Scholars@Duke
William E. Wilkinson

William E. Wilkinson

Professor Emeritus of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics
Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Division of Biostatistics
bill.wilkinson@duke.edu
Duke Box 2721, Durham, NC 27710
Hock Plaza, 2424 Erwin Road, Suite 1102, Durham, NC 27705

Selected Publications

Azimilide for the treatment of atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, and paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia: results of a randomized trial and insights on the concordance of symptoms and recurrent arrhythmias.

Journal Article J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol · February 2008 INTRODUCTION: Azimilide hydrochloride is an investigational antiarrhythmic medication that had shown evidence of efficacy in prolonging the time to recurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) or atrial flutter (AFL) and paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia ( ... Full text Link to item Cite

Efficacy of azimilide for the maintenance of sinus rhythm in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation in the presence and absence of structural heart disease.

Journal Article Am J Cardiol · July 15, 2006 Azimilide hydrochloride (azimilide), an investigational antiarrhythmic drug, has shown variable efficacy in preventing atrial fibrillation (AF). This study was designed to assess its efficacy in maintaining sinus rhythm in patients with paroxysmal AF and h ... Full text Link to item Cite

Antiarrhythmic efficacy of azimilide in patients with atrial fibrillation. Maintenance of sinus rhythm after conversion to sinus rhythm.

Journal Article Am Heart J · May 2006 BACKGROUND: Azimilide dihydrochloride (azimilide) is an investigational antiarrhythmic drug that has been tested in patients with a variety of arrhythmias. In patients with atrial fibrillation, it has shown excellent efficacy in some previous trials and mi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Serum, urinary, and salivary nitric oxide in rheumatoid arthritis: complexities of interpreting nitric oxide measures.

Journal Article Arthritis Res Ther · 2006 Nitric oxide (NO) may play important roles in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA is an inflammatory disease involving joints and other systems including salivary glands. To assess NO production in RA patients, we compared levels of serum, urine, and salivary ni ... Full text Link to item Cite

Stroke location, characterization, severity, and outcome in mitral vs aortic valve endocarditis.

Journal Article Neurology · November 25, 2003 OBJECTIVE: To characterize the incidence and clinical features of patients with infective endocarditis (IE) and stroke. METHODS: The authors reviewed the records of 707 patients diagnosed with definite or possible IE between January 1984 and November 1999. ... Full text Link to item Cite

An examination of factors predicting prioritization for liver transplantation.

Journal Article Liver Transpl · October 2002 With the recent transition of the liver transplant allocation system to the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease, a major change is its reliance entirely on objective criteria. In previous reports, potential donor families and members of the transplant commun ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effects of azimilide on heart rate and ECG conduction intervals during sinus rhythm in patients with a history of atrial fibrillation.

Journal Article J Clin Pharmacol · April 2002 The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of azimilide, a Class III antiarrhythmic drug, on ECG conduction intervals recorded during sinus rhythm in patients with a history of symptomatic atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter. In Phase I clinical ... Link to item Cite

The effects of intravenous doxycycline therapy for rheumatoid arthritis: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Journal Article Arthritis Rheum · May 2001 OBJECTIVE: To determine the feasibility, safety, and potential clinical efficacy of intravenous (IV) doxycycline therapy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), as well as its possible effects on serum and urinary markers of collagen breakdown. METHODS: The explora ... Full text Link to item Cite

Reducing medication regimen complexity: a controlled trial.

Journal Article J Gen Intern Med · February 2001 OBJECTIVE: To determine if a visual intervention (medication grid) delivered to physicians can reduce medication regimen complexity. DESIGN: Nonrandomized, controlled trial. SETTING: Veterans Affairs medical center. PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS: Eight hundred thi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Antiarrhythmic effects of azimilide in atrial fibrillation: efficacy and dose-response. Azimilide Supraventricular Arrhythmia Program 3 (SVA-3) Investigators.

Journal Article J Am Coll Cardiol · September 2000 OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of azimilide, a class III antiarrhythmic drug, in reducing the frequency of symptomatic arrhythmia recurrences in patients with atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter or both. BACKGROUND: A ... Full text Link to item Cite

Observations on the transition from intermittent to permanent atrial fibrillation.

Journal Article Am Heart J · July 2000 BACKGROUND: Quantitative data on the frequency with which transition from intermittent to permanent atrial fibrillation occurs are lacking. We conducted this study to determine the proportion of patients with intermittent atrial fibrillation who progress t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effect of highly active antiretroviral therapy and thymic transplantation on immunoreconstitution in HIV infection.

Journal Article AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses · March 20, 2000 The purpose of this study was to determine whether thymic transplantation in addition to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) will restore T cell function in HIV infection. Eight treatment-naive HIV-infected patients with CD4+ T cell counts of 200- ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effect of dofetilide on survival in patients with supraventricular arrhythmias.

Journal Article Am Heart J · November 1999 OBJECTIVES: This study compared survival between patients taking dofetilide and patients taking placebo in a pooled analysis of randomized clinical trials of patients with supraventricular arrhythmias. BACKGROUND: Clinical trials of antiarrhythmic drugs us ... Full text Link to item Cite

The impact of surgical-site infections in the 1990s: attributable mortality, excess length of hospitalization, and extra costs.

Journal Article Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol · November 1999 OBJECTIVE: To determine mortality, morbidity, and costs attributable to surgical-site infections (SSIs) in the 1990s. DESIGN: A matched follow-up study of a cohort of patients with SSI, matched one-to-one with patients without SSI. SETTING: A 415-bed commu ... Full text Link to item Cite

A cross sectional analysis of 5 different markers of collagen degradation in rheumatoid arthritis.

Journal Article J Rheumatol · August 1998 OBJECTIVE: To compare 5 different assays measuring collagen degradation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: Daily serum samples and 3 consecutive 24 h urine samples were obtained from 25 patients with RA and 20 control subjects. Levels of pyridinoline ( ... Link to item Cite

Evaluation of the effect of transthoracic cardioversion from ventricular tachycardia to sinus rhythm on left atrial mechanical function.

Journal Article Am J Cardiol · December 15, 1996 We measured left atrial function during sinus rhythm before and after ventricular tachycardia was induced in an electrophysiology laboratory, using peak transmitral A-wave velocity from pulsed-Doppler transthoracic echocardiography as a marker of left atri ... Full text Link to item Cite

Increased expression of blood mononuclear cell nitric oxide synthase type 2 in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Journal Article J Exp Med · September 1, 1996 Nitric oxide (NO) is an important inflammatory mediator in nonhuman animal models of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The purpose of the present study was to determine whether blood mononuclear cells from patients with active RA (as compared to control subjects) ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neuropsychological test performance in African-American and white patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Journal Article Neurology · December 1995 Little information exists on the performance of black versus white patients with Alzheimer's disease on neuropsychological tests for dementia. In this study, we compared performance on the CERAD (Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease) ... Full text Link to item Cite

Heart rate during spontaneous and induced paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia.

Journal Article Pacing Clin Electrophysiol · December 1995 It is generally assumed that paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) induced during invasive electrophysiological study reproduces the patient's spontaneous, clinical arrhythmia. Even in the absence of antiarrhythmic drugs, however, there may be sig ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD). Part IX. A prospective cliniconeuropathologic study of Parkinson's features in Alzheimer's disease.

Journal Article Neurology · November 1995 Although extrapyramidal signs such as rigidity, bradykinesia, and postural impairment frequently occur in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), the correlation of these parkinsonian manifestations with the neuropathologic changes of Parkinson's disease ( ... Full text Link to item Cite

Therapeutic delay and mortality in cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Journal Article Clin Infect Dis · May 1995 We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients with Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) at a university hospital in order to assess the relationship between delay in treatment and mortality and to identify predictors of delay in initiating therapy. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Incidence of symptomatic atrial fibrillation in patients with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia.

Journal Article J Am Coll Cardiol · April 1995 OBJECTIVES: This study was performed to determine the incidence of symptomatic, sustained atrial fibrillation in a group of patients with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia. The effects of the mechanism of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (atri ... Full text Link to item Cite

Discrimination between stages of Alzheimer's disease with subsets of Mini-Mental State Examination items. An analysis of Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease data.

Journal Article Arch Neurol · September 1994 OBJECTIVE: To identify minimal sets of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) items that can distinguish normal control subjects from patients with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD), patients with mild from those with moderate AD, and those with moderate from th ... Full text Link to item Cite

Evaluation of outpatients experiencing implantable cardioverter defibrillator shocks associated with minimal symptoms.

Journal Article Pacing Clin Electrophysiol · May 1994 Patients receiving minimally symptomatic shocks from their implantable cardioverter defibrillators were studied prospectively using transtelephonic ECG loop monitoring. The time course to the first subsequent shock was evaluated. Twenty-nine consecutive pa ... Full text Link to item Cite

Asymptomatic arrhythmias in patients with symptomatic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia.

Journal Article Circulation · January 1994 BACKGROUND: Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia are recognized clinically when patients seek treatment for symptoms due to recurrent arrhythmias; atrial fibrillation also increases the risk of stroke. The frequency wi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Spontaneous occurrence of symptomatic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia in untreated patients.

Journal Article Circulation · April 1993 BACKGROUND: Ambulatory outpatients (n = 150) with a history of paroxysmal supraventricular arrhythmia were studied to establish the characteristics of the first recurrence of symptomatic tachycardia (time to first recurrence, heart rate during tachycardia, ... Full text Link to item Cite

The dexamethasone suppression test and quantitative cerebral anatomy in depression.

Journal Article Biol Psychiatry · March 15, 1993 To determine whether structural brain abnormalities in patients with depression are related to cortisol state, we examined the relationship between the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 40 inpatients with se ... Full text Link to item Cite

Quantitative cerebral anatomy in depression. A controlled magnetic resonance imaging study.

Journal Article Arch Gen Psychiatry · January 1993 Magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine cerebral anatomy in 48 inpatients with severe depression who were referred for electroconvulsive therapy and in 76 normal control subjects. The magnetic resonance imaging measures included determinations of re ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD). Part III. Reliability of a standardized MRI evaluation of Alzheimer's disease.

Journal Article Neurology · September 1992 The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) has developed procedures for standardized imaging and reporting of magnetic resonance (MR) findings in Alzheimer's disease (AD) for use by neuroradiologists in multiple medical centers ... Full text Link to item Cite

Treatment of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia with oral diltiazem.

Journal Article Clin Pharmacol Ther · May 1992 Symptomatic paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia is a troubling arrhythmia for many patients. To test the efficacy of oral diltiazem to reduce symptomatic recurrences of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, we enrolled 17 patients in a double-blind, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Bidisomide (SC-40230), a new antiarrhythmic agent: initial study of tolerability and pharmacokinetics.

Journal Article Clin Pharmacol Ther · April 1992 Forty-nine healthy male volunteers received the test article for bidisomide (SC-40230) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-ranging study. Intravenous doses ranged from 0.03 to 2.5 mg/kg. There was a close relationship between the dose and the peak ... Full text Link to item Cite

Quantitative cerebral anatomy of the aging human brain: a cross-sectional study using magnetic resonance imaging.

Journal Article Neurology · March 1992 Seventy-six healthy adults underwent magnetic resonance imaging (1.5 T) to investigate the effects of age on regional cerebral volumes and on the frequency and severity of cortical atrophy, lateral ventricular enlargement, and subcortical hyperintensity. I ... Full text Link to item Cite

Brain anatomic effects of electroconvulsive therapy. A prospective magnetic resonance imaging study.

Journal Article Arch Gen Psychiatry · November 1991 To determine prospectively whether electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) produces structural brain changes, 35 inpatients with depression underwent magnetic resonance imaging before and twice after (at 2 to 3 days and at 6 months) completion of a course of brief ... Full text Link to item Cite

Mortality in patients treated with flecainide and encainide for supraventricular arrhythmias.

Journal Article Am J Cardiol · May 1, 1991 In a recent clinical trial, the class Ic antiarrhythmic drugs encainide and flecainide were found to be associated with an increased mortality risk in patients with new myocardial infarction and ventricular arrhythmias. The purpose of this study was to ass ... Full text Link to item Cite

Propafenone treatment of symptomatic paroxysmal supraventricular arrhythmias. A randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover trial in patients tolerating oral therapy.

Journal Article Ann Intern Med · April 1, 1991 OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that propafenone, administered orally, prevents symptomatic paroxysmal supraventricular arrhythmias. DESIGN: a 6-month, open-label, dose-finding phase followed by a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover p ... Full text Link to item Cite

MR imaging in patients with temporal lobe seizures: correlation of results with pathologic findings.

Journal Article AJR Am J Roentgenol · September 1990 Thirty-nine consecutive patients with medically intractable complex partial seizures were studied with electroencephalography and MR imaging to localize an epileptogenic focus for temporal lobectomy. The patients were divided into three groups on the basis ... Full text Link to item Cite

Occurrence of atrial fibrillation in patients with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia due to atrioventricular nodal reentry.

Journal Article Pacing Clin Electrophysiol · June 1990 The occurrence of atrial fibrillation in patients with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) has been well documented when PSVT is secondary to atrioventricular reentry, but not when PSVT is secondary to atrioventricular nodal reentry (AVNRT). Sev ... Full text Link to item Cite

MR imaging in patients with temporal lobe seizures: correlation of results with pathologic findings.

Journal Article AJNR Am J Neuroradiol · 1990 Thirty-nine consecutive patients with medically intractable complex partial seizures were studied with electroencephalography and MR imaging to localize an epileptogenic focus for temporal lobectomy. The patients were divided into three groups on the basis ... Link to item Cite

Oral contraceptives and breast cancer: A case-control study with hospital and community controls

Journal Article Obstetrics and Gynecology · January 1, 1990 Several recent reports have noted an increased risk of breast cancer associated with the use of oral contraceptives (OCs) among various subgroups of young women. These reports spurred us to analyze data from a case-control study in North Carolina of 158 br ... Cite

Random and nonrandom behavior of symptomatic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.

Journal Article Am J Cardiol · August 1, 1989 Little is known about the behavior of symptomatic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF). The nature of the process formed by the successive occurrences of this arrhythmia was studied in 8 patients with a history of symptomatic paroxysmal AF. Trans-telephonic ... Full text Link to item Cite

Changes in serum lipids in patients with condylomata acuminata treated with interferon alfa-n1 (Wellferon).

Journal Article J Am Acad Dermatol · August 1988 Nine men with refractory condylomata acuminata were treated with intramuscular interferon alfa-n1 and the effect on their serum lipid levels was noted. Comparison of lipid panels before and after interferon revealed that all nine patients had an increase ( ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effects of image processing on nodule detection rates in digitized chest radiographs: ROC study of observer performance.

Journal Article Radiology · February 1988 To evaluate the effects of image processing in digitized chest radiographs when high-resolution images are used, an examination was done in which the detection of pulmonary nodules in unprocessed digitized chest radiographs was compared with that in images ... Full text Link to item Cite

Circadian occurrence of symptomatic paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia in untreated patients.

Journal Article Circulation · February 1988 Fifty-two patients with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia were studied to determine whether there was a circadian pattern to the occurrence of this arrhythmia. Antiarrhythmic therapy was discontinued, and patients were followed until they had one rec ... Full text Link to item Cite

Early-onset Alzheimer's disease: clinical predictors of institutionalization and death.

Journal Article Neurology · June 1987 Follow-up observations were made of 92 white patients with early-onset Alzheimer's disease to determine the demographic, clinical, and neuropsychological factors predictive of institutionalization or death. The cumulative mortality rate 5 years after entry ... Full text Link to item Cite

Failure of long term high-dose lecithin to retard progression of early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

Journal Article J Neural Transm Suppl · 1987 We conducted a six-month, randomized, double-blind trial of lecithin therapy in early-onset Alzheimer's disease. We hypothesized that such therapy would retard the progression of the clinical and neuropsychological manifestations of this illness. Of the 73 ... Link to item Cite

The authors reply

Journal Article American Journal of Epidemiology · January 1, 1986 Full text Cite

Comparison of amaurosis fugax and transient cerebral ischemia: a prospective clinical and arteriographic study.

Journal Article Ann Neurol · December 1985 We compared the clinical associations, arteriographic findings, and long-term outcome of 93 patients with amaurosis fugax and 212 patients with focal cerebral ischemia (transient ischemic attacks [TIAs]). The group of patients with cerebral TIAs included a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Hormonal and personal effects on estrogen receptors in breast cancer.

Journal Article Am J Epidemiol · May 1984 Since high estrogen receptor protein in breast cancer tissue has a favorable effect on patient prognosis, factors influencing estrogen receptor levels are the focus of this research. From April 1977 to December 1978, 246 histologically confirmed primary br ... Full text Link to item Cite

Risk of ischemic heart disease in patients with TIA.

Journal Article Neurology · May 1984 A prospective study was made of the morbidity and mortality from ischemic heart disease in 390 patients with focal TIA caused by atherosclerotic vascular disease. The 5-year cumulative rate of myocardial infarction or sudden death in these patients was 21. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Alzheimer's disease: a study of epidemiological aspects.

Journal Article Ann Neurol · April 1984 A case-control study was performed to determine the possible roles of various environmental factors, prior illnesses, drug use, and personal habits in the development of Alzheimer's disease. Such information was collected from 40 patients with onset of dem ... Full text Link to item Cite

Improving drug prescribing in a primary care practice.

Journal Article Med Care · March 1984 A model for improving physician prescribing that utilizes computerized feedback was studied in a family medicine residency practice. Resident and faculty physicians were stratified by level of experience and randomized into two groups. For 9 months the exp ... Full text Link to item Cite

USING COMPUTER-GENERATED FEEDBACK TO IMPROVE PHYSICIAN PRESCRIBING.

Journal Article Proceedings Annual Symposium on Computer Applications in Medical Care · December 1, 1982 Cite

Breast cancer and estrogen replacement therapy.

Journal Article Am J Obstet Gynecol · July 15, 1982 Concern over the possible effect of estrogen replacement therapy on the subsequent development of breast cancer prompted us to compare 199 postmenopausal breast cancer patients with 451 hospital control subjects and 852 community control subjects on their ... Full text Link to item Cite

Immunoglobulin localization in benign and malignant lesions of the human mammary gland.

Journal Article Cancer · July 1, 1981 Using direct imunofluorescence, lesions from 266 human breast specimens were studied for the presence of IgA, IgM, or IgG localization. The lesions included benign elements from 66 subcutaneous mastectomy specimens in which the absence of simultaneous brea ... Full text Link to item Cite

Regional cerebral blood flow estimated by 133-xenon inhalation.

Journal Article Stroke · 1975 A method is described for estimating the clearance rate and fractional blood flow of the fast (gray matter) compartment of the brain from the first ten minutes of 122 XE clearance curves, following a one-minute inhalation. Computer-simulated data were used ... Full text Link to item Cite