1,720,986 research outputs found
Refining the definition of BPD: Characterization of intercurrent episodes
No full textBackground: The main definitions of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), proposed by Jobe-Bancalari, Shennan et al., and Walsh et al., focus on oxygen (O2)-need and ventilatory support for the first weeks of life and at 36 weeks of post-menstrual age (PMA). Oxygen need at 36 weeks of PMA is sometimes due to intercurrent episodes (IEs) other than BPD. The aim of this retrospective study was to characterize IEs and determine their impact on BPD in preterm infants born at 28 days and at 36 weeks of PMA (±10 days) was analyzed. We classified each infant according to the three BPD definitions. Patients requiring O2 or ventilator support at 36 weeks of PMA, with no need for O2 in the first 28 days of life, were qualified for having IEs if their O2/ventilator dependence (at 36 weeks) had a limited duration and/or could be ascribed to a known condition. Then, the contribution of IEs to the BPD rate was evaluated. Results: Out of 1,210 patients, the BPD infants were 431 (35.6%), 169 (14.0%), and 186 (15.4%) according to Jobe-Bancalari, Shennan et al., and Walsh et al., respectively. Twenty-eight patients had IEs (16.6% of those on O2 at 36 weeks of PMA) indicating a mild BPD overestimation (P=0.065). Conclusion: We proposed a definition of IEs and found that IEs could lead to a potential BPD overestimation. Further research is needed to find out if patients with IE, similarly to infants with BPD, are prone to childhood complications and need preventive measures
Aerobic activity for elderly people. Improvement of muscolar strength in the lower limbs and Joint mobility in the upper limbs. Testing for elderly people
No full text
Uncertainty Estimation of Biomedical Oximeters: Proposal for an Experimental Test-Bench
No full textParamagnetic oximeters are frequently used in clinical practice to measure and titrate the fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2) administered to a hypoxic patient. Newborns are prone to several diseases leading to hypoxia but also to oxidative damage, therefore a precise measurement of administered oxygen is of paramount importance. In this study, we evaluated and compared the performance of four commonly used gas analyzers at a Neonatal Unit. A paramagnetic gas analyzer was considered the standard for reference. Gas mixing performed by blenders was also evaluated. We first assessed the stability and composition of O2 and medical air. A settling time study was conducted to estimate a steady-state. Results show how tested blenders underestimated the real measures when FiO2 was <50% and overestimated them when FiO2 ≥50%. In all the tested oximeters the FiO2 was underestimated by 1.18%, but the overall agreement with the gold standard was very good
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Centre of pressure in dynamic posturography: a comparison among systems based on a pressure matrix and a force platform
No full textThe centre of pressure (CoP) measurement is a very important evaluation tool in posturography. Several papers have been focused on the estimation of CoP accuracy with a pressure matrix (PM) and a force platform (FP) in static conditions, while a few works reported analyses in dynamic conditions. Here, the previous sensors were compared in terms of relative and absolute error during two dynamic sessions: with a rigid bipod and with a healthy adult. Trials were conducted placing the PM and FP in series over a three-axial rotating base, programmed with sinusoidal trajectories of amplitude 10° and frequencies 0.2 Hz and 0.5 Hz. In order to compute the absolute errors of the PM and FP, a further estimation of the bipod CoP was done from the moving base rotation and bipod position gathered by an optoelectronic system. The CoP relative error between the two sensors was about 7–8 mm. Because the relative errors obtained during the bipod session were comparable with the ones obtained during the subject sessions, the absolute errors estimated with the bipod, <7 mm, can be reasonably extended to the dynamic posturography tests performed with the subject. The accuracies were estimated checking all the possible error sources, such as the sensors' alignment and the inertial artefacts; because these are rarely considered parameters in clinical routine, they can decrease the overall CoP accuracy if not carefully controlled
Laser monitoring of respiration activity in preterm infants: Monitoring of peculiar events
No full textA novel measurement technique for the assessment of best positive end-expiratory pressure in newborn patient
No full textMore than 10 million of infants born prematurely each year in the word. In case of a preterm delivery, there is a dramatic physiological transition from fetal to neonatal life often associated to some infant insufficiencies and/or pathologies. Respiratory diseases, such as distress syndrome and bronchopulmonary dysplasia, are common reasons for admission to a neonatal unit. In order to replace spontaneous breathing and to restore a physiologic gas exchanges, mechanical ventilation (MV) is very often required also in order to evaluate the degree of the insufficiency and/or of the diseases. To control the MV parameters, and the positive end-respiratory pressure, pulse oximetry is the leading instrumentation allowing the measurement of the saturation of the oxygen (SpO2) molecules linked to the hemoglobin in the infant blood. The aim of this paper is to present a novel approach for the assessment of the best positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) values using pulse oximetry. Tests have been conducted on a small cohort of 5 infants. Subjects have been monitored using a Computer Aided Work for a period of 4 hours; SpO2, HR (heart rate), FiO2 (fraction of inhale oxygen) and PIP (peak inspiratory pressure) have been simultaneously acquired. Results show that, in average, max SpO2 values are obtained with a PEEP value of 8 mmH2O. Even if the number of subjects used in this study is limited to derive final conclusions, the prospective are extremely interesting in terms of optimal patient treatments
- …
