High-resolution CT: what is it good for in pulmonary fibrosis?

For many radiologists and clinicians, high-resolution CT has become a useful tool in the diagnosis of diffuse lung disease, particularly in the diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. This paper reviews the most recent literature on the usefulness of high-resolution CT in diagnosing, determining the subsequent prognosis, and guiding the care of patients with lung disease. Idiopathic lung diseases, collagen vascular diseases, and the role of lung biopsy in diffuse lung disease are addressed.

Elevated sperm chromosome aneuploidy and apoptosis in patients with unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss.

Objective: To evaluate sperm chromosome aneuploidy and semen quality in 24 partners of women with unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss and to analyze the data in relation to sperm apoptosis data.

Methods: Semen quality parameters and sperm chromosome aneuploidy for chromosomes X, Y, 13, 18, and 21 were evaluated in the recurrent pregnancy loss patients, fertile controls, and a control group of men from the general population.

Results: The mean aneuploidy rate in the recurrent pregnancy loss group was 2.

Exploring the effects of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene variants C677T and A1298C on the risk of orofacial clefts in 261 Norwegian case-parent triads.

Folic acid and the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene have both been implicated in the etiology of orofacial clefts. The authors selected 261 case-parent triads (173 cases with cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL/P) and 88 cases with cleft palate only (CPO)) from a Norwegian population-based study of orofacial clefts (May 1996-1998). A case-parent triad design was used to examine whether MTHFR variants C677T and A1298C, and their haplotypes, are risk factors for orofacial clefts.

The role of domain knowledge in automating medical text report classification.

Objective: To analyze the effect of expert knowledge on the inductive learning process in creating classifiers for medical text reports.

Design: The authors converted medical text reports to a structured form through natural language processing. They then inductively created classifiers for medical text reports using varying degrees and types of expert knowledge and different inductive learning algorithms.

Variants of developmental genes (TGFA, TGFB3, and MSX1) and their associations with orofacial clefts: a case-parent triad analysis.

We selected 262 case-parent triads from a population-based study of orofacial clefts in Norway, and examined variants of developmental genes TGFA, TGFB3, and MSX1 in the etiology of orofacial clefts. One hundred seventy-four triads of cleft lip cases (CL+/-P) and 88 triads of cleft palate only cases (CPO) were analyzed. There was little evidence for an association of any of these genes with CL+/-P.

A laboratory evaluation of the palatability of legumes to the field slug, Deroceras reticulatum Müller.

Slugs are major pests of many crops, including winter wheat, in temperate climates, yet current methods of control are often unreliable. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential for common legume species to act as an alternative source of food, or trap crop, for the most damaging agricultural pest species, the grey field slug, Deroceras reticulatum Müller, thereby reducing damage to the wheat crop. A series of three controlled-environment experiments were designed to assess this aim.

Subfecundity as a correlate of preeclampsia: a study within the Danish National Birth Cohort.

A long interpregnancy interval is associated with preeclampsia. If some women experiencing a long interval between births had difficulty conceiving, subfecundity and preeclampsia may share a common etiology. Therefore, the authors examined the association between subfecundity and preeclampsia.

Rescue of the corpus luteum in human pregnancy.

Rescue of the corpus luteum from its programmed senescence maintains progesterone production required for pregnancy. In primates, chorionic gonadotropin produced by the developing conceptus acts as the primary luteotrophic signal. The purpose of this research was to assess corpus luteum rescue by examining changes in daily urinary progesterone metabolite levels during the first week after implantation.

Effects of exercise on physiological and psychological variables in cancer survivors.

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to examine the effect of aerobic exercise on physiological and psychological function in patients rehabilitating from cancer treatment. A second purpose was to evaluate the differential effects of low- and moderate-intensity exercise on these variables.

Methods: Eighteen survivors of breast or colon cancer (15 female and 3 male, 40-65 yr of age) served as subjects.

Using natural language processing to analyze physician modifications to data entry templates.

Efficient data entry by clinicians remains a significant challenge for electronic medical records. Current approaches have largely focused on either structured data entry, which can be limiting in expressive power, or free-text entry, which restricts the use of the data for automated decision support. Text-based templates are a semi-structured data entry method that has been used to assist physicians in manually entering clinical notes, by allowing them to edit predefined example notes.

The effect of sample size and disease prevalence on supervised machine learning of narrative data.

This paper examines the independent effects of outcome prevalence and training sample sizes on inductive learning performance. We trained 3 inductive learning algorithms (MC4, IB, and Naïve-Bayes) on 60 simulated datasets of parsed radiology text reports labeled with 6 disease states. Data sets were constructed to define positive outcome states at 4 prevalence rates (1, 5, 10, 25, and 50%) in training set sizes of 200 and 2,000 cases.

A prospective study of the onset of symptoms of pregnancy.

The objective of this study was to provide prospectively collected data on the onset of pregnancy symptoms. Two hundred twenty-one women attempting pregnancy kept daily records of the occurrence of symptoms of pregnancy. Among 136 women delivering live infants, half began experiencing symptoms by day 36 after their last menstrual period (LMP), and 89% by the end of the eighth week.

Coronary heart disease risk between active and inactive women with multiple sclerosis.

Purpose: Physical activity is strongly recommended as a principal component of coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factor management aimed at favorably lowering abdominal fat accumulation, lowering levels of triglyceride (TG), raising levels of high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), and improving insulin sensitivity. Although physical activity practices are reported to be low in women with multiple sclerosis (MS), some women with MS remain physically active despite their disability. Thus, the primary aim of the study was to determine whether abdominal fat accumulation and levels of TG, HDL-C, and glucose differ between active and inactive women with MS.

Reliability of serial urine HCG as a biomarker to detect early pregnancy loss.

Background: To examine the reliability of HCG as a biomarker for early pregnancy loss, five experienced researchers independently assessed data from 153 menstrual cycles, determining whether each cycle represented 'no conception,' a 'continuing conception' or a 'conception lost.'

Methods: Urine samples were analysed by immunoradiometric assay using a combination of capture antibodies for the intact heterodimer (B109) and for an epitope common to the beta subunit and the beta core fragment (B204). For each cycle, HCG data were presented as graphs of daily assay results.

Maternal serum level of 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethylene and risk of cryptorchidism, hypospadias, and polythelia among male offspring.

1,1-Dichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethylene (p,p'-DDE) is a metabolite of the insecticide 2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)-1,1,1-trichloroethane (DDT) and is a ubiquitous environmental contaminant. Nearly everyone in the United States has a detectable serum level of DDE. DDE was recently found to inhibit binding of androgen to its receptor and to block androgen action in rodents.

On the importance--and the unimportance--of birthweight.

Birthweight is one of the most accessible and most misunderstood variables in epidemiology. A baby's weight at birth is strongly associated with mortality risk during the first year and, to a lesser degree, with developmental problems in childhood and the risk of various diseases in adulthood. Epidemiological analyses often regard birthweight as on the causal pathway to these health outcomes.

The interval between pregnancies and the risk of preeclampsia.

Background: The risk of preeclampsia is generally lower in second pregnancies than in first pregnancies, but not if the mother has a new partner for the second pregnancy. One explanation is that the risk is reduced with repeated maternal exposure and adaptation to specific antigens from the same partner. However, the difference in risk might instead be explained by the interval between births.

Around-the-clock attending radiology coverage is essential to avoid mistakes in the care of trauma patients.

Financial constraints due to increasing operating cost and decreased reimbursement do not allow many hospitals to maintain coverage by attending radiologists around the clock (CARAC). Preliminary film readings by radiology trainees may be inaccurate. In trauma, decisions are made fast and are often based on these preliminary readings.

Reference standards, judges, and comparison subjects: roles for experts in evaluating system performance.

Medical informatics systems are often designed to perform at the level of human experts. Evaluation of the performance of these systems is often constrained by lack of reference standards, either because the appropriate response is not known or because no simple appropriate response exists. Even when performance can be assessed, it is not always clear whether the performance is sufficient or reasonable.

Chromosome 15 aneuploidy in the sperm and conceptus of a sibling with variable familial expression of round-headed sperm syndrome.

Objective: To characterize rates of chromosome aneuploidy in sperm from three siblings, one of whom had an IVF/ICSI conceptus with trisomy 15.

Design: Blind evaluation of the sperm chromosome aneuploidy rates, semen quality, and sperm ultrastructure.

Setting: IVF clinic and university-based andrology research laboratory.

Evaluation of PCR, IEF and ELISA techniques for the detection and identification of potato cyst nematodes from field soil samples in England and Wales.

Effective management of potato cyst nematodes (PCNs) requires simple, rapid and accurate identification and quantification of field populations. Soil samples from a survey of 484 fields in potato rotations in England and Wales were used to compare the identification and quantification of PCNs using IEF, PCR, ELISA and bait plant tests. The cyst counts and bait plant test revealed that 64.

The effect of the herbicide glyphosate on non-target spiders: Part II. Indirect effects on Lepthyphantes tenuis in field margins.

We have examined the indirect effect of the herbicide glyphosate on the spider Lepthyphantes tenuis in field margins. Glyphosate was applied to a randomised block design field experiment comprising 360, 720 and 1440 g glyphosate AE ha-1 treatments and an unsprayed control. Spiders were sampled in each month from June to October 1998.