UNLABELLED WHAT'S KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT? AND WHAT DOES THE STUDY ADD?: Currently available nomograms to predict preoperative risk of early biochemical recurrence (EBCR) after radical prostatectomy are solely based on classic clinicopathological variables. Despite providing useful predictions, these models are not perfect. Indeed, most researchers agree that nomograms can be improved by incorpora...

BACKGROUND Non-uniform reporting of relevant relationships and metrics hampers critical appraisal of the clinical utility of C-reactive protein (CRP) measurement for prediction of later coronary events. METHODS We evaluated the predictive performance of CRP in the Northwick Park Heart Study (NPHS-II) and the Edinburgh Artery Study (EAS) comparing discrimination by area under the ROC curve (AU...

The added value of incorporating information from repeated blood pressure and cholesterol measurements to predict cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk has not been rigorously assessed. We used data on 191,445 adults from the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration (38 cohorts from 17 countries with data encompassing 1962-2014) with more than 1 million measurements of systolic blood pressure, total cho...

BACKGROUND The Net Reclassification Index (NRI) and its P value are used to make conclusions about improvements in prediction performance gained by adding a set of biomarkers to an existing risk prediction model. Although proposed only 5 years ago, the NRI has gained enormous traction in the risk prediction literature. Concerns have recently been raised about the statistical validity of the NRI...

In a recent paper, Net Neutrality, Reclassification and Investment: A Counterfactual Analysis1, I used the difference-in-differences methodology to estimate the effect on telecommunications investment of the Federal Communications Commission’s (“FCC”) Net Neutrality policies, including especially the Agency’s decision to reclassify broadband as a Title II common carrier telecommunications servi...

OBJECTIVES To assess the performance of a panel of common single nucleotide polymorphisms (genotypes) associated with type 2 diabetes in distinguishing incident cases of future type 2 diabetes (discrimination), and to examine the effect of adding genetic information to previously validated non-genetic (phenotype based) models developed to estimate the absolute risk of type 2 diabetes. DESIGN ...

CONTEXT Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common. Kidney disease severity can be classified by estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and albuminuria, but more accurate information regarding risk for progression to kidney failure is required for clinical decisions about testing, treatment, and referral. OBJECTIVE To develop and validate predictive models for progression of CKD. DESIGN, SE...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE American Indians have high rates of stroke. Improved risk stratification could enhance prevention, but the ability of biochemical and echocardiographic markers of preclinical disease to improve stroke prediction is not well-defined. METHODS We evaluated such markers as predictors of ischemic stroke in a community-based cohort of American Indians without prevalent cardio...

BACKGROUND Genetics plays an important role in venous thromboembolism (VTE). Factor V Leiden (FVL or rs6025) and prothrombin gene G20210A (PT or rs1799963) are the genetic variants currently tested for VTE risk assessment. We hypothesized that primary VTE risk assessment can be improved by using genetic risk scores with more genetic markers than just FVL-rs6025 and prothrombin gene PT-rs1799963...