scholarly journals Detecting neonatal acute bilirubin encephalopathy based on T1-weighted MRI images and learning-based approaches

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miao Wu ◽  
Xiaoxia Shen ◽  
Can Lai ◽  
Weihao Zheng ◽  
Yingqun Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Inspection ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
Neurological Deficits ◽  
Medical Attention ◽  
Bilirubin Encephalopathy ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Chi Squared ◽  
Diagnostic Approaches ◽  
T1 Hyperintensity ◽  
Future Work

Abstract Background Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia is a common clinical condition that requires medical attention in newborns, which may develop into acute bilirubin encephalopathy with a significant risk of long-term neurological deficits. The current clinical challenge lies in the separation of acute bilirubin encephalopathy and non-acute bilirubin encephalopathy neonates both with hyperbilirubinemia condition since both of them demonstrated similar T1 hyperintensity and lead to difficulties in clinical diagnosis based on the conventional radiological reading. This study aims to investigate the utility of T1-weighted MRI images for differentiating acute bilirubin encephalopathy and non-acute bilirubin encephalopathy neonates with hyperbilirubinemia. Methods 3 diagnostic approaches, including a visual inspection, a semi-quantitative method based on normalized the T1-weighted intensities of the globus pallidus and subthalamic nuclei, and a deep learning method with ResNet18 framework were applied to classify 47 acute bilirubin encephalopathy neonates and 32 non-acute bilirubin encephalopathy neonates with hyperbilirubinemia based on T1-weighted images. Chi-squared test and t-test were used to test the significant difference of clinical features between the 2 groups. Results The visual inspection got a poor diagnostic accuracy of 53.58 ± 5.71% indicating the difficulty of the challenge in real clinical practice. However, the semi-quantitative approach and ResNet18 achieved a classification accuracy of 62.11 ± 8.03% and 72.15%, respectively, which outperformed visual inspection significantly. Conclusion Our study indicates that it is not sufficient to only use T1-weighted MRI images to detect neonates with acute bilirubin encephalopathy. Other more MRI multimodal images combined with T1-weighted MRI images are expected to use to improve the accuracy in future work. However, this study demonstrates that the semi-quantitative measurement based on T1-weighted MRI images is a simple and compromised way to discriminate acute bilirubin encephalopathy and non-acute bilirubin encephalopathy neonates with hyperbilirubinemia, which may be helpful in improving the current manual diagnosis.

The prognosis and recovery of major postoperative neurological deficits after corrective surgery for scoliosis

2022 ◽  
Vol 104-B (1) ◽  
pp. 103-111
Author(s):  
Jie Li ◽  
Zongshan Hu ◽  
Zhikai Qian ◽  
Ziyang Tang ◽  
Yong Qiu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neurological Deficit ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Spinal Injury ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
Complete Recovery ◽  
Neurological Deficits ◽  
Corrective Surgery ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Haematoma Formation

Aims The outcome following the development of neurological complications after corrective surgery for scoliosis varies from full recovery to a permanent deficit. This study aimed to assess the prognosis and recovery of major neurological deficits in these patients, and to determine the risk factors for non-recovery, at a minimum follow-up of two years. Methods A major neurological deficit was identified in 65 of 8,870 patients who underwent corrective surgery for scoliosis, including eight with complete paraplegia and 57 with incomplete paraplegia. There were 23 male and 42 female patients. Their mean age was 25.0 years (SD 16.3). The aetiology of the scoliosis was idiopathic (n = 6), congenital (n = 23), neuromuscular (n = 11), neurofibromatosis type 1 (n = 6), and others (n = 19). Neurological function was determined by the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) impairment scale at a mean follow-up of 45.4 months (SD 17.2). the patients were divided into those with recovery and those with no recovery according to the ASIA scale during follow-up. Results The incidence of major deficit was 0.73%. At six-month follow-up, 39 patients (60%) had complete recovery and ten (15.4%) had incomplete recovery; these percentages improved to 70.8% (46) and 16.9% (11) at follow-up of two years, respectively. Eight patients showed no recovery at the final follow-up. The cause of injury was mechanical in 39 patients and ischaemic in five. For 11 patients with misplaced implants and haematoma formation, nine had complete recovery. Fisher’s exact test showed a significant difference in the aetiology of the scoliosis (p = 0.007) and preoperative deficit (p = 0.016) between the recovery and non-recovery groups. A preoperative deficit was found to be significantly associated with non-recovery (odds ratio 8.5 (95% confidence interval 1.676 to 43.109); p = 0.010) in a multivariate regression model. Conclusion For patients with scoliosis who develop a major neurological deficit after corrective surgery, recovery (complete and incomplete) can be expected in 87.7%. The first three to six months is the time window for recovery. In patients with misplaced implants and haematoma formation, the prognosis is satisfactory with appropriate early intervention. Patients with a preoperative neurological deficit are at a significant risk of having a permanent deficit. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2022;104-B(1):103–111.

Risk of venous thromboembolism following surgical treatment of superficial venous incompetence

VASA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 484-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Barker ◽  
Felicity Evison ◽  
Ruth Benson ◽  
Alok Tiwari
Keyword(s):  
Venous Thromboembolism ◽  
Varicose Vein ◽  
Lower Incidence ◽  
Varicose Veins ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Foam Sclerotherapy ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Chi Squared ◽  
One Year

Abstract. Background: The invasive management of varicose veins has a known risk of post-operative deep venous thrombosis and subsequent pulmonary embolism. The aim of this study was to evaluate absolute and relative risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) following commonly used varicose vein procedures. Patients and methods: A retrospective analysis of secondary data using Hospital Episode Statistics database was performed for all varicose vein procedures performed between 2003 and 2013 and all readmissions for VTE in the same patients within 30 days, 90 days, and one year. Comparison of the incidence of VTEs between procedures was performed using a Pearson’s Chi-squared test. Results: In total, 261,169 varicose vein procedures were performed during the period studied. There were 686 VTEs recorded at 30 days (0.26 % incidence), 884 at 90 days (0.34 % incidence), and 1,246 at one year (0.48 % incidence). The VTE incidence for different procedures was between 0.15–0.35 % at 30 days, 0.26–0.50 % at 90 days, and 0.46–0.58 % at one year. At 30 days there was a significantly lower incidence of VTEs for foam sclerotherapy compared to other procedures (p = 0.01). There was no difference in VTE incidence between procedures at 90 days (p = 0.13) or one year (p = 0.16). Conclusions: Patients undergoing varicose vein procedures have a small but appreciable increased risk of VTE compared to the general population, with the effect persisting at one year. Foam sclerotherapy had a lower incidence of VTE compared to other procedures at 30 days, but this effect did not persist at 90 days or at one year. There was no other significant difference in the incidence of VTE between open, endovenous, and foam sclerotherapy treatments.

INITIAL STEP OF SPECIALIZED CORPORA BUILDING: CLEANING PROCEDURES

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Yakubson ◽  
Victor Zakharov
Keyword(s):  
Text Processing ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Initial Step ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Linguistic Annotation ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Cleaning Procedures ◽  
Unique Source ◽  
Future Work

This paper deals with the specialized corpora building, specifically academic language corpus in the biotechnology field. Being a part of larger research devoted to creation and usage of specialized parallel corpus, this piece aims to analyze the initial step of corpus building. Our main research question was what procedures we need to implement to the texts before using them to develop the corpus. Analysis of previous research showed the significant quantity of papers devoted to corpora creation, including academic specialized corpora. Different sides of the process were analyzed in these researches, including the types of texts used, the principles of crawling, the recommended length of texts etc. As to the text processing for the needs of corpora creation, only the linguistic annotation issues were examined earlier. At the same time, the preliminary cleaning of texts before their usage in corpora may have significant influence on the corpus quality and its utility for the linguistic research. In this paper, we considered three small corpora derived from the same set of academic texts in the biotechnology field: “raw” corpus without any preliminary cleaning and two corpora with different level of cleaning. Using different Sketch Engine tools, we analyzed these corpora from the position of their future users, predominantly as sources for academic wordlists and specialized multi-word units. The conducted research showed very little difference between two cleaned corpora, meaning that only basic cleaning procedures such as removal of reference lists are can be useful in corpora design. At the same time, we found a significant difference between raw and cleaned corpora and argue that this difference can affect the quality of wordlists and multi-word terms extraction, therefore these cleaning procedures are meaningful. The main limitation of the study is that all texts were taken from the unique source, so the conclusions could be affected by this specific journal’s peculiarities. Therefore, the future work should be the verification of results on different text collections

In silico Defining the Repeat-containing Proteins in the Acinetobacter baumannii Proteome, a Great Reservoir of Templates for Synthetic Biology

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-158
Author(s):  
Mohammad Reza Rahbar ◽  
Mahboubeh Zarei ◽  
Navid Nezafat ◽  
Manica Negahdaripour ◽  
Younes Ghasemi
Keyword(s):  
Acinetobacter Baumannii ◽  
Drug Targets ◽  
Closely Related Species ◽  
Great Ability ◽  
Repeat Proteins ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Biological Determinants ◽  
Tandem Repeat Proteins ◽  
Diagnostic Approaches ◽  
Novel Therapeutic

Background: Acinetobacter baumannii is an important nosocomial pathogen with great ability to resist antibiotics. Tandem repeat proteins, abundant in prokaryotic proteomes, attract attention due to their role in virulence and various biological processes. Defining repeat- containing proteins may pave the way to find novel therapeutic targets as well as vaccine candidate and give pieces of evidence of mechanisms of evolution and adaptation of organisms to various environmental conditions. Objective: In the present study, we employed bioinformatics tools to define repeatcontaining proteins within A. baumannii proteome for emphasizing the existence of natural sources for synthesizing novel therapeutic and diagnosis material. Results: We defined various kinds of repeat modules in a number of proteins and compared the abundance of these proteins in some closely related species. No significant difference was observed in the count of repeat-containing proteins in different species. But the existence of some important virulence factors is mentionable in our screening. Conclusion: Repeat containing proteins are important biological determinants of A. baumannii and are well worth researching for finding drug targets and vaccine candidates. These proteins can be served as a template for designing and synthesizing peptides for therapeutic and diagnostic approaches.

scholarly journals The Role of Past Suicidal Behavior on Current Suicidality: A Retrospective Study in the Israeli Military

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 649
Author(s):  
Leah Shelef ◽  
Jessica M Rabbany ◽  
Peter M Gutierrez ◽  
Ron Kedem ◽  
Ariel Ben Yehuda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Suicide Attempt ◽  
Suicidal Behavior ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Suicide Ideation ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Suicide Attempts ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
Significant Risk Factor ◽  
Severity Rating ◽  
Significant Difference

Past suicide attempts are a significant risk factor for future suicidality. Therefore, the present military-based study examined the past suicidal behavior of soldiers who recently made a severe suicide attempt. Our sample consisted of 65 active-duty soldiers (61.5% males), between the ages of 18 and 28 years old (M = 20.4, SD ± 1.3). The inclusion criterion was a recent severe suicide attempt, requiring at least a 24 h hospitalization. This sample was divided into two groups, according to previous suicidal behavior, namely whether their first suicide attempt was before or after enlistment (n = 25; 38.5% and n = 40; 61.5%, respectively). We then examined the lethality and intent of the recent event in regard to this division. Four measures were used to assess the subjects’ suicidal characteristics: the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale, the Self-Harm Behavior Questionnaire, the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised, and the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation. No significant difference in the severity of the suicide attempts (either actual or potential severity) were found between those who had suicide attempts before enlistment and those who had their first attempt in the service. As a matter of fact, most of the suicide attempts that occurred for the first time during military service had used a violent method (58.3%, n = 21). Finally, using multivariate analyses, we found that current thoughts and behavior, rather than past suicidality, was the strongest predictor for the lethality of suicide attempts.

scholarly journals Adrenal incidentalomas: imaging challenges—role of MDCT scan versus MRI in evaluating adrenal incidentalomas

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Maher Amin Nawar ◽  
Sameh Abdel Aziz Zaky Hanna ◽  
Shereen Sadik El-Sawy ◽  
Sally Yehia Shokralla
Keyword(s):  
Significant Risk ◽  
Adrenal Incidentaloma ◽  
Adrenal Incidentalomas ◽  
Specific Patient ◽  
Contrast Enhanced Ct ◽  
Contrast Enhanced ◽  
Enhanced Ct ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Adrenal Masses

Abstract Background The term adrenal incidentaloma (AI), by definition, is an adrenal mass that is unexpectedly detected through an imaging procedure performed for reasons unrelated to adrenal dysfunction or suspected dysfunction. Despite their frequent appearance, the challenge remains in recognizing and treating the small percentage of AI that poses a significant risk, either because of their hormonal activity or because of their malignant histology. The aim of this study is to study the role of MRI, specifically chemical shift imaging (CSI), against various MDCT scans (non-enhanced, enhanced, and delayed) in the characterization of incidentally discovered adrenal masses to offer a way for the patients to avoid unnecessary time and money-wasting imaging modalities used to reach a diagnosis of their incidentally discovered adrenal lesions. We examined a total number of 20 patients with total of 22 adrenal lesions. The mean age was 51.1 ± 15.27. Results In our study, we found that among CT parameters, APW and RPW showed the highest sensitivity and specificity for detection of lipid-rich adenomas. CSI has also proven to be the best MR technique. However, there is no statistically significant difference in the diagnostic capability of CSI versus the CT washout technique. Both modalities could be conducted, according to specific patient preferences and/or limitations, with comparable highly accurate outcomes. Conclusion This study demonstrates that a similar diagnostic outcome is obtained from contrast-enhanced CT (CECT) and MRI with CSI of adrenal lesions.

scholarly journals COVID-19 infection: epidemiological, clinical, and radiological expression among adult population

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eman Ragab ◽  
Asrar Helal Mahrous ◽  
Ghadeer Maher El Sheikh
Keyword(s):  
Serum Ferritin ◽  
Clinical Laboratory ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
High Serum ◽  
Male Gender ◽  
Lower Sensitivity ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
D Dimer

Abstract Background High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) has proved to be an important diagnostic tool throughout the COVID-19 pandemic outbreaks. Increasing number of the infected personnel and shortage of real-time transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) as well as its lower sensitivity made the CT a backbone in diagnosis, assessment of severity, and follow-up of the cases. Results Two hundred forty patients were evaluated retrospectively for clinical, laboratory, and radiological expression in COVID-19 infection. One hundred eighty-six non-severe cases with home isolation and outpatient treatment and 54 severe cases needed hospitalization and oxygen support. Significant difference between both groups was encountered regarding the age, male gender, > 38° fever, dyspnea, chest pain, hypertension, ≤ 93 oxygen saturation, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, elevated D-dimer, high serum ferritin and troponin levels, and high CT-severity score (CT-SS) of the severe group. CT-SS showed a negative correlation with O2 saturation and patients’ outcome (r − 0.73/p 0.001 and r − 0.56/p 0.001, respectively). Bilateral peripherally distributed ground glass opacities (GGOs) were the commonest imaging feature similar to the literature. Conclusion Older age, male gender, smoking, hypertension, low O2 saturation, increased CT score, high serum ferritin, and high D-dimer level are the most significant risk factors for severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Follow-up of the recovered severe cases is recommended to depict possible post COVID-19 lung fibrosis.

scholarly journals Frequency-Following Response (FFR) in Military Pilots

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graziela Maria Martins-Moreira ◽  
Alessandra Spada Durante
Keyword(s):  
Pure Tone Audiometry ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Study Group ◽  
Aircraft Accidents ◽  
Frequency Following Response ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Qualitative Variables ◽  
Chi Squared ◽  
The Right ◽  
Military Pilots

Abstract Introduction Good hearing in pilots, including central auditory skills, is critical for flight safety and the prevention of aircraft accidents. Pure tone audiometry alone may not be enough to assess hearing in the members of this population who, in addition to high noise levels, routinely face speech recognition tasks in non-ideal conditions. Objective To characterize the frequency-following response (FFR) of a group of military pilots compared with a control group. Methods Twenty military pilots in the Study Group and 20 non-pilot military personnel, not exposed to noise in their work, in the Control Group, all with normal hearing, aged between 30 and 40 years old, completed a questionnaire to assess their hearing habits, and their FFRs were measured with a /da/ syllable (duration 40 milliseconds, speed 10.9/s), at 80 dB NA in the right ear. All procedures were approved by the ethical committee of the institution. Statistical analysis was performed using the t-Student or Mann-Whitney tests for quantitative variables, and the Fisher or chi-squared tests for qualitative variables, and a value of p < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results There was no significant difference between the groups regarding auditory habits. In the FFR, wave amplitudes A (p = 0.01) and C (p = 0.04) were significantly lower in the Study Group. Conclusion Working as a military pilot can be a crucial factor in determining an individual's typical FFR pattern, demonstrated in the present study by statistically significant reductions in the amplitudes of the A and C waves.

scholarly journals Nanotubular Oxide Layer Formed on Helix Surfaces of Dental Screw Implants

Coatings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Jażdżewska ◽  
Michał Bartmański
Keyword(s):  
Oxide Layer ◽  
Cross Sections ◽  
Surface Coverage ◽  
Artificial Saliva ◽  
Corrosion Current ◽  
Optical Microscope ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Helix Surfaces ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Oxidation Parameters

Surface modification is used to extend the life of implants. To increase the corrosion resistance and improve the biocompatibility of metal implant materials, oxidation of the Ti-13Nb-13Zr titanium alloy was used. The samples used for the research had the shape of a helix with a metric thread, with their geometry imitating a dental implant. The oxide layer was produced by a standard electrochemical method in an environment of 1M H3PO4 + 0.3% HF for 20 min, at a constant voltage of 30 V. The oxidized samples were analyzed with a scanning electron microscope. Nanotubular oxide layers with internal diameters of 30–80 nm were found. An analysis of the surface topography was performed using an optical microscope, and the Sa parameter was determined for the top of the helix and for the bottom, where a significant difference in value was observed. The presence of the modification layer, visible at the bottom of the helix, was confirmed by analyzing the sample cross-sections using computed tomography. Corrosion tests performed in the artificial saliva solution demonstrated higher corrosion current and less noble corrosion potential due to incomplete surface coverage and pitting. Necessary improved oxidation parameters will be applied in future work.

Neurosurgical intervention in penetrating spinal trauma with associated visceral injury

1989 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 514-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin H. Venger ◽  
Richard K. Simpson ◽  
Raj K. Narayan
Keyword(s):  
Neurological Outcome ◽  
Cauda Equina ◽  
Neurological Deficits ◽  
Neurological Injury ◽  
Infection Prophylaxis ◽  
Associated Injuries ◽  
Visceral Injury ◽  
Surgical Exploration ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Neurosurgical Intervention

✓ Associated injuries to the neck, chest, or abdomen are found in approximately one-quarter of all civilians with penetrating spinal cord or cauda equina injuries. While the value of and indications for general surgical exploration and repair of these injuries are fairly self-evident, the value of neurosurgical intervention in terms of neurological outcome and infection prophylaxis remains the subject of debate. To study this issue, 160 civilian patients with penetrating spinal injuries and neurological deficits were retrospectively reviewed. Associated injuries of the esophagus, trachea, bronchi, or bowel were seen in 107 individuals (67%); 33 (31%) of these patients had abdominal injuries, 25 (23%) had neck injuries, 23 (21%) had thoracic injuries, and 26 (24%) had injuries occurring at multiple sites. Of these 107 patients, 67 (63%) had complete neurological injuries and the remaining 40 (37%) demonstrated incomplete deficits. All 107 patients underwent surgical exploration and repair of their visceral injuries; in 19 of them a neurosurgical procedure was also performed for decompression of the neural elements and/or debridement of the wound. Regardless of the presence of associated visceral injuries, the mechanism of injury, and the extent of the neurological deficit, no statistically significant difference in neurological outcome was found in patients with or without neurosurgical intervention. Complications associated with neurological injury were reported in 17 (11%) of the total group of 160 patients. Four (21%) of the 19 patients who had neurosurgical intervention suffered a related complication, compared to only six (7%) of the 88 patients who were managed conservatively (p < 0.05). Within the limitations of a retrospective review, the results of this study do not clearly support the value of routine neurosurgical intervention as an adjunct to general surgical repair in cases of spinal injury associated with penetrating visceral trauma.

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