Implementation of a fidelity monitoring process to assess delivery of an evidence-based adherence counseling intervention in a multi-site biomedical HIV prevention study.

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) trials often implement counseling to support product adherence. Counseling fidelity can vary significantly across providers and time. Fidelity monitoring can ensure that counseling is delivered as designed.

PAUSE: A Patient-Centric Tool to Support Patient-Provider Engagement on Menopause.

There are powerful demographic, political, and environmental trends shaping women's health. Increases in life expectancy, literacy, and empowerment are fueling expansions in education and advocacy. Research and development focuses on women's health and fertility across an expanded age spectrum.

Obstetric health care workers' attitudes and beliefs regarding influenza vaccination in pregnancy.

Objective: To explore obstetric health care workers' attitudes and beliefs regarding influenza vaccination in pregnancy.

Methods: A survey consisting of 16 multiple-choice questions was administered to nurses, medical and nursing assistants, receptionists, and clinical administrators in obstetric settings. Survey questions addressed general knowledge of influenza and recommendations for vaccination during pregnancy, as well as personal beliefs about the acceptability of the vaccine in the pregnant population.

Trends in recall, biopsy, and positive biopsy rates for screening mammography in an academic practice.

Purpose: To retrospectively evaluate whether recall, biopsy, and positive biopsy rates for a group of radiologists who met requirements of Mammography Quality Standards Act of 1992 (MQSA) demonstrated any change over time during a 27-month period (nine consecutive calendar quarters).

Materials And Methods: Institutional review board approved study protocol, and informed consent was waived. All screening mammograms that had been interpreted by MQSA-qualified radiologists between January 1, 2001, and March 31, 2003, were reviewed.

"Memory effect" in observer performance studies of mammograms.

Rationale And Objective: To evaluate breast radiologists' recognition of mammograms showing cancers that they correctly detected or "missed" during clinical interpretations.

Materials And Methods: Two similar experiments were conducted. In the first, 33 bilateral screening mammograms were reviewed by four breast imagers.

A preliminary report on the role of spatial frequency analysis in the perception of breast cancers missed at mammography screening.

Rationale And Objectives: Because several factors are involved in cancer detection, a malignant lesion that is visible on a mammogram will not necessarily be reported by the radiologist reading the case. Indeed, a significant fraction of screening-detected cancers are visible in retrospect, and were perceived by the radiologist when the case was read, but were either reported as benign findings or dismissed as variations of normal breast tissue. In this preliminary report the spatial frequency characteristics of clinically missed lesions are investigated by analyzing the mammogram acquired when the lesion was sent for biopsy and the most recent prior mammogram.

Recall and detection rates in screening mammography.

Background: The authors investigated the correlation between recall and detection rates in a group of 10 radiologists who had read a high volume of screening mammograms in an academic institution.

Methods: Practice-related and outcome-related databases of verified cases were used to compute recall rates and tumor detection rates for a group of 10 Mammography Quality Standard Act (MQSA)-certified radiologists who interpreted a total of 98,668 screening mammograms during the years 2000, 2001, and 2002. The relation between recall and detection rates for these individuals was investigated using parametric Pearson (r) and nonparametric Spearman (rho) correlation coefficients.

Integrated density of a lesion: a quantitative, mammographically derived, invariable measure.

A method for quantitatively estimating lesion "size" from mammographic images was developed and evaluated. The main idea behind the measure, termed "integrated density" (ID), is that the total x-ray attenuation attributable to an object is theoretically invariant with respect to the projected view and object deformation. Because it is possible to estimate x-ray attenuation of a lesion from relative film densities, after appropriate corrections for background, the invariant property of the measure is expected to result in an objective method for evaluating the "sizes" of breast lesions.

Mammography with computer-aided detection: reproducibility assessment initial experience.

Purpose: To examine the performance and reproducibility of a commercially available computer-aided detection (CAD) system with a set of mammograms obtained in 100 patients who had undergone biopsy after positive findings at mammography.

Materials And Methods: One hundred positive mammographic examinations (four views each), depicting 96 masses and 50 microcalcification clusters, were scanned and analyzed three times by the CAD system. Reproducibility of detection sensitivity and the individual CAD-generated cues in the three images were examined.

Performance change of mammographic CAD schemes optimized with most-recent and prior image databases.

Rationale And Objectives: The authors evaluated performance changes in the detection of masses on "current" (latest) and "prior" images by computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) schemes that had been optimized with databases of current and prior mammograms.

Materials And Methods: The authors selected 260 pairs of matched consecutive mammograms. Each current image depicted one or two verified masses.

Optimal reference mammography: a comparison of mammograms obtained 1 and 2 years before the present examination.

Objective: We assessed and compared the benefit of using images acquired 1 year or 2 years previously during mammography interpretations.

Materials And Methods: Eleven radiologists and one resident reviewed 128 cases three times: once without prior mammograms for comparison, once with mammograms from the most recent (1 year) examination, and once with mammograms acquired 2 years previously. They were asked to determine whether the patient should be recalled for additional procedures.

Automated assessment of the composition of breast tissue revealed on tissue-thickness-corrected mammography.

Objective: Variations in the thickness of a compressed breast and the resulting variations in mammographic densities confound current automated procedures for estimating tissue composition of breasts from digitized mammograms. We sought to determine whether adjusting mammographic data for tissue thickness before estimating tissue composition could improve the accuracy of the tissue estimates.

Materials And Methods: We developed methods for locally estimating breast thickness from mammograms and then adjusting pixel values so that the values correlated with the tissue composition over the breast area.

Prescreening mammography by technologists: a preliminary assessment.

Objective: We assessed the ability of technologists to accurately classify screening mammograms as either showing negative findings or requiring follow-up.

Subjects And Methods: In a prospective study, 33 technologists at a central facility and five satellite breast imaging facilities recorded whether mammograms obtained during 3019 examinations showed negative findings or findings that indicated that additional procedures were required. The technologists were not specifically trained for the experiment.

Computer-aided detection in mammography: an assessment of performance on current and prior images.

Rationale And Objectives: The authors assessed and compared the performance of a computer-aided detection (CAD) scheme for the detection of masses and microcalcification clusters on a set of images collected from two consecutive ("current" and "prior") mammographic examinations.

Materials And Methods: A previously developed CAD scheme was used to assess two consecutive screening mammograms from 200 cases in which the current mammogram showed a mass or cluster of microcalcifications that resulted in breast biopsy. The latest prior examinations had been initially interpreted as negative or definitely benign findings (Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System rating, 1 or 2).

Postnatal development of phrenic motoneurons in the cat.

The postnatal growth of phrenic motoneurons in the cat was studied using retrograde transport of horseradish peroxidase (HRP). The mean somal surface area of these developing motoneurons increased 2.5 times from day 3 to adult while the mean somal volume increased four-fold.