tuberculosis. Smear positivity at the end of treatment may not be a reliable indicator Apoptosis inhibitor of treatment failure.”
“Cluster headache
causes severe unilateral temporal or periorbital pain, lasting 15 to 180 minutes and accompanied by autonomic symptoms in the nose, eyes, and face. Headaches often recur at the same time each day during the cluster period, which can last for weeks to months. Some patients have chronic cluster headache without remission periods. The pathophysiology of cluster headache is not fully understood, but may include a genetic component. Cluster headache is more prevalent in men and typically begins between 20 and 40 years of age. Treatment focuses on avoiding triggers and includes abortive therapies, prophylaxis during the cluster period,
and long-term treatment in patients with chronic cluster headache. Evidence supports the use of supplemental oxygen, sumatriptan, and zolmitriptan for acute treatment of episodic cluster headache. Verapamil is first-line prophylactic therapy and can also be used to treat chronic cluster headache. More invasive treatments, including nerve stimulation and surgery, may be helpful in refractory cases. (Am Fam Physician. 2013;88(2):122-128. Copyright (C) 2013 American Academy of Family Physicians.)”
“Objectives: Calibration is often thought to assess the bias of a clinical prediction rule. In particular, if the rule is based on a linear logistic model, it is often assumed that an overestimation of all coefficients results in a calibration slope less than 1 and an underestimation in a slope larger than 1.
Study Design and Setting: We learn more investigate the relation of the bias and the residual variation of clinical prediction rules with the typical behavior of calibration plots and calibration slopes, using some artificial examples.
Results: Calibration is not only sensitive
to the bias of the clinical prediction rule but also to the residual variation. In some circumstances, the effects may cancel out, resulting in a misleading perfect calibration.
Conclusion: 17DMAG molecular weight Poor calibration is a clear indication of limited usefulness of a clinical prediction rule. However, a perfect calibration should be interpreted with care as this may happen even for a biased prediction rule. (c) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.”
“OBJECTIVE: To assess long-term outcomes in severe early childhood pneumonia in The Gambia.
DESIGN: Observational cohort study of children hospitalised with severe pneumonia between 1992 and 1 04 compared to age, sex, and neigh bourhood-marched controls on measures of current general and pulmonary health.
RESULTS: Of 83 children successfully traced, 68 of the 69 alive at follow-up agreed to participate. Thirteen per Cent of cases and 4% of controls had lung disease clinically or on spirometry. Another 16 (13%) participants had abnormal spirometry but did not meet the American Thoracic Society technical criteria (formally ‘inconclusive’).