A principal component analysis-based feature dimensionality reduction scheme for content-based image retrieval system

In Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) system, one approach of image representation is to employ combination of low-level visual features cascaded together into a flat vector. While this presents more descriptive information, it however poses serious challenges in terms of high dimensionality and high computational cost of feature extraction algorithms to deployment of CBIR on platforms (devices) with limited computational and storage resources. Hence, in this work a feature dimensionality reduction technique based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is implemented. Each image in a database is indexed using 174 dimensional feature vector comprising of 54-dimensional Colour Moments (CM54), 32-bin HSV-histogram (HIST32), 48-dimensional Gabor Wavelet (GW48) and 40-dimensional Wavelet Moments (MW40). The PCA scheme was incorporated into a CBIR system that utilized the entire feature vector space. The k-largest Eigenvalues that yielded a not more than 5% degradation in mean precision were retained for dimensionality reduction. Three image databases (DB10, DB20 and DB100) were used for testing. The result obtained showed that with 80% reduction in feature dimensions, tolerable loss of 3.45, 4.39 and 7.40% in mean precision value were achieved on DB10, DB20 and DB100

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Dimethyl fumarate in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inhibits inflammasome-mediated inflammation and has been proposed as a treatment for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 (NCT04381936, ISRCTN50189673). In this assessment of DMF performed at 27 UK hospitals, adults were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus DMF. The primary outcome was clinical status on day 5 measured on a seven-point ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes were time to sustained improvement in clinical status, time to discharge, day 5 peripheral blood oxygenation, day 5 C-reactive protein, and improvement in day 10 clinical status. Between 2 March 2021 and 18 November 2021, 713 patients were enroled in the DMF evaluation, of whom 356 were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus DMF, and 357 to usual care alone. 95% of patients received corticosteroids as part of routine care. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of DMF on clinical status at day 5 (common odds ratio of unfavourable outcome 1.12; 95% CI 0.86-1.47; p = 0.40). There was no significant effect of DMF on any secondary outcome

Dimethyl fumarate in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inhibits inflammasome-mediated inflammation and has been proposed as a treatment for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 (NCT04381936, ISRCTN50189673). In this assessment of DMF performed at 27 UK hospitals, adults were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus DMF. The primary outcome was clinical status on day 5 measured on a seven-point ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes were time to sustained improvement in clinical status, time to discharge, day 5 peripheral blood oxygenation, day 5 C-reactive protein, and improvement in day 10 clinical status. Between 2 March 2021 and 18 November 2021, 713 patients were enroled in the DMF evaluation, of whom 356 were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus DMF, and 357 to usual care alone. 95% of patients received corticosteroids as part of routine care. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of DMF on clinical status at day 5 (common odds ratio of unfavourable outcome 1.12; 95% CI 0.86-1.47; p = 0.40). There was no significant effect of DMF on any secondary outcome

Seroprevalence of Hepatitis C infection in HIV patients using a rapid one-step test strip kit

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV are transmitted via similar routes making co-infection with these viruses a common event. In addition, HIV infection and related immunosupression in patients with hepatitis C may be associated with more rapid progression of liver disease to cirrhosis, end-stage liver disease and death.Objective: The study is to determine the seroprevalence of HIV/HCV co-infection rate.Methods: A cross -sectional study was carried out from January to March 2010 at the HIV clinic of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. About 5 mls of blood sample was collected from each consenting participant. Sera were subjected to HCV rapid kit as recommended by the manufacturer (Dia Spot HCV one step test strip). The descriptive data was given as means ± standard deviation (SD). The chi-squared test was used for analytical assessment. The differences were considered statistically significant when P value obtained < 0.05.Results: The overall seroprevalence rate of HIV/HCV co- infection was 3.3%.Only 6 of 194 female HIV subjects screened tested positive for HCV (3.1%), while 3 of 73 male subjects tested positive for HCV (4.1%) (P value 0.001). None of the 9 co-infected HIV/HCV participants (both male and female) had CD4 count of 350 and above, 3 had a count of 1-100 cells/ ìl., 4 had 100-200, while 2 had 201-350 .Conclusion: There  is  the  need  to  include  hepatitis  C  screening routinely in all HIV-infected patients undergoing  pre-HAART evaluation in HIV clinics in order to lower liver-related morbidity and mortality associated with them.Keywords: Seroprevalence, HIV/HCV co-infection, one step rapid ki

SARS-CoV-2 vaccination modelling for safe surgery to save lives: data from an international prospective cohort study

Background: Preoperative SARS-CoV-2 vaccination could support safer elective surgery. Vaccine numbers are limited so this study aimed to inform their prioritization by modelling. Methods: The primary outcome was the number needed to vaccinate (NNV) to prevent one COVID-19-related death in 1 year. NNVs were based on postoperative SARS-CoV-2 rates and mortality in an international cohort study (surgical patients), and community SARS-CoV-2 incidence and case fatality data (general population). NNV estimates were stratified by age (18-49, 50-69, 70 or more years) and type of surgery. Best- and worst-case scenarios were used to describe uncertainty. Results: NNVs were more favourable in surgical patients than the general population. The most favourable NNVs were in patients aged 70 years or more needing cancer surgery (351; best case 196, worst case 816) or non-cancer surgery (733; best case 407, worst case 1664). Both exceeded the NNV in the general population (1840; best case 1196, worst case 3066). NNVs for surgical patients remained favourable at a range of SARS-CoV-2 incidence rates in sensitivity analysis modelling. Globally, prioritizing preoperative vaccination of patients needing elective surgery ahead of the general population could prevent an additional 58 687 (best case 115 007, worst case 20 177) COVID-19-related deaths in 1 year. Conclusion: As global roll out of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination proceeds, patients needing elective surgery should be prioritized ahead of the general population