Linking Individual Patient Data to Estimate Incidence and Prevalence of Parkinson's Disease by Comparing Reports of Neurological Services and Pharmacy Prescription Refills at a Nationwide Level

Objectives: we set forth to estimate the number of those with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in Hungary, a country with a single-payer health insurance system covering 10 million inhabitants. Methods: we analyzed all hospital and outpatient reports from neurological services and pharmacy reports of prescription refills. We cross-checked clinically administered diagnosis of PD with prescription refills of antiparkinsonian medications using recorded linkage. We used the ICD-10 code of G20 in any diagnostic category to find all cases with possible PD. For case certification those patients were considered to have PD who were recorded with G20 code in at least 2 calendar years. For a more conservative estimation we determined the number of those who also refilled antiparkinsonian medication. Results: between 2010 and 2012 there were 46,383 subjects with certified PD by clinical criteria. Crude and age-standardized incidence were 49/100,000/year (95% CI: 45-53), and 56/100,000/year (95% CI: 51-60). Crude and age standardized prevalence rates were 404/100,000 (95% CI: 392-416) and 471/100,000 (95% CI: 456-485). Of all clinically certified PD patients 72% refilled antiparkinsonian medications. Discussion: the incidence and prevalence of PD in Hungary is higher than earlier estimates, which should be considered in organizing healthcare services for this patient group

Incidence and prevalence of dementia in linked administrative health data in Saskatchewan, Canada: a retrospective cohort study.

Determining the epidemiology of dementia among the population as a whole in specific jurisdictions - including the long-term care population-is essential to providing appropriate care. The objectives of this study were to use linked administrative databases in the province of Saskatchewan to determine the 12-month incidence and prevalence of dementia for the 2012/13 period (1) among individuals aged 45 and older in the province of Saskatchewan, (2) according to age group and sex, and (3) according to diagnosis code and other case definition criteria

Thermal Testing for Cryogenic CMB Instrument Optical Design

Observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background rely on cryogenic instrumentation with cold detectors, readout, and optics providing the low noise performance and instrumental stability required to make more sensitive measurements. It is therefore critical to optimize all aspects of the cryogenic design to achieve the necessary performance, with low temperature components and acceptable system cooling requirements. In particular, we will focus on our use of thermal filters and cold optics, which reduce the thermal load passed along to the cryogenic stages. To test their performance, we have made a series of in situ measurements while integrating the third receiver for the BICEP Array telescope. In addition to characterizing the behavior of this receiver, these measurements continue to refine the models that are being used to inform design choices being made for future instruments.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, Proceedings of SPIE 202

Microwave multiplexing on the Keck Array

We describe an on-sky demonstration of a microwave-multiplexing readout system in one of the receivers of the Keck Array, a polarimetry experiment observing the cosmic microwave background at the South Pole. During the austral summer of 2018-2019, we replaced the time-division multiplexing readout system with microwave-multiplexing components including superconducting microwave resonators coupled to radio-frequency superconducting quantum interference devices at the sub-Kelvin focal plane, coaxial-cable plumbing and amplification between room temperature and the cold stages, and a SLAC Microresonator Radio Frequency system for the warm electronics. In the range 5-6 GHz, a single coaxial cable reads out 528 channels. The readout system is coupled to transition-edge sensors, which are in turn coupled to 150-GHz slot-dipole phased-array antennas. Observations began in April 2019, and we report here on an initial characterization of the system performance.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, Accepted by the Journal of Low Temperature Physics (Proceedings of the 18th International Workshop on Low Temperature Detectors

Genetic variants in novel pathways influence blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk.

Blood pressure is a heritable trait influenced by several biological pathways and responsive to environmental stimuli. Over one billion people worldwide have hypertension (≥140 mm Hg systolic blood pressure or  ≥90 mm Hg diastolic blood pressure). Even small increments in blood pressure are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. This genome-wide association study of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, which used a multi-stage design in 200,000 individuals of European descent, identified sixteen novel loci: six of these loci contain genes previously known or suspected to regulate blood pressure (GUCY1A3-GUCY1B3, NPR3-C5orf23, ADM, FURIN-FES, GOSR2, GNAS-EDN3); the other ten provide new clues to blood pressure physiology. A genetic risk score based on 29 genome-wide significant variants was associated with hypertension, left ventricular wall thickness, stroke and coronary artery disease, but not kidney disease or kidney function. We also observed associations with blood pressure in East Asian, South Asian and African ancestry individuals. Our findings provide new insights into the genetics and biology of blood pressure, and suggest potential novel therapeutic pathways for cardiovascular disease prevention