Development of the physical therapy outpatient satisfaction survey (PTOPS). (1/1120)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The purposes of this 3-phase study were (1) to identify the underlying components of outpatient satisfaction in physical therapy and (2) to develop a test that would yield reliable and valid measurements of these components. SUBJECTS: Three samples, consisting of 177, 257, and 173 outpatients from 21 facilities, were used in phases 1, 2, and 3, respectively. METHODS AND RESULTS: In phase 1, principal component analyses (PCAs), reliability checks, and correlations with social desirability scales were used to reduce a pool of 98 items to 32 items. These analyses identified a 5-component model of outpatient satisfaction in physical therapy. The phase 2 PCA, with a revised pool of 48 items, indicated that 4 components rather than 5 components represented the best model and resulted in the 34-item Physical Therapy Outpatient Satisfaction Survey (PTOPS). Factor analyses conducted with phase 2 and phase 3 data supported this conclusion and provided evidence for the internal validity of the PTOPS scores. The 4-component scales were labeled "Enhancers," "Detractors," "Location," and "Cost." Responses from subsamples of phase 3 subjects provided evidence for validity of scores in that the PTOPS components of "Enhancers," "Detractors," and "Cost" appeared to differentiate overtly satisfied patients from overtly dissatisfied patients. "Location" and "Enhancer" scores discriminated subjects with excellent attendance at scheduled physical therapy sessions from those with poor attendance. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION: In this study, we identified components of outpatient satisfaction in physical therapy and used them to develop a test that would yield valid and reliable measurements of these components.  (+info)

Molecular typing of Salmonella serotype Thompson strains isolated from human and animal sources. (2/1120)

One-hundred-and-thirteen isolates of Salmonella serotype Thompson from diverse sources in seven countries were characterized by PvuII ribotyping and IS200 fingerprinting. Ten PvuII ribotypes were observed. The predominant PvuII ribotype 1 represented a major clone of world-wide distribution but was not found in Australia; PvuII ribotypes 2 and 3 represented minor clones. HincII ribotyping discriminated subtypes within PvuII ribotype 1: HincII ribotype 1 was distributed widely but HincII ribotype 2 was found mainly in Scottish isolates. None of 101 isolates of PvuII ribotypes 1-3 contained copies of IS200. All 12 isolates of PvuII ribotypes 4-10 were from Australia and 7 of them contained copies of IS200 of 5 different profiles. These results suggest the existence of at least two lineages of Salmonella Thompson with a different geographical distribution. The finding that most isolates from man and poultry in Scotland belonged to the same ribotype (PvuII 1/HincII 2) and were IS200-negative suggests that poultry is an important source of human infection in Scotland.  (+info)

Artificial neural network models for the preoperative discrimination between malignant and benign adnexal masses. (3/1120)

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to generate and evaluate artificial neural network (ANN) models from simple clinical and ultrasound-derived criteria to predict whether or not an adnexal mass will have histological evidence of malignancy. DESIGN: The data were collected prospectively from 173 consecutive patients who were scheduled to undergo surgical investigations at the University Hospitals, Leuven, between August 1994 and August 1996. The outcome measure was the histological classification of excised tissues as malignant (including borderline) or benign. METHODS: Age, menopausal status and serum CA 125 levels and sonographic features of the adnexal mass were encoded as variables. The ANNs were trained on a randomly selected set of 116 patient records and tested on the remainder (n = 57). The performance of each model was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and compared with corresponding data from an established risk of malignancy index (RMI) and a logistic regression model. RESULTS: There were 124 benign masses, five of borderline malignancy and 44 invasive cancers (of which 29% were metastatic); 37% of patients with a malignant or borderline tumor had stage I disease. The best ANN gave an area under the ROC curve of 0.979 for the whole dataset, a sensitivity of 95.9% and specificity of 93.5%. The corresponding values for the RMI were 0.882, 67.3% and 91.1%, and for the logistic regression model 0.956, 95.9% and 85.5%, respectively. CONCLUSION: An ANN can be trained to provide clinically accurate information, on whether or not an adnexal mass is malignant, from the patient's menopausal status, serum CA 125 levels, and some simple ultrasonographic criteria.  (+info)

The distribution of endometrial leukocytes and their proliferation markers in trimegestone-treated postmenopausal women compared to the endometrium of the natural cycle: a dose-ranging study. (4/1120)

The effect of trimegestone-based sequential hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on the distribution of endometrial leukocytes and Ki-67 expression was investigated and the findings compared with the endometrium of the natural cycle. Endometrial cells positive for CD45(+), CD56(+), CD3(+), Ki-67(+) and CD45(+)/Ki-67(+) antigens were immunohistochemically evaluated in samples from postmenopausal women who completed a randomized, double-blind, dose-ranging study of oral trimegestone (0.05, 0.1, 0.25 and 0.5 mg per day) from days 15 to 28 with continuous micronized oestradiol 2 mg daily for six treatment cycles. The control samples were luteinizing hormone (LH)-dated endometrial biopsies. Cell counts were interpreted using linear discriminant analysis and unpaired t-test. The dose of trimegestone did not significantly affect the mean count of CD45(+), CD56(+), CD3(+), Ki-67(+) and CD45(+)/Ki-67(+) cells in the endometrial biopsies obtained from treated women. Endometrial sections from women who bled on the day of the biopsy contained higher numbers of CD45(+) and CD56 cells. In the trimegestone-treated endometrium, CD45(+), CD56(+) and CD3(+) cell expression was similar to the proliferative and early secretory phases of the natural cycle. However the expression Ki-67 and CD45(+)/Ki-67(+) cells was similar to the menstrual phase of the natural cycle endometrium. Women treated with four doses of trimegestone exhibited four different bleeding patterns. Therefore the endometrial infiltration with these cells did not explain the pattern of bleeding in women on this HRT regimen.  (+info)

An appraisal of the Peer Assessment Rating (PAR) Index and a suggested new weighting system. (5/1120)

The PAR Index was developed to measure treatment outcome in orthodontics. Validity was improved by weighting the scores of some components to reflect their relative importance. However, the index still has limitations, principally due to the high weight assigned to overjet. Difficulties also arise from the application of one weighting system to all malocclusions, since occlusal features vary in importance in different classes of malocclusion. The present study examined PAR Index validity using orthodontic consultant assessments as the 'Gold standard' and clinical ranking of occlusal features and statistical modelling to derive a new weighting system, separate for each malocclusion class. Discriminant and regression analyses were used to derive new criteria for measuring treatment outcome. As a result a new and more sensitive method of assessment is suggested which utilizes a combination of point and percentage reductions in PAR scores. This was found to have better correlations with the 'Gold standard' than the PAR nomogram.  (+info)

Validation of a questionnaire for assessing physical work load. (6/1120)

OBJECTIVES: Reliable, valid, and compatible methods are required for exploring the complex interactive effects of psychosocial and physical stressors on complaints and disorders. An instrument for assessing physical work load that integrates information from a biomechanical model of lumbar load is presented and validated. METHODS: Four hundred and fifty-five people working in nursing homes for elderly people in Germany filled out the developed questionnaire 3 times within 1 year. Test-retest reliability was calculated, and validity was checked several times. Relationships with other, theoretically related and unrelated variables were examined. RESULTS: The test-retest reliability of the questionnaire measures was about 0.65. The convergent and discriminant validity was satisfactory, and the questionnaire was able to separate professional subgroups with different physical work loads. The Spearman rank-order correlations between physical load and musculoskeletal complaints were about 0.30. CONCLUSIONS: The method developed in this study is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing physical work load. The integration of statistical methods from psychological testing and theory in the development of methods exploring the effects of physical work load is advocated.  (+info)

Class II MHC quantitative binding motifs derived from a large molecular database with a versatile iterative stepwise discriminant analysis meta-algorithm. (7/1120)

MOTIVATION: The identification of T-cell epitopes can be crucial for vaccine development. An epitope is a peptide segment that binds to both a T-cell receptor and a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecule. Predicting which peptide segments bind MHC molecules is the first step in epitope prediction. RESULTS: An iterative stepwise discriminant analysis meta-algorithm explores a large molecular database to derive quantitative motifs for peptide binding. The applications presented here demonstrate the algorithm's versatility by producing four closely related models for HLA-DR1. Two models use an expert initial estimate and two do not; two models use amino acid residues as the only predictors and two use amino acid groupings as additional predictors. Each model correctly classifies >90% of the peptides in the database. AVAILABILITY: Software is available commercially; data are free over the Internet.  (+info)

Infrared spectra of basal cell carcinomas are distinct from non-tumor-bearing skin components. (8/1120)

Infrared spectroscopy, by probing the molecular vibration of chemical bonds, directly indicates tissue biochemistry. An expanding body of literature suggests that infrared spectra distinguish diseased from normal tissue. The authors used infrared spectroscopy to examine basal cell carcinoma to explore distinctive characteristics of basal cell carcinoma versus normal skin samples and other skin neoplasms. Spectra of epidermis, tumor, follicle sheath, and dermis were acquired from unstained frozen sections, and analyzed qualitatively, by t-tests and by linear discriminant analyses. Dermal spectra were significantly different from the other skin components mainly due to absorptions from collagen in dermis. Spectra of normal epidermis and basal cell carcinoma were significantly different by virtue of subtle differences in protein structure and nucleic acid content. Linear discriminant analysis characterized spectra as arising from basal cell carcinoma, epidermis, or follicle sheath with 98.7% accuracy. Use of linear discriminant analysis accurately classified spectra as arising from epidermis overlying basal cell carcinoma versus epidermis overlying nontumor-bearing skin in 98.0% of cases. Spectra of basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, nevi, and malignant melanoma were qualitatively similar. Distinction of basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanocytic lesions by linear discriminant analyses, however, was 93.5% accurate. Therefore, spectral separation of abnormal versus normal tissue was achieved with high sensitivity and specificity, which points to infrared spectroscopy as a potentially useful screening tool for cutaneous neoplasia.  (+info)