Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment Commons^™

Altruism Trumping Privacy Hipaa, Privacy, Big Data Set Benefits, Douglas J. Henderson

DOUGLAS J HENDERSON

The United States Government must administer a publicly held cloud networked Big Data Set of Private Health Information (PHI) in order to utilize Big Data Analytics and allow free data mining of such PHI so that the health care industry can operate most cost effectively while also meeting the health care needs of the aging United States populace with the highest quality of care.

Diagnostic Potential Of The Nmda Receptor Peptide Assay For Acute Ischemic Stroke, Svetlana A. Dambinova, Kerstin Bettermann, Theodore Glynn, Matthew Tews, David Olsen, Joseph D. Weissman, Richard K. Sowell

Faculty Articles

Background

The acute assessment of patients with suspected ischemic stroke remains challenging. The use of brain biomarker assays may improve the early diagnosis of ischemic stroke. The main goal of the study was to evaluate whether the NR2 peptide, a product of the proteolytic degradation of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, can differentiate acute ischemic stroke (IS) from stroke mimics and persons with vascular risk factors/healthy controls. A possible correlation between biomarker values and lesion sizes was investigated as the secondary objective.

Methods and Findings

A total of 192 patients with suspected stroke who presented within 72 h of symptom onset …

Evaluating The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (Moca) And The Mini Mental State Exam (Mmse) For Cognitive Impairment Post Stroke: A Validation Study Against The Cognistat, Lauren Friedman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Objective. To identify the better of two commonly used screening tools for detecting probable cognitive impairment in stroke patients in a large regional rehabilitation hospital (ParkwoodHospital,London,Ontario). This was a validation study of the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), using the Cognistat, as the criterion or ‘gold standard’. It was hypothesized that the MoCA is a superior screening instrument to the MMSE for the detection of cognitive impairment in stroke patients.

Methods. The MMSE and the MoCA were administered by occupational therapists and the Cognistat was administered by the student investigator. A second Cognistat was administered …

The Impact Of Anaemia And Malaria Parasite Infection In Pregnant Women, Nigerian Perspective., Ifeyinwa M. Okafor Dr., M Mbah, E A. Usanga

Okafor Ifeyinwa M Dr.

Malaria and anaemia during pregnancy is still a major health problem in endemic countries with clinical consequences including death of both mother and child. In Nigeria, statistics shows that as many as 300,000 lives especially those of children and pregnant women are lost annually due to malaria. This study was aimed at assessing the impact of malaria and anaemia among pregnant women living in Calabar South Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria, which is characterized by unstable transmission of malaria. .A total of 664 subjects were enrolled in the study made up of 414 pregnant women attending antenatal …

Intermediate-Term Mortality And Cardiac Transplantation In Infants With Single-Ventricle Lesions: Risk Factors And Their Interaction With Shunt Type., James S. Tweddell, Lynn A. Sleeper, Richard G. Ohye, Ismee A. Williams, Lynn Mahony, Christian Pizarro, Victoria L. Pemberton, Peter C. Frommelt, Scott M. Bradley, James F. Cnota, Jennifer Hirsch, Paul M. Kirshbom, Jennifer S. Li, Nancy Pike, Michael Puchalski, Chitra Ravishankar, Jeffrey P. Jacobs, Peter C. Laussen, Brian W. Mccrindle, Pediatric Heart Network Investigators, Girish S. Shirali

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

OBJECTIVE: The study objective was to identify factors associated with death and cardiac transplantation in infants undergoing the Norwood procedure and to determine differences in associations that might favor the modified Blalock-Taussig shunt or a right ventricle-to-pulmonary artery shunt.

METHODS: We used competing risks methodology to analyze death without transplantation, cardiac transplantation, and survival without transplantation. Parametric time-to-event modeling and bootstrapping were used to identify independent predictors.

RESULTS: Data from 549 subjects (follow-up, 2.7 ± 0.9 years) were analyzed. Mortality risk was characterized by early and constant phases; transplant was characterized by only a constant phase. Early phase factors associated …

Evaluation Of A Surgical Intervention To Experimentally Compare Co2 Laser To Scalpel Incisions, Added Growth Factor, And Suture Material To Reduce Cutaneous Scarring, Rhian E. Davies

PCOM Biomedical Studies Student Scholarship

Introduction The goal of this study was to determine if the repair of full thickness skin incisions in an animal model could be improved by using a CO2 laser vs. scalpel, commercial vs. swine intestinal submucosa (SIS) sutures, and addition of exogenous nerve growth factor (NGF).

Materials and Methods A rat model was used to evaluate the following tissue components: prevalence of mast cell granules, thickness of epidermis, organization of collagen, infiltration of tissue into SIS, neutrophil presence around suture holes, and granulation tissue production around suture holes.

Results Added NGF led to a significant decrease in the number of …

Racial Inequality In The Valuation Of Health Outcomes Expressed By The 1992 Acs Guidelines For Prostate Cancer Screening, C. A. Beam

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

In 1992, the American Cancer Society (ACS) recommended annual screening for prostate cancer for men 50 and older using PSA. In this article, I introduce a method to use race and age-specific PSA accuracy data to evaluate differences in the valuation of outcomes by race and age that were expressed by the ACS guidelines. Using this new method, it can be concluded that the guidelines implied a 4-fold greater valuation was assigned to screening young white males with prostate cancer than the value that was assigned to young black males with cancer. Future implementation of guidelines for screening and testing …

Arc Sac Advisory Pulse Check For Cardiac Arrest, Sarah Clarke, Richard N. Bradley, Siobán Kennedy

Richard N Bradley

One good quality study (LOE 4) supports omitting a pulse check after defibrillation for patients in cardiac arrest.

One fair quality study (LOE 4) opposes the performance of simultaneous as opposed to sequential pulse and breathing check to determine cardiac arrest.

There is insufficient evidence to support a recommendation on the preferred method for the initial determination of cardiac arrest.

CPR courses should specifically teach the recognition of agonal breathing and the understanding that agonal breathing is not normal breathing and that it indicates the need for CPR.

A Knowledge-Based Clinical Toxicology Consultant For Diagnosing Single Exposures, Joel D. Schipper, Douglas D. Dankel Ii, A. Antonio Arroyo, Jay L. Schauben

Publications

Objective: Every year, toxic exposures kill twelve hundred Americans. To aid in the timely diagnosis and treatment of such exposures, this research investigates the feasibility of a knowledge-based system capable of generating differential diagnoses for human exposures involving unknown toxins.

Methods: Data mining techniques automatically extract prior probabilities and likelihood ratios from a database managed by the Florida Poison Information Center. Using observed clinical effects, the trained system produces a ranked list of plausible toxic exposures. The resulting system was evaluated using 30,152 single exposure cases. In addition, the effects of two filters for refining diagnosis based on …

Muscle Contraction Duration And Fibre Recruitment Influence Blood Flow And Vo2 Independent Of Contractile Work During Steady-State Exercise In Humans, Jennifer C. Richards, Anne R. Crecelius, Brett S. Kirby, Dennis G. Larson, Frank A. Dinenno

Health and Sport Science Faculty Publications

We tested the hypothesis that, among conditions of matched contractile work, shorter contraction durations and greater muscle fibre recruitment result in augmented skeletal muscle blood flow and oxygen consumption (O2) during steady-state exercise in humans. To do so, we measured forearm blood flow (FBF; Doppler ultrasound) during 4 minutes of rhythmic handgrip exercise in 24 healthy young adults and calculated forearm O2 via blood samples obtained from a catheter placed in retrograde fashion into a deep vein draining the forearm muscle. In Protocol 1 (n = 11), subjects performed rhythmic isometric handgrip exercise at mild and moderate intensities under conditions …

Sensitive Fluorescence Detection Using A Camera From The Gaming Industry, Brian L. Van Hoozen Jr.

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The detection limit for fluorescence imaging has been improved by more than two orders of magnitude by a modulation technique that minimizes the influence of noise. Since most noise sources have a 1/f dependence, higher modulation frequencies result in less noise in the detected signal. Typical cameras used for imaging have frame rates of 50 or 100 hertz which is too low for substantial noise reduction. However, new time-of-flight cameras developed for the gaming industry have modulation frequencies of up to 20 MHz, allowing for a substantial reduction in noise in the detected signal. In this study, the improved detection …

Does Initial Shunt Type For The Norwood Procedure Affect Echocardiographic Measures Of Cardiac Size And Function During Infancy?: The Single Vventricle Reconstruction Trial., Peter C. Frommelt, Lin T. Guey, L Luann Minich, Majeed Bhat, Tim J. Bradley, Steve D. Colan, Greg Ensing, Jessica Gorentz, Haleh Heydarian, J Blaine John, Wyman W. Lai, Jami C. Levine, William T. Mahle, Stephen G. Miller, Richard G. Ohye, Gail D. Pearson, Girish S. Shirali, Pierre C. Wong, Meryl S. Cohen, Pediatric Heart Network Investigators

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

BACKGROUND: The Pediatric Heart Network trial comparing outcomes in 549 infants with single right ventricle undergoing a Norwood procedure randomized to modified Blalock-Taussig shunt or right ventricle-pulmonary artery shunt (RVPAS) found better 1-year transplant-free survival in those who received RVPAS. We sought to compare the impact of shunt type on echocardiographic indices of cardiac size and function up to 14 months of age.

METHODS AND RESULTS: A core laboratory measured indices of cardiac size and function from protocol exams: early after Norwood procedure (age 22.5 ± 13.4 days), before stage II procedure (age 4.8 ± 1.8 months), and at 14 …

Interactive Concept To Aid In Understanding Dimensional Analysis, Alicia Hicks

Symposium 2012

Many students struggle with learning how to utilize dimensional analysis. This confusion is due to not understanding the concept of dose per volume, leading to difficulty when starting the sequencing. This could be one of the contributing causes to medication errors in clinical practice. Does using models, such as Play-doh and pebbles, help students learn the concept of milligrams per milliliters when calculating dosages using dimensional analysis method? A series of pre- and post-tests are used to measure learning growth in each of the treatment groups. Three treatment groups were utilized: Control: one group had no intervention between the pre …

Digital And Clinical Refractometers Are Valid Instruments For The Measure Of Hydration Status, A. J. Niemann, S. W. Yeargin, L. E. Eberman, H. M. Mata, H. A. Adams, D. J. Dziedzicki

Symposium 2012

Although some instruments have been validated for clinical measure of hydration status, new and currently invalid instruments are available for purchase and clinical use. Athletic trainers commonly use these instruments to assess hydration status for weight checks and body mass loss charts due to their ease of use. However, the validity of these popular instruments has not yet been established.

A Consensus Model For Electroencephalogram Data Via The S-Transform, Andrew Coady Young

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A consensus model combines statistical methods with signal processing to create a better picture of the family of related signals. In this thesis, we will consider 32 signals produced by a single electroencephalogram (EEG) recording session. The consensus model will be produced by using the S-Transform of the individual signals and then normalized to unit energy. A bootstrapping process is used to produce a consensus spectrum. This leads to the consensus model via the inverse S-Transform of the consensus spectrum. The method will be applied to both a control and experimental EEG to show how the results can be used …

Screening Mammograms In Alzheimer’S Disease Patients, George M. Yousef, Piyush Sovani, Sirisha Devabhaktuni, Lynne J. Goebel

Internal Medicine

Very little guidance exists to help clinicians and families decide whether mammograms are useful in elderly women with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). We present a case of a patient with moderate AD who had a positive mammogram and discuss the dilemma faced by the family and clinician in deciding what was best to do for the patient. In this case, the family opted for breast conserving surgery (BCS) followed by palliative care which brought up the question of whether screening was appropriate with this treatment goal in mind. We reviewed the literature on AD and breast cancer screening and summarize these …

A Modular Framework For Home Healthcare Monitoring, Blake Puryear

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Many patients with chronic health problems have multiple ailments but different patients may have different such ailments. Home monitoring systems for individual ailments exist but a patient may have multiple of these, all designed independently. There are no standard architectures so this leads to unmanageable diversity which causes problems for patients in having to learn to use a variety of monitors and for physicians in trying to monitor many patients. The purpose of this project was to design and prototype a next generation modular remote healthcare monitoring system capable of monitoring multiple ailments and extensible to new ailments in order …

The Effect Of Progesterone Only Contraception On The Accuracy Of Cervical Cytologic Interpretation, Michelle Reneé Collins

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Abstract Introduction: Papanicolaou screening is the standard of care for the detection of abnormal cervical cells. Early detection and treatment of cervical neoplasia depends on the accurate interpretation of the cytologic sample. Diagnosis of dysplasia is made by histology interpretation to confirm the results of cytology screening. Cervical cells are susceptible to change as a result of hormonal exposure, and this has the potential to affect cytologic interpretation. Cervical cells may be exposed to exogenous progesterone if the woman uses injectable depot medroxyprogesterone acetate or a progesterone intrauterine device. Previous study results have been inconsistent regarding the effect of progesterone …

Novel Use Of Dual Anti-Inflammatory Therapy To Overcome Drug Resistance And Improve Functional Recovery Following Spinal Cord Injury, Jennifer Dulin

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Over 1.2 million Americans are currently living with a traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). Despite the need for effective therapies, there are currently no proven effective treatments that can improve recovery of function in SCI patients. Many therapeutic compounds have shown promise in preclinical models of SCI, but all of these have fallen short in clinical trials.

P-glycoprotein (Pgp) is an active transporter expressed on capillary endothelial cell membranes at the blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB). Pgp limits passive diffusion of blood-borne drugs into the CNS, by actively extruding drugs from the endothelial cell membrane. Pgp can become pathologically up-regulated, thus …

Kinesio Taping On Short-Term Changes In Shoulder Strength In Healthy Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Dario A. Callegari, Cristobal E. Cordova, Julia R. Dunievitz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Study Type: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Introduction:

Kinesio tape is an elastic tape used in various settings and it is purported to assist in strengthening weakened muscles. The mechanism behind this claim is neuromuscular facilitation. The purpose of this study was to determine if the claims of Kinesio tape would be supported in its role in strength enhancing properties.

Methods:

Twenty-nine healthy, untrained male and female college-aged individuals participated in this study. Two baseline measurements assessing shoulder external rotation (ER) strength were collected using isokinetic dynamometry. Subjects were then randomized into two groups, Kinesio tape with ER strengthening (KT-Ex) and …