Aims: Recent clinical trials and real-world studies highlighted those variations in ECG waveforms and HRV recurrently occurred during hypoglycemic and hyperglycemic events in patients with diabetes. However, while several studies have been carried out for adult age, there is lack of evidence for paediatric patients. The main aim of the study is to identify the correlations of variations in ECG Morphology waveforms with blood glucose levels in a paediatric population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArtificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) are playing increasingly important roles, permeating the field of medical devices (MDs). This rapid progress has not yet been matched by the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) process, which still needs to define a common methodology for assessing AI/ML-based MDs. To collect existing evidence from the literature about the methods used to assess AI-based MDs, with a specific focus on those used for the management of heart failure (HF), the International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) conducted a scoping meta-review.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Infection prevention and control (IPC) is essential to prevent nosocomial infections. This manuscript aims at investigating the current use and role of robots and smart environments on IPC systems in nosocomial settings METHODS: The systematic literature review was performed following the PRISMA statement. Literature was searched for articles published in the period January 2016 to October 2022.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Paediatric Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) patients are at greater risk for developing severe hypo and hyperglycaemic events due to poor glycaemic control. To reduce the risk of adverse events, patients need to achieve the best possible glycaemic management through frequent blood glucose monitoring with finger prick or Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) systems. However, several non-invasive techniques have been proposed aiming at exploiting changes in physiological parameters based on glucose levels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: The current method to diagnose impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) is based on the 2-h plasma glucose (2-hPG) value during a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Robust evidence demonstrates that the 1-h post-load plasma glucose (1-hPG) ≥ 8.6 mmol/L in those with normal glucose tolerance is highly predictive of type 2 diabetes (T2D), micro and macrovascular complications and mortality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs of May 2021, the current COVID-19 pandemic is still plaguing the world, challenging all the countries and their health systems, globally. In this context, conditions typical of low-resource settings surfaced also in high-resource ones (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper is aimed at addressing all the critical aspects linked to the implementation of intensive care ventilators in a pediatric setting, highlighting the most relevant technical features and describing the methodology to conduct health technology assessment (HTA) for supporting the decision-making process. Four ventilator models were included in the assessment process. A decision-making support tool (DoHTA method) was applied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, taking on pandemic proportions, is placing extraordinary and unprecedented demands on healthcare systems worldwide. The increasing number of critical patients who, experiencing respiratory failure from acute respiratory distress syndrome, need respiratory support, has been leading countries to race against time in arranging new Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and in finding affordable and practical solutions to manage patients in each stage of the disease. The simultaneous worldwide emergency caused serious problems for mechanical ventilators supply.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe introduction of robotic neurorehabilitation among the most recent technologies in pediatrics represents a new opportunity to treat pediatric patients. This study aims at evaluating the response of physiotherapists, patients and their parents to this new technology. The study considered the outcomes of technological innovation in physiotherapists (perception of the workload, satisfaction), as well as that in patients and their parents (quality of life, expectations, satisfaction) by comparing the answers to subjective questionnaires of those who made use of the new technology with those who used the traditional therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: To test the application of Business Process Management technology to manage clinical pathways, using a pediatric kidney transplantation as case study, and to identify the benefits obtained from using this technology.
Methods: Using a Business Process Management platform, we implemented a specific application to manage the clinical pathway of pediatric patients, and monitored the activities of the coordinator in charge of the case management during a 6-month period (from June 2015 to November 2015) using two methodologies: the traditional procedure and the one under study.
Results: The application helped physicians and nurses to optimize the amount of time and resources devoted to management purposes.
Background: Environmental measurements were performed in an operating theatre within a pediatric cardiac department, during a surgical operation involving the use of carbon dioxide for the implantation of a ventricular system (VAD).
Objectives: After some reports from the staff, who were complaining about low temperatures in the operating room, it was decided to check carbon dioxide levels, the conditions of thermal comfort and the presence of draughts.
Methods: Microclimatic parameters and carbon dioxide concentration were performed with a microclimatic unit Delta OHM model HD 32.
The employment of graph theory to analyze spontaneous fluctuations in resting state BOLD fMRI data has become a dominant theme in brain imaging studies and neuroscience. Analysis of resting state functional brain networks based on graph theory has proven to be a powerful tool to quantitatively characterize functional architecture of the brain and it has provided a new platform to explore the overall structure of local and global functional connectivity in the brain. Due to its increased use and possible expansion to clinical use, it is essential that the reliability of such a technique is very strongly assessed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF