Value of Random Urinary Homovanillic Acid and Vanillylmandelic Acid Levels in the Diagnosis and Management of Patients with Neuroblastoma: Comparison with 24-Hour Urine Collections

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 324-328
Author(s):  
Mendel Tuchman ◽  
Christopher L. Morris ◽  
Margaret L. Ramnaraine ◽  
Larry D. Bowers ◽  
William Krivit
Keyword(s):  
Random Sample ◽  
Homovanillic Acid ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
False Positives ◽  
Vanillylmandelic Acid ◽  
False Negatives ◽  
Positive Correlation ◽  
Diagnosis And Management ◽  
Random Samples

Urinary homovanillic acid (HVA) and vanillymandelic acid (VMA) levels were determined in random samples and in 24-hour collections from 13 patients with neuroblastoma and 22 patients without neuroblastoma. Random sample levels were compared with levels in 24-hour collections and showed a positive correlation of 95% for HVA (N = 59) and 93% for VMA (N = 52). No false positives or false negatives occurred using random samples for diagnosis. Nonneuroblastoma (normal) HVA (N = 126) and VMA (N = 119) levels are reported for different age groups. Sequential random HVA and VMA determinations in patients with neuroblastoma during and after therapy are shown. Random urinary HVA and VMA levels are shown to be adequate for utilization in the diagnosis of neuroblastoma and sequential determinations of random HVA and VMA are shown to be helpful in the follow-up of those patients.

Consultant psychiatrists and abortion

1974 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjorie Waite
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Marital Status ◽  
Random Sample ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Teaching Hospitals

SYNOPSISIn 1971 a national random sample of 388 consultant psychiatrists answered questions about their views and practices in relation to abortion. Ten per cent of the consultants who saw relevant age groups had no patients for abortion assessment in 1970, while 5% had 100 or more (mean estimated number = 26). The process of referral, consultation, decision-making, and follow-up is looked at, as are the psychiatrists' views on abortion. Their views and practices are seen to vary with their religion and with their links with teaching hospitals, although not with their age, sex, or marital status.

A Follow-Up and Family Study of Briquet's Syndrome

1986 ◽  
Vol 149 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel B. Guze ◽  
C. Robert Cloninger ◽  
Ronald L. Martin ◽  
Paula J. Clayton
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Diagnostic Criteria ◽  
Family Study ◽  
False Positives ◽  
False Negatives ◽  
School Of Medicine ◽  
Patient Groups ◽  
Washington University

For many years we and other colleagues in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri have been concerned with the need to develop widely accepted, valid diagnostic criteria for psychiatric disorders. The aim has been to identify patient groups as homogeneous as possible. Diagnostic criteria, such as those used in this study, were therefore developed with the goal of maximising specificity (i.e. reducing false positives) while keeping sensitivity as high as possible (i.e. keeping false negatives low).

scholarly journals CONGENITAL HYDRONEPHROSIS: PROBLEMS IN DIAGNOSIS AND MANAGEMENT

1970 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yonas Immanuel Hutasoit ◽  
Irfan Wahyudi ◽  
Arry Rodjani
Keyword(s):  
Antenatal Care ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Renal Scintigraphy ◽  
Age At Diagnosis ◽  
Diagnostic Tools ◽  
Voiding Cystourethrogram ◽  
Diagnosis And Management ◽  
Congenital Hydronephrosis ◽  
Significant Difference

Objective: To evaluate problems in diagnosis and management of congenital hydronephrosis. Material & methods: This study was retrospective. Data was collected from medical records of patients with congenital hydronephrosis, which were hospitalized or went to urologic outpatient clinic at Ciptomangunkusumo Hospital from January 1999 to December 2008 and Harapan Kita Maternal and Pediatric Hospital from January 2004 to December 2008. Data was analyzed with SPSS programme version 13.0. Statistical analysis was performed to find the relationship between age at diagnosis and kidney function (Mann-Whitney test) and between age at diagnosis and nephrectomy rate (Chi-Square test). Results: There were 15 patients who presented because of antenatal diagnosis. Of the 145 patients, we could collect antenatal history only from 63 patients.  Obstetricians provided antenatal care in 56 out of 63 patients. Antenatal ultrasound was performed in only 59 out of 63 patients and only 44,07% (26 patients) with hydronephrosis was detected antenatally. Eleven out of 26 antenatally diagnosed patients came to our clinic at a later age. Three standard studies (postnatal ultrasound, voiding cystourethrogram, and renal scintigraphy) were performed only in 12 out of 145 patients (8,27%). Ultrasound was performed in 108 patients (74,5%), voiding cystourethrogram in 79 patients (54,5%), and renal scintigraphy in only 26 ptients (17,9%). The suggested management was conducted in 115 patients; operative management in 95 patients (82,61%) and conservative treatment in 20 patients (17,39%). The most common operative procedures were ureteroneocystostomy, pyeloplasty, nephrectomy, and posterior urethral valveablation. Mean serum creatinine in below 12 months old group and above 12 months old group was 0,78±0,93mg/dl dan 1,03±0,88 mg/dl respectively(p<0,05). There was no significant difference in nephrectomy rate in both age groups (p>0,05). Nephrectomy was performed in 16 patients, with the most common indication was grade IV hydronephrosis with thin parenchyma in 11 patients (68,75%) and the most common etiology was UPJ obstruction in 10 patients (62,5%). We can only collect follow up data from 73 out of 115 managed patients (63,48%). Urinalysis, ultrasound/voiding cystourethrogram, and renal function studies were not routinely conducted during follow up. Conclusion: The management of congenital hydronephrosis in Indonesia needs improvements in antenatal care standards, particularly obstetric ultrasound, to improve early detection of congenital hydronephrosis. Better education for parents about the importance of follow up is needed, especially for antenatally diagnosed patients. A consensus regarding diagnostic tools used in managing congenital hydronephrosis must be established among urologists, pediatricians, and radiologists.

Functional Neck Dissection

1983 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo V. Calearo ◽  
Gianpietro Teatini
Keyword(s):  
Surgical Technique ◽  
Neck Dissection ◽  
Radical Neck Dissection ◽  
Surgical Anatomy ◽  
False Positives ◽  
False Negatives ◽  
Local Recurrences ◽  
Functional Neck Dissection

The anatomical grounds of and surgical technique for functional neck dissection are described in detail in order to demonstrate that the radicalism of this procedure, from the viewpoint of surgical anatomy, is by no means less than that of the classical (so-called radical) neck dissection. From 1972 to 1978, 476 operations were performed (211 patients treated bilaterally and 54 unilaterally). The percentage of false negatives (ie, histologically proven metastases in clinically unsuspected nodes) was 14%, while the percentage of false positives (histological negativity in clinically suspected nodes) reached 53%. The total number of local recurrences in a three-year follow-up was nine (3.5%).

Management of Haemophilia in Sweden

1976 ◽  
Vol 35 (03) ◽  
pp. 510-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inga Marie Nilsson
Keyword(s):  
Factor Viii ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Factor Ix ◽  
Haemophilia A ◽  
Severe Haemophilia ◽  
Haemophilia B ◽  
Human Fraction ◽  
Mild Haemophilia

SummaryThe incidence of living haemophiliacs in Sweden (total population 8.1 millions) is about 1:15,000 males and about 1:30,000 of the entire population. The number of haemophiliacs born in Sweden in 5-year periods between 1931-1975 (June) has remained almost unchanged. The total number of haemophilia families in Sweden is 284 (77% haemophilia A, 23% haemophilia B) with altogether 557 (436 with A and 121 with B) living haemophiliacs. Of the haemophilia A patients 40 % have severe, 18 % moderate, and 42 % mild, haemophilia. The distribution of the haemophilia B patients is about the same. Inhibitors have been demonstrated in 8% of the patients with severe haemophilia A and in 10% of those with severe haemophilia B.There are 2 main Haemophilia Centres (Stockholm, Malmo) to which haemophiliacs from the whole of Sweden are admitted for diagnosis, follow-up and treatment for severe bleedings, joint defects and surgery. Minor bleedings are treated at local hospitals in cooperation with the Haemophilia Centres. The concentrates available for treatment in haemophilia A are human fraction 1-0 (AHF-Kabi), cryoprecipitate, Antihaemophilic Factor (Hyland 4) and Kryobulin (Immuno, Wien). AHF-Kabi is the most commonly used preparation. The concentrates available for treatment in haemophilia B are Preconativ (Kabi) and Prothromplex (Immuno). Sufficient amounts of concentrates are available. In Sweden 3.2 million units of factor VIII and 1.0 million units of factor IX are given per year. Treatment is free of charge.Only 5 patients receive domiciliary treatment, but since 1958 we in Sweden have practised prophylactic treatment of boys (4–18 years old) with severe haemophilia A. At about 5-10 days interval they receive AHF in amounts sufficient to raise the AHF level to 40–50%. This regimen has reduced severe haemophilia to moderate. The joint score is identical with that found in moderate haemophilia in the same age groups. For treatment of patients with haemophilia A and haemophilia B complicated by inhibitors we have used a large dose of antigen (factor VIII or factor IX) combined with cyclophosphamide. In most cases this treatment produced satisfactory haemostasis for 5 to 30 days and prevented the secondary antibody rise.

Sky Segmentation for Enhanced Depth Reconstruction and Bokeh Rendering with Efficient Architectures

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (14) ◽  
pp. 378-1-378-7
Author(s):  
Tyler Nuanes ◽  
Matt Elsey ◽  
Radek Grzeszczuk ◽  
John Paul Shen
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Mobile Device ◽  
Computational Cost ◽  
False Positives ◽  
Compact Model ◽  
High Quality ◽  
False Negatives ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Depth Reconstruction ◽  
Binary Classifiers

We present a high-quality sky segmentation model for depth refinement and investigate residual architecture performance to inform optimally shrinking the network. We describe a model that runs in near real-time on mobile device, present a new, highquality dataset, and detail a unique weighing to trade off false positives and false negatives in binary classifiers. We show how the optimizations improve bokeh rendering by correcting stereo depth misprediction in sky regions. We detail techniques used to preserve edges, reject false positives, and ensure generalization to the diversity of sky scenes. Finally, we present a compact model and compare performance of four popular residual architectures (ShuffleNet, MobileNetV2, Resnet-101, and Resnet-34-like) at constant computational cost.

Automatic Extraction of Acronyms from Text

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Yeates
Keyword(s):  
Digital Library ◽  
False Positives ◽  
Automatic Extraction ◽  
False Negatives ◽  
Library Research ◽  
Communications Theory ◽  
Textual Content

A brief introduction to acronyms is given and motivation for extracting them in a digital library environment is discussed. A technique for extracting acronyms is given with an analysis of the results. The technique is found to have a low number of false negatives and a high number of false positives. Introduction Digital library research seeks to build tools to enable access of content, while making as few as possible assumptions about the content, since assumptions limit the range of applicability of the tools. Generally, the broader the assumptions the more widely applicable the tools. For example, keyword based indexing [5] is based on communications theory and applies to all natural human textual languages (allowances for differences in character sets and similar localisation issues not withstanding) . The algorithm described in this paper makes much stronger assumptions about the content. It assumes textual content that contains acronyms, an assumption which is known to hold for...

scholarly journals P34 Characteristics, diagnosis and management of Cushing’s disease - A systematic review and meta-analysis

BJS Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chan Hee Koh ◽  
Danyal Z Khan ◽  
Ronneil Digpal ◽  
Hugo Layard Horsfall ◽  
Hani J Marcus ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Cushing’S Disease ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Pituitary Surgery ◽  
Serum Cortisol ◽  
Cushing's Disease ◽  
Diagnosis And Management ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Introduction The clinical practice and research in the diagnosis and management of Cushing’s disease remains heterogeneous and challenging to this day. We sought to establish the characteristics of Cushing’s disease, and the trends in diagnosis, management and reporting in this field. Methods Searches of PubMed and Embase were conducted. Study protocol was registered a-priori. Random-effects analyses were conducted to establish numerical estimates. Results Our screening returned 159 papers. The average age of adult patients with Cushing’s disease was 39.3, and 13.6 for children. The male:female ratio was 1:3. 8% of patients had undergone previous transsphenoidal resection. The ratio of macroadenomas: microadenomas:imaging-undetectable adenomas was 18:53:29. The most commonly reported preoperative biochemical investigations were serum cortisol (average 26.4µg/dL) and ACTH (77.5pg/dL). Postoperative cortisol was most frequently used to define remission (74.8%), most commonly with threshold of 5µg/dL (44.8%). Average remission rates were 77.8% with recurrence rate of 13.9%. Median follow-up was 38 months. Majority of papers reported age (81.9%) and sex (79.4%). Only 56.6% reported whether their patients had previous pituitary surgery. 45.3% reported whether their adenomas were macroadenoma, microadenoma or undetectable. Only 24.1% reported preoperative cortisol, and this did not improve over time. 60.4% reported numerical thresholds for cortisol in defining remission, and this improved significantly over time (p = 0.004). Visual inspection of bubbleplots showed increasing preference for threshold of 5µg/dL. 70.4% reported the length of follow up. Conclusion We quantified the characteristics of Cushing’s disease, and analysed the trends in investigation and reporting. This review may help to inform future efforts in forming guidelines for research and clinical practice.

scholarly journals Incidence of Plasmodium falciparum malaria infection in 6-month to 45-year-olds on selected areas of Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicente Urbano Nsue Ndong Nchama ◽  
Ali Hamad Said ◽  
Ali Mtoro ◽  
Gertrudis Owono Bidjimi ◽  
Marta Alene Owono ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plasmodium Falciparum ◽  
Malaria Control ◽  
Malaria Infection ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Equatorial Guinea ◽  
Safety And Efficacy ◽  
Bioko Island ◽  
Malaria Vaccines

Abstract Background Extensive malaria control measures have been implemented on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea over the past 16 years, reducing parasite prevalence and malaria-related morbidity and mortality, but without achieving elimination. Malaria vaccines offer hope for reducing the burden to zero. Three phase 1/2 studies have been conducted successfully on Bioko Island to evaluate the safety and efficacy of whole Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) sporozoite (SPZ) malaria vaccines. A large, pivotal trial of the safety and efficacy of the radiation-attenuated Sanaria® PfSPZ Vaccine against P. falciparum is planned for 2022. This study assessed the incidence of malaria at the phase 3 study site and characterized the influence of socio-demographic factors on the burden of malaria to guide trial design. Methods A cohort of 240 randomly selected individuals aged 6 months to 45 years from selected areas of North Bioko Province, Bioko Island, was followed for 24 weeks after clearance of parasitaemia. Assessment of clinical presentation consistent with malaria and thick blood smears were performed every 2 weeks. Incidence of first and multiple malaria infections per person-time of follow-up was estimated, compared between age groups, and examined for associated socio-demographic risk factors. Results There were 58 malaria infection episodes observed during the follow up period, including 47 first and 11 repeat infections. The incidence of malaria was 0.25 [95% CI (0.19, 0.32)] and of first malaria was 0.23 [95% CI (0.17, 0.30)] per person per 24 weeks (0.22 in 6–59-month-olds, 0.26 in 5–17-year-olds, 0.20 in 18–45-year-olds). Incidence of first malaria with symptoms was 0.13 [95% CI (0.09, 0.19)] per person per 24 weeks (0.16 in 6–59-month-olds, 0.10 in 5–17-year-olds, 0.11 in 18–45-year-olds). Multivariate assessment showed that study area, gender, malaria positivity at screening, and household socioeconomic status independently predicted the observed incidence of malaria. Conclusion Despite intensive malaria control efforts on Bioko Island, local transmission remains and is spread evenly throughout age groups. These incidence rates indicate moderate malaria transmission which may be sufficient to support future larger trials of PfSPZ Vaccine. The long-term goal is to conduct mass vaccination programmes to halt transmission and eliminate P. falciparum malaria.

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