The human microbiome has been increasingly recognized as having potential use for disease prediction. Predicting the risk, progression, and severity of diseases holds promise to transform clinical practice, empower patient decisions, and reduce the burden of various common diseases, as has been demonstrated for cardiovascular disease or breast cancer. Combining multiple modifiable and non-modif...

To evaluate the association between frailty and initiating, continuing, or discontinuing secondary prevention medications following myocardial infarction (MI). We conducted a cohort study using linked health data, including all adults aged ≥65 years who discharged from hospital following MI from January 2013 to April 2018 in Victoria, Australia (N = 29,771). The Hospital Frailty Risk Score (HFR...

Evidence has demonstrated that albuminuria is a key diagnostic and prognostic marker of diabetic chronic kidney disease, but the impact of its day-to-day variability has not been adequately considered. This study quantified within-individual variability of albuminuria in people with type 2 diabetes to inform clinical albuminuria monitoring. Descriptive cross-sectional analysis. People with type...

Are women who receive fertility treatment at increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) hospitalization compared with women who do not? A retrospective cohort study of all women registered for fertility treatment at Monash IVF between 1998 and 2014. This cohort was linked to the Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset, which contains records of all hospital admissions in the Australian state of...

Low-renin hypertension is an underrecognized subtype of hypertension with specific treatment options. This study aims to identify the prevalence in primary care and to compare patient characteristics to those with normal-renin hypertension and primary aldosteronism (PA). In a cohort study, patients with treatment-naïve hypertension were screened for PA with plasma aldosterone and direct renin c...

Recent evidence suggests that childhood levels of serum lipids, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), and smoking contribute to adult risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Evidence is lacking on whether this is independent of adult risk levels. To quantify direct and indirect effects of childhood risk factors on adult CVD via adulthood risk factors using mediation analysis, and to quantify the...

Community Health Workers (CHWs) play a crucial role in the prevention and management of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). The COVID-19 pandemic triggered the implementation of crisis-driven responses that involved shifts in the roles of CHWs in terms of delivering services for people with NCDs. Strategically aligning these shifts with health systems is crucial to improve NCD service delivery. Th...

To estimate the relative risk (RR) and excess hospitalization rate for injury in individuals with diabetes compared with the general population. Data were obtained from the Australian National Diabetes Services Scheme, hospitalization data sets, the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the National Death Index, and the census spanning from 2011 to 2017. Hospitalizations for injury were co...

Individuals at high risk for type 2 diabetes are also at an increased risk for developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although there are separate trials examining the effects of lifestyle interventions on absolute CVD risk among people at high risk for type 2 diabetes, a comprehensive evidence synthesis of these trials is lacking. We will systematically synthesize the evidence on the effects ...

Marginal zone and follicular B cells are known to contribute to the development of angiotensin II-induced hypertension in mice, but the effector function(s) mediating this effect (e.g., antigen presentation, antibody secretion and/or cytokine production) are unknown. B cell differentiation into antibody secreting cells (ASCs) requires the transcription factor Blimp-1. Here, we studied mice with...

Dietary-resistant starch is emerging as a potential therapeutic tool to limit the negative effects of diabetes on the kidneys. However, its metabolic and immunomodulatory effects have not yet been fully elucidated. Six-week-old db/db mice were fed a diet containing 12.5% resistant starch or a control diet matched for equivalent regular starch for 10 weeks. db/m mice receiving the control diet w...

Metabolic ageing biomarkers may capture the age-related shifts in metabolism, offering a precise representation of an individual's overall metabolic health. Utilising comprehensive lipidomic datasets from two large independent population cohorts in Australia (n = 14,833, including 6630 males, 8203 females), we employed different machine learning models, to predict age, and calculated metabolic ...

Methods of estimating polygenic scores (PGSs) from genome-wide association studies are increasingly utilized. However, independent method evaluation is lacking, and method comparisons are often limited. Here, we evaluate polygenic scores derived via seven methods in five biobank studies (totaling about 1.2 million participants) across 16 diseases and quantitative traits, building on a reference...

From their humble discovery as cellular debris to cementing their natural capacity to transfer functional molecules between cells, the long-winded journey of extracellular vesicles (EVs) now stands at the precipice as a next-generation cell-free therapeutic tool to revolutionize modern-day medicine. This perspective provides a snapshot of the discovery of EVs to their emergence as a vibrant fie...

Despite advances in the treatment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, it remains the leading cause of death in patients with diabetes. Even when risk factors are mitigated, the disease progresses, and thus newer targets need to be identified that directly inhibit the underlying pathobiology of atherosclerosis in diabetes. A single cell sequencing approach was utilised to distinguish the ...