Greek Version of the Internet Addiction Test: A Validation Study

The aim of this project was to translate, culturally adapt and validate the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) in Greek adults. Twenty-one post-graduate medical students participated in the cultural adaptation procedure and 151 both post- and under-graduate medical students in the validation process. The internal consistency shown by a Cronbach’s alpha was 0.91. Two-week test–retest reliability was r_tt = 0.84, p < 0.001. Face validity was affirmed by 83.6 % of the students. In terms of convergent validity, the hours of daily internet use were positively correlated with IAT score (rho = 0.48, p < 0.001). Moreover, IAT scores were higher in students that reported use of online gambling (40.5 vs 29.2, p = 0.004), pornographic sites (36.5 vs 28.0, p = 0.003) and online games (35.6 vs 28.2, p = 0.009). Exploratory factor analysis revealed three interpretable factors for the IAT, “Psychological/Emotional Conflict”, “Time Management” and “Neglect Work”, that showed good internal consistency and concurrent validity, explaining 55.3 % of the variance. The Greek version of IAT has shown good psychometric properties, comparable with the original IAT and the previously published translated versions, and can be a useful tool in future studies on internet addiction.     

Improvement method for cervical cancer detection: A comparative analysis

Cervical cancer is a prevalent and deadly cancer that affects women all over the world. It affects about 0.5 million women anually and results in over 0.3 million fatalities. Diagnosis of this cancer was previously done manually, which could result in false positives or negatives. The researchers are still contemplating how to detect cervical cancer automatically and how to evaluate Pap smear images. Hence, this paper has reviewed several detection methods from the previous researches that has been done before. This paper reviews pre-processing, detection method framework for nucleus detection, and analysis performance of the method selected. There are four methods based on a reviewed technique from previous studies that have been running through the experimental procedure using Matlab, and the dataset used is established Herlev Dataset. The results show that the highest performance assessment metric values obtain from Method 1: Thresholding and Trace region boundaries in a binary image with the values of precision 1.0, sensitivity 98.77%, specificity 98.76%, accuracy 98.77% and PSNR 25.74% for a single type of cell. Meanwhile, the average values of precision were 0.99, sensitivity 90.71%, specificity 96.55%, accuracy 92.91% and PSNR 16.22%. The experimental results are then compared to the existing methods from previous studies. They show that the improvement method is able to detect the nucleus of the cell with higher performance assessment values. On the other hand, the majority of current approaches can be used with either a single or a large number of cervical cancer smear images. This study might persuade other researchers to recognize the value of some of the existing detection techniques and offer a strong approach for developing and implementing new solutions.     

The clinical spectrum of postpartum thyroid disease

The clinical and biochemical features of postpartum thyroid disease were analysed in 152 antithyroid peroxidase antibody-positive (anti TPO+ve) women and compared with 239 anti-TPO-ve age-matched control postpartum women. All were assessed monthly for up to 12 months postpartum. Seventy three anti-TPO+ve women developed post-partum thyroiditis (PPT): 19.2% hyperthyroid alone, 49.3% hypothyroid alone, and 31.5% characterized by hyper- followed by hypothyroidism. None of the antibody-negative women developed any thyroid dysfunction. A significant increase in many of eleven symptoms of hypothyroidism and some of eight symptoms of hyperthyroidism compared to control women was observed in all anti-TPO+ve women, independent of thyroid status. This was particularly seen in women who later developed PPT when they were euthyroid, but was also observed in euthyroid anti-TPO+ve women who showed no decline of thyroid function during the postpartum period. Although PPT is usually transient, this condition, and the euthyroid antibody-positive state, may be associated with significant symptomatology, including an increased incidence of minor to moderate depression. Early recognition of this syndrome by antenatal screening of thyroid antibodies may contribute to improved management of women during the postpartum period.      

RAGE: a new frontier in chronic airways disease

Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are heterogeneous inflammatory disorders of the respiratory tract characterized by airflow obstruction. It is now clear that the environmental factors that drive airway pathology in asthma and COPD, including allergens, viruses, ozone and cigarette smoke, activate innate immune receptors known as pattern-recognition receptors, either directly or indirectly by causing the release of endogenous ligands. Thus, there is now intense research activity focused around understanding the mechanisms by which pattern-recognition receptors sustain the airway inflammatory response, and how these mechanisms might be targeted therapeutically. One pattern-recognition receptor that has recently come to attention in chronic airways disease is the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE). RAGE is a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily of cell surface receptors that recognizes pathogen- and host-derived endogenous ligands to initiate the immune response to tissue injury, infection and inflammation. Although the role of RAGE in lung physiology and pathophysiology is not well understood, recent genome-wide association studies have linked RAGE gene polymorphisms with airflow obstruction. In addition, accumulating data from animal and clinical investigations reveal increased expression of RAGE and its ligands, together with reduced expression of soluble RAGE, an endogenous inhibitor of RAGE signalling, in chronic airways disease. In this review, we discuss recent studies of the ligand–RAGE axis in asthma and COPD, highlight important areas for future research and discuss how this axis might potentially be harnessed for therapeutic benefit in these conditions.     

Hand‐foot‐skin reaction related to use of the multikinase inhibitor sorafenib and hard orthotics

Hand‐foot‐skin reaction is a distinct clinical condition arising in association with the use of multikinase inhibitors, including sorafenib. Because multikinase inhibitors are increasingly being used in children with cancer, recognition of this previously unfamiliar condition is of importance to pediatric dermatologists. We describe the diagnosis and successful treatment of a case of hand‐foot‐skin reaction in a child taking sorafenib for an unresectable desmoid tumor.