Pekka J. Karhunen
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View article: Viridans Streptococcal Biofilm Evades Immune Detection and Contributes to Inflammation and Rupture of Atherosclerotic Plaques
Viridans Streptococcal Biofilm Evades Immune Detection and Contributes to Inflammation and Rupture of Atherosclerotic Plaques Open
Background Bacterial DNA from the oral cavity, respiratory tract, gut, and skin has been detected in atherosclerotic plaques, suggesting a role in chronic inflammation linked to atherosclerosis. Chronic bacterial infections often form biof…
View article: Common occurrence of atrophic gastritis in an ageing non-hospitalised population: an autopsy study
Common occurrence of atrophic gastritis in an ageing non-hospitalised population: an autopsy study Open
Background Atrophic gastritis—the end stage of chronic gastritis—is an asymptomatic disease due to Helicobacter pylori infection causing decreased vitamin B12 and folate absorption, which may lead to severe haematological and neuropsycholo…
View article: Next-generation sequencing reveals the presence of a rich bacterial microbiome in atherosclerotic coronary artery plaques. The Tampere Sudden Death Study
Next-generation sequencing reveals the presence of a rich bacterial microbiome in atherosclerotic coronary artery plaques. The Tampere Sudden Death Study Open
Background Molecular microbial techniques have identified several DNA sequences from oral and gut bacteria in atherosclerotic plaques. The composition of the plaque microbiome has shown great heterogeneity due to varying DNA extraction and…
View article: Searching for a serial killer on a hospital ward
Searching for a serial killer on a hospital ward Open
The recent case of Lucy Letby in the UK shows that exposing a serial killer in healthcare is challenging. Statistical evidence has been used in the courts, but the overturning of the life sentence of a Dutch nurse in 2008 due to inadequate…
View article: Lewy‐related pathology in the Tampere Sudden Death Study
Lewy‐related pathology in the Tampere Sudden Death Study Open
Background When treatments against neurodegenerative diseases eventuate, the most successful time point to administer therapies will be the early stages, most likely before symptoms begin to show. Previous studies have found alpha‐synuclei…
View article: Author response: Blood metabolomic profiling reveals new targets in the management of psychological symptoms associated with severe alcohol use disorder
Author response: Blood metabolomic profiling reveals new targets in the management of psychological symptoms associated with severe alcohol use disorder Open
View article: Genetic risk score for coronary artery calcification and its predictive ability for coronary artery disease
Genetic risk score for coronary artery calcification and its predictive ability for coronary artery disease Open
View article: Blood metabolomic profiling reveals new targets in the management of psychological symptoms associated with severe alcohol use disorder
Blood metabolomic profiling reveals new targets in the management of psychological symptoms associated with severe alcohol use disorder Open
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a global health problem with limited therapeutic options. The biochemical mechanisms that lead to this disorder are not yet fully understood, and in this respect, metabolomics represents a promising approach t…
View article: Author response: Blood metabolomic profiling reveals new targets in the management of psychological symptoms associated with severe alcohol use disorder
Author response: Blood metabolomic profiling reveals new targets in the management of psychological symptoms associated with severe alcohol use disorder Open
View article: Reviewer #1 (Public Review): Blood metabolomic profiling reveals new targets in the management of psychological symptoms associated with alcohol use disorder
Reviewer #1 (Public Review): Blood metabolomic profiling reveals new targets in the management of psychological symptoms associated with alcohol use disorder Open
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a global health problem with limited therapeutic options. The biochemical mechanisms that lead to alcohol addiction are not yet fully understood, and in this respect, metabolomics represents a promising approa…
View article: Reviewer #2 (Public Review): Blood metabolomic profiling reveals new targets in the management of psychological symptoms associated with alcohol use disorder
Reviewer #2 (Public Review): Blood metabolomic profiling reveals new targets in the management of psychological symptoms associated with alcohol use disorder Open
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a global health problem with limited therapeutic options. The biochemical mechanisms that lead to alcohol addiction are not yet fully understood, and in this respect, metabolomics represents a promising approa…
View article: Blood metabolomic profiling reveals new targets in the management of psychological symptoms associated with alcohol use disorder
Blood metabolomic profiling reveals new targets in the management of psychological symptoms associated with alcohol use disorder Open
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a global health problem with limited therapeutic options. The biochemical mechanisms that lead to alcohol addiction are not yet fully understood, and in this respect, metabolomics represents a promising approa…
View article: Genetic risk score for coronary artery calcification predicts coronary artery disease beyond traditional risk factors
Genetic risk score for coronary artery calcification predicts coronary artery disease beyond traditional risk factors Open
Aim The modest added predictive value of the existing genetic risk scores (GRSs) for coronary artery disease (CAD) could be partly due to missing genetic components, hidden in the genetic architecture of intermediate phenotypes such as cor…
View article: Blood metabolomic profiling reveals new targets in the management of psychological symptoms associated with severe alcohol use disorder
Blood metabolomic profiling reveals new targets in the management of psychological symptoms associated with severe alcohol use disorder Open
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a global health problem with limited therapeutic options. The biochemical mechanisms that lead to this disorder are not yet fully understood, and in this respect, metabolomics represents a promising approach t…
View article: Sex differences in coronary atherosclerosis during the pre- and postmenopausal period: The Tampere Sudden Death Study
Sex differences in coronary atherosclerosis during the pre- and postmenopausal period: The Tampere Sudden Death Study Open
We did not detect any major sex-difference in coronary atherosclerosis in the premenopausal period when women are considered to be protected from CHD. However, in line with CHD mortality statistics, postmenopausal women showed a slower spe…
View article: Searching for a Serial Killer in a Hospital Ward
Searching for a Serial Killer in a Hospital Ward Open
View article: Thrombus Aspirates From Patients With Acute Ischemic Stroke Are Infiltrated by Viridans Streptococci
Thrombus Aspirates From Patients With Acute Ischemic Stroke Are Infiltrated by Viridans Streptococci Open
Background Acute ischemic stroke may be due to embolism from ruptured atherosclerotic carotid arteries. DNA of oral bacteria, mainly the viridans streptococci group, has been detected in thrombus aspirates of patients with ischemic stroke …
View article: Viridans streptococcal immunopositivity associates with calcified coronary plaque area and coronary stenosis severity. The Tampere Sudden Death Study (TSDS)
Viridans streptococcal immunopositivity associates with calcified coronary plaque area and coronary stenosis severity. The Tampere Sudden Death Study (TSDS) Open
View article: Age-dependent differences in coronary atherosclerosis between women and men who died suddenly out-of-hospital
Age-dependent differences in coronary atherosclerosis between women and men who died suddenly out-of-hospital Open
View article: The prognostic significance of the electrical QRS axis on long-term mortality in acute coronary syndrome patients - The TACOS study
The prognostic significance of the electrical QRS axis on long-term mortality in acute coronary syndrome patients - The TACOS study Open
In ACS patients, acute phase QRS-axis deviation was associated with higher risk of all-cause mortality. Among the axis deviation groups, right/extreme QRS-axis deviation was the strongest predictor of mortality in the multivariable analysi…
View article: The Effect of Atrial Fibrillation on the Long-Term Mortality of Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome: The TACOS Study
The Effect of Atrial Fibrillation on the Long-Term Mortality of Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome: The TACOS Study Open
Introduction: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a frequent finding in acute coronary syndrome (ACS), but there is conflicting scientific evidence regarding its long-term impact on patient outcome. The aim of this study was to surve…
View article: Secondary Vulvodynia Patients Show Reduced Bacterial Diversity in Vestibular Microbiome
Secondary Vulvodynia Patients Show Reduced Bacterial Diversity in Vestibular Microbiome Open
Introduction Localized Provoked Vulvodynia (LPV) is a quite common form of sexual pain among young women. Primary LPV (e.g. pain from the first attempted intercourse) and secondary LPV (pain-free time period before the initiation of sympto…
View article: Haptoglobin Hp1 Variant Does Not Associate with Small Vessel Disease
Haptoglobin Hp1 Variant Does Not Associate with Small Vessel Disease Open
Haptoglobin (Hp) is a plasma protein that binds free hemoglobin and protects tissues from oxidative damage. An Hp2 allele has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular complications. On the other hand, recent studies have su…
View article: Model selection for metabolomics: predicting diagnosis of coronary artery disease using automated machine learning
Model selection for metabolomics: predicting diagnosis of coronary artery disease using automated machine learning Open
Motivation Selecting the optimal machine learning (ML) model for a given dataset is often challenging. Automated ML (AutoML) has emerged as a powerful tool for enabling the automatic selection of ML methods and parameter settings for the p…
View article: Manner of death and demographic effects on microbial community composition in organs of the human cadaver
Manner of death and demographic effects on microbial community composition in organs of the human cadaver Open
The microbiome serves important functions in human health, and postmortem, the microbial signatures of colonized organ tissue could be useful in helping to predict the manner of death in cases where this information is not known. We survey…
View article: Mild Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Neuropathology in People With No Known Participation in Contact Sports or History of Repetitive Neurotrauma
Mild Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Neuropathology in People With No Known Participation in Contact Sports or History of Repetitive Neurotrauma Open
It has been asserted that chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) pathology is only present in former athletes and others who have been exposed to repetitive concussions, subconcussive blows, or both. We hypothesized that CTE pathology woul…
View article: Oral Bacterial Signatures in Cerebral Thrombi of Patients With Acute Ischemic Stroke Treated With Thrombectomy
Oral Bacterial Signatures in Cerebral Thrombi of Patients With Acute Ischemic Stroke Treated With Thrombectomy Open
Background Chronic infections have been reported to be risk factors for both coronary heart disease and ischemic stroke. DNA of oral bacteria, mainly from the viridans streptococci group, has been detected in coronary thrombus aspirates of…
View article: Poor long-term outcome in acute coronary syndrome in a real-life setting: Ten-year outcome of the TACOS study
Poor long-term outcome in acute coronary syndrome in a real-life setting: Ten-year outcome of the TACOS study Open
All the three ACS categories proved to have high mortality rates during long-term followup in a real-life patient cohort. NSTEMI patients had worse outcome than STEMI and UA patients during the whole follow-up period. Our study results ind…
View article: Similarity of salivary microbiome in parents and adult children
Similarity of salivary microbiome in parents and adult children Open
Background : Human saliva contains approximately 700 bacterial species but the relatedness of salivary bacteria from parents to adult children is not investigated in humans. The objectives were to investigate the entirety of salivary bacte…
View article: Similarity of salivary microbiome in parents and adult children
Similarity of salivary microbiome in parents and adult children Open
Background : Human saliva contains approximately 700 bacterial species but the relatedness of salivary bacteria from parents to adult children is not investigated in humans. The objectives were to investigate the entirety of salivary bacte…