Higher alcohol intake may modify the association between mammographic density and breast cancer: An analysis of three case-control studies

Alcohol consumption and mammographic density are established risk factors for breast cancer. This study examined whether the association of mammographic density with breast cancer varies by alcohol intake. Mammographic density was assessed in digitized images for 1207 cases and 1663 controls from three populations (Japan, Hawaii, California) using a computer-assisted method. Associations were estimated by logistic regression. When comparing ever to never drinking, mean density was similar and consumption was not associated with breast cancer risk. However, within the Hawaii/Japan subset, women consuming >1 drink/day had a non-significantly elevated relative risk compared to never drinkers. Also in the Hawaii/Japan population, alcohol intake only modified the association between mammographic density and breast cancer in women consuming >1 drink/day (p(interaction)=0.05) with significant risk estimates of 3.65 and 6.58 for the 2nd and 3rd density tertiles as compared to 1.57 and 1.61 for never drinkers in Hawaii/Japan. Although these findings suggest a stronger association between mammographic density and breast cancer risk for alcohol consumers, the small number of cases requires caution in interpreting the results.     

Acquired strabismus following cosmetic blepharoplasty

The purpose of this study was to report on 12 patients with acquired strabismus following cosmetic blepharoplasty and to identify patterns of strabismus related to the surgical procedure. Clinical ophthalmologic examinations were performed to specifically clarify the type of strabismus. Operative reports of the blepharoplasty procedures were reviewed. Patients were followed for a minimum of 3 months after the blepharoplasty procedure before surgical intervention was considered. Operative findings at corrective strabismus surgery were noted and an attempt was made to correlate these findings with the clinical ophthalmologic examination and the blepharoplasty surgical procedure. Twelve cases of persistent vertical strabismus occurred following blepharoplasty procedures. Five patients had clinical findings consistent with the diagnosis of acquired superior oblique palsy; one of these five patients also showed signs of an acquired Brown syndrome. Seven patients developed an incomitant vertical deviation consistent with an inferior rectus paresis. Strabismus occurred after conventional lower lid, upper lid, and four-lid blepharoplasty with or without laser blepharoplasty. Acquired strabismus accompanied by persistent diplopia may occur as a complication of cosmetic blepharoplasty. Extraocular muscle damage resulting in either superior oblique muscle palsy or inferior rectus paresis was noted in these patients. In some cases, patients with inferior rectus paresis also showed mechanical restriction to upward rotation of the globe.     

Alcohol Consumption-Related Metabolites in Relation to Colorectal Cancer and Adenoma: Two Case-Control Studies Using Serum Biomarkers

Alcohol is a known carcinogen that may be associated with colorectal cancer. However, most epidemiologic studies assess alcoholic beverage consumption using self-reported data, leading to potential exposure misclassification. Biomarkers of alcohol consumption may provide an alternative, complementary approach that reduces misclassification and incorporates individual differences in alcohol metabolism. Therefore, we evaluated the relationship between previously identified alcohol consumption-related metabolites and colorectal cancer and adenoma using serum metabolomics data from two studies. Data on colorectal cancer were obtained from a nested case-control study of 502 US adults (252 cases, 250 controls) within the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial. Data on colorectal adenoma were obtained from a case-control study of 197 US adults (120 cases, 77 controls) from the Navy Colon Adenoma Study. Unconditional multivariable logistic regression models were fit to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for eight alcohol consumption-related metabolites identified in a previous analysis: ethyl glucuronide; 4-androstene-3beta,17beta-diol disulfate 1; 5-alpha-androstan-3beta,17beta-diol disulfate; 16-hydroxypalmitate; bilirubin (E,Z or Z,E); cyclo (-leu-pro); dihomo-linoleate (20:2n6); and palmitoleate (16:1n7). We found no clear association between these alcohol consumption-related metabolites and either endpoint. However, we did observe an inverse association between cyclo (-leu-pro) and colorectal adenoma that was only observed in the highest metabolite quantile (OR _{4th vs. 1st Quantile} = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.12–0.78; P-trend = 0.047), but no association for colorectal cancer. In conclusion, there were no adverse associations between alcohol consumption-related metabolites and colorectal cancer or adenoma.     

Alcohol consumption and mortality from all causes,coronary heart disease,and stroke: results from a prospective cohort study of Scottish men with 21 years of follow up

ObjectivesTo relate alcohol consumption to mortality.DesignProspective cohort study.Setting27 workplaces in the west of Scotland.Participants5766 men aged 35-64 when screened in 1970-3 who answered questions on their usual weekly alcohol consumption.ResultsRisk for all cause mortality was similar for non-drinkers and men drinking up to 14 units a week. Mortality risk then showed a graded association with alcohol consumption (relative rate compared with non-drinkers 1.34 (95% confidence interval 1.14 to 1.58) for 15-21 units a week, 1.49 (1.27 to 1.75) for 22-34 units, 1.74 (1.47 to 2.06) for 35 or more units). Adjustment for risk factors attenuated the increased relative risks, but they remained significantly above 1 for men drinking 22 or more units a week. There was no strong relation between alcohol consumption and mortality from coronary heart disease after adjustment. A strong positive relation was seen between alcohol consumption and risk of mortality from stroke, with men drinking 35 or more units having double the risk of non-drinkers, even after adjustment.ConclusionsThe overall association between alcohol consumption and mortality is unfavourable for men drinking over 22 units a week, and there is no clear evidence of any protective effect for men drinking less than this.

Key messages

• Results from a large cohort study of employed Scottish men showed different relations between alcohol consumption and mortality than previous studies
• There was no relation between mortality from coronary heart disease and alcohol consumption once adjustments were made for potential confounding factors
• There was a strong relation with mortality from stroke; drinkers of over 35 units a week had double the risk of mortality compared with non-drinkers
• Some but not all of this could be accounted for by alcohol related increases in blood pressure
• Overall, risk of all cause mortality was higher in men drinking 22 or more units a week

     

Adolescent Self-Organization and Adult Smoking and Drinking over Fifty Years of Follow-Up: The British 1946 Birth Cohort

Variations in markers of adolescent self-organization predict a range of economic and health-related outcomes in general population studies. Using a population-based birth cohort study we investigated associations between adolescent self-organization and two common factors over adulthood influencing health, smoking and alcohol consumption. The MRC National Survey of Health and Development (the British 1946 birth cohort) was used to test associations between a dimensional measure of adolescent self-organization derived from teacher ratings, and summary longitudinal measures of smoking and alcohol consumption over the ensuing five decades. Multinomial regression models were adjusted for sex, adolescent emotional and conduct problems, occupational social class of origin, childhood cognition, educational attainment and adult occupational social class. With all covariates adjusted, higher adolescent self-organization was associated with fewer smoking pack years, although not with quitting; there was no association with alcohol consumption across adulthood (none or heavy compared with light to moderate). Adolescent self-organization appears to be protective against smoking, but not against heavy alcohol consumption. Interpretation of this differential effect should be embedded in an understanding of the social and sociodemographic context in which these health behaviours occur over time.     

Periconceptional maternal alcohol consumption and neural tube defects

BACKGROUND: Neural tube defects (NTD)s, which occur when the neural tube fails to close during early gestation, are some of the most common birth defects worldwide. Alcohol is a known teratogen and has been shown to induce NTDs in animal studies, although most human studies have failed to corroborate these results. Using data from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study, associations between maternal reports of periconceptional (1 month prior through 2 months postconception) alcohol consumption and NTDs were examined. METHODS: NTD cases and unaffected live born control infants, delivered from 1997 through 2005, were included. Interview reports of alcohol consumption (quantity, frequency, variability, and type) were obtained from 1223 case mothers and 6807 control mothers. Adjusted odds ratios (aOR)s and 95% confidence intervals were estimated using multivariable logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: For all NTDs combined, most aORs for any alcohol consumption, one or more binge episodes, and different type(s) of alcohol consumed were near unity or modestly reduced (≥0.7<aOR≤1.1) and were not statistically significant. Findings were similar for individual NTD subtypes. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest no elevated association between maternal periconceptional alcohol consumption and NTDs. Underreporting of alcohol consumption, due to negative social stigma associated with alcohol consumption during pregnancy, and limited reports for mothers with early pregnancy loss of a fetus with an NTD may have affected the estimated odds ratios. Future studies should aim to increase sample sizes for less prevalent subtypes, reduce exposure misclassification, and improve ascertainment offetal deaths and elective terminations. Birth Defects Research (Part A), 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Synergistic effect between alcohol consumption and familial susceptibility on lung cancer risk among Chinese men

We aimed to examine the effect of alcohol consumption on lung cancer risk stratified by smoking, and to explore whether the impact of alcohol was modified by familial susceptibility to cancer. We recruited 1208 male lung cancer incident cases and 1069 community referents during 2004–2006 and collected their lifetime history of alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, and family cancer history. Unconditional multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to estimate the adjusted odds ratio (OR). We tested multiplicative-scale interaction between exposures of interest and examined the additive-scale interaction using synergy index. A moderate association between frequent alcohol consumption and lung cancer was observed among men who had family cancer history (OR = 4.22, 95%CI: 2.46–7.23) after adjustment of smoking and other confounders, while the alcohol effect among men without family history was weak (OR = 1.24, 95%CI: 0.95–1.63) and it became no excess in the never smokers. We observed a consistent synergistic effect between alcohol drinking and family cancer history for all lung cancers and the adenocarcinoma, while there was no multiplicative-scale interaction between the exposures of interest (likelihood ratio test for interaction, p>0.05). Our study revealed a possible synergistic effect between alcohol consumption and familial susceptibility for lung cancer risk; however, this observed possible association needs to be confirmed by future larger analytic studies with more never smoking cases.     

Effects of smoking and alcohol consumption on vertebral deformity in the elderly--an epidemiological study

The aim of the study was to assess the role of smoking and alcohol consumption as possible risk factors for vertebral deformities in an elderly Croatian population sample. Data on smoking habit, alcohol consumption, body mass index, and overall life activity were collected in 425 randomly chosen community dwelling subjects. Radiographic morphometric method was used to assess vertebral deformities of thoracic and lumbar spine. Men smoked and drank significantly more than women. There was no association of either smoking status or number of cigarettes, or frequency of alcohol intake with prevalent vertebral deformities. There was a tendency of an increased risk of vertebral deformities in heavy drinkers (OR = 1.69; 95% CI = 0.98-2.91), and a reduced risk of these deformities in female regular drinkers (OR = 0.72; 95% CI = 0.14-3.66). Further studies in the Croatian population are needed to establish the association of smoking and alcohol consumption with vertebral deformities.     

Can alcohol consumption be an alternative treatment for fibromyalgia?

Treatment of chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia is challenging due to limitations of drug therapies. An initial exploration into the relationships between self-reported alcohol consumption, symptom severity, and quality of life for individuals with fibromyalgia sheds new light on plausible hypotheses and potential mechanisms of action for future research. Evidence suggests that alcohol consumption may improve social and psychological factors because of activity in the ascending and descending pain pathways in modulating gamma-aminobutyric acid neurotransmission. Further methodologically rigorous studies in this field to improve well-being of individuals with fibromyalgia are warranted.In a previous issue of Arthritis Research & Therapy, Kim and colleagues [1] reported the first study to examine the association between alcohol consumption, symptom severity, and quality of life of individuals with fibromyalgia (FM). Treatment of chronic pain conditions such as FM is challenging because the drug therapies currently available are expensive and associated with numerous limitations such as undesirable side effects and addiction or tolerance issues. Despite undergoing drug treatment, patients are often left with unrelieved pain, restricted mobility, and reduced physical function. Lifestyle interventions, including dietary modifications such as alcohol consumption, have gained popularity as explorations in symptom management.Several observational studies have examined the association between alcohol consumption and chronic pain conditions. In a prospective study, Bergman and colleagues [2] found that regular weekly or daily alcohol consumption is a significant protective factor for the development of chronic pain. Two case–control studies have also shown that moderate alcohol consumption correlates with a reduced risk of rheumatoid arthritis [3,4]. However, a systematic review of nine epidemiological studies has concluded that alcohol consumption is not associated with low back pain [5]. Kim and colleagues are the first to examine the association between alcohol consumption and FM symptom severity and quality of life. Among the 946 adult FM patients (94 % women, mean age of 49 years old) reporting low or moderate alcohol consumption (≤3 or >3 to 7 drinks per week), there was lower FM symptom severity and better quality-of-life scores compared with those who reported no alcohol consumption (non-drinkers). However, these associations were not observed in patients who were heavy drinkers (>7 drinks per week) compared with non-drinkers. Drinkers had higher education, less unemployment, lower body mass index, and lower frequency of opioid use than non-drinkers. Thus, their analyses were adjusted for these potential confounders.Because alcohol consumption consists of complex behaviors that intersect with many social, economic, psychological, and demographic factors, disentangling this complex web of relationships is a challenge. Interestingly, after exploring possible mechanisms for their findings, Kim and colleagues speculated that alcohol consumption may attenuate FM symptoms and improve quality of life by mediating psychological benefits and stress relief or by promoting factors associated with social integration. Another possible mechanism proposed is central nervous mediation via the modulating gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system. Several neurotransmitters (including GABA) in the ascending and descending pain pathways have been implicated in FM [6]. Thus, behavioral and pharmacological therapies that modulate or mimic the effects of GABA production can be promising for FM treatment.This initial exploration into the relationships between alcohol consumption, symptom severity, and quality of life for FM has posed a number of questions that need to be answered by future studies with stronger study designs. Kim and colleagues discussed limitations associated with cross-sectional study design, and we would like to underscore additional concerns relating to the potential for non-random misclassifications of alcohol consumption among FM patients with different levels of symptom severity or quality of life. Such information bias is not uncommon in cross-sectional studies providing data on both exposure and outcome variables from questionnaires. Because the questionnaires are administered at the same time in a cross-sectional study and relied on respondent recall, the measurement errors of exposure (that is, alcohol consumption) may be dependent on the measurement errors of the outcomes (that is, quality of life or FM symptoms). If such dependent bias occurs, the observed association between exposure and outcome is likely to be inflated [7]. Owing to lack of prior data demonstrating that such bias exists in cross-sectional studies of alcohol consumption and FM symptom severity, we provide a possible scenario to examine the potential impacts of dependent bias on this relationship. FM patients who on one occasion had more severe symptoms may in fact have consumed more alcohol to ameliorate symptoms and thus may have felt better (fewer symptoms) at the time of the survey, or FM patients with more severe symptoms at the time of the survey may have stopped drinking alcohol (thus no symptom relief) because of their symptoms. The impact of such dependent bias would result in an inflation of the ‘true’ association. Owing to cross-sectional design, this potential bias cannot be evaluated. In addition to the potential for dependent bias, patients with FM may be too embarrassed to reveal their ‘true’ alcohol intake level because of social desirability biases [8]. Such reporting bias [9], however, is likely to be random and independent of symptom severity. There is still great uncertainty in the study results; therefore, we agree with Kim and colleagues that these preliminary results should not be used as grounds for advising patients to drink alcohol.In sum, the study by Kim and colleagues sheds new light on plausible hypotheses and mechanisms to consider in future methodologically rigorous studies to improve the well-being of individuals with FM. Because it may not be feasible to randomize alcohol consumption in human subject research, methodologically rigorous prospective longitudinal studies are needed. Measuring alcohol consumption at different time points is essential in order to minimize dependent biases from patient-reported exposure and outcome measures.     

Laser blepharoplasty with transconjunctival orbicularis muscle/septum tightening and periocular skin resurfacing: a safe and advantageous technique

Carbon dioxide (CO2) laser blepharoplasty with orbicularis oculi muscle tightening and periorbital skin resurfacing is a safe procedure that produces excellent aesthetic results and diminishes the occurrence of complications associated with skin and muscle resection in the lower lid, particularly permanent scleral show and ectropion. The authors present a review of 196 cases of carbon dioxide laser blepharoplasty and periocular laser skin resurfacing performed at their center from April of 1994 to September of 1998. Of these cases, 113 patients underwent four-lid blepharoplasty, 59 underwent upper lid blepharoplasty only, and 24 underwent lower lid blepharoplasty only. Prophylactic lateral canthopexy was performed in 24 patients. Concomitant procedures (brow lift/rhytidectomy/rhinoplasty) were performed in 92 patients. The carbon dioxide laser blepharoplasty procedure resulted in no injuries to the globe, cornea, or eyelashes. Combined with laser tightening of the orbicularis oculi muscle and septum and periocular skin resurfacing, the transconjunctival approach to lower blepharoplasty preserves lower lid skin and muscle. Elimination of the traditional scalpel skin/muscle flap procedure results in a dramatically lower complication rate, particularly with regard to permanent ectropion and scleral show. Laser shrinkage of the orbicularis muscle and septum through the transconjunctival incision enables the correction of muscle aging changes such as orbicularis hypertrophy and malar festoons. The addition of periocular resurfacing enables the correction of skin aging changes of the eyelid that are not addressed by traditional scalpel blepharoplasty. In addition, lateral canthopexy constitutes an important adjunct to the laser blepharoplasty procedure for the correction of lower lid canthal laxity.     

The prevention and treatment of lower lid ectropion following blepharoplasty

Ectropion and scleral show are the most common complications following lower lid blepharoplasty. Certain conditions predispose patients to ectropion, and these should be evaluated. In some cases, the addition of a wedge tarsectomy or tarsal strip procedure to a blepharoplasty in association with careful technique and postoperative measures is important in prevention of postblepharoplasty ectropion. Postoperative ectropion should initially be treated conservatively with massage. This may be effective up to 6 months postoperatively. If conservative measures fail, the etiology of the ectropion should be addressed. Laxity of the tarsus and canthal ligaments benefit from a horizontal lid-shortening procedure. Where there is vertical shortening from excessive skin resection or scarring of the orbital septum, there should be release and grafting of the deficiency.     

Alcohol consumption and cognitive performance in a random sample of Australian soldiers who served in the Second World War.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between the average daily alcohol intake of older men in 1982 and cognitive performance and brain atrophy nine years later. SUBJECTS: Random sample of 209 Australian men living in the community who were veterans of the second world war. Their mean age in 1982 was 64.3 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: 18 standard neuropsychological tests measuring a range of intellectual functions. Cortical, sylvian, and vermian atrophy on computed tomography. RESULTS: Compared with Australian men of the same age in previous studies these men had sustained a high rate of alcohol consumption into old age. However, there was no significant correlation, linear or non-linear, between alcohol consumption in 1982 and results in any of the neuropsychological tests in 1991; neither was alcohol consumption associated with brain atrophy on computed tomography. CONCLUSION: No evidence was found that apparently persistent lifelong consumption of alcohol was related to the cognitive functioning of these men in old age.     

Perception of sweet taste is important for voluntary alcohol consumption in mice

To directly evaluate the association between taste perception and alcohol intake, we used three different mutant mice, each lacking a gene expressed in taste buds and critical to taste transduction: α-gustducin ( Gnat3 ), Tas1r3 or Trpm5 . Null mutant mice lacking any of these three genes showed lower preference score for alcohol and consumed less alcohol in a two-bottle choice test, as compared with wild-type littermates. These null mice also showed lower preference score for saccharin solutions than did wild-type littermates. In contrast, avoidance of quinine solutions was less in Gnat3 or Trpm5 knockout mice than in wild-type mice, whereas Tas1r3 null mice were not different from wild type in their response to quinine solutions. There were no differences in null vs. wild-type mice in their consumption of sodium chloride solutions. To determine the cause for reduction of ethanol intake, we studied other ethanol-induced behaviors known to be related to alcohol consumption. There were no differences between null and wild-type mice in ethanol-induced loss of righting reflex, severity of acute ethanol withdrawal or conditioned place preference for ethanol. Weaker conditioned taste aversion (CTA) to alcohol in null mice may have been caused by weaker rewarding value of the conditioned stimulus (saccharin). When saccharin was replaced by sodium chloride, no differences in CTA to alcohol between knockout and wild-type mice were seen. Thus, deletion of any one of three different genes involved in detection of sweet taste leads to a substantial reduction of alcohol intake without any changes in pharmacological actions of ethanol.     

Lifestyle factors associated with sex differences in Kaposi sarcoma incidence among adult black South Africans: A case-control study

Kaposi Sarcoma (KS) is endemic in several countries in Southern and Eastern Africa, relatively rare worldwide but a leading cancer among people living with HIV. KS has always been more common in adult males than females. We assessed the prevalence of known cancer modifying factors (parity, hormonal contraceptive use in females, sex-partners, smoking and alcohol consumption in both sexes), and their relationship to KS, and whether any of these could account for the unequal KS sex ratios. We calculated logistic regression case-control adjusted odds ratios (OR_adj), and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI), between KS and each of the modifying factors, using appropriate comparison controls. Controls were cancer types that had no known relationship to exposures of interest (infection or alcohol or smoking or contraceptive use). The majority of the 1275 KS cases were HIV positive (97%), vs. 15.7% in 10,309 controls. The risk of KS among those with HIV was high in males (OR_adj=116.70;95%CI=71.35–190.88) and females (OR_adj=93.91;95%CI=54.22–162.40). Among controls, the prevalence of smoking and alcohol consumption was five and three times higher in males vs. females. We found a positive association between KS and heavy vs. non-drinking (OR_adj=1.31;95%CI=1.03–1.67), and in current heavy vs. never smokers (OR_adj=1.82;95%CI=1.07–3.10). These associations remained positive for alcohol consumption (but with wider CIs) after stratification by sex, and restriction to HIV positive participants. We found no evidence of interactions of smoking and alcohol by sex. Smoking and alcohol consumption may provide a possible explanation for the KS sex differences, given both exposures are more common in men, but confounding and bias cannot be fully ruled out. The role smoking and alcohol play in relation to viral loads of HIV/KSHV, differences in immunological responses or other genetic differences between males and females warrant further studies.     

Lower eyelid blepharoplasty: analysis of indications and the treatment of 100 patients

Traditionally, lower lid blepharoplasty has been confined to a choice of skin or skin-muscle flap transcutaneous blepharoplasty. In the past decade, in particular, various new techniques and technologies have emerged, altering our ability to treat the lower eyelids. These techniques include transconjunctival blepharoplasty, a variety of canthopexy procedures, fat-conserving or fat-replacing methods, wedge excision, and laser resurfacing techniques, and they allow a more individualized approach based on variations in anatomical features and patient goals. A retrospective review of data for 100 consecutive patients (ranging in age from 30 to 80 years) who underwent lower eyelid procedures during a 12-month period is presented. Procedures were categorized as follows: lower lid blepharoplasty, 35 cases; lower lid transconjunctival blepharoplasty, 27 cases; lower lid transconjunctival blepharoplasty with laser resurfacing, 17 cases; lower lid laser resurfacing, 16 cases; tarsorrhaphy with lower lid operation, three cases; tarsorrhaphy with laser resurfacing, two cases. Two complications of retained fat pads (one medial and one lateral) were encountered and were addressed with a secondary operation using a transconjunctival blepharoplasty approach. The results indicate that laser treatment has become the predominant form of lower eyelid resurfacing and that transconjunctival blepharoplasty is now the most common surgical procedure for the lower eyelid. All of our tarsorrhaphy procedures were performed for patients who had previously undergone surgical treatment of the lower eyelids. An algorithm based on physical findings and these techniques has been developed, for appropriate tailoring of the procedure to each patient's specific concerns. With the availability of a variety of techniques, an individualized approach based on variations in anatomical features is feasible.     

Association of metabolic gene polymorphisms with alcohol consumption in controls

The objectives were to study the association between metabolic genes involved in alcohol metabolism (CYP2E1 RsaI, CYP2E1 DraI, ADH1C, NQO1) and alcohol consumption in a large sample of healthy controls. Healthy subjects were selected from the International Collaborative Study on Genetic Susceptibility to Environmental Carcinogens (GSEC). Subjects with information on both alcohol consumption and at least one of the studied polymorphisms were included in the analysis (n=2224). Information on the amount of alcohol consumption was available for a subset of subjects (n=844). None of the studied genes was significantly associated with drinking habits. A significant heterogeneity with age was observed when studying the association between CYP2E1 RsaI and alcohol drinking. CYP2E1 RsaI polymorphism was significantly associated with being a never drinker at older ages (odds ratio [OR] 2.4, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.2-4.8; at ages above 68 years), while the association was reversed at ages below 47 years (OR 0.5, 95% CI 0.2-1.4). For subjects with detailed information on alcohol intake, no association between alcohol quantity and polymorphisms in metabolic genes was observed; subjects carrying the NQO1 polymorphism tended to drink more than subjects carrying the wild-type alleles. Therefore, no significant association between CYP2E1 RsaI, CYP2E1 DraI, ADH1C, NQO1 polymorphisms and alcohol consumption was observed in healthy controls.     

Genetic polymorphism of glutathione S-transferase P1 and breast cancer risk

To evaluate the potential association between the GSTP1 genotype and the development of breast cancer, a hospital based case-control study was conducted on Korean women. The study population consisted of 171 histologically confirmed incident breast cancer cases and 171 age-matched controls with no present or previous history of cancer. PCR-RFLP was used for the GSTP1 genotyping and statistical evaluations were performed using an unconditional logistic regression model. Postmenopausal women with the GSTP1 Val allele were found to have a reduced risk of breast cancer (OR = 0.3, 95 % CI = 0.10-0.74). A significant interaction was observed between the GSTP1 genotype and alcohol consumption (p for interaction = 0.01); compared with never-drinking women with Ile/Ile genotype, ever-drinking women with the GSTP1 Val allele had almost a three-fold risk of breast cancer (OR = 2.9, 95 % CI = 1.05-7.85), whereas never-drinking women with Val allele had half this risk (OR = 0.5, 95 % CI = 0.27-0.93). Our findings suggest that the GSTP1 polymorphism influences individual susceptibility to breast cancer in the Korean women and this effect may be modified by alcohol consumption.     

Alcohol consumption and lung cancer risk: A pooled analysis from the International Lung Cancer Consortium and the SYNERGY study

BackgroundThere is inadequate evidence to determine whether there is an effect of alcohol consumption on lung cancer risk. We conducted a pooled analysis of data from the International Lung Cancer Consortium and the SYNERGY study to investigate this possible association by type of beverage with adjustment for other potential confounders.MethodsTwenty one case-control studies and one cohort study with alcohol-intake data obtained from questionnaires were included in this pooled analysis (19,149 cases and 362,340 controls). Adjusted odds ratios (OR) or hazard ratios (HR) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated for each measure of alcohol consumption. Effect estimates were combined using random or fixed-effects models where appropriate. Associations were examined for overall lung cancer and by histological type.ResultsWe observed an inverse association between overall risk of lung cancer and consumption of alcoholic beverages compared to non-drinkers, but the association was not monotonic. The lowest risk was observed for persons who consumed 10–19.9 g/day ethanol (OR vs. non-drinkers = 0.78; 95% CI: 0.67, 0.91), where 1 drink is approximately 12–15 g. This J-shaped association was most prominent for squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The association with all lung cancer varied little by type of alcoholic beverage, but there were notable differences for SCC. We observed an association with beer intake (OR for ≥20 g/day vs nondrinker = 1.42; 95% CI: 1.06, 1.90).ConclusionsWhether the non-monotonic associations we observed or the positive association between beer drinking and squamous cell carcinoma reflect real effects await future analyses and insights about possible biological mechanisms.     

Association of paternal alcohol use with gestational age and birth weight.

Paternal alcohol use has been associated with a number of adverse reproductive outcomes in laboratory animals and there is one epidemiologic report of a detrimental effect on infant birth weight. To expand the epidemiologic evidence, data from the Child Health and Development Studies were analyzed. Data collected from the onset of prenatal care in 10,232 women enrolled in the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and residing in the San Francisco East Bay area between June 1959 and September 1966 were available, including information on the mother's report of paternal alcohol consumption and a number of potential confounders. Pregnancy outcomes included preterm delivery (< 37 weeks completed gestation), moderately low birth weight (1,501-2,500 g), very low birth weight (< or = 1,500 g), small-for-gestational-age (< 10th percentile of weight for gestational age), and mean birth weight. Paternal alcohol use, analyzed in intervals from 0 to 2.0 or more drinks per day, showed no association with any of the outcomes of interest. Adjusted prevalence odds ratios ranged from 0.7 to 1.5, with no indication of a monotonic dose-response gradient. Mean birth weight was also virtually unrelated to paternal alcohol use. Compared with the earlier report, this population had a very modest level of alcohol consumption. Nonetheless, within the range that was studied there appears to be no association between paternal alcohol use and birth outcome.     

Complications of Oriental blepharoplasty

The complications of Oriental blepharoplasty are described according to their clinical appearance and anatomic findings at the time of surgery. The surgical correction of these complications is presented. A total of 42 patients with complications following blepharoplasty were treated. The types of deformities were categorized from their external appearance as asymmetry, retraction and ectropion, blepharoptosis, supratarsal depression, fading of the lid fold, and hemorrhage. The causes of each type of complication are identified according to the intraoperative findings, and the correlation between preoperative and intraoperative findings is explained. Correction of these complications follows identified guidelines, and the results were good to satisfactory.