Biostatistics Commons^™

Censoring Unbiased Regression Trees And Ensembles, Jon Arni Steingrimsson, Liqun Diao, Robert L. Strawderman

Johns Hopkins University, Dept. of Biostatistics Working Papers

This paper proposes a novel approach to building regression trees and ensemble learning in survival analysis. By first extending the theory of censoring unbiased transformations, we construct observed data estimators of full data loss functions in cases where responses can be right censored. This theory is used to construct two specific classes of methods for building regression trees and regression ensembles that respectively make use of Buckley-James and doubly robust estimating equations for a given full data risk function. For the particular case of squared error loss, we further show how to implement these algorithms using existing software (e.g., CART, …

Prevalence Of And Risk Factors For Adolescent Obesity In Tennessee Using The 2010 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (Yrbs) Data: An Analysis Using Weighted Hierarchical Logistic Regression, Shimin Zheng, Nicole Holt, Jodi L. Southerland, Yan Cao, Trevor Taylor, Deborah L. Slawson, Mark Bloodworth

ETSU Faculty Works

Background: The rate of adolescent overweight and obesity has more than quadrupled over the past few decades, and has become a major public health problem [1]. In 2011, 55% of 12-19 year olds in the United States (U.S.) were overweight or obese [2]. Adolescence is a pivotal time in which many health risk behaviors such as tobacco, alcohol, and drug use are initiated. Such health risk behaviors have been significantly associated with overweight and obesity among adolescents.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between obesity and the health risk behaviors most commonly associated with premature …

High-Throughput Allele-Specific Expression Across 250 Environmental Conditions, Gregory A. Moyerbrailean, Allison L. Richards, Daniel Kurtz, Cynthia A. Kalita, Gordon O. Davis, Chris T. Harvey, Adnan Alazizi, Donovan Watza, Yoram Sorokin, Nancy J. Hauff, Xiang Zhou, Xiaoquan Wen, Roger Pique-Regi, Francesca Luca

Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics

Gene-by-environment (GxE) interactions determine common disease risk factors and biomedically relevant complex traits. However, quantifying how the environment modulates genetic effects on human quantitative phenotypes presents unique challenges. Environmental covariates are complex and difficult to measure and control at the organismal level, as found in GWAS and epidemiological studies. An alternative approach focuses on the cellular environment using in vitro treatments as a proxy for the organismal environment. These cellular environments simplify the organism-level environmental exposures to provide a tractable influence on subcellular phenotypes, such as gene expression. Expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) mapping studies identified GxE interactions in response …

Online Cross-Validation-Based Ensemble Learning, David Benkeser, Samuel D. Lendle, Cheng Ju, Mark J. Van Der Laan

U.C. Berkeley Division of Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Online estimators update a current estimate with a new incoming batch of data without having to revisit past data thereby providing streaming estimates that are scalable to big data. We develop flexible, ensemble-based online estimators of an infinite-dimensional target parameter, such as a regression function, in the setting where data are generated sequentially by a common conditional data distribution given summary measures of the past. This setting encompasses a wide range of time-series models and as special case, models for independent and identically distributed data. Our estimator considers a large library of candidate online estimators and uses online cross-validation to …

Doubly-Robust Nonparametric Inference On The Average Treatment Effect, David Benkeser, Marco Carone, Mark J. Van Der Laan, Peter Gilbert

U.C. Berkeley Division of Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Doubly-robust estimators are widely used to draw inference about the average effect of a treatment. Such estimators are consistent for the effect of interest if either one of two nuisance parameters is consistently estimated. However, if flexible, data-adaptive estimators of these nuisance parameters are used, double-robustness does not readily extend to inference. We present a general theoretical study of the behavior of doubly-robust estimators of an average treatment effect when one of the nuisance parameters is inconsistently estimated. We contrast different approaches for constructing such estimators and investigate the extent to which they may be modified to also allow doubly-robust …

On Combining Family- And Population- Based Sequencing Data, Yuriko Katsumata, David W. Fardo

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Several statistical group-based approaches have been proposed to detect effects of variation within a gene for each of the population- and family-based designs. However, unified tests to combine gene-phenotype associations obtained from these 2 study designs are not yet well established. In this study, we investigated the efficient combination of population-based and family-based sequencing data to evaluate best practices using the Genetic Analysis Workshop 19 (GAW19) data set. Because one design employed whole genome sequencing and the other whole exome sequencing, we examined variants overlapping both data sets. We used the family-based sequence kernel association test (famSKAT) to analyze the …

Causal Effect Estimation In Sequencing Studies: A Bayesian Method To Account For Confounder Adjustment Uncertainty, Chi Wang, Jinpeng Liu, David W. Fardo

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Estimating the causal effect of a single nucleotide variant (SNV) on clinical phenotypes is of interest in many genetic studies. The effect estimation may be confounded by other SNVs as a result of linkage disequilibrium as well as demographic and clinical characteristics. Because a large number of these other variables, which we call potential confounders, are collected, it is challenging to select and adjust for the variables that truly confound the causal effect. The Bayesian adjustment for confounding (BAC) method has been proposed as a general method to estimate the average causal effect in the presence of a large number …

Comparing Performance Of Non-Tree-Based And Tree-Based Association Mapping Methods, Katherine L. Thompson, David W. Fardo

Statistics Faculty Publications

A central goal in the biomedical and biological sciences is to link variation in quantitative traits to locations along the genome (single nucleotide polymorphisms). Sequencing technology has rapidly advanced in recent decades, along with the statistical methodology to analyze genetic data. Two classes of association mapping methods exist: those that account for the evolutionary relatedness among individuals, and those that ignore the evolutionary relationships among individuals. While the former methods more fully use implicit information in the data, the latter methods are more flexible in the types of data they can handle. This study presents a comparison of the 2 …

Performance-Constrained Binary Classification Using Ensemble Learning: An Application To Cost-Efficient Targeted Prep Strategies, Wenjing Zheng, Laura Balzer, Maya L. Petersen, Mark J. Van Der Laan

U.C. Berkeley Division of Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Binary classifications problems are ubiquitous in health and social science applications. In many cases, one wishes to balance two conflicting criteria for an optimal binary classifier. For instance, in resource-limited settings, an HIV prevention program based on offering Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) to select high-risk individuals must balance the sensitivity of the binary classifier in detecting future seroconverters (and hence offering them PrEP regimens) with the total number of PrEP regimens that is financially and logistically feasible for the program to deliver. In this article, we consider a general class of performance-constrained binary classification problems wherein the objective function and the …

Matching The Efficiency Gains Of The Logistic Regression Estimator While Avoiding Its Interpretability Problems, In Randomized Trials, Michael Rosenblum, Jon Arni Steingrimsson

Johns Hopkins University, Dept. of Biostatistics Working Papers

Adjusting for prognostic baseline variables can lead to improved power in randomized trials. For binary outcomes, a logistic regression estimator is commonly used for such adjustment. This has resulted in substantial efficiency gains in practice, e.g., gains equivalent to reducing the required sample size by 20-28% were observed in a recent survey of traumatic brain injury trials. Robinson and Jewell (1991) proved that the logistic regression estimator is guaranteed to have equal or better asymptotic efficiency compared to the unadjusted estimator (which ignores baseline variables). Unfortunately, the logistic regression estimator has the following dangerous vulnerabilities: it is only interpretable when …

Pleiotropic Effects Of Csf Levels Of Alzheimer’S Disease Proteins, Olga A. Vsevolozhskaya, Ilai Keren, David W. Fardo, Dmitri V. Zaykin

Biostatistics Presentations

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analytes harbor potential as diagnostic biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Quantitative measures of CSF proteins comprise a set of often highly correlated endophenotypes that have previously shown promise in genetic analyses (Cruchaga et al., 2013; Kauwe et al., 2014). Pleiotropic impact of genetic variations on this set may provide additional insights into AD pathology at its earliest stages. To determine which specific endophenotypes are pleiotropic, one can employ methods based on the reverse regression of genotype on phenotypes. Recently, we proposed a method based functional linear models (Vsevolozhskaya et al, 2016) that utilizes reverse regression and simultaneously …

Using Low-Dose Radiation To Potentiate The Effect Of Induction Chemotherapy In Head And Neck Cancer: Results Of A Prospective Phase 2 Trial, Susanne M. Arnold, Mahesh Kudrimoti, Emily V. Dressler, John F. Gleason, Natalie L. Silver, William F. Regine, Joseph Valentino

Internal Medicine Faculty Publications

Purpose: Low-dose fractionated radiation therapy (LDFRT) induces effective cell killing through hyperradiation sensitivity and potentiates effects of chemotherapy. We report our second investigation of LDFRT as a potentiator of the chemotherapeutic effect of induction carboplatin and paclitaxel in locally advanced squamous cell cancer of the head and neck (SCCHN).

Experimental Design: Two cycles of induction therapy were given every 21 days: paclitaxel (75 mg/m²) on days 1, 8, and 15; carboplatin (area under the curve 6) day 1; and LDFRT 50 cGy fractions (2 each on days 1, 2, 8, and 15). Objectives included primary site complete response …

Estimation Of P(X > Y) When X And Y Are Dependent Random Variables Using Different Bivariate Sampling Schemes, Hani M. Samawi, Amal Helu, Haresh Rochani, Jingjing Yin, Daniel Linder

Biostatistics: Faculty Publications

The stress-strength models have been intensively investigated in the literature in regards of estimating the reliability θ = P (X > Y) using parametric and nonparametric approaches under different sampling schemes when X and Y are independent random variables. In this paper, we consider the problem of estimating θ when (X, Y) are dependent random variables with a bivariate underlying distribution. The empirical and kernel estimates of θ = P (X > Y), based on bivariate ranked set sampling (BVRSS) are considered, when (X, Y) are paired dependent continuous random variables. The estimators obtained are compared to their counterpart, bivariate simple random …

Weighted-Samgsr: Combining Significance Analysis Of Microarray-Gene Set Reduction Algorithm With Pathway Topology-Based Weights To Select Relevant Genes, Suyan Tian, Howard H. Chang, Chi Wang

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Background: It has been demonstrated that a pathway-based feature selection method that incorporates biological information within pathways during the process of feature selection usually outperforms a gene-based feature selection algorithm in terms of predictive accuracy and stability. Significance analysis of microarray-gene set reduction algorithm (SAMGSR), an extension to a gene set analysis method with further reduction of the selected pathways to their respective core subsets, can be regarded as a pathway-based feature selection method.

Methods: In SAMGSR, whether a gene is selected is mainly determined by its expression difference between the phenotypes, and partially by the number of pathways to …

Fto Genotype And Weight Loss: Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis Of 9563 Individual Participant Data From Eight Randomised Controlled Trials., Katherine M Livingstone, Carlos Celis-Morales, George D Papandonatos, Bahar Erar, Jose C Florez, Kathleen A Jablonski, Cristina Razquin, Amelia Marti, Yoriko Heianza, Tao Huang, Frank M Sacks, Mathilde Svendstrup, Xuemei Sui, Timothy S Church, Tiina Jääskeläinen, Jaana Lindström, Jaakko Tuomilehto, Matti Uusitupa, Tuomo Rankinen, Wim H M Saris, Torben Hansen, Oluf Pedersen, Arne Astrup, Thorkild I A Sørensen, Lu Qi, George A Bray, Miguel A Martinez-Gonzalez, J Alfredo Martinez, Paul W Franks, Jeanne M Mccaffery, Jose Lara, John C Mathers

Epidemiology Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of the FTO genotype on weight loss after dietary, physical activity, or drug based interventions in randomised controlled trials.

DESIGN: Systematic review and random effects meta-analysis of individual participant data from randomised controlled trials.

DATA SOURCES: Ovid Medline, Scopus, Embase, and Cochrane from inception to November 2015.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR STUDY SELECTION: Randomised controlled trials in overweight or obese adults reporting reduction in body mass index, body weight, or waist circumference by FTO genotype (rs9939609 or a proxy) after dietary, physical activity, or drug based interventions. Gene by treatment interaction models were fitted to individual …

Model Averaged Double Robust Estimation, Matthew Cefalu, Francesca Dominici, Nils D. Arvold Md, Giovanni Parmigiani

Harvard University Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Existing methods in causal inference do not account for the uncertainty in the selection of confounders. We propose a new class of estimators for the average causal effect, the model averaged double robust estimators, that formally account for model uncertainty in both the propensity score and outcome model through the use of Bayesian model averaging. These estimators build on the desirable double robustness property by only requiring the true propensity score model or the true outcome model be within a specified class of models to maintain consistency. We provide asymptotic results and conduct a large scale simulation study that indicates …

Variation Of Driving Skill Among Elderly Drivers Compared To Young Drivers In Japan, Indri Hapsari Susilowati, Akira Yasukouchi

Kesmas

Penelitian ini menganalisis kemampuan mengemudi pada pengemudi lanjut usia (lansia) dibandingkan dengan usia muda di Jepang dan melihat keterampilan mengemudi yang kurang sehingga dapat memengaruhi risiko kecelakaan di jalan raya. Subjek penelitian adalah pengemudi usia muda dan lansia, terdiri dari 10 mahasiswa (20 - 24 tahun) dan 25 pengemudi lansia (14 laki-laki dan 11 perempuan) berasal dari The Silver Menpower Center, organisasi bagi lansia > 60 tahun. Pengemudi lansia dibagi menjadi dua kelompok, yaitu lansia 1 berusia 60 - 65 tahun (10 orang) dan lansia 2 berusia > 65 tahun (15 orang). Kemampuan mengemudi dievaluasi dengan simulator permainan mengemudi dalam laboratorium. Analisis …

Rural-Based Health Promotion Model For Pregnant Women In Banyumas District, Elviera Gamelia, Dian Anandari, Dyah Umiyarni Purnamasari

Kesmas

Penelitian sebelumnya menunjukkan bahwa pengetahuan pelayanan prenatal di wilayah pedesaan masih rendah yang berdampak pada perilaku buruk sehingga mengembangkan model promosi kesehatan dibutuhkan untuk meningkatkan pengetahuan prenatal, sikap dan perilaku. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengembangkan model promosi kesehatan pelayanan prenatal di wilayah pedesaan berdasarkan penilaian kebutuhan. Penelitian dilakukan pada Juni 2015 dengan pendekatan kualitatif melibatkan 16 ibu hamil pertama di trimester ketiga dengan kehamilan berisiko sebagai informan kunci dan 16 anggota keluarga yang tinggal bersama ibu hamil dan mengetahui kehidupan sehari-harinya, 27 bidan dan 3 tokoh agama sebagai informan tambahan. Teknik pengumpulan data adalah wawancara mendalam dan observasi untuk ibu …

Well Water Consumed And Urolithiasis In Gedangsari Subdistrict, Yogyakarta, Sulistyawati Sulistyawati, Fardhiasih Dwi Astuti, Ruri Trisasri, Asep Rustiawan

Kesmas

Tanah di wilayah Kecamatan Gedangsari mengandung batuan kapur. Masyarakat di daerah ini banyak yang mengkonsumsi air minum dari sumur gali yang mengandung kadar kalsium tinggi, dan banyak yang menderita urolithiasis. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendapatkan gambaran distribusi kalsium atau Ca(OH)2 pada air sumur dan menjelaskan hubungannya dengan kejadian urolithiasis. Penelitian dilakukan di Kecamatan Gedangsari, Kabupaten Gunungkidul selama Juli sampai November 2013. Penelitian dilakukan secara potong lintang dengan konfirmasi uji titrasi di laboratorium. Sejumlah 94 sampel sumur dipilih secara acak dari populasi 3.849 sumur. Kriteria pemilihan sampel adalah sumur gali yang telah digunakan untuk minum oleh penduduk berusia lebih dari 30 …

Identification Of Pathogenic Leptospira In Rat And Shrew Populations Using Rpob Gene And Its Spatial Distribution In Boyolali District, Dyah Widiastuti, Zumrotus Sholichah, Agustiningsih Agustiningsih, Nastiti Wijayanti

Kesmas

Leptospirosis merupakan masalah kesehatan di Indonesia. Hingga April 2014, dilaporkan kasus leptospirosis yang ditularkan oleh tikus di Kabupaten Boyolali dengan angka kematian 83,3%. Genus Leptospira terdiri dari ratusan serovar dan tipe genetik yang hidup di pelbagai jenis habitat. Pengelompokan spesies Leptospira berdasarkan gen rpoB dapat digunakan karena tingkat polimorfisme gen tersebut tinggi. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi serovar bakteri Leptospira pada populasi tikus di Kabupaten Boyolali menggunakan analisis hubungan kekerabatan didasarkan pada polimorfisme gen rpoB dan menggambarkan distribusi spasial tikus positif Leptospira di Kabupaten Boyolali. Penelitian potong lintang dilaksanakan pada bulan April 2014 di Desa Sindon Kecamatan Ngemplak dan Desa …

Measles Immunization And Vitamin A For Prevention Of Pneumonia In Indonesia, Ratno Widoyo

Kesmas

Pneumonia merupakan penyebab kematian tertinggi pada anak di Indonesia setelah diare. Pengendalian pneumonia dapat dilakukan dengan peningkatan cakupan imunisasi campak, pertusis, Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn), dan Haemophilus influenzae b (Hib). Vaksin Spn dan Hib belum masuk ke dalam kategori imunisasi wajib di Indonesia. Vaksin campak lebih memiliki pengaruh langsung terhadap pneumonia dibandingkan dengan vaksin pertusis. Pemberian imunisasi yang disertai pemberian vitamin A akan meningkatkan titer antibodi pada anak. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh pemberian imunisasi campak dan vitamin A terhadap kejadian pneumonia. Metode penelitian adalah potong lintang dengan menggunakan 13.062 data anak yang terdapat pada data Survei Demografi dan Kesehatan …

Role Of Hearth Program With Undernutrition Incidence Among Toddlers In Tangerang City, Gizella Gizella, Dany Hilmanto, Dedi Rachmadi

Kesmas

Kelompok yang rentan terhadap gizi kurang adalah balita. World Health Organization (WHO) menyatakan kematian anak bawah lima tahun (balita) akibat gizi kurang sebesar 54% pada tahun 2002. Di Indonesia, prevalensinya mengalami peningkatan dari 17,9% pada tahun 2010 menjadi 19,6% pada tahun 2013. Di Kota Tangerang, terdapat 1,43% balita yang mengalami gizi buruk pada tahun 2013. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk membuktikan secara valid hubungan antara Program Pos Gizi yang meliputi perilaku pemberian makan, perilaku kebersihan balita, perilaku mencari pelayanan kesehatan dan perilaku pengasuhan balita dengan kejadian gizi kurang pada balita. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kuantitatif, potong lintang, menggunakan data primer serta …

Good Corporate Governance Implementation And Performance Of Civil Servant, Muhammad Hasan, Dumilah Ayuningtyas, Misnaniarti Misnaniarti

Kesmas

Dalam rangka mencapai visi dan misi, setiap rumah sakit harus menjalankan tata kelola perusahaan yang baik (Good Corporate Governance/GCG). Penerapan GCG sendiri bertujuan untuk meningkatkan kinerja pegawai secara optimal, yang akhirnya akan meningkatkan kinerja organisasi. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis hubungan penerapan prinsip-prinsip GCG terhadap kinerja pegawai negeri sipil (PNS) Rumah Sakit Umum Lapangan Natuna Kabupaten Kepulauan Anambas. Jenis penelitian ini adalah deskriptif analitik dengan desain potong lintang pada 56 PNS. Pengumpulan data dilakukan pada tahun 2012 dengan kuesioner terstruktur. Digunakan analisis dengan uji kai kuadrat dan regresi logistik, dan untuk penyederhanaan model dilakukan eliminasi terhadap faktor perancu dengan menggunakan …

Environmental, Behavioral Factors And Filariasis Incidence In Bintan District, Riau Islands Province, Zainul Ikhwan, Lucky Herawati, Suharti Suharti

Kesmas

Tingkat mikrofilaria filariasis di Kabupaten Bintan masih tinggi, khususnya di Kecamatan Teluk Bintan, Teluk Sebong, dan Sri Kuala Lobam. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui hubungan faktor risiko lingkungan (faktor fisik, biologi, kimia, sosial budaya, ekonomi) dan faktor perilaku dengan kejadian filariasis. Jenis penelitian observasional analitik yang dilakukan pada Mei – September 2015 dengan desain kasus kontrol, yang terdiri dari jumlah kasus 33 orang penderita filariasis dan kontrol 65 orang bukan penderita filariasis dengan teknik cluster sampling. Populasi penelitian adalah masyarakat di Kabupaten Bintan. Data yang diperoleh dianalisis menggunakan uji kai kuadrat dan regresi logistik. Hasil menunjukkan adanya hubungan pengetahuan (nilai …

Distance-Based Analysis Of Variance For Brain Connectivity, Russell T. Shinohara, Haochang Shou, Marco Carone, Robert Schultz, Birkan Tunc, Drew Parker, Ragini Verma

UPenn Biostatistics Working Papers

The field of neuroimaging dedicated to mapping connections in the brain is increasingly being recognized as key for understanding neurodevelopment and pathology. Networks of these connections are quantitatively represented using complex structures including matrices, functions, and graphs, which require specialized statistical techniques for estimation and inference about developmental and disorder-related changes. Unfortunately, classical statistical testing procedures are not well suited to high-dimensional testing problems. In the context of global or regional tests for differences in neuroimaging data, traditional analysis of variance (ANOVA) is not directly applicable without first summarizing the data into univariate or low-dimensional features, a process that may …

Diffuse Optical Measurements Of Head And Neck Tumor Hemodynamics For Early Prediction Of Chemoradiation Therapy Outcomes, Lixin Dong, Mahesh Kudrimoti, Daniel Irwin, Li Chen, Sameera Kumar, Yu Shang, Chong Huang, Ellis L. Johnson, Scott D. Stevens, Brent J. Shelton, Guoqiang Yu

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

This study used a hybrid near-infrared diffuse optical instrument to monitor tumor hemodynamic responses to chemoradiation therapy for early prediction of treatment outcomes in patients with head and neck cancer. Forty-seven patients were measured once per week to evaluate the hemodynamic status of clinically involved cervical lymph nodes as surrogates for the primary tumor response. Patients were classified into two groups: complete response (CR) (n = 29) and incomplete response (IR) (n = 18). Tumor hemodynamic responses were found to be associated with clinical outcomes (CR/IR), wherein the associations differed depending on human papillomavirus (HPV-16) status. In HPV-16 …

The Use Of Permutation Tests For The Analysis Of Parallel And Stepped-Wedge Cluster Randomized Trials, Rui Wang, Victor Degruttola

Harvard University Biostatistics Working Paper Series

We investigate the use of permutation tests for the analysis of parallel and stepped-wedge cluster randomized trials. Permutation tests for parallel designs with exponential family endpoints have been extensively studied. The optimal permutation tests developed for exponential family alternatives require information on intraclass correlation, a quantity not yet defined for time-to-event endpoints. Therefore, it is unclear how efficient permutation tests can be constructed for cluster-randomized trials with such endpoints. We consider a class of test statistics formed by a weighted average of pair-specific treatment effect estimates and offer practical guidance on the choice of weights to improve efficiency. We apply …

Improving Precision By Adjusting For Baseline Variables In Randomized Trials With Binary Outcomes, Without Regression Model Assumptions, Jon Arni Steingrimsson, Daniel F. Hanley, Michael Rosenblum

Johns Hopkins University, Dept. of Biostatistics Working Papers

In randomized clinical trials with baseline variables that are prognostic for the primary outcome, there is potential to improve precision and reduce sample size by appropriately adjusting for these variables. A major challenge is that there are multiple statistical methods to adjust for baseline variables, but little guidance on which is best to use in a given context. The choice of method can have important consequences. For example, one commonly used method leads to uninterpretable estimates if there is any treatment effect heterogeneity, which would jeopardize the validity of trial conclusions. We give practical guidance on how to avoid this …

Left And Right Ventricular Dyssynchrony And Strains From Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Feature Tracking Do Not Predict Deterioration Of Ventricular Function In Patients With Repaired Tetralogy Of Fallot, Linyuan Jing, Gregory J. Wehner, Jonathan D. Suever, Richard Charnigo, Sudad Alhadad, Evan Stearns, Dimitri Mojsejenko, Christopher M. Haggerty, Kelsey Hickey, Anne Marie Valente, Tal Geva, Andrew J. Powell, Brandon K. Fornwalt

Saha Cardiovascular Research Center Faculty Publications

Background: Patients with repaired tetralogy of Fallot (rTOF) suffer from progressive ventricular dysfunction decades after their surgical repair. We hypothesized that measures of ventricular strain and dyssynchrony would predict deterioration of ventricular function in patients with rTOF.

Methods: A database search identified all patients at a single institution with rTOF who underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) at least twice, > 6 months apart, without intervening surgical or catheter procedures. Seven primary predictors were derived from the first CMR using a custom feature tracking algorithm: left (LV), right (RV) and inter-ventricular dyssynchrony, LV and RV peak global circumferential strains, and LV and …

Mediation Analysis For A Survival Outcome With Time-Varying Exposures, Mediators, And Confounders, Sheng-Hsuan Lin, Jessica G. Young, Roger Logan, Tyler J. Vanderweele

Harvard University Biostatistics Working Paper Series

We propose an approach to conduct mediation analysis for survival data with time-varying exposures, mediators, and confounders. We identify certain interventional direct and indirect effects through a survival mediational g-formula and describe the required assumptions. We also provide a feasible parametric approach along with an algorithm and software to estimate these effects. We apply this method to analyze the Framingham Heart Study data to investigate the causal mechanism of smoking on mortality through coronary artery disease. The risk ratio of smoking 30 cigarettes per day for ten years compared with no smoking on mortality is 2.34 (95 % CI = …