Healthy life expectancy changes in Thailand, 2002-2007.

We investigate links between increasing longevity and health status in Thailand. Using data from 2002 and 2007 national surveys of the elderly, healthy life expectancies at older ages were estimated. Change depended on health indicator, gender and age.

The use of a new indirect method to estimate ethnic-group fertility rates for subnational projections for England.

To project the ethnic-group populations of local authorities in England to 2051, estimates of ethnic-specific fertility rates were needed. In the absence of ethnic information on birth records, we developed indirect estimation methods that use a combination of vital statistics, the census (both microdata and aggregate tables), and survey data (Labour Force Survey). We estimated age-specific and total fertility rates successively for five broad ethnic groups encompassed by all data-sets, and for eight ethnic groups encompassed by the 1991 and 2001 Censuses for England.

European Regional Populations: Current Trends, Future Pathways, and Policy Options.

Europe is currently experiencing an ageing population and slowing population growth of both the total and working-age populations. These trends are likely to continue. Even though population ageing will affect all European regions, different regions will be affected in different ways.

Laboratory testing improves diagnosis and treatment outcomes in primary health care facilities.

Objective: To determine if use of basic laboratory tests improves diagnosis and treatment outcomes in outpatients attending rural primary health care facilities.

Setting: Six rural health centres in Kenya.

Design: Cross-sectional study to observe change in diagnosis and treatment made by clinical officers after laboratory testing in outpatients attending six rural health centres in Kenya.

Accuracy of algorithms to predict accessory pathway location in children with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the accuracy in predicting pathway location in children with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome for each of seven published algorithms.

Patients And Interventions: ECGs from 100 consecutive children with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome undergoing electrophysiological study were analysed by six investigators using seven published algorithms, six of which had been developed in adult patients.

Main Outcome Measures: Accuracy and concordance of predictions were adjusted for the number of pathway locations.

Lung transplantation in children with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Background: Despite improved medical therapy, transplantation (Tx) represents the only option for end-stage pulmonary vascular disease.

Methods: Clinical data of children with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) referred for Tx assessment between January 2002 and June 2007 were related to listing decision and outcome.

Results: Seven of the 14 children assessed for Tx were listed.

Pre-implantation basiliximab reduces incidence of early acute rejection in pediatric heart transplantation.

Background: Basiliximab is an anti-CD25 monoclonal antibody used as induction therapy in solid-organ transplantation. In this study we aim to determine whether pre-operative administration of basiliximab is beneficial in preventing early heart allograft rejection.

Methods: In this investigation we assess the effect of pre-implantation basiliximab on CD25 count and on acute rejection in children undergoing cardiothoracic transplantation.

The estimation of mortality for ethnic groups at local scale within the United Kingdom.

As an input to projections of sub-national populations by ethnicity, this paper develops the first estimates of the mortality risks experienced by the UK ethnic groups. Two estimates were developed using alternative methods. In the first, UK 2001 Census data on limiting long-term illness to predict mortality levels and regression equations between local Standardized Illness and Mortality Ratios for all ethnicities are assumed to apply to individual ethnic groups.

Timing of removal of pacing wires following paediatric cardiac surgery.

Background: Temporary percutaneous epicardial pacing wires are routinely placed in children following cardiac surgery. There is uncertainty in clinical practice about the optimum timing for their removal, and practice varies widely both within and between different institutions.

Aim: The aim of our study was to describe the use of temporary pacing in children undergoing cardiac surgery.

Endocrine predictors of mortality in canine babesiosis caused by Babesia canis rossi.

This prospective, cross-sectional, observational study was designed to determine the association between the hormones of the pituitary-adrenal and pituitary-thyroid axes and outcome in dogs with naturally occurring Babesia canis rossi babesiosis. Ninety-five dogs with canine babesiosis were studied and blood samples were obtained from the jugular vein in each dog prior to treatment at admission to hospital. Serum cortisol, adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH), thyroxine, free thyroxine and thyrotropin (TSH) concentrations were measured.

Successful cardiac transplantation in Barth syndrome--single-centre experience of four patients.

We describe four patients with Barth syndrome who have undergone successful orthotopic heart transplantation. Patients are one, seven, 12.5 and 14.

Positive pretransplantation cytomegalovirus serology is a risk factor for cardiac allograft vasculopathy in children.

Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection has been implicated as a cause of posttransplantation coronary artery disease in adults. The purpose of this retrospective observational study was to evaluate the effect of CMV on outcome after heart transplantation in children.

Methods And Results: Risk factors tested were recipient age, sex, and pretransplantation CMV serology; use of anti-CMV prophylaxis; posttransplantation evidence of CMV infection; and donor CMV serology.

Initial data on basiliximab in critically ill children undergoing heart transplantation.

Background: More children are coming to heart transplantation on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), or inotropic support and/or with renal impairment. The use of basiliximab, a chimeric monoclonal antibody against CD25 (interleukin 2 receptor alfa) has not been previously reported in critically ill pediatric heart transplant recipients. Basiliximab has potential advantages in the treatment of patients with renal impairment.

Selective migration, health and deprivation: a longitudinal analysis.

Population migration is a major determinant of an area's age-sex structure and socio-economic characteristics. The suggestion that migration can contribute to an increase or decrease in place-specific rates of illness is not new. However, differences in health status between small geographical locations that may be affected by the inter-relationships between health, area-based deprivation and migration are under-researched.

Changing places. Do changes in the relative deprivation of areas influence limiting long-term illness and mortality among non-migrant people living in non-deprived households?

Numerous studies have investigated the relative importance of contextual (place) and compositional (person) factors in explaining health and mortality variations. Commonly, these studies control for a range of individual characteristics before testing whether one or more contextual variables have a significant impact on the health or mortality outcome. The findings have been inconsistent, although the growing consensus is, first, that contextual effects are significant but are less important than compositional factors and, second, that contextual effects have a stronger impact in studies of morbidity than in studies of mortality.

Improved early outcome for end-stage dilated cardiomyopathy in children.

Objective: To review the impact of management changes on the early outcomes of end-stage dilated cardiomyopathy in children.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of all consecutive children with end-stage dilated cardiomyopathy who received hospital treatment since 1992. Over the past 3 years the following management changes were made: (1) more aggressive use of mechanical cardiac assistance; (2) high priority listing for transplantation; and (3) ABO incompatible transplants for infants.

Are socioeconomic inequalities in mortality decreasing or increasing within some British regions? An observational study, 1990-1998.

Background: This paper evaluates claims in a recent study that inequalities in small area mortality rates have lessened. We examine the effect of differently estimated populations on time trends in age-specific mortality rates for Yorkshire and the Humber and East of England.

Methods: Populations were estimated for wards using four methods that introduce increasing amounts of information.

Does migration exaggerate the relationship between deprivation and limiting long-term illness? A Scottish analysis.

Few epidemiological studies of the links between health and environmental variables account for the potentially confounding effects of population migration. Here we explore the relationship between self-reported limiting long-term illness and material deprivation, using individual-level 1991 census data extracted for Scotland. The aim is to investigate whether the migration patterns of ill individuals influences the relationship between limiting long-term illness and material deprivation.