Search results for "medical physics"

A performance evaluation of the expert system 'Jaundice' in comparison with that of three hepatologists.

1991

The diagnostic performance of an Expert System (Jaundice) designed to discriminate between different causes of jaundice was evaluated in a test sample of 200 consecutive in-patients with serum bilirubin greater than or equal to 51 mumol/l. The average probability assigned to true diagnosis, the non-error rate and the overall accuracy were, respectively, 55%, 77% and 70%. The Expert System's discriminatory ability in probabilistic prediction, assessed by a method based on continuous functions of the diagnostic probabilities (Brier score) was good. We also compared the ability of our Expert System to that of three experienced hepatologists, who were required to give a diagnosis in 20 cases fo…

How to Write a Research Protocol: Tips and Tricks

2018

There is a need to reassess the most appropriate indications for stress echocardiography in the current era, in patients with suspect or known coronary artery disease (CAD), and also the most helpful additional parameters that can be easily calculated in clinical practice to increase the known suboptimal sensitivity for obstructive CAD of this test. The current review tries to clarify what is and what should be the proper role for functional testing in general, but specifically regarding modern stress echocardiography in the current practice, for suspected CAD and/or atypical chest pain. Few candidate additional parameters beyond wall motion assessment are here suggested to improve diagnost…

Use of 70 MeV proton beam for medical applications at INFN-LNS: CATANA project

2000

The project CATANA (Centro di Adro Terapia ed Applicazioni Nucleari Avanzate) is a collaboration between the INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (LNS), Physics Department, Ophthalmology Institute and Radiology Institute of the Catania University and CSFNSM Catania. The main goal of CATANA is the study and the application of protontherapy for the treatment of shallow tumors (4 cm max) like uveal melanomas and subfoveal macular degenerations.

Assessment of somatoform disorders: a review of strategies and instruments.

2003

We provide an overview of methods and instruments developed for the assessment of somatoform disorders. Four diagnostic purposes have been identified: (i) classification according to a diagnostic system; (ii) screening for probable cases; (iii) dimensional measurement of syndrome severity; and (iv) assessment of associated clinical features. Existing instruments designed for each of these strategies are described, including specifications of their psychometric properties, particular features, advantages and disadvantages. A conclusion of this review is that the currently existing ‘family of assessment instruments’ in the field of somatoform disorders should be used to improve the comparabil…

Pro und Kontra: Monotherapie - Goldstandard der Psychopharmakabehandlung?

2006

Randomized Controlled Trials and real life studies. Approaches and methodologies: a clinical point of view.

2014

Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) are the "gold standard" for evaluating treatment outcomes providing information on treatments "efficacy". They are designed to test a therapeutic hypothesis under optimal setting in the absence of confounding factors. For this reason they have high internal validity. The strict and controlled conditions in which they are conducted, leads to low generalizability because they are performed in conditions very different from real life usual care. Conversely, real life studies inform on the "effectiveness" of a treatment, that is, the measure of the extent to which an intervention does what is intended to do in routine circumstances. At variance to RCTs, real …

Development and evaluation of 3-dimensional printed models of the human tracheobronchial system for training in flexible bronchoscopy.

2017

OBJECTIVES Training and assessment of proper skills in flexible bronchoscopy are major educational goals for cardiothoracic residents. Therefore, we developed 3-dimensional (3D) printed models of the human tracheobronchial system for training and assessment of cardiothoracic residents in flexible bronchoscopy. METHODS Three models of normal (size/shape) human tracheobronchial anatomy were generated using a commercially available 3D printer. Ten residents (inexperienced: Group 1; experienced: Group 2) participated in this study with an experimental setting of initial assessment (Model 1), training (15 min, Model 2) and post-training assessment (Model 3). The time needed for flexible bronchos…

Serendipity and innovation: history and evolution of transthoracic echocardiography

2017

The history of echocardiography is sprinkled with many interesting episodes and anecdotes showing that devoting your life to the pursuit of one goal is praiseworthy, and that at the same time, a little luck goes a long way. Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) has led to dramatic improvements in cardiovascular medicine, and is now the most widely used diagnostic cardiac test after electrocardiography (ECG). The present review pays tribute to the pioneering efforts of those who believed in this innovative technology despite mounted skepticism and briefly describes the evolution of TTE from its early days to the most recent developments.

Reply to the Letter Entitled "FeNO Variability when Using Different Analyzers at the Joint ATS/ERS Guideline Cutoff".

2019

On a class of compactly epi-Lipschitzian sets

2003

The paper is devoted to the study of the so-called compactly epi-Lipschitzian sets. These sets are needed for many aspects of generalized differentiation, particulary for necessary optimality conditions, stability of mathematical programming problems and calculus rules for subdifferentials and normal cones. We present general conditions under which sets defined by general constraints are compactly epi-Lipschitzian. This allows us to show how the compact epi-Lipschitzness properties behave under set intersections.