Mail Database Research Articles

Scimitar Syndrome: Pathology, Clinical Presentation, Radiographic Features, and Treatment

Scimitar syndrome is characterized by partial or total anomalous pulmonary venous return from the right lung along with pulmonary hypoplasia.Wesearched the mail databases such as Medline (via PubMed), Scopus and EMBASE and Google Scholar. Diagnosing infantile scimitar syndrome requires meticulous attention and high suspicion of the early referral and management. The association of the syndrome with pulmonary hypertension leads to recurrent and prolonged hospitalization. Scimitar syndrome can be initially suspected from a chest X-ray, but it is typically confirmed via Computed Tomography (CT) angiography. The clinical spectrum of Scimitar syndrome ranges from severely ill infants to asymptomatic adults, which may present respiratory or cardiac failure, hemoptysis and pulmonary hypertension, tachypnea, chest infection, and failure to thrive. The diagnosis can be made by transthoracic or transesophageal echocardiography, angiography, or by CT or MR angiography.Considering the wide clinical spectrum of scimitar syndrome, the medical intervention depends on the severity of presentation and the amount of blood flowing to the Inferior Vena Cava (IVC) from completely or partially anomalous pulmonary veins. In the presence of significant left to right shunting and pulmonary hypertension, surgical intervention should be considered.

How are Azathioprine and 6-mercaptopurine dosed by gastroenterologists? Results of a survey of clinical practice

Azathioprine (AZA) and 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) are accepted as effective therapy for Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Although general guidelines have been suggested for weight-based dosing of thiopurines, no standard of care has been established. Clinical trials have demonstrated efficacy for weight-based dosing of AZA at 2.5 mg/kg/day and 6-MP at 1.5 mg/kg/day. Escalation of dosing is recommended within 2 weeks of initiating therapy. The aim was to determine the prescribing practices of community practice gastroenterologists with respect to 6-MP/AZA dosing. Questionnaires were distributed via a mail database or during gastroenterology society meetings to gastroenterologists in NY, NJ, and CT. Questionnaires ascertained starting doses of AZA/6-MP, use of thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) enzyme testing, and strategy for dose optimization. A total of 145 questionnaires were collected. Twenty-four percent of gastroenterologists escalated the dose within 2 weeks after initiating therapy. The majority used weight-based dosing as their target of therapy. Thirty-five percent reported measuring TPMT levels and 46% used metabolite monitoring. Most gastroenterologists take longer than recommended to raise the dose of AZA/6-MP. Although the majority of gastroenterologists reported maximal dosages based on weight, there may be a delay in achieving this goal. Optimizing dosing of AZA/6-MP may improve efficacy and reduce the need to use additional therapy.

A probabilistic estimation framework for predictive modeling analytics

IBM ProbE (for probabilistic estimation) is an extensible, embeddable, and scalable modeling engine, particularly well-suited for implementing segmentation-based modeling techniques, wherein data records are partitioned into segments and separate predictive models are developed for each segment. We describe the ProbE framework and discuss two key business solutions that have been built using ProbE: the IBM Underwriting Profitability Analysis for insurance risk management, and the IBM Advanced Targeted Marketing for Single Events for direct mail database marketing.

Assessing similarity relationships among noncomparable direct mail products from direct mail databases

This study investigates similarity among products not selected by a comparability criterion, on the basis of a large database containing information about consumers’ purchases of direct mail products. Products are represented by their buyers, and similarity among them is derived from the tendency of the products to be consumed jointly. These similarities are examined against experts’ categorization of the products. Applications for direct marketing are discussed.

The Globe and Mail database — a Canadian first

There are many databases containing newspaper items available today. The Globe and Mail database is the first example of the entire text of a major daily newspaper available publicly online. This article notes the events leading up to this achievement, gives a general description of the database and a detailed outline of its file elements as well as comments on future developments.