scholarly journals Use of Ultrasonography to Discriminate Psoriatic Arthritis from Fibromyalgia: A Post-Hoc Analysis of the ULISSE Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 180
Author(s):  
Antonio Marchesoni ◽  
Pierluigi Macchioni ◽  
Stefania Gasparini ◽  
Carlo Perricone ◽  
Fabio Massimo Perrotta ◽  
...  

In psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients with concomitant chronic widespread pain, the differential diagnosis with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) can be challenging. We evaluated whether ultrasound (US) examination of entheseal sites can distinguish pain from (PsA) enthesitis versus FMS. PsA and FMS patients underwent clinical evaluation and gray-scale (GS; B-mode) and power Doppler (PD) US examination of the entheses. At least one enthesis with GS- and PD-mode changes was found in 90% and 59.3% of PsA patients (n = 140) and 62.7% and 35.3% of FMS patients (n = 51), respectively. GS and PD identified changes in 49.5% and 19.2% of the 840 PsA entheses and 22.5% and 7.9% of the 306 FMS entheses, respectively. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed an area under the curve of 0.77 and 0.66 for B- and PD-mode, respectively, 3.5 being the best cut-off GS-score to discriminate the two conditions. Multivariate regression showed that Achilles and proximal patellar tendon enthesitis (B-mode) were strongly associated with PsA (odds ratio, ~2). Principal component analysis (B-mode) confirmed that PsA patients have a higher number of involved entheses and patterns of entheseal involvement than FMS patients. US evaluation of the entheses may help differentiate chronic widespread pain from PsA versus FMS.

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 3896
Author(s):  
Karla Montalbán-Hernández ◽  
Ramón Cantero-Cid ◽  
Roberto Lozano-Rodríguez ◽  
Alejandro Pascual-Iglesias ◽  
José Avendaño-Ortiz ◽  
...  

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most deadly and third most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide. There is significant heterogeneity among patients with CRC, which hinders the search for a standard approach for the detection of this disease. Therefore, the identification of robust prognostic markers for patients with CRC represents an urgent clinical need. In search of such biomarkers, a total of 114 patients with colorectal cancer and 67 healthy participants were studied. Soluble SIGLEC5 (sSIGLEC5) levels were higher in plasma from patients with CRC compared with healthy volunteers. Additionally, sSIGLEC5 levels were higher in exitus than in survivors, and the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed sSIGLEC5 to be an exitus predictor (area under the curve 0.853; cut-off > 412.6 ng/mL) in these patients. A Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that patients with high levels of sSIGLEC5 had significantly shorter overall survival (hazard ratio 15.68; 95% CI 4.571–53.81; p ≤ 0.0001) than those with lower sSIGLEC5 levels. Our study suggests that sSIGLEC5 is a soluble prognosis marker and exitus predictor in CRC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Enav Yefet ◽  
Avishag Yossef ◽  
Zohar Nachum

AbstractWe aimed to assess risk factors for anemia at delivery by conducting a secondary analysis of a prospective cohort study database including 1527 women who delivered vaginally ≥ 36 gestational weeks. Anemia (Hemoglobin (Hb) < 10.5 g/dL) was assessed at delivery. A complete blood count results during pregnancy as well as maternal and obstetrical characteristics were collected. The primary endpoint was to determine the Hb cutoff between 24 and 30 gestational weeks that is predictive of anemia at delivery by using the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic curve. Independent risk factors for anemia at delivery were assessed using stepwise multivariable logistic regression. Hb and infrequent iron supplement treatment were independent risk factors for anemia at delivery (OR 0.3 95%CI [0.2–0.4] and OR 2.4 95%CI [1.2–4.8], respectively; C statistics 83%). Hb 10.6 g/dL was an accurate cutoff to predict anemia at delivery (AUC 80% 95%CI 75–84%; sensitivity 75% and specificity 74%). Iron supplement was beneficial to prevent anemia regardless of Hb value. Altogether, Hb should be routinely tested between 24 and 30 gestational weeks to screen for anemia. A flow chart for anemia screening and treatment during pregnancy is proposed in the manuscript.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02434653.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Yuanyuan Xu ◽  
Genke Yang ◽  
Jiliang Luo ◽  
Jianan He

Electronic component recognition plays an important role in industrial production, electronic manufacturing, and testing. In order to address the problem of the low recognition recall and accuracy of traditional image recognition technologies (such as principal component analysis (PCA) and support vector machine (SVM)), this paper selects multiple deep learning networks for testing and optimizes the SqueezeNet network. The paper then presents an electronic component recognition algorithm based on the Faster SqueezeNet network. This structure can reduce the size of network parameters and computational complexity without deteriorating the performance of the network. The results show that the proposed algorithm performs well, where the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (ROC) and Area Under the Curve (AUC), capacitor and inductor, reach 1.0. When the FPR is less than or equal 10 − 6   level, the TPR is greater than or equal to 0.99; its reasoning time is about 2.67 ms, achieving the industrial application level in terms of time consumption and performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (B) ◽  
pp. 1561-1564
Author(s):  
Ngakan Ketut Wira Suastika ◽  
Ketut Suega

Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) can cause coagulation parameters abnormalities such as an increase of D-dimer levels especially in severe cases. The purpose of this study is to determine the differences of D-dimer levels in severe cases of Covid-19 who survived and non-survived and determine the optimal cut-off value of D-dimer levels to predict in-hospital mortality. Method: Data were obtained from confirmed Covid-19 patients who were treated from June to September 2020. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to determine differences of D-dimer levels in surviving and non-surviving patients. The optimal cut-off value and area under the curve (AUC) of the D-dimer level in predicting mortality were obtained by the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) method. Results: A total of 80 patients were recruited in this study. Levels of D-dimer were significantly higher in non-surviving patients (median 3.346 mg/ml; minimum – maximum: 0.939 – 50.000 mg/ml) compared to surviving patients (median 1.201 mg/ml; minimum – maximum: 0.302 – 29.425 mg/ml), p = 0.012. D-dimer levels higher than 1.500 mg/ml are the optimal cut-off value for predicting mortality in severe cases of Covid-19 with a sensitivity of 80.0%; specificity of 64.3%; and area under the curve of 0.754 (95% CI 0.586 - 0.921; p = 0.010). Conclusions: D-dimer levels can be used as a predictor of mortality in severe cases of Covid-19.


2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (8) ◽  
pp. 1473-1479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arzu Yagiz On ◽  
Dilek Aykanat ◽  
Funda Calis Atamaz ◽  
Can Eyigor ◽  
Hayriye Kocanogullari ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 925-947 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Lin ◽  
Dong-yue Wen ◽  
Yi-wu Dang ◽  
Yun He ◽  
Hong Yang ◽  
...  

Background/Aims: Liver cancer has the second highest cancer-related death rate globally and has relatively few targeted therapeutics. Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) is a fascinating trigger of the cell cycle; however, the still-rudimentary understanding of PLK1 at present is a significant barrier to its clinical applications. Here, we comprehensively clarified the clinicopathological value and potential functions of PLK1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: HCC-related microarrays, RNA-sequencing datasets and published studies were deeply mined and integrated from The Cancer Genome Atlas, Gene Expression Omnibus, ArrayExpress, Oncomine, literature databases, and immunohistochemistry experiments. Meanwhile, the associations between PLK1 expression and its clinicopathological implications and prognostic value in HCC patients were assessed. The standardized mean difference, summary receiver operating characteristic curve and the corresponding area under the curve, hazard ratios, odds ratios (ORs), and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were examined by STATA 12.0. Additionally, several bioinformatics methods were used to identify the potential function of PLK1 in HCC. Results: Comprehensive analyses revealed that PLK1 was significantly increased in HCC (standardized mean difference = 1.34, 95% CI: 1.03–1.65, P < 0.001). The results of diagnostic tests specified that in the summary receiver operating characteristic curve, the area under the curve was 0.88 (95% CI: 0.85–0.90). Furthermore, an elevated PLK1 level significantly predicted unfavorable overall survival (hazard ratio = 1.78, 95% CI: 1.10–2.88, P = 0.019) and was correlated with female gender (OR = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.56–0.95, P = 0.017), tumor thrombus (OR = 3.97, 95% CI: 1.46–10.78, P < 0.001), metastasis (OR = 3.46, 95% CI: 1.33–9.01, P = 0.011), pathologic stage (OR = 1.56, 95% CI: 1.17–2.07, P = 0.002), Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage (OR = 5.76, 95% CI: 2.17–15.28, P < 0.001) and histologic grade (OR = 2.33, 95% CI: 1.12–487, P = 0.024). Through bioinformatics methods, we determined that enhancing the proliferative effect of PLK1 in HCC was associated with a series of hub genes and the activation of the cell cycle pathway. Conclusions: These findings substantiated that PLK1 may be an independent prognostic biomarker in HCC and may facilitate the development of targeted precision oncology.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 302-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiqi Peng ◽  
Xiang Pan ◽  
Kaihao Liu ◽  
Chunduo Zhang ◽  
Liwen Zhao ◽  
...  

Background: miR-142-3p has proved to be involved in tumorigenesis and the development of renal cell carcinoma. The present study aimed to explore the prognostic value of miR-142-3p. Methods: Total RNA was extracted from renal cell carcinoma specimens and the expression level of miR-142-3p was measured. Pearson Chi-square test, Kaplan–Meier analysis, as well as univariate and multivariate regression analysis were performed to determine the correlation between miR-142-3p and the prognosis of renal cell carcinoma patients. Receiver operating characteristic curves were constructed to evaluate the predictive efficiency of miR-142-3p for the prognosis of renal cell carcinoma patients. Data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were utilized to validate our findings. Results: Our results demonstrated that upregulation of miR-142-3p was correlated with shorter overall survival (P=0.002) and was, in the meantime, an independent prognostic factor for renal cell carcinoma patients (P=0.002). The receiver operating characteristic curve combining miR-142-3p expression with tumor stage showed an area under the curve of 0.633 (95% confidence interval 0.563, 0.702). The result of TCGA data was consistent with our findings. Conclusions: Our results suggest miR-142-3p expression is correlated with poor prognosis of renal cell carcinoma patients and may serve as a prognostic biomarker in the future.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 328-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shayan Sirat Maheen Anwar ◽  
Mirza Zain Baig ◽  
Altaf Ali Laghari ◽  
Fatima Mubarak ◽  
Muhammad Shahzad Shamim ◽  
...  

Background and purposeThis study aimed to determine the accuracy of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and enhancement ratio (ER) in discriminating primary cerebral lymphomas (PCL) and glioblastomas.Materials and methodsCircular regions of interest were randomly placed centrally within the largest solid-enhancing area of all lymphomas and glioblastomas on both post-contrast T1-weighted images and corresponding ADC maps. Regions of interest were also drawn in the contralateral hemisphere to obtain enhancement and ADC values of normal-appearing white matter. This helped us to calculate the ER and ADC ratio.ResultsMean enhancement and ADC (mm2/s) values for PCL were 2220.56 ± 2948.30 and 712.00 ± 137.87, respectively. Mean enhancement and ADC values for glioblastoma were 1537.07 ± 1668.33 and 1037.93 ± 280.52, respectively. Differences in ADC values, ratios and ERs were all statistically significant between the two groups ( p < 0.05). ADC values correctly predicted 71.4% of the lesions as glioblastoma and 83.3% as PCL (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.86 on receiver operating characteristic curve analysis). ADC ratios correctly predicted 85.7% of the lesions as glioblastoma and 100% as PCL (AUC = 0.93). ERs correctly predicted 71.4% of the lesions as glioblastoma and 88.9% as PCL (AUC = 0.92). The combination of ADC ratio and ER correctly predicted 100% tumour type in both patient subgroups.ConclusionsADC values, ADC ratios and ERs may serve as useful variables to distinguish PCL from glioblastoma. The combination of ADC ratio and ER yielded the best results in identification of both patient subgroups.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xue-hua Li ◽  
Zhuang-nian Fang ◽  
Tian-ming Guan ◽  
Jin-jiang Lin ◽  
Can-hui Sun ◽  
...  

Abstract Background A validated histopathological tool to precisely evaluate bowel fibrosis in patients with Crohn’s disease is lacking. We attempted to establish a new index to quantify the severity of bowel fibrosis in patients with Crohn’s disease-associated fibrostenosis. Methods We analyzed the histopathological data of 31 patients with Crohn’s disease strictures undergoing surgical resection. The most representative sections of resected strictured segments were stained with Masson trichrome to manifest bowel fibrosis. The collagen area fraction and histological fibrosis score were simultaneously calculated for the same section to evaluate the severity of bowel fibrosis. Results Collagen area fraction strongly correlated with histological fibrosis scores (r = 0.733, P < 0.001). It showed a stronger correlation (r = 0.561, P < 0.001) with the degree of bowel strictures than the histological fibrosis score did (r = 0.468, P < 0.001). It was also shown to be more accurate for diagnosing Crohn’s disease strictures (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.815, P < 0.001) compared with the histological fibrosis score (area under the curve = 0.771, P < 0.001). High repeatability was observed for the collagen area fraction, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.915 (P < 0.001). Conclusions Collagen area fraction is a simple and reliable index to quantify the severity of bowel fibrosis in patients with Crohn’s disease-associated fibrostenosis.


2006 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 240-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Galip Guz ◽  
Bulent Colak ◽  
Kenan Hizel ◽  
Kadriye A. Reis ◽  
Yasemin Erten ◽  
...  

Objectives To determine the significance of a newly described marker of inflammation procalcitonin (PCT), and to investigate its relationship to conventional markers of inflammation, such as C-reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), in patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD) and with peritonitis. Design A prospective, observational clinical study. Setting The Nephrology Division of a University-affiliated teaching hospital. Patients and Methods 51 consecutive patients on PD were included in the study. Of this number, 16 developed peritonitis during the observational period. Baseline PCT, CRP, and fibrinogen concentrations and ESR of 51 PD patients were determined at a time point (TB) prior to any evidence of infection. These results were compared with laboratory values from 74 hemodialysis patients and 34 nonuremic control subjects. All PD patients then were followed prospectively for evidence of peritonitis. In addition to routine blood tests, including hemoglobin and leukocyte count, and routine biochemical tests, blood samples were taken to measure PCT, CRP, and fibrinogen concentrations and ESR at the time (T0) when patients first were diagnosed with PD peritonitis and also on the 4th (T4) and the 14th (T14) days after treatment for peritonitis was initiated. PCT was assayed by immunoluminometry. Results No significant difference was observed between baseline median serum PCT concentrations in PD and hemodialysis patients; however, in both groups, baseline median PCT concentrations were significantly higher than those of nonuremic controls ( p < 0.05). The 16 patients on PD who developed peritonitis had 21 PD peritonitis episodes during the study period. The increased PCT concentration observed at T0 in PD peritonitis episodes decreased with therapy, and this change was statistically significant ( p < 0.05). In a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis for peritonitis, the area under the curve (AUC) for PCT was 0.80, which was significantly lower than the AUC for CRP and greater than the AUCs for fibrinogen and ESR. The sensitivity of PCT for peritonitis was lower than the sensitivity of conventional markers of inflammation; however, the specificity of PCT was higher. Conclusions Median serum PCT concentration in PD patients was significantly higher than in nonuremic controls but not hemodialysis patients. Serum PCT concentrations may serve as a useful adjunct to traditional markers of inflammation in detecting and monitoring inflammation and peritonitis in PD patients.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document