Association between climate, pollution and hospitalization for pemphigus in the USA.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the impact of ultraviolet exposure, climate factors and pollutants on pemphigus. AIM: To determine whether these factors are associated with pemphigus exacerbation resulting in hospitalization. METHODS: The analysis used data from the 2002-2012 National Inpatient Sample in the USA, including 68 476 920 children and adults, and measurements of relative humidity (%), ultraviolet (UV) index, outdoor air temperature and particulate matter of ≤ 2.5 or ≤ 10 µm (PM2.5 and PM10). RESULTS: Higher rates of admission primarily for pemphigus occurred during the summer and autumn months (June-November), with the highest admission rates in July and October (both 19.7 per million). There was significant statewide variation of the prevalence of hospitalization for pemphigus, with apparent hotspots located in the southwest and northeast states. Hospitalization for a primary diagnosis of pemphigus vs. other diagnosis was associated with significantly lower humidity [mean (95% confidence interval): 64.8% (63.2-66.4%) vs. 66.4% (65.6-67.3%); analysis of variance, P < 0.01) and higher temperature [58.7 (57.1-60.2) vs. 56.3 (55.8-56.7)°F, P = 0.001], UV index [6.0 (5.7-6.2) vs. 5.7 (5.6-5.7), P = 0.02], PM2.5 [12.9 (12.0-13.7) vs. 11.8 (11.5-12.0) mg/m3 , P < 0.001] and PM10 [26.2 (24.5-27.9) vs. 23.1 (22.6-23.6) mg/m3 , P < 0.001]. All associations remained significant in multilevel regression models that controlled for age, sex and race/ethnicity, except for ultraviolet index, which was associated with pemphigus hospitalization only for Hispanic patients [odds ratio (95% CI) for quartile 4: 2.07 (1.02-4.21)]. CONCLUSION: Increasing temperature, UV exposure and small particle air pollution are associated with increased hospitalization for pemphigus. Patients with pemphigus may benefit from avoidance of these potential environmental triggers.

Hospitalization, inpatient burden and comorbidities associated with bullous pemphigoid in the U.S.A.

BACKGROUND: Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is associated with significant disability and comorbid health disorders that may lead to or result from hospitalization. However, little is known about the inpatient burden and comorbidities of BP. OBJECTIVES: To obtain data on the inpatient burden and comorbidities of BP in the U.S.A. METHODS: We analysed data from the 2002 to 2012 National Inpatient Sample, including a representative 20% sample of all hospitalizations in the U.S.A. (72 108 077 adults). RESULTS: The prevalence of hospitalization for BP increased from 25·84 to 32·60 cases per million inpatients from 2002 to 2012. In multivariate logistic regression models with stepwise selection, increasing age, nonwhite ethnicity, higher median household income, being insured with Medicare or Medicaid, and increasing number of chronic conditions were all associated with hospitalization for BP (P < 0·05 for all). The top three primary discharge diagnoses for patients with a secondary diagnosis of BP were septicaemia (prevalence 5·51%, 95% confidence interval 5·03-5·99), pneumonia (4·60%, 4·19-5·01) and urinary tract infection (3·52%, 3·15-3·89). Patients with BP also had numerous autoimmune, infectious, cardiovascular and other comorbidities. Interestingly, BP was associated with multiple neuropsychiatric disorders, including demyelinating disorders, dementias (presenile, senile, vascular and other), paralysis, neuropathy (diabetic, other polyneuropathy), Parkinson disease, epilepsy, psychoses and depression. The mean annual age- and sex-adjusted in-hospital mortality rate was significantly higher in patients with a secondary diagnosis of BP compared with no BP (2·9%, range 2·8-3·9% vs. 2·1%, range 1·9-2·2%). Significant predictors of mortality in patients with BP included increasing age, nonwhite ethnicity and insurance with Medicaid or other payment status (P < 0·05 for all). CONCLUSIONS: Hospitalization for BP increased significantly between 2002 and 2012. Moreover, there were significant ethnic and healthcare disparities with respect to hospitalization and inpatient mortality from BP.

Comorbidities and inpatient mortality for pemphigus in the U.S.A.

BACKGROUND: The morbidity and mortality associated with pemphigus and its treatments have not been fully described. Previous studies have found conflicting results about certain comorbidities and were limited by small sample sizes. OBJECTIVES: To determine the morbidity and mortality from pemphigus and its treatments in the U.S.A. METHODS: We examined a cross-sectional cohort of 87 039 711 hospitalized patients in the U.S.A. to determine the inpatient comorbidities and mortality of pemphigus. RESULTS: In multivariate survey logistic regression models adjusting for age, sex and race/ethnicity, pemphigus and its treatments were associated with 39 of 122 comorbidities examined. The disorders most strongly associated with pemphigus were Cushing syndrome [adjusted odds ratio (OR) 17·23, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2·41-122·90], adrenal insufficiency (4·08, 1·71-9·73), myasthenia gravis (6·92, 2·55-18·79), mucositis (17·19, 7·73-38·22), herpes infection (7·98, 3·62-17·62), fungal infections (4·03, 3·60-4·52), insomnia (18·02, 2·46-131·88) and hidradenitis (5·34, 1·33-21·43). Among malignancies, only leukaemia (OR 1·56, 95% CI 1·08-2·24) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (1·52, 1·15-2·03) were associated with pemphigus, but not any solid organ malignancies. Patients with a secondary diagnosis of pemphigus had higher inpatient mortality (3·20%, 95% CI 2·71-3·69) than those with a primary (1·60%, 1·29-1·91) or no (1·78%, 1·78-1·78) diagnosis of pemphigus (P < 0·001). CONCLUSIONS: Pemphigus is associated with increased inpatient mortality, likely through its association with numerous comorbid health conditions. Patients with pemphigus require improved access to dermatological care and increased screening for the myriad of comorbidities.

A brief and rapid procedure to measure the intensity of depressive symptoms in Primary Care.

INTRODUCTION: Depression occupies a substantial part of medical visit attendance. However, medical practitioners have very little time so that a brief, quick and reliable procedure to evaluate the intensity of symptoms and their changes could be useful. Our objective has been to analyze the reliability of a self-applied Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) to measure symptom intensity in depressed patients within this context. MATERIAL AND METHODS: One hundred depressed outpatients (ICD-10) stated their clinical situation on a VAS. The psychiatrist evaluated them using a Global Clinical Impression (GGI) and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS-17). RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The patient's VAS showed high correlation with the HDRS-17 and with the GCI used by the psychiatrist (r = 0.63 and r=0.58; p=0.000). This suggests that the use of a VAS in Primary Care could be useful and reliable for these purposes within the medical contexts of those having little time availability. Key-words: Depression, primary care, medical patients, assessment, evaluation.

A study of the relationship between impulsiveness and obsessiveness in the general population. Inconsistency of the idea of the spectrum.

INTRODUCTION: The obsessivity and the impulsivity as personality traits have been object of few studies on the general population. The authors outline as objective to study if such features are co-existing constructs, as advocate some authors or the opposite extremes of a continuum as assert other. MATERIAL AND METHODS: They are studied the answers to a questionnaire on obsessive traits of the personality (MIRAP) and other referred to the impulsivity as trait, also, (ECIRYC) of a random sample of 418 subject extracted of the general population. They are applied multivariate statistic analysis technical (Factorial Analysis, Correspondence Analysis, and linear Regression Analysis) to establish the type of relationship that have the two studied personality traits. RESULTS: The total scores of the MIRAP and the ECIRYC are correlated of a manner statistically significant (r = .39; p< .01). The Correspondence Analysis of those total scores distributed in deciles and two linear Regression Analysis show, also, a direct relationship between both traits that it is statistically significant. The obsessivity and the impulsivity do not correlate with the principal factor of the opposite trait. All the factors of both traits are grouped mutually in a factor in a positive way, except the impulsive factor "haste" that makes it negatively with the obsessive factor "order". CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that the obsessivity and the impulsivity, as personality traits, they are constructs convergent and not opposite poles of a continuum. But, simultaneously, one of the five factors of each trait ("haste" and "order"), yes are behaved as opposite extremes of a continuum, within conceptual framework, wider, of the traits to those which belong.

The axial diagnostic and sensitive-to-change for depression index: diagnostic utility and use in studies of therapeutic evaluation.

INTRODUCTION: The authors develop a new rating scale for to measure its sensibility to the change of the intensity of the depressive symptoms under the effects of antidepressants drugs, and for to analyze the predictive validity of its total score. Designate it: The Axial Diagnostic and Sensitive-to-Change for Depression Index (ADSCDI). For this, use only seven nuclear items for the depression diagnosis (mood, interest, impulse/drive, pleasure, energy, daily job and different quality) without vegetative symptoms or anxious. METHODOLOGY: The authors interview to 111 psychiatric outpatients attended consecutively in a Mental Health Center. Sixty were fulfilling the criteria for depressive episode of the ICD-10 and fifty and one were forming part of the group of control: psychiatric outpatients not depressed. They use for this a protocol of collection of data that contains the ADSCDI, where the patients indicate how are found on a Visual Analogical Scale in the one which quantify their answers in each item, the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression of 17 articles (HRSD-17) and an Global Clinical Impression scale (GCI). Each depressed patient receipt the antidepressant treatment that better were adjusted to his clinical profile according to the psychiatrist that was trying to him. The depressed patients were evaluated a second time after thirty days of treatment. RESULTS: All the items of the ADSCDI perceive a change statistically significant in the intensity of the depressive symptoms (p=0.00). The total score of the ADSCDI, also, at same level of statistical significance that the total scores of the HRSD-17 and of the GCI p=0.000). The ADSCDI interrelates high and significatively with the HRSD-17 as with the GCI (r=0.77 and r=0.73 respectively; p=0.00). Equally makes it with the average of the "proportion of improvement" that evaluates, with the one evaluated by the HRSD-17 and the GCI (r=0.74 and r=0.68 respectively; p=0.000). A cut-off of 39 offers the best predictive values for the ADSCDI respect to the clinical and the ICD-10 criteria for depression. With a sensibility of 0.97, a specificity of 0.76 (of 0.88 with psychiatric patients free of symptoms), a total probability of guessing right of 93% and a kappa reliability of 0.74. The results improve when the ADSCDI is used as external criterion. For this new operative diagnostic criteria (ADCD), a cut-off of 40 offers a sensibility of 1.00, a specificity of 0.96 a probability of guessing right of 99% and a kappa reliability of 0.96. CONCLUSIONS: The ADSCDI offers sufficient concurrent validity with the HRSD-17 and the GCI. It can be considered a sensitive instrument to the change, with the advantage of containing, only, items that have shown be frequent, discriminant and predictives. The ADSCDI also is a good instrument to establish diagnostic of depression in the system ADCD/ADSCDI or in the ICD-10 one.

Incidence of contrast-induced nephropathy in intensive care patients undergoing computerised tomography and prevalence of risk factors.

Computerised tomography (CT) with contrast is frequently used in intensive care. Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is an important complication largely studied in stable cardiology patients and can lead to acute renal failure. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of CIN in an intensive care unit (ICU) setting and describe the prevalence of associated risk factors. We performed a retrospective analysis by review of electronic laboratory database and manual chart review of all patients in two tertiary intensive care units in Newcastle, New South Wales who underwent CT with intravenous contrast during their ICU stay in 2006. CIN was defined as an absolute increment in serum creatinine of 44.2 micromol/l or a relative increment of 25% from baseline at 48 to 72 hours following intravenous contrast. Patients' demographic, biochemical and contrast media data, physiological parameters, fluid and drug administrations and previously described as well as ICU specific risk factors were analysed. We compared CIN positive and CIN negative patients to identify risk factors associated with CIN. In total, 2043 patients were admitted to ICU during 2006 and 509 CT studies were performed. One hundred and forty-one of these included administration of intravenous contrast and 139 charts were reviewed. Sixteen out of 139 patients developed CIN (11.5%). More than 70% of patients had two or more risk factors. Age was the only risk factor found to be significantly associated with the development of CIN in a multivariate analysis (P value 0.04, OR 1.041, 95% confidence interval 1.002 to 1.081). Mortality was higher in CIN positive patients (31 vs 13%, P value 0.068). ICU and hospital length of stay was not significantly different in CIN positive and negative patients and persisting renal impairment was not found in CIN positive survivors. Based on this study, we cannot predict who will develop CIN in ICU using the described risk factors. Further prospective studies are needed to evaluate the incidence and outcomes of CIN in an ICU setting.

Evaluation of segmentation algorithms for coronary angiography.

This paper presents an evaluation technique based on ROC analysis to compare four segmentation algorithms in coronary angiography images. We have implemented four algorithms and we have optimized their parameters; then, we have compared their performances. Both steps are done by means of a ROC analysis. Experimental results are presented on simulated data and real images.

Destructive deformation of the digits with auto-amputation: a review of pseudo-ainhum.

Pseudo-ainhum is an auto-amputation of the digits. Although extremely rare, it is a traumatic and painful experience that can be alleviated with early recognition and intervention. The scientific literature is filled with reports of this interesting but unfortunate phenomenon. To date, a firm causative aetiology has not yet been established. Although reports on this phenomenon have attempted to further our understanding of pseudo-ainhum, a clear understanding has been complicated by the interchangeable use of terms describing this auto-amputation. In this review, we discuss the current understanding, diagnostic criteria, and management of pseudo-ainhum. Furthermore, the nomenclature of pseudo-ainhum is clarified. Ideally, this will allow for more efficient exploration of pseudo-ainhum, its causes, and therapeutic approaches.

Measuring anankastic personality traits.

INTRODUCTION: The authors validate a 20 item scale designed to measure anankastic (obsessive) personality traits: the Mini-Inventory of Anankastic Personality Traits, 2nd version (MIAPT-2). MATERIAL AND METHODS: The answers of a sample of 418 subject of both genders obtained from the general population were used to analyze construct validity (factorial analysis), its alpha reliability and its internal consistency through the item/total correlations and the two halves test. An additional sample of 22 medical students was used to analyze the concurrent validity of the scale (external criterion: the Maudsley Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory) and the temporary reliability with the test-retest method. After this, the total scores of the instrument and the factorial scores were standardized and distributed into percentiles. RESULTS: The scale shows good concurrent validity (r = 0.67; p < 0.000) and construct validity (56 % of the total of the variance explained by the factorial analysis) as well as a good internal consistency through the item/total correlations (all p = 0.000) and two halves test (r = 0.71; p < 0.000; with the Spearman-Brown correction R= 0.83). The alpha reliability of the scale (alpha = 0.84), and the test-retest (r = 0.69; p < 0.000) are high. CONCLUSIONS: The validated MIAPT-2 shows good validity and reliability to evaluate anankastic personality traits. The authors include an appendix with the scale and the standardization of its total and factorial scores distributed into percentiles to be used in clinical and general population samples.