Validity and Reliability of the Modified Manchester Health Questionnaire in Assessing Patients With Fecal Incontinence

To date, no measures of fecal incontinence severity or its impact on quality of life have been validated for telephone interview. This study was designed to 1) compare responses of a self-administered and a telephone-administered Fecal Incontinence Severity Index; 2) compare a self-administered Fecal Incontinence Quality of Life Scale to the Manchester Health Questionnaire after modifying the latter for telephone administration and American English (Modified Manchester Health Questionnaire); 3) assess test-retest reliability of the telephone-administered Modified Manchester Health Questionnaire; and 4) assess the internal consistency of the Modified Manchester Health Questionnaire subscales.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/41395/1/10350_2004_Article_899.pd

Risk Factors for Fecal and Urinary Incontinence After Childbirth: The Childbirth and Pelvic Symptoms Study

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73402/1/j.1572-0241.2007.01364.x.pd

The impact of fecal and urinary incontinence on quality of life 6 months after childbirth

The objective of the study was to investigate the impact of postpartum fecal incontinence (FI) and urinary incontinence (UI) on quality of life (QOL)

Phylogenetic ctDNA analysis depicts early-stage lung cancer evolution.

The early detection of relapse following primary surgery for non-small-cell lung cancer and the characterization of emerging subclones, which seed metastatic sites, might offer new therapeutic approaches for limiting tumour recurrence. The ability to track the evolutionary dynamics of early-stage lung cancer non-invasively in circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) has not yet been demonstrated. Here we use a tumour-specific phylogenetic approach to profile the ctDNA of the first 100 TRACERx (Tracking Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Evolution Through Therapy (Rx)) study participants, including one patient who was also recruited to the PEACE (Posthumous Evaluation of Advanced Cancer Environment) post-mortem study. We identify independent predictors of ctDNA release and analyse the tumour-volume detection limit. Through blinded profiling of postoperative plasma, we observe evidence of adjuvant chemotherapy resistance and identify patients who are very likely to experience recurrence of their lung cancer. Finally, we show that phylogenetic ctDNA profiling tracks the subclonal nature of lung cancer relapse and metastasis, providing a new approach for ctDNA-driven therapeutic studies

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

A História da Alimentação: balizas historiográficas

Os M. pretenderam traçar um quadro da História da Alimentação, não como um novo ramo epistemológico da disciplina, mas como um campo em desenvolvimento de práticas e atividades especializadas, incluindo pesquisa, formação, publicações, associações, encontros acadêmicos, etc. Um breve relato das condições em que tal campo se assentou faz-se preceder de um panorama dos estudos de alimentação e temas correia tos, em geral, segundo cinco abardagens Ia biológica, a econômica, a social, a cultural e a filosófica!, assim como da identificação das contribuições mais relevantes da Antropologia, Arqueologia, Sociologia e Geografia. A fim de comentar a multiforme e volumosa bibliografia histórica, foi ela organizada segundo critérios morfológicos. A seguir, alguns tópicos importantes mereceram tratamento à parte: a fome, o alimento e o domínio religioso, as descobertas européias e a difusão mundial de alimentos, gosto e gastronomia. O artigo se encerra com um rápido balanço crítico da historiografia brasileira sobre o tema

Medium-term follow-up on use of freeze-dried, irradiated donor fascia for sacrocolpopexy and sling procedures

The aim of this study was to document longer-term follow-up of patients in a previously reported series who underwent either sacrocolpopexy (SCP) or suburethral sling procedures utilizing freeze-dried, irradiated donor fascia. Subjects from the initial series of 67 SCPs and 35 slings were included in this retrospective chart review of postoperative follow-up where surgical follow-up longer than 3 months from the procedure was available. Subjects undergoing SCP were examined at the time of any clinical visit and their pelvic organ support evaluated utilizing the POP-Q system. The SCP procedure was considered to be unsuccessful if any anterior vaginal wall point (Aa or Ba) was at the hymen or beyond, or if the vaginal apical point (C or D) descended to a point at least halfway to the hymen from a position of perfect apical support. Subjects who did not return for clinical examination after their 3-month postoperative visit but who had been in telephone contact with the clinic stating that they had experienced symptomatic recurrence of their POP were also included as having unsuccessful SCP procedures. Those similarly in contact with the office by telephone, but not clinically examined, who indicated no subjective return of their POP, were coded as successful. The outcome of the sling procedure was primarily evaluated subjectively, with the patient indicating that stress incontinence symptoms were present or absent. Follow-up was available for 75 patients, who had undergone 54 SCP and 27 sling procedures (6 patients had undergone both SCP and sling procedures). When failure was defined according to any of the criteria listed in the methods section, 45 (83%) patients experienced SCP failure at a median of 12 months after surgery. A total of 14 (52%) sling procedures were failures, with recurrent SUI symptoms experienced from 2 weeks to 24 months (median 3 months) after the procedure. One year after surgery, 23 (43%) SCPs were known to be failures, and 11 (41%) slings were known to be failures. The remaining 13 (48%) slings were subjectively successful when last seen 7–51 months after surgery. We reoperated on 21 (40%) patients. At the time of repeat SCP (chosen by 16 patients) we found graft between the sacrum and vagina in just 3 patients (19%). The use of freeze-dried, irradiated donor fascia for both SCP and sling procedures was associated with an unacceptably high failure rate in our series.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45893/1/192_2004_Article_1146.pd