OBJECTIVE The survival of Huntington's disease (HD) patients is reported to be 15-20 years. However, most studies on the survival of HD have been conducted in patients without genetic confirmation with the possible inclusion of non-HD patients, and all studies have been conducted in Western countries. The survival of patients with HD in East Asia, where its prevalence is 10-50-fold lower compar...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine the significant factors for risk estimate of aspiration and to evaluate the efficiency of the dysphagia assessment tool. METHODS A consecutive series of 210 stroke patients with aspiration symptoms such as cough and dysphagia who had soft or regular diet without tube feeding were examined. The dysphagia assessment tool for aspiration was comp...

BACKGROUND The objective was to compare women's personal estimates of their risk with objective breast cancer risk estimates and to describe the risk factors for breast cancer identified by women. METHODS Telephone survey of a random sample of 761 rural and urban women with no history of breast cancer. Survey instrument included measures of perceptions of lifetime risk for breast cancer for t...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE There are 2 basic principles in cemented stem fixation: shape-closed and force-closed. We investigated 2 shape-closed straight stems, the Müller (MSS) and the Virtec (VSS), which differ only in geometrical cross section, to determine whether the difference in stem shape would affect the radiological results or long-term survival. PATIENTS AND METHODS We included 711 hip...

The non-linear inverse relationship between RR-intervals and heart rate (HR) contributes significantly to the heart rate variability (HRV) parameters and their performance in mortality prediction. To determine the level of influence HR exerts over HRV parameters' prognostic power, we studied the predictive performance for different HR levels by applying eight correction procedures, multiplying ...

Estimation and group comparison of survival curves are two very common issues in survival analysis. In practice, the Kaplan-Meier estimates of survival functions may be biased due to unbalanced distribution of confounders. Here we develop an adjusted Kaplan-Meier estimator (AKME) to reduce confounding effects using inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW). Each observation is weighted ...

OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between hospital volume and mortality for nonsurgical patients receiving mechanical ventilation. DATA SOURCES Pennsylvania state discharge records from July 1, 2004, to June 30, 2006, linked to the Pennsylvania Department of Health death records and the 2000 United States Census. STUDY DESIGN We categorized all general acute care hospitals in Pennsylvan...