Does bronchial hyperresponsiveness in childhood predict active asthma in adolescence?

Rationale: Bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) is an important, but not specific, asthma characteristic. Objectives: We aimed to assess the predictive value of BHR tested by methacholine and exercise challenge at age 10 years for active asthma 6 years later. Methods: From a Norwegian birth cohort, 530 children underwent methacholine challenge and exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) test (n = 478) at 10 years and structured interview and clinical examination at age 16 years. The methacholine dose causing 20% reduction in FEV(1) (PD(20)) and the reduction in FEV(1) (%) after a standardized treadmill test were used for BHR assessment. Active asthma was defined with at least two criteria positive: doctor's diagnosis of asthma, symptoms of asthma, and/or treatment for asthma in the last year. Measurements and Main Results: PD(20) and EIB at 10 years of age increased the risk of asthma (β = 0.94 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.92-0.96] per μmol methacholine and β = 1.10 [95% CI, 1.06-1.15] per %, respectively). Separately the tests explained 10 and 7%, respectively, and together 14% of the variation in active asthma 6 years later. The predicted probability for active asthma at the age of 16 years increased with decreasing PD(20) and increasing EIB. The area under the curve (receiver operating characteristic curves) was larger for PD(20) (0.69; 95% CI, 0.62-0.75) than for EIB (0.60; 95% CI, 0.53-0.67). Conclusions: BHR at 10 years was a significant but modest predictor of active asthma 6 years later, with methacholine challenge being superior to exercise test.     

Prognostic Relevance of Number and Ratio of Metastatic Lymph Nodes in Resected Pancreatic, Ampullary, and Distal Bile Duct Carcinomas

Background

Lymph node ratio (LNR) may be more useful than nodal (N) status in prognostic subclassification of adenocarcinomas after pancreatoduodenectomy. Ampullary (AC), biliary (DBC), and pancreatic (PC) adenocarcinomas are biologically distinct, and nodal involvement may have different prognostic importance among these separate cancers.

Methods

We included 179 consecutive pancreatoduodenectomies for PC, AC, or DBC, and performed standardized histopathologic evaluation, including prospective registration and retrospective reevaluation of the cancer origin. Associations between histopathologic variables and LNR, N status, and number of metastatic nodes were evaluated. Unadjusted and adjusted survival analysis was performed.

Results

Overall 5 year survival was 6 % for PC (n = 72), 26 % for DBC (n = 46), and 46 % for AC (n = 61). Lymph node involvement was more frequent in PC (75 %) than in AC (48 %) and DBC (57 %). In PC, N status did not discriminate between prognostic groups (N1 vs. N0; p = 0.31). However, increasing LNR was associated with poorer survival in unadjusted analysis, as well as when adjusting for margin involvement, degree of differentiation, and tumor diameter (p = 0.032; hazard ratio 1.87, 95 % confidence interval 1.06–3.31). In AC and DBC, N status clearly discriminated between subgroups of patients with different long-term survival in unadjusted and adjusted survival analysis (N1 vs. N0; p < 0.001), whereas number of metastatic nodes and LNR did not predict survival among node-positive resections.

Conclusions

The predictive value of nodal involvement depends on the type of cancer within the pancreatic head. In AC and DBC, N status adequately discriminates between good and poor prognosis. In PC, LNR may be more powerful in prognostic subclassification.     

Attitudes toward standardized assessment tools and their use among clinicians in a public mental health service

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the use and attitudes toward standardized assessment tools among clinicians in a public mental health service in Norway. A total of 606 clinicians provided feedback on their use and attitudes regarding psychometric qualities of such tools, their practicality, and their benefit over clinical judgment alone using the Attitudes toward Standardized Assessment (ASA) Scales. Clinicians working in the adult mental health field scored significantly higher on use of diagnostic interviews, pre–post evaluations, and ongoing evaluations, whereas clinicians working in the child/adolescent mental health field scored significantly higher on use of screening instruments and held more positive attitudes towards using standardized assessment tools. Attitudes toward standardized assessment tools predicted use of such tools, and results were found to be similar to a study on US clinicians. Whereas the US study only found attitudes regarding the practicality of using such instrument as an independent predictor of assessment use, the current study found that attitudes regarding psychometric qualities of such tools, their practicality, and their benefit over clinical judgment alone were independent predictors of use.     

Estimation of the duration of ventricular fibrillation using ECG single feature analysis

The duration of untreated ventricular fibrillation (VF) is of paramount importance for CPR success. Moreover, therapeutic interventions taking into account the interval between cardiac arrest onset and initiation of CPR improve outcome. This study was performed to investigate whether VF feature analysis could be used to estimate the duration of VF in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Demographic data recorded according to the Utstein guidelines and ECG recordings of 376 cardiac arrest patients from three European areas were analysed. Ten features in the time and frequency domain derived from different sub-bands of the initial VF ECG (n=127) were evaluated. The correlation between VF ECG features and cardiac arrest times was investigated using Pearson's correlation coefficient in a subset of 40 patients with reliably estimated downtimes and artefact-free initial VF tracings. No significant correlation (p<.05) between any of the VF ECG features and downtime could be found. The duration of cardiac arrest could not be estimated reliably from human VF ECG single feature analysis.