Neural network processing of cervical smears can lead to a decrease in diagnostic variability and an increase in screening efficacy: a study of 63 false-negative smears.

A realistic approach for decreasing the number of erroneous diagnoses plaguing cervical cytology screening is to try to reduce the amount of nondiagnostic visual information. The neural network of PAPNET selects 128 cytological views from the routinely prepared smear which in digitized form can be displayed on a high-resolution videoscreen. From these 128 videotiles the abnormal ones can be selected by the diagnostician and brought together on the "summarizing videoscreen" containing 16 tiles.

Susceptibility of Singapore Chinese schoolgirls to anorexia nervosa--part II. (family factors).

It was found that of a group of 656 GCE 'O' level Chinese Singapore schoolgirls in schools of good academic standing, where pressure was expected to be high, 15 (6%) had high drive for thinness (DT) scores. The families of these latter girls were not perceived to be significantly more enmeshed or rigid than those with low DT scores, and other family functioning was also not significantly different.

Programming the microwave oven.

Microwaves can be used to stimulate chemical bonding, diffusion of reagents into and out of the specimen, and coagulation processes in preparatory techniques. Temperature plays an important role in these processes. There are several ways of controlling the temperature of microwave-exposed tissue, fluids and solids that are used in these preparatory techniques.

De Clerambault syndrome and medical practitioners: medico legal implications.

De Clerambault's syndrome or erotomania is a condition in which a patient, usually a woman, develops a delusional belief that a man, usually older and of higher social status, is in love with her. This paper describes such cases where medical practitioners were involved. In a case where a doctor was brought to court, the judge stressed that because of the nature of the allegation, it was vital that there be corroborative evidence.

Susceptibility of Singapore Chinese schoolgirls to anorexia nervosa--Part I (Psychological factors).

Of 656 GCE "O" level Chinese Singapore schoolgirls, it was found that 56% perceived themselves as being too fat, and 38% had been teased about being overweight. On the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI), 15 (2%) had a score at the anorectic range. Compared to a group of American undergraduates, Singaporean subjects had no significant difference on the drive for thinness scores, but had significantly higher scores on bulimia, ineffectiveness, body dissatisfaction, interpersonal distress and greater maturity fears.

Effect of embedding methods versus fixative type on karyometric measures.

The influence of fixation and embedding methods in seven urologic tumor samples was studied karyometrically for 12 preparatory techniques. Routine histologic formalin fixation was compared with Carbowax and Kryofix fixatives. Also, histologic material was studied embedded in paraffin and plastic (GMA) and secondarily in plastic (after paraffin embedding).

Nonchemical dehydration of fixed tissue combining microwaves and vacuum.

A novel histoprocessing method for paraffin and plastic sections is presented in which dehydration of fixed tissue blocks is achieved within 5 minutes by microwaving under vacuum. Exploiting the decrease in boiling temperature under vacuum, we succeed in evaporating liquid molecules in the tissues at physiological temperatures. In this microwave-vacuum dehydration method, the fixed tissue does not come in contact with ethyl alcohol.

Postnatal depression in Singapore women.

A longitudinal study of depressive symptomatology in 200 postnatal women using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depressive Scale showed that depressive symptomatology is mild but present in nearly all the postpartum women; however only one per cent of the women over a 6-month period had scores suggestive of a postnatal depression. None had experienced any depressive hallucinations or delusions during this period.

Microwaves for immunohistochemistry.

Microwaves are now widely used in immunohistochemistry for fixing and stabilizing tissue prior to embedding and cutting, for antigen retrieval and for immunoincubations. These techniques can be used for frozen sections and for material embedded in paraffin and plastic. Material prepared in this way shows high contrast in light microscopy.

Confocal optical sectioning and three-dimensional reconstruction of carcinoma fragments in Pap smears using sophisticated image data processing.

Carcinoma fragments found in Pap smears contain important diagnostic information not available to the light microscopist because of their thickness and consequent blurring. Optical sectioning by the confocal microscope allows us to reclaim the mitotic figures, glandular architecture, and abnormal chromatin patterns in the restained original smears. The high spatial resolution of the confocal microscope can be further exploited by processing the digital images with the sophisticated Application Visualization System (AVS) on a CONVEX computer.

Management of sexual disorders.

Sexual disorders comprise (a) disorders of function in which sexual functioning is disturbed leading to problems during sexual intercourse, (b) disorders of orientation whereby a non heterosexual partner or object is sought, and (c) other disorders involving aberrant psychosexual behaviour. In managing such problems a thorough psychosexual assessment is required in order to ascertain the exact nature of the problem and what the precipitating, predisposing and prolonging factors are. In disorders of orientation and disorders involving aberrant sexual behaviours, the developmental history and early childhood relationships must be looked into carefully.

Intercostal artery: histomorphometric study to assess its suitability as a coronary bypass graft.

To assess potential suitability of the intercostal artery as a conduit in myocardial revascularization a histomorphometric study of the fifth intercostal artery (n = 11) and intercostal arteries other than the fifth (n = 9) was conducted. All arteries were harvested at autopsy in 11 individuals (mean age, 75 years). The length of the intercostal arteries varied from 22 to 35 cm (mean, 29.

Neural network processing can provide means to catch errors that slip through human screening of pap smears.

The problem of the false-negative smear deserves the attention of the cytologic community. We found that by using the PAPNET system, equipped with neural network programming, cancer cells can be detected in repeatedly misdiagnosed Pap smears. The correct diagnosis of these false-negative smears depended on the skills of the diagnostician to recognize the cells on one or more of the 128 tiles of the video display as abnormal, and to make the proper decision when to turn to light microscopy.

Image analysis in immunohistochemistry. Factors with a possible influence on the performance of VIDAS version 2.0, a commercially available true color image analysis system.

This paper describes the evaluation of several factors with a possible influence on the performance of a commercially available image analysis system capable of true color image analysis. The software used by this system is VIDAS Version 2.0.

Confocal sectioning of thick, otherwise undiagnosable cell groupings in cervical smears.

Confocal sectioning of thick, otherwise undiagnosable cell groupings in cervical smears results in detailed visualization of the diagnostic features of neoplastic fragments in the original Cytobrush smear. We argue that the large step forward due to confocal microscopy is the dramatic improvement of axial resolution, resulting in images with a high degree of detail. As a result, mitotic figures, chromatin patterns and glandular spaces materialize out of the blur.

A survey of sexual behaviour of Singaporeans.

In order to plan education programmes against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV infection, a population-based survey on partner relations was conducted on 2,115 Singaporean men and women aged between 15 and 49 years. Of the 605 (60.1%) sexually experienced men and 647 (58.

A model for quantitative follow-up studies of cervical lesions.

A model for follow-up studies of cervical lesions is described in which the specimen were taken in a noninvasive way using Cytobrushes and in which automatic measurement of the abnormal nuclei in the sampled epithelial fragments was possible because 2-microns thin Feulgen-stained plastic sections were prepared. The planimetric parameters AREA, PERIMETER, FORM PE, and FORM ELL, and the densitometric parameters optical density (OD) and integrated optical density (IOD) were assessed. The mean total volume and the mean total DNA were calculated using stereological methods.

Microwave irradiation and cross-linking of collagen.

In a multifactorial experiment, dermal sheep collagen was treated in diluted glutaraldehyde solutions, 70% ethyl alcohol, Cialit 1:5000, and distilled water for 1, 3 and 5 min, respectively, in combination with microwave irradiation at different temperature settings. The shrinkage temperature indicating the degree of cross-linking achieved was then determined. Treatment in 0.

Profile of a homosexual in Singapore.

A study was done on 40 homosexual subjects and 47 controls between the ages of 18-19 years, matched for race and age. There was no significant difference in the educational level, and family background of the 2 groups. But homosexuals had a significantly more unhappy childhood than the controls, were more often reprimanded than physically punished and were often teased by their classmates and called names.

Morphometry, densitometry and pattern analysis of plastic-embedded histologic material from urothelial cell carcinoma of the bladder.

An image analysis method of grading histologic sections of bladder carcinoma was tested. The method was new in four respects. First, for fixation of the biopsies a coagulant fixative was used.