Budd-Chiari syndrome recurring in a transplanted liver

A patient with Budd-Chiari syndrome who underwent orthotopic liver transplantation and developed recurrent disease is described. The immediate postoperative period was complicated by multiple thrombotic episodes, followed by a period of apparent remission associated with the initiation of coumadin and persantine therapy. After discontinuation of such antithrombotic therapy in order to biopsy the liver, the patient experienced another series of clinically overt vascular thromboses and ultimately died of sepsis 15 mo posttransplantation after a prolonged and complicated terminal hospital course. At autopsy, recurrent Budd-Chiari syndrome as well as thromboses in numerous other organs was demonstrated. © 1983

On Teaching Statistical Practice: From Novice to Expert

This article introduces principles of learning based on research in cognitive science that help explain how learning works. We adapt these principles to the teaching of statistical practice and illustrate the application of these principles to the curricular design of a new master’s degree program in applied statistics. We emphasize how these principles can be used not only to improve instruction at the course level but also at the program level.</p

Identification and prediction of distress trajectories in the first year after a breast cancer diagnosis

OBJECTIVE: In this article, we aim to (a) identify distinct trajectories of psychological distress in the first year after a breast cancer diagnosis in women treated with adjuvant therapy and (b) explore possible predictors of these trajectories, that is, demographic, medical, and personal characteristics. METHOD: The 171 patients were assessed after diagnosis, after surgery, after adjuvant treatment, in the reentry phase, and in the (short-term) survivorship phase (2 and 6 months after the end of treatment, respectively). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Psychological distress was assessed with the 12-item General Health Questionnaire. RESULTS: There were four trajectories of distress: a group that experienced no distress (36.3%), a group that experienced distress only in the active treatment phase (33.3%), a group that experienced distress in the reentry and survivorship phase (15.2%), and a group that experienced chronic distress (15.2%). Personality and physical complaints resulting from adjuvant treatment could distinguish the distress trajectories. Mastery was the only unique predictor. CONCLUSION: Most patients were not distressed in response to breast cancer or only temporarily so. Yet, a minority of patients became or remained distressed after the end of treatment

Brief report: trajectories of glycemic control over early to middle adolescence.

OBJECTIVES: To identify distinct patterns of glycemic control over early to middle adolescence, and to determine whether psychosocial variables predicted those patterns. METHODS: We used trajectory analysis to examine glycemic control over 5 years among adolescents with type 1 diabetes who were of age 12 on average at study start (n = 132). Well-being, relationships, and self-care behavior were assessed with in-person interviews. Blood glucose testing was determined from blood glucose meters, and missed clinic appointments and glycosolated hemoglobin were obtained from medical records. RESULTS: We identified two distinct clusters of individuals, a stable good glycemic control group and a poorer deteriorating glycemic control group. Individuals in the deteriorating control group were characterized by higher peer conflict, more negative diabetes emotions, fewer blood glucose tests, and more missed clinic appointments. CONCLUSION: Psychosocial variables and behavioral markers of self-care may predict the course of glycemic control over early to middle adolescence.</p

Supplementary Material - An examination of the communal coping process in recently diagnosed diabetes

<p>Supplementary Material for An examination of the communal coping process in recently diagnosed diabetes by Meredith Van Vleet, Vicki S. Helgeson, Howard J. Seltman, Mary T. Korytkowski, and Leslie R. M. Hausmann in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships</p

A comprehensive approach to haplotype-specific analysis by penalized likelihood

Haplotypes can hold key information to understand the role of candidate genes in disease etiology. However, standard haplotype analysis has yet been able to fully reveal the information retained by haplotypes. In most analysis, haplotype inference focuses on relative effects compared with an arbitrarily chosen baseline haplotype. It does not depict the effect structure unless an additional inference procedure is used in a secondary post hoc analysis, and such analysis tends to be lack of power. In this study, we propose a penalized regression approach to systematically evaluate the pattern and structure of the haplotype effects. By specifying an L1 penalty on the pairwise difference of the haplotype effects, we present a model-based haplotype analysis to detect and to characterize the haplotypic association signals. The proposed method avoids the need to choose a baseline haplotype; it simultaneously carries out the effect estimation and effect comparison of all haplotypes, and outputs the haplotype group structure based on their effect size. Finally, our penalty weights are theoretically designed to balance the likelihood and the penalty term in an appropriate manner. The proposed method can be used as a tool to comprehend candidate regions identified from a genome or chromosomal scan. Simulation studies reveal the better abilities of the proposed method to identify the haplotype effect structure compared with the traditional haplotype association methods, demonstrating the informativeness and powerfulness of the proposed method

Evaluation of a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia: Genotype based meta-analysis of RGS4 polymorphisms from thirteen independent samples

Background: Associations between schizophrenia (scz) and polymorphisms at the regulator of g-protein signaling 4 (rgs4) gene have been reported (single nucleotide polymorphisms [snps] 1, 4, 7, and 18). Yet, similar to other scz candidate genes, studies have been inconsistent with respect to the associated alleles. Methods: In an effort to resolve the role for rgs4 in scz susceptibility, we undertook a genotype-based meta-analysis using both published and unpublished family-based and case-control samples (total n = 13,807). Results: The family-based dataset consisted of 10 samples (2160 families). Significant associations with individual snps/haplotypes were not observed. In contrast, global analysis revealed significant transmission distortion (p = .0009). Specifically, analyses suggested overtransmission of two common haplotypes that account for the vast majority of all haplotypes. Separate analyses of 3486 cases and 3755 control samples (eight samples) detected a significant association with snp 4 (p = .01). Individual haplotype analyses were not significant, but evaluation of test statistics from individual samples suggested significant associations. Conclusions: Our collaborative meta-analysis represents one of the largest scz association studies to date. No individual risk factor arose from our analyses, but interpretation of these results is not straightforward. Our analyses suggest risk due to at least two common haplotypes in the presence of heterogeneity. Similar analysis for other putative susceptibility genes is warranted