BACKGROUND Volume-outcome relationships related to major surgery may be of limited value if observation ends at the point of discharge without taking transfers and later events into consideration. METHODS The volume-outcome relationship in patients who underwent pancreatic surgery between 2008 and 2010 was assessed using claims data for all inpatient episodes from Germany's largest provider o...

Monitoring health care and developing metrics to gauge optimum systems from suboptimum ones is a multidimensional effort that spans the spectrum of health services research and administration. The quality assessment tools for operative procedures range from policies requiring measurement of general compliance within medical society guidelines, in terms of medical indications and procedural tech...

OBJECTIVE Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) alters walking. Yet, the compensatory role of central locomotor circuits remains unclear. We hypothesized that walking outcomes would be more closely related to regional gray matter volumes in older adults with DPN as compared with nonneuropathic diabetic patients and nondiabetic control subjects. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Clinically important ...

BACKGROUND Adoption of transradial percutaneous coronary intervention (TRI) in the United States is low and may be related to challenges learning the technique. We examined the relationships between operator TRI volume and procedural metrics and outcomes. METHODS AND RESULTS We used CathPCI Registry data from July 2009 to December 2012 to identify new radial operators, defined by an exclusive...

Objective: In recent years, various treatment programs have been implemented in Iran aimed at rehabilitation and improvement of drug-dependent patients but so far, few studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of different treatment programs in terms of different outcomes. This study was conducted to determine the differences among patients participating in three therapeutic programs, ou...

OBJECTIVE Since the conductance catheter method has facilitated evaluation of left ventricular contractile state in both laboratory and clinical studies, the aim of this study was to determine whether the technique is similarly useful for the right ventricle. METHODS A series of right ventricular pressure-volume loops was obtained in seven open chest pigs during transient vena caval occlusion...

Owing to the strong relationship between fat-free mass (FFM) and resting energy expenditure (REE), the preservation of FFM is often emphasized in the treatment of adolescent obesity. Typical treatment regimens including an increased dietary consumption of protein and participation in resistance training are common components of adolescent weight management programs, despite limited evidence of ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The relationships between cerebrovascular lesions visible on imaging and cognition are complex. We explored the possibility that the cerebral cortical volume mediated these relationships. METHODS Total of 1906 nondemented participants (59% women; 25% African-American; mean age, 76.6 years) in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study underwent cognitive asses...

In social advertising, ads are targeted based on underlying social networks and their content is tailored with information that pertains to the social relationship. This paper explores the effectiveness of social advertising using data from field tests of different ads on Facebook. We find evidence that social advertising is effective, and that this efficacy seems to stem mainly from the abilit...