scholarly journals Precision of aiming with a portable X-ray device (Nomad Pro 2) compared to a wall-mounted device in intraoral radiography

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 20180221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinier C. Hoogeveen ◽  
Bram R. Meertens ◽  
W. Erwin R. Berkhout

Background: Hand-held (HH) X-ray devices are currently introduced for routine dentistry in some global areas. Safety issues are resolved but imaging quality aspects remain to be explored. Aim: To compare the aiming accuracy of two intraoral radiography devices: the portable Nomad Pro2 and the wall-mounted (WM) Planmeca Intra. Setting and design: In vitro experimentation involving radiologic mannequins and unbiased student operators. Methods and materials: 20 operators obtained intraoral radiographs of four regions (bitewing, upper molar, lower molar and upper anterior) in five mannequins, using HH and WM devices. Beam-aiming devices were fitted with metal cross-wires to project on image sensors. Deviation from ideal perpendicular incidence of beam was calculated, based on positions of cross-wires relative to gold-standard positions (i.e. average of 10-fold precise aiming by authors via WM system). Analytic models relied on Wilcoxon signed-rank test and mixed model analyses. Results: Mean deviations from perfect aim were 2.88˚ (± 1.80˚) for WM and 3.06˚ (± 1.90˚) for HH methods. The difference among all operators (HH vs WM) was 0.17˚ (± 2.48˚), which was not significant. Seven operators showed better aim by HH device (13 by WM system); and in one instance, this difference was significant. Conclusions: Aiming precision proved similar for HH and WM methods of intraoral radiography, although individual operators may perform better using one of these modalities. Aim is not an expected limiting factor for image quality in HH (vs WM) diagnostics.

Author(s):  
I Ketut Widana

The working practice of the engineering students is part of the learning process that is irreducible and indispensable. The composition of  lecturing between theoretical and practical one is 40% to 60%. With this condition, the students spend more time at the laboratory. Generally, the students perform in the laboratory work by standing position. The design of research is observational cross-sectional. The method applied is observation, interview and measuring. The subjects of research are practicing students amounting to 21 students. Referring to the analysis of statistical test or Wilcoxon signed ranks test, the difference of effect of work position is significant, namely p < 0.05 towards musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) before and after working. The quantity of the average complaint after working is score 44.62 ± 9.47. The result of Wilcoxon signed rank test shows that there is significant different effects of standing work position, namely p < 0.05 towards fatigue generally before and after working. The degree of the working pulse is on the average of 110.78  ± 17.80 bpm (beats per minutes) which can be categorized into the medium workload. Using paired t-test, the result is p < 0.05.


2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Volkheimer ◽  
Fabio Galbusera ◽  
Christian Liebsch ◽  
Sabine Schlegel ◽  
Friederike Rohlmann ◽  
...  

Background Several in vitro studies investigated how degeneration affects spinal motion. However, no consensus has emerged from these studies. Purpose To investigate how degeneration grading systems influence the kinematic output of spinal specimens. Material and Methods Flexibility testing was performed with ten human T12-S1 specimens. Degeneration was graded using two different classifications, one based on X-ray and the other one on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Intersegmental rotation (expressed by range of motion [ROM] and neutral zone [NZ]) was determined in all principal motion directions. Further, shear translation was measured during flexion/extension motion. Results The X-ray grading system yielded systematically lesser degeneration. In flexion/extension, only small differences in ROM and NZ were found between moderately degenerated motion segments, with only NZ for the MRI grading reaching statistical significance. In axial rotation, a significant increase in NZ for moderately degenerated segments was found for both grading systems, whereas the difference in ROM was significant only for the MRI scheme. Generally, the relative increases were more pronounced for the MRI classification compared to the X-ray grading scheme. In lateral bending, only relatively small differences between the degeneration groups were found. When evaluating shear translations, a non-significant increase was found for moderately degenerated segments. Motion segment segments tended to regain stability as degeneration progressed without reaching the level of statistical significance. Conclusion We found a fair agreement between the grading schemes which, nonetheless, yielded similar degeneration-related effects on intersegmental kinematics. However, as the trends were more pronounced using the Pfirrmann classification, this grading scheme appears superior for degeneration assessment.


2021 ◽  
pp. bmjmilitary-2021-001827
Author(s):  
Scott Hughey ◽  
J Cole ◽  
G J Booth ◽  
R Gliniecki ◽  
E Stedjelarsen

IntroductionPlane blocks are an increasingly common type of regional anaesthesia technique in the perioperative period. Increased spread of local anaesthesia during plane blocks is thought to be related to an increased area of pain coverage. This study sought to assess differences in injectate spread comparing Tuohy needles with standard insulated stimulating block needles.Methods10 Yorkshire-Cross porcine cadavers were used in this study. Immediately following euthanasia, the cadavers underwent bilateral ultrasound-guided transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block injection with radiopaque contrast dye, with one side placed with a 20 g Tuohy needle, and the other side with a 20 g insulated stimulating block needle. Injectate spread was assessed using plain film X-ray and area of spread was measured to compare differences.ResultsAll 10 animals underwent successful ultrasound-guided TAP block placement. In all 10 animals, the area of contrast spread was greater with the Tuohy than stimulating needle. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to analyse the difference between the groups. The average difference between the two sides was 33.02% (p=0.002).ConclusionsThis is the first study to demonstrate differences in injectate spread with different needle types. This suggests enhanced spread with Tuohy needle compared with standard block needle, and may encourage its use during plane blocks.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuno Neuparth ◽  
Marta Fonseca ◽  
Beatriz Oliveira ◽  
Inês Canha ◽  
Hélder Dores ◽  
...  

Pathophysiology at NOVA Medical School adopted the concept mapping methodology to promote the visual display of pathophysiological reasoning and learning, based on clinical vignettes. The objective of this project is to identify and label the linking words, in order to study their role in the structure and organization of the concept maps constructed by the students. We used an adopted classification of linking words, categorized in 5 groups: dynamic, static, illustrative, definition and clinical case information. At the end of the semester the concept maps related to the respiratory (mid-semester) and endocrine systems (end of semester) were analyzed and compared. We found linking words not included in any of the five categories, thus a group named “other” has been created. Statistically significant differences were found in dynamic and “other” categories (p=0,049 and p= 0,011, respectively; Wilcoxon signed-rank test). The dynamic words were the most commonly used, probably reflecting students’ need to better describe pathophysiological mechanisms, and the difference found was probably due an improvement in the learning process and concept maps building technic. It would be interesting next year to conduct a more detailed analysis, increasing the sample and ensuring a more robust dataset. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-61
Author(s):  
Jyotish S Jayandan ◽  
James Chacko ◽  
Devipriya Soman ◽  
Mahesh C Kundagol

Allergic Asthma is one among the diseases which imposes a great burden on the subjects by hampering the quality of life of patients, reducing productivity, and causing work absence. The literary search hinted that there are no published works reporting both clinical and immunological(IgE) outcomes in Allergic Asthma. So the present study was a pre and post test clinical study to evaluate the effect of Ayurvedic line of management in inducing both immunological(IgE) and clinical outcomes in Allergic Asthma. In this study 30 patients were administered classical Virecana Karma (drug induced purgation) followed by Shamanoushadi (internal medicine) for 30 days. Statistical Analysis was done using SPSS VER. 20. Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to evaluate the Subjective parameters, in order to interpret the time of significant change. For objective parameters Paired Samples t- Test was used to evaluate the difference of significant change. The results showed improvement in the subjective criteria, objective criteria and the overall effect of the therapy with the exception of no statistically significant results in immunomodulatory (IgE) effect which proves that the particular management protocol adopted is found to be clinically efficant but not effective in inducing changes at the immune level.


Circulation ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 140 (Suppl_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwan Hon Benjamin Leung ◽  
Matthew Yang ◽  
Christopher Sun ◽  
Katherine S Allan ◽  
Natalie Wong ◽  
...  

Introduction: Delays in defibrillation of in-hospital cardiac arrests (IHCAs) can reduce the likelihood of survival. Mathematical optimization has been shown to improve public location defibrillator placement but has not been applied to in-hospital defibrillator placement. Objective: To determine if mathematical optimization of in-hospital defibrillator placements can reduce distances to IHCAs compared to current placements in a large academic teaching hospital. Methods: We identified all treated IHCAs and defibrillator placements in St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, Canada from Jan. 2007 to Jun. 2017 and mapped them to a 3-D representation of the hospital that we developed from blueprints. An equal number of optimal defibrillator locations was identified using a mathematical optimization model that minimizes the average distance between IHCAs and the closest defibrillator in a 10-fold cross-validation approach. The optimized and current defibrillator locations were compared in terms of average distance to the out-of-sample IHCAs in each fold. We repeated the analysis excluding IHCAs and defibrillators in intensive care units (ICUs), operating theaters (OTs), and the emergency department (ED). Significance in the difference of average distance was determined using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results: We identified 537 treated IHCAs and 53 defibrillators within the hospital during the study period. Of these, 236 IHCAs and 38 defibrillators were outside of ICUs, OTs, and the ED. Optimal defibrillator placements reduced the average defibrillator-to-IHCA distance from 17.1 m to 3.8 m, a relative decrease of 77.8% (P<0.01) on all IHCAs compared to current defibrillator placements. For non-ICU/OT/ED IHCAs, the average distance was reduced from 18.3 m to 9.8 m, a relative decrease of 46.4% (P<0.01). Conclusion: Optimization-guided placement of in-hospital defibrillators can significantly reduce the distance from an IHCA to the closest defibrillator.


2020 ◽  
Vol 61 (11) ◽  
pp. 1512-1519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Chen ◽  
Hao Hu ◽  
Huan-Huan Chen ◽  
Guo-Yi Su ◽  
Tao Yang ◽  
...  

Background Discriminating the stage of thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) is crucial for the treatment strategy and prognosis prediction. Utility of conventional magnetic resonance imaging in the disease staging is limited. Purpose To investigate the performance of T2 mapping based on different region of interest (ROI) selection methods in the staging of TAO. Material and Methods Thirty-two patients with TAO were retrospectively enrolled. Two radiologists independently measured the T2 relaxation time (T2RT) of extraocular muscles using two different ROIs (hotspot [ROIHS]: T2RT-hot; single-slice [ROISS]: T2RT-mean, T2RT-max, T2RT-min). Independent-samples t test, Wilcoxon signed rank test, Spearman correlation analysis, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves analyses, multiple ROC comparisons, and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) were used for statistical analyses. Results No significant difference was found in the measuring time between ROIHS and ROISS methods ( P = 0.066). T2RT-mean demonstrated the highest ICC for measurement, followed by T2RT-max and T2RT-min, and T2RT-hot showed the poorest reproducibility. Active TAOs showed significantly higher values for all the T2RTs than inactive mimics (all P < 0.001). Significant positive correlations were found between T2RTs and CAS (all P < 0.005). T2RT-hot and T2RT-max showed significantly higher areas under the curve than that of T2RT-mean ( P = 0.013 and 0.024, respectively), while the difference between T2RT-hot and T2RT-max was not significant ( P = 0.970). Conclusion The T2RTs derived from both ROI selection methods could be useful for the staging of TAO. The results of measuring time, reproducibility, and diagnostic performance suggest that T2RT-max would be the optimal indicator for staging.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 84-90
Author(s):  
Dinesh Pal Mudaranthakam ◽  
Colin Cernik ◽  
Leslie Curtis ◽  
Blake Griffith ◽  
Jinxiang Hu ◽  
...  

Background: Background: An investigational pharmacy is responsible for all tasks related to receiving, storing, and dispensing of any investigational drugs. Traditional methods of inventory and protocol tracking on paper binders are very tedious and could be error-prone. Objective: To evaluate the utilization of the IDS to efficiently manage the inventory within an investigational Pharmacy. We hypothesize that the IDS will reduce the drug processing time. Methods: Our pharmacy tracked the drug processing time before and after using the IDS including the receiving, dispensing, and inventory. As part of the receiving the study drug pharmacists tracked the time it took a pharmacist to complete the tasks of logging the study drug before and after the implementation of the IDS system. In addition, the pharmacy also timed the process for drug dispensing and a full investigational drug inventory check. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare the difference in the meantime of total processing before and after the IDS. Results: Utilization of the IDS system showed significant reduction in processing time, and improvement of efficiency in inventory management. Additionally, the usability survey of the IDS demonstrated that the IDS system helped pharmacists capture data consistently across every clinical trial. Conclusion: Our results demonstrates how technology helps pharmacists to focus on their actual day to day medication-related tasks rather than worrying about other operational aspects. Informatics team continues to further enhance the features such as monitor portal, and features related to finance – generation of invoices, billing reconciliation, etc.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mansor Shakiba ◽  
Hoshang Sanadgol ◽  
Hamid Reza Azmoude ◽  
Mohamad Ali Mashhadi ◽  
Hassan Sharifi

Background. Although uremic pruritus is a common and upsetting problem of chronic kidney disease, there is no approved treatment for it. This study was undertaken to find the efficiency of sertraline as a possible treatment for uremic pruritus.Methods. 19 ESRD patients under hemodialysis with severe chronic pruritus were randomly selected to participate in this before-after clinical trial. Before and after starting treatment with sertraline, a detailed pruritus history was obtained and pruritus graded by the 30-item inventory of pruritus that patients based on priorities grade allocated to 3 classes. Subjects were treated with sertraline 50 mg oral daily for four months, with monthly assessments of pruritus symptoms.Results. Before treatment with sertraline, the grade of pruritus in 9 (47.4%) patients was moderate and severe in 10 (52.6%) patients. After treatment, grade of pruritus in 11 (57.8%) patients was weak, 6 (31.5%) have moderate and only 2 (10.7%) patients have severe pruritus. Of 10 patients with severe pruritus, 5 (50%) patients experiencing weak pruritus, and 4 (40%) patients have moderate pruritus after treatment. Based on Wilcoxon signed-rank test, the difference between the grade of pruritus before and after treatment with sertraline was significant (P=0.001).Conclusions. Although no definitive recommendation can be made regarding treatment of uremic pruritus, we found an increased antipruritic effect of sertraline in ESRD patients.


Materials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 4196
Author(s):  
Martina Eichenberger ◽  
Anna Iliadi ◽  
Despina Koletsi ◽  
George Eliades ◽  
Carlalberta Verna ◽  
...  

The aim of the present study was to quantitatively assess changes in enamel roughness parameters before and after lingual bracket debonding. The lingual surface of 25 sound premolars extracted for orthodontic reasons was studied by 3D optical interferometric profilometry before and after debonding of lingual brackets following enamel finishing (with fine diamond) and polishing (with 12- and 20-fluted carbide burs). The roughness parameters tested were the amplitude parameters Sa and Sz, the hybrid parameter Sdr, and the functional parameters Sc and Sv. The parameter differences (after debonding-reference) were calculated, and statistical analysis was performed via a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Statistically significantly higher values were observed in all the surface roughness parameters of enamel surfaces after finishing and polishing, with the mostly affected parameter being the Sdr. Under the conditions of the present study, the finishing and polishing instruments used after debonding of lingual noncustomized brackets created a surface texture rougher than the control in all the tested roughness parameters.


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