The results showed that endothelial dysfunction and increased OS were present in subjects with IGT and IFG, indicating endothelial damage in these stages.

Both platelet activation and abnormal changes in coagulation were suggested in idiopathic AF and a platelet activation state in lone AF. This supports the notion that AF per se contributes to a state of hypercoagulation.

Abstract:To alleviate environmental pollution and improve the energy usage efficiency of terminals, energy systems integration (ESI) has become an important paradigm in the energy structure evolution. Power, gas and heat systems are becoming tightly interlinked with each other in ESI. The dispatching strategy of local-area ESI has significant impact on its operation. In this paper, a local-area ESI operational scheduling model based on conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) is proposed to minimize expected operational cost, which considers the uncertainty of energy supply-side and demand-side as well as multi-energy network constraints, including electrical network, thermal network and gas network. The risk cost is analyzed comprehensively under the condition of under-or overestimated cost. On this basis, a hybrid method combining particle swarm optimization with interior point algorithm is executed to compute the optimal solutions of two-stage multi-period mixed-integer convex model. Finally, a case study is performed on ESI to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Aims Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) remains a major global health problem. Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors (RAASi) are commonly administered in the treatment of cardiovascular disease, but its role in RHD patients is still limited. We performed a retrospective study to determine the effect of RAASi on long-term outcomes for RHD patients. Methods and results A 1:1 propensity score matching was implemented to balance baseline characteristics between groups RAASi and non-RAASi. Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to investigate the associations of RAASi with the risks of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular death (CVD), and cerebrovascular death. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the associations of RAASi with the risks of 1, 3, and 5 year heart failure (HF) rehospitalization, new-onset atrial fibrillation (AF), and new-onset stroke. A total of 734 RHD patients were enrolled as study participants; nearly half of these participants had combined valve damage (54.4%), worse New York Heart Association functional class status (III and IV, 55.2%), surgical treatment (54.2%), and AF (65.0%). After propensity score matching, 514 RHD patients were finally analysed. RAASi treatment was associated with decreased risks of all-cause mortality [adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 0.52, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.37-0.73, P < 0.001], CVD (adjusted HR = 0.48, 95% CI: 0.30-0.76, P = 0.002), and cerebrovascular death (adjusted HR = 0.22, 95% CI: 0.08-0.60, P = 0.003). Further subgroup analysis showed that RAASi treatment was associated with decreased risks of all-cause mortality (adjusted HR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.31-0.79, P = 0.004), CVD (adjusted HR = 0.48, 95% CI: 0.25-0.91, P = 0.025), and cerebrovascular death (adjusted HR = 0.19, 95% CI: 0.05-0.65, P = 0.008) in RHD patients without surgical treatment, and better effect was observed in RHD patients with surgical treatment on the risks of all-cause mortality (adjusted HR = 0.47, 95% CI: 0.26-0.85, P = 0.012) and CVD (adjusted HR = 0.43, 95% CI: 0.21-0.90, P = 0.024) except cerebrovascular death (adjusted HR = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.08-3.36, P = 0.491). RAASi treatment was associated with decreased HF rehospitalization risk of 1 year [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 0.38, 95% CI: 0.23-0.61, P < 0.001], 3 year (adjusted OR = 0.43, 95% CI: 0.28-0.68, P < 0.001), and 5 year (adjusted OR = 0.48, 95% CI: 0.30-0.77, P = 0.002) as well as new-onset AF risk (adjusted OR = 0.38, 95% CI: 0.21-0.68, P = 0.001). RAASi treatment had nothing to do with new-onset stroke risk (adjusted OR = 0.80, 95% CI: 0.47-1.38, P = 0.428). Conclusion Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitor treatment was significantly associated with decreased risks of mortality, HF rehospitalization, and new-onset AF in RHD patients in median 5.9 year follow-up.

Background Recent fi ndings suggest a link between infl ammatory processes and the development of atrial fi brillation (AF). Many studies have investigated the role of C-reactive protein (CRP) in AF, but few have concentrated on the role of tumour necrosis factor-α (TNFα) in its pathogenesis. Aims The aim was to study the possible associations of the SNPs in TNFα gene promoter and serum TNFα with AF in the Chinese Han population, and thus to help establish the relationship between infl ammation and AF. Methods A pairwise case control study of 301 non-valvular AF patients and 301 health controls was conducted. Five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), T-1031C (rs1799964),