We describe a copy-number variant (CNV) for which deletion alleles confer a protective affect against rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This CNV reflects net unit deletions and expansions to a normal two-unit tandem duplication located on human chr12p13.31, a region with conserved synteny to the rat RA susceptibility quantitative trait loci Oia2. Genotyping, using the paralogue ratio test and SNP inte...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Prognostic significance of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) is unclear. The objective of this study was to determine the association between LDL-C and mortality in ICH. METHODS Consecutive patients (n=88) presenting with ICH were included in the study. Lipid profile was obtained during the first hours after admission. We analy...

SETTING: Host genetic risk factors influence the susceptibility to tuberculosis (TB). There is ample evidence supporting the involvement of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) in mycobacterial infection. OBJECTIVE: To study the relationship between the TLR4 gene and TB susceptibility in Sudanese. DESIGN: A case-control study was conducted by recruiting 207 patients with pulmonary TB and 395 healthy con...

The purpose of this note is to introduce practicing epidemiologist to a robust cluster adjustment of the Mantel Haenszel Test Statistic and Odds Ratio. We will discuss the applicability of the adjustment and also its computation. Throughout we will use data from the file SDZ1.rec which comes with the CIETmap analysis software. We start by giving a short introduction to odds ratio estimation and...

introduction : the aim of this quantitative systematic review/meta-analysis was to compare the treatment outcomes of mineral trioxide aggregate (mta) and calcium hydroxide (ch) in pulpotomy of human primary molars. the focused pico question was “in case of pulp exposure in vital primary molars, how does mta pulpotomy compare to ch in terms of clinical/radiographic success?” methods and material...

The risk di$erence is frequently used as a measure of the actual gain in the success rate between two treatments within a center (i.e. hospital). Interest is devoted to combining the risk di$erence across several centers under homogeneity but allowing for baseline-risk heterogeneity in each of the treatment arms. The purpose is to compare the e5ciency of six estimators for the common risk di$er...

Observational studies, including the case-control design frequently used in epidemiology, are subject to a number of biases and possible confounding factors. Failure to adjust with them may lead to an erroneous conclusion about the existence of a causal relationship between exposure and disease. The Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel (CMH) test is widely used to measure the strength of the association bet...

In a recent paper, Hessen (Psychometrika 70(3):497-516, 2005) introduces the class of constant latent odds-ratios models as an extension of the Rasch model for which the sum score is still the sufficient statistic for ability. In this paper the relation between both the general and the general parametric constant latent odds-ratios model and the Rasch model is considered.

This commentary presents a new estiof matching variables, unmatched varimator of the variance of the natural log of ables, or both. This notation encompasses the Mantel-Haenszel odds ratio and illusthe full spectrum of matched and untrates its application in typical case-control matched designs. For example, in the pairdesigns. In contrast with any single previmatched study, MI and Mo are alway...

Writing the variance of the Mantel-Haenszel estimator under the null of homogeneity and inverting the corresponding test, we arrive at an improved confidence interval for the common risk difference in stratified 2 × 2 tables. This interval outperforms a variety of other intervals currently recommended in the literature and implemented in software. We also discuss a score-type confidence interva...