Detection of Atrial fibrillation from non-episodic ECG data: a review of methods.

Atrial fibrillation (A-fib) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia. To effectively treat or prevent A-fib, automatic A-fib detection based on Electrocardiograph (ECG) monitoring is highly desirable. This paper reviews recently developed techniques for A-fib detection based on non-episodic surface ECG monitoring data.

Detection of atrial fibrillation episodes using multiple heart rate variability features in different time periods.

Circadian variations of cardiac diseases have been well known. For example, atrial fibrillation (AF) episodes show nocturnal predominance. In this study, we have developed multiple formulas that detect AF episodes in different times of the day.

Detection of subjects with higher self-reporting stress scores using heart rate variability patterns during the day.

Heart rate variability (HRV) has been well established to measure instantaneous levels of mental stress. Circadian patterns of HRV features have been reported but their use to estimate levels of mental stress were not studied thoroughly. In this study, we investigated time dependent variations of HRV features to detect subjects under chronic mental stress.

Association of heart rates with stress response inventory scores in different age groups.

Many studies reported heart rate changes were associated with mental stress. Recently, a Stress Response Inventory (SRI) questionnaire has been devised to score physical, mental, and emotional symptoms related to mental stress occurred during the past two weeks. However, SRI has too many items to be asked routinely in a mobile device such as a cellular phone.

Ultra short term analysis of heart rate variability for monitoring mental stress in mobile settings.

Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis is commonly used as a quantitative marker depicting the activity of autonomous nervous system (ANS) that may be related to mental stress. For mobile applications, short term ECG measurement may be used for HRV analysis since the conventional five minute long recordings might be inadequately long. Short term analysis of HRV features has been investigated mostly in ECG data from normal and cardiac patients.

Java Web Start based software for automated quantitative nuclear analysis of prostate cancer and benign prostate hyperplasia.

Background: Androgen acts via androgen receptor (AR) and accurate measurement of the levels of AR protein expression is critical for prostate research. The expression of AR in paired specimens of benign prostate and prostate cancer from 20 African and 20 Caucasian Americans was compared to demonstrate an application of this system.

Methods: A set of 200 immunopositive and 200 immunonegative nuclei were collected from the images using a macro developed in Image Pro Plus.

The androgen axis in recurrent prostate cancer.

Purpose: Prostate cancer that recurs during androgen deprivation therapy is referred to as androgen-independent. High levels of expression of androgen receptor and androgen receptor-regulated genes in recurrent prostate cancer suggest a role for androgen receptor and its ligands in prostate cancer recurrence.

Experimental Design: Recurrent prostate cancer specimens from 22 men whose prostate cancer recurred locally during androgen deprivation therapy and benign prostate specimens from 48 men who had received no prior treatment were studied.

Androgen receptor gene amplification and protein expression in recurrent prostate cancer.

Purpose: The androgen receptor (AR) is highly expressed in androgen dependent and recurrent prostate cancer, suggesting that it has a role in tumor growth and progression after androgen deprivation. AR amplification may contribute to androgen receptor activation in relative androgen absence.

Materials And Methods: Formalin fixed and frozen specimens of recurrent prostate cancer were obtained by transurethral resection from men with increasing serum level of prostate specific antigen in whom urinary retention developed.

Racial differences in androgen receptor protein expression in men with clinically localized prostate cancer.

Purpose: Black American men experience disproportionate mortality from prostate cancer (CaP) compared with white American men. Differences in outcome may stem from differences within the androgen axis. Since serum testosterone levels appear to be similar by race in men with CaP, we measured and compared androgen receptor (AR) protein expression in malignant and benign prostate tissue from black and white men who underwent radical prostatectomy for clinically localized CaP.

Androgen receptor expression and cellular proliferation during transition from androgen-dependent to recurrent growth after castration in the CWR22 prostate cancer xenograft.

Androgen receptor expression was analyzed in the CWR22 human prostate cancer xenograft model to better understand its role in prostate cancer recurrence after castration. In androgen-dependent tumors, 98.5% of tumor cell nuclei expressed androgen receptor with a mean optical density of 0.