Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

K Liu

Publications and source records attributed to K Liu.

At least 541 records · Page 30Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

Homicide death rates in childhood in 23 developed countries: U.S. rates atypically high.

World Health Organization vital statistics data were used to compare U.S. homicide death rates with those in 23 other developed countries. Using rank ordering and comparison with mean and median rates for the other countries, U.S. homicide rates for the general population were found to be exceptionally high among developed countries. Similarly, U.S. homicide death rates for infants and for 1-4-year-olds were atypically high. The U.S. infant homicide rates were also unusual because of a male predominance. After infancy, high female homicide rates in the U.S. were more unusual than the male rates. The atypically high homicide risk in the U.S. apparently begins in early childhood, affecting particularly male infants and females after infancy. The data and other cited information suggest that features of U.S. society may promote homicide in childhood. The scope and nature of the U.S. childhood homicide problem warrants a focused effort to develop specific preventive approaches.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1983

Coffee and pancreatic cancer: an analysis of international mortality data.

This study assessed the relationship of per capita coffee imports and consumption, total dietary fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, tobacco, cigarettes, and national income for 1957-1965 to age-adjusted pancreatic cancer death rates of men and women from 22 countries in 1971-1974. With simple correlation analysis, coffee, total dietary fat, saturated fat, and national income were each significantly correlated with both male and female pancreatic cancer mortality. Bivariate partial correlation coefficients of coffee with pancreatic cancer mortality were significant (one-tailed) in 11 of 12 analyses and borderline significant in two-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) (two-tailed) controlling for each of the other variables. Saturated fat and pancreatic cancer were also significantly related in univariate analyses, and in 11 of 12 bivariate partial correlation analyses; in ANOVA, significance was borderline in 10 of 12 analyses. Total fat and pancreatic mortality were also significantly associated in most of the univariate and bivariate correlation analyses, but not in the two-way analyses of variance. The findings of this study are consistent with the hypothesis that coffee and dietary lipid are involved in the etiology of pancreatic cancer.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Sleep patterns, attention span, and infant temperament.

Infant temperament ratings and parental reports of sleep patterns and sleep durations were obtained on 105 normal infants. Boys with more difficult temperaments and active sleep patterns had brief attention spans compared to the other children (p = 0.005). Among all infants, active sleep pattern was associated with maleness and increased activity ratings when awake (both p less than 0.05). Infants with easy temperaments slept longer than those with difficult temperaments (14.9 +/- 0.2 versus 12.8 +/- 0.5 hours, p less than 0.001). Gender, maternal prenatal smoking, method of feeding, and infant sleep position did not affect attention span ratings or sleep durations.

Attention↗
PubMed1983

The length-of-stay pattern of nursing home admissions.

The length of stay (LOS) pattern of nursing home admissions has not been directly measured because the long duration of stay of some patients (e.g., 25% of persons admitted reside in homes for longer than 1 year) makes it impractical to follow specific admission cohorts until the members have been discharged. By applying life-table methods to data on current and discharged residents from the 1977 National Nursing Home Survey, the authors were able to generate estimates of this distribution. They estimated that the typical nursing home admission initially has an expected LOS of 456 days, but, more interesting, the remaining LOS is expected to increase, in the intermediate term, with the amount of time spent in the facility. They also examined LOS distributions of subsets of the national nursing home population, and illustrated potential applications for this new information for policy formulation.

Actuarial Analysis↗
PubMed1983

Avoiding anastomotic leakage following esophagogastrostomy.

The most serious complication following esophagectomy and conventional intrathoracic esophagogastrostomy is anastomotic leakage, which contributes to both a high mortality and morbidity postoperatively. The incidence of anastomotic leakage reported in a recent 10 year period ranged from 3% to 18%, with a mean of 4.9%. A series of 433 esophagogastrostomies were performed in our institute from 1954 to 1981 for various esophageal lesions, including 414 cases of carcinoma of the esophagus. A conventional esophagogastrostomy was carried out in 319 patients and 12 leaks occurred postoperatively, an incidence of 3.7%. In comparison, another group of 114 patients underwent "tunnel" esophagogastrostomy, a technique that we designed. There was only one leak, an incidence of 0.87%. The "tunnel" esophagogastrostomy is therefore recommended as a reliable operative procedure for minimizing the incidence of anastomotic leakage. The operative technique is described in detail.

Esophageal Neoplasms↗
PubMed1982

The selective lipid-lowering effect of vegetarianism on low density lipoproteins in a cross-over experiment.

In a cross-over experiment the effect of short-term vegetarianism on serum lipids, lipoproteins and apoproteins was studied. The experimental diet was free of animal products, with the exception of skim milk, and consequently low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Fifteen free-living individuals were randomly assigned to 3-week periods on either the experimental diet or a control diet which closely approximated the usual intake in the U.S.A. Significant reductions in total cholesterol (12.5%), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (14.7%), and apo B (13.2%) were observed, accompanied by a non-significant decrease in high density lipoprotein cholesterol (10%), apo A-I (3%) and a non-significant increase in apo-II (4%). These data suggest that a fat-modified diet low in total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol, and moderate (not high) in polyunsaturated fat may not lower HDL-C or its apoproteins as much as a diet high in polyunsaturated fat, while having similar effects on LDL-C, and would therefore be preferable as the basis for primary prevention of atherosclerosis.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Methodological problems in characterizing an individual's plasma glucose level.

Two methodological problems in characterizing an individual's plasma glucose level are examined in this study. First, how large is the intra-individual variation of an individual's 1-hr post-load glucose level and for this estimated intra-individual variation what are the probabilities of misclassifying individuals based on a one-time measurement only of glucose level? Second, do different tests-i.e. fasting, 1-hr, 2 hr post-load, GTT-yield consistent ranking for the same individual? The first of these was explored with data on subsamples from the Chicago Peoples Gas Company (PG) study and the Chicago Heart Association Detection Project in Industry (CHA) study; the second, with data from the Chicago Coronary Prevention Evaluation Program (CPEP). For both the PG and CHA studies, the estimated ratios of the intra- to inter-individual variances were generally higher for post-load plasma glucose than blood pressure, heart rate, weight and serum uric acid. The conditional probabilities of misclassifying individuals into quintiles or deciles based on one measurement of 1-hr post-load glucose were also estimated from these data. These estimated probabilities indicated that the possible attenuation due to intra-individual variation cannot abolish a strong association; however, it may create some problem if the relationship is not very strong. Furthermore, both rank correlation and quintile classification analyses show that fasting, 1-hr and 2-hr plasma glucose level characterize individuals differently. Thus it is possible that the inconsistent results of previous studies, all using a one-time measure of plasma glucose, are partially due to the large intra-individual variation of this variable, and the use of methods that are not highly consistent in their classification of individuals.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Methodological assessment of assays for red cell sodium concentration and sodium-dependent lithium efflux.

Assays for red cell sodium concentration and sodium-dependent lithium efflux were studied from a methodological point of view. The technical errors for sodium concentration--based on concurrent analysis of randomized blind duplicate samples--was 2.5% and for lithium efflux 6.4%. Based on repeated measures in the same individual, the assays were stable over time and reproducible; individual differences at a mean interval of 16 days were not significantly different. A wait of two hours from time of phlebotomy to analysis yielded a slight (3.8%) but significant fall in the sodium concentration; no further change was found at four hours. No change occurred in the lithium efflux over time. A standardized breakfast containing 664 mg sodium did not affect the measurements when fasting and three-hour postprandial levels were compared. The ratios of intra- to inter-individual variance were small--0.04 for red cell sodium concentration and 0.09 for sodium-stimulated lithium efflux. These assays appear to be reproducible and stable and can be applied in large scale field trials.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

The nursing home population: different perspectives and implications for policy.

Long-term care institutions are used by residential patients who stay for many years and patients with specific ailments who stay for relatively short periods. The presence of short-stay patients is not adequately recorded by cross-sectional surveys which have been used to measure nursing home use. To obtain a better understanding about the mix of long-stay and short-stay patients, we created a hypothetical population of all users of nursing homes in the United States for a 12-month period. Descriptive statistics are presented on this annual population, which we derived empirically from the 1977 National Nursing Home Survey. We found that an estimated 2.4 million individuals used nursing homes at some time during 1976.

Aged↗