AI for reading screening mammograms: the need for circumspection.

• The studies on AI reading of screening mammograms have methodological limitations that undermine the conclusion that AI could do better than radiologists. • These studies do not informon numbers of extra breast cancers found by AI that could represent overdiagnosis. • The ability of AI to detect breast cancers is overestimated because there are no result on biopsy procedures that should be performed when mammograms are positive at AI reading but not at radiology reading.

Causes of death among Belgian professional military radar operators: a 37-year retrospective cohort study.

Concerns have been raised about the safety of the electromagnetic (microwave) emissions of radars, as well as about the ionizing radiation that is emitted on short distances (<2 m) by devices in the radars producing the microwaves. We retrospectively compared the cause specific mortality of 4,417 Belgian professional male military personnel who served in anti-aircraft radar units in Germany between 1963 and 1994 to the cause specific mortality of 2,932 Belgian military personnel who served at the same time in the same place in battalions not equipped with radars. Mean follow-up was 26 years in the 2 groups.

All-cause mortality among Belgian military radar operators: a 40-year controlled longitudinal study.

Background: It has been suggested that exposure to radiofrequency/microwaves radiations could be associated with greater health hazards and higher mortality.

Methods: The all-cause mortality of 27,671 Belgian militaries who served from 1963 until 1994 in battalions equipped with radars for anti-aircraft defence was studied over the period 1968-2003. End of the seventies, technical modifications brought to the shielding of the micro-wave generators resulted in a reduction in irradiations.

A multicentre epidemiological study on sunbed use and cutaneous melanoma in Europe.

A large European case-control study investigated the association between sunbed use and cutaneous melanoma in an adult population aged between 18 and 49 years. Between 1999 and 2001 sun and sunbed exposure was recorded in 597 newly diagnosed melanoma cases and 622 controls in Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. Fifty three percent of cases and 57% of controls ever used sunbeds.

Sex differences in numbers of nevi on body sites of young European children: implications for the etiology of cutaneous melanoma.

Background: Since 1950, the greatest increase in cutaneous melanoma incidence in fair-skinned males took place on the trunk and on the head and neck, whereas in females, it took place on the limbs, mainly on the lower limbs. We examined the influence of sex on numbers and size of nevi on different body sites in white European schoolchildren.

Methods: Information about each holiday period since birth to interview was recorded from parents of six hundred twenty-eight 6- to 7-year-old children in four European cities (Brussels (Belgium), Bochum (Germany), Lyons (France), and Rome (Italy)).

The impact of reimbursement criteria on the appropriateness of 'statin' prescribing.

Background: In Belgium, regulations restrict the reimbursement of statins to patients with total serum cholesterol above 250 mg/dl (6.41 mmol/l) after a three-month lipid-lowering diet. We investigated the possible impact of these regulations on characteristics of Belgian patients receiving a lipid-lowering drug.