OBJECTIVE To examine whether vascular calcifications on hand films in RA might aid in determining mortality risk. METHODS Hand radiographs from 906 RA patients were scored as positive or negative for vascular calcifications. Patient characteristics associated with vascular calcifications were assessed using multivariable logistic regression, and associations with mortality were examined using...

OBJECTIVES To determine the frequency, associated clinical factors, and prognostic significance of left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction in systemic sclerosis (SSc). METHODS We studied 153 consecutive patients with SSc and divided the study sample into those with and without LV diastolic dysfunction using established age-based normal cut-offs for lateral tissue Doppler early mitral annu...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether short cervical lengths (≤20 mm) that were initially detected in mid-trimester and early in the third trimester are independently associated with increased risks of subsequent histologic chorioamnionitis and spontaneous preterm birth (SPTB, defined as a delivery before 34 weeks) in asymptomatic women with twin pregnancies. MATERIAL AND METHODS This is a prospecti...

BACKGROUND Describe the prevalence and types of conflicts of interest (COI) in published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in general medical journals with a binary primary outcome and assess the association between conflicts of interest and favorable outcome. METHODS Parallel-group RCTs with a binary primary outcome published in three general medical journals during 2013-2015 were identifi...

OBJECTIVES There is a lack of information on sexual violence (SV) among men who have sex with men and transgendered individuals (MSM-T) in southern India. As SV has been associated with HIV vulnerability, this study examined health related behaviours and practices associated with SV among MSM-T. DESIGN Data were from cross-sectional surveys from four districts in Karnataka, India. METHODS M...

PURPOSE To evaluate the impact of pure and mixed histologic variant versus pure urothelial carcinoma in nonmetastatic bladder cancer (BCa) patients treated with radical cystectomy (RC). PATIENTS AND METHODS We evaluated data from 1067 patients treated with RC and pelvic lymph node dissection between 1990 and 2013 at a single institution tertiary-care referral center. All specimens were evalua...

BACKGROUND Primary care practices that concentrate linguistically and culturally appropriate services for Latinos may result in higher cardiology consultation rates and improved process measure performance for patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and congestive heart failure (CHF). METHODS Multivariable Cox proportional-hazards regression was used to assess differences in referral at h...

To predict the incidence of moderate-to-severe patient-reported xerostomia among head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). Multivariable normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) models were developed by using quality of life questionnaire datasets from 152 patients with HNSCC and 84 patien...