A comparison of maxillary basal length in a group of skeletal III cases, with a control group.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
SEARCH · PubMed Health
Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The choice of either hospital or population controls in retrospective studies is guided by rules implying underlying hypotheses. In a study on aesophageal cancer in relation to alcohol and tobacco consumption, two such control groups were available and were compared. It was found that some of the currently accepted assumptions relating to representativeness of cases or controls were verified but many others were not, particularly in hospital controls. These were found to give less correct estimates of drinking and smoking habits than those obtained from population controls. The limitations in the use of either type of controls is discussed, in relation to the purpose of the study concerned.
Of eight strains of Center for Disease Control group DF-1 examined, seven had 62 to 87% deoxyribonucleic acid homology with the neotype strain of Capnocytophaga ochracea and one had 72% deoxyribonucleic acid homology with the type strain of C. gingivalis. Deoxyribonucleic acid homology of four strains of Bacteroides ochraceus with the neotype strain of C. ochrecea was 76 to 86%.
In a retrospective study of 223 testis cancer survivors and 120 controls matched sociodemographically, we examined the relative impact of sociodemographic and clinical factors on long-term outcomes in the areas of sexual function, relationships, employment, and mental outlook. For most of the survivors, testis cancer did not lead to unemployment (4.5%), divorce (6.8%), or disabling psychological problems. Multivariate analysis results confirm that cancer survivors report significantly more infertility and sexual performance distress, but not more desire distress, than the control group. Survivors' sexual impairment varied according to treatment received (and therefore histologic factors) and sociodemographic variables. Parental status (not having children) and education (college or less) independently predict infertility distress, whereas education and lower occupational level independently predicted sexual performance distress. Adjusting for socioeconomic status (SES), the men with advanced testis cancer who received chemotherapy and standard retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (RPLND) had significantly more infertility and performance distress than those men who received other treatments. Neither the treatment or SES variables predicted disrupted relationships or a deteriorated mental outlook. However, men with sexual impairment distress were more likely to report strained relationships and a pessimistic mental outlook. These findings have implications for treatment decisions and can be used to identify subgroups of survivors who could benefit from counseling and sexual rehabilitation services.
Missing data in a clinical trial may produce a change in the stratification of a controlled group. The method of statistical analysis employed should thus be designed for incomplete data to avoid false conclusions. This approach is illustrated in a realistic clinical example using cross-sectional and longitudinal data.
The paper entitled "Two-sample CFA: Solitary and complementary discriminant types of treatment- and control groups" suggests to modify 2-sample and c-sample CFA as follows: While singular patterns of attributes define solitary types, complementary pairs of patterns define complementary types which may be interpreted as poles of a type-defining factor in factor analysis. The new version of 2-sample CFA is illustrated in 2 examples from clinical psychology with patterns of scales and symptoms.
24 healthy women given the combination of cyproterone acetate (2 mg) + ethynyl estradiol (0.05 mg) [SH B 209 AB] and D-norgestrel (0.25 mg) + ethinyl estradiol (0.05 mg) [Neogynon] were compared with a control group in oral glucose tolerance tests. The volunteers were divided into three groups. Two received alternately both preparations with each treatment cycle preceded by one cycle without medication. The third group served as an independent control. On the 25th day of each cycle blood was withdrawn before and 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 and 120 min after the carbohydrate load. Blood glucose and insulin and free fatty acids in serum were determined. Fasting values of triglycerides and cholesterol in serum were determined. The following results were obtained: 1. The mean fasting levels of blood glucose, serum insulin and free fatty acids were unchanged. 2. The total area under the blood glucose curve over the initial value was not altered 2 h after treatment with SH B 209 AB or Neogynon. The total area under the insulin and free fatty acids curves were also unchanged after the oral glucose load. 3. There was no change in serum cholesterol. 4. Serum triglycerides were significantly increased after SH B 209 AB. 5. The implications of the structural differences between both gestagens are discussed.
During a transverse survey, 3 groups of men with the same weight and age were compared. Group I included 42 patients with coronary disease documented by coronarography, group 2 included 19 subjects with normal coronary angiograms, and group 3 included 27 healthy controls who had not undergone coronarography. Subjects presenting diabetes or any factor associated with secondary dyslipidemia or able to modify lipid levels were excluded from study. The following parameters were measured: total cholesterol (Chol), triglycerides (TG), HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C), LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C), apoprotein A1 (apoA1), apoprotein B (apoB), lipoprotein (a) or Lp(a), fibrinogen, insulinemia and plasminogen activator inhibitor activity (PAI). The levels of chol, LDL-C and ApoB were the same in the 3 groups. The levels of TG, HDL-C, apoA1 and the ApoA-1/APoB ratio were significantly different between groups 1 and 2, on the one hand, and groups 1 and 3, on the other hand. The levels of Lp(a) and insulin were similar in the 3 groups. Fibrinogen levels were slightly higher in group 1 than in group 3. There was no significant difference between groups 1 and 2 with regard to any of the parameters. Subjects with angiographically normal coronary arteries and subjects with documented coronary disease exhibited similar lipid abnormalities. In this study, TG, HDL-chol, apoA1 and the apoB ratio were better predictors of cardiovascular risk than Chol, LDL-C or apoB.
Some methodical aspects of using the questionnaire as one of the basic tests, employed in oncoepidemiological investigations, are analysed. Under discussion is the potentialities and limits of the questionnairing method; the rules and ways of the optimum application of the given test to obtain the most comprehensive and objective enough information are reported. Also, the principles and criteria of selecting control groups in oncoepidemiological investigations are considered. The factors and conditions which may cause significant differences between the control and "test" groups irrespective of the genesis of the affection under study are discussed. An analysis is made of a number of typical methodical errors in oncoepidemiological investigations.
To determine whether there is hand involvement specific to diabetes, 97 diabetics were compared with the same number of matched controls. Hands were examined with particular emphasis on skin, intrinsic muscles, articular mobility, sense of touch and vibration, digital systolic pressure, and radiological analysis of bones and joints. The most significant involvement, clearly present in 7 cases and less specifically in 12 other diabetics, included all of the following: atrophy and weakness of intrinsic muscles, painful interphalangeal rigidity limiting extension or flexion of the fingers, periarticular swelling of the phalanges, and trophic changes of the skin. Separately, these changes are not specific to diabetes: in the control group, although less frequent, they were found in patients aged 60 and over and are considered to be signs of senescence. Diabetes apparently accelerates the process of aging. Diabetic changes in the hand appear to be facilitated by neuropathy but not by arterial involvement. X-ray revealed a higher incidence of osteopenia and above all of vascular calcifications in the diabetic.
The interrelationship of the effects of antacids and of rising intragastric pH on serum gastrin levels was examined by comparing the effect of three antacids (Mg(OH)2Al(OH)3, and CaCO3), and their nonbuffering chloride compounds (MgCl2, AlCl3, and CaCl2), on serum gastrin and intragastric pH in duodenal ulcer patients. In the case of calcium, the effect of CaCl2 with a pH of 10, and in another group, CaCl2 with a pH of 2, was studied. In the case of magnesium, a control group was also investigated. In another group, the effect of a nonionized suspension (BaSO4) was studied in order to assess the contribution of intragastric volume. Serum gastrin was determined radioimmunologically, and pH measurements were performed in vitro using a glass electrode. Serum gastrin concentrations rose significantly whenever intragastric pH was raised. Serum gastrin also rose after MgCl2, AlCl3, and CaCl2 with a pH of 2, when intragastric pH was not significantly altered. This rise, however, was significantly smaller than after administration of the antacids, except in the MgCl2-Mg(OH)2 and in the CaCl2 pH 10-CaCO3 groups. No significant rise of serum gastrin levels was observed after BaSO4. In nonulcer subjects, gastrin response was smaller than in the duodenal ulcer patients. The results suggest that administration of nonbuffering Mg-, Al-, and Ca-chlorides leads to elevated serum gastrin levels in duodenal ulcer patients; rising intragastric pH, however, exerts an additional serum gastrin response.
The ovarian surface epithelium and that of related inclusion cysts were studied in 50 women with ovarian polycystic disease and they were compared with our preceding observations performed on women with endometrial carcinoma (n = 50) and on women without any hyperplastic or neoplastic genital tract pathology (n = 50). In 16 women (32%) the ovarian epithelium with normal aspect was found on the surface of the ovary and in inclusion cysts. In the remaining 34 women (68%) surface papillomatosis, hyperplastic and metaplastic changes were present on the ovarian surface and/or in the inclusion cysts. These findings were similar to those observed in the group of women with endometrial adenocarcinoma, while the surface epithelium was often normal in the control group. Our observations confirm the hypothesis of a hormonal influence in the hyperplastic and metaplastic modifications of the ovarian epithelium and in the related common epithelial tumors of the ovary.
Orthodontic brackets were bonded to a total of 240 Biodent porcelain surfaces pretreated with a number of different porcelain primers. In a control group, 40 surfaces were pumiced, etched, rinsed and dried, and then bonded to similar brackets without the use of a primer. The test objects of group 1 (n = 140) and those of group 2 (n = 40) were tested for bond shearing strength in a material testing machine (Zwick 1441) after prior incubation in a corrosive fluid at a pH of 2.3 and a temperature of 37 degrees C for 24 hours and 21 days, respectively. The fracture sites were inspected and analysed. Incubation in corrosive fluid reduces the strength of the porcelain-composite bonding, the shearing strength and the number of fractures in the bonding decreasing. Damage to the porcelain was seen to occur after the use of Lee-Ortho-Prime and Bond-Por primers. All the primers tested can be used, although a bond shearing strength of less than 2 N/mm2 is at the lower limit of what can be accepted under the usual conditions of daily practice.
Piaget's theoretical framework was utilized in this study to investigate the cognitive organization of schizophrenic patients. Data from a battery of eight Piagetian tasks of concrete and formal operations was collected for adolescent and adult-acute and chronic schizophrenic patients, and was compared to matched normal control groups. Findings show significant differences between patients and controls; among the patients' chronicity, age and hospitalization are contributing variables to lower cognitive performance. Concrete operational tasks in the physical and spatial domains are retained better than in the logico-mathematical domain, or formal operational tasks in all domains. Major problems appear in the ability to abstract general criteria and to mentally work with more than one dimension at a time. A logical approach to the solution of concrete problems and solving problems which seem to present a contradiction, or cause problems in the accommodation and integration of one's thinking. Further studies are needed in order to draw conclusions and to understand the implications for every day functioning, deficient in the schizophrenic patient.
While being female is known to increase the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis approximately threefold, this study, by making use of a male control group, suggests that female sex hormones per se are unlikely to be the main cause of this discrepancy. Apart from the teens, when rheumatoid disease is extremely rare in males, the female/male incidence ratio remains almost constant throughout the adult age range, in spite of the reduction in endogenous oestrogen levels at the menopause. Pregnancy is known to ameliorate RA, but this study found that it was also the most common identifiable event preceding the onset of RA in women of childbearing age (22%), which may explain the apparent protective role of oral contraceptives in this age group.
Using the prognostic value of morphometric and flow-cytometric features, a group of patients with invasive breast cancers detected with population screening (PS, n = 70) has been evaluated and compared with a random control group in 2 hospitals (H group, n = 225) diagnosed in the same period. The results show that the PS patients had smaller tumors, less positive lymph nodes, better differentiated tumors with a lower mitotic activity index (MAI) and lower values of the morphometric prognostic index (MPI). Furthermore, the women more frequently had diploid tumors and tumors with small nuclei. The second purpose was to evaluate whether quantitative microscopical features, in comparison with other prognostic features such as size of primary tumor, nodal status and histologic grade, are as strong prognosticators in PS tumors as in H-detected breast cancers. In comparison with H tumors, morphometric and flow-cytometric features, as well as tumor size, had the same prognostic value for the PS tumors. In contrast, nodal status was not significant within the PS group, and the same phenomenon was found in a subgroup of H patients with similar sized tumors. Of all quantitative microscopical features (MPI, MAI, mean nuclear area (MNA) and DNA Index (DI], the MAI had the strongest prognostic value. DI showed additional prognostic value to the MAI for patients with small tumors and with small tumor-cell nuclei, because a diploid pattern in these cases (this combination occurred in 21 patients of the total group = 30%) was correlated with a 95% 10-year survival rate. Histologic grade, although significant within the large H group, was of no prognostic value within the PS group, and also not as in the H sub-group with small tumors. It is concluded from morphometric and DNA flow-cytometric criteria that these prognostic features in invasive breast cancers detected by PS were all more favorable than in randomly detected hospital breast cancers. This may account for the reported better survival rate of PS patients. Furthermore, the prognosis of patients with small invasive breast cancers detected by population screening can be more accurately deduced by quantitative microscopical features than by axillary-lymph-node status.
The viscosity of duodenal juice obtained during the pancreocymin secretin test from patients with excretory pancreas insufficiency was significantly higher compared to the viscosity of duodenal secretions from a control group or from patients with gall bladder stones. Since the viscosity was inversely related to the total volume as well as the bicarbonate and trypsin concentrations, it is concluded that the increased viscosity is due to a reduction in the secretory activity of the pancreas. The viscosity measurements found for patients with cholelithiasis reflects merely the higher viscosity of the gall bladder bile.
ECG from 150 patients with clinically and radiologically established ankylosing spondylitis were compared with those from a healthy age and sex matched group. The reported frequency of atrioventricular conduction defects (3-15%) was confirmed (4.6%). These and other pathological ECG changes were also found in the control group. No significant statistical difference in frequency was found. The refore doubt remains whether the pathological changes of the ECG can be attributed to ankylosing spondylitis.