Correlation Between Bone Density and Fractal Dimension: A Pilot Study

Fractal analysis is a mathematical method used to describe the internal architecture of complex structures, such as the bone tissue. The aim of this study was to determine whether fractal dimension (FD) is able to distinguish between different bone densities (BD), assessed histomorphometrically, and whether there is a linear dependence between the FD and BD in order to support the use of FD as a supplementary non-invasive method for BD measurement. Microscopic photographs of bone specimens stained with acid fuchsin and toluidine blue obtained during block biopsies from nine segments of bovine ribs were used. A total of 42 regions of interest (ROI) were cut off from the original photo, converted into a bitmap and binarized. The evaluation of FD was carried out using the box counting method. Comparison of FD values in the four different densities bone sites (D1-D4) was made by means of Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn's multiple comparison test. The linear dependence between the two variables (FD and BD) was investigated calculating the Pearson's r test correlation coefficient, which was considered significant when P < .05. The more the bone was compact, the higher were FD values. A strong positive correlation between BD evaluated by histomorphometry and FD (R : 0:9651), p-value < .00001 was found. The increase in the values of the FD strongly correlated with the increase of the percentage of the bone trabeculae observed in the histological slides. This pilot study demonstrates that FD might be able to distinguish different densities in bone sites and that there is a linear correlation between BD and FD on histological samples. Future studies will be addressed at evaluating whether this data can be confirmed on a larger samples size and on radiographic images. This will be useful for the early and non-invasive detection of structural changes in the trabecular bone pattern during healing, inflammatory processes and pathologies associated to bone breakdown.

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Volatile organic breath components and exercise induced bronchoconstriction in asthmatic children

Allergy Asthma & Clinical Immunology ◽

10.1186/s13223-021-00622-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

Author(s):

M. R. van der Kamp ◽

J. M. M. Driessen ◽

M. P. van der Schee ◽

B. J. Thio ◽

F. H. C. de Jongh

Keyword(s):

Pilot Study ◽

Challenge Test ◽

P Value ◽

Breath Sample ◽

Asthmatic Children ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Molecular Features ◽

Volatile Organic ◽

Exercise Induced ◽

The Relationship

Abstract Introduction Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in childhood and is generally characterized by exercise induced bronchoconstriction (EIB). Assessing EIB is time consuming and expensive as it requires a fully equipped pulmonary function laboratory. Analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in breath is a novel technique for examining biomarkers which may associate with asthma features. The aim of this pilot study was to identify potential markers in the relationship between EIB and VOCs. Methods Children between four and 14 years old were asked to provide a breath sample prior to undergoing an exercise challenge test to assess for EIB. Results Breath samples were collected and analyzed in 46 asthmatic children, 21 with EIB and 25 without EIB (NO-EIB). Molecular features (MFs) were not significantly different between EIB and NO-EIB controls. 29 of the 46 children were corticosteroid naïve, 10 with EIB and 13 without. In the corticosteroid naïve group EIB was associated with increased MF23 and MF14 in the lower breath sample (p-value < 0.05). Conclusion This pilot study shows that EIB was related to an increased MF14 and MF23 in corticosteroid naïve children. The tentative identities of these compounds are octanal and dodecane/tetradecane respectively. These candidate biomarkers have a potential to enable non-invasive diagnosis of EIB in steroid-naïve children. Trial registration This study is registered in the Netherlands trial register (trial no. NL6087) at 14 February 2017.

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926: A Pilot Study to Determine Local Oxygen Saturation of the Flaccid and Erect Penis in Men with and without Erectile Dysfunction Using a Non-Invasive Tissue Oximeter

The Journal of Urology ◽

10.1016/s0022-5347(18)33162-8 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 175 (4S) ◽

pp. 300-300 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Priya Padmanabhan ◽

Andrew R. McCullough

Keyword(s):

Erectile Dysfunction ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Oxygen Saturation ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Local Oxygen ◽

Erect Penis

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Non-Invasive Distinction of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease using Urinary Volatile Organic Compound Analysis: Early Results

Journal of Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases ◽

10.15403/jgld.2014.1121.242.ury ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 24 (2) ◽

pp. 197-201 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Ramesh P. Arasaradnam ◽

Michael McFarlane ◽

Emma Daulton ◽

Erik Westenbrink ◽

Nicola O’Connell ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Liver Disease ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Fatty Liver ◽

Fatty Liver Disease ◽

Diagnostic Methods ◽

Screening Methods ◽

Alcoholic Fatty Liver ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Volatile Organic ◽

Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Background & Aims: Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is the commonest cause of chronic liver disease in the western world. Current diagnostic methods including Fibroscan have limitations, thus there is a need for more robust non-invasive screening methods. The gut microbiome is altered in several gastrointestinal and hepatic disorders resulting in altered, unique gut fermentation patterns, detectable by analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in urine, breath and faeces. We performed a proof of principle pilot study to determine if progressive fatty liver disease produced an altered urinary VOC pattern; specifically NAFLD and Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH).Methods: 34 patients were recruited: 8 NASH cirrhotics (NASH-C); 7 non-cirrhotic NASH; 4 NAFLD and 15 controls. Urine was collected and stored frozen. For assay, the samples were defrosted and aliquoted into vials, which were heated to 40±0.1°C and the headspace analyzed by FAIMS (Field Asymmetric Ion Mobility Spectroscopy). A previously used data processing pipeline employing a Random Forrest classification algorithm and using a 10 fold cross validation method was applied.Results: Urinary VOC results demonstrated sensitivity of 0.58 (0.33 - 0.88), but specificity of 0.93 (0.68 - 1.00) and an Area Under Curve (AUC) 0.73 (0.55 -0.90) to distinguish between liver disease and controls. However, NASH/NASH-C was separated from the NAFLD/controls with a sensitivity of 0.73 (0.45 - 0.92), specificity of 0.79 (0.54 - 0.94) and AUC of 0.79 (0.64 - 0.95), respectively.Conclusions: This pilot study suggests that urinary VOCs detection may offer the potential for early non-invasive characterisation of liver disease using 'smell prints' to distinguish between NASH and NAFLD.

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A STUDY OF ENDOMETRIAL THICKNESS IN TRANS VAGINAL SONOGRAPHY IN RELATION WITH HISTOPATHOLOGY REPORT IN DILATION & CURRATAGE IN AUB WOMEN

10.36106/paripex/1 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-2

Keyword(s):

Comparative Study ◽

Endometrial Thickness ◽

P Value ◽

First Line ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Dilation And Curettage ◽

Study Results ◽

Vaginal Sonography ◽

In Trans

A study of of endometrial thickness on TVS in relation with histopathology report on dilation and curettage. AIM AND OBJECTIVE-To set a cut off limit of endometrial thickness on TVS for differtiating between normal and abnormal endometrium. MATERIAL AND METHOD-hospital based comparative study. RESULTS-TVS is non invasive ,simple first line procedure in AUB women. Mean endometrial thickness in normal endometrial group was 8.00±2.44 mm and in abnormal endometrial group was 15.16±33 mm.The difference was found highly significant (p value<.001)

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Correlation of AGR2 expression with the incidence of metastasis in luminal breast cancer

Breast Disease ◽

10.3233/bd-219015 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-5

Author(s):

David Samuel Kereh ◽

John Pieter ◽

William Hamdani ◽

Haryasena Haryasena ◽

Daniel Sampepajung ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Cancer Patients ◽

Mean Value ◽

Rank Test ◽

Luminal Breast Cancer ◽

P Value ◽

Strong Positive Correlation ◽

Breast Cancer Patients ◽

The Mean ◽

Spearman Test

BACKGROUND: AGR2 expression is associated with luminal breast cancer. Overexpression of AGR2 is a predictor of poor prognosis. Several studies have found correlations between AGR2 in disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) in breast cancer patients. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to determine the correlation between anterior Gradient2 (AGR2) expression with the incidence of distant metastases in luminal breast cancer. METHODS: This study was an observational study using a cross-sectional method and was conducted at Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital and the network. ELISA methods examine AGR2 expression from blood serum of breast cancer patients. To compare the AGR2 expression in metastatic patients and the non-metastatic patient was tested with Mann Whitney test. The correlation of AGR2 expression and metastasis was tested with the Rank Spearman test. RESULTS: The mean value of AGR2 antibody expression on ELISA in this study was 2.90 ± 1.82 ng/dl, and its cut-off point was 2.1 ng/dl. Based on this cut-off point value, 14 subjects (66.7%) had overexpression of AGR2 serum ELISA, and 7 subjects (33.3%) had not. The mean value AGR2 was significantly higher in metastatic than not metastatic, 3.77 versus 1.76 (p < 0.01). The Spearman rank test obtained a p-value for the 2 tail test of 0.003 (p < 0.05), which showed a significant correlation of both, while the correlation coefficient of 0.612 showed a strong positive correlation of AGR2 overexpression and metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: AGR2 expression is correlated with metastasis in Luminal breast cancer.

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Utility of routinely collected electronic health records data to support effectiveness evaluations in inflammatory bowel disease: a pilot study of tofacitinib

BMJ Health & Care Informatics ◽

10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100337 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. e100337

Author(s):

Vivek Ashok Rudrapatna ◽

Benjamin Scott Glicksberg ◽

Atul Janardhan Butte

Keyword(s):

Inflammatory Bowel Disease ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Disease Activity ◽

Real World ◽

Bowel Disease ◽

P Value ◽

Health Records ◽

Real World Evidence ◽

Inflammatory Bowel

ObjectivesElectronic health records (EHR) are receiving growing attention from regulators, biopharmaceuticals and payors as a potential source of real-world evidence. However, their suitability for the study of diseases with complex activity measures is unclear. We sought to evaluate the use of EHR data for estimating treatment effectiveness in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), using tofacitinib as a use case.MethodsRecords from the University of California, San Francisco (6/2012 to 4/2019) were queried to identify tofacitinib-treated IBD patients. Disease activity variables at baseline and follow-up were manually abstracted according to a preregistered protocol. The proportion of patients meeting the endpoints of recent randomised trials in ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD) was assessed.Results86 patients initiated tofacitinib. Baseline characteristics of the real-world and trial cohorts were similar, except for universal failure of tumour necrosis factor inhibitors in the former. 54% (UC) and 62% (CD) of patients had complete capture of disease activity at baseline (month −6 to 0), while only 32% (UC) and 69% (CD) of patients had complete follow-up data (month 2 to 8). Using data imputation, we estimated the proportion achieving the trial primary endpoints as being similar to the published estimates for both UC (16%, p value=0.5) and CD (38%, p-value=0.8).Discussion/ConclusionThis pilot study reproduced trial-based estimates of tofacitinib efficacy despite its use in a different cohort but revealed substantial missingness in routinely collected data. Future work is needed to strengthen EHR data and enable real-world evidence in complex diseases like IBD.

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Lack of association between acupoint sensitization and microcirculatory structural changes in a mouse model of knee osteoarthritis: A pilot study

Journal of Biophotonics ◽

10.1002/jbio.201800458 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (6) ◽

Author(s):

Ning Ding ◽

Xiaoxiao Liu ◽

Ningbo Chen ◽

Jing Jiang ◽

Huangxuan Zhao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Pilot Study ◽

Mouse Model ◽

Knee Osteoarthritis ◽

Structural Changes

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Vitamin D Status Among Children aged 2 months to 13 years-a Hospital Based Study

Birat Journal of Health Sciences ◽

10.3126/bjhs.v3i1.19766 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 381-384

Author(s):

Hem Sagar Rimal ◽

Shripad J Walavalkar

Keyword(s):

Vitamin D ◽

Vitamin D Deficiency ◽

Urban Area ◽

Serum Calcium ◽

Winter Season ◽

College Teaching ◽

Vitamin D Insufficiency ◽

P Value ◽

Strong Positive Correlation ◽

Positive Correlation

Introduction: Vitamin D is an important micronutrient having crucial role in calcium and phosphate homeostasis but there is emerging evidence to suggest its role in prevention of infectious, inflammatory and neoplastic diseases. The vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency is a widely recognized problem among children in developed as well as developing countries.Objective: To find out the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency among children aged 2 months to 13 yrs and its correlation with serum calcium, phosphate and demographic factors.Methodology: Prospective, cross sectional, hospital based study conducted at Birat Medical College Teaching Hospital for a period of one year among children presented to pediatric OPD in whom pediatrician had a suspicion of Vitamin D Insufficiency /Deficiency. Venous blood Samples were taken for the estimation of 25(OH) Vitamin D, Calcium and Phosphate. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS software version 16. Results Among 174 children aged 2 months to 13 years, the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency at the cutoff of <30ng/ml was 82.75% where as no cases of vitamin D deficiency was noted at cut off level of < 10 ng/ml. Children residing in urban area, samples taken in the winter season had higher prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency (p value <0.05). Serum calcium and phosphate level were found positively correlated with Vitamin D level (p<.05). However the relationship was very strong between Vitamin D and Calcium (r=0.402, p-value <0.001) and weak positive correlation was noted with phosphate(r=0.155, p value <0.05).Conclusion: There is very high prevalence of Vitamin D insufficiency among children. The vitamin D insufficiency was significantly higher in winter season as compared to summer. Children living in the urban area are more prone to Vitamin D insufficiency. Moderately strong positive correlation was observed between Vitamin D level and calcium but weak correlation existed with phosphate. BJHS 2018;3(1)5 : 381-384

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