Austria has never implemented an organized prostate cancer screening program, yet opportunistic PSA testing has been widespread for more than three decades. This has produced the harms of screening without the safeguards of a program: testing outside appropriate age and life-expectancy windows, repeated testing of low-risk men, unnecessary biopsy, overdiagnosis and overtreatment, while generating little systematic information on quality or outcomes. Randomized evidence shows that organized, repeated screening can reduce prostate cancer mortality substantially, whereas opportunistic testing delivers less benefit with more overdiagnosis. Contemporary risk-adapted pathways further improve the balance of benefit and harm: defined start and stop ages, PSA-based risk stratification, MRI before biopsy, targeted biopsy, and active surveillance can reduce unnecessary biopsies and detection or treatment of indolent disease without compromising detection of clinically significant cancer. Europe has therefore moved toward organized, PSA-based screening with MRI as a follow-up test. Austria is now participating in PRAISE-U Plus and has initiated a national multidisciplinary consensus process involving 65 experts from 22 organizations. The policy question is no longer whether Austrian men are being screened-they are-but whether screening remains unstructured or becomes organized, quality-assured and equitable. The evidence supports the latter: invite the right men, stratify risk, biopsy selectively, treat only clinically relevant disease, and measure outcomes systematically.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death among women, yet female-specific and psychosocial risk determinants are inconsistently integrated into preventive strategies. We describe traditional and female-specific risk factors in female hospital employees. In this single-centre, cross-sectional, exploratory study, 111 women aged 34–70 years (nursing, administrative, medical staff) underwent standardised occupational health assessment of lipids, lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)], glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP), reproductive history and well-being (WHO-5 Well-Being Index). Voluntary participation may have caused selection bias. Dyslipidemia was present in 58.6
Austria has never implemented an organized prostate cancer screening program, yet opportunistic PSA testing has been widespread for more than three decades. This has produced the harms of screening without the safeguards of a program: testing outside appropriate age and life-expectancy windows, repeated testing of low-risk men, unnecessary biopsy, overdiagnosis and overtreatment, while generating little systematic information on quality or outcomes. Randomized evidence shows that organized, repeated screening can reduce prostate cancer mortality substantially, whereas opportunistic testing delivers less benefit with more overdiagnosis. Contemporary risk-adapted pathways further improve the balance of benefit and harm: defined start and stop ages, PSA-based risk stratification, MRI before biopsy, targeted biopsy, and active surveillance can reduce unnecessary biopsies and detection or treatment of indolent disease without compromising detection of clinically significant cancer. Europe has therefore moved toward organized, PSA-based screening with MRI as a follow-up test. Austria is now participating in PRAISE-U Plus and has initiated a national multidisciplinary consensus process involving 65 experts from 22 organizations. The policy question is no longer whether Austrian men are being screened—they are—but whether screening remains unstructured or becomes organized, quality-assured and equitable. The evidence supports the latter: invite the right men, stratify risk, biopsy selectively, treat only clinically relevant disease, and measure outcomes systematically.
Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are risk factors for later cardiovascular and chronic kidney disease. Early postpartum trajectories of blood pressure and metabolic recovery in this high-risk population are still insufficiently defined. A prospective, single-center, observational cohort study was conducted in the Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic Women’s Healthcare Prevention Program (PreCareFem) at the University Hospital St. Pölten, Austria. Participants were enrolled on presentation between 1 June 2023, and 31 March 2025. Cardiovascular and metabolic surrogate parameters, including automated blood pressure measurement, anthropometric evaluation, cardiovascular, kidney and metabolic parameters, lifestyle assessment following the components of the “Life’s Essential 8”, and urine albumin-creatinine ratio were assessed peripartum and at 3–6 and 12 months postpartum. A total of 91 women with preeclampsia (PE; n = 66) and gestational hypertension (GH; n = 25) were enrolled. At 12 months postpartum, 31
