bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Biomechanical analysis of ideal knee flexion angle for ACL graft tensioning utilizing multiple femoral and tibial tunnel locations
Authors: Guth Jared , Akhavan Sam , Schimoler Patrick , Miller Mark , Hammarstedt Jon
Published: July 2021

Objectives:

Despite more anatomic reconstruction of the ACL, graft failure rate has been reported to be greater than 5% at 5 years. There is concern that anatomic reconstructions may not result in an isometric graft and may predispose the graft to stretching. The current biomechanical study evaluated excursion of the ACL with different drill points for both femoral and tibial tunnels. The purpose was to evaluate the excursion of the ACL with both anatomic and non-anatomic tunnel combinations and determine the optimal flexion angle to tension the ACL to minimize stretching of the graft during motion.

Methods:

Ten cadaveric knee specimens, mid-femur to mid-tibia, were dissected of skin and subcutaneous tissue. The ACL was sectioned and the femoral and tibial attachments were marked prior to excision. A 1/16 inch drill was used to create a tunnel in the center of the ACL footprint on the tibia and femur and additional tunnels were made 5mm from the original tunnel (Figure 1). A suture was passed through each tunnel combination (Femur A-F; Tibia A-E) and was attached to a string potentiometer. The knee was ranged from full extension to 120 degrees of flexion for 10 cycles while mounted in a custom fixture that measured angle of flexion in the sagittal plane. The change in length (excursion) of the suture during movement was recorded for each combination of femoral and tibial tunnels.

Results:

Anatomic reconstruction of the ACL with tunnel placement in the center of the femoral (femoral tunnel A) and tibial (tibial tunnel A) footprint did not result in an isometric graft, with excursion of the ACL during knee motion of 7.46mm (SD 2.7mm). The tunnel combination that resulted in the least amount of excursion during knee motion was a reconstruction with a femoral footprint 5mm anterior to the femoral (femoral tunnel D) and 5mm posterior to the tibial footprint (tibial tunnel D) (4.2mm, SD 1.37mm). The tunnel combination that resulted in the most amount of excursion during knee motion was utilized femoral footprint 5mm proximal to the femoral (femoral tunnel F) and 5mm posterior to the tibial footprint (tibial tunnel D) (9.81mm, SD 2.68mm). In an anatomic tunnel placement, we found the angle with the most excursion of the ACL to occur at 2.84 degrees of flexion (SD 4.22).

Conclusions:

Anatomic ACL reconstruction results in significant excursion of the ACL during range of motion. If not tensioned properly, the ACL can stretch during range of motion, potentially leading to re-rupture. In order to prevent stretching of the graft, the current biomechanical study recommends tensioning an anatomic ACL reconstruction at its point of maximal exertion, or about 10 degrees of flexion. We also determined optimal flexion angles for tensioning the ACL for tunnel combinations that may be non-anatomic.

[Table: see text][Table: see text][Table: see text]
The Severity of Acetabular Retroversion Does Not Influence Outcomes of Arthroscopic Management of FAI
Authors: Day Molly , Seiffert Kayla , An Qiang , Larson Christopher , Westermann Robert
Published: July 2021

Objectives:

Controversy exists regarding optimal treatment of FAI in the setting of acetabular retroversion. The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in pain and function among patients with acetabular retroversion treated with hip arthroscopy. Secondarily, to assess if the severity of posterior wall deficiency influences post-operative outcomes following hip arthroscopy.

Methods:

A retrospective review of patients with acetabular retroversion with hip arthroscopic surgery at a single institution was performed. Acetabular retroversion was defined by three radiographic criteria: the presence of crossover sign, ischial spine sign, and posterior wall sign. Anteroposterior radiographs were used to measure lateral center edge angle (LCEA), Tonnis grade, anterior wall index (AWI) and posterior wall index (PWI), and alpha angle. Patient-reported outcome (PROs) included modified Harris Hip Score (MHHS), visual analog scale (VAS) and quality of life with Veterans RAND-12 (VR-12). Spearman correlation coefficients were used to determine correlation of PWI with pre- and post-PROs. Multivariate analysis was performed and generalized estimating equation was used to determine independent predictors for outcome scores. Significance was set at p<0.05.

Results:

Between 2013 and 2019, 138 patients with FAI and acetabular retroversion underwent hip arthroscopy, 67% were female. The average follow-up was 29 months, with minimum of 6 months. Average preoperative LCEA 28, alpha angle 70.1, postoperative alpha angle 44.6 (p<0.05). All PROs demonstrated significant improvement from preoperative baseline to follow-up scores (MHHS (59.5 +/- 14.7 vs 80.8 +/- 18.8), VAS (6.3 +/- 1.7 vs 3.0 +/- 2.7), p<0.0001). Four patients (3%) underwent revision procedures. Upon multivariate analysis, no association between PWI and PROs was not found. Preoperative mHHS was the strongest predictor of clinical outcome.

Conclusions:

This is the largest study of patients with acetabular retroversion assessing for a correlation between PWI on patient-reported outcomes following arthroscopic management of FAI. In patients with acetabular retroversion, outcomes are good following arthroscopic management with low complication and revision rate following hip arthroscopy. Posterior wall deficiency was not a predictor of poor outcome in patients with acetabular retroversion. In this single surgeon selected series, the severity of retroversion (measured by PWI) does not appear to have a threshold or any correlation with postoperative outcomes in following FAI treatment.
MPFL Length Change Patterns in Asymptomatic Knees of Patients with Contralateral Patellar Instability
Authors: Simeone F Joseph , Berkson Eric , Varadarajan Kartik , Tanaka Miho
Published: July 2021

Objectives:

Recreating the isometry of the medial patellofemoral ligament (MPFL) is critical during patellar stabilization surgery to restore patellar kinematics. The native MPFL is reported to remain constant in length from 0-70°knee flexion in normal knees. However, patients with patellar instability have morphologic abnormalities that may alter the isometric function of the ligament. Length change patterns of the intact MPFL in such patients have not been described.

Methods:

3D digital knee models were created from dynamic CT images of 10 patients with unilateral patellar instability who were confirmed to have no symptoms on the contralateral knee. At each flexion angle, MPFL length was calculated based on the distance between its known attachment points. Straight line representation of the MPFL was allowed to wrap around the femoral condyle to ensure accurate length measurement. Morphologic characteristics of each knee were recorded, including sulcus angle and lateral trochlear inclination (LTI) as measurements of trochlear dysplasia, trochlear alpha angle to measure trochlear length, tibial tuberosity to trochlear groove (TTTG) distance to measure malalignment, and Caton Deschamps Index (CDI) to measure patellar height. Changes in MPFL length were assessed relative to knee flexion angle in each patient and correlated with morphologic characteristics.

Results:

10 knees were included in this study, with a mean age of 20.4+/-4.7 yrs. Mean sulcus angle was 153.4+/-8.9°, LTI 14.1+/-4.0°, trochlear alpha angle 66.1+/-5.8°, TTTG distance 18.3+/-3.1mm, CDI 1.1+/-0.1. Mean MPFL length varied from 62.5+/-4.9mm at 50° knee flexion to 74.4+/-3.9mm at 0°, with a 20.1+/-8.8% change in length (p<0.001). No significant length changes were noted between 30° and 50° flexion. Moderate correlation was noted between increasing MPFL length change and measurements of trochlear length (R=-0.55, p=0.017).

Conclusions:

In the asymptomatic knees of patients with contralateral patellar instability, the calculated MPFL length based on known anatomic attachment points varied by 20.1%, or an average of 12.1mm, between 50° flexion and full extension. This suggests that the isometric function of the intact MPFL in these patients may not reflect previously described findings in anatomically normal patients. Further studies are needed to understand the pathoanatomy related to these changes, as well as the implications for graft placement and assessment of isometry in MPFL reconstruction techniques.
Failure of Posterior Capsulolabral Repair is Correlated with Percent of Glenoid Bone Loss
Authors: Provencher Matthew , Ruzbarsky Joseph , Peebles Liam , Midtgaard Kaare , Bradley James , Arner Justin
Published: July 2021

Objectives:

The purpose of this study was to evaluate previously described advanced MRI measures specific to posterior bone loss on both standard and manually reformatted MRIs in patients who underwent posterior shoulder capsulolabral repair. It was hypothesized that those who failed surgical repair would have increased posterior glenoid bone loss and decreased glenoid width.

Methods:

Athletes greater than 18 years of age with unidirectional posterior instability treated with arthroscopic repair were evaluated at 2 year minimum follow-up. Traditional MRIs measurements from nineteen patients who failed arthroscopic posterior shoulder capsulolabral repair were compared with 56 patients who did not. MRIs were then manually reformatted and these measurements were repeated as well as recently described measures of defect slope, bone loss angle, and defect length.

Results:

Glenoid width loss and percent glenoid bone loss were significantly greater on both the corrected and non-corrected MRI images (25.5 mm vs 28.8 mm, p<0.001; 6.8% vs 4.6%, p=0.008) in those that failed surgery. There was no difference in glenoid version or other measurements between the failures and non-failures. On non-corrected MRIs, percentage glenoid bone loss was significantly overestimated by 2% when compared to the corrected scans (p<0.0001, 95% CI [-2.7, -1.1]). A critical amount of 11% glenoid bone loss resulted in a 10 times higher surgical failure rate while 15% bone loss resulted in a 25 times higher failure rate.

Conclusions:

Risk factors for failure of arthroscopic posterior shoulder capsulolabral repair include greater glenoid bone width loss and greater glenoid bone loss percentage. Failure to appropriately align axial MRI rotation affects the characteristics of the sagittal images, leading to overestimation of glenoid bone loss percentage which may have surgical implications. Although 11% glenoid bone loss implicated a 10 times higher surgical failure rate and 15% bone loss has a 25 times higher failure rate, posterior capsulolabral repair is an overall successful intervention.
An overview of psychological and social factors in Charles Bonnet syndrome
Authors: Jones Lee , Ditzel-Finn Lara , Enoch Jamie , Moosajee Mariya
Published: July 2021

Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) is a condition where cognitively normal individuals with sight impairment experience simple and/or complex visual hallucinations. The exact pathogenesis of CBS is unknown; however, deafferentation is often recognised as a causal mechanism. Studies have provided insight into the multifaceted impact of CBS on wellbeing. Onset of CBS may cause distress among those believing visual hallucinations are indicative of a neurological condition. Hallucinatory content is often congruent with the emotional response. For example, hallucinations of a macabre nature typically result in a fearful response. Visual hallucinations may be highly disruptive, causing everyday tasks to become challenging. Clinical management relies on forewarning and pre-emptive questioning. Yet, knowledge and awareness of CBS is typically low. In this review, we provide a summary of the social and psychological implications of CBS and explore recent developments aimed at raising awareness and improving patient management.
Does Music Education Have a Poverty Problem?
Authors: Beveridge Tina
Published: July 2021

In this literature review, I explore poverty, the barriers to participation that exist for students in poverty, and why this issue should matter to music educators. Research findings about students and poverty generally fall into three categories: logistics, teacher attitudes, and policy. I identify participation barriers in each of these categories and offer suggestions how they might be addressed. Overall, findings involving poverty and music education indicate that when teachers are well-supported at the micro and macro level by legislators, administrators, parents, and other teachers, most barriers can be reduced or eliminated, and participation increases.
The Use of Sonography in Pediatrics: The Bioethical Concerns in Clinical and Research Practice
Authors: Weikle Nicole
Published: July 2021

Sonography has been widely used in both a clinical and non-clinical setting. This imaging modality is a common tool of choice for both physicians and researchers. Although sonography is a non-ionizing and non-invasive tool for imaging, special considerations need to be made when working with the pediatric population. Ethical guidelines for clinical pediatric care and research need to consider the varying ethical guidelines and bioethical concerns in children. As sonographers, researchers, educators and clinicians, pediatric care and research must balance the protection of children and the need for imaging to improve pediatric well-being. The discussion of this paper will delve into The Principles Approach developed by Beauchamp and Childress. Each principle will be explored and how those ethical principles could be considered in pediatric care.
Effectiveness of a new cardiac risk scoring model reclassified by QRS fragmentation as a predictor of postoperative cardiac event in patients with severe renal dysfunction
Authors: Cho Hyun Jun , Kim Namkyun , Kim Hyeon Jeong , Park Bo Eun , Kim Hong Nyun , Jang Se Yong , Bae Myung Hwan , Lee Jang Hoon , Yang Dong Heon , Park Hun Sik , Cho Yongkeun , Chae Shung Chull
Published: July 2021

Background

It is difficult to evaluate the risk of patients with severe renal dysfunction before surgery due to various limitations despite high postoperative cardiac events. This study aimed to investigate the value of a newly reclassified Revised Cardiac Risk Index (RCRI) that incorporates QRS fragmentation (fQRS) as a predictor of postoperative cardiac events in patients with severe renal dysfunction.

Methods

Among the patients with severe renal dysfunction, 256 consecutive patients who underwent both a nuclear stress test and noncardiac surgery were evaluated. We reclassified RCRI as fragmented RCRI (FRCRI) by integrating fQRS on electrocardiography. We defined postoperative major adverse cardiac event (MACE) as a composite of cardiac death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, and pulmonary edema.

Results

Twenty-eight patients (10.9%) developed postoperative MACE, and this was significantly frequent in patients with myocardial perfusion defect (41.4% vs. 28.0%, p = 0.031). fQRS was observed 84 (32.8%)
patients, and it was proven to be an independent predictor of postoperative MACE after adjusting for the RCRI (odds ratio 3.279, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.419–7.580, p = 0.005). Moreover, fQRS had an incremental prognostic value for the RCRI (chi-square = 7.8, p = 0.005), and to the combination of RCRI and age (chi-square = 9.1, p = 0.003). The area under curve for predicting postoperative MACE significantly increased from 0.612 for RCRI to 0.667 for FRCRI (p = 0.027) and 23 patients (32.4%) originally classified as RCRI 2 were reclassified as FRCRI 3.

Conclusions

A newly reclassified FRCRI that incorporates fQRS, is a valuable predictor of postoperative MACE in patients with severe renal dysfunction undergoing noncardiac surgery.
Shared decision making in pregnancy in inflammatory bowel disease: design of a patient orientated decision aid
Authors: Williams Astrid-Jane , Karimi Neda , Chari Radha , Connor Susan , De Vera Mary A. , Dieleman Levinus A. , Hansen Tawnya , Ismond Kathleen , Khurana Rshmi , Kingston Dawn , O’Connor Katie , Sadowski Daniel C. , Fang-Hwa Flora , Wine Eytan , Leung Yvette , Huang Vivian
Published: July 2021

Background

Research has indicated a lack of disease-specific reproductive knowledge among patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and this has been associated with increased “voluntary childlessness”. Furthermore, a lack of knowledge may contribute to inappropriate medication changes during or after pregnancy. Decision aids have been shown to support decision making in pregnancy as well as in multiple other chronic diseases. A published decision aid for pregnancy in IBD has not been identified, despite the benefit of pre-conception counselling and patient desire for a decision support tool. This study aimed to develop and test the feasibility of a decision aid encompassing reproductive decisions in the setting of IBD.

Methods

The International Patient Decision Aid Standards were implemented in the development of the Pregnancy in IBD Decision Aid (PIDA). A multi-disciplinary steering committee was formed. Patient and clinician focus groups were conducted to explore themes of importance in the reproductive decision-making processes in IBD. A PIDA prototype was designed; patient interviews were conducted to obtain further insight into patient perspectives and to test the prototype for feasibility.

Results

Issues considered of importance to patients and clinicians encountering decisions regarding pregnancy in the setting of IBD included fertility, conception timing, inheritance, medications, infant health, impact of surgery, contraception, nutrition and breastfeeding. Emphasis was placed on the provision of preconception counselling early in the disease course. Decisions relating to conception and medications were chosen as the current focus of PIDA, however content inclusion was broad to support use across preconception, pregnancy and post-partum phases. Favourable and constructive user feedback was received.

Conclusions

The novel development of a decision aid for use in pregnancy and IBD was supported by initial user testing.
Efficacy of osimertinib for preventing leptomeningeal metastasis derived from advanced EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer: a propensity-matched retrospective study
Authors: Wang Xia , Cai Jing , Zeng Zhimin , Liu Anwen
Published: July 2021

Background

Leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) is a severe complication of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This retrospective study aimed to investigate the potential use of osimertinib for preventing LM in patients with advanced epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated NSCLC.

Methods

Patients with advanced NSCLC harboring EGFR mutations who underwent tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) therapy for at least 8 weeks between September 2016 and September 2019 were eligible for this study. All included patients were divided into two groups based on whether they received osimertinib, the osimertinib group (patients treated with osimertinib) and the control group (patients not treated with osimertinib). Propensity score matching (PSM, ratio of 1:1) was used to account for differences in baseline characteristics. The cumulative incidence of LM and the overall survival (OS) were evaluated.

Results

A total of 304 patients were included in the study population. Among them, 116 patients received osimertinib, and 188 did not. A total of 112 patients remained in each group after PSM, and the baseline characteristics were not significantly different between the two cohorts. LM developed in 11 patients (9.82%) in the osimertinib group and 24 patients (21.42%) in the control group (hazard ratio [HR] 0.38, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.19–0.79, p = 0.009). Multivariate analysis indicated that osimertinib was an independent, statistically significant predictor for determining the risk for LM, with an HR of 0.33 (p = 0.042). At present, the OS rate data are too immature for statistical analysis.

Conclusion

Real-world data demonstrate that osimertinib can significantly reduce the incidence of LM in patients with advanced NSCLC harboring common EGFR mutations. Given this result, osimertinib should be encouraged in clinical practice for specific patient populations.
Effect of spectral CT on tumor microvascular angiogenesis in renal cell carcinoma
Authors: Zhang Bei , Wu Qiong , Qiu Xiang , Ding Xiaobo , Wang Jin , Li Jing , Sun Pengfei , Hu Xiaohan
Published: July 2021

Background

To examine the value of energetic-spectrum computed tomography (spectral CT) quantitative parameters in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) microvascular angiogenesis.

Methods

The authors evaluated 32 patients with pathologically confirmed RCC who underwent triple-phase contrast-enhanced CT with spectral CT imaging mode from January 2017 to December 2019. Quantitative parameters include parameters derived from iodine concentration (IC) and water concentration (WC) of 120 keV monochromatic images. All specimens were evaluated including the microvascular density (MVD), microvascular area (MVA) and so on. The correlation between IC and WC (including average values and random values) with microvascular parameters were analyzed with Pearson or Spearman rank correlation coefficients.

Results

The MVD of all tumors was 26.00 (15.00–43.75) vessels per field at × 400 magnification. The MVD of RCC correlated positively with the mean IC, mean WC, mean NWC, mean NIC, random IC, random NIC in renal cortical phase, WCD1, WCD2, NWCD2 and ICD1 (Spearman rank correlation coefficients, r range, 0.362–0.533; all p < 0.05). The MVA of all tumors was (16.16 ± 8.98) % per field at × 400 magnification. The MVA of RCC correlated positively with the mean IC, mean WC, mean NWC, mean NIC, random IC, random NIC in renal cortical, mean WC and mean NWC in renal parenchymal phase, WCD1, WCD2, WCD3, NWCD2, and NWCD3 (Pearson or Spearman rank correlation coefficients, r range, 0.357–0.576; all p < 0.05). Microvascular grading correlated positively with the mean NWC, mean NIC and random NIC in renal cortical phase, mean NWC in renal parenchymal phase, NWCD2, WCD3, NWCD3, NICD2 and NICD3 (Spearman rank correlation coefficients, r range, 0.367–0.520; all p < 0.05). As for tumor diameter (55.19 ± 19.15), μm, only NWCD3 was associated with it (Spearman rank correlation coefficients, r = 0.388; p < 0.05).

Conclusions

ICD and WCD of spectral CT have a potential for evaluating RCC microvascular angiogenesis. MVD, MVA and microvascular grade showed moderate positive correlation with ICD and WCD. ICD displayed more relevant than that of WCD. The parameters of renal cortical phase were the best in three phases. NICD and NWCD manifested stronger correlation with microvascular parameters than that of ICD and WCD.
Measuring hygiene competence: the picture-based situational judgement test HygiKo
Authors: Heininger Susanne Katharina , Baumgartner Maria , Zehner Fabian , Burgkart Rainer , Söllner Nina , Berberat Pascal O. , Gartmeier Martin
Published: July 2021

Background

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of 2020, the crucial role of hygiene in healthcare settings has once again become very clear. For diagnostic and for didactic purposes, standardized and reliable tests suitable to assess the competencies involved in “working hygienically” are required. However, existing tests usually use self-report questionnaires, which are suboptimal for this purpose. In the present study, we introduce the newly developed, competence-oriented HygiKo test instrument focusing health-care professionals’ hygiene competence and report empirical evidence regarding its psychometric properties.

Methods

HygiKo is a Situational Judgement Test (SJT) to assess hygiene competence. The HygiKo-test consists of twenty pictures (items), each item presents only one unambiguous hygiene lapse. For each item, test respondents are asked (1) whether they recognize a problem in the picture with respect to hygiene guidelines and, (2) if yes, to describe the problem in a short verbal response. Our sample comprised n = 149 health care professionals (79.1 % female; age: M = 26.7 years, SD = 7.3 years) working as clinicians or nurses. The written responses were rated by two independent raters with high agreement (α > 0.80), indicating high reliability of the measurement. We used Item Response Theory (IRT) for further data analysis.

Results

We report IRT analyses that show that the HygiKo-test is suitable to assess hygiene competence and that it allows to distinguish between persons demonstrating different levels of ability for seventeen of the twenty items), especially for the range of low to medium person abilities. Hence, the HygiKo-SJT is suitable to get a reliable and competence-oriented measure for hygiene-competence.

Conclusions

In its present form, the HygiKo-test can be used to assess the hygiene competence of medical students, medical doctors, nurses and trainee nurses in cross-sectional measurements. In order to broaden the difficulty spectrum of the current test, additional test items with higher difficulty should be developed. The Situational Judgement Test designed to assess hygiene competence can be helpful in testing and teaching the ability of working hygienically. Further research for validity is needed.
AMFormulaS: an intelligent retrieval system for traditional Chinese medicine formulas
Authors: Cui Yidi , Gao Bo , Liu Lihong , Liu Jing , Zhu Yan
Published: July 2021

Background

Formula is an important means of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat diseases and has great research significance. There are many formula databases, but accessing rich information efficiently is difficult due to the small-scale data and lack of intelligent search engine.

Methods

We selected 38,000 formulas from a semi-structured database, and then segmented text, extracted information, and standardized terms. After that, we constructed a structured formula database based on ontology and an intelligent retrieval engine by calculating the weight of decoction pieces of formulas.

Results

The intelligent retrieval system named AMFormulaS (means Ancient and Modern Formula system) was constructed based on the structured database, ontology, and intelligent retrieval engine, so the retrieval and statistical analysis of formulas and decoction pieces were realized.

Conclusions

AMFormulaS is a large-scale intelligent retrieval system which includes a mass of formula data, efficient information extraction system and search engine. AMFormulaS could provide users with efficient retrieval and comprehensive data support. At the same time, the statistical analysis of the system can enlighten scientific research ideas and support patent review as well as new drug research and development.
Multi-label classification of fundus images based on graph convolutional network
Authors: Cheng Yinlin , Ma Mengnan , Li Xingyu , Zhou Yi
Published: July 2021

Background

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is the most common and serious microvascular complication in the diabetic population. Using computer-aided diagnosis from the fundus images has become a method of detecting retinal diseases, but the detection of multiple lesions is still a difficult point in current research.

Methods

This study proposed a multi-label classification method based on the graph convolutional network (GCN), so as to detect 8 types of fundus lesions in color fundus images. We collected 7459 fundus images (1887 left eyes, 1966 right eyes) from 2282 patients (1283 women, 999 men), and labeled 8 types of lesions, laser scars, drusen, cup disc ratio ($$C/D>0.6$$C/D>0.6), hemorrhages, retinal arteriosclerosis, microaneurysms, hard exudates and soft exudates. We constructed a specialized corpus of the related fundus lesions. A multi-label classification algorithm for fundus images was proposed based on the corpus, and the collected data were trained.

Results

The average overall F1 Score (OF1) and the average per-class F1 Score (CF1) of the model were 0.808 and 0.792 respectively. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of our proposed model reached 0.986, 0.954, 0.946, 0.957, 0.952, 0.889, 0.937 and 0.926 for detecting laser scars, drusen, cup disc ratio, hemorrhages, retinal arteriosclerosis, microaneurysms, hard exudates and soft exudates, respectively.

Conclusions

Our results demonstrated that our proposed model can detect a variety of lesions in the color images of the fundus, which lays a foundation for assisting doctors in diagnosis and makes it possible to carry out rapid and efficient large-scale screening of fundus lesions.
Learning rich features with hybrid loss for brain tumor segmentation
Authors: Huang Daobin , Wang Minghui , Zhang Ling , Li Haichun , Ye Minquan , Li Ao
Published: July 2021

Background

Accurately segment the tumor region of MRI images is important for brain tumor diagnosis and radiotherapy planning. At present, manual segmentation is wildly adopted in clinical and there is a strong need for an automatic and objective system to alleviate the workload of radiologists.

Methods

We propose a parallel multi-scale feature fusing architecture to generate rich feature representation for accurate brain tumor segmentation. It comprises two parts: (1) Feature Extraction Network (FEN) for brain tumor feature extraction at different levels and (2) Multi-scale Feature Fusing Network (MSFFN) for merge all different scale features in a parallel manner. In addition, we use two hybrid loss functions to optimize the proposed network for the class imbalance issue.

Results

We validate our method on BRATS 2015, with 0.86, 0.73 and 0.61 in Dice for the three tumor regions (complete, core and enhancing), and the model parameter size is only 6.3 MB. Without any post-processing operations, our method still outperforms published state-of-the-arts methods on the segmentation results of complete tumor regions and obtains competitive performance in another two regions.

Conclusions

The proposed parallel structure can effectively fuse multi-level features to generate rich feature representation for high-resolution results. Moreover, the hybrid loss functions can alleviate the class imbalance issue and guide the training process. The proposed method can be used in other medical segmentation tasks.
CapsTM: capsule network for Chinese medical text matching
Authors: Yu Xiaoming , Shen Yedan , Ni Yuan , Huang Xiaowei , Wang Xiaolong , Chen Qingcai , Tang Buzhou
Published: July 2021

Background

Text Matching (TM) is a fundamental task of natural language processing widely used in many application systems such as information retrieval, automatic question answering, machine translation, dialogue system, reading comprehension, etc. In recent years, a large number of deep learning neural networks have been applied to TM, and have refreshed benchmarks of TM repeatedly. Among the deep learning neural networks, convolutional neural network (CNN) is one of the most popular networks, which suffers from difficulties in dealing with small samples and keeping relative structures of features. In this paper, we propose a novel deep learning architecture based on capsule network for TM, called CapsTM, where capsule network is a new type of neural network architecture proposed to address some of the short comings of CNN and shows great potential in many tasks.

Methods

CapsTM is a five-layer neural network, including an input layer, a representation layer, an aggregation layer, a capsule layer and a prediction layer. In CapsTM, two pieces of text are first individually converted into sequences of embeddings and are further transformed by a highway network in the input layer. Then, Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) is used to represent each piece of text and attention-based interaction matrix is used to represent interactive information of the two pieces of text in the representation layer. Subsequently, the two kinds of representations are fused together by BiLSTM in the aggregation layer, and are further represented with capsules (vectors) in the capsule layer. Finally, the prediction layer is a connected network used for classification. CapsTM is an extension of ESIM by adding a capsule layer before the prediction layer.

Results

We construct a corpus of Chinese medical question matching, which contains 36,360 question pairs. This corpus is randomly split into three parts: a training set of 32,360 question pairs, a development set of 2000 question pairs and a test set of 2000 question pairs. On this corpus, we conduct a series of experiments to evaluate the proposed CapsTM and compare it with other state-of-the-art methods. CapsTM achieves the highest F-score of 0.8666.

Conclusion

The experimental results demonstrate that CapsTM is effective for Chinese medical question matching and outperforms other state-of-the-art methods for comparison.
A non-linear ensemble model-based surgical risk calculator for mixed data from multiple surgical fields
Authors: Liu Ruoyu , Lai Xin , Wang Jiayin , Zhang Xuanping , Zhu Xiaoyan , Lai Paul B. S. , Guo Ci-ren
Published: July 2021

Background

The misestimation of surgical risk is a serious threat to the lives of patients when implementing surgical risk calculator. Improving the accuracy of postoperative risk prediction has received much attention and many methods have been proposed to cope with this problem in the past decades. However, those linear approaches are inable to capture the non-linear interactions between risk factors, which have been proved to play an important role in the complex physiology of the human body, and thus may attenuate the performance of surgical risk calculators.

Methods

In this paper, we presented a new surgical risk calculator based on a non-linear ensemble algorithm named Gradient Boosting Decision Tree (GBDT) model, and explored the corresponding pipeline to support it. In order to improve the practicability of our approach, we designed three different modes to deal with different data situations. Meanwhile, considering that one of the obstacles to clinical acceptance of surgical risk calculators was that the model was too complex to be used in practice, we reduced the number of input risk factors according to the importance of them in GBDT. In addition, we also built some baseline models and similar models to compare with our approach.

Results

The data we used was three-year clinical data from Surgical Outcome Monitoring and Improvement Program (SOMIP) launched by the Hospital Authority of Hong Kong. In all experiments our approach shows excellent performance, among which the best result of area under curve (AUC), Hosmer–Lemeshow test ($${{\mathrm{HL}}}_{\hat{c}}$$

HL

c
^

) and brier score (BS) can reach 0.902, 7.398 and 0.047 respectively. After feature reduction, the best result of AUC, $${\mathrm{HL}}_{\hat{c}}$$

HL

c
^

and BS of our approach can still be maintained at 0.894, 7.638 and 0.060, respectively. In addition, we also performed multiple groups of comparative experiments. The results show that our approach has a stable advantage in each evaluation indicator.

Conclusions

The experimental results demonstrate that NL-SRC can not only improve the accuracy of predicting the surgical risk of patients, but also effectively capture important risk factors and their interactions. Meanwhile, it also has excellent performance on the mixed data from multiple surgical fields.
The impact of fluid status and decremental PEEP strategy on cardiac function and lung and kidney damage in mild-moderate experimental acute respiratory distress syndrome
Authors: Rocha Nazareth N. , Samary Cynthia S. , Antunes Mariana A. , Oliveira Milena V. , Hemerly Matheus R. , Santos Patrine S. , Capelozzi Vera L. , Cruz Fernanda F. , Marini John J. , Silva Pedro L. , Pelosi Paolo , Rocco Patricia R. M.
Published: July 2021

Background

We evaluated the effects of abrupt versus gradual PEEP decrease, combined with standard versus high-volume fluid administration, on cardiac function, as well as lung and kidney damage in an established model of mild-moderate acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Methods

Wistar rats received endotoxin intratracheally. After 24 h, they were treated with Ringer’s lactate at standard (10 mL/kg/h) or high (30 mL/kg/h) dose. For 30 min, all animals were mechanically ventilated with tidal volume = 6 mL/kg and PEEP = 9 cmH2O (to keep alveoli open), then randomized to undergo abrupt or gradual (0.2 cmH2O/min for 30 min) PEEP decrease from 9 to 3 cmH2O. Animals were then further ventilated for 10 min at PEEP = 3 cmH2O, euthanized, and their lungs and kidneys removed for molecular biology analysis.

Results

At the end of the experiment, left and right ventricular end-diastolic areas were greater in animals treated with high compared to standard fluid administration, regardless of PEEP decrease rate. However, pulmonary arterial pressure, indicated by the pulmonary acceleration time (PAT)/pulmonary ejection time (PET) ratio, was higher in abrupt compared to gradual PEEP decrease, independent of fluid status. Animals treated with high fluids and abrupt PEEP decrease exhibited greater diffuse alveolar damage and higher expression of interleukin-6 (a pro-inflammatory marker) and vascular endothelial growth factor (a marker of endothelial cell damage) compared to the other groups. The combination of standard fluid administration and gradual PEEP decrease increased zonula occludens-1 expression, suggesting epithelial cell preservation. Expression of club cell-16 protein, an alveolar epithelial cell damage marker, was higher in abrupt compared to gradual PEEP decrease groups, regardless of fluid status. Acute kidney injury score and gene expression of kidney injury molecule-1 were higher in the high versus standard fluid administration groups, regardless of PEEP decrease rate.

Conclusion

In the ARDS model used herein, decreasing PEEP abruptly increased pulmonary arterial hypertension, independent of fluid status. The combination of abrupt PEEP decrease and high fluid administration led to greater lung and kidney damage. This information adds to the growing body of evidence that supports gradual transitioning of ventilatory patterns and warrants directing additional investigative effort into vascular and deflation issues that impact lung protection.
Titanium dioxide particles from the diet: involvement in the genesis of inflammatory bowel diseases and colorectal cancer
Authors: Barreau Frédérick , Tisseyre Céline , Ménard Sandrine , Ferrand Audrey , Carriere Marie
Published: July 2021

The gastrointestinal tract is a complex interface between the external environment and the immune system. Its ability to control uptake across the mucosa and to protect the body from damage of harmful substances from the lumen is defined as the intestinal barrier function (IBF). The IBF involves four elements: the intestinal microbiota, the mucus layer, the epithelium and the immune system. Its dysfunction is linked with human diseases including inflammatory, metabolic, infectious, autoimmune and neurologic disorders. Most of these diseases are complex and involve genetic, psychological and environmental factors. Over the past 10 years, many genetic polymorphisms predisposing to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have been identified. Yet, it is now clear that they are insufficient to explain the onset of these chronic diseases. Although it has been evidenced that some environmental factors such as cigarette smoking or carbohydrate intake are associated with IBD, other environmental factors also present potential health risks such as ingestion of food additives introduced in the human diet, including those composed of mineral particles, by altering the four elements of the intestinal barrier function. The aim of this review is to provide a critical opinion on the potential of TiO2particles, especially when used as a food additive, to alter the four elements of the intestinal barrier function, and consequently to evaluate if this additive would likely play a role in the development and/or exacerbation of IBD.
Circ_0025908 regulates cell vitality and proliferation via miR-137/HIPK2 axis of rheumatic arthritis
Authors: Wang Xiaofeng , Zhang Zhiwen , Liang Haofeng , Chen Ruixiong , Huang Yuliang
Published: July 2021

Background

Rheumatic arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease with bad effects. Recent researches have shown that circular RNAs (circRNAs) could affect the progress of RA, but the mechanism still indistinct. In this work, we explored the roles of circ_0025908 in RA.

Methods

The levels of circ_0025908, microRNA-137 (miR-137), and mRNA of homeodomain-interacting protein kinase 2 (HIPK2) were detected by quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) in RA tissues. Meanwhile, the level of HIPK2 was quantified by Western blot analysis. Besides, the cell functions were examined by CCK8 assay, EdU assay, flow cytometry assay, ELISA, and Western blot. Furthermore, the interplay between miR-137 and circ_0025908 or HIPK2 was detected by dual-luciferase reporter assay.

Results

The levels of circ_0025908 and HIPK2 were upregulated, and the miR-137 level was decreased in RA tissues in contrast to that in normal tissues. For functional analysis, circ_0025908 deficiency inhibited cell vitality, cell mitotic cycle, cell proliferation, and immunoreaction in RA cells, whereas promoted cell apoptosis. Moreover, miR-137 was confirmed to repress the progression of RA cells by suppressing HIPK2. In mechanism, circ_0025908 acted as a miR-137 sponge to regulate the level of HIPK2.

Conclusion

Circ_0025908 facilitates the development of RA through increasing HIPK2 expression by regulating miR-137, which also offered an underlying targeted therapy for RA treatment.
Mature B cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia with KMT2A-MLLT3 transcripts in children: three case reports and literature reviews
Authors: Cui Yinghui , Zhou Min , Zou Pinli , Liao Xin , Xiao Jianwen
Published: July 2021

Background

Mature B cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (BAL) is characterised by French–American–British (FAB)-L3 morphology and the presence of surface immunoglobulin (sIgM) light chain restriction. BAL is also considered as the leukaemic phase of Burkitt lymphoma (BL), in which t (8; 14) (q24; q32) or its variants are related to the myelocytomatosis oncogene (MYC) rearrangement (MYCr) is usually present. However, BAL with lysine methyltransferase 2A (KMT2A, previously called Mixed lineage leukaemia, MLL) gene rearrangement (KMT2Ar, previously called MLLr) is rare.

Results

Three BAL patients with KMT2Ar were enrolled between January 2017 and November 2019, accounting for 1.37% of the B-ALL population in our hospital. We also reviewed 24 previously reported cases of BAL and KMT2Ar and analysed the features, treatment, and prognosis. Total 13 males and 14 females were enrolled in our research, and the average age at diagnosis was 19.5 ± 4.95 months old. In these 27 patients, renal, central nervous system (CNS) and skin involvement were existent in 6, 4 and 3 patients, respectively; 26 patients (26/27) showed non-ALL-L3 morphology, while one patient is ALL-L3; overexpression of CD19 was detected in most cases, negative or suspicious expression of CD20 was found in 64% of patients. KMT2Ar was reported, but MYCr was not observed. 25 patients (25/27) achieved complete remission after chemotherapy or Stem cell transplantation. The patients were sensitive to chemotherapy, prospective event-free survival (pEFS) of BAL patients with KMT2Ar who received allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) was higher than that in patients who received chemotherapy alone (83.33% vs 41.91%).

Conclusion

BAL patients with KMT2Ar had unique manifestations, including younger age at diagnosis and overexpression of CD19; expression of CD20 was rare, and MYCr was undetectable. The pEFS was higher in patients undergoing allo-HSCT than in patients undergoing chemotherapy alone.
Molecular features and vulnerabilities of recurrent chordomas
Authors: Seeling Carolin , Lechel André , Svinarenko Michael , Möller Peter , Barth Thomas F. E. , Mellert Kevin
Published: July 2021

Background

Tumor recurrence is one of the major challenges in clinical management of chordoma. Despite R0-resection, approximately 50% of chordomas recur within ten years after initial surgery. The underlying molecular processes are poorly understood resulting in the lack of associated therapeutic options. This is not least due to the absence of appropriate cell culture models of this orphan disease.

Methods

The intra-personal progression model cell lines U-CH11 and U-CH11R were compared using array comparative genomic hybridization, expression arrays, RNA-seq, and immunocytochemistry. Cell line origin was confirmed by short tandem repeat analysis. Inter-personal cell culture models (n = 6) were examined to validate whether the new model is representative. Cell viability after HOX/PBX complex inhibition with small peptides was determined by MTS assays.

Results

Using whole genome microarray analyses, striking differences in gene expression between primary and recurrent chordomas were identified. These expression differences were confirmed in the world’s first intra-personal model of chordoma relapse consisting of cell lines established from a primary (U-CH11) and the corresponding recurrent tumor (U-CH11R). Array comparative genomic hybridization and RNA-sequencing analyses revealed profound genetic similarities between both cell lines pointing to transcriptomic reprogramming as a key mechanism of chordoma progression. Network analysis of the recurrence specific genes highlighted HOX/PBX signaling as a common dysregulated event. Hence, HOX/PBX complexes were used as so far unknown therapeutic targets in recurrent chordomas. Treating chordoma cell lines with the complex formation inhibiting peptide HXR9 induced cFOS mediated apoptosis in all chordoma cell lines tested. This effect was significantly stronger in cell lines established from chordoma relapses.

Conclusion

Clearly differing gene expression patterns and vulnerabilities to HOX/PBX complex inhibition in highly therapy resistant chordoma relapses were identified using the first intra-personal loco-regional and further inter-personal chordoma progression models. For the first time, HOX/PBX interference was used to induce cell death in chordoma and might serve as the basic concept of an upcoming targeted therapy for chordomas of all progression stages.
Fitness for all: how do non-disabled people respond to inclusive fitness centres?
Authors: Nikolajsen Helene , Richardson Emma Victoria , Sandal Louise Fleng , Juul-Kristensen Birgit , Troelsen Jens
Published: July 2021

Background

Representation of people with disabilities in fitness centres is lacking, despite initiatives to promote inclusion mainly in the UK and USA. Success creating these inclusive spaces is mixed and few were crafted taking into account attitudes and biases of non-disabled co-members. Inclusive fitness centres have not gained much attention in Denmark, and the campaign ‘Fitness for All - fitness for people with physical disabilities’ was initiated. The aim of this study was shaped by two key questions; 1) what is the ideal fitness space from the perception of non-disabled fitness users? and 2) how might their dis/ableist attitudes negate inclusion in three future pilot inclusive fitness centres across Denmark?

Method

Three focus groups involving 5–7 (total n = 18) adult non-disabled participants were conducted. Aged ranged between 19 and 75 years, both men and women were involved, with fitness centre experiences ranging from 0 to 20+ years. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using Malterud’s four-step method of systematic text condensation.

Results

Of most importance was a pleasant atmosphere which should make them feel welcome and comfortable. Good social relations within the space were also highly valued. Participants welcomed people with physical disabilities but predicted many challenges with an inclusive fitness centre and expressed unconscious ableist attitudes.

Conclusion

The current study adds essential knowledge regarding how non-disabled people perceive the ideal inclusive fitness centre. A welcoming and inviting atmosphere is essential whereas social skills, ableism, ignorance, and preconceptions are important barriers that may hinder inclusion of participants with disabilities in inclusive fitness centres.