Automated Measurement of Lumbar Lordosis on Radiographs Using Machine Learning and Computer Vision.

Study Design: Cross sectional database study.

Objective: To develop a fully automated artificial intelligence and computer vision pipeline for assisted evaluation of lumbar lordosis.

Methods: Lateral lumbar radiographs were used to develop a segmentation neural network (n = 629).

The Effects of Preoperative Steroid Therapy on Perioperative Morbidity and Mortality After Adult Spinal Deformity Surgery.

Study Design: Retrospective cohort analysis.

Objectives: To identify the effects of preoperative steroid therapy on 30-day perioperative complications after adult spinal deformity (ASD) surgery.

Summary Of Background Data: Chronic steroid therapy has demonstrated therapeutic effects in the treatment of various medical conditions but is also known to be associated with surgical complications.

The Effects of Preoperative Steroid Therapy on Perioperative Complications After Elective Anterior Lumbar Fusion.

Objective: To examine the effects of chronic preoperative steroid therapy on 30-day perioperative complications after anterior lumbar fusion (ALF).

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program between 2008 and 2015. Adult patients who underwent ALF were included and divided into 2 groups: steroids and no steroids.

Neural network analysis of sleep stages enables efficient diagnosis of narcolepsy.

Analysis of sleep for the diagnosis of sleep disorders such as Type-1 Narcolepsy (T1N) currently requires visual inspection of polysomnography records by trained scoring technicians. Here, we used neural networks in approximately 3,000 normal and abnormal sleep recordings to automate sleep stage scoring, producing a hypnodensity graph-a probability distribution conveying more information than classical hypnograms. Accuracy of sleep stage scoring was validated in 70 subjects assessed by six scorers.

A cellular mechanism for inverse effectiveness in multisensory integration.

To build a coherent view of the external world, an organism needs to integrate multiple types of sensory information from different sources, a process known as multisensory integration (MSI). Previously, we showed that the temporal dependence of MSI in the optic tectum of tadpoles is mediated by the network dynamics of the recruitment of local inhibition by sensory input (Felch et al., 2016).

Correction: Design and Validation of a Periodic Leg Movement Detector.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Sleep-stage transitions during polysomnographic recordings as diagnostic features of type 1 narcolepsy.

Objective: Type 1 narcolepsy/hypocretin deficiency is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, sleep fragmentation, and cataplexy. Short rapid eye movement (REM) latency (≤15 min) during nocturnal polysomnography (PSG) or during naps of the multiple sleep latency test (MSLT) defines a sleep-onset REM sleep period (SOREMP), a diagnostic hallmark. We hypothesized that abnormal sleep transitions other than SOREMPs can be identified in type 1 narcolepsy.

Design and validation of a periodic leg movement detector.

Periodic Limb Movements (PLMs) are episodic, involuntary movements caused by fairly specific muscle contractions that occur during sleep and can be scored during nocturnal polysomnography (NPSG). Because leg movements (LM) may be accompanied by an arousal or sleep fragmentation, a high PLM index (i.e.

Sleep-spindle detection: crowdsourcing and evaluating performance of experts, non-experts and automated methods.

Sleep spindles are discrete, intermittent patterns of brain activity observed in human electroencephalographic data. Increasingly, these oscillations are of biological and clinical interest because of their role in development, learning and neurological disorders. We used an Internet interface to crowdsource spindle identification by human experts and non-experts, and we compared their performance with that of automated detection algorithms in data from middle- to older-aged subjects from the general population.

Exploring the electrocardiogram as a potential tool to screen for premotor Parkinson's disease.

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that patients with REM sleep behavior disorder, many of whom will develop Parkinson's disease (PD) or a related synucleinopathy, will demonstrate decreased heart rate variability (HRV) compared with a group of age-matched controls as measured by an electrocardiogram during wakefulness. We compared HRV in 11 untreated idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder patients (9 men and 2 women; mean age, 63.3 years; SD, 7.