Clinicopathologic Features of Antibrush Border Antibody Disease.

Introduction: Antibrush border antibody disease (ABBA) is an autoimmune tubulointerstitial kidney disease that primarily affects older individuals and results in progressive kidney failure. It is rare with only 20 reported cases. Here, we describe a case series to further define the clinicopathologic spectrum and natural history, and to inform management.

Anti-LRP2 nephropathy with concurrent kidney infiltration by lymphoma.

Anti-low-density lipoprotein receptor-related lipoprotein 2 (LRP2) nephropathy/anti-brush border antibody disease is rare and characterized by tubular basement membrane, Bowman's capsule and glomerular subepithelial immune deposits on kidney biopsy. No reported cases have occurred in patients with lymphoproliferative disorders or monoclonal gammopathies. We present two cases of anti-LRP2 nephropathy that occurred in patients with progressive low-grade B-cell lymphoma and had concurrent kidney infiltration by lymphoma on biopsy.

Outcomes of a Culturally Tailored Partially Randomized Patient Preference Controlled Trial to Increase Physical Activity Among Low-Income Immigrant Latinas.

Introduction: Almost half (47.8%) of adult Latinas report they never engage in any leisure time physical activity (PA) which is an independent risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease and other chronic illnesses. There is a pressing need to develop and test PA interventions among Latinas.

Measuring the Severity of Neonatal Seizures: Temporal-Spatial Burden.

Purpose: The American Clinical Neurophysiology Society recommends measuring neonatal seizures' severity by their frequency (number of seizures-anywhere per hour), burden (percentage of time with seizures-anywhere), or on a region-by-region, temporal-spatial basis. This study compares two reduced-channel montages for temporal-spatial seizure burden analyses and examines the agreement of seizures' quantification among these three methodologies.

Methods: A convenience sample of 10 neonatal electroencephalograms was annotated for the beginnings and ends of seizures, which appeared anywhere in the full neonatal montage, then repeated on a more precise, region-by-region basis using 2 reduced-channel montages A and B.

VARIABLE SELECTION FOR HIGH DIMENSIONAL MULTIVARIATE OUTCOMES.

We consider variable selection for high-dimensional multivariate regression using penalized likelihoods when the number of outcomes and the number of covariates might be large. To account for within-subject correlation, we consider variable selection when a working precision matrix is used and when the precision matrix is jointly estimated using a two-stage procedure. We show that under suitable regularity conditions, penalized regression coefficient estimators are consistent for model selection for an arbitrary working precision matrix, and have the oracle properties and are efficient when the true precision matrix is used or when it is consistently estimated using sparse regression.

The Dantzig Selector for Censored Linear Regression Models.

The Dantzig variable selector has recently emerged as a powerful tool for fitting regularized regression models. To our knowledge, most work involving the Dantzig selector has been performed with fully-observed response variables. This paper proposes a new class of adaptive Dantzig variable selectors for linear regression models when the response variable is subject to right censoring.

Parallelism, uniqueness, and large-sample asymptotics for the Dantzig selector.

The Dantzig selector (Candès and Tao, 2007) is a popular ℓ-regularization method for variable selection and estimation in linear regression. We present a very weak geometric condition on the observed predictors which is related to parallelism and, when satisfied, ensures the uniqueness of Dantzig selector estimators. The condition holds with probability 1, if the predictors are drawn from a continuous distribution.

Aberrant lipid metabolism disrupts calcium homeostasis causing liver endoplasmic reticulum stress in obesity.

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the main site of protein and lipid synthesis, membrane biogenesis, xenobiotic detoxification and cellular calcium storage, and perturbation of ER homeostasis leads to stress and the activation of the unfolded protein response. Chronic activation of ER stress has been shown to have an important role in the development of insulin resistance and diabetes in obesity. However, the mechanisms that lead to chronic ER stress in a metabolic context in general, and in obesity in particular, are not understood.

Agreement between long-term neonatal background classification by conventional and amplitude-integrated EEG.

Conventional EEG (CEEG) in neonates is considered the gold standard for evaluating EEG background and detecting electrographic seizures. However, CEEG is expensive and cumbersome for long-term monitoring. A simplified method, amplitude-integrated EEG (AEEG) has been rapidly adopted to accomplish the same goals.

Increased power for the analysis of label-free LC-MS/MS proteomics data by combining spectral counts and peptide peak attributes.

Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based proteomics provides a wealth of information about proteins present in biological samples. In bottom-up LC-MS/MS-based proteomics, proteins are enzymatically digested into peptides prior to query by LC-MS/MS. Thus, the information directly available from the LC-MS/MS data is at the peptide level.

An ongoing burden: chlamydial infections among young American Indian women.

Objectives: Studies conducted in the 1980s, when there was limited chlamydia screening, showed high positivity, 23%-30%, among American Indian women. In the 1990 s, chlamydia screening and treatment programs were implemented in a variety of settings serving American Indian women including Indian Health Service (IHS) clinics. Yet, a 2000-2001 national survey documented a chlamydia prevalence of 13.

Increasing chlamydia positivity in women screened in family planning clinics: do we know why?

Objective: Following a 9-year 60% decline, chlamydia positivity increased 46% from 1997 through 2004 among young sexually active women screened in Region X family planning clinics. The objective of this analysis was to systematically examine the influences of risk factors, changing laboratory test methods, and interclinic variability on chlamydia positivity during this period.

Study Design: We analyzed data from 520,512 chlamydia tests from women aged 15 to 24 years screened in 125 family planning clinics.

Testing for sexually transmitted diseases in U.S. Public health laboratories in 2004.

Objective: Appropriate laboratory testing practices are a critical part of sexually transmitted disease (STD) control.

Goal: The goal of this study was to describe the type and volume of STD tests performed in public health laboratories in the United States in 2004.

Study Design: A web-based survey was made available to 144 members of the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

Indirect estimation of Chlamydia screening coverage using public health surveillance data.

Although routine screening of all sexually active adolescent females for Chlamydia trachomatis infection is recommended at least annually in the United States, no national or state-specific population-based estimates of chlamydia screening coverage are known to exist. Conclusions regarding screening coverage have often been based on surveys of health care provider or facility screening practices, but such surveys do not consider persons who do not seek care at these facilities or who seek care at more than one facility. The authors developed a method to estimate the proportion of sexually active females aged 15-19 years screened for chlamydia in 45 states and the District of Columbia by using national data on chlamydia positivity, estimates of sexual activity from the National Survey of Family Growth, and chlamydial infections reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Laboratory tests used in US public health laboratories for sexually transmitted diseases, 2000.

Background And Objectives: Public health laboratories are a critical component of sexually transmitted disease (STD) control in the United States.

Goal: The goal of this study was to describe the types and volume of STD tests performed in U.S.

Gonorrhea prevalence and coinfection with chlamydia in women in the United States, 2000.

Background: No recent national data address the prevalence of gonorrhea.

Goal: The goal was to describe gonorrhea prevalence and chlamydial coinfection among women aged 15 to 24 years.

Study Design: Data were analyzed from tests for chlamydia and gonorrhea at family planning, STD, and prenatal clinics in 2000.

Receptor density and recycling affect the rate of agonist-induced desensitization of mu-opioid receptor.

Previously, we reported that the time course for the rapid phosphorylation rate of mu-opioid receptor expressed in human embryonic kidney (HEK)293 cells did not correlate with the slow receptor desensitization rate induced by [D-Ala(2),N-MePhe(4), Gly-ol(5)]-enkephalin (DAMGO). However, others have suggested that receptor phosphorylation is the trigger for mu-opioid receptor desensitization. In this study, we demonstrated the relatively slow rate of receptor desensitization could be attributed partially to the recycling of internalized receptor as determined by fluorescence-activated cell-sorting analysis.

Impact of switching laboratory tests on reported trends in Chlamydia trachomatis infections.

Improvements in the sensitivity and specificity of laboratory testing methods for Chlamydia trachomatis infections in recent years have created potential problems with interpreting data on chlamydia prevalence trends. A switch to a more sensitive test can result in an increase in chlamydia positivity even with no increase in the true disease prevalence. To examine the impact of switching laboratory testing methods on chlamydia positivity trends among women, the authors analyzed data from chlamydia screening programs in family planning clinics in two geographic areas of the United States.

The risk of serious cardiac arrhythmias among cisapride users in the United Kingdom and Canada.

Purpose: Serious, although rare, ventricular arrhythmias and deaths have been reported in patients taking cisapride monohydrate. Without quantification of the risk involved, it is impossible to develop rational therapeutic guidelines.

Subjects And Methods: Arrhythmic events (sudden deaths and other events compatible with serious ventricular arrhythmias) were sought among 36,743 patients prescribed cisapride in the United Kingdom and Saskatchewan, Canada.

A metaregression analysis of the dose-response effect of aspirin on stroke.

Background: We evaluated whether the risk of stroke depends on aspirin dose in patients with a previous transient ischemic attack or stroke.

Methods: We conducted a metaregression analysis of stroke by using published randomized, placebo-controlled trials. We analyzed studies of patients who had recently had a transient ischemic attack or stroke (ie, secondary prevention).

Human immunodeficiency virus partner notification. Cost and effectiveness data from an attempted randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Determine the cost and effectiveness of partner notification for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.

Methods: Persons testing HIV positive in three areas were randomly assigned one of four approaches to partner notification. Analysis plans changed because disease intervention specialists notified many partners from the patient referral group.

Chlamydia positivity versus prevalence. What's the difference?

Background: Data on chlamydia screening collected as part of Regional Infertility Prevention Projects often do not include personal identifiers, therefore repeat tests for patients during a year cannot be identified. Consequently, positivity is calculated and used to monitor chlamydia prevalence.

Goals: To assess how well positivity can estimate prevalence in family planning and sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic settings.

Partner notification for syphilis: a randomized, controlled trial of three approaches.

Objective: To determine the cost and effectiveness of three approaches to partner notification for infectious syphilis.

Study Design: People with syphilis were randomly assigned to: (1) notification of partners by patients themselves within 2 days or disease intervention specialists would notify them; (2) immediate notification by intervention specialist; or (3) immediate notification by intervention specialists, who had the option of drawing blood in the field. Costs of intervention specialists' time, travel, and overhead were measured.

Airborne asbestos measurement: preliminary findings identify a new source of variability in the membrane filter method.

Significant quantities of asbestos fibers have been found on the inside surfaces of the filter cassettes using the current membrane filter method (P&CAM-239). This introduces a major new source of random error not previously recognized in these measurements. This phenomenon is apparently due to the presence of electrostatic charges generated within the plastic filter cassettes.