Development and large-scale validation of the Watch Walk wrist-worn digital gait biomarkers

Digital gait biomarkers (including walking speed) indicate functional decline and predict hospitalization and mortality. However, waist or lower-limb devices often used are not designed for continuous life-long use. While wrist devices are ubiquitous and many large research repositories include wrist-sensor data, widely accepted and validated digital gait biomarkers derived from wrist-worn accelerometers are not available yet. Here we describe the development of advanced signal processing algorithms that extract digital gait biomarkers from wrist-worn devices and validation using 1-week data from 78,822 UK Biobank participants. Our gait biomarkers demonstrate good test–retest-reliability, strong agreement with electronic walkway measurements of gait speed and self-reported pace and significantly discriminate individuals with poor self-reported health. With the almost universal uptake of smart-watches, our algorithms offer a new approach to remotely monitor life-long population level walking speed, quality, quantity and distribution, evaluate disease progression, predict risk of adverse events and provide digital gait endpoints for clinical trials

A role for STAT3 in IL-10 downregulation of IFN-γ-induced MHC class II molecule expression on primary human blood macrophages

Open Access JournalPaper Presentation: no. 5postprintThe 3rd Annual Scientific Meeting and 4th Annual Meeting of the Hong Kong Society for Paediatric Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Hong Kong, China, 20 March, 2010. In Hong Kong Journal of Psediatrics (New Series), 2010, v. 15 n. 3, p. 25

Psychometric properties of the caregiver inventory for measuring caregiving self-efficacy of caregivers of patients with palliative care needs

Taking care of patients with palliative care needs could be a stressful event. While caregiving was associated with decreases in psychological health in caregivers, increased caregiving self-efficacy associated with reduced burden. Yet, there is no instrument available in Chinese for assessing caregiving self-efficacy in the palliative care setting. This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of a Chinese version of Caregiver Inventory (CGI) in Chinese caregivers of patients with palliative care needs. The CGI was translated to the Chinese language, validated by an expert panel, and tested. A convenience sample of 232 patient-caregiver dyads recruited from three hospitals in Hong Kong was included in the analysis. A high completion rate of 95.5% in caregivers and no floor or ceiling effects were noted for the CGI. In contrast to the four-factor structure identified in the original 21- item CGI, our EFA produced an 18-item solution accounting for 57% of the total variation comprising three factors: (1) Care of the care recipient, (2) Managing information and self-care, and (3) Managing emotional interaction with care recipient (C-CGI-18). Separate dimensions for Managing information and Self-care were not supported. For the three domains of the C-CGI-18, Cronbach’s alphas ranged from 0.84 to 0.90 and 2-week testretest reliability ranged from 0.71 to 0.76. Correlations of the three domains with caregiver strain (r: -0.31 to -0.42, p-values<0.01) and total scores in perceived social support (r: 0.24 to 0.36, p-values<0.01). Correlation between the Care of the care recipient domain and patient’s physical functioning (r=0.17, p-value<0.05) indicated acceptable construct validity. In conclusion, the C-CGI-18 has suitable factor structure and psychometric properties for use in assessing caregiving self-efficacy among Chinese caregivers of patients with palliative care needs. It is simply and easy to use and can be recommended for clinical and research practice for the Hong Kong Chinese populations

Factors associated with loss of white matter anisotropy in post-treatment medulloblastoma survivors

We evaluate effects of age at cranial irradiation, time interval since irradiation and irradiation dose on white matter anisotropy in childhood medulloblastoma survivors by computing white matter fractional anisotropy (WM FA) using SPM post-processing functions. Mean percentage change in WM FA of patients compared to controls was -4.4% (sd=7.6%). Using Spearmanís correlation, there were significant associations between percentage reduction of WM FA and age at cranial irradiation (r=0.673, p=0.002) and irradiation dose (r=-0.723, p=<0.001), but not with time interval since irradiation. Multivariate regression analysis confirmed that both factors correlated significantly with percentage reduction of WM FA (adjusted r2=0.516, p=0.001).published_or_final_versio

Clinical significance of frizzled homolog 3 protein in colorectal cancer patients

2013-2014 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Neutrophil Mediated Host Responses during Influenza A Virus Infection, An In Vitro Study

Poster presentation: Infectious Diseases: no. P191-0174Neutrophil (Nϕ) is the most abundant cell of the immune system in humans. In an acute influenza virus infection, Nϕs are already active in the early phase of inflammation-a time in which clinical biopsy or autopsy material is not readily available. However, the role of Nϕ in virus infection is not well understood. Here, we studied the role of Nϕ in host defense during influenza A virus infection, specifically assessing if it contributes to the differential pathogenesis in H5N1 disease. Nϕs were freshly isolated from healthy volunteers and subjected to influenza H1N1 and H5N1 virus infection. The susceptibility of Nϕ to influenza A virus infection was assessed by the viral matrix gene expression and viral titration assay. Innate immune response of Nϕ was evaluated by monitoring the gene and protein expression of the naïve Nϕ with and without influenza virus infection, using qPCR assay and ELISA. The induction of the de novo neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy and SYTOX green staining. Our results demonstrated that naïve Nϕs were equally susceptible to H5N1 and H1N1 virus infection with similar viral gene transcription. Productive replication was observed in H5N1 infected Nϕs only. H5N1 induced higher cytokine and chemokine gene transcription and protein secretion than H1N1 infected Nϕs, including TNFα, IFNβ, CXCL10, MCP-1, MIP-1α and IL-8. This inferred a more intense inflammatory response posed by H5N1 than H1N1 virus. Strikingly, NET formation was only observed in H1N1 infected Nϕs at 6 hpi and it was not found in H5N1 infected cells. Our data is the first to demonstrate that NET formation is abrogated in H5N1 influenza virus infection and might contribute to the severity of H5N1 disease

Associations between sport participation and knee symptoms : a cross-sectional study involving 3053 undergraduate students

202006 bcrcVersion of RecordSelf-fundedPublishe