Technology and Health Care - Volume 32, issue 3

Authors: Yang, Xin-Lei | Ni, Dong-He | Yu, Yang | Zhao, Jin-Cui | Lin, Rui | Xiu, Chao | Chang, Zhe-Xing

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Breast cancer has the second highest mortality rate of all cancers and occurs mainly in women. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) radiomics features and histological grade of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) of the breast and to evaluate its diagnostic efficacy. METHODS: The two conventional MRI quantitative indicators, i.e. the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and the initial enhancement rate, were collected from 112 patients with breast cancer. The breast cancer lesions were manually segmented in dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) and ADC images, the differences in radiomics features between …Grades I, II and III IDCs were compared and the diagnostic efficacy was evaluated. RESULTS: The ADC values (0.77 ± 0.22 vs 0.91 ± 0.22 vs 0.92 ± 0.20, F = 4.204, p < 0.01), as well as the B_sum_variance (188.51 ± 67.803 vs 265.37 ± 77.86 vs 263.74 ± 82.58, F = 6.040, p < 0.01), L_energy (0.03 ± 0.02 vs 0.13 ± 0.11 vs 0.12 ± 0.14, F = 7.118, p < 0.01) and L_sum_average (0.78 ± 0.32 vs 16.34 ± 4.23 vs 015.45 ± 3.74, F = 21.860, p < 0.001) values of patients with Grade III IDC were significantly lower than those of patients with Grades I and II IDC. The B_uniform (0.15 ± 0.12 vs 0.11 ± 0.04 vs 0.12 ± 0.03, F = 3.797, p < 0.01) and L_SRE (0.85 ± 0.07 vs 0.78 ± 0.03 vs 0.79 ± 0.32, F = 3.024, p < 0.01) values of patients with Grade III IDC were significantly higher than those of patients with Grades I and II IDC. All differences were statistically significant (p < 0.05). The ADC radiomics signature model had a higher area-under-the-curve value in identifying different grades of IDC than the ADC value model and the DCE radiomics signature model (0.869 vs 0.711 vs 0.682). The accuracy (0.812 vs 0.647 vs 0.710), specificity (0.731 vs 0.435 vs 0.342), positive predictive value (0.815 vs 0.663 vs 0.669) and negative predictive value (0.753 vs 0.570 vs 0.718) of the ADC radiomics signature model were all significantly better than the ADC value model and the DCE radiomics signature model. CONCLUSION: ADC values and breast MRI radiomics signatures are significant in identifying the histological grades of IDC, with the ADC radiomics signatures having greater value. Show more

Keywords: Invasive ductal carcinoma, magnetic resonance imaging, radiomics, histological grading

DOI: 10.3233/THC-230671

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 1609-1618, 2024

Authors: Wang, Gang | Zhang, Hao-Cheng | Zhang, Si-Jin | Yao, Yan-Yi | Zhao, Yan | Wang, Zeng | Zhang, Ting

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease can be quantified by measuring the fat attenuation index (FAI). OBJECTIVE: To explore the correlations between FAI, high-risk plaque and the degree of coronary artery stenosis. METHODS: The clinical data of patients with coronary atherosclerosis who underwent a coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography examination between July 2020 and June 2023 were selected for retrospective analysis. These patients were classified into a high-risk plaque group and non-high-risk plaque group according to the presence of CT high-risk plaque. The diagnostic value of FAI and FAI combined with the degree of stenosis …was evaluated for CT high-risk plaque. RESULTS: Differences in age, body mass index, smoking history, FAI and the degree of stenosis between the two groups were statistically significant (all P < 0.05). The results of a binary logistic regression analysis revealed that FAI (odds ratio (OR): 1.131, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.101–1.173, P < 0.001) and the degree of stenosis (OR: 1.021, 95% CI: 1.012–1.107, P < 0.001) were risk factors for high-risk plaque. CONCLUSION: The FAI can be used to monitor the inflammation level of the coronary artery; the higher the FAI is, the higher the risk of plaque and degree of stenosis. Show more

Keywords: Coronary computed tomography angiography, peripheral coronary adipose tissue, fat attenuation index, plaque

DOI: 10.3233/THC-230676

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 1619-1628, 2024

Authors: Lei, Jie | Huang, YiJun | Chen, YangLin | Xia, Linglin | Yi, Bo

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Rapid and accurate segmentation of tumor regions from rectal cancer images can better understand the patient’s lesions and surrounding tissues, providing more effective auxiliary diagnostic information. However, cutting rectal tumors with deep learning still cannot be compared with manual segmentation, and a major obstacle to cutting rectal tumors with deep learning is the lack of high-quality data sets. OBJECTIVE: We propose to use our Re-segmentation Method to manually correct the model segmentation area and put it into training and training ideas. The data set has been made publicly available. Methods: A total of 354 rectal …cancer CT images and 308 rectal region images labeled by experts from Jiangxi Cancer Hospital were included in the data set. Six network architectures are used to train the data set, and the region predicted by the model is manually revised and then put into training to improve the ability of model segmentation and then perform performance measurement. RESULTS: In this study, we use the Resegmentation Method for various popular network architectures. CONCLUSION: By comparing the evaluation indicators before and after using the Re-segmentation Method, we prove that our proposed Re-segmentation Method can further improve the performance of the rectal cancer image segmentation model. Show more

Keywords: Medical image, rectal cancer, data set, semantic segmentation

DOI: 10.3233/THC-230690

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 1629-1640, 2024

Authors: Wang, Yu | Li, Jun | Shi, Yulin | Jiang, Tao | Tu, Liping | Xu, Jiatuo

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: The sublingual vein (SV) is a specialized diagnostic method used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Despite its ability to objectively reflect blood flow, SV is often overlooked in clinical practice. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to analyze the core characteristics of SV and investigate the in-depth relationship between its digital characteristics and hypertension. The goal is to find a link between SV and hypertension and break out of the current situation. METHODS: Modern digital analysis techniques were applied to the traditional SV diagnostic theory. In a controlled study with 204 participants, the digital …characteristics of SV were documented using TFDA-1, and its color value was analyzed using TDAS. Morphological characteristics of SV, such as trunklength, width, and tortuosity, were examined by combining computer vision with expert interpretation. This involved the application of automatic ranging methods and a rectangular approximation algorithm, which are novel approaches in the field of TCM. The t -test and Mann-Whitney U test were used to analyze the digital characteristics of SV in hypertension. Binary logistic regression and neural network models were established using machine learning to explore the deep relationship between SV characteristics and hypertension. RESULTS: There was a significant difference of the tortuosity of SV between the two groups (Z = - 2.629, p = 0.009). The results revealed thick width of SV (OR = 2.64, 95% CI: 1.02–6.79) was the risk factor for hypertension. Addition of SV characteristics improved overall percent correct for hypertension prediction to 80%. CONCLUSION: TCM method of diagnosis of SV has been greatly expanded in terms of technical means, and the close relationship between SV and hypertension has been found in clinical data. Show more

Keywords: Sublingual veins, digital characteristics, hypertension

DOI: 10.3233/THC-230695

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 1641-1656, 2024

Authors: Bao, Zhi-Guo | Zhou, Qing | Zhao, Sen | Ren, Wen-Yan | Du, Sen | Li, Yan | Wang, Hang-Yu

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a severe condition with complications that can impact multiple organ systems throughout the body. Specifically, the diffusion of peripancreatic effusion to the pleural cavity is a significant phenomenon in AP. However, its pathways and implications for disease severity are not fully understood. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the anatomical routes of peripancreatic effusion diffusion into the pleural cavity in patients with AP and to analyze the correlation between the severity of pleural effusion (PE) and the computed tomography severity index (CTSI) and acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE …II) scoring system. METHODS: 119 patients with AP admitted to our institution were enrolled in this study (mean age 50 years, 74 male and 45 female). Abdominal CT was performed, and the CTSI and APACHE II index were used to evaluate the severity of the AP, Meanwhile, the prevalence and semiquantitative of PE were also mentioned. The anatomical pathways of peripancreatic effusion draining to pleural were analyzed. Finally, the correlation relationship between the severity of AP and the PE was analyzed. RESULTS: In 119 patients with AP, 74.8% of patients had PE on CT. The anatomic pathways of peripancreatic effusion draining to pleural included esophageal hiatus in 33.7% of patients, aortic hiatus in 6.7% of patients and inferior vena cava hiatus in 3.37% of patients. The rating of PE on CT was correlated with CTSI scores (r = 0.449, P = 0.000) and was slightly correlated with the APACHE II scores (r = 0.197, P = 0.016). CONCLUSION: PE is a common complication of AP, which can be caused by anatomic pathways such as diaphragmatic hiatus. Due to its correlation with the CTSI score, the PE may be a supplementary indicator in determining the severity of AP. Show more

Keywords: Acute pancreatitis, pleural effusion, anatomical pathways, CT

DOI: 10.3233/THC-230702

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 1657-1666, 2024

Authors: Su, Shunqing | Xiong, Disheng | Zeng, Zhijian | Ding, Xiumei | Kuang, Jinan | Lin, Yuechun | Wu, Yongwei

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Pressure ulcers remain a worldwide problem. OBJECTIVE: To introduce an intermittent and feasible wound treatment method for the treatment of pressure ulcers in elderly patients. METHODS: This surgical procedure was performed on eight elderly patients suffering from pressure ulcers. Microskin measuring 0.1 × 0.1 centimeters was cut from a small amount of thin skin and then grafted onto the wound surface in conjunction with closed negative pressure therapy. RESULTS: Seven patients had their wounds closed after a single surgery, while one patient required two surgeries to …close the wound. CONCLUSION: Autologous microskin implantation for the treatment of pressure ulcers in the elderly is an effective method to close the wound, which can prevent the elderly from living with wounds in their later years and is a viable treatment option. Show more

Keywords: Elderly patients, pressure ulcers, skin grafts, vacuum sealing drainage, wound repair

DOI: 10.3233/THC-230707

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 1667-1673, 2024

Authors: Lin, Wan-Rong | Liu, Wei-Qing | Meng, Xuan-Yu | Liu, Xiao-Ting | Kou, Zhi-Yong | Li, Wen-Liang | Yang, Jun

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Despite the advancement of new screening strategies and the advances in pharmacological therapies, the cancerization rates of familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) are stable and even increased in the last years. Therefore, it necessitates additional research to characterize and understand the underlying mechanisms of FAP. OBJECTIVE: To determine the genes that drive the pathogenesis of familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). METHODS: We performed on a cohort (GSE111156) gene profile, which consist of four group of gene expressions (the gene expressions of cancer, adenoma and normal tissue of duodenal cancer from patients with FAP were …defined as Case N, Case A and Case C respectively, while that of adenoma tissue from patients with FAP who did not have duodenal cancer was Ctrl A). Tracking Tumor Immunophenotype (TIP) website was applied to reveal immune infiltration profile and signature genes of FAP. We merged the genes of key module (pink and midnight module) with signature genes to obtained the biomarkers related with FAP pathogenesis. The expression of these five biomarkers in FAP intratumoral region (IT) and tumor rim (TR) was detected with Quantitative Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR). RESULTS: In total, 220, 23 and 63 DEGs were determined in Cases C, A and N, in comparison to Ctrl A. In total, 196 and 10 DEGs were determined in Cases C and A, separately, as compared to Case N. A total of four biomarkers including CCL5, CD3G, CD2 and TLR3 were finally identified associated with pink module, while only one biomarker (KLF2) associated with midnight module was identified. All biomarkers were evidently raised in FAP IT tissues utilizing qRT-PCR. CONCLUSION: We identified five potential biomarkers for pathogenesis of FAP to understand the fundamental mechanisms of FAP progression and revealed some probable targets for the diagnosis or treatment of FAP. Show more

Keywords: Familial adenomatous polyposis, bioinformatics, driver gene, WGCNA, DEGs

DOI: 10.3233/THC-230719

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 1675-1696, 2024

Authors: Sayed, Mohammed E. | Jain, Saurabh | Jokhadar, Hossam F. | Alshahrani, Ahid Amer | AlResayes, Saad Saleh | Alqahtani, Saeed M. | Alqarni, Hatem | Anab, Najwa Ali | Alsubeaie, Nouf H. | Alsubaie, Shaa H. | Khalid, Asaad | Franco, Rocco | Minervini, Giuseppe

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Provisional fixed dental prosthesis (FDP) plays an important role during fixed prosthodontic therapy till the definitive. Discoloration of materials used for provisional FDPs can cause patient dissatisfaction and may create doubt about the color stability of the definitive FDP. Surface roughness is the other major property to be taken into consideration for provisional FDP materials. Smokeless tobacco is reported to affect the color stability and surface roughness of different prosthetic materials. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of two types of smokeless tobacco (black and white) on color stability …and surface roughness of 3D printed, CAD/CAM milled, and conventional provisional FDP resin materials. METHODS: A total of 144 disc-shaped specimens were fabricated using four techniques CAD/CAM subtractive technique (milling), CAD/CAM additive technique (3D Printing), and conventional technique using autopolymerized PMMA, and autopolymerized Bis-acrylic resins. Each group was subdivided into three subgroups of twelve specimens each, and were submerged into three solutions (artificial salivary substitute, black smokeless tobacco, white smokeless tobacco). The change in color and surface roughness was evaluated and the data collected were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: It was observed that black smokeless tobacco caused the maximum color change and the effect was highest in autopolymerized PMMA resin specimens (Δ E = 9.343 ± 0.489), followed by 3D printed (Δ E = 7.187 ± 0.391), autopolymerized Bis-acryl (Δ E = 6.464 ± 0.453) and milled (Δ E = 4.978 ± 0.227). White smokeless tobacco was found to cause a maximum change in surface roughness and the effect was highest in autopolymerized Bis-acryl specimens (Δ Ra = 0.321 ± 0.015 μ m), followed by autopolymerized PMMA (Δ Ra = 0.297± 0.015 μ m), 3D printed (Δ Ra = 0.191 ± 0.019 μ m), and milled (Δ Ra = 0.168 ± 0.014 μ m). Statistically significant (p -value < 0.05) differences were observed among all techniques and solutions. CONCLUSIONS: The change in color and surface roughness were maximum in the case of FDPs prepared using autopolymerizing resins, followed by 3D printed, and CAD/CAM milled reins. Show more

Keywords: Smokeless Tobacco, PMMA; 3D printing, CAD/CAM Milling, color stability, surface roughness, Provisional fixed dental prosthesis

DOI: 10.3233/THC-230723

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 1697-1711, 2024

Authors: Wang, Ping | Shen, Yue | Chen, Jinghan | Li, Qianwen | Tong, Lin | Li, Xitao

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Beamforming is vital for medical ultrasound imaging systems. The generalized sidelobe canceller (GSC) beamforming can improve the image quality of lateral resolution, but its performance improvement in contrast and robustness is limited. OBJECTIVE: This paper proposes an improved generalized sidelobe canceller algorithm based on multi-apodization with cross-correlation (MAXB-IGSC), which aims to improve the contrast and robustness of ultrasound imaging while maintaining the high image resolution and background speckle quality of GSC. METHODS: The proposed MAXB-IGSC uses multiple pairs of complementary received apodization functions to process the echo data individually to obtain multiple …pairs of data sets. The average of their normalized cross-correlation coefficients is then calculated and utilized to determine the adaptive subarray length of the GSC covariance matrix and weights the output of the improved GSC. RESULTS: The MAXB-IGSC improves the contrast ratio (CR) by 171.18% in anechoic cyst simulation and by 91.23%/130.97%/171.76% in geabr_0 (a dataset from the University of Michigan) experiment compared with GSC, respectively. Furthermore, MAXB-IGSC exhibits significant noise immunity, which greatly improves the robustness of the imaging. The technology also maintains the brightness and uniformity of the background speckle. CONCLUSION: The proposed MAXB-IGSC has potential for obtaining high-quality ultrasound images in clinical applications. Show more

Keywords: Ultrasound imaging, cross-correlation coefficient, adaptive subarray length, robustness

DOI: 10.3233/THC-230724

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 1713-1731, 2024

Authors: Pan, Yanyan | Wu, Xiujuan | Zhu, Miao | Zhang, Tingting | Gao, Lanlan | Zhu, Yamei | Mao, Huijuan | Lv, Xiaolin | Sun, Guozhen

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: The main treatment method for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is maintenance hemodialysis (MHD). With the continuous improvement of dialysis technology, the survival period of MHD patients has been effectively prolonged, but dialysis technology still cannot completely replace renal function. OBJECTIVE: To study the dietary compliance and its correlation with thirst in MHD patients and to provide guidance for clinical development of corresponding intervention countermeasures. METHODS: A total of 90 patients who received MHD treatment from March 2021 to March 2022 were selected as objects. The Renal Adherence Attitudes Questionnaire (RAAQ) and the …Renal Adherence Behaviour Questionnaire (RABQ) were used to analyze the dietary compliance and thirst status of patients. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between diet compliance and thirst. RESULTS: Positive correlations were found between VAS and DTI, SXI and TDS (P < 0.05). Social restrictive attitude was positively correlated with VAS, DTI, SXI, TDS, acceptance attitude and compliance in facing difficulties (P < 0.05), and negatively correlated with self-care compliance (r = - 0.35, P < 0.05). Health attitude was positively correlated with VAS, DTI and SXI (P < 0.05). Acceptance attitude was positively correlated with DTI, SXI and TDS (P < 0.05). High RAAQ was associated with high VAS (b = 0.11, 95% CI: 0.05, 0.18), DTI (b = 0.28, 95% CI: 0.17, 0.38), SXI (b = 0.24, 95% CI: 0.14, 0.34) and TDS (b = 0.26, 95% CI: 0.13, 0.4). CONCLUSION: The overall performance of dietary compliance in patients with MHD is at a moderate level, and dietary compliance is negatively correlated with disease perception. Show more

Keywords: End-stage renal disease, maintenance hemodialysis, thirst, RAAQ, RABQ

DOI: 10.3233/THC-230749

Citation: Technology and Health Care, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 1733-1743, 2024