Soluble Suppression of Tumorigenicity-2 Predicts Mortality and Right Heart Failure in Patients With a Left Ventricular Assist Device.

Background: Soluble suppression of tumorigenicity-2 (sST2) predicts mortality in patients with heart failure. The predictive value of sST2 in patients with a left ventricular assist device remains unknown. Therefore, we studied the relationship between sST2 and outcome after left ventricular assist device implantation.

Automatic quantification of lymphocyte vacuolization in peripheral blood smears of patients with Batten's disease (CLN3 disease).

Quantifying lymphocyte vacuolization in peripheral blood smears (PBSs) serves as a measure for disease severity in CLN3 disease-a lysosomal storage disorder of childhood-onset. However, thus far quantification methods are based on labor-intensive manual assessment of PBSs. As machine learning techniques like convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been deployed quite successfully in detecting pathological features in PBSs, we explored whether these techniques could be utilized to automate quantification of lymphocyte vacuolization.