CHOIS: enabling grid technologies for obesity surveillance and control.

CHOIS, the Child Health and Obesity Informatics System, is developed using open source portal technology with three-tiered Open Grid Services Architecture, an accepted standard for accessing Grid Computing and other services under Open Grid Collaborating Environments (OGCE). Its web application provides web based forms with 112 different fields to enter data ranging from demographic, height & weight for BMI, to genomic information. Automatic computation of BMI, BMI percentile and the risk of obesity alert are embedded into this system.

Factors determining successful outcome following pneumatic balloon dilation in achalasia cardia.

Background: Pneumatic balloon dilation is a popular method of treating patients with achalasia cardia. It may be useful to know the factors that predict response to this treatment.

Aim: To determine predictors of outcome following pneumatic balloon dilation in patients with achalasia cardia.