Artificial intelligence assisted patient blood and urine droplet pattern analysis for non‑invasive and accurate diagnosis of bladder cancer

Bladder cancer is one of the most common cancer types in the urinary system. Yet, current bladder cancer diagnosis and follow-up techniques are time-consuming, expensive, and invasive. In the clinical practice, the gold standard for diagnosis remains invasive biopsy followed by histopathological analysis. In recent years, costly diagnostic tests involving the use of bladder cancer biomarkers have been developed, however these tests have high false-positive and false-negative rates limiting their reliability. Hence, there is an urgent need for the development of cost-effective, and non-invasive novel diagnosis methods. To address this gap, here we propose a quick, cheap, and reliable diagnostic method. Our approach relies on an artificial intelligence (AI) model to analyze droplet patterns of blood and urine samples obtained from patients and comparing them to cancer-free control subjects.The AI-assisted model in this study uses a deep neural network, a ResNet network, pre-trained on ImageNet datasets. Recognition and classification of complex patterns formed by dried urine or blood droplets under different conditions resulted in cancer diagnosis with a high specificity and sensitivity.Our approach can be systematically applied across droplets, enabling comparisons to reveal shared spatial behaviors and underlying morphological patterns. Our results support the fact that AI-based models have a great potential for non-invasive and accurate diagnosis of malignancies, including bladder cancer

The IDENTIFY study: the investigation and detection of urological neoplasia in patients referred with suspected urinary tract cancer - a multicentre observational study

Objective To evaluate the contemporary prevalence of urinary tract cancer (bladder cancer, upper tract urothelial cancer [UTUC] and renal cancer) in patients referred to secondary care with haematuria, adjusted for established patient risk markers and geographical variation. Patients and Methods This was an international multicentre prospective observational study. We included patients aged ≥16 years, referred to secondary care with suspected urinary tract cancer. Patients with a known or previous urological malignancy were excluded. We estimated the prevalence of bladder cancer, UTUC, renal cancer and prostate cancer; stratified by age, type of haematuria, sex, and smoking. We used a multivariable mixed-effects logistic regression to adjust cancer prevalence for age, type of haematuria, sex, smoking, hospitals, and countries. Results Of the 11 059 patients assessed for eligibility, 10 896 were included from 110 hospitals across 26 countries. The overall adjusted cancer prevalence (n = 2257) was 28.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] 22.3–34.1), bladder cancer (n = 1951) 24.7% (95% CI 19.1–30.2), UTUC (n = 128) 1.14% (95% CI 0.77–1.52), renal cancer (n = 107) 1.05% (95% CI 0.80–1.29), and prostate cancer (n = 124) 1.75% (95% CI 1.32–2.18). The odds ratios for patient risk markers in the model for all cancers were: age 1.04 (95% CI 1.03–1.05; P < 0.001), visible haematuria 3.47 (95% CI 2.90–4.15; P < 0.001), male sex 1.30 (95% CI 1.14–1.50; P < 0.001), and smoking 2.70 (95% CI 2.30–3.18; P < 0.001). Conclusions A better understanding of cancer prevalence across an international population is required to inform clinical guidelines. We are the first to report urinary tract cancer prevalence across an international population in patients referred to secondary care, adjusted for patient risk markers and geographical variation. Bladder cancer was the most prevalent disease. Visible haematuria was the strongest predictor for urinary tract cancer

Biochemical and Sensory Evaluation of Carotene and Protein Enriched Biscuits

Page(s): 9 (1), 104-113, 17 Ref.Market biscuits prepared conventionally from wheat flour were supplemented with legume flour and carrot powder to enhance their protein and vitamin A levels, respectively. Addition of 18% chick pea or pigeon pea flours to wheat flour biscuits increased the protein content from 10% in market biscuits to 13.5% in supplemented samples. Incorporation of carrot powder at 10% level gave vitamin A content of 426 RE/100g for chick pea supplemented biscuits against 39l RE/100g for pigeon pea supplemented biscuits. Chickpea biscuits recorded best preference among penalists and were significantly (P£0.05) better than pigeon pea biscuits. The essential amino acid lysine was significantly (P£0.05) improved from 1.26 g/100g protein in conventional market biscuits to 3.39 g/100g protein in chickpea biscuits, which possessed higher in vitro protein digestibility (95%) compared to market biscuits (82.5%). The calculated protein efficiency ratio of chickpea biscuits (1.6) was significantly (P£0.05) higher than that of the market biscuits (0.81).Khartoum University Pres

The relationship between urothelial type bladder cancer, plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels, and Vitamin D receptor APaI BSMI FOKI, and TaqI polymorphisms

Background: Bladder cancer is an important health problem which ranks 4th among most frequently seen cancer types in men. In our study we aimed to investigate the correlations among urothelial type bladder cancer polymorphisms, ApaI, BsmI, Fold, and Taal, prevalently observed in the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene and plasma vitamin D levels in a Turkish population. Methods: Our study included 101 patients and 109 control subjects. Plasma 25(OH)D levels were determined using a HPLC method and VDR gene polymorphisms with PCR-RFLP method. Results: A statistically significant intergroup difference was not observed with regard to age, gender, and BMIs of the patients. Median (min - max) 25(OH)D levels in the patient and the control groups were determined as 11.9 ng/dL (1.9 - 33.0 ng/dL) and 9.7 ng/dL (2.1 - 39.5 ng/dL), respectively. A statistically significant intergroup difference was not observed with regard to 25(OH)D levels (p = 0.402). A statistically significant intergroup difference was not observed with regard to genotype distribution of ApaI, Bsml, and Taal polymorphisms and allele frequencies. Control and urothelial type bladder cancer groups showed a statistically significant difference with respect to genotype distribution of Fold polymorphism (p = 0.048). However in a binary logistic regression model, when corrected OR values were estimated by including smoking history in the model, the correlation detected between the presence of FF and increased risk of disease was not statistically significant (ORadj = 1.64, 95% CI = 0.89 - 3.02, p = 0.114). Conclusions: In the light of the data concerning Turkish population a statistically significant correlation could not be demonstrated between plasma vitamin D levels, ApaI, BsmI, FokI, and TaqI polymorphisms, and urothelial type bladder cancers. Since literature data are limited in number, further studies should be conducted in larger patient groups.Marmara University Scientific Research Projects CommitteeMarmara University [SAG-C-TUP-130213-0034]This investigation was supported by Marmara University Scientific Research Projects Committee with project number SAG-C-TUP-130213-0034