Urinary Albumin and Interleukin-8 Levels are not Good Indicators of Ongoing Vesicoureteral Reflux in Children who have no Active Urinary Tract Infection

Introduction: Vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) is a risk factor for kidney scarring, hypertension and declining renal function. Standard diagnostic methods are invasive and can cause exposure to radiation and urinary tract infections (UTIs). We aimed to investigate urine albumin and interleukin-8 levels as markers of ongoing VUR and renal damage in children without UTIs. Methods: Random urine samples were collected from 51 children, including 16 children with VUR (group A), 17 children with resolved VUR (group B) and 18 normal children (group C). The diagnosis of VUR or resolved VUR was confirmed by voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG) or direct radionuclide cystography (DRNC). All children had normal kidney function and had no evidence of UTI in the preceding three months. Random urine specimens were assayed for albumin (Alb), creatinine (Cr) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) and mean values were compared by one way ANOVA. Results: In groups A and B, the mean age at first UTI was 31.7 ± 2.4 and 27 ± 2.0 months respectively. In group A, the mean duration between VUR diagnosis and study entrance was 30 ± 9.1 months. In group B, the mean duration between VUR diagnosis and recovery was 19.9 ± 1.3 months. Overall, 76.4% of affected children had bilateral VUR and 41.2% had severe VUR. There were no significant differences in urinary Alb, IL-8, Alb/Cr and IL-8/Cr between the three groups. Conclusion: The current study does not support the hypothesis that microalbuminuria or urinary IL-8 are good indicators of ongoing VUR and renal injury in children. Keywords: Children; Interleukin-8; Microalbuminuria; Vesicoureteral Reflux

MedShapeNet -- A Large-Scale Dataset of 3D Medical Shapes for Computer Vision

Prior to the deep learning era, shape was commonly used to describe the objects. Nowadays, state-of-the-art (SOTA) algorithms in medical imaging are predominantly diverging from computer vision, where voxel grids, meshes, point clouds, and implicit surface models are used. This is seen from numerous shape-related publications in premier vision conferences as well as the growing popularity of ShapeNet (about 51,300 models) and Princeton ModelNet (127,915 models). For the medical domain, we present a large collection of anatomical shapes (e.g., bones, organs, vessels) and 3D models of surgical instrument, called MedShapeNet, created to facilitate the translation of data-driven vision algorithms to medical applications and to adapt SOTA vision algorithms to medical problems. As a unique feature, we directly model the majority of shapes on the imaging data of real patients. As of today, MedShapeNet includes 23 dataset with more than 100,000 shapes that are paired with annotations (ground truth). Our data is freely accessible via a web interface and a Python application programming interface (API) and can be used for discriminative, reconstructive, and variational benchmarks as well as various applications in virtual, augmented, or mixed reality, and 3D printing. Exemplary, we present use cases in the fields of classification of brain tumors, facial and skull reconstructions, multi-class anatomy completion, education, and 3D printing. In future, we will extend the data and improve the interfaces. The project pages are: https://medshapenet.ikim.nrw/ and https://github.com/Jianningli/medshapenet-feedbackComment: 16 page

Epidemiology of death caused by carbon monoxide poisoning in Golestan province, Iran, 2010-2015

Background and purpose: Carbon monoxide (CO) is one of the most common causes of death due to poisoning in Iran. This study is an epidemiological survey of death due to CO poisoning in Golestan province, Iran. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on all profiles of referential bodies to Golestan Department of Forensic Medicine who died due to CO poisoning between 2010 and 2015. Data, including information on demography, poisoning and death condition, were analyzed using SPSS V16. Results: A total of 420 deaths was recorded due to poisoning, of whom 59 (14%) died from CO poisoning which was the third cause of death after opium and rice tablet. The CO poisoning cases included 71.2% (n=42) males. The cases were mainly aged 20–39 years (67.8%, n=40), 64.4% (n=38) were married, and 72.9% (n=43) lived in urban areas. Poisoning occurred mostly in winter (49.2%, n=29). Most CO poisoning incidents happened at home (62.7%, n=37) especially in living room (44.1%, n=26) and bathroom (13.6%, n=8), and gas heaters were the source of poisoning in majority of cases (37.3%, n=22). Conclusion: CO was the third cause of death due to poisoning in Golestan province that was found to be more common among men and in homes with gas heaters. So, more attention on safety of gas heaters and other sources of CO generation is needed especially in winter and residential places without suitable ventilation. © 2017, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved