Electropalatography as a Research and Clinical Tool

2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona E. Gibbon ◽  
Alice Lee
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Melen McBride

Ethnogeriatrics is an evolving specialty in geriatric care that focuses on the health and aging issues in the context of culture for older adults from diverse ethnic backgrounds. This article is an introduction to ethnogeriatrics for healthcare professionals including speech-language pathologists (SLPs). This article focuses on significant factors that contributed to the development of ethnogeriatrics, definitions of some key concepts in ethnogeriatrics, introduces cohort analysis as a teaching and clinical tool, and presents applications for speech-language pathology with recommendations for use of cohort analysis in practice, teaching, and research activities.


Author(s):  
Ashley Pozzolo Coote ◽  
Jane Pimentel

Purpose: Development of valid and reliable outcome tools to document social approaches to aphasia therapy and to determine best practice is imperative. The aim of this study is to determine whether the Conversational Interaction Coding Form (CICF; Pimentel & Algeo, 2009) can be applied reliably to the natural conversation of individuals with aphasia in a group setting. Method: Eleven graduate students participated in this study. During a 90-minute training session, participants reviewed and practiced coding with the CICF. Then participants independently completed the CICF using video recordings of individuals with non-fluent and fluent aphasia participating in an aphasia group. Interobserver reliability was computed using matrices representative of the point-to-point agreement or disagreement between each participant's coding and the authors' coding for each measure. Interobserver reliability was defined as 80% or better agreement for each measure. Results: On the whole, the CICF was not applied reliably to the natural conversation of individuals with aphasia in a group setting. Conclusion: In an extensive review of the turns that had high disagreement across participants, the poor reliability was attributed to inadequate rules and definitions and inexperienced coders. Further research is needed to improve the reliability of this potentially useful clinical tool.


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Luis Zamorano ◽  

3D echocardiography (3DE) will gain increasing acceptance as a routine clinical tool as the technology evolves due to advances in technology and computer processing power. Images obtained from 3DE provide more accurate assessment of complex cardiac anatomy and sophisticated functional mechanisms compared with conventional 2D echocardiography (2DE), and are comparable to those achieved with magnetic resonance imaging. Many of the limitations associated with the early iterations of 3DE prevented their widespread clinical application. However, recent significant improvements in transducer and post-processing software technologies have addressed many of these issues. Furthermore, the most recent advances in the ability to image the entire heart in realtime and fully automated quantification have poised 3DE to become more ubiquitous in clinical routine. Realtime 3DE (RT3DE) systems offer further improvements in the diagnostic and treatment planning capabilities of cardiac ultrasound. Innovations such as the ability to acquire non-stitched, realtime, full-volume 3D images of the heart in a single heart cycle promise to overcome some of the current limitations of current RT3DE systems, which acquire images over four to seven cardiac cycles, with the need for gating and the potential for stitch artefacts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongwei Zhang ◽  
Steven Wang ◽  
Tao Huang

Aims: We would like to identify the biomarkers for chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis (CHP) and facilitate the precise gene therapy of CHP. Background: Chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis (CHP) is an interstitial lung disease caused by hypersensitive reactions to inhaled antigens. Clinically, the tasks of differentiating between CHP and other interstitial lungs diseases, especially idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), were challenging. Objective: In this study, we analyzed the public available gene expression profile of 82 CHP patients, 103 IPF patients, and 103 control samples to identify the CHP biomarkers. Method: The CHP biomarkers were selected with advanced feature selection methods: Monte Carlo Feature Selection (MCFS) and Incremental Feature Selection (IFS). A Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier was built. Then, we analyzed these CHP biomarkers through functional enrichment analysis and differential co-expression analysis. Result: There were 674 identified CHP biomarkers. The co-expression network of these biomarkers in CHP included more negative regulations and the network structure of CHP was quite different from the network of IPF and control. Conclusion: The SVM classifier may serve as an important clinical tool to address the challenging task of differentiating between CHP and IPF. Many of the biomarker genes on the differential co-expression network showed great promise in revealing the underlying mechanisms of CHP.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aravinth P. Jawahar ◽  
Siddharth Narayanan ◽  
Gopalakrishnan Loganathan ◽  
Jithu Pradeep ◽  
Gary C. Vitale ◽  
...  

Islet cell auto-transplantation is a novel strategy for maintaining blood glucose levels and improving the quality of life in patients with chronic pancreatitis (CP). Despite the many recent advances associated with this therapy, obtaining a good yield of islet infusate still remains a pressing challenge. Reprogramming technology, by making use of the pancreatic exocrine compartment, can open the possibility of generating novel insulin-producing cells. Several lineage-tracing studies present evidence that exocrine cells undergo dedifferentiation into a progenitor-like state from which they can be manipulated to form insulin-producing cells. This review will present an overview of recent reports that demonstrate the potential of utilizing pancreatic ductal cells (PDCs) for reprogramming into insulin- producing cells, focusing on the recent advances and the conflicting views. A large pool of ductal cells is released along with islets during the human islet isolation process, but these cells are separated from the pure islets during the purification process. By identifying and improving existing ductal cell culture methods and developing a better understanding of mechanisms by which these cells can be manipulated to form hormone-producing islet-like cells, PDCs could prove to be a strong clinical tool in providing an alternative beta cell source, thus helping CP patients maintain their long-term glucose levels.


MicroRNA ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 09 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chrysanthos D. Christou ◽  
Georgios Tsoulfas

Introduction: Ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injuries are caused by complex interrelated mechanisms and pathways. Regarding the liver, I/R injuries and their clinical manifestations are crucial for the surgical outcome. Despite its importance, there is no broadly accepted therapy either for the prevention or for the management of I/R injury. I/R injury of the liver can occur either during hepatic surgery (warm) or during the transplantation procedure (cold). MicroRNAs play a pivotal role in the mechanism of I/R injury, as they regulate the expression of the cellular participants and humoral factors associated with I/R injury. Objective: In this review, we highlight the microRNAs that are involved in the I/R injury of the liver, and the molecular pathways that they regulate. In addition, we discuss the potential role of circulating microRNAs as biomarkers and their role as pharmacological targets in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of I/R injuries. Method: We conducted a comprehensive review of the PubMed bibliographic database regarding microRNAs and I/R injuries of the liver. Results: In diagnostics, microRNA panels could replace invasive diagnostic procedures, relieving patients of the associated complications. In therapeutics, microRNA agomirs, antagomirs and other drugs can be used to shift the balance between proapoptotic and survival pathways, to alleviate the liver damage caused by I/R. In transplantation procedures, microRNA profiling could decrease the incidence of early graft dysfunction, especially regarding marginal grafts. Conclusion: Although microRNAs seem a very promising clinical tool in the management of I/R injuries, further research is required, until microRNAs become a novel tool in the diagnosis and monitoring of an I/R injury of the liver.


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