儿童分泌性中耳炎听力测试中的护理干预

目的探讨分泌性中耳炎患儿声导抗与纯音听阈测试检查听力的护理干预方法。方法选择2012年4-12月到本科就医的分泌性中耳炎患儿48例,随机分为观察组和对照组（各24例）,对两组患儿听力测试完成情况及测试耗时进行比较。结果观察组患儿能主动配合检查,完成率为91．67％,耗时相对较短,平均用时（18．72±9．63）min;对照组患儿主动配合检查完成率为62．50％,检测平均耗时（21．50±11．93）min,两组差异有统计学意义（P〈0．05）。结论护理干预能有效地确保听力测试的顺利完成及数据的准确性,并明显缩短了测试时间,提高工作效率。     

Induction of virus-specific neutralizing immune response against West Nile and Japanese encephalitis viruses by chimeric peptides representing T-helper and B-cell epitopes

West Nile virus (WNV) and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), the members of JEV serocomplex group are pathogens of global health concern. The co-circulation of these viruses poses challenges in effective diagnostics due to antigenic similarity between the E-protein of these viruses. The present study aimed to design chimeric peptides and study the immune response against the same. B-cell epitopes were predicted on structural proteins of WNV and JEV based on bioinformatics tools. The peptides representing to these B-cell epitopes were synthesized and subjected to ELISA. Two peptides, one each from WNV (named WE147) and JEV (named JE40) E-protein, showed virus-specific and strong reactivity to the immune mice sera and human clinical samples. The chimeric peptides for WNV and JEV were constructed by synthesizing the B-cell epitope of WNV (WE147) or JEV (JE40) with T-helper epitope (JM17) separated by diglycine spacer in between. The immune response generated against these chimeric peptides was found to be specific to the respective B-cell epitopes. The anti-peptide sera showed virus-specific reactivity in ELISA and in immunofluorescence assay with no cross-reactivity. Also, the anti-peptide sera could neutralize JE and WN viruses in an in vitro virus neutralization assay. The B-cell epitopes identified in the present study may be used as diagnostic markers for differentiating between WN and JE virus infections. The present study can form a basis for future design of vaccines.     

Early operative mortality after surgical treatment of bronchogenic carcinoma

Background A retrospective analysis of the results of pulmonary resection over a 7 years period for bronchogenic carcinoma was performed. Methods Three hundred and eleven patients with primary bronchogenic carcinoma were operated upon at Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, Kashmir, between January 1996 to June 2002. There were 62 pneumonectomies (19.93%), 174 lobectomies (55.94%) and 75 lesser resections (24.11%). Results The overall operative mortality was 4.82%. The mortality rate for pneumonectomy, lobectomy and lesser resections were 9.6%, 4.5% and 1.3% respectively. There was no significant difference in operative mortality between pneumonectomy and lobectomy, and between lobectomy and lesser resections. Post operative mortality rate increased as the age of patient increased. Mortality was 2.3;2.9;5.0;7.41; and 14.2 in the age groups of <50 years, 50–59 years, 60–69 years, 70–79 years and 80 years and above respectively. Pneumonia and respiratory failure caused most deaths (46.66%). Conclusions Pulmonary resections can be performed with satisfactory mortality and morbidity in bronchogenic carcinoma.     

Diagnosis and management of benign fibro‐osseous lesions of the jaws: a current review for the dental clinician

Benign fibro‐osseous lesions of the maxillofacial skeleton constitute a heterogeneous group of disorders that includes developmental, reactive (dysplastic) and neoplastic lesions. Although their classification has been reviewed multiple times in the past, the most common benign fibro‐osseous lesions are fibrous dysplasia, osseous dysplasia and ossifying fibroma. For the dental clinician, the challenges involve diagnosis and treatment (or lack thereof). A careful correlation of all clinical, radiologic and microscopic features is essential to establish a proper diagnosis and a clear treatment plan. This article aimed to review the clinical, radiologic and histopathologic characteristics of benign fibro‐osseous lesions of the jaws, with emphasis on their differential diagnoses. With a deeper understanding of benign fibro‐osseous lesions, clinicians will be better prepared to manage these lesions in their practice.     

Texture-Based Medical Image Compression

Image processing is one of the most researched areas these days due to the flooding of the internet with an overload of images. The noble medicine industry is not left untouched. It has also suffered with an excess of patient record storage and maintenance. With the advent of automation of the industries in the world, the medicine industry has sought to change and provide a more portable feel to it, leading to the fields of telemedicine and such. Our algorithm comes in handy in such scenarios where large amount of data needs to be transmitted over the network for perusal by another consultant. We aim for a visual quality approach in our algorithm rather than pixel-wise fidelity. We utilize parameters of edges and textures as the basic parameters in our compression algorithm.     

Influence of facial skin attributes on the perceived age of Caucasian women

Background and objective The facial appearance of a person does not always reflect the chronological age; some people look younger or older than they really are. Many studies have described the changes in skin properties (colour, wrinkles, sagging, micro relief, etc.) with age, but few of them have analysed their influence on the perceived age. The primary objective of this study was to assess the contribution of individual skin attributes of the face on the perceived age of Caucasian women. Secondary objectives were to assess the influence of age and gender of graders with regard to the age perception. Subjects and method A random sample of 173 subjects of 20 to 74 years of age was taken from a database of more than 5000 healthy Caucasian women. A trained grader performed visual assessment of facial skin attributes (using a visual analogue scale), and a front face photograph was taken from each subject. Photographs were shown to 48 graders (20 men and 28 women, aged 22–64 years) who were asked to estimate the age of the subjects. Graders were classified as young (less than 35 years), middle age (35–50 years) and seniors (older than 50 years). Partial Least Square regression models were built to predict the chronological and the perceived age from the measured facial individual attributes. The contribution of each attribute within the regression model enabled to measure the relevance of this attribute with regards to age prediction. Results The eye area and the skin colour uniformity were the main attributes related to perceived age. For age prediction, older graders’ estimations were more driven by lips border definition shape and eyes opening, whereas younger graders’ (older than 50 years) estimations were more driven by dark circles, nasolabial fold and brown spots. There were statistically significant differences in graders’ age perception between gender and among age ranges. Our findings suggest that female graders are more accurate than male, and younger graders (under 35 years) are more accurate than older (over 50 years) to predict Caucasian women age from facial photographs. Conclusions Different skin attributes influence the estimation of age. These attributes have a different weight in the evaluation of the perceived age, depending on the age and of the observer. The most important attributes to estimate age are eyes, lips and skin colour uniformity.