logistic regression) and remained significant after adjusting for obesity, systolic blood pressure, cigarette smoking, age, history of intestinal parasitism, and socioeconomic status (as measured by years of education). The negative association of serum cholesterol and subsequent mortality appeared to be due to the relationship of cholesterol to deaths due to cancer and to deaths due to respiratory disease (tuberculosis and cor pulmonale). The cancer death-serum cholesterol relationship was not statistically significant but the respiratory disease death-serum cholesterol relationship was. Serum cholesterol, as expected, was positively related to the incidence of coronary heart disease death.

Frequency of alcohol consumption and morbidity and mortality: The Yugoslavia Cardiovascular Disease Study

The association of frequency of alcohol consumption with the seven-year incidence of coronary heart-disease and with mortality both from all causes and from specific causes was examined in a cohort of 11 121 Yugoslav males aged 35-62 at the time of their initial examination. Consumption of alcohol seemed to be inversely related to incidence of coronary heart-disease morbidity and mortality, but not to risk of dying. Those consuming alcoholic beverages most frequently were at increased risk of death from stroke and accidents or violence. The frequency of alcohol consumption was associated with high blood-pressure and serum cholesterol levels. The associations with coronary heart disease and death from all causes could not be fully explained by these covariates.

Intermediate alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Yugoslavia

As part of a larger investigation of factors associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among Yugoslavian men, an attempt was made to measure the role played by alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency in the causation of those diseases. Almost 3,000 men from Tuzla, an industrial and mining center in central Bosnia, were screened for alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency. Twenty-six men heterozygous for the Pi MZ phenotype were found in this population. The men with the Pi MZ phenotype were compared with a random sample from the total population. The analysis of the data showed that there is an apparent physiologic impairment associated with Pi Z heterozygosity that produces a shift in the relationships between the different lung volumes without over-all hyperinflation, namely, an increase in residual volume at the expense of vital capacity. However, because of the low prevalence of the Pi Z gene, it does not appear to account for much of the high rate of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease found in this population.

The Yugoslavia Cardiovascular Disease Study. 3. Death by cause and area

In the seven years following initial examination (1964--65) 758 deaths were observed in 11,121 Yugoslav men aged 35--62. The mortality rate was similar to that found for men in the Framingham (Massachusetts) study. However, coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality was much lower in Yugoslavia but mortality from cancer, accidents and violence and respiratory disease was much higher. The excess cancer mortality was chiefly from stomach cancer. The excess respiratory mortality was from both tuberculosis and chronic obstructive respiratory disease. Within Yugoslavia there were area differences in mortality by cause but little difference in total mortality: in Tuzla (Bosnia) there was a higher respiratory disease mortality but a lower mortality from accidents and violence than in Remetinec (Croatia). In the rural areas of the study there was a higher mortality from respiratory diseases and accidents and violence than in urban areas but a counterbalancing lower mortality from cardiovascular diseases. The low coronary death rates and high cancer of the stomach death rates in this population present an important epidemiological challenge.