Table 2.
Summary of brain-heart clinical assessments and apparatus
| Assessments | 2008–09 | 2011–12 |
|---|---|---|
| Medical history & related questionnaires: | √ | √ |
| Duration of stay, education, marital status, alive family members, health (cardiometabolic, inflammation, depression, renal, arthritis, cancer, reproduction), sleep apnoea, ambulatory & dietary diary, mental stress perception | ||
| Feedback of results (incl. referrals and incident findings): | √ | √ |
| Individual & group | ||
| Chronic medications | ||
| Nervous system, kidney, hypertension, arrhythmia, diabetes, coagulants, hormones, inflammation, analgesics, depression/anxiety, proton pump, epilepsy, supplements | √ | √ |
| Lifestyle | ||
| Objective & self-reported smoking & alcohol habits | √ | √ |
| Diet, standardized dinner & breakfast | √ | √ 24-h |
| Anthropometry (height, body mass, waist and neck circumferences) | √ | √ |
| Number of times measured (Invicta Stadiometer IP 1465, Precision Health Scale, A & D Company Holtain 7-mm wide metal tape) | 3 | 3 |
| Objective total energy expenditure (Actical® Mini Mitter, Bend OR; 7-days Actiheart, CamNtech Ltd) | √ | √ 7-day |
| Changes in lifestyle habits over time | √ | |
| Psychosocial battery | ||
| Measures with known heritability: life orientation, personality | √ | X |
| Predictors of development/worsening of hypertension: coping, depression, cognitive distress | √ | √ |
| Measures which could moderate the effects of environment: fortitude, mental health, self-regulation, job stress | √ | √ |
| Cardiovascular assessment | ||
| Resting BP & 12-lead ECG (Riester CE 0124® &1.3M ™ Littman® II S.E. Stethoscope 2205; Finometer, Finapres Medical Systems®; NORAV PC-ECG 1200®) | a√ | √ |
| 24-h ambulatory BP & -ECG (Cardiotens® & Cardiovisions 1.19®, Meditech) | √ | √ |
| Biochemical assessments (trained technicians; accredited laboratories) | ||
| Bodily fluids sampling times (urine, blood, saliva) | √ | √ |
| Serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor | √ | √ |
| Serum cotinine (smoking) and liver enzymes (alcohol misuse) | √ | √ |
| Differentiated blood count | Χ | √ |
| Serum electrolytes | √ | √ |
| Serum oxidative stress | a√ | √ |
| Citrate haemostasis | a√ | √ |
| Plasma inflammatory profile, | √ | √ |
| Plasma essential amino acids | √ | √ |
| Plasma renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, endothelial function (L-arginine-NO synthase) | a√ | √ |
| Urine/blood/saliva HPA & SAM axis hormones, serotonin | a√ | √ hair |
| Whole blood HIV status (PMC Medical, Daman, India), Pareekshak test (BHAT Bio-Tech, Bangalore, India) | √ | √ |
| Retinal vessel analysis | X | √ |
| Static & dynamic measures (incl. dynamic saliva stress hormone responses) (DVA PLUS 12100003®, Imedos) | ||
| Intraocular eye pressure | X | √ |
| (TONO-PEN-AVIA® Applanation Tonometer CE 0120, Reichert) | ||
| Ultrasound carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) | b√ | √ |
| (Sonosite Micromaxx®, SonoSite Inc., Bothell, WA) | ||
| DNA genome (PCR based) | ||
| Nuclear & mitochondrial genome sequencing | √ | |
| SNP analyses, epigenetics | √ | √ |
| Telomere length | √ | |
| Metabolism | a√ | √ |
| Serum lipogram & insulin, NaF glucose, urine metabonomics | ||
| Renal function | √ | √ 24-h |
| Serum creatinine & 8-h urine |
X, no measures.
aIncluding sympathetic nervous system (SNS) responses (1-min exposure to mental stress (Cold Pressor & Stroop Colour-Word-Conflict tests).
bCIMT, plaque score and stenosis at optimal angles obtained from baseline.17