Objectives To develop prediction models that better estimate the pretest probability of coronary artery disease in low prevalence populations. Design Retrospective pooled analysis of individual patient data. Setting 18 hospitals in Europe and the United States. ParticipantsPatients with stable chest pain without evidence for previous coronary artery disease, if they were referred for computed t...

OBJECTIVES To develop prediction models that better estimate the pretest probability of coronary artery disease in low prevalence populations. DESIGN Retrospective pooled analysis of individual patient data. SETTING 18 hospitals in Europe and the United States. PARTICIPANTS Patients with stable chest pain without evidence for previous coronary artery disease, if they were referred for com...

BACKGROUND Liver fibrosis progresses rapidly in HIV-Hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infected individuals partially due to heightened inflammation. Immune markers targeting stages of fibrogenesis could aid in prognosis of fibrosis. METHODS A case-cohort study was nested in the prospective Canadian Co-infection Cohort (n = 1119). HCV RNA positive individuals without fibrosis, end-stage liver disease...

BACKGROUND An increasing number of studies evaluate the ability of predictors to change risk stratification and alter medical decisions, i.e. reclassification performance. We examined the reported design and analysis of recent studies of reclassification and the robustness of their claims for improved reclassification. METHODS Two independent investigators searched PubMed and citations to the...

BACKGROUND Brain-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and the amino-terminal fragment of its prohormone (NT-proBNP) are known predictors of cardiovascular outcomes in patients with coronary heart disease; however, the relative prognostic value of these 2 biomarkers for secondary events remains unclear. METHODS AND RESULTS In 983 participants with stable coronary heart disease, we evaluated the asso...

INTRODUCTION There is no single blood marker for predicting the prognosis in ischemic stroke. A combination of multiple blood markers may enhance the ability to predict long-term outcome following ischemic stroke. METHODS Blood concentrations of neuronal markers (neuron-specific enolase, visinin-like protein 1, heart type fatty acid binding protein (hFABP) and neuroglobin), astroglial markers...

BACKGROUND The value of new biomarkers or imaging tests, when added to a prediction model, is currently evaluated using reclassification measures, such as the net reclassification improvement (NRI). However, these measures only provide an estimate of improved reclassification at population level. We present a straightforward approach to characterize subgroups of reclassified individuals in orde...