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Background and aims Obesity has been associated with increased levels of hemostatic factors. However, few studies have compared change in different anthropometric measures of adiposity in relation to change in levels of hemostatic factors. Our aim was to examine prospectively the association of change in body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio (WHR), waist circumference (WC), and waist circumference-height ratio (WHtR) with change in markers of hemostasis in a population of postmenopausal women. Methods and results A subsample of women in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) cohort had fasting blood samples and anthropometric measurements obtained at multiple time points over 12.8 years of follow-up. Of these, we studied the 2593 women who were not in the intervention arm of any WHI clinical trial. Their blood samples were used to measure plasma fibrinogen, factor VII antigen activity, and factor VII concentration at baseline, and at years 1, 3, and 6. We conducted mixed-effects linear regression analyses to examine the longitudinal association between change in anthropometric factors and change in hemostatic factors, adjusting for a wide range of potential confounding factors. In longitudinal analyses using repeated measures, change in BMI, WC, and WHtR were all positively associated with change in all 3 hemostatic factors. Change in anthropometric variables was most strongly associated with change in fibrinogen. Conclusions Our results suggest that an increase in adiposity over time is robustly associated with increased levels of hemostatic factors. Registration number of clinical trial: NCT00000611 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This prospective study aimed to describe the nature and time course of HPA axis dysregulation and psychopathology among terror-bereaved spouses. Method: Twenty-three spouses bereaved from September 11, 2001 terror attacks and 22 nonbereaved spouses were compared using a psychiatric diagnostic interview (SCID), 3 days of salivary cortisol collection, and a dexamethasone suppression test. Most subjects had repeated assessments at 6 month intervals during the 2 year study. Results: After September 11, 2001, bereaved compared to nonbereaved had significantly higher rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; 68.1% versus 0%) and major depressive disorder (MDD; 45.5% versus 9.5%). Bereaved had significantly higher morning basal cortisol and less afternoon postdexamethasone cortisol suppression than nonbereaved. Among bereaved, those with PTSD without comorbid MDD had significantly greater afternoon postdexamethasone cortisol suppression than those without psychiatric disorders. Conclusions: Terror-related spouse death is a severe stressor associated with persistent HPA axis activation, PTSD, and MDD. However, bereaved spouses who developed PTSD and were not depressed had enhanced post-dexamethasone cortisol suppression, evidence of heightened glucocorticoid receptor sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ObjectiveWe evaluated the influence of surrounding anatomical structures on the registration accuracy of a diagnostically important region, by varying the ROI (region of interest) window used in an automatic ROI-based digital subtraction method.Study designPairs of radiographs were taken at 2 molar regions using paralleling techniques of XCP devices (Rinn Co., Elgin, Ill) attached with and without a bite block. The global and local registration accuracies were measured by the RMS (root mean square) of subtraction images for various ROIs.ResultsNo significant differences were found in global registration accuracies among various ROI sizes in all the paralleling techniques. The local registration accuracies decreased with extension of the ROI size.ConclusionRegistration using an ROI restricted to the anatomical region of diagnostic interest provides higher accuracy than using a larger ROI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]