In clinical research, questionnaires are an important tool available for population and large family studies to gather information on a patient’s medical history. In 1989, we described a large kindred of FrenchCanadian descent with an 8-fold increased risk of venous thrombosis due to the 3363C insertion in the protein C gene [1]. We developed a questionnaire for use in this family to assess gen...

A new score statistic is derived, which uses information from registries (age-specific incidences) and family studies (sib-sib marginal correlation) to weight affected sibling pairs according to their age at onset. Age at onset of sibling pairs is modelled by a gamma frailty model. From this model we derive a bivariate survival function, which depends on the marginal survival and on the margina...

We conducted a tuberculosis contact investigation for a female military recruit with an unreported history of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) and subsequent recurrence. Pertinent issues included identification of likely contacts from separate training phases, uncertainty on latent MDRTB infection treatment regimens and side effects, and subsequent dispersal of the contacts after exposure.

We describe an investigation of the action of hyaluronidase on hyaluronan using viscosimetry. A new viscosimetric approach was developed for determining the activity of the enzyme in katal units. This approach requires knowledge of several parameters (e.g. Mark-Houwink constants) which were determined by combining viscosimetric measurement and gel-permeation chromatography analysis. Using all t...

In the experiments described here, a physiological measurement is made while photochemical procedures are employed to alter (a) the concentration of a ligand near membranes or proteins or (b) the structure of the ligand-receptor complexes. Because photochemical reactions often provide the quickest way to produce such chemical perturbations, we emphasize the kinetic information that such experim...