"Propensity score"

BACKGROUND: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a care-related event that could be promoted by immune suppression caused by critical diseases, malignancies and cancer treatments. Low dose of hydrocortisone was proposed for modulation of immune response in the critically ill population. METHODS: In this monocentric observational study, all cancer patients mechanically ventilated for more than 48 h were included. Effect of low-dose hydrocortisone administered during the first 48 h of mechanical ventilation was evaluated applying inverse probability weighting analysis after propensity score assessment...

BACKGROUND: Total gastrectomy (TG) and proximal gastrectomy (PG) are used to treat upper-third early gastric cancer. To date, no consensus has been reached regarding which procedure should be selected. The aim of this study was to validate the usefulness of preserving the stomach in early upper-third gastric cancer. METHODS: Between 2004 and 2013, 201 patients underwent PG or TG at our institution for treatment of upper-third early gastric cancer. According to the defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, 192 cases were enrolled in this study...

STUDY DESIGN: Propensity score-matched, retrospective cohort study. OBJECTIVES: To determine the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). SETTING: The present study used Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. METHODS: A total of 9257 patients who had ⩾2 ambulatory visits with a diagnosis of SCI in 2001 were included in the SCI group. The non-SCI group consisted of 37,028 propensity score-matched patients without a diagnosis of SCI...

AIM: Intimal hyperplasia remains the leading cause of late hemodialysis access stenosis or occlusion. This study assessed the influence of conventional immunosuppressive drugs on the patency of hemodialysis accesses in patients with a history of organ transplantation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between January 2002 and December 2007, 1,654 patients underwent an operation for hemodialysis access. 135 patients received immunosuppressive therapy (IT); of these, 115 underwent an operation for hemodialysis access after transplanted graft failure and 20 patients after liver transplantation...

Registry databases are increasingly being used for comparative effectiveness research in cancer. Such databases reflect the real-world patient population and physician practice, and thus are natural sources for comparing multiple treatment scenarios and the associated long-term clinical outcomes. Registry databases usually include both incident and prevalent cohorts, which provide valuable complementary information for patients with more recent diagnoses in the incident cohort as well as patients with long-term follow-up data in the prevalent cohort...

CONTEXT: Targeted therapies with epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors have been widely used in the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, little research has focused on the use of targeted therapies at the end-of-life (EOL). OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the determinants of receiving targeted therapy during the last month of life and how targeted therapies affect the quality of EOL care. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective population-based study using a cancer registry and National Health Insurance claims data among 42,678 Taiwanese NSCLC decedents in 2005-2012...

AIM: It is unclear whether chest-compression-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CC-CPR) is therapeutically equivalent to conventional CPR for children with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). We aimed to determine the association of CC-CPR and conventional CPR with outcomes in discrete child patient populations with OHCA. METHODS: We analysed 6,810 children (aged <18years) using Japanese registry from 2007 to 2014. Main outcomes measure was 30-day neurologically intact survival after OHCA, defined as Glasgow-Pittsburgh cerebral performance categories 1 or 2...

OBJECTIVE: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with an increased mortality risk. The Cox-maze IV procedure (CM4) performed concomitantly with other cardiac procedures has been shown to be effective for restoring sinus rhythm. However, few data have been published on the late survival of patients undergoing a concomitant CM4. METHODS: Patients undergoing cardiac surgery were retrospectively reviewed from 2001 to 2016 (n = 10,859). Patients were stratified into 3 groups: patients with a history of AF receiving a concomitant CM4 (CM4; n = 438), patients with a history of AF unaddressed during surgery (Untreated AF; n = 1510), and patients without AF history (No AF; n = 8911)...

OBJECTIVE: High serum HBV DNA levels are associated with high risks of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cirrhosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Although the immune-tolerant (IT) phase is characterised by high circulating HBV DNA levels, it remains unknown whether antiviral treatment reduces risks of HCC and mortality. DESIGN: This historical cohort study included HBeAg-positive patients with CHB with high HBV DNA levels (≥20 000 IU/mL) and no evidence of cirrhosis at a tertiary referral hospital in Korea from 2000 to 2013...

OBJECTIVES: To describe patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis with normal flow and low gradients and determine whether they benefit from intervention. BACKGROUND: Severe symptomatic aortic stenosis is a progressive disease with high mortality. Although surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) or transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) are indicated for patients with high gradients (>40 mm Hg) or low gradients due to low flow, the approach for patients with normal flow and low gradients is poorly defined...

Serious infection is a concern for patients with psoriasis on biologic therapies. We assessed the risk of serious infections of biologics used to treat psoriasis by comparison with a cohort on non-biologic systemic therapies in a propensity-score weighted Cox proportional hazards model using data from the British Association of Dermatologists Biologic Interventions Register (BADBIR). 1352, 3271 and 994 participants were included in the etanercept, adalimumab, ustekinumab cohorts respectively and 3421 participants in the non-biologic cohort...

Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) are a response to the prescription opioid epidemic, but their impacts on prescribing and health outcomes remain unclear, with conflicting reports. We sought to determine if prescriber use of Oregon's prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) led to fewer high-risk opioid prescriptions or overdose events. We conducted a retrospective cohort study from October, 2011 through October, 2014, using statewide PDMP data, hospitalization registry, and vital records. Early PDMP registrants (n=927) were matched with clinicians who never registered during the study period, using baseline prescribing metrics in a propensity score...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The role of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for anaplastic gliomas is undefined and patterns of care are under-reported. To address the knowledge gap, we examined use of CRT for grade III gliomas compared to radiotherapy (RT) alone. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In an observational study design cohort from the National Cancer Database, we identified 4437 adult patients receiving surgery followed by either CRT or RT for supratentorial anaplastic glioma in 2003-2011...

BACKGROUND: Robotic-assisted lobectomy (RL) is becoming a popular alternative technique to video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy (VL), although open lobectomy (OL) remains the most common approach. The objective of this study is to provide a comparative analysis of perioperative clinical outcomes from elective RL, VL, and OL. METHODS: The Premier Healthcare Database was analyzed for lobectomies performed from January 1, 2011, to September 30, 2015. International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification diagnosis and procedure codes were used to identify surgical approaches, complications, and mortality...

BACKGROUND: Activation of dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) has been reported to be associated with impairment of insulin signaling in skeletal muscle mass, presumably leading to loss of muscle function. This study was aimed to investigate whether the use of DPP4 inhibitors (DPP4i) could attenuate the progressive loss of muscle mass in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: A total 105 patients with type 2 diabetes (mean age 62 ± 12 years; 39% female) were studied in this retrospective observational study...

BACKGROUND & AIMS: No consensus has been reached regarding optimal treatment strategies for ABO-incompatible (ABO-I) living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). We introduce a simplified protocol using rituximab and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). METHODS: Data were analyzed on adult patients who underwent ABO-I LDLT of which protocol added rituximab (300 mg/m(2) ) before surgery and IVIG (0.8 g/kg) on postoperative days 1 and 4 to the conventional immunosuppressive regimen used in ABO-compatible (ABO-C) LDLT, without plasmapheresis, splenectomy, or graft local infusion...

BACKGROUND: data are scarce regarding the effect of preoperative Adalimumab (ADA) in postoperative complications in Crohn's disease (CD) patients. AIM: to compare the rates of postoperative complications after intestinal resections in CD, with and without previous exposure to ADA. METHOD: case-matched retrospective observational study of patients submitted to intestinal resections for CD. The patients were allocated to 2 groups, according to their previous exposure to ADA before surgery...

Children with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) experience sudden cardiac death (SCD) and other life-threatening events. We assessed if affected gene and variant burden predict outcomes. Patients <18 years old with primary HCM with a pathogenic variant or variant of uncertain significance in cardiomyopathy genes were included. Association of gene and variant number and type with freedom from major adverse cardiac events (MACE) i.e. ICD insertion, myectomy, aborted SCD, transplantation or death, was assessed by Cox regression...

AIM: The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between physical activity (PA) and depressive symptoms in community-dwelling older Japanese adults. METHODS: A cross-sectional study design was used to obtain data from 3191 community-dwelling older Japanese adults aged 70-95 years. Depressive symptoms were assessed using self-reported scores on the Geriatric Depression Scale-15. PA was objectively measured using an accelerometer worn for a maximum of 40 days, and average daily durations of light-intensity PA (LPA), moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA (MVPA) and step count were calculated...

BACKGROUND: The treatment of intramucosal early gastric cancer with undifferentiated-type histologies (UD-EGCs) using endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is controversial. This study aimed to compare the clinical and oncologic long-term outcomes of ESD and surgery for UD-EGCs. METHODS: A prospectively collected database of patients who underwent ESD or surgery between January 2006 and December 2012 was established. Patients who diagnosed with UD-EGC and satisfied the expanded indications of ESD were included...