Transformation of a single-channel gamma spectrometer into a computer controlled multichannel analyser

Gamma spectrometry is used in the analysis of radionuclides. Usually a spectrometer includes a detector (scintillator and photomultiplier) with a discriminator and a counter. We describe here the construction of the interface between a single-channel gamma spectrometer and an online minicomputer: by adding several (up to 7) parallel counting channels, this system increases the speed and ability of analysis as it scans simultaneously several energy ranges, it accomplishes automatic selection of settings (energy thresholds, time and pulse preset values) and it outputs results to a computer. The noticeable characteristics are its relatively low cost with no modifications to the initial spectrometer.     

Real-time identification and archiving of micro-embolic Doppler signals using a knowledge-based DSP system

Identification of micro-emboli in the cerebral circulation using transcranial Doppler ultrasound provides valuable clinical information, but, currently, embolic signal detection and analysis are significantly limited because they mainly rely on costly off-line analysis by human experts. In this study, a reliable, high-resolution, real-time automated system for the detection and archiving of embolic signals was designed and implemented using expert system theory and modern DSP technology. Preliminary tests were conducted to evaluate the functions and the performance of the system using data from ten carotid endarterectomy patients and two normal volunteers. Using the widely accepted 7 dB threshold for human reliability and a human expert, majority-decision gold standard, the real-time system reached sensitivity and specificity of 93.6% and 99.3%, respectively, which were close to the results obtained by three human experts under ideal laboratory conditions (90.1% and 99.8%, 98.4% and 99.9%, 98.9 and 99.9%). The new system has the potential to be used either as a bedside monitoring and signal acquisition device, or as a laboratory investigation tool.     

Real-time analysis of foetal heart rate patterns using a computer system

The foetal heart rate and uterine contraction curves provide both continuous and real-time information on the foetus. In recent years, attempts have been made to automatically diagnose foetal distress using a computer to provide direct analysis of this information. In the present study, we performed pattern-analysis of the foetal heart rate and uterine contraction curves using a minicomputer on 476 mothers who gave birth at the hospital attached to Hamamatsu University School of Medicine from April 1978 to March 1980. We developed the algorithm for these curves. The algorithm was roughly divided into two groups, original signal process and pattern-recognition algorithms. Following the autocorrelation and noise reduction of original signals, the algorithm was analysed. The algorithmic analysis consisted of the calculation of baseline f.h.r. recognition of deceleration, recognition of uterine contraction, and classification of the deceleration pattern. By using these algorithms, the true diagnostic distribution rate was obtained: early deceleration: 76%, variable deceleration: 88%, late deceleration: 72%, and prolonged deceleration: 81%.     

经皮椎间孔镜治疗腰椎间盘突出并神经根孔狭窄的短期疗效观察

目的评估经皮椎间孔镜(Transforaminal endoscopic spine system,TESSYS)治疗腰椎间盘突出症并神经根孔狭窄的临床疗效。方法回顾性分析2014年6月~2015年12月因腰椎间盘突出并神经根孔狭窄行TESSYS的患者76例和传统经椎间孔椎体间融合(TLIF)手术患者51例,对比两组手术时间、术中出血量、住院时间,术前与术后3个月的VAS和腰椎JOA评分,通过MacN ab功能评价标准评估临床疗效。结果 TESSYS组的手术时间显著低于TLIF组(P0.05),TESSYS组的出血量显著低于TLIF组(P0.01)。TESSYS组患者的住院时间显著低于TLIF组,差异具有统计学意义(P0.01),两组之间术前及术后3月的VAS和JOA评分差异均无统计学意义(P0.05),两组优良率比较差异无统计学意义(P0.05)。结论 TESSYS治疗腰椎间盘突出症并神经根孔狭窄的临床疗效与TILF手术相当,且手术出血少、住院时间短,值得临床推广应用。     

A model for compound action potentials and currents in a nerve bundle II: A sensitivity analysis of model parameters for the forward and inverse calculations

We present a detailed analysis of the sensitivity of simulated Compound Action Current (CAC) and Compound Action Potential (CAP) recordings to specific model parameters, including the Single Fiber Action Currents (SFACs) and Single Fiber Action Potentials (SFAPs) that represent the contributions of each axon in the nerve bundle. In the preceding paper, we described a general method for simulating CACs and CAPs. This method uses a volume conduction model that incorporates the effects of the nerve bundle and other anisotropic properties of the region of the bundle that surrounds an individual nerve axon. In this paper, we present a complete analysis of the effects of incorrectly assigned model parameters on the simulated CAC and CAP. We also investigate the effects of incorrectly assigned parameters, recording noise, and data smoothing on the Conduction Velocity Distributions (CVDs) predicted from the CAC and CAP. We find that the simulated CAC is less sensitive to most of the parameters than is the CAP.     

Adaptive frequency decomposition of EEG with subsequent expert system analysis

We present a hybrid system for automatic analysis of clinical routine EEG, comprising a spectral analysis and an expert system. EEG raw data are transformed into the time–frequency domain by the so-called adaptive frequency decomposition. The resulting frequency components are converted into pseudo-linguistic facts via fuzzification. Finally, an expert system applies symbolic rules formulated by the neurologist to evaluate the extracted EEG features. The system detects artefacts, describes alpha rhythm by frequency, amplitude, and stability and after artefact rejection detects pathologic slow activity. All results are displayed as linguistic terms, numerical values and maps of temporal extent, giving an overview about the clinical routine EEG.     

5 109例中枢神经系统肿瘤WHO新分类统计分析

目的 探讨新的WHO分类在中枢神经系统肿瘤病理诊断及统计学分析中的意义。方法 对1999年7月～2002年6月3年间华山医院诊治的5109例中枢神经系统肿瘤采用免疫细胞化学ABC法及20余种抗体标记，依据WHO神经系统肿瘤新分类作病理诊断，并作统计分析。结果 在5109例肿瘤中，按WHO(2000)分类，属神经系统肿瘤有3981例，其中神经上皮组织肿瘤l498例(占37．64％)，颅脊神经肿瘤536例(占13．46％)，脑膜肿瘤1379例(占34．64％)，其中脑膜上皮组织肿瘤1130例(占28．38％)和脑膜间叶组织肿瘤249例(占6．25％)。未定组织来源肿瘤(血管母细胞瘤)110例(占2．76％)。淋巴瘤和造血组织肿瘤72例(占1．80％)，胚生殖细胞肿瘤52例(占1．32％)，鞍区颅咽管瘤139例(占3．49％)和转移性肿瘤195例(占4．90％)。同期的非神经系统肿瘤，即垂体腺肿瘤1042例(占20．39％)和其他类肿瘤86例(占1．68％)。结论 脑膜肿瘤和神经上皮组织肿瘤中少突胶质细胞肿瘤比例均有升高，认识先进仪器和设备并应用于肿瘤诊断，并认识少突胶质肿瘤病理形态学本质及胶质母细胞瘤新概念，以及坚持WHO分类的原则是重要的。     

The wisdom of crowds in action: Forecasting epidemic diseases with a web-based prediction market system

BackgroundThe quest for an effective system capable of monitoring and predicting the trends of epidemic diseases is a critical issue for communities worldwide. With the prevalence of Internet access, more and more researchers today are using data from both search engines and social media to improve the prediction accuracy. In particular, a prediction market system (PMS) exploits the wisdom of crowds on the Internet to effectively accomplish relatively high accuracy.ObjectiveThis study presents the architecture of a PMS and demonstrates the matching mechanism of logarithmic market scoring rules. The system was implemented to predict infectious diseases in Taiwan with the wisdom of crowds in order to improve the accuracy of epidemic forecasting.MethodsThe PMS architecture contains three design components: database clusters, market engine, and Web applications. The system accumulated knowledge from 126 health professionals for 31 weeks to predict five disease indicators: the confirmed cases of dengue fever, the confirmed cases of severe and complicated influenza, the rate of enterovirus infections, the rate of influenza-like illnesses, and the confirmed cases of severe and complicated enterovirus infection.ResultsBased on the winning ratio, the PMS predicts the trends of three out of five disease indicators more accurately than does the existing system that uses the five-year average values of historical data for the same weeks. In addition, the PMS with the matching mechanism of logarithmic market scoring rules is easy to understand for health professionals and applicable to predict all the five disease indicators.ConclusionsThe PMS architecture of this study affords organizations and individuals to implement it for various purposes in our society. The system can continuously update the data and improve prediction accuracy in monitoring and forecasting the trends of epidemic diseases. Future researchers could replicate and apply the PMS demonstrated in this study to more infectious diseases and wider geographical areas, especially the under-developed countries across Asia and Africa.     

Spatial synchronization of an insole pressure distribution system with a 3D motion analysis system for center of pressure measurements

Insole pressure systems are often more appropriate than force platforms for analysing center of pressure (CoP) as they are more flexible in use and indicate the position of the CoP that characterizes the contact foot/shoe during gait with shoes. However, these systems are typically not synchronized with 3D motion analysis systems. The present paper proposes a direct method that does not require a force platform for synchronizing an insole pressure system with a 3D motion analysis system. The distance separating 24 different CoPs measured optically and their equivalents measured by the insoles and transformed in the global coordinate system did not exceed 2 mm, confirming the suitability of the method proposed. Additionally, during static single limb stance, distances smaller than 7 mm and correlations higher than 0.94 were found between CoP trajectories measured with insoles and force platforms. Similar measurements were performed during gait to illustrate the characteristics of the CoP measured with each system. The distance separating the two CoPs was below 19 mm and the coefficient of correlation above 0.86. The proposed method offers the possibility to conduct new experiments, such as the investigation of proprioception in climbing stairs or in the presence of obstacles.     

Validation of joint angle measurements: comparison of a novel low-cost marker-less system with an industry standard marker-based system

Human motion tracking is widely used for the assessment of movement dysfunction in orthopaedic patients. Currently, most clinical motion analysis centres use marker-based three-dimensional (3D) systems as they are deemed to be the most accurate method. However, due to space, costs and logistics they are not available in many clinical settings. This study compared joint angles measured in functional tests using the novel low-cost Microsoft Kinect Perfect Phorm system with the established marker-based Nexus VICON system. When measuring right and left knee flexion, the average difference between the VICON and Kinect Perfect Phorm measurement was 13.2%, with a SD of 19.6. Both overestimation and underestimation of the joint angle was recorded in different participants. Although the average percentage difference during hip abduction tests was lower at ?3.9%, the range of error was far greater (SD?=?75). From this, it can be concluded that the level of accuracy presented in the new low-cost Kinect Perfect Phorm system is not yet suitable for clinical assessments. However, for general tests of performance, and for tracking cases where absolute accuracy is less critical, future versions of this software may have a place.     

Development of a database system and image viewer to assist in the correlation of histopathologic features and digital image analysis with clinical and molecular genetic information

Pathologists are required to integrate data from multiple sources when making a diagnosis. Furthermore, whole slide imaging (WSI) and next generation sequencing will escalate data size and complexity. Development of well‐designed databases that can allow efficient navigation between multiple data types is necessary for both clinical and research purposes. We developed and evaluated an interactive, web‐based database that integrates clinical, histologic, immunohistochemical and genetic information to aid in pathologic diagnosis and interpretation with nine lung adenocarcinoma cases. To minimize sectioning artifacts, representative blocks were serially sectioned using automated tissue sectioning (Kurabo Industries, Osaka Japan) and selected slides were stained by multiple techniques, (hematoxylin and eosin [H&E], immunohistochemistry [IHC] or fluorescence in situ hybridization [FISH]). Slides were digitized by WSI scanners. An interactive relational database was designed based on a list of proposed fields covering a variety of clinical, pathologic and molecular parameters. By focusing on the three main tasks of 1.) efficient management of textual information, 2.) effective viewing of all varieties of stained whole slide images (WSI), and 3.) assistance in evaluating WSI with computer‐aided diagnosis, this database prototype shows great promise for multi‐modality research and diagnosis.     

Ensemble adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system with weighted arithmetical mean and application to diagnosis of optic nerve disease from visual-evoked potential signals

OBJECTIVE: This paper presents a new method based on combining principal component analysis (PCA) and adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) to diagnose the optic nerve disease from visual-evoked potential (VEP) signals. The aim of this study is to improve the classification accuracy of ANFIS classifier on diagnosis of optic nerve disease from VEP signals. With this aim, a new classifier ensemble based on ANFIS and PCA is proposed. METHODS AND MATERIAL: The VEP signals dataset include 61 healthy subjects and 68 patients suffered from optic nerve disease. First of all, the dimension of VEP signals dataset with 63 features has been reduced to 4 features using PCA. After applying PCA, ANFIS trained using three different training-testing datasets randomly with 50-50% training-testing partition. RESULTS: The obtained classification results from ANFIS trained separately with three different training-testing datasets are 96.87%, 98.43%, and 98.43%, respectively. And then the results of ANFIS trained with three different training-testing datasets randomly with 50-50% training-testing partition have been combined with three different ways including weighted arithmetical mean that proposed firstly by us, arithmetical mean, and geometrical mean. The classification results of ANFIS combined with three different ways are 98.43%, 100%, and 100%, respectively. Also, ensemble ANFIS has been compared with ANN ensemble. ANN ensemble obtained 98.43%, 100%, and 100% prediction accuracy with three different ways including arithmetical mean, geometrical mean and weighted arithmetical mean. CONCLUSION: These results have shown that the proposed classifier ensemble approach based on ANFIS trained with different train-test datasets and PCA has produced very promising results in the diagnosis of optic nerve disease from VEP signals.     

人体赤足形态特征接触面积与身高体质量相关性统计分析

背景:当前法医人类学、人体工程学及足迹学研究均发现足部各信息(如足长、足宽等)与身高、体质量呈现出显著相关性,但国内外文献对有关赤足形态特征接触面积与人体身高、体质量的量化研究尚不完善。目的:分析人体赤足形态特征接触面积与身高、体质量之间相关性,创新法医人类学、人体工程学等相关学科理论体系,为利用赤足足迹进行人身个体识别提供参考。方法:采用足迹学传统平面足迹油墨捺印方法进行样本收集,再利用MATLAB数字软件对足迹对象进行图像处理。测试对象为随机抽取身高分布在165-190 cm之间健康的青壮年男性100名,记录其身高、体质量,获取正常行走步态下的赤足形态特征接触面积并进行统计分析。试验的实施符合《赫尔辛基宣言》和中国刑事警察学院对人体研究的相关伦理要求。结果与结论:在健康青壮年男性正常弓类型(排除中断弓和膨胀弓两种弓区类型)条件下:①人体赤足形态特征接触面积与身高、体质量之间均呈显著正相关(P<0.01),其与人体身高之间关系可被应用于法医人类学、人体工程学、足迹学的身高分析;②身高相较于体质量而言,对人体赤足形态特征接触面积的影响更加显著,更具有直接相关性。     

原发性中枢神经系统淋巴瘤2例临床病理分析并文献复习

目的探讨原发性中枢神经系统淋巴瘤(primary central nervous system lymphoma,PCNSL)的临床特点、病理诊断、治疗及预后。方法对2例PCNSL进行免疫组化染色并复习相关国内外文献。结果 2例PCNSL,1例为间变性大细胞型-T细胞来源,另1例为弥漫性大B细胞型,HIV均阴性。PCNSL临床表现无特异性,颅内压增高、精神失常为常见症状,影像检查缺乏特征性改变,免疫表型以B细胞为主(87.5%～98%),大剂量氨甲蝶呤联合全脑放疗缓解率高。结论 PCNSL术前难以诊断,需依赖病理检查确诊,治疗困难,预后差。     

Data acquisition and on-line analysis of experiments on isolated cardiac muscle with a PDP-12/PDP-11 system

A data-acquisition system has been constructed which collects, reduces, and stores data obtained by digitalisation of contraction curves and transmembrane action potentials. The system consists of an interface directly connected to the experiment, a digital multiplexer, and an interface to a PDP-12/PDP-11 computer system. A maximum of six laboratories with three analogue or 12-bit digital channels each, can be handled simultaneously by the system. The PDP-12, which only serves as a buffer, collects the data from the different laboratories and transmits them to the PDP-11. The data acquisition is controlled by a handler, which runs in the foreground of the PDP-11-foreground/background monitor. By means of a code which heads each data block and which can be chosen by the user, the PDP-11 selects the kind of evaluation, reduces, and stores the data. Because of its flexibility the system can easily be used for other physiological measurements.     

Atypical presentations of solitary fibrous tumors of the central nervous system: an analysis of unusual clinicopathological and outcome patterns in three new cases with a review of the literature

Central nervous system (CNS) solitary fibrous tumors (SFTs) are rare mesenchymal neoplasms recognized less than a decade ago. Approximately 60 cases of SFT have been reported in the central nervous system. We describe three atypical SFTs of the CNS, two intracranial and one within the spine. One intracranial SFT arose from the sella turcica and expanded into the suprasellar areas. It relapsed twice during the 3 years following partial resection, and the MiB1 labeling index steadily increased without obvious malignant transformation. The second SFT arose from the confluence of the sinuses, widely invaded the lateral sinus and adjacent bones, had a low MiB1 index and has not recurred after 5 years. The intraspinal tumor occurred at T5–T7 in a patient with multiple café-au-lait spots, was predominantly myxoid and developed a second similar lesion at S3–S5 14 years later. The MiB1 index was lower in the second tumor. Immunohistochemistry confirmed that all were SFTs. These atypical presentations gave us an opportunity to provide further information about the natural histological course of CNS SFTs.