Nationwide and population-based prescription patterns in bipolar disorder

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kessing, Lars Vedel; Vradi, Eleni; Andersen, Per Kragh

2016-01-01

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study was to describe prescription patterns and changes in these patterns over the last decade for patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder in mental healthcare, using population-based and nationwide data, and to relate the findings to recommendations from...... international guidelines. METHODS: A population-based, nationwide study was carried out. It included register-based longitudinal data on all patients with a first-ever contact with mental healthcare with a diagnosis of mania/bipolar disorder from the entire Danish population, and all prescription data...

The use of antibiotics based on prescriptions dispenced in pharmacies

OpenAIRE

Vadapalaitė-Mašalienė, Vilma

2017-01-01

The Use of Antibiotics Based on Prescriptions Dispenced in Pharmacies SUMMARY Baronienė J., Vadapalaitė-Mašalienė V. The use of antibiotics based on prescriptions dispenced in pharmacies: pharmacy master's thesis. Vilnius University, faculty of medicine – Vilnius, 2017. – 43 p. Antibiotics are not a cure-all. There are many diseases that are insurmountable without antibiotics: these diseases are caused by bacteria. Antibacterial therapy prevents from complications and sometimes saves lives. H...

Methodological challenges of optical tweezers-based X-ray fluorescence imaging of biological model organisms at synchrotron facilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Vergucht, Eva; Brans, Toon; Beunis, Filip; Garrevoet, Jan; Bauters, Stephen; De Rijcke, Maarten; Deruytter, David; Janssen, Colin; Riekel, Christian; Burghammer, Manfred; Vincze, Laszlo

2015-07-01

Recently, a radically new synchrotron radiation-based elemental imaging approach for the analysis of biological model organisms and single cells in their natural in vivo state was introduced. The methodology combines optical tweezers (OT) technology for non-contact laser-based sample manipulation with synchrotron radiation confocal X-ray fluorescence (XRF) microimaging for the first time at ESRF-ID13. The optical manipulation possibilities and limitations of biological model organisms, the OT setup developments for XRF imaging and the confocal XRF-related challenges are reported. In general, the applicability of the OT-based setup is extended with the aim of introducing the OT XRF methodology in all research fields where highly sensitive in vivo multi-elemental analysis is of relevance at the (sub)micrometre spatial resolution level.

Automated Prescription of Oblique Brain 3D MRSI

OpenAIRE

Ozhinsky, Eugene; Vigneron, Daniel B.; Chang, Susan M.; Nelson, Sarah J.

2012-01-01

Two major difficulties encountered in implementing Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging (MRSI) in a clinical setting are limited coverage and difficulty in prescription. The goal of this project was to completely automate the process of 3D PRESS MRSI prescription, including placement of the selection box, saturation bands and shim volume, while maximizing the coverage of the brain. The automated prescription technique included acquisition of an anatomical MRI image, optimization of the ob...

Automated, feature-based image alignment for high-resolution imaging mass spectrometry of large biological samples

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Broersen, A.; Liere, van R.; Altelaar, A.F.M.; Heeren, R.M.A.; McDonnell, L.A.

2008-01-01

High-resolution imaging mass spectrometry of large biological samples is the goal of several research groups. In mosaic imaging, the most common method, the large sample is divided into a mosaic of small areas that are then analyzed with high resolution. Here we present an automated alignment

Towards multidimensional radiotherapy (MD-CRT): biological imaging and biological conformality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ling, C. Clifton; Humm, John; Larson, Steven; Amols, Howard; Fuks, Zvi; Leibel, Steven; Koutcher, Jason A.

2000-01-01

Purpose: The goals of this study were to survey and summarize the advances in imaging that have potential applications in radiation oncology, and to explore the concept of integrating physical and biological conformality in multidimensional conformal radiotherapy (MD-CRT). Methods and Materials: The advances in three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) have greatly improved the physical conformality of treatment planning and delivery. The development of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) has provided the 'dose painting' or 'dose sculpting' ability to further customize the delivered dose distribution. The improved capabilities of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy, and of positron emission tomography, are beginning to provide physiological and functional information about the tumor and its surroundings. In addition, molecular imaging promises to reveal tumor biology at the genotype and phenotype level. These developments converge to provide significant opportunities for enhancing the success of radiotherapy. Results: The ability of IMRT to deliver nonuniform dose patterns by design brings to fore the question of how to 'dose paint' and 'dose sculpt', leading to the suggestion that 'biological' images may be of assistance. In contrast to the conventional radiological images that primarily provide anatomical information, biological images reveal metabolic, functional, physiological, genotypic, and phenotypic data. Important for radiotherapy, the new and noninvasive imaging methods may yield three-dimensional radiobiological information. Studies are urgently needed to identify genotypes and phenotypes that affect radiosensitivity, and to devise methods to image them noninvasively. Incremental to the concept of gross, clinical, and planning target volumes (GTV, CTV, and PTV), we propose the concept of 'biological target volume' (BTV) and hypothesize that BTV can be derived from biological images and that their use may incrementally improve

Effects of image congruency on persuasiveness and recall in direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising.

Science.gov (United States)

Kiernicki, Kristen; Helme, Donald W

2017-01-01

Although direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertising is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, content analyses suggest advertisers may not disclose drug risks in the same way they describe drug benefits. This study tests the relationship between image congruency in televised DTC advertisements, recall of risks/benefits, and perceived persuasiveness. Advertisements for Nasonex, Advair, and Lunesta were shown to college students in either their original (image incongruent) or modified (image neutral) form. Risks were easier to recall with image-neutral advertisements. Gender also had a significant interaction effect, suggesting that males and females process DTC advertisement differently.

Improved image alignment method in application to X-ray images and biological images.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Ching-Wei; Chen, Hsiang-Chou

2013-08-01

Alignment of medical images is a vital component of a large number of applications throughout the clinical track of events; not only within clinical diagnostic settings, but prominently so in the area of planning, consummation and evaluation of surgical and radiotherapeutical procedures. However, image registration of medical images is challenging because of variations on data appearance, imaging artifacts and complex data deformation problems. Hence, the aim of this study is to develop a robust image alignment method for medical images. An improved image registration method is proposed, and the method is evaluated with two types of medical data, including biological microscopic tissue images and dental X-ray images and compared with five state-of-the-art image registration techniques. The experimental results show that the presented method consistently performs well on both types of medical images, achieving 88.44 and 88.93% averaged registration accuracies for biological tissue images and X-ray images, respectively, and outperforms the benchmark methods. Based on the Tukey's honestly significant difference test and Fisher's least square difference test tests, the presented method performs significantly better than all existing methods (P ≤ 0.001) for tissue image alignment, and for the X-ray image registration, the proposed method performs significantly better than the two benchmark b-spline approaches (P < 0.001). The software implementation of the presented method and the data used in this study are made publicly available for scientific communities to use (http://www-o.ntust.edu.tw/∼cweiwang/ImprovedImageRegistration/). cweiwang@mail.ntust.edu.tw.

Biological imaging in radiation therapy: role of positron emission tomography

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nestle, Ursula; Hentschel, Michael; Grosu, Anca-Ligia [Departments of Radiation Oncology, University of Freiburg, Robert Koch Str. 3, 79106 Freiburg (Germany); Weber, Wolfgang [Nuclear Medicine, University of Freiburg, Robert Koch Str. 3, 79106 Freiburg (Germany)], E-mail: ursula.nestle@uniklinik-freiburg.de

2009-01-07

In radiation therapy (RT), staging, treatment planning, monitoring and evaluation of response are traditionally based on computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These radiological investigations have the significant advantage to show the anatomy with a high resolution, being also called anatomical imaging. In recent years, so called biological imaging methods which visualize metabolic pathways have been developed. These methods offer complementary imaging of various aspects of tumour biology. To date, the most prominent biological imaging system in use is positron emission tomography (PET), whose diagnostic properties have clinically been evaluated for years. The aim of this review is to discuss the valences and implications of PET in RT. We will focus our evaluation on the following topics: the role of biological imaging for tumour tissue detection/delineation of the gross tumour volume (GTV) and for the visualization of heterogeneous tumour biology. We will discuss the role of fluorodeoxyglucose-PET in lung and head and neck cancer and the impact of amino acids (AA)-PET in target volume delineation of brain gliomas. Furthermore, we summarize the data of the literature about tumour hypoxia and proliferation visualized by PET. We conclude that, regarding treatment planning in radiotherapy, PET offers advantages in terms of tumour delineation and the description of biological processes. However, to define the real impact of biological imaging on clinical outcome after radiotherapy, further experimental, clinical and cost/benefit analyses are required. (topical review)

Biological imaging in radiation therapy: role of positron emission tomography.

Science.gov (United States)

Nestle, Ursula; Weber, Wolfgang; Hentschel, Michael; Grosu, Anca-Ligia

2009-01-07

In radiation therapy (RT), staging, treatment planning, monitoring and evaluation of response are traditionally based on computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These radiological investigations have the significant advantage to show the anatomy with a high resolution, being also called anatomical imaging. In recent years, so called biological imaging methods which visualize metabolic pathways have been developed. These methods offer complementary imaging of various aspects of tumour biology. To date, the most prominent biological imaging system in use is positron emission tomography (PET), whose diagnostic properties have clinically been evaluated for years. The aim of this review is to discuss the valences and implications of PET in RT. We will focus our evaluation on the following topics: the role of biological imaging for tumour tissue detection/delineation of the gross tumour volume (GTV) and for the visualization of heterogeneous tumour biology. We will discuss the role of fluorodeoxyglucose-PET in lung and head and neck cancer and the impact of amino acids (AA)-PET in target volume delineation of brain gliomas. Furthermore, we summarize the data of the literature about tumour hypoxia and proliferation visualized by PET. We conclude that, regarding treatment planning in radiotherapy, PET offers advantages in terms of tumour delineation and the description of biological processes. However, to define the real impact of biological imaging on clinical outcome after radiotherapy, further experimental, clinical and cost/benefit analyses are required.

[Analysis on traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions treating cancer-related anorexia syndrome based on grey system theory combined with multivariate analysis method and discovery of new prescriptions].

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Song-Lin; Chen, Cong; Zhu, Hui; Li, Jing; Pang, Yan

2016-01-01

Cancer-related anorexia syndrome (CACS) is one of the main causes for death at present as well as a syndrome seriously harming patients' quality of life, treatment effect and survival time. In current clinical researches, there are fewer reports about empirical traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) prescriptions and patent prescriptions treating CACS, and prescription rules are rarely analyzed in a systematic manner. As the hidden rules are not excavated, it is hard to have an innovative discovery and knowledge of clinical medication. In this paper, the grey screening method combined with the multivariate statistical method was used to build the ″CACS prescriptions database″. Based on the database, totally 359 prescriptions were selected, the frequency of herbs in prescription was determined, and commonly combined drugs were evolved into 4 new prescriptions for different syndromes. Prescriptions of TCM in treatment of CACS gave priority to benefiting qi for strengthening spleen, also laid emphasis on replenishing kidney essence, dispersing stagnated liver-qi and dispersing lung-qi. Moreover, interdependence and mutual promotion of yin and yang should be taken into account to reflect TCM's holism and theory for treatment based on syndrome differentiation. The grey screening method, as a valuable traditional Chinese medicine research-supporting method, can be used to subjectively and objectively analyze prescription rules; and the new prescriptions can provide reference for the clinical use of TCM for treating CACS and the drug development. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

Integration of molecular imaging in treatment planning and delivery of modern radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jacob, V.; Wilkens, J.J.

2011-01-01

Among various imaging modalities currently available, positron emission tomography (PET) has the potential to visualize processes on a molecular level. Molecular imaging, often also referred to as functional or biological imaging, brought a new dimension to diagnostics and therapy of cancer by providing images of metabolism and other processes in the human body and in tumours. PET was first applied for diagnostics and staging of various tumours with high diagnostic precision. Modern radiotherapy asks increasingly for individualized treatment strategies, taking molecular imaging into account. Technical developments over the last years, in particular methods to register various imaging modalities within software packages for treatment planning and target delineation, facilitated the use of PET imaging in radiotherapy. In order to exploit the full potential of modern high-precision radiotherapy, exact imaging procedures are necessary, for example for precise target volume definition. In the long run, concepts employing an inhomogeneous dose prescription based on biological imaging may become routine in clinical applications, leading to individualized, biologically adaptive therapy. (orig.)

Behavioural screening of zebrafish using neuroactive traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions and biological targets

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Ya-Nan; Hou, Yuan-Yuan; Sun, Ming-Zhu; Zhang, Chun-Yang; Bai, Gang; Zhao, Xin; Feng, Xi-Zeng

2014-06-01

The mechanism of the therapeutic action of antidepressants remains uncertain in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In this study, we selected 7 classical TCM prescriptions and utilised an automatic video-tracking system to monitor the rest/wake behaviour of larval zebrafish at 4 days post-fertilisation (dpf) for 48 hours. We found that the curative effects of the prescriptions were dose-dependent. K-means clustering was performed according to the shared behavioural phenotypes of the zebrafish. The results revealed that the rest/wake behavioural profiles induced by the same class of prescriptions were similar. A correlation analysis was conducted between the TCM prescriptions and the known compounds. The results showed that the TCM prescriptions correlated well with some well-known compounds. Therefore, we predicted that they may share a similar mechanism of action. This paper describes the first study to combine TCM research with zebrafish rest/wake behaviour in vivo and presents a powerful approach for the discovery of the mechanism of action of TCM prescriptions.

SU-F-T-36: Dosimetric Comparison of Point Based Vs. Target Based Prescription for Intracavitary Brachytherapy in Cancer of the Cervix

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ashenafi, M; McDonald, D; Peng, J; Mart, C; Koch, N; Cooper, L; Vanek, K [Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: Improved patient imaging used for planning the treatment of cervical cancer with Tandem and Ovoid (T&O) Intracavitary high-dose-rate brachytherapy (HDR) now allows for 3D delineation of target volumes and organs-at-risk. However, historical data relies on the conventional point A-based planning technique. A comparative dosimetric study was performed by generating both target-based (TBP) and point-based (PBP) plans for ten clinical patients. Methods: Treatment plans created using Elekta Oncentra v. 4.3 for ten consecutive cervical cancer patients were analyzed. All patients were treated with HDR using the Utrecht T&O applicator. Both CT and MRI imaging modalities were utilized to delineate clinical target volume (CTV) and organs-at-risk (rectum, sigmoid, bladder, and small bowel). Point A (left and right), vaginal mucosa, and ICRU rectum and bladder points were defined on CT. Two plans were generated for each patient using two prescription methods (PBP and TBP). 7Gy was prescribed to each point A for each PBP plan and to the target D90% for each TBP plan. Target V90%, V100%, and V200% were evaluated. In addition, D0.1cc and D2cc were analyzed for each organ-at-risk. Differences were assessed for statistical significance (p<0.05) by use of Student’s t-test. Results: Target coverage was comparable for both planning methods, with each method providing adequate target coverage. TBP showed lower absolute dose to the target volume than PBP (D90% = 7.0Gy vs. 7.4Gy, p=0.028), (V200% = 10.9cc vs. 12.8cc, p=0.014), (ALeft = 6.4Gy vs. 7Gy, p=0.009), and (ARight = 6.4Gy vs. 7Gy, p=0.013). TBP also showed a statistically significant reduction in bladder, rectum, small bowel, and sigmoid doses compared to PBP. There was no statistically significant difference in vaginal mucosa or ICRU-defined rectum and bladder dose. Conclusion: Target based prescription resulted in substantially lower dose to delineated organs-at-risk compared to point based prescription, while

Therapeutic treatment plan optimization with probability density-based dose prescription

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lian Jun; Cotrutz, Cristian; Xing Lei

2003-01-01

The dose optimization in inverse planning is realized under the guidance of an objective function. The prescription doses in a conventional approach are usually rigid values, defining in most instances an ill-conditioned optimization problem. In this work, we propose a more general dose optimization scheme based on a statistical formalism [Xing et al., Med. Phys. 21, 2348-2358 (1999)]. Instead of a rigid dose, the prescription to a structure is specified by a preference function, which describes the user's preference over other doses in case the most desired dose is not attainable. The variation range of the prescription dose and the shape of the preference function are predesigned by the user based on prior clinical experience. Consequently, during the iterative optimization process, the prescription dose is allowed to deviate, with a certain preference level, from the most desired dose. By not restricting the prescription dose to a fixed value, the optimization problem becomes less ill-defined. The conventional inverse planning algorithm represents a special case of the new formalism. An iterative dose optimization algorithm is used to optimize the system. The performance of the proposed technique is systematically studied using a hypothetical C-shaped tumor with an abutting circular critical structure and a prostate case. It is shown that the final dose distribution can be manipulated flexibly by tuning the shape of the preference function and that using a preference function can lead to optimized dose distributions in accordance with the planner's specification. The proposed framework offers an effective mechanism to formalize the planner's priorities over different possible clinical scenarios and incorporate them into dose optimization. The enhanced control over the final plan may greatly facilitate the IMRT treatment planning process

Determination of prescription dose for Cs-131 permanent implants using the BED formalism including resensitization correction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Luo, Wei, E-mail: wei.luo@uky.edu; Molloy, Janelle; Aryal, Prakash; Feddock, Jonathan; Randall, Marcus [Department of Radiation Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40536 (United States)

2014-02-15

Purpose: The current widely used biological equivalent dose (BED) formalism for permanent implants is based on the linear-quadratic model that includes cell repair and repopulation but not resensitization (redistribution and reoxygenation). The authors propose a BED formalism that includes all the four biological effects (4Rs), and the authors propose how it can be used to calculate appropriate prescription doses for permanent implants with Cs-131. Methods: A resensitization correction was added to the BED calculation for permanent implants to account for 4Rs. Using the same BED, the prescription doses with Au-198, I-125, and Pd-103 were converted to the isoeffective Cs-131 prescription doses. The conversion factor F, ratio of the Cs-131 dose to the equivalent dose with the other reference isotope (F{sub r}: with resensitization, F{sub n}: without resensitization), was thus derived and used for actual prescription. Different values of biological parameters such as α, β, and relative biological effectiveness for different types of tumors were used for the calculation. Results: Prescription doses with I-125, Pd-103, and Au-198 ranging from 10 to 160 Gy were converted into prescription doses with Cs-131. The difference in dose conversion factors with (F{sub r}) and without (F{sub n}) resensitization was significant but varied with different isotopes and different types of tumors. The conversion factors also varied with different doses. For I-125, the average values of F{sub r}/F{sub n} were 0.51/0.46, for fast growing tumors, and 0.88/0.77 for slow growing tumors. For Pd-103, the average values of F{sub r}/F{sub n} were 1.25/1.15 for fast growing tumors, and 1.28/1.22 for slow growing tumors. For Au-198, the average values of F{sub r}/F{sub n} were 1.08/1.25 for fast growing tumors, and 1.00/1.06 for slow growing tumors. Using the biological parameters for the HeLa/C4-I cells, the averaged value of F{sub r} was 1.07/1.11 (rounded to 1.1), and the averaged value of F

Determination of prescription dose for Cs-131 permanent implants using the BED formalism including resensitization correction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luo, Wei; Molloy, Janelle; Aryal, Prakash; Feddock, Jonathan; Randall, Marcus

2014-01-01

Purpose: The current widely used biological equivalent dose (BED) formalism for permanent implants is based on the linear-quadratic model that includes cell repair and repopulation but not resensitization (redistribution and reoxygenation). The authors propose a BED formalism that includes all the four biological effects (4Rs), and the authors propose how it can be used to calculate appropriate prescription doses for permanent implants with Cs-131. Methods: A resensitization correction was added to the BED calculation for permanent implants to account for 4Rs. Using the same BED, the prescription doses with Au-198, I-125, and Pd-103 were converted to the isoeffective Cs-131 prescription doses. The conversion factor F, ratio of the Cs-131 dose to the equivalent dose with the other reference isotope (F r : with resensitization, F n : without resensitization), was thus derived and used for actual prescription. Different values of biological parameters such as α, β, and relative biological effectiveness for different types of tumors were used for the calculation. Results: Prescription doses with I-125, Pd-103, and Au-198 ranging from 10 to 160 Gy were converted into prescription doses with Cs-131. The difference in dose conversion factors with (F r ) and without (F n ) resensitization was significant but varied with different isotopes and different types of tumors. The conversion factors also varied with different doses. For I-125, the average values of F r /F n were 0.51/0.46, for fast growing tumors, and 0.88/0.77 for slow growing tumors. For Pd-103, the average values of F r /F n were 1.25/1.15 for fast growing tumors, and 1.28/1.22 for slow growing tumors. For Au-198, the average values of F r /F n were 1.08/1.25 for fast growing tumors, and 1.00/1.06 for slow growing tumors. Using the biological parameters for the HeLa/C4-I cells, the averaged value of F r was 1.07/1.11 (rounded to 1.1), and the averaged value of F n was 1.75/1.18. F r of 1.1 has been applied to

Automated Prescription of Oblique Brain 3D MRSI

Science.gov (United States)

Ozhinsky, Eugene; Vigneron, Daniel B.; Chang, Susan M.; Nelson, Sarah J.

2012-01-01

Two major difficulties encountered in implementing Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging (MRSI) in a clinical setting are limited coverage and difficulty in prescription. The goal of this project was to completely automate the process of 3D PRESS MRSI prescription, including placement of the selection box, saturation bands and shim volume, while maximizing the coverage of the brain. The automated prescription technique included acquisition of an anatomical MRI image, optimization of the oblique selection box parameters, optimization of the placement of OVS saturation bands, and loading of the calculated parameters into a customized 3D MRSI pulse sequence. To validate the technique and compare its performance with existing protocols, 3D MRSI data were acquired from 6 exams from 3 healthy volunteers. To assess the performance of the automated 3D MRSI prescription for patients with brain tumors, the data were collected from 16 exams from 8 subjects with gliomas. This technique demonstrated robust coverage of the tumor, high consistency of prescription and very good data quality within the T2 lesion. PMID:22692829

A high-resolution optical imaging system for obtaining the serial transverse section images of biologic tissue

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Li; Zhang, Bin; Wu, Ping; Liu, Qian; Gong, Hui

2007-05-01

A high-resolution optical imaging system was designed and developed to obtain the serial transverse section images of the biologic tissue, such as the mouse brain, in which new knife-edge imaging technology, high-speed and high-sensitive line-scan CCD and linear air bearing stages were adopted and incorporated with an OLYMPUS microscope. The section images on the tip of the knife-edge were synchronously captured by the reflection imaging in the microscope while cutting the biologic tissue. The biologic tissue can be sectioned at interval of 250 nm with the same resolution of the transverse section images obtained in x and y plane. And the cutting job can be automatically finished based on the control program wrote specially in advance, so we save the mass labor of the registration of the vast images data. In addition, by using this system a larger sample can be cut than conventional ultramicrotome so as to avoid the loss of the tissue structure information because of splitting the tissue sample to meet the size request of the ultramicrotome.

BIOCAT: a pattern recognition platform for customizable biological image classification and annotation.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Jie; Lamichhane, Santosh; Sterne, Gabriella; Ye, Bing; Peng, Hanchuan

2013-10-04

Pattern recognition algorithms are useful in bioimage informatics applications such as quantifying cellular and subcellular objects, annotating gene expressions, and classifying phenotypes. To provide effective and efficient image classification and annotation for the ever-increasing microscopic images, it is desirable to have tools that can combine and compare various algorithms, and build customizable solution for different biological problems. However, current tools often offer a limited solution in generating user-friendly and extensible tools for annotating higher dimensional images that correspond to multiple complicated categories. We develop the BIOimage Classification and Annotation Tool (BIOCAT). It is able to apply pattern recognition algorithms to two- and three-dimensional biological image sets as well as regions of interest (ROIs) in individual images for automatic classification and annotation. We also propose a 3D anisotropic wavelet feature extractor for extracting textural features from 3D images with xy-z resolution disparity. The extractor is one of the about 20 built-in algorithms of feature extractors, selectors and classifiers in BIOCAT. The algorithms are modularized so that they can be "chained" in a customizable way to form adaptive solution for various problems, and the plugin-based extensibility gives the tool an open architecture to incorporate future algorithms. We have applied BIOCAT to classification and annotation of images and ROIs of different properties with applications in cell biology and neuroscience. BIOCAT provides a user-friendly, portable platform for pattern recognition based biological image classification of two- and three- dimensional images and ROIs. We show, via diverse case studies, that different algorithms and their combinations have different suitability for various problems. The customizability of BIOCAT is thus expected to be useful for providing effective and efficient solutions for a variety of biological

Mucosal dose prescription in endobronchial brachytherapy: a study based on CT-dosimetry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lagerwaard, Frank J.; Murrer, Lars H.P.; Pan, Connie de; Roos, Martin; Senan, Suresh

2000-01-01

Purpose: To investigate the consequences of using different dose prescription methods for endobronchial brachytherapy (EB), both with and without the use of a centered applicator. Materials and Methods: A CT scan was performed during EB procedures in 13 patients after insertion of the lung applicator. A dosimetric analysis was subsequently performed in five of these patients using a 3D-brachytherapy treatment planning system (PLATO v13.3, Nucletron). Results: Dose prescription to the mucosa yields uniform dose distributions to the bronchial mucosa when a centrally positioned applicator is used. When non-centrally positioned applicators are used, mucosal dosing results in a significant underdosage to parts of the target volume. Due to the rapid dose fall-off in EB, dose prescription to the mucosa resulted in inadequate coverage of the outer portion of the bronchial wall and adjacent peribronchial space. When compared to mucosal dose prescription, prescription to the outer aspect of the bronchial wall appears to improve target coverage while limiting the hyperdose (i.e., 200%) volume. The diameters of the different bronchial segments, as determined by CT measurements in 13 patients, correlated well with calculated values based upon the tracheal diameter. Conclusions: Mucosal dose prescription should only be used in combination with centered EB applicators. Given the rapid dose fall-off in EB mucosal dose prescription should be used with caution in curative treatments where EB, without additional external radiotherapy, is used as the sole treatment modality. In curative EB, both improved target coverage and a limited hyperdose volume can be achieved by dose prescription to the outer aspect of the bronchial wall

A review of imaging techniques for systems biology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Po Ming J

2008-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract This paper presents a review of imaging techniques and of their utility in system biology. During the last decade systems biology has matured into a distinct field and imaging has been increasingly used to enable the interplay of experimental and theoretical biology. In this review, we describe and compare the roles of microscopy, ultrasound, CT (Computed Tomography, MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging, PET (Positron Emission Tomography, and molecular probes such as quantum dots and nanoshells in systems biology. As a unified application area among these different imaging techniques, examples in cancer targeting are highlighted.

[Establishment of prescription research technology system in Chinese medicine secondary exploitation based on "component structure" theory].

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Xu-Dong; Feng, Liang; Gu, Jun-Fei; Zhang, Ming-Hua; Jia, Xiao-Bin

2014-11-01

Chinese medicine prescriptions are the wisdom outcomes of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinical treatment determinations which based on differentiation of symptoms and signs. Chinese medicine prescriptions are also the basis of secondary exploitation of TCM. The study on prescription helps to understand the material basis of its efficacy, pharmacological mechanism, which is an important guarantee for the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine. Currently, there is not yet dissertation n the method and technology system of basic research on the prescription of Chinese medicine. This paper focuses on how to build an effective system of prescription research technology. Based on "component structure" theory, a technology system contained four-step method that "prescription analysis, the material basis screening, the material basis of analysis and optimization and verify" was proposed. The technology system analyzes the material basis of the three levels such as Chinese medicine pieces, constituents and the compounds which could respect the overall efficacy of Chinese medicine. Ideas of prescription optimization, remodeling are introduced into the system. The technology system is the combination of the existing research and associates with new techniques and methods, which used for explore the research thought suitable for material basis research and prescription remodeling. The system provides a reference for the secondary development of traditional Chinese medicine, and industrial upgrading.

Molecular–Genetic Imaging: A Nuclear Medicine–Based Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ronald G. Blasberg

2002-07-01

Full Text Available Molecular imaging is a relatively new discipline, which developed over the past decade, initially driven by in situ reporter imaging technology. Noninvasive in vivo molecular–genetic imaging developed more recently and is based on nuclear (positron emission tomography [PET], gamma camera, autoradiography imaging as well as magnetic resonance (MR and in vivo optical imaging. Molecular–genetic imaging has its roots in both molecular biology and cell biology, as well as in new imaging technologies. The focus of this presentation will be nuclear-based molecular–genetic imaging, but it will comment on the value and utility of combining different imaging modalities. Nuclear-based molecular imaging can be viewed in terms of three different imaging strategies: (1 “indirect” reporter gene imaging; (2 “direct” imaging of endogenous molecules; or (3 “surrogate” or “bio-marker” imaging. Examples of each imaging strategy will be presented and discussed. The rapid growth of in vivo molecular imaging is due to the established base of in vivo imaging technologies, the established programs in molecular and cell biology, and the convergence of these disciplines. The development of versatile and sensitive assays that do not require tissue samples will be of considerable value for monitoring molecular–genetic and cellular processes in animal models of human disease, as well as for studies in human subjects in the future. Noninvasive imaging of molecular–genetic and cellular processes will complement established ex vivo molecular–biological assays that require tissue sampling, and will provide a spatial as well as a temporal dimension to our understanding of various diseases and disease processes.

Experimental validation of heterogeneity-corrected dose-volume prescription on respiratory-averaged CT images in stereotactic body radiotherapy for moving tumors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakamura, Mitsuhiro; Miyabe, Yuki; Matsuo, Yukinori; Kamomae, Takeshi; Nakata, Manabu; Yano, Shinsuke; Sawada, Akira; Mizowaki, Takashi; Hiraoka, Masahiro

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to experimentally assess the validity of heterogeneity-corrected dose-volume prescription on respiratory-averaged computed tomography (RACT) images in stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for moving tumors. Four-dimensional computed tomography (CT) data were acquired while a dynamic anthropomorphic thorax phantom with a solitary target moved. Motion pattern was based on cos (t) with a constant respiration period of 4.0 sec along the longitudinal axis of the CT couch. The extent of motion (A 1 ) was set in the range of 0.0–12.0 mm at 3.0-mm intervals. Treatment planning with the heterogeneity-corrected dose-volume prescription was designed on RACT images. A new commercially available Monte Carlo algorithm of well-commissioned 6-MV photon beam was used for dose calculation. Dosimetric effects of intrafractional tumor motion were then investigated experimentally under the same conditions as 4D CT simulation using the dynamic anthropomorphic thorax phantom, films, and an ionization chamber. The passing rate of γ index was 98.18%, with the criteria of 3 mm/3%. The dose error between the planned and the measured isocenter dose in moving condition was within ± 0.7%. From the dose area histograms on the film, the mean ± standard deviation of the dose covering 100% of the cross section of the target was 102.32 ± 1.20% (range, 100.59–103.49%). By contrast, the irradiated areas receiving more than 95% dose for A 1 = 12 mm were 1.46 and 1.33 times larger than those for A 1 = 0 mm in the coronal and sagittal planes, respectively. This phantom study demonstrated that the cross section of the target received 100% dose under moving conditions in both the coronal and sagittal planes, suggesting that the heterogeneity-corrected dose-volume prescription on RACT images is acceptable in SBRT for moving tumors.

Dosimetric comparison of lung stereotactic body radiotherapy treatment plans using averaged computed tomography and end-exhalation computed tomography images: Evaluation of the effect of different dose-calculation algorithms and prescription methods

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mitsuyoshi, Takamasa; Nakamura, Mitsuhiro, E-mail: m_nkmr@kuhp.kyoto-u.ac.jp; Matsuo, Yukinori; Ueki, Nami; Nakamura, Akira; Iizuka, Yusuke; Mampuya, Wambaka Ange; Mizowaki, Takashi; Hiraoka, Masahiro

2016-01-01

The purpose of this article is to quantitatively evaluate differences in dose distributions calculated using various computed tomography (CT) datasets, dose-calculation algorithms, and prescription methods in stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for patients with early-stage lung cancer. Data on 29 patients with early-stage lung cancer treated with SBRT were retrospectively analyzed. Averaged CT (Ave-CT) and expiratory CT (Ex-CT) images were reconstructed for each patient using 4-dimensional CT data. Dose distributions were initially calculated using the Ave-CT images and recalculated (in the same monitor units [MUs]) by employing Ex-CT images with the same beam arrangements. The dose-volume parameters, including D{sub 95}, D{sub 90}, D{sub 50}, and D{sub 2} of the planning target volume (PTV), were compared between the 2 image sets. To explore the influence of dose-calculation algorithms and prescription methods on the differences in dose distributions evident between Ave-CT and Ex-CT images, we calculated dose distributions using the following 3 different algorithms: x-ray Voxel Monte Carlo (XVMC), Acuros XB (AXB), and the anisotropic analytical algorithm (AAA). We also used 2 different dose-prescription methods; the isocenter prescription and the PTV periphery prescription methods. All differences in PTV dose-volume parameters calculated using Ave-CT and Ex-CT data were within 3 percentage points (%pts) employing the isocenter prescription method, and within 1.5%pts using the PTV periphery prescription method, irrespective of which of the 3 algorithms (XVMC, AXB, and AAA) was employed. The frequencies of dose-volume parameters differing by >1%pt when the XVMC and AXB were used were greater than those associated with the use of the AAA, regardless of the dose-prescription method employed. All differences in PTV dose-volume parameters calculated using Ave-CT and Ex-CT data on patients who underwent lung SBRT were within 3%pts, regardless of the dose

Dosimetric comparison of lung stereotactic body radiotherapy treatment plans using averaged computed tomography and end-exhalation computed tomography images: Evaluation of the effect of different dose-calculation algorithms and prescription methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mitsuyoshi, Takamasa; Nakamura, Mitsuhiro; Matsuo, Yukinori; Ueki, Nami; Nakamura, Akira; Iizuka, Yusuke; Mampuya, Wambaka Ange; Mizowaki, Takashi; Hiraoka, Masahiro

2016-01-01

The purpose of this article is to quantitatively evaluate differences in dose distributions calculated using various computed tomography (CT) datasets, dose-calculation algorithms, and prescription methods in stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for patients with early-stage lung cancer. Data on 29 patients with early-stage lung cancer treated with SBRT were retrospectively analyzed. Averaged CT (Ave-CT) and expiratory CT (Ex-CT) images were reconstructed for each patient using 4-dimensional CT data. Dose distributions were initially calculated using the Ave-CT images and recalculated (in the same monitor units [MUs]) by employing Ex-CT images with the same beam arrangements. The dose-volume parameters, including D 95 , D 90 , D 50 , and D 2 of the planning target volume (PTV), were compared between the 2 image sets. To explore the influence of dose-calculation algorithms and prescription methods on the differences in dose distributions evident between Ave-CT and Ex-CT images, we calculated dose distributions using the following 3 different algorithms: x-ray Voxel Monte Carlo (XVMC), Acuros XB (AXB), and the anisotropic analytical algorithm (AAA). We also used 2 different dose-prescription methods; the isocenter prescription and the PTV periphery prescription methods. All differences in PTV dose-volume parameters calculated using Ave-CT and Ex-CT data were within 3 percentage points (%pts) employing the isocenter prescription method, and within 1.5%pts using the PTV periphery prescription method, irrespective of which of the 3 algorithms (XVMC, AXB, and AAA) was employed. The frequencies of dose-volume parameters differing by >1%pt when the XVMC and AXB were used were greater than those associated with the use of the AAA, regardless of the dose-prescription method employed. All differences in PTV dose-volume parameters calculated using Ave-CT and Ex-CT data on patients who underwent lung SBRT were within 3%pts, regardless of the dose-calculation algorithm or the

Image standards in Tissue-Based Diagnosis (Diagnostic Surgical Pathology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vollmer Ekkehard

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Progress in automated image analysis, virtual microscopy, hospital information systems, and interdisciplinary data exchange require image standards to be applied in tissue-based diagnosis. Aims To describe the theoretical background, practical experiences and comparable solutions in other medical fields to promote image standards applicable for diagnostic pathology. Theory and experiences Images used in tissue-based diagnosis present with pathology – specific characteristics. It seems appropriate to discuss their characteristics and potential standardization in relation to the levels of hierarchy in which they appear. All levels can be divided into legal, medical, and technological properties. Standards applied to the first level include regulations or aims to be fulfilled. In legal properties, they have to regulate features of privacy, image documentation, transmission, and presentation; in medical properties, features of disease – image combination, human – diagnostics, automated information extraction, archive retrieval and access; and in technological properties features of image acquisition, display, formats, transfer speed, safety, and system dynamics. The next lower second level has to implement the prescriptions of the upper one, i.e. describe how they are implemented. Legal aspects should demand secure encryption for privacy of all patient related data, image archives that include all images used for diagnostics for a period of 10 years at minimum, accurate annotations of dates and viewing, and precise hardware and software information. Medical aspects should demand standardized patients' files such as DICOM 3 or HL 7 including history and previous examinations, information of image display hardware and software, of image resolution and fields of view, of relation between sizes of biological objects and image sizes, and of access to archives and retrieval. Technological aspects should deal with image

Imaging morphogenesis: technological advances and biological insights.

Science.gov (United States)

Keller, Philipp J

2013-06-07

Morphogenesis, the development of the shape of an organism, is a dynamic process on a multitude of scales, from fast subcellular rearrangements and cell movements to slow structural changes at the whole-organism level. Live-imaging approaches based on light microscopy reveal the intricate dynamics of this process and are thus indispensable for investigating the underlying mechanisms. This Review discusses emerging imaging techniques that can record morphogenesis at temporal scales from seconds to days and at spatial scales from hundreds of nanometers to several millimeters. To unlock their full potential, these methods need to be matched with new computational approaches and physical models that help convert highly complex image data sets into biological insights.

Knowledge on Irradiation, Medical Imaging Prescriptions, and Clinical Imaging Referral Guidelines among Physicians in a Sub-Saharan African Country (Cameroon).

Science.gov (United States)

Moifo, Boniface; Tene, Ulrich; Moulion Tapouh, Jean Roger; Samba Ngano, Odette; Tchemtchoua Youta, Justine; Simo, Augustin; Gonsu Fotsin, Joseph

2017-01-01

Clinical imaging guidelines (CIGs) are suitable tools to enhance justification of imaging procedures. To assess physicians' knowledge on irradiation, their self-perception of imaging prescriptions, and the use of CIGs. A questionnaire of 21 items was self-administered between July and August 2016 to 155 referring physicians working in seven university-affiliated hospitals in Yaoundé and Douala (Cameroon). This pretested questionnaire based on imaging referral practices, the use and the need of CIGs, knowledge on radiation doses of 11 specific radiologic procedures, and knowledge of injurious effects of radiation was completed in the presence of the investigator. Scores were allocated for each question. 155 questionnaires were completed out of 180 administered (86.1%). Participants were 90 (58%) females, 63 (40.64%) specialists, 53 (34.20%) residents/interns, and 39 (25.16%) general practitioners. The average professional experience was 7.4 years (1-25 years). The mean knowledge score was 11.5/59 with no influence of sex, years of experience, and professional category. CIGs users' score was better than nonusers (means 14.2 versus 10.6; p imaging exams. Seventy-eight (50.3%) participants have knowledge on CIGs and half of them made use of them. "Impact on diagnosis" was the highest justification criteria follow by "impact on treatment decision." Unjustified requests were mainly for "patient expectation or will" or for "research motivations." 96% of interviewees believed that making available national CIGs will improve justification. Most physicians did not have appropriate awareness about radiation doses for routine imaging procedures. A small number of physicians have knowledge on CIGs but they believe that making available CIGs will improve justification of imaging procedures. Continuous trainings on radiation protection and implementation of national CIGs are therefore recommended.

Detection of cyst using image segmentation and building knowledge-based intelligent decision support system as an aid to telemedicine

Science.gov (United States)

Janet, J.; Natesan, T. R.; Santhosh, Ramamurthy; Ibramsha, Mohideen

2005-02-01

An intelligent decision support tool to the Radiologist in telemedicine is described. Medical prescriptions are given based on the images of cyst that has been transmitted over computer networks to the remote medical center. The digital image, acquired by sonography, is converted into an intensity image. This image is then subjected to image preprocessing which involves correction methods to eliminate specific artifacts. The image is resized into a 256 x 256 matrix by using bilinear interpolation method. The background area is detected using distinct block operation. The area of the cyst is calculated by removing the background area from the original image. Boundary enhancement and morphological operations are done to remove unrelated pixels. This gives us the cyst volume. This segmented image of the cyst is sent to the remote medical center for analysis by Knowledge based artificial Intelligent Decision Support System (KIDSS). The type of cyst is detected and reported to the control mechanism of KIDSS. Then the inference engine compares this with the knowledge base and gives appropriate medical prescriptions or treatment recommendations by applying reasoning mechanisms at the remote medical center.

Stereotactic intracranial radiotherapy: Dose prescription

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schlienger, M.; Lartigau, E.; Nataf, F.; Mornex, F.; Latorzeff, I.; Lisbona, A.; Mahe, M.

2012-01-01

The aim of this article was the study of the successive steps permitting the prescription of dose in stereotactic intracranial radiotherapy, which includes radiosurgery and fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy. The successive steps studied are: the choice of stereotactic intracranial radiotherapy among the therapeutic options, based on curative or palliative treatment intent, then the selection of lesions according to size/volume, pathological type and their number permitting the choice between radiosurgery or fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy, which have the same methodological basis. Clinical experience has determined the level of dose to treat the lesions and limit the irradiation of healthy adjacent tissues and organs at risk structures. The last step is the optimization of the different parameters to obtain a safe compromise between the lesion dose and healthy adjacent structures. Study of dose-volume histograms, coverage indices and 3D imaging permit the optimization of irradiation. For lesions close to or included in a critical area, the prescribed dose is planned using the inverse planing method. Implementation of the successively described steps is mandatory to insure the prescription of an optimized dose. The whole procedure is based on the delineation of the lesion and adjacent healthy tissues. There are sometimes difficulties to assess the delineation and the volume of the target, however improvement of local control rates and reduction of secondary effects are the proof that the totality of the successive procedures are progressively improved. In practice, stereotactic intracranial radiotherapy is a continually improved treatment method, which constantly benefits from improvements in the choice of indications, imaging, techniques of irradiation, planing/optimization methodology and irradiation technique and from data collected from prolonged follow-up. (authors)

A multileaf collimator field prescription preparation system for conventional radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Du, M.N.; Yu, C. X.; Symons, M.; Yan, D.; Taylor, R.; Matter, R.C.; Gustafson, G.; Martinez, A.; Wong, J.W.

1995-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this work is to develop a prescription preparation system for efficient field shaping using a multileaf collimator that can be used in community settings as well as research institutions. The efficiency advantage of the computer-controlled multileaf collimator, over cerrobend blocks, to shape radiation fields has been shown in conformal treatments, which typically require complete volumetric computerized tomographic data for three-dimensional radiation treatment planning--a utility not readily available to the general community. As a result, most patients today are treated with conventional radiation therapy. Therefore, we believe that it is very important to fully use the same efficiency advantage of multileaf collimator as a block replacement in conventional practice. Methods and Material: The multileaf collimator prescription preparation system developed by us acquires prescription images from different sources, including film scanner and radiation treatment planning systems. The multileaf collimator angle and leaf positions are set from the desired field contour defined on the prescription image, by minimizing the area discrepancies. Interactive graphical tools include manual adjustment of collimator angle and leaf positions, and definition of portions of the field edges that require maximal conformation. Data files of the final leaf positions are transferred to the multileaf collimator controller via a dedicated communication link. Results: We have implemented the field prescription preparation system and a network model for integrating the multileaf collimator and other radiotherapy modalities for routine treatments. For routine plan evaluation, isodose contours measured with film in solid water phantom at prescription depth are overlaid on the prescription image. Preliminary study indicates that the efficiency advantage of the MLC over cerrobend blocks in conformal therapy also holds true for conventional treatments. Conclusion: Our

Mosaicing of single plane illumination microscopy images using groupwise registration and fast content-based image fusion

Science.gov (United States)

Preibisch, Stephan; Rohlfing, Torsten; Hasak, Michael P.; Tomancak, Pavel

2008-03-01

Single Plane Illumination Microscopy (SPIM; Huisken et al., Nature 305(5686):1007-1009, 2004) is an emerging microscopic technique that enables live imaging of large biological specimens in their entirety. By imaging the living biological sample from multiple angles SPIM has the potential to achieve isotropic resolution throughout even relatively large biological specimens. For every angle, however, only a relatively shallow section of the specimen is imaged with high resolution, whereas deeper regions appear increasingly blurred. In order to produce a single, uniformly high resolution image, we propose here an image mosaicing algorithm that combines state of the art groupwise image registration for alignment with content-based image fusion to prevent degrading of the fused image due to regional blurring of the input images. For the registration stage, we introduce an application-specific groupwise transformation model that incorporates per-image as well as groupwise transformation parameters. We also propose a new fusion algorithm based on Gaussian filters, which is substantially faster than fusion based on local image entropy. We demonstrate the performance of our mosaicing method on data acquired from living embryos of the fruit fly, Drosophila, using four and eight angle acquisitions.

The impact of self-reported health and register-based prescription medicine purchases on re-employment chances

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svane-petersen, Annemette Coop; Dencker-Larsen, Sofie

2016-01-01

In this paper, we investigate the influence of self-reported health and register-based prescription medicine purchases on re-employment chances, and whether these health indicators measure similar aspects of health in this analysis. Data came from a 2006 Danish unemployment survey among a random...... on individual prescription medicine purchases for somatic illnesses and prescription medicine purchases for mental illnesses, information on re-employment and various socio-demographic variables. We conducted binary logistic regression analyses to investigate the impact of self-reported health and prescription...... medicine purchases measured in 2006 on re-employment chances in 2007 and 2008. Our analyses show that unemployed workers with poor self-reported health and workers who had prescription medicine purchases for mental illnesses were less likely to be re-employed in 2007 and 2008. Furthermore, the impact...

Image processing and recognition for biological images.

Science.gov (United States)

Uchida, Seiichi

2013-05-01

This paper reviews image processing and pattern recognition techniques, which will be useful to analyze bioimages. Although this paper does not provide their technical details, it will be possible to grasp their main tasks and typical tools to handle the tasks. Image processing is a large research area to improve the visibility of an input image and acquire some valuable information from it. As the main tasks of image processing, this paper introduces gray-level transformation, binarization, image filtering, image segmentation, visual object tracking, optical flow and image registration. Image pattern recognition is the technique to classify an input image into one of the predefined classes and also has a large research area. This paper overviews its two main modules, that is, feature extraction module and classification module. Throughout the paper, it will be emphasized that bioimage is a very difficult target for even state-of-the-art image processing and pattern recognition techniques due to noises, deformations, etc. This paper is expected to be one tutorial guide to bridge biology and image processing researchers for their further collaboration to tackle such a difficult target. © 2013 The Author Development, Growth & Differentiation © 2013 Japanese Society of Developmental Biologists.

The Open Microscopy Environment: open image informatics for the biological sciences

Science.gov (United States)

Blackburn, Colin; Allan, Chris; Besson, Sébastien; Burel, Jean-Marie; Carroll, Mark; Ferguson, Richard K.; Flynn, Helen; Gault, David; Gillen, Kenneth; Leigh, Roger; Leo, Simone; Li, Simon; Lindner, Dominik; Linkert, Melissa; Moore, Josh; Moore, William J.; Ramalingam, Balaji; Rozbicki, Emil; Rustici, Gabriella; Tarkowska, Aleksandra; Walczysko, Petr; Williams, Eleanor; Swedlow, Jason R.

2016-07-01

Despite significant advances in biological imaging and analysis, major informatics challenges remain unsolved: file formats are proprietary, storage and analysis facilities are lacking, as are standards for sharing image data and results. While the open FITS file format is ubiquitous in astronomy, astronomical imaging shares many challenges with biological imaging, including the need to share large image sets using secure, cross-platform APIs, and the need for scalable applications for processing and visualization. The Open Microscopy Environment (OME) is an open-source software framework developed to address these challenges. OME tools include: an open data model for multidimensional imaging (OME Data Model); an open file format (OME-TIFF) and library (Bio-Formats) enabling free access to images (5D+) written in more than 145 formats from many imaging domains, including FITS; and a data management server (OMERO). The Java-based OMERO client-server platform comprises an image metadata store, an image repository, visualization and analysis by remote access, allowing sharing and publishing of image data. OMERO provides a means to manage the data through a multi-platform API. OMERO's model-based architecture has enabled its extension into a range of imaging domains, including light and electron microscopy, high content screening, digital pathology and recently into applications using non-image data from clinical and genomic studies. This is made possible using the Bio-Formats library. The current release includes a single mechanism for accessing image data of all types, regardless of original file format, via Java, C/C++ and Python and a variety of applications and environments (e.g. ImageJ, Matlab and R).

A High-Resolution Tile-Based Approach for Classifying Biological Regions in Whole-Slide Histopathological Images.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoffman, R A; Kothari, S; Phan, J H; Wang, M D

Computational analysis of histopathological whole slide images (WSIs) has emerged as a potential means for improving cancer diagnosis and prognosis. However, an open issue relating to the automated processing of WSIs is the identification of biological regions such as tumor, stroma, and necrotic tissue on the slide. We develop a method for classifying WSI portions (512x512-pixel tiles) into biological regions by (1) extracting a set of 461 image features from each WSI tile, (2) optimizing tile-level prediction models using nested cross-validation on a small (600 tile) manually annotated tile-level training set, and (3) validating the models against a much larger (1.7x10 6 tile) data set for which ground truth was available on the whole-slide level. We calculated the predicted prevalence of each tissue region and compared this prevalence to the ground truth prevalence for each image in an independent validation set. Results show significant correlation between the predicted (using automated system) and reported biological region prevalences with p < 0.001 for eight of nine cases considered.

An Evidence-Based Approach To Exercise Prescriptions on ISS

Science.gov (United States)

Ploutz-Snyder, Lori

2009-01-01

This presentation describes current exercise countermeasures and exercise equipment for astronauts onboard the ISS. Additionally, a strategy for evaluating evidence supporting spaceflight exercise is described and a new exercise prescription is proposed. The current exercise regimen is not fully effective as the ISS exercise hardware does not allow for sufficient exercise intensity, the exercise prescription is adequate and crew members are noncompliant with the prescription. New ISS hardware is proposed, Advanced Resistance Exercise Device (ARED), which allows additional exercises, is instrumented for data acquisition and offers improved loading. The new T2 hardware offers a better harness and subject loading system, is instrumented to allow ground reaction force data, and offers improved speed. A strategy for developing a spaceflight exercise prescription is described and involves identifying exercise training programs that have been shown to maximize adaptive benefits of people exercising in both 0 and 1 g environments. Exercise intensity emerged as an important factor in maintaining physiologic adaptations in the spaceflight environment and interval training is suggested. New ISS exercise hardware should allow for exercise at intensities high enough to elicit adaptive responses. Additionally, new exercise prescriptions should incorporate higher intensity exercises and seek to optimize intensity, duration and frequency for greater efficiency.

75 FR 16235 - Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances

Science.gov (United States)

2010-03-31

... mature standard for the formatting of prescription data, most electronic prescriptions are routed from... prescriptions prior to granting access to sign such prescriptions, two-factor authentication including a hard... practitioner can retain control of a biometric or hard token. Authentication based only on knowledge factors is...

Knowledge on Irradiation, Medical Imaging Prescriptions, and Clinical Imaging Referral Guidelines among Physicians in a Sub-Saharan African Country (Cameroon

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boniface Moifo

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Background. Clinical imaging guidelines (CIGs are suitable tools to enhance justification of imaging procedures. Objective. To assess physicians’ knowledge on irradiation, their self-perception of imaging prescriptions, and the use of CIGs. Materials and Methods. A questionnaire of 21 items was self-administered between July and August 2016 to 155 referring physicians working in seven university-affiliated hospitals in Yaoundé and Douala (Cameroon. This pretested questionnaire based on imaging referral practices, the use and the need of CIGs, knowledge on radiation doses of 11 specific radiologic procedures, and knowledge of injurious effects of radiation was completed in the presence of the investigator. Scores were allocated for each question. Results. 155 questionnaires were completed out of 180 administered (86.1%. Participants were 90 (58% females, 63 (40.64% specialists, 53 (34.20% residents/interns, and 39 (25.16% general practitioners. The average professional experience was 7.4 years (1–25 years. The mean knowledge score was 11.5/59 with no influence of sex, years of experience, and professional category. CIGs users’ score was better than nonusers (means 14.2 versus 10.6; p<0.01. 80% of physicians (124/155 underrated radiation doses of routine imaging exams. Seventy-eight (50.3% participants have knowledge on CIGs and half of them made use of them. “Impact on diagnosis” was the highest justification criteria follow by “impact on treatment decision.” Unjustified requests were mainly for “patient expectation or will” or for “research motivations.” 96% of interviewees believed that making available national CIGs will improve justification. Conclusion. Most physicians did not have appropriate awareness about radiation doses for routine imaging procedures. A small number of physicians have knowledge on CIGs but they believe that making available CIGs will improve justification of imaging procedures. Continuous

A prescription fraud detection model.

Science.gov (United States)

Aral, Karca Duru; Güvenir, Halil Altay; Sabuncuoğlu, Ihsan; Akar, Ahmet Ruchan

2012-04-01

Prescription fraud is a main problem that causes substantial monetary loss in health care systems. We aimed to develop a model for detecting cases of prescription fraud and test it on real world data from a large multi-center medical prescription database. Conventionally, prescription fraud detection is conducted on random samples by human experts. However, the samples might be misleading and manual detection is costly. We propose a novel distance based on data-mining approach for assessing the fraudulent risk of prescriptions regarding cross-features. Final tests have been conducted on adult cardiac surgery database. The results obtained from experiments reveal that the proposed model works considerably well with a true positive rate of 77.4% and a false positive rate of 6% for the fraudulent medical prescriptions. The proposed model has the potential advantages including on-line risk prediction for prescription fraud, off-line analysis of high-risk prescriptions by human experts, and self-learning ability by regular updates of the integrative data sets. We conclude that incorporating such a system in health authorities, social security agencies and insurance companies would improve efficiency of internal review to ensure compliance with the law, and radically decrease human-expert auditing costs. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

A population-based prescription study of asthma drugs during pregnancy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olesen, Charlotte; Thrane, Nana; Nielsen, G.L.

2001-01-01

Background: Among the goals of gestational asthma, therapy is optimisation of pulmonary function. According to the US Food and Drug Administration, no asthma drugs can be considered ‘safe’ during pregnancy. Fear of adverse fetal effects may thus lead to restrictive use of asthma drugs during...... pregnancy, and no population-based studies concerning gestational asthma therapy exist. Objectives: To examine whether asthma drugs or changing intensity of asthma therapy during pregnancy was associated with deviations from expected values of gestational age, birth weight, length at birth, or malformations....... Methods: The Birth Registry was used to identify all 15,756 primiparous women who gave birth in the County of North Jutland between 1991 and 1996. According to the North Jutland Prescription Database, 303 of these women received prescriptions for asthma drugs during pregnancy. Women who did not purchase...

Imaging and the new biology: What's wrong with this picture?

Science.gov (United States)

Vannier, Michael W.

2004-05-01

The Human Genome has been defined, giving us one part of the equation that stems from the central dogma of molecular biology. Despite this awesome scientific achievement, the correspondence between genomics and imaging is weak, since we cannot predict an organism's phenotype from even perfect knowledge of its genetic complement. Biological knowledge comes in several forms, and the genome is perhaps the best known and most completely understood type. Imaging creates another form of biological information, providing the ability to study morphology, growth and development, metabolic processes, and diseases in vitro and in vivo at many levels of scale. The principal challenge in biomedical imaging for the future lies in the need to reconcile the data provided by one or multiple modalities with other forms of biological knowledge, most importantly the genome, proteome, physiome, and other "-ome's." To date, the imaging science community has not set a high priority on the unification of their results with genomics, proteomics, and physiological functions in most published work. Images are relatively isolated from other forms of biological data, impairing our ability to conceive and address many fundamental questions in research and clinical practice. This presentation will explain the challenge of biological knowledge integration in basic research and clinical applications from the standpoint of imaging and image processing. The impediments to progress, isolation of the imaging community, and mainstream of new and future biological science will be identified, so the critical and immediate need for change can be highlighted.

The Danish National Prescription Registry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kildemoes, Helle Wallach; Toft Sørensen, Henrik; Hallas, Jesper

2011-01-01

Introduction: Individual-level data on all prescription drugs sold in Danish community pharmacies has since 1994 been recorded in the Register of Medicinal Products Statistics of the Danish Medicines Agency. Content: The register subset, termed the Danish National Prescription Registry (DNPR......), contains information on dispensed prescriptions, including variables at the level of the drug user, the prescriber, and the pharmacy. Validity and coverage: Reimbursement-driven record keeping, with automated bar-code-based data entry provides data of high quality, including detailed information...

A new prescription for soft gluon resummation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abbate, Riccardo; Forte, Stefano; Ridolfi, Giovanni

2007-01-01

We present a new prescription for the resummation of the divergent series of perturbative corrections, due to soft gluon emission, to hard processes near threshold in perturbative QCD (threshold resummation). This prescription is based on Borel resummation, and contrary to the commonly used minimal prescription, it does not introduce a dependence of resummed physical observables on the kinematically unaccessible x→0 region of parton distributions. We compare results for resummed deep-inelastic scattering obtained using the Borel prescription and the minimal prescription and exploit the comparison to discuss the ambiguities related to the resummation procedure

GTV-based prescription in SBRT for lung lesions using advanced dose calculation algorithms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lacornerie, Thomas; Lisbona, Albert; Mirabel, Xavier; Lartigau, Eric; Reynaert, Nick

2014-01-01

The aim of current study was to investigate the way dose is prescribed to lung lesions during SBRT using advanced dose calculation algorithms that take into account electron transport (type B algorithms). As type A algorithms do not take into account secondary electron transport, they overestimate the dose to lung lesions. Type B algorithms are more accurate but still no consensus is reached regarding dose prescription. The positive clinical results obtained using type A algorithms should be used as a starting point. In current work a dose-calculation experiment is performed, presenting different prescription methods. Three cases with three different sizes of peripheral lung lesions were planned using three different treatment platforms. For each individual case 60 Gy to the PTV was prescribed using a type A algorithm and the dose distribution was recalculated using a type B algorithm in order to evaluate the impact of the secondary electron transport. Secondly, for each case a type B algorithm was used to prescribe 48 Gy to the PTV, and the resulting doses to the GTV were analyzed. Finally, prescriptions based on specific GTV dose volumes were evaluated. When using a type A algorithm to prescribe the same dose to the PTV, the differences regarding median GTV doses among platforms and cases were always less than 10% of the prescription dose. The prescription to the PTV based on type B algorithms, leads to a more important variability of the median GTV dose among cases and among platforms, (respectively 24%, and 28%). However, when 54 Gy was prescribed as median GTV dose, using a type B algorithm, the variability observed was minimal. Normalizing the prescription dose to the median GTV dose for lung lesions avoids variability among different cases and treatment platforms of SBRT when type B algorithms are used to calculate the dose. The combination of using a type A algorithm to optimize a homogeneous dose in the PTV and using a type B algorithm to prescribe the

Method for evaluation of human induced pluripotent stem cell quality using image analysis based on the biological morphology of cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Wakui, Takashi; Matsumoto, Tsuyoshi; Matsubara, Kenta; Kawasaki, Tomoyuki; Yamaguchi, Hiroshi; Akutsu, Hidenori

2017-10-01

We propose an image analysis method for quality evaluation of human pluripotent stem cells based on biologically interpretable features. It is important to maintain the undifferentiated state of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) while culturing the cells during propagation. Cell culture experts visually select good quality cells exhibiting the morphological features characteristic of undifferentiated cells. Experts have empirically determined that these features comprise prominent and abundant nucleoli, less intercellular spacing, and fewer differentiating cellular nuclei. We quantified these features based on experts' visual inspection of phase contrast images of iPSCs and found that these features are effective for evaluating iPSC quality. We then developed an iPSC quality evaluation method using an image analysis technique. The method allowed accurate classification, equivalent to visual inspection by experts, of three iPSC cell lines.

Fiji: an open-source platform for biological-image analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Schindelin, Johannes; Arganda-Carreras, Ignacio; Frise, Erwin; Kaynig, Verena; Longair, Mark; Pietzsch, Tobias; Preibisch, Stephan; Rueden, Curtis; Saalfeld, Stephan; Schmid, Benjamin; Tinevez, Jean-Yves; White, Daniel James; Hartenstein, Volker; Eliceiri, Kevin; Tomancak, Pavel; Cardona, Albert

2012-06-28

Fiji is a distribution of the popular open-source software ImageJ focused on biological-image analysis. Fiji uses modern software engineering practices to combine powerful software libraries with a broad range of scripting languages to enable rapid prototyping of image-processing algorithms. Fiji facilitates the transformation of new algorithms into ImageJ plugins that can be shared with end users through an integrated update system. We propose Fiji as a platform for productive collaboration between computer science and biology research communities.

[Analyze prescription rules of Professor Jiang Liangduo treatment for abdominal mass based on traditional Chinese medicine inheritance platform].

Science.gov (United States)

Lian, Xiao-Xiao; Guo, Xiao-Xia

2018-01-01

To investigate the herbal prescription rules of Professor Jiang Liangduo in the treatment of abdominal mass based on the traditional Chinese medicine inheritance support system software (TCMISS) of version 2.5, find out new herbal formulas for the treatment of abdominal mass, and then provide new reference to its traditional Chinese medicine therapy. By the method of retrospective study, one hundred and thirty-two outpatient prescriptions of Professor Jiang for the treatment of abdominal mass were collected to establish a typical database with TCMISS. Four properties, five tastes, channel tropism, frequency count, Chinese herbal prescriptions rules and the new prescriptions were analyzed so as to dig out the prescription rules. There were 57 herbs with a frequency>=15, and then 91 core combinations of 2-5 herbs were evolved and 9 new prescriptions were created. It was found out that these drugs mainly had the effects of liver nourishing and soothing, soft-moist and dredging-tonifying, supporting right and dispeling evil, cooperating with the method of calming the liver and resolving hard lump according to the actual situation. It reflected the thought of treatment based on syndrome differentiation in TCM, and provided a new reference for its clinical treatment and research. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

Multi-energy method of digital radiography for imaging of biological objects

Science.gov (United States)

Ryzhikov, V. D.; Naydenov, S. V.; Opolonin, O. D.; Volkov, V. G.; Smith, C. F.

2016-03-01

This work has been dedicated to the search for a new possibility to use multi-energy digital radiography (MER) for medical applications. Our work has included both theoretical and experimental investigations of 2-energy (2E) and 3- energy (3D) radiography for imaging the structure of biological objects. Using special simulation methods and digital analysis based on the X-ray interaction energy dependence for each element of importance to medical applications in the X-ray range of energy up to 150 keV, we have implemented a quasi-linear approximation for the energy dependence of the X-ray linear mass absorption coefficient μm (E) that permits us to determine the intrinsic structure of the biological objects. Our measurements utilize multiple X-ray tube voltages (50, 100, and 150 kV) with Al and Cu filters of different thicknesses to achieve 3-energy X-ray examination of objects. By doing so, we are able to achieve significantly improved imaging quality of the structure of the subject biological objects. To reconstruct and visualize the final images, we use both two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) palettes of identification. The result is a 2E and/or 3E representation of the object with color coding of each pixel according to the data outputs. Following the experimental measurements and post-processing, we produce a 3D image of the biological object - in the case of our trials, fragments or parts of chicken and turkey.

Prescription Monitoring Program Trends Among Individuals Arrested in Maine for Trafficking Prescription Drugs in 2014.

Science.gov (United States)

McCall, Kenneth; Nichols, Stephanie D; Holt, Christina; Ochs, Leslie; Cattabriga, Gary; Tu, Chunhao

2016-06-01

To evaluate controlled substance prescribing trends available in the Maine Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) among individuals arrested for prescription drug "trafficking." The demographic characteristics of the individuals who had matching prescription records in the PMP within 90 days of the arrest were identified. A population-based, retrospective cohort study using data from the Maine Diversion Alert Program (DAP) and the Maine PMP. The study population consisted of persons arrested for trafficking prescription drugs in Maine during the 2014 calendar year from January 1 to December 31. There were 594 trafficking arrests reported by the Maine DAP in 2014. The study population consisted of the 235 persons (40%) with arrests involving controlled prescription medications. The mean age of these persons was 33 years (range 18-77 yrs), and 156 (66%) were male. Arrests involved 154 prescription opioids (65%), seven stimulants (3%), seven benzodiazepines (3%), and 77 unspecified controlled prescription drugs (33%). A minority of individuals (n=57, 24%) had a prescription record in the PMP that matched the substance involved in the arrest. Only one person with matching PMP and arrest records utilized ≥ 5 prescribers, while none used ≥ 5 pharmacies within 90 days before the arrest. Payment methods for matching prescriptions were commercial insurance (n=28, 49%), Medicaid (n=19, 33%), Medicare (n=5, 9%), and cash (n=5, 9%). The majority (76%) of persons arrested for prescription drug trafficking did not have PMP records and did not directly obtain the diverted medication from a licensed pharmacy. Traditional red flags, like cash payment and using multiple prescribers or pharmacies, were uncommon. Therefore, arrest records for diversion and PMPs are distinct and complementary tools for identifying individuals at risk for substance misuse. © 2016 Pharmacotherapy Publications, Inc.

High-frame-rate imaging of biological samples with optoacoustic micro-tomography

Science.gov (United States)

Deán-Ben, X. Luís.; López-Schier, Hernán.; Razansky, Daniel

2018-02-01

Optical microscopy remains a major workhorse in biological discovery despite the fact that light scattering limits its applicability to depths of ˜ 1 mm in scattering tissues. Optoacoustic imaging has been shown to overcome this barrier by resolving optical absorption with microscopic resolution in significantly deeper regions. Yet, the time domain is paramount for the observation of biological dynamics in living systems that exhibit fast motion. Commonly, acquisition of microscopy data involves raster scanning across the imaged volume, which significantly limits temporal resolution in 3D. To overcome these limitations, we have devised a fast optoacoustic micro-tomography (OMT) approach based on simultaneous acquisition of 3D image data with a high-density hemispherical ultrasound array having effective detection bandwidth around 25 MHz. We performed experiments by imaging tissue-mimicking phantoms and zebrafish larvae, demonstrating that OMT can provide nearly cellular resolution and imaging speed of 100 volumetric frames per second. As opposed to other optical microscopy techniques, OMT is a hybrid method that resolves optical absorption contrast acoustically using unfocused light excitation. Thus, no penetration barriers are imposed by light scattering in deep tissues, suggesting it as a powerful approach for multi-scale functional and molecular imaging applications.

Optical Time-of-Flight and Absorbance Imaging of Biologic Media

Science.gov (United States)

Benaron, David A.; Stevenson, David K.

1993-03-01

Imaging the interior of living bodies with light may assist in the diagnosis and treatment of a number of clinical problems, which include the early detection of tumors and hypoxic cerebral injury. An existing picosecond time-of-flight and absorbance (TOFA) optical system has been used to image a model biologic system and a rat. Model measurements confirmed TOFA principles in systems with a high degree of photon scattering; rat images, which were constructed from the variable time delays experienced by a fixed fraction of early-arriving transmitted photons, revealed identifiable internal structure. A combination of light-based quantitative measurement and TOFA localization may have applications in continuous, noninvasive monitoring for structural imaging and spatial chemometric analysis in humans.

Quantitative phase imaging and differential interference contrast imaging for biological TEM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Allman, B.E.; McMahon, P.J.; Barone-Nugent, E.D.; Nugent, E.D.

2002-01-01

Full text: Phase microscopy is a central technique in science. An experienced microscopist uses this effect to visualise (edge) structure within transparent samples by slightly defocusing the microscope. Although widespread in optical microscopy, phase contrast transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has not been widely adopted. TEM for biological specimens has largely relied on staining techniques to yield sufficient contrast. We show here a simple method for quantitative TEM phase microscopy that quantifies this phase contrast effect. Starting with conventional, digital, bright field images of the sample, our algorithm provides quantitative phase information independent of the sample's bright field intensity image. We present TEM phase images of a range of stained and unstained, biological and material science specimens. This independent phase and intensity information is then used to emulate a range of phase visualisation images familiar to optical microscopy, e.g. differential interference contrast. The phase images contain features not visible with the other imaging modalities. Further, if the TEM samples have been prepared on a microtome to a uniform thickness, the phase information can be converted into refractive index structure of the specimen. Copyright (2002) Australian Society for Electron Microscopy Inc

Introduction to basic molecular biologic techniques for molecular imaging researches

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang, Joo Hyun

2004-01-01

Molecular imaging is a rapidly growing field due to the advances in molecular biology and imaging technologies. With the introduction of imaging reporter genes into the cell, diverse cellular processes can be monitored, quantified and imaged non-invasively in vivo. These processes include the gene expression, protein-protein interactions, signal transduction pathways, and monitoring of cells such as cancer cells, immune cells, and stem cells. In the near future, molecular imaging analysis will allow us to observe the incipience and progression of the disease. These will make us easier to give a diagnosis in the early stage of intractable diseases such as cancer, neuro-degenerative disease, and immunological disorders. Additionally, molecular imaging method will be a valuable tool for the real-time evaluation of cells in molecular biology and the basic biological studies. As newer and more powerful molecular imaging tools become available, it will be necessary to corporate clinicians, molecular biologists and biochemists for the planning, interpretation, and application of these techniques to their fullest potential. In order for such a multidisciplinary team to be effective, it is essential that a common understanding of basic biochemical and molecular biologic techniques is achieved. Basic molecular techniques for molecular imaging methods are presented in this paper

[Changes in prescription patterns for peripheral and cerebral vasoactive drugs before and after establishing prescription standards in France].

Science.gov (United States)

Vuittenez, F; Guignard, E; Comte, S

1999-01-23

Assess changes in the number of prescriptions for peripheral and cerebral vasoactive drugs for the treatment of lower limb arteritis and cerebrovascular disease since the promulgation in 1995 of prescription standards for the treatment of lower limb arteritis. Assess compliance to prescription standards with a detailed analysis of patient features, prescriptions written for lower limb arteritis, cerebrovascular disease and concomitant diseases and evaluate changes in treatment costs for lower limb arteritis and cerebrovascular disease as well as cost of the full prescription, including treatments for associated diseases. This study was based on data recorded during the Permanent Study of Medical Prescriptions conducted from March 1994 to February 1995 and from March 1995 to February 1996 by the IMS. Prescription costs were established from the National Description Files of the IMS. Treatment costs were expressed as public price (FF) tax included. Prescriptions meeting the following criteria were selected for each period: prescriptions written by general practitioners for drugs with peripheral and cerebral vasoactivity (excepting calcium antagonists with a cerebral target) belonging to the Anatomic Therapeutic Classes C4A1 of the European Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Association, Bromly 1996; prescriptions for diagnoses 447.6 (arteritis) and 437.9 (cerebrovascular disease) according to the 9th WHO classification. A random sample of 500 prescriptions was selected to calculate costs. Since the advent of the prescription standards in 1995, prescriptions have dropped off by 6.3% for lower limb arteritis and by 14.8% for cerebrovascular disease. There was a 3.7 point decline in the percentage of multiple prescriptions of vasoactive drugs for lower limb arteritis (21.7% prior to March 1995 versus 18% after promulgation of the prescription standards, p > 0.1) and a 1.8 increase in the percentage of multiple prescriptions for cerebrovascular disease (14% prior to March

Fluorescence confocal endomicroscopy in biological imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Delaney, Peter; Thomas, Steven; Allen, John; McLaren, Wendy; Murr, Elise; Harris, Martin

2007-02-01

In vivo fluorescence microscopic imaging of biological systems in human disease states and animal models is possible with high optical resolution and mega pixel point-scanning performance using optimised off-the-shelf turn-key devices. There are however various trade-offs between tissue access and instrument performance when miniaturising in vivo microscopy systems. A miniature confocal scanning technology that was developed for clinical human endoscopy has been configured into a portable device for direct hand-held interrogation of living tissue in whole animal models (Optiscan FIVE-1 system). Scanning probes of 6.3mm diameter with a distal tip diameter of 5.0mm were constructed either in a 150mm length for accessible tissue, or a 300mm probe for laparoscopic interrogation of internal tissues in larger animal models. Both devices collect fluorescence confocal images (excitation 488 nm; emission >505 or >550 nm) comprised of 1024 x 1204 sampling points/image frame, with lateral resolution 0.7um; axial resolution 7um; FOV 475 x 475um. The operator can dynamically control imaging depth from the tissue surface to approx 250um in 4um steps via an internally integrated zaxis actuator. Further miniaturisation is achieved using an imaging contact probe based on scanning the proximal end of a high-density optical fibre bundle (~30,000 fibres) of small animal organs, albeit at lower resolution (30,000 sampling points/image). In rodent models, imaging was performed using various fluorescent staining protocols including fluorescently labelled receptor ligands, labelled antibodies, FITC-dextrans, vital dyes and labelled cells administered topically or intravenously. Abdominal organs of large animals were accessed laparoscopically and contrasted using i.v. fluorescein-sodium. Articular cartilage of sheep and pigs was fluorescently stained with calcein-AM or fluorescein. Surface and sub-surface cellular and sub-cellular details could be readily visualised in vivo at high

Using National Drug Codes and drug knowledge bases to organize prescription records from multiple sources.

Science.gov (United States)

Simonaitis, Linas; McDonald, Clement J

2009-10-01

The utility of National Drug Codes (NDCs) and drug knowledge bases (DKBs) in the organization of prescription records from multiple sources was studied. The master files of most pharmacy systems include NDCs and local codes to identify the products they dispense. We obtained a large sample of prescription records from seven different sources. These records carried a national product code or a local code that could be translated into a national product code via their formulary master. We obtained mapping tables from five DKBs. We measured the degree to which the DKB mapping tables covered the national product codes carried in or associated with the sample of prescription records. Considering the total prescription volume, DKBs covered 93.0-99.8% of the product codes from three outpatient sources and 77.4-97.0% of the product codes from four inpatient sources. Among the in-patient sources, invented codes explained 36-94% of the noncoverage. Outpatient pharmacy sources rarely invented codes, which comprised only 0.11-0.21% of their total prescription volume, compared with inpatient pharmacy sources for which invented codes comprised 1.7-7.4% of their prescription volume. The distribution of prescribed products was highly skewed, with 1.4-4.4% of codes accounting for 50% of the message volume and 10.7-34.5% accounting for 90% of the message volume. DKBs cover the product codes used by outpatient sources sufficiently well to permit automatic mapping. Changes in policies and standards could increase coverage of product codes used by inpatient sources.

Prosthetic prescription in the Netherlands : an observational study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Linde, H; Geertzen, JHB; Hofstad, CJ; Postema, K; Van Limbeek, Jacques

2003-01-01

Prosthetic prescription for lower limb amputees and the methodology used are primarily based on empirical knowledge. Clinical expertise plays an important role that can lead to an adequate prescription; however, a clear evidence based motivation for the choices made cannot be given. This can lead to

Substance use - prescription drugs

Science.gov (United States)

Substance use disorder - prescription drugs; Substance abuse - prescription drugs; Drug abuse - prescription drugs; Drug use - prescription drugs; Narcotics - substance use; Opioid - substance use; Sedative - substance ...

Imaging and elemental mapping of biological specimens with a dual-EDS dedicated scanning transmission electron microscope

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, J.S.; Kim, A. M.; Bleher, R.; Myers, B.D.; Marvin, R. G.; Inada, H.; Nakamura, K.; Zhang, X.F.; Roth, E.; Li, S.Y.; Woodruff, T. K.; O'Halloran, T. V.; Dravid, Vinayak P.

2013-01-01

A dedicated analytical scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) with dual energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) detectors has been designed for complementary high performance imaging as well as high sensitivity elemental analysis and mapping of biological structures. The performance of this new design, based on a Hitachi HD-2300A model, was evaluated using a variety of biological specimens. With three imaging detectors, both the surface and internal structure of cells can be examined simultaneously. The whole-cell elemental mapping, especially of heavier metal species that have low cross-section for electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), can be faithfully obtained. Optimization of STEM imaging conditions is applied to thick sections as well as thin sections of biological cells under low-dose conditions at room- and cryogenic temperatures. Such multimodal capabilities applied to soft/biological structures usher a new era for analytical studies in biological systems. PMID:23500508

Imaging and elemental mapping of biological specimens with a dual-EDS dedicated scanning transmission electron microscope

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wu, J.S., E-mail: jinsong-wu@northwestern.edu [Northwestern University Atomic and Nanoscale Characterization Experimental (NUANCE) Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States); Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States); Kim, A.M. [Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611 (United States); Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States); Bleher, R. [Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States); Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States); Myers, B.D. [Northwestern University Atomic and Nanoscale Characterization Experimental (NUANCE) Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States); Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States); Marvin, R.G. [Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States); Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States); Inada, H.; Nakamura, K. [Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, Ibaraki 312-8504 (Japan); Zhang, X.F. [Hitachi High Technologies America, Inc., 5960 Inglewood Drive, Pleasanton, California 94588 (United States); Roth, E. [Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States); Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States); Li, S.Y. [Northwestern University Atomic and Nanoscale Characterization Experimental (NUANCE) Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States); and others

2013-05-15

A dedicated analytical scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) with dual energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) detectors has been designed for complementary high performance imaging as well as high sensitivity elemental analysis and mapping of biological structures. The performance of this new design, based on a Hitachi HD-2300A model, was evaluated using a variety of biological specimens. With three imaging detectors, both the surface and internal structure of cells can be examined simultaneously. The whole-cell elemental mapping, especially of heavier metal species that have low cross-section for electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), can be faithfully obtained. Optimization of STEM imaging conditions is applied to thick sections as well as thin sections of biological cells under low-dose conditions at room and cryogenic temperatures. Such multimodal capabilities applied to soft/biological structures usher a new era for analytical studies in biological systems. - Highlights: ► Applications of STEM in characterization of biological samples are demonstrated. ► Elemental analyses are performed by dual EDS and EELS. ► Both the surface and internal structure of cells can be studied simultaneously. ► The imaging contrast in low-dose cryo-STEM has been analyzed.

Imaging and elemental mapping of biological specimens with a dual-EDS dedicated scanning transmission electron microscope

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, J.S.; Kim, A.M.; Bleher, R.; Myers, B.D.; Marvin, R.G.; Inada, H.; Nakamura, K.; Zhang, X.F.; Roth, E.; Li, S.Y.

2013-01-01

A dedicated analytical scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) with dual energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) detectors has been designed for complementary high performance imaging as well as high sensitivity elemental analysis and mapping of biological structures. The performance of this new design, based on a Hitachi HD-2300A model, was evaluated using a variety of biological specimens. With three imaging detectors, both the surface and internal structure of cells can be examined simultaneously. The whole-cell elemental mapping, especially of heavier metal species that have low cross-section for electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), can be faithfully obtained. Optimization of STEM imaging conditions is applied to thick sections as well as thin sections of biological cells under low-dose conditions at room and cryogenic temperatures. Such multimodal capabilities applied to soft/biological structures usher a new era for analytical studies in biological systems. - Highlights: ► Applications of STEM in characterization of biological samples are demonstrated. ► Elemental analyses are performed by dual EDS and EELS. ► Both the surface and internal structure of cells can be studied simultaneously. ► The imaging contrast in low-dose cryo-STEM has been analyzed

PET imaging for the quantification of biologically heterogeneous tumours: measuring the effect of relative position on image-based quantification of dose-painting targets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McCall, Keisha C; Barbee, David L; Kissick, Michael W; Jeraj, Robert

2010-01-01

Quantitative imaging of tumours represents the foundation of customized therapies and adaptive patient care. As such, we have investigated the effect of patient positioning errors on the reproducibility of images of biologically heterogeneous tumours generated by a clinical PET/CT system. A commercial multi-slice PET/CT system was used to acquire 2D and 3D PET images of a phantom containing multiple spheres of known volumes and known radioactivity concentrations and suspended in an aqueous medium. The spheres served as surrogates for sub-tumour regions of biological heterogeneities with dimensions of 5-15 mm. Between image acquisitions, a motorized-arm was used to reposition the spheres in 1 mm intervals along either the radial or the axial direction. Images of the phantom were reconstructed using typical diagnostic reconstruction techniques, and these images were analysed to characterize and model the position-dependent changes in contrast recovery. A simulation study was also conducted to investigate the effect of patient position on the reproducibility of PET imaging of biologically heterogeneous head and neck (HN) tumours. For this simulation study, we calculated the changes in image intensity values that would occur with changes in the relative position of the patients at the time of imaging. PET images of two HN patients were used to simulate an imaging study that incorporated set-up errors that are typical for HN patients. One thousand randomized positioning errors were investigated for each patient. As a result of the phantom study, a position-dependent trend was identified for measurements of contrast recovery of small objects. The peak contrast recovery occurred at radial and axial positions that coincide with the centre of the image voxel. Conversely, the minimum contrast recovery occurred when the object was positioned at the edges of the image voxel. Changing the position of high contrast spheres by one-half the voxel dimension lead to errors in the

Comparison of CT-based volumetric dosimetry with traditional prescription points in the treatment of cervical cancer with PDR brachytherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lowrey, Nicola; Nilsson, Sanna; Moutrie, Zoe; Chan, Philip; Cheuk, Robyn

2015-01-01

The traditional use of two-dimensional geometric prescription points in intracavitary brachytherapy planning for locally advanced cervical cancer is increasingly being replaced by three-dimensional (3D) planning. This study aimed to directly compare the two planning methods to validate that CT planning provides superior dosimetry for both tumour and organs at risk (OARs) in our department. The CT planning data of 10 patients with locally advanced cervical cancer was audited. For each CT dataset, two new brachytherapy plans were created, comparing the dosimetry of conventional American Brachytherapy Society points and 3D-optimised volumes created for the high-risk clinical target volume (HR CTV) and OARs. Total biologically equivalent doses for these structures were calculated using the modified EQD2 formula and comparative dose-volume histogram (DVH) analysis performed. DVH analysis revealed that for the 3D-optimised plans, the prescription aim of D90 ≥ 100% was achieved for the HR CTV in all 10 patients. However, when prescribing to point A, only 50% of the plans achieved the minimum required dose to the HR CTV. Rectal and bladder dose constraints were met for all 3D-optimised plans but exceeded in two and one of the conventional plans, respectively. This study confirms that the regionally relevant practice of CT-based 3D-optimised planning results in improved tumour dose coverage compared with traditional points-based planning methods and also improves dose to the rectum and bladder.

Adaptive radiotherapy based on contrast enhanced cone beam CT imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soevik, Aaste; Skogmo, Hege K.; Roedal, Jan; Lervaag, Christoffer; Eilertsen, Karsten; Malinen, Eirik

2010-01-01

Cone beam CT (CBCT) imaging has become an integral part of radiation therapy, with images typically used for offline or online patient setup corrections based on bony anatomy co-registration. Ideally, the co-registration should be based on tumor localization. However, soft tissue contrast in CBCT images may be limited. In the present work, contrast enhanced CBCT (CECBCT) images were used for tumor visualization and treatment adaptation. Material and methods. A spontaneous canine maxillary tumor was subjected to repeated cone beam CT imaging during fractionated radiotherapy (10 fractions in total). At five of the treatment fractions, CECBCT images, employing an iodinated contrast agent, were acquired, as well as pre-contrast CBCT images. The tumor was clearly visible in post-contrast minus pre-contrast subtraction images, and these contrast images were used to delineate gross tumor volumes. IMRT dose plans were subsequently generated. Four different strategies were explored: 1) fully adapted planning based on each CECBCT image series, 2) planning based on images acquired at the first treatment fraction and patient repositioning following bony anatomy co-registration, 3) as for 2), but with patient repositioning based on co-registering contrast images, and 4) a strategy with no patient repositioning or treatment adaptation. The equivalent uniform dose (EUD) and tumor control probability (TCP) calculations to estimate treatment outcome for each strategy. Results. Similar translation vectors were found when bony anatomy and contrast enhancement co-registration were compared. Strategy 1 gave EUDs closest to the prescription dose and the highest TCP. Strategies 2 and 3 gave EUDs and TCPs close to that of strategy 1, with strategy 3 being slightly better than strategy 2. Even greater benefits from strategies 1 and 3 are expected with increasing tumor movement or deformation during treatment. The non-adaptive strategy 4 was clearly inferior to all three adaptive strategies

The redistributive effect of the move from age-based to income-based prescription drug coverage in British Columbia, Canada.

Science.gov (United States)

Hanley, Gillian E; Morgan, Steve; Barer, Morris; Reid, Robert J

2011-07-01

To explore the redistributive impact of two different pharmaceutical financing policies (age-based versus income-based pharmacare) on the distribution of income in British Columbia (B.C.), Canada. Using household-level data on all payments that are used to finance prescription drugs in B.C. (including taxation and private payments), we performed a redistributive analysis to indicate how much income inequality in the province changed as a result of payments made for prescription drugs. We also illustrated changes in vertical equity (different treatment according to ability-to-pay) and horizontal equity (equals, according to ability-to-pay, being treated equally) between the two years separately through a pre-post policy examination. We found that payments made to finance prescription drugs increased overall income inequality in the province. This negative impact was larger after the move to income-based pharmacare. Our results also show increasing horizontal inequity after the policy change, and suggest that the increased reliance on out-of-pocket payments was a major source of the negative impact on the B.C.'s overall income distribution. We also show that the consequences of the move to income-based pharmacare would have been less severe had the level of public financing not decreased substantially between the two years. The increase in income inequality in B.C. following the policy change was an unintended consequence of the move to income-based pharmacare. This finding is worth consideration as countries and jurisdictions weigh pharmaceutical policy alternatives. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Scintillating Optical Fiber Imagers for biology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mastrippolito, R.

1990-01-01

S.O.F.I (Scintillating Optical Fiber Imager) is a detector developed to replace the autoradiographic films used in molecular biology for the location of radiolabelled ( 32 P) DNA molecules in blotting experiments. It analyses samples on a 25 x 25 cm 2 square area still 25 times faster than autoradiographic films, with a 1.75 and 3 mm resolution for two orthogonal directions. This device performs numerised images with a dynamic upper than 100 which allows the direct quantitation of the analysed samples. First, this thesis describes the S.O.F.I. development (Scintillating Optical Fibers, coding of these fibers and specific electronic for the treatment of the Multi-Anode Photo-Multiplier signals) and experiments made in collaboration with molecular biology laboratories. In a second place, we prove the feasibility of an automatic DNA sequencer issued from S.O.F.I [fr

AdS/CFT prescription for angle-deficit space and winding geodesics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aref’eva, Irina Ya.; Khramtsov, Mikhail A.

2016-01-01

We present the holographic computation of the boundary two-point correlator using the GKPW prescription for a scalar field in the AdS_3 space with a conical defect. Generally speaking, a conical defect breaks conformal invariance in the dual theory, however we calculate the classical bulk-boundary propagator for a scalar field in the space with conical defect and use it to compute the two-point correlator in the boundary theory. We compare the obtained general expression with previous studies based on the geodesic approximation. They are in good agreement for short correlators, and main discrepancy comes in the region of long correlations. Meanwhile, in case of ℤ_r-orbifold, the GKPW result coincides with the one obtained via geodesic images prescription and with the general result for the boundary theory, which is conformal in this special case.

Fluorescence based molecular in vivo imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ebert, Bernd

2008-01-01

Molecular imaging represents a modern research area that allows the in vivo study of molecular biological process kinetics using appropriate probes and visualization methods. This methodology may be defined- apart from the contrast media injection - as non-abrasive. In order to reach an in vivo molecular process imaging as accurate as possible the effects of the used probes on the biological should not be too large. The contrast media as important part of the molecular imaging can significantly contribute to the understanding of molecular processes and to the development of tailored diagnostics and therapy. Since more than 15 years PTB is developing optic imaging systems that may be used for fluorescence based visualization of tissue phantoms, small animal models and the localization of tumors and their predecessors, and for the early recognition of inflammatory processes in clinical trials. Cellular changes occur during many diseases, thus the molecular imaging might be of importance for the early diagnosis of chronic inflammatory diseases. Fluorescent dyes can be used as unspecific or also as specific contrast media, which allow enhanced detection sensitivity

Cellular phone-based image acquisition and quantitative ratiometric method for detecting cocaine and benzoylecgonine for biological and forensic applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Cadle, Brian A; Rasmus, Kristin C; Varela, Juan A; Leverich, Leah S; O'Neill, Casey E; Bachtell, Ryan K; Cooper, Donald C

2010-01-01

Here we describe the first report of using low-cost cellular or web-based digital cameras to image and quantify standardized rapid immunoassay strips as a new point-of-care diagnostic and forensics tool with health applications. Quantitative ratiometric pixel density analysis (QRPDA) is an automated method requiring end-users to utilize inexpensive (∼ $1 USD/each) immunotest strips, a commonly available web or mobile phone camera or scanner, and internet or cellular service. A model is described whereby a central computer server and freely available IMAGEJ image analysis software records and analyzes the incoming image data with time-stamp and geo-tag information and performs the QRPDA using custom JAVA based macros (http://www.neurocloud.org). To demonstrate QRPDA we developed a standardized method using rapid immunotest strips directed against cocaine and its major metabolite, benzoylecgonine. Images from standardized samples were acquired using several devices, including a mobile phone camera, web cam, and scanner. We performed image analysis of three brands of commercially available dye-conjugated anti-cocaine/benzoylecgonine (COC/BE) antibody test strips in response to three different series of cocaine concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 300 ng/ml and BE concentrations ranging from 0.003 to 0.1 ng/ml. This data was then used to create standard curves to allow quantification of COC/BE in biological samples. Across all devices, QRPDA quantification of COC and BE proved to be a sensitive, economical, and faster alternative to more costly methods, such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, tandem mass spectrometry, or high pressure liquid chromatography. The limit of detection was determined to be between 0.1 and 5 ng/ml. To simulate conditions in the field, QRPDA was found to be robust under a variety of image acquisition and testing conditions that varied temperature, lighting, resolution, magnification and concentrations of biological fluid in a sample. To

Cellular Phone-Based Image Acquisition and Quantitative Ratiometric Method for Detecting Cocaine and Benzoylecgonine for Biological and Forensic Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brian A. Cadle

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Here we describe the first report of using low-cost cellular or web-based digital cameras to image and quantify standardized rapid immunoassay strips as a new point-of-care diagnostic and forensics tool with health applications. Quantitative ratiometric pixel density analysis (QRPDA is an automated method requiring end-users to utilize inexpensive (~ $1 USD/each immunotest strips, a commonly available web or mobile phone camera or scanner, and internet or cellular service. A model is described whereby a central computer server and freely available IMAGEJ image analysis software records and analyzes the incoming image data with time-stamp and geo-tag information and performs the QRPDA using custom JAVA based macros ( http://www.neurocloud.org . To demonstrate QRPDA we developed a standardized method using rapid immunotest strips directed against cocaine and its major metabolite, benzoylecgonine. Images from standardized samples were acquired using several devices, including a mobile phone camera, web cam, and scanner. We performed image analysis of three brands of commercially available dye-conjugated anti-cocaine/benzoylecgonine (COC/BE antibody test strips in response to three different series of cocaine concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 300 ng/ml and BE concentrations ranging from 0.003 to 0.1 ng/ml. This data was then used to create standard curves to allow quantification of COC/BE in biological samples. Across all devices, QRPDA quantification of COC and BE proved to be a sensitive, economical, and faster alternative to more costly methods, such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, tandem mass spectrometry, or high pressure liquid chromatography. The limit of detection was determined to be between 0.1 and 5 ng/ml. To simulate conditions in the field, QRPDA was found to be robust under a variety of image acquisition and testing conditions that varied temperature, lighting, resolution, magnification and concentrations of biological fluid

Images as tools. On visual epistemic practices in the biological sciences.

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Samuel, Nina

2013-06-01

Contemporary visual epistemic practices in the biological sciences raise new questions of how to transform an iconic data measurements into images, and how the process of an imaging technique may change the material it is 'depicting'. This case-oriented study investigates microscopic imagery, which is used by system and synthetic biologists alike. The core argument is developed around the analysis of two recent methods, developed between 2003 and 2006: localization microscopy and photo-induced cell death. Far from functioning merely as illustrations of work done by other means, images can be determined as tools for discovery in their own right and as objects of investigation. Both methods deploy different constellations of intended and unintended interactions between visual appearance and underlying biological materiality. To characterize these new ways of interaction, the article introduces the notions of 'operational images' and 'operational agency'. Despite all their novelty, operational images are still subject to conventions of seeing and depicting: Phenomena emerging with the new method of localization microscopy have to be designed according to image traditions of older, conventional fluorescence microscopy to function properly as devices for communication between physicists and biologists. The article emerged from a laboratory study based on interviews conducted with researchers from the Kirchhoff-Institute for Physics and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) at Bioquant, Heidelberg, in 2011. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Healthy Steps Study: A randomized controlled trial of a pedometer-based Green Prescription for older adults. Trial protocol

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Schluter Philip J

2009-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Graded health benefits of physical activity have been demonstrated for the reduction of coronary heart disease, some cancers, and type-2 diabetes, and for injury reduction and improvements in mental health. Older adults are particularly at risk of physical inactivity, and would greatly benefit from successful targeted physical activity interventions. Methods/Design The Healthy Steps study is a 12-month randomized controlled trial comparing the efficacy of a pedometer-based Green Prescription with the conventional time-based Green Prescription in increasing and maintaining physical activity levels in low-active adults over 65 years of age. The Green Prescription interventions involve a primary care physical activity prescription with 3 follow-up telephone counselling sessions delivered by trained physical activity counsellors over 3 months. Those in the pedometer group received a pedometer and counselling based around increasing steps that can be monitored on the pedometer, while those in the standard Green Prescription group received counselling using time-based goals. Baseline, 3 month (end of intervention, and 12 month measures were assessed in face-to-face home visits with outcomes measures being physical activity (Auckland Heart Study Physical Activity Questionnaire, quality of life (SF-36 and EQ-5D, depressive symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale, blood pressure, weight status, functional status (gait speed, chair stands, and tandem balance test and falls and adverse events (self-report. Utilisation of health services was assessed for the economic evaluation carried out alongside this trial. As well, a process evaluation of the interventions and an examination of barriers and motives for physical activity in the sample were conducted. The perceptions of primary care physicians in relation to delivering physical activity counselling were also assessed. Discussion The findings from the Healthy Steps trial are due in late

AI based HealthCare Platform for Real Time, Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics using Reactive Programming

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Kaur, Jagreet; Singh Mann, Kulwinder, Dr.

2018-01-01

AI in Healthcare needed to bring real, actionable insights and Individualized insights in real time for patients and Doctors to support treatment decisions., We need a Patient Centred Platform for integrating EHR Data, Patient Data, Prescriptions, Monitoring, Clinical research and Data. This paper proposes a generic architecture for enabling AI based healthcare analytics Platform by using open sources Technologies Apache beam, Apache Flink Apache Spark, Apache NiFi, Kafka, Tachyon, Gluster FS, NoSQL- Elasticsearch, Cassandra. This paper will show the importance of applying AI based predictive and prescriptive analytics techniques in Health sector. The system will be able to extract useful knowledge that helps in decision making and medical monitoring in real-time through an intelligent process analysis and big data processing.

Determining prescription durations based on the parametric waiting time distribution

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Støvring, Henrik; Pottegård, Anton; Hallas, Jesper

2016-01-01

two-component mixture model for the waiting time distribution (WTD). The distribution component for prevalent users estimates the forward recurrence density (FRD), which is related to the distribution of time between subsequent prescription redemptions, the inter-arrival density (IAD), for users...... in continued treatment. We exploited this to estimate percentiles of the IAD by inversion of the estimated FRD and defined the duration of a prescription as the time within which 80% of current users will have presented themselves again. Statistical properties were examined in simulation studies......-Normal). When the IAD consisted of a mixture of two Log-Normal distributions, but was analyzed with a single Log-Normal distribution, relative bias did not exceed 9%. Using a Log-Normal FRD, we estimated prescription durations of 117, 91, 137, and 118 days for NSAIDs, warfarin, bendroflumethiazide...

Prescription Drug Abuse

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... drug abuse. And it's illegal, just like taking street drugs. Why Do People Abuse Prescription Drugs? Some people abuse prescription drugs ... common risk of prescription drug abuse is addiction . People who abuse ... as if they were taking street drugs. That's one reason most doctors won't ...

The impact of self-reported health and register-based prescription medicine purchases on re-employment chances: A prospective study.

Science.gov (United States)

Svane-Petersen, Annemette Coop; Dencker-Larsen, Sofie

2016-12-01

In this paper, we investigate the influence of self-reported health and register-based prescription medicine purchases on re-employment chances, and whether these health indicators measure similar aspects of health in this analysis. Data came from a 2006 Danish unemployment survey among a random sample of unemployed individuals enriched with register data (2006-2008, N =1806). The survey participants all received unemployment benefits from the welfare system and had been unemployed for more than 20 weeks at the time of the interview in 2006. We combined these data with longitudinal register data on individual prescription medicine purchases for somatic illnesses and prescription medicine purchases for mental illnesses, information on re-employment and various socio-demographic variables. We conducted binary logistic regression analyses to investigate the impact of self-reported health and prescription medicine purchases measured in 2006 on re-employment chances in 2007 and 2008. Our analyses show that unemployed workers with poor self-reported health and workers who had prescription medicine purchases for mental illnesses were less likely to be re-employed in 2007 and 2008. Furthermore, the impact of both prescription medicine purchases for somatic illnesses and for mental illnesses increased when adding self-reported health to the model although prescription purchases for somatic illnesses became statistically insignificant. The impact of prescription medicine purchases for somatic illnesses was mediated by self-reported health, whilst prescription medicine purchases for mental illnesses was only partly mediated. Finally, SRH seemed a much stronger prediction than prescription medicines. From these results, we propose, when possible, the inclusion of both an indicator of self-reported health and an indicator of mental health in studies on re-employment.

Proscriptive versus prescriptive morality: two faces of moral regulation.

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Janoff-Bulman, Ronnie; Sheikh, Sana; Hepp, Sebastian

2009-03-01

A distinction is made between two forms of morality on the basis of approach-avoidance differences in self-regulation. Prescriptive morality is sensitive to positive outcomes, activation-based, and focused on what we should do. Proscriptive morality is sensitive to negative outcomes, inhibition-based, and focused on what we should not do. Seven studies profile these two faces of morality, support their distinct motivational underpinnings, and provide evidence of moral asymmetry. Both are well-represented in individuals' moral repertoire and equivalent in terms of moral weight, but proscriptive morality is condemnatory and strict, whereas prescriptive morality is commendatory and not strict. More specifically, in these studies proscriptive morality was perceived as concrete, mandatory, and duty-based, whereas prescriptive morality was perceived as more abstract, discretionary, and based in duty or desire; proscriptive immorality resulted in greater blame, whereas prescriptive morality resulted in greater moral credit. Implications for broader social regulation, including cross-cultural differences and political orientation, are discussed.

Ion beam induced fluorescence imaging in biological systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bettiol, Andrew A.; Mi, Zhaohong; Vanga, Sudheer Kumar; Chen, Ce-belle; Tao, Ye; Watt, Frank

2015-01-01

Imaging fluorescence generated by MeV ions in biological systems such as cells and tissue sections requires a high resolution beam (<100 nm), a sensitive detection system and a fluorescent probe that has a high quantum efficiency and low bleaching rate. For cutting edge applications in bioimaging, the fluorescence imaging technique needs to break the optical diffraction limit allowing for sub-cellular structure to be visualized, leading to a better understanding of cellular function. In a nuclear microprobe this resolution requirement can be readily achieved utilizing low beam current techniques such as Scanning Transmission Ion Microscopy (STIM). In recent times, we have been able to extend this capability to fluorescence imaging through the development of a new high efficiency fluorescence detection system, and through the use of new novel fluorescent probes that are resistant to ion beam damage (bleaching). In this paper we demonstrate ion beam induced fluorescence imaging in several biological samples, highlighting the advantages and challenges associated with using this technique

Preclinical magnetic resonance imaging and systems biology in cancer research: current applications and challenges.

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Albanese, Chris; Rodriguez, Olga C; VanMeter, John; Fricke, Stanley T; Rood, Brian R; Lee, YiChien; Wang, Sean S; Madhavan, Subha; Gusev, Yuriy; Petricoin, Emanuel F; Wang, Yue

2013-02-01

Biologically accurate mouse models of human cancer have become important tools for the study of human disease. The anatomical location of various target organs, such as brain, pancreas, and prostate, makes determination of disease status difficult. Imaging modalities, such as magnetic resonance imaging, can greatly enhance diagnosis, and longitudinal imaging of tumor progression is an important source of experimental data. Even in models where the tumors arise in areas that permit visual determination of tumorigenesis, longitudinal anatomical and functional imaging can enhance the scope of studies by facilitating the assessment of biological alterations, (such as changes in angiogenesis, metabolism, cellular invasion) as well as tissue perfusion and diffusion. One of the challenges in preclinical imaging is the development of infrastructural platforms required for integrating in vivo imaging and therapeutic response data with ex vivo pathological and molecular data using a more systems-based multiscale modeling approach. Further challenges exist in integrating these data for computational modeling to better understand the pathobiology of cancer and to better affect its cure. We review the current applications of preclinical imaging and discuss the implications of applying functional imaging to visualize cancer progression and treatment. Finally, we provide new data from an ongoing preclinical drug study demonstrating how multiscale modeling can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of cancer biology and therapy. Copyright © 2013 American Society for Investigative Pathology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Biologically inspired EM image alignment and neural reconstruction.

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Knowles-Barley, Seymour; Butcher, Nancy J; Meinertzhagen, Ian A; Armstrong, J Douglas

2011-08-15

Three-dimensional reconstruction of consecutive serial-section transmission electron microscopy (ssTEM) images of neural tissue currently requires many hours of manual tracing and annotation. Several computational techniques have already been applied to ssTEM images to facilitate 3D reconstruction and ease this burden. Here, we present an alternative computational approach for ssTEM image analysis. We have used biologically inspired receptive fields as a basis for a ridge detection algorithm to identify cell membranes, synaptic contacts and mitochondria. Detected line segments are used to improve alignment between consecutive images and we have joined small segments of membrane into cell surfaces using a dynamic programming algorithm similar to the Needleman-Wunsch and Smith-Waterman DNA sequence alignment procedures. A shortest path-based approach has been used to close edges and achieve image segmentation. Partial reconstructions were automatically generated and used as a basis for semi-automatic reconstruction of neural tissue. The accuracy of partial reconstructions was evaluated and 96% of membrane could be identified at the cost of 13% false positive detections. An open-source reference implementation is available in the Supplementary information. seymour.kb@ed.ac.uk; douglas.armstrong@ed.ac.uk Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

An Ibm PC/AT-Based Image Acquisition And Processing System For Quantitative Image Analysis

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Kim, Yongmin; Alexander, Thomas

1986-06-01

In recent years, a large number of applications have been developed for image processing systems in the area of biological imaging. We have already finished the development of a dedicated microcomputer-based image processing and analysis system for quantitative microscopy. The system's primary function has been to facilitate and ultimately automate quantitative image analysis tasks such as the measurement of cellular DNA contents. We have recognized from this development experience, and interaction with system users, biologists and technicians, that the increasingly widespread use of image processing systems, and the development and application of new techniques for utilizing the capabilities of such systems, would generate a need for some kind of inexpensive general purpose image acquisition and processing system specially tailored for the needs of the medical community. We are currently engaged in the development and testing of hardware and software for a fairly high-performance image processing computer system based on a popular personal computer. In this paper, we describe the design and development of this system. Biological image processing computer systems have now reached a level of hardware and software refinement where they could become convenient image analysis tools for biologists. The development of a general purpose image processing system for quantitative image analysis that is inexpensive, flexible, and easy-to-use represents a significant step towards making the microscopic digital image processing techniques more widely applicable not only in a research environment as a biologist's workstation, but also in clinical environments as a diagnostic tool.

Drug prescription based on WHO indicators: Tehran university of medical sciences facilities with pharmacy

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Mosleh A.

2007-11-01

Full Text Available Background: Rationalize of drug use in societies is one of the main responsibilities of health policy makers. In our country irrational use of dugs has increased in the recent years, for example one study in 1998 has shown that average number of medicines per prescription was 3.6, percentage of prescriptions containing antibiotics was 43% and percentage of prescriptions containing Injections was 39%. One of the best tools for evaluation of drug use is the WHO guideline for calculating prescribing indicators. In this study, we had an assessment about prescribing patterns in South of Tehran, Islamshahr and Rey Health Centers.Methods: In order to evaluating prescribing indicators in Tehran University of Medical Sciences region 35 facilities which had pharmacy were selected according to WHO gridline and 4190 prescription from these facilities were studied. Indicators were calculated according to formulas has explained in article. Results: The average number of drug per prescription was 2.58, percentage of drug prescribed by generic name: 99.8%, percentage of encounters prescribed Antibiotics: 62.39% percentage of encounters prescribed Injection: 28.96% & the percentage of drugs prescribed from PHC formulary 99.46%. These findings were almost similar in the three Health Centers.Conclusions: Health facilities are one of the most important bases to improve rational use of Drugs and general practitioners are the major chain in RUD cycle. Results show that we need to design intervention especially educational interventions to improve two WHO prescribing indicators, percentage of encounters prescribed Antibiotics & Injections in this region. For reaching this goals we need to design educational programs for physicians, pharmacists and people too. These educations can be as workshops, seminars, conferences or printed materials such as books, leaflets and etc.

Assessment of legibility and completeness of handwritten and electronic prescriptions.

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Albarrak, Ahmed I; Al Rashidi, Eman Abdulrahman; Fatani, Rwaa Kamil; Al Ageel, Shoog Ibrahim; Mohammed, Rafiuddin

2014-12-01

To assess the legibility and completeness of handwritten prescriptions and compare with electronic prescription system for medication errors. Prospective study. King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Handwritten prescriptions were received from clinical units of Medicine Outpatient Department (MOPD), Primary Care Clinic (PCC) and Surgery Outpatient Department (SOPD) whereas electronic prescriptions were collected from the pediatric ward. The handwritten prescription was assessed for completeness by the checklist designed according to the hospital prescription and evaluated for legibility by two pharmacists. The comparison between handwritten and electronic prescription errors was evaluated based on the validated checklist adopted from previous studies. Legibility and completeness of prescriptions. 398 prescriptions (199 handwritten and 199 e-prescriptions) were assessed. About 71 (35.7%) of handwritten and 5 (2.5%) of electronic prescription errors were identified. A significant statistical difference (P prescriptions in omitted dose and omitted route of administration category of error distribution. The rate of completeness in patient identification in handwritten prescriptions was 80.97% in MOPD, 76.36% in PCC and 85.93% in SOPD clinic units. Assessment of medication prescription completeness was 91.48% in MOPD, 88.48% in PCC, and 89.28% in SOPD. This study revealed a high incidence of prescribing errors in handwritten prescriptions. The use of e-prescription system showed a significant decline in the incidence of errors. The legibility of handwritten prescriptions was relatively good whereas the level of completeness was very low.

Automated setpoint adjustment for biological contact mode atomic force microscopy imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Casuso, Ignacio; Scheuring, Simon

2010-01-01

Contact mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) is the most frequently used AFM imaging mode in biology. It is about 5-10 times faster than oscillating mode imaging (in conventional AFM setups), and provides topographs of biological samples with sub-molecular resolution and at a high signal-to-noise ratio. Unfortunately, contact mode imaging is sensitive to the applied force and intrinsic force drift: inappropriate force applied by the AFM tip damages the soft biological samples. We present a methodology that automatically searches for and maintains high resolution imaging forces. We found that the vertical and lateral vibrations of the probe during scanning are valuable signals for the characterization of the actual applied force by the tip. This allows automated adjustment and correction of the setpoint force during an experiment. A system that permanently performs this methodology steered the AFM towards high resolution imaging forces and imaged purple membrane at molecular resolution and live cells at high signal-to-noise ratio for hours without an operator.

[Analysis on composition and medication regularities of prescriptions treating hypochondriac pain based on traditional Chinese medicine inheritance support system inheritance support platform].

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Zhao, Yan-qing; Teng, Jing

2015-03-01

To analyze the composition and medication regularities of prescriptions treating hypochondriac pain in Chinese journal full-text database (CNKI) based on the traditional Chinese medicine inheritance support system, in order to provide a reference for further research and development for new traditional Chinese medicines treating hypochondriac pain. The traditional Chinese medicine inheritance support platform software V2. 0 was used to build a prescription database of Chinese medicines treating hypochondriac pain. The software integration data mining method was used to distribute prescriptions according to "four odors", "five flavors" and "meridians" in the database and achieve frequency statistics, syndrome distribution, prescription regularity and new prescription analysis. An analysis were made for 192 prescriptions treating hypochondriac pain to determine the frequencies of medicines in prescriptions, commonly used medicine pairs and combinations and summarize 15 new prescriptions. This study indicated that the prescriptions treating hypochondriac pain in Chinese journal full-text database are mostly those for soothing liver-qi stagnation, promoting qi and activating blood, clearing heat and promoting dampness, and invigorating spleen and removing phlem, with a cold property and bitter taste, and reflect the principles of "distinguish deficiency and excess and relieving pain by smoothening meridians" in treating hypochondriac pain.

Intravascular near-infrared fluorescence molecular imaging of atherosclerosis: toward coronary arterial visualization of biologically high-risk plaques

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Calfon, Marcella A.; Vinegoni, Claudio; Ntziachristos, Vasilis; Jaffer, Farouc A.

2010-01-01

New imaging methods are urgently needed to identify high-risk atherosclerotic lesions prior to the onset of myocardial infarction, stroke, and ischemic limbs. Molecular imaging offers a new approach to visualize key biological features that characterize high-risk plaques associated with cardiovascular events. While substantial progress has been realized in clinical molecular imaging of plaques in larger arterial vessels (carotid, aorta, iliac), there remains a compelling, unmet need to develop molecular imaging strategies targeted to high-risk plaques in human coronary arteries. We present recent developments in intravascular near-IR fluorescence catheter-based strategies for in vivo detection of plaque inflammation in coronary-sized arteries. In particular, the biological, light transmission, imaging agent, and engineering principles that underlie a new intravascular near-IR fluorescence sensing method are discussed. Intravascular near-IR fluorescence catheters appear highly translatable to the cardiac catheterization laboratory, and thus may offer a new in vivo method to detect high-risk coronary plaques and to assess novel atherosclerosis biologics.

Probing the potential of neutron imaging for biomedical and biological applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Watkin, Kenneth L.; Bilheux, Hassina Z.; Ankner, John Francis

2009-01-01

Neutron imaging of biological specimens began soon after the discovery of the neutron by Chadwick in 1932. The first samples included tumors in tissues, internal organs in rats, and bones. These studies mainly employed thermal neutrons and were often compared with X-ray images of the same or equivalent samples. Although neutron scattering is widely used in biological studies, neutron imaging has yet to be exploited to its full capability in this area. This chapter summarizes past and current research efforts to apply neutron radiography to the study of biological specimens, in the expectation that clinical and medical research, as well as forensic science, may benefit from it.

Palliative radiation for vertebral metastases: the effect of variation in prescription parameters on the dose received at depth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barton, Rachael; Robinson, Graham; Gutierrez, Eric; Kirkbride, Peter; McLean, Michael

2002-01-01

Purpose: To assess the effect of prescription parameters on the dose received by the spine during palliative radiotherapy. Methods and Materials: In a survey, members of the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncologists were asked to define their prescription parameters for vertebral metastases. The depth of the spinal canal and vertebral body at 8 spinal levels was measured in 20 magnetic resonance imaging studies (MRIs). Survey results were applied to the measurements to assess the dose received at depth. The depth of spinal structures assessed at simulation and by diagnostic imaging was compared. Results: Prescriptions were most commonly to D max 3 cm or 5 cm using 60 Co-6MV photons delivering 8-30 Gy in 1-10 fractions. Mean depths from MRI were: posterior spinal canal, 5.5 cm; anterior spinal canal, 6.9 cm; and anterior vertebral body, 9.6 cm. Application of the prescription parameters from the survey to these measurements showed a wide range in the dose at depth with variation in technique. Depths measured at simulation correlated well with diagnostic imaging. Conclusion: The spinal canal and vertebral body lie >5 cm beneath the skin, and the dose received varies by up to 50% with changes in prescription depth. We suggest a suitable prescription point for vertebral metastases and a method for determining this at simulation

Partnership for Prescription Assistance

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... may use our name without our permission. The Partnership for Prescription Assistance will help you find the ... Events Blog Facebook Twitter Start living better. The Partnership for Prescription Assistance helps qualifying patients without prescription ...

Estimating the effect of current, previous and never use of drugs in studies based on prescription registries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Lars Hougaard; Løkkegaard, Ellen; Andreasen, Anne Helms

2009-01-01

of this misclassification for analysing the risk of breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Prescription data were obtained from Danish Registry of Medicinal Products Statistics and we applied various methods to approximate treatment episodes. We analysed the duration of HT episodes to study the ability to identify......PURPOSE: Many studies which investigate the effect of drugs categorize the exposure variable into never, current, and previous use of the study drug. When prescription registries are used to make this categorization, the exposure variable possibly gets misclassified since the registries do...... not carry any information on the time of discontinuation of treatment.In this study, we investigated the amount of misclassification of exposure (never, current, previous use) to hormone therapy (HT) when the exposure variable was based on prescription data. Furthermore, we evaluated the significance...

[Prescription annotations in Welfare Pharmacy].

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Yi

2018-03-01

Welfare Pharmacy contains medical formulas documented by the government and official prescriptions used by the official pharmacy in the pharmaceutical process. In the last years of Southern Song Dynasty, anonyms gave a lot of prescription annotations, made textual researches for the name, source, composition and origin of the prescriptions, and supplemented important historical data of medical cases and researched historical facts. The annotations of Welfare Pharmacy gathered the essence of medical theory, and can be used as precious materials to correctly understand the syndrome differentiation, compatibility regularity and clinical application of prescriptions. This article deeply investigated the style and form of the prescription annotations in Welfare Pharmacy, the name of prescriptions and the evolution of terminology, the major functions of the prescriptions, processing methods, instructions for taking medicine and taboos of prescriptions, the medical cases and clinical efficacy of prescriptions, the backgrounds, sources, composition and cultural meanings of prescriptions, proposed that the prescription annotations played an active role in the textual dissemination, patent medicine production and clinical diagnosis and treatment of Welfare Pharmacy. This not only helps understand the changes in the names and terms of traditional Chinese medicines in Welfare Pharmacy, but also provides the basis for understanding the knowledge sources, compatibility regularity, important drug innovations and clinical medications of prescriptions in Welfare Pharmacy. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

A Theoretical Approach to Electronic Prescription System: Lesson Learned from Literature Review

Science.gov (United States)

Samadbeik, Mahnaz; Ahmadi, Maryam; Hosseini Asanjan, Seyed Masoud

2013-01-01

Context The tendency to use advanced technology in healthcare and the governmental policies have put forward electronic prescription. Electronic prescription is considered as the main solution to overcome the major drawbacks of the paper-based medication prescription, such as transcription errors. This study aims to provide practical information concerning electronic prescription system to a variety of stakeholders. Evidence Acquisition In this review study, PubMed, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, EMBASE databases, Iranian National Library Of Medicine (INLM) portal, Google Scholar, Google and Yahoo were searched for relevant English publications concerning the problems of paper-based prescription, and concept, features, levels, benefits, stakeholders and standards of electronic prescription system. Results There are many problems with the paper prescription system which, according to studies have jeopardized patients’ safety and negatively affected the outcomes of medication therapy. All of these problems are remedied through the implementation of e-prescriptions. Conclusions The sophistication of electronic prescription and integration with EHR will become a reality, if all its stakeholders collaborate in developing fast and secure electronic prescription systems. It is plausible that the required infrastructure should be provided for implementation of the national integrated electronic prescription systems in countries without the system. Given the barriers to the implementation and use, policymakers should consider multiple strategies and offer incentives to encourage e-prescription initiatives. This will result in widespread adoption of the system. PMID:24693376

Ways of incorporating photographic images in learning and assessing high school biology: A study of visual perception and visual cognition

Science.gov (United States)

Nixon, Brenda Chaumont

This study evaluated the cognitive benefits and costs of incorporating biology-textbook and student-generated photographic images into the learning and assessment processes within a 10th grade biology classroom. The study implemented Wandersee's (2000) 20-Q Model of Image-Based Biology Test-Item Design (20-Q Model) to explore the use of photographic images to assess students' understanding of complex biological processes. A thorough review of the students' textbook using ScaleMaster R with PC Interface was also conducted. The photographs, diagrams, and other representations found in the textbook were measured to determine the percentage of each graphic depicted in the book and comparisons were made to the text. The theoretical framework that guided the research included Human Constructivist tenets espoused by Mintzes, Wandersee and Novak (2000). Physiological and cognitive factors of images and image-based learning as described by Robin (1992), Solso (1997) and Wandersee (2000) were examined. Qualitative case study design presented by Yin (1994), Denzin and Lincoln (1994) was applied and data were collected through interviews, observations, student activities, student and school artifacts and Scale Master IIRTM measurements. The results of the study indicate that although 24% of the high school biology textbook is devoted to photographic images which contribute significantly to textbook cost, the teacher and students paid little attention to photographic images other than as aesthetic elements for creating biological ambiance, wasting valuable opportunities for learning. The analysis of the photographs corroborated findings published by the Association American Association for the Advancement of Science that indicated "While most of the books are lavishly illustrated, these representations are rarely helpful, because they are too abstract, needlessly complicated, or inadequately explained" (Roseman, 2000, p. 2). The findings also indicate that applying the 20-Q

Quantitative imaging of single upconversion nanoparticles in biological tissue.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Annemarie Nadort

Full Text Available The unique luminescent properties of new-generation synthetic nanomaterials, upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs, enabled high-contrast optical biomedical imaging by suppressing the crowded background of biological tissue autofluorescence and evading high tissue absorption. This raised high expectations on the UCNP utilities for intracellular and deep tissue imaging, such as whole animal imaging. At the same time, the critical nonlinear dependence of the UCNP luminescence on the excitation intensity results in dramatic signal reduction at (∼1 cm depth in biological tissue. Here, we report on the experimental and theoretical investigation of this trade-off aiming at the identification of optimal application niches of UCNPs e.g. biological liquids and subsurface tissue layers. As an example of such applications, we report on single UCNP imaging through a layer of hemolyzed blood. To extend this result towards in vivo applications, we quantified the optical properties of single UCNPs and theoretically analyzed the prospects of single-particle detectability in live scattering and absorbing bio-tissue using a human skin model. The model predicts that a single 70-nm UCNP would be detectable at skin depths up to 400 µm, unlike a hardly detectable single fluorescent (fluorescein dye molecule. UCNP-assisted imaging in the ballistic regime thus allows for excellent applications niches, where high sensitivity is the key requirement.

Imaging of Biological Tissues by Visible Light CDI

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Karpov, Dmitry; Dos Santos Rolo, Tomy; Rich, Hannah; Fohtung, Edwin

Recent advances in the use of synchrotron and X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) based coherent diffraction imaging (CDI) with application to material sciences and medicine proved the technique to be efficient in recovering information about the samples encoded in the phase domain. The current state-of-the-art algorithms of reconstruction are transferable to optical frequencies, which makes laser sources a reasonable milestone both in technique development and applications. Here we present first results from table-top laser CDI system for imaging of biological tissues and reconstruction algorithms development and discuss approaches that are complimenting the data quality improvement that is applicable to visible light frequencies due to it's properties. We demonstrate applicability of the developed methodology to a wide class of soft bio-matter and condensed matter systems. This project is funded by DOD-AFOSR under Award No FA9550-14-1-0363 and the LANSCE Professorship at LANL.

Combining Different Modalities for 3D Imaging of Biological Objects

CERN Document Server

Tsyganov, E; Kulkarni, P; Mason, R; Parkey, R; Seliuonine, S; Shay, J; Soesbe, T; Zhezher, V; Zinchenko, A I

2005-01-01

A resolution enhanced NaI(Tl)-scintillator micro-SPECT device using pinhole collimator geometry has been built and tested with small animals. This device was constructed based on a depth-of-interaction measurement using a thick scintillator crystal and a position sensitive PMT to measure depth-dependent scintillator light profiles. Such a measurement eliminates the parallax error that degrades the high spatial resolution required for small animal imaging. This novel technique for 3D gamma-ray detection was incorporated into the micro-SPECT device and tested with a $^{57}$Co source and $^{98m}$Tc-MDP injected in mice body. To further enhance the investigating power of the tomographic imaging different imaging modalities can be combined. In particular, as proposed and shown in this paper, the optical imaging permits a 3D reconstruction of the animal's skin surface thus improving visualization and making possible depth-dependent corrections, necessary for bioluminescence 3D reconstruction in biological objects. ...

Exercise Dosing and Prescription-Playing It Safe: Dangers and Prescription.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Lei; Ai, Dongmei; Zhang, Ning

2017-01-01

Cardiac rehabilitation is a comprehensive and multidisciplinary program, and exercise training is extremely crucial in the whole program. In the past decades, many researches have shown the beneficial effects of exercise for cardiovascular disease (CVD) is indisputable Nevertheless, only a well-designed exercise prescription may achieve the ideal benefits. In this chapter, we will have a discussion of what is exercise prescription and how to establish a scientific and appropriate exercise prescription for CVD patients depending on the current scientific evidence and recommendations.

Imaging systems and algorithms to analyze biological samples in real-time using mobile phone microscopy.

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Shanmugam, Akshaya; Usmani, Mohammad; Mayberry, Addison; Perkins, David L; Holcomb, Daniel E

2018-01-01

Miniaturized imaging devices have pushed the boundaries of point-of-care imaging, but existing mobile-phone-based imaging systems do not exploit the full potential of smart phones. This work demonstrates the use of simple imaging configurations to deliver superior image quality and the ability to handle a wide range of biological samples. Results presented in this work are from analysis of fluorescent beads under fluorescence imaging, as well as helminth eggs and freshwater mussel larvae under white light imaging. To demonstrate versatility of the systems, real time analysis and post-processing results of the sample count and sample size are presented in both still images and videos of flowing samples.

Controlled power delivery for super-resolution imaging of biological samples using digital micromirror device

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Valiya Peedikakkal, Liyana; Cadby, Ashley

2017-02-01

Localization based super resolution images of a biological sample is generally achieved by using high power laser illumination with long exposure time which unfortunately increases photo-toxicity of a sample, making super resolution microscopy, in general, incompatible with live cell imaging. Furthermore, the limitation of photobleaching reduces the ability to acquire time lapse images of live biological cells using fluorescence microscopy. Digital Light Processing (DLP) technology can deliver light at grey scale levels by flickering digital micromirrors at around 290 Hz enabling highly controlled power delivery to samples. In this work, Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) is implemented in an inverse Schiefspiegler telescope setup to control the power and pattern of illumination for super resolution microscopy. We can achieve spatial and temporal patterning of illumination by controlling the DMD pixel by pixel. The DMD allows us to control the power and spatial extent of the laser illumination. We have used this to show that we can reduce the power delivered to the sample to allow for longer time imaging in one area while achieving sub-diffraction STORM imaging in another using higher power densities.

[Targeted pharmacist-led medication order review in hospital: Assessment of a selection method for drug prescriptions].

Science.gov (United States)

Jarre, C; Bouchet, J; Hellot-Guersing, M; Leromain, A-S; Derharoutunian, C; Gadot, A; Roubille, R

2017-11-01

The aim of this study was to assess a selection method for drug prescriptions developed at the hospital level that allows to target pharmacist-led medication order review for at-risk patients and drugs. A one-month study has been conducted on all targeted medication orders in 19 care units. Selection criteria have been identified: biological criteria, alert medications and drug interactions. Pharmacists' interventions proposed during medication order review were listed and the possible links to the selection criteria were determined. A total of 1612 prescriptions were analysed and 236 pharmacists' interventions were performed (14.6 interventions per 100 prescriptions). Physicians' acceptance rate was 60.6%. The percentage of pharmacists' interventions linked to the selection criteria was 35.6%. The relevance of the biological criteria was identified, particularly the one identifying patients with creatinine clearance below 30ml/min. Six alert medications were also relevant selection criteria: dabigatran, morphine, gentamicin, methotrexate, potassium chloride and trimethoprim sulfamethoxazole. Drug interactions criteria was irrelevant. This study allowed a first assessment of the selection criteria used. A largest study seems necessary to continue the analysis of this selection method for prescriptions, especially the assessment of the alert medications list, in order to refine the prescriptions targeting. Copyright © 2017 Académie Nationale de Pharmacie. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Errors and omissions in hospital prescriptions: a survey of prescription writing in a hospital.

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Calligaris, Laura; Panzera, Angela; Arnoldo, Luca; Londero, Carla; Quattrin, Rosanna; Troncon, Maria G; Brusaferro, Silvio

2009-05-13

The frequency of drug prescription errors is high. Excluding errors in decision making, the remaining are mainly due to order ambiguity, non standard nomenclature and writing illegibility. The aim of this study is to analyse, as a part of a continuous quality improvement program, the quality of prescriptions writing for antibiotics, in an Italian University Hospital as a risk factor for prescription errors. The point prevalence survey, carried out in May 26-30 2008, involved 41 inpatient Units. Every parenteral or oral antibiotic prescription was analysed for legibility (generic or brand drug name, dose, frequency of administration) and completeness (generic or brand name, dose, frequency of administration, route of administration, date of prescription and signature of the prescriber). Eight doctors (residents in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine) and two pharmacists performed the survey by reviewing the clinical records of medical, surgical or intensive care section inpatients. The antibiotics drug category was chosen because its use is widespread in the setting considered. Out of 756 inpatients included in the study, 408 antibiotic prescriptions were found in 298 patients (mean prescriptions per patient 1.4; SD +/- 0.6). Overall 92.7% (38/41) of the Units had at least one patient with antibiotic prescription. Legibility was in compliance with 78.9% of generic or brand names, 69.4% of doses, 80.1% of frequency of administration, whereas completeness was fulfilled for 95.6% of generic or brand names, 76.7% of doses, 83.6% of frequency of administration, 87% of routes of administration, 43.9% of dates of prescription and 33.3% of physician's signature. Overall 23.9% of prescriptions were illegible and 29.9% of prescriptions were incomplete. Legibility and completeness are higher in unusual drugs prescriptions. The Intensive Care Section performed best as far as quality of prescription writing was concerned when compared with the Medical and Surgical Sections

[Analysis on regularity of prescriptions in "a guide to clinical practice with medical record" for diarrhoea based on traditional Chinese medicine inheritance support system].

Science.gov (United States)

He, Lan-Juan; Zhu, Xiang-Dong

2016-06-01

To analyze the regularities of prescriptions in "a guide to clinical practice with medical record" (Ye Tianshi) for diarrhoea based on traditional Chinese medicine inheritance support system(V2.5), and provide a reference for further research and development of new traditional Chinese medicines in treating diarrhoea. Traditional Chinese medicine inheritance support system was used to build a prescription database of Chinese medicines for diarrhoea. The software integration data mining method was used to analyze the prescriptions according to "four natures", "five flavors" and "meridians" in the database and achieve frequency statistics, syndrome distribution, prescription regularity and new prescription analysis. An analysis on 94 prescriptions for diarrhoea was used to determine the frequencies of medicines in prescriptions, commonly used medicine pairs and combinations, and achieve 13 new prescriptions. This study indicated that the prescriptions for diarrhoea in "a guide to clinical practice with medical record" are mostly of eliminating dampness and tonifying deficienccy, with neutral drug property, sweet, bitter or hot in flavor, and reflecting the treatment principle of "activating spleen-energy and resolving dampness". Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

Prescription Opioid Usage and Abuse Relationships: An Evaluation of State Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Efficacy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Richard M. Reisman

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Context The dramatic rise in the use of prescription opioids to treat non-cancer pain has been paralleled by increasing prescription opioid abuse. However, detailed analyses of these trends and programs to address them are lacking. Objective To study the association between state shipments of prescription opioids for medical use and prescription opioid abuse admissions and to assess the effects of state prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs on prescription opioid abuse admissions. Design and Setting A retrospective ecological cohort study comparing state prescription opioid shipments (source: Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders Systems database and inpatient admissions for prescription opioid abuse (source: Treatment Episode Data Set in 14 states with PDMPs (intervention group and 36 states without PDMPs (control group for the period 1997–2003. Results From 1997 to 2003, oxycodone, morphine, and hydrocodone shipments increased by 479%, 100%, and 148% respectively. Increasing prescription oxycodone shipments were significantly associated with increasing prescription opioid admission rates (p < 0.001. PDMP states had significantly lower oxycodone shipments than the control group. PDMP states had less increase in prescription opioid admissions per year (p = 0.063. A patient admitted to an inpatient drug abuse rehabilitation program in a PDMP state was less likely to be admitted for prescription opioid drug abuse (Odds ratio = 0.775, 95% Confidence Interval 0.764–0.785. Conclusions PDMPs appear to decrease the quantity of oxycodone shipments and the prescription opioid admission rate for states with these programs. Overall, opioid shipments rose significantly in PDMP states during the study period indicating a negligible “chilling effect” on physician prescribing.

The use of contrast agent for imaging biological samples

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dammer, J; Sopko, V; Jakubek, J [Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, Czech Technical University in Prague, Horska 3a/22, CZ 12800 Prague 2 (Czech Republic); Weyda, F, E-mail: jiri.dammer@utef.cvut.cz [Biological center of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Institute of Entomology, Branisovska 31, CZ-37005 Ceske Budejovice (Czech Republic)

2011-01-15

The technique of X-ray transmission imaging has been available for over a century and is still among the fastest and easiest approaches to the studies of internal structure of biological samples. Recent advances in semiconductor technology have led to the development of new types of X-ray detectors with direct conversion of interacting X-ray photon to an electric signal. Semiconductor pixel detectors seem to be specially promising; compared to the film technique, they provide single-quantum and real-time digital information about the objects being studied. We describe the recently developed radiographic apparatus, equipped with Medipix2 semiconductor pixel detector. The detector is used as an imager that counts individual photons of ionizing radiation, emitted by an X-ray tube (micro- or nano-focus FeinFocus). Thanks to the wide dynamic range of the Medipix2 detector and its high spatial resolution better than 1{mu}m, the setup is particularly suitable for radiographic imaging of small biological samples, including in-vivo observations with contrast agent (Optiray). Along with the description of the apparatus we provide examples of the use iodine contrast agent as a tracer in various insects as model organisms. The motivation of our work is to develop our imaging techniques as non-destructive and non-invasive. Microradiographic imaging helps detect organisms living in a not visible environment, visualize the internal biological processes and also to resolve the details of their body (morphology). Tiny live insects are an ideal object for our studies.

The use of psychoactive prescription drugs among DUI suspects.

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Karjalainen, Karoliina; Haukka, Jari; Lintonen, Tomi; Joukamaa, Matti; Lillsunde, Pirjo

2015-10-01

The study seeks to increase understanding of the use of psychoactive prescription drugs among persons suspected of driving under the influence (DUI). We studied whether the use of prescribed psychoactive medication was associated with DUI, and examined the difference in the use of prescription drugs between DUI recidivists and those arrested only once. In this register-based study, persons suspected of DUI (n=29470) were drawn from the Register of DUI suspects, and an age- and gender-matched reference population (n=30043) was drawn from the Finnish general population. Data on prescription drug use was obtained by linkage to the National Prescription Register. The associations of DUI arrest and use of psychoactive prescription drugs in different DUI groups (findings for alcohol only, prescription drugs, prescription drugs and alcohol, illicit drugs) were estimated by using mixed-effect logistic regression. The use of psychoactive prescription drugs and DUI appeared to be strongly associated, with DUI suspects significantly more likely to use psychoactive prescription drugs compared to the reference population. Gender differences existed, with the use of benzodiazepines being more common among female DUI suspects. Moreover, DUI recidivists were more likely to use psychoactive prescription drugs compared to those arrested only once. In addition to alcohol and/or illicit drug use, a significant proportion of DUI suspects were using psychoactive prescription drugs. When prescribing psychoactive medication, especially benzodiazepines, physicians are challenged to screen for possible substance use problems and also to monitor for patients' alcohol or illicit drug use while being medicated. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Third order harmonic imaging for biological tissues using three phase-coded pulses.

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Ma, Qingyu; Gong, Xiufen; Zhang, Dong

2006-12-22

Compared to the fundamental and the second harmonic imaging, the third harmonic imaging shows significant improvements in image quality due to the better resolution, but it is degraded by the lower sound pressure and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this study, a phase-coded pulse technique is proposed to selectively enhance the sound pressure of the third harmonic by 9.5 dB whereas the fundamental and the second harmonic components are efficiently suppressed and SNR is also increased by 4.7 dB. Based on the solution of the KZK nonlinear equation, the axial and lateral beam profiles of harmonics radiated from a planar piston transducer were theoretically simulated and experimentally examined. Finally, the third harmonic images using this technique were performed for several biological tissues and compared with the images obtained by the fundamental and the second harmonic imaging. Results demonstrate that the phase-coded pulse technique yields a dramatically cleaner and sharper contrast image.

Two Years of ePrescription in Slovenia - Applications and Potentials.

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Stanimirovic, Dalibor; Savic, Dusan

2018-01-01

ePrescription is one of the most successful eHealth solutions in Slovenia. Since its national roll-out in early 2016, the quality of its operations has been constantly improving, and the number of users has been growing ever since to reach today's 90% of all healthcare providers. ePrescription facilitates more transparent and safer prescribing of medications, an overview of possible medication interactions, and reduction of administrative and opportunity costs. This paper initially explores the current state of ePrescription in Slovenia and different aspects of its application. Based on the research findings, the paper finally outlines potentials of ePrescription, which could be transformed into tangible benefits with particular implications for healthcare system. The research is based on focus group methodology. Structured discussions were conducted with eminent experts currently in charge of ePrescription (and other eHealth solutions) development and implementation in Slovenia. Research results imply that certain application aspects are relatively easy to define and evaluate, while the overall potentials of ePrescription are difficult to determine in many cases, and relatively unexplored in terms of their implications and operational feasibility.

Prescription Drug Abuse

Science.gov (United States)

... what the doctor prescribed, it is called prescription drug abuse. It could be Taking a medicine that ... purpose, such as getting high Abusing some prescription drugs can lead to addiction. These include opioids, sedatives, ...

System for accessing a collection of histology images using content-based strategies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gonzalez F; Caicedo J C; Cruz Roa A; Camargo, J; Spinel, C

2010-01-01

Histology images are an important resource for research, education and medical practice. The availability of image collections with reference purposes is limited to printed formats such as books and specialized journals. When histology image sets are published in digital formats, they are composed of some tens of images that do not represent the wide diversity of biological structures that can be found in fundamental tissues; making a complete histology image collection available to the general public having a great impact on research and education in different areas such as medicine, biology and natural sciences. This work presents the acquisition process of a histology image collection with 20,000 samples in digital format, from tissue processing to digital image capturing. The main purpose of collecting these images is to make them available as reference material to the academic community. In addition, this paper presents the design and architecture of a system to query and explore the image collection, using content-based image retrieval tools and text-based search on the annotations provided by experts. The system also offers novel image visualization methods to allow easy identification of interesting images among hundreds of possible pictures. The system has been developed using a service-oriented architecture and allows web-based access in http://www.informed.unal.edu.co

Systems Biology-Driven Hypotheses Tested In Vivo: The Need to Advancing Molecular Imaging Tools.

Science.gov (United States)

Verma, Garima; Palombo, Alessandro; Grigioni, Mauro; La Monaca, Morena; D'Avenio, Giuseppe

2018-01-01

Processing and interpretation of biological images may provide invaluable insights on complex, living systems because images capture the overall dynamics as a "whole." Therefore, "extraction" of key, quantitative morphological parameters could be, at least in principle, helpful in building a reliable systems biology approach in understanding living objects. Molecular imaging tools for system biology models have attained widespread usage in modern experimental laboratories. Here, we provide an overview on advances in the computational technology and different instrumentations focused on molecular image processing and analysis. Quantitative data analysis through various open source software and algorithmic protocols will provide a novel approach for modeling the experimental research program. Besides this, we also highlight the predictable future trends regarding methods for automatically analyzing biological data. Such tools will be very useful to understand the detailed biological and mathematical expressions under in-silico system biology processes with modeling properties.

The usefulness of metal markers for CTV-based dose prescription in high-dose-rate interstitial brachytherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoshida, Ken; Mitomo, Masanori; Nose, Takayuki; Koizumi, Masahiko; Nishiyama, Kinji; Yoshida, Mineo

2002-01-01

We employ a clinical target volume (CTV)-based dose prescription for high-dose-rate (HDR) interstitial brachytherapy. However, it is not easy to define CTV and organs at risk (OAR) from X-ray film or CT scanning. To solve this problem, we have utilized metal markers since October 1999. Moreover, metal markers can help modify dose prescription. By regulating the doses to the metal markers, refining the dose prescription can easily be achieved. In this research, we investigated the usefulness of the metal markers. Between October 1999 and May 2001, 51 patients were implanted with metal markers at Osaka Medical Center for Cancer and Cardiovascular Diseases (OMCC), Osaka National Hospital (ONH) and Sanda City Hospital (SCH). Forty-nine patients (head and neck: 32; pelvis: 11; soft tissue: 3; breast: 3) using metal markers were analyzed. During operation, we implanted 179 metal markers (49 patients) to CTV and 151 markers (26 patients) to OAR. At treatment planning, CTV was reconstructed judging from the metal markers, applicator position and operation records. Generally, we prescribed the tumoricidal dose to an isodose surface that covers CTV. We also planned to limit the doses to OAR lower than certain levels. The maximum normal tissue doses were decided 80%, 150%, 100%, 50% and 200% of the prescribed doses for the rectum, the urethra, the mandible, the skin and the large vessel, respectively. The doses to the metal markers using CTV-based dose prescription were generated. These were compared with the doses theoretically calculated with the Paris system. Treatment results were also investigated. The doses to the 158 metal markers (42 patients) for CTV were higher than ''tumoricidal dose''. In 7 patients, as a result of compromised dose prescription, 9 markers were lower than the tumoricidal dose. The other 12 markers (7%) were excluded from dose evaluation because they were judged as miss-implanted. The doses to the 142 metal markers (24 patients) for OAR were lower

Integrated light-sheet imaging and flow-based enquiry (iLIFE) system for 3D in-vivo imaging of multicellular organism

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Rasmi, Chelur K.; Padmanabhan, Sreedevi; Shirlekar, Kalyanee; Rajan, Kanhirodan; Manjithaya, Ravi; Singh, Varsha; Mondal, Partha Pratim

2017-12-01

We propose and demonstrate a light-sheet-based 3D interrogation system on a microfluidic platform for screening biological specimens during flow. To achieve this, a diffraction-limited light-sheet (with a large field-of-view) is employed to optically section the specimens flowing through the microfluidic channel. This necessitates optimization of the parameters for the illumination sub-system (illumination intensity, light-sheet width, and thickness), microfluidic specimen platform (channel-width and flow-rate), and detection sub-system (camera exposure time and frame rate). Once optimized, these parameters facilitate cross-sectional imaging and 3D reconstruction of biological specimens. The proposed integrated light-sheet imaging and flow-based enquiry (iLIFE) imaging technique enables single-shot sectional imaging of a range of specimens of varying dimensions, ranging from a single cell (HeLa cell) to a multicellular organism (C. elegans). 3D reconstruction of the entire C. elegans is achieved in real-time and with an exposure time of few hundred micro-seconds. A maximum likelihood technique is developed and optimized for the iLIFE imaging system. We observed an intracellular resolution for mitochondria-labeled HeLa cells, which demonstrates the dynamic resolution of the iLIFE system. The proposed technique is a step towards achieving flow-based 3D imaging. We expect potential applications in diverse fields such as structural biology and biophysics.

Trends and Determinants of Prescription Drug Use during Pregnancy and Postpartum in British Columbia, 2002-2011: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kate Smolina

Full Text Available To describe trends, patterns, and determinants of prescription drug use during pregnancy and postpartum.This is a retrospective, population-based study of all women who gave birth between January 2002 and 31 December 2011 in British Columbia, Canada. Study population consisted of 225,973 women who had 322,219 pregnancies. We examined administrative datasets containing person-specific information on filled prescriptions, hospitalizations, and medical services. Main outcome measures were filled prescriptions during pregnancy and postpartum. We used logistic regressions to examine associations between prescription drug use and maternal characteristics.Approximately two thirds of women filled a prescription during pregnancy, increasing from 60% in 2002 to 66% in 2011. The proportion of pregnant women using medicines in all three trimesters of pregnancy increased from 20% in 2002 to 27% in 2011. Use of four or more different types of prescription drug during at least one trimester increased from 8.4% in 2002 to 11.7% in 2011. Higher BMI, smoking during pregnancy, age under 25, carrying multiples, and being diagnosed with a chronic condition all significantly increased the odds of prescription drug use during pregnancy.The observed increase in the number of prescriptions and number of different drugs being dispensed suggests a trend in prescribing practices with potentially important implications for mothers, their neonates, and caregivers. Monitoring of prescribing practices and further research into the safety of most commonly prescribed medications is crucial in better understanding risks and benefits to the fetus and the mother.

Looking at prescription quality in Ayurveda: Developing, validating and pilot testing a prescription quality index for Ayurveda.

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Rastogi, Sanjeev

2017-11-06

Prescription quality can be a direct predictor of the net outcome of a health care delivery effort. Quality of prescription may be considered as a cumulative matrix of multiple components of a prescription on the basis of their relative importance. Prescription quality index is a recognized tool in clinical medicine for multiple purposes including the prediction of health care intervention outcome. Considering the importance of prescription quality among every system of medicine, an attempt was made to design a prescription quality index for Ayurveda. The Prescription Quality Index for Ayurveda was designed through item selection following a thorough literature search and was validated through multiple peer group discussions. Final draft of index containing 38 individual items carrying different scores as per their importance in the prescription was subjected to a pilot test upon 1576 indoor prescriptions generated in 2015 at State Ayurvedic College Hospital, Lucknow. The study revealed large information gaps in the components of the prescription where it was supposed to be noted by the prescribers. These gaps in the Ayurvedic prescriptions were most significant in the areas pertaining to Ayurvedic fundamentals of clinical examination, disease diagnosis and Ayurvedic drug intake methods. Prescription Quality Index for Ayurveda was found useful in underlining the gaps between the ideal and generated prescriptions. This can be utilized as a useful tool to evaluate the quality of Ayurvedic prescriptions by seeing their adherence to the standard prescription template. Copyright © 2017 Transdisciplinary University, Bangalore and World Ayurveda Foundation. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated force volume image processing for biological samples.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pavel Polyakov

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Atomic force microscopy (AFM has now become a powerful technique for investigating on a molecular level, surface forces, nanomechanical properties of deformable particles, biomolecular interactions, kinetics, and dynamic processes. This paper specifically focuses on the analysis of AFM force curves collected on biological systems, in particular, bacteria. The goal is to provide fully automated tools to achieve theoretical interpretation of force curves on the basis of adequate, available physical models. In this respect, we propose two algorithms, one for the processing of approach force curves and another for the quantitative analysis of retraction force curves. In the former, electrostatic interactions prior to contact between AFM probe and bacterium are accounted for and mechanical interactions operating after contact are described in terms of Hertz-Hooke formalism. Retraction force curves are analyzed on the basis of the Freely Jointed Chain model. For both algorithms, the quantitative reconstruction of force curves is based on the robust detection of critical points (jumps, changes of slope or changes of curvature which mark the transitions between the various relevant interactions taking place between the AFM tip and the studied sample during approach and retraction. Once the key regions of separation distance and indentation are detected, the physical parameters describing the relevant interactions operating in these regions are extracted making use of regression procedure for fitting experiments to theory. The flexibility, accuracy and strength of the algorithms are illustrated with the processing of two force-volume images, which collect a large set of approach and retraction curves measured on a single biological surface. For each force-volume image, several maps are generated, representing the spatial distribution of the searched physical parameters as estimated for each pixel of the force-volume image.

Combining different modalities for 3D imaging of biological objects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsyganov, Eh.; Antich, P.; Kulkarni, P.; Mason, R.; Parkey, R.; Seliuonine, S.; Shay, J.; Soesbe, T.; Zhezher, V.; Zinchenko, A.

2005-01-01

A resolution enhanced NaI(Tl)-scintillator micro-SPECT device using pinhole collimator geometry has been built and tested with small animals. This device was constructed based on a depth-of-interaction measurement using a thick scintillator crystal and a position sensitive PMT to measure depth-dependent scintillator light profiles. Such a measurement eliminates the parallax error that degrades the high spatial resolution required for small animal imaging. This novel technique for 3D gamma-ray detection was incorporated into the micro-SPECT device and tested with a 57 Co source and 98m Tc-MDP injected in mice body. To further enhance the investigating power of the tomographic imaging different imaging modalities can be combined. In particular, as proposed and shown, the optical imaging permits a 3D reconstruction of the animal's skin surface thus improving visualization and making possible depth-dependent corrections, necessary for bioluminescence 3D reconstruction in biological objects. This structural information can provide even more detail if the x-ray tomography is used as presented in the paper

The impact of self-reported health and register-based prescription medicine purchases on re-employment chances

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svane-petersen, Annemette Coop; Dencker-Larsen, Sofie

2016-01-01

on individual prescription medicine purchases for somatic illnesses and prescription medicine purchases for mental illnesses, information on re-employment and various socio-demographic variables. We conducted binary logistic regression analyses to investigate the impact of self-reported health and prescription...

Biologic targets identified from dynamic 18FDG-PET and implications for image-guided therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rusten, Espen; Malinen, Eirik; Roedal, Jan; Bruland, Oeyvind S.

2013-01-01

Purpose: The outcome of biologic image-guided radiotherapy depends on the definition of the biologic target. The purpose of the current work was to extract hyper perfused and hypermetabolic regions from dynamic positron emission tomography (D-PET) images, to dose escalate either region and to discuss implications of such image guided strategies. Methods: Eleven patients with soft tissue sarcomas were investigated with D-PET. The images were analyzed using a two-compartment model producing parametric maps of perfusion and metabolic rate. The two image series were segmented and exported to a treatment planning system, and biological target volumes BTV per and BTV met (perfusion and metabolism, respectively) were generated. Dice's similarity coefficient was used to compare the two biologic targets. Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) plans were generated for a dose painting by contours regime, where planning target volume (PTV) was planned to 60 Gy and BTV to 70 Gy. Thus, two separate plans were created for each patient with dose escalation of either BTV per or BTV met . Results: BTV per was somewhat smaller than BTV met (209 ±170 cm 3 against 243 ±143 cm 3 , respectively; population-based mean and s.d.). Dice's coefficient depended on the applied margin, and was 0.72 ±0.10 for a margin of 10 mm. Boosting BTV per resulted in mean dose of 69 ±1.0 Gy to this region, while BTV met received 67 ±3.2 Gy. Boosting BTV met gave smaller dose differences between the respective non-boost DVHs (such as D 98 ). Conclusions: Dose escalation of one of the BTVs results in a partial dose escalation of the other BTV as well. If tumor aggressiveness is equally pronounced in hyper perfused and hypermetabolic regions, this should be taken into account in the treatment planning

Discrimination methods for biological contaminants in fresh-cut lettuce based on VNIR and NIR hyperspectral imaging

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Mo, Changyeun; Kim, Giyoung; Kim, Moon S.; Lim, Jongguk; Lee, Seung Hyun; Lee, Hong-Seok; Cho, Byoung-Kwan

2017-09-01

The rapid detection of biological contaminants such as worms in fresh-cut vegetables is necessary to improve the efficiency of visual inspections carried out by workers. Multispectral imaging algorithms were developed using visible-near-infrared (VNIR) and near-infrared (NIR) hyperspectral imaging (HSI) techniques to detect worms in fresh-cut lettuce. The optimal wavebands that can detect worms in fresh-cut lettuce were investigated for each type of HSI using one-way ANOVA. Worm-detection imaging algorithms for VNIR and NIR imaging exhibited prediction accuracies of 97.00% (RI547/945) and 100.0% (RI1064/1176, SI1064-1176, RSI-I(1064-1173)/1064, and RSI-II(1064-1176)/(1064+1176)), respectively. The two HSI techniques revealed that spectral images with a pixel size of 1 × 1 mm or 2 × 2 mm had the best classification accuracy for worms. The results demonstrate that hyperspectral reflectance imaging techniques have the potential to detect worms in fresh-cut lettuce. Future research relating to this work will focus on a real-time sorting system for lettuce that can simultaneously detect various defects such as browning, worms, and slugs.

Pleasant/Unpleasant Filtering for Affective Image Retrieval Based on Cross-Correlation of EEG Features

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Keranmu Xielifuguli

2014-01-01

Full Text Available People often make decisions based on sensitivity rather than rationality. In the field of biological information processing, methods are available for analyzing biological information directly based on electroencephalogram: EEG to determine the pleasant/unpleasant reactions of users. In this study, we propose a sensitivity filtering technique for discriminating preferences (pleasant/unpleasant for images using a sensitivity image filtering system based on EEG. Using a set of images retrieved by similarity retrieval, we perform the sensitivity-based pleasant/unpleasant classification of images based on the affective features extracted from images with the maximum entropy method: MEM. In the present study, the affective features comprised cross-correlation features obtained from EEGs produced when an individual observed an image. However, it is difficult to measure the EEG when a subject visualizes an unknown image. Thus, we propose a solution where a linear regression method based on canonical correlation is used to estimate the cross-correlation features from image features. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the validity of sensitivity filtering compared with image similarity retrieval methods based on image features. We found that sensitivity filtering using color correlograms was suitable for the classification of preferred images, while sensitivity filtering using local binary patterns was suitable for the classification of unpleasant images. Moreover, sensitivity filtering using local binary patterns for unpleasant images had a 90% success rate. Thus, we conclude that the proposed method is efficient for filtering unpleasant images.

Prescriptions for schedule II opioids and benzodiazepines increase after the introduction of computer-generated prescriptions.

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McGerald, Genevieve; Dvorkin, Ronald; Levy, David; Lovell-Rose, Stephanie; Sharma, Adhi

2009-06-01

Prescriptions for controlled substances decrease when regulatory barriers are put in place. The converse has not been studied. The objective was to determine whether a less complicated prescription writing process is associated with a change in the prescribing patterns of controlled substances in the emergency department (ED). The authors conducted a retrospective nonconcurrent cohort study of all patients seen in an adult ED between April 19, 2005, and April 18, 2007, who were discharged with a prescription. Prior to April 19, 2006, a specialized prescription form stored in a locked cabinet was obtained from the nursing staff to write a prescription for benzodiazepines or Schedule II opioids. After April 19, 2006, New York State mandated that all prescriptions, regardless of schedule classification, be generated on a specialized bar-coded prescription form. The main outcome of the study was to compare the proportion of Schedule III-V opioids to Schedule II opioids and benzodiazepines prescribed in the ED before and after the introduction of a less cumbersome prescription writing process. Of the 26,638 charts reviewed, 2.1% of the total number of prescriptions generated were for a Schedule II controlled opioid before the new system was implemented compared to 13.6% after (odds ratio [OR] = 7.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 6.4 to 8.4). The corresponding percentages for Schedule III-V opioids were 29.9% to 18.1% (OR = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.49 to 0.55) and for benzodiazepines 1.4% to 3.9% (OR = 2.8, 95% CI = 2.4 to 3.4). Patients were more likely to receive a prescription for a Schedule II opioid or a benzodiazepine after a more streamlined computer-generated prescription writing process was introduced in this ED. (c) 2009 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Repurposing High-Throughput Image Assays Enables Biological Activity Prediction for Drug Discovery.

Science.gov (United States)

Simm, Jaak; Klambauer, Günter; Arany, Adam; Steijaert, Marvin; Wegner, Jörg Kurt; Gustin, Emmanuel; Chupakhin, Vladimir; Chong, Yolanda T; Vialard, Jorge; Buijnsters, Peter; Velter, Ingrid; Vapirev, Alexander; Singh, Shantanu; Carpenter, Anne E; Wuyts, Roel; Hochreiter, Sepp; Moreau, Yves; Ceulemans, Hugo

2018-05-17

In both academia and the pharmaceutical industry, large-scale assays for drug discovery are expensive and often impractical, particularly for the increasingly important physiologically relevant model systems that require primary cells, organoids, whole organisms, or expensive or rare reagents. We hypothesized that data from a single high-throughput imaging assay can be repurposed to predict the biological activity of compounds in other assays, even those targeting alternate pathways or biological processes. Indeed, quantitative information extracted from a three-channel microscopy-based screen for glucocorticoid receptor translocation was able to predict assay-specific biological activity in two ongoing drug discovery projects. In these projects, repurposing increased hit rates by 50- to 250-fold over that of the initial project assays while increasing the chemical structure diversity of the hits. Our results suggest that data from high-content screens are a rich source of information that can be used to predict and replace customized biological assays. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

THz near-field imaging of biological tissues employing synchrotronradiation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schade, Ulrich; Holldack, Karsten; Martin, Michael C.; Fried,Daniel

2004-12-23

Terahertz scanning near-field infrared microscopy (SNIM) below 1 THz is demonstrated. The near-field technique benefits from the broadband and highly brilliant coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) from an electron storage ring and from a detection method based on locking onto the intrinsic time structure of the synchrotron radiation. The scanning microscope utilizes conical wave guides as near-field probes with apertures smaller than the wavelength. Different cone approaches have been investigated to obtain maximum transmittance. Together with a Martin-Puplett spectrometer the set-up enables spectroscopic mapping of the transmittance of samples well below the diffraction limit. Spatial resolution down to about lambda/40 at 2 wavenumbers (0.06 THz) is derived from the transmittance spectra of the near-field probes. The potential of the technique is exemplified by imaging biological samples. Strongly absorbing living leaves have been imaged in transmittance with a spatial resolution of 130 mu-m at about 12 wave numbers (0.36 THz). The THz near-field images reveal distinct structural differences of leaves from different plants investigated. The technique presented also allows spectral imaging of bulky organic tissues. Human teeth samples of various thicknesses have been imaged between 2 and 20 wavenumbers (between 0.06and 0.6 THz). Regions of enamel and dentin within tooth samples are spatially and spectrally resolved, and buried caries lesions are imaged through both the outer enamel and into the underlying dentin.

Elemental and isotopic imaging of biological samples using NanoSIMS.

Science.gov (United States)

Kilburn, Matt R; Clode, Peta L

2014-01-01

With its low detection limits and the ability to analyze most of the elements in the periodic table, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) represents one of the most versatile in situ analytical techniques available, and recent developments have resulted in significant advantages for the use of imaging mass spectrometry in biological and biomedical research. Increases in spatial resolution and sensitivity allow detailed interrogation of samples at relevant scales and chemical concentrations. Advances in dynamic SIMS, specifically with the advent of NanoSIMS, now allow the tracking of stable isotopes within biological systems at subcellular length scales, while static SIMS combines subcellular imaging with molecular identification. In this chapter, we present an introduction to the SIMS technique, with particular reference to NanoSIMS, and discuss its application in biological and biomedical research.

Prescriptions, Nonmedical Use, and Emergency Department Visits Involving Prescription Stimulants

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Lian-Yu; Crum, Rosa M.; Strain, Eric C.; CalebAlexander, G.; Kaufmann, Christopher; Mojtabai, Ramin

2018-01-01

Objective Little is known regarding the temporal trends in prescription, nonmedical use and emergency department (ED) visits involving prescription stimulants in the United States. We aimed to examine the three national trends involving dextroamphetamine-amphetamin (Adderall) and methylphenidate in adults and adolescents. Method Three national surveys conducted between 2006-2011 were used: National Disease and Therapeutic Index (NDTI), a survey of office-based practices, National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), a population survey of substance use, and Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), a survey of ED visits. Ordinary least square regression was used to examine temporal changes over time and the associations between these three trends. Results In adolescents, treatment visits involving dextroamphetamine-amphetamine and methylphenidate decreased over time; nonmedical dextroamphetamine-amphetamine use remained stable while nonmedical methylphenidate use declined by 54.4% in 6 years. ED visits involving either medication remained stable. In adults, treatment visits involving dextroamphetamine-amphetamine remained unchanged while nonmedical use went up by 67% and ED visits went up by 156%. These three trends involving methylphenidate remained unchanged. The major source for both medications was a friend or relative across age groups; two-thirds of these friends/relatives had obtained the medication from a physician. Conclusions Trends of prescriptions for stimulants do not correspond to trends in reports of nonmedical use and ED visits. Increased nonmedical stimulant use may not be simply attributed to increased prescribing trends. Future studies should focus on deeper understanding of the proportion, risk factors and motivations for drug diversions. PMID:26890573

Writing toward a Scientific Identity: Shifting from Prescriptive to Reflective Writing in Undergraduate Biology

Science.gov (United States)

Otfinowski, Rafael; Silva-Opps, Marina

2015-01-01

Analytical writing enhances retention of science learning and is integral to student-centered classrooms. Despite this, scientific writing in undergraduate programs is often presented as a series of sentence-level conventions of grammar, syntax, and citation formats, reinforcing students' perceptions of its highly prescriptive nature. The authors…

Illicit drug use is increasing among non-medical users of prescription drugs-Results from population-based surveys 2002-2014.

Science.gov (United States)

Karjalainen, Karoliina; Lintonen, Tomi; Hakkarainen, Pekka

2017-09-01

Non-medical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) is known to be associated with illicit drug use, but less is known about how illicit drug use has changed in NMUPD. We examined (1) the changes in illicit drug use among Finnish non-medical users of prescription drugs during the 2000s and (2) whether the trends of illicit drug use differ by non-medical use of prescription drugs in the general population. Data were derived from population-based (aged 15-69) Drug Surveys conducted in Finland in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014. The response rates varied between 63% and 48%. NMUPD during the last year was measured (n=252). Past-year illicit drug use among non-medical users of prescription drugs and the reference population not reporting NMUPD (n=10,967) was compared. Logistic regression was used to estimate the p-values for trends. Illicit drug use has increased notably among Finnish non-medical users of prescription drugs (from 21% to 70%, p for trendillicit drug use also increased statistically significantly, but much more moderately (from 2.5% to 5.4%). The difference between the trends was confirmed by an interaction test (p=0.022). NMUPD seems to be increasingly merging with illicit drug use. This indicates an increasing prevalence of polydrug use among non-medical users of prescription drugs, which may bring about more severe harms and worse health outcomes for users and more challenges in regard to treatment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

UPAR targeted molecular imaging of cancers with small molecule-based probes.

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, Feng; Chen, Seng; Zhang, Wanshu; Tu, Yufeng; Sun, Yao

2017-10-15

Molecular imaging can allow the non-invasive characterization and measurement of biological and biochemical processes at the molecular and cellular levels in living subjects. The imaging of specific molecular targets that are associated with cancers could allow for the earlier diagnosis and better treatment of diseases. Small molecule-based probes play prominent roles in biomedical research and have high clinical translation ability. Here, with an emphasis on small molecule-based probes, we review some recent developments in biomarkers, imaging techniques and multimodal imaging in molecular imaging and highlight the successful applications for molecular imaging of cancers. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Visualization of medicine prescription behavior

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Corput, van der P.N.A.; Arends, J.B.A.M.; Wijk, van J.J.

2014-01-01

Medicine prescriptions play an important role in medical treatments. More insight in medicine prescription behavior can lead to more efficient and effective treatments, as well as reflection on prescription behavior for specific physicians, types of medicines, or classes of patients. Most current

Stability in Effects of gamma-Irradiated Chinese Medicinal Prescriptions on Protection of Mice from Radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang Jung-Ah; Kim Sung-Ho

2000-01-01

The radioprotective effects of irradiated medicinal plants on biological system were studied to apply the irradiation technology for hygienic purpose that is usually performed by chemical preservatives. We previously reported that the three Chinese medicinal prescriptions, Si-Wu-Tang, Bu-Zhong-Yi-Qi-Tang and San-Ling-Bai-Shu-San, showed radioprotective effects in mice. In these experiments, to investigate the difference in radioprotective effects between irradiated (10 kGy) and non-irradiated medicinal plants, mice were administered with the irradiated or non-irradiated prescriptions and then the mice were exposed to gamma-rays with low and high dosage. Non-exposed mice were also prepared as a control. The effects of prescriptions on the jejunal crypt survival, endogenous spleen colony formation, and apoptosis of jejunal crypt cells in mice were investigated after exposure. All of the prescriptions showed the protective effects of the jejunal crypt (p0.05) and the adminstration of the prescriptions increased the formation of endogenous spleen colony (p0.05) and reduced the frequency of radiation-induced apoptosis (p0.05). No significant difference in effects between irradiated and non-irradiated prescreption on the parameters was found in mice administered with each prescription before exposure to gamma-rays. In non-exposed mice, there were no different findings in the parameters between irradiated and non-irradiated prescription

Epithelial invasion outcompetes hypha development during Candida albicans infection as revealed by an image-based systems biology approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Mech, Franziska; Wilson, Duncan; Lehnert, Teresa; Hube, Bernhard; Thilo Figge, Marc

2014-02-01

Candida albicans is the most common opportunistic fungal pathogen of the human mucosal flora, frequently causing infections. The fungus is responsible for invasive infections in immunocompromised patients that can lead to sepsis. The yeast to hypha transition and invasion of host-tissue represent major determinants in the switch from benign colonizer to invasive pathogen. A comprehensive understanding of the infection process requires analyses at the quantitative level. Utilizing fluorescence microscopy with differential staining, we obtained images of C. albicans undergoing epithelial invasion during a time course of 6 h. An image-based systems biology approach, combining image analysis and mathematical modeling, was applied to quantify the kinetics of hyphae development, hyphal elongation, and epithelial invasion. The automated image analysis facilitates high-throughput screening and provided quantities that allow for the time-resolved characterization of the morphological and invasive state of fungal cells. The interpretation of these data was supported by two mathematical models, a kinetic growth model and a kinetic transition model, that were developed using differential equations. The kinetic growth model describes the increase in hyphal length and revealed that hyphae undergo mass invasion of epithelial cells following primary hypha formation. We also provide evidence that epithelial cells stimulate the production of secondary hyphae by C. albicans. Based on the kinetic transition model, the route of invasion was quantified in the state space of non-invasive and invasive fungal cells depending on their number of hyphae. This analysis revealed that the initiation of hyphae formation represents an ultimate commitment to invasive growth and suggests that in vivo, the yeast to hypha transition must be under exquisitely tight negative regulation to avoid the transition from commensal to pathogen invading the epithelium. © 2013 International Society for

Exploring an optimal wavelet-based filter for cryo-ET imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Xinrui; Li, Sha; Gao, Song

2018-02-07

Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) is one of the most advanced technologies for the in situ visualization of molecular machines by producing three-dimensional (3D) biological structures. However, cryo-ET imaging has two serious disadvantages-low dose and low image contrast-which result in high-resolution information being obscured by noise and image quality being degraded, and this causes errors in biological interpretation. The purpose of this research is to explore an optimal wavelet denoising technique to reduce noise in cryo-ET images. We perform tests using simulation data and design a filter using the optimum selected wavelet parameters (three-level decomposition, level-1 zeroed out, subband-dependent threshold, a soft-thresholding and spline-based discrete dyadic wavelet transform (DDWT)), which we call a modified wavelet shrinkage filter; this filter is suitable for noisy cryo-ET data. When testing using real cryo-ET experiment data, higher quality images and more accurate measures of a biological structure can be obtained with the modified wavelet shrinkage filter processing compared with conventional processing. Because the proposed method provides an inherent advantage when dealing with cryo-ET images, it can therefore extend the current state-of-the-art technology in assisting all aspects of cryo-ET studies: visualization, reconstruction, structural analysis, and interpretation.

Method and apparatus to image biological interactions in plants

Science.gov (United States)

Weisenberger, Andrew; Bonito, Gregory M.; Reid, Chantal D.; Smith, Mark Frederick

2015-12-22

A method to dynamically image the actual translocation of molecular compounds of interest in a plant root, root system, and rhizosphere without disturbing the root or the soil. The technique makes use of radioactive isotopes as tracers to label molecules of interest and to image their distribution in the plant and/or soil. The method allows for the study and imaging of various biological and biochemical interactions in the rhizosphere of a plant, including, but not limited to, mycorrhizal associations in such regions.

Doctor Shopping Behavior and the Diversion of Prescription Opioids.

Science.gov (United States)

Simeone, Ronald

2017-01-01

"Doctor shopping" as a means of prescription opioid diversion is examined. The number and percentage of prescriptions and morphine-equivalent milligrams diverted in this manner are estimated by state and molecule for the period 2008-2012. Eleven billion prescriptions with unique patient, doctor, and pharmacy identifiers were used to construct diversion "events" that involved between 1 and 6 unique doctors and between 1 and 6 unique pharmacies. Diversion thresholds were established based on the probability of each contingency. A geographically widespread decline occurred between 2008 and 2012. The number of prescriptions diverted fell from approximately 4.30 million (1.75% of all prescriptions) in 2008 to approximately 3.37 million (1.27% of all prescriptions) in 2012, and the number of morphine-equivalent milligrams fell from approximately 6.55 metric tons (2.95% of total metric tons) in 2008 to approximately 4.87 metric tons (2.19% of total metric tons) in 2012. Diversion control efforts have likely been effective. But given increases in opioid-related deaths, opioid-related drug treatment admissions, and the more specific resurgence of heroin-related events, it is clear that additional public health measures are required.

Effect Of A “No Superuser Opioid Prescription” Policy On ED Visits And Statewide Opioid Prescription

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zachary P. Kahler

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Introduction: The U.S. opioid epidemic has highlighted the need to identify patients at risk of opioid abuse and overdose. We initiated a novel emergency department- (ED based interventional protocol to transition our superuser patients from the ED to an outpatient chronic pain program. The objective was to evaluate the protocol’s effect on superusers’ annual ED visits. Secondary outcomes included a quantitative evaluation of statewide opioid prescriptions for these patients, unique prescribers of controlled substances, and ancillary testing. Methods: Patients were referred to the program with the following inclusion criteria: ≥ 6 visits per year to the ED; at least one visit identified by the attending physician as primarily driven by opioid-seeking behavior; and a review by a committee comprising ED administration and case management. Patients were referred to a pain management clinic and informed that they would no longer receive opioid prescriptions from visits to the ED for chronic pain complaints. Electronic medical record (EMR alerts notified ED providers of the patient’s referral at subsequent visits. We analyzed one year of data pre- and post-referral. Results: A total of 243 patients had one year of data post-referral for analysis. Median annual ED visits decreased from 14 to 4 (58% decrease, 95% CI [50 to 66]. We also found statistically significant decreases for these patients’ state prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP opioid prescriptions (21 to 13, total unique controlled-substance prescribers (11 to 7, computed tomography imaging (2 to 0, radiographs (5 to 1, electrocardiograms (12 to 4, and labs run (47 to 13. Conclusion: This program and the EMR-based alerts were successful at decreasing local ED visits, annual opioid prescriptions, and hospital resource allocation for this population of patients. There is no evidence that these patients diverted their visits to neighboring EDs after being informed that they

Off-label prescriptions in diabetic foot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luís Jesuíno de Oliveira Andrade

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Prescription of a drug outside of the indications for which it was originally approved by regulators is internationally known as "off-label" prescription. We describe off-label treatments for the diabetic foot reported in international scientific literature. This is a qualitative and descriptive bibliographical review based on the results of a search of the Medline international database. The criteria for review were publication between January 1985 and November 2013, and the MeSH (Medical Subject Heading keywords "off-label use" OR "off-label" OR "off-label prescribing" plus "diabetic foot" were input on the search form. Nine studies were selected that contained information about off-label treatments for the diabetic foot. We conclude that the practice of off-label prescribing has potential benefits. In some situations an off-label prescription is the only treatment available for patients, either because a more targeted drug does not exist, or because other methods of treatment are ineffective or unavailable due to patient intolerance.

Prescription Writing Errors of Midwifery Students in Common Gynecological problems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Serveh Parang

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Background and aim: Giving improper prescriptions is common among medical practitioners, mostly graduates, in most communities even developed countries. So far, to our knowledge, no study has been conducted on prescription writing of graduate midwifery students. Therefore, this study aimed to detect prescription writing errors of midwifery students in common gynecological problems. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 56 bachelor midwifery students, who had passed the theoretical and clinical courses of gynecology, were evaluated by Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE. A demographic questionnaire and a standard checklist for writing the prescriptions and medications were used for data collection. SPSS Version 16 was used to carry out descriptive statistics. Findings: Most of the students were single, with the mean age of 23.0±1.7 years. Most errors were related to not recording the patients’ age and sex, diagnosis, chief complaint, and the prescriber’s name (observed in less than 10% of the prescriptions. The complete dosage schedule and drug name were stated only in 1.8±4.8 and 14±18.6 of prescriptions, respectively. In more than 93% of the cases, route of use and treatment duration were not recorded. Conclusion: According to the results, the number of prescription errors of midwifery students was high. Therefore, it is recommended to run educational courses on prescription writing skills (e.g. writing prescriptions based on World Health Organization (WHO guidelines for the midwifery students.

Evaluating the Impact of Prescription Fill Rates on Risk Stratification Model Performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Hsien-Yen; Richards, Thomas M; Shermock, Kenneth M; Elder Dalpoas, Stacy; J Kan, Hong; Alexander, G Caleb; Weiner, Jonathan P; Kharrazi, Hadi

2017-12-01

Risk adjustment models are traditionally derived from administrative claims. Prescription fill rates-extracted by comparing electronic health record prescriptions and pharmacy claims fills-represent a novel measure of medication adherence and may improve the performance of risk adjustment models. We evaluated the impact of prescription fill rates on claims-based risk adjustment models in predicting both concurrent and prospective costs and utilization. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 43,097 primary care patients from HealthPartners network between 2011 and 2012. Diagnosis and/or pharmacy claims of 2011 were used to build 3 base models using the Johns Hopkins ACG system, in addition to demographics. Model performances were compared before and after adding 3 types of prescription fill rates: primary 0-7 days, primary 0-30 days, and overall. Overall fill rates utilized all ordered prescriptions from electronic health record while primary fill rates excluded refill orders. The overall, primary 0-7, and 0-30 days fill rates were 72.30%, 59.82%, and 67.33%. The fill rates were similar between sexes but varied across different medication classifications, whereas the youngest had the highest rate. Adding fill rates modestly improved the performance of all models in explaining medical costs (improving concurrent R by 1.15% to 2.07%), followed by total costs (0.58% to 1.43%), and pharmacy costs (0.07% to 0.65%). The impact was greater for concurrent costs compared with prospective costs. Base models without diagnosis information showed the highest improvement using prescription fill rates. Prescription fill rates can modestly enhance claims-based risk prediction models; however, population-level improvements in predicting utilization are limited.

Biologic Medications for Psoriasis

Science.gov (United States)

... open('/content/cro/en/health/prescription-drugs/best-buy-drugs/Biologics_For_Psoriasis.print.html','win2','status=no, ... we recommend the following as Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs . Adalimumab (Humira) Etanercept (Enbrel) Studies show that for ...

Prescription Painkiller Overdoses PSA (:60)

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

This 60 second public service announcement is based on the July 2013 CDC Vital Signs report. Prescription painkiller overdoses are an under-recognized and growing problem among women. This program includes things that women and health care providers can do to reduce the risk of overdose.

Terahertz imaging and spectroscopy based on hot electron bolometer (HEB) heterodyne detection

Science.gov (United States)

Gerecht, Eyal; You, Lixing

2008-02-01

Imaging and spectroscopy at terahertz frequencies have great potential for healthcare, plasma diagnostics, and homeland security applications. Terahertz frequencies correspond to energy level transitions of important molecules in biology and astrophysics. Terahertz radiation (T-rays) can penetrate clothing and, to some extent, can also penetrate biological materials. Because of their shorter wavelengths, they offer higher spatial resolution than do microwaves or millimeter waves. We are developing hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixer receivers for heterodyne detection at terahertz frequencies. HEB detectors provide unprecedented sensitivity and spectral resolution at terahertz frequencies. We describe the development of a two-pixel focal plane array (FPA) based on HEB technology. Furthermore, we have demonstrated a fully automated, two-dimensional scanning, passive imaging system based on our HEB technology operating at 0.85 THz. Our high spectral resolution terahertz imager has a total system noise equivalent temperature difference (NEΔT) value of better than 0.5 K and a spatial resolution of a few millimeters. HEB technology is becoming the basis for advanced terahertz imaging and spectroscopic technologies for the study of biological and chemical agents over the entire terahertz spectrum.

A functional overview of conservation biological control

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Begg, Graham S; Cook, Samantha M; Dye, Richard

2017-01-01

Conservation biological control (CBC) is a sustainable approach to pest management that can contribute to a reduction in pesticide use as part of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategy. CBC is based on the premise that countering habitat loss and environmental disturbance associated...... CBC prescriptions have proved elusive. To tackle this, we consolidate existing knowledge of CBC using a simple conceptual model that organises the functional elements of CBC into a common, unifying framework. We identify and integrate the key biological processes affecting natural enemies...... and their biological control function across local and regional scales, and consider the interactions, interdependencies and constraints that determine the outcome of CBC strategies. Conservation measures are often effective in supporting natural enemy populations but their success cannot be guaranteed; the greatest...

Radiopharmaceutical prescription in nuclear medicine departments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Biechlin-Chassel, M.L.; Lao, S.; Bolot, C.; Francois-Joubert, A.

2010-01-01

In France, radiopharmaceutical prescription is often discussed depending to which juridical structure the nuclear medicine department is belonging. According to current regulation, this prescription is an obligation in a department linked to hospital with a pharmacy department inside. But situation remains unclear for independent nuclear medicine departments where physicians are not constrained to prescribe radiopharmaceuticals. However, as radiographers and nurses are only authorized to realize theirs acts in front of a medical prescription, one prescription must be realized. Nowadays, computerized prescription tools have been developed but only for radiopharmaceutical drugs and not for medical acts. In the aim to achieve a safer patient care, the prescription regulation may be applied whatever differences between nuclear medicines departments. (authors)

Prescription Drug Profiles PUF

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — This release contains the Prescription Drug Profiles Public Use Files (PUFs) drawn from Medicare prescription drug claims for the year of the date on which the...

Women who abuse prescription opioids: findings from the Addiction Severity Index-Multimedia Version Connect prescription opioid database.

Science.gov (United States)

Green, Traci C; Grimes Serrano, Jill M; Licari, Andrea; Budman, Simon H; Butler, Stephen F

2009-07-01

Evidence suggests gender differences in abuse of prescription opioids. This study aimed to describe characteristics of women who abuse prescription opioids in a treatment-seeking sample and to contrast gender differences among prescription opioid abusers. Data collected November 2005 to April 2008 derived from the Addiction Severity Index Multimedia Version Connect (ASI-MV Connect) database. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression examined correlates of prescription opioid abuse stratified by gender. 29,906 assessments from 220 treatment centers were included, of which 12.8% (N=3821) reported past month prescription opioid abuse. Women were more likely than men to report use of any prescription opioid (29.8% females vs. 21.1% males, phistory of drug overdose. Men-specific correlates were age screen and identify those at highest risk of prescription opioid abuse. Prevention and intervention efforts with a gender-specific approach are warranted.

Income and the use of prescription drugs for near retirement individuals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Leth-Petersen, Søren; Skipper, Niels

Understanding how demand for prescription drugs responds to changes in income is important for assessing the welfare consequences of reforms affecting income. This becomes more imminent as age progresses, because the use of prescription drugs and the associated budgetary burden increases dramatic......Understanding how demand for prescription drugs responds to changes in income is important for assessing the welfare consequences of reforms affecting income. This becomes more imminent as age progresses, because the use of prescription drugs and the associated budgetary burden increases...... dramatically from about age 55. In this paper we estimate how demand for prescription drugs varies with income for a sample of near retirement individuals. Estimating the prescription drug demand response to income changes is complicated because an important explanatory variable, the health capital......, is unobserved, and because demand is potentially dynamic, for example because some drugs are habitual. The analysis is based on a novel panel data set with information about purchase of prescription drug demand for a very large number of Danish individuals over the period 1995-2003. Our preferred model...

Graphene-based ultrasonic detector for photoacoustic imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Fan; Song, Wei; Zhang, Chonglei; Fang, Hui; Min, Changjun; Yuan, Xiaocong

2018-03-01

Taking advantage of optical absorption imaging contrast, photoacoustic imaging technology is able to map the volumetric distribution of the optical absorption properties within biological tissues. Unfortunately, traditional piezoceramics-based transducers used in most photoacoustic imaging setups have inadequate frequency response, resulting in both poor depth resolution and inaccurate quantification of the optical absorption information. Instead of the piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer, we develop a graphene-based optical sensor for detecting photoacoustic pressure. The refractive index in the coupling medium is modulated due to photoacoustic pressure perturbation, which creates the variation of the polarization-sensitive optical absorption property of the graphene. As a result, the photoacoustic detection is realized through recording the reflectance intensity difference of polarization light. The graphene-based detector process an estimated noise-equivalentpressure (NEP) sensitivity of 550 Pa over 20-MHz bandwidth with a nearby linear pressure response from 11.0 kPa to 53.0 kPa. Further, a graphene-based photoacoustic microscopy is built, and non-invasively reveals the microvascular anatomy in mouse ears label-freely.

Procedures for cryogenic X-ray ptychographic imaging of biological samples.

Science.gov (United States)

Yusuf, M; Zhang, F; Chen, B; Bhartiya, A; Cunnea, K; Wagner, U; Cacho-Nerin, F; Schwenke, J; Robinson, I K

2017-03-01

Biological sample-preparation procedures have been developed for imaging human chromosomes under cryogenic conditions. A new experimental setup, developed for imaging frozen samples using beamline I13 at Diamond Light Source, is described. This manuscript describes the equipment and experimental procedures as well as the authors' first ptychographic reconstructions using X-rays.

Recent advances in synchrotron-based hard x-ray phase contrast imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Y; Nelson, J; Andrews, J C; Pianetta, P; Holzner, C

2013-01-01

Ever since the first demonstration of phase contrast imaging (PCI) in the 1930s by Frits Zernike, people have realized the significant advantage of phase contrast over conventional absorption-based imaging in terms of sensitivity to ‘transparent’ features within specimens. Thus, x-ray phase contrast imaging (XPCI) holds great potential in studies of soft biological tissues, typically containing low Z elements such as C, H, O and N. Particularly when synchrotron hard x-rays are employed, the favourable brightness, energy tunability, monochromatic characteristics and penetration depth have dramatically enhanced the quality and variety of XPCI methods, which permit detection of the phase shift associated with 3D geometry of relatively large samples in a non-destructive manner. In this paper, we review recent advances in several synchrotron-based hard x-ray XPCI methods. Challenges and key factors in methodological development are discussed, and biological and medical applications are presented. (paper)

Recent advances in synchrotron-based hard x-ray phase contrast imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Y.; Nelson, J.; Holzner, C.; Andrews, J. C.; Pianetta, P.

2013-12-01

Ever since the first demonstration of phase contrast imaging (PCI) in the 1930s by Frits Zernike, people have realized the significant advantage of phase contrast over conventional absorption-based imaging in terms of sensitivity to ‘transparent’ features within specimens. Thus, x-ray phase contrast imaging (XPCI) holds great potential in studies of soft biological tissues, typically containing low Z elements such as C, H, O and N. Particularly when synchrotron hard x-rays are employed, the favourable brightness, energy tunability, monochromatic characteristics and penetration depth have dramatically enhanced the quality and variety of XPCI methods, which permit detection of the phase shift associated with 3D geometry of relatively large samples in a non-destructive manner. In this paper, we review recent advances in several synchrotron-based hard x-ray XPCI methods. Challenges and key factors in methodological development are discussed, and biological and medical applications are presented.

Extended morphological processing: a practical method for automatic spot detection of biological markers from microscopic images.

Science.gov (United States)

Kimori, Yoshitaka; Baba, Norio; Morone, Nobuhiro

2010-07-08

A reliable extraction technique for resolving multiple spots in light or electron microscopic images is essential in investigations of the spatial distribution and dynamics of specific proteins inside cells and tissues. Currently, automatic spot extraction and characterization in complex microscopic images poses many challenges to conventional image processing methods. A new method to extract closely located, small target spots from biological images is proposed. This method starts with a simple but practical operation based on the extended morphological top-hat transformation to subtract an uneven background. The core of our novel approach is the following: first, the original image is rotated in an arbitrary direction and each rotated image is opened with a single straight line-segment structuring element. Second, the opened images are unified and then subtracted from the original image. To evaluate these procedures, model images of simulated spots with closely located targets were created and the efficacy of our method was compared to that of conventional morphological filtering methods. The results showed the better performance of our method. The spots of real microscope images can be quantified to confirm that the method is applicable in a given practice. Our method achieved effective spot extraction under various image conditions, including aggregated target spots, poor signal-to-noise ratio, and large variations in the background intensity. Furthermore, it has no restrictions with respect to the shape of the extracted spots. The features of our method allow its broad application in biological and biomedical image information analysis.

Image-guided linear accelerator-based spinal radiosurgery for hemangioblastoma.

Science.gov (United States)

Selch, Michael T; Tenn, Steve; Agazaryan, Nzhde; Lee, Steve P; Gorgulho, Alessandra; De Salles, Antonio A F

2012-01-01

To retrospectively review the efficacy and safety of image-guided linear accelerator-based radiosurgery for spinal hemangioblastomas. Between August 2004 and September 2010, nine patients with 20 hemangioblastomas underwent spinal radiosurgery. Five patients had von Hipple-Lindau disease. Four patients had multiple tumors. Ten tumors were located in the thoracic spine, eight in the cervical spine, and two in the lumbar spine. Tumor volume varied from 0.08 to 14.4 cc (median 0.72 cc). Maximum tumor dimension varied from 2.5 to 24 mm (median 10.5 mm). Radiosurgery was performed with a dedicated 6 MV linear accelerator equipped with a micro-multileaf collimator. Median peripheral tumor dose and prescription isodose were 12 Gy and 90%, respectively. Image guidance was performed by optical tracking of infrared reflectors, fusion of oblique radiographs with dynamically reconstructed digital radiographs, and automatic patient positioning. Follow-up varied from 14 to 86 months (median 51 months). Kaplan-Meier estimated 4-year overall and solid tumor local control rates were 90% and 95%, respectively. One tumor progressed 12 months after treatment and a new cyst developed 10 months after treatment in another tumor. There has been no clinical or imaging evidence for spinal cord injury. Results of this limited experience indicate linear accelerator-based radiosurgery is safe and effective for spinal cord hemangioblastomas. Longer follow-up is necessary to confirm the durability of tumor control, but these initial results imply linear accelerator-based radiosurgery may represent a therapeutic alternative to surgery for selected patients with spinal hemangioblastomas.

Molecular PET imaging for biology-guided adaptive radiotherapy of head and neck cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoeben, Bianca A W; Bussink, Johan; Troost, Esther G C; Oyen, Wim J G; Kaanders, Johannes H A M

2013-10-01

Integration of molecular imaging PET techniques into therapy selection strategies and radiation treatment planning for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) can serve several purposes. First, pre-treatment assessments can steer decisions about radiotherapy modifications or combinations with other modalities. Second, biology-based objective functions can be introduced to the radiation treatment planning process by co-registration of molecular imaging with planning computed tomography (CT) scans. Thus, customized heterogeneous dose distributions can be generated with escalated doses to tumor areas where radiotherapy resistance mechanisms are most prevalent. Third, monitoring of temporal and spatial variations in these radiotherapy resistance mechanisms early during the course of treatment can discriminate responders from non-responders. With such information available shortly after the start of treatment, modifications can be implemented or the radiation treatment plan can be adapted tailing the biological response pattern. Currently, these strategies are in various phases of clinical testing, mostly in single-center studies. Further validation in multicenter set-up is needed. Ultimately, this should result in availability for routine clinical practice requiring stable production and accessibility of tracers, reproducibility and standardization of imaging and analysis methods, as well as general availability of knowledge and expertise. Small studies employing adaptive radiotherapy based on functional dynamics and early response mechanisms demonstrate promising results. In this context, we focus this review on the widely used PET tracer (18)F-FDG and PET tracers depicting hypoxia and proliferation; two well-known radiation resistance mechanisms.

[Analysis on composition principles of prescriptions for stranguria in dictionary of traditional Chinese medicine prescription].

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Jing-Chang; Wang, Miao-Miao

2014-03-01

By using traditional Chinese medicine inheritance support system to analyze the dominant experience and recessive principles of the prescriptions for stranguria in the dictionary of traditional Chinese medicine prescription (DCMP), we aim to define the medication pattern and rule and to acquire new prescriptions. In dominant experience analysis, we were able to find 22 drugs used over 50 times, including drugs of clearing heat, diuresis and relieving stranguria which are the most used and drugs of clearing heat, cooling blood, benefiting Qi and nourishing Yin. In addition, drugs of activating Qi and Xue, eliminating phlegm and removing toxic are often used, including 34 herb pairs and 5 combinations of three-taste drugs are used more than 35 times. These results fully reflect the composition principles and compatibility characteristic of prescriptions for treating stranguria in DCMP. Thirteen new prescriptions by way of recessive principle excavating were acquired. These new prescriptions might be suitable to clinical treatments of variable syndromes. This article provides an useful clue to research and produce new drugs.

Procedures for cryogenic X-ray ptychographic imaging of biological samples

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Yusuf

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Biological sample-preparation procedures have been developed for imaging human chromosomes under cryogenic conditions. A new experimental setup, developed for imaging frozen samples using beamline I13 at Diamond Light Source, is described. This manuscript describes the equipment and experimental procedures as well as the authors' first ptychographic reconstructions using X-rays.

Quantitative vs. subjective portal verification using digital portal images.

Science.gov (United States)

Bissett, R; Leszczynski, K; Loose, S; Boyko, S; Dunscombe, P

1996-01-15

Off-line, computer-aided prescription (simulator) and treatment (portal) image registration using chamfer matching has been implemented on PC based viewing station. The purposes of this study were (a) to evaluate the performance of interactive anatomy and field edge extraction and subsequent registration, and (b) to compare observer's perceptions of field accuracy with measured discrepancies following anatomical registration. Prescription-treatment image pairs for 48 different patients were examined in this study. Digital prescription images were produced with the aid of a television camera and a digital frame grabber, while the treatment images were obtained directly from an on-line portal imaging system. To facilitate perception of low contrast anatomical detail, on-line portal images were enhanced with selective adaptive histogram equalization prior to extraction of anatomical edges. Following interactive extraction of anatomical and field border information by an experienced observer, the identified anatomy was registered using chamfer matching. The degree of conformity between the prescription and treatment fields was quantified using several parameters, which included relative prescription field coverage and overcoverage, as well as the translational and rotational displacements as measured by chamfer matching applied to the boundaries of the two fields. These quantitative measures were compared with subjective evaluations made by four radiation oncologists. All the images in this series that included a range of the most commonly seen treatment sites were registered and the conformity parameters were found. The mean treatment/prescription field coverage and overcoverage were approximately 95 and 7%, respectively before registration. The mean translational displacement in the transverse and cranio-caudal directions were 2.9 and 3.4 mm, respectively. The mean rotational displacement was approximately 2 degrees. For all four oncologists, the portals classified

Imaging corn plants with PhytoPET, a modular PET system for plant biology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, S.; Kross, B.; McKisson, J.; McKisson, J. E.; Weisenberger, A. G.; Xi, W.; Zorn, C.; Bonito, G.; Howell, C. R.; Reid, C. D.; Crowell, A.; Cumberbatch, L. C.; Topp, C.; Smith, M. F.

2013-11-01

PhytoPET is a modular positron emission tomography (PET) system designed specifically for plant imaging. The PhytoPET design allows flexible arrangements of PET detectors based on individual standalone detector modules built from single Hamamatsu H8500 position sensitive photomultiplier tubes and pixelated LYSO arrays. We have used the PhytoPET system to perform preliminary corn plant imaging studies at the Duke University Biology Department Phytotron. Initial evaluation of the PhytoPET system to image the biodistribution of the positron emitting tracer {sup 11}C in corn plants is presented. {sup 11}CO{sub 2} is loaded into corn seedlings by a leaf-labeling cuvette and translocation of {sup 11}C-sugars is imaged by a flexible arrangement of PhytoPET modules on each side. The PhytoPET system successfully images {sup 11}C within corn plants and allows for the dynamic measurement of {sup 11}C-sugar translocation from the leaf to the roots.

A model of the prescription-pharmaceutical sales process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Stros

2018-06-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to determine the factors in marketing most relevant to achieving pharmaceutical sales success and their interrelations, as well as providing a prescription-pharmaceuticals sales process model. This will enable scholars to obtain a better understanding of the marketing process for prescription pharmaceuticals, as well as enabling marketers to apply more efficient marketing approaches. The study uses a unique data set, combining primary data and secondary data from the Swiss prescription-pharmaceuticals market. The data is analysed using a multiple-regression based model. A multi-level data structure is found, suggesting that factors concerning the specific brand and also the pharmaceutical substance itself are relevant to sales success. It is revealed that the factors most relevant to sales success are: order of market entry, perceived product-quality, average price, and marketing expenditures, leading to practical recommendations for scholars and marketing professionals. The study focuses only on the Swiss prescription-pharmaceuticals market, investigating five medical drug classes. The assumption is made that these results can be generalised to similar markets and drug classes. The study develops a conceptual prescription-pharmaceuticals sales-process model; offers practical guidelines and a good basis for further scholarly research are provided; and identifies several research gaps by giving proposals for future research.

Real-time Image Processing for Microscopy-based Label-free Imaging Flow Cytometry in a Microfluidic Chip.

Science.gov (United States)

Heo, Young Jin; Lee, Donghyeon; Kang, Junsu; Lee, Keondo; Chung, Wan Kyun

2017-09-14

Imaging flow cytometry (IFC) is an emerging technology that acquires single-cell images at high-throughput for analysis of a cell population. Rich information that comes from high sensitivity and spatial resolution of a single-cell microscopic image is beneficial for single-cell analysis in various biological applications. In this paper, we present a fast image-processing pipeline (R-MOD: Real-time Moving Object Detector) based on deep learning for high-throughput microscopy-based label-free IFC in a microfluidic chip. The R-MOD pipeline acquires all single-cell images of cells in flow, and identifies the acquired images as a real-time process with minimum hardware that consists of a microscope and a high-speed camera. Experiments show that R-MOD has the fast and reliable accuracy (500 fps and 93.3% mAP), and is expected to be used as a powerful tool for biomedical and clinical applications.

Potential of luminescence based molecular animal imaging in research areas pertaining to cancer biology and therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yadav, Hansa D.; Shetake, Neena G.; Balla Murali, M.S.; Kumar, Amit; Pandey, B.N.

2017-01-01

Animal imaging is getting tremendous importance in biomedical research areas including drug delivery, radiobiology and cancer research. Even though, imaging techniques like CT, PET, SPECT, MRI are available for experimental animals, luminescence-based molecular imaging is still considered as crucial and common tool for biomedical laboratories due to easy handling/maintenance, cost effectiveness and various strategies available to manipulate the molecules/cells employed for imaging purposes. The Molecular Animal Imaging System available in our laboratory is being utilized for various cancer research activities including measurement of tumor growth kinetics, angiogenesis, therapeutic efficacy evaluation and metastasis studies. Moreover, the imaging system is also been used for radio-luminescence imaging based on Cherenkov radiation of radio-pharmaceuticals. (author)

Application of Quantum Dots in Biological Imaging

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shan Jin

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Quantum dots (QDs are a group of semiconducting nanomaterials with unique optical and electronic properties. They have distinct advantages over traditional fluorescent organic dyes in chemical and biological studies in terms of tunable emission spectra, signal brightness, photostability, and so forth. Currently, the major type of QDs is the heavy metal-containing II-IV, IV-VI, or III-V QDs. Silicon QDs and conjugated polymer dots have also been developed in order to lower the potential toxicity of the fluorescent probes for biological applications. Aqueous solubility is the common problem for all types of QDs when they are employed in the biological researches, such as in vitro and in vivo imaging. To circumvent this problem, ligand exchange and polymer coating are proven to be effective, besides synthesizing QDs in aqueous solutions directly. However, toxicity is another big concern especially for in vivo studies. Ligand protection and core/shell structure can partly solve this problem. With the rapid development of QDs research, new elements and new morphologies have been introduced to this area to fabricate more safe and efficient QDs for biological applications.

SU-C-202-04: Adapting Biologically Optimized Dose Escalation Based On Mid-Treatment PET/CT for Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, P; Kuo, L; Yorke, E; Hu, Y; Lockney, N; Mageras, G; Deasy, J; Rimner, A [Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: To develop a biological modeling strategy which incorporates the response observed on the mid-treatment PET/CT into a dose escalation design for adaptive radiotherapy of non-small-cell lung cancer. Method: FDG-PET/CT was acquired midway through standard fractionated treatment and registered to pre-treatment planning PET/CT to evaluate radiation response of lung cancer. Each mid-treatment PET voxel was assigned the median SUV inside a concentric 1cm-diameter sphere to account for registration and imaging uncertainties. For each voxel, the planned radiation dose, pre- and mid-treatment SUVs were used to parameterize the linear-quadratic model, which was then utilized to predict the SUV distribution after the full prescribed dose. Voxels with predicted post-treatment SUV≥2 were identified as the resistant target (response arm). An adaptive simultaneous integrated boost was designed to escalate dose to the resistant target as high as possible, while keeping prescription dose to the original target and lung toxicity intact. In contrast, an adaptive target volume was delineated based only on the intensity of mid-treatment PET/CT (intensity arm), and a similar adaptive boost plan was optimized. The dose escalation capability of the two approaches was compared. Result: Images of three patients were used in this planning study. For one patient, SUV prediction indicated complete response and no necessary dose escalation. For the other two, resistant targets defined in the response arm were multifocal, and on average accounted for 25% of the pre-treatment target, compared to 67% in the intensity arm. The smaller response arm targets led to a 6Gy higher mean target dose in the adaptive escalation design. Conclusion: This pilot study suggests that adaptive dose escalation to a biologically resistant target predicted from a pre- and mid-treatment PET/CT may be more effective than escalation based on the mid-treatment PET/CT alone. More plans and ultimately clinical

Towards native-state imaging in biological context in the electron microscope

Science.gov (United States)

Weston, Anne E.; Armer, Hannah E. J.

2009-01-01

Modern cell biology is reliant on light and fluorescence microscopy for analysis of cells, tissues and protein localisation. However, these powerful techniques are ultimately limited in resolution by the wavelength of light. Electron microscopes offer much greater resolution due to the shorter effective wavelength of electrons, allowing direct imaging of sub-cellular architecture. The harsh environment of the electron microscope chamber and the properties of the electron beam have led to complex chemical and mechanical preparation techniques, which distance biological samples from their native state and complicate data interpretation. Here we describe recent advances in sample preparation and instrumentation, which push the boundaries of high-resolution imaging. Cryopreparation, cryoelectron microscopy and environmental scanning electron microscopy strive to image samples in near native state. Advances in correlative microscopy and markers enable high-resolution localisation of proteins. Innovation in microscope design has pushed the boundaries of resolution to atomic scale, whilst automatic acquisition of high-resolution electron microscopy data through large volumes is finally able to place ultrastructure in biological context. PMID:19916039

Automated numerical simulation of biological pattern formation based on visual feedback simulation framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Mingzhu; Xu, Hui; Zeng, Xingjuan; Zhao, Xin

2017-01-01

There are various fantastic biological phenomena in biological pattern formation. Mathematical modeling using reaction-diffusion partial differential equation systems is employed to study the mechanism of pattern formation. However, model parameter selection is both difficult and time consuming. In this paper, a visual feedback simulation framework is proposed to calculate the parameters of a mathematical model automatically based on the basic principle of feedback control. In the simulation framework, the simulation results are visualized, and the image features are extracted as the system feedback. Then, the unknown model parameters are obtained by comparing the image features of the simulation image and the target biological pattern. Considering two typical applications, the visual feedback simulation framework is applied to fulfill pattern formation simulations for vascular mesenchymal cells and lung development. In the simulation framework, the spot, stripe, labyrinthine patterns of vascular mesenchymal cells, the normal branching pattern and the branching pattern lacking side branching for lung branching are obtained in a finite number of iterations. The simulation results indicate that it is easy to achieve the simulation targets, especially when the simulation patterns are sensitive to the model parameters. Moreover, this simulation framework can expand to other types of biological pattern formation.

Semiconductor Nanocrystals for Biological Imaging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fu, Aihua; Gu, Weiwei; Larabell, Carolyn; Alivisatos, A. Paul

2005-06-28

Conventional organic fluorophores suffer from poor photo stability, narrow absorption spectra and broad emission feature. Semiconductor nanocrystals, on the other hand, are highly photo-stable with broad absorption spectra and narrow size-tunable emission spectra. Recent advances in the synthesis of these materials have resulted in bright, sensitive, extremely photo-stable and biocompatible semiconductor fluorophores. Commercial availability facilitates their application in a variety of unprecedented biological experiments, including multiplexed cellular imaging, long-term in vitro and in vivo labeling, deep tissue structure mapping and single particle investigation of dynamic cellular processes. Semiconductor nanocrystals are one of the first examples of nanotechnology enabling a new class of biomedical applications.

THz near-field imaging of biological tissues employing synchrotron radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schade, Ulrich; Holldack, Karsten; Martin, Michael C.; Fried, Daniel

2004-01-01

Terahertz scanning near-field infrared microscopy (SNIM) below 1 THz is demonstrated. The near-field technique benefits from the broadband and highly brilliant coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) from an electron storage ring and from a detection method based on locking onto the intrinsic time structure of the synchrotron radiation. The scanning microscope utilizes conical wave guides as near-field probes with apertures smaller than the wavelength. Different cone approaches have been investigated to obtain maximum transmittance. Together with a Martin-Puplett spectrometer the set-up enables spectroscopic mapping of the transmittance of samples well below the diffraction limit. Spatial resolution down to about lambda/40 at 2 wavenumbers (0.06 THz) is derived from the transmittance spectra of the near-field probes. The potential of the technique is exemplified by imaging biological samples. Strongly absorbing living leaves have been imaged in transmittance with a spatial resolution of 130 mu-m at about 12 wave numbers (0.36 THz). The THz near-field images reveal distinct structural differences of leaves from different plants investigated. The technique presented also allows spectral imaging of bulky organic tissues. Human teeth samples of various thicknesses have been imaged between 2 and 20 wavenumbers (between 0.06and 0.6 THz). Regions of enamel and dentin within tooth samples are spatially and spectrally resolved, and buried caries lesions are imaged through both the outer enamel and into the underlying dentin

Biological-based optimization and volumetric modulated arc therapy delivery for stereotactic body radiation therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diot, Quentin; Kavanagh, Brian; Timmerman, Robert; Miften, Moyed

2012-01-01

Purpose: To describe biological-based optimization and Monte Carlo (MC) dose calculation-based treatment planning for volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) delivery of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in lung, liver, and prostate patients. Methods: Optimization strategies and VMAT planning parameters using a biological-based optimization MC planning system were analyzed for 24 SBRT patients. Patients received a median dose of 45 Gy [range, 34-54 Gy] for lung tumors in 1-5 fxs and a median dose of 52 Gy [range, 48-60 Gy] for liver tumors in 3-6 fxs. Prostate patients received a fractional dose of 10 Gy in 5 fxs. Biological-cost functions were used for plan optimization, and its dosimetric quality was evaluated using the conformity index (CI), the conformation number (CN), the ratio of the volume receiving 50% of the prescription dose over the planning target volume (Rx/PTV50). The quality and efficiency of the delivery were assessed according to measured quality assurance (QA) passing rates and delivery times. For each disease site, one patient was replanned using physical cost function and compared to the corresponding biological plan. Results: Median CI, CN, and Rx/PTV50 for all 24 patients were 1.13 (1.02-1.28), 0.79 (0.70-0.88), and 5.3 (3.1-10.8), respectively. The median delivery rate for all patients was 410 MU/min with a maximum possible rate of 480 MU/min (85%). Median QA passing rate was 96.7%, and it did not significantly vary with the tumor site. Conclusions: VMAT delivery of SBRT plans optimized using biological-motivated cost-functions result in highly conformal dose distributions. Plans offer shorter treatment-time benefits and provide efficient dose delivery without compromising the plan conformity for tumors in the prostate, lung, and liver, thereby improving patient comfort and clinical throughput. The short delivery times minimize the risk of patient setup and intrafraction motion errors often associated with long SBRT treatment

Thinking outside the medicine cabinet: a comparative content analysis of direct-to-consumer advertisements for prescription drug treatments.

Science.gov (United States)

McKeever, Robert

2014-01-01

This study content analyzed online direct-to-consumer advertisements (DTCA) for prescription drug treatments to explore whether ads for prescription treatments for psychiatric conditions, which are commonly untreated, differ from other drug advertisements. Coded variables included the presence of interactive technological components, use of promotional incentives, and the social contexts portrayed in images shown on each site. Statistical analysis revealed ads for psychiatric medications contained fewer interactive website features, financial incentives, and calls to action than other types of prescription drug advertisements. Implications for health communication researchers are discussed.

Implementation of biological tissue Mueller matrix for polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography based on LabVIEW

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Yongping; Zhang, Xiyang; He, Youwu; Cai, Jianyong; Li, Hui

2018-02-01

The Jones matrix and the Mueller matrix are main tools to study polarization devices. The Mueller matrix can also be used for biological tissue research to get complete tissue properties, while the commercial optical coherence tomography system does not give relevant analysis function. Based on the LabVIEW, a near real time display method of Mueller matrix image of biological tissue is developed and it gives the corresponding phase retardant image simultaneously. A quarter-wave plate was placed at 45 in the sample arm. Experimental results of the two orthogonal channels show that the phase retardance based on incident light vector fixed mode and the Mueller matrix based on incident light vector dynamic mode can provide an effective analysis method of the existing system.

Image of Synthetic Biology and Nanotechnology: A Survey among University Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christian Ineichen

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This study explores the image of synthetic biology and nanotechnology in comparison to agricultural biotechnology and communication technology by examining spontaneous associations with, and deliberate evaluations of, these technologies by university students. Data were collected through a self-completion online questionnaire by students from two universities in Switzerland. The survey aimed to capture implicit associations, explicit harm-benefit evaluations and views on regulation. The data suggest overall positive associations with emerging technologies. While positive associations were most pronounced for nanotechnology, agricultural biotechnology was attributed with the least favorable associations. In contrast to its positive result in the association task, respondents attributed a high harm potential for nanotechnology. Associations attributed to synthetic biology were demonstrated to be more positive than for agricultural biotechnology, however, not as favorable as for nanotechnology. Contrary to the evaluations of nanotechnology, the benefit-examples of synthetic biology were evaluated particularly positively. Accordingly, the investigated technologies enjoy different esteem, with synthetic biology and nanotechnology both showing a more “exciting” image. Even though, the image of nanotechnology was demonstrated to be more pronounced it was also more heterogeneous across tasks while agricultural biotechnology remains contested. For all technologies, the predominant spontaneous concerns pertain to risks rather than an immoral nature inherent to these technologies. Our data suggest that harm-benefit analyses reveal only one aspect of the attitude toward emerging technologies. Survey questions addressing spontaneous associations with these technologies are a valuable addition for our picture of the image of emerging technologies.

Helium Ion Microscopy (HIM) for the imaging of biological samples at sub-nanometer resolution

Science.gov (United States)

Joens, Matthew S.; Huynh, Chuong; Kasuboski, James M.; Ferranti, David; Sigal, Yury J.; Zeitvogel, Fabian; Obst, Martin; Burkhardt, Claus J.; Curran, Kevin P.; Chalasani, Sreekanth H.; Stern, Lewis A.; Goetze, Bernhard; Fitzpatrick, James A. J.

2013-12-01

Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) has long been the standard in imaging the sub-micrometer surface ultrastructure of both hard and soft materials. In the case of biological samples, it has provided great insights into their physical architecture. However, three of the fundamental challenges in the SEM imaging of soft materials are that of limited imaging resolution at high magnification, charging caused by the insulating properties of most biological samples and the loss of subtle surface features by heavy metal coating. These challenges have recently been overcome with the development of the Helium Ion Microscope (HIM), which boasts advances in charge reduction, minimized sample damage, high surface contrast without the need for metal coating, increased depth of field, and 5 angstrom imaging resolution. We demonstrate the advantages of HIM for imaging biological surfaces as well as compare and contrast the effects of sample preparation techniques and their consequences on sub-nanometer ultrastructure.

Comparison of analyzer-based imaging computed tomography extraction algorithms and application to bone-cartilage imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diemoz, Paul C; Bravin, Alberto; Coan, Paola; Glaser, Christian

2010-01-01

In x-ray phase-contrast analyzer-based imaging, the contrast is provided by a combination of absorption, refraction and scattering effects. Several extraction algorithms, which attempt to separate and quantify these different physical contributions, have been proposed and applied. In a previous work, we presented a quantitative comparison of five among the most well-known extraction algorithms based on the geometrical optics approximation applied to planar images: diffraction-enhanced imaging (DEI), extended diffraction-enhanced imaging (E-DEI), generalized diffraction-enhanced imaging (G-DEI), multiple-image radiography (MIR) and Gaussian curve fitting (GCF). In this paper, we compare these algorithms in the case of the computed tomography (CT) modality. The extraction algorithms are applied to analyzer-based CT images of both plastic phantoms and biological samples (cartilage-on-bone cylinders). Absorption, refraction and scattering signals are derived. Results obtained with the different algorithms may vary greatly, especially in the case of large refraction angles. We show that ABI-CT extraction algorithms can provide an excellent tool to enhance the visualization of cartilage internal structures, which may find applications in a clinical context. Besides, by using the refraction images, the refractive index decrements for both the cartilage matrix and the cartilage cells have been estimated.

IMRT treatment planning based on prioritizing prescription goals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilkens, Jan J; Alaly, James R; Zakarian, Konstantin; Thorstad, Wade L; Deasy, Joseph O

2007-01-01

Determining the 'best' optimization parameters in IMRT planning is typically a time-consuming trial-and-error process with no unambiguous termination point. Recently we and others proposed a goal-programming approach which better captures the desired prioritization of dosimetric goals. Here, individual prescription goals are addressed stepwise in their order of priority. In the first step, only the highest order goals are considered (target coverage and dose-limiting normal structures). In subsequent steps, the achievements of the previous steps are turned into hard constraints and lower priority goals are optimized, in turn, subject to higher priority constraints. So-called 'slip' factors were introduced to allow for slight, clinically acceptable violations of the constraints. Focusing on head and neck cases, we present several examples for this planning technique. The main advantages of the new optimization method are (i) its ability to generate plans that meet the clinical goals, as well as possible, without tuning any weighting factors or dose-volume constraints, and (ii) the ability to conveniently include more terms such as fluence map smoothness. Lower level goals can be optimized to the achievable limit without compromising higher order goals. The prioritized prescription-goal planning method allows for a more intuitive and human-time-efficient way of dealing with conflicting goals compared to the conventional trial-and-error method of varying weighting factors and dose-volume constraints

Vital Signs-Preventing Prescription Drug Overdose

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

This podcast is based on the July 2014 CDC Vital Signs report. Every day, 46 people in the U.S. die from an overdose of prescription opioid painkillers. Learn what can be done to make painkiller prescribing safer and help prevent overdoses.

Analysis of prescription database extracted from standard textbooks of traditional Dai medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Chuang; Chongsuvivatwong, Virasakdi; Keawpradub, Niwat; Lin, Yanfang

2012-08-29

Traditional Dai Medicine (TDM) is one of the four major ethnomedicine of China. In 2007 a group of experts produced a set of seven Dai medical textbooks on this subject. The first two were selected as the main data source to analyse well recognized prescriptions. To quantify patterns of prescriptions, common ingredients, indications and usages of TDM. A relational database linking the prescriptions, ingredients, herb names, indications, and usages was set up. Frequency of pattern of combination and common ingredients were tabulated. A total of 200 prescriptions and 402 herbs were compiled. Prescriptions based on "wind" disorders, a detoxification theory that most commonly deals with symptoms of digestive system diseases, accounted for over one third of all prescriptions. The major methods of preparations mostly used roots and whole herbs. The information extracted from the relational database may be useful for understanding symptomatic treatments. Antidote and detoxification theory deserves further research.

Increasing the sensitivity for stem cell monitoring in system-function based magnetic particle imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Them, Kolja; Szwargulski, P; Knopp, Tobias; Salamon, J; Kaul, M G; Ittrich, H; Sequeira, S; Lange, C

2016-01-01

The use of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) has provided new possibilities in biophysics and biomedical imaging technologies. The magnetization dynamics of SPIONs, which can be influenced by the environment, are of central interest. In this work, different biological SPION environments are used to investigate three different calibration methods for stem cell monitoring in magnetic particle imaging. It is shown that calibrating using SPIONs immobilized via agarose gel or intracellular uptake results in superior stem cell image quality compared to mobile SPIONs in saline. This superior image quality enables more sensitive localization and identification of a significantly smaller number of magnetically labeled stem cells. The results are important for cell tracking and monitoring of future SPION based therapies such as hyperthermia based cancer therapies, targeted drug delivery, or tissue regeneration approaches where it is crucial to image a sufficiently small number of SPIONs interacting with biological matter. (paper)

Income and the use of prescription drugs for near retirement individuals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Leth-Petersen, Søren; Skipper, Niels

2014-01-01

In this paper, we estimate how demand for prescription drugs varies with income for a sample of near retirement individuals. The analysis is based on a novel panel data set with information about the purchase of prescription drugs for a large number of Danish individuals over the period 1995...

Usefulness of biological fingerprint in magnetic resonance imaging for patient verification.

Science.gov (United States)

Ueda, Yasuyuki; Morishita, Junji; Kudomi, Shohei; Ueda, Katsuhiko

2016-09-01

The purpose of our study is to investigate the feasibility of automated patient verification using multi-planar reconstruction (MPR) images generated from three-dimensional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the brain. Several anatomy-related MPR images generated from three-dimensional fast scout scan of each MR examination were used as biological fingerprint images in this study. The database of this study consisted of 730 temporal pairs of MR examination of the brain. We calculated the correlation value between current and prior biological fingerprint images of the same patient and also all combinations of two images for different patients to evaluate the effectiveness of our method for patient verification. The best performance of our system were as follows: a half-total error rate of 1.59 % with a false acceptance rate of 0.023 % and a false rejection rate of 3.15 %, an equal error rate of 1.37 %, and a rank-one identification rate of 98.6 %. Our method makes it possible to verify the identity of the patient using only some existing medical images without the addition of incidental equipment. Also, our method will contribute to patient misidentification error management caused by human errors.

Biological interactions of carbon-based nanomaterials: From coronation to degradation.

Science.gov (United States)

Bhattacharya, Kunal; Mukherjee, Sourav P; Gallud, Audrey; Burkert, Seth C; Bistarelli, Silvia; Bellucci, Stefano; Bottini, Massimo; Star, Alexander; Fadeel, Bengt

2016-02-01

Carbon-based nanomaterials including carbon nanotubes, graphene oxide, fullerenes and nanodiamonds are potential candidates for various applications in medicine such as drug delivery and imaging. However, the successful translation of nanomaterials for biomedical applications is predicated on a detailed understanding of the biological interactions of these materials. Indeed, the potential impact of the so-called bio-corona of proteins, lipids, and other biomolecules on the fate of nanomaterials in the body should not be ignored. Enzymatic degradation of carbon-based nanomaterials by immune-competent cells serves as a special case of bio-corona interactions with important implications for the medical use of such nanomaterials. In the present review, we highlight emerging biomedical applications of carbon-based nanomaterials. We also discuss recent studies on nanomaterial 'coronation' and how this impacts on biodistribution and targeting along with studies on the enzymatic degradation of carbon-based nanomaterials, and the role of surface modification of nanomaterials for these biological interactions. Advances in technology have produced many carbon-based nanomaterials. These are increasingly being investigated for the use in diagnostics and therapeutics. Nonetheless, there remains a knowledge gap in terms of the understanding of the biological interactions of these materials. In this paper, the authors provided a comprehensive review on the recent biomedical applications and the interactions of various carbon-based nanomaterials. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Examining social supply among nonmedical prescription stimulant users in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Science.gov (United States)

Murphy, Fiona; Murphy, Sheigla; Sales, Paloma; Lau, Nicholas

2018-04-01

In the US, prescription stimulants are prescribed for a variety of conditions including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy. Over the last two decades, dramatic increases in stimulant prescriptions have led to greater availability and increased risk for diversion and nonmedical use. Our own and other investigators' findings indicate that many drug "suppliers" do not fit into the traditional image of drug "dealers." These suppliers typically do not identify themselves as "dealers," but instead understand their drug distribution as sharing with people they know. Coomber and colleagues' (2007; 2013) concept of "social supply" raises the question: When friends supply or facilitate supply of drugs to friends, is this really dealing? Further, if dealing and supplying are distinct kinds of social transactions, should different types of criminal justice approaches be applied? Social supply extends our understanding of drug dealing as a complex social activity. In this article, we examine the issue of social supply among nonmedical users of prescription stimulants. We conducted a 36-month National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded project to conduct a qualitative, mixed methods study of 150 adult nonmedical prescription stimulant users in the San Francisco Bay Area. We explore intersecting factors, including life stage and social location, that contribute to decisions to use prescription stimulants nonmedically, motivations to use, knowledge about risks and benefits of prescription stimulant use, any adverse health or social consequences experienced, availability, acquisition and diversion of prescription stimulants, and differences in attitudes and behaviours. For this analysis, we rely on participants' narratives concerning prescription stimulant acquisition practices and how they understood these interactions, purchases, and exchanges with the suppliers of prescription stimulants in their social networks. The authors argue that acknowledging the

submitter Dose prescription in carbon ion radiotherapy: How to compare two different RBE-weighted dose calculation systems

CERN Document Server

Molinelli, Silvia; Mairani, Andrea; Matsufuji, Naruhiro; Kanematsu, Nobuyuki; Inaniwa, Taku; Mirandola, Alfredo; Russo, Stefania; Mastella, Edoardo; Hasegawa, Azusa; Tsuji, Hiroshi; Yamada, Shigeru; Vischioni, Barbara; Vitolo, Viviana; Ferrari, Alfredo; Ciocca, Mario; Kamada, Tadashi; Tsujii, Hirohiko; Orecchia, Roberto; Fossati, Piero

2016-01-01

Background and purpose: In carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT), the use of different relative biological effectiveness (RBE) models in the RBE-weighted dose $(D_{RBE})$ calculation can lead to deviations in the physical dose $(D_{phy})$ delivered to the patient. Our aim is to reduce target $D_{phy}$ deviations by converting prescription dose values. Material and methods: Planning data of patients treated at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS) were collected, with prescribed doses per fraction ranging from 3.6 Gy (RBE) to 4.6 Gy (RBE), according to the Japanese semi-empirical model. The $D_{phy}$ was Monte Carlo (MC) re-calculated simulating the NIRS beamline. The local effect model (LEM)_I was then applied to estimate $D_{RBE}$. Target median $D_{RBE}$ ratios between MC + LEM_I and NIRS plans determined correction factors for the conversion of prescription doses. Plans were re-optimized in a LEM_I-based commercial system, prescribing the NIRS uncorrected and corrected $D_{RBE}$. Results: The MC ...

A Checklist for Successful Quantitative Live Cell Imaging in Systems Biology

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Sung, Myong-Hee

2013-01-01

Mathematical modeling of signaling and gene regulatory networks has provided unique insights about systems behaviors for many cell biological problems of medical importance. Quantitative single cell monitoring has a crucial role in advancing systems modeling of molecular networks. However, due to the multidisciplinary techniques that are necessary for adaptation of such systems biology approaches, dissemination to a wide research community has been relatively slow. In this essay, I focus on some technical aspects that are often under-appreciated, yet critical in harnessing live cell imaging methods to achieve single-cell-level understanding and quantitative modeling of molecular networks. The importance of these technical considerations will be elaborated with examples of successes and shortcomings. Future efforts will benefit by avoiding some pitfalls and by utilizing the lessons collectively learned from recent applications of imaging in systems biology. PMID:24709701

Prescriptions for category D and X drugs during pregnancy in Taiwan: a population-based study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kao, Li-Ting; Chen, Yi-Hua; Lin, Herng-Ching; Chung, Shiu-Dong

2014-10-01

This study aimed to investigate the most prescribed medications and principle diagnoses for category D and X drugs during pregnancy using a population-based dataset in Taiwan. The data for the present study were sourced from the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000. We selected 14 125 women who had live singleton births between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2011. In total, 217 226 prescriptions prescribed to these pregnant women were identified. Of the total 217 226 prescriptions, 1.1% were category D or X drugs; in the first, second, and third trimesters of pregnancy, 1.8%, 0.7%, and 0.5% of prescriptions were category D or X drugs, respectively. Progestins (15.3%) and propylthiouracil (10.7%) were the two most frequently prescribed category D or X drugs during pregnancy. In particular, progestins (20.4%) and estrogens (15.6%) were the most frequently prescribed category D or X drug in the first trimester of pregnancy. Propylthiouracil was the most prescribed category D or X drug in the second (20.3%) and third trimesters (23.1%) of pregnancy, respectively. The most common principal diagnosis during pregnancy was "disorders of menstruation and other abnormal bleeding from the female genital tract" (22% of all principal diagnoses for prescribing category D and X drugs). Our study found that the physicians obviously reduced the use of category D and X drugs for women after becoming aware that they were pregnant. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A novel multiphoton microscopy images segmentation method based on superpixel and watershed.

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Wu, Weilin; Lin, Jinyong; Wang, Shu; Li, Yan; Liu, Mingyu; Liu, Gaoqiang; Cai, Jianyong; Chen, Guannan; Chen, Rong

2017-04-01

Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) imaging technique based on two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) and second harmonic generation (SHG) shows fantastic performance for biological imaging. The automatic segmentation of cellular architectural properties for biomedical diagnosis based on MPM images is still a challenging issue. A novel multiphoton microscopy images segmentation method based on superpixels and watershed (MSW) is presented here to provide good segmentation results for MPM images. The proposed method uses SLIC superpixels instead of pixels to analyze MPM images for the first time. The superpixels segmentation based on a new distance metric combined with spatial, CIE Lab color space and phase congruency features, divides the images into patches which keep the details of the cell boundaries. Then the superpixels are used to reconstruct new images by defining an average value of superpixels as image pixels intensity level. Finally, the marker-controlled watershed is utilized to segment the cell boundaries from the reconstructed images. Experimental results show that cellular boundaries can be extracted from MPM images by MSW with higher accuracy and robustness. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Diagnosis-Prescription in the Context of Instructional Management.

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Besel, Ronald

The usage of the terms "diagnosis" and "prescription" in the fields of medicine and electronic troubleshooting is reviewed, and a common structure for diagnosis-prescription is proposed. The diagnosis-prescription decision sequence is outlined. Prescription-without-diagnosis and diagnosis-without-prescription in education is discussed. The…

Photoacoustic contrast imaging of biological tissues with nanodiamonds fabricated for high near-infrared absorbance.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Ti; Cui, Huizhong; Fang, Chia-Yi; Su, Long-Jyun; Ren, Shenqiang; Chang, Huan-Cheng; Yang, Xinmai; Forrest, M Laird

2013-02-01

Radiation-damaged nanodiamonds (DNDs) are potentially ideal optical contrast agents for photoacoustic (PA) imaging in biological tissues due to their low toxicity and high optical absorbance. PA imaging contrast agents have been limited to quantum dots and gold particles, since most existing carbon-based nanoparticles, including fluorescent nanodiamonds, do not have sufficient optical absorption in the near-infrared (NIR) range. A new DND by He+ ion beam irradiation with very high NIR absorption was synthesized. These DNDs produced a 71-fold higher PA signal on a molar basis than similarly dimensioned gold nanorods, and 7.1 fmol of DNDs injected into rodents could be clearly imaged 3 mm below the skin surface with PA signal enhancement of 567% using an 820-nm laser wavelength.

Antihypertensive drug prescription patterns and their impact on outcome of blood pressure in Ethiopia: a hospital-based cross-sectional study.

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Abegaz, Tadesse Melaku; Tefera, Yonas Getaye; Abebe, Tamrat Befekadu

2017-01-01

Irrational prescription is strongly associated with poor control of hypertension. The present study aimed to evaluate antihypertensive drug prescription trends and to measure their impact on the level of blood pressure (BP) control in Gondar University Hospital, Gondar, Ethiopia. A hospital-based retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted from May 30 to June 30, 2016. All hypertensive patients on medication were included. A structured data abstraction form was prepared to gather the necessary information. The prescription patterns and BP level were measured retrospectively. A binary logistic regression was computed to determine the effect of different prescription patterns on BP control. A total of 596 hypertension patients were recruited for the study; of them, 561(94%) met the study criteria. The mean age of the respondents was 55.96±14.6 years. Females constituted 58.2% of the study population. Approximately fifty percent of the prescriptions were monotherapies. Twice-daily dosing was associated with lower risk of uncontrolled hypertension (crude odds ratio [COR] =0.51[0.15-0.73], adjusted odds ratio [AOR] =0.69[0.163-0.91]). Monthly appointment was linked with a nearly 90% reduced incidence of uncontrolled BP (COR =0.15[0.04-0.73], AOR =0.093[0.024-0.359]). Monotherapies were the most frequently prescribed regimens. Twice-daily dosing and monthly appointments were associated with low incidence of uncontrolled BP. Clinicians should be vigilant in adjusting the frequency of dosing and should fix appointment date in consultation with their patients.

Prospects and challenges of quantitative phase imaging in tumor cell biology

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Kemper, Björn; Götte, Martin; Greve, Burkhard; Ketelhut, Steffi

2016-03-01

Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) techniques provide high resolution label-free quantitative live cell imaging. Here, prospects and challenges of QPI in tumor cell biology are presented, using the example of digital holographic microscopy (DHM). It is shown that the evaluation of quantitative DHM phase images allows the retrieval of different parameter sets for quantification of cellular motion changes in migration and motility assays that are caused by genetic modifications. Furthermore, we demonstrate simultaneously label-free imaging of cell growth and morphology properties.

Analysis of prescription database extracted from standard textbooks of traditional Dai medicine

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Zhang Chuang

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Traditional Dai Medicine (TDM is one of the four major ethnomedicine of China. In 2007 a group of experts produced a set of seven Dai medical textbooks on this subject. The first two were selected as the main data source to analyse well recognized prescriptions. Objective To quantify patterns of prescriptions, common ingredients, indications and usages of TDM. Methods A relational database linking the prescriptions, ingredients, herb names, indications, and usages was set up. Frequency of pattern of combination and common ingredients were tabulated. Results A total of 200 prescriptions and 402 herbs were compiled. Prescriptions based on "wind" disorders, a detoxification theory that most commonly deals with symptoms of digestive system diseases, accounted for over one third of all prescriptions. The major methods of preparations mostly used roots and whole herbs. Conclusion The information extracted from the relational database may be useful for understanding symptomatic treatments. Antidote and detoxification theory deserves further research.

Prescription Dose Guideline Based on Physical Criterion for Multiple Metastatic Brain Tumors Treated With Stereotactic Radiosurgery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sahgal, Arjun; Barani, Igor J.; Novotny, Josef; Zhang Beibei; Petti, Paula; Larson, David A.; Ma Lijun

2010-01-01

Purpose: Existing dose guidelines for intracranial stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) are primarily based on single-target treatment data. This study investigated dose guidelines for multiple targets treated with SRS. Methods and Materials: A physical model was developed to relate the peripheral isodose volume dependence on an increasing number of targets and prescription dose per target. The model was derived from simulated and clinical multiple brain metastatic cases treated with the Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion at several institutions, where the total number of targets ranged from 2 to 60. The relative increase in peripheral isodose volumes, such as the 12-Gy volume, was studied in the multitarget treatment setting based on Radiation Therapy Oncology Group 90-05 study dose levels. Results: A significant increase in the 12-Gy peripheral isodose volumes was found in comparing multiple target SRS to single-target SRS. This increase strongly correlated (R 2 = 0.92) with the total number of targets but not the total target volumes (R 2 = 0.06). On the basis of the correlated curve, the 12-Gy volume for multiple target treatment was found to increase by approximately 1% per target when a low target dose such as 15 Gy was used, but approximately 4% per target when a high dose such as 20-24 Gy was used. Reduction in the prescription dose was quantified for each prescription level in maintaining the 12-Gy volume. Conclusion: Normal brain dose increases predictably with increasing number of targets for multitarget SRS. A reduction of approximately 1-2 Gy in the prescribed dose is needed compared with single target radiosurgery.

Usefulness of traditionally defined herbal properties for distinguishing prescriptions of traditional Chinese medicine from non-prescription recipes.

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Ung, C Y; Li, H; Kong, C Y; Wang, J F; Chen, Y Z

2007-01-03

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been widely practiced and is considered as an attractive to conventional medicine. Multi-herb recipes have been routinely used in TCM. These have been formulated by using TCM-defined herbal properties (TCM-HPs), the scientific basis of which is unclear. The usefulness of TCM-HPs was evaluated by analyzing the distribution pattern of TCM-HPs of the constituent herbs in 1161 classical TCM prescriptions, which shows patterns of multi-herb correlation. Two artificial intelligence (AI) methods were used to examine whether TCM-HPs are capable of distinguishing TCM prescriptions from non-TCM recipes. Two AI systems were trained and tested by using 1161 TCM prescriptions, 11,202 non-TCM recipes, and two separate evaluation methods. These systems correctly classified 83.1-97.3% of the TCM prescriptions, 90.8-92.3% of the non-TCM recipes. These results suggest that TCM-HPs are capable of separating TCM prescriptions from non-TCM recipes, which are useful for formulating TCM prescriptions and consistent with the expected correlation between TCM-HPs and the physicochemical properties of herbal ingredients responsible for producing the collective pharmacological and other effects of specific TCM prescriptions.

Site-specific confocal fluorescence imaging of biological microstructures in a turbid medium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saloma, Caesar; Palmes-Saloma, Cynthia; Kondoh, Hisato

1998-01-01

Normally transparent biological structures in a turbid medium are imaged using a laser confocal microscope and multiwavelength site-specific fluorescence labelling. The spatial filtering capability of the detector pinhole in the confocal microscope limits the number of scattered fluorescent photons that reach the photodetector. Simultaneous application of different fluorescent markers on the same sample site minimizes photobleaching by reducing the excitation time for each marker. A high-contrast grey-level image is also produced by summing confocal images of the same site taken at different fluorescence wavelengths. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to obtain the quantitative behaviour of confocal fluorescence imaging in turbid media. Confocal images of the following samples were also obtained: (i) 15 μm diameter fluorescent spheres placed 1.16 mm deep beneath an aqueous suspension of 0.0823 μm diameter polystyrene latex spheres, and (ii) hindbrain of a whole-mount mouse embryo (age 10 days) that was stained to fluoresce at 515 nm and 580 nm peak wavelengths. Expression of RNA transcripts of a gene within the embryo hindbrain was detected by a fluorescence-based whole-mount in situ hybridization procedure that we recently tested. (author)

Age- and weight-based differences in haemodialysis prescription and delivery in children, adolescents and young adults.

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Gotta, Verena; Marsenic, Olivera; Pfister, Marc

2018-04-18

Limited systematic data are available on prescription and dosing of haemodialysis (HD) in children and adolescents compared with adults. We aimed to characterize age- and weight-based differences in HD delivery in children, adolescents and young adults. This is a retrospective observational study including 1852 patients aged 1-18 years; weight range 8.3-168 kg). Median individual prescriptions per year were calculated and overall 50% (IQR) and 90% distribution ranges over age and weight were derived. Repeated measurements analysis of variance assessed differences between age and weight groups. Prescriptions significantly differed among age and weight groups (P range, IQR) weight-normalized blood flow rate (highest in 100 kg: QB/kg = 3.1-4.0 mL/min/kg, spKt/V = 1.22-1.47, respectively). Adolescents had significantly lower QB/kg, KD/kg and spKt/V (1.34-1.71) compared with adults (1.45-1.79) and children range of 25th percentiles: 1.37-1.44). Dialytic clearance derived from a mechanistic equation underpredicted KD in children but not in young adults. Significant growth retardation was observed, with the proportion of patients age) decreasing from 71% (1-2 years) to 15% (>18 years). Delivered HD treatment varies with age and weight and is more intensified in children aged young adults, who appear to be at highest risk of receiving suboptimal treatment. Still, delivery of target or higher spKt/V values did not result in appropriate growth in these children, questioning the value of spKt/V as a measure of HD adequacy in children. Provided ranges of outpatient HD prescription can help clinicians and researchers in personalizing and optimizing delivery of dialysis treatment.

Raman imaging from microscopy to macroscopy: Quality and safety control of biological materials

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Raman imaging can analyze biological materials by generating detailed chemical images. Over the last decade, tremendous advancements in Raman imaging and data analysis techniques have overcome problems such as long data acquisition and analysis times and poor sensitivity. This review article introdu...

Preventing Prescription Drug Overdose PSA (:60)

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

This 60 second public service announcement is based on the July 2014 CDC Vital Signs report. Every day, 46 people in the U.S. die from an overdose of prescription opioid painkillers. Learn what can be done to make painkiller prescribing safer and help prevent overdoses.

Arts on prescription: a qualitative outcomes study.

Science.gov (United States)

Stickley, T; Eades, M

2013-08-01

In recent years, participatory community-based arts activities have become a recognized and regarded method for promoting mental health. In the UK, Arts on Prescription services have emerged as a prominent form of such social prescribing. This follow-up study reports on the findings from interviews conducted with participants in an Arts on Prescription programme two years after previous interviews to assess levels of 'distance travelled'. This follow-up study used a qualitative interview method amongst participants of an Arts on Prescription programme of work. Ten qualitative one-to-one interviews were conducted in community-based arts venues. Each participant was currently using or had used mental health services, and had been interviewed two years earlier. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed and analysed. For each of the 10 participants, a lengthy attendance of Arts on Prescription had acted as a catalyst for positive change. Participants reported increased self-confidence, improved social and communication skills, and increased motivation and aspiration. An analysis of each of the claims made by participants enabled them to be grouped according to emerging themes: education: practical and aspirational achievements; broadened horizons: accessing new worlds; assuming and sustaining new identities; and social and relational perceptions. Both hard and soft outcomes were identifiable, but most were soft outcomes. Follow-up data indicating progress varied between respondents. Whilst hard outcomes could be identified in individual cases, the unifying factors across the sample were found predominately in the realm of soft outcomes. These soft outcomes, such as raised confidence and self-esteem, facilitated the hard outcomes such as educational achievement and voluntary work. Copyright © 2013 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quantitative vs. subjective portal verification using digital portal images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bissett, Randy; Leszczynski, Konrad; Loose, Stephen; Boyko, Susan; Dunscombe, Peter

1996-01-01

Purpose: Off-line, computer-aided prescription (simulator) and treatment (portal) image registration using chamfer matching has been implemented on PC based viewing station. The purposes of this study were (a) to evaluate the performance of interactive anatomy and field edge extraction and subsequent registration, and (b) to compare observer's perceptions of field accuracy with measured discrepancies following anatomical registration. Methods and Materials: Prescription-treatment image pairs for 48 different patients were examined in this study. Digital prescription images were produced with the aid of a television camera and a digital frame grabber, while the treatment images were obtained directly from an on-line portal imaging system. To facilitate perception of low contrast anatomical detail, on-line portal images were enhanced with selective adaptive histogram equalization prior to extraction of anatomical edges. Following interactive extraction of anatomical and field border information by an experienced observer, the identified anatomy was registered using chamber matching. The degree of conformity between the prescription and treatment fields was quantified using several parameters, which included relative prescription field coverage and overcoverage, as well as the translational and rotational displacements as measured by chamfer matching applied to the boundaries of the two fields. These quantitative measures were compared with subjective evaluations made by four radiation oncologists. Results: All the images in this series that included a range of the most commonly seen treatment sites were registered and the conformity parameters were found. The mean treatment/prescription field coverage and overcoverage were approximately 95 and 7%, respectively before registration. The mean translational displacement in the transverse and cranio-caudal directions were 2.9 and 3.4 mm, respectively. The mean rotational displacement was approximately 2 deg. . For all

High rate of systemic corticosteroid prescription among outpatient visits for psoriasis: A population-based epidemiological study using the Korean National Health Insurance database.

Science.gov (United States)

Eun, Sang Jun; Jang, Sihyeok; Lee, Jin Yong; Do, Young Kyung; Jo, Seong Jin

2017-09-01

The use of systemic corticosteroids (SC) for the treatment of psoriasis is not recommended according to textbooks and guidelines. In clinical practise, however, many physicians frequently prescribe SC for patients with psoriasis. To determine the magnitude of SC prescription for outpatients with psoriasis in Korea and identify factors associated with the use of SC, we used the 2010-2014 nationwide claims data of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service of Korea. In frequency analysis for the full scale of prescribed SC, oral methylprednisolone was the most frequently prescribed SC, followed by dexamethasone and betamethasone injections. The prescription rate of SC was 26.4% in outpatient visit episodes for psoriasis. The prescription rate of SC was higher in older patients, Medical Aid recipients, patients who visited office-based physician practices and hospitals, and patients living in non-metropolitan areas. In multiple logistic regression analyses, the older age group and smaller health-care institutions were more associated with the SC prescription. In conclusion, SC were widely prescribed for patients with psoriasis in Korea despite the current guidelines. Both patients' individual and institutional characteristics were associated with the SC prescription. © 2017 Japanese Dermatological Association.

Macro-/micro-environment-sensitive chemosensing and biological imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Zhigang; Cao, Jianfang; He, Yanxia; Yang, Jung Ho; Kim, Taeyoung; Peng, Xiaojun; Kim, Jong Seung

2014-07-07

Environment-related parameters, including viscosity, polarity, temperature, hypoxia, and pH, play pivotal roles in controlling the physical or chemical behaviors of local molecules. In particular, in a biological environment, such factors predominantly determine the biological properties of the local environment or reflect corresponding status alterations. Abnormal changes in these factors would cause cellular malfunction or become a hallmark of the occurrence of severe diseases. Therefore, in recent years, they have increasingly attracted research interest from the fields of chemistry and biological chemistry. With the emergence of fluorescence sensing and imaging technology, several fluorescent chemosensors have been designed to respond to such parameters and to further map their distributions and variations in vitro/in vivo. In this work, we have reviewed a number of various environment-responsive chemosensors related to fluorescent recognition of viscosity, polarity, temperature, hypoxia, and pH that have been reported thus far.

Pattern of the Antimalarials Prescription during Pregnancy in Bangui, Central African Republic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexandre Manirakiza

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. The aim of this study was to identify the antimalarials prescribed during the pregnancy and to document their timing. Method. From June to September 2009, a survey was conducted on 565 women who gave birth in the Castors maternity in Bangui. The antenatal clinics cards were checked in order to record the types of antimalarials prescribed during pregnancy according to gestational age. Results. A proportion of 28.8% ANC cards contained at least one antimalarial prescription. The commonest categories of antimalarials prescribed were: quinine (56.7%, artemisinin-based combinations (26.8% and artemisinin monotherapy (14.4%. Among the prescriptions that occurred in the first trimester of pregnancy, artemisinin-based combinations and artemisinin monotherapies represented the proportions of (10.9% and (13.3%. respectively. Conclusion. This study showed a relatively high rate (>80% of the recommended antimalarials prescription regarding categories of indicated antimalarials from national guidelines. But, there is a concern about the prescription of the artemisinin derivatives in the first trimester of pregnancy, and the prescription of artemisinin monotherapy. Thus, the reinforcement of awareness activities of health care providers on the national malaria treatment during pregnancy is suggested.

Pattern of the Antimalarials Prescription during Pregnancy in Bangui, Central African Republic

Science.gov (United States)

Manirakiza, Alexandre; Soula, Georges; Laganier, Remi; Klement, Elise; Djallé, Djibrine; Methode, Moyen; Madji, Nestor; Heredeïbona, Luc Salva; Le Faou, Alain; Delmont, Jean

2011-01-01

Introduction. The aim of this study was to identify the antimalarials prescribed during the pregnancy and to document their timing. Method. From June to September 2009, a survey was conducted on 565 women who gave birth in the Castors maternity in Bangui. The antenatal clinics cards were checked in order to record the types of antimalarials prescribed during pregnancy according to gestational age. Results. A proportion of 28.8% ANC cards contained at least one antimalarial prescription. The commonest categories of antimalarials prescribed were: quinine (56.7%), artemisinin-based combinations (26.8%) and artemisinin monotherapy (14.4%). Among the prescriptions that occurred in the first trimester of pregnancy, artemisinin-based combinations and artemisinin monotherapies represented the proportions of (10.9%) and (13.3%). respectively. Conclusion. This study showed a relatively high rate (>80%) of the recommended antimalarials prescription regarding categories of indicated antimalarials from national guidelines. But, there is a concern about the prescription of the artemisinin derivatives in the first trimester of pregnancy, and the prescription of artemisinin monotherapy. Thus, the reinforcement of awareness activities of health care providers on the national malaria treatment during pregnancy is suggested. PMID:22312567

Simultaneous acquisition of dual analyser-based phase contrast X-ray images for small animal imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kitchen, Marcus J.; Pavlov, Konstantin M.; Hooper, Stuart B.; Vine, David J.; Siu, Karen K.W.; Wallace, Megan J.; Siew, Melissa L.L.; Yagi, Naoto; Uesugi, Kentaro; Lewis, Rob A.

2008-01-01

Analyser-based phase contrast X-ray imaging can provide high-contrast images of biological tissues with exquisite sensitivity to the boundaries between tissues. The phase and absorption information can be extracted by processing multiple images acquired at different analyser orientations. Recording both the transmitted and diffracted beams from a thin Laue analyser crystal can make phase retrieval possible for dynamic systems by allowing full field imaging. This technique was used to image the thorax of a mechanically ventilated newborn rabbit pup using a 25 keV beam from the SPring-8 synchrotron radiation facility. The diffracted image was produced from the (1 1 1) planes of a 50 mm x 40 mm, 100 μm thick Si analyser crystal in the Laue geometry. The beam and analyser were large enough to image the entire chest, making it possible to observe changes in anatomy with high contrast and spatial resolution

Simultaneous acquisition of dual analyser-based phase contrast X-ray images for small animal imaging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kitchen, Marcus J. [School of Physics, Monash University, Victoria 3800 (Australia)], E-mail: Marcus.Kitchen@sci.monash.edu.au; Pavlov, Konstantin M. [School of Physics, Monash University, Victoria 3800 (Australia); Monash Centre for Synchrotron Science, Monash University, Victoria 3800 (Australia); Physics and Electronics, School of Science and Technology, University of New England, NSW 2351 (Australia)], E-mail: Konstantin.Pavlov@sci.monash.edu.au; Hooper, Stuart B. [Department of Physiology, Monash University, Victoria 3800 (Australia)], E-mail: Stuart.Hooper@med.monash.edu.au; Vine, David J. [School of Physics, Monash University, Victoria 3800 (Australia)], E-mail: David.Vine@sci.monash.edu.au; Siu, Karen K.W. [School of Physics, Monash University, Victoria 3800 (Australia); Monash Centre for Synchrotron Science, Monash University, Victoria 3800 (Australia)], E-mail: Karen.Siu@sci.monash.edu.au; Wallace, Megan J. [Department of Physiology, Monash University, Victoria 3800 (Australia)], E-mail: Megan.Wallace@med.monash.edu.au; Siew, Melissa L.L. [Department of Physiology, Monash University, Victoria 3800 (Australia)], E-mail: Melissa.Siew@med.monash.edu.au; Yagi, Naoto [SPring-8/JASRI, Sayo (Japan)], E-mail: yagi@spring8.or.jp; Uesugi, Kentaro [SPring-8/JASRI, Sayo (Japan)], E-mail: ueken@spring8.or.jp; Lewis, Rob A. [School of Physics, Monash University, Victoria 3800 (Australia); Monash Centre for Synchrotron Science, Monash University, Victoria 3800 (Australia)], E-mail: Rob.Lewis@sync.monash.edu.au

2008-12-15

Analyser-based phase contrast X-ray imaging can provide high-contrast images of biological tissues with exquisite sensitivity to the boundaries between tissues. The phase and absorption information can be extracted by processing multiple images acquired at different analyser orientations. Recording both the transmitted and diffracted beams from a thin Laue analyser crystal can make phase retrieval possible for dynamic systems by allowing full field imaging. This technique was used to image the thorax of a mechanically ventilated newborn rabbit pup using a 25 keV beam from the SPring-8 synchrotron radiation facility. The diffracted image was produced from the (1 1 1) planes of a 50 mm x 40 mm, 100 {mu}m thick Si analyser crystal in the Laue geometry. The beam and analyser were large enough to image the entire chest, making it possible to observe changes in anatomy with high contrast and spatial resolution.

Prescription drug abuse: problem, policies, and implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, Janice

2013-01-01

This article provides an overview on prescription drug abuse and highlights a number of related legislative bills introduced during the 112th Congress in response to this growing epidemic. Prescription drug abuse has emerged as the nation's fastest growing drug problem. Although prescription drugs have been used effectively and appropriately for decades, deaths from prescription pain medicine in particular have reached epidemic proportions. Bills related to prescription drug abuse introduced during the 112th Congress focus on strengthening provider and consumer education, tracking and monitoring prescription drug abuse, improving data collection on drug overdose fatalities, combating fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid programs, reclassifying drugs to make them more difficult to prescribe and obtain, and enforcing stricter penalties for individuals who operate scam pain clinics and sell pain pills illegitimately. This article underscores the importance of a multifaceted approach to combating prescription drug abuse and concludes with implications for nursing. Copyright © 2013. Published by Mosby, Inc.

Cost-offsets of prescription drug expenditures: data analysis via a copula-based bivariate dynamic hurdle model.

Science.gov (United States)

Deb, Partha; Trivedi, Pravin K; Zimmer, David M

2014-10-01

In this paper, we estimate a copula-based bivariate dynamic hurdle model of prescription drug and nondrug expenditures to test the cost-offset hypothesis, which posits that increased expenditures on prescription drugs are offset by reductions in other nondrug expenditures. We apply the proposed methodology to data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, which have the following features: (i) the observed bivariate outcomes are a mixture of zeros and continuously measured positives; (ii) both the zero and positive outcomes show state dependence and inter-temporal interdependence; and (iii) the zeros and the positives display contemporaneous association. The point mass at zero is accommodated using a hurdle or a two-part approach. The copula-based approach to generating joint distributions is appealing because the contemporaneous association involves asymmetric dependence. The paper studies samples categorized by four health conditions: arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, and mental illness. There is evidence of greater than dollar-for-dollar cost-offsets of expenditures on prescribed drugs for relatively low levels of spending on drugs and less than dollar-for-dollar cost-offsets at higher levels of drug expenditures. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

AFM imaging of functionalized carbon nanotubes on biological membranes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lamprecht, C; Danzberger, J; Rangl, M; Gruber, H J; Hinterdorfer, P; Kienberger, F; Ebner, A; Liashkovich, I; Neves, V; Heister, E; Coley, H M; McFadden, J; Flahaut, E

2009-01-01

Multifunctional carbon nanotubes are promising for biomedical applications as their nano-size, together with their physical stability, gives access into the cell and various cellular compartments including the nucleus. However, the direct and label-free detection of carbon nanotube uptake into cells is a challenging task. The atomic force microscope (AFM) is capable of resolving details of cellular surfaces at the nanometer scale and thus allows following of the docking of carbon nanotubes to biological membranes. Here we present topographical AFM images of non-covalently functionalized single walled (SWNT) and double walled carbon nanotubes (DWNT) immobilized on different biological membranes, such as plasma membranes and nuclear envelopes, as well as on a monolayer of avidin molecules. We were able to visualize DWNT on the nuclear membrane while at the same time resolving individual nuclear pore complexes. Furthermore, we succeeded in localizing individual SWNT at the border of incubated cells and in identifying bundles of DWNT on cell surfaces by AFM imaging.

Impact of legislation and a prescription monitoring program on the prevalence of potentially inappropriate prescriptions for monitored drugs in Ontario: a time series analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Juurlink, David; Yao, Zhan; Camacho, Ximena; Paterson, J. Michael; Singh, Samantha; Dhalla, Irfan; Sproule, Beth; Mamdani, Muhammad

2014-01-01

Background The increased use of opioid analgesics, sedative hypnotics and stimulants, coupled with the associated risks of overdose have raised concerns around the inappropriate prescribing of these monitored drugs. We assessed the impact of new legislation, the Narcotics Safety and Awareness Act, and a centralized Narcotics Monitoring System (implemented November 2011 and May 2012, respectively), on the dispensing of prescriptions suggestive of misuse. Methods We conducted a time series analysis of publicly funded prescriptions for opioids, benzodiazepines and stimulants dispensed monthly in Ontario from January 2007 to May 2013, based on information in the Ontario Public Drug Benefit Database. In the primary analysis, a prescription was deemed potentially inappropriate if it was dispensed within 7 days of an earlier prescription and was for at least 30 tablets of a drug in the same class as the earlier prescription, but originated from a different physician and a different pharmacy. Results After enactment of the new legislation, the prevalence of potentially inappropriate opioid prescriptions decreased by 12.5% in 6 months (from 1.6% in October 2011 to 1.4% in April 2012; p = 0.01). No further significant change was observed after the introduction of the narcotic monitoring system (p = 0.8). By May 2013, the prevalence had dropped to 1.0%. Inappropriate benzodiazepine prescribing was significantly influenced by both the legislation (p significantly influenced by the introduction of the monitoring system in May 2012, falling from 0.7% in April 2012 to 0.3% in May 2013 (p = 0.02). Interpretation For a select group of drugs prone to misuse and diversion, legislation and a prescription monitoring program reduced the prevalence of prescriptions suggestive of misuse. This suggests that regulatory interventions can promote appropriate prescribing which could potentially be applied to other jurisdictions and drugs of concern. PMID:25485251

The prescription talk – an approach to teach patient-physician conversation about drug prescription to medical students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hauser, Katarina

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Background: Medication communication from physicians to patients often is poor, by this among others enhancing the risk of non-adherence. In this context, a neglect regarding the prescription talk has been complained.Aim of the project: In a newly developed elective medical students work on physician-patient conversations dealing with drug prescription. Essential aspects related to an effective and safe drug treatment are combined with steps of shared decision-making. Together with a tutor, students develop a (model conversation guide that might be tailored according to individual needs and views.Description/Methods: In a one-week course 3rd-5th year medical students treat a paper case according to problem-based learning. This is accompanied by a one-hour lecture and literature provided on an online learning platform (ILIAS. During a workshop, aspects of drug treatment and patient participation are integrated into a guide for a prescription talk. At the end of the week the students are invited to apply the (if need be individualized guide in a simulated physician-patient communication with an actor. The conversation is evaluated using a checklist based upon the (model conversation guide.Results: Informal and formalized feedback indicate high acceptance and satisfaction of participants with this elective. The checklist turned out to be of acceptable to good reliability with mostly selective items. Portfolio entries and written evaluation suggest that participants’ positions and attitudes are influenced.

PRESCRIPTION OF PHYSICAL EXERCISES FOR ELDERLY

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Sheilla Tribess

2005-11-01

Full Text Available The present study has as objective investigates the prescription of exercises for elderly, constant in the literature in portuguese language, under form of books, newspapers, annals and publications electronics. For so much, it tried to collect data with relationship to the following aspects: a Impact of the aging in the human organism; b evaluation of the components of the functional aptitude; and, c composition of a program of physical exercise. The aging process evidences changes in the levels antropométrics, neuromuscular, cardiovascular, lung, neural, besides the decrease of the agility, coordination, balance, flexibility, mobility to articulate and increase in the cartilage rigidity, tendons and ligaments. Those changes associated to the low level of physical activity in the elderly take to the decline of the functional capacity. The evaluation of the level of functional dependence becomes important to the elderly, because it will provide a prescription of physical exercises more addressed your needs, increasing the effectiveness of the program and reducing the risks. The general beginnings for the prescription of physical exercises for elderly are based in the modalities appropriate, intensity, duration, frequency and progression of the physical activity, with the objective of improving the life quality, to minimize the physiologic alterations, to improve the motive capacity and to provide benefits social, psychological and physical. Therefore, in the prescription of physical exercises for older people is necessary the training of the capacity aerobics, of the force, of the balance, of the time of reaction and movement and of the agility.

Three-dimensional image technology in forensic anthropology: Assessing the validity of biological profiles derived from CT-3D images of the skeleton

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia de Leon Valenzuela, Maria Julia

This project explores the reliability of building a biological profile for an unknown individual based on three-dimensional (3D) images of the individual's skeleton. 3D imaging technology has been widely researched for medical and engineering applications, and it is increasingly being used as a tool for anthropological inquiry. While the question of whether a biological profile can be derived from 3D images of a skeleton with the same accuracy as achieved when using dry bones has been explored, bigger sample sizes, a standardized scanning protocol and more interobserver error data are needed before 3D methods can become widely and confidently used in forensic anthropology. 3D images of Computed Tomography (CT) scans were obtained from 130 innominate bones from Boston University's skeletal collection (School of Medicine). For each bone, both 3D images and original bones were assessed using the Phenice and Suchey-Brooks methods. Statistical analysis was used to determine the agreement between 3D image assessment versus traditional assessment. A pool of six individuals with varying experience in the field of forensic anthropology scored a subsample (n = 20) to explore interobserver error. While a high agreement was found for age and sex estimation for specimens scored by the author, the interobserver study shows that observers found it difficult to apply standard methods to 3D images. Higher levels of experience did not result in higher agreement between observers, as would be expected. Thus, a need for training in 3D visualization before applying anthropological methods to 3D bones is suggested. Future research should explore interobserver error using a larger sample size in order to test the hypothesis that training in 3D visualization will result in a higher agreement between scores. The need for the development of a standard scanning protocol focusing on the optimization of 3D image resolution is highlighted. Applications for this research include the possibility

Automatic definition of prescription isodose for stereotactic irradiations of arteriovenous malformations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dejean, C.; Lefkopoulos, D.; Foulquier, J.N.; Schlienger, M.; Touboul, E.

2001-01-01

To evaluate dosimetric consequences generated by the automatic definition based on lesion coverage of prescription isodose. A clinical series of 124 arteriovenous malformations was analysed. Plan quality was quantified by the standard deviation of the differential dose volume histogram calculated in the lesion. We define two quantitative protocols based on lesion coverage for the automatic definition of prescription isodose using a volumetric definition of coverage (90% of lesion volume), and an isodose-based definition proposed) by RTOG (prescription isodose equals minimum isodose in the lesion divided by 0.9). We have evaluated the plans obtained for these two protocols, calculating several dose-volume indices. These indices are presented as a function of dose-volume histogram standard deviation in order to quantify the consequences of their variations for this representative series of plans. The margin our team tolerates is such that the sum of under-dosed lesion and overdosed healthy tissues factors remains lower than one. Protocol based on volumetric coverage gives results situated within this margin. Protocol based on RTOG definition produces conformation indices that could be greater than 1. The absolute dose would be decided taking into account examined dose-volume indices and clinical data. A protocol for automatic definition of prescription isodose using volumetric lesion coverage seems to be more judiciously adapted to arteriovenous malformation conformal plans in stereotactic conditions because of variations observed in the overdosage of healthy tissues. (authors)

Phase-contrast x-ray computed tomography for biological imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Momose, Atsushi; Takeda, Tohoru; Itai, Yuji

1997-10-01

We have shown so far that 3D structures in biological sot tissues such as cancer can be revealed by phase-contrast x- ray computed tomography using an x-ray interferometer. As a next step, we aim at applications of this technique to in vivo observation, including radiographic applications. For this purpose, the size of view field is desired to be more than a few centimeters. Therefore, a larger x-ray interferometer should be used with x-rays of higher energy. We have evaluated the optimal x-ray energy from an aspect of does as a function of sample size. Moreover, desired spatial resolution to an image sensor is discussed as functions of x-ray energy and sample size, basing on a requirement in the analysis of interference fringes.

Alcohol and prescription drug safety in older adults

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zanjani F

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Faika Zanjani,1,2 Aasha I Hoogland,1 Brian G Downer11Department of Gerontology, 2Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USABackground: The objectives of this study were to investigate older adults' knowledge of prescription drug safety and interactions with alcohol, and to identify pharmacists' willingness to disseminate prescription drug safety information to older adults.Methods: The convenience sample consisted of 48 older adults aged 54–89 years who were recruited from a local pharmacy and who completed surveys addressing their alcohol consumption, understanding of alcohol and prescription drug interactions, and willingness to change habits regarding alcohol consumption and prescription drugs. To address pharmacist willingness, 90 pharmacists from local pharmacies volunteered and answered questions regarding their willingness to convey prescription drug safety information to older adults.Results: Older adults reported low knowledge of alcohol and prescription drug safety, with women tending to be slightly more knowledgeable. More importantly, those who drank in the previous few months were less willing to talk to family and friends about how alcohol can have harmful interactions with prescription drugs, or to be an advocate for safe alcohol and prescription drug use than those who had not had a drink recently. Pharmacists reported that they were willing to convey prescription drug safety information to older adults via a variety of formats, including displaying or distributing a flyer, and directly administering a brief intervention.Conclusion: In this study, older adults were found to have inadequate knowledge of prescription drug safety and interactions with alcohol, but pharmacists who regularly come in contact with older adults indicated that they were ready and willing to talk to older adults about prescription drug safety. Future research should focus on interventions

Assessment of parental understanding of paediatric medical prescriptions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sadiqua Anjum, Nasir Mohiuddin M, Narayan Reddy U, Narsing Rao J, Sana Afreen, Mir S Adil, Javeedullah M

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Medical prescriptions are bound to be misinterpreted by patients and pharmacists if not properly conveyed. Pediatric prescriptions differ from adult prescriptions having wide variation in doses and formulations. There is a need to evaluate the lacunae in the parental understanding of pediatric prescriptions. Aims and objective: To evaluate the parental understanding of pediatric prescription and to evaluate the adequacy of communication with the physician and pharmacist regarding the same. Material and methods: 550 parents were enrolled and their literacy level was noted. They were subjected to modify MUSE questionnaire. Physician’s prescription was analyzed in terms of ease of understanding by parents. These parents were followed up till the pharmacies and the pharmacist understanding of prescription was analyzed and their communication with parents regarding drug usage was noted. Finally, ease of usage of drugs by parents was noted. Results: MUSE scale was modified to suit pediatric prescription understanding by parents and also additional questions were asked to include complete parental understanding of doctor’s prescription. Majority of parents failed to completely understand the written prescription. Though around 80% of pharmacist could understand the prescription, their communication with parents was poor resulting in difficulty for parents to even enquire about medicines from them. Parental overall understanding of prescription increased with their literacy levels. Conclusion: Not all prescriptions are completely understood by parents as well as a pharmacist. This can lead to misuse of drugs. Efforts to explain the drug usage are not adequate enough from the doctor or the pharmacist. While communicating literacy levels of parents is not being considered which may further worsen the understanding ability

Pseudorandom numbers: evolutionary models in image processing, biology, and nonlinear dynamic systems

Science.gov (United States)

Yaroslavsky, Leonid P.

1996-11-01

We show that one can treat pseudo-random generators, evolutionary models of texture images, iterative local adaptive filters for image restoration and enhancement and growth models in biology and material sciences in a unified way as special cases of dynamic systems with a nonlinear feedback.

[Drug interactions in chronic prescription].

Science.gov (United States)

Comet, D; Casajuana, J; Bordas, J M; Fuentes, M A; Arnáiz, J A; Núñez, B; Pou, R

1997-06-30

Application of computerized program for detection of potential drug interactions (PDI) in chronic prescriptions in four primary care centers. To evaluate the clinical significance of PDI identified according to clinical criterions. An observational crossover study. Clutat Vella health district (City of Barcelona). Using information of Consejo General de Colegios Oficiales de Farmaceuticos databases and the chronic prescriptions database of the primary care centers, computerized drug-interaction system have been developed for detection of PDI in patients. A panel of primary care physicians and clinical pharmacists developed criteria that were used to evaluate the clinical significance of PDI. 9840 Cards of Authorized Prescription (CAP) were analyzed, 36108 medicaments and 42877 drugs. A total of 2140 patients were involved for a total of 3406 PDI, 21.75% of patients with CAP. Clinical signification for the panel was found in 40.07% of these 3406 PIF; 3.78% were suggest to avoid the association drugs. The incidence of PDI with clinical signification are lower than other studies of the literature; it suggest a appropriate knowledge of drug prescription. The application of computerized program make much more easy the detection of adverse drug interactions in chronic prescription.

Increasing Direct Care Staff Compliance to Individualized Physical Therapy Body Positioning Prescriptions: Prescriptive Checklists.

Science.gov (United States)

Lattimore, Jennifer; And Others

1984-01-01

The study confirmed previous research indicating that workshop training by itself is an ineffective method of increasing direct care staff compliance to treatment prescriptions, and that providing direct staff supervisors with a training and management tool (prescriptive checklists) may be an effective alternative for serving multihandicapped…

Fiber array based hyperspectral Raman imaging for chemical selective analysis of malaria-infected red blood cells

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brückner, Michael [Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, 07745 Jena (Germany); Becker, Katja [Justus Liebig University Giessen, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 35392 Giessen (Germany); Popp, Jürgen [Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, 07745 Jena (Germany); Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Institute for Physical Chemistry, 07745 Jena (Germany); Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Abbe Centre of Photonics, 07745 Jena (Germany); Frosch, Torsten, E-mail: torsten.frosch@uni-jena.de [Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, 07745 Jena (Germany); Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Institute for Physical Chemistry, 07745 Jena (Germany); Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Abbe Centre of Photonics, 07745 Jena (Germany)

2015-09-24

A new setup for Raman spectroscopic wide-field imaging is presented. It combines the advantages of a fiber array based spectral translator with a tailor-made laser illumination system for high-quality Raman chemical imaging of sensitive biological samples. The Gaussian-like intensity distribution of the illuminating laser beam is shaped by a square-core optical multimode fiber to a top-hat profile with very homogeneous intensity distribution to fulfill the conditions of Koehler. The 30 m long optical fiber and an additional vibrator efficiently destroy the polarization and coherence of the illuminating light. This homogeneous, incoherent illumination is an essential prerequisite for stable quantitative imaging of complex biological samples. The fiber array translates the two-dimensional lateral information of the Raman stray light into separated spectral channels with very high contrast. The Raman image can be correlated with a corresponding white light microscopic image of the sample. The new setup enables simultaneous quantification of all Raman spectra across the whole spatial area with very good spectral resolution and thus outperforms other Raman imaging approaches based on scanning and tunable filters. The unique capabilities of the setup for fast, gentle, sensitive, and selective chemical imaging of biological samples were applied for automated hemozoin analysis. A special algorithm was developed to generate Raman images based on the hemozoin distribution in red blood cells without any influence from other Raman scattering. The new imaging setup in combination with the robust algorithm provides a novel, elegant way for chemical selective analysis of the malaria pigment hemozoin in early ring stages of Plasmodium falciparum infected erythrocytes. - Highlights: • Raman hyperspectral imaging allows for chemical selective analysis of biological samples with spatial heterogeneity. • A homogeneous, incoherent illumination is essential for reliable

Fiber array based hyperspectral Raman imaging for chemical selective analysis of malaria-infected red blood cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brückner, Michael; Becker, Katja; Popp, Jürgen; Frosch, Torsten

2015-01-01

A new setup for Raman spectroscopic wide-field imaging is presented. It combines the advantages of a fiber array based spectral translator with a tailor-made laser illumination system for high-quality Raman chemical imaging of sensitive biological samples. The Gaussian-like intensity distribution of the illuminating laser beam is shaped by a square-core optical multimode fiber to a top-hat profile with very homogeneous intensity distribution to fulfill the conditions of Koehler. The 30 m long optical fiber and an additional vibrator efficiently destroy the polarization and coherence of the illuminating light. This homogeneous, incoherent illumination is an essential prerequisite for stable quantitative imaging of complex biological samples. The fiber array translates the two-dimensional lateral information of the Raman stray light into separated spectral channels with very high contrast. The Raman image can be correlated with a corresponding white light microscopic image of the sample. The new setup enables simultaneous quantification of all Raman spectra across the whole spatial area with very good spectral resolution and thus outperforms other Raman imaging approaches based on scanning and tunable filters. The unique capabilities of the setup for fast, gentle, sensitive, and selective chemical imaging of biological samples were applied for automated hemozoin analysis. A special algorithm was developed to generate Raman images based on the hemozoin distribution in red blood cells without any influence from other Raman scattering. The new imaging setup in combination with the robust algorithm provides a novel, elegant way for chemical selective analysis of the malaria pigment hemozoin in early ring stages of Plasmodium falciparum infected erythrocytes. - Highlights: • Raman hyperspectral imaging allows for chemical selective analysis of biological samples with spatial heterogeneity. • A homogeneous, incoherent illumination is essential for reliable

[Hospital fluoroquinolone prescription habits in northern France].

Science.gov (United States)

Levent, T; Cabaret, P

2010-09-01

The aim of the study was to assess the good use organization and fluoroquinolone prescription habits in cases of bone and joint, urinary, pulmonary, and digestive infections. A declarative survey was made (questionnaire for the hospital and for the prescriber). Thirty percent (44/145) of hospitals participated with 274 prescribers. Eighty percent had prescription protocols, 71 % of clinicians had access to epidemiologic data. A percentage of 30.7 (853/2,771) of prescriptions included a fluoroquinolone, 44.5 % (380/853) among these had not been recommended. The excessive prescription reached 24.4 % (116/474) in case of bone and joint infection, 14.6 % (107/731), and 20 % (157/779) in cases of digestive and respiratory infection respectively. Prescriptions for urinary infection were adequate in 47.6 % (375/787) of cases. Inadequate prescriptions were made because of bad knowledge of bacteria resistance epidemiology and pharmacology (insufficient dose, monotherapy at risk of selection), and non-application of good practice recommendations. This study justifies the rationalization of antibiotic prescription. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Imaging modes of atomic force microscopy for application in molecular and cell biology.

Science.gov (United States)

Dufrêne, Yves F; Ando, Toshio; Garcia, Ricardo; Alsteens, David; Martinez-Martin, David; Engel, Andreas; Gerber, Christoph; Müller, Daniel J

2017-04-06

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful, multifunctional imaging platform that allows biological samples, from single molecules to living cells, to be visualized and manipulated. Soon after the instrument was invented, it was recognized that in order to maximize the opportunities of AFM imaging in biology, various technological developments would be required to address certain limitations of the method. This has led to the creation of a range of new imaging modes, which continue to push the capabilities of the technique today. Here, we review the basic principles, advantages and limitations of the most common AFM bioimaging modes, including the popular contact and dynamic modes, as well as recently developed modes such as multiparametric, molecular recognition, multifrequency and high-speed imaging. For each of these modes, we discuss recent experiments that highlight their unique capabilities.

Super-resolution and super-localization microscopy: A novel tool for imaging chemical and biological processes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dong, Bin [Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)

2015-01-01

Optical microscopy imaging of single molecules and single particles is an essential method for studying fundamental biological and chemical processes at the molecular and nanometer scale. The best spatial resolution (~ λ/2) achievable in traditional optical microscopy is governed by the diffraction of light. However, single molecule-based super-localization and super-resolution microscopy imaging techniques have emerged in the past decade. Individual molecules can be localized with nanometer scale accuracy and precision for studying of biological and chemical processes.This work uncovered the heterogeneous properties of the pore structures. In this dissertation, the coupling of molecular transport and catalytic reaction at the single molecule and single particle level in multilayer mesoporous nanocatalysts was elucidated. Most previous studies dealt with these two important phenomena separately. A fluorogenic oxidation reaction of non-fluorescent amplex red to highly fluorescent resorufin was tested. The diffusion behavior of single resorufin molecules in aligned nanopores was studied using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM).

Application of blue-green and ultraviolet micro-LEDs to biological imaging and detection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu, H; Zhang, J; Nurmikko, A V; Davitt, K M; Song, Y-K

2008-01-01

This paper reviews authors' laboratory's work on the development of nitride-based blue-green and ultraviolet microscale LED devices with particular classes of imaging and spectroscopic applications in cellular level biology. Starting from neuroscience, we illustrate the utility of blue-green micro-LEDs for voltage-sensitive dye imaging of individual neural cells, as well as their ultraviolet counterparts for photostimulation of neurons. Arrays of micro-LEDs are also shown to be useful in projecting spatiotemporal patterns of photoexcitation to study the visual system development in living animals. As another illustration of the utility of the emerging nitride microdevice technology, we demonstrate the application of UV micro-LED arrays in bio-sensing technology as the core of a real-time fluorescence spectroscopy biowarning system. (invited paper)

Elaboration and Validation of the Medication Prescription Safety Checklist 1

Science.gov (United States)

Pires, Aline de Oliveira Meireles; Ferreira, Maria Beatriz Guimarães; do Nascimento, Kleiton Gonçalves; Felix, Márcia Marques dos Santos; Pires, Patrícia da Silva; Barbosa, Maria Helena

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Objective: to elaborate and validate a checklist to identify compliance with the recommendations for the structure of medication prescriptions, based on the Protocol of the Ministry of Health and the Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency. Method: methodological research, conducted through the validation and reliability analysis process, using a sample of 27 electronic prescriptions. Results: the analyses confirmed the content validity and reliability of the tool. The content validity, obtained by expert assessment, was considered satisfactory as it covered items that represent the compliance with the recommendations regarding the structure of the medication prescriptions. The reliability, assessed through interrater agreement, was excellent (ICC=1.00) and showed perfect agreement (K=1.00). Conclusion: the Medication Prescription Safety Checklist showed to be a valid and reliable tool for the group studied. We hope that this study can contribute to the prevention of adverse events, as well as to the improvement of care quality and safety in medication use. PMID:28793128

Wavelet analysis of biological tissue's Mueller-matrix images

Science.gov (United States)

Tomka, Yu. Ya.

2008-05-01

The interrelations between statistics of the 1st-4th orders of the ensemble of Mueller-matrix images and geometric structure of birefringent architectonic nets of different morphological structure have been analyzed. The sensitivity of asymmetry and excess of statistic distributions of matrix elements Cik to changing of orientation structure of optically anisotropic protein fibrils of physiologically normal and pathologically changed biological tissues architectonics has been shown.

Prescription Pattern Analysis of Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs in the Northeastern Iranian Population.

Science.gov (United States)

Zeinali, Majid; Tabeshpour, Jamshid; Maziar, Seyed Vahid; Taherzadeh, Zhila; Zirak, Mohammad Reza; Sent, Danielle; Azarkhiavi, Kamal Razavi; Eslami, Saeid

2017-01-01

Inappropriate nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) therapy is a common cause of actual and potential adverse effects, such as bleeding and gastrointestinal ulceration, which exacerbates the patient's medical condition and might even be life threatening. We aimed to evaluate and analyze the prescription pattern of NSAIDs in Northeastern Iranian population and also provide suggestions for a more rational prescription behavior for such drugs. In this cross-sectional retrospective study, pattern of 1-year prescriptions was inspected based on 9.3 million prescriptions from two insurance companies. Type of NSAIDs, all dispensed doses and the number of NSAIDs ordered per prescription, and the route of administration for each patient were extracted from the databases. The prescription pattern of NSAIDs was analyzed seasonally. Out of 9,303,585 prescriptions, 19.3% contained at least one NSAID. Diclofenac was the most commonly prescribed NSAID (49.21%). At least two NSAIDs were simultaneously prescribed in 7% of prescriptions. General practitioners prescribed NSAIDs more frequently (67%) than specialists. Orthopedic surgeons and internists more frequently prescribed NSAIDs in comparison with other physicians (6% and 4%, respectively). Gastroprotective agents (GPAs) were coprescribed to only 7.62% of prescriptions. The frequency of NSAIDs prescription was relatively high in Northeast of Iran. A significant number of prescriptions were associated with irrational prescribing in both coadministration of NSAIDs and GPAs and NSAIDs combination. A strategy must be developed and implemented for prescribing and rational use of medications, e.g., continuing medical education regarding the potential risks of NSAIDs, importance of their appropriate and rational use, and necessity of appropriate prescription writing regarding both content and indication.

SU-E-I-75: Development of New Biological Fingerprints for Patient Recognition to Identify Misfiled Images in a PACS Server

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shimizu, Y; Yoon, Y; Iwase, K; Yasumatsu, S; Matsunobu, Y [Department of Health Sciences, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, JP (Japan); Morishita, J [Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, JP (Japan)

2015-06-15

Purpose: We are trying to develop an image-searching technique to identify misfiled images in a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) server by using five biological fingerprints: the whole lung field, cardiac shadow, superior mediastinum, lung apex, and right lower lung. Each biological fingerprint in a chest radiograph includes distinctive anatomical structures to identify misfiled images. The whole lung field was less effective for evaluating the similarity between two images than the other biological fingerprints. This was mainly due to the variation in the positioning for chest radiographs. The purpose of this study is to develop new biological fingerprints that could reduce influence of differences in the positioning for chest radiography. Methods: Two hundred patients were selected randomly from our database (36,212 patients). These patients had two images each (current and previous images). Current images were used as the misfiled images in this study. A circumscribed rectangular area of the lung and the upper half of the rectangle were selected automatically as new biological fingerprints. These biological fingerprints were matched to all previous images in the database. The degrees of similarity between the two images were calculated for the same and different patients. The usefulness of new the biological fingerprints for automated patient recognition was examined in terms of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Results: Area under the ROC curves (AUCs) for the circumscribed rectangle of the lung, upper half of the rectangle, and whole lung field were 0.980, 0.994, and 0.950, respectively. The new biological fingerprints showed better performance in identifying the patients correctly than the whole lung field. Conclusion: We have developed new biological fingerprints: circumscribed rectangle of the lung and upper half of the rectangle. These new biological fingerprints would be useful for automated patient identification system

SU-E-I-75: Development of New Biological Fingerprints for Patient Recognition to Identify Misfiled Images in a PACS Server

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimizu, Y; Yoon, Y; Iwase, K; Yasumatsu, S; Matsunobu, Y; Morishita, J

2015-01-01

Purpose: We are trying to develop an image-searching technique to identify misfiled images in a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) server by using five biological fingerprints: the whole lung field, cardiac shadow, superior mediastinum, lung apex, and right lower lung. Each biological fingerprint in a chest radiograph includes distinctive anatomical structures to identify misfiled images. The whole lung field was less effective for evaluating the similarity between two images than the other biological fingerprints. This was mainly due to the variation in the positioning for chest radiographs. The purpose of this study is to develop new biological fingerprints that could reduce influence of differences in the positioning for chest radiography. Methods: Two hundred patients were selected randomly from our database (36,212 patients). These patients had two images each (current and previous images). Current images were used as the misfiled images in this study. A circumscribed rectangular area of the lung and the upper half of the rectangle were selected automatically as new biological fingerprints. These biological fingerprints were matched to all previous images in the database. The degrees of similarity between the two images were calculated for the same and different patients. The usefulness of new the biological fingerprints for automated patient recognition was examined in terms of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Results: Area under the ROC curves (AUCs) for the circumscribed rectangle of the lung, upper half of the rectangle, and whole lung field were 0.980, 0.994, and 0.950, respectively. The new biological fingerprints showed better performance in identifying the patients correctly than the whole lung field. Conclusion: We have developed new biological fingerprints: circumscribed rectangle of the lung and upper half of the rectangle. These new biological fingerprints would be useful for automated patient identification system

Radiopharmaceutical prescription in nuclear medicine departments; La prescription medicale des radiopharmaceutiques au sein d'un service de medecine nucleaire

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Biechlin-Chassel, M.L. [Radiopharmacie, service de pharmacie, Centre hospitalier de Chambery, 73 - Chambery (France); Lao, S. [Service de medecine nucleaire, CHU-Hopital de l' Archet, 06 - Nice (France); Bolot, C. [Service de pharmacie, hospices civiles de Lyon, groupement hospitalier Est, 69 - Bron (France); Francois-Joubert, A. [Service de medecine nucleaire, centre hospitalier de Chambery, 73 - Chambery (France)

2010-11-15

In France, radiopharmaceutical prescription is often discussed depending to which juridical structure the nuclear medicine department is belonging. According to current regulation, this prescription is an obligation in a department linked to hospital with a pharmacy department inside. But situation remains unclear for independent nuclear medicine departments where physicians are not constrained to prescribe radiopharmaceuticals. However, as radiographers and nurses are only authorized to realize theirs acts in front of a medical prescription, one prescription must be realized. Nowadays, computerized prescription tools have been developed but only for radiopharmaceutical drugs and not for medical acts. In the aim to achieve a safer patient care, the prescription regulation may be applied whatever differences between nuclear medicines departments. (authors)

Feasibility of optimizing the dose distribution in lung tumors using fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography and single photon emission computed tomography guided dose prescriptions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Das, S.K.; Miften, M.M.; Zhou, S.; Bell, M.; Munley, M.T.; Whiddon, C.S.; Craciunescu, O.; Baydush, A.H.; Wong, T.; Rosenman, J.G.; Dewhirst, M.W.; Marks, L.B.

2004-01-01

The information provided by functional images may be used to guide radiotherapy planning by identifying regions that require higher radiation dose. In this work we investigate the dosimetric feasibility of delivering dose to lung tumors in proportion to the fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose activity distribution from positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). The rationale for delivering dose in proportion to the tumor FDG-PET activity distribution is based on studies showing that FDG uptake is correlated to tumor cell proliferation rate, which is shown to imply that this dose delivery strategy is theoretically capable of providing the same duration of local control at all voxels in tumor. Target dose delivery was constrained by single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) maps of normal lung perfusion, which restricted irradiation of highly perfused lung and imposed dose-function constraints. Dose-volume constraints were imposed on all other critical structures. All dose-volume/function constraints were considered to be soft, i.e., critical structure doses corresponding to volume/function constraint levels were minimized while satisfying the target prescription, thus permitting critical structure doses to minimally exceed dose constraint levels. An intensity modulation optimization methodology was developed to deliver this radiation, and applied to two lung cancer patients. Dosimetric feasibility was assessed by comparing spatially normalized dose-volume histograms from the nonuniform dose prescription (FDG-PET proportional) to those from a uniform dose prescription with equivalent tumor integral dose. In both patients, the optimization was capable of delivering the nonuniform target prescription with the same ease as the uniform target prescription, despite SPECT restrictions that effectively diverted dose from high to low perfused normal lung. In one patient, both prescriptions incurred similar critical structure dosages, below dose-volume/function limits

Prescription drugs: issues of cost, coverage, and quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Copeland, C

1999-04-01

This Issue Brief closely examines expenditures on prescription drugs, and discusses their potential to substitute for other types of health care services. In addition, it describes employer coverage of prescription drugs, direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs, and potential legislation affecting the prescription drug market. Prescription drug expenditures grew at double-digit rates during almost every year since 1980, accelerating to 14.1 percent in 1997. In contrast, total national health expenditures, hospital service expenditures, and physician service expenditures growth rates decreased from approximately 13 percent in 1980 to less than 5 percent in 1997. Private insurance payments for prescription drugs increased 17.7 percent in 1997, after growing 22.1 percent in 1995 and 18.3 percent in 1996. This growth in prescription drug payments compares with 4 percent or less overall annual growth in private insurance payments for each of those three years. From 1993 to 1997, the overwhelming majority of the increases in expenditures on prescription drugs were attributable to increased volume, mix, and availability of pharmaceutical products. In 1997, these factors accounted for more than 80 percent of the growth in prescription drug expenditures. A leading explanation for the sharp growth in drug expenditures is that prescription drugs are a substitute for other forms of health care. While it is difficult to determine the extent to which this substitution occurs, various studies have associated cost savings with the use of pharmaceutical products in treating specific diseases. Evidence suggests that more appropriate utilization of prescription drugs has the potential to lower total expenditures and improve the quality of care. Also, some studies indicate the U.S. health care system needs to improve the way patients use and physicians prescribe current medications. Prescription drug plans offered by employers are likely to undergo changes to ensure that

Prescription Painkiller Overdoses PSA (:60)

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

2013-07-02

This 60 second public service announcement is based on the July 2013 CDC Vital Signs report. Prescription painkiller overdoses are an under-recognized and growing problem among women. This program includes things that women and health care providers can do to reduce the risk of overdose.  Created: 7/2/2013 by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).   Date Released: 7/2/2013.

Biological-based and physical-based optimization for biological evaluation of prostate patient's plans

Science.gov (United States)

Sukhikh, E.; Sheino, I.; Vertinsky, A.

2017-09-01

Modern modalities of radiation treatment therapy allow irradiation of the tumor to high dose values and irradiation of organs at risk (OARs) to low dose values at the same time. In this paper we study optimal radiation treatment plans made in Monaco system. The first aim of this study was to evaluate dosimetric features of Monaco treatment planning system using biological versus dose-based cost functions for the OARs and irradiation targets (namely tumors) when the full potential of built-in biological cost functions is utilized. The second aim was to develop criteria for the evaluation of radiation dosimetry plans for patients based on the macroscopic radiobiological criteria - TCP/NTCP. In the framework of the study four dosimetric plans were created utilizing the full extent of biological and physical cost functions using dose calculation-based treatment planning for IMRT Step-and-Shoot delivery of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in prostate case (5 fractions per 7 Gy).

Refining estimates of prescription durations by using observed covariates in pharmacoepidemiological databases

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Støvring, Henrik; Pottegård, Anton; Hallas, Jesper

2017-01-01

, patient sex and patient age as covariates. Results: The estimated prescription durations increased with redeemed amount and age. Women generally had longer prescription durations, which increased more with age than men. For 70-year-old women redeeming 300+ pills, we predicted a 95th percentile...... of the inter-arrival density of 225 (95%CI: 201, 249) days. For 50-year-old men redeeming 100 pills, the corresponding prediction was 97 (88, 106) days. Conclusions: The algorithm allows estimation of prescription durations based on the reverse WTD, which can depend upon observed covariates. Statistical...

[Standardization of names in prescriptions of traditional Chinese medicines].

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Chao-Feng; Zhang, Yu-Jun; Fan, Dong-He; Zhang, Meng-Jie; Bai, Xue; Yang, Wen-Hua; Qi, Shu-Ya; Zhang, Zhi-Jie; Xue, Chun-Miao; Mao, Liu-Ying; Cao, Jun-Ling

2017-01-01

Chinese medicine prescriptions are a type of medical documents written by doctors after they understand the patients' conditions for syndrome differentiation. Chinese medicine prescriptions are also the basis for pharmacy personnel to dispense medicines and guide patients to use drugs. It has the legal, technical and economic significances. Chinese medicine prescriptions contain such information of names, quantity and usage. Whether the names of drugs in Chinese medicine prescriptions are standardized or not is directly related to the safety and efficacy of the drugs. At present, nonstandard clinical prescriptions are frequently seen. With "Chinese medicine prescription", "names of drug in Chinese medicine prescription" and "standards of Chinese medicine prescription" as key words, the author searched CNKI, Wanfang and other databases, and consulted nearly 100 literatures, so as to summarize current names of drugs in traditional Chinese medicine prescription, analyze the reasons, and give suggestions, in the expectation of standardizing the names of drugs used in traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

Investigating the exercise-prescription practices of nurses working in inpatient mental health settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Stanton, Robert; Happell, Brenda; Reaburn, Peter

2015-04-01

Nurses working in mental health are well positioned to prescribe exercise to people with mental illness. However, little is known regarding their exercise-prescription practices. We examined the self-reported physical activity and exercise-prescription practices of nurses working in inpatient mental health facilities. Thirty-four nurses completed the Exercise in Mental Illness Questionnaire - Health Practitioner Version. Non-parametric bivariate statistics revealed no relationship between nurses' self-reported physical activity participation and the frequency of exercise prescription for people with mental illness. Exercise-prescription parameters used by nurses are consistent with those recommended for both the general population and for people with mental illness. A substantial number of barriers to effective exercise prescription, including lack of training, systemic issues (such as prioritization and lack of time), and lack of consumer motivation, impact on the prescription of exercise for people with mental illness. Addressing the barriers to exercise prescription could improve the proportion of nurses who routinely prescribe exercise. Collaboration with exercise professionals, such as accredited exercise physiologists or physiotherapists, might improve knowledge of evidence-based exercise-prescription practices for people with mental illness, thereby improving both physical and mental health outcomes for this vulnerable population. © 2015 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.

General theory of light propagation and imaging through the atmosphere

CERN Document Server

McKechnie, T Stewart

2016-01-01

This book lays out a new, general theory of light propagation and imaging through Earth’s turbulent atmosphere. Current theory is based on the – now widely doubted – assumption of Kolmogorov turbulence. The new theory is based on a generalized atmosphere, the turbulence characteristics of which can be established, as needed, from readily measurable properties of point-object, or star, images. The pessimistic resolution predictions of Kolmogorov theory led to lax optical tolerance prescriptions for large ground-based astronomical telescopes which were widely adhered to in the 1970s and 1980s. Around 1990, however, it became clear that much better resolution was actually possible, and Kolmogorov tolerance prescriptions were promptly abandoned. Most large telescopes built before 1990 have had their optics upgraded (e.g., the UKIRT instrument) and now achieve, without adaptive optics (AO), almost an order of magnitude better resolution than before. As well as providing a more comprehensive and precise under...

Abuse of prescription medicines in southwestern France.

Science.gov (United States)

Baumevieille, M; Haramburu, F; Bégaud, B

1997-01-01

Few quantitative data are available concerning abuse of medicine in the general population, although dependence on prescription medicines involves a significant proportion of the population. Falsified prescription forms can be used as an indicator of abuse. Community pharmacists in a representative network were asked to report any falsified prescription form presented over a 1-year period. Sales data were used to express results as abuse rate and abuse rate ratio. Two-thirds of the 130 pharmacies in the network reported at least 1 falsified prescription. The reported incidence of falsified prescriptions was 2.3 per 10 000 inhabitants. A total of 392 falsified prescription forms was collected. The abuse rate ratios were 171 (95% CI 140 to 210) for dextroamphetamine-phenobarbital in combination, 168 (95% CI 131 to 216) for fenozolone, 67 (95% CI 53 to 84) for buprenorphine, and 40.5 (95% CI 33 to 50) for clobenzorex. These results show the efficiency of a method for detecting falsified prescriptions forms using community pharmacists. The abuse of medicines already known for their addictive potential can be estimated and alerts can also be detected.

Magnetoacoustic Imaging of Electrical Conductivity of Biological Tissues at a Spatial Resolution Better than 2 mm

OpenAIRE

Hu, Gang; He, Bin

2011-01-01

Magnetoacoustic tomography with magnetic induction (MAT-MI) is an emerging approach for noninvasively imaging electrical impedance properties of biological tissues. The MAT-MI imaging system measures ultrasound waves generated by the Lorentz force, having been induced by magnetic stimulation, which is related to the electrical conductivity distribution in tissue samples. MAT-MI promises to provide fine spatial resolution for biological tissue imaging as compared to ultrasound resolution. In t...

Implied Movement in Static Images Reveals Biological Timing Processing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francisco Carlos Nather

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Visual perception is adapted toward a better understanding of our own movements than those of non-conspecifics. The present study determined whether time perception is affected by pictures of different species by considering the evolutionary scale. Static (“S” and implied movement (“M” images of a dog, cheetah, chimpanzee, and man were presented to undergraduate students. S and M images of the same species were presented in random order or one after the other (S-M or M-S for two groups of participants. Movement, Velocity, and Arousal semantic scales were used to characterize some properties of the images. Implied movement affected time perception, in which M images were overestimated. The results are discussed in terms of visual motion perception related to biological timing processing that could be established early in terms of the adaptation of humankind to the environment.

Prescription History of Emergency Department Patients Prescribed Opioids

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jason A Hoppe

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Introduction: To use Colorado’s prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP to describe the recent opioid prescription history of patients discharged from our emergency department (ED with a prescription for opioid pain medications.Methods: Retrospective cohort study of 300 adult ED patients who received an opioid prescription. We abstracted prescription histories for the six months prior to the ED visit from the PDMP, and abstracted clinical and demographic variables from the chart.Results: There were 5,379 ED visits during the study month, 3,732 of which were discharged. Providers wrote 1,165 prescriptions for opioid analgesics to 1,124/3,732 (30% of the patients. Median age was 36 years. Thirty-nine percent were male. Patients were 46% Caucasian, 26% African American, 22% Hispanic, 2% Asian and 4% other. These were similar to our overall ED population. There was substantial variability in the number of prescriptions, prescribers and total number of pills. A majority (205/296 of patients had zero or one prescription. The 90th percentile for number of prescriptions was seven, while the 10th percentile was zero. Patients in the highest decile tended to be older, with a higher proportion of Caucasians and females. Patients in the lowest decile resembled the general ED population. The most common diagnoses associated with opioid prescriptions were abdominal pain (11.5%, cold/flu symptoms (9.5%, back pain (5.4%, flank pain (5.0% and motor vehicle crash (4.7%.Conclusion: Substantial variability exists in the opioid prescription histories of ED patients, but a majority received zero or one prescription in the preceding six months. The top decile of patients averaged more than two prescriptions per month over the six months prior to ED visit, written by more than 6 different prescribers. There was a trend toward these patients being older, Caucasian and female. [West J Emerg Med. 2013;14(3:247–252.

Prescription Drug Abuse and Youth. Information Brief.

Science.gov (United States)

Department of Justice, Washington, DC. National Drug Intelligence Center.

Prescription drugs, a category of psychotherapeutics that comprises prescription-type pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants, and sedatives, are among the substances most commonly abused by young people in the United States. Prescription drugs are readily available and can easily be obtained by teenagers who abuse these drugs to experience a…

Twitter-Based Detection of Illegal Online Sale of Prescription Opioid.

Science.gov (United States)

Mackey, Tim K; Kalyanam, Janani; Katsuki, Takeo; Lanckriet, Gert

2017-12-01

To deploy a methodology accurately identifying tweets marketing the illegal online sale of controlled substances. We first collected tweets from the Twitter public application program interface stream filtered for prescription opioid keywords. We then used unsupervised machine learning (specifically, topic modeling) to identify topics associated with illegal online marketing and sales. Finally, we conducted Web forensic analyses to characterize different types of online vendors. We analyzed 619 937 tweets containing the keywords codeine, Percocet, fentanyl, Vicodin, Oxycontin, oxycodone, and hydrocodone over a 5-month period from June to November 2015. A total of 1778 tweets (marketing the sale of controlled substances online; 90% had imbedded hyperlinks, but only 46 were "live" at the time of the evaluation. Seven distinct URLs linked to Web sites marketing or illegally selling controlled substances online. Our methodology can identify illegal online sale of prescription opioids from large volumes of tweets. Our results indicate that controlled substances are trafficked online via different strategies and vendors. Public Health Implications. Our methodology can be used to identify illegal online sellers in criminal violation of the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act.

Using prescription registries to define continuous drug use: how to fill gaps between prescriptions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Lars Hougaard; Løkkegaard, Ellen; Andreasen, Anne Helms

2008-01-01

Pharmacoepidemiological studies often use prescription registries to assess patients' drug episodes. The databases usually provide information on the date of the redemption of the prescription as well as on the dispensed amount, and this allows us to define episodes of drug use. However, when...... that the retrospective exposure definition introduces an artificially protective effect of HT....

Opioid Prescriptions by Specialty in Ohio, 2010-2014.

Science.gov (United States)

Weiner, Scott G; Baker, Olesya; Rodgers, Ann F; Garner, Chad; Nelson, Lewis S; Kreiner, Peter W; Schuur, Jeremiah D

2018-05-01

The current US opioid epidemic is attributed to the large volume of prescribed opioids. This study analyzed the contribution of different medical specialties to overall opioids by evaluating the pill counts and morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs) of opioid prescriptions, stratified by provider specialty, and determined temporal trends. This was an analysis of the Ohio prescription drug monitoring program database, which captures scheduled medication prescriptions filled in the state as well as prescriber specialty. We extracted prescriptions for pill versions of opioids written in the calendar years 2010 to 2014. The main outcomes were the number of filled prescriptions, pill counts, MMEs, and extended-released opioids written by physicians in each specialty, and annual prescribing trends. There were 56,873,719 prescriptions for the studied opioids dispensed, for which 41,959,581 (73.8%) had prescriber specialty type available. Mean number of pills per prescription and MMEs were highest for physical medicine/rehabilitation (PM&R; 91.2 pills, 1,532 mg, N = 1,680,579), anesthesiology/pain (89.3 pills, 1,484 mg, N = 3,261,449), hematology/oncology (88.2 pills, 1,534 mg, N = 516,596), and neurology (84.4 pills, 1,230 mg, N = 573,389). Family medicine (21.8%) and internal medicine (17.6%) wrote the most opioid prescriptions overall. Time trends in the average number of pills and MMEs per prescription also varied depending on specialty. The numbers of pills and MMEs per opioid prescription vary markedly by prescriber specialty, as do trends in prescribing characteristics. Pill count and MME values define each specialty's contribution to overall opioid prescribing more accurately than the number of prescriptions alone.

Abuse of prescription drugs.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilford, B B

1990-01-01

An estimated 3% of the United States population deliberately misuse or abuse psychoactive medications, with severe consequences. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, more than half of patients who sought treatment or died of drug-related medical problems in 1989 were abusing prescription drugs. Physicians who contribute to this problem have been described by the American Medical Association as dishonest--willfully misprescribing for purposes of abuse, usually for profit; disabled by personal problems with drugs or alcohol; dated in their knowledge of current pharmacology or therapeutics; or deceived by various patient-initiated fraudulent approaches. Even physicians who do not meet any of these descriptions must guard against contributing to prescription drug abuse through injudicious prescribing, inadequate safeguarding of prescription forms or drug supplies, or acquiescing to the demands or ruses used to obtain drugs for other than medical purposes. PMID:2349801

Constant-Distance Mode Nanospray Desorption Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry Imaging of Biological Samples with Complex Topography

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nguyen, Son N.; Liyu, Andrey V.; Chu, Rosalie K.; Anderton, Christopher R.; Laskin, Julia

2017-01-17

A new approach for constant distance mode mass spectrometry imaging of biological samples using nanospray desorption electrospray ionization (nano-DESI MSI) was developed by integrating a shear-force probe with nano-DESI probe. The technical concept and basic instrumental setup as well as general operation of the system are described. Mechanical dampening of resonant oscillations due to the presence of shear forces between the probe and the sample surface enables constant-distance imaging mode via a computer controlled closed feedback loop. The capability of simultaneous chemical and topographic imaging of complex biological samples is demonstrated using living Bacillus Subtilis ATCC 49760 colonies on agar plates. The constant-distance mode nano-DESI MSI enabled imaging of many metabolites including non-ribosomal peptides (surfactin, plipastatin and iturin) and iron-bound heme on the surface of living bacterial colonies ranging in diameter from 10 mm to 13 mm with height variations of up to 0.8 mm above the agar plate. Co-registration of ion images to topographic images provided higher-contrast images. Constant-mode nano-DESI MSI is ideally suited for imaging biological samples of complex topography in their native state.

A robust sub-pixel edge detection method of infrared image based on tremor-based retinal receptive field model

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Kun; Yang, Hu; Chen, Xiaomei; Ni, Guoqiang

2008-03-01

Because of complex thermal objects in an infrared image, the prevalent image edge detection operators are often suitable for a certain scene and extract too wide edges sometimes. From a biological point of view, the image edge detection operators work reliably when assuming a convolution-based receptive field architecture. A DoG (Difference-of- Gaussians) model filter based on ON-center retinal ganglion cell receptive field architecture with artificial eye tremors introduced is proposed for the image contour detection. Aiming at the blurred edges of an infrared image, the subsequent orthogonal polynomial interpolation and sub-pixel level edge detection in rough edge pixel neighborhood is adopted to locate the foregoing rough edges in sub-pixel level. Numerical simulations show that this method can locate the target edge accurately and robustly.

X-ray diffraction imaging of biological cells

CERN Document Server

Nakasako, Masayoshi

2018-01-01

In this book, the author describes the development of the experimental diffraction setup and structural analysis of non-crystalline particles from material science and biology. Recent advances in X-ray free electron laser (XFEL)-coherent X-ray diffraction imaging (CXDI) experiments allow for the structural analysis of non-crystalline particles to a resolution of 7 nm, and to a resolution of 20 nm for biological materials. Now XFEL-CXDI marks the dawn of a new era in structural analys of non-crystalline particles with dimensions larger than 100 nm, which was quite impossible in the 20th century. To conduct CXDI experiments in both synchrotron and XFEL facilities, the author has developed apparatuses, named KOTOBUKI-1 and TAKASAGO-6 for cryogenic diffraction experiments on frozen-hydrated non-crystalline particles at around 66 K. At the synchrotron facility, cryogenic diffraction experiments dramatically reduce radiation damage of specimen particles and allow tomography CXDI experiments. In addition, in XFEL ex...

21 CFR 886.5844 - Prescription spectacle lens.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Prescription spectacle lens. 886.5844 Section 886...) MEDICAL DEVICES OPHTHALMIC DEVICES Therapeutic Devices § 886.5844 Prescription spectacle lens. (a) Identification. A prescription spectacle lens is a glass or plastic device that is a lens intended to be worn by...

21 CFR 202.1 - Prescription-drug advertisements.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 4 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Prescription-drug advertisements. 202.1 Section 202.1 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) DRUGS: GENERAL PRESCRIPTION DRUG ADVERTISING § 202.1 Prescription-drug advertisements. (e) * * * (6) * * * (ii) Represents or suggests that a...

Prescription Drug Diversion: Predictors of Illicit Acquisition and Redistribution in Three U.S. Metropolitan Areas.

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Shana; Nikulina, Valentina; Gelpí-Acosta, Camila; Morton, Cory; Newsome, Valerie; Gunn, Alana; Hoefinger, Heidi; Aikins, Ross; Smith, Vivian; Barry, Victoria; Downing, Martin J

2015-12-02

Prescription drug diversion, the transfer of prescription drugs from lawful to unlawful channels for distribution or use, is a problem in the United States. Despite the pervasiveness of diversion, there are gaps in the literature regarding characteristics of individuals who participate in the illicit trade of prescription drugs. This study examines a range of predictors (e.g., demographics, prescription insurance coverage, perceived risk associated with prescription drug diversion) of membership in three distinct diverter groups: individuals who illicitly acquire prescription drugs, those who redistribute them, and those who engage in both behaviors. Data were drawn from a cross-sectional Internet study ( N = 846) of prescription drug use and diversion patterns in New York City, South Florida, and Washington, D.C.. Participants were classified into diversion categories based on their self-reported involvement in the trade of prescription drugs. Group differences in background characteristics of diverter groups were assessed by Chi-Square tests and followed up with multivariate logistic regressions. While individuals in all diversion groups were more likely to be younger and have a licit prescription for any of the assessed drugs in the past year than those who did not divert, individuals who both acquire and redistribute are more likely to live in New York City, not have prescription insurance coverage, and perceive fewer legal risks of prescription drug diversion. Findings suggest that predictive characteristics vary according to diverter group.

Assessment of prescription sales in Ukraine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. V. Teterich

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Currently, the state of the national health system (health is characterized by a low level of funding for medical and pharmaceutical care and the lack of effective methods of free and preferential dispensing of medicines (drugs and compensation of their value. Thus the most urgent problem arises is unregulated drugs prescription, which is one of the main negative factors behind the rapid spread of self-medication and polypragmasy. Thus, improving drugs prescription dispensing is one of the current challenges of medicine and pharmacy management which should be solved to provide a safe, rational and effective drug therapy. The results of the questionnaire survey of doctors and pharmaceutical workers identified and explored key factors that contribute to a violation of drugs prescription. The authors analyzed the literature on the current state of drugs prescription in Ukraine, which resulted in selected priority issues that need resolution as soon as possible. Established that the main disadvantages of the national health care system is unreasonable approach to state regulation of the relevant system and the low level of funding. This situation prevents rational regulation of free and preferential delivery of drugs, the introduction of obligatory medical insurance and the reimbursement cost of drugs and other modern approaches that are effective in developed countries. Тhe main motive of view of legislative acts to implement strict drugs prescription in Ukraine is a link to international experience, guided by the standards of European and international practices that do not comply with the Law of Ukraine issued on 18.03.2004 № 1629-IV «On the National Program for Adaptation of Ukraine to the European Union, "and points to the disparity modern domestic rule-making European practice. The fundamental problem here is the comparison of the legal, social, financial and economic status of the counter in Ukraine with the countries in which the system

Synchrotron-based DEI for bio-imaging and DEI-CT to image phantoms with contrast agents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rao, Donepudi V.; Swapna, Medasani; Cesareo, Roberto; Brunetti, Antonio; Akatsuka, Tako; Yuasa, Tetsuya; Zhong, Zhong; Takeda, Tohoru; Gigante, Giovanni E.

2012-01-01

The introduction of water, physiological, or iodine as contrast agents is shown to enhance minute image features in synchrotron-based X-ray diffraction radiographic and tomographic imaging. Anatomical features of rat kidney, such as papillary ducts, ureter, renal artery and renal vein are clearly distinguishable. Olfactory bulb, olfactory tact, and descending bundles of the rat brain are visible with improved contrast. - Highlights: ► Distinguishable anatomical structures features of rat kidney and rat brain are acquired with Sy-DEI in planar mode. ► Images of a small brain phantom and cylindrical phantom are acquired in tomography mode (Sy-DEI-CT) with contrast agents. ► Sy-DEI and Sy-DEI-CT techniques provide new source of information related to biological microanatomy.

Biological drugs for the treatment of psoriasis in a public health system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luciane Cruz Lopes

2014-08-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE To analyze the access and utilization profile of biological medications for psoriasis provided by the judicial system in Brazil. METHODS This is a cross-sectional study. We interviewed a total of 203 patients with psoriasis who were on biological medications obtained by the judicial system of the State of Sao Paulo, from 2004 to 2010. Sociodemographics, medical, and political-administrative characteristics were complemented with data obtained from dispensation orders that included biological medications to treat psoriasis and the legal actions involved. The data was analyzed using an electronic data base and shown as simple variable frequencies. The prescriptions contained in the lawsuits were analyzed according to legal provisions. RESULTS A total of 190 lawsuits requesting several biological drugs (adalimumab, efalizumab, etanercept, and infliximab were analyzed. Patients obtained these medications as a result of injunctions (59.5% or without having ever demanded biological medication from any health institution (86.2%, i.e., public or private health services. They used the prerogative of free legal aid (72.6%, even though they were represented by private lawyers (91.1% and treated in private facilities (69.5%. Most of the patients used a biological medication for more than 13 months (66.0%, and some patients were undergoing treatment with this medication when interviewed (44.9%. Approximately one third of the patients discontinued treatment due to worsening of their illness (26.6%, adverse drug reactions (20.5%, lack of efficacy, or because the doctor discontinued this medication (13.8%. None of the analyzed medical prescriptions matched the legal prescribing requirements. Clinical monitoring results showed that 70.3% of the patients had not undergone laboratory examinations (blood work, liver and kidney function tests for treatment control purposes. CONCLUSIONS The plaintiffs resorted to legal action to get access to biological

Biological drugs for the treatment of psoriasis in a public health system

Science.gov (United States)

Lopes, Luciane Cruz; Silveira, Miriam Sanches do Nascimento; de Camargo, Iara Alves; Barberato, Silvio; Del Fiol, Fernando de Sá; Osorio-de-Castro, Claudia Garcia Serpa

2014-01-01

OBJECTIVE To analyze the access and utilization profile of biological medications for psoriasis provided by the judicial system in Brazil. METHODS This is a cross-sectional study. We interviewed a total of 203 patients with psoriasis who were on biological medications obtained by the judicial system of the State of Sao Paulo, from 2004 to 2010. Sociodemographics, medical, and political-administrative characteristics were complemented with data obtained from dispensation orders that included biological medications to treat psoriasis and the legal actions involved. The data was analyzed using an electronic data base and shown as simple variable frequencies. The prescriptions contained in the lawsuits were analyzed according to legal provisions. RESULTS A total of 190 lawsuits requesting several biological drugs (adalimumab, efalizumab, etanercept, and infliximab) were analyzed. Patients obtained these medications as a result of injunctions (59.5%) or without having ever demanded biological medication from any health institution (86.2%), i.e., public or private health services. They used the prerogative of free legal aid (72.6%), even though they were represented by private lawyers (91.1%) and treated in private facilities (69.5%). Most of the patients used a biological medication for more than 13 months (66.0%), and some patients were undergoing treatment with this medication when interviewed (44.9%). Approximately one third of the patients discontinued treatment due to worsening of their illness (26.6%), adverse drug reactions (20.5%), lack of efficacy, or because the doctor discontinued this medication (13.8%). None of the analyzed medical prescriptions matched the legal prescribing requirements. Clinical monitoring results showed that 70.3% of the patients had not undergone laboratory examinations (blood work, liver and kidney function tests) for treatment control purposes. CONCLUSIONS The plaintiffs resorted to legal action to get access to biological medications

Drug prescriptions in Danish out-of-hours primary care

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Morten Bondo; Nørøxe, Karen Busk; Moth, Grete

2016-01-01

of prescriptions per 100 contacts. RESULTS: Of 644,777 contacts, 154,668 (24.0%) involved medication prescriptions; 21.9% of telephone consultations, 32.9% of clinic consultations and 14.3% of home visits. Around 53% of all drug prescriptions were made in telephone consultations. Anti-infective medications...... for systemic use accounted for 45.5% of all prescriptions and were the most frequently prescribed drug group for all contact types, although accounting for less than 1/3 of telephone prescriptions. Other frequently prescribed drugs were ophthalmological anti-infectives (10.5%), NSAIDs (6.4%), opioids (3......) primary care services cover more than 75% of all hours during a normal week, insight into the extent and type of OOH drug prescription is important. General practitioners (GPs) are responsible for more than 80% of all drug prescriptions in Denmark. Of all contacts 24.0% involved medication prescriptions...

Diversity of Physicians’ Handwriting and Name Stamp in Chemotherapy Prescriptions: Potential Target for Fraud

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Asiyeh Amouei

2018-02-01

Full Text Available BBackgrounds: Verification and authentication of the paper-based handwritten prescriptions is of great importance for antineoplastic medications that are good targets for forgery and fraud. Pharmacists usually investigate handwriting, signature and name stamp of prescribers to verify prescriptions in Iran. Anecdotal reports of variations in handwriting and name stamp of physicians who wrote antineoplastic prescriptions raised concerns in this regard. The aim of the study was to investigate the reported diversity and evaluate the quality of writing physician identity and required items in antineoplastic prescriptions.Methods: All insured hand-written prescriptions contained at least one antineoplastic medication and were dispensed by four main authorized community pharmacies dispensing antineoplastic medications in Tehran during one month were included. Prescriptions that were written by specialties other than oncology-related fields were excluded. Prescriptions of each physician were evaluated considering handwriting and name stamp by experienced pharmacy staff and the frequency of detected handwriting and name stamp types was recorded.Results: Of the 11022 included prescriptions, 10944 were eligible and written by 241 physicians. Median (third quartile number of physicians’ prescriptions was 17 (51. Maximum number of observed handwriting and name stamp types were eight and six respectively. High prescribers tended to have several handwriting and name stamp types.Conclusion: The observed diversity and variation in handwriting and name stamp of the physicians in antineoplastic prescriptions may facilitate the entrance of forged prescription and makes fraud detection difficult. Administrative and regulatory interventions in addition to notification of health care professionals about the observed potential might be necessary.

Prescription pattern of antibiotic and analgesic in endodontic treatment in Kuwaiti population: A self-administered Survey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manal J Al-Maslamani

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Surgical and non-surgical endodontic treatment of involved teeth can necessitate prescription of analgesics and antimicrobials. The literature suggests confusion amongst practitioners regarding the need for adjunctive medication, mainly during non-surgical endodontic treatment, often leading to over-prescription. Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the current clinical practice of dentists participated in this study with respect to antibiotic and analgesic prescription patterns in their endodontic treatment management in Kuwait. Materials and Methods: Prescription patterns for antibiotics and analgesics were analyzed based on the responses to self-administered questionnaire (n = 169. Information was collected based on different clinical endodontic diagnostic scenarios. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS software version 17.0 to determine relationships between prescription patterns, age, gender, and dental qualification (specialists and general dentists. Results: Ninety-two percent of dentists prescribed analgesics for the management of endodontic pain. While 16% prescribed antibiotics for severe dental pain; 62% prescribed antibiotics for acute apical abscesses. Significantly more male dentists prescribed antibiotics for dental pain than female dentists. No significant difference was found between general dental practitioners′ and specialists′ attitude toward drug prescriptions. Amoxicillin and ibuprofen were the most commonly prescribed medications. Conclusion: While the majority of dentists appeared to prescribe antibiotics and analgesics appropriately, some did not. This research confirmed previous studies and established a need for imparting information of evidence-based prescriptions protocols for the dentists surveyed in this study in Kuwait.

Prescription Stimulants Are "A Okay": Applying Neutralization Theory to College Students' Nonmedical Prescription Stimulant Use

Science.gov (United States)

Cutler, Kristin A.

2014-01-01

Objective: National college health data indicate that prescription stimulants are the most widely misused prescription drugs among college students, with 9% admitting to nonmedical use within the past year. Although motivations for the nonmedical use of these drugs have been explored, scant attention has been paid to justifications for nonmedical…

Synchronous ultrasonic Doppler imaging of magnetic microparticles in biological tissues

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pyshnyi, Michael Ph. [Institute of Biochemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kosygin St. 4, Moscow 119991 (Russian Federation); Kuznetsov, Oleg A. [Institute of Biochemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kosygin St. 4, Moscow 119991 (Russian Federation)], E-mail: kuznetsov_oa@yahoo.com; Pyshnaya, Svetlana V.; Nechitailo, Galina S.; Kuznetsov, Anatoly A. [Institute of Biochemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kosygin St. 4, Moscow 119991 (Russian Federation)

2009-05-15

We considered applicability of acoustic imaging technology for the detection of magnetic microparticles and nanoparticles inside soft biological tissues. Such particles are widely used for magnetically targeted drug delivery and magnetic hyperthermia. We developed a new method of ultrasonic synchronous tissue Doppler imaging with magnetic modulation for in vitro and in vivo detection and visualization of magnetic ultradisperse objects in soft tissues. Prototype hardware with appropriate software was produced and the method was successfully tested on magnetic microparticles injected into an excised pig liver.

Synchronous ultrasonic Doppler imaging of magnetic microparticles in biological tissues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pyshnyi, Michael Ph.; Kuznetsov, Oleg A.; Pyshnaya, Svetlana V.; Nechitailo, Galina S.; Kuznetsov, Anatoly A.

2009-01-01

We considered applicability of acoustic imaging technology for the detection of magnetic microparticles and nanoparticles inside soft biological tissues. Such particles are widely used for magnetically targeted drug delivery and magnetic hyperthermia. We developed a new method of ultrasonic synchronous tissue Doppler imaging with magnetic modulation for in vitro and in vivo detection and visualization of magnetic ultradisperse objects in soft tissues. Prototype hardware with appropriate software was produced and the method was successfully tested on magnetic microparticles injected into an excised pig liver.

Nuclear physics and biology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Valentin, L.

1994-01-01

This paper is about nuclear instrumentation and biological concepts, based on images from appropriate Β detectors. First, three detectors are described: the SOFI detector, for gene mapping, the SOFAS detector, for DNA sequencing and the RIHR detector, for in situ hybridization. Then, the paper presents quantitative imaging in molecular genetic and functional imaging. (TEC)

Tooth angulation and dental arch perimeter-the effect of orthodontic bracket prescription.

Science.gov (United States)

Pontes, Luana F; Cecim, Rodolpho L; Machado, Sissy M; Normando, David

2015-08-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of upper incisors and canine angulations introduced by different bracket prescriptions on dental arch perimeter. Cone beam computerized tomography scans collected using I-Cat (Imaging Sciences International, Hatfield, PA, USA) were selected conveniently from a database of routine exams of a clinical radiology center. Crown and radicular measurements of upper incisors and canines were made and exported to the Autocad 2011 software to create a virtual dental model. The virtual teeth were positioned with an angulation of zero; thereafter, a reference value for the perimeter of the arch was measured. Furthermore, teeth angulations were applied according to the standards of the Edgewise bracket system and the Straight-wire systems: MBT, Capelozza, Andrews, and Roth. The largest linear distances for tooth crown (anterior arch perimeter) and root (radicular distance) were obtained for each bracket prescription. The anterior perimeter for well-aligned incisors and canines without angulation was used as reference (crown: 47.34mm; root: 39.13mm). An increase in the arch perimeter was obtained for all bracket prescriptions evaluated, which ranged from 0.28 and 3.19mm in the Edgewise technique, for the crown and root measurements, respectively, to 1.09 and 11.28mm for the Roth prescription. Bracket prescriptions with greater angulation led to an increased use of space within the dental arch, mainly in the radicular region. The consequence of this radicular angular displacement will need to be further investigated. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Orthodontic Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Assessment of biological leaf tissue using biospeckle laser imaging technique

Science.gov (United States)

Ansari, M. Z.; Mujeeb, A.; Nirala, A. K.

2018-06-01

We report on the application of an optical imaging technique, the biospeckle laser, as a potential tool to assess biological and medicinal plant leaves. The biospeckle laser technique is a non-invasive and non-destructive optical technique used to investigate biological objects. Just after their removal from plants, the torn leaves were used for biospeckle laser imaging. Quantitative evaluation of the biospeckle data using the inertia moment (IM) of the time history speckle pattern, showed that the IM can be utilized to provide a biospeckle signature to the plant leaves. It showed that leaves from different plants can have their own characteristic IM values. We further investigated the infected regions of the leaves that display a relatively lower biospeckle activity than the healthy tissue. It was easy to discriminate between the infected and healthy regions of the leaf tissue. The biospeckle technique can successfully be implemented as a potential tool for the taxonomy of quality leaves. Furthermore, the technique can help boost the quality of ayurvedic medicines.

Can antibiotic prescriptions in respiratory tract infections be improved? A cluster-randomized educational intervention in general practice – The Prescription Peer Academic Detailing (Rx-PAD Study [NCT00272155

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rognstad Sture

2006-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background More than half of all antibiotic prescriptions in general practice are issued for respiratory tract infections (RTIs, despite convincing evidence that many of these infections are caused by viruses. Frequent misuse of antimicrobial agents is of great global health concern, as we face an emerging worldwide threat of bacterial antibiotic resistance. There is an increasing need to identify determinants and patterns of antibiotic prescribing, in order to identify where clinical practice can be improved. Methods/Design Approximately 80 peer continuing medical education (CME groups in southern Norway will be recruited to a cluster randomized trial. Participating groups will be randomized either to an intervention- or a control group. A multifaceted intervention has been tailored, where key components are educational outreach visits to the CME-groups, work-shops, audit and feedback. Prescription Peer Academic Detailers (Rx-PADs, who are trained GPs, will conduct the educational outreach visits. During these visits, evidence-based recommendations of antibiotic prescriptions for RTIs will be presented and software will be handed out for installation in participants PCs, enabling collection of prescription data. These data will subsequently be linked to corresponding data from the Norwegian Prescription Database (NorPD. Individual feedback reports will be sent all participating GPs during and one year after the intervention. Main outcomes are baseline proportion of inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions for RTIs and change in prescription patterns compared to baseline one year after the initiation of the tailored pedagogic intervention. Discussion Improvement of prescription patterns in medical practice is a challenging task. A thorough evaluation of guidelines for antibiotic treatment in RTIs may impose important benefits, whereas inappropriate prescribing entails substantial costs, as well as undesirable consequences like development

THz near-field imaging of biological tissues employing synchrotron radiation (Invited Paper)

Science.gov (United States)

Schade, Ulrich; Holldack, Karsten; Martin, Michael C.; Fried, Daniel

2005-04-01

Terahertz scanning near-field infrared microscopy (SNIM) below 1 THz is demonstrated. The near-field technique benefits from the broadband and highly brilliant coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) from an electron storage ring and from a detection method based on locking on to the intrinsic time structure of the synchrotron radiation. The scanning microscope utilizes conical waveguides as near-field probes with apertures smaller than the wavelength. Different cone approaches have been investigated to obtain maximum transmittance. Together with a Martin-Puplett spectrometer the set-up enables spectroscopic mapping of the transmittance of samples well below the diffraction limit. Spatial resolution down to about λ/40 at 2 wavenumbers (0.06 THz) is derived from the transmittance spectra of the near-field probes. The potential of the technique is exemplified by imaging biological samples. Strongly absorbing living leaves have been imaged in transmittance with a spatial resolution of 130 μm at about 12 wavenumbers (0.36 THz). The THz near-field images reveal distinct structural differences of leaves from different plants investigated. The technique presented also allows spectral imaging of bulky organic tissues. Human teeth samples of various thicknesses have been imaged between 2 and 20 wavenumbers (between 0.06 and 0.6 THz). Regions of enamel and dentin within tooth samples are spatially and spectrally resolved, and buried caries lesions are imaged through both the outer enamel and into the underlying dentin.

A Prescription Survey from Sri Lanka

African Journals Online (AJOL)

adherence to standard guidelines on the layout and content of prescriptions. Method: A ... Conclusion: Prescription errors are common in outpatient settings of Aluthgama and Kandy areas in .... qualification of the prescriber was present, it was.

A universal fluid cell for the imaging of biological specimens in the atomic force microscope.

Science.gov (United States)

Kasas, Sandor; Radotic, Ksenja; Longo, Giovanni; Saha, Bashkar; Alonso-Sarduy, Livan; Dietler, Giovanni; Roduit, Charles

2013-04-01

Recently, atomic force microscope (AFM) manufacturers have begun producing instruments specifically designed to image biological specimens. In most instances, they are integrated with an inverted optical microscope, which permits concurrent optical and AFM imaging. An important component of the set-up is the imaging chamber, whose design determines the nature of the experiments that can be conducted. Many different imaging chamber designs are available, usually designed to optimize a single parameter, such as the dimensions of the substrate or the volume of fluid that can be used throughout the experiment. In this report, we present a universal fluid cell, which simultaneously optimizes all of the parameters that are important for the imaging of biological specimens in the AFM. This novel imaging chamber has been successfully tested using mammalian, plant, and microbial cells. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Prescription of hazardous drugs during pregnancy.

Science.gov (United States)

Malm, Heli; Martikainen, Jaana; Klaukka, Timo; Neuvonen, Pertti J

2004-01-01

Prescribing drugs to pregnant women requires the balancing of benefits and risks. Only a small proportion of drugs are known to be harmful to the fetus, but for the vast majority of drugs little evidence of fetal safety exists. To determine the prescription pattern of potentially and clearly harmful prescription drugs during pregnancy with reference to drug safety categorisation, and to define the drug groups primarily responsible for multiple drug use during pregnancy. A retrospective, register-based cohort study. Linkage of three nationwide registers in Finland. Data collection included prescription drugs purchased during the preconception period and each trimester in the pregnant cohort, and the corresponding time periods in the non-pregnant controls. The pregnancy safety categorisation was determined for each drug (Anatomic Therapeutic Chemical [ATC] code) by using the Swedish classification of approved medicinal products (Farmaceutiska Specialiteter i Sverige [FASS]) and if not available, the corresponding Australian (Australian Drug Evaluation Committee [ADEC]) or US categorisation (FDA). GROUPS STUDIED: Women applying for maternity support (maternal grants) during the year 1999 (n = 43 470) plus non-pregnant control women matched by age and hospital district (n = 43 470). In the pregnant cohort, 20.4% of women purchased at least one drug classified as potentially harmful during pregnancy, and 3.4% purchased at least one drug classified as clearly harmful. A significant decline occurred in the number of pregnant women purchasing potentially and clearly harmful drugs during the first trimester when compared with the preconception period, and the decline continued from the first to the second trimester. In the pregnant cohort, 107 (0.2%) women purchased at least ten different drugs during pregnancy. The drugs most commonly purchased in this group were topical corticosteroids and nasal preparations. The use of hazardous prescription drugs declines during

Investigation of superharmonic sound propagation and imaging in biological tissues in vitro.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Qingyu; Zhang, Dong; Gong, Xiufen; Ma, Yong

2006-04-01

This article presents both theoretical and experimental studies on the superharmonic generation and its imaging in biological tissues. A superharmonic component is defined as a summation of the third-, fourth-, and fifth-order harmonics. A superharmonic signal is produced using an 8-mm-diam, 2.5-MHz planar piston source that is excited by eight-cycle, 2.5-MHz tone bursts. Axial and lateral field distributions of the superharmonic component and the second harmonic are first calculated based on the nonlinear KZK model and then compared with those experimentally determined at two different source pressures of 0.5 and 1 MPa. Results indicate that the amplitude of the superharmonic component can exceed that of the second harmonic, depending on the axial distance and the fundamental pressure amplitude. Also, the 3-dB beamwidth of the superharmonic component is about 23% narrower than that of the second harmonic. Additional experiments are performed in vitro using liver and fatty tissues in transmission mode and produced two-dimensional images using the fundamental, the second harmonic, and the superharmonic signals. Although the clinical applicability of this work still needs to be assessed, these results indicate that the superharmonic image quality is better than that of the other two images.

Increasing access to emergency contraception through online prescription requests.

Science.gov (United States)

Averbach, Sarah; Wendt, Jacqueline Moro; Levine, Deborah K; Philip, Susan S; Klausner, Jeffrey D

2010-01-01

To describe a pilot program, Plan B Online Prescription Access, to provide easy access to prescriptions for emergency contraception via the Internet. We measured electronic prescriptions for Plan B (Duramed Pharmaceuticals, Cincinnati, Ohio) by month over time. Pharmacists faxed patient-generated prescriptions back to the Department of Public Health for confirmation. Despite no marketing, within the first 18 months of the program, 152 electronic prescriptions for Plan B were requested by 128 female San Francisco residents. Seventy-eight prescriptions were filled (51%) by pharmacists. If correctly marketed, online prescriptions for Plan B have the potential to be an effective means of increasing emergency contraception access in both urban and rural settings across the United States. Further user-acceptability studies are warranted.

Biological imaging by soft X-ray diffraction microscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Shapiro, David

We have developed a microscope for soft x-ray diffraction imaging of dry or frozen hydrated biological specimens. This lensless imaging system does not suffer from the resolution or specimen thickness limitations that other short wavelength microscopes experience. The microscope, currently situated at beamline 9.0.1 of the Advanced Light Source, can collect diffraction data to 12 nm resolution with 750 eV photons and 17 nm resolution with 520 eV photons. The specimen can be rotated with a precision goniometer through an angle of 160 degrees allowing for the collection of nearly complete three-dimensional diffraction data. The microscope is fully computer controlled through a graphical user interface and a scripting language automates the collection of both two-dimensional and three-dimensional data. Diffraction data from a freeze-dried dwarf yeast cell, Saccharomyces cerevisiae carrying the CLN3-1 mutation, was collected to 12 run resolution from 8 specimen orientations spanning a total rotation of 8 degrees. The diffraction data was phased using the difference map algorithm and the reconstructions provide real space images of the cell to 30 nm resolution from each of the orientations. The agreement of the different reconstructions provides confidence in the recovered, and previously unknown, structure and indicates the three dimensionality of the cell. This work represents the first imaging of the natural complex refractive contrast from a whole unstained cell by the diffraction microscopy method and has achieved a resolution superior to lens based x-ray tomographic reconstructions of similar specimens. Studies of the effects of exposure to large radiation doses were also carried out. It was determined that the freeze-dried cell suffers from an initial collapse, which is followed by a uniform, but slow, shrinkage. This structural damage to the cell is not accompanied by a diminished ability to see small features in the specimen. Preliminary measurements on frozen

[Antibiotics prescription and complementary tests based on frequency of use and loyalty in Primary Care].

Science.gov (United States)

Balaguer Martínez, Josep Vicent; Del Castillo Aguas, Guadalupe; Gallego Iborra, Ana

2017-12-30

To assess whether there is a relationship between the prescription of antibiotics and the performance of complementary tests with frequency of use and loyalty in Primary Care. Analytical descriptive study performed through a network of Primary Care sentinel paediatricians (PAPenRed). Each paediatrician reviewed the spontaneous visits (in Primary Care and in Emergency Departments) of 15 patients for 12 months, randomly chosen from their quota. The prescription of antibiotics and the complementary tests performed on these patients were also collected. A total of 212 paediatricians took part and reviewed 2,726 patients. It was found that 8.3% were moderate over-users (mean + 1-2 standard deviations) and 5.2% extreme over-users (mean + 2 standard deviations). Almost half (49.6%) were high-loyalty patients (more than 75% of visits with their doctor). The incidence ratio of antibiotic prescriptions for moderate over-users was 2.13 (1.74-2.62) and 3.25 (2.55-4.13) for extreme over-users, compared to non-over-user children. The incidence ratio for the diagnostic tests were 2.25 (1.86-2.73) and 3.48 (2.78-4.35), respectively. The incidence ratios for antibiotic prescription were 1.34 (1.16-1.55) in patients with medium-high loyalty, 1.45 (1.15-1.83) for medium-low loyalty, and 1.08 (0.81-1.44) for those with low loyalty, compared to patients with high loyalty. The incidence ratios to perform diagnostic tests were 1.46 (1.27-1.67); 1.60 (1.28 - 2.00), and 0.84 (0.63-1.12), respectively. Antibiotics prescription and complementary tests were significantly related to medical overuse. They were also related to loyalty, but less significantly. Copyright © 2017. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U.

Using image analysis to monitor biological changes in consume fish

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dissing, Bjørn Skovlund; Frosch, Stina; Nielsen, Michael Engelbrecht

2011-01-01

The quality of fish products is largely defined by the visual appearance of the products. Visual appearance includes measurable parameters such as color and texture. Fat content and distribution as well as deposition of carotenoid pigments such as astaxanthin in muscular and fat tissue...... fishes is based on highly laborious chemical analysis. Trichromatic digital imaging and point-wise colorimetric or spectral measurement are also ways of estimating either the redness or the actual astaxanthin concentration of the fillet. These methods all have drawbacks of either cumbersome testing...... are biological parameters with a huge impact on the color and texture of the fish muscle. Consumerdriven quality demands call for rapid methods for quantification of quality parameters such as fat and astaxanthin in the industry. The spectral electromagnetic reflection properties of astaxanthin are well known...

Economic and biological costs of cardiac imaging

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Picano Eugenio

2005-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Medical imaging market consists of several billion tests per year worldwide. Out of these, at least one third are cardiovascular procedures. Keeping in mind that each test represents a cost, often a risk, and a diagnostic hypothesis, we can agree that every unnecessary and unjustifiable test is one test too many. Small individual costs, risks, and wastes multiplied by billions of examinations per year represent an important population, society and environmental burden. Unfortunately, the appropriateness of cardiac imaging is extra-ordinarily low and there is little awareness in patients and physicians of differential costs, radiological doses, and long term risks of different imaging modalities. For a resting cardiac imaging test, being the average cost (not charges of an echocardiogram equal to 1 (as a cost comparator, the cost of a CT is 3.1x, of a SPECT 3.27x, of a Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance imaging 5.51x, of a PET 14.03x, and of a right and left heart catheterization 19.96x. For stress cardiac imaging, compared with the treadmill exercise test equal to 1 (as a cost comparator, the cost of stress echocardiography is 2.1x and of a stress SPECT scintigraphy is 5.7x. Biohazards and downstream long-term costs linked to radiation-induced oncogenesis should also be considered. The radiation exposure is absent in echo and magnetic resonance, and corresponds to 500 chest x rays for a sestamibi cardiac stress scan and to 1150 chest x rays for a thallium scan. The corresponding extra-risk in a lifetime of fatal cancer is 1 in 2000 exposed patients for a sestamibi stress and 1 in 1000 for a thallium scan. Increased awareness of economic, biologic, and environmental costs of cardiac imaging will hopefully lead to greater appropriateness, wisdom and prudence from both the prescriber and the practitioner. In this way, the sustainability of cardiac imaging will eventually improve.

iScreen: Image-Based High-Content RNAi Screening Analysis Tools.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhong, Rui; Dong, Xiaonan; Levine, Beth; Xie, Yang; Xiao, Guanghua

2015-09-01

High-throughput RNA interference (RNAi) screening has opened up a path to investigating functional genomics in a genome-wide pattern. However, such studies are often restricted to assays that have a single readout format. Recently, advanced image technologies have been coupled with high-throughput RNAi screening to develop high-content screening, in which one or more cell image(s), instead of a single readout, were generated from each well. This image-based high-content screening technology has led to genome-wide functional annotation in a wider spectrum of biological research studies, as well as in drug and target discovery, so that complex cellular phenotypes can be measured in a multiparametric format. Despite these advances, data analysis and visualization tools are still largely lacking for these types of experiments. Therefore, we developed iScreen (image-Based High-content RNAi Screening Analysis Tool), an R package for the statistical modeling and visualization of image-based high-content RNAi screening. Two case studies were used to demonstrate the capability and efficiency of the iScreen package. iScreen is available for download on CRAN (http://cran.cnr.berkeley.edu/web/packages/iScreen/index.html). The user manual is also available as a supplementary document. © 2014 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.

Socioeconomic correlates of drug use based on prescription data: a population-based cross-sectional register study in Denmark 1999

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mortensen, Jens T; Olesen, Anne V; Bøggild, Henrik

2007-01-01

with slightly more male top managers using cardiovascular drugs. People in the upper half of the socioeconomic scale were somewhat less likely to redeem prescriptions for treating muscle, joints and bone, and central nervous system. CONCLUSION: Social or economic barriers in buying medicine are generally small......INTRODUCTION: In the public health system we study medical treatment which is ideally provided according to need and independently of economic means. We report use of prescription drugs according to socioeconomic classifications in North Jutland County in Denmark in 1999. METHOD: We conducted...

Prescription Drug Diversion: Predictors of Illicit Acquisition and Redistribution in Three U.S. Metropolitan Areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shana Harris

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Objective: Prescription drug diversion, the transfer of prescription drugs from lawful to unlawful channels for distribution or use, is a problem in the United States. Despite the pervasiveness of diversion, there are gaps in the literature regarding characteristics of individuals who participate in the illicit trade of prescription drugs. This study examines a range of predictors (e.g., demographics, prescription insurance coverage, perceived risk associated with prescription drug diversion of membership in three distinct diverter groups: individuals who illicitly acquire prescription drugs, those who redistribute them, and those who engage in both behaviors. Methods: Data were drawn from a cross-sectional Internet study (N = 846 of prescription drug use and diversion patterns in New York City, South Florida, and Washington, D.C.. Participants were classified into diversion categories based on their self-reported involvement in the trade of prescription drugs. Group differences in background characteristics of diverter groups were assessed by Chi-Square tests and followed up with multivariate logistic regressions. Results: While individuals in all diversion groups were more likely to be younger and have a licit prescription for any of the assessed drugs in the past year than those who did not divert, individuals who both acquire and redistribute are more likely to live in New York City, not have prescription insurance coverage, and perceive fewer legal risks of prescription drug diversion. Conclusion: Findings suggest that predictive characteristics vary according to diverter group.

Dose prescription and treatment planning based on FMISO-PET hypoxia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Toma-Dasu, Iuliana; Antonovic, Laura; Uhrdin, Johan; Dasu, Alexandru; Nuyts, Sandra; Dirix, Piet; Haustermans, Karin; Brahme, Anders

2012-01-01

Purpose. The study presents the implementation of a novel method for incorporating hypoxia information from PET-CT imaging into treatment planning and estimates the efficiency of various optimization approaches. Its focuses on the feasibility of optimizing treatment plans based on the non-linear conversion of PET hypoxia images into radiosensitivity maps from the uptake properties of the tracers used. Material and methods. PET hypoxia images of seven head-and-neck cancer patients were used to determine optimal dose distributions needed to counteract the radiation resistance associated with tumor hypoxia assuming various scenarios regarding the evolution of the hypoxic compartment during the treatment. A research planning system for advanced studies has been used to optimize IMRT plans based on hypoxia information from patient PET images. These resulting plans were compared in terms of target coverage for the same fulfilled constraints regarding the organs at risk. Results. The results of a planning study indicated the clinical feasibility of the proposed method for treatment planning based on PET hypoxia. Antihypoxic strategies would lead to small improvements in all the patients, but higher effects are expected for the fraction of patients with hypoxic tumors. For these, individualization of the treatment based on hypoxia PET imaging could lead to improved treatment outcome while creating the premises for limiting the irradiation of the surrounding normal tissues. Conclusions. The proposed approach offers the possibility of improved treatment results as it takes into consideration the heterogeneity and the dynamics of the hypoxic regions. It also provides early identification of the clinical cases that might benefit from dose escalation as well as the cases that could benefit from other counter-hypoxic measures

National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act (NASPER): balancing substance abuse and medical necessity.

Science.gov (United States)

Manchikanti, Laxmaiah; Brown, Keith R; Singh, Vijay

2002-07-01

The National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act, or NASPER, is a bill proposed by the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians to provide and improve patient access with quality care, and protect patients and physicians from deleterious effects of controlled substance misuse, abuse and trafficking. Controlled prescription drugs, including narcotic analgesics, anxiolytics, anti-depressants, stimulants, and sedative-hypnotics play a significant and legitimate role in interventional pain management practices in managing chronic pain and related disorders. Based on the 1997 household survey on drug abuse it is estimated that 76.9 million Americans had used an illicit drug at least once in their life. In 1997, 4.2 million people used analgesics, 2.1 million used tranquillizers, and an additional 2.3 million people used various other drugs, including sedatives, tranquillizers, etc. The non-medical use of prescription drugs exceeds that of all illicit substances except for marijuana and hashish. The report on epidemiology trends in drug abuse, based on community epidemiology work group analysis showed continued increase of abuse of prescription drugs in urban, suburban, and rural areas. The most commonly abused drugs include oxycodone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, morphine, codeine, clonazepam, alprazolam, lorazepam, diazepam and carisoprodol. The diversion of prescription controlled substances to illicit channels is a public health and safety issue. This review describes the role of controlled substances in chronic pain management, prevalence and economic impact of controlled substance abuse, prescription accountability, effectiveness of prescription monitoring programs, and rationale for national controlled substance electronic reporting system.

Automated Processing of Imaging Data through Multi-tiered Classification of Biological Structures Illustrated Using Caenorhabditis elegans.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mei Zhan

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Quantitative imaging has become a vital technique in biological discovery and clinical diagnostics; a plethora of tools have recently been developed to enable new and accelerated forms of biological investigation. Increasingly, the capacity for high-throughput experimentation provided by new imaging modalities, contrast techniques, microscopy tools, microfluidics and computer controlled systems shifts the experimental bottleneck from the level of physical manipulation and raw data collection to automated recognition and data processing. Yet, despite their broad importance, image analysis solutions to address these needs have been narrowly tailored. Here, we present a generalizable formulation for autonomous identification of specific biological structures that is applicable for many problems. The process flow architecture we present here utilizes standard image processing techniques and the multi-tiered application of classification models such as support vector machines (SVM. These low-level functions are readily available in a large array of image processing software packages and programming languages. Our framework is thus both easy to implement at the modular level and provides specific high-level architecture to guide the solution of more complicated image-processing problems. We demonstrate the utility of the classification routine by developing two specific classifiers as a toolset for automation and cell identification in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. To serve a common need for automated high-resolution imaging and behavior applications in the C. elegans research community, we contribute a ready-to-use classifier for the identification of the head of the animal under bright field imaging. Furthermore, we extend our framework to address the pervasive problem of cell-specific identification under fluorescent imaging, which is critical for biological investigation in multicellular organisms or tissues. Using these examples as a

Automated Processing of Imaging Data through Multi-tiered Classification of Biological Structures Illustrated Using Caenorhabditis elegans.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhan, Mei; Crane, Matthew M; Entchev, Eugeni V; Caballero, Antonio; Fernandes de Abreu, Diana Andrea; Ch'ng, QueeLim; Lu, Hang

2015-04-01

Quantitative imaging has become a vital technique in biological discovery and clinical diagnostics; a plethora of tools have recently been developed to enable new and accelerated forms of biological investigation. Increasingly, the capacity for high-throughput experimentation provided by new imaging modalities, contrast techniques, microscopy tools, microfluidics and computer controlled systems shifts the experimental bottleneck from the level of physical manipulation and raw data collection to automated recognition and data processing. Yet, despite their broad importance, image analysis solutions to address these needs have been narrowly tailored. Here, we present a generalizable formulation for autonomous identification of specific biological structures that is applicable for many problems. The process flow architecture we present here utilizes standard image processing techniques and the multi-tiered application of classification models such as support vector machines (SVM). These low-level functions are readily available in a large array of image processing software packages and programming languages. Our framework is thus both easy to implement at the modular level and provides specific high-level architecture to guide the solution of more complicated image-processing problems. We demonstrate the utility of the classification routine by developing two specific classifiers as a toolset for automation and cell identification in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. To serve a common need for automated high-resolution imaging and behavior applications in the C. elegans research community, we contribute a ready-to-use classifier for the identification of the head of the animal under bright field imaging. Furthermore, we extend our framework to address the pervasive problem of cell-specific identification under fluorescent imaging, which is critical for biological investigation in multicellular organisms or tissues. Using these examples as a guide, we envision

Medical prescription adherence among patient visiting gynecology department

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rafique, M.; Arshad, H.; Tabassum, H.; Khan, N. U. S.; Qamar, K.

2017-01-01

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the level of Medical prescription adherence among gynecological patients of Pakistan. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in Punjab province and data were collected from June 2015 to April 2016. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in main cities of Punjab province of Pakistan; Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Sheikhupura. The survey data was collected from different location of cities. Patients visiting the gynecological and going to chemists for getting the prescribed medicine were selected through probability based random sampling for this study. The questionnaire consisted on the extent to which they adhere to time, dose, frequency and procedure prescribed from their doctors. The questions were asked in native language (Urdu). The data analysis was performed by using SPSS software (Ver.21). Results: Results of this study, based on sample from four big cities of Punjab province of Pakistan, showed that the level of medical prescription was associated with the age, qualification and background of the patients. Adherence level of patients reporting with rural background was observed higher than the adherence level of patients from urban areas. Conclusion: Over all the patient require counseling regarding adherence to medical prescription irrespective of the nature of the disease. (author)

A smart-card-enabled privacy preserving E-prescription system.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Yanjiang; Han, Xiaoxi; Bao, Feng; Deng, Robert H

2004-03-01

Within the overall context of protection of health care information, privacy of prescription data needs special treatment. First, the involvement of diverse parties, especially nonmedical parties in the process of drug prescription complicates the protection of prescription data. Second, both patients and doctors have privacy stakes in prescription, and their privacy should be equally protected. Third, the following facts determine that prescription should not be processed in a truly anonymous manner: certain involved parties conduct useful research on the basis of aggregation of prescription data that are linkable with respect to either the patients or the doctors; prescription data has to be identifiable in some extreme circumstances, e.g., under the court order for inspection and assign liability. In this paper, we propose an e-prescription system to address issues pertaining to the privacy protection in the process of drug prescription. In our system, patients' smart cards play an important role. For one thing, the smart cards are implemented to be portable repositories carrying up-to-date personal medical records and insurance information, providing doctors instant data access crucial to the process of diagnosis and prescription. For the other, with the secret signing key being stored inside, the smart card enables the patient to sign electronically the prescription pad, declaring his acceptance of the prescription. To make the system more realistic, we identify the needs for a patient to delegate his signing capability to other people so as to protect the privacy of information housed on his card. A strong proxy signature scheme achieving technologically mutual agreements on the delegation is proposed to implement the delegation functionality.

Vital Signs – Prescription Painkiller Overdoses

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

This podcast is based on the July 2013 CDC Vital Signs report. Prescription painkiller overdoses are an under-recognized and growing problem among women. This program includes things that women and health care providers can do to reduce the risk of overdose.

Prosthesis Prescription Protocol of the Arm (PPP-Arm) : The implementation of a national prosthesis prescription protocol

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wijdenes, Paula; Brouwers, Michael; van der Sluis, Corry K

BACKGROUND AND AIM: In order to create more uniformity in the prescription of upper limb prostheses by Dutch rehabilitation teams, the development and implementation of a Prosthesis Prescription Protocol of the upper limb (PPP-Arm) was initiated. The aim was to create a national digital protocol to

An inevitable wave of prescription drug monitoring programs in the context of prescription opioids: pros, cons and tensions

OpenAIRE

Islam, M Mofizul; McRae, Ian S

2014-01-01

Background In an effort to control non-medical use and/or medical abuse of prescription drugs, particularly prescription opioids, electronic prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP) have been introduced in North-American countries, Australia and some parts of Europe. Paradoxically, there are simultaneous pressures to increase opioid prescribing for the benefit of individual patients and to reduce it for the sake of public health, and this pressure warrants a delicate balance of appropriat...

Development of a Web-Based Clinical Decision Support System for Drug Prescription: Non-Interventional Naturalistic Description of the Antipsychotic Prescription Patterns in 4345 Outpatients and Future Applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Berrouiguet, Sofian; Barrigón, Maria Luisa; Brandt, Sara A; Ovejero-García, Santiago; Álvarez-García, Raquel; Carballo, Juan Jose; Lenca, Philippe; Courtet, Philippe; Baca-García, Enrique

2016-01-01

The emergence of electronic prescribing devices with clinical decision support systems (CDSS) is able to significantly improve management pharmacological treatments. We developed a web application available on smartphones in order to help clinicians monitor prescription and further propose CDSS. A web application (www.MEmind.net) was developed to assess patients and collect data regarding gender, age, diagnosis and treatment. We analyzed antipsychotic prescriptions in 4345 patients attended in five Psychiatric Community Mental Health Centers from June 2014 to October 2014. The web-application reported average daily dose prescribed for antipsychotics, prescribed daily dose (PDD), and the PDD to defined daily dose (DDD) ratio. The MEmind web-application reported that antipsychotics were used in 1116 patients out of the total sample, mostly in 486 (44%) patients with schizophrenia related disorders but also in other diagnoses. Second generation antipsychotics (quetiapine, aripiprazole and long-acting paliperidone) were preferably employed. Low doses were more frequently used than high doses. Long acting paliperidone and ziprasidone however, were the only two antipsychotics used at excessive dosing. Antipsychotic polypharmacy was used in 287 (26%) patients with classic depot drugs, clotiapine, amisulpride and clozapine. In this study we describe the first step of the development of a web application that is able to make polypharmacy, high dose usage and off label usage of antipsychotics visible to clinicians. Current development of the MEmind web application may help to improve prescription security via momentary feedback of prescription and clinical decision support system.

Vital Signs-Preventing Prescription Drug Overdose

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

2014-07-01

This podcast is based on the July 2014 CDC Vital Signs report. Every day, 46 people in the U.S. die from an overdose of prescription opioid painkillers. Learn what can be done to make painkiller prescribing safer and help prevent overdoses.  Created: 7/1/2014 by National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD).   Date Released: 7/1/2014.

Influence of pharmacists expertise on physicians prescription ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

the prescribing behaviour of physicians. ... Keywords: Physician prescription behaviour, Pharmacist factor, Collaboration, Trustworthiness ... provide information relating to drug prescription, ... processing [22], which takes into consideration.

Prescription-induced jump distributions in multiplicative Poisson processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Suweis, Samir; Porporato, Amilcare; Rinaldo, Andrea; Maritan, Amos

2011-06-01

Generalized Langevin equations (GLE) with multiplicative white Poisson noise pose the usual prescription dilemma leading to different evolution equations (master equations) for the probability distribution. Contrary to the case of multiplicative Gaussian white noise, the Stratonovich prescription does not correspond to the well-known midpoint (or any other intermediate) prescription. By introducing an inertial term in the GLE, we show that the Itô and Stratonovich prescriptions naturally arise depending on two time scales, one induced by the inertial term and the other determined by the jump event. We also show that, when the multiplicative noise is linear in the random variable, one prescription can be made equivalent to the other by a suitable transformation in the jump probability distribution. We apply these results to a recently proposed stochastic model describing the dynamics of primary soil salinization, in which the salt mass balance within the soil root zone requires the analysis of different prescriptions arising from the resulting stochastic differential equation forced by multiplicative white Poisson noise, the features of which are tailored to the characters of the daily precipitation. A method is finally suggested to infer the most appropriate prescription from the data.

Prescription-induced jump distributions in multiplicative Poisson processes

Science.gov (United States)

Suweis, Samir; Porporato, Amilcare; Rinaldo, Andrea; Maritan, Amos

2011-06-01

Generalized Langevin equations (GLE) with multiplicative white Poisson noise pose the usual prescription dilemma leading to different evolution equations (master equations) for the probability distribution. Contrary to the case of multiplicative Gaussian white noise, the Stratonovich prescription does not correspond to the well-known midpoint (or any other intermediate) prescription. By introducing an inertial term in the GLE, we show that the Itô and Stratonovich prescriptions naturally arise depending on two time scales, one induced by the inertial term and the other determined by the jump event. We also show that, when the multiplicative noise is linear in the random variable, one prescription can be made equivalent to the other by a suitable transformation in the jump probability distribution. We apply these results to a recently proposed stochastic model describing the dynamics of primary soil salinization, in which the salt mass balance within the soil root zone requires the analysis of different prescriptions arising from the resulting stochastic differential equation forced by multiplicative white Poisson noise, the features of which are tailored to the characters of the daily precipitation. A method is finally suggested to infer the most appropriate prescription from the data.

Employing the therapeutic operating characteristic (TOC) graph for individualised dose prescription.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoffmann, Aswin L; Huizenga, Henk; Kaanders, Johannes H A M

2013-03-07

In current practice, patients scheduled for radiotherapy are treated according to 'rigid' protocols with predefined dose prescriptions that do not consider risk-taking preferences of individuals. The therapeutic operating characteristic (TOC) graph is applied as a decision-aid to assess the trade-off between treatment benefit and morbidity to facilitate dose prescription customisation. Historical dose-response data from prostate cancer patient cohorts treated with 3D-conformal radiotherapy is used to construct TOC graphs. Next, intensity-modulated (IMRT) plans are generated by optimisation based on dosimetric criteria and dose-response relationships. TOC graphs are constructed for dose-scaling of the optimised IMRT plan and individualised dose prescription. The area under the TOC curve (AUC) is estimated to measure the therapeutic power of these plans. On a continuous scale, the TOC graph directly visualises treatment benefit and morbidity risk of physicians' or patients' choices for dose (de-)escalation. The trade-off between these probabilities facilitates the selection of an individualised dose prescription. TOC graphs show broader therapeutic window and higher AUCs with increasing target dose heterogeneity. The TOC graph gives patients and physicians access to a decision-aid and read-out of the trade-off between treatment benefit and morbidity risks for individualised dose prescription customisation over a continuous range of dose levels.

Employing the therapeutic operating characteristic (TOC) graph for individualised dose prescription

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoffmann, Aswin L; Huizenga, Henk; Kaanders, Johannes HAM

2013-01-01

In current practice, patients scheduled for radiotherapy are treated according to ‘rigid’ protocols with predefined dose prescriptions that do not consider risk-taking preferences of individuals. The therapeutic operating characteristic (TOC) graph is applied as a decision-aid to assess the trade-off between treatment benefit and morbidity to facilitate dose prescription customisation. Historical dose-response data from prostate cancer patient cohorts treated with 3D-conformal radiotherapy is used to construct TOC graphs. Next, intensity-modulated (IMRT) plans are generated by optimisation based on dosimetric criteria and dose-response relationships. TOC graphs are constructed for dose-scaling of the optimised IMRT plan and individualised dose prescription. The area under the TOC curve (AUC) is estimated to measure the therapeutic power of these plans. On a continuous scale, the TOC graph directly visualises treatment benefit and morbidity risk of physicians’ or patients’ choices for dose (de-)escalation. The trade-off between these probabilities facilitates the selection of an individualised dose prescription. TOC graphs show broader therapeutic window and higher AUCs with increasing target dose heterogeneity. The TOC graph gives patients and physicians access to a decision-aid and read-out of the trade-off between treatment benefit and morbidity risks for individualised dose prescription customisation over a continuous range of dose levels

Characterisation of antibiotic prescriptions for acute respiratory tract infections in Danish general practice: a retrospective registry based cohort study.

Science.gov (United States)

Aabenhus, Rune; Hansen, Malene Plejdrup; Saust, Laura Trolle; Bjerrum, Lars

2017-05-19

Inappropriate use of antibiotics is contributing to the increasing rates of antimicrobial resistance. Several Danish guidelines on antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory tract infections in general practice have been issued to promote rational prescribing of antibiotics, however it is unclear if these recommendations are followed. We aimed to characterise the pattern of antibiotic prescriptions for patients diagnosed with acute respiratory tract infections, by means of electronic prescriptions, labeled with clinical indications, from Danish general practice. Acute respiratory tract infections accounted for 456,532 antibiotic prescriptions issued between July 2012 and June 2013. Pneumonia was the most common indication with 178,354 prescriptions (39%), followed by acute tonsillitis (21%) and acute otitis media (19%). In total, penicillin V accounted for 58% of all prescriptions, followed by macrolides (18%) and amoxicillin (15%). The use of second-line agents increased with age for all indications, and comprised more than 40% of the prescriptions in patients aged >75 years. Women were more often prescribed antibiotics regardless of clinical indication. This is the first Danish study to characterise antibiotic prescription patterns for acute respiratory tract infections by data linkage of clinical indications. The findings confirm that penicillin V is the most commonly prescribed antibiotic agent for treatment of patients with an acute respiratory tract infection in Danish general practice. However, second-line agents like macrolides and amoxicillin with or without clavulanic acid are overused. Strategies to improve the quality of antibiotic prescribing especially for pneumonia, acute otitis media and acute rhinosinusitis are warranted. TRACKING THE OVERUSE OF ANTIBIOTICS: Better adherence to guidelines for prescribing antibiotics for different respiratory tract infections are warranted in Danish general practice. The over-use of antibiotics, particularly so

Past-year Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Opioid Prescriptions and Self-reported Opioid Use in an Emergency Department Population With Opioid Use Disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Hawk, Kathryn; D'Onofrio, Gail; Fiellin, David A; Chawarski, Marek C; O'Connor, Patrick G; Owens, Patricia H; Pantalon, Michael V; Bernstein, Steven L

2017-11-22

Despite increasing reliance on prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) as a response to the opioid epidemic, the relationship between aberrant drug-related behaviors captured by the PDMP and opioid use disorder is incompletely understood. How PDMP data should guide emergency department (ED) assessment has not been studied. The objective was to evaluate a relationship between PDMP opioid prescription records and self-reported nonmedical opioid use of prescription opioids in a cohort of opioid-dependent ED patients enrolled in a treatment trial. PDMP opioid prescription records during 1 year prior to study enrollment on 329 adults meeting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV criteria for opioid dependence entering a randomized clinical trial in a large, urban ED were cross-tabulated with data on 30-day nonmedical prescription opioid use self-report. The association among these two types of data was assessed by the Goodman and Kruskal's gamma; a logistic regression was used to explore characteristics of participants who had PDMP record of opioid prescriptions. During 1 year prior to study enrollment, 118 of 329 (36%) patients had at least one opioid prescription (range = 1-51) in our states' PDMP. Patients who reported ≥15 of 30 days of nonmedical prescription opioid use were more likely to have at least four PDMP opioid prescriptions (20/38; 53%) than patients reporting 1 to 14 days (14/38, 37%) or zero days of nonmedical prescription opioid use (4/38, 11%; p = 0.002). Female sex and having health insurance were significantly more represented in the PDMP (p Medicine.

Medical Marijuana Users are More Likely to Use Prescription Drugs Medically and Nonmedically.

Science.gov (United States)

Caputi, Theodore L; Humphreys, Keith

2018-04-17

Previous studies have found a negative population-level correlation between medical marijuana availability in US states, and trends in medical and nonmedical prescription drug use. These studies have been interpreted as evidence that use of medical marijuana reduces medical and nonmedical prescription drug use. This study evaluates whether medical marijuana use is a risk or protective factor for medical and nonmedical prescription drug use. Simulations based upon logistic regression analyses of data from the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health were used to compute associations between medical marijuana use, and medical and nonmedical prescription drug use. Adjusted risk ratios (RRs) were computed with controls added for age, sex, race, health status, family income, and living in a state with legalized medical marijuana. Medical marijuana users were significantly more likely (RR 1.62, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.50-1.74) to report medical use of prescription drugs in the past 12 months. Individuals who used medical marijuana were also significantly more likely to report nonmedical use in the past 12 months of any prescription drug (RR 2.12, 95% CI 1.67-2.62), with elevated risks for pain relievers (RR 1.95, 95% CI 1.41-2.62), stimulants (RR 1.86, 95% CI 1.09-3.02), and tranquilizers (RR 2.18, 95% CI 1.45-3.16). Our findings disconfirm the hypothesis that a population-level negative correlation between medical marijuana use and prescription drug harms occurs because medical marijuana users are less likely to use prescription drugs, either medically or nonmedically. Medical marijuana users should be a target population in efforts to combat nonmedical prescription drug use.

Non-prescription medications: considerations for the dental practitioner.

Science.gov (United States)

Kingon, Angus

2012-04-01

The widespread availability of non-prescription medications has a significant potential impact on dental practice. Dentists are trained to provide scientifically-based advice on the appropriate use of medications, but it is not uncommon for patients to take matters into their own hands, especially if it is felt that the treatment provided is not solving a specific problem, or is insufficient. Well-meaning but often ill-informed family and friends frequently have an opinion as to what should be done. Not only may the suggested treatment not be effective, it may also be harmful. Over-the-counter medications can easily be obtained, and there is nothing to stop individuals exceeding recommended doses, and if this occurs, there could be adverse medical sequelae. Patient compliance in taking prescription medications is known to be problematic, and when combined with the ready availability of complementary medications, probiotics and illicit drugs, the risk of self-harm can be seen to be a distinct possibility. To compound the position, sometimes there seems to be, in a practical sense, little regulation on the advertising and marketing of non-prescription medications, which can leave consumers not only confused but potentially vulnerable. While complementary medicines may not have a significant role in dental practice in 2012, that may not always be the case as research continues, and reference is made to some aspects of ongoing work. Non-prescription medications are discussed, and some effects on oral health are considered.

Differential laser-induced perturbation spectroscopy and fluorescence imaging for biological and materials sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Burton, Dallas Jonathan

The field of laser-based diagnostics has been a topic of research in various fields, more specifically for applications in environmental studies, military defense technologies, and medicine, among many others. In this dissertation, a novel laser-based optical diagnostic method, differential laser-induced perturbation spectroscopy (DLIPS), has been implemented in a spectroscopy mode and expanded into an imaging mode in combination with fluorescence techniques. The DLIPS method takes advantage of deep ultraviolet (UV) laser perturbation at sub-ablative energy fluences to photochemically cleave bonds and alter fluorescence signal response before and after perturbation. The resulting difference spectrum or differential image adds more information about the target specimen, and can be used in combination with traditional fluorescence techniques for detection of certain materials, characterization of many materials and biological specimen, and diagnosis of various human skin conditions. The differential aspect allows for mitigation of patient or sample variation, and has the potential to develop into a powerful, noninvasive optical sensing tool. The studies in this dissertation encompass efforts to continue the fundamental research on DLIPS including expansion of the method to an imaging mode. Five primary studies have been carried out and presented. These include the use of DLIPS in a spectroscopy mode for analysis of nitrogen-based explosives on various substrates, classification of Caribbean fruit flies versus Caribbean fruit flies that have been irradiated with gamma rays, and diagnosis of human skin cancer lesions. The nitrogen-based explosives and Caribbean fruit flies have been analyzed with the DLIPS scheme using the imaging modality, providing complementary information to the spectroscopic scheme. In each study, a comparison between absolute fluorescence signals and DLIPS responses showed that DLIPS statistically outperformed traditional fluorescence techniques

Radionuclide Imaging Technologies for Biological Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Howell, Calvin R. [Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States); Reid, Chantal D. [Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States); Weisenberger, Andrew G. [Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF), Newport News, VA (United States)

2014-05-14

The main objective of this project is to develop technologies and experimental techniques for studying the dynamics of physiological responses of plants to changes in their interface with the local environment and to educate a new generation of scientists in an interdisciplinary environment of biology, physics and engineering. Also an important goal is to perform measurements to demonstrate the new data that can be produced and made available to the plant-biology community using the imaging technologies and experimental techniques developed in this project. The study of the plant-environment interface includes a wide range of topics in plant physiology, e.g., the root-soil interface, resource availability, impact of herbivores, influence of microbes on root surface, and responses to toxins in the air and soil. The initial scientific motivation for our work is to improve understanding of the mechanisms for physiological responses to abrupt changes in the local environment, in particular, the responses that result in short-term adjustments in resource (e.g., sugars, nutrients and water) allocations. Data of time-dependent responses of plants to environmental changes are essential in developing mechanistic models for substance intake and resource allocation. Our approach is to use radioisotope tracing techniques to study whole-plant and plant organ (e.g., leaves, stems, roots) dynamical responses to abrupt changes in environmental conditions such as concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere, nutrient availability and lighting. To this aim we are collaborating with the Radiation Detector and Imaging Group at the Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory Facility (JLab) to develop gamma-ray and beta particle imaging systems optimized for plant studies. The radioisotope tracing measurements are conducted at the Phytotron facility at Duke University. The Phytotron is a controlled environment plant research facility with a variety of plant growth chambers. One chamber

Mediating and Marketing Factors Influence the Prescription Behavior of Physicians: An Empirical Investigation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rizwan Raheem Ahmed

2016-02-01

Full Text Available The authors present general review of the literature and the results of an empirical research on the subject. A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was conducted, being answered by 350 respondents: mix of graduate and post graduate doctors of private and public hospitals of Karachi City, and pharmaceutical personnel (mix of sales and marketing of national and multinational pharmaceutical companies operating in Pakistan. To test hypothesis, structural equation modelling (SEM was employed using AMOS 7 software package. As data are normally distributed, maximum likelihood method of estimation was used. Factorial ANOVA also enables us to examine the interaction effect between the factors. The results from factorial ANOVA test all the hypotheses of model, and results were declared significant at p <0.05. Findings are interesting as they establish association between variables (scientific literatures, promotional material, regular follow up, CMEs & conferences, personalized activities and prescription behavior of doctors mediated by strong phenomenon of medical representative PR and brand image of a company/product in changing the prescription behavior of doctors. Based on the results of this study, the pharmaceutical companies can device better marketing strategies keeping in view of these mediating effects. The article presents only two mediating and five marketing factors, whereas, more marketing and mediating variables can be added and tested, so, in future this gape can be overcome by other researchers. Moreover, a larger sample size could be applied and the scope of study can be enhanced.

Biological elements carry out optical tasks in coherent imaging systems

Science.gov (United States)

Ferraro, P.; Bianco, V.; Paturzo, M.; Miccio, L.; Memmolo, P.; Merola, F.; Marchesano, V.

2016-03-01

We show how biological elements, like live bacteria species and Red Blood Cells (RBCs) can accomplish optical functionalities in DH systems. Turbid media allow coherent microscopy despite the strong light scattering these provoke, acting on light just as moving diffusers. Furthermore, a turbid medium can have positive effects on a coherent imaging system, providing resolution enhancement and mimicking the action of noise decorrelation devices, thus yielding an image quality significantly higher than the quality achievable through a transparent medium in similar recording conditions. Besides, suspended RBCs are demonstrated to behave as controllable liquid micro-lenses, opening new possibilities in biophotonics for endoscopy imaging purposes, as well as telemedicine for point-of-care diagnostics in developing countries and low-resource settings.

Organization-based self-development prescriptive model for the promotion of professional development of Iranian clinical nurses

Science.gov (United States)

Rahimaghaee, Flora; Nayeri, Nahid Dehghan; Mohammadi, Eesa; Salavati, Shahram

2015-01-01

Background: Professional development is reiterated in the new definition of modern organizations as a serious undertaking of organizations. This article aims to present and describe a prescriptive model to increase the quality of professional development of Iranian nurses within an organization-based framework. Materials and Methods: This article is an outcome of the results of a study based on grounded theory describing how Iranian nurses develop. The present study adopted purposive sampling and the initial participants were experienced clinical nurses. Then, the study continued by theoretical sampling. The present study involved 21 participants. Data were mainly collected through interviews. Analysis began with open coding and continued with axial coding and selective coding. Trustworthiness was ensured by applying Lincoln and Guba criteria such as credibility, dependability, and conformability. Based on the data gathered in the study and a thorough review of related literature, a prescriptive model has been designed by use of the methodology of Walker and Avant (2005). Results: In this model, the first main component is a three-part structure: Reformation to establish a value-assigning structure, a position for human resource management, and a job redesigning. The second component is certain of opportunities for organization-oriented development. These strategies are as follows: Raising the sensitivity of the organization toward development, goal setting and planning the development of human resources, and improving management practices. Conclusions: Through this model, clinical nurses’ professional development can transform the profession from an individual, randomized activity into more planned and systematized services. This model can lead to a better quality of care. PMID:26457100

Prevalence and predictors of antibiotic prescription errors in an emergency department, Central Saudi Arabia.

Science.gov (United States)

Alanazi, Menyfah Q; Al-Jeraisy, Majed I; Salam, Mahmoud

2015-01-01

Inappropriate antibiotic (ATB) prescriptions are a threat to patients, leading to adverse drug reactions, bacterial resistance, and subsequently, elevated hospital costs. Our aim was to evaluate ATB prescriptions in an emergency department of a tertiary care facility. A cross-sectional study was conducted by reviewing charts of patients complaining of infections. Patient characteristics (age, sex, weight, allergy, infection type) and prescription characteristics (class, dose, frequency, duration) were evaluated for appropriateness based on the AHFS Drug Information and the Drug Information Handbook. Descriptive and analytic statistics were applied. Sample with equal sex distribution constituted of 5,752 cases: adults (≥15 years) =61% and pediatrics (tract infections, 25% urinary tract infections (UTIs), and 20% others. Broad-spectrum coverage ATBs were prescribed for 76% of the cases. Before the prescription, 82% of pediatrics had their weight taken, while 18% had their weight estimated. Allergy checking was done in 8% only. Prevalence of inappropriate ATB prescriptions with at least one type of error was 46.2% (pediatrics =58% and adults =39%). Errors were in ATB selection (2%), dosage (22%), frequency (4%), and duration (29%). Dosage and duration errors were significantly predominant among pediatrics (Ppredictors of inappropriate prescriptions were associated with: 1) cephalosporin prescriptions (adults: Ppediatrics: Ppediatrics: P=0.039, adj OR =0.73) compared to respiratory tract infections; 3) obtaining weight for pediatrics before the prescription of ATB (Pinfections.

Localization-based super-resolution imaging meets high-content screening.

Science.gov (United States)

Beghin, Anne; Kechkar, Adel; Butler, Corey; Levet, Florian; Cabillic, Marine; Rossier, Olivier; Giannone, Gregory; Galland, Rémi; Choquet, Daniel; Sibarita, Jean-Baptiste

2017-12-01

Single-molecule localization microscopy techniques have proven to be essential tools for quantitatively monitoring biological processes at unprecedented spatial resolution. However, these techniques are very low throughput and are not yet compatible with fully automated, multiparametric cellular assays. This shortcoming is primarily due to the huge amount of data generated during imaging and the lack of software for automation and dedicated data mining. We describe an automated quantitative single-molecule-based super-resolution methodology that operates in standard multiwell plates and uses analysis based on high-content screening and data-mining software. The workflow is compatible with fixed- and live-cell imaging and allows extraction of quantitative data like fluorophore photophysics, protein clustering or dynamic behavior of biomolecules. We demonstrate that the method is compatible with high-content screening using 3D dSTORM and DNA-PAINT based super-resolution microscopy as well as single-particle tracking.

Medical and Nonmedical Use of Prescription Opioids among High School Seniors in the United States

Science.gov (United States)

McCabe, Sean Esteban; West, Brady T.; Teter, Christian J.; Boyd, Carol J.

2012-01-01

Objective To determine the prevalence of medical and nonmedical use of prescription opioids among high school seniors in the United States, and to assess substance use behaviors based on medical and nonmedical use of prescription opioids. Design Nationally representative samples of high school seniors (modal age 18) were surveyed during the spring of their senior year via self-administered questionnaires. Setting Data were collected in public and private high schools. Participants The sample consisted of 7,374 students from three independent cohorts (2007-09). Main Outcome Measures Self-reports of medical and nonmedical use of prescription opioids and other substance use. Results An estimated 17.6% of high school seniors reported lifetime medical use of prescription opioids, while 12.9% reported nonmedical use of prescription opioids. Gender differences in the medical and nonmedical use were minimal, while racial/ethnic differences were extensive. Over 37% of nonmedical users reported intranasal administration of prescription opioids. An estimated 80% of nonmedical users with an earlier history of medical use had obtained prescription opioids from a prescription they had previously. The odds of substance use behaviors were greater among individuals who reported any history of nonmedical use of prescription opioids relative to those who reported medical use only. Conclusions Nearly one in every four high school seniors in the United States has ever had some exposure to prescription opioids either medically or nonmedically. The quantity of prescription opioids and number of refills prescribed to adolescents should be carefully considered and closely monitored to reduce subsequent nonmedical use of leftover medication. PMID:22566521

Lessons learned from health and fitness prescription: a Malaysian experience

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khalib A. Latiff

2007-03-01

Full Text Available Proportion of chronic diseases sufferers are increased by age. The usual control measures are therapeutic prescription and clinical counseling. However, its low compliance rate has interfered this effort. Therefore, community intervention can be a suitable prescriptive option to provide a long lasting effect. For that, a package of community intervention has been established in one sub-urban area in Malaysia to observe its acceptability, thus it can be acted as a social instrumentation to bring both biological and social benefits to this group of community. This study used quasi-experimental design on a cohort of elderly citizen aged 45 and above. Respondents are exposed to a mixed and planned prescribed fitness activity using participatory approach. Process involved in program implementation is closely observed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Community participation occurred in a positive and fast mode, with 78% being the elderly people aged above 45 years old. Initial observation revealed that about 47.6% suffering hypertension, while 38.4% hypercholesterolemia, 16.8% obese and 7.1% diabetes mellitus. Physically active members were moderate - about 31.0%. In term of process, participatory approach seems to be very effective to mobilize community towards health and fitness. A planned community fitness program is a form of social instrumentation to bring biological and social benefits to chronic diseases sufferers. It has also useful to promote favorable lifestyle and quality of life of this group of people. (Med J Indones 2007; 16:39-46 Keywords: community intervention, community participation, fitness program, disease burden

WE-E-17A-07: Patient-Specific Mathematical Neuro-Oncology: Biologically-Informed Radiation Therapy and Imaging Physics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Swanson, K; Corwin, D [Northwestern University, Chicago, IL (United States); Rockne, R

2014-06-15

Purpose: To demonstrate a method of generating patient-specific, biologically-guided radiation therapy (RT) plans and to quantify and predict response to RT in glioblastoma. We investigate the biological correlates and imaging physics driving T2-MRI based response to radiation therapy using an MRI simulator. Methods: We have integrated a patient-specific biomathematical model of glioblastoma proliferation, invasion and radiotherapy with a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm for intensity-modulated RT optimization to construct individualized, biologically-guided plans. Patient-individualized simulations of the standard-of-care and optimized plans are compared in terms of several biological metrics quantified on MRI. An extension of the PI model is used to investigate the role of angiogenesis and its correlates in glioma response to therapy with the Proliferation-Invasion-Hypoxia- Necrosis-Angiogenesis model (PIHNA). The PIHNA model is used with a brain tissue phantom to predict tumor-induced vasogenic edema, tumor and tissue density that is used in a multi-compartmental MRI signal equation for generation of simulated T2- weighted MRIs. Results: Applying a novel metric of treatment response (Days Gained) to the patient-individualized simulation results predicted that the optimized RT plans would have a significant impact on delaying tumor progression, with Days Gained increases from 21% to 105%. For the T2- MRI simulations, initial validation tests compared average simulated T2 values for white matter, tumor, and peripheral edema to values cited in the literature. Simulated results closely match the characteristic T2 value for each tissue. Conclusion: Patient-individualized simulations using the combination of a biomathematical model with an optimization algorithm for RT generated biologically-guided doses that decreased normal tissue dose and increased therapeutic ratio with the potential to improve survival outcomes for treatment of glioblastoma. Simulated T2-MRI

WE-E-17A-07: Patient-Specific Mathematical Neuro-Oncology: Biologically-Informed Radiation Therapy and Imaging Physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Swanson, K; Corwin, D; Rockne, R

2014-01-01

Purpose: To demonstrate a method of generating patient-specific, biologically-guided radiation therapy (RT) plans and to quantify and predict response to RT in glioblastoma. We investigate the biological correlates and imaging physics driving T2-MRI based response to radiation therapy using an MRI simulator. Methods: We have integrated a patient-specific biomathematical model of glioblastoma proliferation, invasion and radiotherapy with a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm for intensity-modulated RT optimization to construct individualized, biologically-guided plans. Patient-individualized simulations of the standard-of-care and optimized plans are compared in terms of several biological metrics quantified on MRI. An extension of the PI model is used to investigate the role of angiogenesis and its correlates in glioma response to therapy with the Proliferation-Invasion-Hypoxia- Necrosis-Angiogenesis model (PIHNA). The PIHNA model is used with a brain tissue phantom to predict tumor-induced vasogenic edema, tumor and tissue density that is used in a multi-compartmental MRI signal equation for generation of simulated T2- weighted MRIs. Results: Applying a novel metric of treatment response (Days Gained) to the patient-individualized simulation results predicted that the optimized RT plans would have a significant impact on delaying tumor progression, with Days Gained increases from 21% to 105%. For the T2- MRI simulations, initial validation tests compared average simulated T2 values for white matter, tumor, and peripheral edema to values cited in the literature. Simulated results closely match the characteristic T2 value for each tissue. Conclusion: Patient-individualized simulations using the combination of a biomathematical model with an optimization algorithm for RT generated biologically-guided doses that decreased normal tissue dose and increased therapeutic ratio with the potential to improve survival outcomes for treatment of glioblastoma. Simulated T2-MRI

Genetic testing for exercise prescription and injury prevention: AIS-Athlome consortium-FIMS joint statement.

Science.gov (United States)

Vlahovich, Nicole; Hughes, David C; Griffiths, Lyn R; Wang, Guan; Pitsiladis, Yannis P; Pigozzi, Fabio; Bachl, Nobert; Eynon, Nir

2017-11-14

There has been considerable growth in basic knowledge and understanding of how genes are influencing response to exercise training and predisposition to injuries and chronic diseases. On the basis of this knowledge, clinical genetic tests may in the future allow the personalisation and optimisation of physical activity, thus providing an avenue for increased efficiency of exercise prescription for health and disease. This review provides an overview of the current status of genetic testing for the purposes of exercise prescription and injury prevention. As such there are a variety of potential uses for genetic testing, including identification of risks associated with participation in sport and understanding individual response to particular types of exercise. However, there are many challenges remaining before genetic testing has evidence-based practical applications; including adoption of international standards for genomics research, as well as resistance against the agendas driven by direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies. Here we propose a way forward to develop an evidence-based approach to support genetic testing for exercise prescription and injury prevention. Based on current knowledge, there is no current clinical application for genetic testing in the area of exercise prescription and injury prevention, however the necessary steps are outlined for the development of evidence-based clinical applications involving genetic testing.

TU-AB-303-10: KVCBCT, MVCBCT and MVCT On-Board Imaging Suitability for An Urgent Radiotherapy Treatment Workflow

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Held, M; Morin, O; Pouliot, J [UC San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (United States)

2015-06-15

Purpose: A comparison of image quality and dose calculation accuracy to study the suitability of available on-board imaging systems for a new treatment workflow in emergency radiotherapy situations. Methods: Water and anthropomorphic phantom images were acquired on four different Linac on-board imaging systems, including kVCBCT (Varian TrueBeam and Elekta VersaHD), MVCBCT (Siemens Artiste) and MVCT (Accuray Tomotherapy). Simple treatments of single or opposed beams were planned on the respective kVCT images and copied to all CT images. Image suitability for dose planning was based on the overall mean dose differences and 3D gamma index with 3%/3mm criteria for a prescription of 100 monitor units (MU) and differences in calculated MUs per plan for dose prescriptions to mid-plane. Results: TrueBeam kVCBCT and Tomotherapy MVCT images produced most accurate dose calculation for all tested cases (γ-index >95%). MVCBCT and VersaHD kVCBCT images resulted in minimum γ-passing rates of 94% and 87%, respectively. MUs calculated from treatment plans prescribed to mid-plane were within differences of 5% relative to kVCT-based plans in all cases. However, VersaHD images showed considerable local image artifacts in the pelvis water and anthropomorphic neck phantom that complicated accurate Hounsfield unit (HU) to electron density conversion, thus causing local dose differences of more than 10% relative to kVCT-based dose distributions. Conclusion: TrueBeam kVCBCT, MVCBCT and MVCT systems provide image quality that allows for accurate simple treatment plan calculation. Prescription points should be placed away from areas found to cause local dose discrepancies, such as air cavities. Improved image filter settings and HU-to-electron density calibration adjustments may be required for the VersaHD system to obtain an overall accurate dose distribution. To evaluate a system’s overall suitability, its clinical features also require consideration, such as imaging field of view

A Proposed Computed Tomography Contrast Agent Using Carboxybetaine Zwitterionic Tantalum Oxide Nanoparticles: Imaging, Biological, and Physicochemical Performance.

Science.gov (United States)

FitzGerald, Paul F; Butts, Matthew D; Roberts, Jeannette C; Colborn, Robert E; Torres, Andrew S; Lee, Brian D; Yeh, Benjamin M; Bonitatibus, Peter J

2016-12-01

The aim of this study was to produce and evaluate a proposed computed tomography (CT) contrast agent based on carboxybetaine zwitterionic (CZ)-coated soluble tantalum oxide (TaO) nanoparticles (NPs). We chose tantalum to provide superior imaging performance compared with current iodine-based clinical CT contrast agents. We developed the CZ coating to provide biological and physical performance similar to that of current iodinated contrast agents. In addition, the aim of this study was to evaluate the imaging, biological, and physicochemical performance of this proposed contrast agent compared with clinically used iodinated agents. We evaluated CT imaging performance of our CZ-TaO NPs compared with that of an iodinated agent in live rats, imaged centrally located within a tissue-equivalent plastic phantom that simulated a large patient. To evaluate vascular contrast enhancement, we scanned the rats' great vessels at high temporal resolution during and after contrast agent injection. We performed several in vivo CZ-TaO NP studies in healthy rats to evaluate tolerability. These studies included injecting the agent at the anticipated clinical dose (ACD) and at 3 times and 6 times the ACD, followed by longitudinal hematology to assess impact to blood cells and organ function (from 4 hours to 1 week). Kidney histological analysis was performed 48 hours after injection at 3 times the ACD. We measured the elimination half-life of CZ-TaO NPs from blood, and we monitored acute kidney injury biomarkers with a kidney injury assay using urine collected from 4 hours to 1 week. We measured tantalum retention in individual organs and in the whole carcass 48 hours after injection at ACD. Carboxybetaine zwitterionic TaO NPs were synthesized and analyzed in detail. We used multidimensional nuclear magnetic resonance to determine surface functionality of the NPs. We measured NP size and solution properties (osmolality and viscosity) of the agent over a range of tantalum concentrations

IMAGE DESCRIPTIONS FOR SKETCH BASED IMAGE RETRIEVAL

OpenAIRE

SAAVEDRA RONDO, JOSE MANUEL; SAAVEDRA RONDO, JOSE MANUEL

2008-01-01

Due to the massive use of Internet together with the proliferation of media devices, content based image retrieval has become an active discipline in computer science. A common content based image retrieval approach requires that the user gives a regular image (e.g, a photo) as a query. However, having a regular image as query may be a serious problem. Indeed, people commonly use an image retrieval system because they do not count on the desired image. An easy alternative way t...

THz imaging of majolica tiles and biological attached marble fragments

Science.gov (United States)

Catapano, Ilaria; Soldovieri, Francesco

2016-04-01

Devices exploiting waves in the frequency range from 0.1 THz to 10 THz (corresponding to a free-space wavelength ranging from 30 μm to 3 mm) deserve attention as diagnostic technologies for cultural heritage. THz waves are, indeed, non-ionizing radiations capable of penetrating into non-metallic materials, which are opaque to both visible and infrared waves, without implying long term risks to the molecular stability of the exposed objects and humans. Moreover, THz surveys involve low poewr probing waves, are performed without contact with the object and, thanks to the recent developments, which have allowed the commercialization of compact, flexible and portable systems, maybe performed in loco (i.e. in the place where the artworks are usually located). On the other hand, THz devices can be considered as the youngest among the sensing and imaging electromagnetic techniques and their actual potentialities in terms of characterization of artworks is an ongoing research activity. As a contribution within this context, we have performed time of flight THz imaging [1,2] on ceramic and marble objects. In particular, we surveyed majolica tiles produced by Neapolitan ceramists in the 18th and 19th centuries with the aim to gather information on their structure, constructive technique and conservation state. Moreover, we investigated a Marmo di Candoglia fragment in order to characterize the biological attach affecting it. All the surveys were carried out by using the Fiber-Coupled Terahertz Time Domain System (FICO) developed by Z-Omega and available at the Institute of Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment (IREA). This system is equipped with fiber optic coupled transmitting and receiving probes and with an automatic positioning system enabling to scan a 150 mm x 150 mm area under a reflection measurement configuration. Based on the obtained results we can state that the use of THz waves allows: - the reconstruction of the object topography; - the geometrical

Research of second harmonic generation images based on texture analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yao; Li, Yan; Gong, Haiming; Zhu, Xiaoqin; Huang, Zufang; Chen, Guannan

2014-09-01

Texture analysis plays a crucial role in identifying objects or regions of interest in an image. It has been applied to a variety of medical image processing, ranging from the detection of disease and the segmentation of specific anatomical structures, to differentiation between healthy and pathological tissues. Second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy as a potential noninvasive tool for imaging biological tissues has been widely used in medicine, with reduced phototoxicity and photobleaching. In this paper, we clarified the principles of texture analysis including statistical, transform, structural and model-based methods and gave examples of its applications, reviewing studies of the technique. Moreover, we tried to apply texture analysis to the SHG images for the differentiation of human skin scar tissues. Texture analysis method based on local binary pattern (LBP) and wavelet transform was used to extract texture features of SHG images from collagen in normal and abnormal scars, and then the scar SHG images were classified into normal or abnormal ones. Compared with other texture analysis methods with respect to the receiver operating characteristic analysis, LBP combined with wavelet transform was demonstrated to achieve higher accuracy. It can provide a new way for clinical diagnosis of scar types. At last, future development of texture analysis in SHG images were discussed.

The Effects of Bairesi Complex Prescription (a Uyghur Medicine Prescription and Its Five Crude Herbal Extracts on Melanogenesis in G-361 Cells

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xuedan Huang

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Vitiligo is considered a preimmune stage of a disease that is not well clarified. This condition is difficult to treat because there is no definite cure. Uyghur medicine is an important part of traditional Chinese medicine. There are many types of prescriptions that are used for the treatment of vitiligo. Bairesi complex prescription is one of the active prescriptions for vitiligo that is used in the clinic. However, the intensities of melanogenesis due to uses of Bairesi complex prescription and its five constituent crude herbs have not been reported yet. In the present study, we found that the hot water extracts of Bairesi complex prescription and the crude herbs were more effective in eliciting melanin production in G-361 cells than the EtOH extracts. Furthermore, the Bairesi complex prescription exhibited less cytotoxicity and was more effective in melanin formation than the five crude herbal extracts. In the present study, we also discuss the mechanisms of melanogenesis due to the use of the Bairesi complex prescription and its single crude herbal extracts.

Concurrent new drug prescriptions and prognosis of early breast cancer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cronin-Fenton, Deirdre; Lash, Timothy L; Ahern, Thomas P

2018-01-01

Breast Cancer Group (DBCG) clinical database provides high-quality prospectively collected data on breast cancer diagnosis, treatment, and routine follow-up for breast cancer recurrence. Individual-level linkage of DBCG data to other population-based and medical registries in Denmark, including......BACKGROUND: Myriad reports suggest that frequently used prescription drugs alter the viability of breast cancer cells in pre-clinical studies. Routine use of these drugs, therefore, may impact breast cancer prognosis, and could have important implications for public health. METHODS: The Danish...... the Danish National Prescription Registry, has facilitated large population-based pharmacoepidemiology studies. A unique advantage of using DBCG data for such studies is the ability to investigate the association of drugs with breast cancer recurrence rather than breast cancer mortality - which may...

Drug-drug interactions in prescriptions for hospitalized elderly with Acute Coronary Syndrome

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tiago Aparecido Maschio de Lima

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The objective was to determine the rate of potential drug-drug interactions in prescriptions for elderly diagnosed with Acute Coronary Syndrome in a teaching hospital. This is an exploratory, descriptive study that analyzed 607 prescriptions through databases to identify and classify the interactions based on intensity (major, moderate or minor, the mechanism (pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamics and documentation relevance. We detected 10,162 drug-drug interactions, distributed in 554 types of different combinations within the prescribed drugs, and 99% of prescriptions presented at least one and a maximum of 53 interactions; highlighting the prevalence of major and moderates ones. There was a correlation between the number of drug-drug interactions and the number of prescribed drugs and the hospitalization time. This study contributes for the delimitation of a prevalence pattern in drug-drug interactions in prescriptions for Acute Coronary Syndrome, besides subsidizing the importance of the effective implementation of the Clinical Pharmacy in teaching hospitals.

Piling Pills? Forward-Looking Behavior and Stockpiling of Prescription Drugs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Simonsen, Marianne; Skipper, Lars; Skipper, Niels

This paper provides evidence of forward-looking behavior in the demand for prescription drugs, while relying on registry-based, individual-level information about the universe of Danish prescription drug purchases from 1995–2014. We exploit a universal shift in policy in early 2000 from a flat......-rate to a non-linear insurance plan for prescription drugs that incentivizes stockpiling at the end of the coverage year. We extend the original framework of Keeler et al. (1977) and discuss how the institutional features of most health insurance contracts, at least theoretically, incentivize intertemporal...... immediately prior to the end-of-year reset in the non-linear plan using a difference-in-difference strategy. We provide evidence that consumers react to this reset by stockpiling toward the end of the coverage year: consumers buy what amounts to an additional 20%. We detect heterogeneity in the size...

Preventing Prescription Drug Overdose PSA (:60)

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

2014-07-01

This 60 second public service announcement is based on the July 2014 CDC Vital Signs report. Every day, 46 people in the U.S. die from an overdose of prescription opioid painkillers. Learn what can be done to make painkiller prescribing safer and help prevent overdoses.  Created: 7/1/2014 by National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD).   Date Released: 7/1/2014.

Use of synchrotron-based diffraction-enhanced imaging for visualization of soft tissues in invertebrates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rao, Donepudi V.; Swapna, Medasani; Cesareo, Roberto; Brunetti, Antonio; Zhong, Zhong; Akatsuka, Takao; Yuasa, Tetsuya; Takeda, Tohoru; Gigante, Giovanni E.

2010-01-01

Images of terrestrial and marine invertebrates (snails and bivalves) have been obtained by using an X-ray phase-contrast imaging technique, namely, synchrotron-based diffraction-enhanced imaging. Synchrotron X-rays of 20, 30 and 40 keV were used, which penetrate deep enough into animal soft tissues. The phase of X-ray photons shifts slightly as they traverse an object, such as animal soft tissue, and interact with its atoms. Biological features, such as shell morphology and animal physiology, have been visualized. The contrast of the images obtained at 40 keV is the best. This optimum energy provided a clear view of the internal structural organization of the soft tissue with better contrast. The contrast is higher at edges of internal soft-tissue structures. The image improvements achieved with the diffraction-enhanced imaging technique are due to extinction, i.e., elimination of ultra-small-angle scattering. They enabled us to identify a few embedded internal shell features, such as the origin of the apex, which is the firmly attached region of the soft tissue connecting the umbilicus to the external morphology. Diffraction-enhanced imaging can provide high-quality images of soft tissues valuable for biology.

Use of synchrotron-based diffraction-enhanced imaging for visualization of soft tissues in invertebrates

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rao, Donepudi V., E-mail: donepudi_venkateswararao@rediffmail.co [Istituto di Matematica e Fisica, Universita degli Studi di Sassari, Via Vienna 2, 07100 Sassari (Italy); Swapna, Medasani, E-mail: medasanisw@gmail.co [Istituto di Matematica e Fisica, Universita degli Studi di Sassari, Via Vienna 2, 07100 Sassari (Italy); Cesareo, Roberto; Brunetti, Antonio [Istituto di Matematica e Fisica, Universita degli Studi di Sassari, Via Vienna 2, 07100 Sassari (Italy); Zhong, Zhong [National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973 (United States); Akatsuka, Takao; Yuasa, Tetsuya [Department of Bio-System Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Yamagata University, Yonezawa-shi, Yamagata-992-8510 (Japan); Takeda, Tohoru [Allied Health Science, Kitasato University 1-15-1 Kitasato, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 228-8555 (Japan); Gigante, Giovanni E. [Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita di Roma, La Sapienza, 00185 Roma (Italy)

2010-09-15

Images of terrestrial and marine invertebrates (snails and bivalves) have been obtained by using an X-ray phase-contrast imaging technique, namely, synchrotron-based diffraction-enhanced imaging. Synchrotron X-rays of 20, 30 and 40 keV were used, which penetrate deep enough into animal soft tissues. The phase of X-ray photons shifts slightly as they traverse an object, such as animal soft tissue, and interact with its atoms. Biological features, such as shell morphology and animal physiology, have been visualized. The contrast of the images obtained at 40 keV is the best. This optimum energy provided a clear view of the internal structural organization of the soft tissue with better contrast. The contrast is higher at edges of internal soft-tissue structures. The image improvements achieved with the diffraction-enhanced imaging technique are due to extinction, i.e., elimination of ultra-small-angle scattering. They enabled us to identify a few embedded internal shell features, such as the origin of the apex, which is the firmly attached region of the soft tissue connecting the umbilicus to the external morphology. Diffraction-enhanced imaging can provide high-quality images of soft tissues valuable for biology.

Agent-based modelling in synthetic biology.

Science.gov (United States)

Gorochowski, Thomas E

2016-11-30

Biological systems exhibit complex behaviours that emerge at many different levels of organization. These span the regulation of gene expression within single cells to the use of quorum sensing to co-ordinate the action of entire bacterial colonies. Synthetic biology aims to make the engineering of biology easier, offering an opportunity to control natural systems and develop new synthetic systems with useful prescribed behaviours. However, in many cases, it is not understood how individual cells should be programmed to ensure the emergence of a required collective behaviour. Agent-based modelling aims to tackle this problem, offering a framework in which to simulate such systems and explore cellular design rules. In this article, I review the use of agent-based models in synthetic biology, outline the available computational tools, and provide details on recently engineered biological systems that are amenable to this approach. I further highlight the challenges facing this methodology and some of the potential future directions. © 2016 The Author(s).

Description, prescription and the choice of discount rates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baum, Seth D.

2009-01-01

The choice of discount rates is a key issue in the analysis of long-term societal issues, in particular environmental issues such as climate change. Approaches to choosing discount rates are generally placed into two categories: the descriptive approach and the prescriptive approach. The descriptive approach is often justified on grounds that it uses a description of how society discounts instead of having analysts impose their own discounting views on society. This paper analyzes the common forms of the descriptive and prescriptive approaches and finds that, in contrast with customary thinking, both forms are equally descriptive and prescriptive. The prescriptions concern who has standing (i.e. who is included) in society, how the views of these individuals are measured, and how the measurements are aggregated. Such prescriptions are necessary to choose from among the many possible descriptions of how society discounts. The descriptions are the measurements made given a choice of measurement technique. Thus, the labels 'descriptive approach' and 'prescriptive approach' are deeply misleading, as analysts cannot avoid imposing their own views on society. (author)

Effect of EHR user interface changes on internal prescription discrepancies.

Science.gov (United States)

Turchin, A; Sawarkar, A; Dementieva, Y A; Breydo, E; Ramelson, H

2014-01-01

To determine whether specific design interventions (changes in the user interface (UI)) of an electronic health record (EHR) medication module are associated with an increase or decrease in the incidence of contradictions between the structured and narrative components of electronic prescriptions (internal prescription discrepancies). We performed a retrospective analysis of 960,000 randomly selected electronic prescriptions generated in a single EHR between 01/2004 and 12/2011. Internal prescription discrepancies were identified using a validated natural language processing tool with recall of 76% and precision of 84%. A multivariable autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model was used to evaluate the effect of five UI changes in the EHR medication module on incidence of internal prescription discrepancies. Over the study period 175,725 (18.4%) prescriptions were found to have internal discrepancies. The highest rate of prescription discrepancies was observed in March 2006 (22.5%) and the lowest in March 2009 (15.0%). Addition of "as directed" option to the dropdown decreased prescription discrepancies by 195 / month (p = 0.0004). An non-interruptive alert that reminded providers to ensure that structured and narrative components did not contradict each other decreased prescription discrepancies by 145 / month (p = 0.03). Addition of a "Renew / Sign" button to the Medication module (a negative control) did not have an effect in prescription discrepancies. Several UI changes in the electronic medication module were effective in reducing the incidence of internal prescription discrepancies. Further research is needed to identify interventions that can completely eliminate this type of prescription error and their effects on patient outcomes.

Audit of carbapenem prescriptions comparing 2 assessment periods.

Science.gov (United States)

Lefébure, A; Papy, E; Rioux, C; Diamantis, S; Armand-Lefèvre, L; Longuet, P; Lescure, F X; Wolff, M; Arnaud, P; Lucet, J C

2015-07-01

The emergence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producing Enterobacteriaceae has resulted in the increase of carbapenem prescriptions. The objective of our study was to determine the appropriateness of carbapenem prescriptions from initiation to reassessment of treatment, between 2009 and 2011. A questionnaire drafted by infectious diseases specialists (IDS) and microbiologists was used to collect clinical and microbiological data concerning carbapenem prescriptions in 2009 and 2011. An IDS then compared the results to assess carbapenem prescription compliance with our hospital's local recommendations. Seventy-one prescriptions were included in 2009 and 32 in 2011. The carbapenem treatment had been most frequently probabilistic to treat nosocomial infections. The microbiological data revealed that the number of multidrug-resistant (MDR) infections had increased between 2009 and 2011, especially infections involving ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae. At treatment reassessment, in 2009 and 2011, 15 (21%) and 12 (38%) carbapenem prescriptions were appropriate and continued. Overall, when comparing the 2 periods, prescriptions complied with local guidelines from initiation to reassessment of treatment without any statistically significant difference (68% in 2009 and 75% in 2011). Our study results showed that MDR infections had increased and especially infections due to ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae; this was consistent with epidemiological data. We also proved that most carbapenem prescriptions were compliant with recommendations. The increased mobile IDS interventions in medical and surgical departments helped reach this rate of compliance. Carbapenem stewardship may be promoted even in a difficult epidemiological context, especially with IDS interventions for the duration of treatment or at treatment reassessment. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Perceived barriers, benefits, and motives for physical activity: two primary-care physical activity prescription programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Patel, Asmita; Schofield, Grant M; Kolt, Gregory S; Keogh J, W L

2013-01-01

This study examined whether perceived barriers, benefits, and motives for physical activity differed based on allocation to 2 different types of primary-care activity-prescription programs (pedometer-based vs. time-based Green Prescription). Eighty participants from the Healthy Steps study completed a questionnaire that assessed their perceived barriers, benefits, and motives for physical activity. Factor analysis was carried out to identify common themes of barriers, benefits, and motives for physical activity. Factor scores were then used to explore between-groups differences for perceived barriers, benefits, and motives based on group allocation and demographic variables. No significant differences were found in factor scores based on allocation. Demographic variables relating to the existence of chronic health conditions, weight status, and older age were found to significantly influence perceived barriers, benefits, and motives for physical activity. Findings suggest that the addition of a pedometer to the standard Green Prescription does not appear to increase perceived motives or benefits or decrease perceived barriers for physical activity in low-active older adults.

Clinically Applicable Monte Carlo–based Biological Dose Optimization for the Treatment of Head and Neck Cancers With Spot-Scanning Proton Therapy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wan Chan Tseung, Hok Seum, E-mail: wanchantseung.hok@mayo.edu; Ma, Jiasen; Kreofsky, Cole R.; Ma, Daniel J.; Beltran, Chris

2016-08-01

Purpose: Our aim is to demonstrate the feasibility of fast Monte Carlo (MC)–based inverse biological planning for the treatment of head and neck tumors in spot-scanning proton therapy. Methods and Materials: Recently, a fast and accurate graphics processor unit (GPU)–based MC simulation of proton transport was developed and used as the dose-calculation engine in a GPU-accelerated intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT) optimizer. Besides dose, the MC can simultaneously score the dose-averaged linear energy transfer (LET{sub d}), which makes biological dose (BD) optimization possible. To convert from LET{sub d} to BD, a simple linear relation was assumed. By use of this novel optimizer, inverse biological planning was applied to 4 patients, including 2 small and 1 large thyroid tumor targets, as well as 1 glioma case. To create these plans, constraints were placed to maintain the physical dose (PD) within 1.25 times the prescription while maximizing target BD. For comparison, conventional intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and IMPT plans were also created using Eclipse (Varian Medical Systems) in each case. The same critical-structure PD constraints were used for the IMRT, IMPT, and biologically optimized plans. The BD distributions for the IMPT plans were obtained through MC recalculations. Results: Compared with standard IMPT, the biologically optimal plans for patients with small tumor targets displayed a BD escalation that was around twice the PD increase. Dose sparing to critical structures was improved compared with both IMRT and IMPT. No significant BD increase could be achieved for the large thyroid tumor case and when the presence of critical structures mitigated the contribution of additional fields. The calculation of the biologically optimized plans can be completed in a clinically viable time (<30 minutes) on a small 24-GPU system. Conclusions: By exploiting GPU acceleration, MC-based, biologically optimized plans were created for

Subtypes of nonmedical prescription drug misuse

Science.gov (United States)

McCabe, Sean Esteban; Boyd, Carol J.; Teter, Christian J.

2010-01-01

This study used three characteristics (i.e., motive, route of administration, and co-ingestion with alcohol) of nonmedical prescription drug misuse across four separate classes (i.e., pain, sedative/anxiety, sleeping and stimulant medications) to examine subtypes and drug related problems. A Web survey was self-administered by a randomly selected sample of 3,639 undergraduate students attending a large Midwestern 4-year U.S. university. Self-treatment subtypes were characterized by motives consistent with the prescription drug's pharmaceutical main indication, oral only routes of administration, and no co-ingestion with alcohol. Recreational subtypes were characterized by recreational motives, oral or non-oral routes, and co-ingestion. Mixed subtypes consisted of other combinations of motives, routes, and co-ingestion. Among those who reported nonmedical prescription drug misuse, approximately 13% were classified into the recreational subtype, while 39% were in the self-treatment subtype, and 48% were in the mixed subtype. There were significant differences in the subtypes in terms of gender, race and prescription drug class. Approximately 50% of those in subtypes other than self-treatment screened positive for drug abuse. The odds of substance use and abuse were generally lower among self-treatment subtypes than other subtypes. The findings indicate subtypes should be considered when examining nonmedical prescription drug misuse, especially for pain medication. PMID:19278795

A Scientific Rationale to Improve Resistance Training Prescription in Exercise Oncology.

Science.gov (United States)

Fairman, Ciaran M; Zourdos, Michael C; Helms, Eric R; Focht, Brian C

2017-08-01

To date, the prevailing evidence in the field of exercise oncology supports the safety and efficacy of resistance training to attenuate many oncology treatment-related adverse effects, such as risk for cardiovascular disease, increased fatigue, and diminished physical functioning and quality of life. Moreover, findings in the extant literature supporting the benefits of exercise for survivors of and patients with cancer have resulted in the release of exercise guidelines from several international agencies. However, despite research progression and international recognition, current exercise oncology-based exercise prescriptions remain relatively basic and underdeveloped, particularly in regards to resistance training. Recent publications have called for a more precise manipulation of training variables such as volume, intensity, and frequency (i.e., periodization), given the large heterogeneity of a cancer population, to truly optimize clinically relevant patient-reported outcomes. Indeed, increased attention to integrating fundamental principles of exercise physiology into the exercise prescription process could optimize the safety and efficacy of resistance training during cancer care. The purpose of this article is to give an overview of the current state of resistance training prescription and discuss novel methods that can contribute to improving approaches to exercise prescription. We hope this article may facilitate further evaluation of best practice regarding resistance training prescription, monitoring, and modification to ultimately optimize the efficacy of integrating resistance training as a supportive care intervention for survivors or and patients with cancer.

Antibiotic prescription strategies for acute sore throat: a prospective observational cohort study.

Science.gov (United States)

Little, Paul; Stuart, Beth; Hobbs, F D Richard; Butler, Chris C; Hay, Alastair D; Delaney, Brendan; Campbell, John; Broomfield, Sue; Barratt, Paula; Hood, Kerenza; Everitt, Hazel; Mullee, Mark; Williamson, Ian; Mant, David; Moore, Michael

2014-03-01

Data from trials suggest that antibiotics reduce the risk of complications of sore throat by at least 50%, but few trials for complications have been done in modern settings, and datasets of delayed antibiotic prescription are underpowered. Observational evidence is important in view of poor compliance with antibiotic treatment outside trials, but no prospective observational cohort studies have been done to date. We generated a large prospective cohort from the DESCARTE study, and the PRISM component of DESCARTE, of 12,829 adults presenting with sore throat (≤ 2 weeks duration) in primary care. Our follow-up of the cohort was based on a detailed and structured review of routine medical records, and analysis of the comparison of three antibiotic prescription strategies (no antibiotic prescription, immediate antibiotic prescription, and delayed antibiotic prescription) to control for the propensity to prescribe antibiotics. Information about antibiotic prescription was recorded in 12,677 individuals (4805 prescribed no antibiotics, 6088 prescribed antibiotics immediately, and 1784 prescribed delayed antibiotics). We documented by review of patients' notes (n=11,950) the development of suppurative complications (eg, quinsy, impetigo and cellulitis, otitis media, and sinusitis) or reconsultation with new or non-resolving symptoms). We used multivariate analysis to control for variables significantly related to the propensity to prescribe antibiotics and for clustering by general practitioner. 164 (1.4%) of the 11,950 patients with information available developed complications; otitis media and sinusitis were the most common complications (101 patients [62%]). Compared with no antibiotic prescription, immediate antibiotic prescription was associated with fewer complications (adjusted risk ratio [RR] 0.62, 95% CI 0.43-0.91, estimated number needed to treat [NNT 193) as was delayed prescription of antibiotics (0.58, 0.34-0.98; NNT 174). 1787 of the 11,950 patients (15

Phase-coded multi-pulse technique for ultrasonic high-order harmonic imaging of biological tissues in vitro

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ma Qingyu; Zhang Dong; Gong Xiufen; Ma Yong

2007-01-01

Second or higher order harmonic imaging shows significant improvement in image clarity but is degraded by low signal-noise ratio (SNR) compared with fundamental imaging. This paper presents a phase-coded multi-pulse technique to provide the enhancement of SNR for the desired high-order harmonic ultrasonic imaging. In this technique, with N phase-coded pulses excitation, the received Nth harmonic signal is enhanced by 20 log 10 N dB compared with that in the single-pulse mode, whereas the fundamental and other order harmonic components are efficiently suppressed to reduce image confusion. The principle of this technique is theoretically discussed based on the theory of the finite amplitude sound waves, and examined by measurements of the axial and lateral beam profiles as well as the phase shift of the harmonics. In the experimental imaging for two biological tissue specimens, a plane piston source at 2 MHz is used to transmit a sequence of multiple pulses with equidistant phase shift. The second to fifth harmonic images are obtained using this technique with N = 2 to 5, and compared with the images obtained at the fundamental frequency. Results demonstrate that this technique of relying on higher order harmonics seems to provide a better resolution and contrast of ultrasonic images

The application of near-infrared spectra micro-image in the imaging analysis of biology samples

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Dong Wang

2014-07-01

Full Text Available In this research, suitable imaging methods were used for acquiring single compound images of biology samples of chicken pectorales tissue section, tobacco dry leaf, fresh leaf and plant glandular hair, respectively. The adverse effects caused by the high water content and the thermal effect of near infrared (NIR light were effectively solved during the experiment procedures and the data processing. PCA algorithm was applied to the NIR micro-image of chicken pectorales tissue. Comparing the loading vector of PC3 with the NIR spectrum of dry albumen, the information of PC3 was confirmed to be provided mainly by protein, i.e., the 3rd score image represents the distribution trend of protein mainly. PCA algorithm was applied to the NIR micro-image of tobacco dry leaf. The information of PC2 was confirmed to be provided by carbohydrate including starch mainly. Compared to the 2nd score image of tobacco dry leaf, the compared correlation image with the reference spectrum of starch had the same distribution trend as the 2nd score image. The comparative correlation images with the reference spectra of protein, glucose, fructose and the total plant alkaloid were acquired to confirm the distribution trend of these compounds in tobacco dry leaf respectively. Comparative correlation images of fresh leaf with the reference spectra of protein, starch, fructose, glucose and water were acquired to confirm the distribution trend of these compounds in fresh leaf. Chemimap imaging of plant glandular hair was acquired to show the tubular structure clearly.

Carbon nanotubes allow capture of krypton, barium and lead for multichannel biological X-ray fluorescence imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Serpell, Christopher J; Rutte, Reida N; Geraki, Kalotina; Pach, Elzbieta; Martincic, Markus; Kierkowicz, Magdalena; De Munari, Sonia; Wals, Kim; Raj, Ritu; Ballesteros, Belén; Tobias, Gerard; Anthony, Daniel C; Davis, Benjamin G

2016-10-26

The desire to study biology in situ has been aided by many imaging techniques. Among these, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) mapping permits observation of elemental distributions in a multichannel manner. However, XRF imaging is underused, in part, because of the difficulty in interpreting maps without an underlying cellular 'blueprint'; this could be supplied using contrast agents. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can be filled with a wide range of inorganic materials, and thus can be used as 'contrast agents' if biologically absent elements are encapsulated. Here we show that sealed single-walled CNTs filled with lead, barium and even krypton can be produced, and externally decorated with peptides to provide affinity for sub-cellular targets. The agents are able to highlight specific organelles in multiplexed XRF mapping, and are, in principle, a general and versatile tool for this, and other modes of biological imaging.

Overdosed prescription of paracetamol (acetaminophen) in a teaching hospital.

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Charpiat, B; Henry, A; Leboucher, G; Tod, M; Allenet, B

2012-07-01

Paracetamol is the most commonly used analgesic and antipyretic. Reviews of hospital use of paracetamol are scarce. Little is known about the appropriateness of the dose of paracetamol prescribed for hospitalized adults. The aim of this study was to report on the nature and the frequency of the overdosed prescription of paracetamol observed in adult patients over a 4.5-year period in a teaching hospital. Prescription analysis by pharmacists was performed once a week in six medical and three surgical departments and daily in a post-emergency unit. In cases of prescription error, the pharmacist notified the physician through an electronic alert when a computerized prescription order entry system was available or otherwise by face-to-face discussion. For each drug-related problem detected, the pharmacists recorded relevant details in a database. From October 2006 to April 2011, 44,404 prescriptions were reviewed and 480 alerts related to the overdosed prescription of paracetamol were made (1% of analyzed prescriptions). The extent of errors of dosage was within the intervals [90-120 mg/kg/d] and greater than 120 mg/kg/d for 87 and 11 patients respectively, who were prescribed a single non-combination paracetamol containing product. Sixty alerts concerned co-prescription of at least two paracetamol containing products with similar frequency for computerized (1.4/1000) or handwritten (1.2/1000) prescriptions. Prescriptions of paracetamol for hospitalized adults frequently exceed the recommended dosage. These results highlight the need for increased awareness of unintentional paracetamol overdose and support the initiation of an educational program aimed at physicians and nurses. Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

Prescription analysis of pediatric outpatient practice in Nagpur city

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Pandey Anuja

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Medication errors are probably one of the most common types of medical errors, as medication is the most common health-care intervention. Knowing where and when errors are most likely to occur is generally felt to be the first step in trying to prevent these errors. Objective: To study prescribing patterns and errors in pediatric OPD prescriptions presenting to four community pharmacies across Nagpur city and to compare the prescription error rates across prescriber profiles. Materials and Methods: The study sample included 1376 valid pediatric OPD prescriptions presenting to four randomly selected community pharmacies in Nagpur, collected over a period of 2 months. Confirmed errors in the prescriptions were reviewed and analyzed. The core indicators for drug utilization studies, mentioned by WHO, were used to define errors. Results: The 1376 prescriptions included in the study were for a total of 3435 drugs, prescribed by 41 doctors. Fixed dose formulations dominated the prescribing pattern, many of which were irrational. Prescribing by market name was almost universal and generic prescriptions were for merely 254 (7.4% drugs. The prescribing pattern also indicated polypharmacy with the average number of drugs per encounter of 2.5. Antibiotics were included in 1087 (79% prescriptions, while injectable drugs were prescribed in 22 (1.6% prescriptions. The prescription error score varied significantly across prescriber profiles. Conclusion: The findings of our study highlight the continuing crisis of the irrational drug prescribing in the country.

The feasibility of QR-code prescription in Taiwan.

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Lin, C-H; Tsai, F-Y; Tsai, W-L; Wen, H-W; Hu, M-L

2012-12-01

An ideal Health Care Service is a service system that focuses on patients. Patients in Taiwan have the freedom to fill their prescriptions at any pharmacies contracted with National Health Insurance. Each of these pharmacies uses its own computer system. So far, there are at least ten different systems on the market in Taiwan. To transmit the prescription information from the hospital to the pharmacy accurately and efficiently presents a great issue. This study consisted of two-dimensional applications using a QR-code to capture Patient's identification and prescription information from the hospitals as well as using a webcam to read the QR-code and transfer all data to the pharmacy computer system. Two hospitals and 85 community pharmacies participated in the study. During the trial, all participant pharmacies appraised highly of the accurate transmission of the prescription information. The contents in QR-code prescriptions from Taipei area were picked up efficiently and accurately in pharmacies at Taichung area (middle Taiwan) without software system limit and area limitation. The QR-code device received a patent (No. M376844, March 2010) from Intellectual Property Office Ministry of Economic Affair, China. Our trial has proven that QR-code prescription can provide community pharmacists an efficient, accurate and inexpensive device to digitalize the prescription contents. Consequently, pharmacists can offer better quality of pharmacy service to patients. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Molecular imaging of prostate cancer: translating molecular biology approaches into the clinical realm.

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Vargas, Hebert Alberto; Grimm, Jan; F Donati, Olivio; Sala, Evis; Hricak, Hedvig

2015-05-01

The epidemiology of prostate cancer has dramatically changed since the introduction of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening in the 1980's. Most prostate cancers today are detected at early stages of the disease and are considered 'indolent'; however, some patients' prostate cancers demonstrate a more aggressive behaviour which leads to rapid progression and death. Increasing understanding of the biology underlying the heterogeneity that characterises this disease has led to a continuously evolving role of imaging in the management of prostate cancer. Functional and metabolic imaging techniques are gaining importance as the impact on the therapeutic paradigm has shifted from structural tumour detection alone to distinguishing patients with indolent tumours that can be managed conservatively (e.g., by active surveillance) from patients with more aggressive tumours that may require definitive treatment with surgery or radiation. In this review, we discuss advanced imaging techniques that allow direct visualisation of molecular interactions relevant to prostate cancer and their potential for translation to the clinical setting in the near future. The potential use of imaging to follow molecular events during drug therapy as well as the use of imaging agents for therapeutic purposes will also be discussed. • Advanced imaging techniques allow direct visualisation of molecular interactions in prostate cancer. • MRI/PET, optical and Cerenkov imaging facilitate the translation of molecular biology. • Multiple compounds targeting PSMA expression are currently undergoing clinical translation. • Other targets (e.g., PSA, prostate-stem cell antigen, GRPR) are in development.

Effect of EHR User Interface Changes on Internal Prescription Discrepancies

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Sawarkar, A.; Dementieva, Y.A.; Breydo, E.; Ramelson, H.

2014-01-01

Summary Objective To determine whether specific design interventions (changes in the user interface (UI)) of an electronic health record (EHR) medication module are associated with an increase or decrease in the incidence of contradictions between the structured and narrative components of electronic prescriptions (internal prescription discrepancies). Materials and Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of 960,000 randomly selected electronic prescriptions generated in a single EHR between 01/2004 and 12/2011. Internal prescription discrepancies were identified using a validated natural language processing tool with recall of 76% and precision of 84%. A multivariable autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model was used to evaluate the effect of five UI changes in the EHR medication module on incidence of internal prescription discrepancies. Results Over the study period 175,725 (18.4%) prescriptions were found to have internal discrepancies. The highest rate of prescription discrepancies was observed in March 2006 (22.5%) and the lowest in March 2009 (15.0%). Addition of „as directed“ option to the dropdown decreased prescription discrepancies by 195 / month (p = 0.0004). An non-interruptive alert that reminded providers to ensure that structured and narrative components did not contradict each other decreased prescription discrepancies by 145 / month (p = 0.03). Addition of a „Renew / Sign“ button to the Medication module (a negative control) did not have an effect in prescription discrepancies. Conclusions Several UI changes in the electronic medication module were effective in reducing the incidence of internal prescription discrepancies. Further research is needed to identify interventions that can completely eliminate this type of prescription error and their effects on patient outcomes. PMID:25298811

Evaluation of the NCPDP Structured and Codified Sig Format for e-prescriptions.

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Liu, Hangsheng; Burkhart, Q; Bell, Douglas S

2011-01-01

To evaluate the ability of the structure and code sets specified in the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs Structured and Codified Sig Format to represent ambulatory electronic prescriptions. We parsed the Sig strings from a sample of 20,161 de-identified ambulatory e-prescriptions into variables representing the fields of the Structured and Codified Sig Format. A stratified random sample of these representations was then reviewed by a group of experts. For codified Sig fields, we attempted to map the actual words used by prescribers to the equivalent terms in the designated terminology. Proportion of prescriptions that the Format could fully represent; proportion of terms used that could be mapped to the designated terminology. The fields defined in the Format could fully represent 95% of Sigs (95% CI 93% to 97%), but ambiguities were identified, particularly in representing multiple-step instructions. The terms used by prescribers could be codified for only 60% of dose delivery methods, 84% of dose forms, 82% of vehicles, 95% of routes, 70% of sites, 33% of administration timings, and 93% of indications. The findings are based on a retrospective sample of ambulatory prescriptions derived mostly from primary care physicians. The fields defined in the Format could represent most of the patient instructions in a large prescription sample, but prior to its mandatory adoption, further work is needed to ensure that potential ambiguities are addressed and that a complete set of terms is available for the codified fields.

Strategies Used by Adults to Reduce Their Prescription Drug Costs

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... data from the 2011 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Keywords: National Health Interview Survey, alternative therapies, medication ... to cost ( 9 ) that are not measured in NHIS. Definitions Strategies for reducing prescription drug costs : Based ...

Rationality of Antimicrobial Prescriptions in Community Pharmacy Users.

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Sara I V C Lima

Full Text Available Although there is a conflict between the treatment benefits for a single individual and society, restrictions on antibiotic use are needed to reduce the prevalence of resistance to these drugs, which is the main result of irrational use. Brazil, cataloged as a pharmemerging market, has implemented restrictive measures for the consumption of antibiotics. The objective of this study was to investigate the quality of antimicrobial prescriptions and user knowledge of their treatment with these drugs.A two-stage cross-sectional, combined and stratified survey of pharmacy users holding an antimicrobial prescription was conducted in the community between May and November 2014. A pharmacist analyzed each prescription for legibility and completeness, and applied a structured questionnaire to the users or their caregivers on their knowledge regarding treatment and user sociodemographic data. An estimated 29.3% of prescriptions had one or more illegible items, 91.3% had one or more missing items, and 29.0% had both illegible and missing items. Dosing schedule and patient identification were the most commonly unreadable items in prescriptions, 18.81% and 12.14%, respectively. The lack of complete patient identification occurred in 90.53% of the prescriptions. It is estimated that 40.3% of users have used antimicrobials without prescription and that 46.49% did not receive any guidance on the administration of the drug.Despite the measures taken by health authorities to restrict the misuse of antimicrobials, it was observed that prescribers still do not follow the criteria of current legislation, particularly relating to items needed for completion of the prescription. Moreover, users receive little information about their antimicrobial treatment.

The appropriateness of a proton pump inhibitor prescription.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Moran, N

2014-11-01

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are one of the most commonly prescribed groups of drug in Ireland, at great expense to the Irish healthcare executive. This study aims to evaluate the appropriateness of PPI prescriptions on admission and discharge in a tertiary referral hospital. All non-elective admissions in the Emergency Department in one week were included in the study. 102 patients in total were included, with 36 (35.4%) treated with a PPI on admission. Of these, only 3 (8.3%) had a clear indication noted as per current NICE guidelines. 18 new in-hospital PPI prescriptions were documented. 11 (61%) of which were present on discharge prescriptions. Continuing PPI prescription on discharge into the community may be inappropriate, costly and potentially harmful. Brief interventions aimed at reducing inappropriate PPI prescriptions have been shown to be effective at reducing the cost and potential harm of unnecessary treatment.

'TISUCROMA': A Software for Color Processing of Biological Tissue's Images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arista Romeu, Eduardo J.; La Rosa Vazquez, Jose Manuel de; Valor, Alma; Stolik, Suren

2016-01-01

In this work a software intended to plot and analyze digital image RGB histograms from normal and abnormal regions of biological tissue. The obtained RGB histograms from each zone can be used to show the image in only one color or the mixture of some of them. The Software was developed in Lab View to process the images in a laptop. Some medical application examples are shown. (Author)

Do prescription stimulants increase the risk of adverse cardiovascular events?: A systematic review

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Westover Arthur N

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background There is increasing concern that prescription stimulants may be associated with adverse cardiovascular events such as stroke, myocardial infarction, and sudden death. Public health concerns are amplified by increasing use of prescription stimulants among adults. Methods The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review of the evidence of an association between prescription stimulant use and adverse cardiovascular outcomes. PUBMED, MEDLINE, EMBASE and Google Scholar searches were conducted using key words related to these topics (MESH: ADHD; Adults; Amphetamine; Amphetamines; Arrhythmias, Cardiac; Cardiovascular Diseases; Cardiovascular System; Central Nervous Stimulants; Cerebrovascular; Cohort Studies; Case–control Studies; Death; Death, Sudden, Cardiac; Dextroamphetamine; Drug Toxicity; Methamphetamine; Methylphenidate; Myocardial Infarction; Stimulant; Stroke; Safety. Eligible studies were population-based studies of children, adolescents, or adults using prescription stimulant use as the independent variable and a hard cardiovascular outcome as the dependent variable. Results Ten population-based observational studies which evaluated prescription stimulant use with cardiovascular outcomes were reviewed. Six out of seven studies in children and adolescents did not show an association between stimulant use and adverse cardiovascular outcomes. In contrast, two out of three studies in adults found an association. Conclusions Findings of an association between prescription stimulant use and adverse cardiovascular outcomes are mixed. Studies of children and adolescents suggest that statistical power is limited in available study populations, and the absolute risk of an event is low. More suggestive of a safety signal, studies of adults found an increased risk for transient ischemic attack and sudden death/ventricular arrhythmia. Interpretation was limited due to differences in population, cardiovascular outcome

[Consideration about chemistry, manufacture and control (CMC) key problems in simplified registration of classical traditional Chinese medicine excellent prescriptions].

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Wang, Zhi-Min; Liu, Ju-Yan; Liu, Xiao-Qian; Wang, De-Qin; Yan, Li-Hua; Zhu, Jin-Jin; Gao, Hui-Min; Li, Chun; Wang, Jin-Yu; Li, Chu-Yuan; Ni, Qing-Chun; Huang, Ji-Sheng; Lin, Juan

2017-05-01

As an outstanding representative of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) prescriptions accumulated from famous TCM doctors' clinical experiences in past dynasties, classical TCM excellent prescriptions (cTCMeP) are the most valuable part of TCM system. To support the research and development of cTCMeP, a series of regulations and measures were issued to encourage its simplified registration. There is still a long-way to go because many key problems and puzzles about technology, registration and administration in cTCMeP R&D process are not resolved. Based on the analysis of registration and management regulations of botanical drug products in FDA of USA and Japan, and EMA of Europe, the possible key problems and countermeasures in chemistry, manufacture and control (CMC) of simplified registration of cTCMeP were analyzed on the consideration of its actual situation. The method of "reference decoction extract by traditional prescription" (RDETP) was firstly proposed as standard to evaluate the quality and preparation uniformity between the new developing product under simplified registration and traditional original usages of cTCMeP, instead of Standard Decoction method in Japan. "Totality of the evidence" approach, mass balance and bioassay/biological assay of cTCMeP were emphatically suggested to introduce to the quality uniformity evaluation system in the raw drug material, drug substance and final product between the modern product and traditional decoction. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

[Failure mode and effects analysis on computerized drug prescriptions].

Science.gov (United States)

Paredes-Atenciano, J A; Roldán-Aviña, J P; González-García, Mercedes; Blanco-Sánchez, M C; Pinto-Melero, M A; Pérez-Ramírez, C; Calvo Rubio-Burgos, Miguel; Osuna-Navarro, F J; Jurado-Carmona, A M

2015-01-01

To identify and analyze errors in drug prescriptions of patients treated in a "high resolution" hospital by applying a Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA).Material and methods A multidisciplinary group of medical specialties and nursing analyzed medical records where drug prescriptions were held in free text format. An FMEA was developed in which the risk priority index (RPI) was obtained from a cross-sectional observational study using an audit of the medical records, carried out in 2 phases: 1) Pre-intervention testing, and (2) evaluation of improvement actions after the first analysis. An audit sample size of 679 medical records from a total of 2,096 patients was calculated using stratified sampling and random selection of clinical events. Prescription errors decreased by 22.2% in the second phase. FMEA showed a greater RPI in "unspecified route of administration" and "dosage unspecified", with no significant decreases observed in the second phase, although it did detect, "incorrect dosing time", "contraindication due to drug allergy", "wrong patient" or "duplicate prescription", which resulted in the improvement of prescriptions. Drug prescription errors have been identified and analyzed by FMEA methodology, improving the clinical safety of these prescriptions. This tool allows updates of electronic prescribing to be monitored. To avoid such errors would require the mandatory completion of all sections of a prescription. Copyright © 2014 SECA. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Motivations for Prescription Drug Misuse among Young Adults: Considering Social and Developmental Contexts.

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LeClair, Amy; Kelly, Brian C; Pawson, Mark; Wells, Brooke E; Parsons, Jeffrey T

As part of a larger study on prescription drug misuse among young adults active in urban nightlife scenes, we examined participants' motivations for misuse. Prescription painkillers, stimulants and sedatives were the primary substances of interest. Participants were recruited from nightlife venues in New York using time-space sampling. Subjects completed a mixed-methods assessment at project research offices. The data presented here are from a subsample of 70 qualitative interviews conducted during the baseline assessment. We identified experimentation and a "work hard, play hard" ethos as key motivations for misusing prescription drugs and argue that these motivations are specific, though not necessarily unique, to the participants' social location as young adults. These findings highlight the role of life stage and social context in the misuse of prescription drugs. Future studies of prescription drug misuse should pay attention to the larger social contexts in which users are embedded and, therefore, make decisions about how and why to misuse. Moving beyond the very broad concepts of "recreation" and "self-medication" presently established in the research, policies targeting young adults may want to tailor intervention efforts based on motivations.

Identification and management of prescription drug abuse in pregnancy.

Science.gov (United States)

Worley, Julie

2014-01-01

Prescription drug abuse is a growing problem in the United States and many other countries. Estimates of prescription drug abuse rates during pregnancy range from 5% to 20%. The primary prescription drugs designated as controlled drugs with abuse potential in pregnancy are opiates prescribed for pain, benzodiazepines prescribed for anxiety, and stimulants prescribed for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Prescription drugs are obtained for abuse through diversion methods, such as purchasing them from others or by doctor shopping. The use of prescription drugs puts both the mother and the fetus at high risk during pregnancy. Identification of women who are abusing prescription drugs is important so that treatment can be ensured. It is crucial for healthcare professionals to use a multidisciplinary approach and be supportive and maintain a good rapport with pregnant women who abuse prescription drugs. Management includes inpatient hospitalization for detoxification and withdrawal symptoms, and in the case of opiate abuse, opiate maintenance is recommended for pregnant women for the duration of their pregnancy to reduce relapse rates and improve maternal and fetal outcomes. Other recommendations include referral for support groups and supportive housing.

Designer genes. Recombinant antibody fragments for biological imaging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wu, A.M.; Yazaki, P.J. [Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, CA (United States). Dept. of Molecular Biology

2000-09-01

Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), with high specificity and high affinity for their target antigens, can be utilized for delivery of agents such as radionuclides, enzymes, drugs or toxins in vivo. However, the implementation of radiolabeled antibodies as magic bullets for detection and treatment of diseases such as cancer has required addressing several shortcomings of murine MAbs. These include their immunogenicity, sub-optimal targeting and pharmacokinetic properties, and practical issues of production and radiolabeling. Genetic engineering provides a powerful approach for redesigning antibodies for use in oncologic applications in vivo. Recombinant fragments have been produced that retain high affinity for target antigens, and display a combination of rapid, high-level tumor targeting with concomitant clearance from normal tissues and the circulation in animal models. An important first step was cloning and engineering of antibody heavy and light chain variable domains into single-chain Fvs (molecular weight, 25-17 kDa), in which the variable regions are joined via a synthetic linker peptide sequence. Although scFvs themselves showed limited tumor uptake in preclinical and clinical studies, they provide a useful building block for intermediate sized recombinant fragments. Covalently linked dimers or non-covalent dimers of scFvs (also known as diabodies) show improved targeting and clearance properties due to their higher molecular weight (55kDa) and increased avidity. Further gains can be made by generation of larger recombinant fragments, such as the minibody, an scFv-C{sub H}3 fusion protein that self-assembles into a bivalent dimer of 80 kDa. A systematic evaluation of scFv, diabody, minibody, and intact antibody (based on comparison of tumor uptakes, tumor: blood activity ratios, and calculation of an Imaging Figure of Merit) can form the basis for selection of combinations of recombinant fragments and radionuclides for imaging applications. Ease of engineering

Designer genes. Recombinant antibody fragments for biological imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, A.M.; Yazaki, P.J.

2000-01-01

Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), with high specificy and high affinity for their target antigens, can be utilized for delivery of agents such as radionuclides, enzymes, drugs or toxins in vivo. However, the implementation of radiolabeled antibodies as magic bullets for detection and treatment of diseases such as cancer has required addressing several shortcomings of murine MAbs. These include their immunogenicity, sub-optimal targeting and pharmacokinetic properties, and practical issues of production and radiolabeling. Genetic engineering provides a powerful approach for redesigning antibodies for use in oncologic applications in vivo. Recombinant fragments have been produced that retain high affinity for target antigens, and display a combination of rapid, high-level tumor targeting with concomitant clearance from normal tissues and the circulation in animal models. An important first step was cloning and engineering of antibody heavy and light chain variable domains into single-chain Fvs (molecular weight, 25-17 kDa), in which the variable regions are joined via a synthetic linker peptide sequence. Although scFvs themselves showed limited tumor uptake in preclinical and clinical studies, they provide a useful building block for intermediate sized recombinant fragments. Covalently linked dimers or non-covalent dimers of scFvs (also known as diabodies) show improved targeting and clearance properties due to their higher molecular weight (55kDa) and increased avidity. Further gains can be made by generation of larger recombinant fragments, such as the minibody, an scFv-C H 3 fusion protein that self-assembles into a bivalent dimer of 80 kDa. A systematic evaluation of scFv, diabody, minibody, and intact antibody (based on comparison of tumor uptakes, tumor: blood activity ratios, and calculation of an Imaging Figure of Merit) can form the basis for selection of combinations of recombinant fragments and radionuclides for imaging applications. Ease of engineering and

The study of direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription drugs.

Science.gov (United States)

Schommer, Jon C; Hansen, Richard A

2005-06-01

The objectives of this article are to (1) identify key methodological issues related to investigating the effects of direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) for prescription drugs, (2) highlight opportunities and challenges that these issues pose, and (3) provide suggestions to address these challenges and opportunities from a social and administrative pharmacy perspective. Through a review of existing literature and consultation with research colleagues, we identified 3 broad issues regarding the study of DTCA for prescription drugs: (1) the importance of problem formulation, (2) the role of health behavior and decision-making perspectives, and (3) data collection and data analysis challenges and opportunities. Based upon our findings, we developed recommendations for future research in this area. Clear problem formulation will be instructive for prioritizing research needs and for determining the role that health behavior and decision-making perspectives can serve in DTCA research. In addition, it appears that cluster bias, nonlinear relationships, mediating/moderating effects, time effects, acquiescent response, and case mix are particularly salient challenges for the DTCA research domain. We suggest that problem formulation, selection of sound theories upon which to base research, and data collection and data analysis challenges are key methodological issues related to investigating the effects of DTCA for prescription drugs.

Content-Based Image Retrial Based on Hadoop

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DongSheng Yin

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Generally, time complexity of algorithms for content-based image retrial is extremely high. In order to retrieve images on large-scale databases efficiently, a new way for retrieving based on Hadoop distributed framework is proposed. Firstly, a database of images features is built by using Speeded Up Robust Features algorithm and Locality-Sensitive Hashing and then perform the search on Hadoop platform in a parallel way specially designed. Considerable experimental results show that it is able to retrieve images based on content on large-scale cluster and image sets effectively.

A Novel Image Encryption Algorithm Based on DNA Subsequence Operation

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Qiang Zhang

2012-01-01

Full Text Available We present a novel image encryption algorithm based on DNA subsequence operation. Different from the traditional DNA encryption methods, our algorithm does not use complex biological operation but just uses the idea of DNA subsequence operations (such as elongation operation, truncation operation, deletion operation, etc. combining with the logistic chaotic map to scramble the location and the value of pixel points from the image. The experimental results and security analysis show that the proposed algorithm is easy to be implemented, can get good encryption effect, has a wide secret key's space, strong sensitivity to secret key, and has the abilities of resisting exhaustive attack and statistic attack.

Nature, frequency and determinants of prescription modifications in Dutch community pharmacies

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Buurma, Henk; de Smet, Peter A G M; van den Hoff, Olga P; Egberts, Antoine C G

2001-01-01

Aims To examine the nature, frequency and determinants of prescription modifications in Dutch community pharmacies. Methods A prospective case-control study comparing modified prescriptions with nonmodified prescriptions was carried out in 141 Dutch community pharmacies. 2014 modified prescriptions (cases), collected in the selected pharmacies on a predetermined day in a specific period (25th February until 12th March 1999) and 2581 nonmodified prescriptions (controls) randomly selected on the same day were studied. The nature and frequency of prescription modifications and patient, drug and prescriber related determinants for a modified prescription were assessed. Results The overall incidence of prescription modifications was 4.3%, with a mean of 14.3 modifications per pharmacy per day. For prescription only medicines (POM) the incidence was 4.9%. The majority of POM modifications concerned a clarification (71.8%). In 22.2% a prescription could potentially have had clinical consequences when not altered; in more than half of the latter it concerned a dose error (13.7% of all cases). POM prescriptions of patients of 40–65 years had a significantly lower chance of modification compared with those of younger people (OR = 0.74 [0.64–0.86]). With respect to medication-class, we found a higher chance of POM modifications in the respiratory domain (OR = 1.48 [1.23-1.79]) and a decreased chance for nervous system POMs (OR = 0.71 [0.61–0.83]). With regard to prescriber-related determinants modifications were found three times more often in non printed prescriptions than in printed ones (OR = 3.30 [2.90-3.75]). Compared with prescriptions by the patient's own GP, prescriptions of specialists (OR = 1.82 [1.57-2.11]), other GP's (OR = 1.49 [1.02-2.17]) and other prescribers such as dentists and midwives (OR = 1.95 [1.06-3.57]) gave a higher probability of prescription modifications. When a GP had no on-line access to the computer of the pharmacy the chance of a

Feasibility of a dynamic web guidance approach for personalized physical activity prescription based on daily information from wearable technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Coolbaugh, Crystal L; Raymond, Stephen C; Hawkins, David A

2015-06-04

Computer tailored, Web-based interventions have emerged as an effective approach to promote physical activity. Existing programs, however, do not adjust activities according to the participant's compliance or physiologic adaptations, which may increase risk of injury and program attrition in sedentary adults. To address this limitation, objective activity monitor (AM) and heart rate data could be used to guide personalization of physical activity, but improved Web-based frameworks are needed to test such interventions. The objective of this study is to (1) develop a personalized physical activity prescription (PPAP) app that combines dynamic Web-based guidance with multi-sensor AM data to promote physical activity and (2) to assess the feasibility of using this system in the field. The PPAP app was constructed using an open-source software platform and a custom, multi-sensor AM capable of accurately measuring heart rate and physical activity. A novel algorithm was written to use a participant's compliance and physiologic response to aerobic training (ie, changes in daily resting heart rate) recorded by the AM to create daily, personalized physical activity prescriptions. In addition, the PPAP app was designed to (1) manage the transfer of files from the AM to data processing software and a relational database, (2) provide interactive visualization features such as calendars and training tables to encourage physical activity, and (3) enable remote administrative monitoring of data quality and participant compliance. A 12-week feasibility study was performed to assess the utility and limitations of the PPAP app used by sedentary adults in the field. Changes in physical activity level and resting heart rate were monitored throughout the intervention. The PPAP app successfully created daily, personalized physical activity prescriptions and an interactive Web environment to guide and promote physical activity by the participants. The varied compliance of the

[Application of network biology on study of traditional Chinese medicine].

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, Sai-Sai; Yang, Jian; Zhao, Jing; Zhang, Wei-Dong

2018-01-01

With the completion of the human genome project, people have gradually recognized that the functions of the biological system are fulfilled through network-type interaction between genes, proteins and small molecules, while complex diseases are caused by the imbalance of biological processes due to a number of gene expression disorders. These have contributed to the rise of the concept of the "multi-target" drug discovery. Treatment and diagnosis of traditional Chinese medicine are based on holism and syndrome differentiation. At the molecular level, traditional Chinese medicine is characterized by multi-component and multi-target prescriptions, which is expected to provide a reference for the development of multi-target drugs. This paper reviews the application of network biology in traditional Chinese medicine in six aspects, in expectation to provide a reference to the modernized study of traditional Chinese medicine. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

Nonmedical Prescription Drug Use: Theory and Policy Implications

OpenAIRE

Gabriele Camera; Bryan Engelhardt

2014-01-01

The illicit nonmedical use of prescription drugs is studied in a model where individuals with imperfectly observable health conditions seek prescription drugs for either medical or nonmedical reasons. The equilibrium number of medical and nonmedical users is endogenous and depends on economic and non-economic barriers to drugs consumption, such as pricing, health care costs, refill policies, monitoring programs, and the medical community’s prescription standards. The results show policies cen...

Community pharmacists' prescription intervention practices--exploring variations in practice in Norwegian pharmacies.

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Mandt, Ingunn; Horn, Anne Marie; Ekedahl, Anders; Granas, Anne Gerd

2010-03-01

Evidence suggests that prescription intervention frequencies have been found to vary as much as 10-fold among Norwegian pharmacies and among pharmacists within the same pharmacy. To explore community pharmacists' perceptions of how their prescription intervention practices were influenced by their working environment, their technological resources, the physical and social structures of the pharmacies, their relations with colleagues, and to the individual pharmacist's professional skills. Two focus groups consisting of 14 community pharmacists in total, from urban and rural areas in Norway, discussed their working procedures and professional judgments related to prescription interventions. Organizational theories were used as theoretical and analytical frameworks in the study. A framework based on Leavitt's organizational model was to structure our interview guide. The study units were the statements of the individual pharmacists. Recurrent themes were identified and condensed. Two processes describing variations in the dispensing workflow including prescription interventions were derived--an active dispensing process extracting information about the patient's medication from several sources and a fast dispensing process focusing mainly on the information available on the prescription. Both workflow processes were used in the same pharmacies and by the same pharmacist but on different occasions. A pharmacy layout allowing interactions between pharmacist and patients and a convenient organization of technology, layout, pharmacist-patient and pharmacist-coworker transactions at the workplace was essential for detecting and solving prescription problems. Pharmacists limited their contact with general practitioners when they considered the problem a formality and/or when they knew the answers themselves. The combined use of dispensing software and the Internet was a driving force toward more independent and cognitively advanced prescription interventions

Outpatient prescription practices in rural township health centers in Sichuan Province, China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiang Qian

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Sichuan Province is an agricultural and economically developing province in western China. To understand practices of prescribing medications for outpatients in rural township health centers is important for the development of the rural medical and health services in this province and western China. Methods This is an observational study based on data from the 4th National Health Services Survey of China. A total of 3,059 prescriptions from 30 township health centers in Sichuan Province were collected and analyzed. Seven indicators were employed in the analyses to characterize the prescription practices. They are disease distribution, average cost per encounter, number of medications per encounter, percentage of encounters with antibiotics, percentage of encounters with glucocorticoids, percentage of encounters with combined glucocorticoids and antibiotics, and percentage of encounters with injections. Results The average medication cost per encounter was 16.30 Yuan ($2.59. About 60% of the prescriptions contained Chinese patent medicine (CPM, and almost all prescriptions (98.07% contained western medicine. 85.18% of the prescriptions contained antibiotics, of which, 24.98% contained two or more types of antibiotics; the percentage of prescriptions with glucocorticoids was 19.99%; the percentage of prescriptions with both glucocorticoids and antibiotics was 16.67%; 51.40% of the prescriptions included injections, of which, 39.90% included two or more injections. Conclusions The findings from this study demonstrated irrational medication uses of antibiotics, glucocorticoids and injections prescribed for outpatients in the rural township health centers in Sichuan Province. The reasons for irrational medication uses are not only solely due to the pursuit of maximizing benefits in the township health centers, but also more likely attributable to the lack of medical knowledge of rational medication uses among rural doctors and the

76 FR 51310 - Branded Prescription Drug Fee

Science.gov (United States)

2011-08-18

... Branded Prescription Drug Fee AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Treasury. ACTION: Notice of proposed... issue of the Federal Register, the IRS is issuing temporary regulations relating to the branded... business of manufacturing or importing certain branded prescription drugs. The text of the temporary...

Simple prescription for computing the interparticle potential energy for D-dimensional gravity systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Accioly, Antonio; Helayël-Neto, José; Barone, F E; Herdy, Wallace

2015-01-01

A straightforward prescription for computing the D-dimensional potential energy of gravitational models, which is strongly based on the Feynman path integral, is built up. Using this method, the static potential energy for the interaction of two masses is found in the context of D-dimensional higher-derivative gravity models, and its behavior is analyzed afterwards in both ultraviolet and infrared regimes. As a consequence, two new gravity systems in which the potential energy is finite at the origin, respectively, in D = 5 and D = 6, are found. Since the aforementioned prescription is equivalent to that based on the marriage between quantum mechanics (to leading order, i.e., in the first Born approximation) and the nonrelativistic limit of quantum field theory, and bearing in mind that the latter relies basically on the calculation of the nonrelativistic Feynman amplitude (M NR ), a trivial expression for computing M NR is obtained from our prescription as an added bonus. (paper)

Prevalence and Prescription of Antidepressants in Depression with Somatic Comorbidity in Asia: The Research on East Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns Study

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Chao Chen; Tian-Mei Si; Yu-Tao Xiang; Gabor S Ungvari; Chuan-Yue Wang; Yan-Ling He; Ee-Heok Kua

2015-01-01

Background:Depression is often comorbid with chronic somatic diseases.Few previous studies have investigated the prevalence of somatic diseases in depression or the prescription pattern of antidepressants in comorbidly depressed patients in Asia.This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of somatic comorbidity (SC) in depression and compared the prescriptions of antidepressants in depressed patients with and without SC.Methods:A total of 2320 patients treated with antidepressants in 8 Asian countries were examined,and a diagnosis was based on the International Classification of Disease,10th revision.We listed 17 common chronic somatic diseases.Patients' socio-demographic and clinical characteristics and psychotropic drug prescriptions were recorded using a standardized protocol and data collection procedure.Results:Of the patients examined,1240 were diagnosed with depression and 30％ of them (n =375) had SC.The most common comorbid condition was diabetes (23.7％).The patients with SC were more likely to seek help at a general hospital (74.7％ vs.47.2％),and had a higher incidence of symptoms involving sadness,disturbed sleep,and poor appetite.Noradrenergic and specific serotonergic antidepressant was prescribed more for patients with SC than for those without SC (30.4％ vs.22.9％).Conclusions:SC is common in depressed Asian patients.It is important to strengthen the recognition of depression,especially in general hospitals and when patients report some somatic discomfort.It is also a matter of urgency to establish evidence-based guidelines for the use of new antidepressants in depressed patients with SC.

Are Prescription Stimulants "Smart Pills"? The Epidemiology and Cognitive Neuroscience of Prescription Stimulant Use by Normal Healthy Individuals

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, M. Elizabeth; Farah, Martha J.

2011-01-01

Use of prescription stimulants by normal healthy individuals to enhance cognition is said to be on the rise. Who is using these medications for cognitive enhancement, and how prevalent is this practice? Do prescription stimulants in fact enhance cognition for normal healthy people? We review the epidemiological and cognitive neuroscience…

Influence of errors in prescriptions on the security of medicine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Puke K.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available All types of medication errors including missed doses, incorrect dosage forms, time intervals, and routes are essential encumbrances for qualitative pharmaceutical care and security of medicine [1]. Problems related to prescription errors are common in the healthcare profession, and are responsible for significant increase in costs, cases of morbidity and mortality [2]. The aim of the study was to analyze the common errors in prescriptions which were received in pharmacies and their effect on the security of medicine. Retrospective study was conducted between December 2013 and January 2014 in the pharmacy of Riga, Latvia. Prescriptions were analyzed to identify errors in Inscriptio, Praescriptio and the Signatura part. Of 200 prescriptions, only 14 (7% were filled correctly according to the legislative requirements in Latvia. The most common drug therapeutic class in the prescriptions was non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID and other analgesics (21.1%. Unclear handwriting was observed in more than one third of all studied prescriptions (n=72; 36.0%. Mean age values of physicians were higher, but not significantly different, in the unclear compared to clear prescriptions, 59.5 ± 8.5 vs. 57.8 ± 10.6, respectively (p=0.253. Omission of the quantity of drug in the prescription part was the most frequent type of the error (n=112, 56.0%. High level of incorrect prescriptions was found during the period of study in the pharmacy. Overall, approximately 27% of prescriptions had significant failures, which could negatively affect therapeutic effect and safety of drug use.

Image portion identification methods, image parsing methods, image parsing systems, and articles of manufacture

Science.gov (United States)

Lassahn, Gordon D.; Lancaster, Gregory D.; Apel, William A.; Thompson, Vicki S.

2013-01-08

Image portion identification methods, image parsing methods, image parsing systems, and articles of manufacture are described. According to one embodiment, an image portion identification method includes accessing data regarding an image depicting a plurality of biological substrates corresponding to at least one biological sample and indicating presence of at least one biological indicator within the biological sample and, using processing circuitry, automatically identifying a portion of the image depicting one of the biological substrates but not others of the biological substrates.