scholarly journals Validation of Complete Hindi Version of Douleur Neuropathique 4 Questionnaire for Assessment of Neuropathic Pain

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 257-263
Author(s):  
Ashok K Saxena ◽  
Dipanshu Khrolia ◽  
Geetanjali T Chilkoti ◽  
R Kumar Malhotra

Objectives: The Douleur Neuropathique 4 (DN4) questionnaire is a widely used tool for the diagnosis of neuropathic pain (NP). The aim was to validate the Complete Hindi version of DN4 (CH-DN4) questionnaire. Materials and Methods: A systematic translation process was used to translate the original English DN4 into Hindi. The Hindi version was validated among patients appearing in the pain clinic of a tertiary hospital in the capital of Delhi by two different raters. We assessed the internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and inter-rater agreement, validity, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and area under the curve (AUC). Results: A total of 285 participants, out of which 153 had NP and 132 had non NP (NNP) were included in the study. The results showed our CH-DN4 to have good diagnostic accuracy, a score of ≥ 3.5 was found to be the best cut–off for the diagnosis of NP, with a sensitivity of 0.78, specificity of 0.76, a positive predictive value of 78.5%, and a negative predictive value of 74.5%. Cronbach’s α was 0.82 (95% confidence interval: 0.80–0.84), and interclass correlation coefficients was 0.95. The AUC was >0.8 indicating excellent discrimination between NP and NNP. Conclusion: The CH-DN4 questionnaire has been found to be a reliable and valid screening tool with an excellent power to discriminate between NP and NNP.

Diagnostics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ukweh ◽  
Ugbem ◽  
Okeke ◽  
Ekpo

Background: Ultrasound is operator-dependent, and its value and efficacy in fetal morphology assessment in a low-resource setting is poorly understood. We assessed the value and efficacy of fetal morphology ultrasound assessment in a Nigerian setting. Materials and Methods: We surveyed fetal morphology ultrasound performed across five facilities and followed-up each fetus to ascertain the outcome. Fetuses were surveyed in the second trimester (18th–22nd weeks) using the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology (ISUOG) guideline. Clinical and surgical reports were used as references to assess the diagnostic efficacy of ultrasound in livebirths, and autopsy reports to confirm anomalies in terminated pregnancies, spontaneous abortions, intrauterine fetal deaths, and still births. We calculated sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, Area under the curve (AUC), Youden index, likelihood ratios, and post-test probabilities. Results: In total, 6520 fetuses of women aged 15–46 years (mean = 31.7 years) were surveyed. The overall sensitivity, specificity, and AUC were 77.1 (95% CI: 68–84.6), 99.5 (95% CI: 99.3–99.7), and 88.3 (95% CI: 83.7–92.2), respectively. Other performance metrics were: positive predictive value, 72.4 (95% CI: 64.7–79.0), negative predictive value, 99.6 (95% CI: 99.5–99.7), and Youden index (77.1%). Abnormality prevalence was 1.67% (95% CI: 1.37–2.01), and the positive and negative likelihood ratios were 254 (95% CI: 107.7–221.4) and 0.23 (95% CI: 0.16–0.33), respectively. The post-test probability for positive test was 72% (95% CI: 65–79). Conclusion: Fetal morphology assessment is valuable in a poor economics setting, however, the variation in the diagnostic efficacy across facilities and the limitations associated with the detection of circulatory system anomalies need to be addressed.


Entropy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 729 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Oehr ◽  
Thorsten Ecke

Background: This investigation included both a study of potential non-invasive diagnostic approaches for the bladder cancer biomarker UBC® Rapid Test and a study including comparative methods about sensitivity–specificity characteristic (SS-ROC) and predictive receiver operating characteristic (PV-ROC) curves that used bladder cancer as a useful example. Methods: The study included 289 urine samples from patients with tumors of the urinary bladder, patients with non-evidence of disease (NED) and healthy controls. The UBC® Rapid Test is a qualitative point of care assay. Using a photometric reader, quantitative data can also be obtained. Data for pairs of sensitivity/specificity as well as positive/negative predictive values were created by variation of threshold values for the whole patient cohort, as well as for the tumor-free control group. Based on these data, sensitivity–specificity and predictive value threshold distribution curves were constructed and transformed into SS-ROC and PV-ROC curves, which were included in a single SS/PV-ROC plot. Results: The curves revealed TPP-asymmetric improper curves which cross the diagonal from above. Evaluation of the PV-ROC curve showed that two or more distinct positive predictive values (PPV) can correspond to the same value of a negative predictive value (NPV) and vice versa, indicating a complexity in PV-ROC curves which did not exist in SS-ROC curves. In contrast to the SS-ROC curve, the PV-ROC curve had neither an area under the curve (AUC) nor a range from 0% to 100%. Sensitivity of the qualitative assay was 58.5% and specificity 88.2%, PPV was 75.6% and NPV 77.3%, at a threshold value of approximately 12.5 µg/L. Conclusions: The SS/PV-ROC plot is a new diagnostic approach which can be used for direct judgement of gain and loss of predictive values, sensitivity and specificity according to varied threshold value changes, enabling characterization, comparison and evaluation of qualitative and quantitative bioassays.


2020 ◽  
Vol 163 (6) ◽  
pp. 1156-1165
Author(s):  
Juan Xiao ◽  
Qiang Xiao ◽  
Wei Cong ◽  
Ting Li ◽  
Shouluan Ding ◽  
...  

Objective To develop an easy-to-use nomogram for discrimination of malignant thyroid nodules and to compare diagnostic efficiency with the Kwak and American College of Radiology (ACR) Thyroid Imaging, Reporting and Data System (TI-RADS). Study Design Retrospective diagnostic study. Setting The Second Hospital of Shandong University. Subjects and Methods From March 2017 to April 2019, 792 patients with 1940 thyroid nodules were included into the training set; from May 2019 to December 2019, 174 patients with 389 nodules were included into the validation set. Multivariable logistic regression model was used to develop a nomogram for discriminating malignant nodules. To compare the diagnostic performance of the nomogram with the Kwak and ACR TI-RADS, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were calculated. Results The nomogram consisted of 7 factors: composition, orientation, echogenicity, border, margin, extrathyroidal extension, and calcification. In the training set, for all nodules, the area under the curve (AUC) for the nomogram was 0.844, which was higher than the Kwak TI-RADS (0.826, P = .008) and the ACR TI-RADS (0.810, P < .001). For the 822 nodules >1 cm, the AUC of the nomogram was 0.891, which was higher than the Kwak TI-RADS (0.852, P < .001) and the ACR TI-RADS (0.853, P < .001). In the validation set, the AUC of the nomogram was also higher than the Kwak and ACR TI-RADS ( P < .05), each in the whole series and separately for nodules >1 or ≤1 cm. Conclusions When compared with the Kwak and ACR TI-RADS, the nomogram had a better performance in discriminating malignant thyroid nodules.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 175346662198953
Author(s):  
Chung-Shu Lee ◽  
Shih-Hong Li ◽  
Chih-Hao Chang ◽  
Fu-Tsai Chung ◽  
Li-Chung Chiu ◽  
...  

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a constant threat even with a worldwide active public health campaign. Diagnosis of TB pleurisy is challenging in the case of pleural effusion of unknown origin after aspiration analysis. The study was designed to demonstrate a simple image interpretation technique to differentiate TB pleurisy from non-TB pleurisy using semi-rigid pleuroscopy. Methods: The study retrospectively enrolled 117 patients who underwent semi-rigid pleuroscopy from April 2016 to August 2018 in a tertiary hospital. We analyzed the possibility of TB pleurisy using three simple pleuroscopic images via semi-rigid pleuroscopy. Results: Among 117 patients, 28 patients (23.9%) were diagnosed with TB pleurisy. Sago-like nodules/micronodules, adhesion, and discrete distribution were noted in 20 (71.4%), 20 (71.4%), and 19 (67.9%) patients with TB pleurisy, respectively. Sago-like nodules/micronodules, adhesion, and discrete distribution were noted in six (6.7%), 37 (41.6%), and no (0.0%) patients with non-TB pleurisy, respectively. The positive and negative predictive values of any two out of three pleuroscopic patterns for TB pleurisy were 100.0% and 93.7%, respectively. Conclusions: A high positive predictive value for TB pleurisy was demonstrated by the presence of any two out of the three characteristic features. Absence of all three features had an excellent negative predictive value for TB pleurisy. Our diagnostic criteria reconfirm that pleuroscopic images can be used as predictors for TB pleurisy in patients with undiagnosed pleural effusion. The reviews of this paper are available via the supplementary material section.


2020 ◽  
pp. archdischild-2020-320549
Author(s):  
Fang Hu ◽  
Shuai-Jun Guo ◽  
Jian-Jun Lu ◽  
Ning-Xuan Hua ◽  
Yan-Yan Song ◽  
...  

BackgroundDiagnosis of congenital syphilis (CS) is not straightforward and can be challenging. This study aimed to evaluate the validity of an algorithm using timing of maternal antisyphilis treatment and titres of non-treponemal antibody as predictors of CS.MethodsConfirmed CS cases and those where CS was excluded were obtained from the Guangzhou Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of syphilis programme between 2011 and 2019. We calculated sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) in two situations: (1) receiving antisyphilis treatment or no-treatment during pregnancy and (2) initiating treatment before 28 gestational weeks (GWs), initiating after 28 GWs or receiving no treatment for syphilis seropositive women.ResultsAmong 1558 syphilis-exposed children, 39 had confirmed CS. Area under the curve, sensitivity and specificity of maternal non-treponemal titres before treatment and treatment during pregnancy were 0.80, 76.9%, 78.7% and 0.79, 69.2%, 88.7%, respectively, for children with CS. For the algorithm, ROC results showed that PPV and NPV for predicting CS were 37.3% and 96.4% (non-treponemal titres cut-off value 1:8 and no antisyphilis treatment), 9.4% and 100% (non-treponemal titres cut-off value 1:16 and treatment after 28 GWs), 4.2% and 99.5% (non-treponemal titres cut-off value 1:32 and treatment before 28 GWs), respectively.ConclusionsAn algorithm using maternal non-treponemal titres and timing of treatment during pregnancy could be an effective strategy to diagnose or rule out CS, especially when the rate of loss to follow-up is high or there are no straightforward diagnostic tools.


Medicina ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 503
Author(s):  
Thomas F. Monaghan ◽  
Syed N. Rahman ◽  
Christina W. Agudelo ◽  
Alan J. Wein ◽  
Jason M. Lazar ◽  
...  

Sensitivity, which denotes the proportion of subjects correctly given a positive assignment out of all subjects who are actually positive for the outcome, indicates how well a test can classify subjects who truly have the outcome of interest. Specificity, which denotes the proportion of subjects correctly given a negative assignment out of all subjects who are actually negative for the outcome, indicates how well a test can classify subjects who truly do not have the outcome of interest. Positive predictive value reflects the proportion of subjects with a positive test result who truly have the outcome of interest. Negative predictive value reflects the proportion of subjects with a negative test result who truly do not have the outcome of interest. Sensitivity and specificity are inversely related, wherein one increases as the other decreases, but are generally considered stable for a given test, whereas positive and negative predictive values do inherently vary with pre-test probability (e.g., changes in population disease prevalence). This article will further detail the concepts of sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values using a recent real-world example from the medical literature.


2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bachar Alabdullah ◽  
Amir Hadji-Ashrafy

Abstract Background A number of biomarkers have the potential of differentiating between primary lung tumours and secondary lung tumours from the gastrointestinal tract, however, a standardised panel for that purpose does not exist yet. We aimed to identify the smallest panel that is most sensitive and specific at differentiating between primary lung tumours and secondary lung tumours from the gastrointestinal tract. Methods A total of 170 samples were collected, including 140 primary and 30 non-primary lung tumours and staining for CK7, Napsin-A, TTF1, CK20, CDX2, and SATB2 was performed via tissue microarray. The data was then analysed using univariate regression models and a combination of multivariate regression models and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves. Results Univariate regression models confirmed the 6 biomarkers’ ability to independently predict the primary outcome (p < 0.001). Multivariate models of 2-biomarker combinations identified 11 combinations with statistically significant odds ratios (ORs) (p < 0.05), of which TTF1/CDX2 had the highest area under the curve (AUC) (0.983, 0.960–1.000 95% CI). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were 75.7, 100, 100, and 37.5% respectively. Multivariate models of 3-biomarker combinations identified 4 combinations with statistically significant ORs (p < 0.05), of which CK7/CK20/SATB2 had the highest AUC (0.965, 0.930–1.000 95% CI). The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV were 85.1, 100, 100, and 41.7% respectively. Multivariate models of 4-biomarker combinations did not identify any combinations with statistically significant ORs (p < 0.05). Conclusions The analysis identified the combination of CK7/CK20/SATB2 to be the smallest panel with the highest sensitivity (85.1%) and specificity (100%) for predicting tumour origin with an ROC AUC of 0.965 (p < 0.001; SE: 0.018, 0.930–1.000 95% CI).


2021 ◽  
Vol 104 (3) ◽  
pp. 003685042110368
Author(s):  
Ananya Trongpisutsak ◽  
Vorapong Phupong

The objective was to determine whether a combination of serum micro RNA-210 level and uterine artery Doppler can predict preeclampsia in pregnant women at 16–24 weeks gestation. A prospective observational study conducted in singleton pregnant women at 16–24 weeks of gestation who had prenatal care at the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand between 2017 and 2018. Uterine artery Doppler ultrasound and blood testing for serum micro RNA-210 were performed. Pregnancy outcomes were recorded. Optimal cut-off for uterine artery pulsatility index (PI) and serum micro RNA-210 were obtained to calculate the predictive values for preeclampsia. Data from 443 participants were analyzed. Twenty-two cases developed preeclampsia (5.0%) and seven of these preeclamptic cases had early-onset preeclampsia (1.6%). Pregnant women with preeclampsia had higher mean PI of the uterine artery (1.34 ± 0.52 vs 0.98 ± 0.28, p = 0.004), higher detection rates of diastolic notching (45.5% vs 11.2%, p < 0.001), and lower median serum micro RNA-210 level (22.86 vs 795.78, p < 0.001) than pregnant women without preeclampsia. Using abnormal serum micro RNA-210 level, abnormal mean PI or uterine artery diastolic notches to predict for preeclampsia, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were 95.5%, 54.9%, 10.0%, and 99.6%, respectively. For early-onset preeclampsia prediction, the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV were 100.0%, 53.2%, 3.3%, and 100.0%, respectively. This study demonstrated that a combination of serum micro RNA-210 and uterine artery Doppler is effective in predicting preeclampsia in the second trimester.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konuralp Yakar

Aim. To compare the clinical performance of the Spot Vision Screener used to detect amblyopia risk factors (ARFs) in children before and after induction of cycloplegia; the children were referred because they met the screening criteria of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS). Methods. The Spot Vision Screener and a standard autorefractometer were used to examine 200 eyes of 100 children aged 3–10 years, before and after cycloplegia induction, in terms of ARFs. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for the detection of significant refractive errors were measured using the AAPOS referral criteria. It was explored that Spot Screener data were affected by cycloplegia. The extent of agreement between cycloplegic/noncycloplegic photoscreening data and cycloplegic autorefraction measurements was assessed using Wilcoxon and Spearman correlation analyses. Results. The Spot’s sensitivity was improved from 60.9% to 85.3% and specificity from 94.9% to 87.4% with cycloplegia compared to cycloplegic standard autorefractometer results. The positive predictive value of Spot was 75.7%, and the negative predictive value was 90.4% without cycloplegia. With cycloplegia, the positive predictive value of Spot was 63.6% and the negative predictive value was 95.8%. Conclusions. The Spot Screener afforded moderate sensitivity and high specificity prior to cycloplegia. The sensitivity and negative predictive value improved after induction of cycloplegia. Examiners should be aware of the effects of cycloplegia on their findings.


2019 ◽  
Vol 90 (e7) ◽  
pp. A2.3-A3
Author(s):  
Hue Mun Au Yong ◽  
Erica Minato ◽  
Eldho Paul ◽  
Udaya Seneviratne

IntroductionThis study aims to (i)evaluate the diagnostic sensitivity, specificity and predictive values of seizure-related heart rate (HR) in differentiating epileptic seizures(ES) from psychogenic non-epileptic seizures(PNES), (ii)define the most useful point of HR measurement: pre-ictal, ictal-onset, maximal-ictal or post-ictal, and (iii)define the HR cut-off points to differentiate ES from PNES.MethodsAll video EEG(VEEG) at Monash Health from May 2009 to November 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. Baseline(during wakefulness), one-minute pre-ictal, ictal-onset, maximal-ictal and one-minute post-ictal HR were measured for each ES and PNES event. Events less than ten seconds or with uninterpretable ECG due to artefacts were excluded. ROC curve analysis was performed to study the diagnostic accuracy reflected by area under the curve(AUC). The AUC was interpreted as follows; ≤0.5, differentiation of PNES from ES no better than chance; 0.80–0.89, good differentiation; and 0.9–1, excellent differentiation.ResultsVEEG of 341 ES and 265 PNES from 130 patients were analysed. The AUC for pre-ictal, ictal-onset, maximal-ictal and post-ictal HR were found to have poor differentiation between ES and PNES. Comparing PNES and bilateral tonic-clonic ES, AUC for absolute maximal-ictal HR was 0.84(CI 0.73–0.95) and for absolute post-ictal HR was 0.90(CI 0.81–1.00). Using Youden’s index, to diagnose tonic-clonic ES, the optimal cut-off point for absolute maximal-ictal HR was 114bpm (sensitivity 84%;specificity 82%;PPV 26.7%,NPV 98.5%) and for absolute post-ictal HR was 90bpm(sensitivity 91%;specificity 82%;PPV 30.3%;NPV 99.1%).ConclusionsThese findings suggest that seizure-related HR increase is useful in differentiating bilateral tonic-clonic ES from PNES. Based on the AUC, the best diagnostic measureme.


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