Risk of adverse outcomes associated with cardiac sarcoidosis diagnostic schemes

BackgroundMultiple cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) diagnostic schemes have been published.ObjectivesThis study aims to evaluate the association of different CS diagnostic schemes with adverse outcomes. The diagnostic schemes evaluated were 1993, 2006, and 2017 Japanese criteria and the 2014 Heart Rhythm Society criteria.MethodsData were collected from the Cardiac Sarcoidosis Consortium, an international registry of CS patients. Outcome events were any of the following: all-cause mortality, left ventricular assist device placement, heart transplantation, and appropriate implantable cardioverter-defibrillator therapy. Logistic regression analysis evaluated the association of outcomes with each CS diagnostic scheme.ResultsA total of 587 subjects met the following criteria: 1993 Japanese (n = 310, 52.8%), 2006 Japanese (n = 312, 53.2%), 2014 Heart Rhythm Society (n = 480, 81.8%), and 2017 Japanese (n = 112, 19.1%). Patients who met the 1993 criteria were more likely to experience an event than patients who did not (n = 109 of 310, 35.2% vs n = 59 of 277, 21.3%; OR: 2.00; 95% CI: 1.38-2.90; P P P = 0.18 or OR: 1.51; 95% CI: 0.97-2.33; P = 0.067, respectively).ConclusionsCS patients who met the 1993 and the 2006 criteria had higher odds of adverse clinical outcomes. Future research is needed to prospectively evaluate existing diagnostic schemes and develop new risk models for this complex disease.Cardiolog

Mentoring for school leadership in South Africa : diversity, dissimilarity and disadvantage

In South Africa, until recently, mentoring has not been formalized as part of school leadership induction programmes or of leadership professional development. However, the South African government identified mentoring as a distinctive aspect of its pilot leadership development programme for school principals. This programme signalled a shift from ad hoc and informal mentoring to building mentorship into school leadership development programmes. However, there is still no clear understanding about what constitutes effective mentoring models and the significance of similarity and diversity in a mentoring relationship. In this paper I draw from two dissimilar datasets to explore mentoring from an identity (gender and race) perspective. Using similarity-attraction theory, the paper highlights the complexity of mentoring models and suggests that higher levels of dissimilarity in a mentoring relationship may lead to disadvantage

On Bayes inference for a bathtub failure rate via S-paths

10.1007/s10463-009-0253-1Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics634827-850AISX