Social and demographic correlates of cardiovascular mortality in the Kassena-Nankana districts of Ghana: a verbal post-mortem analysis.

Background: The burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Ghana is rising, but details on its epidemiology are scarce. We sought to quantify mortality due to CVD in two districts in rural Ghana using verbal post-mortem (VPM) data.

Methods: We conducted a proportional sub-hazards analysis of 10 232 deaths in the Kassena-Nankana East and West districts from 2005 to 2012, to determine adult mortality attributed to CVD over time.

Adapting a nurse-led primary care initiative to cardiovascular disease control in Ghana: a qualitative study.

Background: Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is a growing cause of morbidity and mortality in Ghana, where rural primary health care is provided mainly by the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) initiative. CHPS locates nurses in community-level clinics for basic curative and preventive health services and provides home and outreach services. But CHPS currently lacks capacity to screen for or treat CVD and its risk factors.

Projected temperature-related deaths in ten large U.S. metropolitan areas under different climate change scenarios.

Background: There is an established U-shaped association between daily temperature and mortality. Temperature changes projected through the end of century are expected to lead to higher rates of heat-related mortality but also lower rates of cold-related mortality, such that the net change in temperature-related mortality will depend on location.

Objectives: We quantified the change in heat-, cold-, and temperature-related mortality rates through the end of the century across 10 large US metropolitan areas.

Preoperative computed tomography scan to predict pancreatic fistula after distal pancreatectomy using gland and tumor characteristics.

Background: Preoperative risk stratification for postoperative pancreatic fistula in patients undergoing distal pancreatectomy is needed.

Methods: Risk factors for postoperative pancreatic fistula in 220 consecutive patients undergoing distal pancreatectomy at 2 major institutions were recorded retrospectively. Gland density was measured on noncontrast computed tomography scans (n = 101), and histologic scoring of fat infiltration and fibrosis was performed by a pathologist (n = 120).