Nasheen Naidoo - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Nasheen Naidoo
Backgrounds: The health of university staff is a major occupational health concern worldwide. Stu... more Backgrounds: The health of university staff is a major occupational health concern worldwide. Studies have reported low health-related quality of life (HRQOL), low job satisfaction and poor mental health in this occupational group. However, none of previous studies have measured health utility and compared it to a national norm. Therefore, this study was conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the HRQOL of university staff in China and to identify risk factors influential to their health. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey conducted in a public university in China. Participants were interviewed face-to-face for demographic and socioeconomic information and health conditions. The Chinese version of the EQ-5D-5L instrument was used to measure HRQOL for calculating health utility. The relationship between health utility and sample characteristics was first examined using t-test and correlation analysis. Multivariate generalized linear models were further applied to evaluate...
Journal of Human Genetics, 2011
The abundance of copy number variants (CNVs) and regions of homozygosity (ROHs) have been well do... more The abundance of copy number variants (CNVs) and regions of homozygosity (ROHs) have been well documented in previous studies. In addition, their roles in complex diseases and traits have since been increasingly appreciated. However, only a limited amount of CNV and ROH data is currently available for the Swedish population. We conducted a population-based study to detect and characterize CNVs and ROHs in 87 randomly selected healthy Swedish individuals using the Affymetrix SNP Array 6.0. More than 600 CNV loci were detected in the population using two different CNV-detection algorithms (PennCNV and Birdsuite). A total of 196 loci were consistently identified by both algorithms, suggesting their reliability. Numerous diseaseassociated and pharmacogenetics-related genes were found to be overlapping with common CNV loci such as CFHR1/R3, LCE3B/3C, UGT2B17 and GSTT1. Correlation analysis between copy number polymorphisms (CNPs) and genome-wide association studies-identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms also indicates the potential roles of several CNPs as causal variants for diseases and traits such as body mass index, Crohn's disease and multiple sclerosis. In addition, we also identified a total of 14 815 ROHs X500 kb or 2814 ROHs X1M in the Swedish individuals with an average of 170 and 32 regions detected per individual respectively. Approximately 141 Mb or 4.92% of the genome is homozygous in each individual of the Swedish population. This is the first population-based study to investigate the population characteristics of CNVs and ROHs in the Swedish population. This study found many CNV loci that warrant further investigation, and also highlighted the abundance and importance of investigating ROHs for their associations with complex diseases and traits.
Journal of Human Genetics, 2011
Copy number variations can be identified using newer genotyping arrays with higher single nucleot... more Copy number variations can be identified using newer genotyping arrays with higher single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) density and copy number probes accompanied by newer algorithms. McCarroll et al. (2008) applied these to the HapMap II samples and identified 1316 copy number polymorphisms (CNPs). In our study, we applied the same approach to 859 samples from three Singapore populations and seven HapMap III populations. Approximately 50% of the 1291 autosomal CNPs were found to be polymorphic only in populations of non-African ancestry. Pairwise comparisons among the 10 populations showed substantial differences in the CNPs frequencies. Additionally, 698 CNPs showed significant differences with false discovery rate (FDR)o0.01 among the 10 populations and these loci overlap with known disease-associated or pharmacogenetic-related genes such as CFHR3 and CFHR1 (age related macular degeneration), GSTTI (metabolism of various carcinogenic compounds and cancers) and UGT2B17 (prostate cancer and graft-versus-host disease). The correlations between CNPs and genome-wide association studies-SNPs were investigated and several loci, which were previously unreported, that may potentially be implicated in complex diseases and traits were found; for example, childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, age-related macular degeneration, breast cancer, response to antipsychotic treatment, rheumatoid arthritis and type-1 diabetes. Additionally, we also found 5014 novel copy number loci that have not been reported previously by McCarroll et al. (2008) in the 10 populations.
Journal of Human Genetics, 2012
The genomes of outbred populations were first shown in 2006 to contain regions of homozygosity (R... more The genomes of outbred populations were first shown in 2006 to contain regions of homozygosity (ROHs) of several megabases. Further studies have also investigated the characteristics of ROHs in healthy individuals in various populations but there are no studies on Singapore populations to date. This study aims to identify and investigate the characteristics of ROHs in three Singapore populations. A total of 268 samples (96 Chinese, 89 Malays and 83 Indians) are genotyped on Illumina Human 1 M Beadchip and Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human SNP Array 6.0. We use the PennCNV algorithm to detect ROHs. We report an abundance of ROHs (X500 kb), with an average of more than one hundred regions per individual. On average, the Indian population has the lowest number of ROHs and smallest total length of ROHs per individual compared with the Chinese and Malay populations. We further investigate the relationship between the occurrence of ROHs and haplotype frequency, regional linkage disequilibrium (LD) and positive selection. Based on the results of this data set, we find that the frequency of occurrence of ROHs is positively associated with haplotype frequency and regional LD. The majority of regions detected for recent positive selection and regions with differential LD between populations overlap with the ROH loci. When we consider both the location of the ROHs and the allelic form of the ROHs, we are able to separate the populations by principal component analysis, demonstrating that ROHs contain information on population structure and the demographic history of a population.
By submitting this thesis electronically, I, Kamela Lawrence Mahlakwane, declare that the entiret... more By submitting this thesis electronically, I, Kamela Lawrence Mahlakwane, declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification.
South African Medical Journal, 2017
This open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0.
Objectives: To (1) identify social and rehabilitation predictors of nursing home placement, (2) i... more Objectives: To (1) identify social and rehabilitation predictors of nursing home placement, (2) investigate the association between effectiveness and efficiency in rehabilitation and nursing home placement of patients admitted for inpatient rehabilitation from 1996 to 2005 by disease in Singapore. Design: National data were retrospectively extracted from medical records of community hospital. Data Sources: There were 12,506 first admissions for rehabilitation in four community hospitals. Of which, 8,594 (90.3%) patients were discharged home and 924 (9.7%) patients were discharged to a nursing home. Other discharge destinations such as sheltered home (n = 37), other community hospital (n = 31), death in community hospital (n = 12), acute hospital (n = 1,182) and discharge against doctor’s advice (n = 24) were excluded. Outcome Measure: Nursing home placement. Results: Those who were discharged to nursing home had 33 % lower median rehabilitation effectiveness and 29 % lower median re...
230 Text: 3587 Corresponding author: Annalise E Zemlin Division of Chemical Pathology National He... more 230 Text: 3587 Corresponding author: Annalise E Zemlin Division of Chemical Pathology National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) and University of Stellenbosch Tygerberg Hospital, Cape Town7505 Telephone number: + 27 21 938 4254 E-mail address: azemlin@sun.ac.za
Critical Reviews in Clinical Laboratory Sciences
Abstract Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) constitutes a clonal expansion of what appears to be maligna... more Abstract Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) constitutes a clonal expansion of what appears to be malignant B cells. Viruses are involved in its pathogenesis, such as the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Since these viral infections have been shown to play key roles in the pathogenesis of HL, countries with a prevalence of HIV and EBV represent interesting population targets to study the pathogenesis of HL, linking the evolution of the disease with viral infections. Usually, patients present with late stage disease often involving the bone marrow at the time of diagnosis. The present paper discusses the role of viral infection in African countries, as HL is considered to be a malignant disease characterized by an inflammatory reaction to an aberrant B cell clone that is well known as the Reed–Sternberg cell (HRS).
The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, May 25, 2017
Like several Southeast Asian countries, Singapore has a complex eating-out environment and a risi... more Like several Southeast Asian countries, Singapore has a complex eating-out environment and a rising eating-out prevalence. However the determinants and drivers of eating-out in urban Asian environments are poorly understood. We examined the socio-demographic characteristics of persons who frequently ate away from home in local eateries called hawker centres and Western fast-food restaurants, using data from 1647 Singaporean adults participating in the National Nutrition Survey (NNS) 2010. We also assessed the underlying drivers of eating out and evaluated if these were different for eating at local eateries compared to Western fast-food restaurants using 18 focus group discussions of women (130 women). Participants reported a high eating-out frequency with 77.3% usually eating either breakfast, lunch or dinner at eateries. Main venues for eating-out included hawker centres (61.1% usually ate at least 1 of 3 daily meals at this venue) and school/workplace canteens (20.4%). A minority...
Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2014
Objectives: Carotid atherosclerosis (CA) is considered the preclinical stage of stroke which clai... more Objectives: Carotid atherosclerosis (CA) is considered the preclinical stage of stroke which claims 6 million lives worldwide. Identifying significant risk factors for CA progression will be a useful practice to prevent stroke for a specific population. The objectives of this study were to monitor the CA progression in an elderly Chinese population and to identify significant risk factors associated with CA progression for public health intervention. Methods: A community-based prospective study was conducted in the Navy Community Clinic in Beijing, China. Totally 91 residents were followed up from 2007 to 2012 with ultrasound measurement of plaques located in the common carotid artery and the internal carotid arteries on both sides. The detailed information on potential risk factors was also collected for every subject. Using total area of all plaques as primary outcome measure, the generalized linear model was performed to identify significant risk factors for plaque growth. Results: With a mean age of 71.09 years, this sample represented the elderly Chinese under usual medical care. The mean total plaque area has increased 0.104cm 2 (P<0.001) over 5-year follow-up period. In multivariate analysis, medical history of stroke, pre-existing CA and diabetes were significant risk factors for plaque growth each respectively associated with additional increase of 0.16 cm 2 , 0.12 cm 2 and 0.11 cm 2 in total plaque area. Conclusions: CA can progress significantly in the elderly Chinese under usual medical care thus elevates the risk of stroke. Therefore, clinical interventions should be provided in a timely fashion, especially for those with pre-existing CA, diabetes or medical history of stroke. The total plaque area in carotid arteries is the most sensitive ultrasound measure for the purpose of monitoring the stroke risk and evaluating the treatment effect. GW25-e0807 Computed tomography perfusion to detect and differentiate ischemic and infarcted myocardium: experiences in a large experimental animal model
Annals of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
Clinica Chimica Acta, 2016
Iron deficiency is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, can present with or witho... more Iron deficiency is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, can present with or without haematological changes and is a major cause of microcytic anaemia. In South Africa and Africa in general, there is a paucity of studies on the iron status of healthy adult non pregnant females and males >18years of age. The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of iron deficiency in a healthy South African population. A total of 651 healthy adults >18years were included in the study. Blood samples were taken for the determination of iron status, haematological and inflammatory parameters. A ferritin level of <30μg/L was used to define iron deficiency and these subjects were further divided into those with and without anaemia. Diet and menstrual history in females was further investigated. Overall, the prevalence of anaemia was 12.6% and iron deficiency was found in 78% of anaemic subjects. The prevalence of iron deficiency was 39.8% in all participants and females and Black Africans had a very high prevalence of 56.6% and 50.7% respectively. Significant (p<0.05) differences were found in concentrations of ferritin, haemoglobin, iron, transferrin, transferrin saturation, MCV and MCH between the groups. Anaemia is a minor health problem but a large proportion of subjects with iron deficiency do not present with anaemia. The prevalence of iron deficiency was high especially in females and Black African participants.
Asia-Pacific journal of clinical oncology, Jan 25, 2016
To identify the optimal strategy for gastric cancer (GC) prevention by evaluating the cost-effect... more To identify the optimal strategy for gastric cancer (GC) prevention by evaluating the cost-effectiveness of esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD)-based preventive strategies. We conducted a model-based cost-effectiveness analysis. Adopting a healthcare payer's perspective, Markov models simulated the clinical experience of the target population (Singaporean Chinese 50-69 years old) undergoing endoscopic screening, endoscopic surveillance and usual care of do-nothing. The screening strategy examined the cohort every alternate year whereas the surveillance strategy provided annual EGD only to people with precancerous lesions. For each strategy, discounted lifetime costs ($) and quality adjusted life years (QALY) were estimated and compared to generate incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify influential parameters and quantify the impact of model uncertainties. Annual EGD surveillance with an ICER of $34...
Substantial progress has been made in human genetics and genomics research over the past ten year... more Substantial progress has been made in human genetics and genomics research over the past ten years since the publication of the draft sequence of the human genome in 2001. Findings emanating directly from the Human Genome Project, together with those from follow-on studies, have had an enormous impact on our understanding of the architecture and function of the human genome. Major developments have been made in cataloguing genetic variation, the International HapMap Project, and with respect to advances in genotyping technologies. These developments are vital for the emergence of genome-wide association studies in the investigation of complex diseases and traits. In parallel, the advent of high-throughput sequencing technologies has ushered in the 'personal genome sequencing' era for both normal and cancer genomes, and made possible large-scale genome sequencing studies such as the 1000 Genomes Project and the International Cancer Genome Consortium. The high-throughput sequencing and sequence-capture technologies are also providing new opportunities to study Mendelian disorders through exome sequencing and whole-genome sequencing. This paper reviews these major developments in human genetics and genomics over the past decade.
Journal of preventive medicine and public health = Yebang Ŭihakhoe chi, 2009
In the more than 100 genome wide association studies (GWAS) conducted in the past 5 years, more t... more In the more than 100 genome wide association studies (GWAS) conducted in the past 5 years, more than 250 genetic loci contributing to more than 40 common diseases and traits have been identified. Whilst many genes have been linked to a trait, both their individual and combined effects are small and unable to explain earlier estimates of heritability. Given the rapid changes in disease incidence that cannot be accounted for by changes in diagnostic practises, there is need to have well characterized exposure information in addition to genomic data for the study of gene-environment interactions. The case-control and cohort study designs are most suited for studying associations between risk factors and occurrence of an outcome. However, the case control study design is subject to several biases and hence the preferred choice of the prospective cohort study design in investigating gene-environment interactions. A major limitation of utilising the prospective cohort study design is the ...
Human Genomics, 2011
Substantial progress has been made in human genetics and genomics research over the past ten year... more Substantial progress has been made in human genetics and genomics research over the past ten years since the publication of the draft sequence of the human genome in 2001. Findings emanating directly from the Human Genome Project, together with those from follow-on studies, have had an enormous impact on our understanding of the architecture and function of the human genome. Major developments have been made in cataloguing genetic variation, the International HapMap Project, and with respect to advances in genotyping technologies. These developments are vital for the emergence of genome-wide association studies in the investigation of complex diseases and traits. In parallel, the advent of high-throughput sequencing technologies has ushered in the 'personal genome sequencing' era for both normal and cancer genomes, and made possible large-scale genome sequencing studies such as the 1000 Genomes Project and the International Cancer Genome Consortium. The high-throughput sequencing and sequence-capture technologies are also providing new opportunities to study Mendelian disorders through exome sequencing and whole-genome sequencing. This paper reviews these major developments in human genetics and genomics over the past decade.
Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, 2001
Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, 2001
Backgrounds: The health of university staff is a major occupational health concern worldwide. Stu... more Backgrounds: The health of university staff is a major occupational health concern worldwide. Studies have reported low health-related quality of life (HRQOL), low job satisfaction and poor mental health in this occupational group. However, none of previous studies have measured health utility and compared it to a national norm. Therefore, this study was conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the HRQOL of university staff in China and to identify risk factors influential to their health. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey conducted in a public university in China. Participants were interviewed face-to-face for demographic and socioeconomic information and health conditions. The Chinese version of the EQ-5D-5L instrument was used to measure HRQOL for calculating health utility. The relationship between health utility and sample characteristics was first examined using t-test and correlation analysis. Multivariate generalized linear models were further applied to evaluate...
Journal of Human Genetics, 2011
The abundance of copy number variants (CNVs) and regions of homozygosity (ROHs) have been well do... more The abundance of copy number variants (CNVs) and regions of homozygosity (ROHs) have been well documented in previous studies. In addition, their roles in complex diseases and traits have since been increasingly appreciated. However, only a limited amount of CNV and ROH data is currently available for the Swedish population. We conducted a population-based study to detect and characterize CNVs and ROHs in 87 randomly selected healthy Swedish individuals using the Affymetrix SNP Array 6.0. More than 600 CNV loci were detected in the population using two different CNV-detection algorithms (PennCNV and Birdsuite). A total of 196 loci were consistently identified by both algorithms, suggesting their reliability. Numerous diseaseassociated and pharmacogenetics-related genes were found to be overlapping with common CNV loci such as CFHR1/R3, LCE3B/3C, UGT2B17 and GSTT1. Correlation analysis between copy number polymorphisms (CNPs) and genome-wide association studies-identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms also indicates the potential roles of several CNPs as causal variants for diseases and traits such as body mass index, Crohn's disease and multiple sclerosis. In addition, we also identified a total of 14 815 ROHs X500 kb or 2814 ROHs X1M in the Swedish individuals with an average of 170 and 32 regions detected per individual respectively. Approximately 141 Mb or 4.92% of the genome is homozygous in each individual of the Swedish population. This is the first population-based study to investigate the population characteristics of CNVs and ROHs in the Swedish population. This study found many CNV loci that warrant further investigation, and also highlighted the abundance and importance of investigating ROHs for their associations with complex diseases and traits.
Journal of Human Genetics, 2011
Copy number variations can be identified using newer genotyping arrays with higher single nucleot... more Copy number variations can be identified using newer genotyping arrays with higher single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) density and copy number probes accompanied by newer algorithms. McCarroll et al. (2008) applied these to the HapMap II samples and identified 1316 copy number polymorphisms (CNPs). In our study, we applied the same approach to 859 samples from three Singapore populations and seven HapMap III populations. Approximately 50% of the 1291 autosomal CNPs were found to be polymorphic only in populations of non-African ancestry. Pairwise comparisons among the 10 populations showed substantial differences in the CNPs frequencies. Additionally, 698 CNPs showed significant differences with false discovery rate (FDR)o0.01 among the 10 populations and these loci overlap with known disease-associated or pharmacogenetic-related genes such as CFHR3 and CFHR1 (age related macular degeneration), GSTTI (metabolism of various carcinogenic compounds and cancers) and UGT2B17 (prostate cancer and graft-versus-host disease). The correlations between CNPs and genome-wide association studies-SNPs were investigated and several loci, which were previously unreported, that may potentially be implicated in complex diseases and traits were found; for example, childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, age-related macular degeneration, breast cancer, response to antipsychotic treatment, rheumatoid arthritis and type-1 diabetes. Additionally, we also found 5014 novel copy number loci that have not been reported previously by McCarroll et al. (2008) in the 10 populations.
Journal of Human Genetics, 2012
The genomes of outbred populations were first shown in 2006 to contain regions of homozygosity (R... more The genomes of outbred populations were first shown in 2006 to contain regions of homozygosity (ROHs) of several megabases. Further studies have also investigated the characteristics of ROHs in healthy individuals in various populations but there are no studies on Singapore populations to date. This study aims to identify and investigate the characteristics of ROHs in three Singapore populations. A total of 268 samples (96 Chinese, 89 Malays and 83 Indians) are genotyped on Illumina Human 1 M Beadchip and Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human SNP Array 6.0. We use the PennCNV algorithm to detect ROHs. We report an abundance of ROHs (X500 kb), with an average of more than one hundred regions per individual. On average, the Indian population has the lowest number of ROHs and smallest total length of ROHs per individual compared with the Chinese and Malay populations. We further investigate the relationship between the occurrence of ROHs and haplotype frequency, regional linkage disequilibrium (LD) and positive selection. Based on the results of this data set, we find that the frequency of occurrence of ROHs is positively associated with haplotype frequency and regional LD. The majority of regions detected for recent positive selection and regions with differential LD between populations overlap with the ROH loci. When we consider both the location of the ROHs and the allelic form of the ROHs, we are able to separate the populations by principal component analysis, demonstrating that ROHs contain information on population structure and the demographic history of a population.
By submitting this thesis electronically, I, Kamela Lawrence Mahlakwane, declare that the entiret... more By submitting this thesis electronically, I, Kamela Lawrence Mahlakwane, declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification.
South African Medical Journal, 2017
This open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0.
Objectives: To (1) identify social and rehabilitation predictors of nursing home placement, (2) i... more Objectives: To (1) identify social and rehabilitation predictors of nursing home placement, (2) investigate the association between effectiveness and efficiency in rehabilitation and nursing home placement of patients admitted for inpatient rehabilitation from 1996 to 2005 by disease in Singapore. Design: National data were retrospectively extracted from medical records of community hospital. Data Sources: There were 12,506 first admissions for rehabilitation in four community hospitals. Of which, 8,594 (90.3%) patients were discharged home and 924 (9.7%) patients were discharged to a nursing home. Other discharge destinations such as sheltered home (n = 37), other community hospital (n = 31), death in community hospital (n = 12), acute hospital (n = 1,182) and discharge against doctor’s advice (n = 24) were excluded. Outcome Measure: Nursing home placement. Results: Those who were discharged to nursing home had 33 % lower median rehabilitation effectiveness and 29 % lower median re...
230 Text: 3587 Corresponding author: Annalise E Zemlin Division of Chemical Pathology National He... more 230 Text: 3587 Corresponding author: Annalise E Zemlin Division of Chemical Pathology National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) and University of Stellenbosch Tygerberg Hospital, Cape Town7505 Telephone number: + 27 21 938 4254 E-mail address: azemlin@sun.ac.za
Critical Reviews in Clinical Laboratory Sciences
Abstract Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) constitutes a clonal expansion of what appears to be maligna... more Abstract Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) constitutes a clonal expansion of what appears to be malignant B cells. Viruses are involved in its pathogenesis, such as the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Since these viral infections have been shown to play key roles in the pathogenesis of HL, countries with a prevalence of HIV and EBV represent interesting population targets to study the pathogenesis of HL, linking the evolution of the disease with viral infections. Usually, patients present with late stage disease often involving the bone marrow at the time of diagnosis. The present paper discusses the role of viral infection in African countries, as HL is considered to be a malignant disease characterized by an inflammatory reaction to an aberrant B cell clone that is well known as the Reed–Sternberg cell (HRS).
The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, May 25, 2017
Like several Southeast Asian countries, Singapore has a complex eating-out environment and a risi... more Like several Southeast Asian countries, Singapore has a complex eating-out environment and a rising eating-out prevalence. However the determinants and drivers of eating-out in urban Asian environments are poorly understood. We examined the socio-demographic characteristics of persons who frequently ate away from home in local eateries called hawker centres and Western fast-food restaurants, using data from 1647 Singaporean adults participating in the National Nutrition Survey (NNS) 2010. We also assessed the underlying drivers of eating out and evaluated if these were different for eating at local eateries compared to Western fast-food restaurants using 18 focus group discussions of women (130 women). Participants reported a high eating-out frequency with 77.3% usually eating either breakfast, lunch or dinner at eateries. Main venues for eating-out included hawker centres (61.1% usually ate at least 1 of 3 daily meals at this venue) and school/workplace canteens (20.4%). A minority...
Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2014
Objectives: Carotid atherosclerosis (CA) is considered the preclinical stage of stroke which clai... more Objectives: Carotid atherosclerosis (CA) is considered the preclinical stage of stroke which claims 6 million lives worldwide. Identifying significant risk factors for CA progression will be a useful practice to prevent stroke for a specific population. The objectives of this study were to monitor the CA progression in an elderly Chinese population and to identify significant risk factors associated with CA progression for public health intervention. Methods: A community-based prospective study was conducted in the Navy Community Clinic in Beijing, China. Totally 91 residents were followed up from 2007 to 2012 with ultrasound measurement of plaques located in the common carotid artery and the internal carotid arteries on both sides. The detailed information on potential risk factors was also collected for every subject. Using total area of all plaques as primary outcome measure, the generalized linear model was performed to identify significant risk factors for plaque growth. Results: With a mean age of 71.09 years, this sample represented the elderly Chinese under usual medical care. The mean total plaque area has increased 0.104cm 2 (P<0.001) over 5-year follow-up period. In multivariate analysis, medical history of stroke, pre-existing CA and diabetes were significant risk factors for plaque growth each respectively associated with additional increase of 0.16 cm 2 , 0.12 cm 2 and 0.11 cm 2 in total plaque area. Conclusions: CA can progress significantly in the elderly Chinese under usual medical care thus elevates the risk of stroke. Therefore, clinical interventions should be provided in a timely fashion, especially for those with pre-existing CA, diabetes or medical history of stroke. The total plaque area in carotid arteries is the most sensitive ultrasound measure for the purpose of monitoring the stroke risk and evaluating the treatment effect. GW25-e0807 Computed tomography perfusion to detect and differentiate ischemic and infarcted myocardium: experiences in a large experimental animal model
Annals of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
Clinica Chimica Acta, 2016
Iron deficiency is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, can present with or witho... more Iron deficiency is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, can present with or without haematological changes and is a major cause of microcytic anaemia. In South Africa and Africa in general, there is a paucity of studies on the iron status of healthy adult non pregnant females and males >18years of age. The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of iron deficiency in a healthy South African population. A total of 651 healthy adults >18years were included in the study. Blood samples were taken for the determination of iron status, haematological and inflammatory parameters. A ferritin level of <30μg/L was used to define iron deficiency and these subjects were further divided into those with and without anaemia. Diet and menstrual history in females was further investigated. Overall, the prevalence of anaemia was 12.6% and iron deficiency was found in 78% of anaemic subjects. The prevalence of iron deficiency was 39.8% in all participants and females and Black Africans had a very high prevalence of 56.6% and 50.7% respectively. Significant (p<0.05) differences were found in concentrations of ferritin, haemoglobin, iron, transferrin, transferrin saturation, MCV and MCH between the groups. Anaemia is a minor health problem but a large proportion of subjects with iron deficiency do not present with anaemia. The prevalence of iron deficiency was high especially in females and Black African participants.
Asia-Pacific journal of clinical oncology, Jan 25, 2016
To identify the optimal strategy for gastric cancer (GC) prevention by evaluating the cost-effect... more To identify the optimal strategy for gastric cancer (GC) prevention by evaluating the cost-effectiveness of esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD)-based preventive strategies. We conducted a model-based cost-effectiveness analysis. Adopting a healthcare payer's perspective, Markov models simulated the clinical experience of the target population (Singaporean Chinese 50-69 years old) undergoing endoscopic screening, endoscopic surveillance and usual care of do-nothing. The screening strategy examined the cohort every alternate year whereas the surveillance strategy provided annual EGD only to people with precancerous lesions. For each strategy, discounted lifetime costs ($) and quality adjusted life years (QALY) were estimated and compared to generate incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify influential parameters and quantify the impact of model uncertainties. Annual EGD surveillance with an ICER of $34...
Substantial progress has been made in human genetics and genomics research over the past ten year... more Substantial progress has been made in human genetics and genomics research over the past ten years since the publication of the draft sequence of the human genome in 2001. Findings emanating directly from the Human Genome Project, together with those from follow-on studies, have had an enormous impact on our understanding of the architecture and function of the human genome. Major developments have been made in cataloguing genetic variation, the International HapMap Project, and with respect to advances in genotyping technologies. These developments are vital for the emergence of genome-wide association studies in the investigation of complex diseases and traits. In parallel, the advent of high-throughput sequencing technologies has ushered in the 'personal genome sequencing' era for both normal and cancer genomes, and made possible large-scale genome sequencing studies such as the 1000 Genomes Project and the International Cancer Genome Consortium. The high-throughput sequencing and sequence-capture technologies are also providing new opportunities to study Mendelian disorders through exome sequencing and whole-genome sequencing. This paper reviews these major developments in human genetics and genomics over the past decade.
Journal of preventive medicine and public health = Yebang Ŭihakhoe chi, 2009
In the more than 100 genome wide association studies (GWAS) conducted in the past 5 years, more t... more In the more than 100 genome wide association studies (GWAS) conducted in the past 5 years, more than 250 genetic loci contributing to more than 40 common diseases and traits have been identified. Whilst many genes have been linked to a trait, both their individual and combined effects are small and unable to explain earlier estimates of heritability. Given the rapid changes in disease incidence that cannot be accounted for by changes in diagnostic practises, there is need to have well characterized exposure information in addition to genomic data for the study of gene-environment interactions. The case-control and cohort study designs are most suited for studying associations between risk factors and occurrence of an outcome. However, the case control study design is subject to several biases and hence the preferred choice of the prospective cohort study design in investigating gene-environment interactions. A major limitation of utilising the prospective cohort study design is the ...
Human Genomics, 2011
Substantial progress has been made in human genetics and genomics research over the past ten year... more Substantial progress has been made in human genetics and genomics research over the past ten years since the publication of the draft sequence of the human genome in 2001. Findings emanating directly from the Human Genome Project, together with those from follow-on studies, have had an enormous impact on our understanding of the architecture and function of the human genome. Major developments have been made in cataloguing genetic variation, the International HapMap Project, and with respect to advances in genotyping technologies. These developments are vital for the emergence of genome-wide association studies in the investigation of complex diseases and traits. In parallel, the advent of high-throughput sequencing technologies has ushered in the 'personal genome sequencing' era for both normal and cancer genomes, and made possible large-scale genome sequencing studies such as the 1000 Genomes Project and the International Cancer Genome Consortium. The high-throughput sequencing and sequence-capture technologies are also providing new opportunities to study Mendelian disorders through exome sequencing and whole-genome sequencing. This paper reviews these major developments in human genetics and genomics over the past decade.
Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, 2001
Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, 2001