Both clinicians and patients experience difficulty with the statistical reasoning required to make inferences about health states on the basis of information derived from diagnostic tests. This problem will grow in importance as we move into the era of personalised medicine where an increasing supply of imprecise diagnostic tests meets an increasing demand to use such tests on the part of intelligent but statistically innumerate clinicians and patients. We describe a user-friendly, interactive, graphical interface for calculating, visualising, and communicating accurate inferences about uncertain health states when diagnostic information (test sensitivity and specificity, and health state prevalence) is imprecise and ambiguous in its application to a specific patient. The software is free, open-source, and runs on all popular PC operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux).
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BMC Cancer
January 2025
Department of Radiation Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, 295 Xichang Road, Kunming, 650032, P. R. China.
Introduction: The core objective of this study was to precisely locate metastatic lymph nodes, identify potential areas in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients that may not require radiotherapy, and propose a hypothesis for reduced target volume radiotherapy on the basis of these findings. Ultimately, we reassessed the differences in dosimetry of organs at risk (OARs) between reduced target volume (reduced CTV2) radiotherapy and standard radiotherapy.
Methods And Materials: A total of 209 patients participated in the study.
BMC Med Educ
January 2025
School of Nursing, Seirei Christopher University, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan.
Background: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) can be used in a variety of clinical settings and is a safe and powerful tool for ultrasound-trained healthcare providers, such as physicians and nurses; however, the effectiveness of ultrasound education for nursing students remains unclear. This prospective cohort study aimed to examine the sustained educational impact of bladder ultrasound simulation among nursing students.
Methods: To determine whether bladder POCUS simulation exercises sustainably improve the clinical proficiency regarding ultrasound examinations among nursing students, evaluations were conducted before and after the exercise and were compared with those after the 1-month follow-up exercise.
Pituitary
January 2025
Departments of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolism, University Hospital Basel, Petersgraben 4, 4031, Basel, Switzerland.
Background: Arginine infusion stimulates copeptin secretion, a surrogate marker of arginine vasopressin (AVP), thereby serving as a diagnostic test in the differential diagnosis of suspected AVP deficiency (AVP-D). Yet, the precise mechanism underlying the stimulatory effect of arginine on the vasopressinergic system remains elusive. Arginine plays a significant role in the urea cycle and increases the production of urea.
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January 2025
Department of Radiology, The Yancheng School of Clinical Medicine of Nanjing Medical University, Yancheng Third People's Hospital, Yancheng, China.
We intended to investigate the potential of several transitional zone (TZ) volume-related variables for the detection of clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa) among lesions scored as Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) category 3. Between September 2018 and August 2023, patients who underwent mpMRI examination and scored as PI-RADS 3 were queried from our institution. The diagnostic performances of prostate-specific antigen density (PSAD), TZ-adjusted PSAD (TZPSAD), and TZ-ratio (TZ volume/whole gland prostate volume) were analyzed.
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January 2025
Department of Laboratory Medicine, the Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, China.
Previous studies have suggested that the presence of human epididymal protein 4 (HE4) in pleural fluid can be used to diagnose malignant pleural effusion (MPE) with moderate accuracy. However, the factors that affect the diagnostic accuracy of HE4 remain unknown. This study aimed to examine how age and sex influence the diagnostic accuracy of HE4.
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