Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background The Global Registry Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) risk score is widely recommended for assessment in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) a recognized measure comorbid burden, and useful tool estimating prognosis multiple coexisting illnesses. Despite it has been validated the co...

BACKGROUND Whether rescue surgery confers a survival benefit in patients undergoing non-curative endoscopic resection of early gastric cancer remains controversial. METHODS This was a retrospective review of patients who underwent non-curative endoscopic resection of at least one lesion of differentiated-type early gastric cancer between 2000 and 2011. Patients with a positive lateral resecti...

BACKGROUND Systemic inflammation may contribute to cachexia in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In this longitudinal study we assessed the association between circulating C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1ß, and IL-6 levels and subsequent loss of fat free mass and fat mass in more than 400 COPD patients over three years. METH...

BACKGROUND Breast cancer with oestrogen receptor expression is common in older women. Several factors, such as age and reproductive hormone exposure, have been associated with oestrogen receptor expression in breast cancer. However, the association between comorbidities and the oestrogen receptor expression has been poorly studied. We hypothesized that there was an association between burden co...

Mortality and cost outcomes of elderly intensive care unit (ICU) trauma patients were characterised in a retrospective cohort study from an Australian tertiary ICU Trauma patients admitted between January 2000 and December 2005 were grouped into three major age categories: aged > or =65 years admitted into ICU (n = 272); aged -65 years admitted into general ward (n = 610) and aged < 65 years ad...

BACKGROUND Postoperative metrics are increasingly important in determining standards of quality for physicians and hospitals. Although complications following spinal surgery have been described, procedural and patient variables have yet to be incorporated into a predictive model of adverse-event occurrence. We sought to develop a predictive model of complication occurrence after spine surgery. ...

Although depression is clearly associated with increased mortality after acute myocardial infarction, there is a paucity of data examining the impact of depression on patients with unstable angina (UA). We analyzed the relation between depressive symptoms and all-cause mortality in patients with UA who were enrolled in a prospective multicenter study of depression and acute coronary syndrome (A...

BACKGROUND Single-photon emission computed tomography myocardial perfusion imaging defects are associated with increased all-cause mortality and cardiovascular death. However, it is unknown whether single-photon emission computed tomography myocardial perfusion imaging can identify patients at increased risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD). METHODS AND RESULTS We analyzed a cohort of 6383 patie...

BACKGROUND While the majority of healthcare in the US is provided in community hospitals, the epidemiology and treatment of bloodstream infections in this setting is unknown. METHODS AND FINDINGS We undertook this multicenter, retrospective cohort study to 1) describe the epidemiology of bloodstream infections (BSI) in a network of community hospitals and 2) determine risk factors for inappro...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the correlations among comorbidity and overall survival (OS), biochemical progression-free survival (b-PFS) and toxicity in elderly patients with localized prostate cancer treated with (125)I brachytherapy. METHODS Elderly men, aged ≥65 years, with low-intermediate risk prostate cancer, were treated with permanent (125)I brachytherapy as monotherapy. Comorbidity data were...