Automated detection of actinic keratoses in clinical photographs.

Background: Clinical diagnosis of actinic keratosis is known to have intra- and inter-observer variability, and there is currently no non-invasive and objective measure to diagnose these lesions.

Objective: The aim of this pilot study was to determine if automatically detecting and circumscribing actinic keratoses in clinical photographs is feasible.

Methods: Photographs of the face and dorsal forearms were acquired in 20 volunteers from two groups: the first with at least on actinic keratosis present on the face and each arm, the second with no actinic keratoses.

Knee pain during the first three months after unilateral total knee arthroplasty: a multi-centre prospective cohort study.

Many patients have an unfavourable pain outcome post total knee arthroplasty (TKA). This multi-centre prospective cohort study recorded weekly pain scores one week before TKA and 12 weeks post TKA. 96 patients were enrolled into the study.

Good test-retest reproducibility for an instrument to capture self-reported melanoma risk factors.

Objective: To examine the test-retest reliability and validity of self-reported items capturing phenotypic characteristics and sun exposure measures in the baseline survey instrument used for a prospective study of skin cancer and melanoma.

Study Design And Setting: Repeatability/validity study conducted among 114 participants randomly selected from the cohort to complete the survey instrument a second time and to undergo a physician skin examination. We calculated intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and kappa (κ) statistics as measures of agreement for continuous and categorical measures, respectively.

Information on the Internet about head injury pertaining to intensive care: less quantity and more quality is needed.

Objective: Published data suggest that the quality of information on diseases accessible on the Internet using non-medical search engines is poor. Such data do not exist for illnesses requiring intensive care. This study investigated the accuracy of health information about head injury pertaining to intensive care on the Internet, and correlated website characteristics with the quality of their content.