Background: This study addresses the null hypothesis that there is no expansion of heterotopic ossification (HO) in the elbow beyond what can be seen early on.   Methods: The area of HO was measured on lateral radiographs of 38 consecutive patients that had operative treatment of HO between 2000 and 2013. Measurements from radiographs obtained between 3 to 7 weeks were compared to measurements...

Objective We sought to determine the incidence and factors associated with development of diabetes mellitus (DM) in older HIV-infected individuals. Research design and methods We analyzed data from people living with HIV (PLWH) ≥50 years of age enrolled in a large urban HIV outpatient clinic in Vancouver, British Columbia. Patients were categorized as having DM if they had random blood sugar ...

BACKGROUND Around 50% of cutaneous melanomas harbor the BRAF(V600E) mutation and can be treated with BRAF inhibitors. DNA carrying this mutation can be released into circulation as cell-free BRAF(V600E) (cfBRAF(V600E)). Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) is an analytically sensitive technique for quantifying small concentrations of DNA. We studied the plasma concentrations of cfBRAF(V600E) by ddPCR in...

Background.  The mechanism of virologic failure (VF) of lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) monotherapy is not well understood. We assessed sequence changes in human immunodeficiency virus-1 reverse-transcriptase (RT) and protease (PR) regions. Methods.  Human immunodeficiency virus-1 pol sequences from 34 participants who failed second-line LPV/r monotherapy were obtained at study entry (SE) and VF. S...

Stiffness- and relaxation-based diastolic function (DF) assessment can characterize the presence, severity, and mechanism of dysfunction. Although frequency-based characterization of arterial function is routine (input impedance, characteristic impedance, arterial wave reflection), DF assessment via frequency-based methods incorporating optimization/efficiency criteria is lacking. By definition...

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare and devastating disease which is characterized by worsening dyspnea and exercise tolerance. These patients are often found to have concomitant, depression, anxiety and impaired health-related quality of life (HRQOL). The interrelationship of dyspnea, depression and HRQOL in these patients is not well studied. Retrospective analysis was performed o...

BACKGROUND Late recurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) after radiofrequency ablation remains significant. Asymptomatic recurrence poses a difficult clinical problem as it is associated with an equally increased risk of stroke and death compared with symptomatic AF events. Meta-analyses reveal that no single preablation patient characteristic efficiently predicts these AF recurrences. This study...

BACKGROUND In upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) patients, early risk stratification allows appropriate therapy that may be helpful for reducing morbidity and mortality. OBJECTIVES to evaluate the efficacy of red-cell distribution width (RDW) for prediction of high-risk in UGIB patients. METHODS We conducted a clinical retrospective observational study based on data for UGIB patients fr...

Background Antiretroviral drugs with a lower potential to induce hepatic steatosis in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection need to be identified. We compared the effect of switching efavirenz (EFV) to raltegravir (RAL) on hepatic steatosis among HIV-infected patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) receiving EFV plus 2 nucleoside analogues. Methods HIV-infected patients ...