Developing predictive precision medicine models by exploiting real-world data using machine learning methods.

Computational Medicine encompasses the application of Statistical Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence methods on several traditional medical approaches, including biochemical testing which is extremely valuable both for early disease prognosis and long-term individual monitoring, as it can provide important information about a person's health status. However, using Statistical Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence algorithms to analyze biochemical test data from Electronic Health Records requires several preparatory steps, such as data manipulation and standardization. This study presents a novel approach for utilizing Electronic Health Records from large, real-world databases to develop predictive precision medicine models by exploiting Artificial Intelligence.

A sequential test for assessing observed agreement between raters.

Assessing the agreement between two or more raters is an important topic in medical practice. Existing techniques, which deal with categorical data, are based on contingency tables. This is often an obstacle in practice as we have to wait for a long time to collect the appropriate sample size of subjects to construct the contingency table.

Is there a connection between inflammation, telomerase activity and the transcriptional status of telomerase reverse transcriptase in renal failure?

Telomerase is involved in the elongation of telomeres. It remains active in very few types of cell in mature organisms. One such cell type is the lymphocytes.

Transcription of the Tumor Suppressor Genes p53 and RB in Lymphocytes from Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease: Evidence of Molecular Senescence?

Patients suffering from renal failure exhibit an impaired immune system function. We wanted to investigate the transcription of the tumor suppressor genes p53 and RB to record, if these cells could be stimulated in vitro in order to divide, after the addition of antigenic and inflammatory factors. This expression was measured by real-time PCR in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from three different groups: ten healthy individuals, ten patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), and ten dialysis patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD).

Identification and antimicrobial resistance of campylobacter species isolated from animal sources.

Background: Campylobacter spp. are together with Salmonella spp. the leading causes of human bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide.

Incidence and antimicrobial susceptibilities of genital mycoplasmas in outpatient women with clinical vaginitis in Athens, Greece.

Objectives: The incidence and antimicrobial susceptibilities of Ureaplasma urealyticum and Mycoplasma hominis, isolated from vaginal and endocervical swabs collected from 369 outpatient women, were determined.

Methods: Isolation, identification and typing of the pathogens were performed by means of conventional methods. The antimicrobial susceptibilities of the genital mycoplasmas were determined with commercially available kits and evaluated according to the CLSI.