Category: Statistics

PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2021 Sep 9;15(9):e0009644. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0009644. eCollection 2021 Sep.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Trachoma is a worldwide infectious disease causing blindness. Trachoma continued as a public health problem in Ethiopia due to a lack of sanitation and inadequate prevention strategies. This study aimed to identify the impact of water supply and sanitation intervention on preventing active trachoma among children.

METHODS: Systematic literature searches were performed from 4 international databases. The search involved articles published from January 1995 up to March 2019. The Cochran Q and I2 statistical tests were used to check heterogeneity among the studies. A random-effect meta-analysis was employed to determine the pooled estimates with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Data analysis was performed using the CMA V.3 and RevMan 5 software program, and the result of the systematic review was reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.

FINDINGS: Out of 211 studies screened for the analysis, only 29 studies were finally included in this systematic review and meta-analysis. The result revealed factors that are significantly associated with increased odds of active trachoma. Accordingly, households with no access to toilet facilities (odds ratio [OR]: 2.04, 95% CI: 1.75-2.38), no access to improved water (OR: 1.58, 95% CI: 1.27-1.96), and do not practice regular face washing for children (OR: 4.19, 95% CI: 3.02-5.81) have shown increased odds of active trachoma. Besides, the results show a higher prevalence of active trachoma among children who did not wash their faces with soap and frequently.

CONCLUSIONS: The study found strong evidence that lack of access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) was associated with increased prevalence of active trachoma among children. Therefore, a comprehensive and partnership-oriented program is needed to tackle the problem, but further study will be required to strengthen its implementation.

PMID:34499655 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pntd.0009644

Eur J Phys Rehabil Med. 2021 Sep 9. doi: 10.23736/S1973-9087.21.07029-5. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: A comprehensive evaluation of dysarthria is required to make an accurate differential diagnosis with other communication disorders and plan effective rehabilitation programs. The Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment-2 (FDA-2) is a valid, reliable and widely-used protocol for the assessment of dysarthria. An Italian version of the FDA-2 is currently lacking.

AIM: To perform a cross-cultural adaptation of the FDA-2 in Italian and to validate the Italian version of the FDA-2.

DESIGN: Validation study.

SETTING: Inpatient rehabilitation center.

POPULATION: 69 patients with dysarthria and 112 healthy controls.

METHODS: The FDA-2 was translated and cross-culturally adapted to Italian. The validation study was carried out in 4 steps: (1) 42 audio-recorded samples of FDA-2 items from 11 patients with dysarthria were independently assessed by 7 speech and language pathologists for interrater reliability and re-assessed after 6 weeks for intrarater reliability; (2) 11 patients were simultaneously assessed by 3 speech and language therapists for interrater reliability of the whole Italian version of the FDA-2 and re-assessed within 24 hours for test-retest reliability; (3) the Italian version of the FDA-2 was administered to 112 healthy volunteers to gain normative data; (4) 49 patients with different types of dysarthria were assessed using the Italian version of the FDA-2, the Therapy Outcome Measure impairment scale and the Robertson Profile for the validity analysis.

RESULTS: Interrater and intrarater reliability ranged from good to excellent (ICC >0.75) except for 3 audiorecorded items. The overall protocol demonstrated excellent (ICC >0.9) inter-rater and test-retest reliability for all the sections and the total score. Normative data were gained for 6 age groups. For the validity analysis, a statistically significant difference was found between dysarthric patients and healthy subjects for all sections and the total score. The FDA-2 significantly correlated to the Therapy Outcome Measure (r=0.75) and the Robertson Profile (r=0.81).

CONCLUSIONS: The Italian version of the FDA-2 yield satisfactory reliability and validity, comparable to the psychometric properties of the original version.

CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT: Speech and language pathologists can rely on a valid and reliable tool in Italian for the assessment of dysarthria in both clinical and research practice.

PMID:34498832 | DOI:10.23736/S1973-9087.21.07029-5

J Intellect Disabil Res. 2021 Sep 9. doi: 10.1111/jir.12878. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Executive function is a concept for higher-order cognitive functions, which have the role of controller and modulator of cognitive abilities. The consensus in the literature is that people with an intellectual disability perform significantly lower on executive function tasks than groups matched on chronological age. The comparison with groups matched on mental age is less clear. Therefore, the objective of this meta-analysis was to investigate to what extent executive function is impaired in people with intellectual disability compared with a typically developing control group matched on mental age. It was also investigated if the executive function component and intellectual disability aetiology moderated the effect.

METHODS: Eligibility criteria were participants with intellectual disability (IQ ≤ 75) without a dual diagnosis; a comparison group matched on mental age; executive function outcome reported in a group comparison study design with n ≥ 10. Working memory tasks and ratings of executive function were not included. The literature search yielded 6637 potentially interesting articles. Twenty-six studies (with 99 effect sizes) including 1395 participants were included in the quantitative synthesis.

RESULTS: A multilevel random-effects meta-analysis found that people with intellectual disability performed statistically significantly lower than the mental age-matched group on the executive function tasks, g = -0.34, 95% confidence interval = [-0.53, -0.16]. However, the heterogeneity between effect sizes was large. The intellectual disability aetiology moderator was significant, but it only reduced the heterogeneity marginally.

CONCLUSION: The overall conclusion is that individuals with an intellectual disability have more problems with executive function tasks than mental age-matched controls. Limitations are the large unexplained variance and the remarkably high number (69) of different tests that were used, which make more detailed conclusions problematic. This meta-analysis implies that future studies need to be of better quality, to have higher power, and to a higher degree use the same executive function tests.

PMID:34498787 | DOI:10.1111/jir.12878

J Esthet Restor Dent. 2021 Sep 9. doi: 10.1111/jerd.12817. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate color change of three resin-based restorative materials after two laser-assisted in-office tooth bleaching protocols using Er,Cr:YSGG and diode (980 nm) lasers.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A nanohybrid composite resin (EP), a Bis-GMA free composite resin (EPBio) and a resin-matrix CAD-CAM ceramic (HC) were tested. Ninety specimens were prepared and stored in artificial saliva. Group 1 received an in-office bleaching treatment using 40% H₂ O_2. The same bleaching procedure was assisted by Er,Cr:YSGG laser in Group 2 and by a diode laser (980 nm) in Group 3. Color measurements were performed using a double-beam UV-Vis spectrophotometer at four time intervals (before, 24 h, 15 and 30 days), converted to L*, a*, and b* units of the CIELAB color space and assessed on the basis of 50:50% acceptability (ΔΕ_ab * = 2.7 and ΔΕ₀₀ = 1.77) and 50:50% perceptibility (ΔΕ_ab * = 1.2 and ΔΕ₀₀ = 0.81) thresholds. Three-way ANOVA with repeated measurements was used for statistical analysis of the data.

RESULTS: Color and whiteness changes did not exceed the established 50:50% acceptability thresholds. EP presented the highest color change after the bleaching followed by EPBio and HC (p ≤ 0.05). Three-way ANOVA revealed that type of material and time interval significantly affected color change (p ≤ 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: The tested bleaching treatments assisted by Er,Cr:YSGG and diode (980 nm) lasers did not induce unacceptable color and whiteness changes in the resin-based restorative materials.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The tested Er,Cr:YSGG and diode (980 nm) laser-assisted tooth bleaching protocols which may be recommended to accelerate the clinical procedures cannot affect the color of the existing resin-based restorations in case they are accidentally exposed on the bleaching gel and laser irradiation.

PMID:34498792 | DOI:10.1111/jerd.12817

Microsurgery. 2021 Sep 9. doi: 10.1002/micr.30806. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Pelvic ring reconstruction after internal hemipelvectomy is an extremely challenging surgical procedure, and mandatory reconstruction is to provide a durable and pain-free functional outcome, especially for young, active patients. One of the most widely employed techniques is reconstruction with a double-barreled fibular free flap (DBF). The aim of our work was an in-depth analysis of the outcome of pelvic ring reconstruction performed using the above-mentioned method, in particular looking for a correlation between the fixation technique and either ambulation status or complications.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic review was performed in November 2020 using PubMed and MedLine Ovid databases according to the PRISMA guidelines and the results were statistically analyzed.

RESULTS: Studies were published between 1994 and 2015. A DBF was used in each case, with a total of 30 patients. Reconstruction was performed with screws in 13 cases, Cotrel-Dubousset rod fixation in 6, screws and plate in 5, screws with external fixation in 4, and ISOLA in 2. Follow-up time ranged from 3 to 131 months. Functional outcome was excellent in 4 patients and good in 26 patients. Statistical analysis showed no statistical evidence of existing correlation between fixation technique and complications (p = .873), while statistical correlation between age and fixation technique was found (p < .001).

CONCLUSION: Reconstruction of pelvic ring with DBF provides an overall good functional outcome. Our data indicate that there is no statistical evidence of existing correlation between the fixation technique and either complications or ambulation status.

PMID:34498772 | DOI:10.1002/micr.30806

Neurourol Urodyn. 2021 Sep 9. doi: 10.1002/nau.24790. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

AIMS: Antimuscarinic drugs are the first-line choice in the treatment of patients with neurogenic Detrusor Overactivity (nDO). Fesoterodine fumarate is the newest antimuscarinic drug. Limited data are published about the use of fesoterodine fumarate in patients suffering from neurogenic lower urinary tract dysfunction. Our study aims to determine the efficacy of fesoterodine fumarate on patients with nDO due to spinal cord lesion or multiple sclerosis (MS).

METHODS: This is an open-label prospective interventional study. Eligible patients were 18-80 years old with SCL or MS and nDO confirmed by a urodynamic study (UDS). At baseline, patients underwent a UDS to confirm nDO. Quality of life (QoL) was assessed by the Short-Form (SF) Qualiveen questionnaire. Patients received fesoterodine 8 mg/day for 3 months and were re-evaluated with UDS and SF-Qualiveen. The primary endpoint was the confirmation of the maximum detrusor pressure (P_detmax ) reduction after treatment. Secondary endpoints were: evaluation of maximum bladder capacity and compliance and QoL effect. Statistical analysis included Wilcoxon-test using SPSSv26.

RESULTS: One hundred and twenty-four patients completed the study. Ninety-five of them (76.6%) had SCL, while 29 (23.4%) had MS. P_detmax , maximum bladder capacity, and compliance had significant reduction after treatment (p < .001) in the whole group and each subgroup. SF-Qualiveen revealed a significant increase in QoL in each group (p < .001).

CONCLUSIONS: Fesoterodine fumarate (8 mg) is an efficacious drag in patients with SCL and MS, as it significantly decreases the detrusor pressure, increases the bladder capacity and compliance, and improves the QoL.

PMID:34498773 | DOI:10.1002/nau.24790

Brief Bioinform. 2021 Sep 8:bbab365. doi: 10.1093/bib/bbab365. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

With the consolidation of deep learning in drug discovery, several novel algorithms for learning molecular representations have been proposed. Despite the interest of the community in developing new methods for learning molecular embeddings and their theoretical benefits, comparing molecular embeddings with each other and with traditional representations is not straightforward, which in turn hinders the process of choosing a suitable representation for Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) modeling. A reason behind this issue is the difficulty of conducting a fair and thorough comparison of the different existing embedding approaches, which requires numerous experiments on various datasets and training scenarios. To close this gap, we reviewed the literature on methods for molecular embeddings and reproduced three unsupervised and two supervised molecular embedding techniques recently proposed in the literature. We compared these five methods concerning their performance in QSAR scenarios using different classification and regression datasets. We also compared these representations to traditional molecular representations, namely molecular descriptors and fingerprints. As opposed to the expected outcome, our experimental setup consisting of over $25 000$ trained models and statistical tests revealed that the predictive performance using molecular embeddings did not significantly surpass that of traditional representations. Although supervised embeddings yielded competitive results compared with those using traditional molecular representations, unsupervised embeddings tended to perform worse than traditional representations. Our results highlight the need for conducting a careful comparison and analysis of the different embedding techniques prior to using them in drug design tasks and motivate a discussion about the potential of molecular embeddings in computer-aided drug design.

PMID:34498670 | DOI:10.1093/bib/bbab365

Brief Bioinform. 2021 Sep 8:bbab354. doi: 10.1093/bib/bbab354. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Feature selection is crucial for the analysis of high-dimensional data, but benchmark studies for data with a survival outcome are rare. We compare 14 filter methods for feature selection based on 11 high-dimensional gene expression survival data sets. The aim is to provide guidance on the choice of filter methods for other researchers and practitioners. We analyze the accuracy of predictive models that employ the features selected by the filter methods. Also, we consider the run time, the number of selected features for fitting models with high predictive accuracy as well as the feature selection stability. We conclude that the simple variance filter outperforms all other considered filter methods. This filter selects the features with the largest variance and does not take into account the survival outcome. Also, we identify the correlation-adjusted regression scores filter as a more elaborate alternative that allows fitting models with similar predictive accuracy. Additionally, we investigate the filter methods based on feature rankings, finding groups of similar filters.

PMID:34498681 | DOI:10.1093/bib/bbab354

Exp Clin Transplant. 2021 Sep 8. doi: 10.6002/ect.2021.0284. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: There is scarcity of data on reoccurrence of SARS-CoV-2 infections in kidney transplant recipients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a retrospective multicenter cohort study and identified 13 kidney transplant recipients (10 living and 3 deceased donors) with recurrent COVID-19, and here we report demographics, immunosuppression regimens, clinical profiles, treatments, and outcomes.

RESULTS: COVID-19 second infection rate was 0.9% (13/1350) in kidney transplant recipients with a median age of 46 years; median time interval from transplant to first episode of COVID-19 diagnosis was 9.2 months (interquartile range, 2.2-46.5 months). The most common comorbidities were hypertension (84%) and diabetes (23%). Fever was significantly less common with recurrent COVID-19. COVID-19 severity ranged from asymptomatic (23%), mild (31%), and moderate (46%) during the first infection and asymptomatic (8%), mild (46%), and severe (46%) in the second infection. All 6 kidney transplant recipients with severe second infections died. The median interval between the 2 episodes based upon reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction COVID-19- positive tests was 135 days (interquartile range, 71-274 days) without symptoms. Statistically signi – ficant risk factors for mortality were dyspnea (P = .04), disease severity (P = .004), allograft dysfunction (P < .05), higher levels of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (P = .05), and intensive care unit/ventilator requirement (P = .004). Although our limited resources did not allow for molecular diagnostics and typing, we suggest that these second episodes were reinfections with SARS-CoV-2.

CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the largest study of kidney transplant recipients with reoccurring SARS-CoV-2 infection, and we observed 46% mortality.

PMID:34498549 | DOI:10.6002/ect.2021.0284

Anatol J Cardiol. 2021 Sep;25(9):646-652. doi: 10.5152/AnatolJCardiol.2021.51152.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Although electrophysiological study (EPS) is one of the most useful diagnostic approaches to detect the cardiac origin of palpitations, there is no clear indication for EPS in patients with palpitation in the absence of documented supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). In this study, we aimed to create a new SVT score model to detect the requirement of EPS in patients with palpitation without documented tachycardia.

METHODS: A total of 154 patients with palpitation were included in this study. To create the SVT score, we considered four main criteria with their subunits. They were severity, frequency, duration, and termination of the symptoms. EPS was performed on all the patients after their scoring assessment.

RESULTS: Median SVT score of induced tachycardia and non-induced patients was determined as 10 and 6 points, respectively; and it was found to be statistically significant; p<0.001. The cut-off value for inducibility was found to be 7.5 points through receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, (94.9% sensitivity, 92.1% specificity), and the area under the curve was determined to be 97.2 (94.8-99.5, p<0.001).

CONCLUSION: According to our new SVT score model, ≥8 points strongly correlates with the inducibility of SVT during EPS.

PMID:34498596 | DOI:10.5152/AnatolJCardiol.2021.51152