New horizons for in vitro spermatogenesis? An update on novel three-dimensional culture systems as tools for meiotic and post-meiotic differentiation of testicular germ cells

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Decreased spermatogonial quantity in prepubertal boys with leukaemia treated with alkylating agents

Non peer reviewe

Improving treatment and survival: a population‐based study of current outcomes after a hepatic resection in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer

AbstractBackgroundPopulation‐based studies historically report underutilization of a resection in patients with colorectal metastases to the liver. Recent data suggest limitations of the methods in the historical analysis. The present study examines trends in a hepatic resection and survival among Medicare recipients with hepatic metastases.MethodsMedicare recipients with incident colorectal cancer diagnosed between 1991 and 2009 were identified in the SEER(Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results)‐Medicare dataset. Patients were stratified into historical (1991–2001) and current (2002–2009) cohorts. Analyses compared treatment, peri‐operative outcomes and survival.ResultsOf 31 574 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer to the liver, 14 859 were in the current cohort treated after 2002 and 16 715 comprised the historical control group. The overall proportion treated with a hepatic resection increased significantly during the study period (P< 0.001) with pre/post change from 6.5% pre‐2002 to 7.5% currently (P < 0.001). Over time, haemorrhagic and infectious complications declined (both P ≤ 0.047), but 30‐day mortality was similar (3.5% versus 3.9%, P = 0.660). After adjusting for predictors of survival, the use of a hepatic resection [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.40, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.38–0.42, P < 0.001] and treatment after 2002 (HR = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.86–0.90, P < 0.001) were associated with a reduced risk of death.ConclusionsCase identification using International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision (ICD‐9) codes is imperfect; however, comparison of trends over time suggests an improvement in multimodality therapy and survival in patients with colorectal metastases to the liver

Fertility preservation in boys : recent developments and new insights

BACKGROUND: Infertility is an important side effect of treatments used for cancer and other non-malignant conditions in males. This may be due to the loss of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) and/or altered functionality of testicular somatic cells (e.g. Sertoli cells, Leydig cells). Whereas sperm cryopreservation is the first-line procedure to preserve fertility in post-pubertal males, this option does not exist for prepubertal boys. For patients unable to produce sperm and at high risk of losing their fertility, testicular tissue freezing is now proposed as an alternative experimental option to safeguard their fertility. OBJECTIVE AND RATIONALE: With this review, we aim to provide an update on clinical practices and experimental methods, as well as to describe patient management inclusion strategies used to preserve and restore the fertility of prepubertal boys at high risk of fertility loss. SEARCH METHODS: Based on the expertise of the participating centres and a literature search of the progress in clinical practices, patient management strategies and experimental methods used to preserve and restore the fertility of prepubertal boys at high risk of fertility loss were identified. In addition, a survey was conducted amongst European and North American centres/networks that have published papers on their testicular tissue banking activity. OUTCOMES: Since the first publication on murine SSC transplantation in 1994, remarkable progress has been made towards clinical application: cryopreservation protocols for testicular tissue have been developed in animal models and are now offered to patients in clinics as a still experimental procedure. Transplantation methods have been adapted for human testis, and the efficiency and safety of the technique are being evaluated in mouse and primate models. However, important practical, medical and ethical issues must be resolved before fertility restoration can be applied in the clinic. Since the previous survey conducted in 2012, the implementation of testicular tissue cryopreservation as a means to preserve the fertility of prepubertal boys has increased. Data have been collected from 24 co-ordinating centres worldwide, which are actively offering testis tissue cryobanking to safeguard the future fertility of boys. More than 1033 young patients (age range 3 months to 18 years) have already undergone testicular tissue retrieval and storage for fertility preservation. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION: The review does not include the data of all reproductive centres worldwide. Other centres might be offering testicular tissue cryopreservation. Therefore, the numbers might be not representative for the entire field in reproductive medicine and biology worldwide. The key ethical issue regarding fertility preservation in prepubertal boys remains the experimental nature of the intervention. WIDER IMPLICATIONS: The revised procedures can be implemented by the multi-disciplinary teams offering and/or developing treatment strategies to preserve the fertility of prepubertal boys who have a high risk of fertility loss.Peer reviewe

Comparing comorbidity measures for predicting mortality and hospitalization in three population-based cohorts

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Multiple comorbidity measures have been developed for risk-adjustment in studies using administrative data, but it is unclear which measure is optimal for specific outcomes and if the measures are equally valid in different populations. This research examined the predictive performance of five comorbidity measures in three population-based cohorts.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Administrative data from the province of Saskatchewan, Canada, were used to create the cohorts. The general population cohort included all Saskatchewan residents 20+ years, the diabetes cohort included individuals 20+ years with a diabetes diagnosis in hospital and/or physician data, and the osteoporosis cohort included individuals 50+ years with diagnosed or treated osteoporosis. Five comorbidity measures based on health services utilization, number of different diagnoses, and prescription drugs over one year were defined. Predictive performance was assessed for death and hospitalization outcomes using measures of discrimination (<it>c</it>-statistic) and calibration (Brier score) for multiple logistic regression models.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The comorbidity measures with optimal performance were the same in the general population (<it>n </it>= 662,423), diabetes (<it>n </it>= 41,925), and osteoporosis (<it>n </it>= 28,068) cohorts. For mortality, the Elixhauser index resulted in the highest <it>c</it>-statistic and lowest Brier score, followed by the Charlson index. For hospitalization, the number of diagnoses had the best predictive performance. Consistent results were obtained when we restricted attention to the population 65+ years in each cohort.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The optimal comorbidity measure depends on the health outcome and not on the disease characteristics of the study population.</p

Use of hospitalisation history (lookback) to determine prevalence of chronic diseases: impact on modelling of risk factors for haemorrhage in pregnancy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Concern about the completeness of comorbidity information in hospital records has been raised as a limitation of using hospital discharge data for research. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of additional comorbidity information from prior hospital admissions on estimation of prevalence and modelling of risk factors for obstetric haemorrhage.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A range of chronic disease prevalence for 53,438 women who had their first birth in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, 2005-2006, were ascertained for up to five years prior to the birth admission (for pregnancy, 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-year periods) and obstetric haemorrhage was identified from maternal hospital records for 2005 and 2006.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The ascertainment of chronic disease prevalence increased with increasing length of lookback. However, the rate of the increase was slower after 2 to 3 years than for the more recent periods. The effect size of chronic diseases on obstetric haemorrhage risk decreased with the increased case ascertainment associated with longer lookback. Furthermore, longer lookback did not improve the predictive capacity (C-statistic: 0.624) of a model that was based only on the birth admission records.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Longer ascertainment periods resulted in improved identification of chronic disease history among pregnant women, but the additional information from prior admissions did little to improve the modelling of risk factors for obstetric haemorrhage.</p

Hospital-level associations with 30-day patient mortality after cardiac surgery: a tutorial on the application and interpretation of marginal and multilevel logistic regression

Background: Marginal and multilevel logistic regression methods can estimate associations between hospital-level factors and patient-level 30-day mortality outcomes after cardiac surgery. However, it is not widely understood how the interpretation of hospital-level effects differs between these methods. Methods. The Australasian Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons (ASCTS) registry provided data on 32,354 patients undergoing cardiac surgery in 18 hospitals from 2001 to 2009. The logistic regression methods related 30-day mortality after surgery to hospital characteristics with concurrent adjustment for patient characteristics. Results: Hospital-level mortality rates varied from 1.0% to 4.1% of patients. Ordinary, marginal and multilevel regression methods differed with regard to point estimates and conclusions on statistical significance for hospital-level risk factors; ordinary logistic regression giving inappropriately narrow confidence intervals. The median odds ratio, MOR, from the multilevel model was 1.2 whereas ORs for most patient-level characteristics were of greater magnitude suggesting that unexplained between-hospital variation was not as relevant as patient-level characteristics for understanding mortality rates. For hospital-level characteristics in the multilevel model, 80% interval ORs, IOR-80%, supplemented the usual ORs from the logistic regression. The IOR-80% was (0.8 to 1.8) for academic affiliation and (0.6 to 1.3) for the median annual number of cardiac surgery procedures. The width of these intervals reflected the unexplained variation between hospitals in mortality rates; the inclusion of one in each interval suggested an inability to add meaningfully to explaining variation in mortality rates. Conclusions: Marginal and multilevel models take different approaches to account for correlation between patients within hospitals and they lead to different interpretations for hospital-level odds ratios. © 2012 Sanagou et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Comparison of Rx-defined morbidity groups and diagnosis- based risk adjusters for predicting healthcare costs in Taiwan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Medication claims are commonly used to calculate the risk adjustment for measuring healthcare cost. The Rx-defined Morbidity Groups (Rx-MG) which combine the use of medication to indicate morbidity have been incorporated into the Adjusted Clinical Groups (ACG) Case Mix System, developed by the Johns Hopkins University. This study aims to verify that the Rx-MG can be used for adjusting risk and for explaining the variations in the healthcare cost in Taiwan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2005 (LHID2005) was used in this study. The year 2006 was chosen as the baseline to predict healthcare cost (medication and total cost) in 2007. The final sample size amounted to 793 239 (81%) enrolees, and excluded any cases with discontinued enrolment. Two different kinds of models were built to predict cost: the concurrent model and the prospective model. The predictors used in the predictive models included age, gender, Aggregated Diagnosis Groups (ADG, diagnosis- defined morbidity groups), and Rx-defined Morbidity Groups. Multivariate OLS regression was used in the cost prediction modelling.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The concurrent model adjusted for Rx-defined Morbidity Groups for total cost, and controlled for age and gender had a better predictive R-square = 0.618, compared to the model adjusted for ADGs (R²= 0.411). The model combined with Rx-MGs and ADGs performed the best for concurrently predicting total cost (R²= 0.650). For prospectively predicting total cost, the model combined Rx-MGs and ADGs (R²= 0.382) performed better than the models adjusted by Rx-MGs (R²= 0.360) or ADGs (R²= 0.252) only. Similarly, the concurrent model adjusted for Rx-MGs predicting pharmacy cost had a better performance (R-square = 0.615), than the model adjusted for ADGs (R²= 0.431). The model combined with Rx-MGs and ADGs performed the best in concurrently as well as prospectively predicting pharmacy cost (R²= 0.638 and 0.505, respectively). The prospective models showed a remarkable improvement when adjusted by prior cost.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The medication-based Rx-Defined Morbidity Groups was useful in predicting pharmacy cost as well as total cost in Taiwan. Combining the information on medication and diagnosis as adjusters could arguably be the best method for explaining variations in healthcare cost.</p