Assessing the Concordance of Coded Morbidity and Mortality Data for In-Hospital Trauma-Related Deaths

To examine the effectiveness of trauma systems, in-hospital mortality rates are key indicators. However, to date there has been little research examining the congruence of morbidity and mortality data as recorded in hospital databases and mortality databases. A retrospective review of coded medical records from a trauma registry, a metropolitan teaching hospital and the National Death Index for 1747 patients admitted to hospital for ≥ 24 hours for acute treatment of injury was undertaken. This study was established to determine the number and cause of differences in coded data between hospital records and National Death Index (NDI) records for in-hospital deaths following admission for trauma. Of the 60 patients who died in hospital, 26% died from non-traumatic causes according to NDI coded data. Over half of the cases with trauma coded in the NDI contained external cause data which were less specific or did not match external cause data from hospital records. When reviewing trauma-related outcomes, where possible injury researchers and policy advisors should consider both mortality and morbidity datasets when reviewing in-hospital deaths, as this research identified that the morbidity dataset provides greater detail for injury and external causes of injury than mortality coded data for in-hospital deaths

Isolation of in planta-Induced Genes of Pseudomonas viridiflava

Pseudomonas viridiflava is an opportunistic, post-harvest pathogenic bacterium that causes soft rot of fruits and vegetables. In vivo expression technology was used to identify genes that participate in the pathogenicity of P. viridiflava. Genetic loci that are induced in planta were identified. Ten such loci were partially sequenced and annotated. Here we describe five of them, which influence the pathogen's stress tolerance in planta. Three of the identified ORFs that show sequence identity to known genes encode membrane proteins, the remaining two encode enzymes in catabolic pathways

Normal modes and vortex dynamics in 2D easy-axis ferromagnets

Submitted to JETP LettersBiblioteca Centrale CNR / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal

Valproate treatment normalizes EEG functional connectivity in successfully treated idiopathic generalized epilepsy patients

Aim: To investigate the effect of chronic VPA treatment of EEG functional connectivity insuccessfully treated idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE) patients.Patients and methods: 19-channel waking, resting-state EEG records of 26 IGE patients wereanalyzed before treatment (IGE) and after the 90th day of treatment (VPA), in seizure-free condition.Three minutes of artifact-free EEG background activity (without epileptiform potentials)was analyzed for each patient in both conditions. A group of 26 age-matched healthy normativecontrol persons (NC) was analyzed in the same way. All the EEG samples were processed toLORETA (Low Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography) to localize multiple distributed sourcesof EEG activity. Current source density time series were generated for 33 regions of interest(ROI)in each hemisphere for four frequency bands. Pearson correlation coefficients (R) were computedbetween all ROIs in each hemisphere, for four bands across the investigated samples. Rvalues corresponded to intrahemispheric, cortico-cortical functional EEG connectivity (EEGfC).Group and condition differences were analyzed by statistical parametric network method.Main results: p < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons: (1) The untreated IGE group showedincreased EEGfC in the delta and theta bands, and decreased EEGfC in the alpha band (as comparedto the NC group); (2) VPA treatment normalized EEGfC in the delta, theta and alpha bands;and (3) degree of normalization depended on frequency band and cortical region.Conclusions: VPA treatment normalizes EEGfC in IGE patients