bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Prevalence of the Metabolic Syndrome in Patients With Acute Coronary Syndrome in Six Middle Eastern Countries
Authors: Al Suwaidi Jassim , Zubaid Mohammad , El‐Menyar Ayman A. , Singh Rajvir , Rashed Wafa , Ridha Mustafa , Shehab Abdulla , Al‐Lawati Jawad , Amin Haitham , Al‐Mottareb Ahmed 
Published: August 2010

J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich).The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and effect of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) on patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in six Middle Eastern countries using the new definition of MetS. Analysis of the Gulf Registry of Acute Coronary Events (Gulf RACE), which included 8716 consecutive patients hospitalized with ACS, was conducted and patients were divided into two groups: patients with and patients without the MetS. Overall, 46% of patients had MetS. Patients with MetS were more likely to be female and less likely to be smokers. In‐hospital mortality and cardiogenic shock were comparable between the two groups, although MetS patients were more likely to have congestive heart failure and recurrent ischemia. In ST‐elevation myocardial infarction, MetS was also associated with increased risk of recurrent myocardial infarction and stroke. Using the recent MetS definition, MetS is highly prevalent among Middle Eastern patients presenting with ACS. MetS is associated with higher‐risk profile characteristics and increased risk for development of heart failure and recurrent myocardial ischemia without an increase in hospital mortality. J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2010;12:890–899.
Distance‐based population classification software using mean‐field annealing
Authors: CANDY JOHN R. , WALLACE COLIN G. , BEACHAM TERRY D. 
Published: August 2010

AbstractWe describe a distance‐based clustering method using a proximity matrix of genetic distances to partition populations into genetically similar groupings. The optimization heuristic mean‐field annealing (MFA) was used to find locally optimal solutions where exhaustive search was not possible. To illustrate this method, we analysed both simulated and real data sets. Simulated data indicated that MFA successfully differentiated population groups, even with smallFSTvalues, as long as there was separation of within and between group distances. Reanalysis of microsatellite data from various human populations using mean‐fields found similar ethnic groups corresponding to major geographic regions reported byRosenberget al.(2002)who used the model‐based computer program Structure. However, with MFA, the Kalash population was found to group with other Central/South Asian populations instead of being the only member of its own genetic cluster. Europe/Middle East populations formed a separate group from Central/South Asian populations instead of being a single group in the Structure analysis. The MFA analysis determined the greatest genetic distances (largest mean intracluster distance) occurred in native American populations, identifying three groups instead of only one found with Structure. For conservation purposes, it is not only important to identify genetically similar groupings but also to determine the relative level of genetic differentiation captured within these groups. To illustrate this, we compare two separate MFA analyses of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) populations from British Columbia, Canada. The software called PORGS‐MFA used in this article can be downloaded fromhttp://www.pac.dfo‐mpo.gc.ca/science/facilities‐installations/pbs‐sbp/mgl‐lgm/apps/porgs/index‐eng.htm.
Local retinal sensitivity in relation to specific retinopathy lesions in diabetic macular oedema
Authors: Soliman Wael , Hasler Pascal , Sander Birgit , Larsen Michael 
Published: August 2010

Abstract.Purpose:  To study microperimetric macular sensitivity in diabetic macular oedema (DMO) in relation to lesion characteristics obtained by optical coherence tomography (OCT), colour fundus photography, and fluorescein angiography (FA).Methods:  The study comprised 20 eyes in 15 patients with nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy and recently diagnosed untreated DMO. Investigations included microperimetry, fluorescein angiography, colour fundus photography, and OCT. All measures and gradings were made for each of the nine fields of an early treatment diabetic retinopathy study macula template. Statistical analysis was made using Spearman’s nonparametric test including field and mean values within fields. Comparisons were made within the study population and with a normative microperimetry database.Results:  Subnormal microperimetric sensitivity was associated with cystoid macular oedema, both in foveal petaloid (r = −0.50, p = 0.02) and extrafoveal honeycomb patterns (r = −0.8, p < 0.0001) and with outer nuclear layer cysts (r = −0. 5, p = 0.024), inner nuclear layer cysts (r = −0.31, p = 0.03), and hard exudate (r = −0.38, p = 0.0026). There was no detectable effect of focal noncystoid oedema (r = −0.16, p = 0. 48), diffuse noncystoid oedema (r = −0.14, p = 0.55), capillary nonperfusion (r = −0.33, p = 0.15), intraretinal haemorrhage (r = −0.15, p = 0.53), or serous retinal detachment (r = −0.11, p = 0.63). Foveal thickening was associated with locally reduced sensitivity (r = −0.54, p = 0.01). Foveal sensitivity was positively correlated to the visual acuity, with a correlation of 0.44 and a borderline significance (p = 0.0509).Conclusions:  Macular hard exudates and cystoid oedema were associated with locally reduced sensitivity. Thus, the lesions associated with reduced sensitivity for a white‐on‐white stimulus were such lesions that cause light to be blocked or scattered before it reaches the photoreceptors, suggesting that optical effects are a major cause of sensitivity loss.
Comorbidities of dry eye disease: a nationwide population‐based study
Authors: Wang Tsung‐Jen , Wang I‐Jong , Hu Chao‐Chien , Lin Herng‐Ching 
Published: August 2010

Abstract.Purpose: To investigate the comorbidities of dry eye disease in a nationwide population‐based data in Taiwan.Methods: This study features a study group and a comparison group. The study group comprised 12 007 patients who sought ambulatory care for treatment of dry eye in 2005 and 2006. In total, 36 021 randomly selected patients were in the comparison group. Conditional logistic regression analyses conditioned on gender, age, monthly income and level of urbanization of the community in which the patient resided were conducted to calculate the odds ratio (OR) for each of 33 comorbidities among patients with and without dry eye disease.Results: The regression analyses revealed that compared to patients without dry eye disease, patients with dry eye disease were more likely to have comorbidities of ischaemic heart disease (OR = 1.36), hyperlipidaemia (OR = 1.68), cardiac arrhythmias (OR = 1.55), peripheral vascular disorders (OR = 1.57), stroke (OR = 1.31), migraines (OR = 1.76), myasthenia gravis (OR = 2.85), RA (OR = 2.86), systemic lupus erythematosus (OR = 3.98), asthma (OR = 1.25), pulmonary circulation disorders (OR = 1.37), diabetes with complications (OR = 1.31), hypothyroidism (OR = 1.94), liver diseases (OR = 1.71), peptic ulcers (OR = 1.76), hepatitis B (OR = 1.64), deficiency anaemias (OR = 1.31), depression (OR = 2.11), psychoses (OR = 1.87) and solid tumours without metastasis (OR = 1.41).Conclusions: This study demonstrates significantly higher prevalence of medical comorbidities in patients with dry eye disease in Taiwan.
Retinopathy and visual impairment in diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance and normal glucose tolerance: the Nord‐Trøndelag Health Study (the HUNT study)
Authors: Sundling Vibeke , Platou Carl G. P. , Jansson Ragnhild Wivestad , Bertelsen Geir , Wøllo Erik , Gulbrandsen Pål 
Published: August 2010

Abstract.Purpose:  The aim of the study was to describe the prevalence of visual impairment and retinopathy and to investigate risk factors for retinopathy in persons with diabetes, screen‐detected diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance and normal glucose tolerance in a subpopulation of the HUNT study.Methods:  We used a sample (n = 163) from a population‐based screening survey of hyperglycaemia, undertaken in 2004–2005 in Verdal, Norway. Baseline information was accessible through the second Nord‐Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT2), 1995–97. Data collection was made in 2005 and included patient history, refraction, visual acuity, cataract assessment and single‐field, nonmydriatic retinal photography. Retinal photographs were graded independently by two graders blinded to patient information. Data were analysed with standard statistical methods, and p < 0.05 was considered significant.Results:  In all, 126 (77%) persons participated, 55% were women. The mean (SD) age was 59 (±14) years. Four (3%) had correctable visual impairment, and none were visually impaired. Retinal photographs were gradable for both eyes in 109 (87%) participants. The prevalence of retinopathy was 11% in persons with known diabetes, 4% in persons with screen‐detected diabetes, 3% in persons with impaired glucose tolerance and 10% in persons with normal glucose tolerance. Retinopathy was not associated with known history of diabetes or current glycaemic status. Nonfasting plasma glucose (in 1995–97) was an independent risk factor for retinopathy (in 2005), OR (95% CI) 1.5 (1.01, 2.13), p = 0.046.Conclusion:  The prevalence of diabetic retinopathy in persons with diabetes in this study was low. Appropriate optical correction and regular eye examination can prevent unnecessary visual impairment in both persons with and without diabetes.
Polymer coated fiber Bragg grating thermometry for microwave hyperthermia
Authors: Saxena Indu Fiesler , Hui Kaleo , Astrahan Melvin 
Published: August 2010

Purpose:Measuring tissue temperature distribution during electromagnetically induced hyperthermia (HT) is challenging. High resistance thermistors with nonmetallic leads have been used successfully in commercial HT systems for about three decades. The single 1 mm thick temperature sensing element is mechanically moved to measure tissue temperature distributions. By employing a single thermometry probe containing a fixed linear sensor array temperature, distributions during therapy can be measured with greater ease. While the first attempts to use fiber Bragg grating (FBG) technology to obtain multiple temperature points along a single fiber have been reported, improvement in the detection system's stability were needed for clinical applications. The FBG temperature sensing system described here has a very high temporal stability detection system and an order of magnitude faster readout than commercial systems. It is shown to be suitable for multiple point fiber thermometry during microwave hyperthermia when compared to conventional mechanically scanning probe HT thermometry.Methods:A polymer coated fiber Bragg grating (PFBG) technology is described that provides a number of FBG thermometry locations along the length of a single optical fiber. The PFBG probe developed is tested under simulated microwave hyperthermia treatment to a tissue equivalent phantom. Two temperature probes, the multiple PFBG sensor and the Bowman probe, placed symmetrically with respect to a microwave antenna in a tissue phantom are subjected to microwave hyperthermia. Measurements are made at start of HT and 85 min later, when a increase in temperature is registered by both probes, as is typical in clinical HT therapy. The optical fiber multipoint thermometry probe performs highly stable, real‐time thermometry updating each multipoint thermometry scan over a 5 cm length every 2 s. Bowman probe measurements are acquired simultaneously for comparison. In addition, the PFBG sensor's detection system drift over 10 h is measured separately to evaluate system stability for clinical applications.Results:The temperature profiles measured by the two probes simultaneously under microwave HT are in good agreement showing mean differences of. The stability of the detection system is better than with response times of the PFBG sensor system of 2 s for each scan over ten points.Conclusions:The single fixed multipoint fiber thermometry capability compares favorably with the scanning Bowman probe data. This offers an enabling alternative to either scanning or bundled single point temperature probes for distributed thermometry in clinical applications.
Comparison of GEANT4 very low energy cross section models with experimental data in water
Authors: Incerti S. , Ivanchenko A. , Karamitros M. , Mantero A. , Moretto P. , Tran H. N. , Mascialino B. , Champion C. , Ivanchenko V. N. , Bernal M. A. , Francis Z. , Villagrasa C. , Baldacchino G. , Guèye P. , Capra R. , Nieminen P. , Zacharatou C. 
Published: August 2010

Purpose:TheGEANT4 general‐purpose Monte Carlo simulation toolkit is able to simulate physical interaction processes of electrons, hydrogen and helium atoms with charge states (, ) and (, , ), respectively, in liquid water, the main component of biological systems, down to the electron volt regime and the submicrometer scale, providing GEANT4 users with the so‐called “GEANT4‐DNA” physics models suitable for microdosimetry simulation applications. The corresponding software has been recently re‐engineered in order to provide GEANT4 users with a coherent and unique approach to the simulation of electromagnetic interactions within the GEANT4 toolkit framework (since GEANT4 version 9.3 beta). This work presents a quantitative comparison of these physics models with a collection of experimental data in water collected from the literature.Methods:An evaluation of the closeness between the total and differential cross section models available in theGEANT4 toolkit for microdosimetry and experimental reference data is performed using a dedicated statistical toolkit that includes the Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistical test. The authors used experimental data acquired in water vapor as direct measurements in the liquid phase are not yet available in the literature. Comparisons with several recommendations are also presented.Results:The authors have assessed the compatibility of experimental data withGEANT4 microdosimetry models by means of quantitative methods. The results show that microdosimetric measurements in liquid water are necessary to assess quantitatively the validity of the software implementation for the liquid water phase. Nevertheless, a comparison with existing experimental data in water vapor provides a qualitative appreciation of the plausibility of the simulation models. The existing reference data themselves should undergo a critical interpretation and selection, as some of the series exhibit significant deviations from each other.Conclusions:TheGEANT4‐DNA physics models available in the GEANT4 toolkit have been compared in this article to available experimental data in the water vapor phase as well as to several published recommendations on the mass stopping power. These models represent a first step in the extension of the GEANT4 Monte Carlo toolkit to the simulation of biological effects of ionizing radiation.
Real‐time monitoring and control on deep inspiration breath‐hold for lung cancer radiotherapy—Combination of ABC and external marker tracking
Authors: Wong Victy Y. W. , Tung Stewart Y. , Ng Alice W. Y. , Li Francis A. S. , Leung Joyce O. Y. 
Published: August 2010

Purpose:In this article, the breath‐hold and gating concepts were combined for application of lung cancer radiation treatment. The tumor movement was immobilized based on deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH), in which the breath‐hold consistency and stability were monitored by infrared (IR) tracking and controlled by gating with a predefined threshold. The authors’ goal is to derive the benefits from both techniques, namely, the minimized treatment margin and the known advantages of deep inspiration. The efficacy of the technique in terms of tumor immobility and treatment setup accuracy was evaluated in the study.Methods:Fourteen patients who were diagnosed with non small cell lung cancer were included in this study. The control of tumor immobility was investigated interfractionally and intrafractionally. The intrabreath‐hold tumor motion was devised based on the external marker movement, in which the tumor‐marker correlation was studied. The margin of the planning target volume (PTV) was evaluated based on two factors: (1) The treatment setup error accounts for the patient setup and interbreath‐hold variations and (2) the intrabreath‐hold tumor motion in which the residual tumor motion during irradiation was studied.Results:As the result of the study, the group systematic error and group random error of treatment setup measured at the isocenter were, , and in the left‐right (LR), anterior‐posterior (AP), and caudal‐cranial (CC) directions, respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficient were 0.81 (LR), 0.76 (AP), and 0.85 (CC) mm and suggest tendency in linear correlation of tumor and marker movement. The intrabreath‐hold tumor was small in all directions. The group PTV margins of 3.8 (LR), 4.6 (AP), and 4.8 (CC) mm were evaluated to account for both setup errors and residual tumor motion during irradiation.Conclusions:The study applies the DIBH technique in conjunction with IR positional tracking for tumor immobilization and treatment setup localization. The technique not only proved to be reliable in terms of good tumor immobility and accurate treatment positioning but also to be potentially useful for dose escalation treatment as regarding of the substantially reduced PTV margin and minimizing radiation toxicity from the fully expanded lung volume.
A hierarchical evolutionary algorithm for multiobjective optimization in IMRT
Authors: Holdsworth Clay , Kim Minsun , Liao Jay , Phillips Mark H. 
Published: August 2010

Purpose:The current inverse planning methods for intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) are limited because they are not designed to explore the trade‐offs between the competing objectives of tumor and normal tissues. The goal was to develop an efficient multiobjective optimization algorithm that was flexible enough to handle any form of objective function and that resulted in a set of Pareto optimal plans.Methods:A hierarchical evolutionary multiobjective algorithm designed to quickly generate a small diverse Pareto optimal set of IMRT plans that meet all clinical constraints and reflect the optimal trade‐offs in any radiation therapy plan was developed. The top level of the hierarchical algorithm is a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA). The genes of the individuals generated in the MOEA are the parameters that define the penalty function minimized during an accelerated deterministic IMRT optimization that represents the bottom level of the hierarchy. The MOEA incorporates clinical criteria to restrict the search space through protocol objectives and then uses Pareto optimality among the fitness objectives to select individuals. The population size is not fixed, but a specialized niche effect, domination advantage, is used to control the population and plan diversity. The number of fitness objectives is kept to a minimum for greater selective pressure, but the number of genes is expanded for flexibility that allows a better approximation of the Pareto front.Results:The MOEA improvements were evaluated for two example prostate cases with one target and two organs at risk (OARs). The population of plans generated by the modified MOEA was closer to the Pareto front than populations of plans generated using a standard genetic algorithm package. Statistical significance of the method was established by compiling the results of 25 multiobjective optimizations using each method. From these sets of 12–15 plans, any random plan selected from a MOEA population had a chance of dominating any random plan selected by a standard genetic package with chance of domination in reverse. By implementing domination advantage and protocol objectives, small and diverse populations of clinically acceptable plans that approximated the Pareto front could be generated in a fraction of 1 h. Acceleration techniques implemented on both levels of the hierarchical algorithm resulted in short, practical runtimes for multiobjective optimizations.Conclusions:The MOEA produces a diverse Pareto optimal set of plans that meet all dosimetric protocol criteria in a feasible amount of time. The final goal is to improve practical aspects of the algorithm and integrate it with a decision analysis tool or human interface for selection of the IMRT plan with the best possible balance of successful treatment of the target with low OAR dose and low risk of complication for any specific patient situation.
Dosimetric impact of an brachytherapy source cable length modeled using a grid‐based Boltzmann transport equation solver
Authors: Mikell Justin K. , Mourtada Firas 
Published: August 2010

Purpose:To evaluate the dose distributions of an source (model VS2000) in homogeneous water geometry calculated using a deterministic grid‐based Boltzmann transport equation solver (GBBS) in the commercial treatment planning system (TPS) (BRACHYVISION‐ACUROS v8.8).Methods:Using percent dose differences, the GBBS (BV‐ACUROS) was compared to the (1) published TG‐43 data, (2) MCNPX Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of the source centered in a 15 cm radius water sphere, and (3) TG‐43 output from the TPS using vendor supplied (BV‐TG43‐vendor) and user extended (BV‐TG43‐extended) 2D anisotropy functions . BV‐ACUROS assumes 1 mm of NiTi cable, while the TPS TG‐43 algorithm uses data based on a 15 cm cable. MC models of various cable lengths were simulated.Results:The MC simulations resulted in dose deviations along the cable for 1, 2, and 3 mm cable lengths relative to 15 cm. BV‐ACUROS comparisons with BV‐TG43‐vendor and BV‐TG43‐extended yielded magnitude of differences, consistent with those seen in MC simulations. However, differences extended further when using the vendor supplied anisotropy function . These differences were also seen in comparisons of derived from the TPS output.Conclusions:The results suggest that near the cable region is larger than previously estimated. The spatial distribution of the dose deviation is highly dependent on the reference TG‐43 data used to compare to GBBS. The differences observed, while important to realize, should not have an impact on clinical dosimetry in homogeneous water.