A Categorial Structure for Identifying Physiological Measurement Observables.

Patient measurements to characterize pathophysiological phenomena are often difficult to describe. A controlled terminology for this domain is needed, to describe methods, appropriate reference values and to report results. This is a proposal for a categorial structure for such a terminology.

Does retinopathy predict stroke recurrence in type 2 diabetes patients: A retrospective study?

Aims: To study if retinopathy increases the risk of stroke recurrence in stroke patients with type 2 diabetes. Also, to study if stroke patients with type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of stroke recurrence compared to non-diabetics and if stroke patients with type 2 diabetes, regardless of retinopathy, have a higher incidence of carotid stenosis. Also, to study if stroke patients with type 2 diabetes retinopathy have increased incidence of carotid stenosis.

Larger right atrium than left atrium is associated with all-cause mortality in elderly patients with heart failure.

Background: While left atrial (LA) enlargement is known as an early sign of left heart disease with prognostic implications in heart failure (HF), the importance of right atrial (RA) enlargement is less well studied, and the prognostic implications of interatrial size comparison are insufficiently understood. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that RA area larger than LA area in apical four-chamber view is associated with all-cause mortality in elderly patients with HF independent of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF).

Methods: Retrospectively, 289 patients above 65 years hospitalized for HF between April 2007 and April 2008, and who underwent an echocardiogram, were enrolled.

Venous hemodynamic changes in lower limb venous disease: the UIP consensus according to scientific evidence.

There are excellent guidelines for clinicians to manage venous diseases but few reviews to assess their hemodynamic background. Hemodynamic concepts that evolved in the past have largely remained unchallenged in recent decades, perhaps due to their often complicated nature and in part due to emergence of new diagnostic techniques. Duplex ultrasound scanning and other imaging techniques which evolved in the latter part of the 20th century have dominated investigation.

High incidence of deep venous thrombosis after Achilles tendon rupture: a prospective study.

Deep venous thrombosis (DVT) is common after lower limb injury, but the effect of prophylactic treatment has not been documented in large randomised trials or meta-analyses. As a result, evidence-based recommendations have not been established. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the incidence of venous thromboembolism in patients with Achilles tendon rupture.

Shallow linguistic analysis of a large corpus of drug prescriptions.

We report on first experiences from linguistic analyses of patient instructions from 19,8404 actual drug prescriptions regarding seven pharmaceutical products frequently prescribed in Sweden. The analysis includes expressions for amount, dose unit, dose interval, mode of administration, purpose and a few further details. Even simple processing seems useful to extract information from these short, rather formal text strings.