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and Lajayette Clinic 20 male chronic schizophrenics, 12 chronic disturbed schizophrenics, and 20 normal controls were tested for upper difference limens from both a 40-gm. (light) and 400-gm. (heavy) standard weight. Weight discrimination thresholds were found to be significantly elevated as a function of severity of pathology in the schizophrenic groups and also at the lighter weight intensity. Both groups of schizophrenics showed significantly greater improvement than normals with the heavy weights. The less disturbed chronic schizophrenics were not significantly different from normals at the heavy intensity. The results support the hypothesis of a schizophrenic deficit in proprioceptive acuity and suggest that this deficit is the result of insufficient proprioceptive feedback.

It is unknown how well prediction models incorporating multiple risk factors identify women with radiographic prevalent vertebral fracture (PVFx) compared to simpler models, and what their value might be in clinical practice to select older women for lateral spine imaging. We compared four regression models for predicting PVFx in women age 68 and older enrolled in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures with a femoral neck T-score of ≤ −1.0, using area under receiving operator characteristics curves (AUROC) and a net reclassification index. The AUROC for a model with age, femoral neck bone mineral density (BMD), historical height loss (HHL), prior non-spine fracture, body mass index, back pain, and grip strength was only minimally better than that of a more parsimonious model with age, femoral neck BMD, and HHL (AUROC 0.689 vs. 0.679, p-values for difference in five bootstrapped samples <0.001 to 0.35). The prevalence of PVFx among this older population of Caucasian women remained over 20% even when women with low probability of PVFx, as estimated by the prediction models, were included in the screened population. These results suggest that lateral spine imaging is appropriate to consider for all Caucasian women age 70 and older with low bone mass to identify those with PVFx.

No studies have compared how well different prediction models discriminate older men who have a radiographic prevalent vertebral fracture (PVFx) from those who do not. We used area under receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curves and a net reclassification index to compare how well regression-derived prediction models and non-regression prediction tools identify PVFx among men age ≥ 65 years with femoral neck T-score ≤ −1.0 enrolled in the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) Study. The AUROC for a model with age, bone density (BMD), and historical height loss (HHL) was 0.682 compared to 0.692 for a complex model with age, BMD, HHL, prior non-spine fracture, body mass index, back pain, grip strength, smoking, and glucocorticoid use (p-values for difference in five bootstrapped samples 0.14 to 0.92). This complex model, using a cutpoint prevalence of 5%, correctly re-classified only a net 5.7% (p-value 0.13) of men as having or not having a PVFx compared to a simple criteria list (age ≥80 years, HHL >4 cm, or glucocorticoid use). In conclusion, simple criteria identify older men with PVFx as well as regression-based models. Future research to identify additional risk factors that more accurately identify older men with PVFx is needed.