Technology and Health Care - Volume 31, issue 3

Authors: Minervini, Giuseppe | Cervino, Gabriele | Chaturvedi, Saurabh | Franco, Rocco | di Francesco, Fabrizio | Fiorillo, Luca | Cicciù, Marco

Article Type: Review Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Edentulism conducts to a recognized impairment of oral function with both aesthetic and psychological changes. These patients suffer from a multiplicity of problems with their dentures, such as insufficient stability, retention and pain during mastication. The rehabilitation of a part edentulous patient can be established using a wide range of prosthetic treatment options. The overdenture treatment uses a removable total denture that overlies retained teeth, tooth roots, or dental implants. In the literature it was shown that patients with removable overdentures supported and retained either by tooth roots or implants have more predictable prosthodontic outcomes. …OBJECTIVE: The aim of this review is to provide an overview on the overdenture with a focus on the tooth-supported telescopic overdenture. METHODS: The literature research was performed in the Scopus, Web of Science, and Pubmed electronic databases. Document type was limited to papers written in English, without time restrictions. The Review was recorded in the international PROSPERO (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews) database with the following number CRD42022326415. RESULTS: A total of 256 articles published were found from electronic searches, Two independent reviewers carried out the screening and the selection process for the studies. First, duplicate citations were eliminated. Then, the two Authors independently screened the retrieved articles by title and abstract of each citation to determine its suitability for inclusion. Finally, 13 full-text articles satisfied the inclusion criteria. CONCLUSION: Prostheses supported by Frictional telescopic crowns offer an effective treatment alternative for patients with Severely reduced dentitions who do not want implant treatment or complete dentures. Show more

Keywords: Jaw rehabilitation, overdenture, tooth-supported telescopic, full arch rehabilitation, implant

DOI: 10.3233/THC-220641

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 791-807, 2023

Authors: Tian, Xiufen | Zheng, Juan | Luo, Yuanyuan | Wei, Chengshi | Ma, Jing | Wang, Dawei | Li, Keyi

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: DNA methylation plays a vital role as an epigenetic change that contributes to chronic periodontitis. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to integrate two methylation datasets (GSE173081 and GSE59962) and two gene expression datasets (GSE10334 and GES16134) to identify abnormally methylated differentially expressed genes related to chronic periodontitis. METHODS: Differentially methylated genes were obtained. Functional enrichment analysis of DMGs was performed. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed using STRING and Cytoscape software. Finally, the hub genes were selected from the PPI network by using CytoHubba. RESULTS: In total, 122 hypomethylated …and highly expressed genes were enriched in the biological mechanisms that are involved in the differentiation of extracellular matrix organization, extracellular structure organization, and cell chemotaxis. The three selected hub genes of the PPI network were IL1B, KDR, and MMP9. A total of 122 hypermethylated and lowly expressed genes were identified, and biological processes, such as cornification, epidermis development, skin development, and keratinocyte differentiation were enriched. CDSN DSG1, and KRT2 were identified as the top 3 hub genes of the PPI network. CONCLUSION: Based on the comprehensive bioinformatics analysis, six hub genes (IL1B, KDR, MMP9, CDSN DSG1, and KRT2) were associated with chronic periodontitis. Our findings provide novel insights into the mechanisms underlying epigenetic changes in chronic periodontitis. Show more

Keywords: Periodontitis, methylation, transcription, bioinformatic analysis, protein-protein interaction, hub genes

DOI: 10.3233/THC-220137

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 809-819, 2023

Authors: An, Yang | Xie, Ling | Liu, Yu | Wu, Po | Li, Hao | Jiang, Ji | Zhang, Zhengrui | Yang, Shuyong

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: When the jaw bone is subjected to an external force, the stress is transmitted from the force point along the alveolar bone to the skull and skull base. In the case of a dental implant, the stress distribution is mainly dependent on the implant position, type, and mechanical properties. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the dental implant position influence on the stress distribution and transmission in case of facial frontal trauma. Furthermore, the correlation between facial trauma and skull trauma in the case of a dental implant exists. METHODS: In this study, a Finite …Element Method (FEM) model was constructed based on a real skull shape, size, and anatomy. Dental implants were modeled based on imported CAD Data. Five cases were investigated including no dental implant and the replacement of teeth no. 18, 19 20 and 21. Facial trauma was mimicked by applying an external load on the lower frontal jaw. Finally, the stress distribution based on the bone geometry and implant position were evaluated and compared. RESULTS: Results suggested that a dental implant could significantly influence the stress distribution in the skull in case of facial trauma. In addition, the dental position greatly affects stress transmission from the mandible to the skull bones through the zygomatic arch. CONCLUSION: The position of the dental implant could have a significant role in stress transmission and distribution in case of facial or even brain trauma. Thus, increasing the possibility of a correlation between facial and brain trauma. Show more

Keywords: Dental implant, facial trauma, trauma complications, finite element analysis, stress distribution

DOI: 10.3233/THC-220148

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 821-829, 2023

Authors: Duan, Lian | Dang, Guangfu | Ge, Jinling | Gao, Yang | Wang, Lihua

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Aspheric intraocular lens (IOLs) implantation has been widely applied in cataract surgery. However, there is no consensus on the optimal guidance for the operations in IOLs implantation. OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the visual function of Chinese cataract patients six months after cataract surgery with two different guiding ideologies. METHODS: We evaluated 50 patients (61 eyes) with implantation of different aspheric IOLs (SN60WF IOLs, ZCB00 IOLs, PY-60AD IOLs, AO IOLs) 6 months after cataract surgery. Twenty-four patients (30 eyes) under individual implantation were ascribed to group 1 and 26 patients (31 eyes) with …randomized implantation were ascribed to the control group (group 2). Postoperatively parameters included monocular best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), contrast sensitivity (CS), total spherical aberration Z (4, 0) at 5 mm pupil size, and patient satisfaction. The quality of life after operation was assessed through the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire-25 (NEI VFQ-25). RESULTS: Six months after cataract operation, the contrast sensitivity with glare of group 1 at 2.5 ∘ was 0.697 ± 0.027, and 0.532 ± 0.049 in group 2. Besides, there was no significant difference at any other special frequency. The mean spherical aberration Z (4, 0) at 5 mm pupil size in group 1 was 0.015 ± 0.028 um, and in group 2 was 0.043 ± 0.109 um, with a significant difference (p < 0.01). The mean scores obtained from NEI VFQ-25 were not significantly different. CONCLUSION: It is effective to implant aspheric IOLs individually according to preoperative corneal spherical aberration. Patients obtained better contrast sensitivity with glare at 2.5 ∘ , but there was no significant difference in BCVA, contrast sensitivity at other special frequency, and subjective visual function. Show more

Keywords: Visual function, cataract, aspheric intraocular lens implantation, best-corrected visual acuity, contrast sensitivity

DOI: 10.3233/THC-220154

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 831-839, 2023

Authors: Zhao, Huairui | Hua, Jia | Geng, Xiaochuan | Xu, Jianrong | Guo, Yi | Suo, Shiteng | Zhou, Yan | Wang, Yuanyuan

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: High-precision detection for individual and clustered microcalcifications in mammograms is important for the early diagnosis of breast cancer. Large-scale differences between the two types and low-contrast images are major difficulties faced by radiologists when performing diagnoses. OBJECTIVE: Deep learning-based methods can provide end-to-end solutions for efficient detection. However, multicenter data bias, the low resolution of network inputs, and scale differences between microcalcifications lead to low detection rates. Aiming to overcome the aforementioned limitations, we propose a pyramid feature network for microcalcification detection in mammograms, MicroDMa, with adaptive image adjustment and shortcut connections. METHODS: …First, mammograms from multiple centers are represented as histograms and cropped by adaptive image adjustment, which mitigates the impact of dataset bias. Second, the proposed shortcut connection pyramid network ensures that the feature map contains more information for multiscale objects, while a shortcut path that jumps over layers enhances the efficiency of feature propagation from bottom to top. Third, the weights of each feature map at different scales in the fusion are trainable; thus, the network can automatically learn the contributions of all feature maps in the fusion stage. RESULT: Experiments were conducted on our in-house dataset and the public dataset INbreast. When the average number of positives per image is one on the in-house dataset, the recall rates of MicroDMa are the 96.8% for individual microcalcification and 98.9% for clustered microcalcification, which are higher than 69.1% and 91.2% achieved by recent deep learning model. Free-response receiver operating characteristic curve of MicroDMa is also higher than other methods when models are performed on INbreast. CONCLUSION: MicroDMa network is better than other methods and it can effectively help radiologists detect and identify two types of microcalcifications in clinical applications. Show more

Keywords: Deep learning, detection, pyramid network, mammography, breast microcalcification, convolutional neural network

DOI: 10.3233/THC-220235

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 841-853, 2023

Authors: Lee, Youngho | Kim, Sun Kyung | Yoon, Hyoseok | Choi, Jongmyung | Go, Younghye | Park, Gun Woo

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Smart glass technology offers remote interaction between health professionals for telehealth, alleviating healthcare disparities in isolated areas. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the professionals’ perceptions of smart glass technology as a tool for telehealth and distance learning. METHOD: This mixed-method study on health professionals in 10 different island areas in Korea involved participants experiencing a smart glass-based telehealth system using the scenario of clinical consultation with remote specialists. A group pre- and post-test design was used to examine the change in attitude and perceived importance among health professionals about using smart glasses in telehealth. …RESULTS: Forty-seven participants completed both pre-and post-evaluation of smart glasses. A positive, statistically significant change in participants’ perceptions of smart glasses regarding their implications for telehealth and distance learning (p < 0.05) was found. Fifty-one health workers provided feedback on smart glasses, and a majority expressed their expectations of quality care with telehealth using advanced technology. The main concerns were patients’ privacy issues and inadequate technology for seamless application. CONCLUSION: The incorporation of smart glass technology offers great potential to enrich telehealth as well as distance learning for unskilled health professionals in isolated areas. Future studies are needed to increase efforts to secure a high level of acceptance for clinical consultation with remote specialists on this newly developed device. Show more

Keywords: Smart glasses, telehealth, isolated areas, health professionals

DOI: 10.3233/THC-220242

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 855-865, 2023

Authors: Pushpa, B. | Baskaran, B. | Vivekanandan, S. | Gokul, P.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Fatty liver disease is a common condition caused by excess fat in the liver. It consists of two types: Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, also called alcoholic steatohepatitis, and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). As per epidemiological studies, fatty liver encompasses 9% to 32% of the general population in India and affects overweight people. OBJECTIVE: An Optimized Support Vector Machine with Support Vector Regression model is proposed to evaluate the volume of liver fat by image analysis (LFA-OSVM-SVR). METHOD: The input computed tomography (CT) liver images are collected from the Chennai liver foundation …and Liver Segmentation (LiTS) datasets. Here, input datasets are pre-processed using Gaussian smoothing filter and bypass filter to reduce noise and improve image intensity. The proposed U-Net method is used to perform the liver segmentation. The Optimized Support Vector Machine is used to classify the liver images as fatty liver image and normal images. The support vector regression (SVR) is utilized for analyzing the fat in percentage. RESULTS: The LFA-OSVM-SVR model effectively analyzed the liver fat from CT scan images. The proposed approach is activated in python and its efficiency is analyzed under certain performance metrics. CONCLUSION: The proposed LFA-OSVM-SVR method attains 33.4%, 28.3%, 25.7% improved accuracy with 55%, 47.7%, 32.6% lower error rate for fatty image classification and 30%, 21%, 19.5% improved accuracy with 57.9%, 46.5%, 31.76% lower error rate for normal image classificationthan compared to existing methods such as Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) with Fractional Differential Enhancement (FDE) (CNN-FDE), Fully Convolutional Networks (FCN) and Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) (FCN-NMF), and Deep Learning with Fully Convolutional Networks (FCN) (DL-FCN). Show more

Keywords: CT scans, deep learning, liver fat, image analysis, liver segmentation, support vector regression, visual image processing

DOI: 10.3233/THC-220254

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 867-886, 2023

Authors: Ryu, JongSong | Hong, SunChol | Liang, Shili | Pak, SinIl | Zhang, Lei | Wang, Suqiu | Lian, Yueqi

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: The imaging photoplethysmography (iPPG) method is a non-invasive, non-contact measurement method that uses a camera to detect physiological indicators. On the other hand, wearing a mask has become essential today when COVID-19 is rampant, which has become a new challenge for heart rate (HR) estimation from facial videos recorded by a camera. OBJECTIVE: The aim is to propose an iPPG-based method that can accurately estimate HR with or without a mask. METHODS: First, the facial regions of interest (ROI) were divided into two sub-ROIs, and the original signal was obtained through spatial …averaging with different weights according to the result of judging whether wearing a mask or not, and the CDF, which emphasizes the main component signal, was combined with the improved POS suitable for real-time HR estimation to obtain the noise-removed BVP signal. RESULTS: For self-collected data while wearing a mask, MAE, RMSE, and ACC were 1.09 bpm, 1.44 bpm, and 99.08%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Experimental results show that the proposed framework can estimate HR stably in real-time in both cases of wearing a mask or not. This study expands the application range of HR estimation based on facial videos and has very practical value in real-time HR estimation in daily life. Show more

Keywords: Heart rate (HR), real-time, mask, imaging photoplethysmography (iPPG), spatial averaging

DOI: 10.3233/THC-220322

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 887-900, 2023

Authors: Jing, Gao | Xia, Zhang | Lei, Quan

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Genetic manipulation on the NO-sGC-cGMP pathway has been rarely achieved, partially due to complexity of the soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) enzyme. OBJECTIVE: We aim to develop gene therapy directly targeting the pathway to circumvent cytotoxicity and tolerance after prolonged use of NO-donors and the insufficiency of PDE inhibitors. METHODS: In this study, we constructed lentivirus vectors expressing GUCY1A3 and GUCY1B3 genes, which encoded the α 1 and β 1 subunits of soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC), respectively, to enhance cGMP synthesis. We also constructed lentiviral vector harboring …PDE5A shRNA to alleviate phosphodiesterase activity and cGMP degradation. RESULTS: Transductions of human HEK293 cells with the constructs were successful, as indicated by the fluorescent signal and altered gene expression produced by each vector. Overexpression of GUCY1A3 and GUCY1B3 resulted in increased sGC enzyme activity and elevated cGMP level in the cells. Expression of PDE5A shRNA resulted in decreased PDE5A expression and elevated cGMP level. Co-transduction of the three lentiviral vectors resulted in a more significant elevation of cGMP in HEK293 cells without obvious cytotoxicity. CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to show that co-expression of exogenous subunits of the soluble guanylyl cyclase could form functional enzyme and increase cellular cGMP level in mammalian cells. Simultaneous expression of PDE5A shRNA could alleviate feedback up-regulation on PDE5A caused by cGMP elevation. Further studies are required to evaluate the effects of these constructs in vivo . Show more

Keywords: Soluble guanylyl cyclase, PDE5A, lentiviral vector, cGMP, gene therapy

DOI: 10.3233/THC-220333

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 901-910, 2023

Authors: Jiang, Yunfei | Zhang, Shuang

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: The impact of the current most effective vibration frequency on the balance ability of the elderly needs further verification. OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect of whole-body vibration training (WBVT) at three different frequencies on the balance ability of older women. METHODS: Ninety-three older women were randomly divided into low frequency (15 Hz), intermediate frequency (30 Hz), high-frequency (45 Hz), and control groups. The subjects in the vibration group underwent WBVT of the same amplitude twice a week for approximately 15 min per session. RESULTS: The speed of movement of …the centre of pressure in the left and right directions with eyes closed was 7.9% lower in the static balance ability test in the intermediate frequency group after 36 weeks (P < 0.05). In the high frequency group, after WBVT, the total length of centre of pressure movement and speed of centre of pressure movement in the left and right directions were 9.9% and 8.7% lower, respectively, in the dynamic balance test (P < 0.05), and the speed of closed eye movement in the left and right directions was 12.5% lower in the static balance test (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: WBVT at 30 and 45 Hz improved static balance in the right and left directions when older women had their eyes closed. WBVT at 45 Hz improved dynamic balance in the right and left directions in older women, and WBVT did not improve static balance in older women when their eyes were open. Show more

Keywords: Whole-body vibration training, different frequencies, older women, balance

DOI: 10.3233/THC-220343

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 911-919, 2023