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A Cochrane review has recently challenged the benefit of health checks. Included studies, screening procedures and treatments were however very heterogeneous and did not fulfil present days standards and most studies were done outside primary care. This review concentrates on research from health checks in Danish general practices focusing on early detection and treatment of risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The authors recommend Danish general practitioners to offer opportunistic screening and treatment of people with diabetes and people at risk for cardiovascular disease. Future research questions are highlighted.

The term "metabolic syndrome" refers to the clustering of a number of cardiovascular risk factors (obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia) believed to be related to insulin resistance. The prevalence of each of these diseases as well as the metabolic syndrome is increasing world wide. Obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia and diabetes are no longer diseases of the wealthy. By 2025, three out of four people with diabetes will be living in 3rd world countries, and similar trends are likely for the other components of the syndrome. Preventive action is urgently needed, and studies in China and India have proven to be effective.

World wide the prevalence of type 2 diabetes is increasing and 30-50% of patients are undiagnosed. Early detection and intervention may decrease the risk of late diabetic complications, and thus clear guidelines for early detection and diagnosis of type 2 diabetes are needed. We recommend those individuals with either previous gestational diabetes; obesity (BMI > 30 kg/m2) and/or two or more relatives with diabetes should be considered eligible for testing for diabetes. In order to make the diagnosis two diabetic glucose values on separate days are required. The diagnosis may be made using plasma glucose or capillary whole blood, but quality control measures are essential for glucose measurements in general practice as well as in departments of clinical biochemistry.

Introduction: The urinary excretion of albumin is positively correlated to the presence of ischaemic heart disease and atherosclerotic risk factors in subjects with arterial hypertension. The aim of this population-based, follow-up study of hypertensive patients was to assess the predictive impact of a slightly elevated urinary excretion of albumin, i.e. microalbuminuria, on ischaemic heart disease., Material and Methods: In 1983-1984, blood pressure, the albumin/creatinine concentration ratio in a morning urine sample, total and HDL cholesterol in plasma, body mass index, and smoking habits were measured in a population of 2085 men and women aged 30-60 years. Exclusion criteria were ischaemic heart disease, diabetes mellitus, and renal or urinary tract disease. Untreated hypertension or borderline hypertension (a systolic blood pressure above 140 mmHg and/or a diastolic blood pressure above 90 mmHg) were found in 204 of the participants, who were followed up until 1993 with respect to the development of ischaemic heart disease through the Danish Hospital Register and Death Certificate Register., Results: Over 1978 person-years, 18 participants (9%) developed ischaemic heart disease. Microalbuminuria, defined as a urinary albumin/creatinine ratio above the upper decile in the hypertensive population under study (1.07 mg/mmol), was the strongest predictor of ischaemic heart disease with a relative risk (95% confidence interval) of 4.2 (1.5-11.9) (p = 0.006). When adjusted for all other variables, including age and sex, the relative risk was 3.5 (1.0-12.1) (p = 0.05)., Discussion: Microalbuminuria is associated with a fourfold increased risk of ischaemic heart disease in subjects with untreated hypertension or borderline hypertension. Urinary excretion of albumin should perhaps be monitored regularly in the hypertension clinic, and rigorous control of blood pressure and other modifiable atherosclerotic risk factors is to be recommended in hypertensive patients with microalbuminuria.

Before the introduction of screening for type 2 diabetes, it is necessary to evaluate not only the technology, but also the patient perspective, the economical consequences, and the organising aspects. A review of the relevant literature shows that type 2 diabetes is a rapidly increasing, serious disease. However, there is no documentation that systematic screening will have a positive effect on morbidity and mortality, owing to the lack of randomised clinical trials. The methods for screening could be optimised, and there is a lack of literature on patient perspective. Economical models indicate that opportunistic screening is more cost-effective than is systematic screening, but the lack of randomised trials makes the conclusion dubious. A decision to introduce systematic screening for type 2 diabetes should await the results of ongoing randomised clinical trials. In the meantime, efforts should be spent on improving the level of care for those already diagnosed with diabetes.

Introduction: The incidence rate of a first myocardial infarction declined 3-5% annually in the Danish WHO MONICA population in the period from 1982 to 1991. The aim of this study was to investigate whether levels of the most commonly considered biological traits associated with cardiovascular risk have changed in the Danish MONICA population during this period., Method: Data from 6,695 men and women of 30, 40, 50 and 60 years of age, examined in the Danish WHO MONICA surveys in 1982-1984, 1986-1987, and 1991-1992, were analysed to estimate temporal trends in body height and weight, blood pressure, and serum total, HDL, and LDL cholesterol, and triglyceride., Results: Body height increased by 0.1% per year and the body mass index by 0.4% per year in women. The diastolic blood pressure increased 0.4% per year in women and 0.6% per year in 60-year-old men. HDL cholesterol declined 0.4% per year. Body mass indices in men, diastolic blood pressures in men < 60 years of age, systolic blood pressures, total and LDL cholesterol and triglyceride did not change., Discussion: The levels of biological risk factors in the Danish WHO MONICA study population did not show trends during the 1980s that contribute to explain the declining incidence of myocardial infarction in the population.

Studies reporting increased mortality in smokers are abundant, but only few have included large numbers of heavily smoking women. Based on three large Danish population studies we calculated median survival in smokers and never-smokers and compared the impact of smoking in men and women. Seventeen thousand six hundred and sixty-nine men and 13,525 women were followed for up to 30 years for all-cause mortality. During follow-up there were 8644 deaths. Large differences in tobacco-exposure between men and women were found, in particular in older birth-cohorts. Despite a smaller accumulated exposure, the impact smoking had on median survival was similar in men and women. Female inhaling heavy smokers (> or = 15 cig./day) lost 9.4 and inhaling light smokers 7.4 years in comparison with female never-smokers. Corresponding loss of life-expectancy in males was 9.2 years and 6.0 years, respectively. In conclusion, this study shows survival prospects in relation to smoking in both men and women in a way that is easily communicated. The results indicate that women who smoke as much as men run a relatively higher risk in terms of reduced life expectancy.

Putative risk factors for the development of incipient diabetic nephropathy (persistent microalbuminuria) and overt diabetic nephropathy (persistent macroalbuminuria) were evaluated prospectively in Caucasian non-insulin dependent diabetic (NIDDM) patients. All NIDDM patients < 66 years, with normoalbuminuria (albumin excretion rate [AER] < 30 mg/24 h), attending our clinic during 1987 were identified (n = 191). The patients were followed for a median of 5.8 years. Fifteen of the 191 patients were lost to follow-up. Thirty-six of the remaining 176 patients developed persistent microalbuminuria (AER 30-299 mg/24 h) and five developed persistent macroalbuminuria (AER less than or equal to 300 mg/24 h) during follow-up. The five-year cumulative incidence of incipient diabetic nephropathy was 23% (95% confidence interval 17% to 30%). Baseline log10 AER, male gender, presence of retinopathy, S-cholesterol, HbA1c, and age was found to predict the development of incipient/overt diabetic nephropathy in these patients.

The prognostic significance of microalbuminuria, macroalbuminuria and other putative risk factors for mortality in insulin-dependent diabetic patients were evaluated in a 10 year prospective study. We identified 939 insulin-dependent diabetic patients; 593 patients had normoalbuminuria (< or = 30 mg/24 h), 181 had microalbuminuria (31-299 mg/24 h), and 165 had macroalbuminuria (> or = 300 mg/24 h). Fifteen percent of patients with normoalbuminuria, 25% with microalbuminuria and 44% with macroalbuminuria at baseline died during follow-up (p < or = 0.01). Significant predictors of all-cause mortality were male sex, age, height, smoking, low social class, urinary albumin excretion, hypertension, serum creatinine, and HbA1c. Age, smoking, microalbuminuria, overt nephropathy, and hypertension were significant predictors of cardiovascular mortality. The mortality in patients with microalbuminuria was only slightly increased compared to patients with normoalbuminuria. Median survival after onset of overt diabetic nephropathy was 13.9 (11.8 to 17.2) years. Abnormally elevated urinary albumin excretion and other potentially modifiable risk factors such as hypertension, smoking, poor glycaemic control and social class predicts increased mortality in insulin-dependent diabetic patients.

The association between self-reported alcohol intake and the risk of future liver disease was studied in a population-based prospective cohort of 13,285 men and women aged 30-79 years. Diagnoses indicating alcoholic liver disease (n = 261) or cirrhosis (n = 124) were obtained from the Danish National Health Registers. The cumulated observation time was 130,558 person-years. A dose-dependent increase in risk of developing liver disease was observed with increasing alcohol intake, with the steepest increase among women. At an alcohol intake of 7-13 beverages per week for women and 14-27 beverages per week for men the relative risk was significantly greater than 1. Women had a significantly higher relative risk of developing alcohol related liver disease than men for any given level of alcohol intake. In the general population, self-reported current alcohol intake is a good predictor of the future risk of alcoholic liver disease.

The aim of this follow-up study was to assess whether slightly elevated urinary albumin excretion, i.e., microalbuminuria, precedes development of atherosclerotic vascular disease in IDDM. Out of 259 IDDM-patients 30 developed vascular disease during 2,457 person-years. Microalbuminuria was significantly predictive of vascular disease (hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) 1.06 (1.02-1.18) per 5 mg/24 hours increase in urinary albumin excretion; p = 0.002). The predictive effect was independent of age, sex, blood pressure, tobacco smoking, serum concentrations of total-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, sialic acid, and von Willebrand factor, and of haemoglobin A1c, insulin dose, diabetes duration, and diabetic nephropathy (hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) 1.04 (1.01-1.08) per 5 mg/24 hours increase in urinary albumin excretion; p = 0.03). It is concluded that slightly elevated urinary albumin excretion is an independent predictor of atherosclerotic vascular disease in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

The impact of microalbuminuria and macroalbuminuria on mortality was evaluated prospectively in 328 Caucasian patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) followed for five years. One hundred and ninety-one patients with normoalbuminuria (albumin excretion rate (AER) < 30 mg/24 h), 86 patients with microalbuminuria (AER 30-299 mg/24 h), and 51 patients with macroalbuminuria (AER > or = 300 mg/24 h) all less than 66 years old at start of the study were followed from 1987 until death or until 1 January 1993. Eight percent of patients with normoalbuminuria, 20% of patients with microalbuminuria, and 35% of patients with macroalbuminuria had died, predominantly from cardiovascular disease. Significant predictors of all-cause mortality included preexisting coronary heart disease, AER, HbA1c level and age. Significant predictors of cardiovascular mortality included preexisting coronary heart disease, macroalbuminuria, HbA1c level and systolic blood pressure. Abnormally elevated urinary albumin excretion and poor glycaemic control indicate a substantially increased all-cause, mainly cardiovascular, mortality risk in NIDDM patients.

Alcoholic ketoacidosis is an acute metabolic disorder that occurs in ethanol abusers who because of gastritis or other concurrent illness stop eating and drinking and vomit repeatedly. This causes dehydration and ketoacidosis with little or no hyperglycaemia and glucosuria. A case of severe alcoholic ketoacidosis is presented and the literature on alcoholic ketoacidosis is reviewed.

The aim of the study was to examine the association between self-reported alcohol intake and subsequent mortality from all causes, and to examine if the effect of alcohol intake on the risk of death was modified by sex, age, body mass index, and smoking habits. In a prospective population study of 7,234 women and 6,051 men aged 30-79 years alcohol- and tobacco consumption and body mass index were assessed in the period 1976-1978, and the population was followed until 1.1.1988 for mortality. A U-shaped curve described the relation between alcohol intake and mortality. The nadir of the risk function was observed at one to six beverages per week (relative risk set at 1.00). Abstainers had a relative risk of 1.37 (95% confidence intervals: 1.20-1.56), whereas those drinking more than 70 beverages per week had a relative risk of 2.29 (1.75-3.00). Among the drinkers, the risk was significantly higher than 1 only among those drinking more than 42 beverages per week. Neither sex, age, body mass index, nor smoking significantly modified the risk function. Our findings suggest that simple messages about the benefits of total abstinence may not be appropriate.

The concept of microalbuminuria is reviewed. Measuring the urinary albumin excretion rate and testing for microalbuminuria is well established in the control and treatment of patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Microalbuminuria predicts nephropathy and early cardiovascular death. In the presence of microalbuminuria, frequent examinations are warranted for early detection of retinopathy, hypertension and for optimizing the glycaemic control. In patients with non-insulin dependent diabetes, the independent value of microalbuminuria as a cardiovascular risk factor is not yet clarified. The urinary albumin excretion rate should be measured at diagnosis, because the indications are that presence of microalbuminuria reinforces the urge to intervene against other well-documented cardiovascular risk-factors (hypertension, dyslipidemia, tobacco and obesity). In the non-diabetic population there is accumulating evidence that an elevated urinary albumin excretion rate is associated with early cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Large scale cross-sectional and prospective studies are needed in order to further clarify the role of microalbuminuria as an independent risk factor in the background population.

Microalbuminuria, defined as a urinary albumin excretion rate of 20-200 micrograms/min, predicts diabetic nephropathy and cardiovascular disease in diabetic patients. An increased urinary albumin excretion rate is probably also associated with cardiovascular disease in non-diabetic subjects. Thus, screening for microalbuminuria is of major importance. A semi-quantitative urinary dipstick method, Micral-Test, has been developed for this purpose. In a urine sample collected overnight from each of 1359 subjects the Micral-Test was evaluated with a quantitative ELISA-method as the standard. Sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic specificity in detecting microalbuminuria was 92, 58 and 12% respectively. The prevalence of microalbuminuria was 5.6%. In conclusion, the Micral-Test is highly sensitive in detecting microalbuminuria, but at the expense of a relatively high number of false positive tests.

The epidemiological aging research has the descriptive task of characterizing the phenomena of aging and their consequences: illness, disability, handicap, and death--in defined population groups and comparing these groups. The other closely related task is analytical epidemiology, which searches for predictive or causal factors: traits, events or conditions of the aging phenomena. Special problems for this research are created by the facts that exposure to the causal factors often may be assumed to have taken place long time before the aging process becomes apparent, that the causal factors may act on cumulative basis over long time, that the effects may be irreversible, and that the factors may no longer play a role at advanced age. The possible role of genetic factors, acting alone or in combination with environmental factors, must be considered and elucidated by special epidemiological methods. The rapid advances in molecular biology raise expectations about epidemiological utilization providing much more precise assessment of the genetic contribution to the aging phenomena, which also will improve the outlook of identification of environmental factors, particularly when there is a gene-environment interaction. The results of these studies will contribute to prevention and treatment of the health problems related to aging.

A total of 195 consecutive patients with acute myocardial infarction were examined and risk classified (low or middle/high risk) on the fifth day by two physicians. These two physicians employed two different sets of criteria: conventional clinical examination compared with 2-D echocardiographic assessment of the wall motion of the left ventricle (wall motion index, WMI). Both physicians concluded their examination by determination of a theoretical time for discharge. By design this was on the 5th-7th days for low risk patients by echocardiography, while low risk patients by clinical criteria are normally discharged on the 7th to 8th days. The most sensitive method of identifying the low risk patients was achieved by combining the clinical examination with echocardiographic WMI determination. In this manner, a total of 104 (53%) low risk patients could be identified. A potential saving of 18% of the total duration of hospitalization could be calculated from the two theoretical times of discharge for the total population. All of the patients in this study could be assessed by echocardiography which provided valuable information and thus may be implemented in the routine treatment of acute myocardial infarction.

The pump function of the left ventricle was characterized by means of early echocardiographic determination of the motion of the ventricular walls (wall motion index, WMI) in a consecutive unselected series of 195 patients with acute myocardial infarction. The pump function, WMI, was related to one-year mortality after infarction. The patients were subdivided prospectively into three risk groups (low, middle and high) depending on WMI. One-year mortality in the three groups were 2%, 34% and 37%, respectively (p less than 0.0001). Patients with previous infarcts had significantly lower WMI and greater one-year mortality than patients with first infarct (p less than 0.001 and less than 0.05, respectively). Among patients with first infarct with inferior localization, significantly higher WMI and lower one-year mortality were found than with anterior localization (p less than 0.001 and = 0.15, respectively, (NS)). Women had significantly higher one-year mortality than men (30.2% compared with 16.9% (p less than 0.04)) although this was reflected by a corresponding difference in WMI. Regardless of sex, age, localization of the infarct and signs of residual ischaemia, patients who were allocated to the low risk group solely on the basis of WMI, had particularly good prognoses. Among patients with more extensive myocardial damage, WMI less than or equal to 1.3, other risk factors probably played a greater role.