A recent study by Jacobs et al. (3) examined the specificity of a newly introduced pneumococcal capsule-specific antiserum (factor serum 6d) manufactured by Statens Serum Institut (SSI) in Denmark. The factor serum 6d was designed to be specific for serotype 6C, a newly described pneumococcal serotype (5), and was to complement factor sera 6b and 6c, which are designed to be specific for pneumo...

To determine prevalence and genetic structures of new serotype 6D strains of pneumococci, we examined isolates from diverse clinical specimens in South Korea during 1991-2008. Fourteen serotype 6D strains accounted for 10.4% of serogroup 6 pneumococci from blood, sputum, nasopharynx, and throat samples. Serotype 6D strains consisted of 3 sequence types.

Tree ring 6D records do not always reflect variations in the average annual 6D values of local precipitation, but may instead record changes in the 6D values of seasonal components of precipitation. The 6D values measured for tree ring sequences from the three trees in this study are correlated with variations in summer climatic conditions at each of the sites. The D/H ratios in an aspen from F...

Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy of the thyroid gland is an accurate diagnostic test used routinely in the initial evaluation of nodular thyroid disease (1-6). Epidemiologic studies suggest that nodular thyroid disease is a common clinical problem, with a prevalence of 4% to 7% in the adult population in North America and an annual incidence of 0.1%, which translates into approximately 300,0...

Various preference-based measures of health are available for use as an outcome measure in cost-utility analysis. The aim of this study is to compare two such measures EQ-5D and SF-6D in mental health patients. Baseline data from a Dutch multi-centre randomised trial of 616 patients with mood and/or anxiety disorders were used. Mean and median EQ-5D and SF-6D utilities were compared, both in th...

BACKGROUND The SF-6D is a new single summary preference-based measure of health derived from the SF-36. Empirical work is required to determine what is the smallest change in SF-6D scores that can be regarded as important and meaningful for health professionals, patients and other stakeholders. OBJECTIVES To use anchor-based methods to determine the minimally important difference (MID) for th...

OBJECTIVES Several preference-based health-related quality of life (HRQoL) instruments have been published and widely used in different populations. However no consensus has emerged regarding the most appropriate instrument in therapeutic area of stable angina. This study compared and validated the psychometric properties of two generic preference-based instruments, the EQ-5D and SF-6D, among C...

BACKGROUND Economic evaluations of healthcare interventions increasingly measure outcomes using quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). The SF-6D and the EQ-5D are alternative ways of generating utility scores for use in QALY estimations, but it is unclear which is most sensitive to change in psychiatric symptom severity. There are also limited data on the sensitivity of these measures to changes ...

The semaphorin and plexin family of ligand and receptor proteins provides important axon guidance cues required for development. Recent studies have expanded the role of semaphorins and plexins in the regulation of cardiac, circulatory and immune system function. Within the immune system, semaphorins and plexins regulate cell-cell interactions through a complex network of receptor and ligand pa...

OBJECTIVE To help facilitate economic evaluations of oncology treatments, we mapped responses on cancer-specific instrument to generic preference-based measures. METHODS Cancer patients (n = 367) completed one cancer-specific instrument, the FACT-G, and two preference-based measures, the EQ-5D and SF-6D. Responses were randomly divided to form development (n = 184) and cross-validation (n = 1...