scholarly journals Predicting asymptomatic neurosyphilis using peripheral blood indicators

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Weijie Li ◽  
Jiaqi Han ◽  
Pan Zhao ◽  
Dagang Wang ◽  
Tianhao Sun ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The high misdiagnosis rate of asymptomatic neurosyphilis (ANS) has long challenged infectious disease clinicians. We aim to develop a model for diagnosing ANS in asymptomatic syphilis (AS) patients without CSF indicators. Results 277 AS patients with HIV-negative and underwent lumbar puncture were enrolled in this horizontal study.The area under the curve for predicting ANS by CSF leukocytes and protein was 0.643 and 0.675 [95% CI, 0.583–0.699VS.0.616–0.729]. Through LRM, the AUC increased to 0.806 [95% CI, 0.732–0.832], and the Youden's index was 0.430. If the score is ≤ 0.159, ANS can be excluded with a predictive value of 92.9%; we can identify ANS while the score is over 0.819, with a predictive value of 91.7% and a specificity of 99.25%. This study showed that the LRM can diagnose ANS in AS patients effectively. Conclusion Given a large number of misdiagnosis ANS patients and CSF results' insufficiency, the model is more practical. Our research will help clinicians track suspected syphilis, especially those who cannot accept the CSF test.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Chen ◽  
Wei Bai ◽  
Na Zhao ◽  
Sha Sha ◽  
Teris Cheung ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Adolescents with bipolar disorder (BD) are often misdiagnosed as having major depressive disorder (MDD), which delays appropriate treatment and leads to adverse outcomes. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of the 33-item Hypomania Checklist (HCL-33) with the 33-item Hypomania Checklist- external assessment (HCL-33-EA) in adolescents with BD or MDD. Methods 147 adolescents with BD and 113 adolescents with MDD were consecutively recruited. The HCL-33 and HCL-33-EA were completed by patients and their carers, respectively. The sensitivity, positive predictive value (PPV), specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), and area under the curve (AUC) were calculated and compared between the two instruments, using cut-off values based on the Youden’s index. Results The total scores of the HCL-33 and HCL-33-EA were positively and significantly correlated (rs = 0.309, P < 0.001). Compared to the HCL-33, the HCL-33-EA had higher sensitivity and NPV (HCL-33: sensitivity = 0.58, NPV = 0.53; HCL-33-EA: sensitivity = 0.81, NPV = 0.60), while the HCL-33 had higher specificity and PPV (HCL-33: specificity = 0.61, PPV = 0.66; HCL-33-EA: specificity = 0.37, PPV = 0.63). Conclusion Both the HCL-33 and HCL-33-EA seem to be useful for screening depressed adolescents for BD. The HCL-33-EA would be more appropriate for distinguishing BD from MDD in adolescents due to its high sensitivity in Chinese clinical settings.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manoj Kumar Gupta ◽  
Pankaja Raghav ◽  
Tooba Tanvir ◽  
Vaishali Gautam ◽  
Amit Mehto ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The present study was conducted to recalibrate the effectiveness of Indian Diabetes Risk Scores (IDRS) and Community-Based Assessment Checklist (CBAC) by opportunistically screening for Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and Hypertension (HT) among the patients attending health centres, and to estimate the risk of fatal and non-fatal Cardio-Vascular Diseases (CVDs) using WHO/ISH chartMethods: All the people of age ≥30 years attending the health centers were screened for DM and HT. Weight, height, and waist and hip circumferences were measured and BMI and Waist Hip Ratio (WHR) were calculated. Risk categorization of all participants was done using IDRS, CBAC, and WHO/ISH risk prediction charts. Individuals diagnosed with DM or HT were started on treatment. The data was recorded using Epicollect5 and was analyzed using SPSS v.23 and MedCalc v.19.8. ROC curves were plotted for DM and HT with the IDRS, CBAC score and anthropometric parameters. Sensitivity (SN), specificity (SP), Positive Predictive Value (PPV), Negative Predictive Value (NPV), Accuracy and Youden’s index were calculated for different cut-offs of IDRS and CBAC scores.Results: A total of 942 participants were included for the screening, out of them, 6.42 % (95% CI: 4.92-8.20) were diagnosed with DM. Hypertension was detected among 25.7% (95% CI: 22.9-28.5) of the participants. A total of 447 (47.3%) participants were found with IDRS score ≥ 60, and 276 (29.3%) with CBAC score >4. As much as 26.1% were at moderate to higher risk (≥10%) of developing CVDs. Area Under the Curve (AUC) for IDRS in predicting DM was 0.64 (0.58-0.70), with 67.1% SN and 55.2% SP (Youden's Index= 0.22). While the AUC for CBAC was 0.59 (0.53-0.65). For hypertension the both the AUCs were 0.66 (0.62-0.71) and 0.63 (0.59-0.67), respectively.Conclusions: Instead of CBAC, the present study emphasizes the usefulness of IDRS as an excellent tool for screening for both DM and HT. This is the time to expose the hidden part of the NCDs iceberg by having high sensitivity of non-invasive instruments (like IDRS), so, we propose a cut-off value of 50 for the IDRS to screen for diabetes in the rural Indian population.


Author(s):  
Naincy Rastogi ◽  
Arvind S. Bhake

Background: Mild microcytic hypochromic anaemias due to iron deficiency (IDA) and beta thalassemia trait(β-TT) continue to be a cause of significant burden to the society, particularly in the poorer developing countries. The objective of the present study was to study the RBC based indices in patients of marked anisopoikilocytosis in determining the etiology of it, to standardize few automated red cell parameters, and also objective grading of RBC morphology on peripheral smear and interpreting its utility in indicating a diagnosis. Also, to establish a relation between value of RBC indices with that of degree of anisocytosis.Methods: A total of 500 patients diagnosed with mild microcytic hypochromic anaemia on complete blood count and peripheral blood film were included in the study. Hb, RBC count, MCV, MCH and RDW obtained from the electronic cell counter were used to calculate discrimination indices by various mathematical formulae. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) and Youden’s index (YI) were calculated.Results: Green and King index demonstrated the lowest sensitivity of 70.51%. Mentzer index demonstrated the highest specificity of 96.80%. The highest and lowest PPV were found for Mentzer index (97.09%) and Sehgal index (92.81%) respectively. Sehgal’s index demonstrated the highest NPV of 95.96% and lowest NPV was exhibited by G and K (87.9%). The highest and the lowest values for Youden’s index were shown by Sehgal’s index (87.82%) and G and K index (68.47%).Conclusions: Sehgal’s index followed by Mentzer index are highly sensitive and reasonably specific in differentiating β-TT from IDA and none of the indices is 100% sensitive and specific. Though HbA2 estimation is the gold standard for diagnosing β-TT, in developing countries, Sehgal index followed by Mentzer et al, index can be used to screen mild microcytic hypochromic anaemia cases to eliminate as many false positive cases as possible to reduce the financial cost.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuying Huang ◽  
Kejian Qian ◽  
Yuanfang Zhu ◽  
Zikun Huang ◽  
Qing Luo ◽  
...  

Background. This study aims to evaluate the diagnostic value of nuclear-enriched abundant transcript 1 (NEAT1) expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) for the early diagnosis of sepsis. Methods. A total of 59 patients with sepsis, 52 noninfectious SIRS patients, and 56 healthy controls were recruited fort this study. The levels of NEAT1 expression in PBMCs were measured using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Results. Compared with healthy controls, NEAT1 expression of PBMCs in sepsis and SIRS groups were significantly increased (3.76 ± 0.71- and 1.64 ± 0.43-fold, resp.) (P<0.01), but NEAT1 levels are significantly lower in the SIRS group than in the sepsis group, and there was no statistical significant relevance between survivors and nonsurvivors in patients with sepsis. NEAT1 with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.851 (95% CI: 0.812–0.935) indicated sensitivity (67.85%) and specificity (87.27%) for the diagnosis for sepsis, the positive predictive value (PPV) was 83.3%, and the negative predictive value (NPV) was 71.6%. The AUC for NEAT1 in the diagnosis of SIRS versus healthy controls was 0.755 (95% CI: 0.664–0.847), with 69.23% sensitivity and 70.91% specificity, the PPV was 72.3%, and the NPV was 72.49%. Conclusion. Measurement of NEAT1 expression in PBMCs could be considered as a good additive marker for the diagnosis of sepsis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan-Yuan Wang ◽  
Yuan Feng ◽  
Meng Fang ◽  
Chengwei Guo ◽  
Gabor S. Ungvari ◽  
...  

Background: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe psychiatric disorder that is often misdiagnosed and under-diagnosed in clinical settings. The 33-item Hypomania Checklist (HCL-33) is a newly developed self-administered scale for BD detection, while the 33-item Hypomania Checklist-external assessment (HCL-33-EA) is a version of the HCL-33 for external rating used by patient's carer (e.g., family member or friend). We aimed to compare the screening abilities between the HCL-33 and the HCL-33-EA, and evaluate the screening consistency between the two scales.Methods: The data were collected from 269 patients with diagnosed BD (n = 84) or major depressive disorder (MDD) (n = 185). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and area under the curve (AUC) between the HCL-33 and the HCL-33-EA for BD were compared against clinician diagnosis as the gold standard.Results: Using Youden's index, the optimal cut-off value of the HCL-33 is 20, while the corresponding figure for HCL-33-EA is 11. Using Youden's index, the HCL-33-EA showed a better performance than the HCL-33 (0.51 vs.0.41). The HCL-33-EA was more sensitive in correctly identifying BD patients from MDD patients than the HCL-33 (0.83 vs. 0.59), while the HCL-33 presented better specificity than the HCL-33-EA (0.82 vs. 0.68). There was significant screening consistency between the two scales (p &lt; 0.001).Conclusions: Both scales have acceptable psychometric properties in detection BD from MDD. Use of the two scales should be considered based on the assessment purpose in clinical research or daily practice (i.e., prefer sensitivity or specificity). Noticeably, the current sample size is insufficient and future studies are recommended to further evaluate the scales.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Yaziz ◽  
Ahmad Sobri Muda ◽  
Wan Asyraf Wan Zaidi ◽  
Nik Azuan Nik Ismail

Background : The clot burden score (CBS) is a scoring system used in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) to predict patient outcome and guide treatment decision. However, CBS is not routinely practiced in many institutions. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of CBS as a relevant predictor of good clinical outcome in AIS cases. Methods:  A retrospective data collection and review of AIS patients in a teaching hospital was done from June 2010 until June 2015. Patients were selected following the inclusion and exclusion criteria. These patients were followed up after 90 days of discharge. The Modified Rankin scale (mRS) was used to assess their outcome (functional status). Linear regression Spearman Rank correlation was performed between the CBS and mRS. The quality performance of the correlations was evaluated using Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results: A total of 89 patients with AIS were analysed, 67.4% (n=60) male and 32.6% (n=29) female. Twenty-nine (29) patients (33.7%) had a CBS ?6, 6 patients (6.7%) had CBS <6, while 53 patients (59.6%) were deemed clot free. Ninety (90) days post insult, clinical assessment showed that 57 (67.6%) patients were functionally independent, 27 (30.3%) patients functionally dependent, and 5 (5.6%) patients were deceased. Data analysis reported a significant negative correlation (r= -0.611, p<0.001). ROC curves analysis showed an area under the curve of 0.81 at the cut-off point of 6.5. This showed that a CBS of more than 6 predicted a good mRS clinical outcome in AIS patients; with sensitivity of 98.2%, specificity of 53.1%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 76%, and negative predictive value (NPV) of 21%. Conclusion: CBS is a useful additional variable for the management of AIS cases, and should be incorporated into the routine radiological reporting for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) cases.


2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (12) ◽  
pp. 2818-2822
Author(s):  
Maria Cristina Oprea ◽  
Mihaela Vlad ◽  
Ioana Golu ◽  
Ioan Sporea ◽  
Lazar Fulger

Thyroid nodules are a common pathology found in 50 to 60% of otherwise healthy people. Diagnostic imaging techniques are help discriminating between benign and malignant nodules, while fine needle aspiration is still a gold standard. Shear wave elastography, a recent imaging technique, holds the promise to become reliable diagnostic tools and is currently used in combination with ultrasound. We here report data obtained in a series of 52 thyroid nodules analysed by means of elastography, as well as conventional and Doppler ultrasound. We found no differences in age, nodule and thyroid volume, length, width, thickness and maximum diameter between benign and malignant lesions. Several sonographic patterns are considered to be predictive of malignancy, out of which we only found the intranodular blood flow to be statistically significant. By the means of shear wave elastography we have first assessed tissue elasticities, which are shown in a range of colours, depending on tissue elasticity/stiffness. Then, we have measured and recorded four parameters automatically displayed by the system, namely SWE-mean, SWE-max, SWE-SD and SWE-ratio. Data analysis showed all these quantitative parameters had good sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and area under the curve, as calculated by the ROC curve. As with these parameters, the cut-off points were lower than in literature, still able to indicate reliable diagnoses, which were confirmed by histopathological exam. Our conclusion is that shear wave elastography has great potential for reliably and accurately diagnosing thyroid malignancies.


2021 ◽  
pp. 159101992110191
Author(s):  
Muhammad Waqas ◽  
Weizhe Li ◽  
Tatsat R Patel ◽  
Felix Chin ◽  
Vincent M Tutino ◽  
...  

Background The value of clot imaging in patients with emergent large vessel occlusion (ELVO) treated with thrombectomy is unknown. Methods We performed retrospective analysis of clot imaging (clot density, perviousness, length, diameter, distance to the internal carotid artery (ICA) terminus and angle of interaction (AOI) between clot and the aspiration catheter) of consecutive cases of middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion and its association with first pass effect (FPE, TICI 2c-3 after a first attempt). Results Patients ( n = 90 total) with FPE had shorter clot length (9.9 ± 4.5 mm vs. 11.7 ± 4.6 mm, P = 0.07), shorter distance from ICA terminus (11.0 ± 7.1 mm vs. 14.7 ± 9.8 mm, P = 0.048), higher perviousness (39.39 ± 29.5 vs 25.43 ± 17.6, P = 0.006) and larger AOI (153.6 ± 17.6 vs 140.3 ± 23.5, P = 0.004) compared to no-FPE patients. In multivariate analysis, distance from ICA terminus to clot ≤13.5 mm (odds ratio (OR) 11.05, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.65–46.15, P = 0.001), clot length ≤9.9 mm (OR 7.34; 95% CI 1.8–29.96, P = 0.005), perviousness ≥ 19.9 (OR 2.54, 95% CI 0.84–7.6, P = 0.09) and AOI ≥ 137°^ (OR 6.8, 95% CI 1.55–29.8, P = 0.011) were independent predictors of FPE. The optimal cut off derived using Youden’s index was 6.5. The area under the curve of a score predictive of FPE success was 0.816 (0.728–0.904, P < 0.001). In a validation cohort ( n = 30), sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of a score of 6–10 were 72.7%, 73.6%, 61.5% and 82.3%. Conclusions Clot imaging predicts the likelihood of achieving FPE in patients with MCA ELVO treated with the aspiration-first approach.


2020 ◽  
pp. archdischild-2020-320549
Author(s):  
Fang Hu ◽  
Shuai-Jun Guo ◽  
Jian-Jun Lu ◽  
Ning-Xuan Hua ◽  
Yan-Yan Song ◽  
...  

BackgroundDiagnosis of congenital syphilis (CS) is not straightforward and can be challenging. This study aimed to evaluate the validity of an algorithm using timing of maternal antisyphilis treatment and titres of non-treponemal antibody as predictors of CS.MethodsConfirmed CS cases and those where CS was excluded were obtained from the Guangzhou Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of syphilis programme between 2011 and 2019. We calculated sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) in two situations: (1) receiving antisyphilis treatment or no-treatment during pregnancy and (2) initiating treatment before 28 gestational weeks (GWs), initiating after 28 GWs or receiving no treatment for syphilis seropositive women.ResultsAmong 1558 syphilis-exposed children, 39 had confirmed CS. Area under the curve, sensitivity and specificity of maternal non-treponemal titres before treatment and treatment during pregnancy were 0.80, 76.9%, 78.7% and 0.79, 69.2%, 88.7%, respectively, for children with CS. For the algorithm, ROC results showed that PPV and NPV for predicting CS were 37.3% and 96.4% (non-treponemal titres cut-off value 1:8 and no antisyphilis treatment), 9.4% and 100% (non-treponemal titres cut-off value 1:16 and treatment after 28 GWs), 4.2% and 99.5% (non-treponemal titres cut-off value 1:32 and treatment before 28 GWs), respectively.ConclusionsAn algorithm using maternal non-treponemal titres and timing of treatment during pregnancy could be an effective strategy to diagnose or rule out CS, especially when the rate of loss to follow-up is high or there are no straightforward diagnostic tools.


Author(s):  
Walter Ageno ◽  
◽  
Chiara Cogliati ◽  
Martina Perego ◽  
Domenico Girelli ◽  
...  

AbstractCoronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with severe acute respiratory failure. Early identification of high-risk COVID-19 patients is crucial. We aimed to derive and validate a simple score for the prediction of severe outcomes. A retrospective cohort study of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 was carried out by the Italian Society of Internal Medicine. Epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, and treatment variables were collected at hospital admission at five hospitals. Three algorithm selection models were used to construct a predictive risk score: backward Selection, Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO), and Random Forest. Severe outcome was defined as the composite of need for non-invasive ventilation, need for orotracheal intubation, or death. A total of 610 patients were included in the analysis, 313 had a severe outcome. The subset for the derivation analysis included 335 patients, the subset for the validation analysis 275 patients. The LASSO selection identified 6 variables (age, history of coronary heart disease, CRP, AST, D-dimer, and neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio) and resulted in the best performing score with an area under the curve of 0.79 in the derivation cohort and 0.80 in the validation cohort. Using a cut-off of 7 out of 13 points, sensitivity was 0.93, specificity 0.34, positive predictive value 0.59, and negative predictive value 0.82. The proposed score can identify patients at low risk for severe outcome who can be safely managed in a low-intensity setting after hospital admission for COVID-19.


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