bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Use of oral contraceptives
Authors: Poulter N. R. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis chapter reviews studies on the link between oral contraceptive (OC) use and risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). The small absolute excess risk of a myocardial infarction (MI) due to the use of combined OCs should be balanced against the risks and benefits associated with the use of alternative forms of contraception and of the effect of OCs on other CV end points, on risk of, or protection against, certain forms of neoplasia, on quality of life, and ultimately on overall morbidity and mortality. The users of OCs are the only ones who can ultimately make this decision, but despite the small absolute risks involved, given the young age of OC users and the iatrogenic background to any complications induced, it is incumbent upon the medical research community to objectively evaluate the various pieces of information necessary to make such judgements.
Mental illness and coronary heart disease
Authors: Stansfeld S. , Rasul F. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis chapter describes the evidence linking mental illness and CHD, the associations between mental illness and risk factors for CHD, and the potential mechanisms through which mental illness may affect the heart. There is evidence that (a) depression is an independent predictor of CHD morbidity and mortality; (b) exhaustion is a predictor in the eighteen months before cardiac events; (c) phobic anxiety predicts sudden cardiac death; and (d) depression post-myocardial infarction (MI) predicts increased mortality rates.
Psychophysiology
Authors: Steptoe A. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis chapter summarizes applications of psychophysiological methods in coronary heart disease (CHD) epidemiology. It demonstrates that psychophysiological pathways are biologically plausible, and can be studied in ways that illuminate CHD aetiology. The contributions of psychophysiological processes within the multiple determinants of CHD risk are presented in a schematic model at the end of the chapter.
Chronic infection and circulating markers of inflammation
Authors: Whincup P. , Danesh J. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis chapter provides a critical review of the available epidemiological and clinical evidence on CHD and markers of persistent infection and of inflammation. Epidemiological and clinical data on specific persistent infective agents and CHD is generally weak and inconclusive. Although larger and more rigorous studies now suggest that it is unlikely that chronic infection with Helicobacter pylori, Chlamydia pneumoniae, or CMV are strong determinants of CHD, available studies have been unable to confirm or exclude the existence of any modest associations.
Air pollution
Authors: Pope III C. A. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis chapter reviews studies of day-to-day changes in acute exposure to air pollutants, including studies of early episodes of extremely elevated air pollution, more recent episodes with only moderately elevated concentrations of pollution, and results of numerous daily time-series studies of cardiovascular mortality and hospitalizations. It reviews results of recent cohort-based studies that have evaluated mortality risk and chronic, long-term exposure to air pollution. It then discusses the growing number of studies that attempt to look at specific physiological end points that may be part of the pathophysiological pathway linking cardiopulmonary mortality and particulate air pollution. Epidemiological studies have shown that air pollution, especially the fine particulate matter common to many urban and industrial environments, is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease and mortality.
Seasonal variations in all-cause and cardiovascular mortality and the role of temperature
Authors: Toledano M. B. , Shaddick G. , Elliott P. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis chapter examines the relationship between ambient temperature and mortality or disease occurrence in adults, in particular from cardiovascular diseases. Epidemiological investigation provides evidence for a relationship between ambient temperature and mortality, particularly from cardiovascular and respiratory causes. The association is consistent across different study designs and methodologies, countries worldwide, and varying time periods, despite the use of routine data and their inherent inaccuracies. Whilst both hot and cold temperatures are associated with increased deaths, the effects of hot temperatures appear to reflect mainly short-term mortality displacement, whilst cold temperatures appear to have prolonged effects on mortality.
The developmental origins of coronary heart disease
Authors: Barker D. J. P. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis chapter discusses the developmental origins of coronary heart disease. The recent discovery that people who develop coronary heart disease (CHD) grew differently to other people during fetal life and childhood has led to a new ‘developmental’ model for the disease. Studies have shown an association between low birthweight and CHD. Low birthweight has also been shown to predict altered glucose tolerance in studies around the world.
Screening for type 2 diabetes
Authors: Johnston D. G. , Alberti K. G. M. M. , Godsland I. F. , Pierce M. , Shepperd S. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractMacrovascular disease is the major cause of premature death in diabetes. The age-adjusted mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) is 2-4 times higher than in the non-diabetic population. The major role of screening for diabetes is to diagnose it early to prevent or delay the complications. This chapter presents the arguments for and against screening for diabetes, and how this should be done.
The secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease
Authors: Anand S. S. , Lonn E. , Yusuf S. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractObservational studies and clinical trials have shown that lower levels of risk factors in patients with established cardiovascular disease (CVD) can substantially reduce their risk of suffering recurrent vascular events. Efforts directed towards reducing further CV events in patients with established CVD are known as secondary prevention. This chapter reviews the epidemiological evidence for risk factor control, lifestyle changes, and medical strategies in the secondary prevention setting. Mainstays of secondary prevention include attention to blood pressure lowering, glucose control, tobacco cessation, and optimizing an individual's cholesterol using proven medical therapies, together with sound dietary and physical activity programs, and regular use of antiplatelet agents.
Smoke-free policies are an effective way to reduce heart disease rapidly
Authors: Fichtenberg C. M. , Glantz S. A. 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
This chapter discusses the impact of tobacco control campaigns on heart disease mortality and morbidity, focusing on the California tobacco control programme. Smoking reduction is considered the quickest, most effective prevention strategy for heart disease morbidity and mortality. The most effective components of tobacco control programmes are taxation of cigarettes, passage of clean air legislation, and media campaigns focusing on tobacco industry manipulation and second-hand smoke.
Nutrition policy: national strategies for dietary change
Authors: James W. P. T. , Rigby N. J. 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
This chapter considers national strategies for dietary change aimed at preventing cardiovascular and other adult chronic diseases such as cancer. It argues that despite the emphasis on the need for appropriate diets to prevent cardiovascular disease, the practical changes to improve diets on a global basis have been very modest. We have now entered a phase when global industrial interests are so powerful and focused on maintaining profits that governments are going to find it very difficult to promote radical dietary changes. The recent emphasis on individual responsibility and the importance of the free market further limits the likelihood of governments accepting the importance of major public health initiatives to alter the toxic environment affecting most societies in the world.
Lessening inequalities and effecton coronary heart disease
Authors: Whitehead M. , Marmot M. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis chapter starts by summarizing the evidence on the social patterning of coronary heart disease (CHD), and then outlines some of the main pathways leading to the marked social gradient in disease. An understanding of these pathways and mechanisms is needed to devise plausible and theoretically sound strategies to intervene along the pathways. The second half of the chapter applies an equity perspective in a discussion of the effectiveness of these strategies, with a particular focus on the potential to reduce differential exposure, vulnerability, and consequences of CHD.
Contributions to change: treatment
Authors: Tunstall-Pedoe H. 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
This chapter considers the impact of treatment on cardiovascular disease. It argues that for the first two decades of the last half century, it is unlikely that treatment had much impact on coronary heart disease which followed its own natural history. The development of powerful new pharmacological agents along with the discovery of new uses for old ones, coupled with really large randomized controlled trials (RCTs), enabled effective treatments to be introduced, firstly in the acute phase, but probably more effectively for secondary prevention.
Community change and the role of public health
Authors: Puska P. 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
Strong medical evidence exists on the important role of some behavioural risk factors in the prevention of cardiovascular and many other chronic diseases. Community-based preventive programmes start from the fact that people's behaviours are strongly determined by their social and physical environment. Thus, the intervention target is the community and not the individual. This chapter discusses some relevant theories as well as the basic principles of planning, implementation, and evaluation of community programmes.
Historical and policy approaches
Authors: Berridge Virginia 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis chapter develops a historical understanding of “health promotion” at three different levels. First, it looks at how the term “health promotion” fits into changing definitions of public health and the rationales for those definitions since the 18th century. It then examines a more short-term form of historical evaluation, looking at how the “contemporary history” of recent health promotion policies can also provide a form of evaluation. Finally, the chapter addresses the question of why we are talking about evaluation at all.
Economic evaluation of health promotion interventions
Authors: Stevens Warren 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
This chapter focuses on economic approaches to evaluation. It begins with brief discussion of why we should not expect infinite resources at our disposal, and the optimization of benefits with limited resources. It then considers the measurement of cost benefits, dealing with uncertainty around measurement, and the effect of this uncertainty on transferring results from one location to another. The chapter presents a case study that looks at the introduction of bed nets in Gambia and concludes with a discussion of some of the more common debates in the field.
Evaluating interventions
Authors: Britton Annie , Thorogood Margaret 
Published: September 2009

AbstractAn experimental study is the standard method for evaluating clinical effectiveness. In such a study, a group of people exposed to an intervention is compared with another group that has not been exposed. There are a range of study designs with various advantages and disadvantages. This chapter discusses these different designs and how the most appropriate design must be chosen. It considers some of the strengths and weaknesses of randomized controlled trials and describes some other forms of experimental design used in health promotion.
Evaluating sensitive interventions
Authors: Jewkes Rachel 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
This chapter focuses on the difficulties in evaluating a sensitive and complicated topic: intimate partner violence. Topics discussed include challenges of evaluating design, measuring women's experiences of intimate partner violence, and evaluating interventions to reduce men's use of intimate partner violence. It argues that evaluations must explore multiple forms of intimate partner violence and consider the subjective experiences of women as well as more objective measures of frequency and severity.
Evaluating community development initiatives in health promotion
Authors: Jewkes Rachel 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
This chapter focuses on the evaluation of community development initiatives. Community development initiatives are characterized by multifaceted interventions, seeking participation, and joint working in the project as a whole as well as in the constituent activities. Evaluation of these projects must also be multifaceted and tailored to each part of the broader initiative. Evaluations should include the impact of participation on major actors in the stakeholder group, and should be undertaken with references to five questions: Who participates? What is the nature of that participation? Whose agenda dominates? How does participation impact in participants from all sectors? How does the participatory process impact on non-participants in the community?
Redistribution of cerebral functions following primary visual cortex damage during infancy
Authors: Lomber Stephen G. , Payne Bertram R. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThe consequences of focal injury to the cerebral cortex in the immature brain differ from the consequences caused by similar damage of the mature cerebrum. In the immature brain, some distant neurons are more vulnerable to the injury, whereas others survive and expand their projections to bypass damaged or degenerated structures. The net result is the sparing of neural processing and behaviors. This chapter summarizes both the modifications in the visual pathways resulting from primary visual cortex damage sustained early in development, and the neural and behavioral processes that are spared or permanently impaired.
Behavioral and neural alterations following V1 damage in immature primates
Authors: Rodman Hillary R. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis chapter describes the behavioral deficits observed following lesions of the primary visual cortex in both mature and infant macaque monkeys. Overall, the consequences of such lesions are far more severe in adulthood than during development. The chapter also presents anatomical evidence that alterations to the thalamocortical pathways may explain the greater behavioral abilities identified following visual cortex lesions incurred during development, but not maturity.
Neurochemical changes underlying motion perception plasticity after lesions of extrastriate visual cortex in adult cats
Authors: Huxlin Krystel R. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis chapter examines how lesions of the cat lateral suprasylvian (LS) extrastriate region initially produces behavior deficits specific to complex moving stimuli. It describes how visual training in the impaired hemifield shows that specific and active training is needed for functional recovery following the lesions. Lesions induce a down-regulation in activity within supragranular layers of area 18, which leads to alterations in the neurochemistry of specific sets of LS-projecting pyramidal cells and the inter-neurons that surround them.
A time-line of auditory cortical reorganization after noise-induced hearing loss
Authors: Eggermont Jos J. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis chapter examines the reorganization of the tonotopic map in cat primary auditory cortex (AI) following noise-induced hearing loss. It shows that the remapping is due to previously inhibited excitatory inputs and may contribute to the hypersensitivity of bordering frequencies and to the occurrence of tinnitus.
Development, maintenance and plasticity of tonotopic projections from cochlea to auditory cortex
Authors: Harrison Robert V. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractPatterns of neural activity generated at peripheral sensory organs are influential in the development, maintenance, and plastic change to central brain areas. This chapter explores these mechanisms in the auditory system, specifically in the context of cochleotopic (tonotopic) projections up to cortex. It briefly reviews a series of studies in which tonotopic map reorganization is observed as a result of experimental changes to patterns of neural input from the cochlea. It discusses some of the practical (clinical) implications of new knowledge on auditory system plasticity. Finally, it extends discussions of brain plasticity to consider not just neurons, but also other cortical components such as glial cells and blood vasculature.
Recruitment of the auditory cortex in congenitally deaf cats
Authors: Kral Andrej , Hartmann Rainer , Klinke Rainer 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis chapter investigates experience-based changes in the auditory system using the congenitally deaf white cat model. Through the use of cochlear implants, which permit acoustic experience, the auditory cortex of the congenitally deaf cat cortex is shown to be capable to modifying itself to resemble that of hearing cats.
Reorganization of somatosensory and motor cortex following peripheral nerve or spinal cord injury in primates
Authors: Kaas Jon H. , Rothemund Yvonne 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
Damage to peripheral nerves or the central axons of those nerves in the spinal cord disrupts the normal flow of information to the brain, and the output of the brain via motor neuron projections to muscles. These lesions have immediate consequences for sensory processing and motor control, and start a process of compensation first involving rebalancing of inhibition and excitation in central circuits, followed by an array of changes in gene expression, neurotransmitters and receptor expression, synaptic adjustments and neuron growth and retraction. The changes, commonly referred to as reorganizations, often promote partial recoveries, but they can lead to perception errors and movement disorders. This chapter focuses on reorganizations that have been experimentally studied in monkeys, and compares the results with those that have been obtained in noninvasive studies in humans. The emphasis is on sensory and motor cortex, where reorganizations have most extensively been explored, but subcortical alterations related to cortical reorganizations are also reviewed.
Cortical reprogramming
Authors: Flor Herta , Koeppe Caroline 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThe previous chapters showed the malleability of the adult cortex is and how it adapts to injury and environmental challenges. However, it is difficult to assess the functional significance of cortical plasticity in animals. In humans, psychophysical testing and the systematic evaluation of self-reported sensation can shed light on perceptual phenomena that are associated with large scale plastic cortical changes. This chapter examines the functional significance of plastic changes in somatosensory and motor cortex and presents an overview of the results of human studies that tested perceptual correlates. In addition to the description of the induced functional changes, the chapter also addresses the potential implications for rehabilitation.
Reprogramming cortex
Authors: Newton Jessica R. , Majewska Ania K. , Ellsworth Charlene , Sur Mriganka 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
This chapter discusses how reprogramming the brain, by inducing visual inputs to innervate the auditory pathway, can reveal the relative influence of intrinsic and extrinsic factors in determining the function and organization of sensory cortex and thalamic nuclei. It describes its effect on retinal innervation, its physiological and behavioral consequences, and its potential influence on cortical circuitry.
Sound localization in early-blind human subjects
Authors: Saint-Amour Dave , Guillemot Jean-Paul , Lassonde Maryse , Lepore Franco 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThe idea that early-blind subjects may be able to compensate their loss of vision by developing a greater efficiency in the use of their other sensory modalities — primarily touch and audition — was expressed more than two centuries ago by Diderot in his ‘Lettre sur les Aveugles’ (1749). This chapter explores this notion by asking whether or not blind people develop compensatory capacities that render them more proficient in the processing of auditory stimuli than sighted people. It then discusses the possible mechanisms by which intermodal compensation may be achieved.
The longitudinal study of spatial cognitive development in children with pre- or perinatal focal brain injury
Authors: Stiles Joan , Moses Pamela , Paul Brianna M. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThis chapter discusses the perceptual effects of pre- or perinatal lesions. It shows that when subjects were asked to perform a task the outcome may appear normal, however, procedural affects may be present. Imaging techniques are used to study anatomical and functional changes related to recovered behavior.
Critical Appraisal of Epidemiological Studies and Clinical Trials
Authors: Elwood Mark 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
This book presents a logical system of critical appraisal, and facilitates studies to be evaluated and carried out effectively. This system emphasizes the central importance of cause and effect relationships. Its great strength is that it is applicable to a wide range of issues, and both to intervention trials and observational studies. This system unifies the often different approaches used in epidemiology, health services research, clinical trials, and evidence-based medicine, starting from a logical consideration of cause and effect. The book looks at the issues of study design, selection of subjects, bias, confounding, and the place of statistical methods. Systematic reviews, meta-analysis, and the applications of this logic to evidence-based medicine, knowledge-based health care, and health practice and policy are discussed. Current and often controversial examples are used, including screening for prostate cancer, publication bias in psychiatry, public health issues in developing countries, and conflicts between observational studies and randomized trials. Statistical issues are explained clearly without complex mathematics, and the most useful methods are summarized in the appendix. The final chapters give six applications of the critical appraisal of major studies: randomized trials of medical treatment and prevention, a prospective and a retrospective cohort study, a small matched case-control study, and a large case-control study. In these chapters, sections of the original papers are reproduced and the original studies placed in context by a summary of current developments.
Study designs which can demonstrate and test causation
Authors: Elwood J. Mark 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part describes the key study designs used in clinical and epidemiological studies of causation. The designs are defined by two features: whether the study subjects are selected by their exposure or by their outcome, and the time dimensions of the study. The second part describes the key strengths and weaknesses of each type of study, with many examples. Self test questions are provided at the end of the chapter.