The objective of this study is to determine the diagnostic performance of computed tomography perfusion (CTP) with and without computed tomography angiography (CTA) in assessment of hemodynamically significant coronary artery lesions in comparison to invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR). Materials and Methods PubMed and Cochrane Center Register of Controlled Trials from January 2010 searched through December 2014. Nine original studies were selected evaluating the diagnostic performance of CTP with and without CTA to invasive coronary angiography in evaluation of hemodynamic significance of coronary lesions (n = 951). Results The sensitivity, specificity, LR+ and LR- and DOR of CTA+CTP were 0.85 [95% confidence interval (CI: 0.79-0.89)] 0.94 (CI: 0.91-0.97), 15.8 (CI: 7.99-31.39), 0.146 (CI: 0.08-0.26), and 147.2 (CI: 69.77-310.66). Summary Receiver Operating Characteristics (SROC) results showed area under the curve (AUC) of 0.97 indicating that CTA+CTP may detect hemodynamically significant coronary artery lesions with high accuracy. The sensitivity, specificity, LR+ and LR- and DOR of CTP were 0.83 (CI: 0.78-0.87), 0.84 (CI: 0.80-0.87) 5.26 (CI: 2.93-9.43), 0.209 (CI: 0.12-0.36), and 31.97 (CI: 11.59-88.20). Conclusions This result suggests that CTP with CTA significantly improves diagnostic performance of coronary artery lesions compared to CTA alone and closely comparable with invasive FFR.

No description available.

No / Studies of diagnostic accuracy often report paired tests for sensitivity and specificity that can be pooled separately to produce summary estimates in a meta-analysis. This was done recently for a systematic review of radiographers' reporting accuracy of plain radiographs. The problem with pooling sensitivities and specificities separately is that it does not acknowledge any possible (negative) correlation between these two measures. A possible cause of this negative correlation is that different thresholds are used in studies to define abnormal and normal radiographs because of implicit variations in thresholds that occur when radiographers' report plain radiographs. A method that allows for the correlation that can exist between pairs of sensitivity and specificity within a study using a random effects approach is the bivariate model. When estimates of accuracy as a fixed-effects model were pooled separately, radiographers' reported plain radiographs in clinical practice at 93% (95% confidence interval (CI) 92-93%) sensitivity and 98% (95% CI 98-98%) specificity. The bivariate model produced the same summary estimates of sensitivity and specificity but with wider confidence intervals (93% (95% CI 91-95%) and 98% (95% CI 96-98%), respectively) that take into account the heterogeneity beyond chance between studies. This method also allowed us to calculate a 95% confidence ellipse around the mean values of sensitivity and specificity and a 95% prediction ellipse for individual values of sensitivity and specificity. The bivariate model is an improvement on pooling sensitivity and specificity separately when there is a threshold effect, and it is the preferred method of choice.

適度的壓縮醫療資源，可以讓醫療資源使用得更有效率，進而產生更好的醫療品質；然而過度的壓縮醫療資源，卻會造成醫療品質的惡化。 因為醫療資源和醫療品質有高度的正相關，充足資源的投入，能提昇醫療品質，但在現行保險計量支付(Fee for Service)的制度下，醫療院所常藉由每節門診病人看診人次的增加，來得到較高的獲利和報酬，這種對醫療資源的壓縮經營方式，會對醫療品質產生某些負面的影響。本研究利用簡單的醫師看診時間控制方式，可以清楚的看到在不同的時間壓縮之下，醫師的醫療行為對於醫療品質所產生的直接影響。 醫師對每個病人投入的時間，是無法由其它資源的投入所取代的，換句話說，醫師時間的投入是決定醫療品質的一個重要因素，可以做為醫療院所對門診投入的資源指標。疾病的正確診斷率相對於病人問卷和回診率高低應該是個比較有信度和效度之門診品質評量標準，所以在衡量醫療資源的投入如何影響醫療品質的評估上，本研究把醫師時間的投入做為醫療院所對門診投入的資源指標，而正確的診斷率（確診率）則作為衡量門診品質的標準。透過醫師看診時間控制的方式，分析ICD-9（The International Classification of disease, Ninth Revisione:國際疾病分類第九版）代碼的比對結果，可以正確反應醫師疾病認定和醫師診斷的差異程度，進而探討醫師時間投入和門診品質的關係。 / Objective: The quality of health care is directly proportional to physicians’ time input. The reduction of physician time per patient will affect outpatient diagnostic accuracy. Materials & Methods: This study was designed to detect the difference of group A (Control) & group B (Experiment) diagnostic accuracy in 4 specific time lengths by analyzing the difference in ICD-9 (The International Classification of Disease, Ninth Revision) codes assigned by the physicians to each patient. A method was developed to control average physician time per patient using 8, 4, 2 and 1 minute average visit time intervals. This process was repeated in non-informed physicians (group C & group D) to access the difference between informed and non-informed physicians. Results: There are significant differences in diagnostic accuracies between the control and experimental groups with the variation of time length by Chi-Square (X=20.16, 23.89, p< 0.05). There are no significant differences in diagnostic accuracies between the four different times when informed and non-informed physicians are compared (Fishers Z = 0.467, 1.001, 1.072 and 1.054, p> 0.05) Conclusion: The length of physician time per patient interaction plays an important factor for determining the quality of outpatient care.

Les métastases hépatiques du cancer colorectal (MHCR) sont fréquentes et sont associées à une mortalité significative. Ces dernières décennies, des progrès thérapeutiques importants ont permis d'en améliorer le pronostic. Plus particulièrement, le rôle des résections hépatiques s'est considérablement élargi dans la maladie métastatique limitée au foie, conduisant à un changement radical dans la prise en charge. Ceci a naturellement eu des répercussions sur l'imagerie, qui doit être très performante au niveau lésionnel, nécessitant des sensibilité et spécificité très élevées. Si les techniques modernes ont permis une amélioration très nette en termes de sensibilité, en particulier grâce aux produits de contraste hépatospécifiques et de l'imagerie pondérée en diffusion, l'amélioration de la spécificité est moins claire et moins bien évaluée. Pourtant, la spécificité est tout aussi importante dans ce contexte, où les erreurs diagnostiques sont coûteuses, avec des chirurgies inutiles en cas de faux positifs, et des résections incomplètes en cas de faux négatifs. Ces deux situations sont accompagnées d'une morbi-mortalité très importante. Le présent travail de thèse va donc explorer de nouvelles pistes dont l'objectif ultime serait d'améliorer la spécificité de l'imagerie des MHCR. La première étude confronte l'apparence des métastases d'origine colorectale en IRM de haute résolution et leur histologie sous-jacente. Cette étude originale démontre que la fibrose tumorale apparait en hypersignal T2 et la nécrose tumorale en hyposignal T2 et hypersignal T1, ce qui va à l'encontre du dogme classique. La seconde étude explore la faisabilité de la fusion d'images IRM/échographie dans l'exploration de lésions hépatiques focales chez des patients ayant un cancer colorectal. Cette étude montre qu'un nombre significatif de lésions ne peuvent être visualisées à l'échographie qu'en utilisant la fusion, ouvrant la voie à une meilleure caractérisation lésionnelle en combinant les atouts de l'échographie et de l'IRM. Enfin, la troisième étude, complétée d'une revue iconographique, analyse le comportement IRM des lésions hépatiques après injection d'un produit de contraste intravasculaire. Elle montre une accumulation progressive du contraste au sein des angiomes, mais pas dans les métastases, conduisant à des apparences très différentes sur la phase tardive. Ceci était aussi observé dans les lésions de petites tailles, ce qui devrait permettre une meilleure spécificité dans les cas difficiles / Colorectal cancer liver metastases (CRCLM) are common and result in significant mortality. During the past decades, important therapeutic advances have improved the prognosis signficantly, especially through a marked expansion of the role of hepatic resections in liverlimited metastatic disease, leading to a radical change in management. This was naturally accompanied by an equally radical change in the imaging paradigm, now centered at the lesion level and not at the patient level, requiring very high sensitivity and specificity. While modern techniques have allowed a significant improvement in terms of sensitivity, especially through the use of hepatospecific contrast agents and diffusion imaging, the benefits in term of specificity are less clear, with only few studies focusing on and reporting the specificity of the techniques. However, specificity is equally important in this context, where diagnostic errors are costly, resulting either in unnecessary surgeries in case of false positives or in incomplete resections in case of false negatives. In this setting, our thesis will examine the results of three studies, which objective is to offer possible solutions to better understand the imaging of metastases and improve the specificity of liver imaging of CRCLM. The first study analyzes the association between high resolution MRI appearance of CRCLM and their underlying histology, showing that tumor fibrosis was in hypersignal on T2 Weighted Imaging while tumor necrosis was in hyposignal on T2 Weighted Imaging and hypersignal on T1 Weighted Imaging, which goes against the classical teaching about these lesions. The second study assesses the feasibility of using an MRI/Ultrasound fusion system in the exploration of liver lesions in patients with colorectal cancer. This study shows that more lesions were detected with ultrasound when using the fusion system, suggesting that a fusion system may allow a better characterization of lesions by combining the complementary information of MRI and ultrasound. Finally, the third study and its accompanying pictorial essay, explored the behavior of liver lesions after injection of an intravascular contrast agent. The main finding of this study was that hemangioma were accumulating the contrast over time while metastases were not, a key differentiating feature. This finding was found even in small lesions, often difficult to diagnose, suggesting that using such contrast in the exploration of liver lesions in patients with CRCLM would result in a higher specificity of the method

Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-26T12:51:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 magdacristinaflaittsanchespiovesana_dissert.pdf: 1394131 bytes, checksum: c999c1d2fcb99fa0db69afa796196ce4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-12-03 / This study was realized in the Neurogeriatrics Clinic Base Hospital of Medicine Faculty in Sao Jose do Rio Preto. Objective: To study the diagnostic accuracy in Alzheimer's disease in patients treated with cholinesterase inhibitors available by Pharmacy of Exceptional Medicines and verify the impact of this therapy by the perception of families or caregivers. Methods: Cross-sectional study (prospective) the sample selection was random, in the period between May 2008 and February 2010. The certification of the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease followed NINCDS-ADRDA, complemented by Scale Clinical Evaluation of Dementia (CDR), Scale for the Assessment of Disability in Dementia (DAD) and interviews with family and / or caregiver (structured questionnaire). Statistically used - to cross-frequency tables, chi-square test, Fisher exact test, Kruskal-Wallis test, t-test and principal component analysis, a significance level of 5%. Results: Participants 106 patients, categorized into Group MC, when met criteria for AD and the DNMC when not fulfilled. In the MC Group was observed, higher age (mean 78anos), 85% of patients with MMSE lower than expected, worse performance on the DAD (median 25), according to the severity 37% were in the mild stage, 48% at moderate and 15% at severe stage, the treatment time was larger and in full doses of anticholinesterase. In the DNMC Group ages were younger (mean 74anos), 50% of patients with MMSE lower than expected, better performance in the DAD (median 75) with less treatment time and at subtherapeutic doses. In EQ, in relation to the memory of the MC Group all patients showed a deficit, 18% improved and 54% worsened; 13% in the DNMC Group showed no deficit, 48% improved and 13% xii worsened. In the assessment of temporal orientation in the MC group, 8% of the patients had no disorientation, 8% improved and 62% worsened, since the DNMC Group, 37% had no disorientation, 30% improved and 16% worsened. In Topographical orientation, in the patients in MC Group, 77% did not go out alone and in the DNMC Group 54% had no difficulty in orienting themselves. In the MC Group, 14 of the 15 neuropsychiatric symptoms were more often, only depression was higher in the DNMC. In carrying out activities of daily living, patients of MC Group worsened in all the items in relation to the DNMC Group. Conclusions: It was observed that 51% of patients using anticholinesterases did not meet criteria for the diagnosis of AD likely, older age was associated with the MC Group, which had downgraded MMSE, worse performance in DAD and in the QE. In Structured Questionnaire the patients of DNMC Group showed a different behavior, perhaps by having other diagnoses, presented better performance. / Estudo realizado no Ambulatório de Neurogeriatria do Hospital de Base da Faculdade de Medicina de São José do Rio Preto. Objetivos: Estudar a acurácia diagnóstica na Doença de Alzheimer nos pacientes em tratamento com anticolinesterásicos disponibilizados pela Farmácia de Medicamentos Excepcionais e verificar o impacto desta terapêutica pela percepção dos familiares ou cuidadores. Métodos: Estudo transversal (prospectivo); a seleção da amostra ocorreu de forma aleatória, no período compreendido entre maio de 2008 e fevereiro de 2010. A certificação do diagnóstico da Doença de Alzheimer obedeceu critérios do NINCDS-ADRDA, complementada pela Escala de Avaliação Clínica da Demência (CDR), Escala para Avaliação de Incapacidades na Demência (DAD) e entrevista com familiar e ou cuidador (Questionário estruturado). Estatisticamente utilizaram-se tabelas de frequências cruzadas, teste Qui-Quadrado, teste exato de Fisher, teste de Kruskal-Wallis, teste t e análise de componentes principais, nível de significância 5%. Resultados: Participaram 106 pacientes, categorizados em Grupo PC, quando preenchiam os critérios para DA e Grupo ÑPC quando não preenchiam. O Grupo PC constituiu-se de 52 pacientes e o Grupo ÑPC de 54 pacientes. No Grupo PC observou-se idade elevada (média 78anos), 85% dos pacientes com MEEM abaixo do esperado, desempenho pior na DAD (mediana 25); de acordo com a gravidade 37% estavam na fase leve, 48% na fase moderada e 15% na fase grave, o tempo de tratamento era maior e com doses plenas de anticolinesterásicos. No Grupo ÑPC as idades eram menores (média de 74anos), 50% dos pacientes com MEEM abaixo do esperado, desempenho x melhor na DAD (mediana 75), com menos tempo de tratamento e em doses subterapêuticas. No Questionário estruturado (QE), em relação à memória todos pacientes do Grupo PC apresentaram déficit, 18% melhoraram e 54% piorou e no Grupo ÑPC 13% não apresentaram déficit, 48% melhoraram e 13% piorou. Na avaliação da orientação temporal no Grupo PC, 8% dos pacientes não apresentaram desorientação, 8% melhoraram e 62% pioraram, já no Grupo ÑPC, 37% não apresentavam, 30% melhoraram e 16% pioraram. Na orientação topográfica, nos pacientes do Grupo PC, 77% não saíam sozinhos e no Grupo ÑPC 54% não apresentavam dificuldade em orientar-se. No Grupo PC, 14 dos 15 sintomas neuropsiquiátricos apresentavam maior freqüência; apenas depressão foi maior no Grupo ÑPC. No desempenho das Atividades de Vida Diária, os pacientes do Grupo PC pioraram em todos os itens em relação ao Grupo ÑPC. Conclusões: Foi observado que 51% dos pacientes que utilizavam anticolinesterásicos não preencheram os critérios para o diagnóstico de DA provável, idade elevada foi associada ao Grupo PC, que apresentou MEEM rebaixado, desempenho pior na DAD e no QE. No Questionário Estruturado os pacientes do Grupo ÑPC mostraram um comportamento diferente, talvez por ter outros diagnósticos, apresentaram desempenho melhor.

Abstract The Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort is an unselected, population-based sample of 12,058 live born children. The present study is based on 10,934 individuals living in Finland at the age of 16 years. Ninety-six research diagnoses fulfilling operational DSM-III-R criteria for schizophrenia by age 34 years were found in the reassessment of clinical diagnoses. Of these 96 cases, 55 (57%) had concordant diagnoses (both the clinical and research diagnosis was schizophrenia) and 41 (43%) had discordant diagnoses (the clinical diagnosis was other than schizophrenia). Diagnostic discordance was associated with low parental social class in 1980, later age at onset, comorbid diagnosis of mental retardation, shorter treatment periods and lower number of treatment episodes. Unwanted pregnancy and parental history of psychosis increased the risk for schizophrenia. The combination of unwantedness of pregnancy and parental history of psychosis elevated the risk of schizophrenia over 8-fold in offspring compared to those without either risk factor. Both low and high birth weight increased the risk of later schizophrenia. Both short and tall babies also had elevated risk. A reverse J-shape curve described the associations between birth weight, length and schizophrenia. The ages when cohort members learned to stand, walk and became potty-trained were related to subsequent incidence of schizophrenia and other psychoses. Earlier milestones reduced and later milestones increased the risk in a linear manner. In conclusion, these results indicate that schizophrenia has complex phenomenology and developmental pathways. Its multiple symptomatology with no single specific defining feature and no absolute validation criteria makes the phenomenological-based diagnosis of schizophrenia challenging. Unwanted pregnancy may act as an additive factor for subjects already vulnerable to schizophrenia and psychoses may have a developmental dimension expressed as deviant foetal development and delayed milestones. These results support the neurodevelopmental theory suggesting that schizophrenia results from small developmental deviances with origins very early in development. / Tiivistelmä Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tutkia skitsofrenian diagnostiikan osuvuuteen liittyviä tekijöitä sekä raskauden ei-toivottavuuden, lapsen syntymäpainon ja -pituuden ja skitsofrenian sekä varhaislapsuuden kehityksen ja skitsofrenian ja muiden psykoosien välistä yhteyttä. Pohjois-Suomen vuoden 1966 syntymäkohortti on prospektiivinen, epidemiologinen seurantatutkimus, johon kuuluu 12,058 vuonna1966 syntynyttä lasta. Prospektiivista tietoa on kerätty raskaudesta alkaen elinolosuhteista, elintavoista ja perheestä ja perimästä. Tämä tutkimus perustuu 10,934 henkilöön, jotka ovat asuneet 16-vuotiaana Suomessa eivätkä ole kieltäneet tietojensa käyttämistä tutkimukseen. Kliinisten diagnoosien uudelleen arvioinnissa DSM-III-R:n kriteerit täyttäviä skitsofreniatapauksia 34 ikävuoteen mennessä todettiin 96. Näistä 96 tapauksesta myös 55:n (57&#160;%) kliininen diagnoosi oli skitsofrenia ja 41:n (43&#160;%) kliininen diagnoosi oli muu kuin skitsofrenia. Diagnostiikan epätarkkuus liittyi matalaan sosiaaliluokkaan vuonna 1980, myöhäiseen sairastumisikään, samanaikaiseen kehitysvamma-diagnoosiin, lyhyisiin hoitoaikoihin ja vähäiseen hoitojaksojen määrään. Ei-toivottu raskaus yhdessä vanhemman psykoosisairauden kanssa lisäsi lapsen skitsofrenian riskiä yli 8-kertaiseksi. Matala ja korkea syntymäpaino lisäsivät skitsofrenian riskiä kaksinkertaiseksi ja samansuuruinen riskin kasvu havaittiin myös lapsilla, jotka olivat syntyessään lyhyitä tai pitkiä. J-muotoinen yhteys havaittiin syntymäpainon ja -pituuden sekä skitsofrenian riskin välillä. Ikä, jolloin lapsi oppi seisomaan, kävelemään ja kuivaksi, liittyi myöhempään skitsofreniaan ja sairastumiseen muihin psykooseihin. Varhainen oppiminen laski ja myöhäinen kehitys kohotti riskiä sairastua lineaarisesti. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittivat, että skitsofrenia on monimuotoinen kliininen oireyhtymä, mikä tekee diagnostiikan haastavaksi. Raskauden ei-toivottavuus liittyneenä vanhemman psykoosisairauteen lisää lapsen skitsofrenian riskiä. Myös poikkeava syntymäpaino ja -pituus lisäävät skitsofrenian riskiä. Psykooseihin voi liittyä kehityksellinen dimensio, joka ilmenee viivästyneenä kehityksenä.

No description available.

Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a frequent comorbidity in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). If significant CAD can be excluded on coronary CT-angiography (cCTA), invasive coronary angiography (ICA) may be avoided. However, a high plaque burden may make the exclusion of CAD challenging, particularly for less experienced readers. The objective was to analyze the ability of machine learning (ML)-based CT-derived fractional flow reserve (CT-FFR) to correctly categorize cCTA studies without obstructive CAD acquired during pre-TAVI evaluation and to correlate recategorization to image quality and coronary artery calcium score (CAC). Methods: In total, 116 patients without significant stenosis (≥50% diameter) on cCTA as part of pre-TAVI CT were included. Patients were examined with an electrocardiogram-gated CT scan of the heart and high-pitch scan of the torso. Patients were re-evaluated with ML-based CT-FFR (threshold = 0.80). The standard of reference was ICA. Image quality was assessed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results: ML-based CT-FFR was successfully performed in 94.0% (109/116) of patients, including 436 vessels. With CT-FFR, 76/109 patients and 126/436 vessels were falsely categorized as having significant CAD. With CT-FFR 2/2 patients but no vessels initially falsely classified by cCTA were correctly recategorized as having significant CAD. Reclassification occurred predominantly in distal segments. Virtually no correlation was found between image quality or CAC. Conclusions: Unselectively applied, CT-FFR may vastly increase the number of false positive ratings of CAD compared to morphological scoring. Recategorization was virtually independently from image quality or CAC and occurred predominantly in distal segments. It is unclear whether or not the reduced CT-FFR represent true pressure ratios and potentially signifies pathophysiology in patients with severe aortic stenosis.

Background: Significant coronary artery disease (CAD) is a common finding in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). Assessment of CAD prior to TAVI is recommended by current guidelines and is mainly performed via invasive coronary angiography (ICA). In this study we analyzed the ability of coronary CT-angiography (cCTA) to rule out significant CAD (stenosis ≥ 50%) during routine pre-TAVI evaluation in patients with high pre-test probability for CAD. Methods: In total, 460 consecutive patients undergoing pre-TAVI CT (mean age 79.6 ± 7.4 years) were included. All patients were examined with a retrospectively ECG-gated CT-scan of the heart, followed by a high-pitch-scan of the vascular access route utilizing a single intravenous bolus of 70 mL iodinated contrast medium. Images were evaluated for image quality, calcifications, and significant CAD; CT-examinations in which CAD could not be ruled out were defined as positive (CAD+). Routinely, patients received ICA (388/460; 84.3%; Group A), which was omitted if renal function was impaired and CAD was ruled out on cCTA (Group B). Following TAVI, clinical events were documented during the hospital stay. Results: cCTA was negative for CAD in 40.2% (188/460). Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV in Group A were 97.8%, 45.2%, 49.6%, and 97.4%, respectively. Median coronary artery calcium score (CAC) was higher in CAD+-patients but did not have predictive value for correct classification of patients with cCTA. There were no significant differences in clinical events between Group A and B. Conclusion: cCTA can be incorporated into pre-TAVI CT-evaluation with no need for additional contrast medium. cCTA may exclude significant CAD in a relatively high percentage of these high-risk patients. Thereby, cCTA may have the potential to reduce the need for ICA and total amount of contrast medium applied, possibly making pre-procedural evaluation for TAVI safer and faster.