Are we detecting and operating on high risk patients in the asymptomatic carotid surgery trial?
Centres in ACST use experienced operators, high quality equipment and conscientious data recording. Variations in methods of determining carotid stenosis exist, but can be smoothed by simple data collection. Patients at higher perceived risk of stroke are being entered and with continued recruitment it should be possible to determine whether surgery improves disabling stroke-free survival.
Severe mental illness at ART initiation is associated with worse retention in HIV care in this urban Ugandan referral hospital. As ART is scaled up across sub-Saharan Africa, greater attention must be paid to the burden of mental illness and its impact on retention in care.