Association of Helicobacter pylori infection and severity of coronary artery atherosclerosis in patients with suspected coronary artery disease

Background: There is a strong correlation between Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection and coronary artery disease (CAD). There is also a strong correlation between HP infection and the severity of coronary artery atherosclerosis in patients with CAD. Our study determined the association of HP infection and severity of coronary artery atherosclerosis in patients with suspected CAD. Methods: A prospective study of 100 individuals who had coronary angiography for coronary atherosclerosis was conducted. Body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood glucose, leukocyte count, hemoglobin, and urea breath test were all done on the patients. Coronary angiograms were graded based on vascular and angiographic severity scores. Results: Triglyceride, (TG), Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL), C- Reactive Protein (CRP), Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR), vessel score, and angiographic severity score all showed high correlations with Gensini score. There was a substantial association between vessel score and TG, LDL and angiographic severity score. It was found that angiographic severity score has a substantial positive link to a person's BMI; LDL; CRP; ESR, and vessel score. Conclusion: Although HP infection has been linked to an increased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD), established risk variables outweigh their potential impact

Day case complex devices: the state of the UK.

Objective: Complex cardiac devices including implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) devices can safely be implanted as a day case procedure as opposed to overnight stay. We assess how common day case complex device therapy is and the cost implications of more widespread adoption across the UK. Methods: A freedom of information request was sent to all centres performing complex cardiac devices across the UK to assess the adoption of this technique. Cost implications were assessed using Department of Health National Schedule of Reference Costs 2016-2017. Results: 100 UK centres were surveyed, 80% replied. Eighty per cent of UK centres already implant complex cardiac devices as a day case to some extent. 64.06% of centres have a protocol for this. 12.82% of centres do 75% as day case. There was no relationship between centre volume and the proportion of devices done as a day case as opposed to overnight stay. The cost saving of performing a complex device as a day case as opposed to overnight stay was £412 per ICD, £525 per CRT-pacemaker and £2169 per CRT-defibrillator. Conclusions: Day case complex devices are already widespread across the UK, however, there is scope for increase. An increase in proportion of day case devices could translate to £5 583 265 in savings annually for the National Health Service if all centres performed 75% of devices as a day case

Dose verification of intensity modulated radiotherapy in head and neck tumors

Purpose: To evaluate the agreement between measured and calculated doses for head and neck tumors using different gamma criteria and to establish quality assurance protocol for the delivery of IMRT in The National Cancer Institute in Cairo. Methods: The dose is calculated for 30 patients using CMS Treatment Planning System. The ionization chamber (0.6 cm3 Farmer type) is used for point dose measurements. The 2D-array (PTW 729) and GafChromic films (EBT2) are used for 2D graphical dose distribution. Four different gamma criteria of dose difference (DD) and distance to agreement (DTA) (3%/3 mm, 3%/5 mm, 4%/4 mm and 5%/5 mm DD / DTA) are selected. These criteria are evaluated while suppressing the dose of 10%, 20% or 30% from dose distribution. Results: Point dose evaluations using the ion chamber ranged from -2.6% to 3.7% (mean and standard deviation of 0.46 ± 1.7). Significant differences are observed between the films and 2D-array for all criteria except the 3%/5 mm criteria (96.89 ± 2.2% vs. 94.81 ± 4.2% (p < 0.01)). Conclusion: Differences may exceed about 3% when the ionization chamber is present in steep dose gradient regions. The present results suggest the gamma criteria of 3%/5 mm as the most suitable criteria for IMRT quality assurance. This gamma criterion of 3%/5 mm favorably exceeds 95% in case of maximum dose while suppressing the dose of 20%.The use of 2D-array can reduce the IMRT QA workload.------------------------------Cite this article as: Elawady RA, Attalla EM, Elshemey WM, Shouman T, Alsayed AA. Dose verification of intensity modulated radiotherapy in head and neck tumors. Int J Cancer Ther Oncol 2014; 2(3):02037. DOI: 10.14319/ijcto.0203.

Deep Learning Algorithms for the Detection of Suspicious Pigmented Skin Lesions in Primary Care Settings: A Systematic Review and Meta- Analysis

Early detection of suspicious pigmented skin lesions is crucial for improving the outcomes and survival rates of skin cancers. However, the accuracy of clinical diagnosis by primary care physicians (PCPs) is suboptimal, leading to unnecessary referrals and biopsies. In recent years, deep learning (DL) algorithms have shown promising results in the automated detection and classification of skin lesions. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of DL algorithms for the detection of suspicious pigmented skin lesions in primary care settings. A comprehensive literature search was conducted using electronic databases, including PubMed, Scopus, IEEE Xplore, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), and Web of Science. Data from eligible studies were extracted, including study characteristics, sample size, algorithm type, sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Three studies were included. The results showed that DL algorithms had a high sensitivity (90%, 95% CI: 90-91%) and specificity (85%, 95% CI: 84-86%) for detecting suspicious pigmented skin lesions in primary care settings. Significant heterogeneity was observed in both sensitivity (p = 0.0062, I² = 80.3%) and specificity (p < 0.001, I² = 98.8%). The analysis of DOR and PLR further demonstrated the strong diagnostic performance of DL algorithms. The DOR was 26.39, indicating a strong overall diagnostic performance of DL algorithms. The PLR was 4.30, highlighting the ability of these algorithms to influence diagnostic outcomes positively. The NLR was 0.16, indicating that a negative test result decreased the odds of misdiagnosis. The area under the curve of DL algorithms was 0.95, indicating excellent discriminative ability in distinguishing between benign and malignant pigmented skin lesions. DL algorithms have the potential to significantly improve the detection of suspicious pigmented skin lesions in primary care settings. Our analysis showed that DL exhibited promising performance in the early detection of suspicious pigmented skin lesions. However, further studies are needed

Multiple Reflection Symmetry Detection via Linear-Directional Kernel Density Estimation

Symmetry is an important composition feature by investigating similar sides inside an image plane. It has a crucial effect to recognize man-made or nature objects within the universe. Recent symmetry detection approaches used a smoothing kernel over different voting maps in the polar coordinate system to detect symmetry peaks, which split the regions of symmetry axis candidates in inefficient way. We propose a reliable voting representation based on weighted linear-directional kernel density estimation, to detect multiple symmetries over challenging real-world and synthetic images. Experimental evaluation on two public datasets demonstrates the superior performance of the proposed algorithm to detect global symmetry axes respect to the major image shapes

Therapeutic Potential of Bone Marrow Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Modulating Astroglyosis of Surgical Induced Experimental Spinal Cord Injury

Background: Spinal cord injury (SCI) unsuccessful regeneration was due to glial scar development. It was a major obstacle to axonal restoration. Safe therapeutic intervention by the use of bone marrow derived stem cells (BMMSCs) transplantation applied in the present study could reduce spinal disability. Material and methods: Forty male albino rats were divided into four groups: GI: negative control (n = 10 rats); GII: positive control after SCI (n = 10 rats); GIII: SCI + BM − MSCs intravenous injected and GIV: SCI + BM − MSCs intra lesion injected (n = 10 rats in each group). The samples were taken from spinal cord tissues around the region of injury and were subjected to histological, immunohistochemical assessment. RNA extraction and real time PCR for detection of nerve regeneration and astrocyte response to the injury were also performed. Results: Clinical improvement occurred by the enhancement in the Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan (BBB) score after SCI. Histological examinations showed positive regenerative responses in GIV compared to GIII. Conclusion: BM-MSCs transplantation has a promising role in enhancing the microenvironment for nerve regeneration through stumbling the glial scaring formation and inflammatory response af- ter chronic spinal cord injury especially by using intra-lesion route injection

ANFIS-based PID continuous sliding mode controller for robot manipulators in joint space

This paper presents a feasible design for a con- trol algorithm to synthesize an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system-based PID continuous sliding mode control system (ANFIS- PIDCSMC) for adaptive trajectory tracking control of the rigid robot manipulators (RRMs) in the joint space. First, a PID sliding mode control algorithm with sliding surface dynamics-based continuous proportional-integral (PI) control action (PIDSMC-SSDCPI) is presented. The global stability conditions are formulated in terms of Lyapunov full quadratic form such that the robot system output can track the desired reference output. Second, to increase the control system robustness, the PI control action in the PIDSMC- SSDCPI controller is supplanted by an ANFIS control signal to provide a control approach that can be termed adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system-based PID continuous sliding mode control system (ANFIS-PIDCSMC). For the proposed control algorithm, numerical simulations using the dynamic model of RRM with uncertainties and external disturbances show high quality and effectiveness of the adopted control approach in high-speed trajectory tracking control problems. The simulation results that are compared with the results, obtained for the traditional controllers (standalone PID and traditional sliding mode controller (TSMC)), illustrate the fact that the tracking control behavior of the robot system achieves acceptable tracking performance