Case characteristics.

<p>Parameters without units are expressed as percentages with 95% confidence intervals in parentheses except for indication; for which the n-values are given. Parameters with units are shown as means with 95% confidence intervals in parentheses. Values in square brackets indicate sample size – if no sample size is given, there were no missing data and the sample size corresponds to the value at the top of the column. Idiopathic indicates a venous thromboembolism that occurred when the patient did not have malignancy and had not had surgery or trauma within the preceding 90 days. BMI, body mass index; VTE, venous thromboembolism; DVT, deep vein thrombosis; PE, pulmonary embolism.</p

Distribution of non-idiopathic venous thromboembolism (VTE).

<p>(A) Monthly distribution (January = 1): dashed line indicates uniform distribution. Distribution differed from uniform (<i>P</i><0.05 Kuiper’s test; <i>P</i> = 0.0004 Rayleigh test); mean (red arrow) = July 21^st (shaded rectangle indicates the 95% confidence intervals; June 21^st to August 20^th). (B) Weekly distribution. Solid red line shows the periodic regression (<i>P</i> = 0.0004; R² = 0.27); July 25^th peak.</p

Delay from self-reported symptom onset to emergency department arrival.

<p>(A) All cases with recorded times (n = 1,504). The mode (chequered bar; 31%) occurred at 3–6 days; however, the delay exceeded one week for more than 25% of cases (black bars). (B) Pulmonary embolus (n = 557). The mode (29%) occurred in the <1 day period; proportion with delays exceeding one week was 17%. (C) Deep vein thrombosis (n = 947). The mode (35%) occurred at 3–6 days; proportion with delays exceeding one week was 32%. The distribution for deep vein thrombosis differed from that for pulmonary embolus (<i>P</i><0.001; Kuiper’s two sample test).</p

Case inclusion flow-chart.

<p>CT – computed tomography; DVT – deep vein thrombosis; SOB – shortness-of-breath; VTE – venous thromboembolism.</p

Weekly distribution of particulate matter (PM) parameters and venous thromboembolism (VTE) cases (Detroit hospitals).

<p>Periodic regressions are shown in red. (A) 2.5 µm PM (<i>P</i> = 0.049; R² = 0.12); January 26^th peak. (B) 10 µm PM (<i>P</i> = 0.0003; R² = 0.28); July 2^nd peak. (C) Coarse particles (<i>P</i><0.0001; R² = 0.40); July 11^th peak. (D) VTE cases per week per year (<i>P</i> = 0.018; R² = 0.15); July 3^rd peak.</p

Distribution of monthly venous thromboembolism (VTE) and no-VTE cases.

<p>X-axis indicates the month of the year (January = 1). Dashed line indicates uniform distribution. (A) Detroit VTE (n = 1,490). This was the only distribution that differed from uniform (<i>P</i> = 0.0046; Rayleigh test). Distribution mean (red arrow) June 24^th; the 95% confidence intervals (May 19^th to July 31^st) are indicated by the shaded rectangle. (B) Distribution of Detroit cases that did not have a VTE (n = 1,123); did not differ from uniform (<i>P</i> = 0.50), but differed from the Detroit VTE cases (<i>P</i><0.02; Kuiper’s test). (C) Suburban VTE (n = 417); did not differ from uniform (<i>P</i> = 0.13). (D) Suburban cases that did not have a VTE (n = 280); did not differ from uniform (<i>P</i> = 0.21) or the suburban VTE distribution.</p

Periodic regression of venous thromboembolism (VTE) cases (Detroit).

<p>Black circles indicate the monthly averages. The periodic regression is shown in red (<i>P</i> = 0.028; R² = 0.55); June 30^th peak. Periodic mean = 124.2 cases/month (dashed red line).</p

Odds ratio for each month versus winter.

<p>Data are shown with 95% confidence intervals and red denotes a statistically significant difference (<i>P</i><0.05) versus winter (defined as the average number of cases in December, January, and February). (A) Detroit VTE. (B) Detroit no-VTE. (C) Suburban VTE. (D) Suburban no-VTE.</p

Characteristics of 25 patients with isolated cardiac device pocket infection and 50 control patients.

<p>Characteristics of 25 patients with isolated cardiac device pocket infection and 50 control patients.</p

Receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC)-Analysis for the relevant biomarkers.

<p>Receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC)-Analysis for the relevant biomarkers.</p