METHODS: In this work, we introduce a fully automated liver tumour segmentation approach in contrast-enhanced CT datasets. The method is a multi-stage technique which starts with contrast enhancement of the tumours using anisotropic filtering, followed by adaptive thresholding to extract the initial mask of the tumours from an identified liver region of interest. Localised level set-based active contours are used to extend the mask to the tumour boundaries.
RESULTS: The proposed method is validated on the IRCAD database with pathologies that offer highly variable and complex liver tumours. The results are compared quantitatively to the ground truth, which is delineated by experts. We achieved an average dice similarity coefficient of 75% over all patients with liver tumours in the database with overall absolute relative volume difference of 11%. This is comparable to other recent works, which include semiautomated methods, although they were validated on different datasets.
CONCLUSIONS: The proposed approach aims to segment tumours inside the liver envelope automatically with a level of accuracy adequate for its use as a tool for surgical planning using abdominal CT images. The approach will be validated on larger datasets in the future.
METHODS: Nine databases were searched through November 2017. Randomized controlled trials that reported the smoking cessation effect of V. cinerea were included. Data were extracted by two independent researchers. Study quality was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias and JADAD score. The estimates of pooled effects were calculated as relative risk (RR) with 95% CI using a random-effects model.
RESULTS: Five trials with 347 smokers were included. V. cinerea treatment group was significantly associated with cessation rate higher than that in the control group with no evidence of heterogeneity for both continuous abstinence rate (CAR) at week 8 with risk ratio (RR): 1.69, 95% CI [1.00, 2.86]; week 12 RR: 2.18, 95% CI [1.17, 4.04]) and 7-day point prevalence abstinence rate (PAR) (week 8 RR: 1.51, 95% CI [1.01, 2.27]; week 12 RR: 1.93, 95% CI [1.24, 2.99]) at week 8 and 12, respectively. There was no significant difference of all adverse events between the treatment and the control groups.
CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates that V. cinerea has potential efficacy for smoking cessation. Further well-design RCTs of standardized V. cinerea compared with standard treatment should be conducted to strengthen this evidence.
METHODS: The proposed device measures and displays the FHR on a screen liquid crystal display (LCD). The device consists of hardware that comprises condenser microphone sensor, signal conditioning, microcontroller and LCD, and software that involves the algorithm used for processing the conditioned fetal heart signal prior to FHR display. The device's performance is validated based on analysis of variance (ANOVA) test.
RESULTS: FHR data was recorded from 22 pregnant women during the 17th to 37th week of gestation using the developed device and two standard devices; AngelSounds and Electronic Stethoscope. The results show that F-value (1.5) is less than F𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑡, (3.1) and p-value (p> 0.05). Accordingly, there is no significant difference between the mean readings of the developed and existing devices. Hence, the developed device can be used for monitoring FHR in clinical and home environments.
BACKGROUND: Mononuclear cells contain progenitor cells including haematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cells, endothelial progenitor cells and fibroblasts which facilitate wound healing through cytokines, growth factor secretions, cell-cell interactions and provision of extracellular matrix scaffolding. Clinical applications of autologous mononuclear cells therapy in wound healing in non-malignant patients with critical limb ischaemia have been reported with remarkable outcome.
METHODS: We report three patients with haematological malignancies undergoing chemotherapy, who received autologous mononuclear cells implantation to treat non-healing wound after optimum conventional wound care. The sources of mononuclear cells (MNC) were from bone marrow (BM), peripheral blood (PB) and mobilised PB cells (mPB-MNC) using granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF). The cells were directly implanted into wound and below epidermis. Wound sizes and adverse effects from implantation were assessed at regular intervals.
RESULTS: All patients achieved wound healing within three months following autologous mononuclear cells implantation. No implantation adverse effects were observed.
CONCLUSIONS: Autologous mononuclear cells therapy is a feasible alternative to conventional wound care to promote complete healing in non-healing wounds compounded by morbid factors such as haematological malignancies, chemotherapy, diabetes mellitus (DM), infections and prolonged immobility.
METHODS: A total of 760 voluntary donors who attended the Blood Bank, Penang Hospital or offsite blood donation campaigns from April to May 2014 were recruited. The ABO and RhD blood groups were determined by the conventional tile method and the solid phase method, in which the tube method was used as the gold standard.
RESULTS: For ABO blood grouping, the tile method has shown 100% concordance results with the gold standard tube method, whereas the solid-phase method only showed concordance result for 754/760 samples (99.2%). Therefore, for ABO grouping, tile method has 100% sensitivity and specificity while the solid phase method has slightly lower sensitivity of 97.7% but both with good specificity of 100%. For RhD grouping, both the tile and solid phase methods have grouped one RhD positive specimen as negative each, thus giving the sensitivity and specificity of 99.9% and 100% for both methods respectively.
CONCLUSION: The 'InTec Blood Grouping Test Kit' is suitable for offsite usage because of its simplicity and user friendliness. However, further improvement in adding the internal quality control may increase the test sensitivity and validity of the test results.