Publications by authors named "Maria Haritou"

This poster presents a comprehensive assessment of the transformative potential of telehealth ecosystems, integrating Internet of Things (IoT), Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. The study explores their impact on healthcare delivery and markets, emphasising the need for robust cybersecurity measures and technological integration. By facilitating continuous monitoring, personalised interventions, and improved patient outcomes, the integration of advanced technologies in telehealth ecosystems has the potential to revolutionise healthcare delivery and reduce healthcare costs.

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Tinnitus is the perception of a phantom sound and the patient's reaction to it. Although much progress has been made, tinnitus remains a scientific and clinical enigma of high prevalence and high economic burden, with an estimated prevalence of 10%-20% among the adult population. The EU is funding a new collaborative project entitled "Unification of Treatments and Interventions for Tinnitus Patients" (UNITI, grant no.

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Cervical cancer (CxCa) is often the result of underestimated abnormalities in the test Papanicolaou (Pap test). The recent advances in the study of the human papillomavirus (HPV) infection (the necessary cause for CxCa development) have guided clinical practice to add HPV related tests alongside the Pap test. In this way, today, HPV DNA testing is well accepted as an ancillary test and it is used for the triage of women with abnormal findings in cytology.

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Objectives: To develop a clinical decision support scoring system (DSSS) based on artificial neural networks (ANN) for personalised management of women with cervical abnormalities.

Methods: We recruited women with cervical abnormalities and healthy controls that attended for opportunistic screening between 2006 and 2014 in 3 University Hospitals. We prospectively collected detailed patient characteristics, the colposcopic impression and performed a series of biomarkers using a liquid-based cytology sample.

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Objective: This study aims to analyze the role of artificial neural networks (ANNs) in cytopathology. More specifically, it aims to highlight the importance of employing ANNs in existing and future applications and in identifying unexplored or poorly explored research topics.

Study Design: A systematic search was conducted in scientific databases for articles related to cytopathology and ANNs with respect to anatomical places of the human body where cytopathology is performed.

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In most cases, cervical cancer (CxCa) develops due to underestimated abnormalities in the Pap test. Today, there are ancillary molecular biology techniques available that provide important information related to CxCa and the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) natural history, including HPV DNA tests, HPV mRNA tests and immunocytochemistry techniques such as overexpression of p16. These techniques are either highly sensitive or highly specific, however not both at the same time, thus no perfect method is available today.

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Nowadays, there are molecular biology techniques providing information related to cervical cancer and its cause: the human Papillomavirus (HPV), including DNA microarrays identifying HPV subtypes, mRNA techniques such as nucleic acid based amplification or flow cytometry identifying E6/E7 oncogenes, and immunocytochemistry techniques such as overexpression of p16. Each one of these techniques has its own performance, limitations and advantages, thus a combinatorial approach via computational intelligence methods could exploit the benefits of each method and produce more accurate results. In this article we propose a clinical decision support system (CDSS), composed by artificial neural networks, intelligently combining the results of classic and ancillary techniques for diagnostic accuracy improvement.

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The use of telemedicine is becoming increasingly popular in assisting with the home management of People with Dementia (PwD) by offering services to the carers that may enhance their ability to care for their relative for longer. A computerized platform, ALADDIN, was evaluated in its usefulness to reduce carer burden and distress and to improve their quality of life, in an attempt to delay institutionalization of PwD. ALADDIN offers educational material about dementia to carers and provides the opportunity to contact other carers and clinicians.

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One of the current challenge in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the identification of reliable biomarkers that might improve diagnostic accuracy, possibly correlating with the disease progression and patient's response to therapy. As the clinically validated AD biomarkers evaluate cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) parameters, the need for less invasive diagnostic markers is well evident. To this respect, blood circulating cytokines or growth factors have provided some encouraging results, even though no clinically validated to date.

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Behavioral abnormalities have been reported in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) but their aetiology is not yet clearly defined. We report on the case of a 48 years old woman with long standing bulbar onset ALS referred to our department for brain perfusion scan for the evaluation of behavioral and emotional disorders. The patient's scores on the neuropsychological tests were satisfactory while magnetic resonance imaging showed no structural brain abnormalities.

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Alpha-synuclein (SNCA) is a predominantly neuronal protein involved in the control of neurotransmitter release. The levels of SNCA expression are closely linked to the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease; however, the biochemical pathways and transcriptional elements that control SNCA expression are not well understood. We previously used the model system of neurotrophin-mediated PC12 cell neuronal differentiation to examine these phenomena.

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