Tag: statistics

Res Involv Engagem. 2023 Mar 25;9(1):15. doi: 10.1186/s40900-023-00426-5.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Rare diseases where prognosis is poor provide limited scope for patient and public involvement (PPI). One such disease is mesothelioma, a cancer of the lung pleura or of the peritoneum caused by exposure to asbestos, where PPI is poorly documented. We undertook to explore how PPI could be facilitated in mesothelioma research.

METHODS: An online survey with mesothelioma researchers (n = 23) assessed the perceived benefits and challenges of PPI in mesothelioma. Six online workshops and thirteen in-depth interviews with patients and the public explored their views on how PPI could be increased in mesothelioma and their motivations to become PPI representatives in the future. The survey data were analysed using descriptive statistics and the interviews, using Thematic Analysis.

RESULTS: In the survey, 26% (n = 6) of the researchers did not include PPI in their research, while 74% (n = 17) did, finding it most beneficial at the stages of applying for funding and dissemination. The main perceived benefits of PPI were clarifying the research question and outcome measures, making research more credible and relevant to patients’ needs, and increasing its impact. The main perceived challenges to PPI were the general poor prognosis in mesothelioma, and funding timescales which hindered timely recruitment of PPI representatives. The analysis of the interviews with the patients and public revealed three main themes: “Motivations to become a PPI representative in the future”, “Understanding the nature of PPI during the project”, and “Perceived challenges to PPI in mesothelioma”. Altruism and the need for hope were the main reasons to wish to become involved in PPI in the future. For many participants, the project proved to be a journey of understanding the nature of PPI, a concept that was not easy to grasp from the start. The participants perceived certain barriers to PPI such as high symptom burden in mesothelioma, the abstract concept of PPI, and the use of scientific language.

CONCLUSIONS: The present research provides a detailed picture of the benefits and challenges of PPI in mesothelioma. We recommend long-term engagement with mesothelioma support groups so that researchers achieve meaningful and sustainable PPI in mesothelioma research.

PMID:36966347 | DOI:10.1186/s40900-023-00426-5

BMC Chem. 2023 Mar 25;17(1):27. doi: 10.1186/s13065-023-00938-x.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Clomipramine is a tricyclic antidepressant acting as a serotonin reuptake inhibitor. Its maximum plasma concentration (C_max) is 13-310 ng/mL, the therapeutic range is 220-500 ng/mL and its toxic effect appears in doses above 900 ng/mL.

OBJECTIVES: The fabrication of eco-friendly solid-contact ion-selective electrodes to evaluate the concentration of Clomipramine in different matrices based on disposable screen-printed carbon electrode.

METHODS: Disposable screen-printed carbon electrode was utilized as a substrate to fabricate the proposed sensors. The sensors were optimized to determine Clomipramine using calix[4]arene as an ionophore into PVC polymeric membrane to enhance selectivity towards the target analyte. The solid-contact sensor potential stability was improved by the incorporation of graphene nanoparticles transducer layer.

RESULTS: The sensors were assessed as per the IUPAC recommendations. The linearity range was 1 × 10^{– 2} to 1 × 10^{– 5.3} M. The sensors were successfully applied to determine CLM in the pharmaceutical formulation. Furthermore, the ion selective electrodes were applied for Clompiramine assay in spiked plasma for the purpose of Point-of-Care testing to be a diagnostic tool for therapeutic monitoring of the cited central nervous system agent. The findings were statistically compared to the reported method showing no statistically significant difference.

CONCLUSION: This work was concerned with developing a green analytical method for the determination of Clomipramine. The proposed SC-ISE was mixed with graphene nanocomposite transducer interlayer. The graphene layer succeeded in preventing the formation of an aqueous layer so resulted in a stable, reproducible standard potential besides the rapid response time.

PMID:36966337 | DOI:10.1186/s13065-023-00938-x

Diabetol Metab Syndr. 2023 Mar 25;15(1):58. doi: 10.1186/s13098-023-01019-8.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition and inflammation are associated with adverse clinical outcomes in patients with diabetes or coronary artery disease (CAD). Prognostic nutritional index (PNI) is a comprehensive and simple indicator reflecting nutritional condition and immunological status. Whether there is a crosstalk between nutritional-immunological status and diabetes status for the impact on the prognosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) is unclear.

METHODS: A total of 9429 consecutive CAD patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention were grouped by diabetes status [diabetes (DM) and non-diabetes (non-DM)] and preprocedural PNI level [high PNI (H-PNI) and low PNI (L-PNI)] categorized by the statistically optimal cut-off value of 48.49. The primary endpoint was all-cause death.

RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 5.1 years (interquartile range: 5.0-5.1 years), 366 patients died. Compared with the non-DM/H-PNI group, the DM/L-PNI group yielded the highest risk of all-cause death (adjusted hazard ratio: 2.65, 95% confidence interval: 1.97-3.56, p < 0.001), followed by the non-DM/L-PNI group (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.44, 95% confidence interval: 1.05-1.98, p = 0.026), while DM/H-PNI was not associated with the risk of all-cause death. The negative effect of L-PNI on all-cause death was significantly stronger in diabetic patients than in nondiabetic patients (p for interaction = 0.037). Preprocedural PNI category significantly improved the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) risk score for predicting all-cause death in patients with acute coronary syndrome, especially in those with diabetes.

CONCLUSIONS: CAD patients with diabetes and L-PNI experienced the worst prognosis. The presence of diabetes amplifies the negative effect of L-PNI on all-cause death. Poor nutritional-immunological status outweighs diabetes in increasing the risk of all-cause death in CAD patients. Preprocedural PNI can serve as an assessment tool for nutritional and inflammatory risk and an independent prognostic factor in CAD patients, especially in those with diabetes.

PMID:36966329 | DOI:10.1186/s13098-023-01019-8

BMC Med Res Methodol. 2023 Mar 25;23(1):69. doi: 10.1186/s12874-023-01892-x.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: In many countries, the prevalence of non-communicable diseases risk factors is commonly assessed through self-reported information from health interview surveys. It has been shown, however, that self-reported instead of objective data lead to an underestimation of the prevalence of obesity, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia. This study aimed to assess the agreement between self-reported and measured height, weight, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia and to identify an adequate approach for valid measurement error correction.

METHODS: Nine thousand four hundred thirty-nine participants of the 2018 Belgian health interview survey (BHIS) older than 18 years, of which 1184 participated in the 2018 Belgian health examination survey (BELHES), were included in the analysis. Regression calibration was compared with multiple imputation by chained equations based on parametric and non-parametric techniques.

RESULTS: This study confirmed the underestimation of risk factor prevalence based on self-reported data. With both regression calibration and multiple imputation, adjusted estimation of these variables in the BHIS allowed to generate national prevalence estimates that were closer to their BELHES clinical counterparts. For overweight, obesity and hypertension, all methods provided smaller standard errors than those obtained with clinical data. However, for hypercholesterolemia, for which the regression model’s accuracy was poor, multiple imputation was the only approach which provided smaller standard errors than those based on clinical data.

CONCLUSIONS: The random-forest multiple imputation proves to be the method of choice to correct the bias related to self-reported data in the BHIS. This method is particularly useful to enable improved secondary analysis of self-reported data by using information included in the BELHES. Whenever feasible, combined information from HIS and objective measurements should be used in risk factor monitoring.

PMID:36966305 | DOI:10.1186/s12874-023-01892-x

BMC Med Imaging. 2023 Mar 25;23(1):42. doi: 10.1186/s12880-023-00997-5.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between renal artery anatomical configuration and renal artery plaque (RAP) based on 320-row CT.

METHODS: The abdominal contrast-enhanced CT data from 210 patients was retrospectively analyzed. Among 210 patients, there were 118 patients with RAP and 92 patients with no RAP. The anatomical parameters between lesion group and control group were compared and analyzed by using t-test, χ2-test and logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS: (1) There were statistical differences on age, hypertension, diabetes, hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia between lesion group and control group. (2) The differences on the distribution and type and of RAP between lesion group and control group were statistically significant. The most common position was the proximal, and the most common type was calcified plaque. (3)There were significant statistical differences on the proximal diameter of renal artery and renal artery-aorta angle A between lesion group and control group. The differences on the other anatomical factors between two groups were not statistically significant. (4) The result of logistic regression analysis showed that right RAP was related to age, hypertension and right renal artery angle A (the AUC of ROC = 0.82), and left RAP was related to high serum cholesterol, age and left renal artery angle A(the AUC of ROC = 0.83). (5) The RAP was associated with renal artery-aorta angle A, but the differences on distribution, type stability of RAP between R1 (L1) group and R2 (L2) group were not statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONS: The RAP was associated with age, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and renal artery-aorta angle A. Adults which had the greater renal artery-aorta angle A and the other above risk factors may be at increased risk for RAP.

PMID:36966287 | DOI:10.1186/s12880-023-00997-5

BMC Surg. 2023 Mar 25;23(1):64. doi: 10.1186/s12893-023-01958-z.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The intent of this research was to generate and investigate the D-dimer to lymphocyte ratio (DLR) capacity to forecast the risk and prognosis of colorectal cancer liver metastases (CRCLM).

METHODS: From January 2010 to December 2019, 177 clinicopathologically confirmed colorectal cancer (CRC) patients (89 in the control group and 88 in the experimental group) were identified at the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Guangxi Medical University. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to screen independent predictive diagnostic and prognostic factors of liver metastasis in CRC, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and Kaplan‒Meier (K‒M) curves were established to analyze the diagnostic and predictive prognostic efficacy of the DLR in the development of CRCLM.

RESULTS: Patients with CRCLM had higher DLR levels and D-dimer levels in their blood, with statistically significant differences (p < 0.001). DLR might be employed as a predictor for the development of CRCLM, according to ROC curve research (sensitivity 0.670, specificity 0.775, area under the curve 0.765). D-dimer, lymphocyte count CEA, CA125, and CA199 were not linked to prognosis in patients with CRCLM in Cox regression analysis of dichotomous variables. In contrast, DLR level was a possible risk factor for the prognosis of patients with CRCLM (HR = 2.108, p = 0.047), and age, T stage, and DLR level (DLR < 0.4) were connected with the prognosis of patients with CRCLM (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: DLR serves as a risk indicator for the development of CRCLM.

PMID:36966285 | DOI:10.1186/s12893-023-01958-z

BMC Oral Health. 2023 Mar 25;23(1):170. doi: 10.1186/s12903-023-02889-0.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: The key objective of this research was to describe the prescription rate of various antibiotics for dental problems in India and to study the relevance of the prescriptions by analysing antibiotic types associated with different dental diagnoses, using a large-scale nationally representative dataset.

METHODS: We used a 12-month period (May 2015 to April 2016) medical audit dataset from IQVIA (formerly IMS Health). We coded the dental diagnosis provided in the medical audit data to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11) and the prescribed antibiotics for the diagnosis to the Anatomic Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) -2020 classification of the World Health Organization. The primary outcome measure was the medicine prescription rate per 1,000 persons per year (PRPY₁₀₀₀).

RESULTS: Our main findings were-403 prescriptions per 1,000 persons per year in the year 2015 -2016 for all dental ailments. Across all ATC level 1 classification, ‘Diseases of hard tissues’ made up the majority of the prescriptions. ‘Beta-lactam’, ‘Penicillin,’ and ‘Cephalosporins’ were the most commonly prescribed antibiotics for dental diagnoses followed by ‘Macrolides’ and ‘Quinolones’. ‘Dental caries’, ‘Discoloration of tooth’, and ‘Toothache’ were the most common reasons for ‘Beta-Lactams’ and ‘Penicillin’ prescriptions.

CONCLUSION: To conclude our study reports first ever country (India) level estimates of antibiotic prescription by antibiotic classes, age groups, and ICD-11 classification for dental ailments.

PMID:36966284 | DOI:10.1186/s12903-023-02889-0

BMC Med Res Methodol. 2023 Mar 25;23(1):68. doi: 10.1186/s12874-023-01895-8.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Clinical guidelines should be based on a thorough evaluation of the evidence and generally include a rating of the quality of evidence and assign a strength to recommendations. Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) guidance warns against making strong recommendations when the certainty of the evidence is low or very low, but has identified five paradigmatic situations (e.g. life-threatening situations) where this may be justified.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: We aimed to characterize the strength of recommendations and certainty of the evidence in Irish National Clinical Guidelines using the GRADE approach.

METHODS: All National Clinical Guidelines from the National Clinical Effectiveness Committee (NCEC) website using the GRADE approach (fully or partially) were included. All recommendations and their corresponding certainty of the evidence, strength of recommendations and justifications were extracted. Authors classified instances of strong recommendations with low certainty evidence (referred to as discordant recommendations) into one of the five paradigmatic situations. Descriptive statistics were calculated.

RESULTS: From the 29 NCEC Clinical Guidelines available at the time of analysis, we identified 8 guidelines using GRADE with a total of 240 recommendations; 38 recommendations did not use the GRADE approach and were excluded. Half of the included guidelines focused on emergency situations. In the final dataset of 202 recommendations, 151 (74.7%) were classified as strong and 51 (25.3%) as conditional. Of the 151 strong recommendations, 55 (36.4%) were supported by high or moderate certainty evidence and 96 (63.6%) by low or very low certainty evidence and were considered discordant. Of these 96 discordant recommendations, 55 (73.7%) were consistent with one of the five paradigmatic situations. However, none were specifically described as such within the guidelines.

CONCLUSIONS: The proportion of discordant recommendations identified in this analysis was higher than some previous international studies (range of all strong recommendations being discordant 30-50%), but similar to other guidelines focused on emergency situations. The majority of discordant recommendations could be mapped to one of the five situations, but no National Clinical Guideline explicitly referenced this. Guideline developers require further guidance to enable greater transparency in the reporting of the reasons for discordant recommendations.

PMID:36966277 | DOI:10.1186/s12874-023-01895-8

Spinal Cord. 2023 Mar 25. doi: 10.1038/s41393-023-00891-5. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

STUDY DESIGN: Qualitative studies.

OBJECTIVE: To develop clear and specific administration and scoring procedures for the Spinal Cord Independence Measure Version 3.0 as a performance-based and interview assessment.

SETTING: Research lab.

METHODS: Modified Delphi Technique survey methods were used in this study. Previously developed SCIM-III administration and scoring procedures for performance-based and interview versions were presented to clinicians experienced in SCI and SCIM-III using the Qualtrix (Qualtrics, Provo, UT) online survey platform. Summary and descriptive statistics were used to assess the percent agreement survey responses.

RESULTS: Three survey rounds were necessary to achieve 80% agreement or above for the performance-based version. Two survey rounds were necessary to achieve 80% agreement or above on the interview version.

CONCLUSIONS: This study describes the development of standardized administration and scoring procedures for the self-care and mobility sub-scales of the SCIM-III as a performance-based and interview version.

PMID:36966259 | DOI:10.1038/s41393-023-00891-5

Commun Biol. 2023 Mar 25;6(1):324. doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-04679-4.

ABSTRACT

Gene-environment (G×E) interaction could partially explain missing heritability in traits; however, the magnitudes of G×E interaction effects remain unclear. Here, we estimate the heritability of G×E interaction for body mass index (BMI) by subjecting genome-wide interaction study data of 331,282 participants in the UK Biobank to linkage disequilibrium score regression (LDSC) and linkage disequilibrium adjusted kinships-software for estimating SNP heritability from summary statistics (LDAK-SumHer) analyses. Among 14 obesity-related lifestyle factors, MET score, pack years of smoking, and alcohol intake frequency significantly interact with genetic factors in both analyses, accounting for the partial variance of BMI. The G×E interaction heritability (%) and standard error of these factors by LDSC and LDAK-SumHer are as follows: MET score, 0.45% (0.12) and 0.65% (0.24); pack years of smoking, 0.52% (0.13) and 0.93% (0.26); and alcohol intake frequency, 0.32% (0.10) and 0.80% (0.17), respectively. Moreover, these three factors are partially validated for their interactions with genetic factors in other obesity-related traits, including waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio adjusted with BMI, and body fat percentage. Our results suggest that G×E interaction may partly explain the missing heritability in BMI, and two G×E interaction loci identified could help in understanding the genetic architecture of obesity.

PMID:36966243 | DOI:10.1038/s42003-023-04679-4