The relationship between decaffeinated coffee consumption and pan creatic cancer was examined using data from a hospital-based casecontrol study of individuals aged 20-80 years in 18 hospitals in 6 United States cities, from January 1981 to December 1984. Among the males, 127 cases and 371 controls were examined, while for females, the figures were 111 and 325 for cases and controls, respective...

Cytochrome P450 2A13 (CYP2A13), an enzyme expressed predominantly in the human respiratory tract, exhibits high efficiency in the metabolic activation of tobacco carcinogen 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK). A C3T transition in the CYP2A13 gene causes Arg257Cys amino acid substitution and, thus, results in a significantly reduced activity toward NNK and other substrates. In th...

The issue of suitable similarity measures for a joint consideration of so called SNP data and epidemiological variables arises from the GENICA (Interdisciplinary Study Group on Gene Environment Interaction and Breast Cancer in Germany) casecontrol study of sporadic breast cancer. The GENICA study aims to investigate the influence and interaction of single nucleotide polymorphic (SNP) loci and e...

Maternal age is an important determinant of pregnancy outcome and women aged 35 years and above undergoing their first pregnancy are often classified as high risk obstetric patients. The objective of this study was to determine the birth outcome in some women going through their first pregnancy at 35 years and above compared with their younger counter parts aged 20-34 years. A ten year retrospe...

The role of Helicobacter pylori infection in gastric cancer was evaluated in a high-risk population in Venezuela using serological assays in a study of 302 cases and 483 neighborhood controls. To investigate the claim that assays for H. pylori should use antigens derived from local strains, four different assays derived from Venezuelan and European strains were used. Prevalence of IgG H. pylori...

PHENOTYPE PREDICTION AND FEATURE SELECTION IN GENOME-WIDE ASSOCIATION STUDIES by Andrew Roberts Genome wide association studies (GWAS) search for correlations between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a subject genome and an observed phenotype. GWAS can be used to generate models for predicting phenotype based on genotype, as well as aiding in identification of specific genes affecting ...

The apolipoprotein E gene (APOE) has been found to be associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Reported associations have been questioned, as they are opposite those for Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular disease. The authors examined associations between APOE genotype and AMD using a casecontrol study (2,287 cases and 2,287 controls individually matched on age, sex, and coun...

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most prevalent psychiatric disorder in children; perhaps relationship between ADHD and enuresis is still unknown. Comorbidity confers an additional risk to the simple symptomatic expression, and a greater complexity from the diagnostic and therapeutic viewpoints. The primary endpoint was to find out the Comorbidity between enuresis and ADHD...

Objective : To review cases of stress fracture in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) presenting to our service over a 10 year period; to identify possible risk factors and test these in a case-control study. Methods: A retrospective case note review of all patients with a final diagnosis of stress fracture, presenting between 1990 and 1999 was performed. A case-control study of consecutive...

Modified electroconvulsive therapy (MECT) is an effective treatment option for schizophrenia, however, concerns on its safety and complications such as increased intracranial pressure (ICP) exists. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of MECT on ICP in schizophrenic patients and to identify related risk factors. 112 subjects diagnosed with schizophrenia were recruited and allocat...