PPV

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to examine the predictive value of a newly developed MRI-based Endplate Bone Quality (EBQ) in relation to the development of cage subsidence following anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF). METHODS: Patients undergoing ACDF for degenerative cervical diseases between January 2017 and June 2022 were included. Correlation between EBQ scores and segmental height loss was analyzed using Pearson's correlation. ROC analyses were employed to ascertain the EBQ cut-off values that predict the occurrence of cage subsidence...

BACKGROUND: The interplay between exosomes and the tumor microenvironment (TME) remains unclear. We investigated the influence of exosomes on the TME in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), focusing on their mRNA expression profile. METHODS: mRNA expression profiles of exosomes were obtained from exoRBase. RNA sequencing data from HCC patients' tumors were acquired from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC). An exosome mRNA-related risk score model of prognostic value was established...

BACKGROUND: Serum CGRP has been found to increase during migraine attack. However, whether CGRP can identify MA with PFO subtypes in MA remains unknown. This study aimed to investigate the differential expression of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) between migraine (MA) patients with and without patent foramen ovale (PFO), and to evaluate the predictive value of CGRP for MA with PFO. METHODS: A total of 153 patients with MA, 51 patients with PFO and 102 patients without...

The sum score on a psychological test is, and should continue to be, a tool central in psychometric practice. This position runs counter to several psychometricians' belief that the sum score represents a pre-scientific conception that must be abandoned from psychometrics in favor of latent variables. First, we reiterate that the sum score stochastically orders the latent variable in a wide variety of much-used item response models. In fact, item response theory provides a mathematically based justification for the ordinal use of the sum score...

Architectural distortion (AD) is one of the most common findings on mammograms, and it may represent not only cancer but also a lesion such as a radial scar that may have an associated cancer. AD accounts for 18-45% missed cancer, and the positive predictive value of AD is approximately 74.5%. Early detection of AD leads to early diagnosis and treatment of the cancer and improves the overall prognosis. However, detection of AD is a challenging task. In this work, we propose a new approach for detecting architectural distortion in mammography images by combining preprocessing methods and a novel structure fusion attention model...

OBJECTIVE: This study determined the threshold for recurrent depressive episodes that predicted conversion from major depressive disorder (MDD) to bipolar disorder (BD). METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 296 patients diagnosed with MDD for a minimum of 5 years in two university hospitals. We examined their the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition diagnoses and detailed clinical information at the initial admission and yearly assessments after discharge to establish the threshold for recurrent depressive episodes indicating a risk of diagnostic conversion from MDD to BD...

OBJECTIVE: During the initial staging of certain lymphoma subtypes, 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography ([18 F]FDG-PET/CT) has become an alternative to bone marrow biopsy (BMB) for detecting bone marrow (BM) involvement. However, whether [18 F]FDG-PET/CT can accurately detect BM involvement in angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL) remains unknown. Our study aimed to assess the diagnostic and prognostic capability of [18 F]FDG-PET/CT for detecting BM involvement in AITL...

OBJECTIVE: Machine learning (ML) is increasingly employed to diagnose medical conditions, with algorithms trained to assign a single label using a black-box approach. We created an ML approach using deep learning that generates outcomes that are transparent and in line with clinical, diagnostic rules. We demonstrate our approach for autism spectrum disorders (ASD), a neurodevelopmental condition with increasing prevalence. METHODS: We use unstructured data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveillance records labeled by a CDC-trained clinician with ASD A1-3 and B1-4 criterion labels per sentence and with ASD cases labels per record using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM5) rules...

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular discharge diagnoses may serve as endpoints in epidemiological studies if they have a high validity. Aim was to study if diagnoses-specific characteristics like type, sub-categories, and position of cardiovascular diagnoses affected diagnostic accuracy. METHODS: Patients (n = 7,164) with a discharge diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction, heart failure or cerebrovascular disease were included. Data were presented as positive predictive values (PPV) and sensitivity...

CONTEXT: Dysbetalipoproteinemia (DBL) is a multifactorial disorder that disrupts the normal metabolism of remnant lipoproteins, causing increased risk of cardiovascular disease. However, establishing a proper diagnosis is difficult and the true prevalence of the disease in the general population remains unknown. OBJECTIVE: The objectives were to study the prevalence of the disease and to validate the performance of different clinical diagnostic criteria in a large population-based cohort...

Background and objectives Laboratory tests conducted on survey respondents' biological specimens are a major component of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The National Center for Health Statistics' Division of Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys performs internal analytic method validation studies whenever laboratories undergo instrumental or methodological changes, or when contract laboratories change. These studies assess agreement between methods to evaluate how methodological changes could affect data inference or compromise consistency of measurements across survey cycles...

AIM: To compare the reliability and predictive validity of Norton and Braden scales in determining the risk of pressure injury in elderly patients. DESIGN: This research used a comparative design. One hundred thirty elderly patients participated in the study. METHODS: The daily pressure injury risk of participants was evaluated by a researcher using both the Norton and Braden scales in a consecutive manner. RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 75...

PURPOSE: Basal duct-like recess (DR) sign serves as a specific marker of papillary craniopharyngiomas (PCPs) of the strictly third-ventricular (3 V) topography. Origins of this sign are poorly understood with limited validation in external cohorts. METHODS: In this retrospective study, MRIs of pathologically proven PCPs were reviewed and evaluated for tumor topography, DR sign prevalence, and morphological subtypes. RESULTS: Twenty-three cases with 24 MRIs satisfied our inclusion criteria...

BACKGROUND AIMS: Chimeric antigen receptor-T (CAR-T) cells have exhibited remarkable efficacy in treating refractory or relapsed multiple myeloma (R/R MM). Although obesity has a favorable value in enhancing the response to immunotherapy, less is known about its predictive value regarding the efficacy and prognosis of CAR-T cell immunotherapy. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study of 111 patients with R/R MM who underwent CAR-T cell treatment. Using the body mass index (BMI) classification, the patients were divided into a normal-weight group (73/111) and an overweight group (38/111)...

Background: Although ultrasound is considered the gold standard for the evaluation of children with suspected appendicitis, there is still much debate about the most accurate ultrasound findings. The purpose of this study was to define the best ultrasound signs that could ultimately improve the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound for diagnosing pediatric acute appendicitis, and to differentiate between simple appendicitis and complicated appendicitis. Patients and Methods: After approval by our Institutional Review Board, a prospective study was carried out from January 1, 2022, to July 31, 2023, in a pediatric emergency department...

UNLABELLED: The timely identification of microbial pathogens is essential to guide targeted antimicrobial therapy and ultimately, successful treatment of an infection. However, the yield of standard microbiology testing (SMT) is directly related to the duration of antecedent antimicrobial therapy as SMT culture methods are dependent on the recovery of viable organisms, the fastidious nature of certain pathogens, and other pre-analytic factors. In the last decade, metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) has been successfully utilized as a diagnostic tool for various applications within the clinical laboratory...

AIM: The aim of this study was to validate the Delirium Observation Screening Scale (DOSS) in a population of long-term care facility (LTCF) residents in Flanders. Currently there is no validated screening tool for delirium available for the population in this setting in Flanders. METHODS: A multisite, cross-sectional study was conducted in six LTCFs. A total of 338 residents aged 65 years and older were included. Sociodemographic and clinical data, including data from the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) and DOSS, were obtained by three trained nurse researchers...

BACKGROUND: Despite the advanced laboratory technologies available today, blood culture is the gold standard method in the diagnosis of bloodstream infections. Automated blood culture devices give blood culture results for laboratories approximately in 2 - 3 days up to 7 days. Moreover, some microorganisms like nonreproducible bacteria, fungi or viruses cannot be produced in culture. Among all samples taken for blood culture on suspicion of infection approximately 10% are determined as positive whereas the false positive rate due to contamination is 5%...

Mental Status Assessment (MSA) holds significant importance in psychiatry. In recent years, several studies have leveraged Electroencephalogram (EEG) technology to gauge an individual's mental state or level of depression. This study introduces a novel multi-tier ensemble learning approach to integrate multiple EEG bands for conducting mental state or depression assessments. Initially, the EEG signal is divided into eight sub-bands, and then a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM)-based Deep Neural Network (DNN) model is trained for each band...

PURPOSE: Hypertension is an important risk factor in cardio-epidemiological research, but data quality remains a concern. We validated different registry-based definitions of hypertension. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The cohort included all first-time responders of the Danish National Health Surveys (2010, 2013, or 2017). Prescription-defined hypertension was defined as ≥1 or ≥2 filled prescriptions of antihypertensive specific drugs in ≥1 or ≥2 different antihypertensive drug classes within 90, 180, or 365 days before survey response...