Measures Of Disease Incidence Research Articles

Surveillance and follow up of pediatric cancer from a developing country.

10069 Background: Childhood cancers, a leading cause of childhood deaths, affect more than 200,000 children worldwide, of which >80% are from developing nations. This demands for proper measurement of the incidence of various childhood cancers which led to a novel study in assessing the burden of childhood cancers in eastern India through analysis of hospital-based cancer registry data from our institute in between January 2001- December 2011. Methods: 3,200pediatriccancer patients between 0-15 yearsdiagnosed by means of histological and cytological examinations were included in this study. Based on histopathological classification, cancer cases were distributed into 3 different age groups. Their respective family functioning, mental health, self-esteem and social competence were examined. Details of disease, tobacco usage along with socio demographic data were collected through standard questionnaires. Comparative measures of disease incidence were also calculated. For measuring the tolerance, different drugs were administered to patients. Results: The incidence of different malignancies was recorded which were Leukemia (34.9%), Lymphoma (24.1%), Hodgkin’s disease (18.1%), NHL (6.0%), Ewing’s sarcoma (4.9%), Rhabdomyosarcoma (3.6%), Neuroblastoma (2.0%), Brain tumour (9.9%), Wilm’s tumour (6.0%), Lymphoid Leukemia (26.9%), Myeloid Leukemia (7.9%), Germ cell tumour (4.2%), Osteosarcoma (4.0%), Retinoblastoma (2.0%) and Soft tissue sarcoma (2.3%). The disease free survival (DFS) for ALL was 76%, NHL (84%), Soft tissue sarcoma (78%), CML (98%), AML (48%) and germ cell tumour (95%). Finally, 53.33% patients were subjected to post-therapy assessment, of which 98% showed no after effect of therapy on growth chart, heart and endocrine function. The toxicity of grade III and IV chemotherapy ranges from 10-20%. Conclusions: Based on our study, the most happening cancer was Leukemia (34.9%) followed by Lymphoma (24.1%) and soft tissue sarcoma (18%). The overall disease free survival for pediatric patients was 72% with acceptable toxicity. Our results are comparable with the studies of other developed countries.

Effect of α1-Adrenoceptor Antagonist Exposure on Prostate Cancer Incidence: An Observational Cohort Study

The quinazoline based alpha1-adrenoceptor antagonists doxazosin and terazosin suppress prostate tumor growth via the induction of apoptosis and decrease in tissue vascularity. To assess the effect of alpha1-blocker exposure on the incidence of prostate cancer we performed an exploratory, observational cohort study. The medical records of all male patients enrolled at Lexington Veterans Affairs Medical Center were searched to identify men treated with quinazoline based alpha1-adrenoreceptor antagonists between January 1, 1998 and December 31, 2002 for hypertension and/or benign prostatic enlargement. Medical records were subsequently linked to the Markey Cancer Center Kentucky Cancer Registry, a statewide population based central cancer registry that is part of the National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program, to identify all incident prostate cancer cases diagnosed. All newly diagnosed prostate cancer cases unexposed to alpha1-adrenoreceptor antagonists in the total male Veterans Affairs population during this period were also identified from the Kentucky Cancer Registry database. Measures of disease incidence, relative risk and attributable risk were calculated to compare the risk of prostate cancer in alpha1-blocker exposed vs unexposed men. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression models were used to compare overall survival between alpha1-blocker exposed and unexposed prostate cancer cases. Our analysis revealed a cumulative incidence of 1.65% in alpha1-blocker exposed men compared to 2.41% in the unexposed group. These data yielded an unadjusted RR of 0.683 (95% CI 0.532, 0.876) and a risk difference of -0.0076, indicating that 7.6 fewer prostate cancer cases developed per 1,000 exposed men. Thus, exposure to quinazoline alpha1-blockers may have prevented 32 prostate cancer cases among the 4,070 treated men during the study period. Therefore, men exposed to quinazoline alpha1-adrenoceptor antagonists were at 1.46 times lower RR and 31.7% lower attributable risk for prostate cancer than unexposed men. There was no association between alpha1-adrenoceptor antagonist exposure and overall survival. These data suggest that exposure to quinazoline based alpha1-adrenoceptor antagonists significantly decreases the incidence of prostate cancer. This evidence suggests that the apoptotic and anti-angiogenic effects of these drugs may prevent the development of prostate cancer.

La seguridad sanitaria de los alimentos, la protección del medio ambiente y el bienestar animal

Food safety, protection of the environment and animal welfare are three concerns consumers have about modern food production systems. Standards dealing with these three issues can be in conflict, and finding ways to reduce this conflict is essential as international standards governing animal welfare develop. These conflicts can be reduced if flexible animal welfare standards are animal-based and attempt to directly assess the state of the animals themselves rather than prescribing the conditions under which the animals are reared. Animal welfare is often treated as an ethical issue, and is therefore difficult to deal with under current trade agreements. A greater appreciation of the link between animal welfare and animal health makes the link with food safety clearer. Improvements in animal welfare have the potential to reduce on-farm risks to food safety, principally through reduced stress-induced immunosuppression, reduced incidence of infectious disease on farms and reduced shedding of human pathogens by farm animals, and through reduced antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance. Health problems of farm animals continue to be serious threats to animal welfare, and measures of disease incidence can serve as animal-based measures of animal welfare. Continued development of hazard analysis and critical control point-based approaches to animal welfare would allow a smoother integration of animal welfare and food safety standards.

Not all maps are equal: GIS and spatial analysis in epidemiology.

Recently, Geographical Information System (GIS) has emerged as an innovative and important component of many projects in public health and epidemiology. One of the most useful functions of GIS in epidemiology continues to be its utility in basic mapping. GIS may also involve more sophisticated spatial analysis of disease occurrence and contributing environmental factors. Depending on the quantity and quality of data and the methodology used in analysis, a given map may be either useful or misleading. Although visual analyses (mapped evidence) strengthened by exploratory analyses are mostly sufficient for epidemiologists, the formal testing of certain hypotheses or the estimation of relationships between measures of disease incidence and, for example, environmental covariates require quantitative modelling of disease distribution. It is a promising prospect that spatial statistics and GIS technology have slowly started to merge. However, whether GIS will be useful in the model-based approach and the prediction in, for example, epidemiology remains to be seen. The desired future development of GIS requires a switch of emphasis from data and information to knowledge.

Distribution and Retention of Cleistothecia ofUncinula necatoron the Bark of Grapevines.

Clesitothecia of Uncinula necator were dispersed by late summer and early autumn rain to the bark of grapevines. Rain-dispersed ascocarps accumulated rapidly on bark during a 10-wk period and were then retained on bark through subsequent rain events between leaf abscission and budbreak the following spring. The density of populations on bark was significantly correlated (r = 0.72-0.88) with catches of cleistothecia in filter-paper funnels attached to the trunk of grapevines. The density of populations on bark during winter was not correlated with several measures of disease incidence and severity from the previous growing season. We concluded that while incidence and severity may determine the potential population available for dispersal, rain events determine the actual efficiency of transfer from infected organs to the bark of the vine. The percentage of ascocarps that reacted positively with the fluorescent vital stain fluorescein diacetate ranged from 50 to 62% and did not change significantly during overwintering until cleistothecia began to dehisce in spring. Therefore, the density and viability of populations of cleistothecia on bark at the time of budbreak appear to have been determined at the time of leaf fall the previous autumn and were not modified by subsequent environmental conditions. The densest aggregations of cleistothecia occurred on the cordons of cordon-trained vines, with successively lower densities occurring on the bark of the upper and lower trunks. The pruning and training system of vines of Vitis labrusca cv. Concord did not affect the density of populations of cleistothecia on bark

SEROLOGIC TESTING FOR SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES

This article addresses current issues regarding serologic testing for selected STDs, particularly those for which serologic testing has been useful for diagnosis, monitoring therapy, or seroepidemiology. For each selected pathogen, the authors discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the serologic tests as diagnostic assays, as measures of disease incidence and relevance, and as prospective markers identifying risk alterations in a given population. Also, for some conditions such as syphilis, the usefulness of serology as a measure of therapy or success of disease intervention is briefly outlined.

Relationships between herd bovine leukemia virus infection status and reproduction, disease incidence, and productivity in Swedish dairy herds

A program has been initiated in Sweden to eradicate bovine leukemia virus (BLV) infections in dairy and beef cattle. As the first step, all dairy herds were screened in order to identify those with BLV-infected animals. The objective of this study was to ascertain possible relationships between herd BLV infection status and measures describing disease incidence, reproduction and production. BLV infection status was determined in 14 424 herds, using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test applied to bulk-milk samples. Relationships were assessed with logistic and ordinary linear regression analyses. There were many statistically significant associations between herd BLV infection status and measures of disease incidence, reproduction and production, but most were of low magnitude. The risk for diseases with infectious etiology seemed to be greater among BLV-infected herds, while the risk for non-infectious diseases did not differ. The culling rate was higher and milk production was lower in BLV-infected vs. BLV-free herds. The effect of BLV infection on fertility was only minor.

On the rediscovery of a distinction.

In 1980, Morgenstern et al. (1) described in detail how in epidemiology two different measures of disease incidence are used: risk and rate. For background, the authors cited mainly recent epidemiologic publications from the United States. It is the purpose of this commentary to propose that the roots of the distinction between risk and stem from an earlier period; the renewed description can be qualified as a rediscovery of concepts which were well known to medical epidemiologists in the first half of the 19th century. When reading some of the original papers by William Fan(1807-1883), one is surprised to find a clear and accurate description of the two different ways of measuring (and morbidity) which Farr named the of dying and the rate of mortality (2, p. 490). Farr explained that the first has the nature of a probability and also named it a deathchance. Of the second he stated, of mortality—or, in a technical sense, the mortality—expresses the ratio between three elements: 1) men living; 2) time; and 3) men dying. The men living and the time expressed in years, multiplied into each