Medication Adherence and Healthcare Costs in Chronically Ill Patients Using German Claims Data.

Background And Objective: Despite the importance of medication adherence for chronically ill patients and the vast literature on its relationship to costs, this field suffers from methodological limitations. These are caused, amongst others, by the lack of generalizability of data sources, varying definitions of adherence, costs, and model specification. We aim to address this with different modeling approaches and to contribute evidence on the research question.

Identification of target groups and individuals for adherence interventions using tree-based prediction models.

In chronically ill patients, medication adherence during implementation can be crucial for treatment success and can decrease health costs. In some populations, regression models do not show this relationship. We aim to estimate subgroup-specific and personalized effects to identify target groups for interventions.

Compensating for missing data in the OHRKAN cohort study examining total leisure noise exposure among adolescents.

Objective: Investigating determinants of total leisure noise (TLN) exposure among adolescents over 7.5 years and compensating for missing data due to loss to follow-up.

Design: In the OHRKAN cohort study, data were collected by questionnaires at four waves.

Contribution of Genetic Factors to Lower DHEAS in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Objective: Lower production of adrenal androgens has been confirmed in females with rheumatoid arthritis (RA); however, the mechanisms of this finding are not completely understood. The aim of our study was to assess the contribution of genetic factors associated with variability of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) levels to lower DHEAS in female RA patients.

Methods: 448 RA and 648 healthy controls were genotyped for single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes ZKSCAN5 (rs11761528), SULT2A1 (rs2637125), HHEX (rs2497306), and ARPC1A (rs740160).

Functional Liver Recovery After Bariatric Surgery--a Prospective Cohort Study with the LiMAx Test.

Background: Bariatric surgery provides long-term weight loss and improvement of obesity-associated diseases such as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Histologic improvement of NASH has been reported in some studies after bariatric surgery. This study was designed to assess the liver function in obese patients as well as its recovery after bariatric surgery with a noninvasive test method.

Genetics of neuroendocrine factors in rheumatoid arthritis.

Inadequate production of cortisol related to inflammation and decrease in adrenal androgen production are hallmarks of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-related endocrine findings in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In particular, lower dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) levels were consistently found in a subset of premenopausal RA females. Recently, several new gene variants have been identified in association with serum DHEAS concentrations, such as in SULT2A1 and HHEX genes.

Immunocytochemical localization of cytoplasmic and nuclear intermediate filaments in the bovine ovary during folliculogenesis.

The cellular cytoskeleton is composed of three fibrillar systems, namely actin microfilaments, microtubules and intermediate filaments (IFs). It not only is a structural system, which mediates functional compartmentalization, but also contributes to many cellular processes such as transport, mitosis, secretion, formation of cell extensions, intercellular communication and apoptosis. In this study, we have examined the distribution of four groups of IFs [cytokeratins (CKs), vimentin, desmin and lamins] in the somatic and germinal cells of the bovine ovary using RT-PCR and immunohistochemical techniques.

Application of laser-assisted microdissection for gene expression analysis of mammalian germ cells.

Laser-assisted microdissection (LAM) is an important method to provide new significant insights into many embryological processes. To understand these processes, it is important to obtain specific populations of cells from complex tissue in an efficient and precise manner and to combine with many different molecular biological methods. During the last few years, the sophistication of the techniques of LAM has increased significantly and made the procedure easy to use.

Evaluation of bone mass density on patients with prostate cancer prior to the start of androgen deprivation therapy.

Background: Men with prostate cancer older than 60 years who are treated with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) represent a specific subpopulation of patients being at high risk of bone loss and subsequent complications. In contrast to this fact, there is not much data (if any) about this specific subpopulation of men and their BMD prior to the start of ADT. The aim of this study is to evaluate BMD in such patients.