Neural Network Analysis of Bone Vibration Signals to Assesses Bone Density

Osteoporosis is a systemic disease, characterised by low bone mineral density (BMD) with a consequent increase in bone fragility. The most commonly used method to examine BMD is dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). However DXA cannot be used reliably in children less than 5 years old because of the limitations in the availability of required normative data. Vibration analysis is a well-established technique for analysing physical properties of materials and so it has the potential for assessing BMD. The overall purpose of this study was development and evaluation of low frequency vibration analysis as a tool to assess BMD in children. A novel portable computer-controlled system that suitably vibrated the bone, acquired, stored, displayed and analysed the resulting bone vibration responses was developed and its performance was investigated by comparing it with DXA-derived BMD values in children. 41 children aged between 7 and 15 years suspected of having abnormal BMD were enrolled. The ulna was chosen for all tests due to the ease with which it could be vibrated and responses measured. Frequency spectra of bone vibration responses were obtained using both impulse and continuous methods and these plus the participants’ clinical data were processed by a multilayer perceptron (MLP) artificial neural network. The correlation coefficient values between MLP outputs and DXA-derived BMD values were 0.79 and 0.86 for impulse and continuous vibration methods respectively. It was demonstrated that vibration analysis has potential for assessing fracture ris

Is the periodontal status a risk factor for the development of psoriasis?

Background and Objectives: Psoriasis is a common, chronic, inflammatory, and hyperproliperative skin disease. It has been known that the infectious agents play a role in triggering and exacerbation of the disease. Periodontal diseases are chronic inflammatory gum diseases initiated by microorganisms in dental plaques. This study intended to determine the role of periodontal diseases, as chronic infective foci in psoriasis.Materials and Methods: A total of 76 patients, who applied to Faculty of Medicine, Department of Dermatology, İnönü University, diagnosed as psoriasis and a control group consisting of 76 dermatologic patients without any systemic disease at similar age and gender were included the study. The dental examinations of the subjects were done by the Community Periodontal Index of Treatment Needs index system, using a periodontal probe.Results: Significant difference was identified between the patients with psoriasis and control group, in terms of CPI (Community Periodontal Index), oral hygiene habits, frequency of tooth brushing and flossing (P = 0.01, P = 0.001, P = 0.01, P = 0.05, respectively). A positive correlation between the severities of psoriasis and dental disease was determined, but this difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.204).Conclusion: The periodontal disease may affect psoriasis as a chronic infectious focus and probably through proinflammatory cytokines. In order to clarify the exact role of periodontal disease in psoriasis, the issue should be studied in larger series with serum cytokine levels.Keywords: Dental disease, periodontal disease, psoriasi

Collaborative place models

A fundamental problem underlying location-based tasks is to construct a complete profile of users’ spatiotemporal patterns. In many real-world settings, the sparsity of location data makes it difficult to construct such a profile. As a remedy, we describe a Bayesian probabilistic graphical model, called Collaborative Place Model (CPM), which infers similarities across users to construct complete and time-dependent profiles of users’ whereabouts from unsupervised location data. We apply CPM to both sparse and dense datasets, and demonstrate how it both improves location prediction performance and provides new insights into users’ spatiotemporal patterns

TECHNETIUM-99M-N,N-ETHYLENEDICYSTEINE - A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF RENAL SCINTIGRAPHY WITH TECHNETIUM-99M-MAG3 AND IODINE-131-OIH IN PATIENTS WITH OBSTRUCTIVE RENAL-DISEASE

Technetium-99m-labeled N,N-ethylenedicysteine (Tc-99m-EC) is a new renal imaging agent introduced as an alternative for Tc-99m-labeled mercaptoacetyltriglycine (Tc-99m-MAG3), with similar renal excretion characteristics. To evaluate the diagnostic characteristics of this agent, a gamma camera study was performed

CLINICAL COMPARISON OF TECHNETIUM-99M-EC, TECHNETIUM-99M-MAG3 AND IODINE-131-OIH IN RENAL DISORDERS

Technetium-99m-ethylenedicysteine has recently been developed for renal function studies. The pharmacokinetics of Tc-99m-EC were studied by constant infusion technique and compared with Tc-99m-MAG3 and I-131-OIH in, 11 patients with various renal disorders. Methods: After giving a 7.4 MBq I-131-OIH and 90-110 MBq Tc-99m-EC or Tc-99m-MAG3 bolus, a constant infusion (1 MBq/ml Tc-99m-agent and 0.07 MBq/m I-131-OIH was started. Sixteen blood and five urine samples were obtained over three hr. Results: The renal clearance of Tc-99m-EC was higher than that of Tc-99m-MAG3. The Tc-99m-EC/OIH and (99m)TcMAG3/OIH ratios were 0.75 +/- 0.05 and 0.55 +/- 0.10 (p = 0.00087), respectively. The distribution volume of Tc-99m-EC was also higher than that of Tc-99m-MAG3 (15722 +/- 4644 and 9509 +/- 2788 m1/1.73m(2), respectively; p = 0.072). The Tc-99m-EC/OIH and Tc-99m-MAG3/OIH distribution volume ratios were 1.03 +/- 0.14 and 0.55 +/- 0.10, respectively (p = 0.0003). The 60-min excretion values of Tc-99m-EC and Tc-99m-MAG3 were compared to that of OIH. The Tc-99m-EC/OIH and Tc-99m-MAG3/OIH excretion ratios were 0.96 +/- 0.06 and 1.07 +/- 0.10, respectively (p = 0.162). The protein binding of Tc-99m-EC and OIH were found to be 34% +/- 4 and 66% +/- 5, respectively (p < 0.0001). The red cell binding of Tc-99m-EC was negligible (3% +/- 1.2) in comparison to OIH (27% +/- 3; p < 0.0001). Conclusion: This limited study demonstrates the pharmacokinetic and renal clearance properties of Tc-99m-EC. This agent has good potential for renal function evaluation