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Background and Aims: Although much has been written about the conventional cardiovascular risk factor correlates of the extent of coronary artery calcification (CAC), few studies have been carried out on symptomatic patients. This paper assesses the potential ability of risk factors to associate with an increasing CAC score.Methods: From the European Calcific Coronary Artery Disease (Euro-CCAD) cohort, we retrospectively investigated 6309 symptomatic patients, 62% male, from Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the USA. All had conventional cardiovascular risk factor assessment and CT scanning for CAC scoring.Results: Among all patients, male sex (OR = 4.85, p<0.001) and diabetes (OR = 2.36, p<0.001) were the most important risk factors of CAC extent, with age, hypertension, dyslipidemia and smoking also showing a relationship. Among patients with CAC, age, diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia were associated with an increasing CAC score in males and females, with diabetes being the strongest dichotomous risk factor (p<0.001 for both). These results were echoed in quantile regression, where diabetes was consistently the most important correlate with CAC extent in every quantile in both males and females. To a lesser extent, hypertension and dyslipidemia were also associated in the high CAC quantiles and the low CAC quantiles respectively.Conclusion: In addition to age and male sex in the total population, diabetes is the most important correlate of CAC extent in both sexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we present discursive psychology (DP), a qualitative approach that focuses on the study of conversational and textual materials, including everyday interactions. Although DP is well-established methodologically and theoretically, and is used widely in Europe and in the Commonwealth countries, it is relatively unknown in counseling psychology in the United States. As such, the purpose of this article is to provide a general overview of DP and offer guidance for researchers who may be interested in studying and using DP. We thus discuss practical considerations for utilizing DP, including the development of research questions, carrying out data collection, and conducting DP-informed analyses. We also provide a general overview of the history of DP and key resources for those interested in studying it further, while noting the usefulness of DP for counseling psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) indicates lung health in cystic fibrosis (CF). FEV1 is commonly communicated as a per cent predicted of a healthy individual sharing the same age, sex, race and height. CF-specific reference equations are complementary and calibrate a patient's FEV1 to that of their CF peers.Objectives: (1) To derive Canadian CF-specific FEV1 reference percentiles (FEV1%iles), (2) characterize how they have changed over time and (3) compare the Canadian FEV1%iles to those for USA and European CF populations.Method: CF FEV1%iles are calculated using the Canadian CF Registry and quantile regression.Results: The Canadian FEV1%iles demonstrated better lung function in more recent time periods within Canada, especially below the 50% percentile and in males. When compared to USA and European FEV1%iles for the same time period, Canadian FEV1%iles were higher.Conclusion: CF-specific FEV1%iles can provide useful information about changes in lung health. An online calculator (available at cfpercentile.Research: sickkids.ca) makes these FEV1%iles accessible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]