Coping with multiple testing.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G Pennello.
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A cohort of patients with diabetes mellitus hospitalised in Sweden from 1965 to 1983 was followed up until 1989, by linkages of population-based registers. Standardised mortality ratios (SMR), adjusted for confounding variables, and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. After exclusion of the first year of follow-up (to reduce the effect of selection bias), the cohort consisted of 144,427 patients, of whom 92,248 patients died during follow-up. The SMR for all causes of death combined was 2.62 (95% CI 2.58-2.67) among men and 3.23 (95% CI 3.18-3.28) among women. The excess mortality was still evident 20 years after first hospitalisation, but became less marked with longer follow-up time. Patients with presumably insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) had the highest SMRs (10.2; CI 9.5-11.0); however, there was a significant (34%) improvement over time in their mortality risk. We conclude that excess mortality persisted throughout all calendar periods and at all ages, indicating the need for health care prevention measures.
OBJECTIVE: To assess whether breast implant rupture or extracapsular silicone are associated with selected symptoms of self-reported physician-diagnosed connective tissue disease (CTD). METHODS: Women with silicone gel breast implants responded to a questionnaire that included questions on health status, satisfaction with implants, symptoms of CTD, and physician-diagnosed disease. These women then had magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of their breasts to determine the status of the implants with respect to rupture and extracapsular silicone. RESULTS: Women with breast implant rupture diagnosed by MRI were no more likely to report a diagnosis of selected CTD than those with intact implants or those with implants of indeterminate status. Women with extracapsular silicone (silicone gel outside of the fibrous scar that forms around breast implants) were more likely to report having fibromyalgia (FM, p = 0.004) or other CTD, which included dermatomyositis, polymyositis, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, mixed CTD, pulmonary fibrosis, eosinophilic fasciitis, and polymyalgia (p = 0.008) than other women in the study. The association with FM remained statistically significant when adjusted for multiple comparisons (7 diagnoses) and implant age, implant location, or implant manufacturer (p < 0.05 in all cases), but became of borderline statistical significance when adjusted for multiple comparisons and self-perceived health status (p = 0.094) or self-perceived rupture status (p = 0.051). The association with other CTD remained statistically significant when adjusted for multiple comparisons and implant location or implant manufacturer, but became borderline or insignificant when adjusted for multiple comparisons and for implant age (p = 0.051), self-perceived health status (p = 0.434), or self-perceived rupture status (p = 0.145). Logistic regression was used to compute odds ratios of self-reported diagnoses comparing women with and without extracapsular silicone. The odds ratios were 2.8 (95% CI 1.2 to 6.3) for FM, and 2.6 (95% CI 0.8 to 8.5) for other CTD after adjustment for implant age, implant location, implant manufacturer, implant type, self-perceived health, self-perceived rupture status, and site of surgery practice. CONCLUSION: These data suggest an association between extracapsular silicone from ruptured silicone breast implants and FM. If this association persists in other studies, women with silicone gel breast implants should be informed of the potential risk of developing fibromyalgia if their breast implants rupture and the silicone gel escapes the fibrous scar capsule.
OBJECTIVE: Silicone gel breast implants have been reported to rupture, but the prevalence of implant rupture in an unreferred population of women is not known. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of implant rupture and the presence of extracapsular silicone gel in an unreferred population of women without regard to the absence or presence of any local or systemic symptoms. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Women identified as part of a National Cancer Institute cohort study on breast implants, living in the Birmingham, AL, area were invited to undergo MR imaging of their current silicone gel breast implants at the Kirklin Clinic at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Three radiologists independently examined and rated all MR images for signs of implant rupture and extracapsular silicone. RESULTS: A total of 344 women with silicone gel breast implants underwent MR imaging. Breast implant rupture was reported by at least two of three radiologists for 378 (55.0%) of the 687 implants in this study. Another 50 implants (7.2%) were rated as indeterminate (suspicious) for rupture. A majority of women in this study, 265 (77.0%) of 344, had at least one breast implant that was rated as ruptured or indeterminate. Radiologists also agreed that silicone gel could be seen outside the fibrous capsule that forms around the implant in 85 (12.4%) of the 687 implants affecting 73 women (21.2%). Factors that affected implant rupture were implant age and location (submuscular or subglandular). The median implant age at rupture was estimated to be 10.8 years with a 95% confidence interval of 8.4-13.9 years. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of silent or occult silicone gel breast implant rupture is higher than was previously suspected. Most women in this study had MR imaging evidence of at least one ruptured silicone gel breast implant.
Ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation exposure increases the risk of skin cancer in whites. Motivated by indications that United States geographic variation of relative skin cancer risk in blacks approaches that in whites, we used Poisson regression to estimate the risk of skin cancer in blacks as a function of average annual surface-levels of UVB radiation, measured by Robertson-Berger meters. United States data were used on deaths in 506 state economic areas, 1970-1994, and on incident cases in the nine areas of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program, 1973-1994. For black males, the age-adjusted relative risk of mortality for a 50% increase in UVB radiation was significantly above one for malignant melanoma, 1970-1994 (1.16; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-1.32) and nearly so for nonmelanoma skin cancer, 1970-1981 (1.18; 95% confidence interval, 1.00-1.39), for which the time period was chosen to avoid AIDS-related deaths from Kaposi's sarcoma. However, for black females, the relative risk of mortality was not significantly elevated for either skin cancer, and, for both black males and females, the relative risk of incidence was not significantly elevated for melanoma in the period 1973-1994. Incidence data on nonmelanoma skin cancer were not available. Although the public health implication is uncertain because of the much lower absolute risk of skin cancer in blacks compared with whites, the findings suggest that sunlight exposure increases skin cancer risk in blacks.