Peter Cassiman

TL;DR: It is shown that TL of peripheral blood leukocytes primarily reflects the burden of increased oxidative stress and inflammation, whether or not determined by an increasingly unhealthy lifestyle, while the association with classical CVD risk factors is limited.

TL;DR: The Asklepios Study is a longitudinal population study focusing on the interplay between ageing, cardiovascular haemodynamics and inflammation in (preclinical) cardiovascular disease, and the systematic determination of peripheral blood leukocyte telomere length as a marker for biological ageing.

TL;DR: It is suggested that critical telomere shortening might also limit erythropoiesis in vivo, while negligible in a middle‐aged population, the clinical consequences might be important in the elderly (e.g. in anemia of chronic disease).

TL;DR: Use of contraceptive therapy is very common and associated with an unexpected increase in the prevalence of carotid and femoral atherosclerosis in otherwise young, apparently healthy women, and OC use could be an important factor in the global atherosclerotic burden.

TL;DR: Combination therapy with the female hormones estrogen (E) and progestins are very frequently used with approximately 100 million women worldwide taking oral contraceptives (OC) as mentioned in this paper, with approximately 80% taking OTC.