In this "everyday clinical practice" post-approval nationwide clinical cohort, there were similar stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding rates with dabigatran (both doses) compared with warfarin. Mortality, intracranial bleeding, pulmonary embolism, and MI were lower with dabigatran, compared with warfarin. We found no evidence of an excess of bleeding events or MI among dabigatran-treated patients in this propensity-matched comparison against warfarin, even in the subgroup with ≥1-year follow-up.

Obesity may be associated with increased risk of pneumonia, but available data on this relationship are sparse and inconsistent.We followed a prospective cohort of 22,578 males and 25,973 females from the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health Study, aged 50-64 yrs and free from major chronic diseases at baseline (1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997), for first-time hospitalisation with pneumonia (median follow-up 12 yrs).Compared with males of normal weight, adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for pneumonia were 1.4 (95% CI 1.2-1.7) for males with moderate obesity (body mass index (BMI) 30.0-34.9 kg?m -2 ), and 2.0 (95% CI 1.4-2.8) for males with severe obesity (BMI o35.0 kg?m -2 ), controlling for lifestyle and educational variables. Among females the associations were weaker, with adjusted HRs of 0.8 (95% CI 0.6-1.0) for moderate obesity, and 1.2 (95% CI 0.8-1.6) for severe obesity. Adjustment for major chronic diseases diagnosed during follow-up eliminated the associations between obesity and pneumonia risk. Obesity is associated with higher risk of hospitalisation with pneumonia among males but not among females, which is apparently explained by occurrence of other chronic diseases.

Aim Inflammation is a risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD). A common deletion-allele in the promoter region of NFKB1 results in lower protein levels of the NF-κB p50 subunit. Recent evidence suggests that the NF-κB p50 dimer has anti-inflammatory effects. We aimed to investigate the association of the functional ATTG NFKB1 insertion/deletion variant with risk of CHD in three independent prospective studies of generally healthy men and women. Methods and Results The NFKB1 ins/del polymorphism was genotyped in studies of CHD nested within the Diet, Cancer and Health (DCH) study, the Health Professionals Follow-up (HPFS) and the Nurses’ Health (NHS) studies, totaling 1008, 428 and 439 cases, respectively. The minor allele frequency in the combined sample was 0.38 among controls. In a pooled analysis, the relative risk (RR) among heterozygous men and women was 1.22 (95% CI: 1.07–1.40), compared to the most common ins/ins genotype. The RR among homozygotes was 1.20 (95% CI: 0.94–1.53). There was no evidence of an allele-dosage effect, and in a dominant model the RR among del-allele carriers was 1.22 (95% CI: 1.07–1.39). The risk was similar in women and men (RR was 1.20 in women and 1.23 in men, respectively). The NFKB1 variant was not associated with plasma lipid levels, but del-carriers had lower levels of C-reactive protein. Conclusions The NFKB1 promoter variant, previously shown to cause partial depletion of NF-kB p50, was associated with a higher risk of CHD in three independent prospective studies of generally healthy Caucasians.

Summary.  Background: The presence of vascular disease (peripheral artery disease [PAD] and/or myocardial infarction [MI]) may impact on the risk of stroke and death among patients with incident atrial fibrillation (AF). To test this hypothesis, we analyzed data from a large Danish prospective cohort, the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health (DCH) study, to assess the risk of stroke or death among those who developed AF according to concomitant presence of vascular disease. Methods: A prospective cohort study of 57 053 persons (27 178 men and 29 876 women, respectively), aged between 50 and 64 years. The risk of stroke or death for patients with vascular disease was assessed amongst 3315 patients with incident AF (mean age, 67.1 years; 2130 men, 1185 women) using Cox proportional hazard models, after a median follow‐up of 4.8 years. Results: Of the subjects with AF, 417 (12.6%) had ‘vascular disease’ (PAD and/or prior MI). The risk of the primary endpoint (stroke or death) was significantly higher in patients with vascular disease at 1‐year follow‐up (crude hazard ratio [HR] 2.51 [1.91–3.29]), with corresponding crude HRs for PAD and MI being 3.51 (2.40–5.13), and 1.99 (1.46–2.72), respectively. For the secondary endpoints of death or stroke individually, these risk estimates were similar (crude HR 2.48 [1.89–3.26] and 1.77 [1.18–2.66], respectively). After adjustment for risk factors within the CHADS2 score, the adjusted HR for the primary endpoint (stroke or death) in patients with vascular disease was 1.91 (1.44–2.54), which was also significant for death (1.97 [1.48–2.62]). Conclusion: Vascular disease (prior MI and PAD) is an independent risk factor for the primary endpoint of ‘stroke or death’ in patients with AF, even after adjustment for the CHADS2 risk score, although this is driven by the impact on mortality. This reaffirms that patients with vascular disease represent a ‘high‐risk’ population, which necessitates proactive management of all cardiovascular risk factors and effective thromboprophylaxis (i.e. oral anticoagulation), which has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of stroke and death in AF.

The dose-response relationship between alcohol consumption and pneumonia risk in healthy individuals is poorly understood.We examined 22,485 males and 24,682 females from Denmark who were aged 50-64 yrs. Subjects were without major chronic diseases at baseline and had a median follow-up of 12 yrs for first-time hospitalisation with pneumonia.1,091 (males) and 944 (females) had pneumonia-related hospitalisation. Among males, the risk of pneumonia was increased for alcohol abstainers and those who drank large weekly amounts. The adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for 0, . The association between high alcohol intake and pneumonia persisted after controlling for subsequent chronic diseases. Among females, HRs for 0, 7-20, 21-35 and .35 drinks?week -1 were 1.26 (95% CI 0.89-1.79), 1.01 (95% CI 0.88-1.17), 1.10 (95% CI 0.88-1.37) and 0.54 (95% CI 0.29-1.01), respectively. For the same moderate to high weekly alcohol amount, infrequent intake yielded higher pneumonia HRs than more regular intake in both sexes. Regular moderate alcohol intake is not associated with increased risk of hospitalisation for pneumonia. High weekly alcohol consumption in males and infrequent heavy drinking in both sexes may increase pneumonia risk.