bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Making sense of congenital cardiac disease with a research database: The Congenital Heart Surgeons’ Society Data Center
Authors: Hickey Edward J. , McCrindle Brian W. , Caldarone Christopher A. , Williams William G. , Blackstone Eugene H. 
Published: December 2008

AbstractBackgroundChallenges inherent in researching rare congenital cardiac lesions led to creation of the Congenital Heart Surgeons’ Society Data Center (Data Center) two decades ago. The Data Center pools experiences from up to 60 institutions, and over 4,700 children have been prospectively recruited within nine diagnostic inception cohorts. This report describes the operations of our research database, with particular focus on analytic strategies employed.Methods and resultsA procedural log is created of all investigations and interventions, and reports from enrolling institutions are subsequently obtained. Cross-sectional follow-up is undertaken annually by the Data Center. All data are linked to the individual child, and quality control mechanisms ensure that completeness and accuracy are maximised. Specific advantages of Data Center analytic approaches include multi-phase parametric hazard analysis, re-sampling techniques for reliable risk factor identification, competing risks methodology, and propensity-adjusted comparisons. Virtues of applying these techniques to a research database are illustrated by clinically pertinent questions that have been addressed in place of what would be difficult through randomised trials.ConclusionsThe Data Center is a cost-effective, versatile tool for researching congenital cardiac surgical outcomes. Research databases are ideally suited to in-depth investigations of survival and functional outcomes. Multi-center propensity-adjusted analyses represent efficient surrogates for randomised trials. Well-designed observational prospective studies should remain a principle mode of researching congenital cardiac disease.
Empowering a database with national long-term data about mortality: the use of national death registries
Authors: Morales David L.S. , McClellan Andrew J. , Jacobs Jeffrey P. 
Published: December 2008

AbstractThe interest of professional medical societies in research about outcomes, mixed with the recent accessibility to management of data on the internet, has moved many societies to create national databases or registries for their specialty. In societies with procedure-based specialties such as surgery, these databases will help with the care of patients by predicting prognosis, defining risk-factors, and aiding with the selection of patients who are the best candidates for these procedures. These databases eventually will also help to establish standards of care. The latter is rapidly growing in importance as governments attempt to create “pay-for-performance” programs in many of the surgical specialties. It is essential to create a database from which a specialty can provide accurate data and standards to its members, its patients, and third parties, such as regulatory bodies and agencies of re-numeration. Unfortunately, surgeons often only care for their patients in the short-term peri-operative period, typically lasting weeks to months; and therefore, the ability of surgeons to create databases with long-term follow-up has been limited. The introduction of “personal health information” into a surgical database, with the intention of linking with other societies or national databases that have long-term follow-up, can remedy this weakness. This article describes the investigation by one surgical society into the available national registries of death and examines their accuracy, accessibility, cost, and their suitability in respect to the goals of that society. The information gathered, the comparisons outlined, and the processes used to determine the best combination of indices of death for this society should be translatable and hopefully useful for other societies and registries who wish to empower their databases with long-term national data about mortality.
Endocrinal complications associated with the treatment of patients with congenital cardiac disease: consensus definitions from the Multi-Societal Database Committee for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease
Authors: Dickerson Heather , Cooper David S. , Checchia Paul A. , Nelson David P. 
Published: December 2008

AbstractA complication is an event or occurrence that is associated with a disease or a healthcare intervention, is a departure from the desired course of events, and may cause, or be associated with, suboptimal outcome. A complication does not necessarily represent a breech in the standard of care that constitutes medical negligence or medical malpractice. An operative or procedural complication is any complication, regardless of cause, occurring (1) within 30 days after surgery or intervention in or out of the hospital, or (2) after 30 days during the same hospitalization subsequent to the operation or intervention. Operative and procedural complications include both intraoperative/intraprocedural complications and postoperative/postprocedural complications in this time interval.The MultiSocietal Database Committee for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease has set forth a comprehensive list of complications associated with the treatment of patients with congenital cardiac disease, related to cardiac, pulmonary, renal, haematological, infectious, neurological, gastrointestinal, and endocrinal systems, as well as those related to the management of anaesthesia and perfusion, and the transplantation of thoracic organs. The objective of this manuscript is to examine the definitions of operative morbidity as they relate specifically to the endocrine system. These specific definitions and terms will be used to track morbidity associated with surgical and transcatheter interventions and other forms of therapy in a common language across many separate databases.As surgical survival in children with congenital cardiac disease has improved in recent years, focus has necessarily shifted to reducing the morbidity of congenital cardiac malformations and their treatment. A comprehensive list of endocrinal complications is presented. This list is a component of a systems-based compendium of complications that will standardize terminology and thereby allow the study and quantification of morbidity in patients with congenital cardiac malformations. Clinicians caring for patients with congenital cardiac disease will be able to use this list for databases, initiatives to improve quality, reporting of complications, and comparing strategies of treatment.
Congenital cardiac surgical complications of the integument, vascular system, vascular-line(s), and wounds: consensus definitions from the Multi-Societal Database Committee for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease
Authors: Walters Henry L. , Jeffries Howard E. , Cohen Gordon A. , Klitzner Thomas 
Published: December 2008

AbstractA complication is an event or occurrence that is associated with a disease or a healthcare intervention, is a departure from the desired course of events, and may cause, or be associated with, suboptimal outcome. A complication does not necessarily represent a breech in the standard of care that constitutes medical negligence or medical malpractice. An operative or procedural complication is any complication, regardless of cause, occurring (1) within 30 days after surgery or intervention in or out of the hospital, or (2) after 30 days during the same hospitalization subsequent to the operation or intervention. Operative and procedural complications include both intraoperative/intraprocedural complications and postoperative/postprocedural complications in this time interval.The MultiSocietal Database Committee for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease has set forth a comprehensive list of complications associated with the treatment of patients with congenital cardiac disease, related to cardiac, pulmonary, renal, haematological, infectious, neurological, gastrointestinal, and endocrinal systems, as well as those related to the management of anaesthesia and perfusion, and the transplantation of thoracic organs. The objective of this manuscript is to examine the definitions of operative morbidity as they relate specifically to a collection of loosely related topics that include the following groups of complications: 1) Complications of the Integument, 2) Complications of the Vascular System, 3) Complications of the Vascular-Line(s), 4) Complications of Wounds. These specific definitions and terms will be used to track morbidity associated with surgical and transcatheter interventions and other forms of therapy in a common language across many separate databases.As surgical survival in children with congenital cardiac disease has improved in recent years, focus has necessarily shifted to reducing the morbidity of congenital cardiac malformations and their treatment. A comprehensive list of complications is presented. This list is a component of a systems-based compendium of complications that will standardize terminology and thereby allow the study and quantification of morbidity in patients with congenital cardiac malformations. Clinicians caring for patients with congenital cardiac disease will be able to use this list for databases, initiatives to improve quality, reporting of complications, and comparing strategies of treatment.
The nomenclature of safety and quality of care for patients with congenital cardiac disease: a report of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Database Taskforce Subcommittee on Patient Safety
Authors: Jacobs Jeffrey Phillip , Benavidez Oscar J. , Bacha Emile A. , Walters Henry L. , Jacobs Marshall Lewis 
Published: December 2008

AbstractA large body of literature devoted to “patient safety” and error prevention exists and utilizes a nomenclature that can be applied specifically to the field of congenital cardiac disease and aid in the goals of increasing the safety of patients, decreasing medical error, minimizing mortality and morbidity, and evaluating quality of care. The purpose of this manuscript is to suggest and document a quality of health care taxonomy and the appropriate application of this nomenclature of “patient safety” to the specialty of congenital cardiac disease, with special emphasis on the following ten terms: morbidity, complication, medical error, adverse event, harm, near miss, iatrogenesis, iatrogenic complication, medical injury, and sentinel event. Each of these terms is commonly utilized in the medical literature without universal agreement on their meaning and relationship. It is our hope that the standardization of the definitions of these terms, as they are applied to the analysis of outcomes of the treatments applied to patients with congenital and paediatric cardiac disease, will facilitate improved methodologies to assess and improve quality of care in our profession.
Iron intake does not significantly correlate with iron deficiency among young Japanese women: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Asakura Keiko , Sasaki Satoshi , Murakami Kentaro , Takahashi Yoshiko , Uenishi Kazuhiro , Yamakawa Miki , Nishiwaki Yuji , Kikuchi Yuriko , Takebayashi Toru ,   the Japan Dietetic Students’ Study for Nutrition and Biomarkers Group
Published: December 2008

AbstractObjectivesWe evaluated the association of nutrient intake with Fe deficiency with regard to lifestyle factors and health condition in young Japanese women. Uniquely among developed countries, dietary habits render Japanese populations vulnerable to Fe deficiency, owing to their relatively low intake of Fe and high intake of Fe absorption inhibitors, such as green tea and soyabeans.DesignA cross-sectional study.Setting and subjectsThe subjects were 1019 female Japanese dietetic students aged 18–25 years. Dietary habits during the preceding month were assessed using a previously validated, self-administered, diet history questionnaire. Blood analysis was performed to assess body Fe status. Subjects were categorized with Fe deficiency when their serum ferritin levels were <12 ng/ml. Twenty-nine dietary variables, i.e. intakes of energy, sixteen nutrients including Fe and twelve food groups, were analysed using multivariate logistic regression models adjusted for possible confounders.ResultsOf the subjects, 24·5 % were categorized with Fe deficiency. However, no dietary factors assessed were significantly associated with Fe deficiency. The risk of Fe deficiency was significantly lower in women with infrequent or no menstrual cycles than in those with regular cycles (OR = 0·58; 95 % CI 0·34, 1·00) and significantly higher in women with heavy menstrual flow than in women with average flow, albeit that these were self-reported (OR = 1·83; 95 % CI 1·35, 2·48).ConclusionsThese results suggest that dietary habits, including Fe intake, do not significantly correlate with Fe deficiency among young Japanese women.
A Comparison of Video Versus Conventional Visual Reinforcement in 7- to 16-Month-Old Infants
Authors: Lowery Kristy J. , von Hapsburg Deborah , Plyler Erin L. , Johnstone Patti 
Published: December 2008

Purpose
To compare response patterns to video visual reinforcement audiometry (VVRA) and conventional visual reinforcement audiometry (CVRA) in infants 7–16 months of age.

Method
Fourteen normal-hearing infants aged 7–16 months (8 male, 6 female) participated. A repeated measures design was used. Each infant was tested with VVRA and CVRA over 2 different sessions. The total number of head turns prior to habituation, hit rate (response consistency), false alarm rate, and sensitivity for each reinforcement condition were evaluated.

Results
No significant differences were found between the 2 reinforcement methods for total number of head turns, hit rate, false alarm rate, or sensitivity. Overall, results showed no difference between the 2 reinforcer conditions in infants 7–16 months of age.

Conclusion
The results of the present study suggest that infants in the 7- to16-month-old age range respond similarly to VVRA and CVRA as measured by response consistency and false alarm rate. VVRA is, therefore, a viable option for testing hearing in infants. However, prior to clinical implementation, the effectiveness of VVRA should be explored in infants with hearing loss.
How Can We Strengthen the Evidence Base in Public Health Preparedness?
Authors: Nelson Christopher D. , Beckjord Ellen Burke , Dausey David J. , Chan Edward , Lotstein Debra , Lurie Nicole 
Published: December 2008

ABSTRACTThe lack of frequent real-world opportunities to study preparedness for large-scale public health emergencies has hindered the development of an evidence base to support best practices, performance measures, standards, and other tools needed to assess and improve the nation’s multibillion dollar investment in public health preparedness. In this article, we argue that initial funding priorities for public health systems research on preparedness should focus on using engineering-style methods to identify core preparedness processes, developing novel data sources and measures based on smaller-scale proxy events, and developing performance improvement approaches to support the translation of research into practice within the wide variety of public health systems found in the nation. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2008;2:247–250)
Phase I study of TZT‐1027, a novel synthetic dolastatin 10 derivative and inhibitor of tubulin polymerization, given weekly to advanced solid tumor patients for 3 weeks
Authors: Yamamoto Nobuyuki , Andoh Masahiro , Kawahara Masaaki , Fukuoka Masahiro , Niitani Hisanobu 
Published: December 2008

TZT‐1027 is a novel synthetic dolastatin 10 derivative that inhibits tubulin polymerization. A phase I study was conducted to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of TZT‐1027, and to assess its pharmacokinetic profile in Japanese patients with advanced solid tumors following administration of the drug weekly for 3 weeks. Eligible patients had advanced solid tumors that failed to respond to standard therapy or for which no standard therapy was available, and met the following criteria: performance status ≤2 and acceptable organ function. The MTD was defined as the highest dose at which more than two‐thirds of the patients experienced grade 4 hematological toxicity or grade 3/4 non‐hematological toxicity during weekly TZT‐1027 administration for 3 weeks. Forty patients were enrolled in the present study. Twelve doses between 0.3 and 2.1 mg/m2 were evaluated. Grade 4 neutropenia was the principal dose‐limiting toxicity (DLT). At a dose of 2.1 mg/m2, two patients developed DLT: one patient developed grade 4 neutropenia, grade 3 myalgia, and grade 4 constipation, and the other one developed grade 4 neutropenia and grade 3 constipation. At a dose level of 1.8 mg/m2, toxicity was acceptable and no DLT was observed. The area under the curve and maximum concentration of TZT‐1027 tended to increase linearly with the dose. The DLT observed were neutropenia, myalgia, and constipation, and the MTD was 2.1 mg/m2. The recommended dose for a phase II study was determined to be 1.8 mg/m2 for the drug administered weekly for 3 weeks. (Cancer Sci 2009; 100: 316–321)
Human neutrophils switch to an activated phenotype after homing to the lung irrespective of inflammatory disease
Authors: Fortunati E , Kazemier K M , Grutters J C , Koenderman L , Van den Bosch Van J M M 
Published: December 2008

Summary
Systemic inflammation can be investigated by changes in expression profiles of neutrophil receptors. Application of this technology for analysis of neutrophil phenotypes in diseased tissues is hampered by the absence of information regarding the modulation of neutrophil phenotypes after extravasation to tissues under non-inflammatory conditions. To fill this gap we measured the expression of neutrophil receptors in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and in the peripheral blood of healthy volunteers, which included both smokers and non-smokers. Blood and BALF neutrophils were identified by CD16bright/CD45dim cells, and triple-stained with antibodies directed against integrins, chemokine- and Fcγ-receptors. BALF neutrophils of healthy volunteers showed an activated phenotype characterized by Mac-1 (CD11b)bright, L-selectin (CD62L)dim, intrecellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) (CD54)bright, FcγRII (CD32)bright, C5a receptor (CD88)bright and CD66bbright. A similar phenotype was observed for BALF neutrophils of patients affected by sarcoidosis. Furthermore, our results demonstrate a modulated expression of C5a receptor (CD88) and ICAM-1 (CD54) in neutrophils of sarcoidosis patients. In conclusion, our data indicate that neutrophils found in the lung exhibit an activated phenotype under both homeostatic and inflammatory conditions.
Macroinvertebrates as indicators of fish absence in naturally fishless lakes
Authors: SCHILLING EMILY GAENZLE , LOFTIN CYNTHIA S. , HURYN ALEXANDER D. 
Published: December 2008

Abstract1. Little is known about native communities in naturally fishless lakes in eastern North America, a region where fish stocking has led to a decline in these habitats.2. Our study objectives were to: (i) characterise and compare macroinvertebrate communities in fishless lakes found in two biophysical regions of Maine (U.S.A.): kettle lakes in the eastern lowlands and foothills and headwater lakes in the central and western mountains; (ii) identify unique attributes of fishless lake macroinvertebrate communities compared to lakes with fish and (iii) develop a method to efficiently identify fishless lakes when thorough fish surveys are not possible.3. We quantified macroinvertebrate community structure in the two physiographic fishless lake types (n = 8 kettle lakes; n = 8 headwater lakes) with submerged light traps and sweep nets. We also compared fishless lake macroinvertebrate communities to those in fish‐containing lakes (n = 18) of similar size, location and maximum depth. We used non‐metric multidimensional scaling to assess differences in community structure and t‐tests for taxon‐specific comparisons between lakes.4. Few differences in macroinvertebrate communities between the two physiographic fishless lake types were apparent. Fishless and fish‐containing lakes had numerous differences in macroinvertebrate community structure, abundance, taxonomic composition and species richness. Fish presence or absence was a stronger determinant of community structure in our study than differences in physical conditions relating to lake origin and physiography.5. Communities in fishless lakes were more speciose and abundant than in fish‐containing lakes, especially taxa that are large, active and free‐swimming. Families differing in abundance and taxonomic composition included Notonectidae, Corixidae, Gyrinidae, Dytiscidae, Aeshnidae, Libellulidae and Chaoboridae.6. We identified six taxa unique to fishless lakes that are robust indicators of fish absence: Graphoderus liberus, Hesperocorixa spp., Dineutus spp., Chaoborus americanus, Notonecta insulata and Callicorixa spp. These taxa are collected most effectively with submerged light traps.7. Naturally fishless lakes warrant conservation, because they provide habitat for a unique suite of organisms that thrive in the absence of fish predation.
Identifying abuse among women: use of clinical guidelines by nurses and midwives
Authors: Svavarsdottir Erla Kolbrun , Orlygsdottir Brynja 
Published: December 2008

AbstractTitle.  Identifying abuse among women: use of clinical guidelines by nurses and midwives. Aim.  This aim of this study to identify the incidence of violence against women seeking healthcare services and evaluate the use of clinical guidelines to identify interpersonal violence.Methods.  A cross‐sectional survey was carried out. Data were collected over a period of 7 months in 2005 and 2006. The samples consisted of 14 nurses, 10 midwives and 208 women in Iceland (101 women visiting the Emergency Department and 107 receiving prenatal care at the High Risk Prenatal Care Clinic).Results.  Twenty women (19·6%) who visited the Emergency Department and 21 women (19·8%) who came to the High Risk Prenatal Care Clinic had been sexually abused at some point in their lives by close family members. Within the preceding 12 months, 18 women at the Emergency Department (19·1%) and eight at the High Risk Prenatal Care Clinic (7·5%) reported physical abuse, and 22 women (22·2%) at the Emergency Department and 12 (11·5%) at the High Risk Prenatal Care Clinic reported emotional abuse. A majority of the nurses and midwives indicated that the guidelines were efficient for assessing/screening for gender violence in emergency and high risk clinical settings.Conclusion.  Screening for abuse of women at emergency and high risk clinics is crucial, not only to offer the women the immediate interventions they might need, but also to ensure the future provision of appropriate healthcare services.