https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Index ${session.getAttribute("locale")} 5 Serum L-arginine and endogenous methylarginine concentrations predict irritable bowel syndrome in adults: A nested case-control study https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:47086 0.05). Similar results were found for IBS subtypes. Higher serum L-arginine concentration had the strongest association with IBS diagnosis, with an odds ratio of 9.03 for those with serum L-arginine at the 75th (84 μmol/L) versus 25th (46 μmol/L) percentile (95% CI: 5.99–13.62). L-arginine had the best discriminative ability with a bias-adjusted area under the receiver operator characteristic curve of 0.859. Conclusions: Higher serum concentrations of L-arginine and endogenous methylarginines are strongly associated with IBS in adults.]]> Wed 14 Dec 2022 09:23:38 AEDT ]]> Serum methylarginines and spirometry-measured lung function in older adults https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:14963 Wed 11 Apr 2018 17:03:18 AEST ]]> Bayesian methods in reporting and managing Australian clinical indicators https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:21010 th centile. The results are used to provide a relative measure to help prioritise quality improvement activity within clinical areas, rather than simply focus on "poorer performing" HCOs. The method draws attention to clinical areas exhibiting larger between-HCO variation and affecting larger numbers of patients. HCOs report data in six-month periods, resulting in estimated clinical indicator proportions which may be affected by small samples and sampling variation. Failing to address such issues would result in HCOs exhibiting extremely small and large estimated proportions and inflated estimates of the potential gains in the system. This paper describes the 20th centile method of calculating potential gains for the healthcare system by using Bayesian hierarchical models and shrinkage estimators to correct for the effects of sampling variation, and provides an example case in Emergency Medicine as well as example expert commentary from colleges based upon the reports. The application of these Bayesian methods enables all collated data to be used, irrespective of an HCO's size, and facilitates more realistic estimates of potential system gains.]]> Wed 11 Apr 2018 09:32:32 AEST ]]> Developing clinical indicators for oncology: the inaugural cancer care indicator set for the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:48764 Wed 05 Apr 2023 13:48:31 AEST ]]> 1000 genomes-based meta-analysis identifies 10 novel loci for kidney function https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:30822 50 loci at which common variants with minor allele frequency >5% are associated with kidney function. GWAS using more complete reference sets for imputation, such as those from The 1000 Genomes project, promise to identify novel loci that have been missed by previous efforts. To investigate the value of such a more complete variant catalog, we conducted a GWAS meta-analysis of kidney function based on the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in 110,517 European ancestry participants using 1000 Genomes imputed data. We identified 10 novel loci with p-value < 5 × 10−8 previously missed by HapMap-based GWAS. Six of these loci (HOXD8, ARL15, PIK3R1, EYA4, ASTN2, and EPB41L3) are tagged by common SNPs unique to the 1000 Genomes reference panel. Using pathway analysis, we identified 39 significant (FDR < 0.05) genes and 127 significantly (FDR < 0.05) enriched gene sets, which were missed by our previous analyses. Among those, the 10 identified novel genes are part of pathways of kidney development, carbohydrate metabolism, cardiac septum development and glucose metabolism. These results highlight the utility of re-imputing from denser reference panels, until whole-genome sequencing becomes feasible in large samples.]]> Tue 04 Apr 2023 19:09:51 AEST ]]> Genetics of hand grip strength in mid to late life https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:21021 N = 2088) and the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study (Sydney MAS, N = 541). Genotyping was undertaken using Affymetrix microarrays with imputation to HapMap2. Analyses were performed using linear regression. No genome-wide significant results were observed in HCS nor were any of the top signals replicated in Sydney MAS. Gene-based analyses in HCS identified two significant genes (ZNF295, C2CD2), but these results were not replicated in Sydney MAS. One out of eight SNPs previously associated with GS, rs550942, located near the CNTF gene, was significantly associated with GS (p = 0.005) in the HCS cohort only. Study differences may explain the lack of consistent results between the studies, including the smaller sample size of the Sydney MAS cohort. Our modest sample size also had limited power to identify variants of small effect. Our results suggest that similar to various other complex traits, many genetic variants of small effect size may influence GS. Future GWAS using larger samples and consistent measures may prove more fruitful at identifying genetic contributors for GS in middle-aged to older adults.]]> Sat 24 Mar 2018 07:50:32 AEDT ]]> Genetic associations at 53 loci highlight cell types and biological pathways relevant for kidney function https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:30005 Mon 17 Oct 2022 12:06:14 AEDT ]]>