BACKGROUND Hypertrophy of the ligamentum flavum (LF) has been considered as a major cause of lumbar central spinal stenosis (LCSS). Previous studies have found that ligamentum flavum thickness (LFT) is correlated with aging, disc degeneration, and lumbar spinal stenosis. However, hypertrophy is different from thickness. Thus, to evaluate hypertrophy of the whole LF, we devised a new morphologic...

OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency of liver function tests (LFT) abnormalities associated with methotrexate (MTX) use in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS A retrospective chart review for demographic information, RA-specific history, medication history, complications of therapy, results of all available blood tests (specifically aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine am...

OBJECTIVE Evaluation of predictive value of liver function tests (LFTs) for the detection of liver-related disease in primary care. DESIGN A prospective observational study. SETTING 11 UK primary care practices. PARTICIPANTS Patients (n=1290) with an abnormal eight-panel LFT (but no previously diagnosed liver disease). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Patients were investigated by recording clinic...

OBJECTIVE Systematic assessment of the prevalence and pattern of liver function test (LFT) abnormalities associated with regular antipsychotics in adult humans and consideration of management of such abnormalities. DATA SOURCES Systematic search identifying cohort, cross-sectional or case studies/series, reporting LFT abnormalities in patients receiving regular antipsychotics. EMBASE, PsychIN...

BACKGROUND Abdominal cross-sectional imaging is often performed to evaluate abnormal liver function test (LFT) results in hospitalized patients. However, few data are available regarding the yield and usefulness of imaging inpatients for the indication of abnormal LFT results, the process of requesting abdominal imaging studies, or the response to their findings. METHODS We retrospectively re...

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect strength training frequency has on improvements in lean mass and strength. Participants were 7 women and 12 men, age (χ̄= 34.64 years ± 6.91 years), with strength training experience, training age (χ̄= 51.16 months ± 39.02 months). Participants were assigned to one of two groups to equal baseline group demographics. High frequency training gro...

BACKGROUND A community based drug resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) program has been incrementally implemented in Khayelitsha, a high HIV and TB burden community in South Africa. We investigated loss from treatment (LFT), and post treatment outcomes of DR-TB patients in this setting. METHODOLOGY LFT, defined as interruption of treatment for ≥2 consecutive months was assessed among patients initi...

We study the double discrete Legendre–Fenchel Transform (LFT) to approximate the convex hull of a given function. We analyze the convergence of the double discrete LFT in the multivariate case based on previous convergence results for the discrete LFT by Corrias. We focus our attention on the grid on which the second discrete LFT is computed (dual grid); its choice has great impact on the accur...

We thank Johnson and Danhauer for pointing out our oversight of calling the ED-NST the CUNY-NST. The nonsense syllable test that we used in the Auriemmo et al (2009) study was indeed the Edgerton-Danhauer Nonsense Syllable Test (ED-NST), which we have referenced correctly throughout the manuscript. We also agree with Johnson and Danhauer on the requisite considerations in administering an open-...

One of the main difficulties in applying modern control theories for designing robust controllers for linear uncertain plants is the lack of adequate models describing structured physical model uncertainties. We present a systematic approach for the generation of uncertainty models described by linear fractional transformations (LFTs) and report on recently developed symbolic and numerical soft...