Search results for "Algorithm"
showing 10 items of 4887 documents
Interaction of hyperalgesia and sensory loss in complex regional pain syndrome type I (CRPS I).
2008
Background: Sensory abnormalities are a key feature of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). In order to characterise these changes in patients suffering from acute or chronic CRPS I, we used Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST) in comparison to an age and gender matched control group. Methods: 61 patients presenting with CRPS I of the upper extremity and 56 healthy subjects were prospectively assessed using QST. The patients’ warm and cold detection thresholds (WDT; CDT), the heat and cold pain thresholds (HPT; CPT) and the occurrence of paradoxical heat sensation (PHS) were observed. Results: In acute CRPS I, patients showed warm and cold hyperalgesia, indicated by significant changes in H…
Mutation screening for the prothrombin variant G20210A by melting point analysis with the Light Cycler system: atypical results, detection of the var…
2005
In the differential diagnosis of thrombophilic disorders genotyping of prothrombin and factor V are nowadays performed as a routine analysis. In the following we describe the unusual results of the mutation screening using melting point analysis for two patients and the consecutive detection of the mutation C20209T by sequencing the corresponding gene fragments. The molecular result is discussed with special respect to the medical history, ethnic background and clinical findings of both patients.
Improved T2* assessment in liver iron overload by magnetic resonance imaging.
2009
In the clinical MRI practice, it is common to assess liver iron overload by T2* multi-echo gradient-echo images. However, there is no full consensus about the best image analysis approach for the T2* measurements. The currently used methods involve manual drawing of a region of interest (ROI) within MR images of the liver. Evaluation of a representative liver T2* value is done by fitting an appropriate model to the signal decay within the ROIs vs. the echo time. The resulting T2* value may depend on both ROI placement and choice of the signal decay model. The aim of this study was to understand how the choice of the analysis methodology may affect the accuracy of T2* measurements. A softwar…
Statistical colocalization of monocyte gene expression and genetic risk variants for type 1 diabetes
2012
One mechanism by which disease-associated DNA variation can alter disease risk is altering gene expression. However, linkage disequilibrium (LD) between variants, mostly single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), means it is not sufficient to show that a particular variant associates with both disease and expression, as there could be two distinct causal variants in LD. Here, we describe a formal statistical test of colocalization and apply it to type 1 diabetes (T1D)-associated regions identified mostly through genome-wide association studies and expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) discovered in a recently determined large monocyte expression data set from the Gutenberg Health Study (1…
Effect of innervation zones in estimating biceps brachii force-EMG relationship during isometric contraction
2012
Measuring muscle forces in vivo is invasive and consequently indirect methods e.g., electromyography (EMG) are used in estimating muscular force production. The aim of the present paper was to examine what kind of effect the disruption of the physiological signal caused by the innervation zone has in predicting the force/torque output from surface EMG. Twelve men (age 26 (SD ±3)years; height 179 (±6)cm; body mass 73 (±6)kg) volunteered as subjects. They were asked to perform maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVC) in elbow flexion, and submaximal contractions at 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50% and 75% of the recorded MVC. EMG was measured from biceps brachii muscle with an electrode grid of 5…
Determining the location of the body׳s center of mass for different groups of physically active people
2013
The purpose of the present study was to compare the location of the body center of mass (CoM) determined by using a high accuracy reaction board (RB) and two different segment parameter models for motion analysis (Dempster, 1955, DEM and de Leva, 1996 adjusted from Zatsiorsky and Seluyanov, ZAT). The body CoM (expressed as percentage of the total body height) was determined from several subjects including athletes as well as physically active students and sedentary people. Some significant differences were found in the location of the body CoM between the used segment models and the reaction board method for all male subjects (n=58, 57.03±0.79%, 56.20±0.76% and 57.60±0.76% for RB, ZAT and D…
Extremely High Mutation Rate of HIV-1 In Vivo.
2015
Rates of spontaneous mutation critically determine the genetic diversity and evolution of RNA viruses. Although these rates have been characterized in vitro and in cell culture models, they have seldom been determined in vivo for human viruses. Here, we use the intrapatient frequency of premature stop codons to quantify the HIV-1 genome-wide rate of spontaneous mutation in DNA sequences from peripheral blood mononuclear cells. This reveals an extremely high mutation rate of (4.1 ± 1.7) × 10−3 per base per cell, the highest reported for any biological entity. Sequencing of plasma-derived sequences yielded a mutation frequency 44 times lower, indicating that a large fraction of viral genomes …
Preselection of cases through expert clinical and radiological review significantly increases mutation detection rate in multiple epiphyseal dysplasia
2006
Skeletal dysplasias are difficult to diagnose for the nonexpert. In a previous study of patients with multiple epiphyseal dysplasia (MED), we identified cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) mutations in only 36% of cases and suspected that the low-mutation detection rate was partially due to misdiagnosis. We therefore instituted a clinical–radiographic review system, whereby all cases were evaluated by a panel of skeletal dysplasia experts (European Skeletal Dysplasia Network). Only those patients in whom the diagnosis of MED was confirmed by the panel were screened for mutations. Under this regimen the mutation detection rate increased to 81%. When clinical–radiological diagnostic cr…
High striatal occupancy of D2-like dopamine receptors by amisulpride in the brain of patients with schizophrenia.
2003
The 'atypicality' of the antipsychotic drug, amisulpride, has been attributed to preferential extrastriatal binding. Previous investigations of striatal D2 receptor occupancy by amisulpride revealed conflicting results. The aim of this PET study was to measure the striatal occupancy by amisulpride and to correlate it with the corresponding drug plasma concentrations. Nine amisulpride-treated patients and 12 healthy volunteers serving as controls were studied with PET and [18F]desmethoxyfallypride. Occupancy values and plasma concentrations were nonlinearly fitted to an E max model. Results showed 43-85% (putamen) and 67-90% (caudate) D2-like receptor occupancy. Plasma amisulpride concentrat…
Treatment of Metachronous and Simultaneous Liver Metastases of Pancreatic Cancer
2009
<i>Aim:</i> Patients were analyzed who underwent treatment of liver metastases from pancreatic cancer. <i>Methods:</i> Selection criteria were the possibility of R0 resection of the primary and/or the liver metastases, no other sites of metastases, and the presentation of liver metastases. A comparison of treatment by surgery versus chemotherapy regarding overall survival and disease-free interval was performed. <i>Results:</i> Between 1996 and 2008, a total number of 23 patients were retrospectively identified from a prospective database of 193 cases of pancreatic cancer. In 14 cases, liver metastases were found simultaneously, and in 9 cases metachronou…