INTRODUCTION Understanding the characteristics of early and late survey responders has implications for recruitment efforts and for informing potential response bias. The main objective of this analysis was to examine survey responder status (ie, early vs late response) by sociodemographic characteristics and by salience of study variables among respondents. METHODS We analyzed data from a su...

BACKGROUND Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) improves left ventricular (LV) volumes, mitral regurgitation (MR) severity and symptoms of patients with heart failure (HF). However, >or= 30% of patients have no significant clinical or echocardiographic improvement following CRT. Reverse remodeling after CRT correlates with improved clinical outcomes. We hypothesized that in NT-pro BNP monito...

1. The present study examined if the presence of creatine kinase (CK) inhibitors might explain the large variability in blood levels of CK among subjects after exercise-induced muscle damage. 2. Twenty-four women performed an eccentric exercise with the forearm flexors and were then classified as no CK responders, low CK responders and high CK responders. High CK responders repeated the exercis...

OBJECTIVES To compare obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in World Trade Center (WTC) responders with aerodigestive disorders and snoring with non-WTC habitual snorers, and to distinguish features of OSA in a subset of responders with worsening of snoring after 9/11 from responders with previous habitual snoring. METHODS Cross-sectional comparative study of 50 WTC Medical Monitoring and Treatment P...

Seasonal influenza vaccines elicit antibody responses that can prevent infection, but their efficacy is reduced in the elderly. While a subset of elderly individuals can still mount sufficient vaccine-induced antibody responses, little is known about the properties of the vaccine-induced antibody repertoires in elderly as compared to young responders. To gain insights into the effects of aging ...

BACKGROUND To evaluate the association between the therapeutic outcomes of sorafenib for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the parameters of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM). METHODS Nine patients were evaluated prospectively. All patients were Child-Pugh score A. The mean dimension of the lesion was 32 mm (range: 15-74 mm). MR images were obtained using a 1.5-Tesla superconducti...

Preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) has become the standard treatment for patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. However, no specific biomarker has been identified to predict a response to preoperative CRT. The aim of the present study was to assess the gene expression patterns of patients with advanced rectal cancer to predict their responses to preoperative CRT. Fifty-nine rectal canc...