AAOMR Special Year Research Project (fwd)

[Laurie C Carter]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 1997 12:18:39 -0500 (EST)
From: Laurie C Carter <lccarter at acsu.buffalo.edu>
To: ORADLIST at LISTSERV.UCLA.EDU
Subject: AAOMR Special Year Research Project (fwd)

I WOULD LIKE TO FORWARD THIS MESSAGE ABOUT THE AAOMR SPECIAL YEAR RESEARCH
PROJECT TO ORADLIST FOR THE EBENEFIT OF THOSE WHO WEREN'T ABLE TO ATTEND
THE MEETING. ALSO PLEASE SEE PP.9,11,13 OF THE SUMMER 1997 ISSUE OF THE
AAOMR NEWSLETTER. THANKS...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 1997 08:26:24 -0500 (EST)
From: Laurie C Carter <lccarter at acsu.buffalo.edu>
To: arid-list at listserv.buffalo.edu
Subject: AAOMR Special Year Research Project

Hello, everyone! Welcome to ARID-list (Atherosclerosis Risk in Dentistry).
You have been suvscribed to this list as a result of your participation in
the AAOMR 10/16-17/97 Focus Group "Detection of Carotid Calcifications on
Panoramic Radiographs as a Means for Identification of Patients at Risk
for Stroke". Use of this electronic list will facilitate communication
among Academy members working on the Special Year Research Project. Some
of those who attended the Focus Group may have done so solely for
educational purposes. If you choose not to participate further in the
research effort, you may leave this list by sending e-mail to
listserv at listserv.buffalo.edu with the following command in the body of
the e-mail message:
unsub arid-list

For those of you who are interested in participating in the research
effort, the following message serves to summarize the salient points of
the project and gives direction to get started.

A. What is the research question being asked?
"Is the incidence of panoramic radiographs which are positive for carotid
calcifications higher in patients who have suffered a cerebrovascular
accident (stroke) than among patients who haven't?" The known prevalence
of carotid calcifications in the general dental outpatient population
ranges from 2-5%, and we want to know if this number is higher in people
who have already had a stroke.

B. What is the organizational structure behind this project?
1. Study Coordination Team
Experimental design and oversight of this and subsequent Special Year
projects in the carotid calcification stream.
Composition: Laurie Carter, Stanley Dunn, Andre Mol, Paul van der Stelt
2. Data Collection and Reduction, Statistical Management
Still compiling this team...anyone who has expertise in this areaand
wants to be part of this team, please let me know
3. Collaborative Research Sites
This team will involve most of you as participants in the clinical study.
This group is comprised of all the folks out there in the trenches, the
researchers laboring in the clinical fields, obtaining pans on stroke
patients and harvesting the data as part of our multi-center investigatory
team.
4. Quality Control Team
Composition: Technical - Art Goren, Larry Wolfgang; Interpretive - Laurie
Carter

Although there are some potential offshoot projects that may be explored
this year, this is the organizational structure for our main project for
the '97-'98 year.

C. Is there an action plan with target dates?
1. If you don't already have one, establish a relationship with a
neurologist/neurosurgeon (or even vascular surgeon) in your area who is
willing to send you a minimum of 50 stroke patients over the 1/98-12/98
period on which you can take
panoramic radiographs. The number is not absolutely cast in stone;
however, to maintain quality control, we don't want to have 100 centers
each contributing a few patients...
The type of stroke is important. It is important that the physician
has established the etiology of the stroke in each patient, which is
the standard of practice anyway. These patients must have had either SMALL
VESSEL (LACUNAR) STROKES OR ARTERY TO ARTERY EMBOLIC STROKES WITHIN THE
LAST 120 DAYS.  PATIENTS WITH CARDIOGENIC EMBOLI AND/OR ATRIAL
FIBRILLATION MUST BE EXCLUDED FROM THE STUDY AS THIS GROUP IS NOT AT RISK
OF STROKE FROM CAROTID STENOSIS. Clinical data to be gathered includes
age, gender, blood pressure (and history of previous hypertension),
height, weight, lipid profile, triglycerides, diabetes mellitus, smoking
status (current smoker, quit less than 6 months ago, quit between 6 and 12
months ago, quit more than 1 year ago).
 2. By 12/15/97, forward to me via e-mail, a letter of intent to
participate in the project. Your letter should include the name and
address of your cooperating physician, along with an estimate of how many
patients can be provided over the next year. Include your snail mail
address as we will send a copy of Kodak's publications Successful
Panoramic Radiography and Quality Assurance in Dental Radiography
(courtesy of Kodak, and thanks to David Allen) to each participating
center. If more than one of you at an institution wish to participate,
please indicate the list of all participants with the name of one
principal "point-person" from each school. Also indicate the type of
panoramic equipment screen/fim combination and chemistry which will be
used to obtain these images.
3. Obtain IRB approval at your institution to conduct this study. At the
Focus Group I distributed copies of the IRB approval/informed consent
being used in Buffalo as a template, feel free to use that as a starting
point at your schools. If anyone needs another copy, send me your
snail-mail address.
4. Obtain the pans and enter the data on a spread sheet program. We will
get back to you with details on that issue and QA checks in future
mailings.

D. What is the benefit of participating?
1. We will request dedicated time at the AAOMR meeting each year to
present the work doen on the Special Year project. We envision having a
block of 3-4 presentations at the Santa Fe meeting, one by each of the
teams, and the name of evry participant will be listed in the program.
2. We will prepare a manuscript for publication in the refereed
literature. The names of the study coordination team will be listed first,
followed by all other participants listed alphabetically. The cooperating
physicians will be listed alphabetically in an acknowledgement. It was
discussed at the meeting that the MDs are merely providing patients, not
participating in the scientific thought process/creative endeavor and
therefore should not be co-authors per se. In terms of the panoramic
radiographs, please retain the originals. If you wish to give the
patient/their dentist a duplicate for their records, that's up to you, it
might encourage participation to know they're getting a "free" pan out of
it.
3. We intend to use this data as part of a future grant proposal, and some
of you may sign on as co-investigators during that phase of the program.

Thanks to all who have encouraged this work to date. Feel free to ask for
clarification if I've muddied anything up too much here. Best wishes in
establishing your contacts (the first one may not "pan" out, but don't get
discouraged), and a happy Thansgiving to all...