scholarly journals Analyzing Neck Circumference as a Tool for Evaluating Overweight and Obesity in Chinese Adolescents

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Hui Wang

Overweight and obesity at an early age are important criteria for predicting chronic diseases. Each anthropometric method available to assess obesity has its limitations. Recently, neck circumference (NC) has received greater attention as a new evaluation index. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between NC and overweight in Chinese Yi adolescents. A total of 647 Chinese Yi male and female students, aged 13–18 years, were randomly selected from a junior high school and a senior middle school in Leshan, Sichuan Province of China. The measurement indexes included height, weight, waist circumference (WC), and NC, and clinical information was collected by trained physicians. The neck cutoff values were determined through the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the area under the curve (AUC). The correlation among NC, body mass index (BMI), and WC was determined by Pearson’s correlation coefficient. The ROC analysis revealed that the AUC values were 0.79–0.95 for boys and 0.83–0.91 for girls. The correlation among NC, BMI, and WC in obese boys and girls was higher than 0.70 in both genders. In addition, the NC cutoff values of high BMI ranged from 31.0 cm to 36.1 cm for boys and 31.2 cm to 34.5 cm for girls, respectively. There was a significant positive correlation between NC and obesity in Chinese Yi adolescents. The NC can be used as an additional index to predict the obesity of Chinese Yi adolescents.

SLEEP ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mudiaga Sowho ◽  
Francis Sgambati ◽  
Michelle Guzman ◽  
Hartmut Schneider ◽  
Alan Schwartz

Abstract Snoring is a highly prevalent condition associated with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and sleep disturbance in bed partners. Objective measurements of snoring in the community, however, are limited. The present study was designed to measure sound levels produced by self-reported habitual snorers in a single night. Snorers were excluded if they reported nocturnal gasping or had severe obesity (BMI > 35 kg/m2). Sound was measured by a monitor mounted 65 cm over the head of the bed on an overnight sleep study. Snoring was defined as sound ≥40 dB(A) during flow limited inspirations. The apnea hypopnea index (AHI) and breath-by-breath peak decibel levels were measured. Snore breaths were tallied to determine the frequency and intensity of snoring. Regression models were used to determine the relationship between objective measures of snoring and OSA (AHI ≥ 5 events/h). The area under the curve (AUC) for the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) was used to predict OSA. Snoring intensity exceeded 45 dB(A) in 66% of the 162 participants studied, with 14% surpassing the 53 dB(A) threshold for noise pollution. Snoring intensity and frequency were independent predictors of OSA. AUCs for snoring intensity and frequency were 77% and 81%, respectively, and increased to 87% and 89%, respectively, with the addition of age and sex as predictors. Snoring represents a source of noise pollution in the bedroom and constitutes an important target for mitigating sound and its adverse effects on bed partners. Precise breath-by-breath identification and quantification of snoring also offers a way to risk stratify otherwise healthy snorers for OSA.


2009 ◽  
Vol 48 (04) ◽  
pp. 173-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Ham ◽  
A. Dobbeleir ◽  
P. Santens ◽  
Y. D'Asseler ◽  
I. Goethals

SummaryThe aim of our study was to evaluate the value of a pictorial atlas of 123I FP-CIT SPECT images for aid in the visual diagnosis. Patients, materials, methods: Sixty patients, of whom 20 were clinically diagnosed as ‘non-parkinsonian’ and 40 as having Parkinson's disease or any related disorder, were included in the study. An atlas consisting of 12 123I FP-CIT SPECT images was constructed first. Validity of the atlas was investigated by performing a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis with the clinical diagnosis as the gold standard. The remaining 48 SPECT images were visually assessed twice by 5 observers, first with and secondly without consulting the atlas, or vice versa. The added value of the atlas was investigated by comparing the diagnostic accuracy and the interobserver variability for both methods. Results: ROC analysis performed on the atlas yielded an area under the curve of 1 for a threshold discriminating between clinically non-parkinsonian and parkinsonian patients that was situated between image 4 and 5 of the atlas. For the diagnostic accuracy, we found that the area under the ROC curve was systematically higher if observers had access to the atlas compared to when they had not (Wilcoxon's test, p<0.05). Also, the interobserver variability was significantly lower when observers used the atlas when compared to when they did not (p = 0.05). Conclusion: Diagnostic accuracy was significantly higher and interobserver variability significantly lower if observers had access to the atlas compared to when they had not. Hence, having a pictorial atlas available may facilitate the visual assessment of 123I FP-CIT SPECT scans.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatemeh hosseinpour-soleimani ◽  
Gholamreza Khamisipour ◽  
Zahra Derakhshan ◽  
Bahram Ahmadi

Abstract Background Currently, the role of serum-based biomarkers such as microRNAs in cancer diagnosis has been extensively established. This study aimed to determine expression levels of bioinformatically selected miRNAs and whether they can be used as biomarkers or a new therapeutic target in patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Materials and Methods The expression levels of serum miR-22, miR-122, miR-217, and miR-367 in 21 ALL patients and 21 healthy controls were measured using quantitative real-time PCR. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the associated area under the curve (AUC) was used to assess candidate miRNAs' diagnostic value as a biomarker. Results The results showed that miR-217 was markedly decreased in patients with ALL compared to controls. Moreover, miR-22, miR-122, and miR-367 were found to be upregulated. Furthermore, ROC analysis showed that serum miR-217 and miR-367 could differentiate ALL patients from the healthy individuals, while miR-22 has approximate discriminatory power that requires further investigation. Conclusion Collectively, the results suggested that miR-217 may play a tumor suppressor role in ALL, whereas miR-22, miR-122, and miR-367 could function as an oncogene. Overall, miR-22, miR-217, and miR-367 could be considered possible biomarkers for the early diagnosis of ALL.


2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 92-96
Author(s):  
Ishwor Sharma ◽  
Sanjay K Gupta ◽  
Kiran Niraula

Introduction Overweight and obesity with their surrogate anthropometric markers like body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and waist hip ratio (WHR) have been shown to be strongly associated with Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Neck circumference (NC) though less used can be an equally effective alternative to diagnose overweight and obesity in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus in a resource limited setting. MethodsPatients who had Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus for 5 years or more and above 35 years underwent simple random sampling. Weight, height, WC and NC were measured. BMI was calculated and patients were graded into overweight and obesity based on the Asian cutoffs for BMI and abdominal obesity. ResultsAmong 100 patients enrolled in this study, 45% were men and the mean age was 53.05. Mean neck circumference was 36.55 ± 1.28 cm and 35.27 ± 1.78 cm for male and female respectively. NC was positively correlated with WC and BMI in both men and women (p ˂ 0.001). In the ROC curves, NC presented the largest area under the curve (AUC) for overweight in males (p ˂ 0.001), while NC presented a large AUC for central obesity in both genders. Furthermore, the cut off value of neck circumference for overweight was 35.6 cm in males vs 35.2 cm in females and for central obesity was 36.75 cm in males vs 34.75 cm in females. ConclusionNeck circumference was positively associated with overweight and central obesity in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.


1996 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 198-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.G. Vibert ◽  
A.S. Houston ◽  
G.P. Wilkins ◽  
P.M. Kemp ◽  
M.A. Macleod

This study compares the clinical value of the breast cancer tumour markers CA549 and TPS, and their tandem use when one or both markers indicate abnormality. For 144 patients presenting with active disease, 33 were classified as Stage I, 37 as Stage II, 40 as Stage III and 34 as Stage TV. For these patients the sensitivity of CA549 using a cut-off of 10 U/ml was 27%, 32%, 42% and 79%, respectively. The sensitivity of TPS for each stage using a cut-off of 100 U/l was 12%, 22%, 28% and 73%, respectively. At these cut-off levels, 36%, 46%, 63% and 91% of patients, respectively, have either CA549 or TPS or both markers raised. For 161 patients with diagnosed benign breast disease, the specificity of marker levels was 96% for CA549, 88% for TPS and 84% for tandem use. CA549 is shown to be superior to TPS and this was confirmed by Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis using variable threshold levels, with the areas under the curves for all stages combined being 0.74 ± 0.03 (1SD) and 0.66 ± 0.03, respectively. The corresponding area under the curve for tandem use (0.75 ± 0.03) is marginally greater than for either individual marker, although the difference with respect to CA549 is statistically insignificant.


Author(s):  
RUCHIKA MALHOTRA ◽  
ANKITA JAIN BANSAL

Due to various reasons such as ever increasing demands of the customer or change in the environment or detection of a bug, changes are incorporated in a software. This results in multiple versions or evolving nature of a software. Identification of parts of a software that are more prone to changes than others is one of the important activities. Identifying change prone classes will help developers to take focused and timely preventive actions on the classes of the software with similar characteristics in the future releases. In this paper, we have studied the relationship between various object oriented (OO) metrics and change proneness. We collected a set of OO metrics and change data of each class that appeared in two versions of an open source dataset, 'Java TreeView', i.e., version 1.1.6 and version 1.0.3. Besides this, we have also predicted various models that can be used to identify change prone classes, using machine learning and statistical techniques and then compared their performance. The results are analyzed using Area Under the Curve (AUC) obtained from Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analysis. The results show that the models predicted using both machine learning and statistical methods demonstrate good performance in terms of predicting change prone classes. Based on the results, it is reasonable to claim that quality models have a significant relevance with OO metrics and hence can be used by researchers for early prediction of change prone classes.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 5150
Author(s):  
Soichiro Shimura ◽  
Kazumasa Matsumoto ◽  
Yuriko Shimizu ◽  
Kohei Mochizuki ◽  
Yutaka Shiono ◽  
...  

Tumor markers that can be detected at an early stage are needed. Here, we evaluated the epiplakin expression levels in sera from patients with bladder cancer (BC). Using a micro-dot blot array, we evaluated epiplakin expression levels in 60 patients with BC, 20 patients with stone disease, and 28 healthy volunteers. The area under the curve (AUC) and best cut-off point were calculated using receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Serum epiplakin levels were significantly higher in patients with BC than in those with stone disease (p = 0.0013) and in healthy volunteers (p < 0.0001). The AUC-ROC level for BC was 0.78 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.69–0.87). Using a cut-off point of 873, epiplakin expression levels exhibited 68.3% sensitivity and 79.2% specificity for BC. However, the serum epiplakin levels did not significantly differ by sex, age, pathological stage and grade, or urine cytology. We performed immunohistochemical staining using the same antibody on another cohort of 127 patients who underwent radical cystectomy. Univariate and multivariate analysis results showed no significant differences between epiplakin expression, clinicopathological findings, and patient prognoses. Our results showed that serum epiplakin might be a potential serodiagnostic biomarker in patients with BC.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Ye ◽  
Wei You ◽  
Hong-li Zhang ◽  
Tian Xu ◽  
Pei-na Meng ◽  
...  

Abstract BACKGROUND In the treatment of coronary calcification by rotational atherectomy (ROTA), guidewire bias is often considered to lead to procedure associated coronary dissections or perforations. However, the actual meaning of guidewire bias is unclear, though it usually refers to the cross-section location of the intravascular imaging (IVI) catheter in the coronary artery. OBJECTIVES This study tentatively explores the quantitative criteria in optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging of guidewire bias which may cause ROTA induced coronary dissection. METHODS A total of twenty-one patients with severe calcified coronary lesions who has undergone ROTA treatment were enrolled in our study. These patients were detected by OCT successfully pre- and post-ROTA. All the observational coronary segments were analyzed cross-sectionally at every mm interval after manual coregistration of OCT imaging pre- and post-ROTA. ROTA related coronary dissection was the primary endpoint. RESULTS A total of 388 OCT cross-sectional images were effectively measured and analyzed for distribution and characteristics of plaque and OCT catheter location pre-ROTA, and the presence or absence of coronary dissections post-ROTA after manual coregistration. According to the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, distance from the center of OCT catheter to media at the bias direction (Dcmb) (area under the curve (AUC): 1.000, p<0.001, 95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.999 to 1.000) and touch angle (AUC: 0.988, p<0.001, 95%CI: 0.968 to 1.000) had a higher correlation with ROTA-related coronary dissection with the corresponding cutoff value of 0.720mm and 98.2º significantly. CONCLUSIONS Dcmb and touch angle detected by OCT are two very valuable and convenient independent predictors of ROTA-related coronary intimal dissections caused by guidewire bias.


2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 436-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuzo Suzuki ◽  
Takafumi Suda ◽  
Kazuhiro Asada ◽  
Seiichi Miwa ◽  
Masako Suzuki ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTTuberculosis (TB) continues to be a major health problem, and there are few biomarkers for predicting prognosis. Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), a potent immunoregulatory molecule, catalyzes the rate-limiting step of tryptophan (Trp) degradation in the kynurenine (Kyn) pathway. An increase in IDO activity determined by the serum Trp/Kyn ratio has been shown to be associated with poor prognosis in cancers and bacteremia. In TB, however, there are no studies measuring serum IDO activity to determine its clinical significance. We evaluated serum IDO activity with 174 pulmonary TB (PTB) patients and 85 controls, using liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. IDO activity was estimated by calculating the serum Kyn-to-Trp ratio. PTB patients had significantly higher Kyn concentrations and IDO activity and significantly lower Trp concentrations (P< 0.0001,P< 0.0001, andP< 0.0001, respectively) than the controls. Of 174 PTB patients, 39 (22.4%) died. The patients who died had significantly higher concentrations of Kyn and significantly lower Trp concentrations, resulting in significantly higher IDO activity (P< 0.0001,P< 0.0001, andP< 0.0001, respectively). In a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, serum IDO activity had the highest area under the curve (0.850), and this activity was an independent prognostic factor in multivariate analysis. These results suggest that serum IDO activity can be used as a novel prognostic marker in PTB.


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