Ethnoracial Disparities in SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence in a Large Cohort of Individuals in Central North Carolina from April to December 2020

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused millions of deaths around the world within the past 2 years. Transmission within the United States has been heterogeneously distributed by geography and social factors with little data from North Carolina. Here, we describe results from a weekly cross-sectional study of 12,471 unique hospital remnant samples from 19 April to 26 December 2020 collected by four clinical sites within the University of North Carolina Health system, with a majority of samples from urban, outpatient populations in central North Carolina. We employed a Bayesian inference model to calculate SARS-CoV-2 spike protein immunoglobulin prevalence estimates and conditional odds ratios for seropositivity. Furthermore, we analyzed a subset of these seropositive samples for neutralizing antibodies. We observed an increase in seroprevalence from 2.9 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.8 to 4.5) to 12.8 (95% CI, 10.6 to 15.2) over the course of the study. Latinx individuals had the highest odds ratio of SARS-CoV-2 exposure at 6.56 (95% CI, 4.66 to 9.44). Our findings aid in quantifying the degree of asymmetric SARS-CoV-2 exposure by ethnoracial grouping. We also find that 49% of a subset of seropositive individuals had detectable neutralizing antibodies, which was skewed toward those with recent respiratory infection symptoms

The basal ganglia matching tools package for striatal uptake semi-quantification: description and validation.

ABSTRACT Purpose: To design a novel algorithm (BasGan) for automatic segmentation of striatal 123I-FP-CIT SPECT. Methods: The BasGan algorithm is based on a high definition, three-dimensional (3D) striatal template, derived from Talairach\u2019s atlas. A blurred template, obtained by convolving the former with a 3D Gaussian kernel (FWHM= 10 mm), approximates striatal activity distribution. The algorithm performs translations and scale transformation on the bicommissural aligned image to set the striatal templates with standard size in an appropriate initial position. An optimization protocol automatically performs fine adjustments in the positioning of blurred templates to best match the radioactive counts, and locates an occipital ROI for background evaluation. Partial volume effect correction is included in the process of uptake computation of caudate, putamen and background. Experimental validation was carried out by means of six acquisitions of an anthropomorphic striatal phantom. The BasGan software was applied to a first set of patients with Parkinson\u2019s disease (PD) versus patients affected by essential tremor. Results: A highly significant correlation was achieved between true binding potential and measured 123I activity from the phantom. 123I-FP-CIT uptake was significantly lower in all basal ganglia in the PD group versus controls with both BasGan and a conventional ROI method used for comparison, but particularly with the former. Correlations with the motor UPDRS score were far more significant with the BasGan. Conclusion: The novel BasGan algorithm automatically performs the 3D segmentation of striata. Because coregistered MRI is not needed, it can be used by all nuclear medicine departments, since it is freely available on the Web

Valutazione della cinetica regionale nell'infartuato: confronto tra metodiche invasive e non

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Valutazione angiocardioscintigrafica della funzionalità ventricolare sinistra da sforzo nella cardiomiopatia dilatativa ischemica: effetti della terapia digitalica.

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