The purpose of this study was to measure the rate-dependent changes in the relative motion of subsynovial connective tissue (SSCT) and median nerve in the human carpal tunnel. Using fluoroscopy, we measured the relative motion of middle finger flexor digitorum superficialis tendon, SSCT, and median nerve in eight human cadavers during simulated active finger flexion motions at 2.0, 5.0, 7.5, an...

OBJECTIVES Investigate the association between socioeconomic deprivation and completeness of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factor recording in primary care, uptake of screening in people with incomplete risk factor recording and with actual CVD risk within the screened subgroup. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Nine UK general practices. PARTICIPANTS 7987 people aged 50-74 years ...

What are the distributional effects of advances in medical care? This important question has been relatively neglected by health economists. I will discuss some of the reasons for this neglect and speculate about possible answers. But first, I will comment on the Skinner-Zhou (S-Z) paper, looking at the questions they address and the answers they provide. Their first question concerns trends in...

OBJECTIVES To examine geographic and demographic trends in objection to vaccination in Australia. DESIGN Cross-sectional analysis of Australian Childhood Immunisation Register (ACIR) data (2002-2013) for children aged 1-6 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Immunisation status according to whether an objection had been registered, and remoteness and socio-economic status of area of residence. Regi...

Background: African-Americans are more likely be seen by physicians with less clinical training or treated at hospitals with deficient times to acute reperfusion therapies. Less is known about differences in health outcomes. This paper compares risk-adjusted mortality following Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) between U.S. hospitals with high and low fractions of elderly black AMI patients. Me...

INTRODUCTION To use Colorado's prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) to describe the recent opioid prescription history of patients discharged from our emergency department (ED) with a prescription for opioid pain medications. METHODS Retrospective cohort study of 300 adult ED patients who received an opioid prescription. We abstracted prescription histories for the six months prior to ...

Animal and human studies suggest a potential link between acid-base status and blood pressure. Contemporary Western diets yield a daily systemic acid load of varying amounts, yet the association with hypertension has never been explored. We prospectively examined the association between the diet-dependent net acid load (also known as the estimated net endogenous acid production) and the risk of...

BACKGROUND Higher levels of urinary albumin excretion predict future hypertension and chronic kidney disease. Post-menopausal hormone use may influence the renin-angiotensin system and renal endothelial function, impacting albumin excretion. The association between post-menopausal hormone use and albuminuria is not well defined. METHODS We explored the cross-sectional association between dura...

BACKGROUND Results of intervention studies in patients with type 2 diabetes have led to concerns about the safety of aiming for normal blood glucose concentrations. We assessed survival as a function of HbA(1c) in people with type 2 diabetes. METHODS Two cohorts of patients aged 50 years and older with type 2 diabetes were generated from the UK General Practice Research Database from November...

OBJECTIVE Develop a risk index to estimate the likelihood of life-threatening respiratory depression or overdose among medical users of prescription opioids. SUBJECTS, DESIGN, AND METHODS A case-control analysis of administrative health care data from the Veterans' Health Administration identified 1,877,841 patients with a pharmacy record for an opioid prescription between October 1, 2010 and...