Applying novel tree-based frameworks to big data for classification of heart failure patients and prediction of clinical responses

Over 5 million Americans suffer from heart failure, a condition with a 5-year survival that eclipses all cancers apart from that of lung cancer. Conventional understanding of heart failure is simplistic: it is viewed as a single syndrome, despite real heterogeneity. In addition, models predicting outcomes focus on dichotomous results, like 30-day readmission. A novel approach to classification of heart failure may improve our ability to target interventions, improve patient experiences, and predict outcomes. The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project is a family of administrative claims databases that describes patient demographics, comorbidities, procedures, acute care utilization and outcomes, such as mortality and readmission. Using the California datasets, which allow linkage of hospital admissions to emergency department visits, we sought to (1) develop a new classification tool for heart failure, (2) predict patient response based on previous visits, (3) predict survival time. In this pilot study, we propose novel tree-based frameworks for the classification of heart failure patients that can also be used to predict clinical response, health care utilization and mortality. The pilot sample contains 822 patients with heart failure who are randomly picked from a total sample of 211284 patients. The median number of encounters per patient was 3 (IQR: 5); each are associated with up to 168 variables. By applying random forest approaches to this pilot sample, we have performed classification of patients with heart failure and identified important predictors of outcomes. Going forward, we will refine the model and apply to the entire data set to produce broadly applicable insights

An ADH1B variant and peer drinking in progression to adolescent drinking milestones: Evidence of a gene-by-environment interaction

BACKGROUND: Adolescent drinking is an important public health concern, one that is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. The functional variant rs1229984 in alcohol dehydrogenase 1B (ADH1B) has been associated at a genome-wide level with alcohol use disorders in diverse adult populations. However, few data are available regarding whether this variant influences early drinking behaviors and whether social context moderates this effect. This study examines the interplay between rs1229984 and peer drinking in the development of adolescent drinking milestones. METHODS: One thousand five hundred and fifty European and African American individuals who had a full drink of alcohol before age 18 were selected from a longitudinal study of youth as part of the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA). Cox proportional hazards regression, with G × E product terms in the final models, was used to study 2 primary outcomes during adolescence: age of first intoxication and age of first DSM-5 alcohol use disorder symptom. RESULTS: The minor A allele of rs1229984 was associated with a protective effect for first intoxication (HR = 0.56, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.76) and first DSM-5 symptom (HR = 0.45, 95% CI 0.26 to 0.77) in the final models. Reporting that most or all best friends drink was associated with a hazardous effect for first intoxication (HR = 1.81, 95% CI 1.62 to 2.01) and first DSM-5 symptom (HR = 2.17, 95% 1.88 to 2.50) in the final models. Furthermore, there was a significant G × E interaction for first intoxication (p = 0.002) and first DSM-5 symptom (p = 0.01). Among individuals reporting none or few best friends drinking, the ADH1B variant had a protective effect for adolescent drinking milestones, but for those reporting most or all best friends drinking, this effect was greatly reduced. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the risk factor of best friends drinking attenuates the protective effect of a well-established ADH1B variant for 2 adolescent drinking behaviors. These findings illustrate the interplay between genetic and environmental factors in the development of drinking milestones during adolescence

Methods and application areas of endoscopic optical coherence tomography

We review the current state of research in endoscopic optical coherence tomography (OCT). We first survey the range of available endoscopic optical imaging techniques. We then discuss the various OCT-based endoscopic methods that have thus far been developed. We compare the different endoscopic OCT methods in terms of their scan performance. Next, we examine the application range of endoscopic OCT methods. In particular, we look at the reported utility of the methods in digestive, intravascular, respiratory, urinary and reproductive systems. We highlight two additional applications—biopsy procedures and neurosurgery—where sufficiently compact OCT-based endoscopes can have significant clinical impacts

The British Army, information management and the First World War revolution in military affairs

Information Management (IM) – the systematic ordering, processing and channelling of information within organisations – forms a critical component of modern military command and control systems. As a subject of scholarly enquiry, however, the history of military IM has been relatively poorly served. Employing new and under-utilised archival sources, this article takes the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) of the First World War as its case study and assesses the extent to which its IM system contributed to the emergence of the modern battlefield in 1918. It argues that the demands of fighting a modern war resulted in a general, but not universal, improvement in the BEF’s IM techniques, which in turn laid the groundwork, albeit in embryonic form, for the IM systems of modern armies. KEY WORDS: British Army, Information Management, First World War, Revolution in Military Affairs, Adaptatio

Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status and Outcomes Following the Norwood Procedure: An Analysis of the Pediatric Heart Network Single Ventricle Reconstruction Trial Public Data Set

Background: Children with single ventricle heart disease require frequent interventions and follow‐up. Low socioeconomic status (SES) may limit access to high‐quality care and place these children at risk for poor long‐term outcomes. Methods and Results: Data from the SVR (Pediatric Heart Network Single Ventricle Reconstruction Trial Public Use) data set were used to examine the relationship of US neighborhood SES with 30‐day and 1‐year mortality or cardiac transplantation and length of stay among neonates undergoing the Norwood procedure (n=525). Crude rates of death or transplantation at 1 year after Norwood were highest for patients living in neighborhoods with low SES (lowest tertile 37.0% versus middle tertile 31.0% versus highest tertile 23.6%, P=0.024). After adjustment for patient demographics, birth characteristics, and anatomy, patients in the highest SES tertile had significantly lower risk of death or transplant than patients in the lowest SES tertile (hazard ratio 0.62, 95% confidence interval, 0.40, 0.96). When SES was examined continuously, the hazard of 1‐year death or transplant decreased steadily with increasing neighborhood SES. Hazard ratios for 30‐day transplant‐free survival and 1‐year transplant‐free survival were similar in magnitude. There were no significant differences in length of stay following the Norwood procedure by SES. Conclusions: Low neighborhood SES is associated with worse 1‐year transplant‐free survival after the Norwood procedure, suggesting that socioeconomic and environmental factors may be important determinants of outcome in critical congenital heart disease. Future studies should investigate aspects of SES and environment amenable to intervention. Clinical Trial Registration URL:http://www.clinicaltrials.gov> http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00115934