Consensus recommendations for the treatment and management of patients with Fabry disease on migalastat: a modified Delphi study

Objective: Fabry disease is a progressive disorder caused by deficiency of the α-galactosidase A enzyme (α-Gal A), leading to multisystemic organ damage with heterogenous clinical presentation. The addition of the oral chaperone therapy migalastat to the available treatment options for Fabry disease is not yet universally reflected in all treatment guidelines. These consensus recommendations are intended to provide guidance for the treatment and monitoring of patients with Fabry disease receiving migalastat. Methods: A modified Delphi process was conducted to determine consensus on treatment decisions and monitoring of patients with Fabry disease receiving migalastat. The multidisciplinary panel comprised 14 expert physicians across nine specialties and two patients with Fabry disease. Two rounds of Delphi surveys were completed and recommendations on the use of biomarkers, multidisciplinary monitoring, and treatment decisions were generated based on statements that reached consensus. Results: The expert panel reached consensus agreement on 49 of 54 statements, including 16 that reached consensus in round 1. Statements that reached consensus agreement are summarized in recommendations for migalastat treatment and monitoring, including baseline and follow-up assessments and frequency. All patients with Fabry disease and an amenable mutation may initiate migalastat treatment if they have evidence of Fabry-related symptoms and/or organ involvement. Treatment decisions should include holistic assessment of the patient, considering clinical symptoms and organ involvement as well as patient-reported outcomes and patient preference. The reliability of α-Gal A and globotriaosylsphingosine as pharmacodynamic response biomarkers remains unclear. Conclusion: These recommendations build on previously published guidelines to highlight the importance of holistic, multidisciplinary monitoring for patients with Fabry disease receiving migalastat, in addition to shared decision-making regarding treatments and monitoring throughout the patient journey. (Figure presented.)

Rapid haplotype inference for nuclear families

Hapi is a new dynamic programming algorithm that ignores uninformative states and state transitions in order to efficiently compute minimum-recombinant and maximum likelihood haplotypes. When applied to a dataset containing 103 families, Hapi performs 3.8 and 320 times faster than state-of-the-art algorithms. Because Hapi infers both minimum-recombinant and maximum likelihood haplotypes and applies to related individuals, the haplotypes it infers are highly accurate over extended genomic distances.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH grant 5-T90-DK070069)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant 5-P01-NS055923)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Graduate Research Fellowship

Smoking patterns and sociodemographic factors associated with tobacco use among Chinese rural male residents: a descriptive analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although evidence has shown high prevalence rates of tobacco use in the general urban populations in China, relatively little is known in its rural population. The purposes of this study were to examine smoking patterns and sociodemographic correlates of smoking in a sample of rural Chinese male residents.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study employed a cross-sectional, multi-stage sampling design. Residents (N = 4,414; aged 15 years and older) were recruited from four geographic regions in China. Information on participants' tobacco use (of all forms), including their daily use, and sociodemographic characteristics were collected via survey questionnaires and the resultant data were analyzed using chi-square tests and logistic regression procedures.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The overall smoking prevalence in the study sample was 66.8% (n = 2,950). Of these, the average use of tobacco products per day was 12.70 (SD = 7.99) and over 60% reported daily smoking of more than 10 cigarettes. Geographic regions of the study areas, age of the participants, marital status, ethnicity, education, occupation, and average personal annual income were found to be significantly associated with an increased likelihood of smoking among rural Chinese male residents.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There is a high smoking prevalence in the Chinese rural population and smoking behaviors are associated with important sociodemographic factors. Findings suggest the need for tobacco control and intervention policies aimed at reducing tobacco use in Chinese rural smoking populations.</p

Genotype determination for polymorphisms in linkage disequilibrium

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Genome-wide association studies with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) show great promise to identify genetic determinants of complex human traits. In current analyses, genotype calling and imputation of missing genotypes are usually considered as two separated tasks. The genotypes of SNPs are first determined one at a time from allele signal intensities. Then the missing genotypes, i.e., no-calls caused by not perfectly separated signal clouds, are imputed based on the linkage disequilibrium (LD) between multiple SNPs. Although many statistical methods have been developed to improve either genotype calling or imputation of missing genotypes, treating the two steps independently can lead to loss of genetic information.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We propose a novel genotype calling framework. In this framework, we consider the signal intensities and underlying LD structure of SNPs simultaneously by estimating both cluster parameters and haplotype frequencies. As a result, our new method outperforms some existing algorithms in terms of both call rates and genotyping accuracy. Our studies also suggest that jointly analyzing multiple SNPs in LD provides more accurate estimation of haplotypes than haplotype reconstruction methods that only use called genotypes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study demonstrates that jointly analyzing signal intensities and LD structure of multiple SNPs is a better way to determine genotypes and estimate LD parameters.</p

Search for New Particles Decaying to top-antitop in proton-antiproton collisions at squareroot(s)=1.8 TeV

We use 106 \ipb of data collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab to search for narrow-width, vector particles decaying to a top and an anti-top quark. Model independent upper limits on the cross section for narrow, vector resonances decaying to \ttbar are presented. At the 95% confidence level, we exclude the existence of a leptophobic \zpr boson in a model of topcolor-assisted technicolor with mass M_{\zpr} $<$ 480 \gev for natural width $\Gamma$ = 0.012 M_{\zpr}, and M_{\zpr} $<$ 780 \gev for $\Gamma$ = 0.04 M_{\zpr}.Comment: The CDF Collaboration, submitted to PRL 25-Feb-200

A Measurement of the Differential Dijet Mass Cross Section in p-pbar Collisions at sqrt{s}=1.8 TeV

We present a measurement of the cross section for production of two or more jets as a function of dijet mass, based on an integrated luminosity of 86 pb^-1 collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab. Our dijet mass spectrum is described within errors by next-to-leading order QCD predictions using CTEQ4HJ parton distributions, and is in good agreement with a similar measurement from the D0 experiment.Comment: 18 pages including 2 figures and 3 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev. D Rapid Communication

Measurement of the B0 anti-B0 oscillation frequency using l- D*+ pairs and lepton flavor tags

The oscillation frequency Delta-md of B0 anti-B0 mixing is measured using the partially reconstructed semileptonic decay anti-B0 -> l- nubar D*+ X. The data sample was collected with the CDF detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider during 1992 - 1995 by triggering on the existence of two lepton candidates in an event, and corresponds to about 110 pb-1 of pbar p collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV. We estimate the proper decay time of the anti-B0 meson from the measured decay length and reconstructed momentum of the l- D*+ system. The charge of the lepton in the final state identifies the flavor of the anti-B0 meson at its decay. The second lepton in the event is used to infer the flavor of the anti-B0 meson at production. We measure the oscillation frequency to be Delta-md = 0.516 +/- 0.099 +0.029 -0.035 ps-1, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic.Comment: 30 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to Physical Review

Diffractive Dijet Production at sqrt(s)=630 and 1800 GeV at the Fermilab Tevatron

We report a measurement of the diffractive structure function $F_{jj}^D$ of the antiproton obtained from a study of dijet events produced in association with a leading antiproton in $\bar pp$ collisions at $\sqrt s=630$ GeV at the Fermilab Tevatron. The ratio of $F_{jj}^D$ at $\sqrt s=630$ GeV to $F_{jj}^D$ obtained from a similar measurement at $\sqrt s=1800$ GeV is compared with expectations from QCD factorization and with theoretical predictions. We also report a measurement of the $\xi$ ($x$-Pomeron) and $\beta$ ($x$ of parton in Pomeron) dependence of $F_{jj}^D$ at $\sqrt s=1800$ GeV. In the region $0.035<\xi<0.095$, $|t|<1$ GeV$^2$ and $\beta<0.5$, $F_{jj}^D(\beta,\xi)$ is found to be of the form $\beta^{-1.0\pm 0.1} \xi^{-0.9\pm 0.1}$, which obeys $\beta$-$\xi$ factorization.Comment: LaTeX, 9 pages, Submitted to Phys. Rev. Letter

Double Diffraction Dissociation at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider

We present results from a measurement of double diffraction dissociation in $\bar pp$ collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The production cross section for events with a central pseudorapidity gap of width $\Delta\eta^0>3$ (overlapping $\eta=0$) is found to be $4.43\pm 0.02{(stat)}{\pm 1.18}{(syst) mb}$ [$3.42\pm 0.01{(stat)}{\pm 1.09}{(syst) mb}$] at $\sqrt{s}=1800$ [630] GeV. Our results are compared with previous measurements and with predictions based on Regge theory and factorization.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, using RevTeX. Submitted to Physical Review Letter