262 research outputs found
Magnetic resonance for assessment of axillary lymph node status in early breast cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Introduction
Current methods of identifying axillary node metastases in breast cancer patients are highly accurate, but are associated with several adverse events. This review evaluates the diagnostic accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques for identification of axillary metastases in early stage newly diagnosed breast cancer patients.
Methods
Comprehensive searches were conducted in April 2009. Study quality was assessed. Sensitivity and specificity were meta-analysed using a bivariate random effects approach, utilising pathological diagnosis via node biopsy as the comparative gold standard.
Results
Based on the highest sensitivity and specificity reported in each of the nine studies evaluating MRI (n = 307 patients), mean sensitivity was 90% (95% CI: 78â96%; range 65â100%) and mean specificity 90% (95% CI: 75â96%; range 54â100%). Across five studies evaluating ultrasmall super-paramagnetic iron oxide (USPIO)-enhanced MRI (n = 93), mean sensitivity was 98% (95% CI: 61â100%) and mean specificity 96% (95% CI: 72â100%). Across three studies of gadolinium-enhanced MRI (n = 187), mean sensitivity was 88% (95% CI: 78â94%) and mean specificity 73% (95% CI: 63â81%). In the single study of in-vivo proton MR spectroscopy (n = 27), sensitivity was 65% (95% CI: 38â86%) and specificity 100% (95% CI: 69â100%).
Conclusions
USPIO-enhanced MRI showed a trend towards higher sensitivity and specificity and may make a useful addition to the current diagnostic pathway. Additional larger studies with standardised methods and standardised criteria for classifying a node as positive are needed. Current estimates of sensitivity and specificity do not support replacement of SLNB with any current MRI technology in this patient group
217 000-year-old DNA sequences of green sulfur bacteria in Mediterranean sapropels and their implications for the reconstruction of the paleoenvironment
Author Posting. © The Authors, 2006. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Society for Applied Microbiology and Blackwell for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Environmental Microbiology 9 (2007): 238â249, doi:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2006.01134.x.Deep-sea sediments of the eastern Mediterranean harbor a series of dark, organic carbon-rich layers, so-called sapropels. Within these layers, the carotenoid isorenieratene was detected. Since
it is specific for the obligately anaerobic phototrophic green sulfur bacteria, the presence of isorenieratene may suggest that extended water column anoxia occurred in the ancient Mediterranean Sea during periods of sapropel formation. Only three carotenoids (isorenieratene, ÎČ-isorenieratene and chlorobactene) are typical for green sulfur bacteria and thus do not permit
to differentiate between the ~80 known phylotypes. In order to reconstruct the paleoecological conditions in more detail, we searched for fossil 16S rRNA gene sequences of green sulfur bacteria employing ancient DNA methodology. 540 bp-long fossil sequences could indeed be amplified from up to 217,000-year-old sapropels. In addition, such sequences were also recovered from carbon-lean intermediate sediment layers deposited during times of an entirely
oxic water column. Unexpectedly, however, all the recovered 16S rRNA gene sequences
grouped with freshwater or brackish, rather than truly marine, types of green sulfur bacteria. It is therefore feasible that the molecular remains of green sulfur bacteria originated from populations
which thrived in adjacent freshwater or estuarine coastal environments rather than from an indigenous pelagic population.This work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grants Ov 20/3-2 and Ov 20/8-1 to 8-3)
History of malaria treatment as a predictor of subsequent subclinical parasitaemia: A cross-sectional survey and malaria case records from three villages in Pailin, western Cambodia
Background: Treatment of the sub-clinical reservoir of malaria, which may maintain transmission, could be an important component of elimination strategies. The reliable detection of asymptomatic infections with low levels of parasitaemia requires high-volume quantitative polymerase chain reaction (uPCR), which is impractical to conduct on a large scale. It is unknown to what extent sub-clinical parasitaemias originate from recent or older clinical episodes. This study explored the association between clinical history of malaria and subsequent sub-clinical parasitaemia. Methods: In June 2013 a cross-sectional survey was conducted in three villages in Pailin, western Cambodia. Demographic and epidemiological data and blood samples were collected. Blood was tested for malaria by high-volume qP
Primordial fluctuations and non-Gaussianities from multifield DBI Galileon inflation
We study a cosmological scenario in which the DBI action governing the motion
of a D3-brane in a higher-dimensional spacetime is supplemented with an induced
gravity term. The latter reduces to the quartic Galileon Lagrangian when the
motion of the brane is non-relativistic and we show that it tends to violate
the null energy condition and to render cosmological fluctuations ghosts. There
nonetheless exists an interesting parameter space in which a stable phase of
quasi-exponential expansion can be achieved while the induced gravity leaves
non trivial imprints. We derive the exact second-order action governing the
dynamics of linear perturbations and we show that it can be simply understood
through a bimetric perspective. In the relativistic regime, we also calculate
the dominant contribution to the primordial bispectrum and demonstrate that
large non-Gaussianities of orthogonal shape can be generated, for the first
time in a concrete model. More generally, we find that the sign and the shape
of the bispectrum offer powerful diagnostics of the precise strength of the
induced gravity.Comment: 34 pages including 9 figures, plus appendices and bibliography.
Wordings changed and references added; matches version published in JCA
Brane inflation revisited after WMAP five-year results
In this paper, we revisit brane inflation models with the WMAP five-year
results. The WMAP five-year data favor a red-tilted power spectrum of
primordial fluctuations at the level of two standard deviations, which is the
same as the WMAP three-year result qualitatively, but quantitatively the
spectral index is slightly greater than the three-year value. This result can
bring impacts on brane inflation models. According to the WMAP five-year data,
we find that the KKLMMT model can survive at the level of one standard
deviation, and the fine-tuning of the parameter can be alleviated to a
certain extent at the level of two standard deviations.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figure
Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in âs = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector
A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fbâ1 of protonâproton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results
Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC
provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of
lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated
luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with
a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the
transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the
anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the
nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of
the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp.
Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in
the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies
smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating
nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and
transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of
inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous
measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables,
submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are
available at
http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02
Understanding biological responses to degraded hydromorphology and multiple stresses. Deliverable 3.2 of REFORM (REstoring rivers FOR effective catchment Management), a Collaborative project (large-scale integrating project) funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme under Grant Agreement 282656
The aim of this deliverable is to conceptually model and empirically test the response of biota to the effects of both hydromorphological pressures acting in concert with one another or with other types of pressures. Best use is made of existing large national monitoring datasets (Denmark, UK, Finland, France, Germany, Austria & WISER datasets), case studies and modeling to provide evidence of multiple stressors interacting to alter river biota (Biological Quality Elements: BQE)
Carotid Intima-Media Thickness Progression as Surrogate Marker for Cardiovascular Risk Meta-Analysis of 119 Clinical Trials Involving 100 667 Patients
Background:
To quantify the association between effects of interventions on carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) progression and their effects on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.
Methods:
We systematically collated data from randomized, controlled trials. cIMT was assessed as the mean value at the common-carotid-artery; if unavailable, the maximum value at the common-carotid-artery or other cIMT measures were used. The primary outcome was a combined CVD end point defined as myocardial infarction, stroke, revascularization procedures, or fatal CVD. We estimated intervention effects on cIMT progression and incident CVD for each trial, before relating the 2 using a Bayesian meta-regression approach.
Results:
We analyzed data of 119 randomized, controlled trials involving 100 667 patients (mean age 62 years, 42% female). Over an average follow-up of 3.7 years, 12 038 patients developed the combined CVD end point. Across all interventions, each 10 ÎŒm/y reduction of cIMT progression resulted in a relative risk for CVD of 0.91 (95% Credible Interval, 0.87â0.94), with an additional relative risk for CVD of 0.92 (0.87â0.97) being achieved independent of cIMT progression. Taken together, we estimated that interventions reducing cIMT progression by 10, 20, 30, or 40 ÎŒm/y would yield relative risks of 0.84 (0.75â0.93), 0.76 (0.67â0.85), 0.69 (0.59â0.79), or 0.63 (0.52â0.74), respectively. Results were similar when grouping trials by type of intervention, time of conduct, time to ultrasound follow-up, availability of individual-participant data, primary versus secondary prevention trials, type of cIMT measurement, and proportion of female patients.
Conclusions:
The extent of intervention effects on cIMT progression predicted the degree of CVD risk reduction. This provides a missing link supporting the usefulness of cIMT progression as a surrogate marker for CVD risk in clinical trials
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