Riscontri epidemiologici su casi di Carbonchio ematico in Sicilia

Introduzione. Nel mese di giugno 2009, l'accertamento di un caso di antrace cutaneo in un paziente ospedalizzato nella provincia di Agrigento ha allertato i servizi veterinari circa la presenza di focolai non conclamati di carbonchio ematico nelle aziende zootecniche situate nel comprensorio interessato. A breve distanza dalla segnalazione, si sono verificati 13 casi di mortalità sospetta in bovini allevati in un'azienda di proprietà di un congiunto del paziente e in altri nove allevamenti della provincia nei comuni, geograficamente contigui, di Sambuca di Sicilia, Caltabellotta e Sciacca. Metodi. Campioni ematici prelevati dai padiglioni auricolari dei bovini deceduti sono stati sottoposti…

Can bayesian models play a role in dental caries epidemiology? Evidence from an application to the BELCAP data set

Objectives The aim of this study was to show the potential of Bayesian analysis in statistical modelling of dental caries data. Because of the bounded nature of the dmft (DMFT) index, zero-inflated binomial (ZIB) and beta-binomial (ZIBB) models were considered. The effects of incorporating prior information available about the parameters of models were also shown. Methods The data set used in this study was the Belo Horizonte Caries Prevention (BELCAP) study (Bohning et al. (1999)), consisting of five variables collected among 797 Brazilian school children designed to evaluate four programmes for reducing caries. Only the eight primary molar teeth were considered in the data set. A data aug…

Bayesian Analysis of Diagnostic Accuracy for Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease in the absence of gold standard

Laryngopharyngeal reflux as a potential cause of persistent local neck symptoms after total thyroidectomy

Abstract Purpose Local neck symptoms (LNS) may be related to goiter, but are also reported by patients suffering from laryngeal–pharyngeal reflux (LPR). The aim of this study was to investigate whether LPR could play a role in the persistence of some LNS after total thyroidectomy (TT). Methods A consecutive case series of 160 patients with multinodular goiter (MNG) candidate for TT were included in this study. Each patient was closely studied for both the thyroid pathology and reflux disease before and 6 months after surgery to assess the persistence of LNS after surgery. Results Only throat discomfort showed a significant improvement (p  = 0.031) after surgery. On the other hand, swallowin…

Modello di analisi quantitativa del rischio Listeria Monocytogenes in salmone affumicato

Scomposizione della disuguaglianza socio-economica della salute: analisi dei dati EU-SILC 2010 sulle condizioni di vita delle famiglie

Bayesian Analysis of zero-inflated regression model with application to dental caries

On implementation of the Gibbs sampler for estimating the accuracy of multiple diagnostic tests

Implementation of the Gibbs sampler for estimating the accuracy of multiple binary diagnostic tests in one population has been investigated. This method, proposed by Joseph, Gyorkos and Coupal, makes use of a Bayesian approach and is used in the absence of a gold standard to estimate the prevalence, the sensitivity and specificity of medical diagnostic tests. The expressions that allow this method to be implemented for an arbitrary number of tests are given. By using the convergence diagnostics procedure of Raftery and Lewis, the relation between the number of iterations of Gibbs sampling and the precision of the estimated quantiles of the posterior distributions is derived. An example conc…

Un approccio bayesiano per lo studio dell’associazione gene-ambiente in assenza di equilibrio di Hardy-Weinberg in un contesto multivariabile: studio della suscettibilità genetica al cervico-carcinoma

Bayesian Modeling of caries onset and progression: the Belo Horizonte Caries Prevention Study

Spatial distribution of brucellosis in sheep and goats in Sicily from 2001 to 2005

Spatial analysis is making an increasingly important contribution to surveillance measures due to its ability to enable immediate visualization of information on the phenomenon studied. The authors describe the spatial distribution of prevalence and incidence of brucellosis in small ruminants in Sicily between 2001 and 2005. the study was conducted by integrating geografic information system (GIS)tecnology (MapInfo Professional 7.0) with SaTscan software to the perform an epidemiological analysis of the municipalities and to locate problem areas. A comparison between the thematic maps produced for brucellosis in small ruminants on the basis of prevalence and incidence data for each individu…