1,721,131 research outputs found
Electropneumatic platform for a cognitive approach in rehabilitation of hemiplegic patients
No full textThe authors present a therapeutic tool, which aims to be a help in the cognitive-based rehabilitative treatment of hemiplegic patients. The system provides visual biofeedback patterns and could be used starting from an early stage of the treatment when no voluntary control is available. Ten normal and six hemiplegics were tested; at the end of each trial a symmetry index has been calculated on the basis of the recorded data. The scattergram shows the expected difference between normal and hemiplegic patients. Clearly, this is only the starting point; any conclusion about the effectiveness of the platform can only be obtained from a long-term study, where a set of patients who use the platform are compared with another set who follow a more traditional approach. Such studies are now in hand and will lead ultimately to an optimised set of fully automatic therapeutic protocols
Functional fields in human auditory cortex revealed by time-resolved fMRI without interference of EPI noise
No full textThe gradient switching during fast echoplanar functional magnetic resonance imaging (EPI-fMRI) produces loud noises that may interact with the functional activation of the central auditory system induced by experimental acoustic stimuli. This interaction is unpredictable and is likely to confound the interpretation of functional maps of the auditory cortex. In the present study we used an experimental design which does not require the presentation of stimuli during EPI acquisitions and allows for mapping of the auditory cortex without the interference of scanner noise. The design relies on the physiological delays between the onset, or the end, of stimulation and the corresponding hemodynamic response. Owing to these delays and through a time-resolved acquisition protocol it is possible to analyze the decay of the stimulus-specific signal changes after the cessation of the stimulus itself and before the onset of the EPI-acoustic noise related activation (decay-sampling technique). This experimental design, which might permit a more detailed insight in the auditory cortex, has been applied to the study of the cortical responses to pulsed 1000 Hz sine tones. Distinct activation clusters were detected in the Heschl's gyri and the planum temporale, with an increased extension compared to a conventional block-design paradigm. Furthermore, the comparison of the hemodynamic response of the most anterior and the posterior clusters of activation highlighted differential response patterns to the sound stimulation and to the EPI-noise. These differences, attributable to reciprocal saturation effects unevenly distributed over the superior temporal cortex, provided evidence for functionally distinct auditory fields. © 2001 Academic Press
Localisation and characterisation of auditory perception through functional magnetic resonance imaging
No full textIn the last few years, Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has been widely accepted as an effective tool for mapping brain activities in both the neurosensorial and the cognitive field. The present work aims to assess the possibility of using fMRI methods to perform a non-invasive evaluation of the human auditory function. To this end the cortical response to different non speech stimuli (pure tones, pulsed tones) was examined for ten subjects with no audiological impairment. Our findings point out some remarkable differences in both the spatial and the temporal features of the primary auditory cortex response to pulsed tones and to pure tones
The ICT practice for Biomedical Engineering students at Monaldi Hospital. A bridge between education and job opportunities
No full text“BlindMath” an innovative scientific editor for blind
No full textAusili per la disabilita', sostegno in ambito universitario
Telemedicine - Islands project cost-effectiveness and cost-comparison analysis
No full textTelemedicine can provide great improvements to the health care delivery in islands and remote areas, where it can bring high-quality care, often not or poorly available. The islands of Procida and Ischia, in the gulf of Naples, are well known resort in South Italy. The little hospital of Ischia and especially the outpatient department of Procida are not always equipped to face all clinical cases. Regularly, the patients from Procida were directly transferred to the mainland, even only for diagnosis. The small dimension of the health service structures is related to the little population of the islands. This problem is more perceived during the summer season with the tourist increment of populations. A cardiological and radiological video-teleconsulting system, which connects the two islands to mainland hospitals (Pozzuoli and Giugliano), has been established. This telemedicine network allows a 24-hour connection between the main hospitals of Pozzuoli and Giugliano and the islands' health centres. This telemedicine solution aims to provide a prompt and qualified health service in the islands, and to reduce the risks and the costs of patient transportation to the mainland. Technology Assessment activities are carried out in order to evaluate and measure the performances of the specific telemedicine solution during its operative work. The preliminary results are promising, waiting for more extensive data to carry out cost-effectiveness analysis, a cost-comparison analysis was attempted. This project represents a pilot and demonstration site for future applications of telemedicine in emergency
Some Consideration on the Technical Personnel for the Management of Medical Technologies
No full textThe telematic network of referee hospital "V. Monaldi" in Naples: state of the art and perspectives.
No full textThe new advances in I.T. both in Hardware (wideband network) and in Software are rapidly changing the Health Information Systems scenario. In many hospitals of Campania Region this leads in many case to rebuild, starting from zero, both infrastructure and applications. Ericsson Enterprise has recently developed for the A.O. Monaldi and Integrated information System which consists of an advanced LAN (Local Area Network), a number of software infrastructures and some application systems as WEB site, Dicom PACS, E-mail server, Streaming Video from Operating Theatres, Internal TV Network. This integrated system represents the starting point for modern health information systems, which is compliant with new standards. The start-up of such systems represents always a problem for the organization and management point of view, therefore a number of problems concerning: training, education, security, privacy, operative procedures, co-ordination with existing applications, system management at the start-up and after. This paper deals with the technical aspects of this information system and discusses the problem met in introducing these IT products in a big and important hospital of Campania Region in Italy, in order to suggest a model, useful for other similar experiences
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