2,457 research outputs found
Estimation of COVID-19 spread curves integrating global data and borrowing information
Currently, novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a big threat to
global health. The rapid spread of the virus has created pandemic, and
countries all over the world are struggling with a surge in COVID-19 infected
cases. There are no drugs or other therapeutics approved by the US Food and
Drug Administration to prevent or treat COVID-19: information on the disease is
very limited and scattered even if it exists. This motivates the use of data
integration, combining data from diverse sources and eliciting useful
information with a unified view of them. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian
hierarchical model that integrates global data for real-time prediction of
infection trajectory for multiple countries. Because the proposed model takes
advantage of borrowing information across multiple countries, it outperforms an
existing individual country-based model. As fully Bayesian way has been
adopted, the model provides a powerful predictive tool endowed with uncertainty
quantification. Additionally, a joint variable selection technique has been
integrated into the proposed modeling scheme, which aimed to identify possible
country-level risk factors for severe disease due to COVID-19
Contrast Echo-A Simple Diagnostic Tool for a Coronary Artery Fistula
Coronary artery fistulas have been diagnosed with aortography, coronary angiography, and coronary computed tomography (CT). A large fistula can be occasionally found as a mass lesion on echocardiography but cannot be easily confirmed. Here, we report a new diagnostic approach to coronary artery fistulas using a contrast agent and transthoracic echocardiography. Transthoracic echocardiography of a 46-year-old female suffering from dyspnea revealed suspicious small turbulent flow in the main pulmonary artery. Following infusion of a contrast agent, we found whitish flow in the main pulmonary artery during the diastolic phase, and aortic CT revealed two huge right coronary artery fistulas in the main pulmonary artery. A simple diagnostic approach to a coronary artery fistula using contrast agent helped us confirm the diagnosis because of the typical diastolic whitish flow in the pulmonary artery
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