Jan P Vandenbroucke

..Examples of useful flow diagrams are also included. The STROBE Statement, this document, and the associated Web site (www.strobe-statement.org) should be helpful resources to improve reporting of observational research...

..Our focus is on case-control studies of disease incidence ('incident case-control studies'); we will not consider the situation of case-control studies of prevalent disease, which are published much less frequently...

..The first part will consider incidence rates in dynamic populations, and how they can best be taught in basic, intermediate and advanced courses. The second part will briefly explain how and why incidence rates are calculated in cohorts...

..Guidelines for treatment have been adopted. We investigated the consequences on the practice of GPs screening cholesterol levels and on the timing of starting statin prescription...

..The role of editors and readers might be different: while editors might be under some obligation to publish 'seemingly impeccable trials', readers are not obliged to accept the findings...

..Moreover, they can also provide convincing clinical evidence. Finally, a well-written case report must clearly state what is already known and what the case report adds to this...

..The problems of confounding present their old challenges again in recent applications to genetic epidemiology...

..quot; In this paper, the author reminisces about how he learned and tried to apply those principles...

..Long-term preventative use, as happens in practice, is not indicated due to the risk of relatively serious side effects...

..In most instances of non-therapeutic research, observational data are more useful. Evaluating all medical knowledge on the basis of a single hierarchy of level of evidence is therefore seriously flawed...

..Even so, the N-of-1 trial is the ultimate form of verification in, for example, the individualisation of treatment. For this reason, this form of study might be used more often...

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..Even so, the N-of-1 trial is the ultimate form of verification in, for example, the individualisation of treatment. For this reason, this form of study might be used more often...

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..Examples of useful flow diagrams are also included. The STROBE Statement, this document, and the associated Web site (http://www.strobe-statement.org/) should be helpful resources to improve reporting of observational research...

..Examples of useful flow diagrams are also included. The STROBE Statement, this document, and the associated web site (http://www.strobe-statement.org) should be helpful resources to improve reporting of observational research...

..To evaluate short- and long-term health in intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) singletons...

..To investigate cognitive development of singletons conceived by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) at 5-8 years of age...

..Examples of useful flow diagrams are also included. The STROBE Statement, this document, and the associated Web site (http://www.strobe-statement.org/) should be helpful resources to improve reporting of observational research...

..To examine the registration of noninferiority trials, with a focus on the reporting of study design and noninferiority margins...

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..Whereas a cohort study, in principle, enables the calculation of an absolute risk or a rate for the outcome, such a calculation is not possible in a case series...

..Our findings show that 24 h variation of cardiac risk is not more pronounced among the 4G4G genotype of PAI-1...

..To improve pre-and post-travel care, we assessed the health risks and the quality and comprehensiveness of pre-and post-travel care in a cohort of Dutch medical students returning form an elective abroad...

..We encountered this problem when studying transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) and describe four methods to overcome this problem...

..In dialysis patients, only a few follow-up studies have addressed the relationship between the insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism in the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene and mortality, but the available data are contradictory...

..First results are emerging that specific subgroups of women, with prothrombotic or other abnormalities, may be at risk, especially during the first years of use of hormone substitution...

..For this reason, it is not formally established whether mortality in acromegaly is different from the general population...

..In exceptional cases the external validity can involve patients that would have been excluded in the original study...

..The uncertainty about the exact risk that is due to the relatively low number of breast cancer cases, should be overcome by pooling results in a future meta-analysis...

..The risk becomes very high in women with a previous venous thrombosis. Randomized trials have not confirmed a beneficial effect of postmenopausal hormones on the occurrence of myocardial infarction...

..We aimed to investigate the risk of end-stage diabetic nephropathy due to Type II (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus in Indo-Asian immigrants from Surinam...

..This complication should be considered in every patient treated with epoetin who experiences unexplained transfusion-dependent anaemia...

..External validity of study results is an important issue from a clinical point of view. From a methodological point of view, however, the concept of external validity is more complex than it seems to be at first glance...

..In addition, we comment on the effect of statin use on the occurrence of both arterial and venous thrombosis. The possible clinical implications of these findings are discussed...

..In order to test this hypothesis we performed a meta-analysis of non-inferiority trials to assess the average effect of experimental treatments compared with standard treatments...

..Few data exist on sex- and age-specific incidence and prevalence of idiopathic hyperprolactinemia and prolactinomas...

..e. 51 years versus 60.9 years. The association of breast cancer and cartilaginous tumours and the early age of onset of breast cancer in these patients may suggest a genetic trait...

..To assess the thrombotic risk associated with oral contraceptive use with a focus on dose of oestrogen and type of progestogen of oral contraceptives available in the Netherlands...

..We aimed to examine the relation between female donors and the occurrence of TRALI...

..Clinical, epidemiological, and molecular data were analyzed to trace the outbreak's origin...

..CONCLUSION: Although troponin T level is an independent risk factor for mortality in dialysis patients, it has limited added predictive power as a routine screening test over other clinical risk factors in dialysis patients...

..New investments should primarily be in direct government financing and in augmentation of streams of money via Medical and Health Research Councils...

..At the same time, good case reporting demands a clear focus to make explicit to the audience why a particular observation is important in the context of existing knowledge...

..Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is an invasive technique of artificial reproduction. We investigated the effect of ICSI on neuromotor development in 5-8 year old singletons...

..The clinical implication of this study is that to improve survival in the hemodialysis population, more attention should be paid to patients who are underweight instead of overweight...

..The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between home hazards and the incidence of falls in the oldest old population...

..Development of new red blood cell (RBC) alloantibodies (alloimmunization) is one of the most frequent adverse reactions after an RBC transfusion. Few studies have investigated clinical risk factors for alloimmunization...

..CONCLUSION: The occurrence of complete sick leave was found to be an independent risk factor for job loss in patients with chronic arthritis who have a disease related problem at work...

..Testing for prothrombotic defects has little consequence with respect to prophylactic strategies. Clinical factors are probably more important than laboratory abnormalities in determining the duration of anticoagulation therapy...

..We found a generation-dependent difference in the expression of AN among White inhabitants of The Netherlands and on Curaçao, with a higher prevalence of AN in the younger generation...

..His analysis did not take into account strong imbalance of variables within subgroups, underestimating possible confounding effects of environmental factors...

..1%; adjusted HR 0.87; 95% CI 0.42-1.82, P=0.72). CONCLUSION: Preemptive SPKT offered a patient survival benefit as compared with transplantation performed while already on dialysis and was associated with a lower rate of cardiac deaths...

..Within the different source populations, considerable unexplained variance remains. Hence no uniform summary estimate for the elevated mortality could be determined...

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..Our experience with the intricacies of dealing with two control groups may be useful to others when thinking about an optimal research design or the best statistical approach...

..It does not lead to complete and uncontrollable subjectivity because discernment between rivaling explanations is still possible through argument and counterargument...

..The developments were accelerated by the finding that "third generation oral contraceptives" are associated with a higher risk of venous thrombosis. The lecture describes these new scientific insights...

..Recent epidemiological studies of good methodological quality have confirmed these findings. CONCLUSIONS: Venous thrombosis appears to be associated with the use of antipsychotic drugs in psychiatric patients...

..We suggest that the longevity is not affected by molecular defects in the antithrombin gene and hypothesize that differences in mortality or natural history between families most likely result from other (genetic) risk factors...

..We hope that the STROBE Statement will contribute to improving the quality of reporting of observational studies...

..We hope that the STROBE Statement will contribute to improving the quality of reporting of observational studies...

..annals.org and on the Web sites of PLoS Medicine and Epidemiology. We hope that the STROBE Statement will contribute to improving the quality of reporting of observational studies...

..We hope that the STROBE Statement will contribute to improving the quality of reporting of observational studies...

..We hope that the STROBE statement will contribute to improving the quality of reporting of observational studies...

..We hope that the STROBE Statement will contribute to improving the quality of reporting of observational studies...

..We hope that the STROBE statement will contribute to improving the quality of reporting of observational studies...

..We hope that the STROBE Statement will contribute to improving the quality of reporting of observational studies...

..Furthermore, we found the incidence of EPO-induced PRCA and EPO antibodies to be low...

..We hope that the STROBE statement will contribute to improving the quality of reporting of observational studies..

..Such case-control designs are intuitively appealing, but they have also been criticized for leading to inflated estimates of accuracy...

..Chances, shortcomings, and practical aspects of population screening were considered...

..At present, investigators conducting case-control studies rarely discuss what their odds ratios estimate...