Psychometric characteristics of the short form 36 health survey and functional assessment of chronic illness Therapy-Fatigue subscale for patients with ankylosing spondylitis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We evaluated the psychometric characteristics of the Short Form 36 (SF-36) Health Survey and the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT)-Fatigue subscale in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We analyzed clinical and patient-reported outcome (PRO) data collected during 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled periods of two randomized controlled trials comparing adalimumab and placebo for the treatment of active AS. The Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index, Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index, and other clinical measures were collected during the clinical trial. We evaluated internal consistency/reliability, construct validity, and responsiveness to change for the SF-36 and FACIT-Fatigue.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The SF-36 (Cronbach alpha, 0.74-0.92) and FACIT-Fatigue (Cronbach alpha, 0.82-0.86) both had good internal consistency/reliability. At baseline, SF-36 and FACIT-Fatigue scores correlated significantly with Ankylosing Spondylitis Quality of Life scores (r = -0.36 to -0.66 and r = -0.70, respectively; all p < 0.0001). SF-36 scores varied by indicators of clinical severity, with greater impairment observed for more severe degrees of clinical activity (all p < 0.0001). FACIT-Fatigue scores correlated significantly with SF-36 scores (r = 0.42 to 0.74; all p < 0.0001) and varied by clinical severity (p < 0.05 to p < 0.0001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The SF-36 is a reliable, valid, and responsive measure of health-related quality of life and the FACIT-Fatigue is a brief and psychometrically sound measure of the effects of fatigue on patients with AS. These PROs may be useful in evaluating effectiveness of new treatments for AS.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov: <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00085644">NCT00085644</a> and <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00195819">NCT00195819</a></p

Retraction: Psychometric characteristics of the ankylosing spondylitis quality of life questionnaire, short form 36 health survey, and functional assessment of chronic illness therapy-fatigue subscale

Retraction of Revicki DA, Rentz AM, Luo MP, Wong RL, Doward LC, McKenna SP: Psychometric characteristics of the ankylosing spondylitis quality of life questionnaire, short form 36 health survey, and functional assessment of chronic illness therapy-fatigue subscale. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2009, 7: 6

Intelligence quotient–adjusted memory impairment is associated with abnormal single photon emission computed tomography perfusion

Cognitive reserve among highly intelligent older individuals makes detection of early Alzheimer's disease (AD) difficult. We tested the hypothesis that mild memory impairment determined by IQ-adjusted norms is associated with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) perfusion abnormality at baseline and predictive of future decline. Twenty-three subjects with a Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) score of 0, were reclassified after scores were adjusted for IQ into two groups, 10 as having mild memory impairments for ability (IQ-MI) and 13 as memory-normal (IQ-MN). Subjects underwent cognitive and functional assessments at baseline and annual follow-up for 3 years. Perfusion SPECT was acquired at baseline. At follow-up, the IQ-MI subjects demonstrated decline in memory, visuospatial processing, and phonemic fluency, and 6 of 10 had progressed to a CDR of 0.5, while the IQ-MN subjects did not show decline. The IQ-MI group had significantly lower perfusion than the IQ-MN group in parietal/precuneus, temporal, and opercular frontal regions. In contrast, higher perfusion was observed in IQ-MI compared with IQ-MN in the left medial frontal and rostral anterior cingulate regions. IQ-adjusted memory impairment in individuals with high cognitive reserve is associated with baseline SPECT abnormality in a pattern consistent with prodromal AD and predicts subsequent cognitive and functional decline

Toward Defining the Preclinical Stages of Alzheimer's Disease: Recommendations from the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association Workgroups on Diagnostic Guidelines for Alzheimer's Disease

The pathophysiological process of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is thought to begin many years before the diagnosis of AD dementia. This long "preclinical" phase of AD would provide a critical opportunity for therapeutic intervention; however, we need to further elucidate the link between the pathological cascade of AD and the emergence of clinical symptoms. The National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer's Association convened an international workgroup to review the biomarker, epidemiological, and neuropsychological evidence, and to develop recommendations to determine the factors which best predict the risk of progression from "normal" cognition to mild cognitive impairment and AD dementia. We propose a conceptual framework and operational research criteria, based on the prevailing scientific evidence to date, to test and refine these models with longitudinal clinical research studies. These recommendations are solely intended for research purposes and do not have any clinical implications at this time. It is hoped that these recommendations will provide a common rubric to advance the study of preclinical AD, and ultimately, aid the field in moving toward earlier intervention at a stage of AD when some disease-modifying therapies may be most efficacious

Left frontal hub connectivity delays cognitive impairment in autosomal-dominant and sporadic Alzheimer's disease

Patients with Alzheimer's disease vary in their ability to sustain cognitive abilities in the presence of brain pathology. A major open question is which brain mechanisms may support higher reserve capacity, i.e. relatively high cognitive performance at a given level of Alzheimer's pathology. Higher functional MRI-assessed functional connectivity of a hub in the left frontal cortex is a core candidate brain mechanism underlying reserve as it is associated with education (i.e. a protective factor often associated with higher reserve) and attenuated cognitive impairment in prodromal Alzheimer's disease. However, no study has yet assessed whether such hub connectivity of the left frontal cortex supports reserve throughout the evolution of pathological brain changes in Alzheimer's disease, including the presymptomatic stage when cognitive decline is subtle. To address this research gap, we obtained cross-sectional resting state functional MRI in 74 participants with autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease, 55 controls from the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer's Network and 75 amyloid-positive elderly participants, as well as 41 amyloid-negative cognitively normal elderly subjects from the German Center of Neurodegenerative Diseases multicentre study on biomarkers in sporadic Alzheimer's disease. For each participant, global left frontal cortex connectivity was computed as the average resting state functional connectivity between the left frontal cortex (seed) and each voxel in the grey matter. As a marker of disease stage, we applied estimated years from symptom onset in autosomal dominantly inherited Alzheimer's disease and cerebrospinal fluid tau levels in sporadic Alzheimer's disease cases. In both autosomal dominant and sporadic Alzheimer's disease patients, higher levels of left frontal cortex connectivity were correlated with greater education. For autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease, a significant left frontal cortex connectivity × estimated years of onset interaction was found, indicating slower decline of memory and global cognition at higher levels of connectivity. Similarly, in sporadic amyloid-positive elderly subjects, the effect of tau on cognition was attenuated at higher levels of left frontal cortex connectivity. Polynomial regression analysis showed that the trajectory of cognitive decline was shifted towards a later stage of Alzheimer's disease in patients with higher levels of left frontal cortex connectivity. Together, our findings suggest that higher resilience against the development of cognitive impairment throughout the early stages of Alzheimer's disease is at least partially attributable to higher left frontal cortex-hub connectivity

SNAPSHOT USA 2019 : a coordinated national camera trap survey of the United States

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.With the accelerating pace of global change, it is imperative that we obtain rapid inventories of the status and distribution of wildlife for ecological inferences and conservation planning. To address this challenge, we launched the SNAPSHOT USA project, a collaborative survey of terrestrial wildlife populations using camera traps across the United States. For our first annual survey, we compiled data across all 50 states during a 14-week period (17 August - 24 November of 2019). We sampled wildlife at 1509 camera trap sites from 110 camera trap arrays covering 12 different ecoregions across four development zones. This effort resulted in 166,036 unique detections of 83 species of mammals and 17 species of birds. All images were processed through the Smithsonian's eMammal camera trap data repository and included an expert review phase to ensure taxonomic accuracy of data, resulting in each picture being reviewed at least twice. The results represent a timely and standardized camera trap survey of the USA. All of the 2019 survey data are made available herein. We are currently repeating surveys in fall 2020, opening up the opportunity to other institutions and cooperators to expand coverage of all the urban-wild gradients and ecophysiographic regions of the country. Future data will be available as the database is updated at eMammal.si.edu/snapshot-usa, as well as future data paper submissions. These data will be useful for local and macroecological research including the examination of community assembly, effects of environmental and anthropogenic landscape variables, effects of fragmentation and extinction debt dynamics, as well as species-specific population dynamics and conservation action plans. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this paper when using the data for publication.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe