The impact of obesity on sleep, pulmonary and chest wall restriction in Osteogenesis Imperfecta: a pilot study.

Introduction: Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) is characterised by brittle bones, severe skeletal deformities, low sleep quality, and restricted breathing. We aimed to distinguish how disease and obesity affect these results.

Methods: According to BMI, we considered four groups of peer adults (median age: 35.

Exploring air pollution awareness: insights from interviews with technology enthusiasts using wearable monitoring devices.

This study aims to investigate shifts in awareness regarding air pollution and its correlation with interest in using wearable devices for air quality monitoring. 16 healthy participants, predominantly engineers, residing or studying in Milan, were interviewed to assess their knowledge and interest in air pollution. Participants then walked a predefined route of 4.

A semi-automatic pipeline integrating histological and µCT data in a mouse model of lung fibrosis.

Background: Drug discovery strongly relies on the thorough evaluation of preclinical experimental studies. In the context of pulmonary fibrosis, micro-computed tomography (µCT) and histology are well-established and complementary tools for assessing, in animal models, disease progression and response to treatment. µCT offers dynamic, real-time insights into disease evolution and the effects of therapies, while histology provides a detailed microscopic examination of lung tissue.

Advances in Portable Optical Microscopy Using Cloud Technologies and Artificial Intelligence for Medical Applications.

The need for faster and more accessible alternatives to laboratory microscopy is driving many innovations throughout the image and data acquisition chain in the biomedical field. Benchtop microscopes are bulky, lack communications capabilities, and require trained personnel for analysis. New technologies, such as compact 3D-printed devices integrated with the Internet of Things (IoT) for data sharing and cloud computing, as well as automated image processing using deep learning algorithms, can address these limitations and enhance the conventional imaging workflow.

Modeling Realistic Geometries in Human Intrathoracic Airways.

Geometrical models of the airways offer a comprehensive perspective on the complex interplay between lung structure and function. Originating from mathematical frameworks, these models have evolved to include detailed lung imagery, a crucial enhancement that aids in the early detection of morphological changes in the airways, which are often the first indicators of diseases. The accurate representation of airway geometry is crucial in research areas such as biomechanical modeling, acoustics, and particle deposition prediction.

Three-dimensional geometric morphometric shape analysis of chest wall kinematics in different breathing conditions.

Breathing motion is based on the differential activity of the thoracic, diaphragmatic and abdominal muscles. Muscle contributions differ between rest and exercise conditions and depend on posture and other factors. Traditionally, these changes are investigated on volumetric data using optoelectronic plethysmography (OEP).

Micro-CT-assisted identification of the optimal time-window for antifibrotic treatment in a bleomycin mouse model of long-lasting pulmonary fibrosis.

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a debilitating and fatal lung disease characterized by the excessive formation of scar tissue and decline of lung function. Despite extensive research, only two FDA-approved drugs exist for IPF, with limited efficacy and relevant side effects. Thus, there is an urgent need for new effective therapies, whose discovery strongly relies on IPF animal models.

A Review of AIoT-based Human Activity Recognition: From Application to Technique.

This scoping review paper redefines the Artificial Intelligence-based Internet of Things (AIoT) driven Human Activity Recognition (HAR) field by systematically extrapolating from various application domains to deduce potential techniques and algorithms. We distill a general model with adaptive learning and optimization mechanisms by conducting a detailed analysis of human activity types and utilizing contact or non-contact devices. It presents various system integration mathematical paradigms driven by multimodal data fusion, covering predictions of complex behaviors and redefining valuable methods, devices, and systems for HAR.

Performance Assessment for the Validation of Wireless Communication Engines in an Innovative Wearable Monitoring Platform.

In today's health-monitoring applications, there is a growing demand for wireless and wearable acquisition platforms capable of simultaneously gathering multiple bio-signals from multiple body areas. These systems require well-structured software architectures, both to keep different wireless sensing nodes synchronized each other and to flush collected data towards an external gateway. This paper presents a quantitative analysis aimed at validating both the wireless synchronization task (implemented with a custom protocol) and the data transmission task (implemented with the BLE protocol) in a prototype wearable monitoring platform.

Limb Volume Measurements: A Comparison of Circumferential Techniques and Optoelectronic Systems against Water Displacement.

Background: Accurate measurements of limb volumes are important for clinical reasons. We aimed to assess the reliability and validity of two centimetric and two optoelectronic techniques for limb volume measurements against water volumetry, defined as the gold standard.

Methods: Five different measurement methods were executed on the same day for each participant, namely water displacement, fixed-height (circumferences measured every 5 (10) cm for the upper (lower limb) centimetric technique, segmental centimetric technique (circumferences measured according to proportional height), optoelectronic plethysmography (OEP, based on a motion analysis system), and IGOODI Gate body scanner technology (which creates an accurate 3D avatar).

Recent Technologies for Transcutaneous Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide Monitoring.

The measurement of partial pressures of oxygen (O) and carbon dioxide (CO) is fundamental for evaluating a patient's conditions in clinical practice. There are many ways to retrieve O/CO partial pressures and concentrations. Arterial blood gas (ABG) analysis is the gold standard technique for such a purpose, but it is invasive, intermittent, and potentially painful.

Spinal Postures and Mobility in Children with Achondroplasia vs. Age- and Sex-Matched Healthy Individuals: A Preliminary Report.

Achondroplasia is a rare genetic disease, yet the most common form of dwarfism, characterized by limb shortening and disproportionate short stature along with musculoskeletal changes, such as postural deviations. Although postural changes in the spine in children with achondroplasia have been well investigated, little is known about the association of achondroplasia with spinal movements/mobility. This preliminary study aims to explore the association of achondroplasia with spinal mobility in children with achondroplasia compared to age- and sex-matched healthy individuals.

Effect of decreasing PEEP on hyperinflation and collapse in COVID-19: A computed tomography study.

Background: High positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP>10 cmHO) is commonly used in mechanically ventilated hypoxemic patients with COVID-19. However, some epidemiological and physiological studies indirectly suggest that using a lower PEEP may primarily and beneficially decrease lung hyperinflation in this population. Herein we directly quantified the effect of decreasing PEEP from 15 to 10 cmHO on lung hyperinflation and collapse in mechanically ventilated patients with COVID-19.

Path tracking control of a steerable catheter in transcatheter cardiology interventions.

Purpose: Intracardiac transcatheter interventions allow for reducing trauma and hospitalization stays as compared to standard surgery. In the treatment of mitral regurgitation, the most widely adopted transcatheter approach consists in deploying a clip on the mitral valve leaflets by means of a catheter that is run through veins from a peripheral access to the left atrium. However, precise manipulation of the catheter from outside the body while copying with the path constraints imposed by the vessels remains challenging.

Digital technologies for step counting: between promises of reliability and risks of reductionism.

Step counting is among the fundamental features of wearable technology, as it grounds several uses of wearables in biomedical research and clinical care, is at the center of emerging public health interventions and recommendations, and is gaining increasing scientific and political importance. This paper provides a perspective of step counting in wearable technology, identifying some limitations to the ways in which wearable technology measures steps and indicating caution in current uses of step counting as a proxy for physical activity. Based on an overview of the current state of the art of technologies and approaches to step counting in digital wearable technologies, we discuss limitations that are methodological as well as epistemic and ethical-limitations to the use of step counting as a basis to build scientific knowledge on physical activity (epistemic limitations) as well as limitations to the accessibility and representativity of these tools (ethical limitations).

A participatory process to design an app to improve adherence to anti-osteoporotic therapies: A development and usability study.

Objective: The aim of the study was to develop an app to improve patients' adherence to therapy for osteoporosis and to test its usability.

Methods: In Phase I, the app functions needed to improve medication adherence were identified through a focus group with six patients with osteoporosis and a joint interview with two bone specialists. The app prototype was then developed (Phase II) and refined after its feasibility testing (Phase III) for 13-25 days by eight patients.

Integration of a body sensor network of wearable devices for cardio-respiratory monitoring.

Wearable devices represent a non-invasive tool to monitor cardio-respiratory parameters. This paper presents a telemedicine platform constituted of four wireless units. Three wearable inertial measurement units monitor the respiratory-related excursions of the thorax and of the abdomen with respect to a reference unit (positioned on the lower back), through which respiratory rate and normalized tidal volume are extracted.

Analysis of Fluency of Movement in Parkour Using a Video and Inertial Measurement Unit Technology.

Fluency is a movement parameter combining smoothness and hesitation, and its objective measurement may be used to determine the effects of practice on sports performance. This study aimed to measure fluency in parkour, an acrobatic discipline comprising complex non-cyclical movements, which involves fluency as a critical aspect of performance. Inter-individual fluidity differences between advanced and novice athletes as well as intra-individual variations of fluency between different parts and subsequent repetitions of a path were addressed.

Pulmonary and chest wall function in obese adults.

Obesity is frequently associated with breathing disorders. To investigate if and how the highest levels of obesity impact respiratory function, 17 subjects with obesity (median age: 49 years; BMI: 39.7 kg/m, 8 females) and 10 normal-weighted subjects (49 years; 23.

Dysregulation of ventilation at day and night time in heart failure.

Heart failure (HF) is characterized by an increase in ventilatory response to exercise of multifactorial aetiology and by a dysregulation in the ventilatory control during sleep with the occurrence of both central and obstructive apnoeas. In this setting, the study of the ventilatory behaviour during exercise, by cardiopulmonary exercise testing, or during sleep, by complete polysomnography or simplified nocturnal cardiorespiratory monitoring, is of paramount importance because of its prognostic value and of the possible effects of sleep-disordered breathing on the progression of the disease. Moreover, several therapeutic interventions can significantly influence ventilatory control in HF.

Wearable Technologies and Stress: Toward an Ethically Grounded Approach.

The widespread use of digital technologies that can be worn on our bodies-wearables-is presented as a turning point for various areas of biomedical research and healthcare, such as stress. The ability to constantly measure these parameters, the perceived quality of measurement, and their individual and personal level frame wearable technology as a possibly crucial step in the direction of a more accurate and objective definition and measurement of stress for clinical, research, and personal purposes. In this paper, we discuss the hypothesis that the use of wearables for stress is also beneficial from an ethical viewpoint.

Pathophysiology of hypoxemia in mechanically-ventilated patients with COVID-19: A computed tomography study.

The pathogenesis of hypoxemia during acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection (C-ARDS) is debated. Some observations led to hypothesize ventilation to perfusion mismatch, rather than anatomical shunt, as the main determinant of hypoxemia. In this observational study 24 C-ARDS patients were studied 1 (0-1) days after intubation.