A Review on Recent Advancement in the Molecular Diagnostics of Leishmania

Leishmaniasis is a protozoan infection with chronic manifestation, having high morbidity and mortality rates, and adversely affecting almost every species of animals. It is a globally prevalent vector-borne disease throughout all tropical and subtropical regions. Twenty intracellular species belonging to the genus leishmania cause all types of leishmaniasis infection, including cutaneous, mucocutaneous, and visceral leishmaniasis in animals and human beings. Sandfly, as a vector, is responsible for its transmission between different hosts. Animals and humans affected with leishmaniasis may be prone to re-infection of another disease, especially the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) syndrome, through trans-activation modification of the immune system. Several diagnostic procedures have been developed and are being used for its detection and confirmation. Hence, there is a need for standard as well as advanced diagnostic tools that are immediately required to identify the species for further treatment and to adopt precautionary and safety measures against leishmaniasis. The current review constitutes a brief picture flowing from microscopic evaluation to all possible immunological techniques that can detect the species and can differentiate between different types of leishmaniasis, along with the morphology and various routes of transmission of the parasite. These methods include serological antigenic screening like direct and indirect agglutination tests, indirect fluorescent antibody test, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, western blotting, and immuno-chromatographic test to advanced molecular techniques like nucleic acid sequence-based amplification, polymerase chain reaction, loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay and some modern techniques like proteomics, transcriptomics and protein biomarkers. The aim of this brief overview of all these diagnostic techniques is to summarize the recent development in the diagnosis to find a cheap and early diagnostic procedure for better detection and control of the infection

Profile and professional expectations of medical students in Mozambique: a longitudinal study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>This paper compares the socioeconomic profile of medical students registered at the Faculty of Medicine of Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (FM-UEM), Maputo, for the years 1998/99 and 2007/08.</p> <p>Case study</p> <p>The objective is to describe the medical students' social and geographical origins, expectations and perceived difficulties regarding their education and professional future. Data were collected through questionnaires administered to all medical students.</p> <p>Discussion and evaluation</p> <p>The response rate in 1998/99 was 51% (227/441) and 50% in 2007/08 (484/968).</p> <p>The main results reflect a doubling of the number of students enrolled for medical studies at the FM-UEM, associated with improved student performance (as reflected by failure rates). Nevertheless, satisfaction with the training received remains low and, now as before, students still identify lack of access to books or learning technology and inadequate teacher preparedness as major problems.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>There is a high level of commitment to public sector service. However, students, as future doctors, have very high salary expectations that will not be met by current public sector salary scales. This is reflected in an increasing degree of orientation to double sector employment after graduation.</p

Regional perinatal mortality differences in the Netherlands; care is the question

Background. Perinatal mortality is an important indicator of health. European comparisons of perinatal mortality show an unfavourable position for the Netherlands. Our objective was to study regional variation in perinatal mortality within the Netherlands and to identify possible explanatory factors for the found differences. Methods. Our study population comprised of all singleton births (904,003) derived from the Netherlands Perinatal Registry for the period 2000-2004. Perinatal mortality including stillbirth from 22+0weeks gestation and early neonatal death (0-6 days) was our main outcome measure. Differences in perinatal mortality were calculated between 4 distinct geographical regions North-East-South-West. We tried to explain regional differences by adjustment for the demographic factors maternal age, parity and ethnicity and by socio-economic status and urbanisation degree using logistic modelling. In addition, regional differences in mode of delivery and risk selection were analysed as health care factors. Finally, perinatal mortality was analysed among five distinct clinical risk groups based on the mediating risk factors gestational age and congenital anomalies. Results. Overall perinatal mortality was 10.1 per 1,000 total births over the period 2000-2004. Perinatal mortality was elevated in the northern region (11.2 per 1,000 total births). Perinatal mortality in the eastern, western and southern region was 10.2, 10.1 and 9.6 per 1,000 total births respectively. Adjustment for demographic factors increased the perinatal mortality risk in the northern region (odds ratio 1.20, 95% CI 1.12-1.28, compared to reference western region), subsequent adjustment for socio-economic status and urbanisation explained a small part of the elevated risk (odds ratio 1.11, 95% CI 1.03-1.20). Risk group analysis showed that regional differences were absent among very preterm births (22+0- 25+6weeks gestation) and most prominent among births from 32+0gestation weeks onwards and among children with severe congenital anomalies. Among term births (37+0weeks) regional mortality differences were largest for births in women transferred from low to high risk during delivery. Conclusion. Regional differences in perinatal mortality exist in the Netherlands. These differences could not be explained by demographic or socio-economic factors, however clinical risk group analysis showed indications for a role of health care factors

Morphological and histochemical characterization of the digestive tract of the puffer fish Sphoeroides testudineus (Linnaeus 1758) (Tetraodontiformes: Tetraodontidae)

ABSTRACT Morphological analysis of the digestive tract of Sphoeroides testudineus showed an esophagus with an anterior and a posterior portion, the abdominal pouch. No stomach was observed between the abdominal pouch and the intestine. The intestine was arranged in three segments and two loops, and the distal portion had the rectum opening into the anus. Histochemical analyses showed that the esophagus secreted acid mucosecretions, and that there was a qualitative increase in goblet cells from the proximal to distal area of the intestine. The rectum showed cells secreting acid and neutral mucus. Given these features, this species presents a morphology which creates a link between its ecology and behavior

Open-source electronic health record systems: A systematic review of most recent advances

Open-source Electronic Health Records (OS-EHRs) are of pivotal importance in the management, operations, and administration of any healthcare organization. With the advancement of health informatics, researchers and healthcare practitioners have proposed various frameworks to assess the maturation of Open-source EHRs. The significance of OS-EHRs stems from the fact that vendor-based EHR implementations are becoming financially burdensome, with some vendors raking in more than $1 billion with one contract. Contrarily, the adoption of OS-EHRs suffers from a lack of systematic evaluation from the standpoint of a standard reference model. To this end, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) has presented a strategic road map called EMR Adoption and Maturity (EMRAM). The HIMSS-EMRAM model proposes a stage-wise model approach that is globally recognized and can be essentially applied as a benchmark evaluation criteria for open-source EHRs. This paper offers an applied descriptive methodology over the frequently studied open-source EHRs currently operational worldwide or has the potential of adoption in healthcare settings. Besides, we also present profiling (User Support, Developer’ Support, Customization Support, Technical details, and Diagnostic help) of studied OS-EHRs from developer’s and user’s perspectives using updated standard metrics. We carried out multi-aspect objective analysis of studied systems covering EHR functions, software based features and implementation. This review portrays systematic aspects of electronic medical record standards for open-source software implementations. As we observed in the literature, prevalent research and working prototypes lack systematic review of the HIMSS-EMRAM model and do not present evolving software features. Therefore, after the application of our assessment measures, the results obtained indicate that OS-EHRs are yet to acquire standard compliance and implementation. The findings in this paper can be beneficial in the planning and implementation of OS-EHRs projects in the future. </jats:p

EARLY DETECTION OF LUNGS CANCER USING MACHINE LEARNING ALGORITHMS

Medical healthcare systems store a large amount of clinical data about patients related to their biographies and disease information. Doctors use clinical data for the early detection of diseases that helps with proper patients’ treatments to save their lives. These clinical systems are helpful in detecting cancer diseases at early stages to save people's lives. Lung cancer is the third largely spreading disease in human beings all over the globe, which may lead so many people to death because of inaccurate detection of their disease at the initial stages. Therefore, this study will help doctors and radiologists in the detection of lung cancerous and non-cancerous patients at early stages with a random forest algorithm to save patients’ lives. In this research work, a new and novel model based on random forest algorithm was employed to detect lung cancer from the Wisconsin data set. Lung cancer was detected at early stages, and it was decided whether targeted patient was cancerous or non-cancerous. This experimental outcome showed that the proposed methodology achieved an accuracy rate that was batter compared to previous studies for early detection of lung cancer.</jats:p