Vanderbilt University

Atrial Fibrillation phenotype algorithm for the DNA Demonstration project.  The algorithm selects cases based on atrial fibrillation but no presence of a heart transplant.  Controls select for records with no evidence of atrial flutter, atrial fibrillation, or atrial tachycardia but with at least one ECG.

Note: Attached documents contain full case definition and two different control definitions.  One is for controls with 2 years of follow up, the other for controls with 1 year of follow up.  All available controls with 2 years of follow up were used in Vanderbilt's study.  The control population was supplemented by controls with only 1 year of follow up.  At the time of study, many of the available controls had experienced their qualifying events somewhat recently and 2 years had not yet passed for full follow up.

Project Outline:  Selection of all Caucasian patients with hypothyroidism without a secondary cause of surgical removal or radiological ablation.  The search is designed to eliminate subclinical hypothyroidism (by requiring that patients be on a replacement medication), medication-induced hypothyroidism (e.g., PTU, lithium, or history of amiodarone), and transient causes (e.g., pregnancy or subacute thyroiditis).

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) phenotype algorithm for the DNA Databank demonstration project.