Impact of risk factors on cardiovascular risk: a perspective on risk estimation in a Swiss population.

Introduction: In models and scores for estimating cardiovascular risk (CVR), the relative weightings given to blood pressure measurements (BPMs), and biometric and laboratory variables are such that even large differences in blood pressure lead to rather low differences in the resulting total risk when compared with other concurrent risk factors. We evaluated this phenomenon based on the PROCAM score, using BPMs made by volunteer subjects at home (HBPMs) and automated ambulatory BPMs (ABPMs) carried out in the same subjects.

Methods: A total of 153 volunteers provided the data needed to estimate their CVR by means of the PROCAM formula.

Clinical risk factors for complete and partial placental retention - a case-control study.

Objective: We sought to investigate the incidence, maternal risk factors, and perinatal outcomes of women with complete and partial placental retention in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Southwestern Germany.

Study Design: We performed an unmatched case-control study with cases occurring between July 2000 and June 2007. Women were included into the study if they completed at least the 24th week of gestation and were diagnosed with placental retention requiring surgical intervention.

Immunophenotype as prognostic factor for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in patients undergoing clinical risk-adapted therapy.

Background: For patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the International Prognostic Index (IPI) predicts the likelihood for cure with chemotherapy. Biological parameters, including expression of Bcl-6, Bcl-2, CD10, major histocompatibility complex class II, and categorization as germinal center (GC) type have been described as IPI-independent prognostic factors.

Patients And Methods: Biological parameters were evaluated retrospectively by immunohistochemistry in 60 consecutive DLBCL patients of the prerituximab era.

Incidence and clinical presentation of invasive neonatal group B streptococcal infections in Germany.

Objective: Streptococcus agalactiae (group B Streptococcus) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in newborn infants. So far, there have been no published data on the incidence, morbidity, and mortality of invasive neonatal group B Streptococcus infections in Germany.

Methods: A prospective active surveillance study involving all of the pediatric hospitals, which reported their cases to the German Pediatric Surveillance Unit, and all of the microbiological laboratories serving pediatric hospitals, which reported their cases to the Laboratory Sentinel Group at Robert Koch Institute Berlin, was conducted between 2001 and 2003.

Heart rate effects on strain and strain rate in healthy children.

Based on myocardial Doppler echocardiography, regional strain (S) and strain rate (SR) can be evaluated as regional parameters of ventricular function. The use of these techniques in clinical pediatric cardiology remains a challenge. This study establishes reference values for S and SR in both systole and diastole in healthy children over a large age range and evaluates the potential relationships of demographic and echocardiographic parameters on S and SR, and, in particular, assesses the clinical effect of heart rate on S and SR in healthy children.