Introduction:The long-term observation of the incidence of IgE-dependent sensitization to environmental allergens (food and airborne allergens) of a specific population plays an important role in epidemiological studies. Aim:Retrospective, comparative assessment of IgE-dependent sensitization to food and airborne allergens in the group of patients from the north-eastern region of Poland, in selected years (1998, 2003, 2008, 2012). Long-term assessment of the incidence of IgE-dependent sensitization depending on the age of the patients (1998-2012). Material and methods:A group of 6577 children and adolescents aged up to 18 years with a suspicion of an allergic process, diagnosed in 1998-2012. Skin prick tests (SPT) with selected food allergens and airborne allergens were used to evaluate the sensitization process of patients. Results:A significant increase in the percentage of patients sensitized was found, comparing 1998 vs. 2012: to at least one allergen (35.3% vs. 40.4%); only to food allergens (5.1% vs. 13.1%), and to at least one food allergen (10.5% vs. 20.1%). There were no significant changes in the percentage of children and adolescents sensitized to airborne allergens (22.7% vs. 20.3%). The percentage of sensitization to at least one allergen was lowest in 2-year-old children (30.2%), and highest in 15-year-old children (46.8%). The percentage of patients sensitized to airborne allergens increased statistically significantly with their age: 6.3% in infants, 43.7% in adolescents. Conclusions:During the 14-year-period of the study the authors observed an upward trend in the frequency of sensitization to food allergens. The frequency of sensitization to airborne allergens was similar at the beginning and the completion of the study.

Introduction: A small number of studies concern trophoallergens and aeroallergens sensitization in the developmental age population in Poland. Only a few studies describe the role of selected factors determining the frequency and type of IgE-dependent sensitization in this population. Aim: To assess the rate of sensitization to chosen tropho- and aeroallergens in the group of sensitized patients living in the north-eastern region of Poland with regard to age, sex and birth season. Material and methods: Skin prick testing (SPT) with selected food allergens (trophoallergens) and airborne allergens was used to evaluate the sensitization process of patients recruited to this study between 1998 and 2012. A positive result of sensitization was defined when the patient had at least one positive skin prick test with the allergen studied. The skin prick tests were done after written consent had been obtained from the parents. Results: Significant results were as follows: sensitization was more common in boys (41.9%) than in girls (35.7%); the highest percentage of sensitized patients was observed in the group of children aged 13-18 years (45.0%) as compared to the group of children up to 3 years old (the lowest 33.1%). The highest percentage of sensitized patients was observed among children born during winter (41.3%), the lowest among children born in autumn (36.8%). Conclusions: The assessment of sensitization to chosen trophoallergens and airborne allergens should include the role of age, sex and birth season of the diagnosed patient.

INTRODUCTION:Good evidence has been provided over the last three to four decades that the prevalence of allergic diseases has been increasing in many developed countries worldwide. Recent data suggest that this increase may now be levelling off. AIM:Retrospective analysis of the prevalence of IgE-dependent sensitization and changes in selected environmental allergens in the population of children and adolescents in the north-eastern region of Poland in the years 1998-2012. MATERIAL AND METHODS:Skin prick testing (SPT) with selected food allergens (trophoallergens) and airborne allergens was used to evaluate the sensitization process of patients recruited to the study in the years 1998-2012. A positive result of sensitization was defined when the patient had at least one positive skin prick test with the allergen studied. The skin prick tests were done after written consent had been obtained from the parents. RESULTS:The retrospective study included children and adolescents aged up to 18 years with a suspicion of an allergic disease, referred to the regional tertiary medical centre for further diagnosis. A total of 6577 patients were studied, including 1556 (23.7%) in 1998, 1473 (22.4%) in 2003, 1690 (25.7%) in 2008, and 1858 (28.2%) in 2012. Sensitization to at least one allergen was observed in 39.0% of the examined children (regardless of the allergen type), of which 8.1% were sensitized to food allergens only, 23.9% to airborne allergens only, and 7.0% simultaneously to food and airborne allergens. During the 14-year study period, an increase was noted in the percentage of the sensitized children from 35.3% at baseline to 40.4% when the study was completed. The percentage of those sensitized to food allergens increased from 10.5% (1998) to 20.1% (2012). The percentage of children sensitized to airborne allergens remained unchanged at the level of 28.2% in 1998 and 27.2% in 2012. CONCLUSIONS:Measurement of skin prick test reactivity to different allergens is a useful and commonly used method in epidemiological studies for the assessment of allergic sensitization and changes in selected populations. The obtained results confirmed the need for systematic epidemiological research into allergic sensitization and allergic diseases among children and adolescents in Poland.

Log-linear analysis is a practical tool for examining relationships, successfully applied in many fields of science. This paper discusses the topic of estimation of the chance of getting pregnant in couples that underwent ART insemination. The authors focus on finding significant interactions between variables, on the basis of which statistical models are built. With the use of results of log-linear analysis, a model predicting the chances of achieving a clinical pregnancy that contained interactions was successfully built. Moreover, it was more complete than the model obtained with the use of logistic regression alone.

Abstract Infertility is currently a common problem with causes that are often unexplained, which complicates treatment. In many cases, the use of ART methods provides the only possibility of getting pregnant. Analysis of this type of data is very complex. More and more often, data mining methods or artificial intelligence techniques are appropriate for solving such problems. In this study, classification trees were used for analysis. This resulted in obtaining a group of patients characterized most likely to get pregnant while using in vitro fertilization.

There are high hopes for using the artificial neural networks (ANN) technique to predict results of infertility treatment using the in vitro fertilization (IVF) method. Some reports show superiority of the ANN approach over conventional methods. However, fully satisfactory results have not yet been achieved. Hence, there is a need to continue searching for new data describing the treatment process, as well as for new methods of extracting information from these data. There are also some reports that the use of principal component analysis (PCA) before the process of training the neural network can further improve the efficiency of generated models. The aim of the study herein presented was to verify the thesis that the use of PCA increases the effectiveness of the prediction by ANN for the analysis of results of IVF treatment. Results for the PCA-ANN approach proved to be slightly better than the ANN approach, however the obtained differences were not statistically significant.

Objective: Chronic Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection is considered to be a factor involved in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). This cross-sectional study examined the seroprevalence of HP in children with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) in respect to OSAS severity and in reference to other common pediatric medical conditions.Methods: Overnight polysomnography with pH-metry (PSG) was performed at a Sleep Laboratory (in the years 2008-2011). OSAS severity was determined based on Obstructive Apnea Index (OAI). Subjects were classified into primary snoring group (OAI < 1/hours), mild - moderate OSAS (OAI: 1-5/hour), and severe OSAS (OAI: >= 5/hour). HP IgG was tested by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in the SDB (n = 115) and reference (n = 387) groups [reference group consisted of 4 subgroups based on ICD-10 diagnoses encompassing conditions affecting the skin, respiratory system, food hypersensitivity, and gastrointestinal tract]. Analyses were performed by nonparametric statistical tests.Results: HP seropositivity was 10.4% (12/115) in the SDB group and 11.6% (45/387) in the reference group. HP positive and negative subjects did not differ in PSG, acid gastro-esophageal reflux index nor in age, sex, nutritional status (BMI-z score), and hematological indices in the SDB group. Seropositivity was found in 16.7% of the primary snoring group, 10.2% of mild-moderate OSAS, and in 11.1% of severe OSAS (chi(2) p = 0.832).Conclusions: Children with SDB are not more predisposed to a chronic HP infection than children with other common chronic pediatric conditions. HP seropositivity does not influence OSAS severity but possible infection should none-the-less be considered on a case-by-case basis. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Many factors play an important role in prediction of infertility treatment outcome (for example, female age and quality of oocytes or embryos are the most important prognostic factors concerning positive IVF outcome). The purpose of this study was to identify a set of variables that could fulfill criteria for prediction of pregnancy in IVF patients through the application of data mining – using the discriminant analysis method. The principle of this method is to establish a set of rules that allows one to place multi-dimensional objects into one of two analyzed groups (pregnant or not pregnant). Six hundred and ten IVF cycles were included in the analysis and the following variables were taken into consideration: female age, number and quality of retrieved oocytes, number and quality of embryos, number of transferred embryos, and outcome of treatment. Discriminant analysis allowed for the creation of a model with a 51.22% correctness of prediction to achieve pregnancy during IVF treatment and with 74.07% correctly predicted failure of pregnancy. Therefore, the created model is more suitable for the prediction of a negative outcome (lack of pregnancy) during IVF treatment and offers an option for adjustments to be made during infertility treatment.

Abstract Principal Component Analysis is one of the data mining methods that can be used to analyze multidimensional datasets. The main objective of this method is a reduction of the number of studied variables with the mainte- nance of as much information as possible, uncovering the structure of the data, its visualization as well as classification of the objects within the space defined by the newly created components. PCA is very often used as a preliminary step in data preparation through the creation of independent components for further analysis. We used the PCA method as a first step in analyzing data from IVF (in vitro fertilization). The next step and main purpose of the analysis was to create models that predict pregnancy. Therefore, 805 different types of IVF cy- cles were analyzed and pregnancy was correctly classified in 61-80% of cases for different analyzed groups in obtained models.

Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is one of many treatments provided to infertility patients. Many factors such as, but not limited to, quality of semen, the age of a woman, and reproductive hormone levels contribute to infertility. Therefore, the aim of our study is to establish a statistical probability concerning the prediction of which groups of patients have a very good or poor prognosis for pregnancy after IUI insemination. For that purpose, we compare the results of two analyses: Cluster Analysis and Kohonen Neural Networks. The k-means algorithm from the clustering methods was the best to use for selecting patients with a good prognosis but the Kohonen Neural Networks was better for selecting groups of patients with the lowest chances for pregnancy.

Clinical research is commonly focused on searching for potential factors and illustrates how they affect a patient’s condition. In many epidemiological research studies the response variable is categorical, with more than two categories when there is a natural order among the response categories. In these cases, the ordinal logistic regression models may be employed. In practice, the mostly used type of model is a proportional odds model. The model makes assumptions about the nature of the relationship between the response variable and the prognostic factors. If the proportional odds assumption is violated, generalized ordered logit models may be an option, for example, the partial proportional odds model. The study uses the proportional odds model to examine the dust mite sensitization, whereas the partial proportional model is to examine grass pollen sensitization in children’s population. The explanatory variables are: year of a test performance, gender, age and season of birth. The considered models have revealed significant factors that influence dust mite and grass pollen sensitization.

PURPOSE:The aim of the study was to compare sleep-wake schedules between snoring and nonsnoring preschool age children. MATERIAL AND METHODS:Daytime and nighttime sleep duration, daytime and nighttime symptoms were assessed in 34 children at preschool age who snore (5.38+/-1.21 years) and in 66 age- and sex-matched nonsnorers (5.67+/-1.12 years). The snoring group consisted of children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) scores <+3.5 and >-1, the nonsnoring group with OSA score <-1. RESULTS:Children who snore differ from the nonsnorers in daytime sleep duration (51.62+/-28.9 minutes vs. 10.70+/-20.2 minutes; p<0.001), but not in nighttime sleep (10.97+/-0.52 hours vs. 9.83+/-1.34 hours; p>0.05). The percentage of children with daytime napping was higher in the snoring group than in the nonsnorers (47.1% vs. 9.1%; p<0.00004), and parents-reported behavioral problems were more frequent in children who snore (41.2% vs. 19.7%; p<0.02). Multivariate odds ratios, including variables for nighttime (sleep apnea) and daytime symptoms (daytime napping and oral breathing), showed that regular sleep during the day was the most predictive of snoring (OR=6.1; 95%CI 1.76-21.04; p<0.005). CONCLUSION:In preschool age children, when the daytime nap begins to disappear, snoring may have an effect on daytime schedule through an increased need for daytime sleep.

The measurements of radioactive caesium contents in bottom sediments were carried out in four lakes. First samples (47) were taken in 1992-95. The repeat sampling (109) was performed from the same places in 2005. We examined eight chosen areas in these lakes. In six of them, we observed statistically significant differences in the level of radioactive caesium. It indicates the permanent decrease in the level of (137)Cs. The mean annual decrease in the level of radioactive caesium, taking into consideration the radioactive decay, was from 4.2 to 7.8%. In two areas of the profundal zone, we did not observe statistically significant differences in the level of radioactive caesium (lakes Garbas and Rogale Wielkie). Taking into consideration the radioactive decay of caesium, it means about the appearance of the process of accumulation of (137)Cs in these areas.