Migraine, Fibromyalgia, and Depression among People with IBS: A Prevalence Study

BACKGROUND. Case descriptions suggest IBS patients are more likely to have other disorders, including migraine, fibromyalgia, and depression. We sought to examine the prevalence of these conditions in cohorts of people with and without IBS. METHODS. The source of data was a large U.S. health plan from January 1, 1996 though June 30, 2002. We identified all people with a medical claim associated with an ICD-9 code for IBS. A non-IBS cohort was a random sample of people with an ICD-9 code for routine medical care. In the cohorts, we identified all claims for migraine, depression, and fibromyalgia. We estimated the prevalence odds ratios (PORs) of each of the three conditions using the Mantel-Haenszel method. We conducted quantitative sensitivity analyses to quantify the impact of residual confounding and in differential outcome identification. RESULTS. We identified 97,593 people in the IBS cohort, and a random sample of 27,402 people to compose the non-IBS comparison cohort. With adjustment, there was a 60% higher odds in the IBS cohort of having any one of the three disorders relative to the comparison cohort (POR 1.6, 95% CI 1.5 – 1.7). There was a 40% higher odds of depression in the IBS cohort (POR 1.4, 95% CI 1.3 – 1.4). The PORs for fibromyalgia and migraine were similar (POR for fibromyalgia 1.8, 95% CI 1.7 – 1.9; POR for migraine 1.6, 95% CI 1.4 – 1.7). Differential prevalence of an unmeasured confounder, or imperfect sensitivity or specificity of outcome detection would have impacted the observed results. CONCLUSION. People in the IBS cohort had a 40% to 80% higher prevalence odds of migraine, fibromyalgia, and depression

Characterizing the burden of premature ejaculation from a patient and partner perspective: a multi-country qualitative analysis

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Effects of western classical vocal training on physiological measures during speaking voices

Comunicação apresentada no 20th World Congress of the International Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies, 1-5 junho 2013, Seul, Coreia do Su

Transits of Earth-Like Planets

Transmission spectroscopy of Earth-like exoplanets is a potential tool for habitability screening. Transiting planets are present-day "Rosetta Stones" for understanding extrasolar planets because they offer the possibility to characterize giant planet atmospheres and should provide an access to biomarkers in the atmospheres of Earth-like exoplanets, once they are detected. Using the Earth itself as a proxy we show the potential and limits of the transiting technique to detect biomarkers on an Earth-analog exoplanet in transit. We quantify the Earths cross section as a function of wavelength, and show the effect of each atmospheric species, aerosol, and Rayleigh scattering. Clouds do not significantly affect this picture because the opacity of the lower atmosphere from aerosol and Rayleigh losses dominates over cloud losses. We calculate the optimum signal-to-noise ratio for spectral features in the primary eclipse spectrum of an Earth-like exoplanet around a Sun-like star and also M stars, for a 6.5-m telescope in space. We find that the signal to noise values for all important spectral features are on the order of unity or less per transit - except for the closest stars - making it difficult to detect such features in one single transit, and implying that co-adding of many transits will be essential.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, 6 tables, to appear in ApJ (accepted) V2: corrected transit times, corrected values for M4 star radiu

Subsidizing Altruism In Living Organ Donation

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139905/1/ecin12488_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139905/2/ecin12488.pd

Basins of attraction on random topography

We investigate the consequences of fluid flowing on a continuous surface upon the geometric and statistical distribution of the flow. We find that the ability of a surface to collect water by its mere geometrical shape is proportional to the curvature of the contour line divided by the local slope. Consequently, rivers tend to lie in locations of high curvature and flat slopes. Gaussian surfaces are introduced as a model of random topography. For Gaussian surfaces the relation between convergence and slope is obtained analytically. The convergence of flow lines correlates positively with drainage area, so that lower slopes are associated with larger basins. As a consequence, we explain the observed relation between the local slope of a landscape and the area of the drainage basin geometrically. To some extent, the slope-area relation comes about not because of fluvial erosion of the landscape, but because of the way rivers choose their path. Our results are supported by numerically generated surfaces as well as by real landscapes

δ-Aminolevulinic Acid Dehydratase Polymorphism and Risk of Brain Tumors in Adults

The enzyme δ -aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD), which catalyzes the second step of heme synthesis, can be inhibited by several chemicals, including lead, a potential risk factor for brain tumors, particularly meningioma. In this study we examined whether the ALAD G177C polymorphism in the gene coding for ALAD is associated with risk of intracranial tumors of the brain and nervous system. We use data from a case–control study with 782 incident brain tumor cases and 799 controls frequency matched on hospital, age, sex, race/ethnicity, and residential proximity to the hospital. Blood samples were drawn and DNA subsequently sent for genotyping for 73% of subjects. ALAD genotype was determined for 94% of these samples (355 glioma, 151 meningioma, 67 acoustic neuroma, and 505 controls). Having one or more copy of the ALAD2 allele was associated with increased risk for meningioma [odds ratio (OR) = 1.6; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.0–2.6], with the association appearing stronger in males (OR = 3.5; 95% CI, 1.3–9.2) than in females (OR = 1.2; 95% CI, 0.7–2.2). No increased risk associated with the ALAD2 variant was observed for glioma or acoustic neuroma. These findings suggest that the ALAD2 allele may increase genetic susceptibility to meningioma

Radial Velocities with CRIRES: Pushing precision down to 5-10 m/s

With the advent of high-resolution infrared spectrographs, Radial Velocity (RV) searches enter into a new domain. As of today, the most important technical question to address is which wavelength reference is the most suitable for high-precision RV measurements. In this work we explore the usage of atmospheric absorption features. We make use of CRIRES data on two programs and three different targets. We re-analyze the data of the TW Hya campaign, reaching a dispersion of about 6 m/s on the RV standard in a time scale of roughly 1 week. We confirm the presence of a low-amplitude RV signal on TW Hya itself, roughly 3 times smaller than the one reported at visible wavelengths. We present RV measurements of Gl 86 as well, showing that our approach is capable of detecting the signal induced by a planet and correctly quantifying it. Our data show that CRIRES is capable of reaching a RV precision of less than 10 m/s in a time-scale of one week. The limitations of this particular approach are discussed, and the limiting factors on RV precision in the IR in a general way. The implications of this work on the design of future dedicated IR spectrographs are addressed as well.Comment: 9 pages, accepted for publication in A&