scholarly journals Point of care high resolution ultrasound in the evaluation of Bangladeshi women presenting to a breast care center

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 3-6
Author(s):  
Richard R Love ◽  
Syed Mozammel Hossain ◽  
James Woods ◽  
Sk Farid Uddin Ahmed ◽  
Moslema Parvin ◽  
...  

Background: Mammography and ultrasound examinations for diagnosis and staging of breast problems have been traditionally performed in specialized facilities, which circumstances are associated with increased costs and inconvenience for patients. Point of care or clinical office provision of high resolution ultrasound may allow addressing these equity barriers to health services, but there are limited data in Bangladesh about such practice and the associated quality of care.Objective: To ascertain the advantage of ultrasonogram in the diagnosis of breast disease and screening of breast cancer.Methods: From February through November 2014, 1085 women presented to the Amader Gram Breast Care Center in Khulna. In each of these women in addition to standard history and physical examination, a high resolution ultrasound scan was performed of both breasts. Standard clinical and ultrasound practice definitions of breast conditions were applied to each case by an specialist surgeon trained in breast sonology.Results: Two thirds of women had history, physical examination and ultrasound findings consistent with fibrocystic conditions. 12% had fibro adenomas, 5% inflammatory infectious conditions, 2% obvious or strongly suspected breast malignacy, and 1% had masses of uncertain nature. 3% had more than one abnormal breast condition and 3% had no breast abnormalities at all. The overwhelming majority of women benefitted from having ultrasound examination which contributed to prompt, definitive characterization of their breast conditions and which pictorial demonstration contributed to patient education about the clinical diagnosis.Conclusion: Point of care high resolution breast ultrasound can contribute favorably to quality and equity of care for Bangladeshi women with breast problems.Bang Med J (Khulna) 2016; 49 : 3-6

Kidney360 ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 10.34067/KID.0002482021
Author(s):  
Abhilash Koratala ◽  
Nathaniel Reisinger

Point of care ultrasonography (POCUS) has evolved as a valuable adjunct to physical examination in the recent past and various medical specialties have embraced it. However, POCUS training and scope of practice remain relatively undefined in nephrology. The utility of diagnostic POCUS beyond kidney and vascular access is under-recognized. Assessment of fluid status is a frequent dilemma faced by nephrologists in day-to-day practice where multi-organ POCUS can enhance the sensitivity of conventional physical examination. POCUS also reduces fragmentation of care, facilitates timely diagnosis, and expedites management. While the need for further imaging studies is obviated in selected cases, POCUS is not meant to serve as an alternative to consultative imaging. In addition, utility of POCUS depends on the skills and experience of the operator, which in turn depends on the quality of training. In this review, we discuss the rationale behind nephrologists performing POCUS, discuss case examples to illustrate the basic principles of focused ultrasonography, and share our experience-based opinion about developing a POCUS training program at the institutional level.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. e235304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Connor Evins ◽  
Aniel Rao

A 51-year-old man was hospitalised for severe hyponatremia. Initial history and physical examination suggested hypovolemia, and he was treated with normal saline at 100 mL/hour. After several days, his hyponatremia failed to improve, and then worsened without resolution of presenting ataxia and fatigue. He had no new complaints including no cough or orthopnea. He had no jugular venous distention or oedema, and his lungs were clear to auscultation. Point-of-care ultrasound was used, revealing a distended inferior vena cava, pulmonary oedema and pleural effusion, suggesting hypervolemia. Based on ultrasound findings, we treated with 60 mg oral torsemide two times per day. Hyponatremia resolved without complication within 48 hours. In this case, physical examination failed to recognise volume status change from hypovolemic to hypervolemic, increasing hospitalisation and morbidity. The point-of-care ultrasound proved to be an accurate tool for proper volume evaluation, and may be used as an adjunct to physical examination for hyponatremic patients.


2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 191-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Th. S. Dhahi ◽  
U. Hashim ◽  
N. M. Ahmed ◽  
H. Nazma

We develop a method for fabricating the nano-gaps directly by using just photolithography and wet etching processes without any nano lithography or difficult techniques. It shows that this resolution enhancement allows one to fabricate metal electrodes with separation from arbitrarily large to fewer than one hundred nanometers. Furthermore, because these nano-gaps are on a thin film, they can be imaged with high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Efforts toward achieving electrical contact to nanostructures have been active for over a decade. Even though several devices based on “nano-gaps” – two gaps separated by a nanometer-scale distance - have been demonstrated, their realization has remained a significant challenge. Even the best methods are highly labor-intensive and suffer from low yield and poor geometrical control. Most nano-gaps are also incompatible with high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). As a consequence, the proof of the nano-gap quality and content in past studies has been indirect. High-resolution imaging is therefore required to ensure the quality of nano-gaps and to be able to identify possible artifacts. This project presents a unique vertical nano-gap biosensor that can detect changes in DNA structure. Using a size reduction to interrogate samples between the nano-scale gaps, this biosensor will be sensitive enough to record the conformational changes for ss-DNA.


Sensors ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 553
Author(s):  
Jose Angel Picazo-Bueno ◽  
Karina Trindade ◽  
Martin Sanz ◽  
Vicente Micó

Lensless holographic microscope (LHM) is an emerging very promising technology that provides high-quality imaging and analysis of biological samples without utilizing any lens for imaging. Due to its small size and reduced price, LHM can be a very useful tool for the point-of-care diagnosis of diseases, sperm assessment, or microfluidics, among others, not only employed in advanced laboratories but also in poor and/or remote areas. Recently, several LHMs have been reported in the literature. However, complete characterization of their optical parameters remains not much presented yet. Hence, we present a complete analysis of the performance of a compact, reduced cost, and high-resolution LHM. In particular, optical parameters such as lateral and axial resolutions, lateral magnification, and field of view are discussed into detail, comparing the experimental results with the expected theoretical values for different layout configurations. We use high-resolution amplitude and phase test targets and several microbeads to characterize the proposed microscope. This characterization is used to define a balanced and matched setup showing a good compromise between the involved parameters. Finally, such a microscope is utilized for visualization of static, as well as dynamic biosamples.


2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Kowalski ◽  
William Yeaton ◽  
Holger Pfaff

Rationale, aims and objectives: Though the ultimate goal of patient surveys is to improve patient care, few studies have systematically examined whether other feedback modes in addition to written reports can spur improvement in subsequent patients. We investigate whether staff participation in benchmark workshops leads to improved results during the next survey period.Method: Standardized patient surveys with consecutive samples were administered in all accredited breast care center hospitals in a German state (18 million inhabitants). After the 2009 survey results were distributed to breast care centers, participation at a benchmark workshop was offered to employees from all hospitals that participated in the survey at the beginning of the 2010 survey period. The workshop focused on 3 topics. Multiple linear regression analyses were applied.Results: Participation in workshops was positively and statistically significantly associated with improvement in survey results the following year for the dimension “support by nurses” and positively associated with both of the other 2 dimensions.Conclusion: If breast center hospitals participate in benchmark workshops, care of quality as perceived by patients is likely to improve and will actively contribute to the person-centeredness of clinical services.


Author(s):  
D. F. Blake ◽  
L. F. Allard ◽  
D. R. Peacor

Echinodermata is a phylum of marine invertebrates which has been extant since Cambrian time (c.a. 500 m.y. before the present). Modern examples of echinoderms include sea urchins, sea stars, and sea lilies (crinoids). The endoskeletons of echinoderms are composed of plates or ossicles (Fig. 1) which are with few exceptions, porous, single crystals of high-magnesian calcite. Despite their single crystal nature, fracture surfaces do not exhibit the near-perfect {10.4} cleavage characteristic of inorganic calcite. This paradoxical mix of biogenic and inorganic features has prompted much recent work on echinoderm skeletal crystallography. Furthermore, fossil echinoderm hard parts comprise a volumetrically significant portion of some marine limestones sequences. The ultrastructural and microchemical characterization of modern skeletal material should lend insight into: 1). The nature of the biogenic processes involved, for example, the relationship of Mg heterogeneity to morphological and structural features in modern echinoderm material, and 2). The nature of the diagenetic changes undergone by their ancient, fossilized counterparts. In this study, high resolution TEM (HRTEM), high voltage TEM (HVTEM), and STEM microanalysis are used to characterize tha ultrastructural and microchemical composition of skeletal elements of the modern crinoid Neocrinus blakei.


Author(s):  
M. José-Yacamán

Electron microscopy is a fundamental tool in materials characterization. In the case of nanostructured materials we are looking for features with a size in the nanometer range. Therefore often the conventional TEM techniques are not enough for characterization of nanophases. High Resolution Electron Microscopy (HREM), is a key technique in order to characterize those materials with a resolution of ~ 1.7A. High resolution studies of metallic nanostructured materials has been also reported in the literature. It is concluded that boundaries in nanophase materials are similar in structure to the regular grain boundaries. That work therefore did not confirm the early hipothesis on the field that grain boundaries in nanostructured materials have a special behavior. We will show in this paper that by a combination of HREM image processing, and image calculations, it is possible to prove that small particles and coalesced grains have a significant surface roughness, as well as large internal strain.


Author(s):  
H. Takaoka ◽  
M. Tomita ◽  
T. Hayashi

High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) is the effective technique for characterization of detailed structure of semiconductor materials. Oxygen is one of the important impurities in semiconductors. Detailed structure of highly oxygen doped silicon has not clearly investigated yet. This report describes detailed structure of highly oxygen doped silicon observed by HRTEM. Both samples prepared by Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and ion implantation were observed to investigate effects of oxygen concentration and doping methods to the crystal structure.The observed oxygen doped samples were prepared by MBE method in oxygen environment on (111) substrates. Oxygen concentration was about 1021 atoms/cm3. Another sample was silicon of (100) orientation implanted with oxygen ions at an energy of 180 keV. Oxygen concentration of this sample was about 1020 atoms/cm3 Cross-sectional specimens of (011) orientation were prepared by argon ion thinning and were observed by TEM at an accelerating voltage of 400 kV.


Author(s):  
Margaret L. Sattler ◽  
Michael A. O'Keefe

Multilayered materials have been fabricated with such high perfection that individual layers having two atoms deep are possible. Characterization of the interfaces between these multilayers is achieved by high resolution electron microscopy and Figure 1a shows the cross-section of one type of multilayer. The production of such an image with atomically smooth interfaces depends upon certain factors which are not always reliable. For example, diffusion at the interface may produce complex interlayers which are important to the properties of the multilayers but which are difficult to observe. Similarly, anomalous conditions of imaging or of fabrication may occur which produce images having similar traits as the diffusion case above, e.g., imaging on a tilted/bent multilayer sample (Figure 1b) or deposition upon an unaligned substrate (Figure 1c). It is the purpose of this study to simulate the image of the perfect multilayer interface and to compare with simulated images having these anomalies.


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