A Novel Method to Assess Antimicrobial Susceptibility in Commensal Oropharyngeal Neisseria—A Pilot Study

Commensal Neisseria provide a reservoir of resistance genes that can be transferred to the pathogens Neisseria gonorrhoeae and N. meningitidis in the human oropharynx. Surveillance programs are thus needed to monitor resistance in oropharyngeal commensal Neisseria, but currently the isolation and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of these commensals is laborious, complex and expensive. In addition, the posterior oropharyngeal/tonsillar swab, which is commonly used to sample oropharyngeal Neisseria, is poorly tolerated by many individuals. We evaluated an alternative non-invasive method to isolate oropharyngeal commensal Neisseria and to detect decreased susceptibility to azithromycin using selective media (LBVT.SNR) with and without azithromycin (2 µg/mL). In this pilot study, we compared paired posterior oropharyngeal/tonsillar swabs and oral rinse-and-gargle samples from 10 participants and demonstrated that a similar Neisseria species diversity and number of colonies were isolated from both sample types. Moreover, the proportion of Neisseria colonies that had a decreased susceptibility to azithromycin was similar in the rinse samples compared to the swabs. This pilot study has produced encouraging data that a simple protocol of oral rinse-and-gargle and culture on plates selective for commensal Neisseria with and without a target antimicrobial can be used as a surveillance tool to monitor antimicrobial susceptibility in commensal oropharyngeal Neisseria. Larger studies are required to validate these findings.

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A new novel method for assessing intracranial pressure using non-invasive fundus images: a pilot study

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-70084-0 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Mikkel Schou Andersen ◽

Christian Bonde Pedersen ◽

Frantz Rom Poulsen

Keyword(s):

Pilot Study ◽

Intracranial Pressure ◽

Fundus Images ◽

Non Invasive ◽

New Novel ◽

Novel Method

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A pilot study demonstrating a non‐invasive method for the measurement of protein turnover in skin disorders: application to psoriasis

Clinical and Translational Medicine ◽

10.1186/2001-1326-2-12 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Claire L Emson ◽

Sarah Fitzmaurice ◽

Glen Lindwall ◽

Kelvin W Li ◽

Marc K Hellerstein ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Pilot Study ◽

Protein Turnover ◽

Skin Disorders ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Invasive Method

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Postural and respiratory function of the abdominal muscles: A pilot study to measure abdominal wall activity using belt sensors

Isokinetics and Exercise Science ◽

10.3233/ies-203212 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-10

Author(s):

Jakub Novak ◽

Andrew Busch ◽

Pavel Kolar ◽

Alena Kobesova

Keyword(s):

Pilot Study ◽

Abdominal Wall ◽

Respiratory Function ◽

Muscle Activation ◽

Abdominal Pressure ◽

Force Sensors ◽

Abdominal Muscles ◽

Healthy Individuals ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Invasive Method

BACKGROUND: The abdominal muscles play an important respiratory and stabilization role, and in coordination with other muscles regulate intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) to stabilize the spine. OBJECTIVE: To examine a new, non-invasive method to measure activation of the abdominal wall and compare changes in muscle activation during respiration while breathing under a load, and during instructed breathing. METHODS: Thirty-five healthy individuals completed this observational crossover study. Two capacitive force sensors registered the abdominal wall force during resting breathing stereotype, instructed breathing stereotype and under a load. RESULTS: Mean abdominal wall force increased significantly on both sensors when holding the load compared to resting breathing (Upper Sensor: P< 0.0005, d=-0.46, Lower Sensor: P< 0.0005, d=-0.56). The pressure on both sensors also significantly increased during instructed breathing compared to resting breathing (US: P< 0.0005, d=-0.76, LS: P< 0.0005, d=-0.78). CONCLUSIONS: The use of capacitive force-sensors represent a new, non-invasive method to measure abdominal wall activity. Clinically, belts with capacitive force sensors can be used as a feedback tool to train abdominal wall activation.

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Evaluation of a Non-invasive Method to Detect Cytomegalovirus (CMV)-DNA in Stool Samples of Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD): A Pilot Study

Digestive Diseases and Sciences ◽

10.1007/s10620-010-1146-0 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 55 (4) ◽

pp. 1053-1058 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Hans H. Herfarth ◽

Millie D. Long ◽

Tara C. Rubinas ◽

Mikki Sandridge ◽

Melissa B. Miller

Keyword(s):

Inflammatory Bowel Disease ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Bowel Disease ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Invasive Method ◽

Inflammatory Bowel ◽

Stool Samples

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“A Novel Method to Get Proper Tongue Image Acquisition and Thresholding for Getting Area of Interest”

International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering - Special Issue ◽

10.35940/ijitee.l3604.049620 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. 365-372

Keyword(s):

Chinese Medicine ◽

Noninvasive Method ◽

Proper Position ◽

Maximum Area ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Area Of Interest ◽

Invasive Method ◽

Novel Method ◽

Analysis System ◽

Proper Analysis

A need of reliable Automated tongue analysis system which may help the user to get an idea about his/her health. As per Ayurveda, Chinese medicine and homeopathy tongue appearance gives lot of information about one’s health. As tongue analysis come under non- invasive method one can easily go for it without any fear for expensive invasive methods. In noninvasive method like tongue analysis Experts opinion play very important role which also, hinders proper analysis. A reliable automated tongue analysis system may overcome this problem. This paper focuses on two major problem faced while using automated tongue analysis system i.e. proper position of tongue for maximum area coverage and better thresholding method to get area of interest

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A pilot study of ultrasound elastography as a non-invasive method to monitor liver disease in children with short bowel syndrome

Journal of Pediatric Surgery ◽

10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2017.03.016 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 52 (6) ◽

pp. 962-965 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Daniel Lodwick ◽

Molly Dienhart ◽

Jennifer N. Cooper ◽

Bonita Fung ◽

Joseph Lopez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Liver Disease ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Short Bowel Syndrome ◽

Ultrasound Elastography ◽

Short Bowel ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Invasive Method

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Detection of circulating BMP5 as a risk factor for Barrett’s esophagus

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-70760-1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ana C. P. Correia ◽

Silvia Calpe ◽

Nahid Mostafavi ◽

Sanne Johanna Maria Hoefnagel ◽

Maria del Carmen Sancho-Serra ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Risk ◽

General Population ◽

Barrett’S Esophagus ◽

Barrett's Esophagus ◽

Screening Programs ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Morphogenetic Protein ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Surveillance Programs ◽

Invasive Method

Abstract Barrett’s esophagus (BE) predisposes for the malignant condition of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). Since BE patients have few or no symptoms, most of these patients are not identified and not included in surveillance programs. These BE patients are at risk of developing advanced-stage EAC. At present, non-invasive tests to identify BE patients from the general population are lacking. We and others showed that Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4 (BMP4), and other BMPs are upregulated in BE. We aimed to determine if circulating BMPs can be identified and used as blood biomarkers to identify BE patients at high risk in the general population. In this study, we could detect the different BMPs in the blood of 112 BE patients and 134 age- and sex-matched controls. Concentration levels of BMP2, BMP4, and BMP5 were elevated in BE patients, with BMP2 and BMP5 significantly increased. BMP5 remained significant after multivariate analysis and was associated with an increased risk for BE with an OR of 1.49 (p value 0.01). Per log (pg/mL) of BMP5, the odds of having BE increased by 50%. Future optimization and validation studies might be needed to prove its utility as a non-invasive method for the detection of BE in high-risk populations and screening programs.

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Fertility Detection of Hatching Eggs Based on a Convolutional Neural Network

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app9071408 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (7) ◽

pp. 1408 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Lei Geng ◽

Yuzhou Hu ◽

Zhitao Xiao ◽

Jiangtao Xi

Keyword(s):

Neural Network ◽

Convolutional Neural Network ◽

Classification Performance ◽

Test Set ◽

Residual Structure ◽

Non Invasive ◽

Invasive Method ◽

Novel Method ◽

Hatching Eggs ◽

Living Tissues

In order to achieve the goal of detecting the fertility of hatching eggs which are divided into fertile eggs and dead eggs more accurately and effectively, a novel method combining a convolution neural network (CNN) and a heartbeat signal of the hatching eggs is proposed in this paper. Firstly, we collected heartbeat signals of 9-day-later hatching eggs by the method of PhotoPlethysmoGraphy(PPG), which is a non-invasive method to detect the change of blood volume in living tissues by photoelectric means. Secondly, a sequential convolutional neural network E-CNN, which was used to analyze heartbeat sequence of hatching eggs, was designed. Thirdly, an end-to-end trainable convolutional neural network SR-CNN, which was used to process heartbeat waveform images of hatching eggs, was designed to improve the classification performance in this paper. Key to improving the classification performance of SR-CNN is the SE-Res module, which combines the channel weighting unit “Squeeze-and-Excitation” (SE) block and the residual structure. The experimental results show that two models trained on our dataset, with E-CNN and SR-CNN, are able to achieve the fertility detection of the hatching eggs with superior identification accuarcy, up to 99.50% and 99.62% respectively, on our test set. It is demonstrated that the proposed method is feasible for identifying and classifying the survival of hatching eggs accurately and effectively.

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