Development of a QUS Device to Evaluate Deterioration of Cortical Bone: Verification by HR-pQCT and Measurements in Healthy Individuals and Dialysis Patients.

Introduction: The objectives of this study were to identify what is reflected in cortical speed of sound (cSOS) measured by a cortical quantitative ultrasound (cortical QUS) device we have developed, and to investigate cSOS measurements in healthy individuals and dialysis patients.

Methods: The cSOS and the SOS were measured by cortical QUS and conventional QUS in 20 volunteers, and the correlations between these measurements and areal bone mineral density measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and bone microstructural parameters on high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography were analyzed. The cSOS and the SOS were measured in 91 young adults (47 men, 44 women), 64 elderly people (30 men, 33 women), and 64 dialysis patients (33 men, 31 women).

Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) axial transmission method reflects anisotropy in micro-arrangement of apatite crystallites in human long bones: A study with 3-MHz-frequency ultrasound.

Anisotropic arrangement of apatite crystallites, i.e., preferential orientation of the apatite c-axis, is known to be an important bone quality parameter that governs the mechanical properties.

Effectiveness of interventions to improve patient compliance: a meta-analysis.

Objectives: This article summarizes the results of 153 studies published between 1977 and 1994 that evaluated the effectiveness of interventions to improve patient compliance with medical regimens.

Methods: The compliance interventions were classified by theoretical focus into educational, behavioral, and affective categories within which specific intervention strategies were further distinguished. The compliance indicators broadly represent five classes of compliance-related assessments: (1) health outcomes (eg, blood pressure and hospitalization), (2) direct indicators (eg, urine and blood tracers and weight change), (3) indirect indicators (eg, pill count and refill records), (4) subjective report (eg, patients' or others' reports), and (5) utilization (appointment making and keeping and use of preventive services).

Structure-odor relationships: using neural networks in the estimation of camphoraceous or fruity odors and olfactory thresholds of aliphatic alcohols.

Structure-odor relationships were established for a sample of 99 aliphatic alcohols using a three-layer backpropagation neural network. The molecular structure was described using a common skeleton with six possible substitutions. Substituents were described using only their van der Waals volumes.