Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment Commons^™

Neural-Network-Based Detection Of Radiopharmaceutical Extravasation In Pet/Ct Data, Elijah D. Berberette

Masters Theses

The immediate identification of PET/CT radiopharmaceutical extravasation can eliminate many adverse effects such as misdiagnosis and improper therapy. Radiopharmaceutical extravasation is the leakage of an injected radiotracer from the patient’s intended vein into surrounding tissues. The detection of this phenomenon often requires the use of an external monitoring device; due to a lack of robust visual features that can provide indication that it has occurred. In this thesis, the feasibility of using neural networks trained on PET/CT data to identify extravasation is explored. This approach begins with a novel preprocessing methodology that automatically extracts body weight normalized standard uptake values …

Evaluating The Bias Of Two Point-Of-Care Glucometers For Calves And Ewes: Awareness For Ruminant Practitioners, Ryan Flynn, Haley Cremerius, Lisa Sams Ebner, Pierre-Yves Mulon, Jessica D. Garcia, Kailee Bennett, Jessica Gebert, Lainey Harvill, Olivia Escher, Channing Cantrell, Windy Soto-Gonzalez, Rebecca R. Rahn, Jeff D. Olivarez, Lingnan Yuan, Jonathan P. Mochel, Amanda J. Kreuder, Joseph Smith

Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Large Animal Clinical Sciences

(1) Background: Multiple point-of-care (POC) glucometers are in use in veterinary medicine, but few are compared to each other. This leaves the potential for clinicians to be unaware of the effect of bias when comparing results from different POC glucometers. (2) Methods: Samples from healthy calves and ewes were simultaneously compared with two POC veterinary glucometers, the Precision Xtra and the AlphaTrak2, under both the “canine” and “feline” settings. The results of each sample were statistically analyzed with linear regression and Bland–Altman analysis. (3) Results: 170 samples from healthy calves and 108 samples from healthy ewes were available for comparison. …

Optimizing A Clostridium Difficile Screen For Intensive Care Unit Admissions, Mary Katherine V. Natour, Jennifer Smith

Graduate Publications and Other Selected Works - Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Background: Clostridium difficile infection is one of the most common healthcare-associated infections. Careful screening upon hospital admission enables clinicians to mitigate the spread and sequelae of this illness through early intervention and isolation but this screening must be accurate and highly sensitive to maximize benefit.

Local problem: The site for this project, an ICU in Tennessee, currently employs a highly sensitive but nonspecific tool to detect CDI. This has resulted in low accuracy, low staff compliance, low patient morale, and unnecessarily high personal protective equipment (PPE) costs.

Methods: Levin’s evidence-based practice improvement model was chosen to guide this project from …

Thermoregulation In Colorectal Patients: Heating Co2 Insufflation Gas, Alejandro Conde, Alieu Jawara, Laura Savage, James Alberding Dnp, Michael Godbold

Graduate Publications and Other Selected Works - Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

BACKGROUND: 600,000 colorectal surgeries are performed annually in the United States, with 26-90% experiencing some form of unintended hypothermia. Consequences of hypothermia include surgical site infections (SSIs), delayed wound healing, cardiac dysrhythmias, and increased hospital length of stay. Utilization of the laparoscopic approach to intra-abdominal colorectal surgery uses un-warmed CO₂ gas. Multiple studies demonstrate the addition of heated CO₂, for insufflation, reduces intraoperative hypothermia.

LOCAL PROBLEM: This project was implemented at a facility in Tennessee. On average, 250 laparoscopic colorectal cases are performed at this facility annually. Participants were adult colorectal surgical patients, 18 years …