Retinal microvasculature and time to pregnancy in a multi-ethnic pre-conception cohort in Singapore.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Huang L
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8677435 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:The study aimed to investigate the association between leisure time physical activity (LTPA) subtypes and cardiometabolic outcomes in the Singapore Multi-Ethnic Cohort (MEC). Self-reported data on socio-demographics, lifestyle factors , LTPA subtypes, and health screening data on body-mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP), triglycerides (TG), and HDL-and LDL cholesterol were collected. Multivariable linear regression analyses were used adjusting for confounders. The mean age of 9768 participants was 45.2 ± 12.5 years (57.3% female, 47.3% Chinese, 26.0% Malay, and 26.8% Indians). Overall, 65.8% engaged in LTPA, and walking, strength/fitness and running were most common. Higher total LTPA was associated with lower WC, DBP, TG, a trend towards lower BMI, and higher SBP and HDL. Running was beneficially associated with all outcomes except for SBP and LDL. Balance exercises (BMI, SBP and DBP), cycling (BMI, WC and HDL), and strength/fitness (BMI, WC, TG and HDL) were also favorably associated with a number of outcomes, whereas ball games (DBP and TG), dancing (HDL) and other LTPA (DBP) were only favorably associated with selected outcomes. Unfavorable associations were found for total LTPA (SBP), strength/fitness (SBP), golf (DBP) and swimming (BMI and WC). Further research is warranted to inform future health promotion efforts.
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Project description:The PRogramming of Intergenerational Stress Mechanisms (PRISM) study is an urban, ethnically diverse pregnancy cohort that was designed to study a range of chemical and non-chemical stressors in relation to maternal health, pregnancy outcomes, and child development. Pregnant women were enrolled from Boston and New York City hospitals and affiliated prenatal clinics beginning in 2011. Eligibility criteria included English or Spanish-speaking, over 18 years of age at enrollment, and singleton pregnancy. Exclusion criteria included HIV+ status or self-reported drinking ≥7 alcoholic drinks per week before pregnancy or any alcohol after pregnancy recognition
2021-06-10 | ST001827 | MetabolomicsWorkbench
Project description:BACKGROUND:Germinomas (IG) account for up to 50% of all intracranial germ cell tumours. These tumours are reputed to be more prevalent in Oriental populations in comparison to Western cohorts. Biological characteristics of IG in other ethnic groups are unknown. Singapore is a multi-ethnic country with diverse cultures. Owing to inter-racial heterogeneity, the authors hypothesize there are molecular differences between paediatric IG patients in our local population. The aims of this study are exploratory: firstly, to identify molecular characteristics in this tumour type and circulating CSF unique to different racial cohorts; and next, to corroborate our findings with published literature. METHODS:This is a single-institution, retrospective study of prospectively collected data. Inclusion criteria encompass all paediatric patients with histologically confirmed IG. Excess CSF and brain tumour tissues are collected for molecular analysis. Tumour tissues are subjected to a next generation sequencing (NGS) targeted panel for KIT and PDGRA. All CSF samples are profiled via a high-throughput miRNA multiplexed workflow. Results are then corroborated with existing literature and public databases. RESULTS:In our cohort of 14 patients, there are KIT exon variants in the tumour tissues and CSF miRNAs corroborative with published studies. Separately, there are also KIT exon variants and miRNAs not previously highlighted in IG. A subgroup analysis demonstrates differential CSF miRNAs between Chinese and Malay IG patients. CONCLUSION:This is the first in-depth molecular study of a mixed ethnic population of paediatric IGs from a Southeast Asian cohort. Validation studies are required to assess the relevance of novel findings in our study.
| S-EPMC7666528 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Imbalanced macronutrient intakes can induce impairment of endothelial and vascular function, and further lead to metabolic and cardiovascular disease. However, little is known about the influence of such diets on endothelial and vascular dysfunction in pregnant women, even though high-fat diet is a known risk for pregnancy complications such as gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia.We aimed to assess the association between maternal macronutrient intakes (protein, fat and carbohydrates), dietary quality and retinal microvascular changes in a multi-ethnic Asian mother-offspring cohort.Pregnant women (n = 614) with singleton pregnancies were recruited during their first trimester from June 2009 to Sep 2010. Maternal diet quality and macronutrient intakes, expressed as a percentage of total energy during pregnancy, were ascertained using 24 hr recalls and 3 d food diaries at 26-28 weeks gestation. Retinal examination was completed at the same clinic visit. Dietary quality was assessed and scored using the Health Eating Index in Asian Pregnant women (HEI-AP), while macronutrients intakes ware expressed as percentages of total energy and further log transformed for analysis. Associations were examined cross-sectionally by substitution models with the use of multiple linear regression.In adjusted model, each 20 points decrease in HEI-AP score was associated with a significant increase of 1.70 ?m (p<0.05) in retinal venular calibre. Each 0.1 log increase in percentage of total fat intake was associated with a significant increment of 1.84 ?m (p<0.05) in retinal venular caliber. Additionally, each 0.1 log increase in percentage of mono-unsaturated fat intake was associated with an increment of 1.84 ?m (p<0.01) in retinal venular caliber.In this cross-sectional study, we found that women with higher fat and lower protein intakes, and lower diet quality tended to have wider retinal venular caliber, which is suggestive of suboptimal microvasculature.
| S-EPMC4979959 | biostudies-literature
Project description:An important problem in reproductive medicine is deciding when people who have failed to become pregnant without medical assistance should begin investigation and treatment. This study describes a computational approach to determining what can be deduced about a couple's future chances of pregnancy from the number of menstrual cycles over which they have been trying to conceive. The starting point is that a couple's fertility is inherently uncertain. This uncertainty is modelled as a probability distribution for the chance of conceiving in each menstrual cycle. We have developed a general numerical computational method, which uses Bayes' theorem to generate a posterior distribution for a couple's chance of conceiving in each cycle, conditional on the number of previous cycles of attempted conception. When various metrics of a couple's expected chances of pregnancy were computed as a function of the number of cycles over which they had been trying to conceive, we found good fits to observed data on time to pregnancy for different populations. The commonly-used standard of 12 cycles of non-conception as an indicator of subfertility was found to be reasonably robust, though a larger or smaller number of cycles may be more appropriate depending on the population from which a couple is drawn and the precise subfertility metric which is most relevant, for example the probability of conception in the next cycle or the next 12 cycles. We have also applied our computational method to model the impact of female reproductive ageing. Results indicate that, for women over the age of 35, it may be appropriate to start investigation and treatment more quickly than for younger women. Ignoring reproductive decline during the period of attempted conception added up to two cycles to the computed number of cycles before reaching a metric of subfertility.
| S-EPMC3464305 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Mitochondria fuel placental activity, with mitochondrial dysfunction implicated in several perinatal complications. We investigated placental mtDNA mutational load using NextGen sequencing in relation to birthweight and gestational length among 358 mother-newborn pairs. We found that higher heteroplasmy, especially in the hypervariable displacement loop region, was associated with shorter gestational length. Results were similar among male and female pregnancies, but stronger in magnitude among females. With regard to growth, we observed that higher mutational load was associated with lower birthweight-for-gestational age (BWGA) among females, but higher BWGA among males. These findings support potential sex-differential fetal biological strategies for coping with increased heteroplasmies.
| S-EPMC8299859 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundPoor diabetes management prior to conception, results in increased rates of fetal malformations and other adverse pregnancy outcomes. We describe the development of an integrated, pre-pregnancy management strategy to improve pregnancy outcomes among women of reproductive age with diabetes in a multi-ethnic district.MethodsThe strategy included (i) a narrative literature review of contraception and pre-pregnancy interventions for women with diabetes and development of a draft plan; (ii) a chart review of pregnancy outcomes (e.g. congenital malformations, neonatal hypoglycaemia and caesarean sections) among women with type 1 diabetes (T1D) (n?=?53) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) (n?=?46) between 2010 and 2015 (iii) interview surveys of women with T1D and T2D (n?=?15), and local health care professionals (n?=?13); (iv) two focus groups (n?=?4) and one-to-one interviews with women with T1D and T2D from an Australian background (n?=?5), women with T2D from cultural and linguistically diverse (CALD) (n?=?7) and indigenous backgrounds (n?=?1) and partners of CALD women (n?=?3); and (v) two group meetings, one comprising predominantly primary care, and another comprising district-wide multidisciplinary inter-sectoral professionals, where components of the intervention strategy were finalised using a Delphi approach for development of the final plan.ResultsOur literature review showed that a range of interventions, particularly multifaceted educational programs for women and healthcare professionals, significantly increased contraception uptake, and reduced adverse outcomes of pregnancy (e.g. malformations and stillbirth). Our chart-review showed that local rates of adverse pregnancy outcomes were similarly poor among women with both T1D and T2D (e.g. major congenital malformations [9.1% vs 8.9%] and macrosomia [34.7% vs 24.4%]). Challenges included lack of knowledge among women and healthcare professionals relating to diabetes management and limited access to specialist pre-pregnancy care. Group meetings led to a consensus to develop a district-wide approach including healthcare professional and patient education and a structured approach to identification and optimisation of self-management, including contraception, in women of reproductive age with diabetes.ConclusionsSufficient evidence exists for consensus on a district-wide strategy to improve pre-pregnancy management among women with pre-existing diabetes.
| S-EPMC6190660 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Purpose: Genome-wide association studies have identified several genes associated with glaucoma. However, their roles in the pathogenesis of glaucoma remain unclear, particularly their effects on retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between the identified glaucoma risk genes and RNFL thickness.Methods: A total of 3843 participants (7,020 healthy eyes) were enrolled from the Singapore Epidemiology of Eye Diseases (SEED) study, a population-based study composing of three major ethnic groups-Malay, Indian, and Chinese-in Singapore. Ocular examinations were performed, and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) was used to measure circumpapillary RNFL thickness. We selected 35 independent glaucoma-associated genetic loci for analysis. An linear regression model was conducted to determine the association of these variants with circumpapillary RNFL, assuming an additive genetic model. We conducted association analysis in each of the three ethnic groups, followed by a meta-analysis of them.Results: The mean age of the included participants was 59.4 ± 8.9 years, and the mean RFNL thickesss is 92.3 ± 11.2 µm. In the meta-analyses, of the 35 glacuoma loci, we found that only SIX6 was significantly associated with reduction in global RNFL thickness (rs33912345; ? = -1.116 um per risk allele, P = 1.64E-05), and the effect size was larger in the inferior RNFL quadrant (? = -2.015 µm, P = 2.9E-6), and superior RNFL quadrant (? = -1.646 µm, P = 6.54E-5). The SIX6 association were consistently observed across all three ethnic groups. Other than RNFL, we also found several genetic varaints associated with vertical cuo-to-disc ratio (ATOH7, CDKN2B-AS1, and TGFBR3-CDC7), rim area (SIX6 and CDKN2B-AS1), and disc area (SIX6, ATOH7, and TGFBR3-CDC7). The association of SIX6 rs33912345 with NRFL thickness remained similar after further adjusting for disc area and 3 other disc parameter associated SNPs (ATOH7, CDKN2B-AS1, and TGFBR3-CDC7).Conclusions: Of the 35 glaucoma identified risk loci, only SIX6 is significantly and independently associated with thinner RNFL. Our study further supports the involvement of SIX6 with RNFL thickness and pathogensis of glaucoma.
| S-EPMC7445359 | biostudies-literature