Life Table Analysis System

Version 3.0.3 was released in October 2010. This release represents a major upgrade to LTAS.NET version 2.0. The changes are enumerated below:
LTAS.NET 3.0 Enhancements:

• Support for Windows Vista and Windows 7
• LTAS 3.0 may be installed on Windows 7, Vista, or XP.
• Changed extension of project files from .ltas to .ltas3 to better facilitate upgrading from LTAS 2.0.
• When opening a project in LTAS.NET 3.0, user is prompted to open and convert projects created in the previous version of LTAS.NET.
• LTAS.NET 3.0 supports Windows XP, Vista, and 7 operating systems. If you install LTAS.NET 3.0 on an XP system that already has a previous version of LTAS.NET, you will notice that LTAS.NET 3.0 is installed side-by-side with your previous version of LTAS. You may use either version on a PC running XP; however, we recommend transitioning to LTAS.NET version 3.0 as soon as possible.
• New rate file features
• The cause map and the rate file have been merged into a single file, which simplifies the importing of rates.
• Rate files are easier to manage: they can be deleted from the default folder if no longer needed (this reduces the “clutter” in the rate pulldown box).
• Updated US underlying and multiple-cause rates and proportions (for both 92- and 119-cause files) through 2007.
• Changes affecting software functionality
• Support for reporting p-values in SRR and SMR reports.
• Changed the ordering of fields in the Import Wizard drop-down menu used to map fields so that they are ordered more logically (e.g., ID, sex, race, vital status, DOB, person-year begin date, date last observed, and any user-specified variables in the order entered), instead of alphabetically. 
• Changed the ordering of fields in the Import Options report so that they are ordered by column position (instead of alphabetically).
• Changes affecting software usability
• Updated Report Viewer to use SQL Server Reports, resulting in better export capabilities.
• Updated Database Engine to use SQL Server 2005, doubling the storage capacity from 2GB to 4GB.
• User documentation is now section 508 compliant.
• Changes to improve reports and data export capabilities
• Inclusion of Supermajor (“All Causes” and “All Cancers”) and Major cause-of-death categories in cohort export file.
• Added a new capability in Stratify, allowing user to report or export the Post-Stratify Personal Cumulative Dose for each subject, which will give lagged cumulative exposures.
• Changed analysis reports so that exposure lag information is included with the page variables.

Bug Fixes since 2.0.16:

• Changed the way exposure lag time is calculated so that zero lagged cumulative exposure beyond the lag time period is appropriately mapped to the lowest exposure category.
• Changed the Import data validation rule to allow for cases where "Risk Begin = DLO".
• Changed Stratify to handle case where Effective Risk Begin = DLO.
• Corrected the problem with person-time prior to achieving minimum exposure not being discarded.
• Updated Stratify Reject report, export and progress dialog to account for person-time that is discarded.
• Increased timeout values on all database queries to prevent timeouts on large studies.
• Corrected a problem that caused stratify to fail if too many stratifier variables were selected. While a limit still exists, it is larger (see documentation for details).
• Resolved Stratify issue that caused the wizard to fail when selecting a global categorical and no exposure agent.
• Added validation to the Import Wizard to prevent duplicate names from being used for exposure agents, temporal categoricals, fixed stratifiers or global categoricals.
• Resolved issue with exporting observed deaths and diagnosis for MCOD studies that caused the export file to be empty.
• Enhanced the import data validation to reject history records with invalid exposure agent values.
• Fixed problem that caused misaligned columns in the rate viewer when resizing the window.
• Corrected a problem where the recoding of the “All other races” race category is not preserved when you switch between rates.

Version 2.0.16 was released in October 2008, making the following changes:

• A table that shows the relationship between rate file and outcome file options has been added to the 'Outcome Import File' section of the documentation.

• Corrected upgrade installation to properly restore custom rate files and cause maps.  Custom rate files that were imported before an upgrade to a new version of LTAS.NET did not work properly under the following conditions:

• The custom rate file referenced a custom cause map
  
  
• Two or more custom cause maps were imported prior to the upgrade
  
  
• The custom cause maps were imported in an order other than alphabetical order.

After upgrading, users should re-import any custom rate files they are using.  Even though the problem is now fixed and won't occur as a result of upgrading to this release, re-importing will eliminate the effects of previous upgrades.

• Corrected Personal Cumulative Dose report to show correct person time in diagnosis-based studies for persons having multiple history records.   For diagnosis-based studies, the Personal Cumulative Dose report was incorrectly including time after the date of diagnosis.  This problem was specific to the Person Cumulative Dose report and did not affect any other reports including analysis reports.

• Updated NIOSH-119 rates and cause map

The NIOSH-119 UCOD and Proportion rate files have been updated with rate data for years 2003-2005.  The LTAS.NET state rates have also been updated with the additional years of data.  Additionally, the NIOSH-119 cause map file has changed slightly to correct the mapping for COPD in ICD Revision 8 along with a couple other minor re-mappings affecting Minors 64, 73 and 119. 

• Added support for diagnosis-based (i.e., incidence) studies
  
  
• Changed import validation logic to properly handle diagnosis-based studies.

See the Outcome File Requirements section in the LTAS.NET User's Guide for details.

• For studies using diagnosis based rates, modify Stratify to include diagnosis for non-deceased persons.
  
  
• Added ability to export observed diagnosis for studies that use diagnosis-based rates.
  
  
• Corrected end of risk accumulation logic for diagnosis-based studies

Time at risk should not accumulate past the date of diagnosis for diagnosis-based studies. In addition to correcting the logic, the import wizard was changed to clarify the end of risk options for diagnosis-based studies.

• Fixed problem causing incorrect results in SRR reports when all causes are selected

Selecting all causes for an SRR report caused incorrect results. In many cases, the same results were mistakenly reported for each cause.

• Added support for revisions in non-ICD cause maps

Studies that are based on non-ICD codes can specify either a global revision or specify the revision in the outcome file.

• Corrected inconsistent calculation error when running Major/Minor Summary report. This removed an error message received when running a Major/Minor Summary report or any variant of an SMR List report that included Cause as the row variable.

• MCOD rates are now available for download.  A separate mapping file is needed because these rates are still using the 1960-2002 data.  They will be updated in the future to include the 2003-2005 data. 

Version 2.0.8 was released in February 2008, making the following changes:

• Fixed problem in person-year and event allocation for exposures occurring before follow-up time begins when a lag is also used.
  
  
• Fixed problem with SMR analysis reporting incorrect expected and observed values in some situations.
  
  
• Fixed rounding problem when stratifying Duration categories using Years for units.
  
  
• Fixed errant warnings in Import Exception reports when a global risk begin date is used.
  
  
• Modified 119 Mapping files to fix minor errors.

Version 2.0.1 was released in September 2007, making the following changes:

• For users whose data extend beyond the rates end date (currently 12/31/2004), we added a method to apply rates from last five-year-period to new period of up to five years beyond rates end date, based on user-specified study end date.
  
  
• Fixed problems that prevented TSLE from stratifying correctly when TSFE was not also imported.
  
  
• Analyze Wizard now saves and restores 'All Causes' setting properly.

Version 2.0 was released in August 2007.

Click here if you would like to see the version history for PC-LTAS.

Installation instructions

Rate File Information