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Background: Possible negative effects, including increased mortality, among persons who receive stored red blood cells (RBCs) have recently garnered considerable attention. Despite many studies, including 4 randomized trials, no consensus exists. Objective: To study the association between the length of RBC storage and mortality in a large population-based cohort of patients who received transfusions, allowing detection of small yet clinically significant effects. Design: Binational cohort study. Setting: All transfusion recipients in Sweden and Denmark. Patients: 854 862 adult patients who received transfusions from 2003 to 2012. Measurements: Patients were followed from first blood transfusion. Relative and absolute risks for death in 30 days or 1 year in relation to length of RBC storage were assessed by using 3 independent analytic approaches. All analyses were conducted by using Cox proportional hazards regression. Results: Regardless of the analytic approach, no association was found between the length of RBC storage and mortality. The difference in 30-day cumulative mortality between patients receiving blood stored for 30 to 42 days and those receiving blood stored for 10 to 19 days was −0.2% (95% CI, −0.5% to 0.1%). Even among patients who received more than 6 units of RBCs stored for 30 days or longer, the hazard ratio of death was 1.00 (CI, 0.96 to 1.05) compared with those who received no such units. Limitation: Observational study; risk of confounding by indication. Conclusion: Consistent with previous randomized trials, this study found no association between the length of storage of transfused RBCs and patient mortality. Results were homogeneous, with differences in absolute mortality consistently less than 1% among the most extreme exposure categories. These findings suggest that the current practice of storing RBCs for up to 42 days does not need to be changed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The hypothesis in this study was that anaemia prior to surgery and perioperative red blood cell transfusion increases the risk for recurrence and overall mortality in patients with stages I-III colorectal cancer after abdominal resection with curative intent. Methods: This is a Swedish single centre retrospective cohort study. Data on 496 consecutive radical abdominal resections stages I-III colorectal cancer performed at the Karolinska University Hospital 2007-2010 were extracted from the Swedish Colorectal Cancer Registry. Data were linked to local laboratory and transfusion databases to identify preoperative anaemia and perioperative transfusion. Disease recurrence was validated by scrutiny of patient records. A total of 496 stages I-III colorectal cancer patients were included in the analysis. Multivariate Cox regression analysis adjusted for tumour and patient characteristics were performed to assess risk for recurrence and overall mortality. Results: Anaemia prior to surgery was associated with increased risk for overall mortality (HR 2.1, 95% CI 1.4-3.2). There was no association between anaemia and risk for recurrence (HR 1.6, 95% CI 0.97-2.6). Transfusion was not associated with increased risk of recurrence (HR 0.7, 95% CI 0.4-1.3) or overall mortality (HR 1.04, 95% CI 0.7-1.6). Conclusions: Anaemia prior to colorectal cancer surgery was associated with increased risk for overall mortality while a no increased risk was seen for recurrence. Previous findings indicating an association between blood transfusion and increased risk for recurrence could not be confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Background There are reports about the changing epidemiology of tongue squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), with recent reports indicating an increasing incidence in young women. Methods Data on incident cases of tongue SCC were collected from cancer registries worldwide. Results Data from a total of 22 cancer registries and 89,212 incident cases of tongue SCC worldwide were included. Most areas experienced an incidence increase ranging from 0.4% to 3.3% per year. There was a significant difference in the incidence increase between sexes in 11 of the 22 registries. In 14 of the 22 registries studied, the increase in incidence of tongue SCC was higher in the group of subjects <45 years old than those ≥45 years old. Conclusion This study suggests a general but not universal increase in the incidence of tongue SCC worldwide. In some regions of the world, we observed a shifting trend toward women and/or younger patients. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 39: 297-304, 2017 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Citrate anticoagulation during apheresis induces transient alterations in calcium homeostasis. It is unknown whether the repeated, transient alterations in calcium homeostasis experienced by repeated apheresis donors affects bone turnover to increase fracture risk. Our aim was to investigate the risk of osteoporotic and nonosteoporotic fracture among voluntary, frequent apheresis donors.Study Design and Methods: All apheresis donors were identified from the Scandinavian Donations and Transfusions database (SCANDAT2), which includes information on over 1.6 million blood donors from Sweden and Denmark from the years 1968 and 1981, respectively. Only data from Sweden were used for these analyses. Information on fractures was obtained by linking SCANDAT2 to hospital registers. Poisson regression was used to compute incidence rate ratios of fractures in relation to the cumulative number of apheresis donations, both overall and in fixed time windows.Results: In total, 140,289 apheresis donors (67,970 women and 72,319 men) were identified from the SCANDAT2 database and were followed for up to 23 years. We observed no association between the frequency of apheresis donation and the risk of fracture either in the overall study period or during fixed-length time windows. The incidence rate ratio of fractures in donors who had made 100 or more cumulative apheresis donations was 0.99 (95% confidence interval, 0.92-1.06) compared with donors who had made from 9 to 24 donations. The results were similar in analyses stratified by sex and restricted to postmenopausal women.Conclusions: The absence of an association between repeated apheresis donation and fracture risk indicates that apheresis collection is safe with regard to bone health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An estimated 2.4 million volunteer apheresis blood donation procedures were performed in the United States in 2010, and increases in the proportion of transfused blood products derived from apheresis blood collections have been consistently reported. Anticoagulation is required during apheresis and is achieved with citrate. Donor exposure to citrate causes an acute physiological response to maintain serum mineral homeostasis. Some data are available on the sequelae of this acute response in the days and weeks following exposure, raising questions about bone mineral density in regular apheresis donors. New research is emerging that addresses the potential long-term health outcomes of repeated citrate exposure. This article reviews the acute physiological response to citrate anticoagulation in volunteer blood donors, presents contrasting perspectives on the potential effects of citrate exposure on bone density, and identifies key knowledge gaps in our understanding of long-term health outcomes in apheresis donors. J. Clin. Apheresis 31:459-463, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that blood donors experience lower mortality than the general population. While this may suggest a beneficial effect of blood donation, it may also reflect the selection of healthy persons into the donor population. To overcome this bias, we investigated the relation between blood donation frequency and mortality within a large cohort of blood donors. In addition, our analyses also took into consideration the effects of presumed health differences linked to donation behavior.Study Design and Methods: Using the Scandinavian Donation and Transfusion database (SCANDAT), we assessed the association between annual number of donations in 5-year windows and donor mortality by means of Poisson regression analysis. The analyses included adjustment for demographic characteristics and for an internal healthy donor effect, estimated among elderly donors exempted from continued donation because of age criteria.Results: Statistical analyses included 1,182,495 donors of whom 15,401 died during 9,526,627 person-years of follow-up. Analyses adjusted only for demographic characteristics showed a 18.6% reduction in mortality per additional annual donation (95% confidence interval [CI], 16.8%-20.4%). After additional adjustment for the internal healthy donor effect, each additional annual donation was associated with a 7.5% decreased mortality risk 7.5% (95% CI, 5.7%-9.4%).Conclusion: We observed an inverse relationship between donation frequency and mortality. The magnitude of the association was reduced after adjustment for an estimate of self-selection in the donor population. Our observations indicate that repeated blood donation is not associated with premature death, but cannot be interpreted as conclusive evidence of a beneficial health effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Voluntary blood donation is believed to be mostly motivated by altruism. Because studies have suggested that altruistic personality is determined by both genetic and environmental factors, we speculated that willingness to donate blood could also be governed by constitutional factors. This hypothesis was tested in a study among Danish twins.Study Design and Methods: The nationwide Danish Twin Register, which is virtually complete for all twins born since 1968, was linked with Danish portion of the Scandinavian Donation and Transfusion (SCANDAT) Database, which includes information on all active Danish blood donors from 2002 to 2012, to establish blood donor status for Danish twins, who at age 17 years became eligible for donation in 2002 or later. Casewise concordance in monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins were presented and heritability was estimated in Mx by variance component analysis in a liability threshold model.Results: A total of 274 MZ and 484 same-sex DZ twins age 17 to 27 years were identified as donors in SCANDAT. There was no difference between MZ and DZ twins with regard to age at first donation or number of donations. Casewise concordance rates were 0.61 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.56-0.67) and 0.41 (95% CI, 0.36-0.47) in MZ and DZ twin pairs, respectively. Heritability analysis using the ACE model found that additive genetic and shared environmental effects accounted for 0.53 (95% CI, 0.33-0.73) and 0.28 (95% CI, 0.10-0.45) of the variance in the motivation to donate blood, respectively.Conclusion: Becoming a volunteer blood donor is determined by both genetic and environmental factors shared within families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented which addresses research involving the mortality that is associated with blood transfusions from previously pregnant women, and it mentions the article "Association of Blood Transfusion From Female Donors With and Without a History of Pregnancy With Mortality Among Male and Female Transfusion Recipients" by C. Caram-Deelder and others which appears in the same issue of the journal. Red blood cell transfusions and immunologic transfusion complications are assessed.

Objective About 20 years ago, the scientific community was first alerted to an enigmatic increase of oesophageal adenocarcinomas in the UK and USA. Subsequently, a virtual epidemic--still unexplained-- was confirmed in several western countries. Detailed descriptive data might provide clues to its causes. Design We collected data on incident cases of oesophageal adenocarcinoma from population-based cancer registries in Australia, Europe, North America and Asia. We calculated age-standardised incidence rates and fitted log-linear Poisson models to assess annual rate of increase and to disentangle age-period-cohort effects, linear spine models to estimate rate of increase since 1985, and Joinpoint models to identify possible inflection points. Results With considerable between-registry variation in magnitude and timing, we found a consistent dramatic increase in incidence with an observed or estimated start between 1960 and 1990. The average annual increase ranged from 3.5% in Scotland to 8.1% in Hawaii with similar proportional increase among men and women in most registries and a maintained three to sixfold higher incidence among men. Generally, calendar period was a more important determinant of incidence trends than birth cohort. Where possible to conduct, Joinpoint analyses indicated that the onset of the epidemic varied considerably even between neighbouring countries. Conclusions Given the preponderant period effect and the abrupt onset observed or inferred in most populations, the epidemic appears to be caused by some exposure that was first introduced around 1950. At least 30 years' variation in estimated time of onset opens prospects for hypothesis-generating ecological analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Several methods exist for evaluation of hypocoagulation in patients with perioperative bleeding, e.g. thromboelastography (TEG®) and conventional methods (platelet count, aPTT, INR and fibrinogen). Considering the vast experience of conventional methods it is important to investigate how well the methods correspond. Methods. Sixty surgical patients were included prospectively and blood samples were taken perioperatively. TEG® and conventional parameters were analyzed simultaneously. An assessment of coagulopathy, based on a synthesis of the conventional methods, was done by two experienced coagulation specialists, blinded from the results of TEG® and from the results of each other. Hypocoagulation, defined by TEG® parameters; reaction time (R-time), angle, maximal amplitude (MA) and fibrinolysis, was evaluated according to a commonly used algorithm. Results. To detect a platelet count below 150 × 109 L−1, the sensitivity of TEG was 17% (95% CI, 7-36%) with angle and 25% (95% CI, 11-45%) with MA. The sensitivity to detect fibrinogen below 2 g/L was 11% (95% CI, 3-29%) with angle and 21% with MA (95% CI, 8-43%). To detect aPTT more than 40 s and INR more than 1.2 with R-time, the sensitivity was 19% (95% CI, 8-37%) and 0% (95% CI, 0-69%) respectively. The agreement of the evaluator's assessments of hypocoagulation was 100%, but the agreement with the overall TEG® analysis was poor with a sensitivity of 33% and a specificity of 95%. Conclusion. The agreement between conventional laboratory tests and TEG is poor, but it remains uncertain which type of coagulation tests that best reflects the actual bleeding risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background A growing proportion of men diagnosed with localized prostate cancer detected through prostate-specific antigen testing are dying from causes other than prostate cancer.Temporal trends in specific causes of death among prostate cancer patients have not been well described. Methods We analyzed causes of death among all incident prostate cancer cases recorded in the nationwide Swedish Cancer Registry (1961-2008; n = 210 112) and in the US Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (1973-2008; n = 490 341). We calculated the cumulative incidence of death due to seven selected causes that accounted for more than 80% of the reported deaths (including ischemic heart disease and non-prostate cancer) and analyzed mortality trends by calendar year and age at diagnosis and length of follow-up. Results During follow-up through 2008, prostate cancer accounted for 52% of all reported deaths in Sweden and 30% of reported deaths in the United States among men with prostate cancer; however, only 35% of Swedish men and 16% of US men diagnosed with prostate cancer died from this disease. In both populations, the cumulative incidence of prostate cancer-specific death declined during follow-up, while the cumulative incidences of death from ischemic heart disease and non-prostate cancer remained constant.The 5-year cumulative incidence of death from prostate cancer among all men was 29% in Sweden and 11% in the United States. Conclusions In Sweden and the United States, men diagnosed with prostate cancer are less likely to die from prostate cancer than from another cause. Because many of these other causes of death are preventable through changes in lifestyle, interventions that target lifestyle factors should be integrated into prostate cancer management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The management of patients with psychiatric disease and chest pain in the emergency department (ED) in the era of high‐sensitivity cardiac troponin assays is unexplored. Objectives: To investigate differences in management and outcomes comparing patients with versus without psychiatric disorders who present with chest pain in the ED. Methods: All visits to seven different EDs in Sweden from 9 December 2010 to 31 December 2016 by patients with chest pain were included. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to estimate differences in clinical management. Hazard ratios with 95% CIs were used for comparisons of all‐cause mortality and risk of cardiovascular events. Results: Altogether, 216,653 visits were identified, of which 40,054 (18%) occurred in patients with psychiatric disorders. The risk of a myocardial infarction (MI) was reduced almost by half in patients with an affective (OR 0.63; 95% CI: 0.59–0.68) or psychotic disorder (OR 0.57; 95% CI: 0.47–0.70). These patients were less likely to be treated with any cardiovascular medication or to undergo percutaneous coronary intervention. Contrastingly, patients with psychiatric disease had a 1.8‐ to 2.6‐fold increased risk of being diagnosed with an MI registered after the index visit but within 30 days. Conclusions: Patients with psychiatric disease and chest pain undergo less intense investigation and are less likely to receive cardiovascular medications compared with patients without psychiatric disease, even in the presence of myocardial injury. In addition, they experience a higher risk of being diagnosed with an MI within 30 days after a visit with no MI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relation between transfusion of concentrate stored red blood cell (RBC) and the adverse outcomes and survival after the cardiac surgery. The study used the data from patients who undergone heart valve surgery and coronary artery bypass graft surgery between 1997 and 2012 from SWEDEHEART register. Also mentioned the application of the multivariable Cox regression that estimate the risk of death in relative to the transfusion of RBCs storage.

Patients with chest pain and undetectable high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) in the emergency department (ED) have a low short-term risk of cardiovascular events, but the frequency of ED revisits in this group is unknown. This study investigated the associations between disposable income and risk of ED revisits in patients with chest pain and undetectable hs-cTnT. All first visits to 7 EDs in Sweden from 2010 to 2017 by patients with chest pain and hs-cTnT <5 ng/l were included. Incidence rate ratios (IRR) were calculated to estimate the ED revisit risk in relation to disposable income according to data obtained from Swedish government agencies (Statistics Sweden). Altogether, 61,539 patients with a first ED visit were included, in whom 126,650 revisits occurred. The adjusted 30-day risk of a revisit was 1.3- (IRR 1.32, 95% CI: 1.23-1.42) and 1.5-fold (IRR 1.50, 95% CI: 1.40-1.60), and for any revisit during the follow-up 1.6- (IRR 1.63, 95% CI: 1.59-1.66) and 1.8-fold (IRR 1.78, 95% CI: 1.72-1.79), in patients with middle-low and low versus high income, respectively. During a median follow-up of 6.8 years, 1714 (2.8%) deaths occurred, and the adjusted cumulative incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events at 1 and 5 years was only 0.3% (95% CI: 0.2-0.4) and 1.1% (95% CI: 0.8-1.4) higher in patients with the lowest versus highest income levels. Disposable income level is inversely associated with the risk of ED revisits among patients presenting with chest pain and undetectable hs-cTnT, in whom cardiovascular risks are low. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typically, estimating genetic parameters, such as disease heritability and between-disease genetic correlations, demands large datasets containing all relevant phenotypic measures and detailed knowledge of family relationships or, alternatively, genotypic and phenotypic data for numerous unrelated individuals. Here, we suggest an alternative, efficient estimation approach through the construction of two disease metrics from large health datasets: temporal disease prevalence curves and low-dimensional disease embeddings. We present eleven thousand heritability estimates corresponding to five study types: twins, traditional family studies, health records-based family studies, single nucleotide polymorphisms, and polygenic risk scores. We also compute over six hundred thousand estimates of genetic, environmental and phenotypic correlations. Furthermore, we find that: (1) disease curve shapes cluster into five general patterns; (2) early-onset diseases tend to have lower prevalence than late-onset diseases (Spearman's ρ = 0.32, p < 10–16); and (3) the disease onset age and heritability are negatively correlated (ρ = −0.46, p < 10–16). Disease heritability and genetic correlations between traits depend on genetics, the environment and their interaction. Here, Jia et al. compute disease prevalence curves and disease embeddings from electronic health records and impute heritability for hundreds of diseases and genetic correlations for thousands of disease pairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Many patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) need repeated red blood cell transfusions which entails a risk of immunization and antibody formation. Associations between alloantibodies, autoantibodies and increased transfusion requirements have been reported, but their relationship remains unclear. In this study, we analyzed factors potentially associated with red blood cell alloimmunization, as well as changes in transfusion intensity and post‐transfusion hemoglobin increments. Methods: In a retrospective cohort study, we linked Swedish MDS patients diagnosed between 2003 and 2017 to transfusion and immunohematology data. Potentially associated factors were analyzed using Cox proportional hazards regression. The transfusion rate after detected alloimmunization was analyzed using a fixed effects Poisson regression. Post‐transfusion hemoglobin increments before and after alloimmunization were compared using a mixed effects regression. Results: Alloantibodies following MDS diagnosis were detected in 50 out of 429 patients (11.7%). Female sex and a positive direct antiglobulin test (DAT) were independently associated with alloimmunization, with hazard ratios of 2.02 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.08–3.78) and 9.72 (95% CI, 5.31–17.74), respectively. The transfusion rate following alloimmunization was increased with an incidence rate ratio of 1.33 (95% CI, 0.98–1.80) and the post‐transfusion hemoglobin increment after alloimmunization was 1.40 g/L (95% CI, 0.52–2.28) lower per red blood cell unit (p =.002) compared to before alloimmunization, in multivariable analyses. Discussion: Alloimmunization against blood group antigens was associated with sex, DAT‐positivity, increased transfusion needs, and lower post‐transfusion hemoglobin increments. These findings warrant further investigation to evaluate the clinical significance of up‐front typing and prophylactic antigen matching in patients with MDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]