TASK DEFINITION: In this task, you are given a passage which has a question and the context. You have to generate an answer to the question based on the information present in the context.
PROBLEM: Context: Although right-sided diverticulitis is perceived to have a higher incidence among Asians and infrequently requires surgical management in comparison with sigmoid diverticulitis, it is unknown whether differences in outcomes are due to ethnic disparity or disease pathophysiology.', 'The aim of this study was to determine the surgical outcomes for Asian and non-Asian patients with diverticulitis who underwent colectomy.', 'Patients identifiable by ethnicity in the Nationwide Inpatient Sample with diverticulitis and colectomy between 2004 and 2010 were included. Univariate comparisons were made between Asian and non-Asian patients by using t tests for continuous variables and tests for categorical variables. Propensity score matching analysis was performed to compare Asian patients with otherwise similar non-Asian patients.', 'Included were 58,142 non-Asian and 335 Asian patients with diverticulitis who underwent a colectomy.', 'The primary outcomes were in-hospital mortality, hospital length of stay, and total costs.', 'Asian patients were younger (56.1 vs. 59.2 years, p < 0.0001), were more likely to undergo a right colectomy (22.7% vs. 4.1%, p < 0.0001), and were more likely to have emergent/urgent surgery than the non-Asian patients (67.1% vs. 49.8%, p < 0.0001). Without controlling for patient/disease factors, there were statistically significant differences in mortality (non-Asian 2.2% vs. Asian 4.2%; p = 0.014), length of stay (non-Asian 8.9 vs. Asian 9.8 days; p = 0.0166), and costs (non-Asian $18,783 vs. Asian $21,901; p = 0.001). Propensity score matching comparing 333 non-Asian patients with 333 similar Asian patients showed that, whereas differences in cost and length of stay became insignificant, the difference in mortality remained statistically significant.\Question: Is higher Mortality in Surgically Managed Diverticulitis Associated with Asian Ethnicity and Right-Sided Disease?

SOLUTION: The ethnicity variable was not uniformly collected by all states within the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database.

PROBLEM: Context: Bronchopulmonary carcinoid tumors can be divided into typical and atypical carcinoids according to their histologic and clinical features. Atypical carcinoids tend to have less predictable biologic behavior and are associated with a worse prognosis than typical carcinoids. The authors examined apoptosis and the expression of apoptosis regulating proteins Bcl-2, Bax, Bak, and Mcl-1 in 21 typical and 10 atypical bronchopulmonary carcinoid tumors. To find features distinguishing the growth of these types of tumors, the expression of p53 protein and the proliferation marker Ki-67 were also investigated. Finally, the parameters were compared with clinical follow-up data.', "Thirty-one bronchopulmonary carcinoid tumors were examined by using in situ 3'-end labeling of DNA (TUNEL) for apoptosis and immunohistochemical staining methods for Bcl-2, Bax, Bak, Mcl-1, p53, and Ki-67 in formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tissue specimens.", 'The apoptotic indices (AIs) were low in general (mean 0.18%), but higher AIs (> 0.5%) were observed significantly more often in atypical than in typical carcinoids (P < 0.008) in association with shortened survival (P < 0. 008). No relation between apoptosis and Bcl-2, Bax, Bak, or Mcl-1 expression was found. Expression of p53 protein was detected in only three atypical carcinoids, which also had significantly higher AIs than p53 negative tumors (P < 0.03). Proliferation rates measured by Ki-67 index were unusually low; the highest proliferation rates were observed in atypical carcinoids. There was a positive correlation between AI and Ki-67 indices (P < 0.01).\Question: Do atypical bronchopulmonary carcinoids show a tendency toward increased apoptotic and proliferative activity?

SOLUTION: This study suggests that the extent of apoptosis in bronchopulmonary carcinoid tumors is low. This, together with a low proliferation rate and an apparent absence of p53 mutation, enables a benign growth pattern. Some atypical carcinoids with enhanced apoptosis are associated with shortened survival, clearly deviating from typical carcinoids.

PROBLEM: Context: We sought to determine the diagnostic performance of a recently developed combined supine-prone quantification algorithm for myocardial perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (MPS) for the detection of coronary artery disease (CAD) in women.', 'Consecutive MPS scans of women without known CAD and coronary angiography within 3 months of MPS (n = 168) and with a low likelihood of CAD (n = 291) were considered. Total perfusion deficit (TPD) was automatically derived for supine (S-TPD), prone (P-TPD), and combined prone-supine (C-TPD) data sets. The low-likelihood patients were grouped by bra cup size (A/B, n = 102; C, n = 101; and D, n = 88). The areas under the receiver operator characteristic curves for S-TPD, P-TPD, and C-TPD were 0.84 +/- 0.03, 0.88 +/- 0.03, and 0.90 +/- 0.03, respectively. C-TPD had a higher specificity than S-TPD and P-TPD for identification of CAD (stenosis > or =70%) without compromising sensitivity (61%, 76%, and 94% for S-, P-, and C-TPD, respectively; P < .0005 vs S-TPD and P < .05 vs P-TPD). Normalcy rates were higher for C-TPD than for S-TPD or P-TPD.\Question: Does combined quantitative supine-prone myocardial perfusion SPECT improve detection of coronary artery disease and normalcy rates in women?

SOLUTION:
Combined supine-prone quantitative MPS in women yields significantly increased specificity and normalcy rates without compromising sensitivity for the detection of CAD compared with standard analysis.