Bratisl Med J
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The last two decades have been leading to the development of several types of surgical techniques and procedures to manage the LHB lesions. This paper analyses and compares the difference in muscle strength pre- and post-operatively in two most commonly used surgical procedures - LHB tenotomy and tenodesis. ⋯ The study confirmed that the patients who had undergone LHB tenodesis show a significantly lower decrease in elbow flexion strength and a significantly lower incidence of "Popeye" deformity than the patients after LHB tenotomy. Moreover, in the tenodesis group, it was possible to initiate rehabilitation earlier. The incidence of postoperative complications was almost identical in both groups of patients (Tab. 10, Fig. 6, Ref. 40).
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Interferon gamma release assay (IGRA) is an in vitro blood test to measure interferon gamma (IFN-γ) released from antigen-specific T cells after stimulation with pathogen-specific peptides. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the T-cell response using IGRA and to compare various laboratory values in Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) patients hospitalized either in hospital inpatient departments or in intensive care units. ⋯ The relatively higher IGRA negative results in the elderly, negative and intermediate results in intensive-care patients, and low lymphocyte levels in intensive-care patients indicate that the cellular immune response is diminished and/or absent. The death rates, D-dimer, CRP, procalcitonin, AST and ALT values of the patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit were higher compared to those from the in-patient department, indicating the severity of inflammation and signaling the development of organ failure. In the light of these findings, we suggest that IGRA tests may serve as a guide in immunomodulatory therapy (Tab. 2, Fig. 2, Ref. 27). Text in PDF www.elis.sk Keywords: COVID-19, interferon gamma release assay test, T cell response.
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Lyme disease. Our second goal was to identify bacterial and viral co-infections occurring concurrently with Lyme disease. Furthermore, it was our intention to also analyze the correlation of laboratory testing with the occurrence of erythema migrans (EM). ⋯ The comparison of results obtained by ELISA and Western blot revealed significant discrepancies. Simultaneous infections by vectors with several pathogens were detected (Tab. 3, Fig. 2, Ref. 15).
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Despite being the second most often diagnosed form of cancer, lung cancers are rarely found in the general population. It is proposed in this study to employ a methodology of extracting both global and local features from CT scan images for the identification of lung cancer. Data gathering, globalised and localised training as well as testing the model are all part of this structure. ⋯ One might get 90%‑accurate results with SVM and 91%‑sensitive and 91%‑specific results using SVM plus HOG features. Finally, the utilisation of SVM with Gabor Filter characteristics achieved the greatest correctness, specificity, and sensitivity values, particularly 87%, 86%, and 87%, respectively (Tab. 3, Fig. 7, Ref. 18). Keywords: feature extraction, support vector machine, lung cancer, classification, machine learning.
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Observational Study
Estimation of prognosis in patients after decompressive craniectomy after malignant hemispheric infarction: multifactorial scoring scale.
Patient's age is considered to be one of the most relevant factors in selecting surgical candidates for decompressive hemicraniectomy after malignant hemispheric infarction. However, questions about surgical indication in older patients, patients with consciousness disorder or patients with large infarctions remain unanswered. ⋯ Age of the patient, preoperative level of consciousness, midline shift, and volume of infarction showed a significant association with postoperative Barthel index. According to the identified factors, a multifactorial prognostic scoring system was introduced, aimed to distinguish between favorable and unfavorable outcomes. Using ROC analysis, it has achieved an AUC of 0.74 (95%CI 0.58‒0.89, p=0.01)CONCLUSIONS: Prediction of postoperative outcome should be based on multiple variables. Our scale, based on the clinical and imaging data, can be used during decision-making to estimate potential benefit of decompressive craniectomy in patients after malignant brain infarction (Tab. 5, Fig. 1, Ref. 32). Text in PDF www.elis.sk Keywords: decompressive hemicraniectomy, malignant hemispheric infarction, indication, outcome, prediction.