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The effect of ovarian cancer screening on survival is enabled by women who continue to actively participate in screening. In this report, factors that affect participation are examined. Participants included 13 963 Kentucky women who received 56 392 screens accounting for a 46 113 screening year experience. Background, health history and reasons for participating in transvaginal sonographic screening were collected via a self-reported questionnaire. Screening participants were characterized as > 50 years old, mostly married, well educated, medically insured, health conscious women, living in the vicinity of the screening centre or 51–150 miles away. Approximately 70% of the participants can be considered active in the study based upon a screening visit during the 1997–1998 2-year period. The probabilities of a return screen at 1, 2, 5 and 7.5 years were 77.8%, 72.0%, 58.7% and 50.6%, respectively. A total of 96% of return visits occurred within 2 years, with 33.7% having intervals of < 1 year. Perceived family history was not observed to affect continuation. However, abnormal findings were associated with a shortened participation. These high levels of continuation in ultrasound screening indicate that women take this disease seriously and demonstrate that this disease is of consequence to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The comparative utility of serum and saliva as diagnostic fluids for identifying biomarkers of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was investigated. The goal was to determine if salivary biomarkers could facilitate a screening diagnosis of AMI, especially in cases of non-ST elevation MI (NSTEMI), since these cases are not readily identified by electrocardiogram (ECG). Serum and unstimulated whole saliva (UWS) collected from 92 AMI patients within 48 hours of chest pain onset and 105 asymptomatic healthy control individuals were assayed for 13 proteins relevant to cardiovascular disease, by Beadlyte technology (Luminex®) and enzyme immunoassays. Data were analyzed with concentration cut-points, ECG findings, logistic regression (LR) (adjusted for matching for age, gender, race, smoking, number of teeth, and oral health status), and classification and regression tree (CART) analysis. A sensitivity analysis was conducted by repetition of the CART analysis in 58 cases and 58 controls, each matched by age and gender. Serum biomarkers demonstrated AMI sensitivity and specificity superior to that of saliva, as determined by LR and CART. The predominant discriminators in serum by LR were troponin I (TnI), B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), and creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB), and TnI and BNP by CART. In saliva, LR identified C-reactive protein (CRP) as the biomarker most predictive of AMI. A combination of smoking tobacco, UWS CRP, CK-MB, sCD40 ligand, gender, and number of teeth identified AMI in the CART decision trees. When ECG findings, salivary biomarkers, and confounders were included, AMI was predicted with 80.0% sensitivity and 100% specificity. These analyses support the potential utility of salivary biomarker measurements used with ECG for the identification of AMI. Thus, saliva-based tests may provide additional diagnostic screening information in the clinical course for patients suspected of having an AMI. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]