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PubMed2003

[Selection for disease and epidemic resistance in domestic ruminants and swine by indicator traits, marker and causal genes--a review. Part 2: Special immunogenetics of sheep and goats with particular regard for endoparasitoses, scrapie, foot rot and maedi-visna virus infection].

The introduction of the first part deals with immunogenetic investigations on the field of life-stock. The main chapter is outlined as a tabular overview of current opportunities of the application of indicator traits as well as marker and causal genes in breeding for disease resistance in cattle, sheep, goats and swine. In the discussion of the second part, emphasis was laied on diseases of small ruminants in central and western Europe with special respect of endoparasitoses, scrapie, foot-rot and maedi-visna virus infection. Indicator traits are discussed with respect of their advantages and disadvantages. The rigorous selection on specific traits is connected with an increase of the number of homozygotes. In contrary, pathogens do undergo mutations, thus escaping the host's immune system. Out of this point of view it is advisable, to set on selection very cautiously. The role of technologies of modern immunogenetics is pointed out in respect of constructing disease resistant animals.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Causality of an accident in subsequent fatal pulmonary embolism a few hours after trauma].

An 87-year-old woman, who was largely immobilized in a wheelchair, suffered rib fractures and an unstable fracture of the pelvic ring in a fall. Approximately 2 1/2 hours later she developed marked clinical symptoms of pulmonary thromboembolism and died 5 hours after the accident. The question to be discussed with regard to the causality was the unusually short interval of only 2 1/2 to 5 hours between the accident and the clinical signs of embolism leading to her death. Current literature gives only rough outlines stating that thromboembolism can occur as early as the first day after the trauma. An alternative theory explaining the pulmonary thromboembolism may be the breaking off of a pre-existing thrombus due to manipulation during transport or diagnostic measures in connection with the unstable fracture of the pelvic ring.

Accidental Falls↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Dog saliva transmitted pathogens as etiology of fatal infections (on the topic of causal relationship)].

The authors report on 4 deaths. 3 of the victims had been bitten by dogs shortly before death; in one case the victim had close contacts with a dog. In 3 of the cases death was caused by septicemia; microorganisms occurring in the saliva of dogs, but rarely causing infection could be determined in 2 of the cases. While in case 1 there was no bite injury so that transmission must have occurred by droplet infection (without trauma) or via a discrete skin lesion, case 2 showed a penetrating dog-bite injury; in both cases the spleen had been surgically removed some years before. In case 3 a causal relationship had to be assumed between a dog bite and death, although no pathogen could be identified in microbiological tests. In case 4 death was not attributable to the dog-bite injury suffered, but was due to an internal pathological cause.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Dizziness and migraine: a causal relationship?

Both migraine and dizziness are very frequent complaints, but the comorbidity of the two disorders is higher than it might be expected to be on the basis of chance alone. This implies a possible causal relationship, but definite diagnostic criteria for migraine-related vertigo are still lacking. Very recent attempts in this direction have shown that migraine may be the third leading cause of vertigo and that migraine-related vertigo may be effectively treated. A review of the literature on this topic, which includes some preliminary data of our own, demonstrates the difficulty in pinpointing migraine-associated vertigo as a clearly-defined entity. However, there is a measure of agreement on a few points: the spells of vertigo occur in patients who habitually suffer from motion sickness, and who have a history of migraine, either without or with aura; the delay between migraine and vertigo onset may be several years; migraine-related vertigo may be described as rotatory and/or as a feeling of unsteadiness, and single spells can occur without any other accompanying symptoms, however, when spells do occur in association with headache, they usually precede it. The vertigo duration may be shorter or longer than that of the migraine aura since it ranges from a few seconds to a continuous condition of unsteadiness.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

["Karoshi" and causal relationships].

This paper aims to introduce a measure for use by physicians for stating the degree of probable causal relationship for "Karoshi", ie, a sudden death from cerebrovascular diseases or ischemic heart diseases under occupational stresses, as well as to give a brief description for legal procedures associated with worker's compensation and civil trial in Japan. It is a well-used measure in epidemiology, "attributable risk percent (AR%)", which can be applied to describe the extent of contribution to "Karoshi" of the excess occupational burdens the deceased worker was forced to bear. Although several standards such as average occupational burdens for the worker, average occupational burdens for an ordinary worker, burdens in a nonoccupational life, and a complete rest, might be considered for the AR% estimation, the average occupational burdens for an ordinary worker should normally be utilized as a standard for worker's compensation. The adoption of AR% could be helpful for courts to make a consistent judgement whether "Karoshi" cases are compensatable or not.

Death, Sudden, Cardiac↗

PubMed1992

Chemical toxicity and chemical carcinogenesis. Is there a causal connection? A comparative morphological evaluation of 1500 experiments.

Chemicals cause toxic and carcinogenic effects as well as beneficial and other adverse effects in animals and in humans. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether there is a direct, uniform causal relationship between toxicity and carcinogenicity. Within this context, specific issues receive attention: the influence of exposure concentrations on carcinogenesis; kidney cancer and alpha 2 mu-globulin; urinary calculi and tumours; and cell turnover or proliferation and cancer. The data used to evaluate histopathological site-specific correspondence between these two end-points comes from 130 studies of chemical carcinogenesis designed and conducted by the US National Toxicology Program (NTP). Nearly 1500 sex-species-exposure group experiments were evaluated for morphological evidence of toxicity and/or carcinogenicity, for dose-response relationships, and for site-specific correlations of toxicity and carcinogenicity. The major conclusions are that chemicals evaluated for long-term toxicity and carcinogenicity in experimental animals can be divided into three categories: (1) those that cause organ toxicity without cancer, (2) those that cause site-specific cancer with no associated toxicity and (3) those that cause toxicity and cancer in the same organ. Examples are given to illustrate each category. On the basis of this comparative analysis, in the great majority of cases the available data do not support a correlation between chemically induced toxicity and carcinogenicity. Moreover, until considerably more scientific knowledge about molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis becomes available and accepted, attempts to use findings on toxicity to modify the risk assessment process will be fraught with uncertainty and might even have a negative impact on public health.

Animals↗

PubMed2003

[A patient with Wegener's granulomatosis who worked in a foundry: a case for a causal association with silicon dioxide].

The diagnosis Wegener's granulomatosis was made in a 42-year-old man. Occupational history revealed prolonged exposure to large amounts of silicon dioxide in dust during work in a foundry. The illness was stabilized with immunosuppressive treatment, but after one year the patient developed aseptic necrosis in both hips, which ultimately led to essential total hip arthroplasty on the left side. The patient was unable to work since the diagnosis. Similar case reports have been described, as well as a limited number of case-control studies. These indicate an association between Wegener's granulomatosis and exposure to silicon. There is growing evidence for a causal role of silicon dioxide in the pathogenesis of auto-immune disease.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Military aviators, special operations forces, and causal malaria prophylaxis.

U.S. military aviators are currently restricted to the use of chloroquine or doxycycline for malaria prophylaxis. Ground forces are allowed the additional option of taking mefloquine. These medications are begun before deployment, must be taken for 4 weeks after leaving the malarious area, and primaquine must be added to the regimen the last 2 of those 4 weeks. Compliance with this regimen is often poor, especially in populations who travel abroad frequently for short periods of time. Causal malaria prophylaxis offers potential benefits of decreased length of postdeployment regimens and obviates the need for a second medication for terminal prophylaxis. Potential obstacles include adverse drug reactions, cost, and rapid development of resistance to new medications by Plasmodium species, which should be weighed against the risks to health and mission success in each deployment.

Aminoquinolines↗

PubMed2004

The search for agents in a causal gap.

This study used a reversal experiment within a participant's frame of reference as a tool for studying human agency. Twenty-seven participants were given a sentence reading task, asked to formulate a rule for choosing which sentence to read, and instructed to fbollow and break the rule in an FBFB or BFBF sequence. Despite the difficulty they had in formulating an unambiguous rule, 23 participants both broke and followed the rule, and 20 broke it with a mutually exclusive opposite. There was evidence that a participant's genetic heritage, learning history, and rule, the experimental task, and the instructions were in no case sufficient to control the sentences he or she read. There was evidence of two causal gaps, one before and one after a participant's choice, and positive evidence of participants' systematic control over the sentences read in reversal experiments.

Cognition↗

PubMed2004

Causal chain analysis and root causes: the GIWA approach.

The Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA) was created to help develop a priority setting mechanism for actions in international waters. Apart from assessing the severity of environmental problems in ecosystems, the GIWA's task is to analyze potential policy actions that could solve or mitigate these problems. Given the complex nature of the problems, understanding their root causes is essential to develop effective solutions. The GIWA provides a framework to analyze these causes, which is based on identifying the factors that shape human behavior in relation to the use (direct or indirect) of aquatic resources. Two sets of factors are analyzed. The first one consists of social coordination mechanisms (institutions). Faults in these mechanisms lead to wasteful use of resources. The second consists of factors that do not cause wasteful use of resources per se (poverty, trade, demographic growth, technology), but expose and magnify the faults of the first group of factors. The picture that comes out is that diagnosing simple generic causes, e.g. poverty or trade, without analyzing the case specific ways in which the root causes act and interact to degrade the environment, will likely ignore important links that may put the effectiveness of the recommended policies at risk. A summary of the causal chain analysis for the Colorado River Delta is provided as an example.

Commerce↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Case-control studies in psychiatry: causality, design and warnings].

This present paper is mainly methodological and has been written with the aim of helping researchers in psychiatry to produce results with higher quality and help readers to have adequate assessment values of others. Brief reflection is made on the most important conditions that must be fulfilled to prove a causality hypothesis, regardless of the investigation design used. However, the main purpose of the text is to examine and illustrate how these conditions work under a case-control study environment. Besides outlining the basic aspects concerning design and analysis, areas extremely illustrated with examples of case and controls in psychiatry found in the literature, a number of suggestions to avoid pitfalls that can invalidate research efforts developed using case-control methodology is offered.

Case-Control Studies↗

PubMed2004

Fractal meta-analysis and 'causality' embedded in complexity: advanced understanding of disease etiology.

Epidemiologists have gradually come to realize that repeated testing of 'causal' hypotheses normally results in inconsistent outcomes. Contradictory results pop up often enough to arouse suspicion that central epidemiological paradigms may be invalid. In this paper, we introduce complexity to explain inconsistency. Linear models produce inconsistency simply because they are not sufficiently rooted in the complex nature of living things. We design a meta-analysis consisting of (a) fractal investigation, used in this paper to reveal the possibly fractal nature of ordered series of relative risks (RR) and their possible Self-Organized Criticality (SOC); (b) disclosure of complexity-bound associations (DCBA) analysis which is used to disclose law-like and chaos-like associations of exposure and risk of disease within the series. We use (a) and (b) to reanalyze three published meta-studies, one of which investigates the possible association of oral contraceptives and female breast cancer. We demonstrate that the OR-series of the latter is fractal and in a state of SOC and conclude, contrary to the authors of the original meta-study, that there is no law-like association of oral contraceptives and breast cancer in this series. We achieve similar results for the other two meta-studies, results that are highly relevant for the clinical recommendations given by the authors.

Breast Neoplasms↗

PubMed2002

Cardiovascular adverse reactions associated with Guarana: is there a causal effect?

Herbal supplements have been used as adjuncts to medical therapy for many years by various cultures. Many consumers believe that because herbal supplements are natural products, they are somewhat safer or more effective than traditional prescribed medications. This is also one reason that alternative medicine is growing and gaining more popularity. On the other hand, adverse reactions to herbal supplements or their interactions with patients' current medications are no different than pharmaceutical medicines. We report a case of premature ventricular contraction associated with two herbal supplements. These products contained multiple different herbs and both included large doses of guarana. Guarana, which is found in some supplements marketed in U.S., contains a substantial amount of caffeine. Although the exact cause of tachycardia in our report is not proven, a large amount of caffeine consumption is thought to be a possible causal effect. The purpose of this report is to remind health care professionals to evaluate and educate patients on the use of herbal products and any potential adverse reactions, drug interactions, or possible toxicities.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

[Problems of causality in medicine: The case of viruses and tumors--Part 2. Viruses and human malignant tumors].

A special case in contemporary etiological studies is definition of the role of viruses in the pathogenesis of human cancer. Virus-associated cancer develops only in a small minority of infected subjects, which implies that, if the virus does play a role in the pathogenesis of the malignancy, other factors must be also involved. The author summarises the general properties of human tumour viruses, reviews the development of causal thinking in microbiology and proposes guidelines that might help to determine the role of viruses in human cancer.

Humans↗

PubMed2004

Pericardial tamponade and large pericardial effusions: causal factors and efficacy of percutaneous catheter drainage in 50 patients.

In 50 patients treated from January 1998 through March 2002 for pericardial effusion and tamponade, we retrospectively investigated the efficacy of percutaneous placement of an indwelling pericardial catheter guided by 2-dimensional echocardiography and fluoroscopy. We also investigated causation. In 80% of the patients, we were able to determine specific causes through clinical, serologic, and cytologic investigation: cancer in 15 patients, chronic renal failure in 11, systemic lupus erythematosus in 2 rheumatoid arthritis in 2, Dressler syndrome in 2, tuberculosis in 1, blunt chest trauma in 1, purulent pericarditis in 1, and probably viral pericarditis in 5. No specific cause could be determined in 10 patients (20%). We did not observe any complication due to the procedure. Two patients died during hospitalization. After hospitalization, 9 patients with metastatic cancer died within 3 months. A 2nd percutaneous drainage procedure was required in 2 cancer patients. Recurrence of pericardial effusion and tamponade and the requirement of pericardiectomy occurred in 2 patients with perfusion of unknown cause and in 1 patient with perfusion due to rheumatoid arthritis. Histologic examination of pericardial tissue in patients with idiopathic disease showed fibrinous pericarditis but no causal factor. In the group with idiopathic pericardial effusion, 2 patients with multiple mediastinal lymphadenopathy underwent mediastinal exploration; biopsy revealed nonspecific lymphadenitis and fibrinous pericarditis. In patients with large pericardial effusions and tamponade, the specific cause was in most cases already known or obtained by initial clinical and laboratory investigation. Sufficient cardiac decompression was achieved by percutaneous pigtail catheter drainage.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

[Borrelia burgdorferi may be the causal agent of sarcoidosis].

Serum antibody to Borrelia burgdorferi was measured in 33 patients with sarcoidosis who were confirmed clinically and pathologically. The results showed that 81.8% of the patients were positive. In addition, a strain of Borrelia burgdorferi was isolated from a patient's blood. Fourteen patients received ceftriaxone 2 g per day and/or penicillin 12 million per day and a patient received lincomycin 1.2 g per day. The antibody titer of the patients turned to normal level, their SACE turned to normal range, and chest X-ray findings were markedly improved in 3 cases after the treatment. According to the facts mentioned above, we consider that Borrelia burgdorferi may be the causal agent of sarcoidosis and sarcoidosis might be a special type of Lyme disease.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

[Prevalence and causal factors of anemia in children in Tunisia].

Anemia continue to be prevalent among children under five years despite the improvement of socioeconomic and sanitary indicators. The purpose of the present cross-sectorial study is to assess the etiologic factors responsible for anemia. Knowledge of the relative importance of the different causes should form a basis for intervention strategies to prevent and control anemia. The survey covered 955 children under the age of five years, native of two regions with the highest prevalent of anemia, the Southwest and the District of Tunis. The results showed that 29% of children suffered from anemia. About 70% of them were iron deficient. The fractions of the deficiency in vitamin B12 and in folates were insignificant. Only 3% of children had chronic inflammation associated with (and possibly responsible for) their anemia A little fraction of anemia (approximately 5%) was due to thalassemia or drepanocytosis. Picawasan important causal factor of iron deficiency anemia. The parasites identified instool could not cause anemia.

Anemia, Iron-Deficiency↗

PubMed2005

Causal Bayesian network for tagging syntactical structure of Croatian sentences.

Paper describes tagging syntactical structure of Croatian language sentences using causal Bayesian network. In the first part of the paper we describe Bayesian model for tagging sentences. Base on this idea, we will test our model on Croatian language sentences on Database of grammatical sentences of Croatian language (http://infoz.ffzg.hr / tepes /). This paper is result of our new research connected with the paper hidden Markov model for tagging of Croatian language texts for project Linguistic Analysis of The European languages and the paper Probability distribution on the parse trees for the project Annotated database and syntactic structure of Croatian languages.

Anthropology↗