1,721,007 research outputs found
The thickening of flexor tendons pulleys: a useful ultrasonographical sign in the diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis
No full textPURPOSE: To investigate the frequency of thickening of pulleys for flexor tendons in patients with early arthritis in their hands, and to evaluate it as a predictive sign of PsA. METHODS: A prospective observational study involving 228 consecutive patients presenting with recent onset of arthritis in their hands was conducted at rheumatology outpatient clinics in the Veneto region of Italy between October 2014 and September 2017. Diabetic patients were excluded because of the high frequency of trigger finger. The final diagnosis of the rheumatologist delivered after 12 months of follow-up, was considered as the gold standard for the analysis of diagnostic accuracy. RESULTS: Twenty-two patients were excluded from the study because of diabetes. A total of 86 patients with thickening of A1 pulleys in flexor tendons and 120 without were evaluated. Pulley thickness was significantly associated with a family history of psoriasis (18/86 vs 3/120, p ˂ 0.001) and diabetes (9/86 vs 4/120, p = 0.036), and with a personal history of cutaneous psoriasis (25/86 vs 10/120, p ˂ 0.001), psoriatic onychopathy (7/86 vs 2/120, p = 0.028), lower back pain (22/86 vs 11/120, p = 0.001), Dupuytren's disease (7/86 vs 2/120 p = 0.028) and De Quervain tenosynovitis (4/86 vs 0/120, p = 0.028). In isolation, this sign had a good sensitivity rate (80%). The specificity rate for the disease was barely significative (71%), with an LR+ of 2.71 for PsA. CONCLUSIONS: The thickening of the pulleys in the flexor tendons is an easy-to-detect sign with good sensitivity for the diagnosis of PsA. Its specificity and positive predictive value are not very high; however, if it is included in a complete classification process, sonographers should report it during hand evaluations of patients with arthritis
A practical integrated radiomics model predicting intensive care hospitalization in COVID-19
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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
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Radiological assessment of paediatric fungal infections: A pictorial review with focus on PET/MRI
No full textShort TE and Low Flip Angle VIBE Sequence for Lung Evaluation in PET-MRI
No full textPURPOSE
Low-dose CT in standard PET/CT offers a better morphological lung characterization when compared with Dixon sequences in PET/MRI. Our aim is to improve diagnostic accuracy for lung lesions detection with PET/MRI avoiding a significant increase in the acquisition time, adding a short TE (Echo Time) and low FA (Flip Angle) T1-weighted sequence (gradient-echo volumetric interpolated breath-hold examination [VIBE]) to the standard acquisition protocol.
METHOD AND MATERIALS
We enrolled 21 oncological patients (11 M and 10 F) who underwent both thoracic CT scan and 3T PET-MRI (Siemens Biograph mMR) including lung dedicated short TE and low FA VIBE (inspiration, 3 mm slice thickness, axial plane). Time interval between the two examinations was < 2 weeks. VIBE sequences were retrospectively and independently evaluated by two radiologists for the detection of pulmonary nodules, parenchymal consolidations and dense bands; to assess inter-observer agreement Cohen's kappa coefficient (κ) was calculated. Results were then compared with CT scans findings, considered as the gold standard. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated.
RESULTS
VIBE sensitivity in lung nodules evaluation was 80% (8/10 patients) for nodules >5 mm and 57,1 % (4/7 patients) for nodules 5 mm (κ =0.90, p<0.001), 85% for nodules <= 5 mm (κ=0.44 p<0.005), 90% for dense bands (κ =0.56, p<0.001) and 100% for parenchymal consolidations.
CONCLUSION
VIBE showed high sensitivity in the evaluation of lung nodules > 5 mm; sensitivity was less satisfactory for smaller nodules. This sequence obtained also a very good inter-observer agreement, resulting a very reproducible imaging technique in pulmonary lesion investigation. Considering also the short acquisition time (15-18 s), it seems be reasonable to integrate PET/MRI protocols with a short TE and low FA VIBE, improving its diagnostic performance in lung evaluation.
CLINICAL RELEVANCE/APPLICATION
Short TE and low FA VIBE sequence can improve PET-MRI diagnostic performance in pulmonary lesions detection, without a significant increase in the acquisition time
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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