P J Beitler | Search PubMed

PubMed1997

Effect of tacrine on language, praxis, and noncognitive behavioral problems in Alzheimer disease.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of tacrine hydrochloride in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) and detectable baseline deficits in discrete cognitive and noncognitive parameters who are enrolled in a previously reported multicenter, double-blind, 30-week trial. DESIGN: An exploratory analysis using last observation carried forward. The study population included a placebo group (n = 181) and all patients randomized to treatment within 160 mg/d of tacrine hydrochloride (n = 234), regardless of highest dose achieved or duration of tacrine therapy. STUDY POPULATION: Male and female subjects, at least 50 years of age, with mild to moderate AD and detectable baseline deficits in discrete cognitive and noncognitive parameters. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Change from baseline to last observation carried forward in discrete subscale scores of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS): cognitive (memory, language, praxis) and noncognitive (mood, behavior). Improvement was defined as a decrease of at least 1 point from baseline; stabilization was defined as no change or a decrease from baseline. RESULTS: Compared with the placebo group, the percentage of patients receiving tacrine whose conditions improved or stabilized was significantly greater for 8 of 11 ADAS-cognitive items (word recall, word recognition, orientation, language production, comprehension, word finding, following commands, ideational praxis) and for the ADAS-noncognitive items: cooperation, delusions, and pacing. CONCLUSIONS: Tacrine stabilizes or improves specific behavioral deficits and symptoms in AD. The previous demonstration of tacrine's effect on global cognitive function has been extended by suggesting an association between tacrine therapy and improvements in individual cognitive and noncognitive items of the ADAS. Effects of tacrine in clinical practice might be more accurately and efficiently assessed by measuring individual ADAS cognitive and noncognitive items relevant to individual patient pretreatment clinical status.

Aged↗

PubMed1985

A mixed-effects model for categorical data.

A mixed model for categorical data from unbalanced designs which is directly analogous to a two-way ANOVA model for quantitative data is proposed. An extension of the fitting constants method is developed to estimate model variance components based on appropriate reductions in sums of squares. The resulting variance component estimators are incorporated into the covariance structure of a general linear models Wald statistic to test for treatment differences. These procedures are illustrated with data obtained from a multicenter clinical trial in which the treatments are regarded as fixed effects and the clinics are regarded as random effects.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A study of blood utilization in association with hysterectomy.

We performed a retrospective study of 167 women undergoing hysterectomy in a large tertiary-care teaching hospital in order to assess intraoperative blood requirements and to study the decision-making process that occurs when blood is transfused intraoperatively. Recommended preoperative blood orders for hysterectomy patients based on data from the study are provided. Although "type and screen" is commonly considered to be an adequate preoperative order for patients undergoing vaginal hysterectomy, our data indicate that 2 units may be a more appropriate order when the procedure is combined with pelvic floor repair. The preoperative hematocrit, the estimated intraoperative blood loss, and the duration of the hysterectomy were integral to the decision-making process. If women undergoing hysterectomy were transfused intraoperatively only when their hematocrit actually fell to 30 percent, and not in anticipation of such an event, unnecessary transfusions would be reduced.

Adult↗