Measurements of temporal aspects of gait obtained with a multimemory stopwatch in persons with gait impairments.

Study Design: Repeated measures of 14 temporal factors of gait obtained with a multimemory stopwatch from a variety of subjects with locomotor impairments.

Objectives: To estimate the intratester and intertester reliability of 14 temporal factors of gait by using a multimemory stopwatch; to compare novice and expert clinicians at mastery of making these temporal measurements.

Background: Temporal gait measures are useful for describing the effectiveness of treatment interventions in patients with locomotor impairments.

Prevalence of diabetes mellitus in patients with end-stage liver cirrhosis due to hepatitis C, alcohol, or cholestatic disease.

Background/aims: The aims were to study: 1) the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in patients with end-stage liver cirrhosis due to hepatitis C, alcohol, or cholestatic liver disease, 2) viral and host immunogenetic factors that may predispose to diabetes, and 3) liver transplantation outcome in patients with or without diabetes.

Methods: Fasting blood glucose values of patients who underwent liver transplantation because of hepatitis C-related cirrhosis (73 patients) were compared with those of patients with cirrhosis due to cholestatic (78 patients) or alcoholic liver disease (53 patients) and to a general population. Data on diabetes prevalence in a population without liver cirrhosis was based on the prevalence of diabetes in Olmsted County, Minnesota, residents.

Lumbar lordosis and pelvic inclination in adults with chronic low back pain.

Background And Purpose: The causes of lumbopelvic imbalances in standing have been widely accepted by physical therapists, but there is a lack of scientific evidence available to support them. We examined the association between 9 variables and pelvic inclination and lumbar lordosis during relaxed standing.

Subjects: Thirty men and 30 women with chronic low back pain (CLBP) for at least 4 months were examined (mean age=54.

Testicular lymphoma is associated with a high incidence of extranodal recurrence.

Background: Testicular lymphoma is a rare extranodal presentation of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The authors report long term follow-up information regarding a group of patients with testicular lymphoma evaluated at the Mayo Clinic and describe the outcome with special attention to patterns of recurrence.

Methods: The medical records of patients with testicular lymphoma seen at the Mayo Clinic between January 1970 and March 1993 were reviewed.

Risk factors for radiation maculopathy and papillopathy after intraocular irradiation.

Purpose: To evaluate rates of occurrence and risk factors for radiation maculopathy and radiation papillopathy in patients with choroidal melanoma at high risk for these complications.

Design: Cohort study.

Participants: A total of 558 patients treated with proton irradiation for choroidal melanoma between 1986 and 1996 with small to moderate sized tumors (less than 5 mm in height and 15 mm in diameter) located within 4 disc diameters of the macula or optic nerve and with a median ocular follow-up of 4 years.

Lactation in relation to postmenopausal breast cancer.

A modest inverse association between lactation and breast cancer risk has most consistently been observed in premenopausal women, and certain breastfeeding patterns, such as prolonged duration and early age at first lactation, may be important determinants of risk. However, these associations have not generally been observed in relation to postmenopausal breast cancer. As part of a multicenter population-based case-control study, the authors examined postmenopausal breast cancer risk according to breastfeeding characteristics.

Childbearing history associated with improved survival in choroidal melanoma.

Background: Research in cutaneous melanoma suggests that women may experience better tumor-dependent survival than men, and some studies have shown that the advantage is specific to childbearing.

Objective: To examine whether childbearing may be a favorable prognostic factor in melanoma of the uveal tract.

Design: Prospective follow-up study.

Germline brca2 sequence variants in patients with ocular melanoma.

On the basis, chiefly, of anecdotal reports of cases of ocular melanoma (OM) occurring in families with inherited susceptibility to breast cancer due to brca2 germline mutations, we examined the frequency of brca2 alterations in a series of 62 ocular melanoma cases. These cases were preferentially selected on the basis of reported family history of breast or ovarian cancer, or OM, although the series also included a randomly selected set of cases without family history of cancer. A total of 7 germline alterations were found, of which 3 were likely to be associated with disease.

Iris color as a prognostic factor in ocular melanoma.

Background: Ocular melanoma may be more prevalent among patients with light irises than those with dark irises.

Objective: To examine a large clinical series of patients with intraocular melanoma to determine if light irises are associated with increased risk of death from these tumors.

Methods: A total of 1162 patients treated with proton irradiation between 1984 and 1996 were observed through 1997.

Survival of patients with carcinoma in situ of the urinary bladder.

Background: To the authors' knowledge, the long term follow-up of patients with carcinoma in situ of the urinary bladder is limited.

Methods: The authors studied 138 patients diagnosed with urothelial carcinoma in situ of the bladder at the Mayo Clinic between 1972-1979. All the histologic slides were reviewed and fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for carcinoma in situ according to the newly proposed World Health Organization and International Society of Urologic Pathology classification system.

The relation of breast size to breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women (United States).

Objective: Breast size has been hypothesized to predict a woman's risk of breast cancer although studies in the main have not supported an association. In a large, population-based case-control study we examined whether breast size might emerge as a significant risk factor among very lean women in whom breast size might be a truer reflection of the volume of gland mass at risk for malignant change.

Methods: The data derive from a population-based case-control study of women aged 50 to 79 years conducted in several New England states and Wisconsin.

Bone disease in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis: prevalence, severity and prediction of progression.

Background/aims: Osteopenia is a common complication in some chronic cholestatic liver diseases. Our aims were to determine the prevalence and severity of bone disease in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis; and identify risk factors to predict the presence and progression of osteopenia.

Methods: Eighty-one patients involved in a randomized trial of ursodeoxycholic acid were analyzed.

Influence of fracture criteria on the outcome of a randomized trial of therapy.

Based on a presumption that the morphometric approach to vertebral fracture assessment is beset by false positive deformities, it has been suggested that more stringent criteria should be used to asses vertebral fracture outcomes in clinical trials of osteoporosis therapies. We applied a variety of criteria in the reanalysis of a randomized trial of sodium fluoride therapy for women with established osteoporosis. Although progressively more severe criteria reduced the cumulative incidence of a new vertebral fracture in both those receiving a placebo and the fluoride-treated patients, differences between the two groups were not magnified and none of the suggested approaches produced a statistically significant result.

Exposure to breast milk in infancy and adult breast cancer risk.

Background: There is considerable interest in the possibility of an infectious etiology for human breast cancer. Although studies have shown that certain strains of mice transmit mammary tumor virus via breast milk, few epidemiologic studies have addressed this topic in humans.

Methods: We evaluated the relationship between having been breast-fed as an infant and breast cancer risk among 8299 women who participated in a population-based, case-control study of breast cancer in women aged 50 years or more.

Risk factors for breast cancer in women with a breast cancer family history.

Family history (FH) is an important indicator of a woman's future risk of developing breast cancer. Using data collected in a large population-based case-control study (6705 cases and 9341 controls), we examined the associations of breast cancer with known risk factors in women reporting a first-degree FH (mother or sister), with an emphasis on lifestyle determinants that may be altered to reduce risk. First-degree FH was reported by 18.

Effect of dietary supplementation with fructo-oligosaccharides on fecal flora of healthy cats.

Objective: To investigate changes in the fecal flora of healthy cats after dietary supplementation with fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS).

Animals: 12 healthy, barrier-maintained, specific-pathogen-free-derived adult cats.

Procedure: Fresh fecal samples for quantitative and qualitative bacteriologic examination were collected from each cat after ingestion of a replete dry (basal) diet for a minimum of 8 weeks.

Survival implications of enucleation after definitive radiotherapy for choroidal melanoma: an example of regression on time-dependent covariates.

Objective: To evaluate whether the removal of the eye after radiotherapy alters the rates of metastatic death in patients with melanoma of the choroid.

Patients And Methods: Using an extension of the Cox model, we based our analysis on a cohort of 1541 consecutive patients with unilateral choroidal or ciliary body melanoma treated with protons (70 cobalt-gray equivalent in 5 to 7 fractions) at the Harvard University (Boston, Mass) cyclotron between July 1, 1975, through December 31, 1993, and who were observed prospectively up to September 30, 1995. Patient survival and the status of the treated eye were updated annually.

Assessment of the bacterial flora of the proximal part of the small intestine in healthy cats, and the effect of sample collection method.

Objective: To investigate the bacterial flora of the proximal part of the small intestine of healthy cats and determine the effect of sample collection method on results of bacteriologic culture.

Animals: 25 healthy barrier-maintained specific-pathogen-free-derived cats.

Procedure: Aspirated, undiluted samples of proximal small intestinal juice were obtained via oral endoscopy (UEA), and a second sample was collected after instillation of 1 ml of sterile saline solution (diluted, DEA).

Evidence that adult life risk factors influence the expression of familial propensity to breast cancer.

In the context of a study in Athens comprising 692 cases and 1,261 controls, we have evaluated the effect on breast cancer risk of the joint action of first-degree relative family history and established adult life risk factors. We created a risk score by assigning the value of 1 to women at high risk with respect to any of these risk factors and 0 otherwise, and summing these values, using weights equal to the excess odds ratio. The odds ratio for a tertile increment in the risk score was 1.

An evaluation of tumour vascularity as a prognostic indicator in uveal melanoma.

Experimental and clinical evidence suggests that tumour angiogenesis plays a role in the tendency for certain neoplasms, including cutaneous melanomas, to metastasize. We evaluated whether tumour vasculature is associated with the rate of metastases in patients with melanoma of the choroid or ciliary body. The study was based on a group of 63 patients enucleated between 1976 and 1984 with paraffin-embedded tissue blocks available for sectioning and with known survival status as of December 1988.

Chronic abacterial prostatitis--a urological chronic pain syndrome?

Chronic abacterial prostatitis has all the hallmarks of a chronic pain syndrome without having been identified as such, either in the urology literature or in the pain literature. This review proposes that this common urological syndrome merits consideration as a 'chronic pain syndrome', as it is commonly defined. The presentation of this syndrome in PAIN results from the unlikely collaboration of a clinical psychologist and a urologist with an interest in exploring unconventional assessment and treatment recommendations for the patients he saw in a university-based Prostatitis Clinic.

Environmental equity in Superfund. Demographics of the discovery and prioritization of abandoned toxic sites.

This article presents findings of the first national tract-level analysis of the distribution of residential characteristics, including the percentage of selected minorities and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, in relation to uncontrolled toxic waste sites (i.e., CERCLIS and NPL sites).

Constitutional alterations in p16 in patients with uveal melanoma.

Chromosome 9p21 contains a susceptibility gene for cutaneous melanoma. Recent studies suggest that the gene responsible may be CDK41, since it encodes a putative cell cycle inhibitor, p16, and is frequently lost or rearranged in melanoma cell lines. In this study we examined whether germline alterations in CDK41 could be identified in patients with melanoma of the uveal tract.