Multiorgan Involvement of Dormant Uveal Melanoma Micrometastases in Postmortem Tissue From Patients Without Coexisting Macrometastases.

Objectives: Almost half of all patients diagnosed with uveal melanoma will die of metastatic disease. This has been attributed to early seeding of micrometastases. We investigate the presence, density, organ involvement, and characteristics of micrometastases of uveal melanoma in tissue obtained at autopsy of patients with and without coexisting macrometastases.

The effects of Contracaecum osculatum larvae on the growth of Atlantic cod ().

Atlantic cod () from the Eastern Baltic stock have decreased in numbers and condition since the 1990's. Among several causes, an increased prevalence and intensity of the nematode has been discussed. This increase has been attributed to a population increase of the parasites final host, the grey seal ().

Comparison of the performances of survival analysis regression models for analysis of conception modes and risk of type-1 diabetes among 1985-2015 Swedish birth cohort.

The goal is to examine the risk of conception mode-type-1 diabetes using different survival analysis modelling approaches and examine if there are differentials in the risk of type-1 diabetes between children from fresh and frozen-thawed embryo transfers. We aimed to compare the performances and fitness of different survival analysis regression models with the Cox proportional hazard (CPH) model used in an earlier study. The effect of conception modes and other prognostic factors on type-1 diabetes among children conceived either spontaneously or by assisted reproductive technology (ART) and its sub-groups was modelled in the earlier study.

Pulmonary fibrosis in relation to genetic loci in an inception cohort of patients with early rheumatoid arthritis from northern Sweden.

Objectives: Pulmonary manifestations in RA are common comorbidities. Interstitial lung disease (ILD), both idiopathic and in RA, has been associated with several genetic variants. We assessed pulmonary fibrosis (PF) in an inception cohort of RA patients in relation to genetic variants and disease-related factors.

Type 1 diabetes in children born after assisted reproductive technology: a register-based national cohort study.

Study Question: Do children born after assisted reproductive technology (ART) have an increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes?

Summary Answer: Children born after ART were found to have an increased risk of type 1 diabetes in the unadjusted analysis, while after adjustment this association was only significant in children born after frozen embryo transfer.

What Is Known Already?: Some studies raise concerns as to whether fertility treatments may influence long-term morbidity in children born after ART. Elevated blood pressure and altered glucose metabolism have been found after ART in a few studies.

School performance in children born after ICSI.

Study Question: Do children conceived after ICSI have similar school performance as children born after IVF?

Summary Answer: Children born after ICSI have similar school performance compared to children born after IVF.

What Is Known Already: Studies concerning the cognitive skills of children born after ICSI have shown diverging results.

Study Design, Size, Duration: This nationwide, register-based cohort study included all singleton children born after ICSI (n = 6953), IVF (n = 11 713) or spontaneous conception (SC) (n = 2 022 995), in Sweden between 1985 and 2006.

School performance in singletons born after assisted reproductive technology.

Study Question: Is school performance in children conceived after assisted reproductive technology (ART) comparable to those conceived after spontaneous conception (SC)?

Summary Answer: Singleton children born after ART performed better in the crude analysis than singleton children born after SC although after adjustment, small differences were observed in total scores in favour of SC children.

What Is Known Already: While it is well known that ART children, also singletons, have an adverse perinatal outcome, studies on cognitive skills in ART children are inconsistent and only few studies have been published on school performances. Although these studies indicate good school performances in ART children many studies suffer from low participation rate and few participants.

New patient-controlled abdominal compression method in radiography: radiation dose and image quality.

Background: The radiation dose for patients can be reduced with many methods and one way is to use abdominal compression. In this study, the radiation dose and image quality for a new patient-controlled compression device were compared with conventional compression and compression in the prone position

Purpose: To compare radiation dose and image quality of patient-controlled compression compared with conventional and prone compression in general radiography.

Material And Methods: An experimental design with quantitative approach.

Impact of iterative reconstruction on image quality of low-dose CT of the lumbar spine.

Background Iterative reconstruction (IR) is a recent reconstruction algorithm for computed tomography (CT) that can be used instead of the standard algorithm, filtered back projection (FBP), to reduce radiation dose and/or improve image quality. Purpose To evaluate and compare the image quality of low-dose CT of the lumbar spine reconstructed with IR to conventional FBP, without further reduction of radiation dose. Material and Methods Low-dose CT on 55 patients was performed on a Siemens scanner using 120 kV tube voltage, 30 reference mAs, and automatic dose modulation.

Visual grading evaluation of commercially available metal artefact reduction techniques in hip prosthesis computed tomography.

Objective: To evaluate metal artefact reduction (MAR) techniques from four CT vendors in hip prosthesis imaging.

Methods: Bilateral hip prosthesis phantom images, obtained by using MAR algorithms for single-energy CT data or dual-energy CT (DECT) data and by monoenergetic reconstructions of DECT data, were visually graded by five radiologists using 10 image quality criteria. Comparisons between the MAR images and a reference image were performed for each scanner separately.

Diagnostic accuracy of low-dose CT compared with abdominal radiography in non-traumatic acute abdominal pain: prospective study and systematic review.

Objectives: Abdominal radiography is frequently used in acute abdominal non-traumatic pain despite the availability of more advanced diagnostic modalities. This study evaluates the diagnostic accuracy of low-dose CT compared with abdominal radiography, at similar radiation dose levels.

Methods: Fifty-eight patients were imaged with both methods and were reviewed independently by three radiologists.

Low dose CT of the lumbar spine compared with radiography: a study on image quality with implications for clinical practice.

Background: Lumbar spine radiography is often performed instead of CT for radiation dose concerns.

Purpose: To compare image quality and diagnostic information from low dose lumbar spine CT at an effective dose of about 1 mSv with lumbar spine radiography.

Material And Methods: Fifty-one patients were examined by both methods.

Metal artefact reduction in CT imaging of hip prostheses—an evaluation of commercial techniques provided by four vendors.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate commercial metal artefact reduction (MAR) techniques in X-ray CT imaging of hip prostheses.

Methods: Monoenergetic reconstructions of dual-energy CT (DECT) data and several different MAR algorithms, combined with single-energy CT or DECT, were evaluated by imaging a bilateral hip prosthesis phantom. The MAR images were compared with uncorrected images based on CT number accuracy and noise in different regions of interest.

Pregnancy outcome and long-term follow-up after in vitro fertilization in women with renal transplantation.

Study Question: What is the child morbidity after IVF in women who have received a kidney transplant?

Summary Answer: Overall, obstetric outcome and morbidity in children of women who had undergone renal transplantation and IVF treatment were favourable.

What Is Known Already: There are several studies of the obstetric outcome in women with spontaneous conception after solid organ transplantation as well as studies of obstetric outcome after IVF in general. There are only a few case reports of women with kidney or pancreas-kidney transplantation and deliveries after IVF treatment.

Low-dose computed tomography of the lumbar spine: a phantom study on imaging parameters and image quality.

Background: Lumbar spine radiography has limited diagnostic value but low radiation dose compared with computed tomography (CT). The average effective radiation dose from lumbar spine radiography is about 1.1 mSv.

Study of the micelle-to-vesicle transition and smallest possible vesicle size by temperature-jumps.

We have investigated the temperature induced micelle-to-vesicle transition in a binary non-ionic surfactant/water system, for which the spontaneous curvature decreases with increasing temperature. Temperature jumps with variable rate were performed in a microwave oven, from a micellar phase at 5°C to a lamellar phase region at 35°C, passing a liquid-liquid two phase region where dilute and concentrated micellar solutions coexist. It is shown that the obtained vesicle size decreases with increasing heating rate through this two phase region.

Time to revise the paradigm of hantavirus syndromes? Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome caused by European hantavirus.

Hantaviruses have previously been recognised to cause two separate syndromes: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in Eurasia, and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) in the Americas. However, increasing evidence suggests that this dichotomy is no longer fruitful when recognising human hantavirus disease and understanding the pathogenesis. Herein are presented three cases of severe European Puumala hantavirus infection that meet the HPS case definition.

Optimizing the tube potential for lumbar spine radiography with a flat-panel digital detector.

The purpose of this study was to find the optimal settings for lumbar spine radiography with a flat-panel detector. A CDRAD contrast-detail phantom was imaged at various tube potentials, system speeds and filtration settings. Factorial experiments yielded a range of optimized exposure settings, which were submitted to visual grading analysis with images of an Alderson phantom.

Early life environment and snoring in adulthood.

Background: To our knowledge, no studies of the possible association of early life environment with snoring in adulthood have been published. We aimed to investigate whether early life environment is associated with snoring later in life.

Methods: A questionnaire including snoring frequency in adulthood and environmental factors in early life was obtained from 16,190 randomly selected men and women, aged 25-54 years, in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Estonia (response rate 74%).

Optimization of image process parameters through factorial experiments using a flat panel detector.

In the optimization process of lumbar spine examinations, factorial experiments were performed addressing the question of whether the effective dose can be reduced and the image quality maintained by adjusting the image processing parameters. A 2k-factorial design was used which is a systematic and effective method of investigating the influence of many parameters on a result variable. Radiographic images of a Contrast Detail phantom were exposed using the default settings of the process parameters for lumbar spine examinations.

Remission of asthma: a prospective longitudinal study from northern Europe (RHINE study).

The aim of the present study was to investigate the remission rate of adult asthma in a general population sample in relation to age, sex, asthma symptoms, allergic rhinitis and smoking. A follow-up of the random population samples from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey in Northern Europe was conducted from 1999-2001 on 1,153 individuals (aged 26-53 yrs) with reported asthma. Remission was defined as no asthmatic symptoms in two consecutive years and no current use of asthma medication.

Young maternal age at delivery is associated with asthma in adult offspring.

Objective: Some studies have shown an association between lower maternal age at delivery and increased asthma in children and young adults. It is unclear whether this represents an effect of maternal ageing or a protective effect of siblings. In a North-European population based study, we investigated whether mother's age at delivery was associated with risk for asthma and hay fever in adult offspring, taking into account relevant confounders.

Dyspnea in relation to symptoms of anxiety and depression: A prospective population study.

Background: Respiratory symptoms are related to anxiety and depression in several cross-sectional studies but the association has not been explored in longitudinal studies.

Study Objectives: To prospectively study the change in dyspnea in relation to symptoms of anxiety and depression over a 9-year time period.

Methods: The study comprised of 515 adults from a population sample who had participated in the European Commission Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) I in 1991-1992 and in the ECRHS II in 1999-2000.

Prevalence and incidence of respiratory symptoms in relation to indoor dampness: the RHINE study.

Background: An association between indoor dampness and respiratory symptoms has been reported, but dampness as a risk factor for the onset or remission of respiratory symptoms and asthma is not well documented.

Method: This follow up study included 16 190 subjects from Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Estonia who had participated in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS I). Eight years later the same subjects answered a postal questionnaire that included questions on respiratory symptoms and indicators of indoor dampness.