MRI scans and other tools to detect and diagnose dementia are helpful but not definitive
A method for data analysis used in medical diagnostics has been tested for the first time on resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. The method, which relies on ‘fuzziness’, proved to be as robust as the well-known and regularly used sample entropy (SampEn) method but with the advantage of offering greater detail than sample entropy.
Do not be misled by the word ‘fuzzy’: Fuzzy Approximate Entropy (fApEn) is a method that offers better sensitivity for understanding the complexity of noisy images produced by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). fMRI is a medical imaging technique which, when applied to the brain allows non-invasive observation of neural activity associated with specific human behaviour . However, just ‘looking’ at these images is not enough to understand what is going on, and different methods exist that analyse, filter and reconstruct the signals to enable scientists to understand the brain’s complex activity.
fApEn has been used to analyse electrocardiograms, electroencephalograms and
electromyograms, but this is the first time it is used with fMRI because 3D fMRI computation is complex. ‘Until now scientists have preferred to use a reliable method, Sample Entropy (sampEn), which, however, suffers several limitations’, explains Moses Sokunbi, research scientist at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste and first author of the study.
‘In this paper we demonstrated not only that fApEn can indeed be used but that compared with sampEn analysis on the same recordings, it gave superior results which were not detected by SampEn ‘.
‘The advantage of fApEn is that it’s a non-linear method’, Sokunbi points out. ‘All too often, in fact, data from the brain are analysed using linear methods, but the brain is a complex system that produces signals that are non-linear and dynamic in nature and analysing with these linear methods results in loss of information ‘.
The non-linear fApEn method was used to test a hypothesis regarding brain activity. ‘ We tested the fMRI data of 86 healthy individuals with age ranging between 19 and 85 years’, explains Sokunbi. ‘The complexity of brain activity is thought to decrease over the years: a young adult brain is more complex than an older adult brain. This hypothesis is supported by several observations so we decided to test it by scanning the brains of individuals of varying age with functional magnetic resonance imaging and analysing the data both with fApEn and SampEn’.
fApEn showed better signal detection in comparison to SampEn. With sampEn there was a tendency in the direction predicted by the hypothesis, but this was not significant. In contrast, fApEn analysis on the same data provided a clear and significant tendency in the expected direction’.
SISSA http://tinyurl.com/zua4jyh
As part of her PhD study at Maastricht UMC+, internist-in-training Marieke Rienks discovered that three specific proteins play an important role in heart inflammation. This inflammation may be caused by a viral infection and may lead to heart failure. According to Rienks, gaining a better understanding of the inflammatory process can lead to the development of targeted therapies against heart failure.
In addition to viral infections, oxygen deprivation can also damage the heart tissue and lead to heart failure
MIT engineers have designed what may be the Band-Aid of the future: a sticky, stretchy, gel-like material that can incorporate temperature sensors, LED lights, and other electronics, as well as tiny, drug-delivering reservoirs and channels. The
More than 5 billion people worldwide lack access to essential surgical care, but an international group of surgeons, anaesthesiologists, journalists, advocates and business and biotechnology leaders have outlined a plan to bring safe, affordable surgical care to the men, women and children who need it most.
A small, implantable device that researchers are calling a cancer
A new vibration-based prevention technology tested in a NICU reduces apneic events and improves critical clinical parameters in prematurely born infants.
Scientists and clinicians at UMass Medical School, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have shown in a clinical trial that a new vibration-based prevention technology tested in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) reduces apneic events and improves critical clinical parameters in prematurely born infants. The apnea prevention system, initially conceived at UMass Medical School, was developed at the Wyss Institute and tested in a trial conducted at the BIDMC.
In the United States, one in nine infants is born prematurely and many are at higher risk for apnea of prematurity (AOP), typically defined as a prolonged pause in breathing of at least 20 seconds. In fact, such apneic episodes occur in more than 50 percent of infants born prior to 37 weeks and in almost every baby of very low birth weight. The episodes can be life threatening. Even if treated in NICUs, they can result in insufficient oxygen delivery to critical organs such as the brain, which is suspected to cause developmental delays and long-term cognitive deficits.
Many Danes are prescribed NSAIDs for the treatment of painful conditions, fever and inflammation. But the treatment also comes with side effects, including the risk of ulcers and increased blood pressure. A major new study now gathers all research in the area. This shows that arthritis medicine is particularly dangerous for heart patients, and also that older types of arthritis medicine, which have not previously been in focus, also appear to be dangerous for the heart.
‘It’s been well-known for a number of years that newer types of NSAIDs – what are known as COX-2 inhibitors, increase the risk of heart attacks. For this reason, a number of these newer types of NSAIDs have been taken off the market again. We can now see that some of the older NSAID types, particularly Diclofenac, are also associated with an increased risk of heart attack and apparently to the same extent as several of the types that were taken off the market,’ says Morten Schmidt, MD and PhD from Aarhus University, who is in charge of the research project. He adds:
‘This is worrying, because these older types of medicine are frequently used throughout the western world and in many countries available without prescription.’
Each year, more than 15 per cent of the western countries collects a prescription for NSAIDs. This figure increases with age. Sixty per cent of the adult population in Denmark collects at least one prescription for an NSAID within a ten-year period. Heart patients are no exception and previous studies have shown that up to forty per cent of Danish patients with heart failure or previous heart attacks are prescribed NSAIDs.
The study, which was carried out in collaboration between 14 European universities and hospitals, including a number of leading European heart specialists, is today being published in the most prestigious European journal of heart medicine, European Heart Journal.
In the study, the researchers have gathered all research on the use of NSAIDs in patients with heart disease. The survey means that the European Society of Cardiology has now for the first time formulated a number of recommendations about what doctors should consider before prescribing painkillers to their patients.
‘When doctors issue prescriptions for NSAIDs, they must in each individual case carry out a thorough assessment of the risk of heart complications and bleeding. NSAIDs should only be sold over the counter when it comes with an adequate warning about the associated cardiovascular risks. In general, NSAIDs are not be used in patients who have or are at high-risk of cardiovascular diseases,’ says another of the authors, Professor in cardiology Christian Torp-Pedersen, Aalborg University, Denmark. EurekAlert
For patients in intensive care, knowing how much glucose, lactate and other substances are in the blood is a question of life or death. EPFL has developed a miniaturized microfluidic device that will allow medical staff to monitor these levels in real time and react more quickly.
No larger than a pack of chewing gum, the prototype developed by EPFL
Investigators at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research have discovered that brain scans can be used to predict patients
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