Tag: nevin manimala

Int J Ophthalmol. 2023 Aug 18;16(8):1224-1230. doi: 10.18240/ijo.2023.08.06. eCollection 2023.

ABSTRACT

AIM: To observe the imaging features of color Doppler ultrasound (CDU) and computed tomography (CT) or computed tomography dacryocystography (CT-DCG) in different types of lacrimal sac space-occupying lesions (SOLs).

METHODS: This retrospective case series study included 21 patients with lacrimal sac SOLs who underwent lacrimal sac surgery between January 2018 and March 2022. The imaging features of CDU and CT or CT-DCG in these patients were extracted from the examination cloud system. The images were observed and analyzed.

RESULTS: The detection rate of lacrimal SOLs between CDU (21/21, 100%) and CT or CT-DCG (20/21, 95.2%) had no statistically significant difference (P=1.0). CDU could detect the blood flow signals in all SOLs except mucocele and mucopeptide concretion. Among them, polyps had characteristic imaging changes on CDU and CT-DCG. The mucoceles and mucopeptide concretions had characteristic imaging changes on CDU, which could provide more information for differential diagnosis.

CONCLUSION: The morphology and internal blood flow signals of lacrimal sac SOLs can be observed using CDU. CT or CT-DCG has advantages in observing structural damage around the lacrimal sac mass. Therefore, CDU may be used as a routine examination to exclude lacrimal sac SOLs before dacryocystorhinostomy in the absence of preoperative CT or CT-DCG.

PMID:37602333 | PMC:PMC10398530 | DOI:10.18240/ijo.2023.08.06

Front Mol Biosci. 2023 Aug 3;10:1222133. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2023.1222133. eCollection 2023.

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Acute aortic dissection (AAD) often leads to the development of acute lung injury (ALI). However, the early detection and diagnosis of AAD in patients with ALI pose significant challenges. The objective of this study is to investigate distinct metabolic alterations in the plasma samples of AAD patients with ALI, AAD patients without ALI, and healthy individuals. Method: Between September 2019 and September 2022, we retrospectively collected data from 228 AAD patients who were diagnosed with ALI through post-surgery chest X-ray and PaO₂/FiO₂ assessments. Univariate analysis was employed to identify pre-surgery risk factors for ALI. Additionally, we conducted high-throughput target metabolic analysis on 90 plasma samples, comprising 30 samples from AAD patients with ALI, 30 from patients with AAD only, and 30 from healthy controls. After LC-MS spectral processing and metabolite quantification, the recursive feature elimination with cross-validation (RFECV) analysis based on the random forest was used to select the optimal metabolites as a diagnostic panel for the detection of AAD patients with ALI. The support vector machines (SVM) machine learning model was further applied to validate the diagnostic accuracy of the established biomarker panel. Results: In the univariate analysis, preoperative β-HB and TNF-α exhibited a significant association with lung injury (OR = 0.906, 95% CI 0.852-0.965, p = 0.002; OR = 1.007, 95% CI 1.003-1.011, p < 0.0001). The multiple-reaction monitoring analysis of 417 common metabolites identified significant changes in 145 metabolites (fold change >1.2 or <0.833, p < 0.05) across the three groups. Multivariate statistical analysis revealed notable differences between AAD patients and healthy controls. When compared with the non-ALI group, AAD patients with ALI displayed remarkable upregulation in 19 metabolites and downregulation in 4 metabolites. Particularly, combining citric acid and glucuronic acid as a biomarker panel improved the classification performance for distinguishing between the ALI and non-ALI groups. Discussion: Differentially expressed metabolites in the ALI group were primarily involved in amino acids biosynthesis, carbohydrate metabolism (TCA cycle), arginine and proline metabolism, and glucagon signaling pathway. These findings demonstrate a great potential of the targeted metabolomic approach for screening, routine surveillance, and diagnosis of pulmonary injury in patients with AAD.

PMID:37602331 | PMC:PMC10434778 | DOI:10.3389/fmolb.2023.1222133

Front Mol Biosci. 2023 Aug 4;10:1230282. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2023.1230282. eCollection 2023.

ABSTRACT

This mini review focuses on the opportunities provided by current and emerging separation techniques for mass spectrometry metabolomics. The purpose of separation technologies in metabolomics is primarily to reduce complexity of the heterogeneous systems studied, and to provide concentration enrichment by increasing sensitivity towards the quantification of low abundance metabolites. For this reason, a wide variety of separation systems, from column chemistries to solvent compositions and multidimensional separations, have been applied in the field. Multidimensional separations are a common method in both proteomics applications and gas chromatography mass spectrometry, allowing orthogonal separations to further reduce analytical complexity and expand peak capacity. These applications contribute to exponential increases in run times concomitant with first dimension fractionation followed by second dimension separations. Multidimensional liquid chromatography to increase peak capacity in metabolomics, when compared to the potential of running additional samples or replicates and increasing statistical confidence, mean that uptake of these methods has been minimal. In contrast, in the last 15 years there have been significant advances in the resolution and sensitivity of ion mobility spectrometry, to the point where high-resolution separation of analytes based on their collision cross section approaches chromatographic separation, with minimal loss in sensitivity. Additionally, ion mobility separations can be performed on a chromatographic timescale with little reduction in instrument duty cycle. In this review, we compare ion mobility separation to liquid chromatographic separation, highlight the history of the use of ion mobility separations in metabolomics, outline the current state-of-the-art in the field, and discuss the future outlook of the technology. “Where there is one, you’re bound to divide it. Right in two”, James Maynard Keenan.

PMID:37602325 | PMC:PMC10436490 | DOI:10.3389/fmolb.2023.1230282

Front Mol Biosci. 2023 Aug 2;10:1184249. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2023.1184249. eCollection 2023.

ABSTRACT

A model-based method is used to extract a short-lived state in the rotation kinetics of the F₁-ATPase of a bacterial species, Paracoccus denitrificans (PdF1). Imaged as a single molecule, PdF1 takes large 120^ø steps during it rotation. The apparent lack of further substeps in the trajectories not only renders the rotation of PdF1 unlike that of other F-ATPases, but also hinders the establishment of its mechano-chemical kinetic scheme. We addressed these challenges using the angular velocity extracted from the single-molecule trajectories and compare it with its theoretically calculated counterpart. The theory-experiment comparison indicate the presence of a 20μs lifetime state, 40^o after ATP binding. We identify a kinetic cycle in which this state is a three-nucleotide occupancy state prior to ADP release from another site. A similar state was also reported in our earlier study of the Thermophilic bacillus F₁-ATPase (lifetime ∼10μs), suggesting thereby a common mechanism for removing a nucleotide release bottleneck in the rotary mechanism.

PMID:37602322 | PMC:PMC10433373 | DOI:10.3389/fmolb.2023.1184249

SAGE Open Med. 2023 Aug 18;11:20503121231187735. doi: 10.1177/20503121231187735. eCollection 2023.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Postabortion contraception is the initiation and use of postabortion contraceptive methods immediately after an abortion. It is a critical approach for preventing unwanted pregnancy, alleviating its complications, and avoiding repeated abortions by promoting immediate postabortion contraceptives provision.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the level of postabortion contraceptives uptake and its associated factors among clients visiting abortion care services in public hospitals in West Shewa Zone, Oromia regional state, Ethiopia.

METHODS AND MATERIALS: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted in public hospitals in the West Shewa Zone from 1 March 2021 to 30 May 2021, among 227 proportionally allocated clients based on the proportion of the client served in the previous 3 months of the study period. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using semi-structured and pretested questionnaire from women who received the abortion services. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression were used to assess the association of independent variables with postabortion contraceptive uptake. Findings with p-value of 0.05 at 95% confidence interval were considered as statistically significant.

RESULTS: The overall postabortion contraception uptake among abortion service clients in public hospitals was 164 (74%) while about 42% of them used long-term contraceptive methods. Postabortion contraceptive uptake was significantly associated with media exposure to postabortion family planning information (adjusted odds ratio: 3.4 (95% confidence interval: 1.03-11.27)) and counseling on postabortion family planning (adjusted odds ratio: 20.48 (95% confidence interval: 5.02-83.64)).

CONCLUSION: Level of postabortion contraceptive method uptake in West Shewa was low as compared to the national target. Greater attention should be given on providing postabortion contraceptive counseling to increase the postabortion contraceptive uptake.

PMID:37602273 | PMC:PMC10437695 | DOI:10.1177/20503121231187735

SAGE Open Med. 2023 Aug 17;11:20503121231190963. doi: 10.1177/20503121231190963. eCollection 2023.

ABSTRACT

Background: A 2019 study by Prucnal and colleagues found that the majority of patients treated with unfractionated heparin for pulmonary embolism did not maintain therapeutic activated partial thromboplastin time levels during the first 48 h of therapy. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of an institution’s unfractionated heparin dosing protocol to achieve and maintain therapeutic anti-Xa levels within the first 48 h of therapy in patients with venous thromboembolism. Methods: This retrospective study included 205 patients from May 2016 through September 2020. Patients were divided into two cohorts: bolus plus infusion (N = 89) and infusion only (N = 116). The primary objective was to determine the number of patients who achieved at least one therapeutic level. Results: Overall, 200 patients (97.6%) had at least one therapeutic level with no statistically significant difference between cohorts (p = 0.65). No more than 60% of patients achieved a therapeutic level at any of the 6-h intervals throughout the timeframe. The median time to the first therapeutic level in the overall group was 12.8 h with no statistically significant difference between the bolus plus infusion and infusion-only cohorts (13.3 h versus 12.7 h, respectively, p = 0.48). Conclusions: Most patients were able to achieve at least one therapeutic level within the first 48 h, but fewer were able to maintain therapeutic levels. Further studies are warranted to determine whether alternative dosing strategies would yield consistent achievement of therapeutic levels and affect patient-oriented outcomes.

PMID:37602272 | PMC:PMC10438427 | DOI:10.1177/20503121231190963

Surv Methodol. 2021 Jun;47(1):215-222. Epub 2021 Jun 24.

ABSTRACT

Predictive mean matching is a commonly used imputation procedure for addressing the problem of item nonrespone in surveys. The customary approach relies upon the specification of a single outcome regression model. In this note, we propose a novel predictive mean matching procedure that allows the user to specify multiple outcome regression models. The resulting estimator is multiply robust in the sense that it remains consistent if one of the specified outcome regression models is correctly specified. The results from a simulation study suggest that the proposed method performs well in terms of bias and efficiency.

PMID:37602271 | PMC:PMC10438827

Stat Med. 2023 Aug 20. doi: 10.1002/sim.9871. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

We consider the design of a two-arm superiority cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a continuous outcome. We detail Bayesian inference for the analysis of the trial using a linear mixed-effects model. The treatment is compared to control using the posterior distribution for the treatment effect. We develop the form of the assurance to choose the sample size based on this analysis, and its evaluation using a two loop Monte Carlo sampling scheme. We assess the proposed approach, considering the effect of different forms of prior distribution, and the number of Monte Carlo samples needed in both loops for accurate determination of the assurance and sample size. Based on this assessment, we provide general advice on each of these choices. We apply the approach to the choice of sample size for a cluster RCT into poststroke incontinence, and compare the resulting sample size to that from assurance based on a Wald test for the treatment effect. The Bayesian approach to design and analysis developed in this article can offer advantages in terms of an increase in the robustness of the chosen sample size to parameter mis-specification and reduced sample sizes if prior information indicates the treatment effect is likely to be larger than the minimal clinically important difference.

PMID:37599065 | DOI:10.1002/sim.9871

Stat Med. 2023 Aug 20. doi: 10.1002/sim.9877. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The Glasgow outcome scale-extended (GOS-E), an ordinal scale measure, is often selected as the endpoint for clinical trials of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Traditionally, GOS-E is analyzed as a fixed dichotomy with favorable outcome defined as GOS-E ≥ 5 and unfavorable outcome as GOS-E < 5. More recent studies have defined favorable vs unfavorable outcome utilizing a sliding dichotomy of the GOS-E that defines a favorable outcome as better than a subject’s predicted prognosis at baseline. Both dichotomous approaches result in loss of statistical and clinical information. To improve on power, Yeatts et al proposed a sliding scoring of the GOS-E as the distance from the cutoff for favorable/unfavorable outcomes, and therefore used more information found in the original GOS-E to estimate the probability of favorable outcome. We used data from a published TBI trial to explore the ramifications to trial operating characteristics by analyzing the sliding scoring of the GOS-E as either dichotomous, continuous, or ordinal. We illustrated a connection between the ordinal data and time-to-event (TTE) data to allow use of Bayesian software that utilizes TTE-based modeling. The simulation results showed that the continuous method with continuity correction offers higher power and lower mean squared error for estimating the probability of favorable outcome compared to the dichotomous method, and similar power but higher precision compared to the ordinal method. Therefore, we recommended that future severe TBI clinical trials consider analyzing the sliding scoring of the GOS-E endpoint as continuous with continuity correction.

PMID:37599009 | DOI:10.1002/sim.9877

Health Promot J Austr. 2023 Aug 20. doi: 10.1002/hpja.795. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

ISSUE ADDRESSED: The COVID-19 pandemic led to the closure of many physical activity programs, with many online programs being created in place to maintain physical activity engagement. This study explored the outcomes of an online physical program on its participants.

METHOD: A validated survey was used to explore Virtual Streetgames (VSG) participants’ perceptions about their physical, mental, and social health while participating in VGS. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to evaluate the impact of the online format.

RESULTS: Many VSG participants were not achieving their daily physical activity recommendations, with a considerable portion of individuals feeling frustrated at not being able to socialise. A substantial difference was seen between adults and adolescents, with increased adult activity rates for those adults participating in VSG. Despite this influence on physical well-being, VSG did not seem to influence mental or social wellbeing.

CONCLUSIONS: The results give detail into how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced adolescent and young adult physical, mental, and social health, noting that the reduction of in-person contact influenced motivation for exercise. Online physical activity programs may have some positive impact in improving adult physical activity rates, but they are not as effective as face-to-face programs in improving overall well-being. SO WHAT?: The findings of this study suggest that online physical activity programs may not be as effective as face-to-face programs in improving overall well-being. Future research should explore ways to improve the social and motivational aspects of online physical activity programs to maximise their benefits for participants.

PMID:37599006 | DOI:10.1002/hpja.795