Sarah Pirikahu

• Postdoctoral Fellow at Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology

Pathogen-pathogen interactions represent a critical but little-understood feature of infectious disease dynamics. In particular, experimental evidence suggests that influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) compete with each other, such that infection with one confers temporary protection against the other. However, such interactions ar...

Simple Summary Breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide and a leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women. Mammographic breast density, the relative amount of fibroglandular tissue as seen on a mammogram, is one of the strongest predictors of breast cancer risk, with higher breast density associated with greater risk. Breasts undergo e...

Purpose Age and body mass index (BMI) are critical considerations when assessing individual breast cancer risk, particularly for women with dense breasts. However, age- and BMI-standardized estimates of breast density are not available for screen-aged women, and little is known about the distribution of breast density in women aged < 40. This cross...

Purpose: Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Breast arterial calcification (BAC) on mammograms is not associated with breast cancer risk. However, there is increasing evidence supporting its association with cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study examines the association between BAC and ASC...

Background Breast density is a strong and potentially modifiable breast cancer risk factor. Almost everything we know about breast density has been derived from mammography, and therefore, very little is known about breast density in younger women aged <40. This study examines the acceptability and performance of two alternative breast density meas...

Mammographic breast density is a strong breast cancer risk factor, and its routine clinical measurement could potentially be used to identify women at higher risk of breast cancer and/or monitor primary prevention strategies. Previous reports of optical breast spectroscopy (OBS), a novel approach to measuring breast density, demonstrated that it is...

Population attributable risk (PAR) and population attributable fraction (PAF) are used in epidemiology to predict the impact of removing a risk factor from the population. Until recently, no standard approach for calculating confidence intervals or the variance for PAR in particular was available in the literature. Previously we outlined a fully Ba...

Background High participation in mammographic screening is essential for its effectiveness to detect breast cancers early and thereby, improve breast cancer outcomes. Breast density is a strong predictor of breast cancer risk and significantly reduces the sensitivity of mammography to detect the disease. There are increasing mandates for routine br...

Background: Breast arterial calcification (BAC) is a common incidental finding on screening mammography. Recent evidence suggests that BAC is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). We systematically reviewed the associations between BAC and reproductive factors (menopausal status, hormone replacement therapy [HRT] use, oral contraceptive [O...

Population attributable risk (PAR) is used in epidemiology to predict the impact of removing a risk factor from the population. Until recently, no standard approach for calculating confidence intervals or the variance for PAR was available in the literature. Pirikahu et al. (2016) outlined a fully Bayesian approach to provide credible intervals for...

Background Following an initial reduction in human campylobacteriosis in New Zealand after the implementation of poultry food chain-focused interventions during 2006–2008, further decline has been relatively small. We report a year-long study of notified campylobacteriosis cases, incorporating a case control study combined with a source attribution...

Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus can be found in oysters in coastal environments. Vibrio vulnificus can induce life-threatening illness when ingested with oysters, while V. parahaemolyticus usually causes self-limiting gastroenteritis. This study investigated correlations between concentrations of these Vibrio species in Pacific oyster...

Background: This study assesses knowledge of breast density, one of breast cancer′s strongest risk factors, in women attending a public mammographic screening program in Western Australia that routinely notifies women if they have dense breasts. Methods: Survey data was collected from women who were notified they have dense breasts and women who ha...

In the absence of evidence-based screening recommendations for women with dense breasts, it is important to know if breast density notification increases women’s anxiety. This study describes psychological reactions and future screening intentions of women attending a public mammographic screening program in Western Australia. Two-thirds of notifie...

The correlation structure of Marshall–Olkin bivariate exponential distribution (BVE) is well known. However, we are unable to compute the correlation of Marshall–Olkin bivariate Weibull distribution analytically. Fortunately, bivariate observations from this family can be obtained easily through extensive simulations. As expected, the key factors t...

Population attributable risk measures the public health impact of the removal of a risk factor. To apply this concept to epidemiological data, the calculation of a confidence interval to quantify the uncertainty in the estimate is desirable. However, because perhaps of the confusion surrounding the attributable risk measures, there is no standard c...